#mike's posts day 1

[will80sbyers]

1) Mike & Will in season 1

In the first season Mike's focus is not on Will alone, the focus of the narrative and the focus of the camera is on his reactions to Will's fate and are enough to show that these two characters will have ( in the future ) more relevance to each other compared to the others but from observing Mike's reactions they are not that much different from the other Party members, they add a level of drama by having the moment in which he finds out that Will's body was found in the quarry be more sad and heartbreaking for Mike when they focus on him believing that El betrayed his trust and he not only thinks he lost one of his best friends in the whole world but also that he's being lied to about something this much important from one of the new friends he made- by this point he considers El to be one of his friends too and that's exactly what he says to her after he goes back home and she's in his house again, he takes her in anyway even feeling betrayed and tells her he did think of her as a friend and he now feels like he lost two people... Not only one!

But then she finds a way to have his trust back by making him listen to Will singing on the radio and this not only brings him back hope to see his best friend again but also gives him back a friend and makes him feel grateful towards her...

When Will is finally back home he's shown to be worried about his wellbeing and the camera focuses on him when Will starts coughing but the reactions Mike has are the same reactions Lucas has in the first seasons towards Will and even Dustin, all of them cry for him, all of them risk their own well-being for Will and decide to go into the woods and they are really happy to have Will back at the end of the season and eager to talk with him and play d&d again etc...

Mike is being established as the leader of the group in season 1 so he's the one that has the most focus on for who gets the group to start this- he's the one that inspires them to go out to search for another party member because as Will said, Mike is the heart and he wouldn't have left any of them to just be missing without him and the others going to at least TRY to find them!

Mike is the leader but I do believe the focus on him is also because the writers intended to connect Will to him later on, either because it was already planned that Will would be one of his love interests or just because they knew Will was intended to be gay and had already decided Mike was gonna be the one Will fell for eventually... I'm inclined to believe they did want to slowly build them as a future couple in a crescendo and started to place some small foreshadowing in the framing in particular and with the focus on Mike's heartbreak-

At this point of the story I don't think Mike was aware of having any sort of romantic feelings for Will, he was still his first friend and his best friend and he would have done anything for him and to have him back safe but it would have been the same for any other party member because they purposefully place the whole storyline about Mike jumping from the cliff for Dustin's safety right after he told him they were all his best friends in the middle of the season so that it was clear to the audience which type of character Mike has in general and why he does deserve to be the leader and to be considered the heart, they show just how much Mike's character cares about all of his friends and how compassionate and kind he can be!

They start to create a window into mike's heart and show how big it is, how he's capable of loving and being loyal to so many people at the same time and I do believe we see that after season 1 even after he starts feeling insecure about himself and that starts to make him falter a little and become a bit more self concerned because of that, his focus shifts too much into keeping El in his life to the point he slowly loses himself in the process and becomes lost, Will is the one that brings him back to himself regularly

[bylerween]

We wanted to share some extra prompts and headcanons related to our Bylerween themes! We will be posting these here and there as we get closer to our Bylerween event.

These are to help inspire anyone interested in participating in Bylerween (feel free to work off of these ideas!)… or just for anyone in a spooky Byler mood as we're approaching October. 😈🎃🗡️🧛

Day 1: Horror AU

Dexter AU: Mike is a serial killer that kills other serial killers, working for the police department under Hopper. Hopper, however, believes something's off about him, especially since Mike is dating his son Will, who is not only Mike's childhood best friend but also a survivor of a serial killer named the Shadow Monster.

Bones and All AU: Will has a hunger in him that normal food can't satiate. It's hard on his family, knowing that trauma and Lonnie's genetics is the reason for Will's acquired taste. To stop being a burden, Will leaves and hitch hikes with fellow eater Mike Wheeler, while they evade another eater nicknamed Vecna that wants Will's companionship.

True Blood AU: Mike and the rest of the human world know that vampires exist, live among them, and also do business with them in this modern AU. Mike inherits his Nana Wheeler's large Southern Gothic house and encounters the mysterious vampire Will.

[rotisseries]

Haunting

Will Byers + Strangers by Ethel Cain

@bylerween2023 | Day 1: Ghosts & Hauntings

unfortunately, it's not looking like my fic for bylerween will be done in time to share today, so I'm sharing the graphic that would have gone with it! strangers is one of my favorite songs, it's very haunting and very will coded, and I felt that it fit for the theme lol. the larger fic idea is that will did die in the upside down, and when mike goes to visit the now abandoned byers house, he sees will's ghost. hoping I can finish it by the november 22nd deadline🫡

[fandomfoundmyart]

late but here's my contribution to day 1 of byler week

[byierficrecs]

❝ my heart ❞ author: AllenRichie

link: archiveofourown.org/works/45058162

personal blog || submit a story || support me on ko-fi 🦖

[taylorswiftshipsbyler]

ok since I don't have anything for day 1 of bylerween, I'm just gonna say my idea. so the idea I had was for the ghosts and hauntings prompt, and it was gonna be with the lyrics of the bridge from arms tonite by mother mother, and it's very similar to @imactuallyreallycool 's entry for today. but the basic idea was kinda that will died in Mike's arms(as the song lyrics would suggest). and then he became a ghost obviously.

[aidyaiden]

participating in byler week (no i'm not late.) 🤭

i wanted to do art but i just got out of a kind of art block and i'm re-discovering my art-style so it's hard 😭

i used ibis paint x and found the pictures on pinterest if you care about this 👍

[morganee]

Byler Week 2023 - Day 1: Cleradin/DnD

When the Realm of Hawk is hit by a terrible drought, Mike goes on a quest to save the kingdom. Things don't go exactly as planned.

title: love in the time of dragons word count: 9834 link: love in the time of dragons on ao3

[autistic-katara]

u ever have a dream that includes a fictional character nd know u have to write a fic abt them

[will80sbyers]

1) Mike & El

What I saw in the show is that Mike did care about El immediately and did try to help her with no ulterior motive since day one because he let her stay without ratting her off to his mom even before he found out she had superpowers, obviously once he discovered she (maybe) also knew about what happened to Will he did ask her to help them find him because he wanted to find his best friend too and she could help, simple as that... she helped because she wanted to and she cares deeply about others even if she doesn't know them much... exactly like Mike, and he regarded her as a potential new friend since the first night and the morning they spent together in particular, when they first met he felt comfortable enough to try to play with her and be himself even if the dynamic changed and his insecurity grew as they got older... in the first episodes they had fun together trying new things in his home, again, before he knew about her powers or that she did know Will... he was interested in her since the first conversation they had when he asks her for her name and gets all excited about seeing a kid with a tattoo for the first time, he shows her his home and even talks about how his television is so much bigger than Dustin's because he wants to impress her, I see him as being really curious about her since the beginning and the fact that she could also help to find Will and had superpowers just made her more interesting and "cool" in his eyes... I think her having powers and using them to save him first from Troy at school and then from the cliff it's exactly what triggered Mike's insecurity, because he started to look at her like she was so amazing under every aspect that he was no match for her and he needed to provide something too for her to consider him... At first it was a home and love and protection from Brenner but then he lost that spot to Hopper, then Max became her best friend and he thought she was trying to steal his place as someone that could provide emotional closeness + fun to El and then she moved and that scared him and trigger his fear of her leaving him again (after all the times she left him) and then he even thought she was doing great in Lenora for a long time... All of this triggered his insecurity again bringing him to avoid saying the ily and to make that speech to Will about how he felt that she should not value him and the idea that she did, didn't make sense for him because he thought she didn't need him at all anymore in any way and had lost her by avoiding saying the ily for fear of hurting more when she eventually realized he wasn't worth staying together and dumped his ass again one last time

[gangsteri-aine]

Byler Week 2023 Day 1: Cleradin

Disclaimer: I don’t know shit about dnd

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45898879

------

In Will’s opinion sneaking past a horde of trolls shouldn’t be this difficult. It really shouldn’t. 

They have done things like this for what feels like millions of times. They know when it’s smarter to sneak around and try to be invisible instead of fighting a losing fight. They had all agreed that this was one of those situations. It should have been easy. 

Except it apparently wasn’t. 

Will doesn’t like pointing accusatory fingers at anyone but this time there is very clearly a person who is more guilty for causing problems than the rest of them. 

On the other hand, it probably shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise. 

Mike has been distracted lately. Like really distracted. He zones out during meetings he’s supposed to be leading and then keeps snapping at people when they ask him what’s going on. Even Will hadn’t got a good answer out of him. 

Right now Mike being distracted by some unknown force leads them in quite a pickle. 

He was supposed to lead them quietly around the trolls but somehow he ended up running straight into one. Like almost literally running into one. 

The troll had deemed the ground next to the path as a suitable place for a nap and Mike had tripped on its legs and faceplanted straight to the ground. 

As you can probably guess, the troll didn’t really like the rude awakening and neither did its friends. It took about five seconds for all the other trolls to notice and surround them. 

If they make it out of here alive, Will is either forcing Mike to talk about his problems or just straight up strangling him for being an idiot. (It’s the first option if it wasn’t obvious.) 

Fighting the trolls turned out to be just as challenging and tiring as they had thought it would be. Hence why they were supposed to sneak around. 

It wasn’t going great. Dustin had either run out of combat spells or just gotten bored of them seeing how he was smacking the troll closest to him in the head with his lute. Will could also see Lucas struggling with his bow, his weaponry wasn’t really suited for close range combat. 

Mike was trying to simultaneously fight two trolls twice his size and it wasn’t going great either. Someone had knocked his helmet out of his head and his long hair kept blinding his vision. 

Normally Will liked Mike’s long hair but right now he cursed himself for not forcing Mike to sit down for a few minutes and let him braid it like he had always wanted to. 

Snap out of it Will! he told himself. He can’t think about Mike’s hair right now or it’s going to get him killed. They were all going to get killed if he didn’t do something.

Will has an idea what that something could be. It’s going to get him a long and boring lecture from Mike for being an idiot but Will can take it. Especially because it’s Mike’s fault they are in this situation in the first place. 

Just to be sure that it’s the only solution he runs through his mental library of spells while mimicking Dustin and hitting the closest troll in the face with his staff like it’s a baseball bat. 

And, yep, he got nothing else. 

He smacks another troll with his staff and then swirls it in his hands and hits it to the ground. He knows he doesn’t have much time before a troll notices his stillness and attacks so he closes his eyes and tries to focus in the midst of the battle.  

The sounds of fighting fade into the background until he can barely notice them. He can feel the magic running through his veins and he focuses all his energy to guide it through his staff. 

Then, suddenly, he snaps his eyes open with a loud bam and then everything is bright for a second. That second, however, doesn’t last long. Will’s world fades into blackness before he even hits the ground. 

The first thing Will saw when he woke up was Mike’s worried face that quickly shifted into annoyance when he noticed that Will’s eyes were open. 

“Why in the name of all the gods did you do that?” 

Will still felt weak from the spell but he pushed himself into a sitting position anyway. The movement was accompanied with an eye roll that took more energy out of him that he wants to admit. 

“I’m fine, Mike. You know as well as me that there was nothing else we could have done.” 

Mike huffs and gives him an exasperated look. “That doesn’t mean I like that you did it. Especially without informing any of us. What if one of the trolls had attacked you while you were casting the spell? What then?” 

“Then I probably would have gotten smacked in the head with a mace,” Will deadpans and levels Mike with a look. “Besides, you’ve no right to lecture me about being careless when you quite literally tripped on a sleeping troll.” 

Mike had the decency to look embarrassed. He hung his head down as a weak attempt to hide his reddening cheeks. He lifted his hands up and buried them into his hair. 

“Yeah, I know. Dustin and Lucas already ridiculed me about that and I’m sorry.” 

Now it was Will’s turn to huff. He leaned towards Mike and carefully tucked his hands away from his face. 

“Mike,” he said as softly as he could, “What’s going on? You know you can tell me anything right?” 

Mike nodded, still looking very embarrassed. “Of course I know that Will. It’s just…” he trails off and looks at Will with a lost expression. He shifts his hands in Will’s until their fingers are slotted together. It distracts Will more than he would like to admit. “I know I’ve been off lately and I want to talk about it to you but I just don’t know how to.” 

Will squeezes Mike’s hands and looks him straight into his eyes. “That’s okay. You can tell me whenever you figure it out but please, please try to focus while we’re trying to sneak past armies of trolls that want to kill us.” 

Mike gives him a sad smile and leans forward to rest his forehead against Will’s. “I promise. I don’t want you to get hurt like this ever again. You gave me a heart attack when I saw you on the ground.” 

“I’m not even hurt, Mike. Just a little tired.” 

“Well, I’m ordering you a full day of bedrest anyway. Dustin and Lucas agreed that we could camp here for a few days. Dustin has to do some repairs on his lute. I’m a little scared to ask what he did to it during the fight.” 

The image of Dustin swinging his lute around like a baseball bat comes back to Will’s mind. Maybe that wasn’t as good of a fighting technique than he had thought. 

“Hey! My fighting was impeccable and definitely saved both of your asses.” Dustin pokes his head inside the tent and gives them an annoyed look. 

Mike quickly removes his hands from Will’s and leans away. Dustin didn’t comment anything on their position but Mike has a tendency to avoid physical touch with Will when there are other people around. Will tries to not think about it too much. 

“Will, please try to pull Mike’s head out of his ass so that doesn’t happen again. I don’t think any of us can deal with anything like that again any time soon.” 

“Already on it,” Will says to Dustin. They both ignore Mike’s offended protests. 

Dustin chuckles and ducks his head back outside of the tent. Mike glares after him but his gaze doesn’t have the intensity it usually does. 

The glare is already fully gone when he turns to look back to Will. “Can we talk about this more later? I really think you should rest.” 

Will wants to argue that he’s fine but he also feels like if he lets himself fall back on the cot he will fall asleep in seconds. 

He nods to Mike and gives him a small smile. “Yeah, sure.” 

Or that’s what he meant to say, his body decided to yawn in the middle of his two word sentence and he just gave up trying to stay awake and flopped to lay on the cot. 

He could hear Mike laugh at him as he closed his eyes but he was too tired to get fake-upset about it. Especially when he feels the soft press of lips on his forehead soon after. 

“Good night my brave cleric,” Mike says, voice so soft Will can barely hear it. 

“‘Night my sweet paladin,” Will mumbles back right as his consciousness fades to black. 

[trashmouth-kaspbrak]

“I th-think we should ch-change something eh-eh-else.” Bill grips the ring in his fist, hand still in his pocket. He drops Stan’s hand because it’s his right one, and if he’s going to propose, he needs to be holding Stan’s left hand. (Right? Rings go on the left hand, right? Bill’s pretty sure that’s correct.)

Stan bursts into tears.

Or: Bill tries to propose. Stan does not know he's trying to propose. They're both drunk. This leads to disaster.

[joshinyou]

「 tag drop 」

[joshinyou-a]

「 tag drop 」

[kneeanderthal]

the awful balancing of story lines in season 4 always makes me tweak out a bit

[thehauntingsource]

"Which is, of course, just a misdirection because the entire show is their love story. We didn't want that [to be obvious] right out the gate, though. There was even a little bit of a red herring [at the start]. We knew people would assume there was some flirtation going on with Owen based on their conversation in the car. But, yeah, we totally manufactured that little meet cute [with Dani and Jamie] and I truly love it. They say you make three movies, the one you write, the one you shoot and the one you edit. That's definitely a scene that came out in post completely different than any of us knew it would be on set. It was never on our minds when we were [filming on the day]." Mike Flanagan's commentary for The Haunting of Bly Manor (Episode 1 "The Great Good Place")