I don’t think I have a post anywhere discussing Michel’s timeline in his normal, canon universe, so I wanted to elaborate on that below!
Michel lives in New York, born to Amelia and James D’Aubigny, lives a pretty normal life until his early twenties. He’s diagnosed with severe OCD as a teenager, and never quite figures out the way to cope with his intrusive thoughts and compulsions. He suffers immensely with contamination , body-focused, and relationship OCD. He does the usual compulsions: washing his hands until they’re raw, speaks in specific rhythmic patterns to achieve symmetry in his syllables, and a few twitches to his arms and shoulders release a bit of pressure in his old noggin’.
It isn’t until he takes forensics in university that he learns his passion. He flies through undergraduate and eventually gets his master’s in forensic science, becoming a forensic scientist in the NYPD where he’ll have (basically) unlimited access to bodies and crime scenes.
There, he meets Lannister O’Hare and Ransom Dauteuil, good-cop bad-cop frenemies on the force who do their part in disliking Michel &. finding him weird. Michel enjoys his time with them, especially with Ransom, who he takes a particular liking to. Ransom is a good four or five years his junior, with Laney a tad older than Ransom.
It’s important to know that Michel often views people he enjoys being around as being his “property,” somewhat due to relieving an intrusive thought that all people are both sick &. will leave him, so he can alleviate both intrusive thoughts by making sure they are clean by never leaving them alone. He also meets a woman, Artemis, who he sees as an extension of himself, and refuses to let her leave his vicinity. They date for multiple years. (Ages 22-27.)
Somewhere around meeting those three, Michel starts his serial killer streak. He kills exclusively cops, and often stalks them for several months beforehand. His method is to stalk the cop and the cop’s family, get into their home when the cop is alone (preferred) and kill him then, redress him in clean clothes, clean the house and pose the corpse, and then leave the scene. If necessary, he has duct-taped the wife and/or children’s mouths, and stuffed them into closets for the duration of his “art.”
An important note is that the three of them on the force - Ransom, Laney and Michel are all rather friendly for a while. When they’re able to be alone, Michel is honest with Ransom when he gets asked blunt questions - do you kill people, namely - and Michel tells Ransom that he’s going to go after him as his grand finale. The only one who knows.
Laney doesn’t get told, even though he has his suspicions about Michel. Ransom also doesn’t tell Laney, due to the fear on his life.
He kills roughly 6-7 cops before he tries to kill Ransom. Failing to get him deep enough in the throat, Ransom lives. Unlike the other killings, it’s not in Ransom’s house being posed, but the night after the final murder where he almost gets caught by Ransom and Laney. He attempts to take Ransom out but fails to.
Laney tells him that he has one chance to get out of the city and never return if he doesn’t want to get locked up in prison for life, and Michel listens. He leaves New York, and never returns.
Additionally: for his canon universe, I’m not sure what exactly happens to Artemis. In some iterations, he kills her because she asks him to - for love. In others, she gets away from him and he never hears from her again. Most times, Artemis is just a fleeting part of Michel’s life, but maybe the only time he had any true affection for another person.
