ADR - Episode 629: The Purple Balloon

[00:00:17] Hello and welcome to Al Dente Rigamortis. I'm Review Cultist. I'm Mikey, the U's and the Gamer in Yellow. And we're here to discuss those internet stories, most creepy and most pasta, and be critically silly doing it. And tonight we have Purple Balloon. So yeah, this is another one from the definitive Creep Pasta Iceberg. We're slowly tripping away at that ice. Eventually we'll get there. Yep.

[00:00:46] So the Purple Balloon is by Dance of Angels, though formerly they were known online as Capricious Jinx. You can check it out at creeppasta.wiki or creeppasta.fandom.wiki.com or something like that. Yeah, all the dots. Yeah, it's creeppasta.fandom.com slash wiki. Cause, domain names. Indeed. Indeed. But yeah, I suppose without further ado, we should do our initial recommendations.

[00:01:17] I will recommend it. I will not recommend it. I'll bring balance to the forest by saying partial. All right. Then let's find out why we gave those just cross the board recommendations and non-recommendations. Hmm. Starting with the rundown. So Alexa, our narrator of the story. Sorry. Now that anybody like called Alexa. No problem.

[00:01:49] Fortunately, I don't have Alexa. Hmm. I have headphones when you listen to this. Otherwise you might activate your Alexa. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. We live in such a weird cyberpunk universe. We do. I would say it's great, but it's not. No. Um, so yeah, Alexa, our narrator for the story, uh, and her father are in an abusive situation with their stepmother or with her stepmother.

[00:02:16] Um, she finally managed to drag her dad away from that situation after a particularly violent fight and they escape in the car, but in their haste to get away, they get into a car accident. Alexa comes to briefly after the crash, wondering where her dad is before things fade into darkness. And she then encounters this strange blue clad jester who is both a jovial, but sinister.

[00:02:44] Though he doesn't talk through a card trick, Alexa learns his name is candy pop through his tricks and toys. He insists on giving Alexa some treats and this purple balloon credits, which she eventually takes. That's when candy pop takes a more takes on a more sinister energy. And Alexa begins floating up to a spotlight.

[00:03:12] The balloon she's holding pops and the light turns out to be a street light as she comes to with her dad trying to wake her up from the crash. Uh, she spends several months in the hospital, fortunately away from her stepmother. But as a doctor comes in to check up on her, it is revealed to be candy pop here once again with another purple balloon and seemingly sinister intent. Finn. Finn.

[00:03:41] But yeah, that was the purple balloon. So now I suppose we'll move on to everyone tolerates the grand inquisitions at this point. Guys, do you got anything? Mikey? Um, well, I, of course, have a conjunction junction. Gasp disbelief. Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal. And next stop, conjunction junction. Doot doot.

[00:04:10] It's times like these that make me wish I could just run away and never look back. It was my dad, beaten, broken, and bruised. It only seemed to confirm my worst fear. It started to dance around him. And with every following question, he would pull another card.

[00:04:38] It felt like it had attached itself to my skin. But don't worry. Or do not worry, Alexa. I got you a new one. Finn. Uh, wow. So the, the, so dad was candy pop. Or maybe based on the context. Dad decided like, they got into a fight and then started like, uh, like doing a card trick.

[00:05:09] And then something happened to the cards. They're like, don't worry, I'll get you a new one. Wow. A new deck of cards? Weird. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. Those weird, like inaccuracies with the story come when, uh, when Mikey grabs all the sentences through a story that start with words that they probably shouldn't like it's ends or butts. Cause there's always better words to use. Indeed. Although this is all like first person perspective. So like, this is like Alexa talking to us, like telling us the story. So is it all just conversational?

[00:05:38] Is it all just dialogue? It kind of is. Yeah. But I mean, again, Mikey doesn't exactly do this for like, for, for seriousness. It does for like, for the bit to see what we can find. And that's like funny from the out of context. Mm hmm. Um, bits. Yes. But yeah. Uh, gamer, do you have anything for grammar in yellow? Uh, I got one. I got two. Nevermind. I scroll down a little bit more.

[00:06:07] Um, first one is hello, dad. I waited several minutes for reply, but none came. Um, here's my minutes. That should be moments section of this story, which is something that I seem to latch on to in most stories. Um, it's not, it's not 20 minutes. Yeah. Thankfully. Thankfully. Um, but several implies like more than four, cause a few would be three. Several would be four ish.

[00:06:34] Um, but like, yeah, moments are a more vague description of a passage of time. Um, I know that the use of minutes in the story is meaning to be vague, like a vague, short passage of time. But I feel the word moments makes it impossible to misunderstand that it's meant to be vague. Mm. Yeah. It's your, it's your, it's your, uh, cross to bear. Absolutely. Like it's, it's your, it's your nitpick when it comes to reading anything.

[00:07:03] Moments are underappreciated, honestly. Yeah. And underused. Just for moments. Yeah. Absolutely. I want that on a t-shirt. Right. I want you to wear it. Uh. This next one is like kind of a nitpick, but not really, I guess. Um, this is in regards to, uh, candy pop. He crouched with his back to me and all I could hear was the sound of plastic being stretched quite a bit.

[00:07:30] So while this does an okay job of describing the sound, I find that like balloons squeak a lot when they make, when they're being like tortured into balloon shapes. Yeah. Um, so to me like stretched and squeaked would have made a clearer, like visual for me on that scene of him making that balloon flower. But it's not bad as it is. It's just that would make it slightly better in my opinion. No, that's fair. And that's all I got for grammar. All right.

[00:07:59] Then I suppose we'll move on to actual thoughts. Wow. Hang on. I'm I got, I just gotta appreciate the fact that our grammar inquisition took five minutes tops to get. Yep. I mean, we had nothing to talk about. We have been well written. Also, it's a fairly short story. So. Yeah, that helps a lot too. Yeah. Um, no shade to the other stories that we've recently covered that have had like hour long grammar inquisitions.

[00:08:29] It's just after several weeks of dealing with long stories that have like a lot of, a lot of grammar stuff that we've, we've want to tackle. It's, it's refreshing. Yeah, a little bit. Uh, but on to actual thoughts. Um, I'm going to start with this one here. The only love I remember feeling was from my mother or from my father, but lately things have taken a turn for the worse. The fights have gotten more violent.

[00:08:59] And there were days I found there's days I would find him crying, praying for a miracle to happen. So we're going to get something supernatural, like in the horror here, right? Like it's not just going to be a mundane horror story about domestic violence and abuse. That was my thinking, like right off like the very beginning of the story. Yeah. I was kind of concerned about that too. Like I was kind of like, Oh fuck. Not comfortable. I was like, Oh God.

[00:09:30] But that's the whole idea. We're supposed to be creeped out. Yeah, no, exactly. Like, uh, we, we've covered this before in the fairly recently, like just where like, we've been skeeved out by like certain stories and like, like, uh, like there's ones that like tackle certain real world, like horrific things that are like a touch too far for us. But like, they shouldn't, that shouldn't like discourage people from like writing those stories about that. Of course not. Because that's, that's how we like process shit is like through, through storytelling.

[00:09:59] So, um, but update. Oh, thank God. It's just, it's not just domestic abuse. You've acquired your supernatural safety blanket. Yes. I've got it wrapped around me right now. Mm hmm. But you too can check it out at redbubble.com. He's not even joking. He made one. Yeah. Plus one supernatural safety blanket. Yes. Uh, but yeah, um, moving on to the next thing I have.

[00:10:28] I couldn't stop rubbing my eyes. The more I did, the more the light around me started to fade into darkness. I felt uneasy as I opened my eyes. I was suddenly blinded by a single spotlight and everything around me seemed to fade away. So I'm not going to lie. I definitely thought at first that the spotlight that had just appeared and then like things start fading were, was just her seeing the high beams of another oncoming truck. Yeah.

[00:10:58] Just after, and after she had just barely survived a car crash, it was just about to get finished off by another vehicle. God. I mean, it could have went that way for sure. It could have. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I'll move on to the next thing I have here. I could hear a faint jingling sound echo around me. That was followed by laughter. I could feel my anxiety welling up again as I called out, hoping it was my father.

[00:11:28] Hello, dad. I waited several minutes for a reply, but none came. It only seemed to confirm my worst fear. I felt the hair. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as an overwhelming presence seemed to, to appear behind me. I turned around quickly and there in colors of blue, magenta and teal stood a towering jester.

[00:11:55] So yet again, another thing that I immediately like, like my knee jerk reaction, um, that I was expecting to happen in the story here. Uh, I thought that the laughing person before it describes the jester, um, that I thought the laughing person at the crash was going to end up being like her stepmother. Like she, uh, she had managed to find them the crash or like, they hadn't like maybe gotten that far before the crash. Oh yeah. And that like, this was this, the whole, cause again, this is before like we knew that like,

[00:12:24] there was like this whole like Sakai moment and like, or like, uh, like near death experience with the jester, uh, popping up and stuff like that. Um, and so I was expecting, like, I was still thinking that like the stepmother was going to be like the monster, like the, the, the, the source of horror in throughout the story. Uh, also this whole encounter with candy pop, the jester, uh, at the precipice of her near death experience felt very much in line with like a Gil mode, uh, Guillermo del Toro film,

[00:12:53] like Pan's labyrinth or, um, or even like some sort of like dream punk, like elements in from like things from movies like a mirror mask or like the TV show from the nineties, the odyssey were like, um, I guess it's, it's like a type of like semi isekai or it's like a temporary isekai where like, um, we're like a character gets hit by a car or like has a near death

[00:13:20] experience. And instead of like, and like they get teleported to another world in a way, but it's really just like a near death experience or like a near death journey that their mind has before they come to, uh, in like a hospital bed and such. It's like, sort of like that, like they're on the precipice of death and like, um, it's sort of like a Dante's like, I guess like someone sort of like their soul's journey, like in their own, either in their own mindscape or as they're like in a coma or it's like, um, like they're being led toward

[00:13:49] like the afterlife kind of thing. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so like that was kind of like, I was getting those kinds of vibes when candy pop started like popping up in like this dark space with the spotlight and such. Um, and like, I, I liked it. Like I, I really, I dug that, I, that element of the story. Um, so then we have this thing with a talk, speaking of candy pop specifically, um,

[00:14:16] I glared at the cards and spelled out the name he presented to me. Candy pop. I asked the only response he gave, the only response he gave me was his wide grin. I don't know why, but each time he smirked, it sent chills down my spine. Okay. So after like finding out like the jester's name is candy pop and such, I decided to have a little look online, um, to see like, if, if this is like one of those like creepy pasta icons that like pop up on like Tumblr

[00:14:46] and DeviantArt and such. And sure enough, this is one of those characters. Oh, is it? Uh, yeah. Apparently candy pop is up there with like Ticketobi or, uh, probably like this character is probably inspired by like, uh, when like laughing Jack came out and like people started making like killer clown creatures for creepypastas and such. Um, I get no, no shade to that at all. Like not, like not saying that in like any bad way. Just like, of course not. Okay. It's this type of a character. And this is like, like, this

[00:15:13] is like one of their origin story, like one of the stories that like this creature, this character originates from. Um, yeah. So it's also explains why this story, the purple balloon was in the definitive, um, iceberg tier. So, um, yeah. So I was just like, okay, this has got to be like the, I didn't realize when I was getting into the story that like,

[00:15:37] it was, it was going to basically be a story for a, a creepypasta icon in quotes. Um, but moving on to the next thing I have here. After a moment, I finally decided to accept the balloon. I examined it before gazing up at candy pop. His expression had changed. Oh, that's a, actually that's a grammar acquisition. His expression had changed from the kind, sweet one to the

[00:16:03] sinister one. Um, change. It just says change. Not like the past tense changed. Maybe he has loose change in his teeth. Maybe. Yeah. His, his teeth are just quarters and dimes. Oh God. That'd be horrific. Holy crap. That'd be weird actually. There's a, there's a, there's like a capitalistic monster. Yeah, really? You're like an avarisk demon. Um, but yeah, so we get back to the story here. Uh, this, this quote, um, his expression had changed from that kind, sweet one to something

[00:16:31] sinister. I quickly backed away and hugged the balloon to my chest tightly. So as I was getting to this part, this got, gave me like the, that same kind of feeling or like the, it gave me the same kind of energy as like Disney's princess and the frog, the whole, like, I got friends on the other side. Uh, by, but Dr. Facilier, like, and like, it's like, come on boys. Won't you shake a poor sinner's hand? And then they shake Dr. Facilier's hand is like, yeah, saw

[00:16:59] you ready. Like, that's when like the, the shit hits the fan and you're like, you done fucked up. Yeah. Like the deal's been struck. And that's exactly like kind of what the vibe I got here was like, that's, that's where this is starting. Absolutely. Uh, and then my last thing I have for the story is, uh, with this quote here, I have to hide my surprise though, as the doctor enters without knocking, he was probably back to check up on my progress.

[00:17:28] I smile to myself as I watched the doctor's back. Once he faces me though, my smile quickly falls. He was holding something in his hand as he quietly spoke to me. You popped the last balloon I gave you, but don't worry, but do not worry, Alexa. I got you a new one. That's the last thing of the story. Uh, and once again, I thought the doctor was going to end up turning out to be the stepmother. Really?

[00:17:58] Like, he was just the villain the entire time. I just kept, I kept expecting the, the grit of the stepmom to be like, like, to keep probably like, no one expects the stepmother. I was just like showing up with like, cause she was such a, like an, she was such an intimidating force at the beginning of the story. Like, yeah, absolutely. She was like the main, like monster of like the domestic abuse. Um, like the dad was the

[00:18:25] victim in this case and like, and then they managed to escape, but then the, they had this car crash. So then I was just expecting like the mother, like the stepmom, like, especially the stepmom was like smashing the window with a bat early on. So like, I was expecting her to actually like give chase and like try and hunt them down. And then, yeah, I should have seen that. I should have realized like right off the hop, it's going to be, it's going to be candy pop. That turns out the doctor. I mean, it could have been both for all we know. Yeah. Yeah. Candy pop is just, um, uh, the stepmother's, uh,

[00:18:55] alter ego could be. Um, but yeah, that's like, it's like, what's it like throughout this entire story? I just was like stepmom. Nope. Oh, okay. Nope. All right. Uh, but yeah, honestly, I really wanted it to be real world horror. Apparently I didn't want it to be like necessarily, but like, I was just like, I kept expecting it until like, until candy pop himself showed up in the, uh, the precipice dreamscape. Um, but honestly also I

[00:19:24] like that candy pop shows up in the waking world here at the end. Cause I was hoping something from that other place, like that terminus place was going to translate back to the real world. Uh, like maybe the balloon was still going to be like the shreds of the balloon would still be in her hand or something. Um, and just so it wasn't like, it was just a dream situation. Cause like, yeah, which are the worst. Yeah. We all know, we all, we all, we all,

[00:19:51] I think at this point people know like what our stance is on like the, it was just a dream scenario or revelation. It's like, Oh, that's sad. It's overdone. Yeah. It's overdone. And like it, it kind of to us anyway, it kind of, um, lowers the, the scare factor. Cause like none of it was real. Yeah. But like the kind of watching a scary movie, it's a kid to watching

[00:20:19] a scary movie, albeit in VR. Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean like, even like those, like you can like turn off your suspension of disbelief cause like you can get into, into that stuff, but it's like, uh, in a story and so that you like, I'm sure people, some people like this, this revelation, but like, to me, it's just overdone. Um, and again, like, unless it has something cool like this at the end or like, uh, where like they, Oh, it was all

[00:20:43] just a dream, but why is the statuette of Cthulhu still on my, on my dresser? Like that kind of thing. It was from the dream. What? Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that revelation way more than like them just waking up and say, Oh, it was all a dream. Oh, that was terrifying. Cause I mean like dreams can be terrifying, but like, then you wake up like that's and like, you're in safe, you're in safe hands. So like the fact that this story ends with like, Oh, it was all just a dream, just like a near death experience thing.

[00:21:12] But then the doctor turns out to be the jester. Like that's the, that's the, the, the, the finishing blow of the story to like, give you that last punch. So I hate to put a possible, um, real world, uh, tinge on that. It's possible that Alexa is just suffering a little bit of like brain damage from the accident and she's like still in that mindscape. I get what you're saying with that. Um, I mean, that's still terrifying. Yes, it is. A real world,

[00:21:42] level because like, then you just, then you're like, that's the horror of your, of your mind of not being able to trust your own mind. Yes. And that's also fucking horrifying. For sure. Connotations. But yeah, like I can see that, but like, and yeah, if she's like, Oh, she's hallucinating that the, that the doctor's the jester. It's like, that's just as bad as if the jester is there for reals and it's supernatural. So yeah. Um, also with the connotation at the end,

[00:22:09] like, I was like, cause from what I've know of like what I saw online of like what candy pop is capable of, like they, they usually target, um, people who are like either near death or in dreams and tries to like, basically like get them to die or like bring them to the afterlife kind of thing. So I'm like, it made me wonder, like, is the balloon like, um, like some kind of like, like a, a mechanism to like, basically like, this is like, it's sort of like the balloons in Mario

[00:22:38] cart when you're Marco battle mode, you only have a couple of, you only have a couple of balloons. Absolutely. Yeah. So it made me wonder if like, that was like the, the, the significance of the balloons in the story where like, is like that her, like her one up her, uh, but yeah, uh, that's, that's all I've got for the purple balloon. So Mikey, these stands for evil.

[00:23:07] Oh, um, yeah. So, uh, the way I saw this is that the, um, the gesture, and, uh, I'm not going to say his name, uh, lets you summon him like, like bloody Mary or

[00:23:32] call this or he's fine. Anyway. So what were you saying? I got, I really got to stop saying that. This is like the, the, the King in yellows, like true name all over again. Absolutely. Yeah. What name is it that you're trying to say CJ? Hmm. He learned.

[00:23:53] Also, I think it's kind of bad. Like C like candy pop is their initials is CP, which is the initials for creepy pasta, but also the, the initials for another like skeevy thing. So yeah, well, I will not be referring to candy pop as CP. No, absolutely not. The fact that you're saying it enough is bad. Yeah. But sorry, Mikey continue.

[00:24:21] Yes. So when we first get the gesture show up and gives Alexa the balloon and then she floats away to the light. Um, my thought process was that, okay, well, she's clearly been in the accident and she's in a near death state and the balloon is bringing her back to reality. Yeah.

[00:24:50] So for me, the ending made no sense at all because for that, she's in the hospital presumed to be in a near death state again, because the gesture shows up to give her the balloon. And it's like, well, why, why is that scary? The balloon is a good thing.

[00:25:14] So maybe it's an Alice in Wonderland, like, uh, drink me and eat me sort of thing. Like what the, the, the first balloon that's in like, when you're in, when you're in the dream or in that near death state, the balloon brings you back to life. But like when you're, when candy, when candy pop, um, gives you the balloon, when you're still alive and like, it'll pop and then you die.

[00:25:37] The way that I saw it was the intent was, um, Alexa would get the balloon. She would hold onto it and she would ascend to heaven as in candy pop is basically a, uh, uh, someone that fairy souls to either heaven or hell. Uh, they're called psychopomps. Psychopomps? Yeah. Yeah. It's basically the farriers of the dead. Like, uh, well, yeah, well, it's this,

[00:26:06] it's a, it's a Greek word for, um, what does psychopom mean? I know it's a Greek word. Basically it's like, like the, the Karen, Karen, the, um, uh, Karen, the really, the really, uh, the really, um, problematic, uh, blonde haired, uh, uh, farrier of the dead. Yeah, of course. Yes. Um, give me a second. Psychopom, uh, literally just means guide, guide of souls is what psychopomps means. Okay.

[00:26:36] Yeah. So, well, for me, this feels like an anti, uh, guide of souls is not, not guiding her to the afterlife, but guiding her back to the reality. Yeah. I mean, unless I didn't get to finish saying what I was saying. Yeah. Yeah. I think. So the way that I saw all this happening was, um, Alexa died. She was meant to die. Yeah.

[00:27:03] And, um, she didn't because like through force of will or something, maybe she wanted to like stay and protect her dad from her step mom or something. But for whatever reason she survived, she was meant to die, but she didn't. So because, uh, she survived candy pop is basically stalking her and following her to actually take her to the afterlife. Yeah. Cause she's meant to go. So yeah.

[00:27:32] Like in this instance, like the balloon was like mental, like, like he, he gave her the balloon basically to like fairy her soul, like up to the, up to like the afterlife or whatever. But then it popped probably because like her dad was like able to resuscitate her on the streets. And then, so then at the end of the story, candy pop has tracked them down and has a new balloon to basically fairy her soul and finish the job. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I think that's, I mean, for me, that's the, probably the interpretation here, but yeah.

[00:28:03] That's how I saw it anyways. Yeah. Well, unfortunately the way I saw it hurt my brain. That is very unfortunate. That's yeah. Sorry for you. Does my explanation help? Um, it does, but I mean, my explanation sort of makes it into a buddy horror. Oh, I do like buddy.

[00:28:34] But it still hurt my brain when I got to the end. Like, cause I, I didn't find the gesture creepy. And then, and I didn't find, understand the balloon side of things. So when I came to the end, it was like, Oh, I have another balloon for you. I was like, okay, what did I just read? Like it, it just didn't click with me. That's fair. Over the whole Alexa, Amazon thing.

[00:29:06] Yeah. Sorry. My condolences to people who have not turned off their, their thing that I'm not going to say the name of. Are not listening to this via headphones. Like they're just listening to it like in the room with Alexa. You gotta stop saying that. It's somebody, it's a real name. I know. I know. Not our fault. Amazon decided to use a real fucking name. Yeah. All right.

[00:29:33] So my next actual thought here. So she drags her dad out to the car, gets in the driver's seat, gets his, her dad in the passenger seat. And then I think the mom comes out, hits the side glass with a bat. Yeah.

[00:30:02] Um, and then that wakes up the dad. And then we get, he suddenly grabbed me and shoved me out of the seat. He had grabbed his keys from the glove compartment and started the car before speeding off, leaving a trail of smoke and skid marks behind us. So my issue is that one does not simply shove someone out of the driver's seat of a car. Yeah. That's, that's a lot.

[00:30:31] Like, uh, like, I don't know about the make of the car, but like, like the, the, the story doesn't give us that much detail, but like, generally speaking, there's like a lot there. It is, it's possible, but it's not very convenient to get to switch seats. Maybe it was the bench seat. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. But I mean, it's a regular car from my understanding.

[00:30:56] So there's going to be a center console and it's just, they're trying to do something quickly to get out of there because of the step mom's crazy. And this whole maneuver would take so much time. Yeah. But I mean, like, you get you in the back seat. I'm not saying it probably, it probably wasn't pretty, but like they, it could be done. It's, it is possible. Don't know the age of Alexa.

[00:31:27] Yeah. Cause so I'm, I'm saying this specifically because if she's actually quite young, she's easy enough to just pick up, you know? Yeah. I definitely got the idea, the impression that she was like younger. So. Yeah. But she also has to be old enough to drag her dad out to the car. Okay. Like drag as in like, more of like drag as in like, like taking his arm and like leading him like aggressively, like, but like not probably not using like strength to actually

[00:31:55] like pull him away. Yeah. I don't think he was unconscious on the ground being physically dragged. Yeah. No, he was, it sounded, it sounded to me like he was more in like a stupor, like just like kind of, he had just like given up. So he was basically in drone mode at that point. Yeah. Well, either way, the whole sort of scenario, like you want to do something quickly because there's someone outside with a bat.

[00:32:25] They're going to get through. It only takes one or two good swings with a baseball bat to break a passenger side window. I know this from experience. I Googled it. And now I'm on the list. As all are we all. Thanks, tabletop RPGs for making me look up criminal shit. I guess also creamy pastas. Yeah.

[00:32:52] I had to look things up for this show and it was like, oh, I'm on the list now. What chemicals are required to dissolve a body? Hmm. How do you dispose of a body in a lake? Honestly, that's, that's something I've looked up for Delta Green. So yeah. Hi, Cesus.

[00:33:21] All right. And then my next actual thought here. The seatbelt that had kept me secured broke and suddenly the world went black. Just my response is, well, I'm glad you wore your seatbelt. Yeah. It would have been nice to know that you put it on sooner. Yeah. Also like. Why does that matter so much? Okay. That doesn't matter.

[00:33:49] The fact that it snapped though, is like kind of what's funny here. Because like, but like, it is, it is because like, honestly, like I kind of feel, I kind of wish like she, she had said that she, like, it had been like the reverse. I was like, oh, like, unfortunately I didn't have my seatbelt. So everything went black as she basically went through the window. Yeah. I kind of saw the breaking of the seatbelt as further justification that they're driving an old car. Oh, that's true. Yeah. That isn't up to today's standards and stuff.

[00:34:19] Yeah. It's an old beater kind of car. Yep. So the other one is just like a child going through the window. It's morbidly funny. It is. Only because GTA has, uh, Grand Theft Auto, not, not, uh, the greater Toronto area. Yeah. Has, has, uh, has ruined me for like humor, for like violence and humor. Was it GTA that did the windshield counting? I thought that was Saints Row.

[00:34:49] Saints Row and yeah. GTA and Saints Row both did it. I think Saints Row gives you points for it or some shit. Yeah. There was like an insurance, like an insurance side quest you could do. Yeah. I remember quite a lot of the time in, in, uh, GTA four, um, poor Nico Bella or whatever would just go right through the, we'll just go right through the, through the, uh, the, the, the, um, wow. What shield? Yeah.

[00:35:15] Go right through the windshield and, and, and just get some distance. He just never learns his lesson. Maybe it's fun for him. Yeah. Yeah. So that's into my actual thoughts. Okay. Oh, also, uh, something that I wanted to bring up, um, that you brought up earlier there, Mikey. Uh, so with the whole like balloon thing, um, it made me realize that I'm like, wait, I wonder if like the purple balloon, like, cause like the, it's a purple balloon.

[00:35:42] And like this, the story is kind of based around like, uh, something, somebody being ferried to the, to the afterlife, like at a near death experience thing, there's a Pokemon named Drifloon that, um, in its trivia, in its Pokedex trivia, ferries children to the, to hell. And I was like, that's gotta be based off of some kind of like Japanese yokai or like urban. And it is. Uh, Hitodama.

[00:36:11] Um, and so it's basically a Japanese urban legend, uh, floating lights and orbs, uh, known as Hitodama are said to be the souls of recently deceased leaving their body. Um, and yeah, carrying people off to the afterlife or they often, they often look like balloons or, or like loading lanterns. So, yeah.

[00:36:36] Um, so if the story had been like a Pokemon, like, or like a Pokepasta, the probably would have to be, yeah, just be a Drifloon. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. Uh, gamer, what do you have left for actual thoughts? Uh, probably not too much, you know, memento. Or favor. Yeah. Honestly, I think I chimed in on every note I had to be perfectly honest.

[00:37:06] That's fair. So I, do you know? Yeah. I don't have anything else to further add. Do you want to talk about the image? Oh, right. There's an image. Shit. I totally forgot. Yeah. There's an image. It's a purple balloon. It's perfect. It's like, that's good. Like it doesn't reveal candy pop. It's just, it's a purple balloon with a blue smiley face. Yeah.

[00:37:31] And it's like kind of the exposures off or the exposures like kind of extreme and like it's dark and yeah, it works perfectly for like a little image for the story. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, well, I totally gapped. There was actually an image to this one. Yep. I mean, when you load up a creepypasta that says the purple balloon, you see a purple balloon, you're like, yep. Anyways, let's read it. Yeah, no, exactly. Because yeah, it's perfect. Also, I like the, uh, the category.

[00:38:00] These are the stories in, uh, uh, the purple balloon category, uh, demon devil category, also items and objects category. Yep. On the wiki. So, uh, but yeah, I guess that's, uh, that's it for, uh, for purple balloon. So I guess we'll move on to, uh, final thoughts. So I will recommend this one though. I think perhaps it might also be a conditional recommendation.

[00:38:26] Um, sort of in the vein of like what Mikey, I feel is like why Mikey would like not recommend this. I feel like I would, I would recommend this more to somebody. Like I'd, I'd, I'd have to like, if I knew somebody didn't like clowns or like jesters and shit, maybe I wouldn't recommend them that so much. Or would you intentionally? I mean, like maybe I would just be a dick, but. Well, not to be a dick. It's like, okay. If someone is scared of clowns, but they also love horror. Sometimes like, sometimes that is what, like, that is, uh, like the appropriate response.

[00:38:56] Sometimes people like generally, like, even though they love horror, they don't like clown horror. Yeah. So like, like, and that, that throws them off or like that, that puts them off from that kind of stuff. So yeah. Again, know your audience, I guess, or like know who you're recommending it to kind of thing. Um, though, if like, especially also, I feel like for this story, like if somebody is like into like dream punk or like, again, these like sort of near death experience sort of stories, um, and that kind of Del Toro dark fairy tale sort of vibe that like is in his, in his films and such.

[00:39:26] Um, that's kind of what the story was giving me in terms of like the energy and like the, the themes. So I, I think I'd recommend it to that kind of person. Um, but yeah, otherwise like, I mean, there's nothing wrong with the story. Uh, it, it's pretty clean. It works. Um, so yeah, I'd, I'd recommend it though, perhaps with a conditional, uh, based on who I was recommending it to. Um, yeah. Mikey, these tens for evil. All right.

[00:39:55] Um, well, the. The gesture to me wasn't scary. The balloon didn't make much sense, especially at the end. Um, except it did, but okay. Well, uh, not when I read it. Yeah. From a certain point of view. And he refuses to pay attention to what we say. Yeah. You know, you will die on kills.

[00:40:26] If you go into this blind, expect brain damage. Um, or not because all three of us went in blind. So I have brain damage. I mean, I already did. So I can't, I can't know if it's any different. What are you trying to say there, Mikey? No. But yeah, no, I mean, obviously like you have your, your opinion on this thing. So yeah. Yeah. So I'm still not recommending it. All right. And gamer.

[00:40:55] Well, for me, I felt it was all right. It was pretty short, but because of that, it didn't really have enough time to like do a whole ton with the concepts to like flesh things out. I went also went into this unaware that this character is also like a quote unquote icon that other people have been doing stories about. So I was treating it as what I read, just a self-contained entity. But yeah, the idea of a clown being someone to direct you through the afterlife, which

[00:41:24] is how I saw, um, is horrible. Like if I get into a car accident and wake up to see that, I would not be happy. Um, because that's fucked up and weird. Um, even as someone who isn't afraid of clowns, just seeing a clown teleport around, not talking to you and trying to get you to do things that's unsettling. Yeah. Um, but yeah, especially to those who actually have a fear of clowns, it's even worse either way. It was a quick and spooky read and I didn't hate it.

[00:41:53] I just wish it did more with it, you know, just because it's so short. Yeah. It's, it's, it's practically a, I guess not maybe a mini pasta, not like a micro pasta. A micro pasta would probably be like paragraph. This one's, this one's just a short pasta. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It just didn't like, I don't know. I, cause in some of the conclusions I came to just like Mikey were assumptions.

[00:42:18] I'm assuming that he is working as someone, a psycho pompous, whatever that was. Like it's a psycho pump. Yeah. Psycho pump, uh, to ferry dead souls to heaven or hell. That's what I assumed, but it could just be like some weird creature that is preying on people that are about to die as a way to mask their killings or something like that. Um, I don't know what it is because there's so little here.

[00:42:49] So I kind of wish this went on further as to like, okay, she was offered a balloon. What happened with that? Like, it's a good ending as it is, but it just left me questioning and wanting more. Yeah. Cause we don't get a full understanding of what the balloon does. Yes. Yeah. Also, I just, uh, I just pulled up, um, his wiki, um, from creepypastafiles.fandom.com,

[00:43:17] which is basically like one of those ones that like, it's a, it's a wiki that collects, uh, various creep pasta entities and like gives you like the full rundown bio. And for, for a character that seems to only be in like two main stories, like this one, the purple balloon and another one called the darkest truth. Um, sure has a lot of fucking information about him. Like we got like relatives, um, aliases, which are like in almost the dozens. Really? Occupations.

[00:43:46] There's a whole like set of powers and skills he has. Uh, there's different forms he takes, like not just candy pop, but like hellhound, dark draconian form, Leviathan. Um, like, yeah, it's a lot of, this is where like, it's like one of those, again, this is what we mean with like creep pasta icons, like where it's like those kinds of characters that like people make, uh, both like fiction and stuff for like, again, creep pasta sport and such, but also make a lot of fan art and stuff for as well.

[00:44:15] Like basically like this character has a lot of style to them. Um, apparently one of his big, uh, his, his main weapons is a giant clown balloon or a giant clown, uh, smiley face, like hammer. I was going to say, if it's not a big squeaky hammer. Yeah. It's a big squeaky hammer. Yeah. It should be. Yeah. But yeah. Uh, honestly, kind of remind like the, the, the, the, keep the pictures I keep seeing, keep thinking, keep bringing to mind, um, uh, that, that vocaloid, uh, character, um,

[00:44:45] the, with like the teal hair and like the long teal hair. I don't know what you're talking about. Um, like, Oh really? Okay. Um, I guess that makes sense. Uh, you're not as terminally online as I am. So I mean, I've heard the term before. I have no idea what you're referencing though. Okay. Fair. It's like a, no, no, it's, it's a, a vocaloid is like a virtual pop star kind of character. Like Katsunemiku or whatever that is. Character. Yeah. That, that it's, yeah.

[00:45:14] Um, but anyway, uh, yeah. So like looking at the art and stuff like that, I've like, even on the, on the little wiki file for, for candy pop, it's like, yeah, this is definitely like a character that like has inspired a lot of art for, but it's coming from this, this short story. And I'm presuming the other one's a, a short story though. It might be long. I mean, there's a lot of info over a small amount of stories.

[00:45:43] So some of them have to be big. Yeah. Actually I'm, I'm scrolling through it and yeah, that is a, that's a, that's pretty long. Okay. But, uh, yeah, sorry. Back to you gamer. Oh yeah. Partial. Sorry. It's fine. It's fine. But yeah, no, it was good. I just, I wish it did more with the, uh, the concepts it was throwing at us. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[00:46:11] Um, and again, like a lot of that is probably from that, like the deeper lore that like I just brought up. So yeah, like reading this might be better if you already understand the character. Yeah. From reading other stories. Also like all this lore, like had to have a jumping off point. I think the purple balloon was like the first story. Oh, is this the first one? I think this is like the first, the first appearance. Um, if it's either this one or the darkest truth. So. Okay.

[00:46:38] But yeah, um, it definitely jumped off quite a ways after, after this one. If that's the case. Yeah. Uh, so I guess, uh, yeah, our, our initial recommendations haven't really changed. So like, I'll still recommend it. Mikey won't recommend it. And partial recommendation from gamer. Yeah. Still partial. Okay. It was good, but they could do more. So who was phone. I mean, that's just God tear. You know what I hate?

[00:47:06] There was that one story we read that I said is equal to or better than who was phone. I don't remember what it was. And that's killing me. Obviously it didn't happen then. It was. Yeah. It must have not happened. Yeah. Solid rate. But, uh, yeah. So, um, uh, with that, uh, that's it for tonight. If you like what you heard, or if you didn't, leave a comment in the comment section below, wherever this gets posted.

[00:47:36] Some of us are on blue sky. Mikey is at the East stands for evil. And I'm at review cultist. You can also send us emails at al dentebrighamortis at gmail.com. That's a L D E N T E R I G A M O R T I S at gmail.com. Where you can also leave us suggestions for other creep pastas, SCPs, spooky things. You creep it. We'll peep it. Yeah. And if you'd like to help support our show financially, you can go to Patreon.

[00:48:04] We have special episodes, early access and extra content to all our patrons helping support the show. Thank you immensely. You're helping keep those hosting bills at bay. And as always, we very much appreciate that. And to our listeners and the authors of these stories, thank you immensely. Cause without your listenership, it'd be like screaming into the void, just staring up at a spotlight, whether it be a streetlight or a oncoming train, oncoming car. It'd be a train for all we know as well. It could also be a train. Yeah.

[00:48:33] They could have crashed on the, on the tracks. I just like, that would have been horrific. It was just like, just a bad time. Yeah. Like this poor, this poor girl, like got out of this abusive household, like got her dad out. They crashed because her dad was like freaking out while I tried to escape, went through the window, like went through the, went through the car window, like, and like hit, hit the asphalt and stuff of that finally comes to like, it like survived that. And then just like, Oh, what's that bright light?

[00:49:04] Just lights out. Yeah. Uh, and in that case, yeah. Like, no, like, uh, uh, candy pop here is actually like legitimately a psycho pump, like doing a job, not just like, like, not just like stalking around, like people with near death experiences. So, and without your authorship writing and posting these stories on the internet, we really wouldn't have much of a show because we'd have nothing to talk about. So thank you. Now's a good time to mention.

[00:49:33] We are a part of a podcast network crit in the night, an actual play and creepypasta podcast network where they're alongside our sister podcast, one less die and our cousin podcast, the role-playing exchange for things that go crit in the night until next time. I have been your host review cultist. I'm Mikey. Do you sense for evil? And I'm the gamer in yellow. And this has been Al Dente Brighamortis sleep. Well, I'm the gamer in yellow.