Woodnesse

Bi dude | ⚧️ | 30s | giant nerd Mostly here for Stranger Things (in general) And Byler brainrot (in specific)

[woodnesse]

Byler fic recommendations

This was so hard to narrow down to a reasonable number of recommendations.

Couple of notes:

Please, please pay attention to the tags. There are some gentler fics here, but I have a tendency to read stuff where the characters are medium-to-very messed up.

Some of these authors are on Tumblr, but I mostly can't remember which Ao3 names go to which Tumblr names without digging. Sorry. 😥 I might try to edit those names in later.

Anything I've recommended here is by authors whose other fics you should 100% check out.

I just dipped back into reading fanfiction after a year+ break. I'm sure lots of good stuff has been posted since then, but it's not on this list.

And now the recommendations, in no particular order:

the comforts that make us feel numb by passerine_in_jade

This is Me Trying by love_kurdt

Roll for Strength by midnighteverlark

cosmonaut. by ghostshaming

Demons of Change and Wildflower Eyes by JustMyName. That one is long and dark, so I'll also recommend Beautiful Things From Broken Soil, as something fluffier and more bite-sized by the same author. Or Touch Me Like You Know Me for something that's more in the middle in length and tone.

A Happy Ending was Imperative by waroftheposes

bloody hands and soft lips by joyfullyrissa

As The World Falls Down by olliecoddle. Unfinished for now, but I'm holding out hope. In the meantime, if you don't like reading unfinished works, check out In Undertow.

any semblance of touch, posted anonymously

i'll find myself in the moonlight by beansie

Roll To Charm Person by harriet_vane

I Want to Break Free by paladin_cleric_mage

[prguitarman]

[pixelartjourney]

Cozy Library, made for Pixyls. You can get it as a physical craft by number kit here

[rowanisawriter]

YOU can write whatever you want whenever however forevrr. i have to write something perfect and earth shattering and i have to do it perfectly the first time or else

[cr4zyfr3ak]

Byler cuz why not

[wanghedi]

One of the effect of elementary watson being a woman on sherlock is that hes always making caveats about murder suspects like a man caved his skull in. Or a woman. women can also cave skulls in 👍 he set the building on fire. Or she. I would never imply women cant set building on fire

[bbcwhereareyou]

[amaati]

"When he noticed Mike staring his eyelashes fluttered, as if he had somehow stirred him from a daydream. The boy shifted on his feet awkwardly and brushed his damp bangs back from his face, and Mike swore he could see a blush stain his cheeks, as if embarrassed. " - Fortunately, I Believe

This Byler fic genuinely keeps me up at night, and I am absolutely obsessed so I had to draw it!

Authors are the phenomenal: @souverian-are-we & @starsarefire824

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[dunwichbore]

In a crowded street or a deserted square, I'll turn and I'll see you, as if our love were new.

[8pxl]

[purusims]

If you'd have met her, you would've loved her

[prguitarman]

memories of geocities

[woodnesse]

I haven't watched 911, but I've seen enough of it on Tumblr to be aware of it.

So, my 70-something-year-old mother starts telling me how there's this "silly show about firefighters" she's been watching.

"Oh! Uh...911?" I say, struggling not to laugh at the thought of my mom hopping on the Buddie train.

(It was 911.)

[woodnesse]

I think I have just one more thing to say about the last season of Stranger Things, before I go back to mostly ignoring its existence except as a starting point for better art.

I've been trying to put together a coherent explanation of why the finale bothered me. Wrote a big meandering piece for my own benefit that's in no shape to post. Specifically, I was trying to put words to why I was so bothered by what the Duffers were apparently trying to *say* with this series. Science fiction aside, it was a coming of age story at its heart, a story about leaving childhood behind and finding your way into adulthood.

And I've come to the conclusion, between what we were given in the show and some of what the Duffers have said in interviews, that for all their "screw conformity" lines, their vision of adulthood is essentially conformist, if not downright conservative. They're the kind of geeks who think they've won when they're not seen as geeks anymore.

And I reject that vision of adulthood entirely. That's not a "bittersweet" ending to me. Sure, the show presents these characters' endings as essentially happy, but I think they demonstrated that happiness using a very narrow version of what life can be. I'm sad we didn't get to see a wider world for them.

[strangeswift]

i don’t understand. if you thought mike wheeler was a complex character who you adored prior to season five, and now you realize that was just the fanon version of him… that version still exists. that was still the version of him you believed in, and guys. guys. he’s fictional!!!! he’s not real! you can have whatever version of him you want live in your head and in your fan content! if you no longer have any interest in caring for or creating fan content about that version of him, that’s okay, but jfc you have to understand why other people still find joy in him, right? you believed in him too. stop acting like you didn’t, it’s driving me insane.

i realize people are disappointed and they’re recontextualizing, and maybe the difference here is i have always known byler was never going to be canon so it’s not as big of a perspective shift for me. but mike is the way he is in seasons 3-5 because of objectively bad writing. inconsistent writing. therefore i choose to disregard it the same way i am choosing to disregard el’s fate.

i always knew our version of mike was a fanon version we sort of created together based on seasons 1 and 2 and based on the clues we are given about what the duffers intended him to be if he was written well. (the heart, the paladin) i just thought he was still special and important and compelling even though we kind of created him together. maybe that was even part of it. and you obviously don’t have to give a shit about him anymore if you don’t want to, i’m just saying it makes me sad. and i still love him. and so does will byers.

[woodnesse]

My favorite part of fandom is being able to see other people's ideas and talk to them about the many possibilities that exist outside canon. Of course we draw on canon, and there's the question of how far you can diverge before it becomes an entirely separate idea with the original work's names pasted on, and if I watch Stranger Things again, it'll be with the knowledge that I'm watching the canon Mike that now exists. But that doesn't mean all the fan versions of Mike I've read *don't* exist in their own fictional worlds.

[nasapis]

i was listening to phantom of the opera while working on this and now it's permanently stuck in my head

[ambitiuoustree]

The byers family will always be special to me💡

[pixelartjourney]

The Old Lighthouse!

First pixel art of 2026