to elaborate: this website is a fucking nightmare to be on and it has impacted my mental health in ways i cannot describe. my activity here will hopefully be very sparse from now on.
Thinking of a scenario where they really do pull Simon up, but they decide to dispose of him anyway.
Unbeknownst to the C.O.I., the hive mind in the blood ocean was just like: "nah. That one's already mine. His blood is my blood."
So, they dispose of him. It's a whole deal. He's hazardous waste. It's ugly and brutal and they put him down screaming.
But, Simon wakes up in a body bag completely fucking wrong. Like an alternate. Like one of those things from No, I'm Not a Human.
Do you think if someone from the C.O.I. shoots him, a bunch of freaky blood worms fall out or something? Oops! All Mutation :)
He's not dangerous. Not really. Just sort of... idles. Reacts like a person, walks and talks like one... but, there's no way he should be alive in any capacity. Nobody can get rid of him. Locking him in a room doesn't do anything. He's always somewhere else the moment eyes are off of him.
Doesn't eat. Doesn't drink.
Acts like he's waiting for something he has no ability to describe with human words. Babbles about things nobody can make sense of. Knows things he shouldn't. Talkative but in a way that makes everyone uncomfortable.
There's no anger. No determination. It's not Simon. It's just not.
The Guy Who Told Simon to Cross the Wires | Fanon Master Post
[ Context 1 ] [ Context 2 ] [ Character Playlist ] [ Search Tag ]
Congratulations! It's a... *checks notes*
π Michael π
By popular vote among 65, beating out "Cade" by a mere 3%!
I know this fandom is starving for "canon-based" characters to play with in their fanfiction, so please allow me to humbly introduce my fan-rendition of Wires Guy. This is less-so an "AU" and moreso a big extrapolation paper on missing details. The canon events of the movie are completely untouched.
His Timeline
Michael was sent to Eden during its glory days as an agricultural center, arriving there days before the Quiet Rapture to become an understudy. He barely had time to settle before the planet Marsβalong with his familyβdisappeared.
He was thrust directly into a mass psychosis event at a young age, all alone, as the station devolved into a death cult. He became a child soldier alongside Simon. Bought into the Last Tree as a god quite heavily. It was all he had left.
Michael grew up to be an incredible mind, despite the circumstances (having been smart enough to know how to jerry-rig the SM-13's computer to play a secret message with no prior knowledge of how it worked). The Simon-Michael dynamic is:
Michael and Simon were on a small raiding crew together after they became old enough to start participating directly in the resource-related fighting between them and the COI, both egging each other on to do worse and worse crimes. He taught Simon everything he knew about starspeeders, and in return, Simon taught him to fight dirty. Taught him it was safe to emote the way he wanted to. He didn't have to "stonewall" people all the time to keep it together. Simon's all about expression and speaking his mind.
It is in the midst of this, that an unspoken rivalry forms. It's brotherly competition to get the Father's good graces. This guy is family to Simon despite their differences.
Simon begins to doubt the Last Tree, making the mistake of opening up about it to Michael, who full-stop freaks the fuck out on the inside. This ends their friendship, but they are still Brothers. Michael thinks he can "save" Simon from straying the path if he tries hard enough. Michael doesn't want to lose the only family he has.
They get sent to Filament Station together as young men. It is their first "real" battle deployment. Leaps above being shitty space pirates on their beater little shuttle. Simon is at his angriest, and Michael is barely tethered to the present second and depressed (they reflect different aspects of the way a human mind might try to cope with such horrors). They are both looking to prove themselves to the Father. Michael knew about and had a hand in causing the explosion, having been the one most capable of understanding the station's reactor core as smart as he is. Michael deemed it justified. Simon did not.
Their hesitant "Brothers in Arms" thing between one another shatters. Filament is destroyed, and they are both captured. Michael hates Simon, but Simon can't bring himself to hate Michael. Simon thinks Michael is very lost on the inside, and it hurts.
They both end up in prison together for an undefined amount of time. Could have been months. Could have been years. We really do not know. They spend this time together watching their fellow captured Brothers either die to suicide or be dragged out of their cells, never to return again. It's a massacre on the COI's part. Despite being locked in a cage, Simon tries to spend the time off in his own head, daydreaming of better times, hoping for a better future.
Michael haaates it. Simon has his head in the clouds too much and it's bothersome.
But, then, one day, it's Michael's turn. They march him out.
From Simon's perspective, he disappears completely since then. Not a trace. Not a word about him. Simon makes up a story in his head to self-soothe. That maybe Michael made it out.
Michael's pissed. He's tired and has been depressed for a long time. He's had enough, and he is not one to let himself be humiliated at the hands of the COI. So, after they drop him in the SM-13, he refuses to move. Refuses orders. Just sits.
Then, with anger flitting into some twisted kind of determined certainty, he records a message for the next one down, leaving his pendant in a safe place and a note to cross the wires. Michael has a very fatal flaw that sets him apart from Simon the most.
Knowing when to quit.
Michael chooses to go quietly, and suffocates to death, having not touched the console nor the camera. The COI lets him. They don't pull the SM-13 back up until he's gone.
Since we're in the trenches already: Eden Brothers can identify exactly who these pendants belong to by their leaves. Each one is unique, like a fingerprint. They are akin to military call-signs. If it weren't for the clear voice over the speaker, I think Simon would've known who this was, regardless. This isn't just an Eden pendant. This is Michael's pendant; it couldn't possibly be anyone else's. They are irreplaceable.
Simon's doing the equivalent of taking the baton from him and running with it. The SM-13 was supposed to be Michael's ship.
Simon is reacting this way not because of the fact that a random guy died here. He's reacting this way because he is remembering who this was. Simon knew this guy, and remembers him as that little boy in his head because what is Simon's biggest vice? Remembering the better times. Nostalgia.
Of course he's going to only entertain memories of a time when they got along. They were kids together.
Characterization
Very patriotic about Mars even though it no longer exists. He's a yearner for Mars. It rubbed off on Simon a little bit.
He had to raise himself. The Father was too busy raising Simon after his mother died.
The anger issues are just as bad as Simon's, except Michael antagonizes to feel something, anything, and Simon likes to punch for the same reasons. They're not healthy for each other. Toxic family stuff.
Always played "runner up" to God's Favorite War Dog (Simon). Despite this, Michael is just as dangerous.
In a spar, Michael can easily hold his own against Simon. He is taller and faster, yet has the flaw of refusing to fight dirty like Simon does. It just feels wrong to him.
Resting bitch face. Has a hard time emoting, dead eyes, glazed over, the whole nine yards. Full-stop opposite of Simon being so expressive, even when he is masking.
He finds solace among technology despite being surrounded by agrarians and being one himself. Michael is not a mechanic, he simply appreciates the art of a good machine and enjoys the study (he's totally not self-projecting). He craves the strength certainty of steel, or something like that. Something something, keeping control is better than letting his grief get the better of him and relating with machines.
He's an academic, multi-disciplinary problem solver more than anything. In his free time, he writes. Has a poetic air about the way he speaks. Very straightforward yet with great prose. Simon's always appreciated it.
He's fluent in Edenic Creole (my fanon Far-Future English dialect). Michael uses formal phrasing and often.
He has trained himself out of hesitating much like Simon. Simon was not good for his impulse control.
Michael is methodical and a planner. Simon is also a planner, but a spur-of-the-moment one. Something about Markiplier being a sporadic creative. You can imagine the bullshittery that ensues.
"SIMON NO" "SIMON YES" -> "dude..." "yeah... I knew that was stupid. Still fun, though." "... true, true."
They both have enough ego to fill two stadium-sized swimming pools. They fight because they both believe they are right about their own values. Michael is just as stubborn about the Tree returning to life as Simon is about the stars coming back. It's two sides of the same hopeful coin.
Bonus crackpost: Michael's a would-be stoner. Simon's a would-be alcoholic, if he could get his hands on enough (they were pillaging for supplies!!! Simon's been the Butcher long before Filament Station. THEY WERE ROBBING PEOPLE. What else would Simon be doing? They definitely stole shit from Eden's "supply" runs). Together, they are Substance Abuse Squared: You're in for a Scare!
*Takes a bow*
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I'm so excited to present this guy to the Council. Please enjoy Michael's character, and tag me if you make any content for him!!!