#platonic elmike means everything

[parkitaco]

she’s definitely dwelling

[weirdo09]

new intro post for the new me 😎

hey, my name’s cadence but you can call me cade or cady :p

i’m a infj, my birthday’s nov 6th, scorpio ☀️ scorpio 🌙 n scorpio rising. i’m just here, in the void.

main fandoms:

stranger things

nimona (updated)

deadend (updated)

the school for good and evil (updated)

atsv (updated) <- that one’s THE main

main romantic ships (st):

byler [given]

byclair

bywheelclair

wheelclair

lumax

jargyle

ronance

elmax

elumax

henclair

main romantic ships (atsv):

rio morales x me (😝)

punkflower

goldenflower

goldenpunkflower

goldenpunk

main platonic ships (atsv):

gwiles

jess x miguel (eh i’m fine w romantic but they have such bi4bi hostility)

main platonic ships:

madwheeler [given]

willel

willelmike

elmike [yk just acquaintances]

madcleric

i write and i also draw, these i post once in a blue moon

i take requests so ask away! my inbox is open and waiting, really send me an ask or something, it gets alone in my own void

dni:

homophobic

racist

transphobic

FLOWERFANG SHIPPERS

the basics, if you are any of the following, you will be blocked [after i taunt you ofc <3]

i shitpost a lot too, you don’t have to like them but maybe do. that lets me know that my tales are valid ik ik kinda bad but whatever.

my favorite movies as of yet:

BARBIE (updated)

girl, interrupted

mean girls (updated)

it 2017 & 2019

fear street trilogy

dear zoe

the whale

the hate u give

nimona (updated)

but i’m a cheerleader (updated)

atsv (updated)

itsv (updated)

favorite shows as of now

xo kitty

stranger things

i am not okay with this

heartstopper

favorite songs

moonlight by kali uchis

charlie brown by beadaboobee

si una vez by selena

i could fall in love by selena

dye it red by beadaboobee

princess diana by ice spice

supermodel by sza

my baby, my everything, my lover, my reason for living: @rashadliveson <3333

i’ll probably add more to this later but hope you’ll stay a bit to browse my blog :] (please do, i’m soooo desperate for ppl to talk to)

[blueeandyellowmakesgreen]

Another ex melvin shipper here ✋🏼 I watched the show for the first time post Vol1 and I already knew about byler because everyone was talking about them. But I still ended up shipping melvin in s1, s2 and even lowkey in s3, though not as much as in s1-2. In s4, everything was soo different since they were having problems and at the same time I ended up liking all the byler scenes so much that I started rooting for those two instead. However, I don't feel like shipping melvin was stupid in any way. They WERE cute, it's okay to admit it. You only have bad taste if you still think they are the perfect couple now. Remember that one scene in the woods where Mike gives El the same look he gives Will in the van? Why would I not find that sweet? In my opinion, some people like to exaggerate how "bad" melvin was. It was a first crush kinda situation. It's okay to just jump ship from melvin to byler without tearing down your own previous opinion.

i get where you're coming from anon, yeah! i do feel like we have times where we underestimate how strongly mike feels for el, even if those feelings are platonic just for the sake of saying byler is better when we rly dont have to do that.

this is why i love bi mike because i saw my personal experiences with him. i had a lot of personal crises coming to terms with who i should like, and felt bad for falling for a girl when i liked a guy, and vice versa, knowing i also cared for them both a lot.

you can fall out of liking someone, and its okay. you can like all genders and thats okay! and we can also forget that mike has the capability to love and care for them both even if it means its not in the same way. platonic love is just as beautiful as romantic love and thats what makes elmike so fucking good if it weren't for heternormativity

[total-serene560]

Making this to pin to my blog for general fic info:

Current List of Completed Fics:

> The Truth Runs Wild Inside Of Me: Stranger Things, One-shot, Platonic Elmike and pre-relationship Byler, Post-ST4. Description:

Because, in a moment, El will reach out and invade his mind. She will see everything, all his memories and insecurities and all the lies he told and filed away in a box full of all his regrets and guilt. She’ll see how much of a freak he is, how much is wrong with him- a hand reaches out then, El’s fingertips pressing just barely into the top of his knee. A message. Breathe. Fuck, he's holding his breath. 

> I Dare You: Stranger Things, Two-shot, Byler, Post-ST2 Divergence. Description:

"That's high praise coming from someone who's never had to kiss me,” Will meant it as a joke, but the moment it left his mouth, he wished he could just swallow his own tongue and fall through the couch, “I-I mean-“  Mike just stared at him, eyes searching his face while his hand continued to rest on that spot between his neck and shoulder. His voice was so low and quiet that Will almost didn't hear him, “Is that a dare, Byers?” Shit.

Tumblr Ficlets:

The Byers leave Hawkins, Mike doesn't know how to deal with it

The first time he figures it out, he's 13

Normal Isn't Worth It: A Wheeler Siblings Ficlet

Currently Being Posted WIPs:

> Below The Fold: Fallout 4, Canon Divergent, Piper Wright x F!Sole Survivor, Currently being posted;

A half-dead vaultdweller shows up at the gates of Diamond City, saving Piper from being trapped outside by a spiteful mayor. This both greatly simplifies and complicates Piper's life as she chases after the story of how and why and who this woman even is. And, along the way, Piper finds that, in order to truly know someone, she has to be willing to be known herself.

> What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy): Stranger Things, Byler, ST2 divergence, 1988-89;

A movie night, a DnD campaign, a Halloween party, an unhappy compromise, a rejection, and a letter. Mike and Will spend senior year trying to navigate the past, the future, and a growing tension between them that threatens to upend their friendship. (A Post-ST2 AU)

Planned WIPs:

> A Strange Education: Stranger Things, ST3 AU/Divergence, Byler, No Vecna, No Russians, ST4 didn't happen, Begins in 1986. Most active current draft/currently in the writing stage. 3-part series:

Part 1: A Paper Cut For Two (Summer 1986) - After a difficult freshman year, Mike learns that the Byers will be returning to Hawkins for the summer so that Joyce can fix a legal issue with El’s inheritance from Hopper. With his parents fighting more than ever, Nancy navigating her upcoming move to college, and his friend group full of tension, Mike dreads the return of the two people that he has probably let down the most since last year.

Part 2: All The Dead Leaves (Winter 1986-87) - After burning every remaining bridge in his life, Mike suddenly finds himself face to face with a threat he can’t handle alone. Thrust back together by extenuating circumstances, Mike navigates his tricky relationships with his former friends as they battle against a force that threatens to completely destroy Hawkins without the help of El’s long-gone powers.

Part 3: Why Our Bodies Even Lay Here - Mike wakes up alone on a highway in the middle of nowhere after narrowly escaping death. Disoriented and afraid, Mike calls the last person he thought he’d ever reach out to again.

> Go West, Young Man: Stranger Things, 1890s Old West AU, Byler, Elumax, Jancy, Jopper, currently in the worldbuilding/outlining stage, (Still in the worldbuilding process for this one, don't have a blurb yet)

> Unison: Fallout 4, Extremely canon-divergent, Piper Wright x F!Sole Survivor, currently in the outlining stage; Nora wakes up in the Institute 200 years after the world ended, but finds that her son is not who she thought, and the world above far more complicated than she had been led to believe. Leaving the Institute, Nora returns to her home and tries to bury the past, but a chance encounter with a passing Minuteman changes the course of her life- and greatly complicates it.

> Cyclebreaker: Stranger Things, Hopper POV, Post-series, partially written at the moment; Hopper adjusts to being a father figure for Will and Jonathan, despite his hang ups from his own childhood, but finds himself in over his head when he accidentally finds out something about Will that he wasn’t supposed to know.

> The Way: Stranger Things, Byler, currently in the outlining stage; Mike reconnects with Will 20 years after defeating Vecna, but the scars left behind run deep. As they navigate reconnecting, they must choose to face the past and what drove them away from each other and from their hometown in order to come back together.

> Violent Angles: Stranger Things, ST2 divergence, 1988, Vaguely inspired by The Edge of Seventeen (1998), currently early in the writing stage; Mike gets a summer job, learns more about himself than he ever planned to, and has to deal with the consequences of the truth on everyone around him.

[strangeswift]

you people do realize that all the intimate moments you share and all the bonding that happens with someone when you're in a romantic relationship... don't just dissappear if you break up?? even if the breakup is messy you still have those moments, and they still mean something. that's why breakups are hard! and if you break up mutually and remain friends, those moments also still mean something! just because your relationship is now platonic doesn't negate everything you've been through together, the bond you built, the level of comfort you had with each other, etc. all of that is still there, you're just going to be navigating your relationship differently, because it has fundamentally changed.

in this defense of elmike essay i will–

[thegonse]

(platonic elmike)

hazy yellow sunlight filtered in through the thick green leaves sheltering hopper’s cabin. el, sitting outside on the steps in the afternoon, should be happy that she was home, really home in hawkins with everyone she loved and everything she always knew, not in lenora where people criticized and ridiculed her for things she couldn’t control. she should be happy that her dad was home, despite all that time she was slowly starting to believe he was really gone. and even if the war on the upside-down wasn’t quite finished yet, at least she had people beside her that loved her for...well, her.

the cabin door opened. el glanced up, tightening her grip on the long stick she was absentmindedly playing with, to see mike hovering inside, watching her with big brown eyes. “whatcha doing?” the question was painfully casual.

el shrugged. “nothing.” 

sighing, mike shut the door behind him and sat down on the same step. el felt something gnaw at her throat, realizing the distance between them. it was less than a foot, but it felt like a mile. two miles, three. “uh...” mike said awkwardly, reaching back to scratch his neck under thick, dark hair. “can we talk?”

“yes.” el wasn’t sure why she jumped to say it so fast.

mike gazed at her for a while before pressing his hands together tightly. it was a nervous habit of his that el could recognize quickly. was she making him nervous? monster. the word flashed fast, but she shoved it away, smothering it. “so, uh...what’s, like...going on between us lately?” mike sounded extremely hesitant. “i mean...we didn’t really talk on the way back from california. like, at all. you know?”

el nodded. “yes.” she remembered with a grimace how the air in the van hung dank and quiet, and how, for some odd reason, she couldn’t bring herself to look at either mike or will, or even the omniscient jonathan through the rearview mirror. too much was happening inside of her. she was...realizing things.

realizing how damaging it had been to lie to mike all those months. realizing how hurt she felt when he pointed out her spelling errors, even if he hadn’t meant it in the way it felt like he meant it. realizing that will sure talked about mike a lot nowadays, but was too scared to call him even though they were “best friends.”  realizing...mostly, that...things were changing. el hated change. maybe that was why she chose to escape it all the time, to try to put the pieces back together, to make it all better. el could do a lot now, but she couldn’t do everything.

“were you, like. mad or something?”

“no,” el said quietly. “i was not mad. i was just...thinking.”

“about what?”

“mike, do you...like will?”

mike scowled. it was a confused scowl. “of course! we’re frien—”

“no,” el interrupted, leaning forward slightly. “do you like will as you like me?”

mike stayed quiet, although his face grew pink, and he sighed, putting his head on his knees. el couldn’t ignore the odd feeling inside of her, telling her that she was probably right. “i...i don’t know,” mike murmured. “maybe.”

“it’s okay,” el replied. “it’s okay if you...if you do love will. i will not be mad.”

“you...wouldn’t?” 

“no.” el granted him a smile, which seemed to make him feel a little better. “because...when i got out of the lab, and you found me, i did not know a lot about what happens when people are together.” a bluebird edging down a branch overhead caught her eye. “but now i do. and now i know that people do not have to be together forever. things can change, and i think you and me are going to change, too.” she inched a little closer to mike, and the space now felt comfortable instead of stagnant. “do you think so?” 

mike’s face screwed up and he sighed. “i just...i didn’t want to hurt you, el. i never did,” he said. el could sense he was fighting back tears. “you’re just...important to me, y’know? you are.”

“you are important to me, too, mike,” el said, winding her arm around mike. “i think we can be important to each other in a different way now. is that okay?” 

mike laughed, blinking tears away. “you mean...you dump my ass, again?”

el giggled. “yes. but in a...nice way, this time.”

“well, i dump your ass, too, then,” mike said jokingly, and el sighed. the sunny spring light was beginning to retreat under the cover of trees as the two sat there, content together for the first time in months. “you’re the best, el,” mike muttered. “and i hope we can be, like...awesome friends now.”

“i do, too.” ⭐

[thatonesongyouretryingtoremember]

Rating whatever ST ships I can think of bc it's night (post lemon) and I'm bored

Lumax- 10/10 so poetic and beautiful the show doesn't do them justice which is SAYING A LOT romo lumax and platonic lumax have my heart

Elmax- the first ST ship I started shipping before joining fandom! 10/10 incredible beautiful drop dead gorgeous romo and platonic elmax are perfect

Hopclair- 10/10 I may currently be running on a hopclair ANGST high, but as I've said and will not hesitate to repeat, these two NEED to team up and NEED more screentime together! Romo, platonic, and queerplatonic hopclair love in my brain

Henclair- recently found appreciation for them upon season two rewatch and reflecting join season two, cute enough for a maybe 6/10 as romo 15/10 platonic

Henderhop- I just can't picture it 0/10

Morallysus- idrk seems kinda morally sus to me :/ -10/10

Elmike 8/10 platonic and I will not elaborate

Byler- objectively 10/10 but they are not who I'm thinking about when I'm actually watching- that's when my elmax and platonic stobin brain turns on romo and platonic byler on their respective places in the timeline are literary impeccability

Byclair- adorable and I could totally see it, 7.5/10

Wheelclair- surprisingly cute but not my first instinct I do truly Get the cuteness but 6/10

Elumax- be it romo lumax romo elmax with pl hopclair, romo hopclair, or qp hopclair, still adorable to me and I actually understand them more than you do don't go near my children sorry guys blorbo is just for me actually 100/10

Stobin- 10/10 platonic and queerplatonic aromantic and lesbian solidarity!! But also their arc and how they support eachother!! Beautiful precious my precious you can't have it wow am i gatekeeping?

Rockie- unopinionated so 6/10 besties endgame material romo

Ronance- I can never stop thinking about Nancy comparing Barb and Robin to eachother but y'all's headcanons are cute 5/10

Stancy- you know me. I love Steve. I love Nancy. Which is exactly why I can't in good conscious dare ship them together! Nancy's whole thing of relating him to Barb's death (valid) is word on its own if you don't throw in the fact that Steve super cool dream directly contradicts everything Nancy wants in life! Neither of them should have to compromise their LIFE around accommodating the other! You can say what you want about "they still like eachother romantically" which isn't even really true imo but had it ever occurred to you that sometimes people can feel romantically and and decide that a friendship would do them more good? Which isn't to say they are super close friends either because honestly their friendship has gotten the least amount of attention by the writers. -20/10 romo and 7/10 potential friendship that we will never get to see on screen.

Jancy- I honestly could not care less whether they are endgame their unbreakable bond etc etc doesn't care whether they're friends or dating 6/10

Jargyle- 10/10 how does it feel to be the most perfect ship in the world? Pl, QP, romo, alterous, whatever it is these two mean the world to me

Stonathan- question why? I'm sure it's cute I just don't understand the origin of the hype. What's it ABOUT for y'all?

Stoncy- see above, both 5/10

Steddie- I actually like it as a ship kind of if it weren't for the fact I can't see Steve not being aromantic. Also while we're here thank you if you've stopped cross tagging because I'd I look up Erica Sinclair In not looking for Eddie x Reader fics 6.5/10 romo

Boyce- wait actually this might have been my first ST ship not elmax.. anyways they're adorable and I totally hated the way they did the love triangle thing. Hopper being annoying distracted me from Bob being the coolest guy in the world.

Jopper- I guess I'm cool with them now but I was so anti jopper in S2 not because I'm invested in the love triangle I fucking hate love triangles but because Hopper was insufferable in seasons two and three and Joyce had like no boundaries in season three that got weird because ofc the writers decided to build up their canon in the most annoying way possible. Maybe they could have been an 8/10 if ST writers had fucking tried at all before season four but now they're closer to a 4.5/10 for me tbh but go back to season one where their friendship was pretty cool and they've known eachother forever and all that- super fucking sweet 8/10 points taken off because I just generally find Hopper annoying (as a person not as a character I get how he's important to the story and blah blah)

Boycer- since the suffers never ruined it I mean wrote it and I can imagine them however I want- polyamorous Joyce with her two boyfriends is a 10/10

Edissy- I genuinely thought this was a joke 2/10 romo 7/10pl

Joyren- not to be a Karen hater but I kinda hate Karen 1/10

Kargyle- I love Kali with all my heart. I absolutely adore Argyle. But I don't get this ship. Like why. 5/10 romo 8/10 pl

Kalancy- yes let women kill people! I mean I'm the scenario I imagine they are def at Kali's home not Nancy's and it's def not a healthy mindset but let's not think about that.. honestly I don't think about them at all but I guess it could be cool. 8/10 romo 9/10 pl 9/10 qp

[thefandombringer]

the best part about my (new) mileven blog is that i mean everything i say but in platonic elmike ways 😭🤚🏼

[uris-stanley]

platonic elmike would mean so much more to me than romantic. having these two people obviously care so deeply about eachother and not needing to be in a relationship for their feelings to stay. platonic love can be and often is just as (if not more) valid and valuable as romantic.

[elkdiaries]

i just have to say ur icon is killing me thats so cute

ACK TY! i found it on pinterest while mindlessly scrolling and was like "yep that's the one i'm redesigning my entire profile now yep".

platonic elmike means everything to me :)

[post-modern-prometheus]

Do you ship Mileven still or do you only ship byler romantically?

i don’t ship mileven romantically at all... however, they are my favorite friendship in the show, and you my friend have opened pandora’s box.

i see their relationship as the pinnacle of platonic love. i do think that mike fell victim to heteronormativity and the desire to be straight and ‘normal’, but i don’t think it was all a projection of how he feels for will. even though i am a dedicated byler shipper, i always cry when el walks through the door at the byers’ house. the look on both el and mike’s faces and the way they hug... they love each other. so so much. but not romantically. 

it’s hard to describe the difference. it’s more about, as mike says “a feeling”. i’ve never had significant other. but i have had so many very close friends that i care deeply about. if i watched one of them ‘die’ in front of me, but still feel as though they were still alive, i’d call them all time. if they then appeared, almost a year later, in the middle of one of the most intense nights of my life, i’d melt into their arms too. 

i think stand by me, one of the most prominent influences and referenced films in season 1, puts it best in the final scene. gordie writes about the adventure he had with his friends as a kid and finishes with: “i never had any friends later on like the ones i had when i was 12... does anyone?” i’ve never been as close with anyone as the best friend i had in middle school. i shared everything with her. it felt like we had the same brain sometimes. we were completely and platonically in love with each other. 

i think some people, on both sides of this ‘ship war’, forget that love isn’t only reserved for you significant other. the fact that the greeks had seven or eight names for different kinds of love is so beautiful to me. that’s what this show is about. yes, it’s a ‘love letter to the 80s’, full of songs, references, and nostalgia. but at its core, stranger things is a love story. of familial love with the byers and the hoppers. of romantic love with jancy and byler and lumax. of platonic love like the party and steve/dustin and steve/robin. elmike falls into the friendship category because they make so much more sense as friends. which again, is so hard to explain. they just, to me, feel better that way.

i know the et parallels have been brought up again in the tag recently, and i love it so much. i think that’s the easiest (and cutest) comparison of their relationship. the love and care that elliot/mike showed to et/el is one of the purest forms of love. which again, as we see by the direct parallel, isn’t always romantic. otherwise... that’s nasty. (also, taking care of people is mike’s love language.)

i like to imagine their break up in season 4 as a mutual realization of how they really feel about each other. i’d like them to come to the conclusion that el moving away was the best thing that could have happened to their relationship because they have to actually talk to each other instead of just making out. which let me be clear, romantic relationships don’t have to be physical to be valid. (i am, in fact, asexual, so i am acutely aware of that.) i just mean that by talking to each other they are able to understand how they actually feel about each other. you can’t talk to someone when your tongue is halfway down their throat. and through those conversations they have on the phone, they realized they were so much better off as friends. miscommunication was the reason for their issues in season 3. that’s very telling of where they’re headed.

all in all, i think there’s something beautiful about a friendship so strong that you- and other people- can mistake it for a romance.