Having thoughts about post-canon Michael. Something about having a horrible life-changing experience happen so quickly, and then just being expected to move on and be normal about it. The concept of a traumatic experience changing someone physically and mentally, but being expected to ignore those changes and be the person you were before. But you can’t because you’ve been changed, for better or worse.
Michael who’s not a vampire, not even a half, but he also isn’t just a human anymore. He’s been something other, and was pretty damn close to staying “other” forever. If being a vampire hadn’t meant hurting people, being like his dad, I do think Michael would’ve turned. The only real thing holding him back was the violence and the hurting people aspect. Michael liked the power and strength he had, he liked belonging to something bigger than himself, he liked the immortality. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to reconcile knowing that about yourself with living normally?
Michael who is now intimately aware of what human tastes like, knows what it’s like to crave human blood like nothing else. He no longer craves it or needs it, but nothing he ever eats again will ever be as good as the blood in that bottle, nothing will ever match the high. Michael almost killed Sam and would’ve eaten/drank him. He knows what it is like to be hungry for Sam. How can you just go back to normal after that?
Michael misses flying. He misses the strength and power. He misses feeling part of something so much larger than himself. He misses the boys. He doesn’t regret killing them exactly— he had to keep his family safe— but he misses them so much. But how do you even express that to other people? I don’t think Michael would be able to mourn the boys properly or say that he misses them. They were monsters after all, they wanted to hurt him and his family. But Michael knew who they were beyond the monster— that’s who he misses.
Maybe Michael decides to finish out his senior year, a new appreciation for the mundane after what happened. He wants a fresh start. But everybody knows of him, even if they don’t know him. Michael showed up, followed the band into the dark, and lived to tell the tale when they didn’t. Like imagine you live in Santa Carla; this band of assholes has been terrorizing town for decades, then this kid shows up. Instead of getting eaten, they claim him and he becomes one of them… only for all of them to go missing a few days later and the murders stop. But the kid is still alive, he’s still there.
Michael who even after being back to “human” still isn’t all the way back. His canines are a little pointier than they should be. His senses are just a little bit sharper, more sensitive than normal (he takes to wearing sunglasses a lot). He doesn’t crave blood but nothing he eats will ever taste as good. It’s a little harder to wake up early, and he stays up a little bit later than he would in Phoenix. He’s human, sure, but he wasn’t for a bit. And that has consequences.
