Xeno_System

Guys, I just found out that Richard Paul Evans is working on a *tenth* Michael Vey book. It also says it's the "final" installment, but Final Spark also said that. I get not wanting to let a series die, but ten? Oh well, more content for me to rewrite.

Hey howdy hey, everyone. It's been what, four months since the last update? I'll have to admit; research, moving, and depression sure do have a way of hampering creativity.
          
          But I'm back with a new chapter! This one is a bit shorter and is mostly adding a few details to set some things up later in the story, so apologies for the brevity. It also wasn't my favorite chapter to write and felt kind of forced or something, so perhaps I'll rewrite it at a later date. But it is necessary for the story and it's out of the way, so next will be the party at the Ridley's!
          
          Also, I did mention research at the beginning, but research for what? I decided I should add in a sprinkling of more disability representation, specifically neurological disorders. Now, given my only lived experience is with PNES and tics, any of the neurological disorders that are added into this rewrite will be researched to the best of my ability. I also will appreciate any notes from readers who know more than I do about the disorders as they come up. See if you can guess what I gave to Taylor. ;)
          
          Anywho, happy reading, and look forward to another chapter relatively sooner than this one took.

Chapter three has been published! I'm not going to maintain a regular upload schedule cause I think we all know I won't be able to keep up. Thanks, burnout. /s
          
          But yeah, with this installment, I got to fix another issue I had with the original and that was that Michael's and his mom's relationship just didn't feel well established? Like sure, yeah, she makes him waffles after he gets beat up in the original, but aside from saying "That's quite a shiner" and offering to call the bullies' parents, she doesn't really DO much to help Michael. So I wanted to portray her as much more involved and caring here, at least in my eyes, and I hoped I accomplished that. 
          Another thing I sprinkled in was a bit of foreshadowing, something the original lacks, or if it does use it, does so in the least subtle way possible. And of course, I'm speeding up the events a little bit; the original book started on a Wednesday whereas this story starts on a Friday and Taylor's party is Saturday and Michael's birthday is Sunday. All that means is we only have to go to school with Michael a total of one time. Is the fanfiction going to be shorter than the book because of it? Yes, but I think that means the book COULD have been shorter in the first place if Evans was a half-decent writer.
          
          Anyway, mandatory rant over. Hopefully I'll actually get some followers who'll read this, but I'm doing this for me. Either way, I hope you enjoy it, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see from this fanfic, and have a nice day.

Whale, hello there. Apologies for the long wait for Michael Vey chapter two. You know how it is, long depressive episodes, adopting an Emotional Support Animal, reigniting a Pokemon hyperfixation. The works. But my burning hatred for this book series called me back to continue this "fanfic". As such chapter two has been published, picking up directly after the class Michael and Ostin were taking at the end of the last chapter.
          
          I should mention that there are a lot of things that bother me about the original work, beyond just how bad the writing itself is; the Tourette's syndrome is underutilized as a story device, there's far too many characters we're expected to keep track of, there's not much explicit disability representation outside of Michael, Ian, and Jade Dragon when the electricity powers are connected to Michael's Tourette's, and I could go on and on and on.
          But the issue I really wanted to address (and the one that makes me the most upset) that shows up in chapter one, two, and most likely further chapters, is Ostin. You may notice that my Ostin uses they/them pronouns and is black. This now I am inexperienced with writing race, so I'm doing my best there, but I do have lived experience with autism. In the original books, Ostin is clearly written as autistic, and he is bullied by almost every character that interacts with him, including Michael and Taylor. It irks me to the utmost extent that Evans's Michael treats Ostin as an annoyance rather than his only friend in the entire school. He rolls his eyes at Ostin's "bones" fist bumps, teases him about clogging (which is a genuine skill and very fun; I've taken tap dancing myself at one point), and is just generally a jerk.
          So I'm hoping my Michael and Ostin will be a much better pair of friends, as they share queerness as well as both having a disability. I'll do my best to represent the facets of their characters as best as I can. If you read this, thank you, you're the best, and I hope you enjoy. :)

Chapter one of Michael Vey is officially finished! For the best sense of comparison, I'd recommend reading the original work by Richard Paul Evans, as I do not own any of these characters, nor the premise or story. Chapter one of Reimagined uses details from chapters two and three and completely skips chapter one. I hope you like it and if you have any input on how my retelling can improve, please let me know!