ao3.life

conformitygate

Tag · 66 works

44 works open to everyone here carry this tag; 48% are complete. The average one runs about 8,500 words. Read any of them in your browser, save it as an EPUB, or listen to it.

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Stranger Things (TV 2016)

The Time In Between Us (and the Bridge that we Built)

by aversive5599

"I-I don't know what Vecna showed you but I promise you, no version of Mike can ever hate any version of his Will. I am your Mike, Will. Yours. The Michael Wheeler to your William Byers. The Paladin to your Sorcerer. Mike the Brave who belongs with Will the Wise. If I am the heart of the party you are mine." Mike's voice breaks but he continues,"So please, please fight this. Please remember and come back. Come back to me."or A canon fix it where the canon story is Will's Vecna vision that has been used to trap him. So now the team must prepare for the final battle to uncover the secrets that have plagued them for years and Mike must finally come to terms with his feelings for his best friend. A retelling and fix it of sorts on how I think Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 and the ending should have gone because a) the plot actually REQUIRED a Byler endgame b) the fans had much better theories than whatever I was made to watch. Diverges after Season 5 Episode 5

General 32k words 5 / ? ch In progress 376 kudos

Angst · Canon is Will's Vecna vision · Fix-It of Sorts · Hurt/Comfort· +22 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

you have to learn how to die (if you want to be alive)

by marigolds1

He checks no one is looking over his shoulder. But they never are. Nobody ever comes down here. It’s like the rest of the world doesn’t even exist when he’s here. Mike focuses back on the page, trying to ignore the creeping anxiety, the hairs standing on the back of his neck. Dear Will.    or, Mike is trapped in a nightmare disguised as a dream. Will goes in after him.

Teen 7.2k words 5 / ? ch In progress 268 kudos

"smalltown boy" as a plot device · Angst · Anxiety Disorder · Fix-It· +17 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)+1

funny how i blind myself, i never knew

by sirmichael (shootsharpest)

It isn’t just the name thing. It’s a lot of little things. Will spacing out, or tapping his first and second fingers idly on his other wrist, or saying things with a weird lilting inflection, or fiddling with the radio knobs for a little too long in the basement, like he’s searching for something. (‘Midnight,’ Mike could have sworn he heard Will mumble, one of those times. ‘Midnight…’) -- Mike realizes he's stuck in Camazotz.

Teen 4.8k words 1 / ? ch In progress 245 kudos

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Post-Canon Fix-It · conformitygate · POV Mike Wheeler· +7 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

i don't believe in coincidences (do you?)

by naming_the_stars

Eventually, Will pulls away, and Mike lets him. They’re both panting. Mike searches Will’s dark eyes for something, for anything, then his brow furrows. “Why are your eyes brown?” Or- The Duffers ruined my favorite characters, so I rewrote the epilogue from Mike’s point of view, and I made him very gay (as God intended) and fixed everything.

General 3.6k words 1 ch Complete 228 kudos

One Shot · Vecna Possessing Mike Wheeler · conformitygate

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Show Me Your Teeth

by Caipaw

Mike starts to notice that something is horribly wrong with the world, and it all starts to fall apart around him. Or My take on conformitygate :)

Teen 6.5k words 1 ch Complete 201 kudos

Angst · Confusion · Fix-It of Sorts · Good Sibling Holly Wheeler· +18 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

I'll Be Brave (You Make It So Easy)

by xbondola

At home, he sits at the desk and writes another story – a sleepless knight, a lonely castle; a wise sorceress saves him with a kiss that tastes like tears. But This is not the true story, the voice in his head chides. What do you think will happen if you write it down for once?Writing it down would only make it hurt more, though, and Mike's made peace with the fact that he'll never be able to tell that story anyway, because it's too late and there's no one there to hear it anymore. The heart on Will's painting mocks him from the wall, Remember when you had a chance to make things right? When your life was still your own?All Mike does is remember. Or, Mike is stuck in a fake reality, and Will saves him.

Teen 3.5k words 1 ch Complete 183 kudos

Alternate Ending · Angst with a Happy Ending · Episode: s05e08 The Rightside Up (Stranger Things) · First Kiss· +13 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Turn Away, Run Away (Crying to Your Soul, Crying to Your Soul)

by Yui_Kuromori

(...) "you pick a place to hide, anywhere at all. Think of one.”At his prompting, Mike thought for a minute. If he was asked for a place to hide…well he couldn’t think of anything but his basement. Still air, soft blankets. El.Mike’s eyes burned. “Yeah okay, I picked one.” “Alright, then I ask some questions. Try to find you. You only give me yes or no answers.” Mike shifted in his seat, “Okay.” “The idea is to delve in where your brain goes when it wants to hide,” he explained, “what it finds safe, familiar or innovative.” -------- Something clicked in Mike’s brain, like he suddenly remembered the answer to a test. “I’m not hiding.” He said before he could stop himself. Dustin’s arms tightened around him, before he pushed Mike away, just enough that he could look at him in confusion.Mike blinked, mind suddenly clearer, what was he saying- “I’m not hiding, I’m looking for something.” ------- In which Mike Wheeler fights his way to a happy ending.

Teen 12k words 3 / ? ch In progress 182 kudos

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · BAMF Mike Wheeler · Emotional Manipulation · First Kiss· +18 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Smalltown Boy

by collectorof_lost_things

'You leave in the morning with everything you own in a little black case.Alone on a platform, the wind and the rain on a sad and lonely face.’ When Lucas called Mike about his wedding, Mike's instinct was not to go. The same instinct that kept him from Dustin's wedding. The same instinct that kept him from the phone to call Will. Mike had spent the four years after graduation stuck in Hawkins, stuck working on his stupid novels that were going nowhere. He wasn't important to the world, and his friends knew that. They didn't need him anymore, so why would he try?Why would he bother to follow anything but the mundane routine he had been scrambling after for weeks? He definitely wouldn't bother trying because an irritatingly familiar song keeps playing when he's alone. Nor when he hears an achingly familiar voice through the television. --- Or: It takes Mike six days to get out of the world Vecna trapped him in, and seven days to see Will again.

General 16k words 7 ch Complete 176 kudos

Good Sibling Holly Wheeler · Good Sibling Nancy Wheeler · Mike Wheeler Hates Will Byers's Epilogue Boyfriend · Mike Wheeler Loves Will Byers· +11 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

the persistence of (false) memory

by abysstrips

In The Good Place, Michael keeps rebooting Eleanor's fake afterlife because she keeps figuring out something is wrong. Henry Creel has the same problem. His prisoner is Mike Wheeler. His fake Hawkins keeps collapsing. The first one fell apart because of a fake ID and the legal drinking age of Indiana, and it only gets worse from there. It's also, accidentally, a love story. or Eleven times Henry Creel reset the timeline because Mike Wheeler is an insufferable little gremlin, and one time he didn't

Teen 8.9k words 4 ch Complete 162 kudos

Comedy of Errors · Eventual Happy Ending · Fluff and Humor · Henry Is Being Mocked By His Own Subconscious· +17 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

there's these terrors (just sleep)

by stardust_eyes

Mike Wheeler, eighteen months after the final fight with the Mind Flayer, is living a peaceful yet oddly stifling life in Hawkins, Indiana, a town rebuilding after tragedy. However, things stop making sense. All eyes are on Mike, and it'll take more than Mike the Brave to get through it now.

Teen 17k words 7 ch Complete 153 kudos

Alternate Ending · Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Ambiguous/Open Ending · Canon Rewrite· +9 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

If I Wake Up, Will You Still Be There?

by Kat2me120

Mike wakes up for graduation. And then he keeps waking up for graduation.Basically fixing the epilogue and bringing Mike back to before they fight Vecna

Teen 18k words 2 ch Complete 147 kudos

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Angst with a Happy Ending · Blood and Injury · Blood and Violence· +25 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

left behind. (but will be found.)

by protarmark

But that was the problem. Everyone moved on. Everyone. Mike was lost by himself. The only one still grieving. Nancy left the house after getting a job. Lucas and Max went to the same university together in another city. Dustin went to another. Will... Will went to another. What Mike predicted that day they were playing DnD all came true. Sometimes it was suffocating. He wanted to turn to people he loved for support. Although his mother and Holly knew of the horrible fate of Hawkins, it wasn't the same. He missed the Party. He missed El. ——— In which, Vol3 is actually Vecna's curse.

Teen 2.7k words 1 ch Complete 136 kudos

Grief/Mourning · Suicide Attempt · Vecna's Curse (Stranger Things) · conformitygate· +1 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You

by Jellysunnie

Mike Wheeler is falling apart, and nobody seems to notice. There’s strange inconsistencies in Hawkins, and he can’t help but feel like everything’s fake. He tells himself it’s just stress and lack of sleep, and he tells everyone else that too. Will doesn’t believe him. AKAStranger things s5 slow burn byler where Mike is Vecna’d

Teen 14k words 3 / ? ch In progress 129 kudos

Alternate Ending · Angst · Angst and Hurt/Comfort · Angst with a Happy Ending· +30 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

All roads lead to you

by Ilovekirkhammet567

Mike doesn’t leave the house much anymore. After everything, all he does is sleep and write and pretends he isn’t falling apart.When Vecna traps Mike inside a dream world, it begins to bleed into his memories—childhood moments, old wounds, and things he’s spent years avoiding.As the dream fractures, Mike is forced to confront grief, fear, and the person who keeps appearing at the center of it all.And some truths are harder to escape than monsters.ORVecna traps Mike in a dream world, and Mike has to face what he’s been running from. Which might just be his love for our very own Will Byers.

General 7.5k words 3 ch Complete 125 kudos

Angst · Bad Parent Ted Wheeler (Stranger Things) · Childhood Memories · Eddie Munson mentioned· +33 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Their tears are filling up their glasses

by Blutmondlilie

Sunday breakfast at the Wheeler house feels almost normal.Sure, Mike is still a bit tired, sure there is that weird tingle again, but...If you survive the end of the world, you earn all the right to forget, don’t you?

General 1.7k words 1 ch Complete 119 kudos

Camazotz · Conformity Gate · Domestic Horror · Dungeons & Dragons References· +16 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Avalanches (and unfamiliar ways to die)

by Mixtapeofmemories

Mike's legs propelled him forwards, eyes locked on the book at the end of the stack, an ornate "W" sketched onto the front. His hand shook as it raised upwards, slipping his book alongside Will's. There's one more story you can't ever tell, isn't there? Or: my take on conformitygate

Teen 3.8k words 1 / ? ch In progress 107 kudos

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Internalized Homophobia · Mike Wheeler Has Internalized Homophobia · POV Mike Wheeler· +6 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

The Storyteller’s Ending

by whataboutthepretenders

“Mike, we can’t just spend the rest of your life in your basement playing D&D. Isn’t that what you said?” He smiled bitterly, speaking through tears. God, HE did this to Will. It’s terrible. Heartbreaking, even, if Mike had any heart left to break. Mike knew what Will was remembering. Those words, that rain.   “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!” It’s not my fault. You don’t like girls.  - - - - - “This isn’t like one of your campaigns, you don’t get to write the ending.”Mike DID write his own ending, but it sucked, so I decided to redo it In which I decide to let my imagination run with the conformitygate info I’ve seen

Teen 4.7k words 4 / ? ch In progress 99 kudos

#conformitygate · Autistic Mike Wheeler · Depressed Mike Wheeler · El deserved a better ending· +13 more

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Give it a hundred years (it won't go away)

by nocturnobook

The first time Mike feels something is wrong, he's in a black void of his mind, empty except for water lapping at his feet and Eleven standing in front of him, saying tearful goodbye. She’s telling him she loves him, her eyes begging for him to say it back to her. I love you... it would be so easy to say it - he managed it before, even when the context was different, so why is it still such an impossible word for him? It doesn’t feel right, like his teeth clamp down harder than ever to prevent him spilling the truth that’s been hiding in his heart. The void is in his mind, possibly, and all he sees is the black emptiness around him, and he hopes there aren’t any monsters lurking in the dark, just past their line of sight.

Teen 8.1k words 1 ch Complete 91 kudos

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence · Angst · Crying · Dungeons & Dragons References· +25 more