#spiralweed

[doomed-patch-of-ink]

Eliasmichael headcanons

[I rotated the concept of Og!Elias and Michael a bit too intensively in my head, and this was the aftermath I put down on paper, containing my most self-indulgent headcanons.]

Eliasmichael...they could be so pathetic for each other for a lot of fucking reasons. It's literally just angst if you look under the surface. It's lovely.

-> supernatural trauma for both of them: one resulted in relentless knowledge and answer-seeking, with an affinity for the Watcher, the other fears the Eye, because he saw his friend be taken by it, and got so deeply marked that he still walks into the open arms of Jonah Magnus...

-> identity issues: Elias has trauma from home, the treatment he got for simply being trans, so he walks away with such low self-esteem, that he can't stop proving himself to everyone. That, of course, doesn't allow him to show any weakness.

Michael's nonbinary, but refuse to think about it too much because he just wants to fit in, so he's mostly still just confused. He's unlucky enough to also experience dysphoria, because he can't, and doesn't even know how to dress the way he wants, he's bothered by his height, his hair (long or short, sometimes doesn't matter), his facial hair, and everything that makes other people assume, but he still thinks he doesn't care enough for it to mean anything. Results in some pretty unhealthy eating habits.

-> unavoidable faith: Michael being led to his end by threads of the Web and not knowing for the last moment, Elias deep down knowing so well what awaits and still unable to do anything against it.

-> running away: Elias wants to hide and forget where he came from, and Michael still reminds him of it, because he thinks Elias deserves to be treated how he was meant to be, so he can unintentionally use Elias to hide even more from his own life, failure, issues.

-> weed and anxiety meds.

[not0a0mundane]

Trust me, Spiralweed is going to play a trope bc the line between "being stuck for some 20 years inside of your own head and no one noticing" is very close to "being used as a means to stop a ritual and no longer being you and the now you that you are, hates being you"

also bc it would be funny to have OG!Elias meet someone that is SO close to being a person from his past that remembers him as he was and not what Jonah made him, only for that someone be only wearing his friends face.

Might Fuck Around and Find Out (write a fic with OG!Elias coming back to S3!Archives and being hella confused)

[nonbinaryeye]

Michael Shelley was the closest person original Elias Bouchard had to a friend. Michael Shelley was also the only one who suspected absolutely nothing when Jonah took over Elias because it made perfect sense to him that Elias will eventually realise what a loser he is and stop talking to him...

[clownspiral]

saw your michael ship hcs and. do you have any for michael & og!Elias bc. I'm love them

oh bestie i have hcs 4 everything involving michael

if we're talking michael shelley x og!elias:

- elias is chill & laid back, while shelley is a bit more goody-two-shoes. they even each other out a lot! shelley has a fun party side that rlly only elias can bring out of him, and elias is honestly super intelligent when he has a lil guidance

- michael is always surprised that elias wants to hang out with Him, esp outside of the institute, but they have more in common than either of them wouldve thought. both are real artistic & into music

- gertrude thinks elias is a bad influence on michael but michael just. Likes him. he's kind of torn between wanting to be a model assistant & secretly wanting 2 goof off w/ elias but hanging w/ elias is always like, 100x more fun

- michael is kinda anxious abt pot. the 1st time he does it w/ elias hes like "oh my god im going to die. im going to JAIL and im going to DIE" and elias is like "...dude....... i love you im not letting u die in jail ok" & mikeys like "..ok..."

- elias is a gamer & michael barely understands video games. he's happy to just lay w/ elias & watch him play

- michael is into some things elias finds painfully boring (puzzles, board games, stamp collecting, etc) but he involves himself in his hobbies anyway cuz he loves how happy those things make him

- michael had an emo phase in uni & elias had a preppy phase & neither lets the other live those phases down

- they make pinkie promises, mostly for michael's comfort. elias thinks it's really cute

- they both survive on questionable diets (& encourage each other to maybe... eat a Real Meal here & there, preferably together)

- michael is like hhwuhqhqjhw <333 when elias lets him wear his dirty ass cheeto-stained hoodie. he would usually be Grossed out but it's elias so it's fine (more than fine)

- shotgunning central. that's all

if we're talking michael distortion x og!elias:

- michael gives elias weird Spiral Cannabis & it's like, mind-shifting beyond human comprehension & michaels just like =>) do u like it

- michael is surprisingly good at handling elias's bad trips, considering its whole like. existence is basically a Bad Trip

- elias LOVES michael's laugh. he thinks it sounds so cool & will Not hesitate 2 make a fool of himself in order 2 hear it

- michael can do crazy tricks with smoke & elias is usually so high that hes just like "wwhoaoaah mikee thats crazzyy"

- michael desperately wants to protect elias frm gertrude, fearing that she might make him into just another dead assistant. it gets kind of paranoid abt leaving him alone & checks up on him @ work quite a lot

- elias spends Hours trying 2 figure out how the hell michael's anatomy works but ultimately accepts that it simply Does Not Work

- theyve both got a strong connection 2 cats 4 some reason, both of them like. immediately drop everything whenever they spot a stray cuz they Must pet it

- michael is more comfortable showing ALL its traits 2 elias, human & inhuman. it can't imagine that goof wanting 2 do any harm (or ever being capable of it)

- they both bring each other a lot of little trinkets. michael's careful not to misplace the things elias gives it, even tho it's kinda hard Not to lose things (his gifts r Special!)

- gertrude is like "bouchard what on earth are you doing..." when she finds out abt it but neither michael nor elias will be convinced to not continue their romantic endeavors

[trustworthy-liar]

Liar... dear liar.

Some spiralweed for my soul?

My dear Eli, here, please have them boys 💚💚💚

[transagentcarolina]

I would love to see your og Elias design or Michael Shelley design (or both of them SpiralWeed is a good ship)

elias as we saw him in 193! i havent done a full colour pic before, but my og michael shelley design is in this post

[rayneing-on-your-parade]

I’ve heard spiralweed for Elias/micheal

But I genuinely need to think of one for Michael/Gerry/Jon/Martin because I haven’t found a single fic for it and it gives me life thinking about it and I’m torn between writing a fic for it or just a DoorKeay fic

we need more cute shipnames that arent [name][name]. like Georgie and Melanie being WTGFS (what the girlfriends) and Gerry and Michael Distortion being called Doorkeay.

Jmart (formerly, to my knowledge) being Teaholding, FabricRustles, and more. Timsasha can be smth like Strangerdanger or Maskedstranger. Gerryoliver as Skulls n’ Roses (guns n’ roses pun) or, i dont know, Sleepingsoul, Dreambook? im bad at this

(wait oh my god if anyone ships martin x mike crew, it could be called Sweaterweather)

(basiradaisy being, like, furrycop? /j)

point is; i just find the more specialized ship names to be adorable, we need more of them. feel free to drop ship names in the notes, i wanna make a list

[nonbinaryeye]

Some more og elias and Michael angst? for the soul?

Both Elias and Michael had crush on each other but neither of them ever confessed. They shared few awkward drunk kiss which they never properly talked about. If things were different they would surely get to it one. But never got such a chance...

One of the cons of skipping bodies is that no body comes without some baggage. For example if original inhabitant of the body was alcoholic Jonah must as well be careful about alcoholic bevarage to some degree. Unfortunately with feelings it's the same. Since original Elias had feelings for Michael, Jonah had to deal with having sometimes irrational need to protect a Michael or getting this annoying warm feelings around him. That's why he was so happy to send Michal away with Gertrude, so he could be finally free of Elias' body still wanting to hug and take care of Michael.

Same thing happen to Michael when he became what he became. Even though becoming one with Spiral gave him different view on world and made him something different there was still bit of Michael Shelley inside - the part which wanted to take his revenge on the Eye and on the Archivist. He never attempted anything against the Head of the Institute though... even though he learnt current Elias is not his Elias he still could not bring himself to do anything against him.

[nonbinaryeye]

Do you like rare ship of og Elias Bouchard and Micheal Shelley?

Please help me promote new ship name for them... SpiralWeed!

[nonbinaryeye]

Don’t mind me just crying over Michael x og Elias

Oh, my deepest apologies! 😔

Then definitely don't imagine Jonah feeding of Michael's insecurities. Don't think about Jonah as Elias even breaking up officially the relationship with Michael simply because he is bored. He took away Elias' life why not also hurt the only person who liked him.

After all it means some nice fresh trauma for Jonah! 🥺

[nonbinaryeye]

*Michael breaks something in the artifacts storage.*

Michael: Oh no what will we do? What if Mr Wright finds out? Or worse what if Miss Robinson finds out. We're so dead! Or worse fired!!

Elias: Chill I got this Shelley.

*pulls out a chewing gum of his mouth and sticks it back together*

[nonbinaryeye]

Spiral weed angst? For the soul? I’m ready to be hurt again

I have lots of angsty ideas worry not anon!

What if the body skip happened when Michael was on unusually long business trip with Gertrude Robinson. It was not coincidence Jonah wanted everything to gi smoothly and he was afraid Gertrude might protest over him becoming new Head of the Institute so he made up some excuse to send her away.

And so Michael never saw the change in Elias' behavior as overnight thing. It happened over the month he was away. He knew something must have happened but he always felt like it could not have been just death of James Wright and Elias rise in power. He was sure there was more to it, there was something else that changed his friend, his Elias... He has the ridiculous feeling like maybe if he did no go on that trip he could have prevented it...

Maybe Jonah even noticed this chain of thoughts and started feeding this feeling, reffering to some vague incident and indirectly blaming Michael for being away to feed the insecurities-...

Feel free to ask for more anytime!

[nonbinaryeye]

Currently thinking about spiralweed post Jonah eye theft where either 1) elias watches every dickish thing Jonah does to Michael (usually this being a duck feeds the beholding but not always) and or 2) Jonah continuing his relationship with whichever Lucas he was on in his previous body (can’t remember if it was Peter yet) and Michaels reaction op help

I really like AU ideas:what if og Elias was still lurking behind, unable to act but forced to watch everything. This lovely art captures exactly the idea. Because yes, it sounds like delightful angst - Elias watching how cold and cruel Jonah is towards Michael. How dissmissive he is. Or worst g how he's playing with Michael feelings and feeding his insecurities...

Also - definitely! I take it as granted in all my lonelyeyes hc that they've gotten together when Jonah was still James. I can see Michael and Elias one day speculating over James Wright wierd sailor visitor and creating some ridiculous concepts of "haha, what is that old prick is actually gay" and "I heard that guy is one of the benefactor is like Wright trying to seduce him"? And few days later Elias is the one uncomfortably close around Peter while Michael is no wiser what happened... (though its more likely Michael would never notice Peter's presence as the Lonely avatar would hate to be seen, especially with whatever version of Jonah of all people.)

[nonbinaryeye]

Your spiralweed content makes me sob but also specifically you saying about Jonah abandoning Michael and him not thinking anything was wrong because obviously elias would leave him I am going to cry myself to death op. Up until that post I had headcanonned that Jonah kept him around for a bit so nobody in the institute asked questions (and was just kinda a dick about it until he could have Michael thrown into an evil door in Russia) but the abandonment? Ouch

Always happy to deliver some emotional damage! 💚

I think that og Elias acted a bit like entitled dick and struggled to make friends so everyone was actually surprised his friendship with Michael lasted even that long. Jonah fitted perfectly into the stereotype everyone already had about Elias.

Though I'm not against the idea that from time to time Jonah greeted Michael or gave him a smile just to wake up in him a bit of fake hope he could rush later.

[nonbinaryeye]

🌹?

“For a fact Wright did complimented me once - even though I have a suspicion he meant it as irony cause he said: ‘how nice to see you in shirt which is almost clean and almost doesn’t smell like weed Mr Bouchard; I might even start to think you are taking this job seriously...’ or something like that," Elias shrugs and Michael is once again wondering how come his friend hasn't been fired yet.

I don't even have a title fully figured out for this fic but it is supposed to be mostli SpiralWeed with some PeterJames lonelyeyes in the background. (Apologies for no having more James centric fic in my wips, Percy)

[who-needs-words]

LOOK AT THIS WONDERFUL SPIRALWEED CONTENT

I don't know why but I like to imagine og Elias having Vespa probably in some atrocious color like bright green or pink...

He probably bought it when he was completely stoned.

He also drives like complete maniac. Michael once took his offer for a ride. He deeply regretted.