#scoutshonour

[weenafile]

This one time… at band camp… . . . . . . . . . . . . #summercamp #inthewoods #intothewild #bandcamp #letloose #livemusic #brassband #brass #music #lumberjacks #scout #scoutshonour #dibdib #nofluteswereharmedinthisperformance #drums #drummergirl #girldrummer #walkaboutdrum #marchingdrums #pandeiro #meinl #cymbal #sax #tuba #trumpet #bass @campkindling @campwildfire @hotsaucerhythmandbrass (at Sevenoaks, Kent) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChgGPOUovkq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#summercamp #inthewoods #intothewild #bandcamp #letloose #livemusic #brassband #brass #music #lumberjacks #scout #scoutshonour #dibdib #nofluteswereharmedinthisperformance #drums #drummergirl #girldrummer #walkaboutdrum #marchingdrums #pandeiro #meinl #cymbal #sax #tuba #trumpet #bass

[amesscott]

Portwell Fanfic List

[Part 1]

Post-Season 3

you never got the love i know you want (am i just what you settled for?) by: laurenswriting

EJ Leaves the Building by: taygeta

Chocolate Gives Me Heartburn by: Aroundthewaygirl

Together Forever by: Asexual_Enjolras

Seven Summers by: Aroundthewaygirl

One Last First Time by: Aroundthewaygirl

Flashbacks and Echoes by: taygeta

bad guy by: dreamlessfavors

Everyday of Our Lives by: taygeta

pancakes for dinner by: dreamlessfavors

I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss by: taygeta

call it what you want by: dreamlessfavors

reconciliation: fingers crossed (rose's version) by: mind_writing

Cruel Summer by: Aroundthewaygirl

It Starts (Again) With Us by: Aroundthewaygirl

Alternate Universe (AU)

This Just In by: MoonymyLove

i want you to know, don't be afraid (it's only us) by: ElixirBB

permanent mark by: mar_writes_things

It's never too late to come back to my side by: mar_writes_things

Stay, stay, stay (I've been loving you for quite some time) by: mar_writes_things

Beating Like a Drum (And It's Coming Your Way) by: Aroundthewaygirl

My sister's roommate by MoonymyLove

Shot of Something Stronger by: Aroundthewaygirl

The Wedding Date Pact by: Aroundthewaygirl

My Showerhead Is Very Impressed With Me by: JLM_Dream

Maybe I'm A Fool by: chocolatesouffle

Basketball Diaries by: Aroundthewaygirl

The moon is the reflection of your love by: MoonymyLove

Not Another Hallmark Holiday Movie! by: Aroundthewaygirl

a pirate's life for me by: dreamlessfavors

Almost Gone by: JustoWrites

chocolate frogs & nimbus 3000s by: dreamlessfavors

Canon Compliant

Season 1

It Feels So Right To Be Here With You by: sabstar

Christmas Raincheck by: Jellybean96

mum's the word by: thstarsofsilver

Season 2

Maybe He Needs That Romance by: chocolatesouffle

Everyone Sees by: chocolatesouffle

Familiar by: Write_To_You

you took the time to memorize me, my fears, my hopes, my dreams (5 Things EJ Caswell Learns about Gina Porter) by: areyounobodytoo

stuck in my own head but you pull me out by: future_out_of_focus

daylight by: scoutshonour

to keep her warm by: MegTheMighty

The Heartbreak Club by: covestone

It's Not Living If It's Not With You by: jenipottinger

Meet Me In the Space Between by: Aroundthewaygirl

how can i go home when you’re all i wanna know? by: capulets

My Comfort Is You - A Portwell Oneshot by: palisadec

Can I Have This Dance? by: palisadec

so baby, bye, bye; wish you the best by: raganalightwood

and that's what you missed on high school musical: the musical: the series by: dreamlessfavors

the theater kid group chats by: dreamlessfavors

Post-Season 2

Prom Pieces by: taygeta

this is the golden age (of something good and right and real) by: burning_daylight

you keep his shirt he keeps his word by: mar_writes_things

There's Something 'Bout the Way by: Aroundthewaygirl

So Much Better by: sabstar

just the two of us (we could make it if we tried) by: skystarscapes

the duke sweatshirt by: dreamlessfavors

a night to remember by: dreamlessfavors

Mine - A Portwell Love Confession by: palisadec

build-a-bear by: dreamlessfavors

you say that you never felt this way for anyone by: raganalightwood

Take me back in time to when we were unbroken by: Jiaras_daughter

This Night Is Sparkling by: palisadec

Season 3

Discount Harry Styles by: MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)

love story by: dreamlessfavors

root beer and first kisses by: dreamlessfavors

Non-Canon Compliant/Canon Divergent

Season 1

so it's you by: AlwaysSleeping

so lonely before, i finally found (what i’ve been looking for) by: pixel_perfect

you make me better by: lesbianbey

Season 2

she's a butcher with a smile by: riptidejoy

Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all! by: MoonymyLove

play pretend by: thstarsofsilver

Season 3

our last summer (i still see it all) by: skystarscapes

When I Say Softly, Slowly by: Aroundthewaygirl

Deserves a Quiet Night by: Aroundthewaygirl

wherever you are, i am by: megs27

fixer upper by: dreamlessfavors

The Most Perfect Night by: Jellybean96

Can I just, say something crazy? (You're the best girlfriend) by: megs27

bad blood by: dreamlessfavors

Say That Again: A Portwell Summer Camp Story by: taygeta

A Win for Team Wonderstudy by: Jellybean96

How Deep Is Your Love by: taygeta

The Making of Frozen: The Musical: The Series by: Aroundthewaygirl

The Show Must Go On by: taygeta

Never a Maybe by: megs27

looking at you, my heart loves the view by: Jellybean96

Solace by: chocolatesouffle

What If: A Post-Show Breakup by: taygeta

Always Be My Maybe by: Jiaras_daughter

the slaughter at camp shallow lake by: dreamlessfavors

Future

Taylor Made Me Do It by: Aroundthewaygirl

Love You Like a Love Song by: Aroundthewaygirl

Let It Go by: redlyncentral

Forgetting For Awhile: A Holiday Fic by: taygeta

there is so much more inside me now by: ash_ish

Portwell Celebrates the Holidays by: Aroundthewaygirl

Christmas Wishes by: Aroundthewaygirl

you were a home for me when I had no one there by: wondereternity

Of All the Things My Hands Have Held (The Best By Far Is You) by: Aroundthewaygirl

camera roll by: Aroundthewaygirl

I Try To Capture Every Minute by: redmeanslove

We Can Dance on Clouds Forever by: bex2313

Just Another Chance to Fall by: Aroundthewaygirl

First Times - A Portwell Proposal by: palisadec

Third Time's the Charm by: Jellybean96

Could You Hold Me Without Any Talking? by: palisadec

here and now (it's time for celebration) by: pbeatrixx

#hsmtmts #portwell #ej caswell #gina porter #gina x ej #fanfiction #ao3 #text post

[mjsparkour]

rina fic recs

Okay so I've made a few recommendations for rina fics in the past and so much has been written for them not just post the finale but over the summer that I have to make a new one!

Here's a list of some of the previous recommendations I've made before:

For this list I'm gonna start off with some authors and the fics they've written for them recently (with their respective summaries). Then I'm gonna list out some other fics I don't think I've mentioned before. I would highly recommend checking out their other stories not just for rina but other fandoms as well because they're so talented!

peculiarblue:

Starting off this list with the author of the rina bible, the story of us, herself. Here are some of my favorites she'd written for season 3:

scary/not so scary: scary: realizing he's falling in love with gina porter, not scary: also, realizing he's falling in love with gina porter.

(or, ricky battles a monster of a read-through rehearsal with good friends, lists, and gina porter)

the rule of threes: gina porter gets three surprises when she arrives at camp shallow lake: a celebrity guest, the fact that she's at camp at all and enjoying it so far, and ricky bowen or, ricky and gina find their way back to each other during one perfect summer.

ways around the word love: a comprehensive guide by ricky bowen, as told by gina porter

(a love languages 5 + 1).

say yes: Ricky didn’t see Gina coming. Not when he stumbled into that HSM audition, not in the skatepark. Not in his car on the way home from homecoming and not when he showed up to Shallow Lake, guitar in hand. Definitely didn’t tonight, not now, walking out of the barn during camp prom.

(ricky tries his hardest to complete his bucket list before his birthday, with varying degrees of success -- a camp prom and opening night fic)

jadoresari:

RED STRING OF FATE: “i guess what i would say about rina is, i think the reason people go to their high school reunions, even 50 years later, is because you never really graduate from high school.” —Tim Federle

Ten years after the East High gang graduated, Miss Jenn decides to host a high school reunion for her favorite theater club class.

When two people with a long history finally see each other again, will old feelings resurface? “You never really graduate from high school.”

Or will they keep running away and leave everything left unsaid? “I’m safer when I’m on the run.”

The story of Ricky and Gina during High School and how they finally rekindled years after, because where there was fire ashes remain.

“i do think there’s a lot between those two characters that is very much still on the table, even if they’re not quite ready to see what that actually means.” —Tim Federle

SUMMERTIME SADNESS: EJ Caswell has been dating Gina Porter since opening night, but something's different now.

Ricky Bowen seems to be a usual topic of conversation and he can't believe this is happening to him again.

The story of how EJ Caswell witnessed his girlfriend fall for the high school skate rat.

Or maybe, she had already fallen for him and EJ was just now devastatingly finding out.

"She promised me the world, but promised him the galaxy."

BEGIN AGAIN: “—but there is something in this summer wind a moment to begin again.”

A summer spent at camp wasn’t in Ricky’s plans and neither was pining over Gina Porter all summer—though he can’t really say he truly minded the latter, he was too in love with her to care.

scoutshonour:

I've been blossoming alone over you: It’d been easy to look away from him in Ashlyn’s living room. But now, hours later, with no one around them, nothing but the piles of snow by their feet, and the handful of visible stars strewn above them - Gina can’t look away.

His mouth twitches into a moonlit smile and suddenly, she doesn’t have to try so hard to smile back. Her fake one slips easily into a real one without her noticing.

(Post 2x01. A late-night talk on Ashlyn’s lawn.)

happier than ever: “Gina,” it comes out strangled from Ricky’s throat but it feels like an exhale, like his first real one all day, all month, all fucking year. He strides towards her and remembers to stop just two feet from her. “I just wanted to make sure you were … okay.”

(or: Instead of Nini, Ricky’s the one who finds Gina crying after opening night for Beauty and The Beast.)

Now here are some fics I would recommend reading overall. I'd highly recommend checking out some of these authors' other rina fics! These are some of my favorites from post s2 and 3:

The Parent Trap by rinasawake: “You don’t quit on anything, but you can quit on me, huh?”

Divorced parents, Gina and Ricky, are living on opposite ends of the U.S. - dealing with an impending wedding, their high school reunion, and recurring flashbacks that make them wonder why they've ever broken up in the first place. But, after meeting at theater camp, long-lost twins Ellie Porter and Alex Bowen also engineer an identity swap, giving each other the opportunity to meet their missing parent - and bring the complete family back together.

What could go wrong?

2. the way that she loved you by iknowpIaces: [would you love her, the way that she loved you?]

Ricky looks over at her. She’s with EJ, which isn’t a rare sight these days. Those two are almost always together. It’s weird.

They’re whispering about who knows what, paying no mind to whatever Ms. Jenn is talking about. Neither is Ricky, to be fair, but hey, it’s not his fault they’re distracting him with their not-so-subtle whispers and giggles.

Seriously, how does Ms. Jenn not hear them?

3. wish we could be honest by steambend: When Princess Gina was betrothed to her neighboring country's Prince EJ, she had to uproot her life and move to the Caswell family palace, where Gina progressively felt more and more out of her depth. The only thing that kept her afloat was her assigned guard, Ricky, who Gina couldn't help but feel inexplicably drawn to.

Of course, her relationship with Ricky was only one of friendly companionship, and not at all romantic in any way. Right?

(this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic that is currently updating regularly)

4. collateral damage by Madkin: “What happened to not being a quitter? To not giving up on us?”

”You gave up on us!” She sees him open his mouth to protest so she lets the words keep spilling out. “When’s the last time you asked me how I was? How I felt being away from my mom? Living in a house that isn’t mine with a family I barely know? Getting another supporting role I don’t want?” Gina pauses as she tries to regain her composure. She meets his stunned eyes. “When was the last time we talked about anything except Nini?”

5. Everybody Talks by CanaryWidow: “We should get our cover story together and establish some rules,” Gina stated. “Like they did in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Ricky furrowed his brow. “To All the What?”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Ok, we definitely need to do a movie marathon date, because you literally have no taste.”

Or, the one where Gina and Ricky fake date as everyone from their school watches their every move through an anonymous Instagram account known as Gossip Girl. (this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic that is currently updating regularly)

6. homesick (for you) by spider_eli: This fic starts in the summer following Beauty and the Beast and things between Gina and Ricky have never been weirder. Ever since Gina stood her ground at Carlos' Quinceañero, the pair haven't really been acting like friends. Gina's founds new friends in the other theatre kids (and more), while Ricky has spent his time figuring himself out. But they can't ignore that things feel unfinished between them...

title inspired by the avett brother's lyrics, "i have been homesick for you since we met."

(this is an incomplete multichapter fic)

7. A Little More of You by spider_eli: Gina Porter and Ricky Bowen have been at each other's throats their entire lives. The only thing they have in common is their best friend, Howie Lawson. But something changes when they start spending more time together.

Because I've been tearing through Dawson's Creek during the HSMTMTS hiatus and Joey and Pacey really set the bar. This'll just be little Jacey scenes but with Rina instead !! It's very dialogue heavy because if you've ever seen Dawson's Creek.... yeah.

EDIT 9/2021: while i’m no longer updating this fic, follow me on twt @spkderwylan

8. pluto projector by adhdsoras: "What… what is Gina to you, Ricky?" Red's voice was barely above a whisper, his hesitation clear as he stopped in his tracks, chewing on his nails, his eyes finding interest on his shoes. Ricky swallowed thickly, his heart pounding in his chest, confused and distraught by the question more than anything else. Silence grew between them as he struggled to find the right words, the air hanging cold and thick around them. He opened his mouth but no words came out, his foot tapping more intensely against the concrete wall.

"I have a girlfriend," He managed to croak out the words, finally, after minutes of struggle, "I love my girlfriend."

An exploration of Gina & Ricky's relationship, from (mostly) Ricky's perspective.

Starts during the events of season 2 episode 4, and diverges from there. (this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic)

9. please don't say you love me by adhdsoras: EJ rejected Gina's invitation to be her date to camp prom, much to Ricky's surprise. So, when Gina comes up with a plan to get back at her boyfriend, who's Ricky to say no to her?

He would do anything for her, even if it meant breaking his own heart.

10. waiting room by mariiposie: 'The first time it happened, she said, ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ and Ricky said, ‘Neither could I,’ and she sat down at the end of the boardwalk next to him, letting her feet make ripples on the sleeping surface of the midnight lake, and said nothing more. This wasn’t allowed to happen; so they said nothing at all, until the sun came up, and two of a kind, they found their way back to their respective cabins. And they did not say another word of it until the next night, when Ricky found his way along the gravel paths to Gina’s cabin, and she’d been standing there, and he’d said, ‘We could do it again, if you’d like.’'

11. Answer Garden by busyheadinthedark: A note in a locker. A message from a known stranger. A teared up book page with smudged handwriting. A sticky note found by accident— or was it? Different ways in which they were contacted by the same person but they all ended up the same way.

That’s how the story begins. (this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic)

12. Decline to answer by fandomwolfx: Gina must have walked around the whole of camp Shallow Lake at least three times now.

The tube of blue paint in her hand is starting to dry out from the relentless July heat and her boyfriend who insisted he wanted to wear some so that they could match is nowhere to be found.

Not that she should be surprised, EJ has been MIA for most of the camp so far too busy spending time with the other counselors which is… whatever.

Or, how did Ricky end up with that blue facepaint during 'It's On'?

13. plus one by bunnoon: after their individual breakups and years of on and off friendship, ricky and gina decide to team up and take on wedding season together by making a pact to be each other’s plus one to every wedding of the year. however, what they didn’t plan for was the feelings that arise along the way.

♡ based off the 2019 romcom by the same name

14. Of the Utmost Importance by goldenthread: Lord Richard Bowen is at odds with himself. After being confronted with an unpleasant truth (his mother’s adulterous behavior within the very walls of the estate) and his fiance since the age of five reminds him of their impending nuptials, he coasts. He finds himself on a writing retreat of his own design skipping out on duties as Lord and husband to Duchess Nini Salazar Roberts. He comes home to his entire world changing. Baroness Genevive Porter arrives in town and the world shifts on its axis again.

rina regency era fic no one asked for (bridgerton and pride and prejudice inspired).

(this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic that is currently updating regularly)

15. come home to my heart by goldenthread: Ricky and Gina spend the majority of the summer apart, choosing to take second chances on other people. The tangled web of miscommunication somehow worsens, and the two wind up hating each other all while starring in East High's latest production of 'Into The Woods'. Ricky thinks his senior year is off to a great start.

(this fic is an incomplete multichapter fic that is currently updating regularly)

#rina #rina fanfiction #rina fanfic #ricky bowen #gina porter #hsm #hsmtmts #hsm the musical #hsm the series #disney #disney plus #ricky x gina #gina x ricky

[marypsue]

don’t let the sun go down on me continues to live in my head rent free so any DVD commentary of that you can spare would be much appreciated 🙏🏼

[from this meme]

Thank you very much!

don't let the sun go down on me

Before I start, I have to thank @trulyalpha / scoutshonour's we have the time, the inspiration, the blueprint, the OG Steve/Nancy/Jonathan vampire fic. Without it, this one wouldn't exist.

"Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" is an Elton John song, but the place I first encountered it (and what I was thinking of when I used it for this fic) was Roger Daltrey's cover for The Lost Boys. So. There's that.

The first chapter was written and posted in a feverish haze in June of 2021. It was meant to be a one-shot; I never had any plans to continue it. And then in 2022 Season 4 came out and while I'm generally not impressed with it, I got absolutely obsessed with the idea of vampire trueforms modelled off the Vecna design and things...escalated quickly.

Chapter One

One of the best pieces of advice that I ever received about writing was that the story starts so much later than you often think it does. Especially when I'm writing oneshots, I try to cut right to the the part where the story I actually want to tell starts. In this case, there's a whole leadup of Steve hearing or seeing something in the woods and going to investigate and discovering a monster and some kids seemingly being menaced by the monster and going to the rescue and a whole fight scene that I decided I didn't want to write, because the story was about Nancy and Jonathan being vampires and Steve falling in love with both of them. And honestly, I don't feel like the story is lacking for not having that monster fight in it. A few sprinklings of exposition in the narration and dialogue takes care of it quite nicely.

I love giving vampires eyeshine.

Sometimes, it takes Steve an eternity to understand how things fit together. And then, sometimes, his brain makes lightning-fast connections between random things without his even asking it to. 

Steve Harrington ADHD. I don't care what the show says. It just makes sense.

(On an unrelated note, OG Season 3 Robin Buckley also ADHD. I am getting off the soapbox now.)

“That’s my kid sister.”

There are two aspects of Jonathan Byers' character that felt indelibly important to me to preserve even in an AU: he is a big brother, and he is deeply protective of and materially supportive of Joyce. Turning her from his mom into his little sister kept both of those things intact even with the change in timelines. I felt particularly proud of this one.

...and wow, there is something about her saying his name with blood all over her face that Steve is going to just pack away in the back of his mind for later.

It was very important to me and to making this whole thing work that Steve is just wildly, unabashedly, maybe a little bit confusedly but totally wholeheartedly horny for the whole vampire deal. He's discovering so many new things about himself over the course of this fic, and a fetish for fangs is just part of the package deal.

He doesn’t want to be a vampire. There are probably a lot of very good reasons for that, and the fact that the only one coming to his stunned mind is that vampires probably don’t get basketball scholarships means nothing.

This just made me laugh when I thought of it.

“Oh shit, is it bad?” Steve turns to look at Jonathan. He sounds like he’s less likely to try to sugar-coat it. “It sounds like it’s bad. ..."

"Son of a bitch, Lucas, is it bad?!"

The whole idea of vampire thralls and Steve maybe becoming one was something that was on my mind throughout the rising action in we have the time, but never came up in that fic. I wanted to dig into the concept, and also, it seemed like a good excuse to force Nancy and Jonathan to have to pull Steve into their investigation of the events of Season 1.

Nancy and Jonathan basically forgetting Steve's there so they can rehash an old argument (and also drop some exposition because I'd never expected to continue this fic but I had backstory I wanted to sneak in) is so funny to me, one of the ways I wanted to show they were an established established (read: old married) couple, and also quite possibly the moment Steve fell helplessly head over heels for both of them.

His mom’s sleeping with Prince Valium tonight

Lifted this line from Beetlejuice because I think it's criminally underrated. Also because, as I mentioned in my other post, my go-to characterisation for Steve's mom is just Delia Deetz. Also, also, it unintentionally became good foreshadowing.

Just because he keeps deciding to do what he thinks will make the prettiest girl alive happy – Oh. Shit. She’s not alive, though. Is she.

When I first started writing this, I had Steve referring to Nancy as 'the prettiest girl in the world' before he knew her name. And then I realised I could do this if I made one little change.

Jesus. Steve hadn’t even asked if they kill people. 

Yeah, I don't think he ever actually does end up asking that.

Chapter Two

As mentioned above, in about September 2022 the bug bit me hard and I resurrected this fic from the dead, with 'vampires, but make it Vecna-inspired and explicitly Upside-Down-related' on my mind and a half-formed thought about a murder mystery. I thought this fic had maybe three chapters in it, total, counting the original oneshot. I thought it would be quick and easy to wrap up. Hahahahahaha.

I did actually start writing this chapter back when I wrote the original oneshot - the scene where Steve finds the obits at the library, specifically up to the part where he's looking at Nancy and Jonathan's yearbook photos, was written in 2021. I decided to cut off the fic the night of Nancy and Jonathan's visit because I didn't have a direction to go in to continue it, and it felt like a complete thought. Also, I was only adding onto it because I wanted the mental image of Nancy and Jonathan in fifties styles.

And then, in 2022, I stumbled upon a direction to go in to continue it.

"...Why am I out in the woods at night with a bobby soxer who wears a virgin pin?”

Shoutout to @marzipanandminutiae who was talking about fashion history and popular fashion myths, and brought to my attention both the fad of circle pins for girls in the fifties and the myth that wearing them on one or the other side of your cardigan meant that you had or hadn't had sex / whether you would have sex. Fearmongering about silly teenage accessory trends having to do with secret sex signals didn't start in my youth, apparently. (Anybody remember jelly bracelets? I was a full adult before I found out those were supposed to be a kind of playground handkerchief code.)

I looooove writing ominous horror scenes where Something Bad Is Lurking and the characters are starting to realise it too but they will not know until it's too late. New favourite thing. Love tension. Love when everybody's thinking the same thing but nobody dares to come right out and say it.

You heard Chief Keller.

Yes, I have been watching Riverdale in fascinated horror. It's just...it's so audaciously bonkers. And so fully committed - at least for the episode or two each of them lasts - to its bits. I have to respect that. And it makes me feel sooooooo good about my plotting and pacing capabilities.

(Also, Chad Michael Murray giving an actually pretty thoughtful and nuanced performance as a charismatic high-control group leader, only to throw it all out the window when he got told 'oh btw your character dies next episode' and start gnawing through backdrops like the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar while doing three costume changes in two scenes and then trying to Evel Knievel his way off a building in a homemade rocket only to get unceremoniously and undramatically shot dead offscreen, not even by a main character, is something I never knew I needed in my life. This show makes so many choices and all of them make me want to take the tops off the writers' heads and dissect their brains.

But I digress.)

Usually when he’s on the receiving end of that stare, Hopper’s digging for something to tie him to anything from the giant GO TIGERS spraypainted across the courthouse to the beer cans and partygoers hastily hidden all over the house behind him to the rotten eggs splattered all over the side of a police cruiser, and the best course of action is to look wide-eyed and innocent and only say ‘No, chief, I have no idea about that’.

Just given who they are and what their respective roles in the community have been up until this point, there is a deep, rich vein of hilarity in Hopper and Steve both ending up in the Upside Down crew (I'm still pushing for 'fellowship' to refer to everyone who Knows, it's thematically and textually appropriate!) that has yet to be mined.

Happened the same year they opened up that lab south of town.

I'll be honest, I avoided saying much about how the events of canon went down in this 'verse on purpose. Partly because it's Season 1 and our POV character is Steve, who never gets told anything until it's much, much too late, but also partly because I didn't finish Season 4 and don't care enough to seek out spoilers to know what happened. And I think that what Season 4 tries to establish as Lore could have some serious bearing on what would make sense for the backstory to the canon events in this story. So. Please fill in the gaps as appropriate.

Steve drums both hands against the desk, and the librarian gives him a flat, unimpressed look that’s almost the twin of the one Hopper gave him in the reading room. Apparently he just has this effect on adults.

Steve Harrington ADHD.

Jonathan’s so busy sawing at the last of the vines still wrapped around Nancy’s ankle that he doesn’t notice the thick central stalk of the plant…thing pushing back up through the crumbling ground behind him.

I wrote a post about this and now tumblr won't let me find in search on my blog, because it won't show me basically any original posts I made between about June of last year and now in search on my blog, for some fucking reason. But. The way I conceptualised it is that this thing Nancy and Jonathan fought is the most stripped-down, basic trueform of a vampire in this 'verse. The two of them got infected while they were fighting it. Basically it planted seeds or spores or whatever it uses to reproduce into their bodies, and then grew throughout those bodies, intertwining its central stalk with their spines and its vines with their nervous systems so it could animate the bodies even after its intrusion killed them. Jonathan and Nancy both still have intact (or mostly-intact) brains, intact senses of self and memories. But they've also got new biological needs and new, compelling instincts that can overtake their higher brain functions in the right circumstances. And if you stripped away all the meat and muscle, you'd find something that looks an awful lot like this evil plant that tried to eat them growing on a trellis made out of their bones.

Vampires in this 'verse are a kind of parasitic fungus. (Which is also why ingesting their blood can affect the behaviours and brain functions of other people, and even make others like them.) I think this is the coolest shit and I will not stop talking about it. That is all.

(Also. Steve's still hot and bothered about it. That's important too.)

Nancy’s not sure how long they sit there, together, clutching each other and just trying to breathe.

Neither Nancy or Jonathan can see much of what's going on around them at this point, so I'm pretty sure this is where Brad found them. And how Brad found them.

Nicole’s not bad-looking, and she’s a fun time at parties even if she is kind of a nerd. And they’re both single right now. Steve’s not sure why he suddenly wants to pull away.

It's because you're already hopelessly in love with two other people. Hope that helps.

I can kind of understand how and why the fandom sort of collectively forgets Fred existed. I wouldn't say he was the biggest standout of Season 4's crop of cannon fodder for me, either. But you show me a weedy little nerd of a character who's using a prickly sarcastic sense of humour to deflect from a truly monstrous baggage of survivor's guilt and blame around unintentionally hurting someone he cared about in a way that can't ever be ameliorated or forgiven, and then be like 'yeah everybody in-canon and in the fandom kinda forgot about him lmao', and. Well. Now I gotta do something meaningful with him. I gotta.

Also, he made a good red herring suspect.

He thinks about Nancy’s apologetic smile as she said she thought she’d enthralled him, about how Jonathan had said or you’d lose your mind, and wonders, for the first time, how they know.

I also got to this plot point by writing Nancy and Jonathan's turning, stopping, realising they would not know any other vampires, and wondering, myself, how they heck they'd know all that stuff about blood and thralls. The answer that presented itself was: firsthand.

When she tries to raise her arms, to pull away the covers that have somehow gotten wrapped over her face, she bumps into something flat and cold and solid barely a few inches above her.

I learned after writing this that apparently the fridges in a morgue are like one big open space with all the rolling trays sliding back into it, not like a narrow slot for each tray with top, bottom, and sides. Oh well.

Nancy pulls the letterman jacket she’d been wearing from the plastic bag full of her clothes that they’d found in the trash. Her expression is mournful, almost stricken, as she takes in the ragged slashes torn through the leather of the sleeves, the frankly astonishing size of the rusty red-brown stain surrounding a single puncture in the back. It makes the tiger applique look like its snarling mouth has just taken a bite out of some fresh prey.

Have I mentioned lately that I love heavy-handed visual symbolism?

...the dingy little trailer he calls home.

Okay, so in the fifties, as I found out after I'd finished writing this, the mobile home park was still more in the 'new and exciting' category than what it would have been in the eighties. Think less Trailer Park Boys and more tiny home. However. I did not do extensive research before writing this, because I was most interested in the vampire part. And it seems to me that the kinds of people buying or renting holiday trailers to live in year-round would still have been people who thought it made more financial sense than buying a permanent building. It's also possible that Jonathan and Joyce's family were in a better position at the time they moved in than the one they're in as of this fic.

It’s been made clear to Steve on multiple occasions that one of the few rules he actually has to follow in this house is don’t bother your father when he’s in his office. 

I talked a lot about what I think of Steve and his parents and their relationship and how a lot of it boils down to 'they're rich and self-centred and they're raising him the same way'. This is part of that - Steve's internalised that there are some rules that apply to him, and some that don't, and that that's just how things work, some rules apply to some people and not to others, some rules don't matter and some rules do, and it's all a matter of whether someone more powerful than you will punish you if you get caught breaking them. It seems consistent with his Season 1 characterisation, and also, it's some foreshadowing, in that it shows how the person who taught him this thinks.

Everybody knew old Gower drank like a fish.

Yeah, this name was lifted from It's A Wonderful Life. It's not actually relevant to the story, just a fun fact.

She can feel the tension in Jonathan’s arms, before she lets go. But he doesn’t raise them again. Trusting her completely.

...

Nancy doesn’t resist. She doesn’t protest. She just lets Jonathan pull her away from civilisation and deeper into the woods. Trusting him completely.

Parallel presented without comment.

“You didn’t tell me you dated my dad.”

...

“In Dracula. The vampire’s servant is named -”

...

"And from how you both apparently think humans are just here for you both to mess around with ..."

So, in case it's not clear (because Steve hasn't realised it yet, so it's deliberately oblique), this whole fight is actually about him feeling envious over Nancy and Jonathan's relationship, and between the two of them together and finding out about Fred and about Nancy dating his dad, feeling like he's not actually important to them in the way he'd kind of let himself think he was, but only one in a string of people they've used and abandoned. Steve's feeling like he cares way more about them than they do about him, and also maybe he's a little scared by how much he already cares about them. And also he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to identify correctly how he's feeling and why, so he takes it out on them both.

This is not a recommended course of action for dealing with monsters than can tear you open as soon as look at you, by the way.

“Steve,” Nancy says, like Steve’s a dog who’s just pissed on the rug.

He is really not feeling valued in this relationship, folks.

Also, like in canon, Jonathan will take anything mean anybody says about or to him. But the instant you drag his family into it, it's game over.

She only lives – her family’s house is ...

I made the same mistake Nancy does, went to correct it, and then went, 'ohhhHHHHHHHH'.

Chapter Three

I really, honestly did think this was going to be the final chapter of this fic when I started writing it.

I like Tommy and Carol because like. They're not evil, they're just high school evil. I like them best as people who genuinely like and care about each other (and Steve), who just have absolutely no idea how to express that in a positive way without the forces of high school social politics dictating how they interact with each other. Likewise, I think Tommy both looks up to Steve and resents the fact that he's second to Steve, and is always looking for little opportunities to both impress and one-up Steve. (Which is part of why he's second to Steve - because he's too obvious about how much he cares. High school, man.)

Except. He’d been so angry when he’d thought Jonathan was a murderer. Like Jonathan had personally betrayed him. Steve’s not sure what that means. If it means anything. He’s not sure he wants to think too much about it.

Some fics I write are about the slow development of feelings between characters. Not this one. Steve caught feelings before the story even started, and the rest is just him slowly realising that that's happened.

Trying to lay seeds of evidence for the solution to the murder plot while misdirecting readers away from where they're actually supposed to point is hard, but also so much fun. I tried to make each of my clues, independently, be something that could point in two or more directions. So, for example, Fred's notebook with his evidence that there was foul play in Nancy's death being missing after the crash points toward his accident being intentional, and the actual murderer trying to suppress the evidence, but it doesn't point to one specific suspect. Personally, I thought it suggested the lab most strongly. But when you put it all of the evidence together, you start to see that some of those alternate options cancel each other out, which leaves only the one, true murderer right in the crosshairs.

It's a technique I'm going to be carrying forward in my plotting in the future. After all, when you boil them down, most stories are, at heart, either a mystery or a romance. And romances are a kind of mystery, because you need to be leaving and developing clues about why these people like each other, and -

Anyway.

“Nance. It’s okay. It’s been thirty years. I’ve made my peace with it. I’m dead.”

I love Jonathan 'resigning myself to it so I don't have to hope for anything because hoping for something and (inevitably) not getting it would break me in half and somebody in this family(/relationship) has to be The Strong Reliable Okay One' Byers and love and consideration breaking down his shitty coping mechanisms so much. I also love undead characters being matter-of-fact about not being human when it clearly bothers them more than they want anyone to know. Two great tastes that taste great together.

And tried not to think too hard about the last time he’d had a girl who wasn’t Carol up here.

Steve: it's not weird that I'm thinking about sex while I'm inviting Jonathan and Nancy into my bedroom. Nancy's here and I'm in love with her. So it's not weird.

Steve straightened up and turned around with it in hand, only to catch both Nancy and Jonathan watching him intently. “What?”

They were both staring at his ass while he was bent over with his back to them, here.

(That's not a joke, that's actually what I was going for.)

"... You, obviously, and Brad, and Chief Keller, and anybody they might’ve told about it, I guess…”

Another thing about laying clues - it's good if they can have more than one logical interpretation, because then you can have your characters put the pieces together and move forward based on entirely the wrong logical interpretation, and then your characters don't look stupid or oblivious. (Unless, of course, that's what you want.) But, it's also good to keep bringing up the actual right answer to the mystery in conjunction with those clues. Not so much that it's obvious. Just enough so that the actual solution is kept in the reader's mind, so when the big reveal comes they're not going 'wait, who? What? Why? Where did he come from?', but 'OOOOOOHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh.'

Did I get this in this fic? That is for you to tell me. But that's what I was going for.

He was interrupted by a choked noise from Jonathan, and a disbelieving, “Chief Hopper? Chief Jim Hopper?” from Nancy.

I just think that characters having different perspectives on each other is a rich vein to be mined for characterisation and also for hilarity. And also the idea of these two being older teenagers when Hopper was in middle school just demanded to be brought up.

And since when does Steve care so much about what Jonathan thinks of him, anyway?

He is so stupid (affectionate).

“- said they lost the bodies, Joyce! Lost them! ..."

This fic was specifically about Steve and Nancy and Jonathan, and in Steve's POV, so I didn't really get to get into the other two parallel storylines. But I did want to give a sense that they were going on, and also a glimpse at what was going on in them. It's one of my favourite things about Season 1.

“This isn’t funny, kid. What, is Bill Hagan’s boy in the bushes with a video camera? ..."

Every interaction Hopper and Steve have ever had before today makes it absolutely reasonable for Hopper to come to the conclusion that Steve is playing a cruel practical joke! He's wrong, we as readers know he's wrong, but he doesn't have the luxury of our perspective on Steve and it makes sense for him to think it! I just love it when characters have impressions and perspectives of each other that are shaped by their experiences with each other, and are necessarily incomplete, biased, influenced by their own prior experiences, and not the same as the impression or perspective the reader has! It makes characters feel whole and distinct from each other and human, to me!

"... I mean, you are vampires. I still don’t even know what you eat.”

Oh, he did ask! I'd forgotten. Would've been in character for him to just conveniently forget, though.

... Steve’s sure would have had the neighbours calling in yet another noise complaint if they weren’t in Bermuda...

I love a good foreshadowing, don't you?

“You can’t be Mike,” she’s insisting, in the face of all the evidence. “Last time I saw Mike, he was just two years old.” “So was Will, Nancy,” Jonathan says, so gently. It’s sweet how hard he’s trying not to laugh. “No. It has not been ten years since the last time we were here. That can’t possibly be right.”

This, unfortunately, is just what being an adult is like.

He doesn’t even really understand what’s going on. Something about making a sensory deprivation tank, or maybe a battery? The kids had all kind of been talking over each other when they tried to explain. But apparently, this pool full of body temperature water and road salt is supposed to help them find Will Byers. Somehow.

Is it really even the season's big group DIY project if Steve Harrington doesn't not fully understand what's going on?

“The way I lost it on Steve, the other night,” Jonathan says, flatly. “That’s not – he’s a complete stranger, he shouldn’t have been able to get to me like that. I shouldn’t have let him get to me like that. And you, nearly turning him -”

Jonathan Byers: The only possible explanation for how crazy we've both been acting over Steve is interdimensional interference. The only possible explanation.

If these three could communicate with each other for five minutes and all get on the same page, there would have been no story.

Steve is so hot for everything inhuman about Nancy and Jonathan that it's almost embarrassing and I love that for him.

Were Nancy and Jonathan not sure about how to get into the lab because I wasn't sure how to get them into the lab? I'll never tell, and I'm sure you'll never guess.

Nancy and Steve calling each other 'Nicole' and 'Brad' in their fake fight was unreasonably funny to me. Actually, the whole fake fight was so much fun to write. I considered cutting it, because I'm not sure it adds anything to the story as a whole, but...well, this is fan fiction. Also, I wanted to give Steve a chance for his strengths to shine and to save the day in front of the two people he most wants to impress. He was angling hard to get himself and Nancy taken inside so he could 'call his dad'. And it almost worked, too.

That warm, wet something trickling down Steve’s forehead chooses that moment to drip into his eyelashes, sticking them together for a moment.

We all got that Steve realised he was bleeding and that Jonathan was injured and likely to attack him over it, and then went over to try to help Jonathan anyway, yes?

Something moves under Steve’s fingers, those black veins shifting in Jonathan’s throat like living things, and Steve has to swallow down bile. 

Parasitic fungus!

There’s no emotion Steve can discern in Jonathan’s voice at all as he says, “I’ll kill you.” Steve has maybe never thought so fast before in his life. “Like Nancy with the dog,” he says, and Jonathan lets out a shuddering exhale.

Jonathan's trying his hardest to scare Steve off for his own safety, make Steve think he's threatening him, but Steve stops and thinks about it first, unlike when he jumped to the conclusion that Jonathan was a murderer, and - correctly - identifies it as a statement of fact. That Jonathan won't be able to help himself, because he's injured badly and needs blood. I figured this whole interaction was the moment Jonathan finally mentally went aw, shit, I'm in love with this stupid stubborn asshole.

“You’re not really much of a killer, man.”

Specifically, this exact moment, when Steve completely backtracks on everything he'd said the previous night about Jonathan being a murderer and places his life entirely into Jonathan's hands.

It's not really all that much like what he’d imagined, the other night, with his hand down his boxers. But fuck if it isn’t still lighting up those crossed wires in Steve’s head like the Fourth of fucking July.

The older I get, the less I'm interested in vampire bites ~not really hurting at all~ and ~inducing euphoric bliss~ and the more I'm interested in the people on the receiving end of vampire bites just being huge fucking masochists.

And he knows he’s never seen her with that dead-eyed, monstrous face on before. Steve’s dick does its level best to give an interested twitch about it.

In The Lost Boys, the only vampire/half-vampire who we don't get to see with monstrous, freaky vampface on is the female love interest. I think this rather denotes a lack of courage.

Chapter Four

I wrote pretty much all of chapters four and five as one piece, and then waffled over whether to split them into two. I even polled he studio audience here on tumblr (though not actually with a poll because I was late to get polls). I'm pretty sure the result was 'one big-ass long chapter please'. And then I went ahead and split it into two anyway.

It’s an uncomfortable feeling, having somebody else, somebody he’s made a practical career out of lying to, invent him such a plausible alibi without any input from him.

The thing is, while the perception of Steve that Hopper has from seventeenish years of shenanigans is incomplete, it's also not wrong. It is a spooky feeling to know you've been perceived, and with more recognition and understanding than you'd realised, but the person doing the perceiving still doesn't like you.

They’re both making their arguments like they’re concerned for Steve. But Steve, slumped in the backseat, resting his aching head against the cool glass of the rattling window, knows them both well enough to know that what they’re really fighting about is his dad’s fucking around. He’s heard them make the exact same arguments, in almost the exact same words, about who’s going to stay home and take care of his dad’s tropical fish.

Tell me you had a kid when you should have gotten a dog (okay, well, maybe you also shouldn't have gotten a dog) without telling me...

"...The things we do for our ungrateful kids, huh?” Hopper’s eyes narrow, a little.

If you can't tell that Jim Hopper would cheerfully strangle this man in cold blood and broad daylight just to have a chance to get stuck staying home with his concussed kid, then I haven't done my job.

“You’re lucky to be alive, asshole,” Carol agrees. Steve can’t explain why his chest suddenly feels so hollow.

...

“And thanks for saving my life or whatever, I guess.”

...

It hurts more if Steve presses his fingers against the bandage just over where the bite mark’s trying to scab closed.

I spent a lot of time wallowing in the sense of missed opportunities and squandered chances that leads Steve to take some stupid, risky chances - like, for example, confronting somebody he thinks is a murderer to his face. He's clearly missing Nancy and Jonathan, and feeling like he's missed his one chance with the both of them even though he'd never put it into words like that at this point, but also - he's trapped in the house with people who genuinely don't care enough whether he lives or dies to worry about him for his own sake, and feeling like maybe he doesn't, either. He was ready and willing to die happy in the woods that night, and now he's been denied that, and he's staring down the barrel of up to eighty more years of just the same mundane tedium and catty, shallow relationships and bullshit.

I had to raise the temperature slowly to a boil, to get this boy ready to do something drastic, and it's one of my favourite parts of this fic.

The lady at the ticket window tells him that with the Greyhound drivers’ strike, she can’t guarantee he’ll get to wherever he’s going when he wants to be there.

I found out about the Greyhound strike in the 80s when I was doing a little googling to figure out how likely it'd be for them to have a route that'd take Steve out to Pennhurst, and absolutely had to toss it in. For historical flavour, and to hammer home the sense of isolation and futility. It just dovetailed so nicely.

She looks over Steve’s shoulder, at the woman who’d reached for him, and smiles warmly, though there’s still steel in her voice as she says, “And you’d do well to remember you’re a guest in his house. Evelyn, stop trying to mooch cigarettes off the visitors, you and I both know the doctor doesn’t want you to have them.”

'Spooky scary asylum inmates' is a shitty trope that sucks. Steve absolutely 100% would have no other schema for mental illness, though. I tried to thread that needle by having him react initially with horror to the weird, strange, freaky behaviour of the inmates, and then recontextualise that behaviour as like. yeah she just wants to bum a cigarette. what's your problem. Also to keep reminding Steve that hey, you were like three drops of blood away from being in that exact same position, and your future health and sanity is Not Guaranteed. Not sure how much any of that succeeded but. There was only so much lipstick I was gonna be able to put on that pig.

Why Steve can’t just leave it alone. His life is better, they chorus in the theatre of his imagination, if he just shuts up and keeps his head down and pretends not to notice or care like the coward he is.

There is a question that the show raises and that I think this fic is asking, which is, was Steve always the kind of guy who'd go running to the rescue with a bat when it came down to the wire and people's lives were on the line, no questions asked, or did he need Nancy's influence to let him become that? And the answer is yes. I do like how in canon it's Tommy's goading about how Steve always runs away that ends up getting him to go face his fuckups and his fears. How it's his old friends, being their shitty selves, who help move him toward becoming a better version of himself. I have several emotions and none of them are coherent.

“Hey, I’ve got to get going, I was really just passing by – but when Jonathan comes back, let him know I was looking for him? That I wanna talk to him? Or Nancy, if you see her.”

In my original draft, Steve came straight home from Pennhurst and went and confronted his dad. (Well, okay, he had dinner first.) And then I realised there was no reason for Nancy and Jonathan to break their 'we're going to stay away from Steve so maybe we don't accidentally murder him for real this time' streak, and they probably wouldn't be coming to the rescue. Which is why this scene's here. However. I like it a lot and I'm glad it's here. Steve very awkwardly trying to interact with anyone other than Nancy and Jonathan immediately post-Season 1 gives me life.

... or some kind of strategy to stop Logansport’s freakishly fast point guard from kicking all their asses.

I did Actual Research for this line (read: I looked on Google Maps and compared the positioning of Hawkins within Indiana on the Season 2-3 geological survey map to small-ish cities in the area who could believably be high school rivals to their sports teams, and also looked at the Wikipedia page for 'basketball'). I will have it appreciated.

Of life before it all turned upside down on him.

I will not stop making stupid jokes and that is a threat.

His mom jokes over dinner that maybe Steve should be concussed more often, it’s been so quiet and peaceful around the house. 

A+ Parenting

I talked at length about the confrontation between Steve and his dad, so I won't rehash it.

“You should know,” she says, taking a single step toward them, as slow and deliberate as her nod. “After all, you were the one who killed me.”

Nancy Absolutely Did Not know this until approximately ten minutes ago. She is doing a fantastic job of bluffing.

“I didn’t,” Jonathan says, low enough that at first Steve isn’t sure if he really heard it at all. “You believe me, right? I didn’t.” “What? Barbara? I know that, he has no idea what he’s talking about, can we just go?”

Jonathan still can't quite believe that Steve doesn't actually think he's a heartless, remorseless killer without anything human left in him. Mostly because that's sort of how Jonathan's been thinking about himself for the last thirty years. (Remorseless killers usually do not have this much angst about their lack of remorse, Jonathan. Protip.)

Chapter Five

After what he’s heard, tonight, he doesn’t want to give his dad the chance to say that Steve went after him, that the knife was self-defense. That a combination of the concussion and some local history project just deluded Steve into thinking his dad was a killer.

I got a lot of comments on chapter four about how Steve's dad wasn't thinking and how was he planning to get away with murder after he killed his own son in his own office in cold blood. I let myself go down the rabbit hole a little thinking about how, exactly, he would try to get away with it. And I think Steve knows his dad well enough by now to have a pretty good idea.

It turns out that limping into a police station covered in your own blood is a great way to get a lot of attention very quickly.

I'm just very proud of this line.

“Jesus, Harrington, they’re gonna have to start giving you frequent flyer miles.”

I promise I didn't set out writing this fic planning to nearly kill Steve three separate times. It just...happened.

... Hopper shoots an awkward, try-hard grin in Steve’s direction and drops into the chair beside his hospital bed. “Heyyyy, kid. How you feeling.”

I just think Hopper's absolutely abysmal bedside manner in Season 2 is the funniest thing. And. Well. Just made myself sad thinking about the possible reasons why he's so bad at being normal beside a hospital bed with a kid in it. Okay!

It seems to me to be a very popular trope for Steve to end up getting kind of pseudo-adopted by Hopper and Joyce. I see why it appeals, but it's never clicked for me. And yet. The logical progression of this fic led me here. Never say 'I'll never write...'.

At least Will sounds slightly less accusing than Mike Wheeler had when he says, “What’re you doing here?”

We collectively as a fandom do not honour Will Byers' sassmaster energy enough.

“Yeah, no shit I’m upset. What was that? Just drop me and run like an unwanted baby at a firehouse?”

Steve is...kind of a fascinating contradiction in terms, in some ways, to me. I see a lot of fanon where he's very much a sick cat about things that bother him, that he'll shut down and try to hide what he's feeling for the sake of other people, and I don't think that's wrong necessarily but I do think it's...incomplete. Like, maybe he would downplay the seriousness of his own hurts and how much they're affecting him if being honest about them would hurt other people...but that absolutely doesn't mean he's not going to bitch about them. Loudly.

“Witless protection program,” Jonathan says.

We also as a fandom collectively need to appreciate how funny Jonathan is more often.

This whole confrontation was a bit of a balancing act. I didn't want it to turn into an angstfest. There was a certain degree of 'avoiding you for your own good'/'denying my feelings for your sake' mutual pining going on in this story, and I really needed there to be a good reason why these characters didn't just communicate with each other (or, at least, for the characters themselves to feel like they had a good reason). I also didn't want to wallow in that misunderstanding, because quite frankly it drives me batty when characters who are mutually into each other end up in a situation where it's almost unavoidable that their true feelings must come out and they must communicate, but they squander it on doing everything in their power to deliberately interpret everything the character they're into does or says as rejection, and deliberately hiding all of their actual thoughts and feelings to try to drive off the character they're into. Like, at a certain point you step past obliviousness and into 'yeah maybe you guys shouldn't be together, actually, if this is how you're gonna be'. These guys aren't communicating well, but god dammit, they're communicating.

It’s so – direct. No hesitation. None of Jonathan’s usual holding back. Just confidence, certainty.

Jonathan Byers has never been hotter than that moment in the hallway in Season 1 where he's throwing that lighter and that's just facts. It's the purpose, clarity, and confidence.

Jonathan devours his mouth like – like he’s starving to death and Steve’s an open wound.

I was proud of this line, too.

... and turns on the smile that’s made half the female population of Hawkins High turn cherry-red and suddenly become very amused by the floor.

This is totally the face he gave Nancy when he was trying to convince her to play 'strip flashcards' in s1e1.

...Jonathan’s got an arm around her waist and his face pressed into the crook of her neck, pressing kisses to the pale skin exposed by the slip of her robe. She raises an arm to cradle his head...

And this is absolutely the Dirty Dancing pose. Minus the side-skimming hand gesture that tickled Jennifer Grey badly enough to bust out laughing.

“I don’t have any blood flow,” he says, sounding defensive. “It’s got to be within a couple hours after I’ve eaten if you want me to, uh.”

I went back and forth on whether to include this, and finally decided I was leaving it in because it made my friends laugh. And because I love speculative fantasy xenobiology in action. 'But Mary, drinking blood won't introduce it to the circulatory -' I already told you these vampires are a parasitic fungus animating dead flesh, right? The fungus uses fine tentacle-vine-root-things woven through the flesh to puppeteer it? And the fungus feeds on blood, which means it uses blood for energy to, for example, move its limbs? I can bullshit this one if I want to. (Which I do.)

He remembers thinking the snake was beautiful, even as he was nearly pissing his pants in terror that it’d bite him. And now that he’s thinking about it, that comparison feels a little on the nose.

I got halfway through writing that first sentence and realised it needed a lampshade, badly.

Carol even styles Steve’s hair how he likes it, when she’s done. And there’s no way she could’ve known how looking in the mirror and seeing the hair that earned him his nickname perched on top of the haunted, battered face of a boy Steve barely recognises would make him suddenly and unexpectedly feel like throwing up.

The metaphor here may be a little unsubtle. Carol and Tommy are actually trying to be good friends to Steve, in their own, selfish, high-school-politics-influenced way. And it's got to hurt when he rejects that. But they're trying to make him feel better by getting him back to his old self. And that's only making it worse.

... some four-eyed fairy who took Nicole out to the movies last weekend in this classic car he’d restored. For this cardinal sin, one of Tommy’s buddies tracked down the auto wrecker’s where the kid’s been keeping the car while he works on it, so tonight –

I stand by my theory that Chrissy Cunningham's name is a reference to Stephen King's Christine. And so is this.

... Steve’s dating two people at once. (He tried that, once before, with Laurie and Becky. It did not end well. With the benefit of hindsight, knowing what he knows now, maybe he should’ve just asked them both if they’d be cool with it. Although he thinks the answer probably still would’ve been no.)

It is very important to me that, even when he is Having Self-Affirming Realisations and Growing As A Person, Steve is still a teenage boy.

Nancy, it turns out, likes gritty courtroom dramas.

It took me a while to figure out what kind of movies I think Nancy would like. John Grisham adaptations and Twelve Angry Men seem up her alley, though.

Jonathan’s shoulders are starting to hunch forward, turtling in on himself. He still hasn’t even moved to touch the glass Steve put in front of him.

As far as I know it's never explicitly stated in canon that Lonnie Byers is an alcoholic, and he's not even Jonathan's dad in this fic anyway, but it just makes sense to me that Jonathan does not enjoy drinking or being drunk or being around drunk people and I'm going to carry that through in everything I write.

The guy who helps Steve find what he’s looking for really knows his stuff, even if he can’t seem to resist a cheesy pun.

I love Bob Newby and I'm going to shoehorn him in everywhere I possibly can. That is all.

The scene with the kids and the D&D game was pure self-indulgence. If I were a better writer or this were a more professional piece, I might have cut it. However, this is fanfiction, and driver picks the music.

I moved Steve out to California one part so that I could do this whole thematic bit about Nancy and Jonathan choosing him, choosing to stay with him, one part because I realised I really had burned his life in Hawkins down to the ground and the most hopeful thing would be for him to be able to start over, and one part because I just thought it would be fun.

“We’ve got nothing but time.”

This was a little bit a nod to we have the time.

There was no way this fic was ever going to be complete without Steve getting to at least meet Robin. They have a beautiful friendship ahead of them.

(I've got to be honest, I've never vibed with Argyle. He annoys me on a fundamental level. But there was something about including him in this scene and in the nascent relationship between these versions of Robin and Steve that just...worked. As with Murray and Owens, whether or not a character is unbearably irritating can be a matter of which other characters they get to bounce off of and what they bring out of each other as much as that character in a vacuum.)

And that's all she wrote! I still have a vague, half-formed idea in my mind about a sequel (Barbara Holland wasn't as dead - or perhaps quite the kind of dead - that everybody thought, and El opening the Gate got her brought back as a specimen for experimentation, and something something something the US government is trying to weaponise vampirism and something something) but it never congealed into an actual plot so it's unlikely to ever materialise.

(I will tell you, because I'm not planning to write it anymore, that I had an idea for a scene where Steve, in thrall to the military's vampiric supersoldier, is forced to lure Nancy and Jonathan into a trap, and then successfully rules-lawyers his instructions into letting him cut himself so that his blood can distract the less-experienced vamp and Nancy and Jonathan can tear the bitch apart. Which would have left Steve mentally fine but physically more durable and slower to age. Felt it was a rather clever way to thread that needle. No I didn't steal this wholesale from Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse shut up.)

#chatter #this is mary's fic tag #stranger things

[fireflywitch]

stranger things fic rec friday, 12/23/22

focus on the teens this time, mostly jonathan, with some nancy/jonathan and jonathan/steve/nancy thrown in

People Watching - frutescence (T, 4.5K)

if will and jonathan had one more chance to have that conversation after the piggyback. in between the “two days later” and really nicely well done!

try this trick and spin it - stoprobbers (T, 7.4K)

jonathan after will’s possession, grappling with the trauma of season 2. i will forever love those directly post-s2 fics, and this is no exception! from 2018

reminds you of innocence - dharmainitiative (T, 5.8K)

steve pov of nancy and jonathan and how he could ever fit into that with some speculative season 5 (steve/nancy/jonathan)

i love him well - scoutshonour ((T, 13K)

jonathan on brothers, fathers, and father figures over the years. close focus on family and this author has so many great fics!

#fic rec friday #jancy #also stoncy #which looks like a fake tag #jonathan byers #also if anyone has jonathan or jargyle fics pls send my way thank u

[laximpulsion]

love the new chapter!! Can't wait for the next one, do u have any fave leatin fics i can check out in the meantime?

Why thank youuuu!! So glad you're liking it :) Lol, very good question! To give you a needlessly long answer with a lot of disclaimers...

It all starts with the kind of funny fact that i actually got into the wilds because of Shoni! But by the time i started writing I had done a HARD pivot to leatin. And now that I write, I do a lot less reading than I did before, so I don't actually have as many leatin fic recs as one might hope. (I definitely have more shoni fics bookmarked on my ao3 page than leatin ones lmao it's kind of funny)

ALSO, I tend to actively avoid fics that sound similar to what I'm writing now or what I plan on writing in the near future. So for that reason I have not read many S3 fics or post-island fics. And a side effect of this is that i DO read a lot of AUs, so this might be mostly AUs, sorry if thats not your jam!! maybe someone else can chime in with canon fics?

anyway. i KNOW im gonna be missing lots of good ones so sorry in advance but here's some ideas to get you started:

This feels like low hanging fruit but it's true - anything by lostresidentevilpotter is a good bet, the ex-girlfriends one was an instant classic for me and actually i think it was one of the first leatin fics i ever read! really you could spend a week making your way through the lostresidentevilpotter archives and it would be a week well spent.

I'm also a big JourEtNuit fan - this one where all the girls go into witness protection after the island was another instant classic, and another of the ones that I read really early on in my fandom journey so it has a special place in my heart. more recently i loved the The Last of Us AU !

Perhaps an unconventional pick because it's not my usual thing but this social media AU where the girls start a joint tiktok account after the island has TOTALLY charmed me and I adore it, always makes me smile.

I really enjoyed this series by tardexlanoche - think this is actually the only full-on s3 fic I've read, and I loved the premise set up by the first one in the series where Fatin and Leah were kind of almost friends before the island. Plus i believe there will be a sort of AU of itself that branches off after the first fic in the series about what would happen betw. them if they never went to the island, which I think is a super neat concept.

And one of the few other canon-adjacent fics I read and enjoyed a lot is The Fall by Ecrooked24 , where leah and fatin get stuck in a ravine and have to confront their feelings - with angst aplenty. (I've also been loving Polaroids!!)

And then there's a few others that only started recently but I'm keeping an eye on because they intrigued me -

tip the world on its side - leah sees gretchen in LA, i have no idea what's going on but i'm very into it so far

this compass tattoo soulmate au - i am not usually a soulmate AU kind of gal but this one has got me hooked!

this ghost hunter AU - had me at ghost honestly! and then had me again at ghost *hunter* lol

this one where Fatin leaves Leah annotated books - annotated books are such a cute concept and it was SO ruined by jeff doing it!

whew okay...sorry this was so long but if you follow me you should hopefully know by now that i write fucking NOVELS any chance i get hahaha. if anyone has anything else to add please feel free!! especially s3/canon-adjacent/post-island fics!

EDIT: suggestions from the comments - these are all great too, i've read a lot of them and started others!!

Mad Girl's Love Song by ThornedRose44 come home to my heart by scoutshonour, Sleepless in Sylvester by comicc_bookk_jawnss, pull you from the tide aka the tinder series au by overnights, did you win? aka the celeb au by lunchables, and can't forget the amnesia au i was dangerously tangled (the second time i met you) by rosymidnights.

#answered #again i am SO SORRY this is so long. #not my goofy ass saying i might not have many fic recs then throwing this monster of a post at you lol #added some suggestions from the comments btw!

[leatinwlw]

the world is making me suffer with wisdom tooth pain and cramps but at least i have leatin fan fics (currently on chapter 5 of “come home to my heart” by scoutshonour on ao3 in case anyone was interested)

#leatin #the wilds #leatin the wilds #fatin and leah #leah and fatin #leah x fatin #fatin x leah #leah rilke #fatin jadmani #leah the wilds #fatin the wilds #wlw #sapphic #queer #leatin fanfics #fanfic #i am suffering tho #but the fanfic gives me hope #i want a gf #i want what they have

[lunar-years]

Boreas by kuumai on ao3 is a fantastic Jonathan centric fic :)!

sorry forgot to mention that i came over from your fic on ao3 mentioning you wanted fic recs but i can't rave about that fic enough (and yours!)

Thank you sm for the rec! I am adding it onto my reading list for tonight. In turn I'll go ahead and suggest "you're in harm's way, i'm right behind" and "the world is gonna pull through" both by scoutshonour. They're Jonathan POV missing moment fics of conversations he had in the pizza van with Argyle and Mike (written between volumes). They are wonderful Jonathan fics!

#Jonathan Byers #fic tbr #asks

[onlyalittlebookworm]

2022 Fic Review

Stealing this from @murraybaeman

1. What is your ao3 account?

onlyalittlebookworm

2. How many words did you write total in 2022?

I published 23,860. There’s about 15,000 more in my wip folder.

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

I published nine fics! Most were oneshots, but there’s one that has two chapters.

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

My longest is all the things we did (look what we became), clocking in at just over 7k words. My shortest is extend your hand to me (we can make it if we try) at 865 words.

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

My most popular by far is i’d give up forever to touch you. It was the first one I ever posted for Stranger Things and I’m still absurdly proud of it.

My least popular one, based on both hits and kudos, is believe in one thing (i won’t go away). I hoped it would get a bit more traction, but I also wrote it on a whim so I’m not super upset about it.

6. What fic didn’t perform as well as you thought it would?

I really thought more than just a short time would do better, but it kinda flopped.

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

till forever falls apart absolutely blew up in the first hour after it got posted - I’ve never had a fic blow up like that before and it was surreal. It was very different from anything I’d ever written before so I wasn’t expecting a lot of engagement.

8. What was your favourite fic you wrote from 2022?

I adore this love came back to me. It started from one scene that I wrote in my notes app that I really loved and thought I’d work into something else later, but I kept coming back to it and it ended up becoming a full blown thing. It’s very special to me and I think it’s some of my best work.

9. What was your favourite fic someone else wrote in 2022?

I have a few! break them right by scoutshonour, midnights by CatherineA, Private Time by NoGoodNames, and easy when it’s you by sapphicjopper.

10. Tag your friends to do this year end fic review as well!

I know there’s a lot of these floating around, so I won’t tag anyone specifically, but feel free to do it if you want! Please tag me if you do this because I love seeing these!

If anyone is interested, here’s my fic masterlist with links and summaries!

#my writing #tag game #fandom

[senorjlf]

, Wishing everyone a safe and #HappyHalloween. 🎃 👻 I promise I’ll be a good, wittle #CatholicBoy 😇 and not be a complete #THOT tonight. 🙏🏼 😏 
.
.
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Timepiece by @LAMB by @GwenStefani #LAMBbyGwenStefani, Skull Bangle & Red String Bracelet by @AlexanderMcQueen #AlexanderMcQueen, Silver ID Bracelet by @TiffanyAndCo #TiffanyAndCo, Gold ID Bracelet by @MarcJacobs @TheMarcJacobs #MarcJacobs, Shirt & Sash by @BoyScoutsOfAmerica #BoyScouts @BoyScoutsOfAmerica #BoysScout #SluttyBoyScout #ScoutsHonor, Belt by @Fossil, Shorts & Socks by @BananaRepublic #BananaRepublic, Boots by @LouboutinWorld #ChristianLouboutin, #BoysWithTattoos #GuysWithTattoos #TattooedBoysOfInstagram #TattooedGuysOfInstagram #Halloween #Menswear #MensStyle #MensLifestyle #LosAngeles #LA
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVtP6OsBZ9w/?utm_medium=tumblr

#happyhalloween #catholicboy #thot #scoutshonour #lambbygwenstefani #alexandermcqueen #tiffanyandco #marcjacobs #boyscouts #boysscout #sluttyboyscout #scoutshonor #bananarepublic #christianlouboutin #boyswithtattoos #guyswithtattoos #tattooedboysofinstagram #tattooedguysofinstagram #halloween #menswear #mensstyle #menslifestyle #losangeles #la

[waterflea]

(R 02.07.2020): It's as true today as it was when I wrote it. Scout's honour. ⚜🧼👋

RePost 28 of 30 (28/30)

#ScoutsHonour #ShitForBrains #MyOwnSkin #MyOwnSkinRepost

[sirjustynmedievalknight]

I drive past these mountains almost everyday. They are only 20 mins from my home. How easily we take things for granted. #Repost @britinbrisbane with @make_repost ・・・ I could forgive anyone who thinks this is just a cropped version of my last Mt Tibrogargan pic 😂...but it is a different photo taken from closer up (on same flight just a couple of mins apart) #scoutshonour . Keep getting drawn back to these mountains. Such an easy drive from Brisbane. Let's see what tomorrow brings. . . . #glasshousemountains #mttibrogargan #sunshinecoasthinterland #sunshinecoast #visitsunshinecoast #sunnycoast #thisisqueensland #queensland #mysunshinecoast #travelqld #explorequeensland #ilovequeensland #seeaustralia #downunder #visitaustralia #sunset_pics #hinterland #dronephotographer #viewsfromabove #dronelife #djiglobal #qldparks https://www.instagram.com/p/B0DYqbXH5ZK/?igshid=quox2o55lztq

#repost #scoutshonour #glasshousemountains #mttibrogargan #sunshinecoasthinterland #sunshinecoast #visitsunshinecoast #sunnycoast #thisisqueensland #queensland #mysunshinecoast #travelqld #explorequeensland #ilovequeensland #seeaustralia #downunder #visitaustralia #sunset_pics #hinterland #dronephotographer #viewsfromabove #dronelife #djiglobal #qldparks

[marypsue]

i just went looking for the other excerpt you mentioned posting of the bodyswap fic and god i didn't even consider the jonathan-robin interaction possibilities... your Mind honestly

Jonathan and Robin should be friends!! They'd bounce off of each other in such fun ways and their entire friendship would be based on them being snarky and then unexpectedly sincere at each other and I don't understand why they're not already friends, tbh (beyond the Doylist explanation of 'she didn't exist until season 3')! They are both weirdo nerds who go to a relatively small rural high school in the Midwest! Those guys flock together regardless of subculture! They should have already known each other and recognised each other at the mall in the last episodes of s3 and Steve and Nancy both should have been like 'wait you two know each other?' and Robin and Jonathan both should have been like 'yeah obviously we've known each other for years, her/his opinions on punk music are Wrong'

I got a little sidetracked there. Sorry.

Anyway, if you're looking for Good Good Jonathan & Robin Content that already exists and is out there for reading, can I aim you in the direction of @trulyalpha / scoutshonour? Her fic break them right has my favourite Jonathan and Robin friendship content of all time.

#chatter #most unrealistic part of stranger things tbh: jonathan and goth girl samantha and robin and eddie&co not Already Knowing Each Other #even if they hate each other! they should already know each other! their circles are a venn diagram #even without the upside down #the duffers' Whole Thing is that they're White Nerd Boys From The Eighties The Most Oppressed Group Ever they should KNOW THIS #stranger things

[quinnfebrey]

since fics yesterday were a little…intense how about a nice fic anon: who are some of your fav authors in tw fandom? and which of their fics are your favorites?

love this!!

to start, just answered this recent fics i’m reading rec post

and some of my favorite authors where pretty much any of their wilds fics are amazing (or they only have one lol):

yellowlaboratory / @yellowlaboratory

bakerloo / @smileymikey

unexpectedmocha (all fics have been deleted tho i’m pretty sure 😭)

2gayforthisbull / @toogayforthisbull

lostresidentevilpotter

scoutshonour / @trulyalpha

potstickersss

some random faves:

silk dreams (11/?) - shelby x toni, actress!toni and stylist!shelby. a fairly chaotic interpretation of shelby but i really like it

you got me where you want me (1/5) - leah x rachel, no island hs/college au

(i saw the crescent) you saw the whole side of the moon (8/?) - shelby x toni, mars/space au

drive all night til i let down my guard (you look so good and you taste like art) (9/?) - shelby x toni, actors au

(i know i always rec these two but maybe if i keep getting people to read them it’ll ✨inspire✨ an update)

there will be tears (1/1) - leah x rachel, canon compliant post-shark one shot

as if you don’t remember, as if you can’t forget (1/1) - canon compliant shelby/becca focused one shot

blue sky mind (18/19) - shelby x toni, greys anatomy au

all i have to do is fall (4/?) - shelby x toni, pacific rim au but i’ve never seen pacific rim and i love it

I Bet the Angel’s Jealous of a Girl I Know (14/14) - shelby x toni, farm au, everyone is a cowboy, spencer has a personality

i’d follow you anywhere (39/39) - shelby x toni, toni plays basketball in the nba and shelby is a sports med trainer

#asks #the wilds

[lovelyserpentines]

hey! so i have an unusual ask, i'm sorry. so i thought i had found of post somewhere of just a compilation of good portwell fics, but i can't seem to find it. do you mind giving some recommendations, or links to posts? i miss them so much 🥺

dude... i can't even begin to apologize enough, bc it has been like ?? almost two months?? since you asked this, and that's just unacceptable of me to not get back to you til now. i am so so sorry.

one of the first things i thought of tho when i initially saw this was that i am like 5000% sure you saw @invictusmaneo's fic recs post, but then el accidentally deleted their acc kgrngkrjg so that's likely why you're struggling to find it.

anyway, both el's and my incompetency aside, i'm still giving you the portwell fics i have bookmarked on ao3 bc i have to properly answer this ask even if i fuckn suck.

i'll organize these by authors, bc a few of these i have notifs on for and they consistently churn out fantastic portwell content.

chocolatesouffle

Maybe He Needs That Romance Maybe, probably, he deserves her. And she deserves him, too. (A/N: An EJ-centric piece this time, featuring a collection of moments, some of which are from S02E05 (“The Quinceañero) until S02E07 (“The Field Trip”).)

Inadvertent Confessions When Gina accidentally confesses her feelings towards a certain water polo slash theater guy, she tries to put it behind her. But EJ’s not just gonna let it go that easily, is he?

PrincessMuk

We Should Be Lovers Instead [EJ shows up at Gina's door at 3am... it's not much of a surprise what follows.]

“I can’t keep pretending anymore,” he says simply. “I… I can’t take the-the weird moments and the knowing glances and… and the tension.”

Gina blinks, not quite following. “EJ?”

“Gina, I… “ She leans in, ever so slightly, waiting for him to continue. “I think I’m in love with you.”

Perfectly Imperfect “Can I kiss you?” she let out a breath, not letting herself think too much for fear of losing her confidence. EJ’s face quickly changed, his confusion being replaced with very clear understanding, though he looked as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. She continued, not taking any chances here. “Will you be my first kiss?”

[Part character study, part fix-it to the SEVERE LACK of kissing from the season 2 finale.]

ElixirBB

loving you is habit-forming She startles, giving him a bright smile and snatches the granola from his hand, slipping it up her sleeve. “Alright, babe. Let’s do this.”

He lets out a laugh and follows her, like he always knows he will.

[In which, E.J. is hopelessly in love with Gina and Gina loves that he stayed.]

i got you, babe He doesn’t know how it started but the whole, hey, babe turned into, this is a level five on the uncomfortable scale, please help and risotto turned into, get me the fuck out here and fake a death if you have to, but definitely put me on speaker and sob, on the uncomfortable scale. Their system is still a work in progress.

[AKA: The four times Gina and E.J. faked being in a relationship and the one time they didn't have to.]

prtwell

we just keep on getting better "Uh, I actually"—he shifts the gift bag in his hand to reveal another—"got you something as well."

It’s a red bag, neatly stuffed with white tissue paper. Hanging on one of the ribbon handles outside of the bag, is a tag that reads her name in EJ’s usual clean handwriting. And it’s for her.

“I thought it’d be rude to show up without something for you. I mean, we were in a very serious fake relationship.”

you can hear it in the silence The abrupt sound of someone behind her clearing their throat quickly pulled her from the moment. She spun around to see Ashlyn, standing at the foot of the stairs, looking back at her with raised eyebrows.

Gina’s throat went dry immediately. How long had Ashlyn been standing there? And could she tell just how much Gina was feeling at that moment? Had she noticed what Gina herself was only beginning to?

scoutshonour

daylight In a fit of panic and self-preservation, she drops everything but the bowl of popcorn, which she flings towards The Intruder.

Gina’s feeling pretty good about it. But then The Intruder yelps. She doesn’t know when she became so familiar with that yelp. Just that she is. Because she already knows who this is from the sound. Before he swings around, before she fumbles for the light switch, and before he says warily,

“How is your aim that fucking good?”

(or: a late-night conversation between Gina and EJ in Ashlyn's house)

**this author also has written r*na fics, so if you go to their acc expecting only portwell... that's not what you're gonna find lmao.

InvictusManeo

You're Like Lightning in a Bottle “One more game?” she offered, grin smug after her win and eyes sparkling and he thought he fell in love right there.

“Oh you’re on. I’m definitely winning this time”

He lost

[Or EJ and Gina go axe-throwing and it’s surprisingly fun.]

**this is an unfinished multichap that i promise i'm bullying el about.

AintItFun21

Beneath The Streetlights And The Moon EJ turned to face her, propping himself up. The moonlight painted her with a light glow, and he realized that he was mistaken before because right now Gina was the most beautiful he’d ever seen her.

He just stared at her for a minute, not saying a word. Gina looked at him curiously about to ask if there was something on her face before he spoke.

“You’re amazing Gina.”

xxx my own fics bc i can't not self-promote oof xxx

see going through and getting all these links/etc. was why my procrastination hit so hard and i waited so long, but i'm still extremely sorry anon! i'm sure you've found amazing fics on your own/by other people who answer their asks in a more timely fashion, but here are my recs. xx

#portwell #gina x ej #ej x gina #portwell fic #hsmtmts fic #hsmtmts #high school musical: the musical: the series #high school musical the musical the series #ask #anon

[iamkidfish]

leah x fatin (leatin) fic rec masterpost

HERE WE GO LEATIN ENDGAME XX

ALSO HAPPY EXTENDED BLOOPERS DAY WE WON GAYS

can you see me? (i’m waiting for the right time) by @toddxnderson on ao3

This was legitimately the second fic in the tag and when I read this the first time I didn’t even ship leatin (LOL-look how things change). Emotionally, this fic is a little bit devastating and both Leah and Fatin are 100% in character for me. The dialogue is so realistic that I can hear Sarah/Sophia saying it in my head- “I don’t make a lot of promises ‘cause I’m bad at keeping them but fuck, Leah, I can promise you that.”<< this line in particular WOW

Don’t get me started on how in-character it is to have Leah know/recite Richard Siken poetry to herself, I will not stop

Summary: Leah and Fatin can’t sleep; 1.5k (complete)

tethers by @ThanksForListening on ao3

GOD this is so so tender and introspective. Fatin talking about the cello with Leah, talking about the future, letting each other in??? IM in love

Summary: Leah and Fatin talk after Leah takes a trip into the ocean; 4.9k (complete)

my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand by @Pootin on ao3

Maybe my love language is 1x09 fics, because here's another one. THE TENDERNESS of interacting when everyone is asleep, my sweet baby Fatin being awkward and nervous. CUDDLING (okay but who's more touch starved), soft!leatin

Summary: Fatin realizes something and Leah is oblivious as always, post 1x09 ; 5.1k (complete)

Halloween by @mtihae on ao3

BARK BARK BARK RELIGIOUS IMAGERY, you guys already know how I feel about religious undertones in fics and this does not disappoint!!!! I'm in awe, this honestly reads like poetry

Summary: Leah character study; 957 (complete)

find someone (to carry the sea)  by @beepbedeep on ao3

I love a motif and anything that involves appreciation of sophia’s hands is already EXCELLENT. Contains found family :’), featuring soft!fatin and healing from Trauma

Summary: Leah and Fatin and touch, ; 1.7k (complete)

I’ve been digging to deep (I always do) by @beepbedeep on ao3

the found family in this??? unparalleled. maybe I cry everytime I read the last line 

Summary: post-island, Leah writes a book!; 2k (complete)

maybe nobody loved you when you were young by @beepbedeep on ao3

Nobody talk to me I’m just thinking about the inherent romanticism of Fatin and Leah knowing each other their whole lives

Summary: Leah considers Fatin and the different versions of her, over time; 1.6k (complete)

here’s the thing, my youth is yours by @beepbedeep on ao3

TEASING! CUDDLING! BANTER! I will forever think about how Fatin calls Leah by her last name thank you very much

Summary: An afternoon after the island (spoiler: they’re in love); 2.1k (complete)

Basically just read all of the fics by @beepbedeep, also their fic tags are HILARIOUS

it’s so easy in this blue (where everything is good) by @trulyalpha (scoutshonour on ao3)

THIS WILL HAVE YOU HOOKED IMMEDIATELY!!!! THE CHARACTERIZATION, THE DIALOGUE, SHUT UPPPPP, I NEED MORE FICS IN FATIN’S POV

Summary: Fatin has a bad dream and Leah is there; 4.6k (complete)

come home to my heart  by @trulyalpha (scoutshonour on ao3)

POSSIBLY THE BEST THING IVE EVER READ???!! Shakespeare walked so this fic could RUN, PRE-ISLAND LEATIN NEED I SAY MORE, slow burn,,, don’t talk to me about Fatin falling in love with Leah, also Fatin x Ian brotp was something I never knew I needed?

Summary: Fatin and Leah meet in a class before the island-they still end up hating each other 57.7k (incomplete, but only one more chapter)   

time goes by and still i’m stuck on you  by @blinkaftermidnight (lostresidentevilpotter on ao3)

GRRRRR BARK BARK BARK LEATIN FWB, but gUESS WHAT?? They still fall in love

Summary: no-island AU, Leah sleeps with Fatin to take her mind off J***; 19.6k (complete) 

i get off this way (when i’m in love)  by @blinkaftermidnight (lostresidentevilpotter on ao3)

This is canon now, I don’t make the rules. Soft!Fatin taking care of Leah, I’d like to see it, perfect dialogue and in Fatin’s pov *chef’s kiss*

Summary: 1x09 AU where Fatin takes matters into her hands and Leah doesn’t take the pill; 10.9k (complete)

(Please Don’t) Love Me Back  by @blinkaftermidnight (lostresidentevilpotter on ao3)

Non-linear narrative, both Leah and Fatin’s point of view?? THIS FIC IS SO SEXY FOR THAT

Summary: Leah and Fatin, snippets of their relationship on the island; 9.6k (complete)

and it's like our world but we're the last ones left by @blinkaftermidnight (lostresidentevilpotter on ao3)

just go read it, trust me.

Summary: Leah and Fatin are idiots but they love each other, it just takes them a little time to see it; 97.1k (incomplete, but the next two chapters are coming in the next 48 hours)

In conclusion, just read all of @blinkaftermidnight leatin fics, you won’t regret it

If you’re still looking for fics, I’ve also written a few hehe

if i could save you from standing there (i would, i would, i would)

Summary: Leah and Fatin pine after each other, before and on the island; 7k (complete)

My Big Lesbian Island Wedding 

LMAO @blinkaftermidnight and I wrote this in like 5 hours, kinda crack, kinda not.

Summary: Leah and Fatin get ‘married’ one day on the island, just for the other’s entertainment, it’s not like they’re in love with each other. No, that’d be gross; 6.5k (complete)

#the wilds #the wilds!fic #the wilds!fic rec #leah rilke #fatin jadmani #leah rilke x fatin jadmani #leah x fatin #fatin x leah #leatin #leatin fic rec #IT'S FINALLY DONE #YOU'RE WELCOME EVERYONE #LITERALLY GO READ EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST #fanfic #leatin breakdown hours #enemies to lovers part 2 #the unsinkable eight #IM IN LOVE WITH ALL OF THE WRITING IN THIS LIST #my writing #fic rec #OMG HAPPY WILDS BLOOPERS SDAY