Lazy Art Dump, I Drew This While I Was Watching Stranger Things S4 And Bawling My Eyes Out Lol

"undoing this character's death would take away his sacrifice and character arc" girl I don't give a shit. I'm bringing him back through the power of ao3 fix-it fics and there's nothing you can do to stop me x

NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB! NINE'S ICONIC ORB!

Transparent version.

i love them

More Cult of the Hedgehog!! This time I actually drew designs for them holy shit-

IM CRYING SEND HELP

I swear it started as a sketch and then got carried away 🧍‍♂️

I haven’t drawn them in a while so I made a new banner 💋

Bring Me Back to You

AO3 | written for @steddiebingo hop into spring mini event | prompt: time travel | rating: t | wc: 3.6k | cw: language, depictions of death | tags: steve POV, s4 canon divergence, steve harrington may or may not have time travel related powers

Steve looks back at past-Dustin and Eddie in what could be the 10th or 20th time at this point and wills his expression not to break as he knows what happens when he walks away. He’s tried to change it. He’s tried every goddamn trip to find a way to stop the inevitable, to stop Eddie from dying at the end of it. 

But then, he’s right back at Eddie’s body, holding him tight as he bleeds out, and Steve is sobbing as yet another Eddie slips away from him. 

It’s like a goddamn knife to the chest every time and Steve is broken. Hollow. Exhausted. 

But, he refuses to give up. He still gets up every goddamn time and tries again. Keeps throwing himself through the fucking winds of time to try his damndest to save Eddie. He’s lost track a bit of what’s his own timeline and what’s another iteration of the same spring break from hell that he’s trying to change.

------

Before Steve started all this, he pulled Dustin aside and had him explain, in excruciating detail, everything he knew about time travel and how it works. Dustin had obstinately refused to discuss anything until Steve told him what the fuck was going on. 

And, well. Steve was too tired to argue, and he trusts the hell out of this kid.

That’s how Steve ended up showing Dustin Henderson one of the Harrington’s best kept secrets. And how Dustin ends up punching the shit out of Steve for the first time. 

Twenty minutes and an ice pack later, Dustin was sitting slack-jawed in the basement of the Harrington home, digesting the fact that, yeah, Steve’s family had kind of invented time travel. 

“The hell do you mean kind of, Steve? You either do or don’t invent time travel. There’s not really an in between state there!”

Steve had adjusted the ice pack on his shoulder, thankful Dustin hadn’t aimed for his face, because fuck he could not handle another head injury. “I meant what I said. We didn’t really invent it, but we’re credited for it? I guess. We helped stabilize it. Made it somewhat safer. I don’t really know how it all, works man. My parents never fucking taught me shit, just told me not to touch this and not to let anyone in the basement. That’s why I need you to explain to me all your nerd shit about time travel.”

Dustin groaned. “You’ve had this the whole time? Do you know what we could have done with this technology, Steve?” He jumped to his feet, raising his voice. “We could have– fuck, man. The amount of shit we could have changed. We could have avoided all the Russian torture, could have stopped Hopper from– hell, we could have stopped Will and Barb–”

“Dustin! Just stop, man.” Steve yelled, surprising the both of them with the amount of power in his voice. He slumped back against the wall, knocked his head back. “Look, don’t you think I know all this already? Don’t you think that I’ve, like, thought about this? Fucking killed myself agonizing over what I could’ve changed?”

Dustin stared at him. “Then why didn’t you?”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Oh, really?” Dustin scoffed. “I thought you didn’t know how it worked. How do you know if it’s not that easy?”

Steve lifted his head back up. “Because – because I know my family and others have used it and it hasn’t always worked out. It–” He stumbled, took a shuddering breath.

“Steve?”

He avoided Dustin’s gaze, focused instead on the simple machine setup across from them. “It sucks the life out of you, or something, man. I don’t really know how it all works, genuinely. But I do know that it takes a hell of a fucking toll on the person using it. Kind of saps them.” He hesitated. “It’s killed people, man.”

“Oh.” 

“Yeah. ‘S not easy.”

Silence took over then, granted them a few moments of reprieve from the hell that had permeated their lives for the last, like, two weeks, but really, if they’re being honest, the last 3 years. 

Dustin broke the silence, stared inquisitively at Steve. “So why now?”

“What?”

“Why do you want to use it now? What could make you want to risk your own life energy particles or whatever the hell this thing takes?”

Steve had swallowed, dragging his gaze to Dustin. Saw the hurt and pain and fear playing across the boy’s face, felt his own heart breaking at all the fucking shit this kid’s been through. Saw the pick necklace resting across his neck. He locked eyes with, essentially, his brother, because that’s what Dustin’s become over the last couple years. 

“Eddie.”

“What?”

Steve sighs. “I want to save Eddie.”

Dustin’s eyes had widened. “Well. Shit.”

—-------

And that’s how Steve ends up where he is, in whatever number journey this is, staring at a past version of Dustin and Eddie, and hoping to whatever fucking good still exists to let this be the one that works. He doesn’t know how many trips he has left in him, and his own timeline Dustin is begging him to stop trying as he watches the toll it takes on Steve’s already shot to hell body. Steve refuses to stop, and tried, and failed, to pin Dustin down the one time he tried to go in Steve’s place. That’s how they learned it doesn’t work if it’s not Steve, or, maybe, not a Harrington? Unclear. Something to investigate later, when Steve fucking saves Eddie’s goddamn life. 

They still don’t really get how he doesn’t collide with past-Steve in these trips. Steve just knows he shows up and no one acts weird about or points him out as some kind of impostor, and he’s never run into any past-Steve. So, he assumes he just kind of…becomes one with past-Steve, or whatever.

Steve’s brain feels a bit foggy on this current trip as he tries to separate present-Dustin from past-Dustin. He knows and loves them both and wants to protect them the same. It’s really fucking hard not to run up to past-Dustin and shake him and ask him how to fix it, right here, right now, as if this version would have any different knowledge to offer. 

Not like Steve didn’t try a few times. No, he definitely took a few trips to try to talk to past-Dustin and the others, or sometimes just past-Dustin when he realized many of the others were freaking out over Steve time travelling too much, some of them bitching at him to stop. And those were the worst moments to hear because these are his kids, his family, and he’s always going to do anything in his power to protect them, to fight for them. 

The worst thing, though, Steve has learned in all these journeys, is that neither he nor present-Dustin quite know the best way to work the machine, so they never quite know where Steve will end up. 

Sometimes, he’s lucky, and the time travel sets him back far enough that he can change certain events, save some injuries and time, get them prepped quicker. Sometimes, he’s a little less lucky and gets thrown into the middle of the Spring Break From Hell and has to hit the ground running, either saving Max at the graveyard, or tracking down Eddie at Skull Rock, or fighting off bats in the dried out version of Lover’s Lake. 

Other times, he’s shit out of luck and gets thrown in what he considers far too late. Sometimes, in front of Vecna in the Creel house, meaning he doesn’t even get a chance to try and stop Eddie’s plan, just has to fucking fight the monster in front of him and hope they kill him quick enough to save Eddie (they never do). Sometimes, he’s thrown right back into holding Eddie’s bleeding body, and it takes everything in him not to just scream in anger then because it’s like the world’s worst double feature, holding the dying body of a man he’s come to really fucking like over the countless trips. 

This time, though, he starts right here, staring at Eddie and past-Dustin as they prepare the trailer for the “most metal concert, ever” in past-Dustin’s words. 

Steve feels a slight sense of hope in his chest after spending the last few hell trips not able to even see Eddie properly. He lets out a relieved breath, earning a concerned look from Nancy.

Ah, shit. Starting here means he gave the most cringeworthy speech of his life to Nancy Wheeler already. 

Well. 

Not like this trip will be any different, the cynical part of his brain bites out. 

He always hopes he can start the trip early enough to avoid some things, like that conversation. It only took a dozen trips or so for Steve to realize he actually really doesn’t want that kind of future with Nancy. He was just running on adrenaline and old comfortability. Forcing himself to relive the same series of days repeatedly gave him some time to reflect. 

He’s only giving himself minimal rests in between trips for present-Dustin to try to help rejuvenate him with fucking IVs, because holy shit this kid taught himself how to set up an IV somewhere in the midst of all this. He probably learned it from Nancy and a handful of textbooks, but Steve doesn’t question it, because the IV and variety of drugs the Harringtons have stocked in their weird little basement, actually kind of make him feel a bit better before he jumps into another trip. 

But, in those moments of rest, Steve has started talking to present-Dustin about all the muddled emotions in his head, just trying to free up space because his body feels so goddamn crowded and heavy after every journey. He’s tried explaining the feeling to present-Dustin, like he’s got cinder blocks pressing against his ribcage and barbed wire wrapped around his brain and an itchiness in his veins.

Neither of them can figure out why, but present-Dustin is getting increasingly worried. Steve assures him that trying to talk as much of it out after every trip helps lessen the feeling. And, it does. Just…not as much as it did the first few times. Each time, the feelings grow more and more intense, and Steve’s worried he’s approaching some sort of critical mass moment, but he refuses to give up.

He shakes his head, waves Nancy off. “Hey, guys, remember to block the vents inside.”

Past-Dustin turns, his eyes lighting up. “Oh shit, yeah, good call, Steve.”

Steve nods at him, then turns to Eddie to give the same speech he’s given too many times to count. Tells them to be safe, to not do anything stupid, to not be goddamn heroes. He stresses that last bit, pleads with his eyes as he stares into Eddie’s. Tries his damndest to make Eddie see, because he doesn’t have fucking time to hash out the why or to help prepare Eddie anymore than he already is right now when the whole party is waiting on cues to get into action. 

Eddie, blessedly, sees something because he cocks his head to the side and squints his eyes. “Yeah, Harrington, I got you. I mean, neither of us are quite heroes. That’s all you guys.”

Steve’s breath hitches, because that’s not what Eddie says here. That’s not the script. Steve has memorized the script of it all in the marrow of his goddamn bones, and Eddie never breaks it, not unless Steve derails them fully first. 

He blinks, eyes widening slightly as Eddie keeps staring at him inquisitively. “Yeah. Yeah, I just, just want to make sure you both know to stay safe. Don’t do anything fucking stupid, okay?” He hardens his own eyes and takes a step toward Eddie. “That means you, Munson. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t try to–” He stops himself, bites his fucking tongue because he doesn’t have time to talk about time travel right now, my god.

Eddie’s eyes widen as he takes a step forward, his voice dropping an octave. “Don’t try what, Harrington?”

Steve swallows, so many words stuck in his throat, bubbling up in a frenzy to get out and explain to Eddie what’s going on, but he can’t. He can’t tell him that he’s basically being sent off to his 20th or so death in this hellscape. “Just – don’t try anything. Leave when it’s time to leave. Don’t try to buy more time or whatever. We’ll be fine. I promise we’ll be fine. Get pa– get Dustin and yourself out at the second shit hits the fan, okay?”

“Holy shit, you know something, don’t you?” Eddie drops his voice even further, the sound only loud enough to carry between the two of them. He takes another step forward, reaches his hand out and grabs Steve’s arm. “What do you know, Steve?”

Steve blinks back tears at the feeling of Eddie’s hand against his arm, warm even through the layers of his jacket. “We don’t have time, Eds. Just, please. Please don’t try it this time.”

“This time?” Eddie questions. “Stevie, you’ve gotta tell me, because I’m honestly freaking out a little if you’re saying what I think you’re saying.”

Steve shakes his head, whispers out, “I can’t, there’s no time. I gotta–” He takes a deep breath, reaches his arms out, and hugs Eddie as tight as possible. He hears a murmurs around him but he doesn’t fucking care. He just needs to feel more of Eddie’s warmth when he can take it before he’s shuttled off into fuck knows where in another trip, another attempt to stop this from happening.

Eddie only hesitates for a second before wrapping his arms around Steve and squeezing him just as tightly. He takes in a few shuddering breaths against Steve’s chest that mimic Steve’s own, but there’s not time to even process whatever the fuck that’s meant to mean. 

“Dingus, we, uh – we gotta go.”

Steve swallows, schools his voice. “Yeah, alright.” He pulls back, holds Eddie by the shoulders, pretends not to see the redness around Eddie’s eyes. “Please, please be there when we get back. Make it out. Survive this bullshit and then we’ll talk, Eds, I promise.’

Eddie stares back. “Holy shit.”

Steve squeezes Eddie’s shoulders once before dropping his hands and taking a step back. “Don’t do anything stupid. Cover those vents. Make it out.” He hesitates as he takes in the way Eddie looks right now, full of life. All covered in battle armor, sans vest that’s probably laying somewhere in the RV or something. The Hellfire Club shirt peeking out catches Steve’s attention, and all he can think about is how bloody and ripped and destroyed it was what feels like 20 minutes ago. 

“Steve. We have to go. Now. You can do whatever this is later.” Nancy bites out, grabs him by the arm and starts to pull. 

Steve laughs, shakes her off. “Yeah, later.” He steps back up to Eddie and zips up his jacket before patting his chest. “I’d hate to see your shirt get ruined any more than it already has. Dustin told me how hard they are to make.”

Eddie sputters out a confused laugh. “Yeah, they are a bitch, but they’re worth it.”

“So are you, Eddie.” Steve smiles sadly. “Worth every shot I take.”

And with that, Steve turns and walks deeper into hell. 

—----------------

They’ve beaten Vecna. Flamed him to a crisp. Right before Nancy would have shot him out the window, Steve runs forward and tackles the bastard to the ground, straddles his chest, and bashes his fucking head in with his bat. It’s only when Robin grips his arm that he falters, lets himself be pulled off. Watches as she throws the last of her molotovs at Vecna’s body. She lets Steve take her lighter, lets him set Vecna’s body ablaze.

“Stay here. Watch and make sure it burns the fuck out.” Steve orders, an iciness to his eyes that neither girl has seen before. He moves to walk down the stairs, get the fuck out of this hellhouse and over to Eddie.

“Wha– Steve, where are you going?” Nancy reaches out and grabs his arm. “What do you mean? You can’t just order us to stay here.”

Steve rips his arm free, his gaze hard and unyielding. “Listen to me. I don’t have fucking time to explain this, okay?” He points to Vecna’s burning body. “Watch that fucker and keep filling him full of lead and fire until there’s not a goddamn shred left of him.”

“Since when do you think you can just boss me – boss us around?”

Steve laughs, venom dripping through it. “What, you mean like how you boss all of us around, Nancy?”

Nancy flinches, takes a step back. “Wha– I don’t boss anyone around.”

“That’s rich. God, Nancy, listen. I really don’t have fucking time for this, so –”

Robin steps forward. “You keep saying that.”

Steve stumbles, voice softening at his best friend. “What?”

“You keep saying you don’t have time for this. Why? What’s happening, Steve?”

He swallows, tries to rip away from her imploring gaze, but can’t. “I think you can figure it out, Robbie. I think you both can, actually.” He takes a deep breath. “Look, I have to go. There’s something I have to check and if I don’t it’s going to eat me alive, so we’ll have this fight later, and I’ll tell you both whatever the fuck you want to know, but please –”

“We’ll make sure there’s not a shred of him left, Steve. Then we’ll meet you at the trailer.”

Steve nods. “Thank you, Robbie.” And he runs out of the house, slips onto a bike, and starts booking it to Forest Hills, hoping to all hell that he’s not going to have his heart broken again.

—------------

This isn’t right. 

Steve slams into the trailer park, throws his bike, and starts running. But, Eddie’s not there. His body isn’t there. 

This is the 20th something trip and Eddie’s body isn’t there. 

Steve refuses to get his hopes up as he runs through the park. There’s no mass of dead bats around where Eddie di– where he usually finds Eddie’s body. There’s a smattering of them around, but not the mass like he’s used to.

He keeps running toward the trailer, trying to squash down the hope that’s bubbling in his stomach. He can’t afford to hope. Not now. Not until he can lay eyes on Eddie’s face again.

What if the bats carried him off the top of the trailer this time? What if Vecna caught on to Steve constantly replaying this week and intervened, took Eddie away for good? 

What if Eddie’s lying broken and bloodied inside trailer this time?

Steve feels tears hot on his cheeks as he makes it to the trailer, bounds up the steps, tries to rip the door open.

It’s locked. 

He laughs. If he wasn’t so fucking nervous right now, he’d be thrilled that past-Dustin and Eddie managed to lock the door against interdimensional bats. 

“Hey, nerds, open the fucking door!” Steve’s voice wobbles as he pounds on the door, tears still steadily streaming. He turns his head down, closes his eyes as he slams his hand into the door over and over and over. “Please – please, guys. Please open this fucking door, I swear to–”

The door swings open. His hand is still hanging in the air, his head still down, and he refuses to look up. He stops breathing, terrified of what he might see, before he’s engulfed in a hug.

In a hug that feels and tastes and smells like cigarette smoke and sweat and leather. 

Steve fucking chokes out a sob, eyes still clamped shut out of fear that this isn’t real, that’s he’s dreaming, or on another journey through time and this is just a different timeline before they fight Vecna. 

It’s not until the person holding him speaks that he loses it completely. 

“You did it, Stevie. You won. You– you saved me.”

Steve shatters, crumples to the ground, bringing Eddie with him. 

“You–you’re here. You’re alive. Oh my go–Eddie, fuck, you–”

“Shh, Stevie. I’m here. I’m alive, man. I made it. You made it. We all made it.” Eddie squeezes him tighter, rubs his hand across his shoulders.

“Steve? What happened? Are you okay? Are the girls–?” Past-Dustin stammers.

“Shit, yeah, Stevie, are the girls okay?”

Steve nods into Eddie’s shoulder. “Yeah, they–they’re fine.” He chokes on another sob, burrows deeper into Eddie’s chest, whispers, “You’re alive.”

“Yeah, sweetheart, I’m still kickin’. Takes more than a demented swarm of bats to take me out.”

Steve whips his head up at that. “You still– you fought the fucking bats?”

Eddie grins. “Sure did. Well, distracted them, more like. And thanks to you, I’m fine.” He pauses for a moment. “The jacket thing really helped. Wish I’d thought of it.” He squeezes Steve’s shoulders, levels him with a hard gaze. 

Steve blinks back a few tears, wipes away the tears and snot from his face. He stares at Eddie for a moment. “You know.”

Eddie nods.

“But–how? I didn’t–”

“That is a question for when we’re not in a hell dimension, my good sir.” Eddie stands, pulls Steve to his feet. 

Past-Dustin pulls Steve into a hug. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I’m glad you’re okay.” He buries his face against Steve’s chest, lowers his voice a bit. “Is it really over this time?”

Steve feels fresh tears brim at his eyes, threatening to spill. “Yeah, Dustin. I think it is.”

tags (open): @sunshine-daydreams0809

divider credit: @saradika-graphics

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Maria and her little alien brother sketchbook dump from the last few weeks

Minor spoilers for Sonic 3 ig

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