#peachstatic

Oh, the first illustration I’ve seen of this wonderful fanfic, besides the incredibly talented Kidovna (X/twitter). It’s beautiful!!!

It’s Will at the Eisner Awards—that image Mike searches for on Yahoo every time he finishes chatting with Will. If he lived alone, he would have printed it out by now, I’m sure.

I'm also sure Will must have a ton of nerdy guys looking up to him and crushing on him.

I love that this fanfic is getting the attention it deserves.

These wonderful edited images are by @catinnoodles (X/Twitter)

lol, this is tragicomic.

Wow, it looks like Mike has Will's painting in his study or at his office.

The next chapter won't be out for maybe another three weeks. But they'll finally see each other after five years of being apart and three since the last time they met in person! The author will write the reunion in traditional prose, and I actually like that decision. I want to know everything—absolutely everything.

LINK <----

Oh wait, Mike didn't clear his Yahoo search history!!!

I hate to rec something that is at Chapter 2 of 12 but girls gays and theys, get on this -- from the famed beloved writer of My Will is Good, peachstatic, is writing this opus of an epistolary 2000s era byler endgame that is shockingly accurate to how 2000s online communications were (I was there Gandalf) and is just ACHINGLY INTENSE AND SAD. tw for mike is very unhappily married.

Well, right now I’m like this with some fanfics I’ve been reading. Yes, I’m reading fanfiction. It had been over ten years since I last read one, and the only ones I had read before were on Wattpad. The ones I read now are on AO3 and, holy shit, there are insanely talented people there.

How to disapeear completely by Peachstatic

LINK <----

The first one I want to recommend is How to Disappear Completely by Peachstatic, my favorite Byler author. Yes, the Will and Mike ship. This fic is currently on chapter three, and the author estimates it’ll be around twelve chapters long. Fuck, it’s such a good story. It deals with really raw and painful themes: settling in life, anxiety, insecurities, relationships worn down by lack of desire and love, sexual identity, emotional and physical cheating, depression, adult-life crises, lost love, trauma, etc. It’s set in 2002, with Will and Mike already grown adults in their thirties. After years of being distant from each other, they reconnect through a group chat with their old friends.

*Max is playing The Sims, damn, I love this!*

One of the things I love most about this fic is the early-2000s nostalgia it captures. The author is so meticulous and talented, and writes with so much dedication and love, that she takes the time to naturally weave trends and details from that era into the story. I genuinely love it.

In this fic, Mike is married to a woman named Maggie, so there’s eventually emotional cheating and later physical cheating with Will. And what I love is that there are no villains or perfect victims here: every character feels humanized, which makes everything so much more raw and painful. I’ve read other fanfics —which I usually never finish— where, whenever there’s cheating, it’s usually Will cheating and his partner is some awful guy. So the infidelity becomes easier to digest and loses emotional weight; everything feels too predictable. That’s not the case here. Still, as the author herself makes clear, the story isn’t trying to justify infidelity.

Another thing I love is that, even though there’s a huge amount of sexual tension and chemistry between Mike and Will, they never stop being best friends or connecting through that friendship first. They’re still nerds and frikis; they still talk about and share the things they love. I’ve read other stories where, once they start exploring intimacy together, their entire relationship gets reduced to just that. And I genuinely believe that, before anything else, they have an incredibly deep friendship.

For example, in My Will Is Good and its sequel Come As You Are —also by this wonderful author, who has this gift where in every one of her fanfics you can truly see and hear Mike and Will while keeping their essence and personalities intact, set in 1992— they share an apartment while attending college. They start out as friends with benefits and eventually become an established couple. But even then, they never stop sharing the things they love and enjoy; the very same things that made them friends in the first place. And on top of that, they’re unbelievably sweet with each other. Like, painfully sweet. I love that. *This fanfic touches on Will's trauma, but it isn't the central theme of the story—it's just one part of it.

I also highly recommend those fanfics, which are part of the Nirvana series. The author is going to release the third part soon. Honestly, it’s some of the best writing I’ve ever read. And because of those stories, I’ve started listening to way more Nirvana too.

Going back to How to Disappear Completely: it’s pure gold. It’s written in an epistolary format, so you experience Mike’s story through emails, internet searches, chats with Will and his friends, entries from his online diary, medical instructions, etc. The way this author expresses herself is so human, deep, and realistic. Everything feels real. Very real. It’s almost like you’re inside a real person’s computer.

Another thing I absolutely love in this fic is that Will is a successful illustrator who works doing what he loves. He already has two published comics and even won an award!

And Mike studied literature and is now a teacher, even though it’s not what he truly wanted —he wanted to be a writer. But honestly, the author’s dedication is so obvious even in the way they write. Mike writes with perfect spelling and punctuation, while Will’s writing feels softer, sweeter, more artistic. Ah, I love it so much.

And lastly, I love how realistic the story feels. A lot of us like imagining Mike and Will ending up together right after graduation in the summer of ’89, and yes, that’s beautiful. But it’s also realistic to remember that they were teenagers in the 1980s, living in a small American town during a time when homophobia was normalized and, in many places, being gay was still considered a disease or even a crime. On top of that, the AIDS crisis was happening. And Mike came from a conservative family, with a Republican father. As sad as it is, it makes sense that he would end up marrying a woman and repressing himself for years until emotionally falling apart. I genuinely recommend it so much. It’s heartbreaking, but wonderful.

------------------------------

illustrator: @miwicoded (X - Twitter)

Matador by Alice_Reese48

LINK <----

Another fanfic I want to recommend is Matador by Alice_Reese48. Honestly, this should’ve been season 5 of Stranger Things. It’s currently on chapter 19 out of an estimated 25 and is set in 1987, between seasons 4 and 5. It’s incredibly well-written, especially the early chapters. It has such a gripping supernatural plot that manages to include every character, even though the main focus is obviously still Mike and Will. And I love it because I feel like it captures the Will from the show perfectly: a boy shaped by trauma and pain who still remains sweet and brave. But it’s not just about Will and Mike, even though they are at the center of it. It’s a sad and moving story that deals with Will’s trauma in a raw way and explores all the consequences of going through what he went through.

------------------------------

Talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet by Thesweetestdream

LINK <----

And finally, probably the most popular Byler fic right now: Talk to Me Dirty; Talk to Me Sweet by Thesweetestdream. It’s on chapter 13 out of an estimated 17. Here, Mike and Will are 18 years old during the summer of 1989, before starting college. Yes, it’s an explicit fanfic with plot, but I think the main reason it became so popular is because it’s incredibly well-written. The emotions are portrayed so intensely that you genuinely feel immersed in what the characters are experiencing. You feel the awkwardness of first times, the anxiety, the self-discovery. Plus, it's a fanfic that makes heavy use of subtext and symbolism. I love finding that in everything I read or watch.

------------------------------

All of these fanfics are written from Mike's point of view, except for Matador, which alternates between Will's and Mike's perspectives.

Another thing worth mentioning about these fanfics is that consent is incredibly important. Guys, consent is sexy, and I love that they place such a high priority on it.

Lately I’ve read several more, but I ended up dropping many of them for different reasons. Mostly because some writers turn Will into the stereotypical gay character to the point where it feels degrading. And that bothers me, because Will is such a genuinely great character, with really cool interests and personality traits, that reducing him to some misogynistic fetish feels awful. I also dislike when, in some stories, once Mike and Will begin exploring each other, the intimacy becomes overly performative and unrealistic for two inexperienced boys who obviously wouldn’t fully know what they’re doing. Everything starts feeling hollow and superficial. Or when writers turn Mike into someone jealous and toxic. For example, Mike in My Will Is Good is jealous too, but in a sweet and funny way. Or when they pair Will with characters he would never realistically be involved with —the most popular example being Chance, a character who bullied his friends. Will would never be with someone like that.

Anyway. I’m a fanfiction reader now after spending years dismissing fanfics entirely. And honestly, they’re really not bad at all. I found genuinely talented people. The Byler fandom as a whole is incredibly talented, actually. You can find amazing illustrations, animations, and stories.

LINK <----

Will is so sweet, kind, empathetic, and selfless. This opens a door of hope for him, but even so, he doesn't seek to benefit himself.

Mike's unsent emails.

this fanfic is going to consume my life.

That was the last casual relationship Will had, and honestly, I seriously wonder how that guy didn't want to hold him if Will is that adorable😔

Mike: 'Will's ideal guy would be...' Also Mike: proceeds to describe himself.

Damn. This is wrong, but I like it :,v

eeeew they're ridiculously cute

Aww, Mike talks so sweetly about Will with his therapist.

Honestly, after this chapter and his second individual therapy session, I see Mike as more relaxed, more at ease. I mean, he feels guilty and all that, but somehow he’s being himself and not forcing himself to do things he doesn’t want to do. Although, of course, he’ll hurt people in the process, and he’s lying more and more.

I know that once they cross that invisible line, Will is the one who’ll feel the worst. I know the fanfic is written from Mike’s perspective, so we know almost all of his thoughts. But Will... he’s going to get what he’s always wanted, but the cost will be high, and he’s going to suffer a lot, and he’s going to feel terrible about himself😣

@oharashusband (X/twitter)

"...I don't think forcing yourself to stay miserable forever is automatically noble just because it hurts you instead of somebody else"

New chapter of How to Disappear Completely!!!

LINK <----

And well, I can't help but wonder how Will must be feeling about all this. Imagine if your best friend from childhood—the love of your life, who's been with a woman for ten years and married to her for three—told you that he might be attracted to men. Waaaa

fuck...

This fanfic is consuming so much of my brain that it leaves me speechless.

Take a shot every time Mike looks up pictures of Will at the Eisner Awards.

He's looking for Pokémon cards aaaww!

And wow, he's actually thinking about going to see him.

omg. Look, I really, really feel bad for Maggie, but selfishly, I want Will to be happy on his birthday—and forever :/

***I feel like I don't have much to say about this chapter, but I'm just so lost in my own thoughts that I don't know what to say.

Because on one hand, I feel bad for Maggie—really bad—but on the other, I love the dynamic between Will and Mike. They're so cute, nerdy, sweet, and understanding with each other. They have a healthy bond.

Mike and Maggie do have a nice connection, but I think it’s more platonic—they could be good friends.

There was a new chapter of Matador today, and I started rereading the chapter where Will says goodbye to Mike the Creature. I don't know, just thinking about how he'll never see him again, and how Mike saved his life more than once and was his only companion during those lonely years.

This fanfic is super sweet and cute, but it breaks my heart.

In this new chapter, Will reads the journals Mike wrote during his disappearance. They're sort of like letters addressed to him, and well </3

LINK <----

-----------------------------------

how to disapeear completely <----

Well, I’ve been rereading and thinking about this fanfic that I’m obsessed with. About how Mike, through his reading and writing lessons with his students, is actually talking about himself, and at the same time, the author—or Mike through the author—is speaking to us, the readers. I love the author; she’s a genius.

Mike deep down knows what he feels and who he feels it for, but he won’t say it out loud, not even in his ID, because that would make it real, and he’s completely stuck in a stage of denial. Besides, his paranoia would never allow him to write it down out of fear of being discovered.

We can see his feelings through what we’re allowed to read from him, and we can also see Will’s feelings too. The way Mike consciously or semi-consciously describes himself when he describes Will’s ideal man, or how, when Will asks him if there’s someone else, he doesn’t directly answer no — in fact, he hesitates before responding. Mike knows. He knows. He has always known what he feels and what he wants.

Even so, Mike chose. He chose to get married. He chose social pressure. He chose to convince himself he could live that way. He chose to distance himself from Will. He chose not to confront himself for years.

And now he’s suffering the consequences of the choices he made.

That’s why the character works so well emotionally; because he’s neither a complete victim nor a villain. He’s someone who slowly betrayed himself until he ended up trapped inside a life he can no longer sustain emotionally or sexually.

I was thinking about the timeline, about how I think Mike proposed to Maggie when Will moved in with his boyfriend (that’s something I infer). Around that same time came the failure of his first book, and also the beginning of the distance growing between him and Will. All of that led him into a breakdown and the start of much more serious anxiety issues. I also wonder why Mike and Maggie stayed engaged for so many years before getting married — what happened there?

I love this fanfic and the way the author approaches real-world themes and problems. And not just in this one — she does it in the Nirvana series too. It must take an incredible amount of preparation and research to write everything she does. Even the medical notes feel real. I’ll never get tired of praising her, because she’s honestly incredible.