#zombie!will

@bylerween Day 2 - Came Back Wrong

in which mike ventures into the upside down only to stumble across his childhood best friend that everyone thought was dead (which he kind of is)

soo @alldaladiesloveem was asking me vamp/zombie au ecological relationship questions and— i lowkey hit byler vamp/zombie au flowstate and came up with a great fic prompt, please indulge, i must share.

basically the relationship is;

zombies: “wow u taste fucking disgusting, i want nothing to do with biting u.”

vampires: “lit. me personally tho all i’ve ever wanted to do is consume you dry.”

vampires are canonically more powerful (supernatural) beings than zombies and could easily slime them out, but zombies don’t give a single fuck about wanting to bite vampires because vampires have a whole muddled different kinds of human blood in their system, along with blood that carries super natural abilities and for whatever canon reason, zombies are AVERSE to that as FUCK. like, it’s repulsive to think about.

so—

zombies: disgusted by the mere thought of biting a vampire bc of blood taste.

vampires: zombies have the best tasting and smelling blood ever for them,

the catch— though— is that they have to resist biting, because:

drinking infected blood = dead. like actually dead. not zombie dead.

and vice versa. zombies biting into vamp blood (although they never even have the desire to— so for them— not an issue.) kills them just the same. basically vamp + zombie blood = actually fucking slimed.

so here are the Vamp!Mike and Zombie!Will headcanons in an au like this:

vamp mike (obviously) ALWAYS wants to bite zombie will really bad but has to resist and has to be satisfied with hickies only (no fangs out, bro.)

and (slightly unsurprising plot twist) zombie will actually DOES enjoy the thought of biting vamp mike (loves him so bad) but knows their blood can’t mix so does the same as mike just hickies (no piercing skin, bro.)

but (again, obviously,) mikes desire to bite will is increasingly more prominent than wills desire to bite mike ever is, and thus there have been several *incidents* mike has been kissing wills neck and involuntarily, his fangs started coming through in the heat of the moment— completely lost in will and his blood— and will had to full on push mike off him (in a ‘don’t u dare kys cause u wanna bite me so bad rn way’, not a ‘stop get off me’ way though, obvs.)

Monster Byler is what I personally call zombie!Will x vampire!mike and with all of the au ideas, I’ve been itching to make headcanons for this one! My version of monster byler borders between silly and horrific depending on my mood. I was a huge monster high kid growing up, so monster byler is like THE au for me.

If you’ve ever seen the “biblically accurate monster high” art, then that’s this universe where Mike and Will are horrific to look at (though Mike has a human form to hide behind) but they’re actually really goofy teenagers. They’re not completely harmless to humans though, so be careful! (Btw it’s also the 80s in this au).

Will “Zombie Boy” Byers

Most monsters think Will can’t speak English and can only speak in groans, gurgles, and growls but he actually can he just chooses not to. (If you’ve played FNF, it’s like how boyfriend canonically speaks in beep bops because bro doesn’t like talking to people)

Will is part of the undead monster category meaning he was a human turned into a monster. He died in the late 50s/early 60s at 19.

Will doesn’t really remember much about his human life or even how he died. It’s only when he finds a really old missing poster of himself that he is able to take a guess on what happened to him.

Like canon Will, this Will is genuinely a sweet boy. Even if the parasite in him makes him crave eating brains and making more hosts.

Bro reeks which no shit. He’s a rotting corpse. Hence why Mike has him wear flowers in his hair and clothes (stenchgate real)

To keep zombies from completely rotting, they have to be in cool environments as hot environments will speed up the process of decay. Whenever Will is in a hot environment, his skin starts to peel and he swears his mind starts to deplete. Heat also slows him down physically and his bones get weak. The parasite in him starts getting desperate and it makes him aggressive.

Will does have some self-esteem issues regarding his appearance as a result. Mike is always reminding him how beautiful he is

Will’s hair grows really fast. He’s not sure why because you’d think the opposite, but due to his body constantly grappling being dead and not dead, it sometimes functions in weird ways.

Bro will make art out of anything. Sometimes he draws pictures that he is sure are memories of his life so it brings him comfort.

Zombie Will sleeps a LOT. He should be eating more people because it does do something for his energy, but he doesn’t really like killing humans. Why would he want them to become a zombie like him when they can die and return as ghosts?

Most monsters are immune to zombie bites. Werewolves are not though. Will has to be careful around his werewolf friends.

Will does wish he was human so Mike could drink his blood. It’s too dry and stale since he’s dead. He can only dream what those fangs would feel like sinking into his skin. He will never tell Mike he fantasizes about it.

Will is still more familiar with things like modern technology (for the 80s) and human culture even if he doesn’t necessarily remember his life. Mike on the other hand…

Will does get really weird. Like salad fingers levels of weird at times. It’s because of the parasite in him that kinda puts him in a dissociative state. He may be hallucinating who knows.

Will only has one eye. Sometimes bro walks into things and lets out the funniest grunt. It actually pisses him off.

Vampire Mike Wheeler

Mike has been alive for like, hundreds of years. He was probably born around the 1600s. His family had lived in an abandoned castle in Europe that most humans wouldn’t dare enter due to the belief that it was filled with demonic beings (it was just the Wheelers and their ghost friends).

The Wheelers moved to the Americas around 1971.

Vampires reach an age in which they stop physically aging. Birth-Vampires tend to stop aging around 19-30 while human-turned vampires stay at the age they turned. Mike is a birth-vampire.

Michael has been going through a rebellious phase lately. Who wouldn’t? He’s been stuck in a castle with his father, Theodore Wheeler who isn’t the most supportive or involved dad. Is his dad even alive? All he does is lay around in his coffin all day!

Mike’s immortality and isolated childhood kinda makes him selfish and a little rude. He can come off as a prick unintentionally. He only grew up reading about other monsters in his old castle library. He’s amazed by other monster species and wants to know everything about them.

The first monster, outside of a ghost, that Mike ever met was Will. He’s never met a more beautiful man in his life. You could even say he zinged (hotel Transylvania reference lol).

As mentioned before, Will chooses not to speak actual words yet Mike barely notices this because he understands Will. It’s like he created an entire “Will language” in his mind.

Mike is very protective of Will as most vampires are with their soulmates. In fact, Mike goes and hunts for Will since he knows Will doesn’t really like harming humans. So Mike does the hunting for both of them.

Mike hides in a “human” form so he can lure and trick humans (he always uses that puppy dog look of his). His actual form is much more aggressive looking. He looks more like a bat.

Due to vampires predatory nature, Mike is a little manipulative at times. He likes having control over the situation. He likes being a “leader” in that sense. It does drive conflict between some of his friends at times.

Regardless, Mike would never actually harm or abuse his friends like that. He’s just a bit of a control-freak at times. He can be pretty blunt and a little mean.

Vampire Mike is a total romantic (it’s why Will develops a crush and later falls in love with him). He just loves the thought of swooning someone. It comes from reading too many fantasy novels in his old castle library.

Mike can turn into a bat. His bat form is really cute. Sometimes Mike will use it to be able to cuddle up in Will’s warmth. He doesn’t like showing this form to many people (he wants to look intimidating).

Mike refuses to use modern technology. He loves writing letters and using ravens to send them. Whenever Will writes a letter back to Mike, Mike instantly knows it’s Will by the decaying odor on it. He loves it. Especially when the decaying odor is there but there is a hint of those flowers Mike gives him to wear.

Mike’s fangs are really sharp. He’s pricked his own fingers whenever he chews on his fingernails or it bleeds when he bites his lip. He has a bad habit of doing that.