Mikey Way
| Name: | Michael James Way |
| Also Known As: | Mikey Way; Mikeyway |
| Occupation: | Musician (bassist My Chemical Romance) |
| Medium: | Music |
| Works: | My Chemical Romance Discography |
| Official Website(s): | Twitter account |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Mikey Way is best known as the bassist of American alternative rock band My Chemical Romance, one of the core three bands constituting the Bandom canon. He is the brother of Gerard Way.
See Wikipedia for more detail.
Ships
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
As of Sept 12, 2014, there are 3639 works tagged 'Mikey Way' on AO3.[1] Ships in order of popularity, according to AO3 pairing tag use:
- Pete/Mikey, where Mikey is shipped with Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz after an intense friendship made when touring in the 2005 Vans Warped Tour, now dubbed The Summer of Like: 530 uses[2]
- Waycest (sibling incest pairing with Gerard Way): 356 uses[3]
- Frank/Mikey with MCR guitarist Frank Iero: 354 uses[4]
- Ray/Mikey with MCR guitarist Ray Toro: 280 uses[5]
- Canon het pairing with ex-wife Alicia Simmons: 220 uses[6]
- Bob/Mikey with former MCR drummer Bob Bryar: 70 uses[7]
- Mikey/Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, due to their canon acquaintance and some pictures of them hanging out: 50 uses[8]
- Heypetekey (Chris Gutierrez (Arma Angelus), Pete Wentz (Fallout Boy) and Mikey Way)
Various OT3 pairings such as Pete/Mikey/Alicia and Frank/Mikey/Gerard, and MCR GSF also exist.
Depiction in Fanon
This article or section needs expansion. |
Mental health issues
Mikey has talked in interviews and on social media about his struggles with substance abuse, depression, suicidal thoughts and being eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder.[9] It follows that a number of fanworks mention or even center on his struggles. See for example stories set at the Paramour.
Facial expression
From early days fans noted that Mikey never seemed to smile in photographs. As a result, Mikey is often depicted in fanfic as being very self-contained to the point where he never makes any observable facial expression and other characters have trouble determining his mood.
In This Never Happened by Bexless, a not!fic, this fanon has been translated into one particular emoticon:
Mikey is going :||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| because he totally TOLD GERARD FRANK WAS COMING, and now what if Frank is some kind of douchebag who gives Gerard shit and then Mikey won’t be able to be his BFF anymore, this is EXACTLY THE KIND OF SHIT GERARD ALWAYS PULLS, WHY COULDN’T HE BE WEARING AN ENTIRE SET OF CLOTHES IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASKKKKKKKK.
In the podfic of the fic, klb translated this emoticon into a long, low-volume unhappy guttural sound that a very undemonstrative person might make with their mouth closed.
Mikey and technology
In a 2004 interview the band was asked who was most likely to stick a fork in the toaster, and everyone answered Mikey. Gerard also mentioned Mikey taking a heater into the shower.[10] This interview is probably responsible for all the fanart on Deviantart of Mikey with toasters and forks[11], plus the frequent mention in fanfic that Mikey has an odd relationship with technology. From Heart Wrapped in Clover by Sena:
Mikey sticks his head into Frank's room. "I think our apartment's broken."Frank props himself up on his elbows. He's pretty sure that their TV had still been in the living room, and he can still see his Dell desktop out of the corner of his eye. "What did they take?" he asks.
"Not broken into," says Mikey. "Just broken. It won't go."
Frank sighs wearily and sits up. Mikey's relationship with the things in their apartment is strange. Whenever there's a problem, he just says that things are broken and Frank actually has to play twenty questions to find out what the specific problem is. It's easier just to get up and let Mikey show him.
Mikey and unicorns
Due to a number of unicorn references, (he used to wear a unicorn pin, once made a unicorn-related joke, was pictured with a toy resembling a rainbow-maned unicorn etc) there is a lot of fanart of Mikey with unicorns and fanfic in which he liked unicorns.[12]
For example: In the Unholyverse:
"Not much." Gerard pulled his unicorn notebook – actually, it was Mikey's unicorn notebook, but he knew by now he was never getting it back – out of his pocket and flipped through.[13]
In Nightswimming:
Then he feels kind of petty and also ridiculous for getting all wound up over a custom My Little Pony that no one but Mikeyway could love. And also really amused because it really is something only Mikey could love and he will love it.
"He'll fucking shit himself, man," he says, and Gerard nods gravely and turns the pony around to show Frank the stumpy little horn on its forehead.
"The unicorn ones are actually kind of hard to find," he says. "Or, like, always out of stock. People collect these things like they're action figures, man. I had to overpay like hell on eBay for this one. I think it's vintage from like... whenever. It was almost sad to paint on it. You know, defacing a mint condition vintage figure."
"Anything for Mikey," Frank says.
"Yeah," Gerard says softly and puts the pony back in the drawer.[14]
In Ten Rules For Looking After Mikey Way by turps33:
(6) Unicorns are real – Do not attempt to convince Mikeyway otherwise.
“Look.” Mikey points at the screen of his laptop. “I’ve just bought that pin.”
Frank looks, unsurprised when he sees the unicorn. Curious, he asks, “why?”
Mikey looks up, the light from the screen casting shadows across his face. “Why what?”
“Why unicorns? I can see dragons or demons, but unicorns?”
“Unicorns are awesome; they represent purity but could rip you apart with that horn.” Mikey looks away, types, minimises the page and then says, “And Gerard told me a story about Unie the magical unicorn when I was kid. He keeps people safe.”
Which is so perfectly Mikey, unashamed of what and who he loves that Frank impulsively says, “order me one too.”
The fandom ran with it so much that Mikey and the whole band started actively discouraging/hating the association.[15][16] To no avail: as of September 2015, fans are still posting Mikey/unicorn art on deviantart.[17]
Example Fanworks
Fic
- Everyday Mysteries In The Summertime by waxjism (Part 1 of the Nightswimming verse.) Mikey Way/Pete Wentz, posted to AO3 2007-07-17.
- Staring Through the Demons by Bexless (Part 2 of the Unholyverse, Mikey POV.) Frank/Gerard, Ray/Mikey, posted to AO3 2011-07-30.
- My Way Home is Through You by 7iris (Mikey/Frank/Jamia), posted to Livejournal in 2008: Frank and Jamia take care of Mikey in the aftermath of his departure.
- Be Your Own Spotlight (Like Bowie in the Morning Sun), by jedusaur, Mikey Way/Edward Cullen, posted to AO3 2011-03-07.
Podfic
- Before and After, read by sylvaine, Waycest.
- You Can Find Out Firsthand, Mikey/Alicia bodyswap, ready by onomatopaeiaish.
Art
- mikey way by ptitehooligan, digital portrait posted to Deviantart May 16, 2005.
- Mikey Way by xXThornesXx, digital art of Mikey about to destroy a toaster, posted to Deviantart June 30, 2007.
- mikeymikeymikey by 021, digital art of three versions of Mikey, each from a different tour. Posted to Deviantart March 4, 2011 (also on tumblr[3])
- Kobra Kid by ihni, traditional portrait in crayons posted to DeviantArt April 25, 2011.
- MIKEY by nezumi-zumi, digital art posted to DeviantArt September 9, 2012.
- So Fluffy! by tigerli-ly, digital art of Revenge-Era Mikey holding the giant stuffed unicorn from Despicable Me, posted to DeviantArt August 7, 2014.
- Happy Birthday Mikey Fuckin Way![4] by tcustodisart, posted to tumblr September 10, 2015
![[3]](https://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhixeyqMEU1qzasudo1_r1_500.jpg){kind=link}
![[4]](https://36.media.tumblr.com/724eb3d5664fa984c63ea820d7517521/tumblr_nugf21V2uD1tag5ujo1_500.png){kind=link}
Crafts
- Mikey plush doll by strawberryxlove (Mary), posted to livejournal September 2004[18]
Resources
- Mikeyway-daily LJ community, created on 10 February 2009
- Mikeyway picspam by cmorgana-bu, posted to livejournal 16 May 2009
- Mikeyway picspam by turps, posted to livejournal 8 April 2010 (archived)
- Mikeyway: A Comprehensive Visual Timeline (2001-2007) picspam by andwristintact, posted to livejournal 20 October 2007 (archived)
References
- ^ Mikey Way AO3 tag
- ^ AO3 Pete/Mikey tag
- ^ Gerard/Mikey AO3 tag
- ^ Frank/Mikey AO3 tag
- ^ AO3 Ray/Mikey tag
- ^ Mikey/Alicia AO3 tag
- ^ Bob/Mikey AO3 tag
- ^ AO3 Gabe/Mikey tag
- ^ See for example his 2008 Kerrang interview, transcribed on Tumblr by mychemquotes
- ^ Three Cheers For Warped's Little Darlings! interview transcript at troublebunchmusic.com. reposted to chemicalromance 3 November 2004 by arizonagal: hahah mcr <3.
- ^ Mikey Way by xXThornesXx; Mikey: stuckFORKinTOASTER by Chocoreaper; Mikey Way by teabean; Mikey May by rhymeswithway
- ^ Mikey Loves Unicorns digital drawing by KwalalaFalconwing, posted to DeviantArt in 2010
- ^ Staring Through the Demons, by bexless, published to AO3 2011-07-30
- ^ Nightswimming by wax jism, published to AO3 2008-02-2012
- ^ My Chemical Romance - Gerard talking about unicorns posted to YouTube by DariinkkT on March 5, 2011: Gerard announcing on stage on 26-02-2011: "You guys know what we do with unicorns, right? [crowd cheers] We cut off their heads, bathe in the blood, and urinate on the body."
- ^ June 5 2013 Tweet by @mikeyway: @klljoysnevrdie I hate unicorns
- ^ Unicorn And Mikey by Lizlemay. Posted to deviantart September 19, 2015. archived
- ^ photos posted to chemicalromance 8 September 2004, with show anecdote. archived. Mary later created a Gerard plushie and gave it to him at the Helena shoot.[1][2]