The section on Mike dealing with the trauma of his experience was great (written, that is, not great that he had to go through it...). *Very* effective.

EXCELLENT explanation for why Mike (and Sully) chose Scream Can Design when they were kicked out of the program! I bet neither of them expected it to be as boring as a teacher who just repeats the textbooks made it (oh, the memories that takes me back to...).

I love lists of equally plausible explanations for something that happens, like you list for the explosion. It's always fun wondering, "So, was it X, Y, or Z or combination of 2 or 3?"

You picked a really interesting theme to tie together a bunch of different scenes in the life of Mike Wazowski and did it splendidly.

It's fitting that Mike grows both emotionally and intellectually in Scream Canister knowledge being that it's often taken for granted. He learns not to underestimate both its necessity and its capacity to inflict harm.

There's not much for me to say about this one except I commend the experimental goal of focusing on a character's relationship to objects to reflect his turmoils, his highs and lows, and his maturing attitude related to the Scaring field. Quite appropriately, his final segment shows that it's no longer what it means to him, but what it means to the monster society and even to the the children they victimized and why they had to be redesigned for the benefit of both monsters and humans.

I think this experiment went really well. The structure of the one shot made the story concise and insightful, which is always good. And it definitely kept the emotions in the story. I'm really excited that you are going to talk about Mike and the kidnapping later on (I was totally going to ask you if you were, until I saw your note at the end). As for this story, it was great to see how much Mike's view and feelings towards Scream Cans changed, and I love how at the end, Mike was determined to change the Scream Cans, which basically symbolizes the Scaring Industry and his dream, for good. He wanted to turn his back on his dream because it hurt little kids. I know that he was making a conscious decision to be happy when he was an assistant, but I always felt bad for him because (especially in your stories), he still felt wistful. He still wanted it so badly, and it was sad to know that he would never get it. But now, I sensed when I read the ending that he was truly letting his dream go. He may miss it slightly, but now he has a purpose behind his decision. Now, it's not because he can't scare; it's because children depend on it. I absolutely love that.

This is really well written!

Hmmm... This is REALLY experimental one. Why you chose to pick Mikey & his 'lovable'? scream cans, is beyond me. On that note, honestly, when I read this, it is like, some kind of autobiography (scream can?). That's for subject matter. For the plot, not too bad. Or actually, story contents. It matched pretty well with the subject matters you choose :) Other than that, I don't have anything to comment... REALLY experimental. Do I want to read this for a second time? I'm not quite sure :(