#but also this is kinda byler too lol

[emblazons]

Mike Wheeler x The "I'm Stressed/Scared" Head Touch ⤷ aka Mike fighting for his life (literally & metaphorically)

S04E04 - Dear Billy a compilation for (& inspired by) @mikesbasementbeets

[basiltonpitch]

do i have to say anything else!!!

[thefirstlioveyou]

what's with all those people walking passed our screens at rink o mania/the airport??

a initially believed these people were used just to distract us from mike and el's moment at the airport. i thought it was so weird that people were just covering the kiss. wouldn't you want us to see that? i guess they don't want us to care!

then i realized these people KEEP covering my damn view even after their kiss, and it continued even at rink o mania. it had to be a pattern.. and then i noticed. these people are only passing on shots that focus on mike. given all the evidence mike is being watched through the camera work, i believe these are just more evidence of so.

these people aren't being used to block out mike and el or block out anybody - they're there to single out somebody. something's watching mike at rink o mania and the airport.

(i'm gonna mostly provide ss because the scenes are obviously too long. here's what i've collected)

this specific shot (below) is so creepy. mike is the focal point, with his back turned to us - to the stalker. mike has no idea he's actively being watched as he's trying to be someone he's not - a shitty knockoff if you will lol. he thinks he's fooling everybody. but whoever or whatever it is that's watching, they ain't fooled at all. they're seeing it ALL.

these people continue to pass the camera even when they get to rink o mania

ah. yet again - mike is dead center. this is obviously love triangle imagery. but since we're starting to understand these are also stalker shots thanks to the walking people, this also represents as the stalker's main focus - mike.

and here too. we know he is the focal point of the shot here because the camera follows him and his pace. (also his bright ass fucking shirt is kinda hard to miss lmfao. which makes me think... could another reason why his shirt was yellow was to highlight/single him out for these shots?)

then we get the people during byler's fight - where mike also happens to unnecessarily clarify they're platonic and only platonic - as well. however this time it is more of an overall observation of the both of them

"but they're in public. it's just there to add to the environment and make it feel alive."

well.. yes. extras can be included to make the scene feel more alive. but all these people walking passed the screen is too distracting for it to just be there to liven the scene. there's more creative intent beyond that here. when you have said extras walking past your camera and blocking out your actors - and consistently on top of that - it's meant to inflict an emotion or tell you something. what emotion is all dependent on the context.

it can be used to create a feeling of being lost or making your audience feel crowded along with the character on screen. but obviously, here we aren't meant to feel either way. with the combination of the extras walking passed our screen and the focus on mike casually reuniting/having personal conversations, there's a feeling of intrusion here. what's happening isn't any of our business, yet we are still watching - something's still watching and it's watching with a target and goal in mind. It's looking for information.

we also know it isn't a coincidence because it's a reoccuring pattern with mike. we constantly see shots of him from weird angles and weird distances that make it seem as if he's being watched by something. this is just another piece of evidence to add to the folder.

[teambyler]

Will's hair: no longer STRAIGHT, much more BYLER

Gotta point out that this is the first time WILL and MIKE have SIMILAR HAIR CUTS:

(So my earlier theory that Will cuts Mike's hair might not be too far off after all lol)

Also, an earlier BTS shot showed Will with a straight bowl cut:

But in the new BTS shot his hair is wavy.

First of all, is this a not-so-subtle point that Will's style becomes less STRAIGHT over the season? I'm sure gay experts from the 80s would approve of his new style. Maybe in-lore Will is taking charge of his fashion choices as he comes out more in s5. Fashionable watch, bitchin jacket. Maybe this is why the Duffers stuck to his bowl cut in s4, to set things up for this. Will growing more confident (and realizing he's kinda hot lol) could be a thing. (AND might expose him to more bullying I'm sure.)

-teambyler

[lorax-devito]

Ahhh melvins fist kiss,such a lovely,romantic moment with such tenderness and definitely not el thinking and getting really happy over the fact that they might become siblings

okay I will admit malnourished fallopian tube can have some cute moments but this kiss just rubbed me the wrong way…it just seems very…forced and yeah,I get that ‘actions speak louder than words’ and all that but it’s just with the context it all just seems a bit…icky…

I’m not saying like forced himself into el but he kinda did,not in a technically bad way bc el never said no and all the complex stuff I’m not going to get into but by forced I mean that Mike got influenced or forced by Lucas and well el,she was fresh outta the lab she had no clue what was happening and as much as a want to regain my self from bringing up the whole ‘you’d be my brother’ incident (bc I bring it up a lot when comparing byler or using Melvin as an example for smth )I’m going too bc omg 😭the girl was not only okay with them just being bffs but she was exited over the idea of them being related and yeah,in els eyes that’s probably just friends considering the whole oh yeah,she was raised in a lab and called (I forgot her name) the other girl in leather her sister and papa told the other kids that they were all siblings and all that messed up stuff so ig she just sees siblings as friends or (the whole thing in s4 with her getting bullied in the lab and battered by the other kids In the lab) potential bullies.idk that’s just how I veiwed it but anyways here’s the byler stuff-

I’m leaning more onto the ‘passionate,sudden,I’ve gotta have you righty here right now’ kinda kiss with byler (if that’s the right way to explain it lol) but I also think a slow, gentle kiss with byler would be such a good contrast to mouldy eggs rushed kiss.the best way I can describe it is like the kiss in the fan fic ‘wills fluffy hair’ (I’ll link it at the bottom).

(I’m pretty sure that’s the right fic but they all kind of merge into one so if I got it wrong and realise I’ll change it later 💀)

if you can’t be bothered to read it basically Mike asks if will is okay,will cry’s bc he thinks Mike is lying/teasing him,it’s angst and I love it

basically the kids would be slow and Mike and will just taking their time,no interruptions,they keep asking each other is every inch or so that they move closer is okay and if anyone thinks ‘ewww that’s not hot or anything’ CONSENT IS MF HOT OK IM ALL FOR THE BIG ROMANTIC KISS WHERE THEY GO ALL IN AND ITS MESSY AND STUFF BUT IT CAN STILL BE ROMANTIC WITH CONSENT-okay,mini rant over,anyway they are both so terrified bc (Im pretty sure I’m quoting a fic rn😭god help me) is this allowed? Are they allowed to do this? It feels so wrong yet so right.

they have one small kiss,they’re lips barely touching or they are rlly close,noses brushing up against one another,neither one of them daring to be the one to break the small wall between their lips and omg I think I’ve done it again,good god I’ve quoted a fic,again😭

basically they are both so nervous and scared and then suddenly for one small moment everything goes away,they’re kissing and oh god it feels like heaven and then they both start crying and the just keep being big romantic,cheesy dorks and it’s emotional and all of the miscommunication gets cleared up and yeah,I just think that’s a nice way the byler kiss could go,I’m still a huge rain fight kiss fan (tbh I like most scenarios where they kiss and fall in live and are happy forever😭) but this is also nice,it itches a different kind a scratch,plus I just know that Noah would be able to pull his best acting skills out for that scene and melt our hearts which he’ll do anyway but we all know how this he is at crying scenes (I mean he’s had a lot of practice,I’m looking at you suffer bros🥲)

I think it’s is the right fic but as I said if I notice that I got it wrong then I’ll change it later,it’s still an amazing fic tho,so much angst😭😭

[sayyourprayers]

I feel you on Twitter, it’s literally a shitstorm. Just read from another supposed leaker that there have been no Byler romantic scenes filmed so far, the Wheelers are a big focus, and Finn has been filming the most out of the cast.

Those are the top 3 worst fears I had lol

Hello A

I need you to reveal yourself in this episode itself.

But also ya. Idgaf abt byler romance scenes. But Finn doing the least acting in most filming is something that's both exciting and scary. Kinda like watching a car crash and then realising you were in one of the cars too. Idk man. The seekbar is my friend. I'm gonna watch the season like a flashback. Back to front.

Wheelers can try but they're never beating the meh allegations. 🤷‍♀️

[madlovesbyler]

Hey :)

So this is my first blog entry / post? I don't know what you call this lol.

I guess I'll just talk about myself for a bit. So first of all I'm a Stranger Things fan and I love the ship Byler (that was kinda obvious, wasn't it)

I am currently rewatching Stranger Things and I plan on posting many cool theories and analysis of the show (mostly about byler). At the moment I'm working on an analysis of Mike Wheeler's Official Playlist (Mike's Bassment Beats), which I'll post on Wattpad (😭) and probably on here too.

Well, I also like art, writing and editing, so you'll probably see some of that on here too... Yes, I suppose that's it for now.

See y'all soon :)

[castlebyersafterdark]

the pet name thing also opens up such interesting thoughts for me about kink or preference, because pet names often begin in childhood, so carrying those over into the bedroom as an adult is always... interesting lol

some also feel much more childhood-ish whereas others (like babe) can be almost anything and for anyone depending on accent, tone of voice, context etc. like babe could be a casual call to a spouse from another room. it could be a fun campy way to address friends. it can be sarcastic. it can be a way to coo over a child. i suppose all pet names have this objectiveness that only gets meaning applied in context. so interesting. personally for me someone would have to say 'angel' or 'sunshine' in a very very unique way ive never heard before to get me to stop hearing it as some kind of gangster who is about to rip me off/murder me hahahaha. like anyone who says 'sunshine' round here is usually catcalling me outside a gas station hahahah

i wanna list pet names and get your opinion vinny

pumpkin

cherub

sunshine

honey / honey bun

babe

baby

angel

sweetheart

sweetie

muffin

darling (different from darlin' lmao)

I really love pet names!! And nicknames and all the familiar little things that make up a friendship and/or relationship. I know what you mean with the childhood to adulthood transition with these names. Not everything needs to be part of a sexual connotation, either, but familiarity would have some bleed over. But you are so right - tone and situation and relationship influence it all.

Different uses have different meaning to different people, thus, before I get into my list - DISCLAIMER: if we disagree on one here because I'm downing it but it's special to you or I love one you (the collective you) hate, no shade! We all have different taste! These are just my opinions, Byler and personal. It's interesting to sometimes evaluate where your fictional ideas and personal experiences overlap or not. That's very human.

pumpkin - I only associate it with a parent to little kids which is fine but personally that's all I envision. cherub - I don't know a situation or setting I've really seen this one?? I don't think I'm into it. It feels a little too silly. sunshine - OK. 😌 This one, I actually could envision Mike using for Will, like in a really sweet way (not Will to Mike because Mike? Sunshine? It would sound sarcastic haha) BUT! While the vision is there - I will personally never HC it or use it causally in a fic. It would feel odd since this is what 💙 so often calls me? So, it's too personal. I really adore it though. It's so soft. Ahh. honey / honey bun - Honey bun is goofy and I think of Pulp Fiction, but I see for Will, more so using hon instead of the full honey. It's a common one to call out to your partner in that from the other room kinda way, or in a casual conversation, asking a question. I use this one, too! babe - Will -> Mike. He wouldn't really use it in a sexy way, but it's casually used pretty commonly. Me? I personally never really call 💙 this in a romantic way because as we've seen here on this blog, everyone is babe or babes hahaha. Use it irl alllll the time. I think it was a pointed choice I made at one point, a tone shift away from trying to "bro out" and use certain language, which was one of those masking things types of things that happen. I'm flirty, I'm kind of silly. Babes feels like me ☺️ baby - Mike -> Will. His faaaaavorite. Will is baby, yes he is, that's his baby. All aspects of daily life. Loves calling Will baby. Casual use for sure, but oh you change the tone in the bedroom and it makes Will melt. Especially when it's whined or moaned while Will is getting him off. angel - Spawned his whole conversation and my personal favorite for Mike -> Will. It's for those soft moments, like just waking up to say good morning when they're sleepy and tangled in bed. It's when Will needs cheering up and being reminded he's so loved, which he needs when he falls into his moods. But it's also when they're in bed together, Will is doing something and Mike wants him to give a little more, push Will a little further. Come on angel, that's it angel in the sweetest breathless voice. sweetheart - I think they'd both use this one on rare moments when the other is really upset about something. It's an uncommon little one off. Reassuring and sweet to dissipate tension and sadness. sweetie - Another one I mostly associate with parents and children. muffin - Can't take it seriously at all!! darling - Adore this for them. Both use it, but not a common one? It's situational. Being all sappy and flattering.

Other's not mentioned: You know they're dipping into fantasy stuff, like calling each other my prince and stuff like that because they are dorkssssss. I personally use doll a lot, I can see Mike using that one too. When Mike's being really flirty or needy he gets hit with kind of a sarcastic loverboy from Will, but he loves hearing despite it being a little tongue in cheek.

[starbylers]

https://x.com/bettyslilis/status/1749613333945242042?s=46&t=MwsUbGvstMqjWMh43wpCnQ

this looks so accurate tho

Uh yeah it’s not 😭 one way you can tell this is in the beginning Mike is clearly inferring/repeating a question back to El not making a statement and their guess of what he said is very much not a question so their starting point is completely off base.

And some bits are just flat out wrong and I could figure that out easily by watching his mouth. He 100% doesn’t say ‘my point is’, ‘return to the local village’, or ‘not the three waterfalls but the rest’. Which is how you can tell that even though other parts kinda seem like they might fit, they are most likely incorrect aswell. You take out a few pieces and the foundation kind of just crumbles. Except for a few words like ‘too much’ and ‘happened’ which I also saw, and don’t prove anything.

I think that person just decided on a narrative (Mike using DnD metaphor to help El…because that’s def a Mlvn thing not a Byler thing lol) and then worked around to fit it. I spent two days straight trying to figure it out and remain unbiased, in fact I still am, and the only thing I’ve managed to gain somewhat certainty on is the opening line. I promise they did not crack the whole thing this fast especially with that many mistakes lol.

[taylorswiftshipsbyler]

ok I must explain how white horse fits with byler. I think a lot of it does go with wills pov, but I mainly see it as both of their povs towards hawkins.

like these lyrics:

I'm gonna find someone someday

Who might actually treat me well

This is a big world, that was a small town

There in my rear-view mirror disappearing now

And it's too late for you and your white horse

Now it's too late for you and your white horse

To catch me now

just like the imagery the town disappearing in their rear view mirror. how hawkins never really treated them well (people calling them names and being generally homophobic). and also just "that was a small town". and like both of them leaving hawkins and escaping that kind of environment to go somewhere more accepting (I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well)

this was kinda incoherent but I had lots of thoughts about this that I needed to explain lol

[will80sbyers]

It probably won't happen like this at all but... idea n°18464872648 of what could happen in season 5:

First part of the season:

Will is having dreams about Max and he finds out those are not dreams but she's talking to him and she explains she's still here and asks for help...

So the whole party + Jonathan and Nancy decide to go to the upside down together to find Vecna and finish him

Jopper is dealing with the government, Owens betrayed El and Hopper punches him... Joyce shuts up Sullivan screaming at him and explaining to him that he's an idiot and she convinces him lol

They were meant to go too but they are being detained and questioned about El... while Hawkins is currently being invaded by all types of monsters

Owens gets killed

In the end the government + Jopper, Steve, Robin and Vickie ( rovickie happens at one point and they kiss) and Argyle and the other adults and the citizens of the town stay in Hawkins to fight there all together

The others go through a gate opened by El into the upside down and at one point they all get split up because they are attacked by various monsters...

First group: Mike and Will and Nancy

Mike gets hurt to one arm like in the s3 campaign at one point and byler things (almost) happen during all this time, it's now kinda (?) clear Mike has a crush on Will...it's explicit for bylers at least lol

Also at one point Nancy and Mike talk while they are in the woods and Mike asks her about feelings and stuff and being confused and she tells him her experience with Steve and Jonathan and this relates to byler obv and she says that she thought she loved Steve at one point but now that she has Jonathan she knows what's the real thing etc etc

He doesn't explain why he asked...

Second group: Lucas, El, Dustin and Jonathan

Lucas is the one that finds Vecna and they attack him and fight, Nancy, Mike and Will arrive when the fight is already on and help out and save some of them... In this fight Jonathan gets killed by Vecna in very cruel way, he rips out his heart in front of everyone

This makes El be so angry that she immobilizes him and Lucas chops his head off...

It's all tragic and raw and bloody

The upside down is still as it is around them but the battle is over

we see that Max wakes up in the hospital, Erica is with her and was defending her body from the demodogs being badass with some weapon, her parents + Murray are there too and they are fighting together and Murray dies protecting her

The party goes back to Hawkins where they won against all the monsters because they die when Vecna dies, and they bring Jon's body back, they show Joyce's pain and Will's pain and Nancy's

Time skip:

second part of the season

A few years pass and when we're back we find out what the characters are doing now and how they all changed, the gates have closed on their own, El and Mike are broken up, Max is back but she can't see from one eye... Life is goin on

The party is hanging out, drinking and partying together and Mike tries to kiss Will... Will rejects Mike and runs away!

The day after this night we find out that Mike went missing.

The adults are looking for him in the normal world and they are all worried about him

Will has a dream, Vecna is still alive somehow in this dream and he talks to him and tells him that if he wants Mike back he has to bring El to him because he still wants to have revenge on her and kill her and if he tells anyone else he kills Mike

He tells El and they decide to go alone

Dustin, Lucas and Max somehow find out and follow them

They all go to the upside down again because they think Vecna is still alive there somehow

In reality Vecna's conscience is still alive inside the mind flayer and he's trying to take over Mike's body and possess him

Mike is fighting mental visions in a loop in his mind - We see that the baby boy is in love with Will Byers and terribly afraid of being abandoned by everyone

So the main party goes in the UD to save Mike and they all get attacked with psychic torture and visions...

Lucas and Dustin and Max have their own visions

Lucas feels guilty for Max and trusting Jason

Dustin feels responsible for Eddie's death and sees Steve being killed too

Max gets tortured again but this time Vecna fails miserably with her, she's a survivor now, she wants to live and is not going to let anyone stay inside her mind again

As soon as they win in their visions they go back and find each other again

Meanwhile El decides to connect her and Will's mind to Mike's mind before Vecna can take over...

They find Mike in his loop but vecna takes over him and he has powers because he's being controlled by Vecna so in this mindspace they all fight... Mike.

but El gets trapped because she doesn't want to hurt Mike and all seems lost...

But Vecna doesn't want to kill them yet, he wants to torture them before...

He explains the upside down to Will, tries to make him give up his own body in Mike's place and makes him see visions of Jonathan... at this point Will overcomes these visions mentally thinking about his love for Jonathan and everyone else and understands that the key is love...

Then he starts talking about his own feelings for Mike because he knows love is the key to free him and this love confession gives so much power to Mike that he gets free from the mind flayer and Vecna's conscience is out of Mike's mind

Vecna tries to attack with the mind flayer and Will then uses his imagination powers by making a freaking dragon that fights the mind flayer!!!!!

El gets free too and Willel uses their now joined powers to finish Vecna's mind

They all go back into their bodies in the real world where Dustin and Lucas and Max were waiting for them to wake up

They all hug El

Mike kisses Will in front of everyone... the upside down fills up with light around them!!!!!!

because Vecna is dead and it is now free from him too and the mind flayer goes away opening a portal to Dimension X because it is a freaking alien that was controlled by Vecna

They won!

Back to Hawkins...

One year later

All happy scenes of the characters, lumax movie date, Erica is playing d&d with her friends, Steve and Dustin are leaving for a roadtrip together in a van, Robin and Vickie are still together cuddling on the couch while watching fast times, Argyle is hanging out with Eden and we see random recurring characters doing things

Nancy is talking on the phone with her mom and asks her how her and Holly are doing in their new apartment... she is in her ( very small) office! She's officially working as a journalist, she hangs up the phone and looks at her name tag on the desk, a picture of Jonathan right next to it...

Byler is making out in Will's new room and El tells them dinner is ready and to keep the door open 3 inches to make fun of them but Will uses his powers to shut the door... Yeah they both have powers now!

After this they all go to have a New year dinner party together with Joyce and Hopper!

Mike and Will kiss at midnight 😌

*sound of people cheering in the background*

*transition from the Byers TV to the Wheeler's TV*

The season ends with Ted Wheeler watching the people celebrate on TV and shutting it off to go to bed

hard cut to black with the effect of the TV shutting off

stranger things main theme starts playing 🫡

[insertsacoolname]

heyyy I have a question, assuming byler will be endgame, everyone always asks byler fans how they think eleven will react to it so I've heard it many times but my question is - how do you think the whole team will react to it when mike "jumps" from one member to another, do you think that byler endgame could destroy their party a bit? I'm not asking about it in terms of the LGBT relationship ofc,but do you think they would have a problem with it because Will has been Mike's friend since kindergarten - the rest of them have known him for a long time too, do you think that making Byler endgame at the very end of the series in the last season could cause some problems in their party - and if that happened, do you think that the st fandom would start hating on Byler for "destroying" the party? Let me know what you think because I've been thinking about it recently 😭❤️

Let's go with Byler evidences rn, I think that El have kinda doubt that Mike might like Will (not saying this from surity but I just have this speculation). If Byler becomes endgame then I think wouldn't be angry but disappointed with Mike, that he never told her truth. And if that happens then I want them to have a little conversation where Mike tells her how he feels and El tells him how she feels. At the end I think she will accept him as how he is. About the party, it's little complicated for me to explain but I think they will accept him aswell (he still would have to explain a lot to Max lol).

Since I don't want it to happen so suddenly, I also believe Mike would get vecna'd (actually I want him to be vecna'd lol), there is a theory about this on YouTube by lesbianmindflayer, so I would suggest you to watch their video.

It won't break the party because they are friends since their childhoods (especially Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin). They would be understandable of Mike and Will. Max might take some time to process all this but El would try to tell her that she doesn't mind and have already sort things out with him.

And about the fandom, well I think the homophobic ones would blame more. So Duffers have to be very careful while making them endgame.

[wheeler-fan]

Hiii! Sorry if I sound weird or disrespectful in some way, I was curious if it’s a common experience for you as a mileven shipper to go on byler tag just to try to understand their point of view. Like you go “ahh byler shippers make no sense, I wonder what are their thoughts on that scene/dialogue/etc” and then read some theories to understand them better. For example I am a byler and anti-mileven which means I completely don’t get this ship so I sometimes scroll through mileven tag or blogs to see “what are you guys on” (w/o negative tone)😭basically learning more abt mileven. Cause sometimes I see anti-byler posts where author obvi doesn’t even know what there’re talking abt and same thing with some anti-mileven ones. In my country there’s a popular phrase “know your enemy in the face”, it basically means you can’t hate anything not knowing what it is and I actually think that’s really important, some ppl should take notes lol, sorry for yapping. I’m not texting you specifically bc I have a beef with you or anything, I actually love your blog cause your posts (even tho I disagree ofc) are valid. I’m sure you cook such wonderful meals for your community and honestly? Keep going!! (I’ll read your stuff too 😼)I tried to make this ask anonymous but can’t find the button on the tablet so you can come at me if you need😭

heyyy, good question but it depends

usually i just text random byler shippers (or friends that ship byler but I don't have much of them so if you're a byler shipper and we're moots it actually means that you're super cool 😭😭😭) and ask them about their point of view

tbh i don't spend much time on tumblr bc i hate to see what people are doing to my fav character here (mike) and also i kinda feel like byler on tumblr is like a new reddie fanfic version 💀 emo boy and a sensitive little baby🥰🥰 I'm sorry 😭

I read a lot of byler theories mainly because of Mike, and usually they don't make sense to me, but honestly I found theories that were really good even though I ship Mileven

tbh for me byler would make way more sense if not the fact that there's only one season left and mike doesn't even know that will isn't straight - actually will haven't done a coming out even to his mom yet😭😭 i just feel like there's not enough time for all of this sorry guys

but i get why people ship it and even if that doesn't make much sense to me- if u want to ship them u can like it's not that deep it's just a fictional ship, the only thing i ask for- don't talk shit about my ship to make yours more valid please

also, even if I'm reading byler theories for fun to talk about them later with my mileven moots I'm trying to keep it for myself, i don't want to talk shit about byler cuz i don't want people to do the same to my ship. Like i get that we share a character but we don't have to kill ourselves 😭 just focus on your own ship..

answering ur question: I'm not searching for an explanation on tumblr or sth bc the explanation will be like : mike and will wear green so byler endgame 😝

i just ask an actual byler on pv so i can understand something better which is actually funny cuz i can randomly text someone and be like: hey I'm a mileven shipper but i wanted to ask, can u explain the birthdaygate to me? and i will get a whole paragraph about it😭 (btw thanks to the random byler that explained it to me before ross posted will byers on ig)

[mothrite]

Hey, buddy. I'd like to make a request for a Greatwise one-shot.

Something like Will meets Gareth for the first time because he got invited at a Corroded Coffin show or because he got invited to play with Hellfire.

It was just a random idea.

Thank you in advance.

I would love too! I hope you like this short one shot, wrote it in class lol

Night Owls Dancing In The Dark

SUMMERY: That weekend all of hellfire had been invited to a party, hosted by Mike while his parents, Holly and Nancy were away. Being Hellfire’s most recent member Will hesitantly arrived and mostly kept to himself. Eventually everything felt a bit overwhelming with so many people talking all at once so he stepped out to catch his breath, little did he know he’d find another in the backyard of the Wheelers.

WARNINGS: Some One-sided Byler angst, an appearance of one of my many ST OC’s and Greatwise!

A/N: AAAAAAH THE SKRUNKLES !!!!! Also all comments judging me for adding my OC will be deleted, I love Noelle sm she’s my little skrunkle scrimblo. It’s kinda rushed and not proofread so like enjoy!

The various metal bands blared through the two story house, Will had heard it as he started walking towards it. Sporting his new hellfire shirt that he received the same time as Erica and his blue flannel. He nervously approached the front door of the Wheeler’s house, normally he’d ring the doorbell with joy, waiting for Mike or Nancy to answer so him and Mike could hang out on the weekends, but now there were so many people he didn’t know like how he knew Lucas, Dustin, Mike and Erica. All his friends may know these people but he doesn’t and it scares him.

His palms were sweating and the way his hand had moved towards the doorbell was hesitance. Quickly he had rung it and pulled his arms to his sides. Will had heard some light footsteps before the door swung open and he was greeted with Mike’s smiling face.

“Will! You’re here! I got worried that you couldn’t make it or something, come on in lemme introduce you to all the members you haven’t met yet.” Mike happily took Will’s hand in his own and lead his best friend towards the living room where a large group of people were talking over loud music blasting from one of Eddie’s cassette tapes. Mike looked around and caught the attention of Eddie and Grant who were listening to the music and relaxing.

“EDDIE,” Mike had yelled over the metal song playing “WILL IS HERE!”

Will gave a gentle wave towards the two seniors, paired with a calming smile. Eddie and Grant both smiled back and nodded, waving as well. Mike once again lead the way to the kitchen, away from Eddie, Grant and Jeff who he had already met. This time Will was greeted with two new faces. One was a boy who had short brown hair and freckles covering his face and arms. The boy with freckles wasn’t wearing his Hellfire shirt unlike Will and most of the party attendees but a black shirt with the sleeves cut off, showing his slightly muscular arms, still adorned with the same freckles that spotted his face. He had a sort of grunge, punk vibe that Will couldn’t quite place, but he knew that he liked this guy. The other member he didn’t recognize was a short girl with two long pig tails, and curtain bangs. Similar to the freckled boy she had a hellfire shirt with the sleeves cut off but unlike all the other members she wore a medium length jean skirt and many pink bracelets.

“Guys! Will is here!” Mike let go of Will’s hand to gesture over to the freckled boy. “That’s Gareth, he doesn’t talk much but he’s nice to chill out with.”

The boy named Gareth’s gaze softened as he looked at Will, giving a pleasant grin and waved before cocking his head to the side and listening to whatever rant Dustin was going on.

“And the girl over there is Noelle, try not to piss her off she’s kinda mean.” Mike lowered his voice a bit to say that last part but obviously Noelle heard it because she had said something in foreign language that he can only assume is Russian based on the slight accent.

Lucas looked over at Will for a moment. “Oh yeah also she speaks like 4 languages so that’s cool!” Noelle smirked and flipped her hair to the side before leaning against the counter.

“My dad insisted I learned Russian from a young age and my mom is Chinese so I learned all three languages growing up”

Will smiled and looked at everyone. “Well it’s nice to finally meet you two, I’ve heard a lot about you!”

All the members of hellfire —Minus Erica since she’s only 11— had been in the living room of the Wheelers, talking while music played. It was overwhelming, it felt stressful yet he had barely spoken a word since he got there. Will had never been with so many people in such a small space before, he had to get out and take a breather. He silently stood up, stretching his back and stepping out to the backyard. He took a second to lie down in the grass, staring up at the dark sky. He looked at the stars and how they glimmered. There were so many of them and so close together. It reminded him of the freckled boy, Gareth. He could still hear the music from inside, he assumes that Dustin or Lucas changed it because Eddie would never willingly listen to The Smiths. With the sound of This Charming Man playing, Will heard the glass door open and then closing along with soft steps in the grass until he saw a glimpse of curly brown hair. The figure sat down next to him in the grass.

Will looked to his side to see Gareth fondly looking at him. He gave a confused look towards the drummer and it caused Gareth to giggle a bit before speaking up. “Did you need to get away too?”

Will thought for a second before responding.

“Yeah..I- I mean I love my friends and all,” He paused, not sure if he should have said anything at all. “But they’re just a lot sometimes. And I like looking at the stars.”

Gareth laid his head back and stared at the sky with Will for a few minutes before turning on his side to talk to Will.

“So Will The Wise, would it be too much to ask you to dance with me? This is one of my favorite songs.”

Will let out a small laugh, assuming that Gareth was joking. That was until he stood up, dusted off his pants and reached out his hand for Will to grab. Will hesitantly laid his hand in Gareth’s before being quickly pulled up, their chests meeting and their faces inches from eachother. Gareth smiled before taking a couple steps back and the two spun for a second. The two danced through songs, from Blondie and Kate Bush to Queen and KISS.

By this time most everyone was gone, as Gareth was getting ready to leave as well, Will offered to walk him to the door and when those words left his mouth Gareth perked up and held Will’s hand. When they got to the front door Will stood in the threshold of the door as Gareth stood at the bottom of the single step. Light enveloped Will’s body, cascading down his back and arms.

“You look like an angel from here..” He hadn’t realized what he said until Will’s face had flushed a light pink. Gareth quickly rummaged into his jacket pocket, pulling out a scrap of paper and handing it to Will.

“Call me angel!” Gareth calmly sped walk down the walkway and into his car, driving away. Will opened the folded paper and it had Gareth’s number written on it.

“Maybe coming here wasn’t a mistake..”

[13personalities]

lowkey kinda bored so any fic recs?

Naruto

-any involving Kakashi (I love him)

-and detailing trauma and giving them love cause I love hurt comfort and Naruto characters have a lot of trauma

-sasunaru, sakuino, obikaka or kakairu if there are pairings although I don’t mind rarepairs and a lot of other pairings. Just sakusasu makes me a bit uncomfy (nothing against Sakura I promise, they just don’t click to me)

JJK

-satosugu and ItaFushi are my favorites but I lowkey want some fics with Shoko and some nobamaki too

-silly little found family ones are good too (megumi and gojo anyone?)

ST

-byler lol

-party and Steve shenanigans are fun to read too

Marvel

-particularly Spider-Man related

-team as family?

-acknowledging trauma lol

Marauders

-bro any??

-jegulily

-LITERALLY ANY!!!

BLLK

-lowkey don’t care cause I haven’t read a lot of fics

-Ryusae and Bachisagi are some highlighted ships tho

-bro what kind of fics do they have tho? I haven’t read enough to really know

~~~etc~~~ mha, bsd, vld, I’m not about to list my every fandom lol

Yes I will read a fic from different fandoms even if I don’t know that fandom. I do that kind of stuff lol.

No incest, pedophilia, etc. you know the works

I’m a multi shipper so rarepairs are a yes :)

(cautiously looks to the side) preferably no A/B/O

ao3 is the site I use the most. Wattpad is also welcome

also AUs are sort of complicated with me unless they’re still set in their original universe I guess? Otherwise I read like anything lol.

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

why do you think byler is less popular than mlvn on instagram?

on tiktok, tumblr, twitter and pretty much all other platforms byler is the more popular ship, but for some reason mlvns is more popular on instagram.

This is a good question! I’m not sure there’s a definitive answer, but if I were to take a stab at it, maybe it has something to do with the age demographic/type of fan on each platform?

Tumblr is very gay platform, and it’s also a platform for theorizing, so it makes sense that Byler is more popular here. Mlvn just kinda exists right now. There’s not much to theorize about. Like if you really believe that the monologue fixed everything and Mike and El will live happily ever after, then okay. It makes sense why a lot of them believe Mlvn will get married young and have children, cause where else is for them to go? All the other ships have unfinished business, even Jopper, the ship that’s probably in the best place after S4. They still have to figure out how to work together as a couple with a blended family.

Byler is inherently exciting to Tumblr cause it’s all about theorizing and anticipation. And it’s queer. Age demographic-wise, it seems like Byler Tumblr is all over the map too: from millennials who’ve been through this before with other ships that turned out to be queerbait to Gen Z adults my age to younger Zoomers who are truly excited about a ship becoming canon for the first time. There’s probably some of Gen Alpha here too, as well as people from Gen X. This shows that Byler is exciting and appeals to a wide range of folks.

With TikTok, it’s a younger skewing platform, and fandom-wise, there’s an emphasis on edits as well as Byler theorizing. And honestly, Season 4 genuinely didn’t give Mlvns that much to work with when it comes to edits. I mean, Will is in most of the shots. And Mlvn theories don’t seem that exciting. The GA already sees Mlvn endgame as the foregone conclusion, and he monologued to her. What else is there to theorize about? Since TikTok is a newer platform, it seems like there’s just less Mlvn-loyalists making content there, and Byler shippers have just taken it over. This is in large part due to Stranger Things as a whole exploding in popularity during summer 2022 and a lot of people switching sides to Byler during that time. There was a lot of content to create. I also think to some extent angsty edits perform better. And Byler obviously has a lot of angst.

Twitter honestly seems like the biggest war zone to me, which is why I stay away from ST Twitter for the most part. There’s just a lot of petty fights and arguments. Clearly we have a strong presence there, as evidenced by us causing the whole Byler script fiasco in august 2022. Mlvns there seem to be the most toxic, and I’ve noticed they always have Regina George tendencies (a lot of them have PFPs of Millie, Regina George, Barbie, or Olivia Rodrigo for some reason). I don’t know if it’s true that there are more Bylers than Mlvns on Twitter, but if that is true, that’s once again because Byler is just more exciting lol.

I think Instagram is a weird creature overall. It’s older than TikTok, so the fandom presence was likely established in 2016 when Mlvn mania began. It’s not really algorithmically based in the same way (with clear trending topics), so I think it’s easier for people to just follow and interact with accounts they support. I’ve noticed that a lot of the Mlvn accounts are Fillie accounts or Fillie-adjacent accounts often run by young girls (but not always- there are older fans too).

They tend to overly romanticize Mlvn and genuinely see it as the height of romance, even denying that they have any problems whatsoever. And they tend to bombard ST comment sections with extremely overzealous pro-Mlvn stuff, sometimes bordering on bizarre. Maybe part of this is due to IG basically being Facebook for younger millennials/older Zoomers? I think it’s a substantially more normie and less queer space than Tumblr. It’s also picture-based, so Mlvns often post screenshots from the show and pictures of Finn and Millie.

And obviously reddit is pro-Mlvn to an extreme too, with Bylers basically been exiled to the Byler subreddit. But there it’s largely middle-aged men who can’t fathom their favorite nerdy 80s nostalgia show becoming “woke” and gay.