Michael K.

Michael K.

Michael holding his belly, laughing. He's having a good time.

Proto Michael's shirtless, hairy chest.

Michael's sprite in the prototype.

Classification	Photographer Conspiracy Theorist
Screen Name	VerraFORMER
Voiced By	Clifford Chapin
Age	19 (Dubious)
Hair Color	Brown

"The more time I spend with him the more THIS world feels like the real one... no matter how broken and fucked it is."

Michael K. is the co-founder of ONISM1999, with a clear obsession with the paranormal and conspiracies. Despite this grim interest, he's a cheery guy who loves to crack jokes. He also has an interest in writing stories, photography, and computers.

Personality

An old friend from high school. He's as smart as he looks!

Michael likes to make quips and jokes during casual conversation. But even with his mostly lighthearted personality, he doesn't sugarcoat how he feels. A particular moment is when Alex humiliates Rory for "lying to him," Michael calls him out on how he's being a jerk. He also expresses great disappointment in how users of ONISM treated the Elevator Girl video.

He tends to value his youth very highly, and makes fun of Alex and Vella for being "ancient." He even has great nostalgia for games like Lufia 2, which came out only a few years before 1999.

His fascination with the supernatural and true crime stems all the way from childhood, where he would catch shows about missing people. His passion led him to create ONISM1999 so that he could share his interest with the world. Oftentimes he'll try to bring the Soul Survivors back into conversation, and encourages Alex to find Sammy.

Relationships

Alex

Michael and Alex used to be childhood best friends. He seems to want Alex to be a better person, as he pushes him to apologize towards Rory. He also supports Alex in his journey to find Sammy, willing to take pictures in abandoned buildings and follow him till the end.

As Proto-Michael, he decides to help Alex with saving reality, even though all of his other parallel lives always tell him no. He desperately tries to make Alex understand that something is wrong with the fabric of reality itself.

Allison

While details are vague, it is implied that Michael dated Allison. An ONISM post by VERAformer talks about a girl he's trying to get close with and her nerdy brother. Another post details a story with a love interest named Alexandra, and later meets a person in real life named Alex. The lyrics of Break Away also potentially hint at their relationship.

Story

When Michael was really young, he would sneak into his parent's room and watch shows about missing people. This is where he got his interest in more dark subjects, like the supernatural. In Christmas of 1996, Michael's father got a computer where he would do all his writing on. Michael grew a fascination with computers, and once Avril got internet for Frankton he would spend a lot of time on paranormal websites when his dad wasn't home. In Christmas of 1998, Michael would get his own computer. He eventually met a friend on an online chatroom and found that they both had a fascination with the supernatural. Together they decided to create ONISM1999.

Later in 1999, Michael meets up with Alex for the first time in, apparently, years. Fresh from the SATs, they small-talk for a bit until the tone shifts when bringing up ONISM. Alex tells him that he knows about the site and is aware of the location of the Elevator Girl. After picking up a new camera to take some pictures, when they arrive at the Factory Hotel they come face to face with an entity. They manage to take a few pictures before running home, bewildered with what they just saw.

Michael uploads the photos to ONISM, realizing that the photos they took were somehow distorted. Interestingly, the photos are also set in a completely different location from where they actually found the entity.

Proto-Michael

While Alex was away in the Essentia's Mind Dungeon, Michael explored his own Mind Dungeon for 9 days to meet his parallel selves. He saw the pattern of his parallel lives and decided to try and diverge from it- becoming Proto-Michael, a new beginning for him.

As the time ticks down towards Y2K, Proto-Michael pleads for other people to try and realize that something is wrong with the way reality currently is. He explains a story about how he witnessed that in a parallel life, he was the friend he founded ONISM with, which means the chatroom somehow had the ability to connect to different realities. He also discusses how the Soul Survivors driving The Essentia 2000 around contradicts what they knew about them entirely.

Alex's Memory of Michael

On New Years Eve, Alex realizes that his memory of Michael contradicts with what he knew before. Michael moved away when he was 10 years old, and when Alex was 12 years old. He apparently had some sort of "falling out" with Alex, and told Alex to meet with him but Michael never showed up. It's likely that the lyrics of "Break Away" refer to this event.

The Golden Alpaca also refers to Michael as being "stitched into reality's fabric, for dramatic effect, playing the childhood mate." This means that the Michael who was with them throughout the entire story was not the Michael Alex actually knew. Instead, it is more likely that the voice on the phone is the "real Michael."

I.V

Not much is known about Michael's involvement in I.V yet. He spends time with a mysterious entity known as The Camera in his Dark Room.

Combat

Skill	PP	Description	Cast Time	Recovery Time
Photoshoot	6	Do 1.2x damage to enemy party.	0	700
Soul Capture	10	Summon a copy of the targeted enemy.	500	500
Blinding Flash	3	Reduce enemy accuracy.	0	1000
Dazzle Party	5	Blind party and secretly draw gun.	0	400
Blackmail	1	Turn an enemy against its party.	0	780

Skill	PP	Description	Notes
Beat Down	2	"Beat down!"	This minigame is short and simple. A string of inputs must be hit when the line crosses them, adding to your combo. The amount of inputs depends on the weapon Michael has equipped.
Photoshoot	4	Take rapid photos to damage enemies with the blinding light of the camera flash!	While this doesn't deal a lot of damage, it can be good for taking out enemies at low HP and dealing a little bit of damage to others. Time Energy can be used to greatly increase your combo as well.
Glamour Shot	2	Attempt to take a good photo of a friend to boost their morale.	"GOOD" face - Raises Strength and Defense. "BAD" face - Deals small damage and inflicts enemy with Sick. "FLIRTY" face - Lowers Strength, but raises Defense. Obtained at level 5.
Mug Shot	3	Attempt to take a bad photo of a foe to hurt their self-image.	"GOOD" face - Raises Strength and Defense. "BAD" face - Deals small damage and inflicts enemy with Sick. "FLIRTY" face - Lowers Strength, but raises Defense. Obtained at level 7.

Gallery

• 
  Michael's Portrait in the Old Battle Mode status menu. He's as smart as he looks!
• 
  Michael on New Year's.
• 
  Michael looking at a photograph in his Dark Room.
• 
  Michael, not knowing what to say while his friends banter.
• 
  Michael with his revolver.
• 
  Michael notices a picture of Carrie.
• 
  Michael before punching Alex in the face.
• 
  Michael taking a photo of Allison in the YIIK I.V Intro.
• 
  Michael and Allison sitting under a tree. (K-I-S-S-I-N-G?)
• 
  Michael chilling on a rooftop from YIIK's first trailer.

Trivia

• Michael was the 3rd character designed for YIIK.
• Michael was based on Andrew Allanson's cousin, Michael Kucinski.
  • While Michael shares both the first name and the first initial of the last name, Michael from YIIK's full name is just Michael K.
• In the old Battle Mode, Michael has an unobtainable ability called Soul Capture. It costed 15 pp and would "...capture the soul of an enemy to use their powers against them!" It was later implemented in the new combat style for I.V.
• In the old Battle Mode, Michael has an unused ability called Scan. It costed 1 pp and would scan enemy stats.
• Early in Chapter 2, Michael brings up that he has a cousin with a six year old daughter.
• There is a bug with Michael's Beatdown in the old Battle Mode with the PS4 inputs where the X and O button prompts are inverse with each other.
  • If you are on PC, you can change your controller setting to Xbox instead, which will fix the issue.
• Before 1.05, photoshoot's flashes would make the entire screen white.
• The Glamour Shot skill was added in the 1.25 update.