#mikecrew

[lafresnaya]

big day for my thoughts of things other than mike crew.

only listened to his statement 3 times today. as a treat i'm going to ramble on about his cadence; it's one of the reasons i've been able to listen to it *checks notes* at least 30 times in the last week.

it always catches me off-guard, because he makes pauses at places i don't expect him to. normally, when people speak, they pause at joining or connecting words, but mike constantly, throughout his statement, stops at odd places, like:

"exists in my mind... completely detached"

"dreamed that night of... shifting, branching"

they're not indicated in the transcript, because they're too short to really count, but it happens multiple times throughout his statement, like he's struggling for words, having difficulty either recalling or articulating what had happened. i adore either possibility, or both at the same time, because for the former you have his self-admitted "sometimes it's hard to keep track" & for the latter you have the obviously traumatic childhood and his "i'm not usually the sort for speeches".

i think when i first listened to his statement back in 2020, it kind of annoyed? me? because i was so used to mr. j. sims, oxford graduate, and his smooth posh voice, but now that my eyes have been opened it's just part of his charm.

it's got to be something about the dopamine expectation vs. actuality thing; if you know something too well it gets tiring, which is how i get sick of songs when i loop them. but even though i know basically every word of those 14 mins where mike crew speaks, i don't know the way he says it with 100% certainty, so each time i listen i'm treated to several surprises along the way and my brain loves it!!

(also tangentially related -- i always expect him to say 'decade' when he talks about the first 'real' storm in 10 years, because of course 10 years is a decade,, but maybe that's my literature-brain speaking? which is interesting because i'd thought with the amount of book-hunting mike's done he'd be more used to fancier terminology. or maybe he's just more utilitarian in his speech. or i'm just reading too much into a single word choice in a 1.5k+ word statement, which is far more likely)

[lafresnaya]

Been doing some research for a mini, mike-themed, conspiracy-esque board, and I've come across some interesting things:

Firstly, a 1981 article on the effects of being struck by lightning.

It's... very, very interesting how many ways a lightning strike can mess up your body. Human beings are very fragile things indeed. Notably, though, the results were that 'no continuing problems [were] observed' in the victim, which checks out. ["The doctors told me there would be no long-term damage from my accident."]

This 2008 article has a few things of relevance; namely that lightning strike victims:

Bear lichtenberg figures as a result of damage to the capillaries which usually go away in 24 hrs, but may be associated with 'deep pigmentation'. But I don't think this is the case with Mike, as I believe his scars are pale/almost-white. ["his face got so pale his branching scar seemed almost to vanish"]

May experience keraunoparalysis; the temporary paralysis of of the limbs, as result of the lightning's electricity taking the path of least resistance (i.e. through the nerves) and playing havoc with the nervous system and subsequently, both motor ability & sensation. ["you’re trapped in a statue of yourself"]

May experience retrograde amnesia; the inability to remember past events/experiences. ["The part that always bothered me was how I didn’t remember it. Not really."]

He was almost certainly hit dead-on/directly by lightning.

There's a few types of lightning strikes from what I can tell; direct, side flash (indirect), ground current & upward-streamers. The fact that Dominic Swain was unharmed (and within hearing distance of Mike, right before the flash) suggests that it wasn't a side-flash or ground current. You need a tall object for an upward streamer, but they were "playing in a field" so it's unlikely to have been that. That leaves only a direct strike. Direct strikes are less likely to have living victims, but this is TMA. And Mike survived. Mostly.

[lafresnaya]

When Mike Crew said:

Do you think that "something else" was anything like --

-- Helen trying to make sense of an impossibility?

Do you think that's what the lichtenberg figure wanted?

Mike trying so hard to understand, to come to terms with what had happened to him, to figure out why the lichtenberg scar didn't fade like all lichtenberg scars do? To figure out why the lightning had hit him, specifically?

Do you think that he's been short all his life - that Dominic Swain was taller - and that the probability of lightning hitting him and leaving Dominic untouched was unlikely? Perhaps even impossible?

But with no knowledge of the Entities, how would he know? He spent 8 years wondering before the figure 'caught his scent'; maybe it was waiting to see if he lost his mind trying to wrap his head around something that could never be understood first.

[lafresnaya]

thinking about this rn.

because it's in the middle, i remember it a little less (thanks, primary bias & recency bias) and it merges into the scenes before and after but it's been on my mind for a while;

corridors seem to be a common theme with the spiral, huh? even if it's only in his dreams, real-or-not-real doesn't seem to matter much when it comes to it-is-not-what-it-is.

ever wonder if he came across the distortion? or if the distortion had some hand in this?

it's also got me thinking about what @thermodynamic-comedian said about mike representing the movement aspect of the vast, of something that outpaces you - not because it's trying to show you up or leave you behind, but because you and your little area of space that you occupy are so tiny in comparison to the route it will travel.

'flesh peeling away', 'coursing, buzzing pain' - it just goes to show that he didn't always have the ability to move at such speeds without facing the constraints of the human body, and moving at death-defying paces wasn't always 'that wonderful border between terror & delight'.

and you know? i think that's part of what helped him become an avatar of the vast.

he feared it. he had within him the ability to fear it, but he also loved it; and i think in many ways, like the shape the lichtenberg figure took, he too, belonged to the sky.

for me, it reads like the only fear he ever held for the spiral was mixed with hatred.

[lafresnaya]

i think it would be really funny if mike crew had gone back to herbert knox and just. not even fed him to the vast. but like, sent jude perry in his general direction

like we know they're acquainted (unless jude's just a stalker) since she knows his address

and the sheer disgust when he calls the guy a 'nasty, grubby old man who stank of sweat and self-importance' makes me think he's not even worth feeding to the entity that enabled mike's transcendence

[lafresnaya]

okay i think my hyperfixation is calming back down to 'normal' hyperfixation levels!! i've only listened to mag91 five times today!!

[lafresnaya]

yes, me of three weeks ago, you are still very unwell about mike crew.

[lafresnaya]

just got an insta reel saying there's a 2 story greggs in chichester