#also i came up with the word corroded bc i think it encompassed the body horror element i wanted more than 'mutated' did

[stevieharringtonwifeguy]

post apocalypse au where the plot of stranger things doesn't happen but vecna still tears the world open and brings the upside down right side up. and the scattered people who managed to survive the initial earthquakes and power outages and complete breakdown of society have to contend not only with creatures from the upside down trying to eat them, but also with what the bleeding of an alternate dimension into their reality is doing to their bodies

people with prolonged exposure to larger tears seem to be slowly changed into something else, like some radioactivity from the dimension is mutating them. people grow claws, or leathery wings, or their face peels open, or they turn into unrecognisable piles of eldritch goo. there's vampires, were-demogorgons, flayed, weird ghosts, and the number of super powered people like el was in the show skyrockets

other people who manage avoid this fate shun those that fell to it. and to an extent it's reasonable, some people who get changed in this way completely lose their humanity, like the flayed, and while others retain it it probably doesn't seem that way when a vampire-like person needs human blood to survive. but a lot of people are just as terrified of the changes happening to them as other people are, and while they may not be harmless, they'd much rather use their new biological advantages to keep people safe

despite this, people that have been 'corroded' by the upside down are ostracised, feared, sometimes outright hunted by regular humans. so sometimes, they band together. form their own little apocalypse groups

eddie is in one of those groups. he wouldn't say he's the leader, bc they don't really have a hierarchical structure and eddie likes to think he's managed to maintain his anarchic ideals even in the face of the apocalypse. but he is the oldest, and the most scary looking (if not the most actually dangerous), so the combination of everyone being younger and his ability to scare off corroded-hunters that come looking for them means everyone else kind of follows his lead

so no one really questions when he comes back to camp one day holding two passed out humans. a mole-dotted man and a freckled woman, probably about eddie's age, who were injured and had crawled into a ruin building to die. and like. what was eddie supposed to do, leave them there??? no, gareth, it has nothing to do with how pretty the guy is. no, eddie doesn't know how they'll react when they wake up in the middle of a corroded camp, they'll cross that bridge when they get there. el says she senses that they're good people, so clearly everything will be fine actually!!!!!

#feel free to write this i feel like it requires a story beyond my scope of capabilities but i really love this idea #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #i haven't decided who i want to be corroded in this au and what their corrosions are #i think eddie's some eldritch looking fuck tho #i feel like dustin is part of the pack but he's not actually corroded and frankly he's a little salty about it #like maybe all the kids joined together bc they were all corroded and it somehow just missed him #and he's constantly trying to do science about them bc 'SOMEONE has to this is scientifically fascinating!!' #and eddie's like kid if i catch you taking notes while im eating ONE MORE TIME i swear to god i'll become a stereotype #also i came up with the word corroded bc i think it encompassed the body horror element i wanted more than 'mutated' did #and then i realised the corroded coffin pun and i was like. oh my god. im a genius. #also if it wasn't clear the humans are stobin #not to be separated even in cases of apocalypse and possible death #they realised they were bleeding too much and were probably gonna die and were like #at the same time huh? checks out. let's go find a hole