Prison Break Gen Fiction: Down To The Dirt

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20 September 2006 @ 02:41 pm

Title: Down To The Dirt
Author: HalfshellVenus
Characters: Michael (Gen)
Rating: PG
Summary: The legacy of plans, choices, and dreams...
SPOILERS: Season 2, episodes 1-3.
Author's Notes: For

prisonbreak100, where I have the Gen pairing of Michael and Lincoln. This is for prompt #53, “Earth.”

x-x-x-x-x

It all comes down to the dirt now.

Underground was where Michael hid the clothes and supplies they needed, coupled in with the grave of a long-forgotten man. There’s an irony there, in that mixing of death and the rebirth of identities, but Michael doesn’t like to think about that too much.

Through the earth lay the tunnel to freedom in Fox River, a network of possibilities that always led toward the same almost-impossible ending.

Now Westmoreland’s fortune is buried under a Utah subdivision— under someone else’s dream of the good life set in more modest, more comprehensible terms.

Ahead lies the fantasy of freedom, of riches and permanence for him and his brother. It’s funny that he never thought of it in simple, budgeted terms—for Michael, the ending was as grandiose as the path to getting there.

But behind him is the legacy of what it took to save Lincoln’s life. Veronica. LJ’s parents. The Guard. Every casualty of the riot, every victim of the savages Michael freed, every bruise left on the souls of the people who trusted him only to lose everything that mattered…

That blood is on Michael hands now, those heartbreak-memories stay behind to darken his soul.

Underneath it all, he feels dirty. And he knows it’s justified.

He has only his own choices to blame.

------ fin ------

Tags: #53, ml_gen, my_fic, pb_gen, prisonbreak100

17 comments | Say what you feel

17 comments —

( 17 comments — Say what you feel )

missyjack on September 20th, 2006 09:50 pm (UTC)

Love the theme of dirt/underground here.

the ending was as grandiose as the path to getting there. and this is so true.

Underneath it all, he feels dirty and i fear for when the full realisation of the cost of this really hits him. (although hello boys - seemed to get over grieving for poor forgotten Vernonica pretty quick)

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halfshellvenus on September 21st, 2006 07:26 pm (UTC)

and this is so true.
It is-- I really don't like or understand the failure to have a fall-back plan in case the D.B. Cooper thing didn't work out. Michael should have prepared for that from the beginning. :(

and i fear for when the full realisation of the cost of this really hits him. (although hello boys - seemed to get over grieving for poor forgotten Vernonica pretty quick).
Exactly. I'd write a fic that's a Michael POV requiem for Veronica, except that as far as I can tell he just honestly doesn't care.

And I don't like what they've done to the character in that regard. "Oh Sara, it was TRUE LOVE! REALLY!" and "Veronica? Meh. Too bad."

I want Michael to hurt over the outcome of his choices. Because if he doesn't, then he's not the character Season 1 proclaimed to be (and I hate that kind of sloppy writing).

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missyjack on September 21st, 2006 09:43 pm (UTC)

I am so loving S2 (and yeah for interweb coz it won screen in Aust til feb 07) but am missing well, character development? There's the whole "Veronica meh" bit, and i thought we get get some Michael -"OMG my plan I let T-bag (et al) back into the world". And I thought there might be a moment where Michael or Linc had a go at Abruzzi for CUTTING OF 2 OF MICHAEL'S TOES!

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bluesister on September 20th, 2006 10:44 pm (UTC)

I hadn't noticed how much of the show has things underground. Hmm, and then the demons of the tattoo. Thanks for processing aspects of the show for me--I do enjoy it more then.

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halfshellvenus on September 21st, 2006 07:30 pm (UTC)

The "Dirt/Underground" aspect came to me rather suddenly yesterday, particularly because I'd considered it as a fic theme during Season 1 and there wasn't much to support it. Not at all true suddenly in S2. Lots of tie-ins now...

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halfshellvenus on September 21st, 2006 07:33 pm (UTC)

Everything has spiraled out of Michael's tightly held control and now he has to live with the consequences and they're not only blackening his soul but they're eating him alive. The emotional pain he must be in!
The difference between what he thought he was doing (even "with whom," in terms of the breakout team) and what he wound up doing is enormous now.

I would very much like to see the show address some of this torture. He should be suffering over it, but yet we're typically not seeing it. As if Michael no longer has a character anymore apart from 1)Money and 2)OMG-Sara! Which had better turn around pretty darn fast.

Glad you liked this little story. It reminds me of my early works, in terms of size. I rarely write things this short now!

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tabularassa on September 21st, 2006 04:21 pm (UTC)

Poor baby.

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halfshellvenus on September 21st, 2006 07:35 pm (UTC)

And yet, he did make all of this happen-- not intentionally, but he was more than simply a catalyst in it all.

Season 1 Michael would have beat himself up over it regularly. Season 2 Michael needs to regret or atone (and not just to or for Sara). When will we see that?

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tabularassa on September 21st, 2006 08:31 pm (UTC)

You're right. They haven't really touched on that much and they need to. Season 2 Michael is just to busy being on the run right now to care.

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halfshellvenus on September 21st, 2006 07:35 pm (UTC)

:) Thank you very much. :)

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stealmy_kiss on September 22nd, 2006 06:58 pm (UTC)

this is a beautiful little story. the dirt theme is great and i just love the connection between burying the clothing in a grave/rebirth of new identities. that was really fantastic.

as much as i loved seeing michael get torn up over sara, i really want to see him (and linc) get upset about veronica too.

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halfshellvenus on September 25th, 2006 10:21 pm (UTC)

and i just love the connection between burying the clothing in a grave/rebirth of new identities. that was really fantastic.
It's funny that the show didn't point that out directly, but that contrast really struck me. It's almost morbidly perfect, really.

i really want to see him (and linc) get upset about veronica too.
Yes-- I don't like where the writers have gone with that. It's as if they've forgotten who Lincoln and Michael are (the whole of them, not just the run-money-run aspect of them), and that shallow characterization does no-one any favors. :(

Thanks for the comments! :)

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acostilow on September 23rd, 2006 11:32 pm (UTC)

Woobie.

Much woobie.

And awesomeness. :)

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halfshellvenus on September 25th, 2006 10:24 pm (UTC)

Much woobie.
*Sigh* If the show's writers aren't going to do it, someone sure has to. I really hate (not just in this show) the tendency toward character-character-whozzat now?-action that comes up in TV shows so much.

Better stop before I get off on a rant! ;) Thank you, Athena!

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waiyza on September 25th, 2006 05:55 am (UTC)

Oh, I love this. You've really captured Michael -- almost more than the writers who created him? It's just that they told us in season one that Michael is so aware of the pain around him and he needs to help, but this season they aren't playing that up. I mean other than the phone call with Sarah, they aren't showing how emotionally devasted he is. Right, enough of my rambling.

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halfshellvenus on September 25th, 2006 10:27 pm (UTC)

I love this. You've really captured Michael -- almost more than the writers who created him? It's just that they told us in season one that Michael is so aware of the pain around him and he needs to help, but this season they aren't playing that up. I mean other than the phone call with Sarah, they aren't showing how emotionally devasted he is. Right, enough of my rambling.
No, your rambling is dead on. It's part of why I wrote this.

This is who we were TOLD Michael was in Season 1. Where is that man now? I understand that he's running from the gun and is preoccupied, but where is the midnight self-torture? Where is the devastation over Veronica? Where is the self-loathing over springing T-Bag back out on the world (when only Abruzzi had a plan to take care of that, and T-Bag outwitted him).

As you and so many others have proven, the viewers remember who Michael is even when the writers have forgotten.

And I appreciate that very much! :)

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waiyza on September 25th, 2006 11:39 pm (UTC)

I really hope the writers address Michael's inner emotions sometime soon. I love this show so much, I always thought the writing and characters were great. So, hopefully the writers won't continue to let me down.

I actually wrote a fic called Pandora about Michael's self-loathing over relasing T-bag back into the world. It's something I really thought the writer's would have addressed themselves.

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