ADR - Episode 507: Halo Creepypastas w/ Kame House Party

[00:00:00] Oh, hello and welcome to Al Dente Rigamortis, I'm Review Cultist.

[00:00:22] I'm Aaron J. Shelton, and I'm Vids.

[00:00:28] And we're here to discuss those internet stories, most creepy and most pasta, and be critically

[00:00:32] silly doing it.

[00:00:34] And tonight we have Halo Creepypastas.

[00:00:37] Yeah, that's right, we're doing that one, but two Creepypastas for Halo.

[00:00:43] And I have some special guests.

[00:00:45] Yeah, would you say you're finishing the fight?

[00:00:49] Or are we just being arbiters about this Creepypasta?

[00:00:54] Uh, yeah, it's just like it's, Ron Pearlman is like, Review Cultist, mom, tell me what

[00:01:00] you're doing here on that ship?

[00:01:02] Sir, finishing this fight.

[00:01:04] Hey, chief, I heard you were in the Creepypasta.

[00:01:12] Cortana downloads it for me and reads it to me before a battle.

[00:01:16] Oh my God.

[00:01:18] Chief, are you telling me Cortana reads you a bedtime story?

[00:01:24] Man, Spartan's all weird.

[00:01:26] Actually, they're, they're battle time stories.

[00:01:32] She fixes me a warm, bodily blood.

[00:01:35] Well, shoot chief, maybe I need to get into some of those battle time stories.

[00:01:41] Wraps me in my shield.

[00:01:44] Yes, and see, hello and see, yeah, so for, yeah, for actually, this is a nice little segue.

[00:01:55] This has also been a ploy because I want you guys on here because I wanted to hear Vince

[00:02:02] do Sergeant Johnson voice, especially after the, the Sergeant Johnson impression he did

[00:02:09] for your your own commie house party Creepypasta readings.

[00:02:13] So yeah, I, I knew the assignment, I understood it.

[00:02:19] Yeah, so yeah, we're, we're going to cover two Halo stories.

[00:02:26] One is called the first one will be called Halo three death edition all caps.

[00:02:35] And the other one is Halo beta, so I suppose we'll start off with the, the shorter one.

[00:02:43] This one only clocks in about a, about a page and a half according to Google Docs.

[00:02:48] Halo three death edition is by imaginary stencils on gaming creepypasta dot fandom dot com slash

[00:02:55] wiki.

[00:02:57] So you can check it out there if you wish.

[00:03:02] But, yeah, um, let's, I guess dive into the rundown for this one.

[00:03:11] So this guy named George, he's a fan of Halo three, like loves the Halo games.

[00:03:17] And there's one time that his friend, I think his name is Nathan or no Michael, wanted him

[00:03:25] to play Halo three with him.

[00:03:28] But then George said he couldn't, but then he decided to, you could went over there like

[00:03:34] went over to Michael's house.

[00:03:38] And then realized he, yeah, he might want to help you out on this one.

[00:03:44] I think it's, there's no, let's just say this for first, first six of this, halo three

[00:03:53] death edition doesn't have any formatting whatsoever.

[00:03:59] So it's, it's like a dense like page and a half.

[00:04:04] It's a weird, beautiful mess.

[00:04:07] Yeah.

[00:04:08] To me.

[00:04:09] Because it is, but I think the base story is essentially I'm playing this game.

[00:04:15] It's a new version of this game.

[00:04:19] And then I get sucked into the game, but then it turns into like a weird body body.

[00:04:24] I don't know what the shunner is.

[00:04:26] Yeah.

[00:04:27] Cause he becomes like, there's like a weird blue slime thing that like eats him.

[00:04:31] And then he wakes up back in his bed and then he, he, then halo three is back on the screen

[00:04:37] and he like freaks out because he thinks the game's cursed and throws this controller

[00:04:41] at the screen.

[00:04:42] And then the black who comes out of his screen again and eats him.

[00:04:46] And then it turned like his friend, his friend Michael want to play halo three.

[00:04:50] He wanted to play on a George wanted to play online.

[00:04:53] Michael wanted him to play in person or perhaps that might have been vice versa.

[00:04:58] And then Michael said he didn't want to be his friend anymore.

[00:05:00] And so George goes to Michael's house, but then goes home again, only to come back to

[00:05:05] Michael's place and find out that Michael has been murdered and it's possibly by George.

[00:05:13] Yeah, it's, it's one of those things where I, I can relate to having a friendship fight

[00:05:23] and like really wanting to just like, no, if I, if I just show up at your house, I'll

[00:05:27] fix everything.

[00:05:29] Nobody does that one.

[00:05:32] And two, yeah, this, the formatting aided in the confusion of like exactly who was mad

[00:05:40] at who.

[00:05:41] And I'll be selling at who?

[00:05:45] Yeah.

[00:05:46] And like, I'll be honest, it like, and then like over the course of it, like, yeah, that

[00:05:49] black who's thing like eats him and after he gets angry at his screen and throws a computer

[00:05:54] or throws his controller and like cracks the screen.

[00:05:56] And then he wakes up in the game as master chief and then goes through the game and gets

[00:06:03] eaten again by the black who's and then wakes up in his bed and then realizes he's Michael

[00:06:09] and he's being chased by George.

[00:06:12] And then he runs to like a gas station seeking help.

[00:06:15] But then Michael's on the other side of the counter and like, and like, it's just very,

[00:06:20] it also felt like somebody had a dream or a nightmare and jotted that down.

[00:06:28] And that's what this creepy pasta is.

[00:06:30] Is somebody's like unfiltered, halo fueled creepy, like, like, like nightmare dream?

[00:06:36] Yeah.

[00:06:37] Like lucid dreaming gone wrong.

[00:06:39] Yeah.

[00:06:40] Like, all I wanted to do was be master chief in my dreams.

[00:06:43] But all I could think about was my friend George and or Michael and thus I became him

[00:06:49] who killed me.

[00:06:51] And I also played how, uh, quote, oh three.

[00:06:57] Yeah.

[00:06:58] Yeah.

[00:06:59] Yeah.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:01] Oh, yeah.

[00:07:02] Three.

[00:07:03] It was Michael's.

[00:07:04] Yeah, just for like, as a quote, it was Michael's house.

[00:07:06] I was playing how quotation Oh three.

[00:07:11] And I mean, like, that's just a grammar issue, but like, yeah, I mean, that's a lot in the

[00:07:15] story.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:17] So that's basically, I guess that's, that's close to we're going to get to a rundown,

[00:07:22] I think, is this kid like just spiraled into madness or, or dream sequence that you couldn't

[00:07:31] escape.

[00:07:32] Um, so we usually, you know, on identity regular rigomortist, we usually start things off after

[00:07:40] a rundown with, um, everyone tolerance of grammar and positions at this point.

[00:07:45] Yeah.

[00:07:46] I'm going to, I'm going to do this one here, like this quote here.

[00:07:51] And then that's where the only quote I have for a grammar position for the story.

[00:07:56] When the drop pop got released, there was no dilush.

[00:08:01] So I think it needs like, when the drop pod got released, there was no dialogue, but like

[00:08:08] again, just spelling and like an issue.

[00:08:10] But honestly, that's why I'm, this is the only one I'm going to, I'm going to mention

[00:08:14] because there are so many spelling errors and issues with the formatting grammatically.

[00:08:19] This entire story just kind of needs a look over maybe a couple of times to be cleaned

[00:08:24] up and like reformatted, kind of like a bad game or like when, when a game, it doesn't

[00:08:31] install properly yet to reformat a couple of times.

[00:08:34] Absolutely.

[00:08:35] Uh, speaking of like just reformatting, I had to quickly reformat my brain at this

[00:08:41] third to last sentence.

[00:08:42] Yeah.

[00:08:43] Then I died because it hurt a lot.

[00:08:46] And then I woke up.

[00:08:48] I was in Halo three, like just, just beautiful.

[00:08:54] Then I died because it hurt a lot like poetic.

[00:08:58] Yeah.

[00:08:59] True, true, uh, poetry right there.

[00:09:04] This is, uh, so what I like about this one and I do, I honestly like a lot of this because

[00:09:12] there is how one hitched it is.

[00:09:14] Yeah.

[00:09:15] There is some good front, like in there in the core.

[00:09:17] So like, but whether or not this is like a sincere attempt or from half, halfway through,

[00:09:25] I'm just like, is this a troll post?

[00:09:27] Is this a troll pasta?

[00:09:29] It could have been.

[00:09:30] Yeah.

[00:09:31] Either way, I am so down with this because you get bangers, hold on, I think I can find

[00:09:38] it.

[00:09:39] That is it.

[00:09:40] Um, but before the black slime ate me, I went and hid Michael's body.

[00:09:44] So it wouldn't be found.

[00:09:46] Oh, so I got out and then I wanted to play Halo three, ODS D hashtag relatable.

[00:09:53] Yeah.

[00:09:54] Yeah.

[00:09:55] Yeah.

[00:09:56] Yeah.

[00:09:57] I was doing afterwards, I was like, you know what I could go for?

[00:09:59] Some odious.

[00:10:00] Yeah.

[00:10:01] Yeah.

[00:10:02] You just like, you know what I feel like after, after, after disposing of my friend's body

[00:10:05] that I've murdered.

[00:10:06] Play it.

[00:10:07] It's about a halo three ODS T.

[00:10:09] That's my soul.

[00:10:11] Yeah.

[00:10:12] Honestly, at that time, gear gears to would have been out just controlling the Xbox community

[00:10:20] zeitgeist.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:22] That was around the same because halo three ODS T had the, they, they kind of like adopted

[00:10:28] the same kind of like multiplayer game style as gears to did with the, the horde mode.

[00:10:33] Yep.

[00:10:34] So yeah, I do remember that like, oh, like, cause I remember playing ODS T and just like,

[00:10:38] Oh, they're just take those.

[00:10:39] It's just, this is just horde mover like wave mode from, from years two.

[00:10:43] And lo and behold, they never put it in another halo game for whatever reason.

[00:10:47] I don't know why, but don't know why.

[00:10:50] It seemed like in the halo infinite genre, it would have fit really nicely into whatever

[00:10:57] multiplayer package they were coming up with.

[00:10:59] And then they were like, I don't know, we want skins instead of game modes.

[00:11:04] Yeah.

[00:11:05] Apparently that's where it was like skins and, and add, and like upgrades or things that

[00:11:10] you could like do like after a, for like a, for a cool down or something like that.

[00:11:15] Mm.

[00:11:16] Uh, so yeah, I have, I have some actual thoughts for this with quotes.

[00:11:21] Um, so I'll, I'll bring this one up now.

[00:11:24] Um, anyways, I said yes, and I went over to his house to play halo three, but I went

[00:11:30] back home because I remember I have Xbox live when I got back.

[00:11:36] I joined his party, but he said he wanted me to come over.

[00:11:41] So this is like when like he's getting invited to his friends place and then he realized,

[00:11:44] wait, I have, I have Xbox live ups.

[00:11:46] So I just love this idea, this whole scene, like turning out where like, he walks over

[00:11:50] to his buddy's place who asked him to go play halo three, then like right before he's about

[00:11:54] to knock on the door.

[00:11:55] He's like, wait, I have Xbox live and just turns back around and goes home like in that

[00:11:59] comedic to like realization of like, wait, and just like, like, like that awkward, like

[00:12:03] he's about to knock on his friends door to like go inside and it's like, wait, I have

[00:12:07] Xbox live.

[00:12:08] We can do this, just do this online.

[00:12:10] If, if you have never gotten had the pure joy of a halo land party, Oh, I have.

[00:12:21] It's, it's bad.

[00:12:23] I see this, this, this Michael character or this George character.

[00:12:27] What a fool.

[00:12:28] Yeah.

[00:12:29] Go and play with this couch co op is superior to online, in my opinion, truly, like blood

[00:12:36] gilch, one team has a TV down in somebody's basement, the other team has a TV in the living

[00:12:42] room.

[00:12:43] So I've got a story to tell about that then.

[00:12:46] In high school, I, we, my buddies and I like, we had like, we had about 16 of us and we

[00:12:53] all wanted to live the dream and do a 16 man link up party.

[00:12:58] My dad who has a bunch of electrician gear at the time had a like, had acquired a professional

[00:13:05] like a, like an office building, like router, like for like, with the cables and stuff of

[00:13:12] that you can plug in for the, for Xbox and stuff.

[00:13:16] And I, I borrowed it and it was like 32 links in it.

[00:13:20] So like, we could have 16 Xboxes and 16 TVs.

[00:13:25] And I remember we had at least three instances where we all like got went over to somebody's

[00:13:30] house and did that and just probably blew that person's power bill, running 16 of TVs

[00:13:38] and Xbox, Xbox for every person.

[00:13:41] Oh my God.

[00:13:43] Yeah, we lived with the dream, like two or three times before like that, before those

[00:13:47] days were, were done.

[00:13:50] Jeez.

[00:13:51] Oh geez.

[00:13:52] Oh, I mean, if some late parties, land parties still exist, right?

[00:13:56] You can still do a land party.

[00:13:57] I think people still help my friends, like the friends that I still have from those days

[00:14:02] still want to do one at some point.

[00:14:05] That's good.

[00:14:06] Keep that alive.

[00:14:07] Cause that is something like it's just to get on my old man gamer soap box.

[00:14:14] Bring back couch co op.

[00:14:15] You know how awful it is to not be able to play halo with your friends sitting next

[00:14:20] to you or any game that for that matters sitting next to you.

[00:14:24] Like, I know like halo, I know that was the biggest like cry out for when halo infinite

[00:14:29] came out like last week last year was that they were going to bring a multiplayer like

[00:14:34] like couch co op kind of multiplayer stuff.

[00:14:37] Oh no, I think it was the co op aspect of it wasn't going to be released for like another

[00:14:41] couple of months after the initial release and it's like you fools.

[00:14:45] Oh yeah.

[00:14:46] It's devastating.

[00:14:48] I did, I have gone back because I read on Reddit, I trust Reddit, Reddit said, Hey guys, halo

[00:14:56] is okay now.

[00:14:57] You can play halo multiplayer again, which I think it's just like, yes, I agree.

[00:15:05] It's much better than it was at launch.

[00:15:08] It's been years though, and I've already got new shooter habits.

[00:15:13] Like I'm playing the finals, like call of duty.

[00:15:17] The new one is still good call of duty multiplayer.

[00:15:22] And yeah, I don't know.

[00:15:24] I think it's just like every every so often now, it seems like our tent pole first person

[00:15:31] shooters like halo are just going to have to go through this like.

[00:15:34] Sallow period of being bad before they can be good again.

[00:15:39] So but I don't I don't know when the next like good halo is coming because who knows

[00:15:44] what Microsoft is going to do.

[00:15:45] Yeah, especially since halo infinite, like it sounded like they were trying to do that

[00:15:49] as like, we're just going to push out like update after update.

[00:15:53] And that's going to be the next couple of halo games is just through infinite.

[00:15:58] Which had me really has me really scared, honestly, because that was what they were

[00:16:02] going to do with anthem and look what happened to anthem.

[00:16:06] Oh, everyone plays that still, right?

[00:16:09] The survival game yeah, everyone loves available on gay pass.

[00:16:16] Yeah.

[00:16:17] Also, what do I want to play halo right now when I can play power.

[00:16:22] World.

[00:16:23] Don't don't start.

[00:16:24] You know, you know, I built a pal workbench last night.

[00:16:28] Very close to guns.

[00:16:31] Yeah, made of pals.

[00:16:33] It's made with their blood.

[00:16:36] Oh, sorry, sweat and tears.

[00:16:38] Blood sweat.

[00:16:39] Yes.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:41] So back to the story.

[00:16:45] Another quote I have here and this sort of encapsulates like my feelings about like

[00:16:49] what I think is actually really might be really cool about the story.

[00:16:53] So I threw the controller at the screen and then black slime started coming out of the

[00:16:59] cracks and it went and ate me.

[00:17:01] I woke up in the room with the large sign that said I was the bad guy.

[00:17:07] I knew I wasn't the bad one.

[00:17:09] The black stuff came, came back and ate me again.

[00:17:13] And then I was on my bed.

[00:17:14] My TV was on again.

[00:17:17] I was going to say this, this feels like someone wrote down their night, their nightmare.

[00:17:23] Like, like I said earlier, like this feels like somebody had written down their nightmare

[00:17:28] and, and like, just with like all the dream logic and like how things progress narratively

[00:17:33] in the story.

[00:17:34] That feels very much like a dream.

[00:17:37] It's just like, there's no, like there's, there's, there's an organic nonsensical sense

[00:17:43] to it.

[00:17:44] Yeah, it's just like, what is going on?

[00:17:51] It's like just the, the, the black slime coming out of the crack in the TV, eating him.

[00:17:56] He wakes up somewhere saying he's the bad guy, but I'm not the bad guy.

[00:18:00] It's that Billy Eilish song.

[00:18:05] I do like that Billy is channeled here.

[00:18:08] Billy needs to be channeled everywhere we can, but I also like the imagery of the black

[00:18:14] sludge or black goo being the vehicle for like a body switch horror kind of element.

[00:18:20] Yeah.

[00:18:21] I think I don't know if you guys saw the new Netflix body switch comedy that came out over

[00:18:27] the holiday season called switch and it takes the body switch comedy and throws it on its

[00:18:34] head because the whole family switches bodies, oldest son and dad, middle daughter and mom.

[00:18:48] And here, here's the special part.

[00:18:49] Here's, here's where you never, you never saw this coming.

[00:18:52] We and dog. Oh my God.

[00:18:56] Which is the most terrifying, like me as a human being, the most, I, I love my cat.

[00:19:06] But you, you tell me that I'm going to wake up after playing halo and I'm in the body

[00:19:12] of my cat more, more scary than, than the scariest movie I've ever seen.

[00:19:18] Yeah.

[00:19:19] I was thinking that sorry baby and dog that's so no change literally no change.

[00:19:28] Yeah, basically.

[00:19:30] Let's move sailing.

[00:19:32] Also, it's just like, like, I was like, I hope that swap is reversible because like dogs

[00:19:39] have a very limited lifespan compared to humans.

[00:19:42] Exactly.

[00:19:43] More terrifying.

[00:19:44] Yeah, no, that's all when you, when you just described that is like, so it's freaky Friday,

[00:19:52] but if they'd made it a TV series and it was the sequel to freaky Friday that never got,

[00:19:56] that never happened.

[00:19:57] Yeah.

[00:19:58] Like the freaky Friday Christmas special of the series that never was.

[00:20:02] Yeah.

[00:20:03] Haring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms as mom and dad.

[00:20:08] Yeah.

[00:20:09] With special guest appearances from Paul Sheer, King Batch of Vine fame.

[00:20:20] There's like a bunch of like weird little cameos in that movie, but it's not good.

[00:20:24] And hence, I've forgotten all of them.

[00:20:26] Nice.

[00:20:27] Is that the show with Enid from Wednesday?

[00:20:32] Like that actress?

[00:20:34] Not, not a show.

[00:20:35] Not a show.

[00:20:36] It's just like a holiday movie special that Netflix did.

[00:20:40] Okay.

[00:20:41] That was her with Jennifer Gardner, I think, as well, right?

[00:20:44] I think you're right.

[00:20:45] Yeah.

[00:20:46] That's what I was.

[00:20:47] You said it was Netflix and it was like Jennifer Gardner is like, wait, is this, was this what

[00:20:51] that other show that that actress was in?

[00:20:53] Yeah.

[00:20:54] Also, so another thing, so a lot of there's a lot of video, there's a lot of video game

[00:21:01] creep pasta tropes out there and, and what I'm about to quote is one of them in the story.

[00:21:09] I took out the Halo three disc and knew it was bad, but I wanted to play.

[00:21:14] So I put it back in and played it again, classic video game creep pasta trope of getting

[00:21:21] very creeped out by this cursed haunted video game, but being too damn intrigued to keep

[00:21:27] playing, to not keep playing, like, I cannot tell you how many times that happens in the

[00:21:33] creep pasta involving your haunted video game where like the person's like, you should

[00:21:36] stop playing this game.

[00:21:37] It's clearly haunted or cursed, but it intrigues me.

[00:21:41] It's like that, that meme from, from the, yeah, knives out.

[00:21:48] Yeah.

[00:21:49] Yeah.

[00:21:50] Exactly.

[00:21:51] Yeah.

[00:21:52] Yeah.

[00:21:53] With Daniel Craig.

[00:21:54] Yeah, exactly, I had to put the, the cartridge back in the density floor because it intrigued

[00:22:00] me.

[00:22:01] Yeah.

[00:22:02] I had solved the mystery of its hauntedness long before, but something called to me.

[00:22:08] Yeah.

[00:22:09] I just couldn't get away from master chief and Sergeant Johnson.

[00:22:14] And actually speaking of Sergeant Johnson, this quote I have, um, when I started only

[00:22:21] Sergeant Johnson was there, he said in a scary voice, you are the bad one.

[00:22:27] I then suddenly realized I had gone to Michael's house and killed him.

[00:22:32] And that mine, and that my name wasn't really George.

[00:22:35] It was in all caps, bad one.

[00:22:39] The black stuff came out from the floor.

[00:22:42] And then I was back in the room with the sign.

[00:22:44] Hey, hey, bad one.

[00:22:46] Who you call black stuff?

[00:22:49] God.

[00:22:52] I don't think I'm not that one.

[00:22:54] I'm Michael.

[00:22:55] I mean, I'm George.

[00:22:57] Yeah.

[00:22:58] Yeah.

[00:22:59] So I don't think I've ever had a, the, the cool idea slash dumb idea whiplash hit me

[00:23:08] so hard, um, like, like in this story alone, like, I really like the short moment where

[00:23:17] I thought, Oh, there's a horror thing here where George actually went over and killed

[00:23:22] his friend before going home and having those memories, like covered up by, uh, by

[00:23:28] the weird part of, of Mike, uh, of Mike not wanting to play with his friend anymore.

[00:23:34] Like, you know, like in movies or in horror stories and stuff, like when it's revealed

[00:23:39] that the killer or that the, the, the protagonist actually is the killer the whole time.

[00:23:44] Like their mind is just like covered up those thoughts or memories.

[00:23:47] Mm hmm.

[00:23:48] I actually just watched the movie yesterday about that, um, or that had a similar like

[00:23:52] theme, uh, called where's Rose on to be.

[00:23:56] Yeah.

[00:23:57] To be.

[00:23:58] Yeah.

[00:23:59] Wait, hold on, hold on.

[00:24:01] Is Rose.

[00:24:02] Wait, I'm thinking of a different creepy thing because there's a, I forget if it's prime

[00:24:08] or Netflix, but it had, it's called red rose and it's about an app that drives people.

[00:24:15] I'd heard of that.

[00:24:16] Yeah.

[00:24:17] No, it's different from that one.

[00:24:19] Yeah.

[00:24:20] It's, I think Scottish, but keep going.

[00:24:22] Yeah.

[00:24:23] No, yeah.

[00:24:24] So like, yeah, that whole thing where like, again, you see in a lot of psychological horror

[00:24:27] stuff where like the character, like it's revealed like, Oh, wait, no, I'm the killer

[00:24:31] because I killed my friend or I covered it up and some of that.

[00:24:35] And then to have like all that cool idea like there and then just go and use like, I wasn't

[00:24:45] named George.

[00:24:46] I am named bad one.

[00:24:50] Just kind of spoiled the mood and moment for me, like immediate, cause I started laughing

[00:24:55] a literally as soon as I started like, I'm, I'm not George.

[00:24:57] I'm bad one.

[00:25:00] So yeah, it was like, it had a potential in there where it's like, Oh, cool.

[00:25:05] The character.

[00:25:06] There's actually a really cool moment.

[00:25:07] No, that just died.

[00:25:09] There's, there's this weird guilt theme going through it as well, which is like that.

[00:25:18] I mean, that gets lost very quickly, unfortunately.

[00:25:23] Just like, I didn't go over to my friend's house when they wanted to.

[00:25:26] And now I'm here's my, here's my nightmare about my guilt and all these video game characters

[00:25:32] telling me I'm bad.

[00:25:34] Yeah.

[00:25:35] I mean, like, I'm sure like, I'm sure like, I don't know who I can't know who, how old

[00:25:42] this person was that wrote this story.

[00:25:44] So like this might be like a middle schooler or like a young, a young kid who wrote this

[00:25:49] and posted it online.

[00:25:51] But like that is also this kind of like the kind of anxiety of like, Oh no, I'm, my friend

[00:25:56] hates me now because I didn't like go and hang out with them that day.

[00:25:59] like kind of like.

[00:26:00] thinking. Oh yeah, I think there are real anxieties in this that are universal, especially

[00:26:10] if you think about it from like, oh, this is like a middle schooler, high schooler writing

[00:26:15] this, like those feelings can be really real. And I think like this concept, like a couple

[00:26:25] of a few more rewrites, a few more analysis of gamer culture, you know, you add a few

[00:26:32] specifics here and there. You contextualize whatever the demon is in the software or hardware

[00:26:40] that can switch your bodies. That seems like one of those horror movies that could come

[00:26:44] out of nowhere and really, really surprise somebody.

[00:26:50] Like the supernatural stuff is really just an allegory or like just there to like kind

[00:26:54] of soften the blow of the actual themes of the story, which is like teen anxiety of like

[00:26:59] engaged and stuff.

[00:27:01] Imagine this is middle schoolers and this is their last summer before high school and

[00:27:06] they're like the two best friends are going to different high schools. They're like two

[00:27:10] counties apart, which is like an hour and a half, but to them, it's the end of the world.

[00:27:15] So of course, like they just want to spend as much time as they can before they go to

[00:27:18] high school, but then of course, like, you know, maybe, maybe a girl gets involved.

[00:27:24] Their only like the question is, okay, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, Courtney,

[00:27:31] Courtney, Courtney, Courtney, and then we have a little chief and then sheriff. And I was

[00:27:43] trying to like, so then like George, son. George, or George, or George, well, we don't

[00:27:54] realize that George's last name is Johnson. Son, thought you're going to go over to Michael's

[00:28:02] place to play a little halo. No, Michael, what? No, you're George. I'm a black goo.

[00:28:11] Oh, God. Thank you guys for coming on the show. This is this is everything I wanted.

[00:28:23] Absolutely. Next thing I have here. Oh, yeah, this, this scene here I have in my notes.

[00:28:30] Um, then I saw that module 666 was playing as an ODST with no head. It was very scary

[00:28:39] and I screamed and threw my controller at the TV and then realized my mistake. The black

[00:28:45] ooze came out of the TV and I ran, but it was following me. I got into my car and then

[00:28:52] he came through the open window and ate me again. He, he threw his controller at the TV

[00:29:00] earlier in like after before the scene. And it cracked and the ooze came out and ate

[00:29:05] him. Was it still cracked when it, uh, the second time around when it were, did it revert

[00:29:11] back uncracked when he came back to the, to the real world? Also, he has a car. He's

[00:29:18] right. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. He's at least fifth. They they're, yeah, they're at least

[00:29:23] 15. Thank you. We're putting the dots together. Mm hmm. Yeah. Also, just like. Yeah, it just

[00:29:32] also that was, there's, there's like no real breaks in those sentences. It was just like

[00:29:38] everything is going on going and going and butt and, uh,

[00:29:42] had was not pressed once during the record.

[00:29:49] Taps is missing. Also, yeah, module 666 classic, classic creepy cursed, like profile

[00:29:57] name with, and with, and he's playing as an ODST with no head and you know, like a visual

[00:30:04] glitch. I actually had that kind of a glitch happen in my Minecraft server recently. It

[00:30:10] happens. It happens. Yeah. I got one of those like custom dinosaur heads that you can get

[00:30:14] from like the, from, uh, from the New Year's, um, uh, sale or like the New Year's like giveaway

[00:30:20] kind of thing that they've been doing on their marketplace. And when you put a helmet on,

[00:30:24] it removes the, um, the dinosaur head, but also doesn't add in a normal like, deep head.

[00:30:31] So you just have a, you just have, you just have this like floating helmet over your,

[00:30:34] over your shoulders in the game. My craft continues to scare me. Yeah. And you through

[00:30:43] the controller, right? Of course. Yeah. I was about to. And I was like, wait, I want

[00:30:48] my screen. Maybe this is all just an allegory about not throwing your controller. You know.

[00:30:54] Keep that, keep that rage tip down or else like if I have children, I'm going to tell

[00:31:00] them, Hey, look, if you get angry at the game and throw your controller, a black goo

[00:31:05] is going to come out and eat you twice. Yeah. I really feel like Nintendo nailed it for

[00:31:11] that. Like by adding like the wrist band, the wrist, uh, um, like the wrist straps on

[00:31:17] controllers, like on the Wii, on the Wii moat and the Nunchuck and stuff. Like, I feel

[00:31:21] like more consoles should like, like develop like some kind of a similar, um, like device

[00:31:28] or upgrade to your, to controllers. Ooh, a bungee cord controller. That's a bunch of

[00:31:35] bungee bungee bungee brand is bungee cords, bungee cord. And the advertisement could

[00:31:40] be like, listen, we know you're going to rage quit. Don't take it out on your screens. Take

[00:31:46] it. They're emotionally stunted. Yeah. Take it out on these RGB cords. Of course they're

[00:31:58] LED. Uh, what do I have next on this? Um, yeah. So here's the next one I have. This

[00:32:09] was terrifying because I am bad at driving. I got, sorry. So the, he got into his car.

[00:32:17] So I guess this is like right after the, the cardboard, the, him getting into his car and

[00:32:20] stuff like that. Um, so this was terrifying because I am bad at driving. I got to the gas

[00:32:27] station and went inside and said, call the police. He's killing me, but then I looked

[00:32:32] and it was George or me behind the counter. This was bad because I was Michael and George

[00:32:39] me in in brackets killed Michael. I remembered that I also killed a lot of my friends because

[00:32:47] I had trust issues and they could not, they could turn, they could turn into me or, sorry.

[00:32:55] And they could turn into my enemies that must have been why they said we hate you. And

[00:33:01] I'm just like, so I read this part and I somehow got through it and I was like, geez, this

[00:33:06] escalated so quickly. Like this is like, what was, what was in your, uh, your Mountain

[00:33:12] Dew and for, and, and, uh, and Doritos. This is a bad trip. You're suffering from here,

[00:33:18] George. Look, this is why this is why you can't, you can't do vintage Mountain Dues. Okay.

[00:33:25] Yeah. You need to check, check those exploration dates because we, we all know if you do the

[00:33:30] do too late, this is what happens. Like, again, I said it earlier, it's like, I feel like

[00:33:38] this could have been a cool, like psychological horror, or there could have been a good psychological

[00:33:43] horror in here with like George, our narrator. Uh, he slipped into a really bad case of gamer

[00:33:50] rage after one particularly bad run of Halo three multiplayer, uh, and blacked out from

[00:33:58] it and actually went and killed his friends that were his, uh, his enemies in the game.

[00:34:04] And is only now having to come to terms with that, like the guilt and like the, um, the

[00:34:09] realization that he did what he did in this weird surreal like journey that we have, but

[00:34:15] it's just like, again, the writing kind of gets in the way of it. But like, there's a

[00:34:21] core in here that's good. Yeah. Nobody wants friends could turn into my enemies. Nobody

[00:34:29] wants that. Yeah. Yeah. There on the, on the writing style, uh, I think you could, it's

[00:34:36] your, your aware of Garth Meringue. Yes, of course. His dark place. Yes. Um, he, so, uh,

[00:34:45] I forget the actor's name, but he actually put out a book as Garth Meringue called Garth

[00:34:50] Meringue's Terra Tome. It's very good and fun. It's sort of a send up of like splatter punk.

[00:34:55] Yeah, that genre. Um, but this, so it's like intentionally bad writing. Yeah. So this reminded

[00:35:03] me of it because he, because in the, in the fake book, Garth Meringue will like when he

[00:35:09] references a character to again, like say their occupation or who they are in relation

[00:35:14] to him to remind the, to like keep reminding the audience. And so like in the bit where

[00:35:20] it's like, um, this was bad because I was like, I just have to read that. Like I hear

[00:35:25] it in a British accent. Like this was bad because I was Michael and George, me killed

[00:35:30] Michael. Yeah. Uh, yeah. No, yeah. Dark place and Garth Meringue's like that, that, that's

[00:35:40] satire definitely fits this. And I'll just, because Aaron, you, you gave us the British

[00:35:47] accent. I'll just say like George and Michael, George Michael, there's something there. If

[00:35:53] I did, I just want to make sure we set it out. It's actually George Michael. Yeah. They're

[00:36:00] there. They're one, it's a, this is fight club, like spoilers for fight club. Um, they're

[00:36:05] the same person. They were always George Michael. What if I tried my hand at creepy

[00:36:13] postors? I like Halo. Halo love. Got Halo three definition court on it. She's a right bird,

[00:36:27] didn't she? Okay. Well, in that vein, uh, my last thing here I have for this, it's like,

[00:36:39] uh, I then went and absorbed chief and sent him to the room to let him know he murdered

[00:36:46] Michael, me. This infinite cycle will never end. And it's very scary. Um, frowny face,

[00:36:55] emotive, like literally the, I died. Um, also like something something. Wow. Halo three

[00:37:06] death edition prophesized halo infinite. Miley face. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's all full circle.

[00:37:20] Oh, God. The halo ring. Oh God. Um, yeah. Oh my God. Actually, that wouldn't be ring

[00:37:34] goo was actually a halo horror movie. Oh, stop. It's too good. It's too good. Can we get

[00:37:43] a Johnson telling us that we're going to die in seven days. Hello, who's who's this? Yeah,

[00:37:50] it doesn't matter. You got seven days to live grunt. And now I know what my, I'm just

[00:37:56] going to take this audio clip and just make that my, uh, my, my answering machine. I regret

[00:38:06] not being able to pick up the phone. Uh, we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming

[00:38:13] to earth. And we will certainly regret the, uh, the court just beat up our raggedy ass

[00:38:17] fleet. Who raw, uh, the message yet to be, uh, God, I love halo too. So much is great.

[00:38:30] It's great. I just, I, I'm looking at a top 10 games of all time. Like my personal top

[00:38:37] 10 games of all time list. I did as an exercise listening to the get played podcast. Um, and

[00:38:44] halo too. Number six. All my all time favorite games list. Yeah. It's great game. Yeah. So

[00:38:51] good. And it's got so many good quotes. Like I still, I've memorized when the, the, the,

[00:38:57] the, the, when the profits talk to the arbiter before it becomes the arbiter. It's like when

[00:39:01] you first saw halo. Were you blinded by its majesty? Blinded? Odd? Dumbstruck? No.

[00:39:10] Yet the humans managed to evade your ships land on the sacred ring and desecrate it with

[00:39:16] their filthy footsteps. Noble hierarchs, please understand, but when the parasite attacked,

[00:39:22] you were right to focus your attention on the flood. But this demon, this master chief,

[00:39:29] is to be your responsibility. Yeah. I just, my applause. Mm hmm. Yeah. Like there's just

[00:39:37] so many worthy lines in that series, like for, especially like in halo too. But yeah. Halo

[00:39:42] too is why we have the call of duty campaigns that we, that people like like modern warfare,

[00:39:47] the original modern warfare too. Like all that stuff, I think, comes from a place that halo

[00:39:54] too story kind of said, Hey guys, like pay attention. This, this can have like an effect on people.

[00:40:02] It could be a as memorable as your favorite action movie. Like games can do this. Yeah.

[00:40:08] Um, so do you guys have anything more to be said for halo, halo three death edition?

[00:40:19] It's so short. I do think it's worth a read and like it's because I kind of came into this

[00:40:26] thinking like, yeah, I like this in an ironic way. But more, I'm like, no, I just like it as is. And I

[00:40:33] think I would love like this should exist, but also a better version of like an actual like a

[00:40:41] more concerted effort to make it as spooky as possible should also exist along next to it.

[00:40:47] Yeah. Yeah, I think final thoughts. Pretty digestible as a one pager halo death edition.

[00:40:56] Stay for the stay for the story. Hang out in the comments. Yeah, I do feel bad for the

[00:41:04] person because the comments like there's like one or two comments. There's just like it sucks.

[00:41:09] And then the person like tries to defend themselves like you shouldn't just say something sucks,

[00:41:14] especially if you don't even have a username or like a user account on the wiki.

[00:41:18] Yeah. And it's like, I get like, I do understand like, but like, yeah, that the the the comment of

[00:41:25] it sucks doesn't help. Like, that's not productive. Like, yeah, if you read this and have constructive

[00:41:35] criticism, do that be constructive in your critique. Yeah. Like, we've been doing this for like 45

[00:41:43] minutes now. And like, we've been sort of sort of hammering at the at the at the story itself.

[00:41:48] But we've also been like giving some highlights and also some ideas of like how to fix it. So.

[00:41:53] And really, like for me, like that's kind of like for the final thoughts, like, yeah, like this

[00:41:59] this was a journey. I like the core idea. And like kind of echoing you guys like it's short and

[00:42:05] like and digestible. It just needs a lot of maybe a few more a few rounds of editing.

[00:42:12] And and spell check. And like as of right now, I wouldn't recommend it. But if it was like

[00:42:17] fixed up and cleaned up, I could probably recommend it. At the very least, give it a partial recommendation.

[00:42:22] Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And what does Sergeant Johnson think?

[00:42:28] Well, chief, I know you don't tell stories much, but this one felt like a fever dream

[00:42:39] straight out of that mouth of Cerberus's hell. But it did take me back to simpler times.

[00:42:49] And maybe just maybe if we ever finished this fight, chief,

[00:42:56] maybe you mean Cortana, we do what they call a rewrite. Has that sound chief?

[00:43:04] I'm not gonna lie, Sergeant. I definitely thought you were gonna ask for a three way

[00:43:09] there for a second. That's still on the table.

[00:43:12] Hey, little three way.

[00:43:14] Goddamn it, uh, yes. Yes. Halo three way.

[00:43:23] Triple kill.

[00:43:26] Oh, I love that. I love. Yeah, I loved the the the the announcer like kill stuff. It's like

[00:43:35] kill streak stuff. It's like kill tack. Oh, no, kill tasks and kill crapple from perfect dark

[00:43:40] zero, but it was like, uh, Kilimanjaro. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. That was the one from Halo

[00:43:45] too, because like I think that was when I think I think Halo two was in was set in like, um,

[00:43:51] new mombasa. Yes. Yes. Yes. That was the the city, the city of new mombasa. Yeah.

[00:43:57] But um, yeah, um, to to to quote the grave mind, uh, there is still time to

[00:44:05] stop the wheels from turning. So we are going to continue on with Halo beta.

[00:44:11] So this one is by post human heresy on some ordinary gamers doc fandom.com/wicky.

[00:44:23] Uh, so you can check that out there if you wish. Um, this rundown, I have a little

[00:44:28] more coherence to it because I really like the premise of this one. So this Halo beta starts off

[00:44:36] with our narrators explaining that they really like lost media, specifically like games that were

[00:44:43] in beta or like copies of games or videos and movies and stuff like that that were like had like

[00:44:50] early concept ideas of what a game could have been. Like they live for for loss of media material.

[00:44:55] Uh, yeah, like he lives for the lost media material because of the potential of what

[00:45:01] could have been like these alternate stories of these of these games and worlds. And so he was

[00:45:08] playing Halo and, uh, he beat because of a cause of an accident. He broke his Xbox and had to buy

[00:45:14] an, had to buy a new one. So he went on eBay on eBay and got one for decent price by somebody who

[00:45:22] apparently worked at Bungie back in the, in the early days of Halo combat evolved.

[00:45:27] And when he gets the, the console finally back, it has saved data for a beta Halo, like a beta

[00:45:37] edition of Halo combat evolved. So he decides to try that, that saved that saved data out in a Halo

[00:45:44] game. Uh, he starts the game and decides to, so in the original Halo combat evolved, you can, um,

[00:45:51] do the introduction to commander keys in the, uh, the pillar of autumn and then immediately shoot

[00:45:56] commander keys and get gunned down by a wave of immortal Marines and just, and a lot of people

[00:46:04] apparently just like they do that just to see how long they last against the Marines.

[00:46:08] The original, the original Halo horde mode. Yeah, exactly. Um, uh, and so he does this,

[00:46:17] he does this in the game, shoots, uh, shoots commander keys. Cortana does the, the iconic,

[00:46:22] it's like, uh, the chief's gone rogue. Um, like, like, like deal with them. And then, uh, the,

[00:46:29] the Marines start showing up, but he's able to kill the Marines and everyone else on the pillar

[00:46:33] of autumn. So he just, he just kills every, all the humans he can in the pillar of autumn

[00:46:38] alongside the, the covenant that are attacking as well. And effectively start, like, the player

[00:46:45] realizes, like, as he starts playing this game, he realizes he has stumbled into this, like,

[00:46:49] alternate storyline of Halo, um, where the chief has just killed a, a couple of key story characters

[00:46:59] and the plot has changed as a result. Um, and through the, the mechanism, like through those, uh,

[00:47:06] like those key deaths or those key moments, like being altered, the story takes on a much darker

[00:47:11] turn. Um, like, eventually when, uh, when he's, has to, uh, reignite the, uh, the pillar of

[00:47:18] autumn's engines to destroy the Halo, he can't get, uh, he can't get the item he needs because

[00:47:24] commander keys is already dead. And so he ends up, uh, the master chief ends up getting overrun

[00:47:29] by the flood at the end of this, this playthrough and is then, um, kind of turned into a Halo, uh,

[00:47:38] into a, into a flood form version of a Spartan, which we didn't see until like one of the later

[00:47:43] Halo games. And then the grave mind has control of the, of the Halo ring and all that stuff and

[00:47:51] takes it to earth and then begins invading earth as the flood with the master chief as like his,

[00:47:59] like, lieutenant or general. And so then suddenly the character is playing as, as this flood-infected

[00:48:05] master chief down on a Halo 1 version of Halo 2's opening. And it's basically the, the game

[00:48:15] eventually comes to an end where like, um, earth is completely, uh, overtaken by the flood,

[00:48:20] but Cortana is on the ring still and she activates it and purges the galaxy of, of all life, including

[00:48:26] the flood and humanity in the covenant. And then the store, this, and then that's basically the

[00:48:30] bad end of this, this, this whole premise of this game, of this, this playthrough this guy had. And

[00:48:36] he sends a message back to the, the person who gave him the control, the console. And he says,

[00:48:41] yeah, this was like an early concept. They didn't really want to go with this dark, super dark

[00:48:45] ending. I'd like you to keep it a secret. And I mean, the, he says he's going to keep it a secret

[00:48:50] and that he's played it multiple times. But then he's boiling it by telling us the reader.

[00:48:56] So it's just like a game's nerd list would. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:49:00] Um, exclusive. But yeah, that's, that's effectively the gist of Halo beta, like the story is it's,

[00:49:08] it's a, and sort of a fictionalized alternate run, like, uh, like play, like, um, actual play,

[00:49:16] like written actual play of Halo combat evolved if you could kill commander keys and change the

[00:49:23] course of the Halo story. Um, I mean, can I, can I jump in really quick? Go for it. Yeah, because,

[00:49:31] um, quite literally the last time I jumped into Halo Infinite, uh, there's a new cosmetic pack

[00:49:39] that is centered around the flood. So you can be a flood infected Spartan in Halo Infinite multiplayer.

[00:49:48] Oh, nice. I look, I, I don't, I don't know. I don't know what the folks at 343 were doing,

[00:49:57] trying to fix Halo Infinite, but it seems like they maybe got in on some of this creepy pasta.

[00:50:03] I think, honestly, like, we just need the, I mean, the, the galaxy of Halo doesn't need the

[00:50:08] flood back, but the galaxy of Halo needs the flood back. Like, I liked the, the new monster,

[00:50:15] the new, or the new, like, alien villain of Halo Infinite. Um, it spoke to my, like, cathuloid, um,

[00:50:24] tendencies, but the flood were just so good. So iconically whore and graten horrific.

[00:50:32] Like, we first, not many other in game, like, enemy, like, I would say the flood is, is as much

[00:50:43] an in-game enemy as it is, like, a mechanic in Halo combat evolved. Um, nothing scares me more

[00:50:51] than having to face the flood. Like, in any game, like, clickers, I'm, I'm good with clickers.

[00:50:57] Clickers are fine. Yeah. I just started a, like, perbudet, uh, last of us two remastered

[00:51:02] campaign, like, bring it on. I don't care. But, like, if you put a flood in the last of us,

[00:51:07] yeah, I'm putting the controller down. Like, you, I've been, you know, and Aaron, I don't know if

[00:51:12] you've played, you, you, did you play Halo Combat Evolved, like, when you were growing up?

[00:51:16] So, uh, I'm, I'm, so I went backwards. So because of the first Halo came out,

[00:51:24] uh, essentially around the time when I was on my mission for the Mormon Church. So I was

[00:51:31] not video gaming, but I did play multiplayer Halo while I was on my mission, not the story mode.

[00:51:37] So my first campaign was actually Halo 2. Oh, okay. And I went back to the first Halo and, uh,

[00:51:45] speaking of the flood, once I got there, I quit. I never finished the first Halo. It's so scary. I can

[00:51:51] feel hard. It's so hard. It is also, it's really hard. Uh, but like, it's such a plot twist, too. Like,

[00:51:58] You're playing this game as like a super soldier fighting aliens that have

[00:52:01] Love Blue, Purple and Orange Blood. It's like all like super cartoonish and stylized. You

[00:52:08] go into that dark swamp and after Cortana has told you all those fools, go, "Chief, get

[00:52:14] the fuck out of here. What are you doing? Keep going, go, go, go." Then you end up in that

[00:52:20] dark swamp and go down to that facility and there's bodies everywhere. Human and Covenant

[00:52:27] just splattered and like, "What the fuck happened here?" And then you pick up and literally get

[00:52:31] a found footage account from a Marine with Sergeant Johnson and Commander Keys as they

[00:52:38] unleashed the flood upon the universe. So good. So good. Yeah. I do remember when I first

[00:52:47] started playing Halo, there's a reason I have a mode when it comes to playing through Halo

[00:52:53] games called Easy Shipman where I would play the game first on Easy Mode. And then I work

[00:53:00] my way up to legendary. There aren't a lot of games like that though. I feel the same

[00:53:08] way about, I played Halo on every difficulty, every game I played on every difficulty. Just

[00:53:16] because that's how everybody I knew played Halo. You play on normal, you play on easy,

[00:53:22] then you keep going up. And then eventually everybody's on the hardest difficulty. And

[00:53:26] that's when people do the land parties and we're trying to get those last achievements.

[00:53:30] And get those skulls. Get all the skulls, like, on legendary. Oh, it's so much.

[00:53:36] And I think, kind of like tying this to the story that we're viewing here, the other thing

[00:53:40] about like legendary, like the thing with Halo games is that they entice you to do the

[00:53:44] legendary difficulty because they, there was secret extra like a modified or a secret

[00:53:51] scene of cinematic if you beat the game on legendary. In almost every Halo game, there

[00:53:57] was a secret like alternative scene that like revealed something about the, was happening

[00:54:03] on Halo. Like I think in Halo combat evolved, if you beat it on legendary, Sergeant Johnson

[00:54:09] is fighting an elite like over, over an AR like an assault rifle. And then the, the,

[00:54:14] the pillar of autumn goes off in the, in the distance and he's like, this is it, baby.

[00:54:19] And then the, and then the, the elite hugs achieve and then cops his ass. It's just

[00:54:29] such a like a, like a great, like little extra funny bit. And then like, they did, they did

[00:54:34] some, they did a little bit more serious things in Halo two and three and some of that with

[00:54:37] that where like, it was just like an extra scene of Cortana stuck in like a flood infested

[00:54:42] covenant, like ship. Or some, I think in Halo three, it was, it was just like Master Chief

[00:54:50] being like, like revealing that Master Chief survived. Halo three and was had to go back

[00:54:54] into cryo or something like that. Something like that. Man. But yeah, like, yeah, Halo,

[00:55:02] like the, the alternative, like the, the, the flood super creepy and they just got creepier

[00:55:07] as it went on of like, yeah. Like it just makes me, makes me a little bit of a little

[00:55:15] bit bummed by the like the final outcome and the final shape of destiny slash destiny

[00:55:21] two, like the original destiny, the, the, I think it still had like a lot of that core

[00:55:27] bungee team that worked on like Halo three and two and stuff. And I, I tell you like that

[00:55:34] the destiny one, like the first one had a lot of those like little funny elements. If you

[00:55:39] go like, if you, if you really get into like all the little nooks and crannies and stuff

[00:55:45] like, um, I, I stopped like following as much of the lore and destiny two because it got

[00:55:54] like really, really silly and similar to creepy pasta, hard, hard to parse and follow because

[00:56:03] it did, it does feel like bungee, like just wanted to wanted to tell a story that Sony

[00:56:10] wouldn't let destiny like tell because it had to be a games service thing. Um, and I'll

[00:56:17] be interested to see and literally this is what they're calling the final DLC for destiny

[00:56:22] two, the final shape. Um, because the trailer, the trailer looks unhinged and like it looks

[00:56:29] like 2001, a space odyssey, and they've just brought all the characters back, like brought

[00:56:34] characters back from the dead. Like Kate back. Yes. Wow. I know Ray Liens back, baby.

[00:56:44] So, uh, like just, it makes me, it makes me yearn for the bungee of old, uh, and makes,

[00:56:53] makes me want, makes me want their next project to be more combat evolved than anything that

[00:57:00] they've made thus far. I feel, I feel like they have a huge opportunity to make something

[00:57:07] new and fun. Uh, people are going to love the same way they liked Halo. So, yeah, um,

[00:57:13] before I dive into my actual thoughts for for Halo beta, I do want to also bring, do you,

[00:57:18] do you aware that like in Halo three, um, there are actual like poster efforts in the game

[00:57:23] for destiny, like for like three release destiny? I did really. I found those. Uh, and it was

[00:57:29] like the, the, I remember like when that, when that game was first out and like when,

[00:57:33] when destiny was like on the, on the cusp of like on the horizon, there were so many game

[00:57:37] theories that like destiny is going to be tied to the halo universe and stuff like that.

[00:57:40] And to a degree, it's like kind of a spiritual like like series to halo because they like

[00:57:48] the art, it's clear that the concept artists pulled a lot of inspiration from old concepts

[00:57:54] in halo like for the weapons specifically and even like various factions of aliens in,

[00:58:00] in destiny are kind of reminiscent of certain aliens in halo biomes are like, and I say

[00:58:07] trust me because I've looked at the concept art side by side at one point. Even like the

[00:58:12] zones are the same. A lot of the architecture, like the alien architecture that they use

[00:58:17] is similar. Now, like the final release of destiny and destiny two, they like techno organic

[00:58:23] sum of it up, but a lot of that like halo design, like the, when I talk about halo design,

[00:58:30] I mean, like the ring and the ring architecture and the mechanics of those giant systems and

[00:58:37] ships and stuff are so present in destiny that most, most of the best destiny campaigns and

[00:58:43] destiny content has you like wiggling through pipes in a giant spaceship that's half alive,

[00:58:51] traveling into another dimension because that's where death is and you have to kill death

[00:58:57] because a space wizard told you to like, yeah, that's, that's fucking cool.

[00:59:02] Yeah, I really loved the potential of like, I loved the, like when destiny was first

[00:59:07] coming out, I was so psyched for it because it was like, it's halo, but with a lot more

[00:59:11] lean into the science fantasy stuff than the sign, than the military science fiction that

[00:59:16] we got in halo. But perfectly. Yeah. But back to back to halo beta and, and starts

[00:59:26] and stuff. No, it's a game. Yeah. So I'm going to start with this thing here. This quote

[00:59:32] here. I love hearing about alternate ideas, alternate stories and takes and alternate

[00:59:37] character stories that were planned. Most of all, I like experiencing the cut content

[00:59:43] myself from hunting down bands, obscure demo songs, to playing beta versions of games.

[00:59:49] It's digital archaeology. As you unearth the old, you discover new layers, new experiences,

[00:59:55] sometimes you unearth things that change history. I fucking love this start to this game, to

[01:00:02] this story. Because this is itching, like this is scratching my own like personal itch

[01:00:08] for like, lost media content and like my own appreciation of like, finding creepy, like

[01:00:15] lost footage or like content for a game and stuff like that. Like I have a shelf of concept

[01:00:22] books for like blizzard titles and bungee titles. Yeah, those got that's got to be nice. Yeah,

[01:00:28] and just and like it just and actually this plays into my next, my next quote and comment

[01:00:34] is in that world, the master chief could ride blind wolves and fight dinosaurs. Elites

[01:00:42] had handheld shields and profits. And the profit was a rank held by a few elites, not

[01:00:49] an entire species. I actually remember the whole like bit about like dinosaurs and blind

[01:00:56] wolves in in in OG halo, like in the the the preliminary concepts for halo from behind

[01:01:03] the scenes footage I have watched from like I think halo three, like there was like a DVD

[01:01:10] that came with with a special edition of the game that gave you a bunch of like the the

[01:01:14] history of how they they first made halo and like from its early roots as being like derived

[01:01:20] from marathon, like an early bungee title. And there were there was like game footage

[01:01:25] of early halo where there were like dinosaurs on halo. Yeah. And there's like a ton of art

[01:01:32] and stuff that in the in the art books for early halo that show like the the fact that

[01:01:38] the profit the profit was a rank for elites rather than an entire alien species. So now

[01:01:45] all this is just in Fortnite. You ride wolves. I know. Yeah. You can be you can be Goku and

[01:01:55] fight the master chief and the the late the last Star Wars movie had a had a Fortnite tie

[01:02:01] and event. Yeah. Oh my god. Like Lucas wanted. Yeah. I mean to be there though. I want I

[01:02:09] want there to be an intermission for a movie that I wasn't expecting. This character is

[01:02:15] now available in Fortnite. Yeah. Like yeah, like that happened in for Star Wars like there's

[01:02:21] like a a radius like a signal that went out across the Fortnite for an event where it was

[01:02:26] like a message from Emperor Palpatine. Oh gosh. And it was and it was like kind of like

[01:02:31] yeah. It was like pre looting to the fact that like somehow Palpatine is returned. I

[01:02:40] love that meme too. It's so. So. It's such a good. It's such a good meme. It's somehow

[01:02:45] he returned. Somehow he returned. What? It's like I'm pretty last we saw it. He was screaming

[01:02:53] down event and then exploded in blue force fire. And then the place he was that exploded.

[01:03:00] Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing but dust and echoes to call back to the halo. Yeah. Very strong

[01:03:10] start. Very strong start to this one. Yeah. Yeah. Got me got me pumped and yeah really primed

[01:03:17] the reader to be excited about what was coming next. Yeah. And then the next thing I have.

[01:03:29] I thought about where I could get an Xbox. Obviously GameStop won't carry them. So this

[01:03:34] solution was out. All of my friends had game cubes or PlayStation twos and I doubt any

[01:03:41] would have sold me an Xbox if they had one and the towns ain't. And the town's annual

[01:03:49] that was that could have sounded bad. I'm sorry. Did you want me to tell you what's

[01:03:55] going on in my neighborhood? I don't know. Need a garage sale. Chief. Chief, come over

[01:04:04] buy some my costs. Have they been to my anus? You'll have to you'll have to finish this

[01:04:12] fight and find out. That's for me to know when you to finish the fight. So in the town

[01:04:22] overpriced. I'm not paying 50 for your old shoes. Five and chief five. Give me forty

[01:04:33] five. Five five. They're three dollars and forty three cents. Yeah. Game reference jokes.

[01:04:48] We love it. We love we love referencing developers here. That's my brand of comedy right there.

[01:04:55] I also got this soccer ball. I am not a soccer ball. I am three four three guilty Spock human

[01:04:59] the human cyber relations. Pretty much it's close enough. Yeah. Alright. Came from the

[01:05:08] moon. Yes. Alright, I'm going to continue with this read here. Yeah. And then the town

[01:05:14] annual garage sale weekend wasn't for another several months. So I was left with one option,

[01:05:21] the internet. This seems kind of odd to me. Like at first I assumed that maybe this was

[01:05:30] more recent and he meant like GameStop doesn't carry the original Xbox console anymore because

[01:05:38] I mean GameStop barely carries video games anymore. Right. They might as well just name

[01:05:44] it merch stop. They're closing really quickly here in New York where there used to be I

[01:05:54] think like two in my neighborhood both have disappeared just overnight gone. Yeah. Yeah,

[01:06:02] we have them. They're called EB games up here because electronic boutique was bought by GameStop

[01:06:08] up here. But yeah, it's weird because like EB games and GameStops like they're they're

[01:06:14] not doing very good. Like they're relying on the merchandise. I get it. They're relying

[01:06:17] on the merchandise to keep the float. But we I've actually noticed in a surge in like

[01:06:25] mom Paul retro game stores popping up now as a result of like like they're they're taking

[01:06:31] over that niche that GameStop has kind of been neglecting because to try and try and

[01:06:36] survive their own way. Yeah, I I like it that way. There are a couple of those here in the

[01:06:42] city video games New York just a shout out one. They've got everything you're looking

[01:06:47] for games wise like they even have a Game Boy Advance copy of that's so Raven the game.

[01:06:55] Hey, wow. Yeah, that's as a former employee of GameStop. Let it burn. Yeah. Yeah, I I I

[01:07:09] I miss the days when game this happened on my soapbox. I miss the days when I could walk

[01:07:15] into a GameStop or an EB Games and there was like walls of game of video games and like

[01:07:23] like just little islands of like displays or like bins of of like older games. Like even

[01:07:30] if they don't like carry that the newest stuff I like that they had like like a bin or something

[01:07:33] for like the for retro games and stuff like that. And now it just feels like I'm walking

[01:07:38] into like think geek the the store. Oh, yeah, which they did buy. Yeah, that's true. I think

[01:07:44] that's why they they bought it so they could make it a store like like a retail store rather

[01:07:49] than a website. Mm hmm. Yeah. But I wish I wish they had games that went back to the

[01:07:56] same generations of iPhones that they'll take off of you now. Like that would be really

[01:08:00] nice just get parity like you could you could take back like an iPhone 13. But you can't

[01:08:06] get what's the equivalent console like a week. You probably can't get a working 360. No,

[01:08:15] you can't. Real talk this week I was trying to hunt down a an HD version of Twilight Princess

[01:08:22] for the Wii U. Mm hmm. I can't go to EB Games for that because apparently EB Games has stopped

[01:08:27] selling Wii U. Whoa. It is strictly switch Xbox Series Xbox One and and PS five maybe

[01:08:37] BPS four but even then I don't think they sell PS four anymore. Dang. I don't understand

[01:08:44] it. Devastating. Yeah. You should be able to buy Wii U stuff at every store. Like it's

[01:08:54] not that I mean it's like five years old but like people still use that over like as well

[01:08:58] as the switch right. But yeah so I'm back to this. Yeah so that I was I was confused

[01:09:10] that like oh wait like I thought this was like set like when like for Game Stops nowadays

[01:09:13] but then he goes on and says that like his friends all have Gamecubes and PlayStation

[01:09:18] 2s and so is this set back in the day when like those were the new titles and like so

[01:09:24] why wouldn't like Game Stops have like a like Xbox and Halo because like that was the hey

[01:09:31] day when when GameStop and EB Games carried those kind of like consoles and products. Like

[01:09:37] even like a few a few generations older than like the current stuff right. I think you're

[01:09:42] right and maybe for the conceit of the story there's there has to be no other way but to

[01:09:48] go on eBay to get to get the games. But I'm trying to think like God that was such a good

[01:09:55] time in gaming PlayStation 2 was yeah was the biggest thing with Xbox coming in like third

[01:10:04] behind GameCube or was Xbox more popular than GameCube. I think Xbox kind of was catching

[01:10:10] up to PlayStation 2 like GameCube was good but like when Xbox showed up I think like that

[01:10:16] kind of they kind of stole the show for a while for like Nintendo was kind of in their

[01:10:21] shadow for a bit. Yeah okay so then yeah then this line is confusing yeah so like I just

[01:10:29] like maybe a little bit of clarity of like when this exactly takes place like just or

[01:10:33] or maybe just like why like maybe all his friends are just like retro collectors like

[01:10:38] he is or they're in the house there's firmly in Sony's house or Nintendo's house yeah.

[01:10:49] So this is an easy fix is just like hey I know like I have to go online because Xbox

[01:10:55] is sold out everywhere. Yeah yeah that would I'd love that one to you. So yeah the next

[01:11:03] thing I have here actually is possibly Surgeon Johnson worthy. So this is the quote. It had

[01:11:11] an option I hadn't seen before play. I hit that button so hard it could have been in

[01:11:25] the booth in a while. Here we go. I hit that button so hard. It could have filed charges.

[01:11:33] Thank you so Justin. Put my stokey back in my mouth. The defense rests. Yeah I just

[01:11:41] I really like this phrasing it's like wow that is that's a phrase. So that's a phrase.

[01:11:47] It's a phrase. Be kind of your controllers out there. Yeah yeah. If you were a controller

[01:11:52] you call this number in the arms of Halo. Yeah. Hundreds of mad cats controllers are without

[01:12:05] homes. Won't you adopt them and give them to your younger siblings images of like bad

[01:12:12] cats controllers with missing a buttons free wires tape just rolls of tape on the wire

[01:12:20] like at the at the the spot with the wire meets the controller. On the underside yeah

[01:12:27] in barely their Sharpies Kevin. Yeah this the story just had like really good like like

[01:12:38] compared to Halo 3 definition. This this story is like written like so beautifully night

[01:12:45] and day. Yeah. And then we have this next one that's a bit of a long one but I'll try

[01:12:57] and get through it. There's a Johnson. You're ready. I think there's a dozen there. Yeah

[01:13:01] is he? Yeah I'm ready. I'm ready. I expected to have to kill all my Marines but instead

[01:13:13] Johnson back from the dead as he often does in the first Halo said to John. Look you killed

[01:13:20] keys. Hell you even killed me but we're both stuck here together. So why don't we work together

[01:13:29] chief and take this goddamn ship. We can try to kill each other later. Understand chief.

[01:13:38] This was subtitled and did make a good explanation for why they'd be boarding the ship if Captain

[01:13:45] Keys wasn't on it. At this point I was actually pretty impressed rather than having killing

[01:13:53] keys be a roadblock. They apparently were intending they were apparently intending it

[01:13:59] as an alternate evil path with what seemed to be building to a bleaker ending. So yeah

[01:14:08] I I have to agree this is a really interesting idea for an alternative Halo 1 plot. Now when

[01:14:17] is this going to be actually so like for me like I was for this story I was actually like

[01:14:24] I was like okay this is really good like well written a really neat idea that they execute

[01:14:29] really well in the story. Where's the horror? Because a lot of a lot of video game creep

[01:14:35] pastas sort of suffer from this where they just become they forget that like the player

[01:14:41] of the game or like the the the person narrating something bad has to happen to them to make

[01:14:47] it scary. And in this like don't get me wrong I love this story completely. But at no point

[01:14:55] was I did I have any kind of like fear for the the person narrating the story because

[01:15:01] it was just it wasn't a cursed video game. It was a cool like alternative video game for

[01:15:08] Halo that the the person found and played through and like they love they still play

[01:15:13] it they still do runs of this game. It's just I guess it's like the horror is more on like

[01:15:20] in the in the game in the fictional game that this story is is recalling back. Rather than

[01:15:28] like some kind of like surreal like oh the the player is starting to feel like being infected

[01:15:33] by the flood every time as the chief was getting overrun by the flood so like like in how you

[01:15:37] see in like cursed video game cartridge creep past and stuff. So I was kind of like left

[01:15:43] on the like left up in the air is like I like this but it's not super scary as a creepy

[01:15:49] pasta. It's but it's biggest surprise to me was the choice that there was no I was like

[01:15:55] okay when's it happening when's it coming and then nothing it was just like I played

[01:15:59] it a bunch and the devs said keep it our secret. Yeah and then what does this guy do writes

[01:16:06] it writes a write a story about it. I think the fact that the scariest thing to do is

[01:16:12] to break an NDA. Yes that was the that was the horror all along breaking NDA also yeah

[01:16:21] yeah this my last bit on my note for this one is also I hope Vincent will voice Sergeant

[01:16:27] Johnson that that was my entire goal this entire episode was to have Vince voice Sergeant

[01:16:34] Johnson because you did it so well. Just so I don't get sued for your eyes only and ears

[01:16:40] okay. And then the last thing I have for for this for my actual thoughts anyway is in

[01:16:51] this keys list version of keys you're seeking to take the truth and reconciliation or what's

[01:16:59] left of it and detonate it instead. Lost keys version as it were insert law. Insert

[01:17:07] losing your house keys or car keys joke here. It's it's good it's good. I think like final

[01:17:17] thoughts what are like it for me I really just like I'm like oh man this is just the promise

[01:17:25] of the potential of Halo that's been in everybody's dreams. Just like a fluidity of like story

[01:17:32] and gameplay and like your actions this chief having consequences like a lot of the stuff

[01:17:39] that I guess gets more explored in the novelizations of Halo. Like what is chief like is he is he

[01:17:48] evil like to to the covenant he is a monster and that was always really interesting. So

[01:17:55] for him it is here. Yeah. For the chief to be universal.

[01:18:02] Dement in this version of the telling of the game that they this narrator saw I think is pretty interesting not scary but interesting yeah yeah Aaron Aaron do you have anything more for for Halo beta yeah I so I am someone who again did not finish the first Halo game you did not finish the fight yeah I did yeah as someone who let someone else finish it for them they.

[01:18:31] Yeah I I like this story I got a little lost because I'm not as familiar with the minutiae of Halo a lot of that information is left my brain over these many many years.

[01:18:45] But it was a good yeah I think it's just a good retelling an alternate telling of the Halo story.

[01:18:54] Chief getting floodified was pretty cool and like creepy part of it that I enjoyed.

[01:19:04] But I think that's really just it is just a story it's a story well told and my favorite part was truly like the beginning like if this is just an essay on about like archiving yeah I could read this for a while.

[01:19:24] It's like what you see in like an essay or like some kind of like an editorial about like archiving like retro games or classic games or the or the or the promise of like concept art and stuff of that in games.

[01:19:39] The importance of archiving digital art right that's what archive org is all about I think there's a I think there's a site called called my abandoned where which is like a home for.

[01:19:53] Games that just were like one officer were terrible at the time good at the time just like an archive of all that stuff because it is it's fun to go back to stuff and see exactly what like it's a time capsule of technology development and storytelling like that's what games can be so.

[01:20:15] Yeah. Yeah, no, I 100% agree like it's I love like there's so many games out there that like they had so much promise and then they just didn't catch the.

[01:20:26] The audience they were looking for or like didn't get the popularity at the time and became called classics but also became extremely rare to find because they didn't do well they're on their own for run.

[01:20:39] Or games that had a lot of promise and or like had had the or the developers had alternative ideas for them.

[01:20:46] And then something happened and they had to change it.

[01:20:49] And and we got the the finished product we got was was so different from that like the Mass Effect games have the have a similar situation where like.

[01:20:57] The last Mass Effect game of the third one.

[01:21:01] The ending was supposed to be much different from what we got but there was a leaked script from like a few like I think about like half a year or a few months before they they released it and they had to go back and change the product.

[01:21:16] Yeah, like stuff like that, like I feel like that that stuff is even lost in like movies nowadays because there aren't like DVDs that have all the commentary and looking at the storyboards and when the director says, yeah, you know that shot we had to change because

[01:21:37] there was a dog parade happening the other day so of course Mel Gibson couldn't be there because he's afraid of dogs. So we changed this whole team.

[01:21:49] That's why I directed dog parade too.

[01:21:54] Yeah, or it's like it's like, I don't think a lot of street like that's the thing I kind of miss about D like DVDs and like in blu rays even like is that the the special edition disc or the actor or director commentary that you don't really get or see in on streaming services.

[01:22:11] Yeah.

[01:22:13] And it's, yeah and I think the importance of that that we're definitely losing is how this media gets made and like the effort that it takes to make this media.

[01:22:26] And so like with modern movies and especially modern blockbuster movies.

[01:22:30] It's very easy to say like, it's all CG and like hand wave it as like, oh it's easy or it's cheap and like, no it's not. Look at the credits. Look at all those, look at all those credits.

[01:22:46] Like, the behind the scenes of visual effects, a lot of it would just be people in front of a computer so that's hard to like show, but I think we're missing the idea that media is created is getting lost and we're definitely getting to the mindset.

[01:23:07] Yeah, of its media is like no, it's it's made, it doesn't just happen. Yeah.

[01:23:15] And I get the yeah I think this story kind of like cat encapsulates the spirit of those people that are like that's it's becoming a growing sort of mentality or growing like interest in like lost media or like the behind the scenes like concept work that went into it into certain like major franchises and games and stuff.

[01:23:35] Yeah, and that's I think why the story is kind of intriguing at the very like it's it hits the ground running.

[01:23:43] And then keeps going and the only thing the only thing I really have to say like, negatively about this, this one is, yeah there's it's not spooky in like the same sense of like what I expect from a creepy pasta but it's, it's a really interesting actual story to read and enjoy.

[01:24:01] About a about a halo bad end, like play through that this person like came up with and like put a lot of thought into like how the world of halo would have changed.

[01:24:15] In the game in the sense of the game world that this person this fictional person is playing in this story.

[01:24:22] So yeah I don't know if I'd recommend I'd recommend it necessarily as a creepy pasta, but I would 100% recommend this as like if to somebody who was interested in halo stories or stories about lost media and games.

[01:24:36] And like maybe, maybe I'd recommend it to somebody who was like into creepypastas but also into like halo and video games and like lost media stuff.

[01:24:47] So I would recommend, I would have recommended this story to the folks at 343, but it seems like they beat me to it and put the flood in halo infinite multiplayer already.

[01:24:59] I really hope they play they were just bring back the flood is a new as another as a returning threat.

[01:25:05] So they really should. I just look, we could talk all day about Microsoft's game plan and what they're going to do with a franchise, but this is review cult this is your show.

[01:25:18] So I'm not I'm not going to do that to you or Aaron for that matter.

[01:25:23] I'll start another podcast later. Thank you. Yeah, this is by me.

[01:25:31] Sergeant Johnson's eight eight oh garage for sale.

[01:25:37] Oh God, no.

[01:25:39] I should win every halo game. I'm the most handsome character.

[01:25:44] That was also like what it like that was halo three, like I get spoils for for the halo franchise, but having having Johnson die at the end of halo three was the was so heartbreaking.

[01:25:57] Hard hard to hard to stomach, hard because because like he lived through so much.

[01:26:05] Just to like go go out by by way of a sentinel beam cannon just man.

[01:26:14] Because like you play through halo four, you're like, Oh, what's this game? What's this game missing apart from like actual care.

[01:26:26] I need that second person in chief's ear. Yeah, it doesn't have like all the, like historical baggage of the Spartan initiative.

[01:26:37] Like, where would we be without lines like, Oh, I know what the ladies like.

[01:26:45] Or just like, like, the icon, we wouldn't if we did not have Sergeant Johnson, halo one would not have an iconic elite, like phrase, like the whole like work report that the elites do when they charge you.

[01:27:00] Or like basically any of their, their, their, their, their calls like, oh, that's just Johnson's lines reversed and pitched differently.

[01:27:12] Yeah, if you if you pitch if you if you take like the the soundbite of like of an elite doing work work work. It's it literally is just Johnson saying, go, go, go.

[01:27:25] That's right.

[01:27:27] Yeah.

[01:27:29] Now that's why I'm going to do I'm going to take that fact.

[01:27:34] I'm not sure when this is coming out, but I'm going to take that fact into February, which is black history month in the States, and I'm going to say it every everywhere I can go.

[01:27:44] This actually should be getting posted sometime in February.

[01:27:48] Black History Month America.

[01:27:52] In a war word word to you.

[01:27:57] Yeah, so yeah, I think I'm sorry unless you have anything more you'd want to to say.

[01:28:06] Oh, I guess, like speculatively.

[01:28:09] Like if to to to horrify this up a little more.

[01:28:13] Is there an ending that you can think of or something that would push it more into the horror realm that for me wasn't getting sucked into the game or now I'm the chief.

[01:28:24] Well, that's the thing like I need the that's that you need like for me like to make this actually like a kind of elevate it more to like a crew of vigil, a vigil posture or like a video game creepy pasta.

[01:28:37] There has to be that kind of supernatural element where something is affecting the player itself that as they play this game. So like, what if like he hears skittering behind him like down the hall like and he's the only one play like in his apartment or some of that is he's playing this

[01:28:53] game and he just and or he hears like the kind of the quintessential like the scratching and scratching of like one of those flood infection forms like skirting around in his apartment or even starts hearing like behind him.

[01:29:08] The the pentameter phrasing of the grave mind.

[01:29:15] Yeah, that'd be good. Like, yeah, just even like some kind of psychological thing where he just he starts hearing the grave mind like talking to him would might be interesting.

[01:29:26] Or or one another. That's a cool like cliff for hanger kind of ending which I think is is very creepy pasta like of like now this creepy thing happened and that's the end of the story.

[01:29:38] Yeah, in your imagination. They could after he played this beta version, he could have been like, and then I told all my friends about this and they're like, what are you talking about that's that that's just halo one.

[01:29:50] Oh, yeah, that's a good one. That's how it actually happened. Yeah, I love it busy. So it's like that Mandela effect theory where like he shifted universes.

[01:30:01] Like he shifted into a universe where halo combat evolved was this. And you still, you still get like, you can still keep like the ending where the devs like not keep this our little secret, you know, the dev.

[01:30:14] The dev is the one that's like, yeah, I made a portal to other dimensions through gameplay.

[01:30:21] Hope you enjoy the console.

[01:30:27] You just see like, it's actually just the grave mind selling this on eBay.

[01:30:35] There is still time to stop the wheels of the red ring of death from turning.

[01:30:42] That was always like the worst nightmare for a for an Xbox user is the red ring of death.

[01:30:48] So many brought in, and I had to tell so many people. Yeah, it sucks. Sorry about that.

[01:30:58] We can't, we can't take it. Yeah, Aaron, thank you for your service. You're on the front lines of the red red horse.

[01:31:07] Do you want to know what it's like to have 10 moms come in every morning, asking for a week and then go full Karen.

[01:31:17] Most were very nice. It was, it was definitely, it was like, we couldn't reserve them.

[01:31:24] Ah, we could the best I could do would be like, it's supposed to come at this time. If you're here, you're here.

[01:31:33] Yep. But like in five minutes, like people waiting as the like as UPS was dropping them off. It was insane. Oh my gosh.

[01:31:43] Yeah. Yeah, Vince, do you have any ideas for like how to make this a little bit more like kind of like I guess this really spooky like rather than just like kind of spooky in the fiction of the fiction.

[01:32:01] Yeah, I mean, I'll start by saying like, traditionally, not a very spooky guy. I don't, yeah, I don't see gout spooky content. So this is just fine for me. Yeah, this is a Vince approved.

[01:32:15] But yeah, I feel like there's, I think one way would be to have like the eBay seller to be like constantly checking in. It's like you haven't told anybody, have you? I really mean like don't tell anybody.

[01:32:32] And then, you know, somehow it gets out or the review or the seller finds this post.

[01:32:42] And it's like in the comments. That would be cool if like the person that sold it is in the comment on this be like I told you not to tell anybody.

[01:32:50] It would be a nice like kind of like sort of ARG sort of element to it where like, yes, it goes into like yeah like has like the has somebody play as that person. Yeah.

[01:32:59] I kind of like what you brought up earlier with like, like him saying like constantly like pastoring him kind of goes into stalker mode where it's just like the guy like he mentioned it to one of some of his friends, like not on a board or anything like that just like in real life.

[01:33:13] So I think he gets a couple of messages like, why were we sending it to, why were you talking about the game to your friends there, the address and like, Oh shit, like why are you stalking me.

[01:33:22] Yeah.

[01:33:25] Like NDA's the true horror.

[01:33:28] Yeah.

[01:33:31] Or just big brother bungee shows.

[01:33:33] Like that, because I don't know, I think I don't want to take away from all the work of, you know, making this alternate path for Halo, the Halo story.

[01:33:45] So I want to keep as much of that intact as possible. But yeah, you make, you make the narrator constantly looking over their shoulder.

[01:33:54] Like somebody's coming for me because I can't keep my mouth shut about how great this game is.

[01:34:00] Like somebody compels me to say it in golf.

[01:34:03] I know we should stop, but yeah, I just, I keep I'm compelled.

[01:34:08] It compels me.

[01:34:10] Yeah, it's that, uh, that that vidger, that vidger pasta trope.

[01:34:14] I'm just like, I know I should stop playing this or tell or tell people, but I can't.

[01:34:18] Exactly.

[01:34:20] Um, also, yeah, like is like somebody or like, he plays the game because like, usually, and there's, there is a trope also in vidger game, please, creep past us where the person plays the spooky game.

[01:34:34] And then the game erases itself from the console or like, fries the console and does something like to the console itself.

[01:34:42] Yeah, but like goo perhaps. Or that, that being like the thing that drives our protagonist mad is like, oh, I, I just had the best halo experience that's ever like the best gaming experience ever.

[01:34:58] Like it's the biggest high for them.

[01:35:00] And then the game wipes and they spend the rest of the story trying to convince people that it was real.

[01:35:06] Yeah, oh yeah, like that was like, but like is like, once you like once you touch heaven, you can't like everything else feels dull and or great, but conversion kind of thing.

[01:35:17] Like once you reach like, like such a high high, I guess high.

[01:35:23] Um, everything is just ash.

[01:35:26] Because that's, that's what happens when he tells somebody.

[01:35:29] Yeah, if he keeps it a secret, he can go on playing, but he, he can't not tell it.

[01:35:35] So he told somebody and then the game went away, bring their friend over to try and watch it.

[01:35:40] Mm hmm.

[01:35:41] Try to stream it on TikTok or on Twitch.

[01:35:45] No, no.

[01:35:47] Yeah, Twitch talk. Oh God.

[01:35:49] That is probably where TikTok is going eventually is.

[01:35:53] It's either going the way of vine or it's going the way of Twitch.

[01:35:56] Oh yeah.

[01:35:58] Whoever wins, we lose.

[01:36:00] Yeah, that's very true.

[01:36:04] Yeah, honestly, I really like the, I think out of all of our, like the, our, our suggestions for this, I think mine, mine goes to the Mandela effect.

[01:36:14] Like he goes and tells his friends and that turns out that this game was like, like to the world, this is how halo was.

[01:36:24] The bad ending is actually the, the secret bad ending that if you play that version again, it goes to the, what we know as the, the actual like playthrough of the game.

[01:36:34] It's just a recursive circle, like the ring.

[01:36:37] Yes.

[01:36:39] Always licking the rings back together in this conversation.

[01:36:43] Yeah.

[01:36:46] Yeah. But, um, yeah, unless you guys have anything more to say.

[01:36:53] Do we want to wrap it up? I think, or two, two.

[01:36:57] One good story, but two fun stories.

[01:37:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:37:03] Yeah.

[01:37:05] Good pick. Thank you so much.

[01:37:06] Mm hmm.

[01:37:07] Yeah.

[01:37:08] I would.

[01:37:09] I definitely, I remember finding halo three death edition, just by like googling halo creepypasta.

[01:37:14] After you guys have done your, your creepypasta theater back in October and November, I think.

[01:37:21] Or maybe might've just been like all of October. Yeah.

[01:37:24] And I remember like watching those with baited breath, by the way, like I loved those, those episodes on comic house party.

[01:37:30] Thank you.

[01:37:31] And I was like, okay, I need to like, after listening, after hearing the surgeon Johnson impressions, I need to find halo stuff.

[01:37:38] Like, like Vincent, like Vincent, I like you, we have like, like this, like big love for halo and like that period of gaming.

[01:37:47] That's like, yeah, I need to find something so I can, so I have an excuse to have you guys on the show.

[01:37:52] That's a good excuse.

[01:37:54] Keep them coming here.

[01:37:56] Yeah.

[01:37:57] Um, so yeah, I found that one. I was like, Oh, this is, this is not great.

[01:38:01] But there's another one.

[01:38:03] Fortunately, I was able to find at least one more halo creepypasta out there.

[01:38:08] Um, but, uh, yeah, that'll do it for this week's episode.

[01:38:14] Um, if you like what you heard, if you didn't leave us a comment in the comment section below.

[01:38:18] Um, if you want to send us emails, you can go to ldentabricamores@gmail.com. That's a l D N T E R I G a M R T I S at gmail com.

[01:38:28] We can also leave a suggestions for other creepypastas, SCPs, spooky things. You creep it. We'll peep it. Yeah.

[01:38:35] Um, guys, where can, uh, we're in the good folks here from you guys?

[01:38:41] Oh, we do a little podcast. God, comment house party.

[01:38:47] Uh, where we're going through every episode and iteration of Dragon Ball.

[01:38:51] Uh, it is the universe's only improv comedy watch Dragon Ball Watch long podcast.

[01:38:57] Um, wherever find podcast or sold, you can catch that.

[01:39:01] Um, we are also streaming on Twitch, twitch.tv/comayhouseparty.

[01:39:06] Um, every Wednesday we play a variety of games and have a variety of fun.

[01:39:11] Um, I do, uh, less funny, still good.

[01:39:17] Uh, podcast called Thinking Too Hard About Anime with Noah Carden.

[01:39:21] Uh, where we get, where we deep dive into anime series and creators.

[01:39:26] We're on Evangelion right now.

[01:39:29] And I like the, I like the tagline for Aaron's, uh, show Thinking Too Hard About Anime.

[01:39:34] The easiest anime listening podcast out there.

[01:39:37] Uh, yeah.

[01:39:39] And actually, like, yeah, a thing to our band. Like speaking of archivist, uh, um, like sort of like material and like,

[01:39:46] like looking into, like looking to things that were like, like the concepts of things and,

[01:39:50] and, and media and such, like, I think that fits there too.

[01:39:54] Or God, if it's with that, we, we, we try and find as much as, as we can in, in what's available.

[01:40:01] And especially with a side note, especially with Evangelion, just the fans are so rabid that they're very good at not, uh,

[01:40:11] not just like compiling the information, uh, the production, but like organizing it and putting it in just one, one whole site.

[01:40:22] Yeah.

[01:40:24] It's a, it's a good bunch of freaks you found.

[01:40:28] But I think that's, I don't know, Vince, uh, show, I think.

[01:40:31] Oh, yeah. There's a little show in New York that you.

[01:40:35] Uh, there's a little show hit in New York and streaming. Uh, you can go to caveat.

[01:40:40] Dot and caveat NYC.com or just search caveat theater, uh, on your search engine of choice.

[01:40:48] Um, shown in chumps. Uh, I am one of the three hosts of New York's premier anime comedy variety show.

[01:40:57] Uh, we've got amazing segments like anime sports center. Uh, there's a character segment.

[01:41:03] There's always some good music, AMV theater at the break.

[01:41:07] And then we always wrap with, uh, some improvised anime with our, with our own house team of handpicked improvisers.

[01:41:14] Uh, that, that kill it every time we step on stage.

[01:41:17] So please check out, uh, the show and chumps. Our next show is February 16th.

[01:41:22] That is Friday, February 16th, uh, at seven PM at caveat.com caveat NYC.

[01:41:30] Uh, you can watch it streaming live, uh, wherever you are in the world.

[01:41:34] So please check that out.

[01:41:36] Awesome.

[01:41:38] Yeah.

[01:41:39] Uh, shown in chumps, like that, that got me.

[01:41:41] When I first heard that. As maybe reads shown in jump. So.

[01:41:47] Where we're taking it, we're taking the jump out, putting in some chumps, mixing it up, making it fun.

[01:41:53] Nice.

[01:41:55] Um, and yeah, um, for Al dente rigor mortis.

[01:41:59] If you like to support us financially, you can go to patreon and select the back material like to support us at Al dente rigor mortis.

[01:42:06] Uh, we've got $2.5 tiers with special episodes, early access, extra content.

[01:42:10] To our patrons that support the show. Thank you immensely. You're helping keep those hosting bills at bay.

[01:42:15] And as always, we very much appreciate that.

[01:42:18] And to our listeners and the authors of these stories, thank you immensely, because without your listenership.

[01:42:24] It'd be like screaming into the void after I throw my controller into the TV and crack opens up and, uh, black you eat me.

[01:42:32] Um,

[01:42:34] Um, and without your without your authorship, without the writing that you do and have the courage to post online for people to listen to read and rip apart or enjoy.

[01:42:46] Thank you just as well, because if you didn't do that, we wouldn't have this show. We wouldn't have this conversation. So thank you.

[01:42:54] You're here. Thank you.

[01:42:56] And until next time, I have been your host, review cultist.

[01:43:01] I've been a guest, Aaron J. Shelton, and I'm still scared.

[01:43:05] And I've been Sergeant Johnson, signing off for the lamest time. 8 data, bitch.

[01:43:13] And this has been Al dente rigor mortis sleep well.

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[01:43:42] [Music]