#michaelmartin

YES I so will!!!

Okay my first piece of propaganda is literally just this specific fic, which I discovered during a free period during sophomore year of high school when my friend and I (the same friend who made that mermichael commission actually!) entertained ourselves by coming up with random pairings of TMA characters and seeing how much fic of them there was on AO3, and we happened upon Michael/Martin (since they were already two of my faves). I read all of it that was published at the time and it gave me a disease. I think within like a month or two of me reading it I was drafting out my first (of many) michaelmartin fic lol, it really permanently altered my brain chemistry

I think some of the additional reasons I've been obsessed with them continuously for like three whole years is 1. there's something wrong with me and 2. I think there's some really genuinely interesting parallels between them as archival assistants who start out as actively trying to impress their respective archivists!!! While I think a lot of that paralleling is done to show the differences between Jon and Gertrude specifically, it's also really interesting to compare Martin and what we know of Michael Shelley in what seems like devotion. Particularly, Martin's pretty often revealed to be way more resourceful and cunning (and genuinely manipulative <3) and generally able to take care of himself, while obviously that was not the case for Shelley, or at least not enough to save him--and I think that makes for a REALLY interesting dynamic between Martin and Michael Distortion, who's by nature much more jaded and distrustful but also may see something of themself (or like, a stain Michael Shelley left behind on what they are now) in Martin. To this day I still think one of my most fun fic ideas would be one where Michael sees Martin's lil crush and is like no <3 quit that :^}. and bothers Martin about it a whole bunch, which is inherently very silly but I love it.

I also just think Martin deserves to kiss big monsters, and that the combination of "guy who appears very sweet and accommodating and a bit incapable but is absolutely doing it on purpose and is also, deep down a bit of a bitch (honorific)" and " 'guy' whose thin, person-shaped facade hides a big weird freak playing games with everyone around it all the time and also encouraging the first guy to be even more of a bitch (and also would kill for him. with pleasure.)" is an EXTREMELY specific but delightful dynamic. I think that like they both DO make each other better a little bit in my mind through Martin's staunch choice to care about others and try and hope for the best despite the lonely's influence on him (one of my favorite traits of his) and through Michael being just a little bit of an enabler (and also just resolutely understanding Martin and just casually loving him with all of their complex and tangled monster self like it's second nature)<-I'm normal about them.

Overall I just think that there's a lot of genuine similarities between them that can be really interesting and lead to fascinating character studies when brought together, but also at the same time they can potentially be SO silly together!!!! It's absolutely a rarepair that makes no sense in canon but I know in my heart of hearts that they kiss.

A commission for @dykedistortion !!!

jonmichael 

- michael likes to annoy jon while he’s working but generally respects the quiet when he’s taking a statement 

- michael brings jon breakfast if he’s working early (cuz he always just leaves for work without eating anything & michael thinks that is No Good) 

- michael likes to call jon “my archivist” 

- michael is jealous of elias’s hold on the archivist and retaliates however it can (hiding elias’s keys when he’s not Looking, locking doors before he enters so he has to go searching for said keys, stuff like that) 

- michael likes to braid jon’s hair & is absolutely delighted to let jon do the same whenever he finds the time to return the favor (braiding michael’s hair is kind of hard but jon tries his best) 

- jon notices that he’s been having much better dreams at night since growing close with michael and suspects that it might be actively Doing something to cause that, but he doesn’t bring it up. just wordlessly appreciates it 

- jon really likes michael’s voice and sometimes compels it to ramble about simple things just so he can hear it talk 

- michael teases jon’s shortness & jon teases michael’s tallness 

- they mostly hang out at the archives, sometimes michael visits jon’s flat too. jon doesn’t have much time to go on dates outside of these two places but sometimes michael is able to drag him out to a special event & half-forces him to Just Have Some Fun 

- michael gets a KICK out of jon cussing, it thinks it’s literally so funny & tries to get him to do it as much as possible 

michaelmartin

- michael loves carrying martin & takes every chance it gets to just scoop him up and hold him 

- michael brings martin a lot of little gifts (cups of tea, poetry books, poems it writes, spiders it finds around the archives, etc) 

- michael always tries to be a good listener for martin even if it’s not always able to supply him with advise that makes sense 

- michael playfully threatens to steal martin away but it never actually tries to, and martin is quite sure that it won’t 

- michael likes sewing/knitting things for martin to wear & will often surprise him with handmade scarves, sweaters, gloves, etc. during the winter months 

- martin likes painting michael’s nails & is happy to let it do the same to his 

- martin & michael have a lot of sleepovers at martin’s place and usually end up binge-watching a whole series together 

- michael loves cooking & baking for/with martin 

- cuddling central. they cuddle so much & michael usually purrs during it, which martin finds so cute 

- michael adores martin’s laugh and tries to make it happen as often as possible 

- michael likes to sing lullabies to martin & loves it when he lets it rock him to sleep 

doorkeay 

- they playfully bully/tease each other a lot and like to play a mutual game of hard-to-get 

- michael often brings gerry leiteners to burn 

- gerry is into a lot of bands and brings michael to a lot of concerts 

- michael is protective over gerry, which sometimes annoys him cuz he insists that he can take care of himself just fine (but he does appreciate michael looking out for him and thinks its sweet that deep down, it’s afraid to lose him)

- gerry calls michael “mikey” and lets it call him gerry when it feels like calling him a real name 

- gerry and michael smoke together & share a lot of deep conversations while doing so 

- gerry finds it funny to call michael his “pet monster” (michael doesnt find it quite as amusing lol)

- whenever gerry knocks on a wall, michael is immediately there to be of help 

- gerry doesn’t feel afraid of going through michael’s door and uses it as a transportation device pretty often. michael pokes fun about how stupid that could be on gerry’s part but never makes an attempt to trap him 

gerrymichael (michael shelley)

- they call each other nicknames (like mikey, mike, shellshock - gerry, gers, gerbear--and that one makes gerry Cringe but michael’s cute so whatever) 

- gerry & michael have a mutual love for music & fuckin jam out together in the breakroom whenever they ca (they get in trouble a few times for being too loud) 

- gerry pokes fun at michael for being a stickler and a little bossy sometimes, but he still tries to abide by the rules more... mostly 

- opposite aesthetics all the way. michael is into hippie style & pink & is just generally soft-looking and gerry is dark & sharp & intimidating-looking 

- they’re protective of each other and worry over each other’s safety a lot 

- theyre almost always!! touching! they are literally standing so close whenever they’re in the same room & 80% of the time michael is just like. hanging onto gerry’s arm or smthing 

- michael really likes sweet things and gerry is the opposite--theyre the “i dont like pickles, so you eat these” kind of couple 

- michael shelley doesn’t smoke cigs & discourages gerry from doing so (gerry calls him a hypocrite cuz theyve literally smoked weed together w/ elias bouchard but michael swears thats different) 

- gerry finds michael Adorable of course but also does have a good deal of respect for him (he’s a responsible assistant & is pretty damn good at keeping things running smoothly at work) 

miclay 

- michael & gabriel combine their skills to take people into the spiral 

- gabriel is a teacher & michael acts as his assistant during classes (it thinks gabe’s spiral method is Extremely Funny) 

- gabriel teaches michael some things about sculpting & encourages its gradual progress, genuinely proud of it and excited to share his interests with it 

- michael and gabriel play hide-and-seek, tag, & similar games in michael’s hallways 

- michael picks gabriel up constantly. he is so small & it is so big & it loves lifting him in the air like a toddler or carrying him around 

- gabriel doesn’t have a hard time understanding michael--sometimes michael is surprised by how well he understands 

- michael likes to squish around gabriel’s facial features and completely reform his face just to watch it move itself back into place 

- michael likes to stick its fingers completely through gabe’s limbs, torso, skull, etc. they call this “tickling” 

- gabe is able to navigate michael’s hallways perfectly well, which michael is impressed by 

- michael & gabriel like to go to normal settings and pretend to be normal people on a normal date. it’s like an inside joke! 

spiralweed 

- THEY ARE SO SALTY 

- michael likes wasting elias’s money and elias is a tad annoyed but he does kinda like spoiling him too 

- they discuss world domination over breakfast 

- they have a lot of inside jokes that only they understand & they both get a kick out of tearing vital information out of the archivist’s grasp 

- michael is pretty helpful when it decides to be, and elias is thankful to have something like that on his side 

- they’re not sentimental often and when they are, they’ve both incredibly begrudging about it. but they do like each other’s company (more than either would openly admit) 

- elias can’t read michael’s mind & michael is delighted by it (elias is not so pleased) 

- elias lets michael mess around with jon as long as it agrees to not do “too much” damage to him