man michael shelley’s story is just so heartbreaking
i’ve been thinking abt how jonah magnus chooses people who are cut off frm the rest of the world, people who don’t have family or friends outside of the institute. people who won’t be missed or searched for. and michael shelley was probably no different, which means the archives was very likely the closest thing that he had to a family
and when you think about that in association to what happened to him... jesus. emma harvey kept him in the dark about the danger that he was in as a servant to the eye, about the existence of avatars and by extension. she concealed the truth about the entire world, and about everyone michael thinks he knows. and she did it all just for a laugh
gertrude robinson knew that emma was doing this to michael. and she let her. even before killing him, gertrude had already cemented this mental image of michael shelley as nothing more than something that could be of potential use. and that’s all that he ended up being. he cared about gertrude, admired her even, and from the very start, even before choosing him as a sacrifice, michael meant absolutely nothing to gertrude robinson
it’s safe to assume that this group of people was like a found family, the same way the new archival crew was. we only hear the original michael speak once but it’s so clear that he’s seeking gertrude’s approval, and that makes me believe gertrude was definitely something like a mother to michael. and that just makes his fate all the more heart-wrenching. especially when you realize that gertrude knew and understood exactly what was going to happen to michael shelley when he stepped through that door