sleepyhead

and michelle wheeler would have braids

GENERAL

what is a cruel summer with you/camp byler?

a cruel summer with you is an ongoing multi-chapter fic by @wiseatom/@astrobei/@andiwriteordie that serves as the mainline story in our stranger things au that we fondly refer to as camp byler. it is essentially taking the characters of stranger things, taking them out of the 80s, and plopping them down into a modern day summer camp - camp whiteman! mike and will are friends but also not, due to their very loaded history together.

why is it called camp whiteman? (or any comment on the camp name)

thea (wiseatom) went to a summer camp as a child called camp wightman. when creating this au, we used it as a placeholder (spelled whiteman) and then it just stuck because it’s funny and ridiculous. it is an ongoing joke!

what cabins are the three of you in? how do i find out mine?

thea is in yellow, suni is in green, andi is in blue! you can find the cabin sorting quiz here :) 

how long is this fic going to be? is it finished? how often will it update?

we are projecting 400k-500k words for the mainline fic once it’s completed. we cannot adhere to a strict posting schedule due the obligations we have in our personal lives (we both work full time!), but we will always be transparent about when we think an update is going up!

are you going to abandon writing this/have you stopped updating?

no! thea and suni are very committed to seeing through the rest of the mainline fic. there may be a long wait between chapters, but we will see it through, and appreciate your patience! we will try to always remain somewhat active on here just so you know we haven't ditched :)

where is andi?

andi has stepped back from acswy moving forward. you can read our update here.

who is writing what chapter? what pov is the fic in?

everything will alternate back and forth between mike and will’s pov, and this is how our chapter setup is laid out: CH01 / will pov / thea CH02 / mike pov / suni CH03 / will pov / andi CH04 / mike pov / thea CH05 / will pov / suni CH06 / mike pov / andi CH07 / will pov / suni CH08 / mike pov / andi CH09 (ON AO3: CH09/CH10) / will pov / thea CH10 (ON AO3: CH11/CH12) / mike pov / suni CH11 / will pov / suni CH12 / mike pov / thea CH13 / will pov / suni CH14 / mike pov / thea CH15 / will pov / thea

why are chapters 9 and 10 split in half? are there going to be any other chapter splits?

chapters 9 and 10 were split for everyone's benefit! just those two chapters take up over 100k words of the entire fic because they are so plot-heavy, so to make it easier on us to write and easier on you to read, they were each split in two. they are still meant to be read as two halves of a whole!

what order are we meant to read the companion fics in?

it's up to you! within the in the quiet of the night series, they are listed chronologically within the timeline -- if you are finished with the main fic and want the extra reading, you can read them in any order you choose. if you have not started reading and you would like the context of their past heading in, this is the order we'd recommend:

follow the sparks (i’ll drive) -- this will introduce you to the universe and their dynamic very well!

acswy -- CH01 / CH02 / CH03 / CH04

leave me stranded (it’s so romantic) -- brief mentions of the events of this fic are mentioned in CH01 and CH04, and then again in CH07.

acswy -- CH05 / CH06 / CH07

out of focus, eye to eye -- mike vaguely references the events of this fic when they’re at the vending machine in CH07 and he’s like oh, we’re still not talking about it? (no mike. you aren’t. bc will doesn’t remember)

acswy, CH08

you know that i caught it -- CH08 coda

acswy, CH09.1 / CH09.2 / CH10.1 / CH10.2

do you have any writing advice?/*specific writing process question*

we love answering these kinds of questions. we recommend checking out our writing process tag to see what we've already gone over, but #trust we are always down to blab about our creative process!

can i bind acswy for personal use?

we have no problems with acswy being printed and bound for personal use -- we would recommend waiting until the fic is finished, as we are planning on going through and doing some post-mortem clarifying edits prior to ch15 being uploaded. this said, we must emphasize Personal Use for legal reasons (because it is illegal to sell fanfiction) and also warn about the amount of paper and ink that would be required to have a printed version of acswy.

STORY SPECIFIC

are we going to learn about the fearless lore/is this going to happen/etc.?

we can’t answer questions like these because of spoilers, but please trust the process, have patience, and know that we wouldn’t have mentioned something big if it wasn’t going to be addressed or resolved!

where's that post where you spoiled each chapter with an emoji?

here!

who is derek? is he going to appear in acswy?

derek is will’s ex-boyfriend, who he dated from december 2020 through may of 2021. he is not going to appear in acswy except for by name, but will be featured in a companion fic detailing their break up! he's ~10 months older than will and one grade ahead of him. the companion fic with derek is leave me stranded (it's so romantic), linked above.

how many companion fics do you have planned? when will they be posted?

we currently have several planned, but the ones that are most plot relevant to acswy are the discord era fic and and the will/derek break up fic. we will post them at some point in tandem with acswy going up, and will have more after acswy is finished, too! 

does justin have a crush on will? is justin evil? is justin going to interfere with byler?

if all the shit like this throughout the seasons was never a directional choice, i can just imagine that finn and noah took one look at the robins ‘signals’ scene with will and they were like:

🧍🏻 🧍🏻 -> 🧍🏻 🧍🏻 -> 🧍🏻 🧍🏻-> 👬🏻

WE ARE CRAZY