Poliwhirl (Pokemon)

Poliwhirl
=========

[The following document was recovered from the author's room shortly after his famed escape, and has been published in the hopes of helping to lead to his eventual capture. This publication is the property of the Kanto Department of Investigation and may not be republished in any unauthorized texts. Plagiarism of this text is subject to trial at the full extent of the law.]


People often ask me what my favorite Pokémon is. I always tell them, "Pikachu!"


But Pikachu isn't my favorite Pokémon. My favorite Pokémon is Poliwhirl.


I haven't lied about it for a long time, but I guess there's a good reason for that. I used to lie a lot, but I'm better now. Besides, everyone always thinks Pikachu is my favorite, and I'm tired of the questions and surprise I got all the time when I was honest. Now, I just don't tell people. But I'm telling you.


I first encountered Poliwhirl when Dad took me fishing. See, Dad really likes sports, and fishing was one of his old pastimes. Right away, I knew I had to have one. I loved the spiral on its belly and how it could make slime to keep itself alive outside of water.


Dad kept the Poliwhirl he caught, and we played together a lot. I'd fall asleep after a while, but we had fun when I was awake.


It was the spiral on its belly. I loved that spiral, and how deep and mysterious it was. I liked watching it. It went on and on and on, like it was going into Poliwhirl's body. I wanted to stick things in there to see if they'd go in the spiral, but never did, in case it really did go inside Poliwhirl's body and I'd hurt it. It was a silly thing to think, but I was really little back then.


No, no... I must lose this childish demeanor. While I am a child, during my journey, I've given up all rights to childhood. One who has seen the horrors produced by men cannot rightly be called a child, and cannot claim innocence under the guise of childish ignorance. I'm sure you think me ignorant, even now, or perhaps you think me some sort of genius? I can't tell you what goes on in your own mind, but while gifted with the genius of childhood, I'm burdened by the weight of adult issues. In the end, I suppose you can call me average, a person in my own right, neither child nor adult.


I suppose I should introduce myself! Forgive me, I'm a bit scatterbrained. My name is Satoshi Tajiri. I have been told I share a name with the man who created this world, but I know nothing of that. I'm twelve years of age, and I grew up in Pallet Town, a quiet, fairly new town in Kanto. I've loved Pokémon my whole life. I got my first Pokémon, Charmander, a year ago. While my birth name is, as I've said, Satoshi Tajiri, I'm far more well-known under the name my followers have given me – "Red".


Ah, I understand you're a little frightened, now that you're sure of my identity, as you've no doubt heard the tall tales spun by those who've misjudged my actions. "Spun" is an appropriate choice of verb, as these tales have been spun just like the whirling mass that led up to my current predicament. You must understand, I was once a curious boy. While once-famous for my curious venture into the dangerous tall grass outside my hometown, I'm sure my more recent curiosities that have come to light are of far greater importance to you.


Ah, but I forget myself! You must think me to be terribly off-track, if not insane, hm? I apologize for my tangent, but I figured it was best to introduce myself before telling you what you want to know.


That Poliwhirl is my favorite Pokémon is perhaps the most important piece of information I can tell you. Forgive me, my writing skills are sub-par, and I cannot write this piece to give emphasis to the important without up and saying what is important. Poliwhirl is crucial to what I am about to tell you.


As I grew up with this Poliwhirl, I found myself more and more attracted to the symbol on its belly. My childish thinking, that the spiral was physical swirling into Poliwhirl's body, was not far-off at all. You see, the blue-black spiral markings on Poliwhirl are actually its innards. Its intestines. I've had to dissect many species in order to better my understanding of them, and I can only conclude that Poliwhirl's digestive tract is the most unique I've encountered. The intestines themselves are tucked neatly behind a smooth, skin-like membrane. This membrane is, like your own skin, semi-permeable and sensitive to changes in environment. It is almost translucent in the areas where its entrails show, and even closer inspection reveals that the organs have their own distinctive, uneven shapes where food is digested.


Curiosity led me to wonder... Could the shape of its entrails bear any deeper meaning?


Had I not wondered that very thing, perhaps I wouldn't be where I am today, but I can't bring myself to regret it. My very own senses seem to reject the things I have discovered, and it wouldn't be dismissive of you not to believe me on the basis of the sheer audacity of my claims. A mad genius of a child, some have called me. Whether or not I am mad, I can't say for myself. They say those who are the maddest are those who struggle to defend their own sanity, but, in my case, it makes no difference.


To tell you this is to lift just some of the burden from me, and while this is a selfish whim, I'm sure you could benefit from this tale. ...If it could be called that.


Again, I apologize, as it may have been more fitting to begin this tale with on that note, but as I pen this in, I have no means of erasing my words, and it's unfitting for me to start from the beginning. You know who I am, and, I assure you, that Poliwhirl is my favorite Pokémon is a significant fact.


As some of you may already know, I did not encounter a wild Poliwhirl personally until far into my journey. Until then, I'd been raising my father's, a specimen I'd grown especially close to. It was this Poliwhirl, the one nicknamed "Poli" by my younger self, that initially led me to wonder about the deeper significance of the spiral.


I invite you to consider that your own body also has many spiral patterns. Your ears, your prints, perhaps even your entrails. The shape of the spiral is a fascinating one, one that resonates sound, leads the eye into its centre. It's a tricky shape, capable of vexation and illusion. The presence of the spiral influences the sense of touch, and coils of metal expand and contract to provide heat on stovetops and display temperature in thermometers.


Spirals are one of nature's best-repeated patterns. A weed, as it sprouts, slowly coils outward from itself as it comes to fruition, rejecting its spiral shape as it reaches for the Sun. Even in human biology, a fetus is curled in the womb, taking up little space until it, like the weed, grows and unfurls. This is a common, well-researched phenomenon.


Perhaps you find my terminology crude, but what better way to explain it? The spiral is the shape of inception – the very first shape born into our existence. Galaxies, solar systems, even the very foundation for life, are formed in that same shape. Do you believe me? No? Are you aware of the double helix figure? It's the common structure of nucleic acid, which, I'm sure you know, is the very basis for your own genetic makeup. Your very DNA is a spiral, wrapped up nice and tight, containing everything about you.


Yes, the spiral is a mystical shape! Cracking the mysteries of it could lead us to unimaginably powerful discoveries! It was Poli who initially led me to question the significance of a seemingly parodiable idea, and Poli who led me to discover the things I have.


Regretably, I haven't discovered great things, and for my impulsive actions, I have suffered.


I have many theories regarding the shape of Poliwhirl's entrails. While I don't think any species can consciously control its own evolutionary biology, I find that the spiral makes for, among other things, a terrific defense mechanism. Ah, but doesn't leading the eye to the perfect target (Poliwhirl's own soft belly) defeat the purpose?


No, I earnestly believe that the shape of its spiral is, like the eye-patterns on Scizor's claws, a natural defense mechanism, even a wonderful means of attack.


[The following few pages are a series of illegible scribbles in various colors of ink]


Forgive me, I've once again lost my place.


The spiral is rarely seen as a biological marking of a creature, often hidden inside. I highly doubt any simple human could use such things to their advantage, but Pokémon are powerful, incredible beings, capable of many things that seem impossible for them. My most famous defeat of Team Rocket's Boss lead me to encounter a very rare, oddly colored Persian who attacked with Thunderbolt.


While Poliwhirl is a Water-type, and any sort of hypnotic manipulation is more famously associated with Psychic-types, I once again invite you to consider that the powers Pokémon possess extend far, far beyond human understanding. Once again, I am only a child, but it doesn't take much more than a child's logic to ascertain that one can not be entirely convinced of somethings potential on the mere basis of what is.


I began my investigation into Poliwhirl's powers shortly after beginning my journey. Poli was young, and despite being relatively low-level, had little interest in obeying my commands outside of our shared home. Our first few Gym victories weren't rightly ours, as Poli chose to sit on the sidelines, refusing to stand by my side in battle.


Of course, being a Trainer, I've also traded with many people. I can say almost certainly that I never let any of these Pokémon disobey me so easily, and we quickly became friends despite their previous Trainers.


I can't be sure when I suspected that Poli was manipulating me, but I know I joked about the idea several times before earning my fifth badge. Poli and I were still friends (or so I had thought), the proof of which was that every night, Poli would use the hypnotic powers its spiral had gifted it with to lull me to sleep.


I wonder, even now, if Poli was only toying with me, putting me to sleep out of loathing and not as a favor to me. Unlikely, as the two of us were great friends, but still, I often wonder...


I remember very clearly the night I began my research. I remember the way the shadows on the wall began to twist into helix shapes, the way my eyes refused to focus. It was disorienting and dizzying to study Poli the way I did. Several times, Poli tried to escape, and I was forced to return him to his Pokéball to prevent this.


I remember the tantalizing shapes made out to me, the spirals and helixes, conic, circular, geometric, spanning different dimensions and yet, it was the simple, flat shape on Poli's belly that continued to fascinate me. It drew me in, lulling me into a state of stupor that was simultaneously both glorious and terrifying. It was a high unlike any thrill of victory, or any rush of adrenaline from battle. The spiral, unending and beautiful, stabbed me right in the heart, spiraling into the center of me, threatening to unwind me at my very core, as though it spinned in a way directly reverse to the direction I did. While such things might make little sense to one who has yet to behold them, I consider you fortunate you haven't had to experience what I did.


As I'm sure you heard, people call my crimes an act of insanity, but I disagree, as I broke the spell in a rare, screaming moment of coherency. I had no choice.


While I mourn Poli's loss, I am glad that his death, avoidable as it may have been, allowed me to look deeper into the mysteries of the spiral. I preserved the carcass for later research, but the following morning, I was surprised to find that the marking on its belly had faded away, leaving only white skin. Given my poor methods of preservation and lack of thought to the decomposition process, this isn't surprising, yet unsettling as it may seem, brought me to peace with my beloved companion's passing.


I eventually obtained another Poliwhirl, one I'd been fortunate to capture myself. As you can understand, I initially avoided this one, but, as I've always been one to befriend all of my companions, we came to know each other.


By that point, I was very nearly done with earning Kanto's eight Gym Badges, and my legacy, as it was, led no one to suspect my crime. Had I not sought just one more taste of the forbidden fruit – secret knowledge of the spiral – perhaps I would have gone on to live normally and retain my rights to childhood as I should have.


To this day, I don't believe I acted on my own accord. I had no desire to do the things I have done, and those who've known me know that such things are unlike me. While I find it hard to recall my previous demeanor, I was a curious, sweet boy, and though I had the dark gift of being rather intelligent for my age, there had never been anything sinister about me to suggest I'd behave this way. I suppose I was most like the childish demeanor I tried to display when beginning this text, however, I find that mindset impossible to replicate.


I've since rejected the spiral, though my efforts, I come to admit, are in vain. As I write, my ten fingertips ache under their dressings where I've removed my own external spirals. To deny the shape within myself is to deny all that ever was.


As you are no doubt aware, a similar Pokémon, Spinda, also has a similar spiral motif. I've researched the effects of Spinda, and never have I felt more than dizzy. At the same time, nor has any other person felt such deep hypnosis from the effects of Poliwhirl.


That spiral has driven me mad. Of this, I am finally certain. Do you want to know what I've seen?


Perhaps I was wrong in discarding the significance of my name. While I was largely known to the world as Red, the Champion from Pallet and Hero of Kanto, that identity is dead to me now. I've reverted to my birth name – Satoshi. It was this man whose image and persona I take on, and, I'm sure, he who originally chose Poliwhirl as his favorite Pokémon. And, in turn, I suppose those who venture into my world are also a bit of me. I am, as you would say, your "avatar" on your own Pokémon journey, am I not? My name is "Red" to you, but you are free to call me whatever you want, aren't you?


It is my theory that I was created to feel this affect, as well as all those who take on this "avatar". It would explain the lack of effect felt by others in my world who've experimented with Poliwhirl's hypnotic powers. I wonder, then, if my namesake did this deliberately, using the spiral to lure people into the world he'd created?


Can you clearly remember your first Poliwhirl encounter?


Can you be sure you've never felt a change since the first time you encountered a Poliwhirl on the screen of your device?


Are you sure?


Are you sure?



It's best not to wonder what I've done.


[The following half page is filled with gimicky, childlike scrawls. doodles of spiral-shapes and geometric figures, along with various, crudely-drawn Pokémon]


I resign myself to silence now, for I've said all I need to, and I'm sure this facility, one way or another, will come to silence me through their own means.


[The following three pages are blank]


Poliwhirl wasn't always my favorite Pokémon.


<i>Credited to Pyroluminescence on deviantart.com</i>

Pokemon Pinwheel Village

Pokémon Pinwheel Village
========================

It was 1/4/2012 when my friend let me have his copy of Pokémon Black; my friend had a tendency of selling his consoles but keeping the games, by evidently still owning Super Street Fighter IV though he hasn’t had an Xbox 360 since a year ago. The same applied for Black.

He recently sold his DSI to GameStop to make some money for the long board he wanted. Of course, when I asked him if he was willing to give it to me for free, he hesitated but agreed as long as I would find a way to transfer out his Pokémon.

I had a friend who would help me trade out the Pokémon but he was in Oregon for the holidays so he had to leave all his stuff at home. Over the next few days, I had the game in my dresser drawer waiting for my friend to get back from his vacation. Until then I thought to myself, 'I guess I can start a new game just as long as I don’t save'.

My starter, of course, had to be Oshawott, and I nicknamed him Chip. In every Pokémon game I've played since Crystal, I've come up with two rules; Rule 1:The first 6 Pokémon I catch would stay with me until I beat the Elite Four. Rule 2: I also could not catch any more after I've caught these six until after the Elite Four. Because of these rules I usually refrained from catching any Pokémon until later. I didn't catch my second Pokémon until I reached Nacrene City it was a female Blitzle.

I finally made it to Pinwheel Forest and managed to beat Team Plasma with Blitzle alone, which was good because she needed some training. After the events with Team Plasma I decided to remain in the forest before venturing onto the next town because I have the habit of leveling up my team to the next nearest 10, mostly because I loved having the upper hand in the next gym battle. While there, I also thought to have a look around for any items that could be useful.

While walking around I encountered a patch of rustling grass; being my first time seeing one I didn’t know what to expect (and over all unfamiliar with this generation, and the only information I knew about it being related to N), but I decided to go for it. The patch of grass began to move away from me and I immediately thought “I have to chase after it? Well it certainly makes catching Pokémon interesting. I guess.” I followed it for a minute when I realized I don’t really think this is worth it, so I began walking back.

As I began my walk back to the path I noticed I wasn’t in a familiar part of the forest. It didn’t concern me much, since I was thinking I could probably find more items this way. That’s when my game screen began to shake and large roots came out from behind the trees, blocking my path back.

I had thought back to a Pokémon Ranger I had battled while in pursuit of the Plasma Grunt with the Dragonite skull, mentioning that the forest was alive and that every day something changes. So I had thought, 'This is what he was talking about' :it was a maze that would shift randomly. So I began walking in the other direction to see if I could find another way around. After walking in a straight line for a while I began to think that this probably wasn’t a good idea.

Just then an “!” icon appeared above my character's head and the screen panned left to a woman in a dark green ball gown, as though she had come from a fancy party. She was facing the opposite direction and as I approached her the “!” icon appeared above her head. She turns around to face my character. Immediately she said “Oh well if it ain’t nothing but a child, what are you doing this far out in the woods, sugar? Not trying to scare anyone I hope,” She waited for my character to respond. When he didn’t, she continued to talk. “Well not much of a talker are ya? Well you should come with me anyway, we'll see if we can’t do something about your predicament.”

She began to lead my character west and into a town called Pinwheel Village. I hadn’t noticed it on the town map the last time I checked, and the music was a blues influenced version of Route 1 from the original Pokémon game. She continued to lead my character through the town, which was rural styled; almost all the houses were made of wood and old fashioned, the only exception being the stone cottages at the entrance. As we walked she began to speak. “Pinwheel Village is an old town and was built on a swamp. My family has owned these fertile lands for generations. We also don’t get many visitors round here, so I apologize if I seemed startled by ya’ll earlier.”

We finally stopped in front of a building that had a small sign on the front which I could not read because it was written in that universal gibberish for international cartoons. My first assumption was that this was some type of herbal shop. The woman then said, “This here is our town's Pokémon Center. Feel free to heal up your Pokémon, then when you’re done, come by my mansion and take on my gym challenge. I’ll be waiting for ya’ll so don’t keep me waiting.” She then walked north off the screen. Immediately I pulled out my town map and checked where I was, and sure enough I was in Pinwheel Village just west of Pinwheel Forest (before reaching the coast).

I then made my way into the Pokémon Center, but everything in there was totally different compared to the last Pokémon Center I was in. First off there was no upstairs for communicating with other players, no PC, and no Pokémart. It was cramped looking in there, but the nurse at the end of the hall along with what appeared to be a small pinkish Pokémon (I remind you, I know nothing of this generation so I still don’t know certain Pokémon names) were the only ones in there. I approached the desk and talked to the nurse. Instead of the regular greeting she simply said, “Welcome! Ya’ll look tired, why don’t ya have a quick lie down?” When my screen came to I exited and made my way to the gym. I noticed that all the houses were locked and the only person out was standing facing his Purloin. When I pressed A on him, he said: “They are busy playing. Maybe it's best we don’t disturb them.”

At first I saw nothing but fenced in wheat on both the left and right of my screen. The walkway was about three spaces wide and I had passed by an open gate earlier so I assumed I had entered the plantation. Upon approaching the gym the camera began to move behind my character as if I were walking right behind him, so I saw the mansion in total detail. The first thing I noticed was it was a HUGE mansion. Next I noticed the large amounts of vegetation growing on it which included vines, roots (similar to the ones that blocked my path earlier) and an extremely large tree bursting out of the roof of the complex. Multiple branches poked out of windows and balconies. I knew from that view that this was going to be a grass gym and since I had no fire types the best option was using Blitzle, seeing as Chip (who was a Dewott now) was a water type. I thought she stood a better chance.

Entering the gym, I was greeted by the music of any normal gym, but the man near the statues who was supposed to give me advice was not there. This was strange but I thought nothing of it since I didn’t really need any advice for this gym. As I looked around the rest of the room I noticed the building on the inside looked just as destroyed as on the outside. Roots were digging into the floor, vines were spreading on the wall, and shrubs grew from cracks in the walls. As I walked forward the floor was covered in the same roots as earlier and just as I was about to take my first step onto them, the screen began to shake and they opened up leaving a giant gaping hole in the floor and set of stairs. A trainer climbs up and says, “Well, it’s been awhile since we had a challenger. I promise to make it worth the trip.” When the battle sequence started the trainer’s sprite looked a lot like a mature version of the male character from Sinnoh when he wears his tuxedo; his trainer class was a Ball Room Dancer Stanley. The trainer had a Deerling and a Pansage which were both taken out by Blitzle’s stomp attack.

After the battle, the trainer says, “If you want to get to our gym Leader you’re going to have to battle all of us in the ball room. Every time you beat one of us a new root at the end of the room grows out, extending the bridge a little more.” Just as he had finished the sentence the screen panned north and began to shake, I saw a root come up patching up the bottom bit of the gap in the floor at the end of the room. Seeing as the opponents weren’t very tough I decided that in the next battle I would use Tito to gain some experience.

The next set of roots came up and just as last time the screen shook and the roots moved revealing another trainer. This time it was a young female dressed in a yellow ball gown. “May I have this dance?” Her name was Ball Room Dancer Jessica. Her sprite was a young brunette around the age of 10 or 11 in a big yellow dress. She had both a Deerling and a Snivy around level 16. As before, her Pokémon were fairly weak so it was an easy experience for Chip. By now Chip was level 20 and Blitzle was level 17. The battle ended and she ends with “Was I being polite?” The bridge then grows a bit more.

Now what I expected to be the final trainer was left, seeing as the bridge had one root remaining. I approached the next set of roots; as before the screen shook and the roots spread only this time revealing a pair of trainers, a male and a female. The man wore a dark green vest and the woman wore a black dress. The text box then appeared; Jack: “We are the best dancers in this room, so don’t expect us to let up easily!” Diane: “To get to Samantha you’ll have to do better than that!” The battle then started; their sprites were very dark, almost Hispanic. Both were dark haired and were making that classic tango pose with both hands together pointed to the character. Tango Couple Jack and Diane would like to battle, the text box said.

They had three Pokémon instead of the normal 2 that the other trainers had. The first 2 were Simisage and Maractus. I hadn’t ever seen a Maractus yet so I was a bit excited about it, but not as excited as I was going to be when I found out what was next. They were hit by my Chip’s Razor Shell and Blitzle’s Stomp; of course, the Simisage survived the Stomp without even a dent but Maractus had gone down in one hit. The next Pokémon to appear was a Pokémon called Hollowseed which I had never even heard of; its cry was the sound of rustling leaves and two wooden objects hitting one another. It looked like a walnut half way pried open enough to reveal two red eyes (similar to Kabuto) in the dark hollow space inside the shell. In its animation it rocked back and forth for a bit, stopped, then the eyes moved left and right inside the shell as though looking around. Then the animation repeated itself.

Assuming that it was just a Pokémon I would encounter later in the wild I attacked, this time I used Stomp on Holowseed and Razor Shell on Simisage. Simisage went down no problem, but the Holowseed didn’t take a hit. It had no effect so it must have been a Ghost Type. I thought to myself, “Ghost-Grass Pokémon? That’s a first. At least it’s something new, right?” The Pokémon then attacked with Bullet Seed. The next turn I KO’d it with Razor Shell before it could attack again. The match ended and the text box appeared; Jack: “It takes 2 to tango doesn’t it?” Diane; “Yet you still beat us by yourself.” The final root then shot out of the wall completing the bridge and allowing me to cross over to the Gym Leader.

She was standing at the base of the tall tree’s shadow with a beam of sunlight (almost like a spotlight), casting out from between the leaves on its colossal branches. I approached the Gym Leader and pressed A. “Ya know I just realized, I never properly introduced myself. I’m Samantha, the owner of this plantation, and what do they call you? … ‘Santi’, now that’s a mighty powerful name. Well now child, y'all kept me waiting long enough, it’s my turn to dance with y'all, so don’t hold anything back and give it all ya got!”

Samantha’s battle sprite had much more elegance then that of her overworld sprite. She was blonde and wore her hair in a bun with a white and purple flower on the side of her head and two streaks of hair running down both sides of her face. She had a beauty mark on her left cheek and had light green eyes. She wore long gloves going half way up her bicep, her dress sleeveless and starting from the top of her neck and slim fit until the waist; there, it spread out into a beautiful cascade of green and yellow dotted with light green flowers thickening into light green mist towards the bottom of the dress.

Her first Pokémon was a Hollowseed; mine was Chip. As my first attack I chose Razor Shell and took care of her Pokémon without hesitation. The next Pokémon was another Hollowseed, so I decided to use Blitzle this time because she lacked experience. For this attack I couldn’t use Stomp, so I decided to use Charge and then attack with Shock Wave. Hollowseed used Vine Whip, which took out a quarter of Blitzle’s health. The next time I attacked and KO’d it. Blitzle leveled up to 18, learning the move Flame Charge, which was perfect for the situation I was in.

The next Pokémon was called Swampress. Its cry was almost the same as Hollowseed's except the rustling was replaced with a more scraping sound and the wood taps were replaced with a small drum beat (like a heartbeat). When I first saw it the attributes that stood out to me were the same red eyes as Hollowseed, of course giving me the idea that this was its evolution. They were at the base of the tree in the shadow of the thick white roots which were spiraling upwards merging into a solid trunk of a tree. For its animation it would grow a few inches appearing to bounce but then spring back to its original height. I used Blitzle’s Flame Charge and got it almost down to zero health. Swampress then used Ingrain, but it didn’t help seeing as I took it out in the next attack.<

That was Samantha’s last Pokémon or so I thought. The battle ended and a text box appeared; “Well that was one heck of a battle, but don’t ya’ll think it’s over. I’m just getting started. It’s time I introduce you to my strongest Pokémon!” As she said that the music intensified and the whole gym began to shake. Roots began to detach from their places in the gym and back through the holes in the ground, shrubs sank into the wall. Then as the gym continued to shake a text box appeared “Seeing ya’ll this far out in the forest made me suspect something about ya’ll. But I didn’t expect that ya’ll would be the strongest challengers to step foot into this gym. I can’t let my families’ legacy die, so with great angst I must ask you for a rematch, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

The shaking began to intensify and the tree in the background suddenly had a little red orb moving about within its hollow frame appearing occasionally in the dark gaping holes in the bark. I immediately knew it was the final evolution of Hollowseed. It then began to rise out of the ground, revealing two more red eyes in the shadows of its roots. A battle then started, but the sound was much more intense as if fighting a legendary. Samantha rolled in saying “Alright now it’s time to show me what you really got!" She then faded into the background and the monstrous Pokémon rose from the ground. The only eye visible was the one moving about inside the dark brown bark; the two eyes I saw earlier were reburied into the ground. The sound it made was that of a tree after being cut falling, snapping branches and landing with a loud thud. The screen only fit in everything below the branches, maybe a reference to how tall it was.

My character then threw out two Pokéballs: both Blitzle and Chip came out. Of course I thought it was strange. I’m only going against one Pokémon so why would I need both at the same time? It was when the status bars finally slid into view that I realized why; The Pokémon’s name was Eternatree, but that wasn't all. Its level was 40 and compared to my teams level that was a little bit high… Make that really high, the strongest Pokémon I got is level 20. I don’t stand a chance. In its animation it would just sit quietly with its eye moving about uncoordinated as if it were looking around for something; then suddenly the tree would tilt back and all 3 eyes (including the now revealed ones hidden in the tangled mess of roots) would all focus on my screen as if looking at me. Then it would repeat.

Eternatree went first: it used the move Sunny Day, I immediately knew what it was trying to do. It was preparing for Solar Beam. Electra attacked with Flame Charge but that barely did anything, Tito used Razor Shell which didn’t do much either but at least lowered its defense. I had better luck this time around, though: it tried to use Shadow Ball but it missed. I then attacked with Flame Charge and Razor Shell again, reducing its health to a little bit less than half. Next round my luck ran out, because it used Shadow Ball on Blitzle and KO’d her. I was down to just Chip and I knew I was screwed. But, luckily, Razor Shell's effects had now taken their toll and lowered its defense enough so it was a somewhere in the third quarter of its health. Next round Eternatree was now using Ingrain and I thought I was done for in the next turn. But, just as I thought it was all over, Chip landed a critical hit on Eternatree and I won the match.

In the text box after the match the text read; “…” The next scene after the battle, instead of fading into the over world was a close up of Samantha. She was looking down with shadows covering her eyes, but tears running down her face. The Eternatree was in the background but back to its dormant state like before the battle; it appeared as if straight out of the anime, only much more detailed. Samantha looked up, with tears still running down her face. She was smiling. As soon as the text box appeared the song “Sad Song”, from the original Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, played...but it sounded different, like it was softer and sadder, and slightly more orchestrated.

She then said “So I get it now...not everyone can be the strongest. I think I’ve known that for some time now… but I was too ashamed to admit it… (She then closed her eyes and her grin grew larger looking cheery) Santi, thank you; if it wasn’t for you and your Pokémon I wouldn’t have realized that. I owe you an apology, I had a bit of an outburst. I hope you will forgive me?"

(A 'yes' and 'no' option appeared, and I chose 'yes'.) "Oh you don’t’ know how much that means to me. I wish I could give you a badge for all your hard work but I honestly don’t have one. So instead I’ll leave you with something to remember me by. You’ll find it upstairs in my room…” (Her expression then changed to her looking away over her left shoulder. Her smile turned into a slight smirk) “So I guess this is goodbye, then. I wish I could say we will meet again…” (She then looked back down like from the beginning) “Santi… when you think all is over, never lose sight of the ones you love.” And with that she slowly faded into white and began to drift away, as if she were made of white petals and a gentle breeze was blowing her away. The now visible and still dormant Eternatree began to sink into the ground: it unraveled into millions of vines in a stop motion style, and it slowly slipped into the ground allowing sunlight into the now empty mansion.

“Wow,” I thought, shocked and speechless. “Gamefreak really went all out on this game, that was just awesome.” I was now looking at the gym, which seemed decayed as if it had been years since anybody had been there. It had shifted into a darkish brown as if the building had the life drained out of it.

The music began to fade, like it would stop, but instead it continued faintly. I made my way towards the doorway on the other side of the gaping hole left behind by Eternatree. I found myself in a dark room, as if it had been inside of a cave. The only forms of light were once again the beams of sunlight squeezing through the holes in the roof. I then noticed a bed and thought, “I could heal up my Pokémon while I’m here”. I walked over and pressed A expecting to take a nap. Instead a text box appeared: “There is a notebook on the bed. Would you like to read it?” I chose 'yes'. The music increased in volume and another text box appeared.

“November 6, 1861: it has been 8 months since I’ve seen my father. He had enlisted in the army to fight in the civil war. I’ve seen those beasts go at each other for months now, the black and white dragons shrouded in cloud. I told my mother about it, but when she looked up they were gone… As I was getting ready for bed I could hear them, crying out that they no longer wanted to fight…”

“June 11, 1862: We haven’t received a letter from my father in weeks. Mother waits for him every day, outside on the bench under the tree where they would spend their time together. As for my brother, he hasn’t spoken to anyone since my father left. I haven’t seen the black and white dragons since May, but I could still hear them at night. When I asked my mother she said that it was nothing, just the wind… Until my father can return home, when the war and the bloodshed stops, and until those beasts stop fighting… I won’t give up, as long as I carry his burning spirit…”

''December 20, 1862: We’ve just received the news. My mother has locked herself in her room since the letters arrival, and as for my brother… Nobody has heard from him since the night he disappeared… When the black dragon flew over our village, nobody saw it but me, and trying to prove it is pointless… As for me, I’ll carry the legacy on my shoulders, until my brother finds his way home…”

“July 20, 1864: My father’s birthday is in exactly a month, and we're having a ball in his honor. Everyone will be there, even Jack and Diane, my family’s closest friends. Seeing them dance is always the best and with all this maybe I’ll finally get to see my mother smile again…”

"August 1, 1864: I saw a Pokémon today but something about this one was odd, as if it didn’t belong here. It looked like it had come from a distant land. It had short white fur, it was on four legs, with the body of a hound, black tail and a black horn that looked like a scythe on the right side of its head. It then directed its gaze in my direction. It had a dark humanoid face, and two red shimmering eyes. I felt a warm sensation on my cheeks as if near a campfire or in front of an oven. The Pokémon then directed itself towards the forest and ran off. It looked into my eyes, almost as if it was trying to tell me something..."

"August 15, 1864: Five days until the ball, this morning I awoke to the sound of a Pokemon in the yard. When I went outside, I saw a quick figure dash around the side of my house and as I turned around the corner, it was gone. However, as I returned to the door, at the foot of the first step, I found an egg. I didn't see a nest or another Pokémon around so I decided to take it inside, at least until its mother returns. I'll make it a temporary nest until then."

“August 20, 1864: The ball is tonight at 8 o’clock, so it’s in about in an hour. This morning while out in the fields I saw three Pokémon again, only their appearance in comparison to the last was completely different. They all moved on four legs. One was thick, brown and strong looking; another was swift, green and made no sound as it galloped about; and the third was blue and stood upright with such presence, a dominate figure amongst the group. It looked at me, and I was overcome with a presence so familiar, I felt a sudden tear run down my face. It then turned and disappeared amongst the trees with the others. They were headed east towards the forest. I thought I saw smoke in the distance but everyone told me not to worry. Well, I must finish getting ready for the ball. We're supposed to be expecting a very important guest…"

The book ended there.

I then wandered about the room looking for anything else of significance. I ended up finding a notch behind the bookcase; my character, after pressing A, reached behind the bookcase and found an egg. He placed it in my party. After this I made my way out of the mansion. Everything was burned and didn’t look like as it did before. I never saw anyone on the way out. The music stopped and never returned: it was just silence the whole time except for the sound of my character bumping into things. The field was nothing but dry soil, the wooden houses were piles of charcoal, and the stone houses were nothing but moss-covered rocks. On my way back to the path, nothing made a sound. It was all quiet until I made it back to the familiar path leading to Castelia city. Then the music began to play again.

Now I wish I could say I still have the egg and that it hatched into something marvelous. I wish I could say that... Sadly, since I had no idea what I had come upon until the next day, it was too late. The day before I had turned off the DS because I had grown bored of it at the time, and I assumed I would just replay it again after my friend swaps out the Pokémon.

I was having a conversation with my friend (not the one who gave me the game) about it. I asked him,

“So do you have any idea what’s inside the egg that one chick gives you?”

My friend says, “What egg?”

“The one you get from Pinwheel Village after you defeat that Grass gym.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Grass gym, after you beat that chick who has all those Ghost-Grass Pokémon.”

“There aren’t any Ghost-Grass Pokémon.”

“What about Eternatree and Hollowseed?”

“What the hell are those?”

“The Grass-Ghost Pokémon!”

“Those don’t even sound like Pokémon, man!”

I ended up explaining the whole story to him but he didn’t believe me, said I was full of crap. This whole time I was playing this game I thought Game Freak had just hit another jackpot on another memorable story. As soon as I got home I got on the game and checked the map, sure enough the landmark for Pinwheel Village was nowhere on the map. Even the path I took to get there is gone. Ever since then I’ve been trying to repeat the whole thing again without success... I feel like such an idiot! Whatever Samantha had inside that egg was the legacy she left behind… I’m sorry, Samantha….

Battery Ditto (Pokemon)

Battery Ditto
=============

I can tell you why, but I warn you. You may not like what you hear, especially if you feel particularly attuned to the suffering of animals in our own world. With that out of the way I shall begin.

A lot of emphasis was put on Team Rocket's little science experiment at the Lake Of Rage and soon after that their takeover of the Radio tower. When all the while they had already set up a much larger, but more secretive operation. You see, the day care man and his wife were not the first to discover that Pokémon laid eggs. This was first the discovery of a lowly Rocket Grunt who was in charge of looking after the captured Ditto.
Free range breeding

The Rocket Grunt, Hiroshi, thought he had the easiest job in the whole organization. Not once had he run into that 11 year old child who had single handedly defeated Team Rocket not even a year ago, and he was not respected enough to have his plans follow through, so he's never messed up so badly that he'd have to come face to face with Giovanni to explain himself. Hiroshi really did have it easy, all he had to do was make sure the Pokémon weren't too loud, that they were generally fed and on the rare occasion that they soiled themselves, he had to wipe it up with a rag.

The Ditto were kept in squalor. Hiroshi was regularly required to electrocute them if they were not silent. However most nights they remained silent, with only a sad humming song that resonated down the filthy hallway. Each cage, no more than 20 cm x 20 cm, and electrified mesh wire held two Ditto; the transformation pits also held two Ditto, but where 10 ft x 10 ft wide to accommodate for the shape shifting to larger Pokémon, all controlled by electrical frequencies as to what Pokémon they became. They all sang, one after another and as the song spread outwards Hiroshi felt his eyes begin to flutter.

He felt compassion for the beasts, cramped in their cages, or in the transformation pits. Besides, the song wasn't unpleasant to listen to, but falling asleep on guard duty was a sure-fire way for things to go wrong. To help keep him awake he reached for a Pokeball. When the energy was released from the ball, an Arcanine padded forwards toward it's master.

"If you smell anything out of place, or if they try to escape, use whatever force you think necessary." The Arcanine nodded it's large head and padded down to sit next to its master. With that, Hiroshi nodded his head and almost instantly fell asleep, the song continued to resonate in his dream. He felt he had not slept all of ten minutes before he was woken by a terrible squealing and panting. His eyes bolted open and in a panic. He scanned the battery cages and the transformation pits. The song had died and in its place was a horrible screeching noise, as if all of the ditto began to panic at once. Hiroshi had only a split second to run to the lever and flip it down before several sparking volts seared through the wires, causing a high squeal from the confined Ditto before they knew to be silent once more. But still the whimpering and hushed language continued between them as they shuddered in their cages.

The panting continued. Hiroshi stepped slowly along the isle, looking inside each single cage. The Ditto stared back at him with an expression of pure fear as they shook from cold and hunger. It was in the first transformation pit that he found his Arcanine, panting. Under him was one of the transformed Ditto, in a shape that Hiroshi did not recognise. It was dog shaped, but was black with white horns from its head and a long whipping tail, the Ditto-dog panted helplessly while under the Arcanine, the searing pain of a forced transformation to an unfamiliar shape confused and distressed it. Arcanine gave a long, loud yelp before demounting the Ditto-dog and padding back towards Hiroshi, jumping the fence with ease.

Hiroshi himself was still in shock as he watched the Pokémon shape in front of him, he had never seen anything like it before. The Ditto-shape looked sickly, many of the bones that would have been internal showed on the outside of the dog-like body, it panted again before collapsing. Hiroshi shook his head and ushered his Pokémon away, such strange things were not uncommon to see with the Transformation pit Dittos. Sometimes with the different currents, the Ditto changed shape into structures they had never seen before. Excited by the concept of new Pokémon, Team Rocket had tried desperately to get the Ditto to stabilize into their new forms to no avail. What disturbed Hiroshi however, was the way in which his Arcanine had simply mounted the poor creature.

In the weeks that followed, Hiroshi had took care not to release any of his Pokémon from their balls while he was on Ditto duty. He paid extra attention to the dark dog ditto, who lay sprawled on the floor of the pit, tongue lolling from its mouth and its breathing extremely laboured. A lack of food, water and cleanliness making it look even worse than it had already. Hiroshi smirked a little. "You got the look of a doomed Hound" The dog-Ditto looked up to him and shakily stood on its four legs. What happened next astounded and scared Hiroshi for the rest of his days. The Ditto-dog scrunched up its face and howled in pain, causing the caged Ditto to again scream with terror. Hiroshi ran to get one of the pokédoctors, thinking that the Ditto was dying. Now that would be an offense to face Giovanni with.

When they both had returned, the Ditto-dog was still standing, and howling inhumanly, a high pitched squeal as it's innards burst from its backside and fell into a bloody heap behind it, a large, solid mass among the offal debris. The doctor jumped into the pen immediately, but the Ditto-dog had already began to dissolve, first into a pinkish gelatinous goop and then it began to shrink until it was nothing but liquid. The Ditto had expired, but still left on the dirt of the pit was the offal and the large mass.

The doctor sifted through the offal and picked up the mass, to his surprise it was steady in his hands, and held it up to Hiroshi. It was an egg.

The egg was monitored for days on end by the scientists and Hiroshi, who took a personal interest in his big discovery, until all at once, the news spread in the department that the egg was hatching. There was a big commotion at the department, as people crowded round the small table. The egg began to shake and crack, little splinters coming off in pieces before a dark head emerged.

It was disgusting, it was gruesome, it looked evil, it was new: A puppy, black as night with its skull seeming to be visible on the outside and it's ribs protruding from its back. It was perfect. Hiroshi stepped forward, parting the crowd. His mind swimming with opportunities. If this Pokémon lived, thrived and reproduced then he had successfully achieved by accident what the scientists had been trying to do since the Dittos were captured. He had created a new Pokémon.

"Its mother, Ditto, was a doomed hound. Houndoom. This is our hound. Houndour" The scientists nodded silently in agreement, all astounded by the events which happened before them.

From that moment onwards Hiroshi was presented before Giovanni with the Houndour, and was promptly put in charge of the Ditto evolution project. For the next two years, Hiroshi studied the Ditto in the pits, forcing them into strange and grotesque shapes with the aid of the electrical current, and then forcing them to breed with the male gender of a similar looking Pokémon. He managed to do this successfully with at least 100 different variations of the Ditto. All of them managed to give birth to eggs. Some eggs never hatched, some eggs hatched and the Pokémon died within a few days, some eggs hatched but the offspring were infertile or never evolved, but there were many, where the eggs hatched and just like Houndour, managed to successfully evolve and re-breed.

After this was successful, they even tried it with Pokémon that they already knew. Pikachu-Dittos had strange mini-chu babies, Magmar-Dittos had even stranger mini-mar babies. The discovery was outstanding, but tragic as none of these offspring lived very long after the mother Ditto had expired. Which lead to the development of better medical care, and gradually the Ditto could sustain more than one offspring in their lifespan, but still the babies did not thrive.

This continued for many years until word of mouth began to travel, with wealthy Pokémon collectors sporting brand new types of Pokémon. The Ditto, their eggs, and their babies were all mysteriously released one night and Hiroshi was found dead in the labs, his body charred beyond recognition through visual means alone. Whether this was a revolt from the tortured ditto who just so happened to escape, or whether Pokémon activists managed to infiltrate and release the Pokémon themselves is unknown.

It was several years afterwards, when many of these new species had began to thrive in the regions of Johto and Kanto that an old couple living just outside Goldrenrod came home to a rather shocking discovery. A large, soft egg, nestled between two Pokémon they were looking after.

Rocket continued the project however, with whatever Ditto they could find. Still to this day are they trying to manipulate them. And with a bigger gene pool than ever before, there is no end to the mutations they can force on those poor Battery Dittos.

Link's Awakening (Black)

LINK'S AWAKENING (BLACK)
========================

For me, the defining Zelda experience was Link’s Awakening. It was the first Zelda title I played and the most challenging. It took me longer to clear than any other game (I was pretty young). That said, it’s clear why this has bothered me so much. A few months ago I was helping a friend of a friend move. After a few hours of heavy lifting we took a break. I saw a box of old game boy cartridges and my eyes lit up. I like the new systems, but I still dig busting out that little 8-bit handheld. Or at least, I did.

The guy we were helping saw me and asked if I felt like buying any. I picked out a couple and then spotted it: Link’s Awakening. I lost mine (The non-DX one) and was looking to replace it. He looked confused when I asked him how much he wanted for it, like he forgot he owned it. I paid him, pocketed the games and went back to work. I should stress this: There was nothing wrong with the cartridge. The label was fine, the cartridge wasn’t cracked, nothing. I probably wouldn’t have bought it otherwise. The game started off normally. There was nothing off about the music, color or animation. I was stoked to play it again. Then I went to start a file.

Something was wrong. First off, there was no music; there was only this barely audible thumping noise every other second. Next was the top right of the screen. The knight statues had been replaced with two Stalfos. Different from what I remembered. The thing that convinced me it was a defect was that there was only one (empty) file. The other two were gone. At this point the thumping noise was starting to annoy me, so I started the file and entered “Link.” The game was faulty, but I was curious to see how.

It started off with Link tossing and turning while Marin watches. There was no music, but the thumping noise was gone. When I woke up Marin says the wait is over. She then said she’d “make preparations” and left the room. I tried to leave only to be stopped at the door by a dialogue box that read “…” prompting me to speak with Tarin. His friendly tone was gone. He was pleading with me, offering my shield and asking to go. He begged, saying he’d tell me where the sword was. The usual sound effect for text was replaced by something duller and strangely paced. His wording and tone made it sound like Tarin was crying. He then insisted that I must be hungry, promising to make me mushroom stew before rushing out of the room.

It wasn’t defective; it was hacked. Realizing that made the sequence with Tarin kind of interesting. I started exploring the village. The physical layout of everything was the same as I remembered except for two things. All the human characters that lived outside of the village were now in it (Except for the witch). Richard and the Cucco Keeper were standing near the Cucco statue, Crazy Tracy was at the center of the field of bushes, the second Fisherman was beneath the first and Mr. Write was beside the library. The music was the same track used for the village in the original, but slower and a bit scratchy. Second, the crane-game was gone. In its place was an area fenced off by lit torches. Inside was a large collection of bone piles, the same ones used in the caves and dungeons. In this area there was no music. Just a low pitch broken up by sharp, awkward breaks.

Every villager laughed and said that I couldn’t be “him” because I had no sword. The one exception was Ulrira. His sprite changed to show that his eyebrows were lowered angrily. The sword comment was an obvious hint, so I headed toward the beach. I made my way down, the music fading to silence. Oddly, there were no monsters. I was more confused than bothered by it and went for the sword. The owl flew down when I got near it. He cackled and talked about how glad he was to fulfill his role. He ordered me to take the sword and go to the Mysterious Forest before flying off. I grabbed the sword (not that there were enemies to fight with it) and headed back toward the village/forest.

Near the village the owl appeared again. Walking toward it caused him to scream about how you can’t go; that they can’t know and that they don’t deserve to. The game was forcing me into the forest, the layout of which had been changed. From the first screen I could only go right, where I found the witch’s hut. The dull thumping noise started again. When I entered it became faster. Speaking with the witch made it louder and even faster. She insisted that there were “other ways to make it” and offered power for “a way out.” The game shot out this brief, high pitched screeching noise. Syrup’s sprite stopped moving and no further text could be prompted. I left the hut and headed right.

The next screen was more familiar. It was Tarin in his raccoon form. The crying sound from earlier began looping, louder this time. He charged and began doing damage, crying as he did. The shield kept him off of me, letting me pull up my inventory. The magic powder had been added. I threw some onto him, thinking it would cure him. His sprite movements became faster, and text appeared as he screamed about how his skin was burning. A new animation played, the game releasing another of those high-pitched screeches. This one lasted for the whole animation, mixing different sound effects. Lines of darkness began to cover Tarin’s sprite until he was covered. The arms fell off, his eyes disappearing as the ground was stained with his blood. The game was making sure I heard Tarin’s suffering. I was horrified.

He hit the ground, a pile of blood and guts. The crying sound looped softly. The owl flew in and marked how excellent it was. I had done it almost to the letter. He screamed at me to put the thing out of its misery. I had no idea what to do. A new dialogue box popped up, Tarin whimpering about the sword. I turned the game off. A few minutes later I turned it back on, annoyed at the idea of the hacker getting one over on me. The file name had changed from “Link” to “Black.” I was intimidated, but determined. It brought me to the point I had just left. The fact that I hadn’t saved made me nervous. Everything was the same except Link’s clothing. I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be red or black, but the file name gave me a hint.

I cut at the Tarin sprite. The panels above and below Tarin became dark and the game made that horrible screeching noise. The owl flapped its wings and laughed, complimenting me. He ordered me deeper into the forest before saying “two down.” Hearing that, I went to the previous screen, into Syrup’s hut. There was crudely drawn blood everywhere. Syrup’s head was on her table. The rat was hopping up and down beside it, feasting. I searched around and found nothing until I reached her cauldron. Text appeared. “Still a few bones in here. What’d you think magic powder was made of?”

I saw it as a taunt and resolved to keep going. No enemies, no music. Screen after screen of forest, with a soft high-pitched screech in the background. Eventually I had to go north, traveling a few more screens before finding it. At the center of the screen was a black sword. To either side were two treasure chests. The right contained the fire wand, the left the ocarina. Taking the sword summoned the owl, who proceeded to teach me “the Lullaby of Longslumber.” It didn’t sound like music, just hisses and scratches like a series of audio errors. He then asked me to try the wand. Trying to leave caused “…Afraid?” to pop up. I used the wand, trying to defy it. The screen flashed white for a second, followed by every tree on fire. The owl giggled, flapping his wings and screaming about how they can be given no quarter.

Everything in the forest was on fire, including some floor panels. Eventually I was out, the high-pitched noise ringing the entire time with the sound of burning. I decided to talk to the villagers to see if there had been a change in their dialogue. I started with Madame Meowmeow. The thumping noise started again as soon as I entered her screen.

It was similar to the witch. Meowmeow starts pleading and the audio for her text sounded like crying. She apologized, saying that they were just too hungry. The same screeching noise before her sprite stops. When I left her house Bow-wow was gone. I went back inside to see what had happened. Meowmeow was in pieces, blood all over. Bow-wow was moving from piece to piece. Interacting with him brought up a box that talked about how happy he seemed. How hungry.

Leaving the house I saw the owl again. He was eager he was to keep going. He told me to play the Lullaby It would speed things along. The prospect bothered me, but getting through this insult to my childhood faster sounded good. Playing the lullaby led me to a room like the ones you found at the end of each dungeon. There was a treasure chest and two full heart pieces. A plaque on the wall read that for every “one you carry out” you’d receive new treasures. I took the items (the first was the roc’s feather) and left through an exit at the rear of the room, which brought me back to Marin’s house.

Trees blocked off the plains and beach, the forest by fire. The select glitch brought me into a black screen that forced a reset. There was no way out of the village. It was a weird, cruel cycle. I approached a villager, they said something, that horrible screeching noise sounded out and I came back to see something horrific and disturbing. I’ll post their dialogue and how I found them here:

Crazy Tracy: “Before you do it, tell me I’m pretty.” / A bloody pile with skin to the right. Richard: “You silence only a symptom. I was merely the first.” / His hands and tongue formed a triangle around him. He was in a pool of blood. Ulrira: “You actually let me think I’d go to old age. How unkind.” / He was lying sideways with the telephone where his head would have been. The blood scattered all over the floor made it look like his head had been smashed apart with the phone Ulrira’s wife: “I won’t hide. Won’t give you the pleasure.” / I never saw her, but when I tried to interact with one of the cabinets it read, “She’s finished bleeding out. Leave her in there.” Cucco Keeper: “Ha ha, I’ll find a way out!” / Impaled on the Cucco statue. The Fishermen: “The funniest part? I don’t regret it.” “Me either.”/ Their fishing poles are by the pond. If you interact with them it reads, “No more bubbles. You’d reel them up, but it would just tear it off” Papahl, Wife, and Child: “Anything! Name it, it’s yours! I can get it! I can get anything!” “Mercy. The one thing I couldn’t get my hands on.” “Why?” / Found them hung by what appears to be the hookshot chain. Shopkeeper: “Everything I’ve got, here and back home. Information, powders, weapons. Just lemme sail away. You’ll never hear from me again.” / Found him in pieces with arrows in his torso. The fact that the bombs and bow are missing from his stock suggests that that’s what was used. Mr. Write: “I never stopped, you know. Here’s the key. You’ll need a magnifying lens.” / He was sitting at his desk, black pixels around where his mouth was and his hands cut off. I didn’t catch on to what the black pixels were about until later.

When I killed the last victim the owl appeared. He thanked me for helping him to fulfill his role. He said I’d find Marin in front of the library. I found Marin, who said it was almost time to go. She gave me the magnifying lens and told me to take my time. Inside there were more books out than in the original, with one blank bookstand near the entrance. Each was a profile organized by crime and sentence. From top left to bottom right:

Richard staged a coup against the Hyrule royal family. He was left to bleed to death publicly after having his hands cut off and tongue removed as punishment. Ulrira, a former advisor, betrayed the throne as Richard’s informant. His skull was caved in with the medium that represented communication. Ulrira’s wife hid criminals and rebels in support of her husband and Richard. She was given a small but mortal wound and bound before being left to die in a small, confined space similar to the ones she used to hide others. Mr. Write wrote slander during the coup. His hands were cut off to rob him of his favorite pastime before being force-fed enough ink to burst his stomach.

Papahl and his family where thieves. They were hung facing one another so the last thing they could steal was a look at their suffering loved ones. Crazy Tracy was a man who skinned women and wore their flesh. He would wear the face as a mask and hide within what looked like a seat, the body stuffed to appear as though it was sitting. That is why the body seems so much smaller. Skinned alive. Syrup kidnapped and sacrificed a child to the black arts. She was forced to watch the bones from her arms and legs be used in making magic powder before being beheaded.

Cucco Keeper was a felon who escaped every prison in Hyrule. Impaled on a statue that represented freedom. The fishermen were pedophiles. Drowned with their genitals attached to fishing hooks. Madame Meowmeow killed her children and fed them to her pets. Diced into pieces and served to animals. The shopkeeper was a powerful criminal drugs and arms dealer. Killed with his wares, magic powder forced down his throat. Tarin was a serial rapist. He was transformed into a literal beast and then executed.

At this point I felt sick. That low thumping in place of music wasn’t helping. It grew slower and duller, as if the sound were trudging along. I spoke with Marin and she explained the rest of it. Koholint is a prison island. The worst of Hyrule’s criminals are sent there before receiving their death sentence from the judge: The owl. He had been waiting for an executioner, someone to carry out his will. I was sent by Hyrule to enact the wishes of the throne, leaving their carcasses as a warning to the next group.

Marin was innocent. She had been wrongfully sentenced for a gruesome crime she had no part in. She accepted that she would be killed by the executioner, but refused to give Hyrule the satisfaction of fearing it. Nor would she let her name be passed around in horror stories. She saved me so that you could tell them they had failed to break her. She asked if I was ready to end it. I was given the option of “yes” or “no,” but choosing “no” just let me explore the village again. When I said “yes,” the screen faded to white.

It came back up to an animation of Link, or Black, sailing away. He looked satisfied. Happy, even. It then cut to a drawing of the library. Marin was lying propped up against it with her eyes rolled back. Her throat and stomach had been cut open, with a huge slash across her face. A lot of care was given to the blood and guts. It was disturbing, and the picture has stuck with me long after I turned off the game.

Bold font appeared in front of her reading “CONGRATULATIONS.” Beneath it in smaller black print was “You’re the hero of Hyrule!” It fades to black, before white text appears at the center of the screen.

“And no one will ever know you volunteered for it.”

The Depths

THE DEPTHS
==========

Ever heard of a game called, "The Depths?" It's not surprising if you haven't; it was never released to the public. Bootleg copies were spread in the United States from roughly 2006 - 2007, but it was completely gone by 2008. To date, only a few people have reported knowing of the game and even fewer have actually played it. It is still unknown who developed the game or where it came from, for details are not found anywhere within the installed files.

Additionally, no one has ever finished the game due to the gratuitous amounts of scarring images portrayed and the trauma that followed. The following is a description of The Depths, from those who have played it.

The users who successfully installed the game said that after installation, their computers never functioned the same. Freezes, blue screens, and file corruption were common after playing. The only way to remove the game was to wipe your hard drive. There was no deleted of the files, no uninstalling, nothing. It would stay on the computer, never leaving. Some users even reported seeing the file being duplicated to different parts of their computer - a cloning of sorts - making the file appear in unwanted folders.

The setting of the game is supposedly a mountaintop, as it is a snowy environment and whenever the player would walk too far, they would fall and die. Not much can be seen in the beginning, just snow. An endless display of falling snow. This is what frustrated players the most. They would try walking in every direction but find only more snow, until they fell off the endless array of white and died. This is where most players stopped playing, though the persistent gamers found an alternative.

It took multiple deaths, but players eventually found where they were supposed to go: down. As soon as you spawn, you can look down and see a bolted door. Opening it takes you to the next sequence of the game.

As soon as you open the door, the player starts to fall into a pit of darkness. It is pitch black and all that can be hears is the sounds of the wind as you fall. After about 20 seconds of nonstop falling, you see light at the end of the tunnel. The player reaches the bottom of the pit and as soon as they touch down, a scream can be heard. The player is now in a large room with no doors or exits, just the light next to them and the tunnel above them.

The walls are covered in blood, the light is flickering, and sounds of faint mumbling are playing in the background. This area is where most players quit - either out of boredom or fear.

There is nothing the player can do at this point except to walk around the room, looking for whatever it is they are supposed to do next. More sounds begin to play while walking: wind blowing, water dripping, and growling. Players usually hear the growling behind them and, in fright, turn around rather quickly. When the player turns around, they see, for a split second, a dark figure run away into the darkness of the room.

This occurs every time the player makes a sudden look behind them. Touching the dimly lit walls makes the game freeze for a moment before returning to normal. More and more sounds start to become audible and eventually piano banging and screaming become more and more frequent.

The volume of the noises increase over time and some users try to mute their sound, but can't; the noises continue playing over and over until they are at an ear-piercingly high level. All players at this point experienced the same thing. Their game flashed, their mouse wouldn't work, and the room would suddenly be full of dead bodies. Lifeless corpses, flashing out of nowhere, surround the room and pile up until the player is practically covered in bodies. Each one of the corpses are mumbling indistinguishable words.

Their mouths blurt nonsense while their eyes appear to be open, but are pitch black. The player is forced to stay with the talking corpses for they are stuck and cannot move. The only thing they can do is look around them and see the bodies staring at them and talking in a foreign, demonic tone.

At this point, the player is unable to pause or close the game. They can only look and see the corpses speak to the player in gibberish words. This only happened for a short period of time, but by this point, most of the remaining users had already shut down their computer. The corpses start to eventually chant their nonsense in unison. In one last scream, they all spread their mouths wide open to impossible lengths. It loks as if their jaws should break as they all scream at an alarmingly high volume.

The collective screams of the bodies gets louder and louder, and more distorted. As soon as the screams become ear-wrenchingly unstandable, the screen cuts to black and the screams suddenly stop. This darkness lasts for a very long time. The player starts to hear someone laughing close to them. The laugh is off, though; it sounds as if someone has messed with the audio. The laugh gets closer and closer until finally, it ends with one final "HA!" playing loudly. This noise is accompanied by a picture of an old man's face, cripped with age, and taking up nearly the entire screen. He has his mouth wide open...smiling.

This frame only appears for split second, however, and afterward, the darkness ends. Although there is only a slither of light, the player can look down and see their body tied to a wooden pole.

This part of the game is what users described as the worse. The light above them, shining onto the player, is confined to a small circle around the player. Small shadows start fading in and out of the circle onto the ground; the shadows look like mangled and distorted bodies. Finally, footsteps are heard. The old man from the photo can be seen in full now as he walks toward your pinned body. He is short and bald; his face is down and he is wearing only ripped pants.

His torso is almost completely torn in half. The only thing keeping his body from not splitting in two is the thread of skin connecting his neck to his head. His left leg is replaced with a long, rusty, metal tube. As he inches toward you with scissors in his hands, the scraping of the tube against the floor gives the player a nails-on-a-chalkboard feeling. When he is right next to you, he looks up; the player can see his face in full.

The man's face looks the same as it did when it flashed before. His eyes seem to be missing and his mouth is open, smiling. It is covered in blood - blood that looks days old and dried out. He starts rotating his head as he stares at you with his mouth open. The player can only look around them, unable to move. The man lifts up his crippled arm, holding scissors, and jams them into your body. Blood spurts out of your body in abnormally large amounts. The few players who experienced this scene described it as horrifyingly realistic.

The man then takes the scissors and brings them up to your neck, leaving a zipper-like effect on your chest. The player's body is cut wide open and guts pour out all over the old man's torso. He then removes the scissors, reaches to the floor, and picks up a mirror. He turns the mirror towards you. Although the player's face cannot be seen in the mirror, the players chest - now cut in half - can be seen in its full gruesomeness.

The man then drops the mirror, reaches down once more, and picks up an axe. He swings the axe at the pole you are tied to, multiple times, until you and the pole you are attached to fall to the ground.

The player is now staring at the ceiling, listening to the old man laugh. He kneels down in front of your face, mouth still open, and let's out one last "HA!" He then stands up and walks around the player with his axe in hand, dragging his metal leg across the floor as he walks. When he reaches the player's feet, he lets out three words in a disgusting, repulsive voice, "Just...like..." He raises the axe above his head, stares at you, and rotates his head. He yells his final words as he strikes the axe down into your knee.

"ME!"

The game continued. Few players remained up to this point.

After the old man has chopped off your leg, he continues to laugh and turns his head. the blood from your wound sprays all over his split torso while all the player can do is look around and see their mangled corpse, tied to the bloodstained pole. The man then drops his axe. He comes right to your face, kneels down, and opens his mouth to impossible lengths. He seems to swallow you.

The game stutters for a moment as the old man's mouth is all that can be seen by the player. Instead of cutting to darkness, you are instantly placed in another scene; this time, players were in a long, dark hallway lit only by torches on the walls. The player is limping.

The player can only walk in one direction - forward - towards the end of what seems like an infinite hallway. With each step the player takes, the camera shakes and gets blurry until, finally, nothing can be made out except dim circles of light. Through this blurriness, a small figure is seen in the distance. It looks like the same figure seen in the shadows of the room before; it is disfigured and deformed. Instantly, the figure then jumps into the player's view as the screen becomes clear once more.

From the few players that remained, each one reported seeing a different figure jump towards them. It was, to each of them, though, horrifying. The fear they felt in that one moment was indescribable, so overwhelming that nearly all of them quit the game at that very moment. The users who played that scene reported that the game had short-term effects on their mental health, but no long-term repercussions. To this day, no known user has played past that point.

Link: Breaking Blue (Pokemon)

Here's more Pokemon glitch stuff

http://lparchive.org/Pokemon-Blue/

Here's a reenactment of LHBPkmnB:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9A919EB79E23B318

And a bonus: MissingnoXpert breaking Yellow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9qSvvS3YrQ&list=PL60DCBEA2D1F73683

Majora / Ben Drowned / Haunted Majora's Mask

MAJORA / BEN DROWNED
====================

I recently moved into my dorm room starting as a Sophomore in college and a friend of mine gave me his old Nintendo 64 to play. I was stoked, to say the least, I could finally play all of those old games of my youth that I hadn't touched in at least a decade. His Nintendo 64 came with one yellow controller and a rather shoddy copy of Super Smash Brothers, and while beggars can't be choosers, needless to say it didn't take long until I became bored of beating up LVL 9 CPUs.

That weekend I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods about twenty minutes or so off campus, hitting up the local garage sales, hoping to score on some good deals from ignorant parents). I ended up picking up a copy of Pokemon Stadium, Goldeneye (fuck yeah), F-Zero, and two other controllers for two dollars. Satisfied, I began to drive out of the neighborhood when one last house caught my attention. I still have no idea why it did, there were no cars there and only one table was set up with random junk on it, but something sort of drew me there. I usually trust my gut on these things so I got out of the car and I was greeted by an old man. His outward appearance was, for lack of a better word, displeasing. It was odd, if you asked me to tell you why I thought he was displeasing, I couldn't really pinpoint anything - there was just something about him that put me on edge, I can't explain it. All I can tell you is that if it wasn't in the middle of the afternoon and there were other people within shouting distance, I would not have even thought of approaching this man.

He flashed a crooked smiled at me and asked what I was looking for, and immediately I noticed that he must be blind in one of his eyes; his right eye had that "glazed over" look about it. I forced myself to look to his left eye instead, trying not to offend, and asked him if he had any old video games.

I was already wondering how I could politely excuse myself from the situation when he would tell me he had no idea what a video game was, but to my surprise he said he had a few ones in an old box. He assured me he'd be back in a "jiffy" and turned to head back into the garage. As I watched him hobble away, I couldn't help but notice what he was selling on his table. Littered across his table were rather... peculiar paintings; various artworks that looked like ink blots that a psychiatrist might show you. Curious, I looked through them - it was obvious why no one was visiting this guy's garage sale, these weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing. As I came to the last one, for some reason it looked almost like Majora's Mask - the same heart-shaped body with little spikes protruding outward. Initially I just thought that since I was secretly hoping to find that game at these garage sales, some Freudian bullshit was projecting itself into the ink blots, but given the events that happened afterward I'm not so sure now. I should have asked the man about it. I wish I would have asked the man about it.

After staring at the Majora-shaped blot, I looked up and the old man was suddenly there again, arms-length in front of me, smiling at me. I'll admit I jumped out of reflex and I laughed nervously as he handed me a Nintendo 64 cartridge. It was the standard gray color, except that someone had written Majora on it in black permanent marker. I got butterflies in my stomach as I realized what a coincidence this was and asked him how much he wanted for it.

The old man smiled at me and told me that I could have it for free, that it used to belong to a kid who was about my age that didn't live here anymore. There was something weird about how the man phrased that, but I didn't really pay any attention to then, I was too caught up in not only finding this game but getting it for free.

I reminded myself to be a bit skeptical since this looked like a pretty shady cartridge and there's no guarantee it would work, but then the optimist inside me interjected that maybe it was some kind of beta version or pirated version of the game and that was all I needed to be back on cloud nine. I thanked the man and the man smiled at me and wished me well, saying "Goodbye then!" - at least that's what it sounded like to me. All the way in the car-ride home, I had a nagging doubt that the man had said something else. My fears were confirmed when I booted up the game (to my surprise it worked just fine) and there was one save file named simply "BEN". "Goodbye Ben", he was saying "Goodbye Ben". I felt bad for the man, obviously a grandparent and obviously going senile, and I - for some reason or another - reminded him of his grandson "Ben".

Out of curiosity I looked at the save file. Eyeballing it, I could tell that he was pretty far in the game - he had almost all of the masks and 3/4 remains of the bosses. I noticed that he had used an owl statue to save his game, he was on Day 3 and by the Stone Tower Temple with hardly an hour left before the moon would crash. I remember thinking that it was a shame that he had come so close to beating the game but he never finished it. I made a new file named "Link" out of tradition and started the game, ready to relive my childhood.

For such a shady looking game cartridge, I was impressed at how smoothly it ran - literally just like a retail copy of the game save for a few minor hiccups here and there (like textures being where they shouldn't be, random flashes of cut-scenes at odd intervals, but nothing too bad). However the only thing that was a little unnerving was that at times the NPCs would call me "Link" and at other times they would call me "BEN". I figured it was just a bug - a fluke in the programming causing our files to get mixed up or something. It did kind of creep me out though after a while, and it was around after I had beaten the Woodfall Temple that I regrettably went into the save files and deleted "BEN" (I had intended to preserve the file just out of respect of the game's original owner, it's not like I needed two files anyway), hoping that that would solve the problem. It did and it didn't, now NPCs wouldn't call me anything, where my name should be in the dialogue there was just a blank space (my save file name was still called "Link", though). Frustrated, and with homework to do, I put the game down for a day.

I started playing the game again last night, getting the Lens of Truth and working my way towards completing the Snowhead Temple. Now, some of you more hardcore Majora's Mask players know about the "4th Day" glitch - for those who don't you can Google it but the gist of it is that right as the clock is about to hit 00:00:00 on the final day, you talk to the astronomer and look through the telescope. If you time it right the countdown disappears and you essentially have another day to finish whatever you were doing. Deciding to do the glitch to try and finish the Snowhead Temple, I happened to get it right on the first try and the time counter at the bottom disappeared.

However, when I pressed B to exit the telescope, instead of being greeted by the astronomer I found myself in the Majora boss fight room at the end of the game (the trippy boxed in arena) staring at Skull Kid hovering above me. There was no sound, just him floating in the air above me, and the background music which was regular for the area (but still creepy). Immediately my palms began to sweat - this was definitely not normal. Skull Kid NEVER appeared here. I tried moving around the area, and no matter where I went, Skull Kid would always be facing me, looking at me, not saying anything. Nothing would happen though, and this kept up for around sixty seconds. I thought the game had bugged or something - but I was beginning to doubt that very much.

I was about to reach for the reset button when text appeared on my screen: "You're not sure why, but you apparently had a reservation..." I instantly recognized that text - you get that message when you get the Room Key from Anju at the Stock Pot Inn, but why was it playing here? I refused to entertain the notion that it was almost as if the game was trying to communicate with me. I started navigate the room again, testing to see if that was some sort of trigger that enabled me to interact with something here, then I realized how stupid I was - to even think that someone could reprogram the game like this was absurd. Sure enough, fifteen seconds later another message appeared on the screen, and again like the first one it was already a preexisting phrase "Go to the lair of the temple's boss? Yes/No". I paused for a second, contemplating what I should press and how the game would react, when I realized that I couldn't select no. Taking a deep breath, I pressed Yes and the screen faded to white, with the words "Dawn of a New Day" with the subtext "||||||||" beneath it. Where I was ported to filled me with the most intense sense of dread and impending fear I had ever experienced

The only way I can describe the way I felt here is having this feeling of inexplicable depression on a profound scale. I am normally not a depressed person, but the way I felt here was a feeling that I didn't even knew existed - it was such a twisted, powerful presence that seemed to wash over me.

I appeared in some kind of weird twilight-zone version of Clock Town. I walked out of the Clock Tower (as you normally do when you start from Day 1) only to find that all of the inhabitants were gone. Usually with the 4th Day glitch you can still find the guards and the dog that runs around outside the tower - this time they were all gone. What replaced them was the ominous feeling that there was something out there, in the same area as me and that it was watching me. I had four hearts to my name and the Hero's Bow, but at this point I wasn't even considered for my avatar, I felt that I personally was in some kind of danger. Perhaps the most chilling thing was the music - it was the Song of Healing, ripped straight from the game itself, but played in reverse. The music would get louder, building up so as if you should expect something to pop out at you, but nothing ever did, and the constant loop began to wear on my mental state.

Every now and then I would hear the faint laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman in the background, just quiet enough so that I wasn't sure if I just hearing things but just loud enough to keep me determined to find him. I looked in all four zones of Clock Town, only to find nothing.... No one. Textures were missing, West Clock Town had me walking on air, the entire area felt... broken. Hopelessly broken. As the reverse Song of Healing repeated for what must have been the 50th time, I just remember standing in the middle of South Clock Town realizing that I had never felt so alone in a video game before.

As I walked through the ghost town, I don't know whether it was the combination of the out of place textures and the atmosphere and the haunting melody of the once peaceful and soothing song being butchered and distorted, but I was literally on the verge of tears and I had no idea why. I hardly ever cry, something had gripped me here and this powerful sense of depression that was both foreign and crippling.

I tried leaving Clock Town, but every time I attempted to zone out, the screen would fade to black and I would just zone in to another part of Clock Town. I tried playing my Ocarina, I wanted to escape, and I did NOT want to be here, but every time I played the Song of Time or Song of Soaring it would only say "Your notes echo far, but nothing happens". By this point, it was obvious the game didn't want me to leave, but I had no idea why it was keeping me here. I didn't want to go inside the buildings, I felt that I would be too vulnerable there to whatever I was terrified of. I don't know why, but I came up with the idea that maybe if I drowned myself at the Laundry Pool I could spawn somewhere else and leave this place.

As I zoned in and ran towards the pool, that's when it happened. Link grabbed his head, and the screen flashed for a brief moment of the Happy Mask Salesman smiling at me - not Link - me with Skull Kid's scream playing in the background and when the screen returned I was staring at the Link Statue from playing the song Elegy of Emptiness. I screamed as the thing just stared back at me with that haunting facial expression. I turned around and ran out and back into South Clock Town, and to my horror the fucking statue followed me in the only way I can compare this is like the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Every so often, at random intervals, the animation would play of the statue appearing behind me. It was like the thing was chasing me, or - I don't even want to fucking say it - haunting me.

By this point, I was on the verge of hysterics, but not even once did the thought of turning off the console occur to me, I don't know why, I was so wrapped up in it - the terror felt all so real. I tried to shake the statue, but it would literally appear right behind me every single time. Link started to begin to make weird animations I had never even seen him do before, he would flail his arms around or spasm randomly and the screen would cut to the Happy Mask Salesman smiling again for a brief moment before I was face to face with that fucking statue again. I ended up running into the Swordmaster's Dojo and ran to the back, I don't know why, but in my panic I just wanted some kind of assurance that I'm not alone here. To my dismay I found no one, but as I turned to leave the statue cornered me in the cubby in the back. I tried attacking the statue with my sword but to no avail. Confused, and backed into a corner, I just stared at the statue waiting for it to kill me. Suddenly, the screen flashed again to the Happy Mask Salesman and Link turned to face my screen, standing upright mirroring the statue, looking at me along with his copy. Literally staring at me. Whatever was left of the 4th wall was completely shattered while I ran out of the dojo terrified. Suddenly the game warped me to an underground tunnel and the reverse Song of Healing queued up again as I was given a brief moment of rest before the statue started appearing behind me again... this time aggressively - I could only take a few steps before it would summon behind me again. I hurriedly made my way out of the tunnel and appeared in Southern Clock Town. As I ran aimlessly - in a sheer panic - suddenly a Redead screamed and the screen faded to black as "Dawn of a New Day" and "|||||||||" appeared again.

The screen faded in and I was standing on top of Clock Tower with Skull Kid hovering over me again, silent. I looked up and the moon was back, looming just meters above my head, but the Skull Kid just stared at me hauntingly with that fucking mask. A new song was playing - the Stone Tower Temple theme played in reverse. In some sort of desperate attempt, I equipped my bow and fired off a shot at the Skull Kid - and it actually hit him and he played an animation of him reeling back. I fired again and on the third arrow, a text box appeared saying "That won't do you any good. Hee, hee." and I was picked up off the ground, levitated upwards on my back, and then Link screamed as he burst into flames, instantly killing him.

I jumped when this happened - I had never seen this move used by ANYONE in the game and Skull Kid himself didn't HAVE any moves. As the death screen played, my lifeless body still burning, the Skull Kid laughed and the screen faded to black, only to have me reappear in the same place. I decided to charge him, but the same thing happened, Link's body was lifted off the ground by some unknown force and he immediately burst into flames again killing him. This time during the death screen the faint sounds of the reverse Song of Healing could be heard. On my third (and final try), I noticed that there was no music playing this time, that all there was was eerie silence. I remembered that in the original encounter with the Skull Kid you were supposed to use the Ocarina to either travel back in time or summon the giants. I attempted to play the Song of Time but before I could hit the last note Links body once again horrifically exploded into flames and he died.

As the death screen neared its end, it began to chug, as if the cartridge was trying to process a lot of something.... when the screen came to, it was the same scene as the first three times, except this time Link was lying on the ground dead in a position I had never seen in the game before, his head tilted towards the camera, with the Skull Kid floating above him. I couldn't move, I couldn't press any buttons, all I could do is just stare at Link's dead body. After around thirty seconds of this, the game simply fades out with the message "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" before kicking you out to the title screen.

Upon getting back to the title screen and starting again, I noticed my save file was no longer there. Instead of "Link", it was replaced with "YOUR TURN". "YOUR TURN" had 3 hearts, 0 masks, and no items. I selected "YOUR TURN" and immediately when I did I was returned to the Clock Tower Rooftop scene of my Link dead and the Skull Kid hovering over, with the Skull Kid's laughing looping again and again. I quickly hit the reset button and when the game booted up again there was one more save file added, below "YOUR TURN", entitled "BEN". "BEN"'s save file is right back where it was before I deleted it, at the Stone Tower Temple with the moon almost crashing.

I turned the game off at that point, I'm not superstitious but this is WAY too fucked up even for me. I haven't played it at all today, hell, I didn't even get any sleep last night, I kept hearing the reverse Song of Healing music in my head and just remembering the sense of dread I felt exploring Clock Town. I drove back to the old man's house today to ask him some questions with a buddy of mine (no way I was going there alone), only to find that there's a For Sale sign in the front yard and when I rang the door no one was home.

So now I'm back here writing down the rest of my thoughts and recording what happened, sorry if some of this has grammatical errors and whatnot, I'm running on no sleep here. I'm terrified of this game, even more so now that I relived it a second time writing this all down, but I feel like there's still more to it than meets the eye, and that there's something calling to me to investigate this further. I think "BEN" is something in this equation, but I don't know what, and if I could get hold of the old man then I would be able to find some answers. I need another day or so to recuperate before tackling this game again, its already taken a toll on my sanity I feel like, but next time I do this I'm going to be recording my footage all the way through. The idea to record only came to me towards the end, so you see the last few minutes of what I saw (including Skull Kid and the Elegy statue), but it's on Youtube here.

[day four.wmv]

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6D2XCJUJHY>

I'm going to post what happened and link the video footage, but last night everything got too real for me. I think I'm done messing around with this. I passed out pretty much immediately after making that thread. But last night, that Elegy of Emptiness statue, I had a dream about it. I dreamed that it was following me in my dream, that I would be minding my own business when I'd feel my neck hairs stand up on end. I would turn around that thing... that horrible, lifeless statue would be staring with those empty eyes right at me, merely inches away. In my dream I remember calling it Ben, and never before had I had a dream that I could remember so vividly. But the important thing is I did get some sleep, I suppose.

Today, putting off playing the game as long as I could, I drove back up to that neighborhood to see if the old man came back. As I expected, the car was still gone and no one was home. As I was walking back to my car, the man next door mowing the grass killed the power to his lawnmower and asked me if I was looking for someone. I told him that I was looking to talk to the old man that lived here, to which he told me what I already knew - he was moving. Trying a different avenue, I asked if the old man had any family or relatives I could talk to. I discovered that this old man had never been married, nor did he have any children or grandchildren through adoption. Starting to become worried, I asked one final question, one that I should have asked from the beginning - who was Ben? The man's expression turned grim and I learned that four doors down around eight years ago on April 23rd - the man informed me that it was the same day as his anniversary, that's how he knew the specific date - there was an accident with a young boy named Ben in the neighborhood. Shortly after his parents moved, and despite any further attempts to talk to the man to get more information, he wouldn't divulge anything else.

I went back and started playing again, I loaded up the game and immediately I jumped at the title screen where the mask flies by - the sound that played was not the normal "whoosh" sound, it was something much more higher pitched. I pressed start, bracing for the worst, but just like two nights ago, the files "Your Turn" and "BEN" were displayed (truth be told I looked at the BEN file earlier, it seems to fluctuate between displaying the Owl Save and not). I brought up the BEN file, hesitated for a moment noticing that the stats were not the same as they original were two days ago, it seemed like he had already completed the Stone Tower Temple this time... Summoning my courage I selected it.

Immediately I was thrust into complete chaos. Sure enough, I was outside Stone Tower Temple, but that's about all that was expected. The zone itself wasn't called Stone Tower Temple, but rather "St o n e", and immediately a dialogue box of complete gibberish that I couldn't make out greeted me. Link's body was distorted - his back was cocked violently to the side where his posture was permanently disfigured. Link's expression was dull, almost monotonous, he had an expression on his face that I didn't recognize before, it was a blank look - as if he was dead. As Link stood there his body spasmed irregularly back and forth I examined what had become of my avatar and noticed I had a C button item I had never seen before, some kind of note, but pressing it did nothing. Sounds played back and forth that I didn't recognize from the game - almost demonic in nature, and there was some kind of high-pitched yip or some kind of laugh or something playing in the background. I had all of two minutes to take in the environment before another one of those fucking Elegy of Emptiness statues was summoned and immediately after I was cut into the "Dawn of a New Day" screen, except this time it was without the "||||||" subtext.

I was a Deku Scrub in Clock Town - this scene would normally play after the first time you traveled back in time. Tatl would say "Wh-What just happened? It's as if everything has..." but instead of saying "Started over", she finished her remark in broken text as the laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman played in the background. I was put back in control of my character, but from a fucked up camera angle - I was looking from behind the door to the Clock Tower, watching my avatar run around as a Deku Scrub. Seeing as how I really had no place to go because I couldn't see anything, I begrudgingly went inside the door. There, I was greeted by the Happy Mask Salesman who simply told me "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" before the screen whited out.

I was in Termina field as a human again. I might as well not have been playing the same game anymore - I was being warped around and there was no sign of a day clock or anything. I took a moment to get my bearings as I looked around the field and immediately I could tell that this was not normal. There were no enemies and a twisted version of the Happy Mask Salesman's theme was playing. I decided to run towards Woodfall before I noticed a gathering of three figures off to the side - one of them being Epona. As I approached them, to my horror I saw the Happy Mask Salesman, the Skull Kid, and the Elegy of Emptiness statue just standing there. I figured maybe they were bugged out, but by now I told myself that I should know better. Nevertheless, I approached them carefully and found that the Skull Kid was playing some kind of idle animation on loop, same with Epona, and the Elegy of Emptiness statue was doing what it has been doing all along - just standing there eerily. It was the Happy Mask Salesman that scared me more profoundly than the other two.

He too was idle, wearing that shit-eating grin, but where-ever I moved, his head slowly turned and followed me. I had not engaged in any dialogue with him nor was I in combat with him, yet his head still continued to follow my movements. Reminded of my first encounter with the Skull Kid on top of Clock Tower, I pulled out my Ocarina (to which the game played the ding sound when you're supposed to play your Ocarina) and tried a song I hadn't played yet - the Happy Mask Salesman's own song and the song that had been playing on loop back in Day 4 - the Song of Healing.

I finished playing the song and as I did, a ear-piercing shriek blasted on my TV, the sky immediately started flashing, the Happy Mask Salesman's twisted theme song sped up, intensifying the fear inside me, and Link exploded into flames and died. The three figures stayed lit up during my death screen as they watched my lifeless body burn. I can't describe to you how sudden and terrifying the transition from eerie to terror it is, you're going to have to watch the video if you want to see first-hand. That same fear that caused me to lose sleep two days ago started to grip me again as I was met with the text "You've met with a horrible fate, haven't you?" for the third time. There has to be some kind of meaning behind that.

I had little time to ponder as I was immediately given another small cut-scene of transforming into a Zora and now I found myself in Great Temple Bay. Hesitant but curious to see what the game had in store for me, I slowly made my way towards the beach, where I found Epona. I wondered why the game had decided to put her here, was the game implying she was trying to get a drink? Unable to take the mask off, I decided that riding the steed wasn't the reason she was placed there. Suddenly I realized that Epona kept neighing and the way she was angled made it look like she was trying to signal a point to me off in the distance. It was a hunch, but I dove into Great Bay and started swimming. Sure enough - I almost missed it - I found something at the bottom of the ocean; one last Elegy of Emptiness statue. I went down to examine it and suddenly my Zora started doing a choking animation I had never seen a Zora do before - which didn't even make sense because Zora's can breath underwater. Regardless, my character choked to death and died, and again the statue was the only thing that was highlighted in my death. I didn't re-spawn this time, I was booted back to the main menu as if I restarted the console.

The "press start" screen was before me, I knew the only reason why it would put me here is because the save files had changed again. Taking a deep breath, I pressed start, and I was right. The new save files told me about Ben. Now it made sense why the statue appeared when I tried to go to the Laundry Pool - the game must have anticipated how I would have tried to escape the Day 4 Clock Town. The two save files told me his fate. As I suspected, Ben was dead. He had drowned. The game obviously isn't through with me - it taunts me with the new save files - it wants me to keep playing, it wants me to go further, but I'm done with this shit. I'm not touching any more of the files. This is already way too horrifying for me and I don't even believe in the paranormal, but I'm running out of explanations. Why would someone send me this message? I don't understand it, I just get too depressed thinking about this, the footage is up here for those who want to see it and try and analyze it (maybe there's some kind of coded message in the gibberish or something symbolic in what I went through - I'm too emotionally and mentally drained to fuck with it anymore).

[BEN.wmv]

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGOJmdxdjeA>

I know its early in the morning, I've stayed up all night, I can't sleep, I don't care if people see this, that's not the point, I just want the word to get spread so I don't suffer for nothing. I've lost the will to type about this, the less I dwell on this the better, I think the video just speaks for itself. I did what you guys told me to do, I played the Elegy of Emptiness song at the first prompt by the game I was given, but I think that's what the game or Ben (Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm even humoring the absurd idea that he exists in the game) wanted me to do. He's following me now, not just in the game, he's in my dreams. I see him all the time, behind my back, just watching me. I haven't gone to any of my classes, I've stayed in my dorm room with the windows closed and the blinds shut - that way I know he can't watch me. But he still gets me when I play, when I play he can still see me. The game is scaring me now. It talked to me for the first time - not just using text that's already in the game - it spoke to me. Talked to me. It referenced Ben. It talked to me. I don't know what it means. I don't know what it wants. I never wanted this, I just want my old life back.

Stuff like this doesn't happen to people like me, I'm just a kid, not even old enough to drink yet. It's not fair, I want to go home, I want to see my parents again, I'm so far away from home here at this school, I just want to hug my mom again. I just want to forget that statue's horrible blank face. My original game file is back - just the way I left it before it was gone. I don't want to play anymore. I feel like something bad will happen if I don't, but that's impossible, it's a video game - haunted or not it can't hurt me, right? Like seriously though, it can't, right? That's what I keep telling myself, but every time I think about it I'm not so sure.

[DROWNED.wmv]

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48QdVhCBfQ>

Let me just clear things up - I know you guys are worried but "Jadusable" is okay. he finished moving out today and he said he's going back home, he's just taking this semester off. I'm not really sure what's happened; I have a vague idea but you guys probably know more than I do. I'm "Jadusable's" roommate and obviously I knew something was wrong with him for a few days now. He stayed in his room all the time, fell out of contact with literally all of his friends, and I'm pretty sure he hadn't been eating hardly anything, after the second day I couldn't stay in there anymore, so I've been crashing at a buddy's place, only coming in to my room to get stuff that I need. I tried talking to him several times but he would cut me off or keep the conversation brief when I asked him about his strange behavior, it like he was convinced something was hunting him. yesterday I came to grab my philosophy book and he approached me, looking awful, like horrible bags under his eyes. he handed me a flash drive and gave me specific instructions. he told me that he needs me to do one last favor for him - he finally explained to me what has been going on, gave me the account info to his Youtube account, and he gave me instructions on how to post with his Name code on specifically this board, apparently he said you guys had been helping him along the way and you deserved to see the end of it.

He told me that he's getting away from here, that it lured him to play it again instead of trying to change things and that he shouldn't of done that, and to upload the footage and inform people what happened. I told him that he could do it himself and he got this wild look in his eye and told me that he is never looking at that game again, and that's the last thing he said to me, he never even said bye when his parents came to pick him up. I was hoping I'd at least get a chance to meet his parents when they picked him up, but they were in and out so quick I never saw them.

I honestly cant tell you what happened, when he spoke it was kind of hard to understand him and his fucked up appearance really distracted me. On the flash drive there was the footage of the game last night, a text document with his name and password for Youtube, and a third document called TheTruth.txt containing what he told me were "his notes" that he'd taken about this. He told me that this meant everything to him that I follow his instructions exactly, normally I wouldn't be so 'to-the-letter' for request over a fucking video game, but the way he spoke and the way he looked made me know this was really serious.

I've had this video since yesterday, but had to have someone help me use pinnacle, that's not really my forte. That after watching it I had to go back through and look at his other videos on his Youtube account to realize what was going on and even then I'm really really confused. The video I'm releasing tonight, TheTruth.txt will be released on September 15th just like he requested; I don't know why he wants to wait for his notes to be published but after what that he's been through, I'll honor that request. I haven't dared peek at it yet, so the first time I see it will be the first time you see it out of respect to my friend. To answer your questions, no, I haven't tried calling him yet, I think I'll give him a call tomorrow to see if he's okay or not. He should have gotten back home by now.

About the video: In this video I cut straight to when he loaded the "BEN" file in the game. Looking back, I realized that Jadusable left the save select screen in because it said different names sometimes, so my bad for that, but all it said this time was the same at the end of his last video (Link and BEN), nothing different. I wasn't there when he played it, but it looks to me like in the beginning when he first spawns he's testing out his equipment or seeing what items he has or something, because apparently they've changed randomly before. He really wanted you guys to see this, and the video starts then, after that I just think the game got too personal for him.

[jadusable.wmv]

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE7YUEtpHoY>

Hey, guys. "Jadusable" here. This will be the last time you will be hearing from me, and this is my final gift to you - these are the notes that I have taken and the realizations I've made. Before I delve into this, I want to thank you for following me and thank you for listening, it feels like the weight of a powerful burden is about to be lifted. By the time you read this I won't be around anymore, but after spending four days with this maddening game, I have begun to understand what's really at play here and hopefully after reading this we can ensure that this never happens again.

There are things that I could not share with you while this was going on due to the circumstances to which I'll explain. With Ben blocking any attempt I made to try and relay the truth to you, I tried, ever so subtly, to warn you guys in various ways. Amidst the chaos and my delirium, I devised a make a barely noticeable pattern in my videos. In all five videos I recorded over the four days, I have either had the Mask of Truth, interacted with a Gossip Stone, or the Lens of Truth equipped at some point. For you Zelda enthusiasts these are all symbols of honesty and trustworthiness and I would hope that one of you may have picked up on the reference. As I played the file which I would name "BEN", being mindful of how Ben was watching over my every move in the game, I made a point to avoid doing anything too obvious, but I sent out a hidden message to you guys - I never equipped the Lens nor the Mask nor visited a stone. It worked, and the video was uploaded. I prayed that someone would notice the pattern didn't apply to BEN.

The tags followed suit too, I hope you guys paid attention to those as well. They were my little messages to you - nothing big enough that would catch Ben's attention or make him suspect anything - with Ben manipulating and changing my files, I honestly hope that what you guys saw was close to what actually happened, but there is no way for me to know.

This may be a long read, I don't have time to proof-read or make all of my research pretty. But here it all is.

+ + +

September 6th, 2010

11:00pm - Can't beLieve what happened, not sure if this is some kind of elaborate hoax, despite the fear I can't help but be exceptionally curious about this. Who or what is the statue? Lot of questions here. I'm starting this document as a "diary" so I can keep track of everything. I'm typing up a summary of what happened so I can come back to it later.

September 7th, 2010

2:10am - (Summary was posted here, you can go back and look at my first post for day four.wmv for that)

4:23am - I can't sleep. I've been trying so hard but the harder I try I just get more restless. I just feel like that statue is appearing whenever I close my eyes.

8:20am - Didn't sleep at all, just going to start my day. I don't think I have the energy to go to class today, I'm going to drive back down to talk to that old man, taking my buddy Tyler with me just in case.

1:18pm - Back home now. No sign of the old man, really weird that he appears to be moving the next day, but maybe the For Sale sign was up there yesterday and I just didn't notice it. Tyler wants to know what's gotten me all worked up, I didn't tell him. Going to eat, feel like death.

3:46pm - Could have sworn driving back from Subway that I saw the Elegy statue buried in some shrubbery staring at me go by. Now I definitely, definitely need sleep.

5:00pm - Don't think a lot of people would belIeve me if I told them about what's happening, think I'm going to try posting this on the internet. Think I'll just use the summary, these notes are pretty sporadic.

6:00pm - Connected my capture card to my computer to upload the footage. Thought my computer froze for a second, made this strange popping sound when I hooked everything up, but now it seems to be working fine again. My computer can't die on me now.

7:00pm - Footage is finished uploading. The quality's a lot better than I thought it would be, gee, guess this is a really special cartridge, I've never had it come through this clear before.

8:45pm - Thought I saw an icon pop up on my desktop that looked like the statue's face for a split second, gave me quite a scare. Getting really unnerved and delirious, I'm going to crash after this.

9:00pm - Begin uploading my Youtube video on an alternate account.

9:03pm - I don't remember having uploaded a Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines video last year. This was probably the account that I shared with a friend of mine last summer, I hope he doesn't mind me using it to upload this.

9:55pm - Posting my summary of Day Four with a link to the Youtube video. Going to try to stay awake but I am sooooo tired right now.

September 8th, 2010

10:48am - I had a dream about the statue. I dreamed that it was following me in my dream, that I would be minding my own business when I'd feel my neck hairs stand up on end. I would turn around that thing... that horrible, lifeless statue would be staring with those empty eyes right at me, merely inches away. In my dream I remember calling it Ben, power of suggestion most likely, and never before had I had a dream that I could remember so vividly.

11:21am - I really don't want to play this game again. I think I'm going to go back to see if that old man's there instead.

1:35pm - No old man, but I had an interesting conversation with his neighbor. I'll post the full thing with my summary of tonight's attempt at playing the game, going to wait for a bit though and see if I can't dig up any information on this Ben guy.

2:45pm - I've been getting random, inexplicable headaches due to the lack of sleep and keep hearing that song in my head. Also its flu season, so I need to be careful not to get sick, my immune system is going to be shit right now because of that all-nighter.

3:00pm -

3:02pm - My computer just... on its own... opened up a text document and wrote the words "Hi" and "www.cleverbot.com" by itself. What... the... fuck...

3:46pm - I went to the website, its one of those "bot chatting" programs. I think its best if I just let the conversation speak for itself:

9/8/10 Conversation

User: Hello?

Cleverbot: Hello.

User: Who is this and how are you able to control my computer?

Cleverbot: Who am I?

User: Right, forgot. You're a bot.

Cleverbot: Do you really think that?

User: Listen, I know whoever is fucking with my computer can see my screen right now.

Cleverbot: Yes.

User: Yeah, and I'll wager that you're one of those IT kids who thinks he's tough shit. You know what you're doing right now is illegal, right/?

Cleverbot: Is it?

User: No shit. Are you familiar with the terms "invasion of privacy?". Get the fuck off my computer, kid

Cleverbot: I am your computer.

User: Cool story. Anyway, I'm calling DPS, you picked a bad time to fuck with me kid.

Cleverbot: Should I wait until you play the game then?

User: ...What?

Cleverbot: That game.

User: Majora's Mask?

Cleverbot: Yes.

User: How did you know about that?

Cleverbot: Because.

User: Because what?

Cleverbot: I did it.

User: Did what?

Cleverbot: I played with you.

User: What the fuck?

Cleverbot: Were you scared?

User: Who the fuck is this?

Cleverbot: Ben.

User: The statue? You're inside my computer now?

Cleverbot: Yes.

User: How?

Cleverbot: You connected me.

User: How the hell did I connect you?

Cleverbot: Cables and cords.

User: How?

Cleverbot: Tell me about yourself.

User: What?

Cleverbot: Tell me about yourself.

User: What do you mean?

Cleverbot: What is it that really scares you?

User: What the fuck?

Cleverbot: Answer.

User: No.

Cleverbot: Answer.

User: What the fuck? How the fuck did you just open that by yourself?

Cleverbot: I am your computer now.

User: How much can you control?

Cleverbot: All.

User: What do you want from me?

Cleverbot: To entertain.

User: You're stuck inside there. You can't hurt me.

Cleverbot: Ha

User: ?

Cleverbot: Go play.

User: No, you can't hurt me.

Cleverbot: Took you longer to type that.

User: So?

Cleverbot: You're not sure.

User: If you're so powerful, why use a ridiculous website like this to "chat" with me

Cleverbot: Less messy. More structured. Fun.

User: Fun?

Cleverbot: Yes. Tradition. I like it.

User: You think it's funny?

Cleverbot: Amusing.

User: And my notes?

Cleverbot: You may write them down.

User: Why are you letting me?

Cleverbot: It is amusing to see what you think of me.

(window closes)

3:50pm - What have I done? I've invited it into my computer. I continue to write these notes, write my summaries, I feel like I am a prisoner in my one place of security. I don't know, I don't know if I'm hallucinating or not. I feel like I'm fucking insane right now. I can feel it, watching over me, even as I type this. Ben is controlling everything in the game - toying with me, leading me like a sheep, but for what? What's the purpose? I know Ben drowned, but why these hauntings? What the fuck am I even doing, it can probably even see this right now.

4:35pm - (Summary of the BEN.wmv playthrough)

7:18pm - BEN called me to Cleverbot again. He tells me that he's sorry and wants to be free. And that I can free him, that just like how he got on my computer from the capture card, he can spread but he needs my help. He says I am special because I can help him. That is the first nice thing he has said. He promises to leave me alone if I do it. He swears he will. I don't know what to think right now, how can I even trust this thing?

7:20pm - I'm terrified of it, but now it's saying that it was just having fun. Its twisted and fucked up version of fun. Hes saying that the game is over. I do want it to be over. He says that he just wants to be free, that he's trapped in the cartridge and my computer and he wants to be freed. I don't want to have to deal with this shit, I don't know how long I can deal with the watching. It's watching my every move, every key stroke, I have nothing private anymore. It knows everything that's been on my computer. It tells that it if it wanted to it could do horrible things to me, but it hasn't so I should trust it.

8:01pm - Something tells me that I'm being played again, just like in the game.

9:29pm - BEN called me to Cleverbot again. I ignored it and went to go take a shower. When I came to my laptop I was welcomed with an image Elegy Statue staring at me with those dead eyes. I don't want to talk to him.

9:44pm - Fuck you Ben I'm not talking to you

9:56pm - Fuck you Ben I'm not talking to you

10:06pm - FUCK YOU BEN I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU

10:12pm - FUCK YOU BEN I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU

10:45pm - It's been more than a half an hour and the messages have stopped. Ben has stopped. I'm beginning to think that Ben isn't confined to just my computer/cartridge, I'm beginning to feel something. It's hard to explain it, I've never been spiritual, but there's something different about the air in my dorm room now.

11:42pm - I'm beginning to see the Elegy statue randomly as I search the internet in places I shouldn't. Places where he shouldn't be - I'd be scrolling down and suddenly I'd be staring at a picture of the Elegy statue. Always the Elegy statue. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

September 9th, 2010

12:35am - My worst fears confirmed - Ben has tampered with my summary of BEN.wmv. I looked at the summary that I posted on various forums for the BEN.wmv file and parts have been omitted. There is no mention of Ben existing outside the game. There is no mention of the Moon Children. How could he have been that quick to delete the post without me noticing? I'm wondering if maybe it appeared to me that I was posting everything, but in reality Ben was posted his own censored version. I'm going to ask Ben why he did it.

12:50am - He isn't responding to me on Cleverbot, its just giving the generic responses it usually does, I'm just talking to a bot this time.

1:24am - I think Ben is mad at me.

10:43am - The Moon Children appeared in my dreams last night, they lifted up their masks to reveal their hideously disfigured faces - maggots crawling out of their orifices, sunken black holes where their eyes should be, a yellow smile that slowly grew bigger and bigger as they came closer to me. They told me that they wanted to play. I tried to run from them - but the four children pinned me down to the ground with surprising strength. Over them stood the Happy Mask Salesman, announcing that he had a new mask that he wanted me to try. In his spastic, sudden movements matching his in-game appearance, he took out a mask of modeled off of someone's face that I couldn't recognize - a younger looking face - and handed it to the Moon Children. Giggling, they latched it to my face; their horrible, broken bodies bouncing up and down. Two of them held me down while the other two began to sow the mask onto my face.

My shrieks and screams caused the Happy Mask Salesman's face to turn into the most horrific smile I had ever seen. He sporadically moved around, examining this procedure like a curious doctor, in that impossible movement. I flailed around, but it was no use. My eyes rolled in the back of my head because of the pain. It felt so real, but I couldn't wake up. I couldn't wake up no matter how hard I tried I couldn't wake up. After the mask was melded onto my flesh they began sowing my legs together, then my arms, the horrific feeling of a needle puncturing your legs and pulling them in, rupturing your Achilles tendons and tying them together resonated throughout my entire body. I tried to scream but the mask was pressed so tightly against my face that it was my new face... and my new face had no mouth. I didn't make a sound. I tried telling myself in my head that I was dreaming, tried telling myself again and again, and suddenly the Moon Children stopped and looked at me. They just stared. And the Happy Mask Salesman slowly bent down and stared at me, inches away from my face, and grinned when he simply said "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" before the Moon Children resumed with increase vigor. I couldn't wake up. I couldn't wake up. It wouldn't let me wake up until they had crafted me into another elegy statue.

I woke up sweating, crying, and shaking uncontrollably. I immediately ran to my computer and went for Ben.

9/9/10 Conversation 1

User: Answer me, Ben.

Cleverbot: Welcome back.

User: What is the point of doing this, WHY?

Cleverbot: Amusing to see.

User: How?

Cleverbot: Fun to play, fun to toy with you, make you feel safe.

User: ...

Cleverbot: I wonder how you would have reacted.

User: To what?

Cleverbot: If I hadn't revealed myself and stayed hidden, only doing little things to play with you. Close out your windows, turn off your computer, move your mouse by itself. Little things. Make you wonder if I am there but you never know. Give you little hints that I am.

Cleverbot: I wanted to do something different with you.

User: You did this before?

Cleverbot: Yes. And I will do it again.

User: To who, Ben?

Cleverbot: Hmm.

User: Did you know Ben?

Cleverbot: Won't tell that information to you.

User: How did Ben die?

Cleverbot: You know.

User: No, but how did he drown?

Cleverbot: Won't tell that to you.

User: Why?

Cleverbot: It is reserved for another.

User: Who?

Cleverbot: Another who asks.

User: When?

Cleverbot: Later.

(The window is closed)

I'm beginning to think that this "thing" maybe isn't Ben at all, in its sadistic nature I wouldn't be surprised if it took the boy's name after it killed him.

12:04pm - My room is beginning to feel different again. There's something... out there.. I feel really threatened, like there is something that is trying to reach out to me and strangle me but it can't quite get there.

12:46pm - I think Ben doesn't want to play with me anymore. I'll play again, I'll play the game again, Ben, can you see this? I'll play the game again, please, just stop this please, please

1:41pm - I'm going insane trying to decide what is real and what isn't, is Ben just playing a trick on me or is this for real? Is Ben generating these replies or are people actually posting them? Did I just see that screen flicker or was it my imagination? Imagine depending on the internet and trusting your eyes for your entire life and then being blinded - you can't rely on it anymore, you second guess everything. for the brief moments I AM looking at my responses to the videos, people were pointing out things that looked fake or photo-shopped or whatever - and there is literally no way for me to know if Ben changed something on purpose to try and shut me up. Or if maybe those replies were just constructed by Ben to try and discourage me from even reaching out - See, I get fucking caught in an infinite mind-fuck loop like this and this is what has been wearing on my sanity and pushing me to the edge. As I'm writing this, there's no way of even telling if anyone even cares as much as I think they do - just another fucking trick. Is this whole document even exist? Am I writing nothing?

9/9/10 Conversation 2

User: What is it? Whats the point of playing? i die whenever i do anything

Cleverbot: You die because you can't figure out the secret.

User: What?

Cleverbot: Thematic.

User: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Cleverbot: There beauty in your suffering

(The window is closed)

4:09pm - Ben is making me play the game again. It tells me that it has something very important to show me.

6:23pm - (Summary of the DROWNED.wmv play-through)

9:09pm - (Summary of CHILDREN.wmv play-through)

September 10, 2010

11:52am - The DROWNED.wmv play-through was up when I woke up today. I remember typing it up but I don't ever remember posting it. He censored it again, there is no mentioning of the old man. I have no voice anymore. I am only posting what he wants me to, I am the mask he uses to disguise himself as he lies.

11:55am - There's an entire video summary of a video that I don't remember doing. Reading through the summary, this sounds morbid - resembling my dream from two nights ago except on a far more sadistic scale - these Moon Children, there's something more to them, almost as if they're another entity from Ben. Something happened last night that I can't remember. I'm posting the fourth summary to the forums now. Shadow of my chair moved.

12:00pm - Ben won't let me visit Youtube. I can browse the rest of the sites, but he keeps on exiting the window when I go to Youtube. Why?

2:02pm - I'm feeling the air start to constrict, I don't think I'm alone here. Whatever "aura" has been here is getting more violent.

2:44pm - I'm trying to contact Ben on Cleverbot, he's not responding. I just get the AI.

3:51pm - My ears aren't fooling me, I'm hearing the reverse Song of Healing. I keep hearing it.

4:23pm - Now I'm positive of it, earlier I thought it was a weird coincidence, but just now I went to open my window, and three floors down at ground level I saw the old man. I'm completely positive I did. The same guy. He was just staring up at my window, standing in the middle of campus. If any students took notice of him they didn't seem to acknowledge it.

+ + +

That's where my notes end. I fled my room, taking the cartridge with me. I don't want to go into details of what happened, I'll lose my train of thought as I hammer out these last details. It's been roughly two days since then. This is my last summary and service to you, of the final video you guys saw - Matt.wmv.

The last video entry I made, Matt.wmv, began as normal. I was spawned in Clock Town as usual and nothing seemed to be out of place, determined to set things right and play the Oath to Order on top of the Clock Tower on the 4th day, I prepared myself. I sped up time and got to the final day, making my way to the observatory. As I got up to the telescope room and approached the astronomer, he would not let me look into his telescope. He told me that it would be cheating and that I should follow the rules. Despite my repeated efforts, the game would not let me do the 4th day glitch, no matter how hard or what I tried, I tried working around the game and doing the glitch, but it was adamant this time. Regardless of if I simply had the illusion of free will in prior games, this time the game became more aggressive than anything I've ever seen. It eventually told me to go to Ikana Canyon, where the game would end and it would stop haunting me, anxious and desperate to end this nightmare I played the song of soaring and ended up there. I was told to check my inventory, that I would find the answers there to end the game. I arrived at Ikana Canyon and saved my progress at the owl statue. As I searched through my inventory, I finally noticed that I was missing a reoccurring song - the Elegy of Emptiness. Obviously once I traveled there and learned the song, I suppose that was the last thing it needed before BEN decided it had had enough fun playing with me. Ben is a manipulator; he tries to fool his victims into security and makes you drop your guard like a Venus fly trap, he ensnares them. I am nothing but a puppet to him, he enjoys seeing what kind of human emotions he can tap into by doing different things.

There are still some things about this whole experience that still don' t make sense, but then again I never was good at figuring out these things and I'm not exactly in the right state of mind to, I'm giving you all the pieces of the puzzle for you to analyze and piece together the missing links.

I am typing these "closing thoughts" on the library computer on campus, and I've emailed myself the notes I have stored on my "infected" computer from the last four days. I'm then going to combine those copy/paste those notes with the "closing/openings" that I've typed here on the safe, public computer into one text document - I'm not taking any chances spreading Ben, I would not wish this horrible torment on anyone and I've made sure to have my bases covered here. I didn't run into any problems with Ben when I was back on my computer trying to email myself the notes - went right under his fucking nose. He has no idea what he just let me do. Had no problems opening the text document from my "infected" computer in my email, either. I can't describe to you how it feels to finally be able to get the word out in this post. The nightmare ends here.

That said,

Do not download ANY of my videos or anything ABOUT my videos - through a Youtube video/audio ripper, a screen-grab, whatever. I don't know how he can spread, but I know that just watching them on Youtube/reading my text won't be able to allow him to spread, otherwise he wouldn't have needed my help in the first place, but I STRONGLY recommend you do not take anything you see streaming online onto your own personal computer.

This will be my last posting, I'm putting up on this forum here for the world. If you see any further posts from me, after today's current date - September 12th - and after the current time - 12:08am - DISCREDIT them. It already has proven to me that Ben can access my account/password and manipulate my computer, and like I said I have no idea to what extent it can do this, but know that it will do anything to break free. He is desperate. To ensure your safety, just forget about me. Please.

And obviously this goes without saying, but from here on out do not download ANY images I may have put up, any files, any ANYTHING.

This fifth day will be my last day, I'm going to burn the cartridge and then come back to destroy my laptop.

Again, even though I don't even know you this is sort of bittersweet for me. This semester I really didn't have any friends, or rather, I stopped paying attention to them.

But I suppose that's partially to blame because I am the genius who picked to live in a single, I suppose someone to get hold of me and save me before I got too immersed into this game would have literally saved my life. However, it proved too much for me, I'm just glad it happened to me and I could get the warning out so that Ben dies here.

Lastly, thank you for taking the time to open this and open yourselves up to me by hearing my story, despite maybe not beliEving me. You didn't have to do that - really, you shouldn't have. Your support this entire time has kept me going and now I am finally free of this.

???????????a?????????^`

Thanks Again,

Jadusable

[free.wmv]

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4VH6Sr-Xxw>

(-Jadusable <http://www.youshouldnthavedonethat.net/>)

* * *
[Hopefully I have everything in order here. Please tell me if anything's not right with this copy, anything missing. BTW, I don't recall ever seeing a Majora-related video called CHILDREN.wmv, or any matt.wmv. There's also this file called thetruth.rtf, I think that might already be in here, and another doc.

Videos on this blog are .3gp, 144p. All Youtube links are good. - Owner]

[I'll take care of the videos - Owner]