I wonder if the curves she is drawing are spirals, and if the pictures in Michael's hallways are drawn by people like her. Michael is just hanging them up like a proud fear being
@@juliankohler5086 Michael is the "person (?)" who Real!Sasha said had sharp fingers and wanted to talk to "help" her in season one about Jane Prentiss. He pulled a worm from her to prevent her from being infected. Then this season he trapped a lady who was showing a house for sale in an endless weird spiral of hallways until she managed to escape, come to the archives to make a statement and then ended up walking right back into the infinite hallways by accident. Then Michael confronted Jon by saying that Sasha was lying to him and ended up cutting Jon somehow. He seems to consistently give Michael as a name, but says that there's no such thing as a real name and called himself the "hand" of the "stomach" that was the endless spiraling corridors the lady was trapped in, if I understood correctly. I'm on first listen too, so this is really all the info I remember about him so far. He's been hinted at a few times in statements that would otherwise have been completely dismissed I think.
@@ViridianForestsno he was not the hand of the stomach of the corridors, he was comparing a hand to a stomach in the way he is to the corridors, implying the corridors are a part of him.
Lol the cult of lightless flame can help with fire bending and Fairchild should be able to give some tips on air and water bending. Are Archivists the avatar?
the style of this one reminded me a bit of jane prentiss's statment, I believe the episode was called "hive"? the way the scenes don't seem to be anchored to a time or place, the way the speaker isn't sure of reality around them, etc. most certainly no connection, but I like the style variations.
No way! Prentiss wrote a bunch of nonsense. I got so bored listening to that episode. It felt like I was in a lecture about something dumb, like, I don't know, someone speaking about something stupid and using the word "quantum" a lot.
Me: has insomnia Me: has become completely nocturnal bc of quarantine. Me: is listening to this at 7:00 am after not sleeping at all. Me: Feels highly threatened. Micheal is coming for me...
i was completely nocturnal for a month or two but suddenly and for no reason my schedule flipped over into a very reasonable state now and i have no idea why. it is a bit disconcerting
me too friend. and never seeing daylight is getting to me. my roommate is in the (very reasonable) habit of turning off all lights as he leaves a room. i've developed a need for all the lights to be on any time i'm home and awake because constant darkness does things to my brain
This one hits hard. I don't have full on insomnia, but the descriptions of what happens to your brain when you don't sleep enough... Chilling. And, up to a point I got to, accurate.
I was wondering if that was accurate, because I have those things too. (dreaming of being heavy, flat surfaces moving when looking at them etc), but I sleep like..... 7 to 10 hours a day. So.... Am I just insane or what? :x
I think Michael is funny. Similar to a character I made called "The Middleman" who would give you beauty treatments in exchange for performing mundane tasks that lead to the seemingly accidental or random death of strangers. His appearance would always change every time he visits you, but always from an iconic fashion era from the past. The last time he visits you, you can't tell what era of fashion he's dressing from, because it's from the future.
Don’t drive around on sleep deprivation if you can avoid it especially when the hallucinations start and if you’re a paranoid person. You’ll see cars in front of you that aren’t there, your eyes will want to shut, and people will walk across the street that aren’t actually there.
This one was particularly good. The pervasive present-tense, the almost montage quality of the scene changes, the eery descriptions throughout. And, as someone who deals with insomnia, I am very glad I do not drink coffee in conjunction.
Idk why but this statement gave off a very sad a desperate tone. The thought of just not being able to sleep is horrifying to me. The billboard changing was especially creepy to me tbh I cannot wait to hear more of Michael.
I don't know if you know this but there's such a thing as genetic deadly insomnia. It starts in peoples 20s often. You get progressively worse insomnia until eventually, you can't sleep at all. Eventually, you die of sleep deprivation related health problems. There's no known cure or treatment
when lydia started talking about the man in her living room my first thought was michael negl probably bcus every tumblr post ive seen abt him has shown him as blonde w incredibly long & curly hair edit: YEP IT'S HIM ohhhh boy
I saw a spoilery fanart before knowing about Michael and was like, "who is that large hands man who looks like a Gucci model in a mad hatter-esque outfit???" I thought maybe it was a creature like Slenderman but who would be known as, "Slenderhands" 🤣
I'm so sorry but when he said "watching the ceiling fan spin round and around and around" I had the vivid image of that one vine of the guy spinning in his bathtub with pool goggles
god, as someone who's had insomnia from the age of 10 (and who couldn't sleep the night before listening to this episode) so many lines in this really resonate w/ me and capture the experience of seeing reality come apart ever so slightly at the edges, the way that self doubt changes your perception of your surroundings and especially the way that your eyes begin to track movements on their own. anyway, this part in particular really jumped out at me and is just beautiful: "I do not know why I am here. I know this place and what you want, but I have no proof to give you. I have nothing that cannot be waved away as a bad dream. By you, at least. I cannot wave, for my arms are too heavy and my hands are busy drawing those strange, familiar curves. What do you want? To find a child’s tooth and hold it up triumphant, a talisman to conjure those things that you should fear. To photograph and analyse a billboard that has never once advertised coffee. To talk to a person who is not a person and whose strange laugh you should be fleeing? I am here, and I give you my words. They are all I have, and all you want, and perhaps when I am free of them then I will be allowed to sleep."
I can't be scared of any statement where Michael is described seriously anymore... He just... He got introduced and now i can only see those events as my silly goofy guy having fun. Why do i need to humanize everyone like that. Curse my whimsy.
I thoroughly confused my Dad when I kicked and danced out of the bathroom because ~!☆!~MiChAeL iS bAcK~!☆!~ I don't know why I love that creepy, not-human so, but I doooOOOO!
ohh i loved this one, i had pretty bad insomnia during my teens, the longest i went without sleep i started hallucinating (the weirdest was a strange white bug about the size of a hand on a wall, it changed shape slightly, i thought it was a spider at first, but then it almost looked like some weird mantis) get that sleep kids
Opal I don’t have insomnia afaik, but due to college course loads I had weird gremlin shadow things running around my house and knocking on doors. I got into my car and drove to class and the drive back was Hell. Seeing cars, people in the street. My paranoia took hold of my hallucinations. 👀 The bug sounds pleasant tbh lol
(I don't think I have insomnia, I just stay up too late working on stuff) but the worst thing I've seen was a very tall shadow guy with a fedora and maybe a scarf? Just standing over me in my bed, looking down at me like he was debating whether to touch me or not. Freaked me out
@@LtDragonfruit nah I get shadowy figures like him all the time when I don't sleep, they don't interact with anything and they aren't related to big ups and downs in my life they're just lack of sleep induced shadow hallucinations. My mom is really into that spiritual stuff so if I was being haunted she'd know
One time at 3am I wrote “sleep is for the weak” and then the time. Just lines of “sleep is for the weak 3:24” “sleep is for the weak 3:24” “sleep is for the weak 3:24” “sleep is for the weak 3:25” “sleep is for the weak 3:25” I was manic And that’s on my mental illnesses lol
I know my comment is late (also no spoilers please- first time listener) but I was thinking of the cadence of the words being spoken and it’s a spiral. Lydia will start with a factoid about insomnia, or some small sentence about sleep and begin to rant into either an anecdote or a full on lesson about what it’s like. The ongoing cycle is AMAZING and I feel like I’m spiraling with her! That is the sign of a good podcast, love this!
so i've been really looking forward to this episode for a long time because i got lydia halligan as my tma character on a quiz a while back... and i'm feeling so called out right now????
"Your vision goes strange when you don’t sleep for a long time. I think it’s something to do with changing pressure on your eyeballs. You start to detect faint movements on the edges, on the periphery, and if you stare too long at a flat surface it starts to gently pulse and move." Okay so,, those movements i saw weren't actually paranormal... Im--
Oh wow as someone who's called Lydia, with Insomnia and chronic fatigue this just... Was scary in such a real and personal way. I usually listen to this podcast at night in bed but for this one I had to keep the light on :'D
You're strong for being able to listen to this podcast at night in bed. Listening to this in daylight, I barely even get the heebie jeebies. Mostly, I just go "omg how they can think up such interesting ideas". But in the middle of the night in the dark? Yep I freak out
superb description of how it feels to have 'insomnia'... as a speedfreek its scary how much of these things ive observed and thought out loud to myself years ago, pretty much verbatim.... dont do drugs kids, stay in school! magnus out.
I spent a few minutes before realizing what was making the statement so confusing: everything is in the present tense. No past, no future. You don't even get to know if the events are being related in chronological order. And everything is on the same level (no reaction for a human tooth? Are you really this deep?) You don't get a clue about how long it was for the statement giver. Was it days? Months? Years? And that's amazing !
Have you ever just stared at one spot so long that you manage to grey out the rest of your vision and make everything go wavy and staticky? It’s hard, you have to focus on not moving your eyes, which is harder than you think. You always think it’s easy but our eyes instinctively move around a lot so stopping it is hard to do. And to be honest I’m not sure if there’s medical repercussions to doing it. But it’s interesting, it looks cool. It takes a while though.
it's hard for you? It happens all the time to me, I zone out a lot so it's pretty easy for me to just kinda unfocus my eyes. What's happening tho is that the cones in your eyes that sense color get tired from firing over and over again, and slowly start to give up and just want to turn off for a second. If you look at a white wall or piece of paper, you'll see the negative image of what you were looking at! There's no medical repercussions from it either :)
@@a-bird-lover I meant it’s hard to do it on purpose. I have trouble zoning out on command and it’s hard to stop moving your eyes when you’re not zoned out. Also thx for the explanation!
When I was little I would stare up at the popcorn ceiling until it looked like it was moving. It was just mystifying. Fascinating in a way that I knew wasn't quite right but I also knew I was seeing it. Its strange
When the statement giver talks about the tall man with sandy blond hair, I immediately said out loud "freaking MICHAEL" lol. Didn't expect him to be here, but then again, ofc he is.
I have some mild insomnia and like to ironically say "Sleep is for the weak" when I'm not getting enough. So it was really unnerving and unexpected to hear in this context. Pretty epic
oh wow okay adding this to my list of "episodes that *get* me." I don't have insomnia and I'm trying to keep it that way, but the unreality is really accurate to how everything feels to me and this feels oddly comforting.
"Or at least Male presenting" My first thought: oh they are nonbinary then. They shifted the floor to enter the archives My first thought:.. nonbinaries do have a lot of cool skills
I love how they describe the statements like "regarding their experience going to the laundromat" and the statement describes someone getting pulled into a washing machine by a horrifying figure, painfully going through the spin cycle and somehow appearing totally fine outside of it when it's done washing
@@AutumnF HAHA YEAH CLEANING DEFINITELY WORKS (looks nervously to that one ep about the father in law who kept cleaning but never got rid of the purple mold fungus thing)
huh. so i was going to leave last episode, but because it was all about darkness i knew i wouldnt be able to really sleep. this episode doesnt exactly help, either haha. specially not that i kind of started seeing a shadow taunting me just behing my door. jesus, i need to watch some silly puppy videos or something, i cant trust that next episode wont be worse lmao
oh. just heard the supplemental. WORRYING. i am officially DISTURBED i gusss thats what happens when you spend a better part of a day dedicated to a really great horror podcast. whoops
I really relate to this one, having suffered insomnia (as I'm writing this I've slept like 4 hours in the last 2 days, and it's almost 3am), and yeah, the worst part of sleeplessness is definitely the shadow people in your peripheral vision, that and the loss of difference between sleep and vigil. So, the episode really is doing a great work catching the feelings of fatigue.
After pushing myself to the severe point of fatigue many many school nights, this episode really described the worst of it. I'm just glad I always eventually fall asleep.
as a kid I would literally stay up reading because I couldn't sleep. Even as a baby my mom would lay me down and I would just play with my toes. sleep has not gotten easier as I aged. this hits hard lol it's 1 am, recently I've been going to sleep around 3 or 4, maybe I should just try to sleep now.
I so damn love Michael. I started listening that podcast, because I saw fanarts with him. He got a lot of this beautiful chaotic-neutral charm. His thoughts seem to be beyond human understanding. Yesterday he sucked people into his corridor, today he hung out with some lady with insomnia and made her draw spirals, and tomorrow he will be sitting somewhere in someone else's house, drinking strawberry syrup latte and watching drama at the Magnus institute through a laptop, dressed in pajama with Hello kitty. He likes to play with people, to watch how they try to contact him as an equal when he is something different, completely unknown and incomprehensible to our brains. I can talk about my love to him hours and even not describe all reasons why he is so good.. (P.S. I apologize for my cur English, it's not my native language)
I have had insomnia since I was a child, and over the past five or six years my dreams have been so realistic and vivid that I struggle to tell the difference between what was a dream and what is a memory. This episode hits a little close to home.
Damn, this was a really good episode. One of my favorites so far. I love the way it's written, it really lets us feel her state of mind. As someone else has pointed out, everything is in present tense, we don't know in what order the things happened. There's no past, no future, no time. Also *Michael my beloved!!!!*
I am *extremely* tired and half-asleep, but I wanted to listen to just one more episode while before going to bed. Who could've thought it's an episode that describes some weird ways your brain might glitch if you deprive yourself from a good night's rest😶
My insomnia only got better after I started working and made a routine where I'm tired body and mind but BOY it took a while lol I remember my own "how long can I stay awake" days and the "why cant I just sleep" ones too (for a while I ecen had this sleep medication that I dropped because it made me 10 times more awake, awful)
I don’t have insomnia, but I have ADHD which can cause some sleep problems. I got two hours of sleep last night. I took 10 mg of melatonin. I take that much every night. It doesn’t help. I was about to take a nap. Or well, the closest I can get. I’ve only ever fallen unconscious during a “nap” when I’m sick.
It's honestly really funny (and kinda sad) that we happened upon this particular episode in the middle of a period of incredible sleep deprivation where we have no sleep schedule and are trying desperately to get the rest we need all the time. Except without the funky spiral man fucking with us (to our knowledge at least) -Oliver
Well, as a shift worker with rather nocturnal habit and no sleep schedule worthy of that name, this was a delightful episode to listen to while sipping a cup of joe. At least it's morning. And Jon... feeling a bit called out by this statement, hm?
Insomnia is an insidious beast. I've had a few sleepless nights, and when you chain enough of those together, you see glimpses of the very mania described in this episode. There's nothing quite so miserable as knowing you can't give your body the one thing it needs to keep you sane.
I love the writing style of this one !! Additionally, the supplemental was SO creepy, oh my gods. I’ve heard stories of people discovering through CCTV that someone’s hiding in their house and stealing food; the idea has scared me ever since, and this sort of reminded of it…
i'm listening to this at hour 21 being awake. not anything close to my record of 48 hours when i started hallucinating. it's still enough to make it hard to focus and this episode freak me out
As someone with chronic insomnia, this was the most relatable ep to me. I felt it on a spiritual level. Almost everything Lydia felt is a symptom of chronic insomnia, from your vision 'pulsing', forgetting where you are, the mood and energy swings, and the descriptions of having euphoria kicks and being 'blocked with a granite wall'. Having these symptoms and hallucinations is all very real, because i literally experience them before, except seeing Micheal of course. Like holy shit this ep was so accurate And when Jon the creator said In a q&a that this was based on his insomnia, i was glad to know i had something to relate to. Insomnia is very very bad tho, do sleep
Tbh this reminded me of a reddit post on i think r/ambien about a person who had insomnia (and was sleep deprived as they wrote) and how the doctor had given them sleep medication. They wrote about how they could finally feel sleep coming for them, how they were in bed with their spouse who was beautiful to them, how they were happy and nothing hurt. it was kind of stilted but really beautiful. The prose was very similar to this episode
![[DRIP] ‘BILLIONAIRE’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m0eXQD0gIeE/mqdefault.jpg)
I wonder if the curves she is drawing are spirals, and if the pictures in Michael's hallways are drawn by people like her. Michael is just hanging them up like a proud fear being
Ohh nice idea
I also like how his hair's curly, since yk, spirals
The curves she was drawing is the testimony Jon is reading. She submitted a written response.
Micheal: I only take what’s mine from those who enter my domain
Micheal: lol no sleep for u bc I’m feeling silly and goofy teehee
and because they already belong to him
Who's Michael? Did I miss something important?
@@juliankohler5086 Michael is the "person (?)" who Real!Sasha said had sharp fingers and wanted to talk to "help" her in season one about Jane Prentiss. He pulled a worm from her to prevent her from being infected. Then this season he trapped a lady who was showing a house for sale in an endless weird spiral of hallways until she managed to escape, come to the archives to make a statement and then ended up walking right back into the infinite hallways by accident. Then Michael confronted Jon by saying that Sasha was lying to him and ended up cutting Jon somehow.
He seems to consistently give Michael as a name, but says that there's no such thing as a real name and called himself the "hand" of the "stomach" that was the endless spiraling corridors the lady was trapped in, if I understood correctly.
I'm on first listen too, so this is really all the info I remember about him so far. He's been hinted at a few times in statements that would otherwise have been completely dismissed I think.
I would do the same in his position, to my enemies at least
@@ViridianForestsno he was not the hand of the stomach of the corridors, he was comparing a hand to a stomach in the way he is to the corridors, implying the corridors are a part of him.
Jon actually realizing Sasha is being sus? Unheard of :0
i was assuming john was pretending to not know as he still feels like he is being watche, but this is so late you prob know
Michael on his way to be creepy
He wasn’t already?!
@@DrMDHyde
NO.
It to which we refer as Michael is *not* creepy.
He is elegant and beautiful as he spirals in and out upon himself.
@@ishner i see. so you are a worshiper xD
@@ishner facts
On his way to be spooky and incur sinister happenings
Moving floors out of the way? A basement with a changing layout? He found an earthbender. He needs the avatar
Michael: You called?
😊😊😊😊@@cheddarcheezit2647
Lol the cult of lightless flame can help with fire bending and Fairchild should be able to give some tips on air and water bending. Are Archivists the avatar?
Jon: They seem to move the floor itself.
Me: _Is that allowed??_
Is it?!
if you have a license, then it is...
@@aragornderheld Trevor: when theres no police around, anything is legal!
i don't think that's osha compliant, but uuuh hold on let me check
the style of this one reminded me a bit of jane prentiss's statment, I believe the episode was called "hive"? the way the scenes don't seem to be anchored to a time or place, the way the speaker isn't sure of reality around them, etc. most certainly no connection, but I like the style variations.
Hive is correct
Also, Johnny said that he hadn't slept for days on purpose for recording those two episodes
@@Sirodemirra wtf that's METHOD acting for audio, don't know if I've ever heard of it but dude... I feel tired just hearing that.
@@Sirodemirra What a dumbass. No wonder he named the protagonist Jonathan Sims.
No way! Prentiss wrote a bunch of nonsense. I got so bored listening to that episode. It felt like I was in a lecture about something dumb, like, I don't know, someone speaking about something stupid and using the word "quantum" a lot.
when my guy trys to stim by fidgeting with grass but his fingers keep cutting them
Me: has insomnia
Me: has become completely nocturnal bc of quarantine.
Me: is listening to this at 7:00 am after not sleeping at all.
Me: Feels highly threatened. Micheal is coming for me...
same, friend. my sleep schedule is Wack.. wouldn't mind Michael killing me tho
i was completely nocturnal for a month or two but suddenly and for no reason my schedule flipped over into a very reasonable state now and i have no idea why. it is a bit disconcerting
me too friend. and never seeing daylight is getting to me. my roommate is in the (very reasonable) habit of turning off all lights as he leaves a room. i've developed a need for all the lights to be on any time i'm home and awake because constant darkness does things to my brain
Then Michael can come and he'll be catching THIS HANDS
Jon?
Me, for a long time: the archives aren't safe
Me after the supplimental: THE ARCHIVES AREN'T SAFE OH GEEZ OH NO AAAAAAAAA
just burn the whole archives
@@dendakrmelova1201 eat the archives
Look at the archives
@@luxill0s Worship the archives
This one hits hard. I don't have full on insomnia, but the descriptions of what happens to your brain when you don't sleep enough... Chilling. And, up to a point I got to, accurate.
As someone who's first thought when having an episode of insomnia is being hunted by scp-966, i fully empathize
dante slayer
I am so sorry...
I've had insomnia. The best description of how it feels is in the book Insomnia by Stephen King. I super recommend the audiobook.
@@GiubileiFernando Thanks.
I was wondering if that was accurate, because I have those things too. (dreaming of being heavy, flat surfaces moving when looking at them etc), but I sleep like..... 7 to 10 hours a day. So.... Am I just insane or what? :x
I think Michael is funny. Similar to a character I made called "The Middleman" who would give you beauty treatments in exchange for performing mundane tasks that lead to the seemingly accidental or random death of strangers. His appearance would always change every time he visits you, but always from an iconic fashion era from the past. The last time he visits you, you can't tell what era of fashion he's dressing from, because it's from the future.
OOO That's really cool!!! I love it when I get reminded of my characters by other characters!!!
That is a stupidly cool concept. I can definitely see him being the villain of a comedy-horror movie.
Yo I wanna read the adventures of the middleman
get your top surgery from the middleman
I read a nosleep, but instead of a person or beauty treatments it was a doordash/uber style app.
Don’t drive around on sleep deprivation if you can avoid it especially when the hallucinations start and if you’re a paranoid person. You’ll see cars in front of you that aren’t there, your eyes will want to shut, and people will walk across the street that aren’t actually there.
I read once that driving after a day of lost sleep is functionally the same as driving drunk in terms of impairment.
Thanks i’ll just drive right through all these hallucinations from now on
@@KropotheadI've seen the same
This one was particularly good. The pervasive present-tense, the almost montage quality of the scene changes, the eery descriptions throughout.
And, as someone who deals with insomnia, I am very glad I do not drink coffee in conjunction.
Finally, he got NotSasha as his target for suspicion
"sleep is for the weak"
*You are directly transported back to Jacksepticeye's early videos*
SPEED IS KEY
that was my first thought too
And the dreadnoughts, a band with a song by the same name
Jacksepticeye is micheal. Plot twist
@@borderlinecrazy6444 love that song
i feel called out... its 7am and i havent slept the entire night oops
Mood, I'm listening to this at 7:24 am and I've been listening to this show for the past eight hours lol
yuuuuuup. it's 2pm. i got up yesterday at 6pm. my sleep is just totally fucked
Listening to this at 8 am with no sleep on a Wednesday a year later 😩
Nine for me.
Idk why but this statement gave off a very sad a desperate tone. The thought of just not being able to sleep is horrifying to me. The billboard changing was especially creepy to me tbh
I cannot wait to hear more of Michael.
I don't know if you know this but there's such a thing as genetic deadly insomnia. It starts in peoples 20s often. You get progressively worse insomnia until eventually, you can't sleep at all. Eventually, you die of sleep deprivation related health problems. There's no known cure or treatment
When she mentioned drawing “strange familiar curves” did anyone else think of the table?
Yup... 100%
the cctv, bugging out around sasha? add it to the list of electronics that are affected by the not-[names]...
I like the term Not-them!
Michael at it again
Mikey boi is at it again 😀
when lydia started talking about the man in her living room my first thought was michael negl
probably bcus every tumblr post ive seen abt him has shown him as blonde w incredibly long & curly hair
edit: YEP IT'S HIM ohhhh boy
YEP COCK
I saw a spoilery fanart before knowing about Michael and was like, "who is that large hands man who looks like a Gucci model in a mad hatter-esque outfit???" I thought maybe it was a creature like Slenderman but who would be known as, "Slenderhands" 🤣
I mean, he was described like that in the Distortion episode from season 1, wasn't he?
@@TransilvanianHunger1334 wdym
I'm so sorry but when he said "watching the ceiling fan spin round and around and around" I had the vivid image of that one vine of the guy spinning in his bathtub with pool goggles
gsgdghrvr bo burnham
When Jon casually said "or, at least, Male-presenting" my nonbinary ass audibly GASPED and nearly cried thank u
same 😔🤙
Same!!! Plus the use of 'they' for unknown individuals in general is so refreshing, lol. This show is so good, for many reasons 🌈❤️
same! I didn't even hear what was said after that because i was still thinking about it :')
same ;-;-;-; god this podcast is SO GOOD
same!!
Micheal vibing in the living room
Micheal in the bathroom, michael in the bathroom being creepy
this felt like a personal threat, i loved it
I...I think I'm going to go to bed now.
😅
This episode was seriously creepy tho
god, as someone who's had insomnia from the age of 10 (and who couldn't sleep the night before listening to this episode) so many lines in this really resonate w/ me and capture the experience of seeing reality come apart ever so slightly at the edges, the way that self doubt changes your perception of your surroundings and especially the way that your eyes begin to track movements on their own.
anyway, this part in particular really jumped out at me and is just beautiful:
"I do not know why I am here. I know this place and what you want, but I have no proof to give you. I have nothing that cannot be waved away as a bad dream. By you, at least. I cannot wave, for my arms are too heavy and my hands are busy drawing those strange, familiar curves. What do you want? To find a child’s tooth and hold it up triumphant, a talisman to conjure those things that you should fear. To photograph and analyse a billboard that has never once advertised coffee. To talk to a person who is not a person and whose strange laugh you should be fleeing? I am here, and I give you my words. They are all I have, and all you want, and perhaps when I am free of them then I will be allowed to sleep."
That's such a good bit of writing, thank you for highlighting it.
so can humans in this universe casually floor-bend or is jon just trying to reassure himself
They probably have a book
I can't be scared of any statement where Michael is described seriously anymore... He just... He got introduced and now i can only see those events as my silly goofy guy having fun. Why do i need to humanize everyone like that. Curse my whimsy.
I thoroughly confused my Dad when I kicked and danced out of the bathroom because ~!☆!~MiChAeL iS bAcK~!☆!~
I don't know why I love that creepy, not-human so, but I doooOOOO!
wow this statement is eerily familiar to the way that ADHD and insomnia combined makes me think and feel personally
one of my fave episodes, the blurring of time and delirium really gives a deliciously eerie feel to the statement
ohh i loved this one, i had pretty bad insomnia during my teens, the longest i went without sleep i started hallucinating (the weirdest was a strange white bug about the size of a hand on a wall, it changed shape slightly, i thought it was a spider at first, but then it almost looked like some weird mantis) get that sleep kids
Opal I don’t have insomnia afaik, but due to college course loads I had weird gremlin shadow things running around my house and knocking on doors. I got into my car and drove to class and the drive back was Hell. Seeing cars, people in the street. My paranoia took hold of my hallucinations. 👀 The bug sounds pleasant tbh lol
I mean
The worst I've seen is just
Emptiness
I went to school
I didn't see anyone
The teachers voices still existed but were weird and ethereal
(I don't think I have insomnia, I just stay up too late working on stuff) but the worst thing I've seen was a very tall shadow guy with a fedora and maybe a scarf? Just standing over me in my bed, looking down at me like he was debating whether to touch me or not. Freaked me out
@@a-bird-lover you saw the hat man
@@LtDragonfruit nah I get shadowy figures like him all the time when I don't sleep, they don't interact with anything and they aren't related to big ups and downs in my life they're just lack of sleep induced shadow hallucinations. My mom is really into that spiritual stuff so if I was being haunted she'd know
One time at 3am I wrote “sleep is for the weak” and then the time. Just lines of
“sleep is for the weak 3:24”
“sleep is for the weak 3:24”
“sleep is for the weak 3:24”
“sleep is for the weak 3:25”
“sleep is for the weak 3:25”
I was manic
And that’s on my mental illnesses lol
:'-(
I’ve done similar stuff to that before and I gotta say it is not a fun time :>
Lol mood. My bipolar ass would totally be an avatar of the spiral
I hope you're doing better now.
I know my comment is late (also no spoilers please- first time listener) but I was thinking of the cadence of the words being spoken and it’s a spiral. Lydia will start with a factoid about insomnia, or some small sentence about sleep and begin to rant into either an anecdote or a full on lesson about what it’s like. The ongoing cycle is AMAZING and I feel like I’m spiraling with her! That is the sign of a good podcast, love this!
omg youre gonna love some episodes further down the line if this episode was your thing
so i've been really looking forward to this episode for a long time because i got lydia halligan as my tma character on a quiz a while back... and i'm feeling so called out right now????
"Your vision goes strange when you don’t sleep for a long time. I think it’s something to do with changing pressure on your eyeballs. You start to detect faint movements on the edges, on the periphery, and if you stare too long at a flat surface it starts to gently pulse and move."
Okay so,, those movements i saw weren't actually paranormal...
Im--
Finally suspecting the right person.
Ironically, rolling playlists of this podcast late at night lulls me to sleep.
Sleep deprivation is drugs.
I think this is my favorite episode so far, the descriptions are just so unsettling and the way that it's narrated really adds to the athmosphere
I really loved the way this one flowed! Poetic creepiness, thank you for the always amazing stories!
Oh wow as someone who's called Lydia, with Insomnia and chronic fatigue this just... Was scary in such a real and personal way. I usually listen to this podcast at night in bed but for this one I had to keep the light on :'D
You're strong for being able to listen to this podcast at night in bed. Listening to this in daylight, I barely even get the heebie jeebies. Mostly, I just go "omg how they can think up such interesting ideas". But in the middle of the night in the dark? Yep I freak out
This is... Man, as a wild insomniac this is too real
Man, as a freelance writer who works throughout the later (or early?) hours, this ep called me out hard
Listening to this while sleep deprived is a mood
superb description of how it feels to have 'insomnia'...
as a speedfreek its scary how much of these things ive observed and thought out loud to myself years ago, pretty much verbatim....
dont do drugs kids, stay in school!
magnus out.
Magnus did absolutely nothing wrong. Well, maybe the speed, but that’s a personal choice and I respect it.
@@Kropothead bro, i fucked everything up... didnt mean to though...
fuck you erebus
I spent a few minutes before realizing what was making the statement so confusing: everything is in the present tense.
No past, no future. You don't even get to know if the events are being related in chronological order. And everything is on the same level (no reaction for a human tooth? Are you really this deep?)
You don't get a clue about how long it was for the statement giver. Was it days? Months? Years?
And that's amazing !
Have you ever just stared at one spot so long that you manage to grey out the rest of your vision and make everything go wavy and staticky? It’s hard, you have to focus on not moving your eyes, which is harder than you think. You always think it’s easy but our eyes instinctively move around a lot so stopping it is hard to do. And to be honest I’m not sure if there’s medical repercussions to doing it. But it’s interesting, it looks cool. It takes a while though.
it's hard for you? It happens all the time to me, I zone out a lot so it's pretty easy for me to just kinda unfocus my eyes. What's happening tho is that the cones in your eyes that sense color get tired from firing over and over again, and slowly start to give up and just want to turn off for a second. If you look at a white wall or piece of paper, you'll see the negative image of what you were looking at! There's no medical repercussions from it either :)
@@a-bird-lover I meant it’s hard to do it on purpose. I have trouble zoning out on command and it’s hard to stop moving your eyes when you’re not zoned out.
Also thx for the explanation!
@@kninenights oh I can zone out on command, is that not normal?
@@a-bird-lover idk. Not normal for me, but my brain’s stupid so Idk how normal it is for anyone else ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When I was little I would stare up at the popcorn ceiling until it looked like it was moving. It was just mystifying. Fascinating in a way that I knew wasn't quite right but I also knew I was seeing it. Its strange
When the statement giver talks about the tall man with sandy blond hair, I immediately said out loud "freaking MICHAEL" lol. Didn't expect him to be here, but then again, ofc he is.
I have some mild insomnia and like to ironically say "Sleep is for the weak" when I'm not getting enough. So it was really unnerving and unexpected to hear in this context. Pretty epic
oh wow okay adding this to my list of "episodes that *get* me." I don't have insomnia and I'm trying to keep it that way, but the unreality is really accurate to how everything feels to me and this feels oddly comforting.
"Or at least Male presenting"
My first thought: oh they are nonbinary then.
They shifted the floor to enter the archives
My first thought:.. nonbinaries do have a lot of cool skills
Someone slowly going insane, recounting er life as te spiral takes it is awesome and terrifying and this is one of my new favorite episodes.
What a quarantine mood
As a writer who forgets dates and suffers from insomnia, this episode hit way too close that I got chills..
the comment about lydia worrying about the state of her insides and stuff as a result of not sleeping is one of my main anxieties too smh
I love how they describe the statements like "regarding their experience going to the laundromat" and the statement describes someone getting pulled into a washing machine by a horrifying figure, painfully going through the spin cycle and somehow appearing totally fine outside of it when it's done washing
Hey at least they’re clean xD (slight spoilers next)
A spin cycle a day keeps the Corruption away!
@@AutumnF HAHA YEAH CLEANING DEFINITELY WORKS (looks nervously to that one ep about the father in law who kept cleaning but never got rid of the purple mold fungus thing)
@@boneenthusiast8530 Oh god I forgot about that one- Maybe it doesn’t after all
As a person diagnosed with insomnia I feel called out.
huh. so i was going to leave last episode, but because it was all about darkness i knew i wouldnt be able to really sleep. this episode doesnt exactly help, either haha. specially not that i kind of started seeing a shadow taunting me just behing my door. jesus, i need to watch some silly puppy videos or something, i cant trust that next episode wont be worse lmao
oh. just heard the supplemental. WORRYING. i am officially DISTURBED i gusss thats what happens when you spend a better part of a day dedicated to a really great horror podcast. whoops
The thing about when you are so sleep deprived you start to see other creatures start to try and cross our dimension isn't actually that bad tbh
Anyone else when hallucinating see their clothes take on human movements without anyone in them? Like from sleep deprivation I mean
I'm listening to this the morning I've succeeded in having more than 2 hours of sleep from the past three days. Not sure what that means for me...
I really relate to this one, having suffered insomnia (as I'm writing this I've slept like 4 hours in the last 2 days, and it's almost 3am), and yeah, the worst part of sleeplessness is definitely the shadow people in your peripheral vision, that and the loss of difference between sleep and vigil.
So, the episode really is doing a great work catching the feelings of fatigue.
I feel personally attacked with this episode.
After pushing myself to the severe point of fatigue many many school nights, this episode really described the worst of it. I'm just glad I always eventually fall asleep.
That story about creatures trying to press into the world... Hits different knowing how the Fears work.
as a kid I would literally stay up reading because I couldn't sleep. Even as a baby my mom would lay me down and I would just play with my toes.
sleep has not gotten easier as I aged.
this hits hard lol
it's 1 am, recently I've been going to sleep around 3 or 4, maybe I should just try to sleep now.
This hits way too close to home, the idea Michael had a part of what's going on with Lydia is scary.
Genuinely loving the overarching story. I refuse to join the sub Reddit or anything until I am caught up. See everyone in a few months!
I'm not quite sure why but this episode freaked me out way more than the others i have listened to
Same... Probably because aside from the Michael apparitions, it just is something that can actually happen ?
Listening to this while pulling an all nighter. Not the best choice.
I just noticed whole statement is written in the present tense, as though every moment in it is happening simultaneously.
I honestly expected Michael to suddenly pop up next to john after it was mentioned.
I so damn love Michael. I started listening that podcast, because I saw fanarts with him. He got a lot of this beautiful chaotic-neutral charm. His thoughts seem to be beyond human understanding. Yesterday he sucked people into his corridor, today he hung out with some lady with insomnia and made her draw spirals, and tomorrow he will be sitting somewhere in someone else's house, drinking strawberry syrup latte and watching drama at the Magnus institute through a laptop, dressed in pajama with Hello kitty. He likes to play with people, to watch how they try to contact him as an equal when he is something different, completely unknown and incomprehensible to our brains. I can talk about my love to him hours and even not describe all reasons why he is so good..
(P.S. I apologize for my cur English, it's not my native language)
This one do be hittin different in quarantine
I audibly went "oh, Micheal! Oh no!" When the creepy laugh was mentioned
I have had insomnia since I was a child, and over the past five or six years my dreams have been so realistic and vivid that I struggle to tell the difference between what was a dream and what is a memory.
This episode hits a little close to home.
Damn, this was a really good episode. One of my favorites so far. I love the way it's written, it really lets us feel her state of mind. As someone else has pointed out, everything is in present tense, we don't know in what order the things happened. There's no past, no future, no time.
Also *Michael my beloved!!!!*
I am *extremely* tired and half-asleep, but I wanted to listen to just one more episode while before going to bed. Who could've thought it's an episode that describes some weird ways your brain might glitch if you deprive yourself from a good night's rest😶
My insomnia only got better after I started working and made a routine where I'm tired body and mind but BOY it took a while lol I remember my own "how long can I stay awake" days and the "why cant I just sleep" ones too (for a while I ecen had this sleep medication that I dropped because it made me 10 times more awake, awful)
I don’t have insomnia, but I have ADHD which can cause some sleep problems.
I got two hours of sleep last night.
I took 10 mg of melatonin. I take that much every night.
It doesn’t help.
I was about to take a nap. Or well, the closest I can get. I’ve only ever fallen unconscious during a “nap” when I’m sick.
oof I feel ya. ADHD's the worst.
It's honestly really funny (and kinda sad) that we happened upon this particular episode in the middle of a period of incredible sleep deprivation where we have no sleep schedule and are trying desperately to get the rest we need all the time. Except without the funky spiral man fucking with us (to our knowledge at least) -Oliver
*notices the title is fatigue*
*suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome*
Ayyyyyyyy
Yay Michael, one of my favourites!
I love this one
Well, as a shift worker with rather nocturnal habit and no sleep schedule worthy of that name, this was a delightful episode to listen to while sipping a cup of joe. At least it's morning. And Jon... feeling a bit called out by this statement, hm?
She's talking about how important sleep is, and I'm up at 2am listening to this.
Insomnia is an insidious beast. I've had a few sleepless nights, and when you chain enough of those together, you see glimpses of the very mania described in this episode. There's nothing quite so miserable as knowing you can't give your body the one thing it needs to keep you sane.
as a person who used to suffer from insomnia... damn the description of how it feels is exceptionally accurate
great job
Oh hell no this episode has massive Jane Prentiss vibes with how it's written and performed by Jon 😨😨 my skin is crawling
Finally Jon, finally you're suspecting the right person.
I love the writing style of this one !!
Additionally, the supplemental was SO creepy, oh my gods. I’ve heard stories of people discovering through CCTV that someone’s hiding in their house and stealing food; the idea has scared me ever since, and this sort of reminded of it…
i'm listening to this at hour 21 being awake. not anything close to my record of 48 hours when i started hallucinating. it's still enough to make it hard to focus and this episode freak me out
I am feeling veRY CALLED OUT RIGHT NOW
The writing in this one is so, so good
As someone with chronic insomnia, this was the most relatable ep to me. I felt it on a spiritual level. Almost everything Lydia felt is a symptom of chronic insomnia, from your vision 'pulsing', forgetting where you are, the mood and energy swings, and the descriptions of having euphoria kicks and being 'blocked with a granite wall'. Having these symptoms and hallucinations is all very real, because i literally experience them before, except seeing Micheal of course. Like holy shit this ep was so accurate
And when Jon the creator said In a q&a that this was based on his insomnia, i was glad to know i had something to relate to.
Insomnia is very very bad tho, do sleep
the way it describes the cycle of half asleep and mania hit so close to home
Tbh this reminded me of a reddit post on i think r/ambien about a person who had insomnia (and was sleep deprived as they wrote) and how the doctor had given them sleep medication. They wrote about how they could finally feel sleep coming for them, how they were in bed with their spouse who was beautiful to them, how they were happy and nothing hurt. it was kind of stilted but really beautiful. The prose was very similar to this episode
The openings got big depression mood