bookofwambs

[bookofwambs]

I NEED season 5 to have a scene of them FINALLY dancing together

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So... @mikeslawyer, I hope I did your ask prompt justice! (because I loved it, thank you so much for it). (Continue for without the doodles.)

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[happy birthday, mike wheeler.]

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unseen art for mike wheeler day part 1/2

(band AU with lead vocalist and guitarist mike & bassist will) (+ lucas on the drums, dustin on the keyboard and backup vocals)

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unseen art for mike wheeler day part 2/2

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morning hug - apoc au relationship details under the cut!

--- mike and will's (+ the og party's) background:

is it mike and will if they aren't childhood besties? their moms were friends before the infection hit and they saw each other occasionally before the apocalypse

after the apocalypse, they lived in the same walled community with their families and stuck together for a long time! from ages 4 to 7, they were basically each other's only friends until lucas came around at age 8 and dustin came around at age 9

the boys were separated from their families because a neighboring group attacked, effectively destroying the community (more on that another time)

this is when the og party learned to live and survive with each other!

in this au -> mike fell first, will fell harder :)

just friends... with benefits:

are able to talk about anything and everything

each other's closest relationship out of the party -> used to rely on each other emotionally (much more strained after they started doing fwb)

tentative fwb - usually only engage in benefits after they've had a bad day or are really stressed out

things feel normal when they're together and the morning after but then they give each other the cold shoulder...

mike has started making a habit of ensuring that there's a buffer person between the two of them when he assigns jobs (cannot handle the tension)

are currently -> avoiding each other + the other party members have noticed (they don't know ab the two of them)

what is their problem?

mike is scared of being committed to each other because he's seen what happens to people (his mom, rip ted LOL) who have lost their partners. he doesn't want that to happen to him or will were one of them to die.

he's also afraid of the possibility that a relationship between the two of them could affect the party's whole group dynamic and set things off, because he's more worried about their survival then he is about his own feelings towards will.

he loves will so unbelievably much that it hurts, and the idea of getting even closer to will and suddenly losing him hurts even more, so he keeps his distance.

-

will is most afraid of losing mike and the group were he to ask him to take their feelings any further. he's seen how devoted mike is to the group and to him, but he doesn't know if there's a limit to what mike is willing to tolerate from him.

he doesn't want to take the risk of alienating either of them, and he cherishes his relationship with mike so much that he's willing to go along with what mike is doing, which is straining their friendship.

will is a natural giver. if all mike wants is a fwb relationship even if he wants more, than he'll give it to him, even if it's tearing him apart on the inside :') he doesn't know if mike loves him back, so will is emotionally torn up from the distance that this is creating btwn them.

---

other notes: fwb byler is a really interesting dynamic to explore, especially in this apocalypse setting - by the point in the story that they become fwb, they're 17 and they don't really have any clue about what they're doing. most of their clues about intimate relationships stem from old magazines from a while back (that don't say anything about gay relationships) as well as what their older siblings taught them when they were 12, which highlighted the emotional aspect and not the physical aspect.

mike and will know that something within their relationship has fundamentally changed, and they have no idea how to handle it. however, they know that they can experiment and relieve tension with each other safely, but are also extremely conflicted on how they present themselves to each other outside of their experimenting and to the party.

heteronormative societal pressure is not a conflict in this story (at least, not yet) - they don't live with anyone else except the other party members for the time being. their only conflict has to do with them both being scared of losing the other. they live in a world where anyone can die so quickly, so they don't want to fuck up what they have :'D mike wheeler is the king of being unable to process his romantic feelings properly and will byers is the king of completely repressing his emotions! they're perfect for each other!

both of them are the equivalent of shaken up soda bottles with mints inside them, ready to explode (the mints are them being friends with benefits)

[bookofwambs]

manifested mileven at the snowball in 2016, so now I’m manifesting byler at senior prom🪻🌻

[bookofwambs]

sneak peek at s5 (real)

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he could’ve been wearing a shirt that said ‘i’m in love with mike wheeler’ and it would’ve been less obvious than this

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unseen art for will byers day part 2/2

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An old something I made for a sadly cancelled Byler zine 😔

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are friends electric?

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"a fact so true, so loud, that he can’t believe he’d been able to hear anything else before now."  (fic by @campbyler)

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anyone else go crazy reading the latest @campbyler chapter?

bonus:

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here’s a super old piece i did last year for a dnd byler zine that got canceled recently!!!

its a bummer but im glad i got to be part of the process with a bunch of other talented artists and writers!

its kind of crazy to see how drastic my art style change has been😭

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art i did last year for a byler DnD zine that got canceled🗡️🔆

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Doodle