Your gateway to endless inspiration
Tma The Spiral - Blog Posts
Artworks of michael distortion and michael shelley in the same image often draw the former intimidating/enfolding the latter. But that’s not it at all, is it? They’re one and the same, yet mutually unrecognizable to each other. The distortion did not prey on michael shelley, he was fed to it and it was bound to him. And once it became clear it would not escape unscathed, it did not want him. Michael shelley was never even meant for the spiral at all, and it shows in how it acts as a distortion. If anything, the intimidating factor above the hapless human should be gertrude robinson, not any facet of something that could be called michael in some capacity
The Distortion would have become Helen regardless of if it had ever become Michael or not.
Think about it. Real estate is a pretty fun place to be an erronious door. Helen Richardson would probably have walked through as in canon, even without Michael to lure her in, and we know that her reaction was to make a map. So she makes a map, gets taken back after giving her Statement, (Jon never gets the “do you even know they’re lying to you” warning,) and she Becomes. Ta-da, Helen Distortion, no Michael involved at all.
The web and the spiral and the eye are all the same thing. Until the finale I kept wondering why all three of them existed since they NEED each other to exist. They are aspects of one Fear. The only reason the Web is separate is because it’s sentient in a way the others aren’t. But just as Knowing isn’t necessarily Understanding, you do need to Know to Understand. Annabelle said more deceptive half-truths than the Distortion did, but in the exact same flavour. Helen did it for fun while Annabelle did it for sneaky plotting (and… probably also fun, tbh). I see the Spiral as having a lot to do with manic 3 am creativity, which is inexorably tied to all the best schemes. The Spiral and the Eye combine to form the Web. Screams loudly
Idk if this is more Vast or Spiral coded. Depends on who you ask I guess. Or maybe it’s both!
"Hey, mom? Can you come pick me up from school? Yeah, the sky is filling with fractals again."
If he hadn’t been sacrificed, I feel like Michael would have been more a victim and/or avatar of The Web.
I highly doubt Michael was stupid. To be honest, he strikes me as neurodivergent of the “if I just go with what they say, they won’t hate me” variety. He trusted gertrude to not… y’know. Kill him. I feel like that’s a pretty low level of trust, all things considered. He probably knew she was planning *something*, though he grossly underestimated the scale. Consider also that Gertrude was trying to intentionally deceive pretty much everyone so that she could go around obliterating Rituals and being a general pain in the ass to Jonah. It’s not a mark against someone to have been tricked by Gertrude. Hell, he was in an echo chamber designed to keep him ignorant!
Point is, Michael wasn’t stupid. He was scared. He was scared of being hated and left behind and not being enough for others. He was scared of failing people. He’d fall into anyone’s schemes, take any number of hits, whatever it would take to have people stick around and hopefully, maybe, protect him in return.
If it hadn’t been Gertrude and her assistants specifically, if it hadn’t been Fears and supernatural entities and attempts to end the world, he would have been manipulated, rather than lied-to-and-manipulated. He could break the Great Twisting because he *had* been lied to, not because it was the core of his fear. (Ignore for now that the Twisting wouldn’t have worked anyway, if 160 is to be believed.)
And every fear has a bit of manipulation in it, Gerry’s colour analogy rant and all. But The Web relishes in manipulation, in telling you true things that will lead you to the wrong conclusions to do what it wants. Michael was told he could stop a great evil. True! Sort of!
Anyways, Web!Michael when
I remembered what it was about ten seconds after posting
Anyways if the distortion can be summoned by knocking on a wall and wanting to talk to it, that implies that it’s constantly aware of all walls and the emotions of the people near them. Distortion would probably vibe with the web in an alternate universe
I was having complex thoughts about the distortion, truly expanding my concept of reality by way of the funny gay door thing, and then i got distracted and forgor
Chat gpt is an avatar of the spiral.
Let's break that down.
The logo:
Just look at it.
It's a spiral hidden inside a weird geometric form.
2. Wants to help you:
It is always willing to help, but it does it due to its own hidden evil intentions.
3. Doubts feed it:
The spiral is all about being confused, and ChatGPT feeds on peoples confusion and inability to solve certain problems. When you state your doubts, it ends up getting stronger, learning from humanity's uncertainty.
4. Will deceive you:
We all know that ChatGPT will answer your questions, but you will never know if the answers it gives you are true unless you are informed.
5. Is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
6. Doesn't have a real identity:
If you ask for its name it tells you it doesn't have one.
.
.
.
Now the real issue... what about the doors??
Well... everyone says that the internet is the door to knowledge, that's chat gpt's door.
Anyways... don't be strangers!
So.
It seems to be a rite of passage for all tma enjoyers to obnoxiously assign entities to every piece of media they consume, which is why I present to you another exhibit of this totally normal behaviour, this time for The Spiral.
I am rewatching this little kdrama called 'Bad and Crazy' and for the first half, it doesn't seem like much, although the themes surrounding mental disorder are very much present. The second half however, has a huge focus on subjects like gaslighting, loss of memory, therapeutic malpractice and doors. Lots of doors. I'm not doing it justice, I know, but it has the perfect culmination of doors and mental health issues. You've seen the Distortion make doors appear out of nowhere and you've seen them lie and manipulate and whatnot but have you seen doors INSIDE someone's head? You'll find them here!
It's starting to sound like I'm selling this drama but like, if you love the Spiral, you NEED to watch it. Also it's hilarious and has probably the best characters in kdrama that I have seen. Even if you don't watch kdramas, you'll like this one, it's built different.
Watch it.
You want to.
the day I'm able to draw the distortion the way it deserves will be the day I officially fulfill my mission on this earth but i can only yearn for the unfiltered embodiment of madness until then
pov something is really wrong with your super quantum unit intel processor
some more
she helens on my michael till i distortion
pretty thing that appeared in my sketchbook during history class. came out kinda weird and very unconsistent, love it for that
"a flower..." (mispronounced)
no,
you are the question of
" what
lurks
behind
a
smile? "
oh helen richardson, the woman you were. a little bit evil i hope. a little bit wrong
thinking about this one au where michael distortion continues to work in the archives after michael shelley's death because apparently you can't leave the archives even if you aren't you anymore
haven't drawn my amazing awesome incredible lovely exquisite pretty handsome beautiful marvelous fantastic wonderful magnificent breathtaking brilliant astonishing literally perrrrrfect wife in a while.
quick helen richardson doodle <3
oh the creature you are
the golden ratio
the guy day. i found tma rp and have never been happier
character's author - @thestereosonicanimatronic !!!
looking at the distortion during classes like a soldier at a photo of their wife
surprise! you're the blorbo of the year.
extremely lazy these days!
I love people who you look at and they slowly turn into an abstract something
just imagine turning into something completely different when your "self" doesn't even function properly. poor distortion was so confused at first :3