Curious: do the 250k new people know about adats? 🤔 A Dream Always the Same by @sevensided is known as the most staple fan literature out there where byler is concerned, and back a year or two ago it was kind of just presumed that everyone in the fandom had read it. Is that still the case? Things have changed a lot around here.
If you haven’t read it: it’s 30+ chapters and 100k words. Covers the 3 month gap at the end of season 3. Shows how Mike begins to discover his sexuality. Every bit of media referenced in the fic is historically accurate - I had 20+ tabs open when I read it, always googling something & going down another rabbit hole. This fic shows which pieces of media a queer person could have actually stumbled on in 1984 that might help them begin to have inklings of their queerness - and what that awakening process might look like.
Plus the Mike Wheeler insight is god tier. Also, the whole thing is achingly, breathtakingly full of sticky pine sap summer nostalgia. The fic practically blows humid air at you while bathing your face in too-hot sunlight.
Put on some sunscreen and read this classic Byler fic if you haven’t yet ☺️🌅📚
Did any other A Dream Always the Same fans immediately recognize “spellbound” by Siouxsie and the Banshees at the end of ST S4 V2 because of the adats playlist by @sevensided? Just me? 😅 <- nerd alert