#gerrymisha

friend mikey has been posting misha art and getting questions like, What do you mean secret third Michael? Tell us about the secret third Michael! i wanted to make his life easier.

long story short is that this was born from a mfrp server where michael is still Alive post-101 but something goes wrong and he doesnt quite get entirely atomized or absorbed into helen. he is also a system in a messed up fearsy way, as he starts to degrade when away from the corridors for too long, and he spent a long time purposefully avoiding them to try and feel more human. the remnants of the distortion in his mind end up splitting off and forming their own "person" that fills the role of michael's typical silly mildly threatening very nonhuman nature and forces the body into the corridors to "recharge".

i wanted to avoid a system story where the "more monstrous" alter plays the role of a persecutor, and it ended up conveniently that misha fills the role of a typical persecutor a lot better than michael does– he fronts as a response to anger and discomfort, and spends a lot of time being somewhat unfairly mean and antagonistic to jon and gerry each in their own special ways. if i draw more of him this may become more apparent.

i call him "misha" because its a rather familial russian diminutive for the name michael. very few people in any of his existences actually call him that, but i call him that as an easier way to separate him from distortion michael (colloquially called Distortie) than saying Michael 1 and Michael 2. especially because misha is Not actually michael shelley, more like. a source detached factive of michael shelley. he holds some of michael shelleys memories and feels some personal connection to them, but he doesnt recognize Himself as michael shelley, and reacts very negatively to being referred to or treated as such.