#fic: all across the universe

[thisapplepielife]

All Across the Universe: Chapter One

Rating: Eventual E | CW: Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence | Tags: Post-Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2, Canon Divergence, Eddie Munson Lives, Time Travel Fix-It, Blundering Through History, Platonic Stobin, Revolving Door of Characters, Mixed Media

limitless undying love, which shines around me like a million suns, it calls me on and on across the universe, Across the Universe, The Beatles

1987

Steve is comfortable on his back, laying against the trunk of his car, looking up at the night sky, when he sees a shooting star rush across the vastness of space. It was right there in front of him a second ago, and then gone in the blink of an eye. 

Like it maybe never existed at all.

It was pretty, the few moments he got to spend looking at it, and he wishes Robin could have seen it.

Hell, he wishes Eddie could have seen it. 

The last thing Eddie saw was that awful, bat-infested, red sky of the Upside Down, and that’s a fucking shame. Steve quickly thinks: I wish we'd had more time. I wish you'd gotten a different ending, a different life. I wish I could have fixed this. 

But he can't fix this. They didn't have more time. And Eddie barely got to live at all. They came up with a plan on the fly, a little too unprepared, and Eddie didn’t come home at the end of the night. And as much as Steve hates it, regrets it. That can't be undone. 

Steve can never unsee Eddie's body on the ground, can never unsee Dustin crouched over him, protectively. Dustin tried. Steve tried. Nancy tried. Robin tried. Nothing they did was gonna change it. 

Eddie was just gone, and they couldn’t fix that.

They were too late.

And it can't be fixed that the gates started closing before they figured out a way to bring him back through. To bring his body home. It's a regret Steve lives with every damn day. You don't leave a man behind, and he did exactly that. Against his will, maybe, but it still happened on his watch and he feels like that's on him. 

Robin was screaming, pulling on him. Trying desperately to drag him along with her, trying to get him to let go of Eddie's body. He didn't want to give up, and he was barely hearing Robin, or Nancy, as they were both yelling at him to come on, right now. Nancy kept turning her head, screaming at him, as she helped walk a limping Dustin towards the trailer. Steve thinks that Robin may not have been able to get him to stop trying to lift Eddie, if they hadn’t used Dustin as the reason he had to go, had to move. Now.

Something was happening, and it felt like the beginning of an earthquake. Small tremors, rolling under their feet. Steve stood, barely able to keep his balance. Taking one last look at Eddie, in apology. In sorrow. 

In regret, for what would never be. For Eddie. For any of them. 

Eddie had cut the sheet, and now Dustin needed help getting back up and through the gate, and the girls couldn’t do it alone. So, Steve went. Followed them, helped. Found a step stool and pushed each of them up through the gate, and back into the real world. 

He'd turned, and looked towards the door, considering. 

And Robin had been standing there, above him, crying. Begging him to just come through. Hand stretched out, holding the remnants of tied together sheets for him to grab. He stepped down one rung on the ladder, and she had shrieked at the same time the ground buckled, groaning, as it got ready to give way, and he grabbed a hold of the sheet, and pulled himself through. 

They crawled out of the trailer in the real world, just as it started to split, getting devoured by the fiery earth below. 

And that was that. 

They had a war to fight, to win.

And they did.

Vecna is gone, but so is Eddie. 

And now the shooting star is long gone, too. 

Steve looks at the stars left behind, just like him. 

But maybe Eddie did see it, somewhere. Steve's learned that nothing is impossible. Not now. Things happen that can't be explained. Walls open in bedrooms and monsters crawl out. There can be tunnels underground, well-worn paths just for monsters to travel deep beneath your feet. 

And there can be a gate at the bottom of a lake that greedily sucks you under, and spits you back out into hell.

Weird shit happens in this world, that's just a fact.

So, there's no reason he couldn't believe that Eddie saw that shooting star, somewhere else, in space and time. 

But Steve doesn't believe that, not really, but for a brief moment he can pretend he does. He really wants to believe that somewhere, in some other universe, Eddie was looking up at the same night sky. One that wasn’t red, wasn’t bleeding with the color of devastation, of evil. One that was full of bright, beautiful stars. Full of potential. Of a life yet unlived, undreamed, with endless possibilities laid out before him.

Eddie was only twenty years old. He hadn't really lived life, not yet. Hadn't got the chance to see the world, to see that there are things beyond the narrow-minded confines of Hawkins, Indiana. 

Steve's twenty now, too. Almost twenty-one. His birthday came and went, with little fanfare. No longer a teenager. He's caught up to Eddie, and very soon, he'll surpass him. 

He swallows, trying to shove the emotion of that realization down.

It's been a hard year, harder than any of the others. 

Because Steve’s become fixated, canonizing this man he barely knew. Robin has tried, desperately, to get him to stop obsessing. To let the guilt subside. He doesn't know Eddie Munson. Not really. And now he never will. 

And that's a whole bunch of horseshit. 

He feels a strange pulling in his stomach, and before can even sit up, he pops out of existence. 

they tumble blindly, as they make their way across the universe Across the Universe, The Beatles

Continue reading on AO3.

[avidread3r]

Miguel: *sigh*

...

Miguel:*SIGHHH*

y/n: and why are we sighing?

Miguel: beCAUSE gwen and her little friend group said something about going somewhere and haven't returned.

y/n: maybe that's because they went somewhere and are still there? they're kids, they're just hanging out doing kid stuff.

Miguel: it's been four hours. FOUR HOURS!

y/n: I take just as long when I'm out. why are you so worried? they're fine.

Miguel: how are you not worried?

...

Miguel: you've been stalking them haven't you?

Y/n: it's not stalking! I'm just keeping an eye on them and their location...and what they're doing.

Miguel: that's called stalking.

Y/n: it's called being a concerned parent Miguel!

Meanwhile the kids:

[foxstens]

my favourite thing about the foxes is how annoying they are

[tblsomedoodles]

I think it'd be nice if they were allergic to or at least had a small aversion to mint because it's toxic to spiders

That would be neat! For any of them except Leo that is. I'm pretty sure if he suddenly couldn't drink his peppermint tea anymore, he would later be found sobbing on the floor in the kitchen (half joking.) (he finds it soothing/calming to him, so that being taken away during such a stressful time would probably be the last straw.)

Oh! Maybe Jenny is allergic or doesn't like mint. It would make sense since she's more spider than they are.

Thank you!

[mbat]

its not really a new thing for me to say that i kinda hate the whole 'werewolf pack' kinda thing for a few reasons, but i dont like, entirely hate it yknow

like my main thing is i like characters having a sortve isolated angsty ass time(i wonder why /s), and werewolves are great for angst! so putting the two together is like. oh hell yes. but thats just a me thing

but also for some reason almost every depiction ive seen of werewolves and werewolf packs has been like... 'their nature/instincts/whatever makes this happen' like, they cant resist it because its something theyre basically forced to do by their biology. ive seen it be blood families, ive seen it be random people who just met and theyre basically bound by the universe i guess, blah blah blah

and idk, i hate that. of course, almost everyone and almost every species has it in their nature to be social and need connection, but its not portrayed like that in these cases. its portrayed more like theyll basically die if they for whatever reason reject it or something, and that their loyalty is their entire life or whatever. idk, its hard to describe.

i think its kinda obvious that im leading this up to found family. who doesnt love found family? who doesnt love when people and characters choose the people that they want to spend their lives with, whether blood is involved or not.

and theres no instinct part of it for me, its just people who want/need support from others, and they find people they love, and you could call it a pack but i just personally wouldnt. its just like any other relationship tbh, but its obv cuter as a group :p

and if it happens to be other werewolves, or other monsters, or even just humans... thats their people that they chose.

[naranjapetrificada]

RIP Stede Bonnet, you would have loved that youtube channel where the guy collects, describes, and prepares historical military rations.

(brought to you by my current WIP where Stede is stoked about getting to try borts for the first time)

[generalized-incompetence]

Happy February everyone, Todd "Secret Romantic" Brotzman will go on for hours about how Valentine's Day is about capitalist corporate greed but he will also show up at 7pm with a dozen roses and reservations at a candlelit restaurant, and Dirk "Secret Not-So-Romantic" Gently will make eyes over every pink teddy bear in the store but then forget the date.

[zuzsenpai]

It’s weird but years ago when the trailer for Yesterday came out, I was dying to see that film. Never ended up seeing it when it released, but thought about it on and off for five years… without seeing it. I came up with all these plots in my head about what I thought would happen in the movie. I had headcanons about a film that I never saw. I have two songs on a playlist completely unrelated to the Beatles that I headcanoned as songs that reminded me of the film. That I didn’t see. For five whole years 🤣

Anyway finally saw it. Loved it. It’s up there with Across the Universe

[trickster-shi]

It has taken (checks watch) a…year and a half, but I finally had a breakthrough on the next Home Across the Universe one shot and kinda feel like shouting it from the rooftops. Like, I’ve been fighting this one shot for FOREVER it feels like and it did not want to be pinned down and written.

But I now have a solid outline for the next four scenes. There is joy and some angst and some cuteness and some self discovery that Derek has been avoiding.

And Kate. She’s there and she has an evil plan and I cannot wait to get in there and let her set it up because it will make her eventual defeat so very sweet.

But I’m still at work so I have to wait until I can settle in at home to actually do any of this. I know where the story is going, though, plus I have a title and summary, so I’ve made it through the hardest parts. Now I just gotta finish writing it.

[atlas-affogato]

I broke 300,000 words on my long fic!! 🎆🥳🥳🥳🎆

[thisapplepielife]

All Across the Universe

Rating: Eventual E | CW: Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence | Tags: Post-Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2, Canon Divergence, Eddie Munson Lives, Time Travel Fix-It, Blundering Through History, Platonic Stobin, Revolving Door of Characters, Mixed Media

Full tags available on AO3.

Steve Harrington knows this world isn't permanent. They never are. He blinks into existence, brand new and disoriented. He might not know where he is, or when, but he knows he's searching for something, for someone, as he's called on and on, all across the universe. He always finds him. Eddie.

Chapters 1 & 2 are up on AO3 now.

[landfilloftrash]

earlier beliefs had the butterfly symbolizing a departed soul

I figure him and his beloved’s soul might have had a few instances like this

[tigerlily340]

Art Dump Incoming~

In honor of ATKU’s two-year anniversary today, let me share some of the art I did during my... somewhat prolonged hiatus 😅

Thank y’all for bearing with me, hope you enjoy!

(Doodles and Alar imagining what could’ve been~)

(Makeover ft. @ladybinary​ ‘s Lukas here~)

(Male Human!Kalio hair designs~)

And the last few are under the cut~

WARNING: partial / vague nudity

(The night before she lost her eye...)

(and lastly, Nautican dancer variations~)

[kradogsrats]

I'm super useless today for various reasons so instead of writing I just kinda smoothed out and cleaned up this fic, because if I'm going to write more young Viren I should probably like... put the first one somewhere other than buried in the depths of my tumblr.

In which:

I vomit an unconscionable amount of headcanon about socioeconomics in Katolis and particularly a single-industry community that's basically one step up from a company town, as well as the place of lone dark magic hedge-wizards and moderately respectable but low-power practitioners in that society.

Kpp'Ar is literally in like... his mid-30s. He doesn't appear in this fic but I'd like to just point that out, since he gets called "old."

Anyway: Viren, age 11-ish, has the entire course of his life changed by a chance meeting with an interesting stranger.

[joyfuladorable]

So how do you think peni joined the spider society.

I think I’ve already offered two possibilities at this point:

It could've happened like the comics. Spider-Ham (maybe with Noir, too) portals to her dimension while she’s talking with her Uncle Ben in the aftermath of Addy and Aunt May’s deaths. In the comics, it's cuz they needed her for a Big Fight with some Dimensional Vampires, but for Spider-Verse I'd say it's probably cuz they need her tech genius to further improve the Society's ability to catch anomalies.

OR

Gwen comes to Peni after the recent tragedy and brings her in because, again, she’s a genius and would be useful to the Society. I'd want it to be Gwen just cuz this'd probably be another step in convincing Miguel to let Miles join. But also Peni is her friend, too, and she Missed her. And of Course, Peni would jump at the chance to be with them, again!

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

i have most likely repeated myself and regurgitated very similar content about dimivain over the years and that is because i cannot stop thinking abt them and how much i love them