in the rewrite: Lucas helps El train. teaches her how to work out. it helps her feel like she’s making progress. if she gets strong enough, Hop will let her go into the Upside Down, and once she's in the Upside Down she can kill Vecna and save Max. so she just has to get strong as fast as possible, and ignore the way Hop grumbles at her. she also likes how… physical it is. she is strong in her body, like she is in her mind. training also helps Lucas feel useful. he’s helping El, and through helping El he’s helping Max. it also just gives him something to do, keeps him out of his head. being on the basketball team would be dangerous, now, and the one time they tried to play D&D together after the earthquake went… poorly. he teaches her how to play basketball, too, and it turns out that she’s kind of a fucking beast on the court, even when she’s not cheating with her powers. aggressive as hell and litigious about scores. it makes his heart beat in a way he tries not to think about
(Max wakes up from a coma all muscle atrophied, and her boyfriend and the girl she doesn’t realize she has a massive crush on are both buff as fuck and strong enough to carry her princess-style. she’s going to have a fucking heart attack and die for a second time)
Chance thinks something's really wrong with Hawkins. At first he wanted to believe Jason, because Jason's logic is reassuring and simple enough to follow, and Jason knows how to be convincing, but as everything starts to escalate there's a dissonance inside him he can no longer ignore. Too much contradictions and too much things that don't make sense, even if others insist they're in the right. Besides, Chance has never trusted authority figures and there's definitely something fishy with the military.
So, Chance decides to investigate on his own without telling the other jocks, because they wouldn't understand, or worst, they might think he's a traitor like Lucas.
He sneaks out at night and spies on the military, taking notes of their activities, slowly realizing that earthquake isn't normal and might not be an earthquake at all. He puts a radio-transmitting bug (he made a ham radio himself, so it's faulty and limited in range but it's better than nothing) inside one of the soldiers's tanks while he is working at his dad's repair shop.
There are a lot of interferences, but he still picks up a few weird words, like "dimension", "find the girl", "toxic air", "two soldiers attacked by...creatures"
Creatures? What the hell?
But as Chance tries to uncover the truth, he runs into Will, who's also investigating his own visions without telling his friends (Will's dealing with some weird sleepwalking, waking up outside in the middle of the woods with no memory of getting there, and he doesn't really want to freak out his mom or his friends more than they already are).
At first wary of each other, they start a strange friendship and meet up at night—the first few times by chance, then by choice. Will knows Demogorgons are roaming Hawkins (a few people have gone missing already) and doesn't want Chance to put himself in danger, so he decides to share what he knows with Chance in order to make him understand what he's getting himself into.
Even if he's a bit overwhelmed at first, Chance never once believes Will is lying to him. On the contrary, he is finally able to put the pieces of puzzle together and gets to know who's truly responsible for the death of his friends. Now, he's determined helping Will to stop Vecna more than ever.
As they grow closer, Chance tries not to think too much why he wants to see Will again so eagerly, why Will's existence feels holier than the God he was taught to worship, or why he doesn't give a single fuck whether Will's the Antichrist or not.
Will tries not to think why Chance's presence soothes something inside him, why he falls asleep so easily when Chance is around, or why the idea of Chance getting hurt breaks his heart into pieces.
(Then the whole MAC-Z fight happens, Chance nearly gets torn apart by a Demogorgon, then witnesses Will using his powers for the first time and is left in awe, but he's also not surprised because it's Will we're talking about, of course his angel is badass.)
Guys pleaseeee read The Secrets That You Keep (When You’re Talking in Your Sleep) by dh_epub
It’s a mwtfdydgate from mikes perspective and steve is to mike what robin is to will + the author is also gonna do a s5 rewrite
(also the author apparently wrote like a 1/3 of it before ever having watched the show which is so unbelievable because they’re all so well characterized)
THIS FIC IS SO GOOD I READ IT ALL IN LIKE TWO DAYS
I love this page!! Do you have any good season 5 rewrite/canon compliant epilogue fic recs?
these are mostly s5 re-writes but if you'd like to send another ask I can find some that are specifically epilogue fix-its!
we could be heroes (just for one day) by avidkoyomilover (4/5 | 50,302 | not rated)
Stranger things Volume 2 and 3 completely rewritten.
Nancy and Jonathan are fighting, Steve and Dustin are fighting, Max is still in a coma, and what the hell is wrong with Will?
Episode 5, Shock Jock
Episode 6, Escape from Camazotz
Episode 7, The Bridge, and
Episode 8, The Rightside Up
All four episodes, completely rewritten with no plot holes, jane hopper lives, a byler conclusion, and plot accurate.
I'm Not Afraid of Our Story by ZaraMelMercury (5/7 | 14,326 | Teen and Up)
Will Byers has powers. He's a sorcerer!
As the whole party attempts to reunite for one final battle against Vecna, Mike Wheeler has a good number of revelations about the person he wants to be - especially the person he wants to be for Will.
(An alternate ending for Stranger Things 5, post-volume 1)
The Pietà by grapejuiceblues28 (7/10 | 23,659 | Teen and Up)
Mike has been in love with Will for a very long time but hasn't quite come to terms with it yet. That is, until Will saves his life, Lucas nudges him in the right direction and Robin laughs in his face. Once he makes a mixtape, though, all hell breaks loose—from him realizing his feelings for Will to the world ending. If Mike had to choose which is worse, he wouldn’t...he'd argue it’s an even split.
-
Or a rewrite of season five with a whole lot of Byler fluff, told Mike's jealous, lovestruck POV. This is all canon to me personally.
one last adventure. by abisbookcase (2/? | 25,046 | Mature)
stranger things 5 vol 2 & the finale (but better)
OR
i rewrote stranger things season 5 vol 2 and the finale because everyone deserved so much better than what they got.
love was the law and religion was taught bymugamuchyuu (1/1 | 21,132 | Mature)
A few days after Will Byers unlocked his powers, he and Mike Wheeler get sent out on a mission to a place that’s suspiciously guarded in Vecna’s mind, which is Hawkin’s Church. Mike has a general dislike for churches that he put aside in favor of accompanying Will.
When Will’s connection to Vecna spirals out of control, Mike is caught in the fallout, not only forced to confront the truth he’s been carrying with him for years but also try to get Will and himself out of there alive. The biggest issue is, Will is possessed and Mike isn’t leaving the church without him.
What begins as a desperate attempt to wake Will up, ends in Mike realizing he would rather face hell than lose Will again.
Love Will Tear Us Apart, me and eddiespaghetti7’s S5/timeskip rewrite will be up in about 30 mins! The first two chapters will come out today. If anyone’s interested in being tagged from now on just comment “tag” or lmk. Here’s the summary:
7 months after the Byers family moved in with the Wheeler’s, Will and Mike struggle to become close again, as they both feel conflicted. Trying to fix their relationship, fight through visions, past trauma and finally defeating Vecna, their lives have become difficult. A S5 rewrite.
And here’s a snippet of chapter one:
Will tore his focus from Holly to see Mike staring at the two of them, a look of something like jealousy on his face. He noticed Will looking at him and snapped his head away, the expression that was on his face vanishing as though nothing were ever wrong. Mike and Will hadn't spoken in months, which he blamed Mike for, and convinced himself Mike has been pushing him away and not the other way around and that things were better that way.
But Will longed to be close with Mike again. He longed for the hours they used to spend talking about everything imaginable, for the comics they would create, the bike rides they shared, the sleepovers they begged for every weekend, and every time they were together. Mike lit up Will’s world. He was the bright, glowing star in the nightmare his father created for him.
He used to spend days after days in Mike's bedroom when Lonnie still lived in the Byer’s home. Mike’s house became Will’s house. His home. They were inseparable; not a single thing could tear them apart. But apparently six months apart broke them. Little Will could have never even imagined the two of them being awkward; he couldn't even imagine lying to Mike.
Will’s secret taunted him whenever he was with Mike. It hurt him, mocked him, made him think Mike would never love or accept the real Will. His brain knew he would end up rejected and alone, although he liked to imagine his story not ending in that way. He couldn't help but fantasize about him and Mike together, especially after he and El broke up. He was always in his head, dreaming about a future he’d never have. But he knew his true future, so he pushed Mike away to avoid rejection. To avoid confessing and sharing his secret with Mike.
Will still cared about Mike; whenever Mike is upset or hurt, it hurt Will. He still had a connection with Mike like he would never have with anyone else. Sometimes he tried to force himself to move on, to forget about his love for Mike, but it was impossible. Will had been in love with him since the day they met on the swings, when Mike asked Will if he wanted to be friends. He didn’t accept or acknowledge the love he had for his best friend until they met Lucas and Dustin in elementary school, and Will noticed how he felt different around Mike, and how he acted with him.
Release The Bats(Chapter V: There Was Something In The Air That Night)
warnings: dark themes, gore mention, blood mention, gross descriptions, horror themes, vampirism, Mr. Whatsit being a creep
word count: 2k
summary: while the town of Hawkins is plunged into even more horror, two of its citizens deal with opposite sleep issues. Holly Wheeler is plagued with dangerous visions in the night, Dustin Henderson deals with his grief and sees visions of monsters.
a/n: so so so so sorry for the delay on this chapter! Hope you all enjoy so much!!!
Masterlist
Every night is the same. Holly Wheeler dreams the same dream over and over. She’s in her room, her headphones snug on her ears. It’s the only comfort she has as she navigates through this practically apocalyptic world.
The darkness fills her room, the walls illuminated only by the soft moonlight coming through the sheer curtains. Usually, she’d be afraid, but recently, Holly has found a way to combat this fear. She closes her eyes really tightly and thinks of a happy memory.
Usually it’s a memory of Mike, or Nancy or even of her mother, Karen. She sometimes grows melancholic when she realizes how little she has good memories with her own father. Still, these happy memories are what calm her and remind her that the darkness cannot hurt her.
And that’s usually when she sees him. Mr. Whatsit. He whispers secrets in her ear in the dead of night. He tucks her inwhenever she shifts in her sleep and her plushies fall to the floor. He talks to her whenever she feels lonely.
He appears at the window, eyes sharp as he takes in the layout of Holly’s room. Everytime she sees him do this in her dream, she gets the sense that he is planning something or he is trying to figure out a way to undermine her. It’s a foreboding sense of dread that washes over her completely, and it terrifies her. She knows she should trust Mr. Whatsit, as he’s shown himself to be very trustworthy, but it’s still scary.
So Holly tries her best to think of those happy moments with Nancy, Mike or Karen. She shuts away all feelings of doubt and fear, and trades them for smiles and heartwarming feelings. It’s always cut short as the monster crawls through the portal.
The portal opens up on her ceiling, and she’s too frozen in fear to scream. All she can do is look up, her eyes wide in terror as she sees the portal opening up. It’s bright, it’s grotesque in form. Like two hands ripping open skin from the inside. And the middle is like molten lava, sending panic through Holly as she watches it open.
The beast is crude, brutal and doesn’t care for her. She tries to move, but her body is locked in fight or flight. And Holly Wheeler freezes when confronted with fear. The beast opens its flower mouth, the jaws extending as it roars at her. Certainly someone from her family will wake up and hear these noises, but in these dreams, they never do.
As it gets closer and closer to her, almost taunting her by taking things excruciatingly slowly, Holly can still see Mr. Whatsit watching her from the window. He doesn’t make a move to help her or save her. She tries to cry out to him, but no noise comes from her. All she can do is watch as this monster extends its claws and slash at her.
The first rip through her skin is the least painful, but it’s the bloodiest. It streams from the now open wound, spraying her in the face and showering the bed with her own guts. The second slash makes her cry out, and this is what wakes her up.
For months now, Holly Wheeler has had the same nightmare every night. It starts the same and there’s nothing she can do about it. She’s too terrified to even mention it to her parents, though she does think about telling her older brother Mike.
Holly isn’t stupid, she knows this isn’t a good sign. She first chalked it up to everything the town had experienced(along with herself and her family), and how this must have been how her mind decided to deal with it and cope with the horror of the earthquake destroying nearly all of Hawkins.
But the more the dream was recurring, the more Holly knew something else was at play. This is when she finally tries to make it known to someone in her family. She had to find the right words before she could approach Nancy or Mike.
As Holly continued to have these nightmares, she was unaware that this was also plaguing the rest of the town’s children. She wasn’t the only one having dreams about Mr. Whatsit. Even some adults had dreams of the mystery man, though he appeared much different in their dreams.
The whole town was beginning to succumb to a whole new plague.
─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───
Dustin Henderson was dealing with grief. He had never truly had a friend die before. He’s had a lot of close calls and there was even the fake-out with Will back in 1983. But never has he felt the pain of this type of grief.
Eddie had been someone different for him. As an only child, Dustin felt like an outsider at times from his own friend group. Coupled with the fact that when he started high school, he and his friends all went separate paths. Eddie took him under his wing, and Dustin felt like he truly belonged with someone.
Finding Eddie and the Hellfire club, it was a solace. It was a calling for his curious mind and his love for Dungeons and Dragons. Eddie had become like an older brother to him at a level that Steve couldn’t quite reach. Dustin loved Steve and even looked up to him, but sometimes even Steve Harrington couldn’t be there for Dustin in the way Dustin needed him.
Eddie had done good by Dustin from the first day they met. While things were always a bit wacky within the Hellfire group, Eddie showed that he very much could be a support pillar for the young nerd. And they developed a sort of older brother younger brother relationship that couldn’t be broken.
And it surely made Dustin lose a part of himself the day he held Eddie in his arms, and he watched the light go out of his eyes. He remembers the way you were shaking right next to him, your sobs cutting through the nearly silent air of the Upside Down. Every catch of your breath in your throat had cut him so deeply.
The way you clung to your loved one, it tore out Dustin’s heart and ripped it in a million pieces. He hated how cliche his sadness felt. He hated how angry he grew with everyone. He hated that he was even pushing you and Steve away. It was like he couldn’t quite control what this grief was doing to him.
There was nothing he could do about it. He just let the feelings and emotions drown out anything else and completely pulled him under. It washed over him, sending him further down in the darkness of grief and heartbreak.
Like a drowning man, he does try to get help. He tries to throw his hands up, grasping at something or someone who will pull him up from this giant tsunami of pain. Through the waves and the fog, one voice often tries to call out to him.
Suzie, his girlfriend. Dustin tries his best to keep her at a distance(a metaphorical one since they are already a long distance couple), but it doesn’t succeed. Suzie often tries to talk to him through the radio.
She knows something happened, and while she knows that Dustin needs more support than just someone talking to him on the radio, she does everything she can to make sure he’s at least taking care of himself. She curses herself for not being able to be closer to her Dusty-bun.
It’s late at night when he hears the radio crackling. He’s been lying on his bed for hours, trying to sleep, but like a lot of Hawkins, he’s developed his own brand of insomnia. The rest of the town either has become like him, sleepless, or they sleep too much to compensate for the fact that they have these horrid nightmares.
The clouds look heavy in the sky, but they don’t quite cover the light coming from the sliver of moon. It shines down into his window, making him roll over so he’s facing one of the posters on his wall. He thinks about how he should have gotten Eddie to leave the Upside Down with him. He should have tried harder. Then the crackling starts up again.
“Dusty-bun?”
The voice is unmistakable. He wonders why she’s awake so late. But then he remembers the time difference. Lately, his brain is working sluggishly. Like he can’t remember every little detail. Certainly odd for someone as bright as Dustin Henderson.
“What is it, Suze?”
“I’m worried about you.”
You and everyone else. He thinks bitterly.
“No need to be so worried.”
“Don’t say that, I can hear it in your voice. Have you been sleeping properly?”
Dustin is cursing himself. He’s cursing his own girlfriend. He should have broken things off with her after Eddie’s death, but he didn’t have the heart to break hers. Suzie might not know exactly what’s going on, but she’s still trying her best to be good to her boyfriend.
“You got me there, Suzie. I haven’t.”
She sighs on the other end. “I know because I’m calling you and it’s late there.”
He scoffs. “It’s only a two hour difference.”
“Nevermind that! Why are you not sleeping?”
He wants to tell her everything, but Hopper had warned them to be prudent. The military would be on anyone’s ass if they dared to speak too freely about what’s going on here. Robin, Steve and even you were taking quite the chance by being on the radio.
“It’s…complicated. I’d tell you if I could.”
She’s not happy with this answer. “You keep saying this. But how am I supposed to help when you’re being so secretive?”
He rubs his face with both hands. “I can’t tell you because I could put you in danger. Do you have any idea how much that would ruin me?”
His tone is too bitter, it’s too rough. He’s hurting himself by trying to push her away. But it’s impossible to push away someone like her. She’s worried about him, and she’ll keep trying to prod at him as if that’ll give her the answers she’s been seeking.
Dustin pauses as he notices something making a large shadow outside of his window. He peers outside, his eyes scanning everywhere to see if he can figure out what’s making such a large shadow. It’s deadly still for a few moments, neither him nor Suzie are even saying a word. Then—woosh! Something seems to fly right by his window. His eyes widen in fear as he finally gets a good glimpse of what’s out there.
Something flying, something humanoid. It’s got these giant wings, and it keeps flying around near his yard. Dustin can’t even keep his eyes off of this thing. And when it turns to look at him, the air is knocked from his lungs.
“Dusty-bun? Dustin?”
“S-S-Suzie-poo…”
There’s a moment of silence when Dustin finally comes to terms with the fact that what he is indeed seeing is the real deal. It’s not a fake, it’s not false. It’s no longer grief coming back to haunt him, but it’s something even more visceral and real.
The eyes glow red, the hair seems matted in some areas. But that is indeed, in fact, Eddie Munson flying around in the sky above his backyard. Dustin wants to scream, but he’s stunned into silence. The scene that’s playing out is much too frightening for him to react properly.
"What's going on?” Suzie’s voice comes through almost too clearly.
“I…” Dustin squeaks.
The flying figure comes right up to the window, and with a confused sort of grace, begins banging on the glass. Dustin’s been pushed into a full blown panic now as he realizes the noise could very well wake up his mother.
“Stop!” He cries out, covering his eyes.
This had to be some sick joke right? This had to be something from the depths of his guilt that’s coming to haunt him. Just a trick of his eyes and the mind. When he opens his eyes once again, he doesn’t see the figure anymore.
“Suzie. I have to go. I—I love—”
But he’s already on his feet and out the door, his mother in her bathrobe calling out to her grief-stricken son as he rides out into the night.
