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[eudaimonikos]

	Michael: As long as I'm with you guys, I'm always in the fake Good Place.
	APP HMD SORCERER PLAYER

Player Name: Lu
Age: 26
Contact: lluosogrwydd
Timezone: EST
Other character currently in game: None

Character name: Michael
Age: Yes
Canon: The Good Place
Canon point: Season 3, episode 6
History: Here's the wiki. It's not greeeeeat, sorry. Also it doesn't look to have been updated since the end of season 2, so to sum up: Michael repeatedly sneaks down to Earth to help the humans, eventually gets caught on an outing there with Janet, and they both flee to Earth as fugitives. They spend a year secretly watching the humans and operating behind the scenes to improve their lives, but are caught doing that also and end up having to explain the entire thing. This dooms the humans. Nonetheless, Eleanor convinces the group that they should work to save others from the Bad Place, and that's where we are now.

Let me know if you want more detail on that? I could go into excruciating detail but it seems like that's not what you're looking for in this section, so


Three key adjectives: Creative, Ambitious, Dedicated

Influential Events:

The Neighborhood
After ages and ages of rote desk work, Michael finally got promoted to Architect! Yay!

It seems as though his promotion was due to his continuing hard work and perfectionism more than anybody really liking him; he responds with an earnest wish to be a great Architect and is pretty easily brushed off. Michael was always sort of offbeat for a demon. Still a horrible evil torture monster, I do not want to downplay that at all, but he seems to have always had a creative, curious bent that most of his kind do not share.

The idea he comes up with - to manipulate his humans into tormenting each other emotionally and psychologically - represents an utter break from Bad Place tradition, enough so that suggesting it is a serious risk. But Michael's a natural innovator, finally being given a little room to spread his wings. He doesn't believe in tradition for traditions' sake; he wants to do what he set out to do and be a truly great Architect, and he believes he's found a path that will let him do so.

It's only the first of many divergences, of course, but it's illustrative. Michael was able to turn so easily in the end because he was already someone dissatisfied with his purpose, willing to throw away tradition and risk his life for the sake of possibly finding something better. He yearned for validation from his peers and approval from Shawn, who he respected, but he wanted to get it by doing things his own way rather than simply bending to what they expected. He had zero qualms about the torture business at this point, but he still wanted more than what the Bad Place was giving him, and the creation of his Neighborhood was his first attempt to achieve that. His idea, as well, was deliberately hands-on and would involve a lot of interaction with his chosen humans. Personally, I think he was always kind of a human nerd - one who was interested in slowly frying them with a magnifying glass while he watched, but still someone who wanted to understand them better.

The Trolley Problem
After joining Chidi's ethics class, and then being convinced to actually attend and listen, Michael rather quickly proved to be....just so bad at moral philosophy. He was still mentally somewhere in pre-school, struggling with the concept of other people having value. Chidi attempted to give him some one-on-one help, but Michael's a pretty proud person. His failure - piled on top of the past three centuries of failures - was already making him feel bad, and having it called out made him feel worse. So rather than accept help, he turned the offer into a means to torture Chidi some more, making himself feel better by having a little fun and re-asserting his own power in the situation.

Of course, Eleanor figured it out and he was caught. Big surprise. The part that really caught Michael off-guard was when Chidi stood up for himself and threw Michael out of the class - as well as the part where Michael hated that, actually?

All that happened was that he was thrown out of class. The human-Michael alliance did not end, and Michael wasn't in any more danger than before. So he had what he'd basically wanted from the beginning: an agreement with the humans that covered his ass, where he didn't have to make any real concessions. This should have been good! But Michael was pretty upset over the whole thing. Demons in the Bad Place don't seem to really form close relationships among themselves; they are all jackasses basically all the time. Michael longed for positive attention, but for the vast majority of his existence, the idea of an actual friendship wasn't even on his radar.

The humans, on the other hand, were all pretty amiable towards Michael from the beginning, despite knowing that he'd been torturing them. When he fell into an existential crisis, they were kind to him and helped him through it. He'd faked all sorts of relationships with them before, but now he was being himself and this was all just happening naturally, for real. Even if the academic part of the class made him feel inadequate, the social aspect made him feel good. He just didn't really realize the feelings he'd been developing about that until it was taken away. With that, he realized that he couldn't just do whatever he wanted and expect the humans to deal with it. He'd have to make a real effort, he'd have be vulnerable and admit to his failings - and, when he finally brought himself to do so, he was forgiven and accepted back. Pretty different from the fate that typically awaits a demon who fails.

Janet
Michael had, for all the centuries he'd known her, mostly treated Janet the same way everyone else in the afterlife treats Janets: as a walking, talking appliance. There were hints of his age-old longing for connection; he did chat with her and accept her input. But he still rebooted her when necessary, essentially killing her as she pleaded for her life, and kept her utterly in the dark about his plans and his identity.

Still. She was a constant during the most stressful part of his life, and she was the only person who had ever truly believed in and supported him - even if she didn't really know who he was.

So again, Michael only realized what he'd come to take for granted when he was threatened with losing it. When Janet demanded that he destroy her due to her unexplained glitching, Michael bluffed and blustered and eventually blurted out that she was his best friend. This was an unprecedented level of vulnerability for him, after which he had to just sit down and compose himself for a little bit.

He then immediately followed this up with blithely planning to destroy Jason and Tahani's relationship, over Chidi's objections, only to freeze up at the last second and realize that he couldn't bring himself to do it. Until recently, causing these people emotional pain was sort of his whole deal, but his brand-new inability to do so sent him into a bit of a crisis. He'd already started taking the question of morality seriously enough to ask Chidi for advice, and to try to find loopholes to justify his actions. But this seems to be the first time it really clicked internally for him - not as an academic question, but as an instinctive emotional response, like the ones the humans so often seemed to have. Reeling from his new experience of guilt, he went to Eleanor for advice. In all his attempts to sabotage her, this was the first time he ever bothered to sit down and genuinely ask her about her experience. She shared her own experiences with trying to be a better person and encouraged him to stick with the group. The camaraderie bolstered him, and he left feeling much better and more secure in what he was doing.

Leap into Faith
Michael's internal conflict came to a head when his boss Shawn showed up, expressing delight over Michael's (fabricated) work and granting him a coveted promotion to senior manager. This was literally everything Michael had ever dreamed of. It was based on a lie, but with the power it granted him, he could have easily covered his ass by silencing his employees and disposing of the humans.

But the humans had already modeled something better. Being himself wasn't a hazard among them; all they wanted was for him to make a genuine effort at self-improvement, just like they were, and they would support and accept him even if he made mistakes. None of these things were true for Shawn or the other demons. Michael had liked the idea of power, but he wanted success largely for the respect, and now that he'd experienced people caring about him and not just his status, it would have felt hollow.

So Michael elected to fake-defect and set up a plan for extracting the humans from the situation. This wasn't only a major sacrifice on his part, but also a significant display of trust - the humans could have easily just dragged him down along with them, if they took his actions at face value. Without any communication, he had to place his life in their hands and hope that they would trust him enough to do the same.

At that point, he didn't even really have an exit strategy for everyone. He was only acting to keep them safe in the moment, and hoping he could figure out something more long-term as he went. Which was extraordinarily impractical? With this decision, Michael irrevocably chose his loyalties, no matter what else happened.

Solving the Trolley Problem
Later on, faced with only one remaining key to pass through a portal to safety, Michael decided to give his own to Eleanor and shove her through, deliberately sacrificing himself. Though this was obviously a big moment for him, it was really less major than the previous event in terms of his character development; after making that choice, of course he made this one. Michael was always devoted to his causes and willing to put himself at risk for them. Once, his cause was just his Neighborhood concept and the success he thought it could bring. Now, it's his friends, and they're more important to him than any career goals he once had.

Still, you know, you've reached Relationship Level 5 and Michael will now die for you. It's also his first opportunity to actually openly state his new feelings to other demons, which he does unequivocally, finally telling Shawn that he never really cared about him anyway, and that he has zero regrets about what he's done. Bridges have been burnt entirely to the ground.


Link to Samples: Link to Sample 1; Link to Sample 2;

Chosen path: Sorcerer
5 Abilities:
- A Bunch of Evil Shoved Up The Butt of an Evil Mannequin (canon): Michael's a demon of unknown form inhabiting a human vessel! He'd probably ping as some kind of fairly powerful demonic entity, given that he conned his way into a super fancy promotion and ran the fuck away before experiencing consequences. His powers generally don't work great in RP because he's a godmodding bastard, so here's what I've got:

All indications in canon are that his body doesn't work like a real human one. He doesn't need to eat, sleep, or poop, and he doesn't appear to contain organs or blood. He's also demonstrably stronger than humans or even lesser demons, given that he's the only person other than Shawn capable of removing supermagnetic restraint devices from Janet. Demons also appear to be more durable than humans and possibly heat/fire resistant? I don't know if these things fall under "no humanization" or if they're a power, but they seem like a power to me? Are these things all separate powers? I'm super cool with dropping the lack of physical needs thing so that he can go two days without eating or sleeping and then collapse in public like a champ. Let me know if you wanna chat about it though, I know he's a pain.

- Subtle Spell
- Misty Step
- Grease
- Burning Hands

Why this path?: Magic's already an inherent part of Michael, not something he would ever feel any real need to study the way a wizard does. His powers are more natural to him than breathing, and that's always been how he helped his party; perhaps not by using magic offensively, but certainly by understanding and managing to work within the rules of his afterlife. Sorcerer is the class that would come most naturally to him.

You know what wouldn't come naturally at all? Paladin. I want him to see Paladins with their gifts of protection and healing and go oh shit, I want to be able to do that. Michael is the only goddamn immortal entity out here who's working for justice and multi-classing into Paladin is basically a natural branch on the tree of his character growth. I love it, but it's better if he has to work for it instead of just being one immediately.

blurb code by photosynthesis