ADR - Episode 640: Wizard Glum

[00:00:16] Hello and welcome to Al Dente Rigamortis. I'm Review Cultist. I'm Mik.E, the U-Stands for Evil. And I'm 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 Wizard Glum. So yeah, we're covering this creepypasta, Wizard Glum. It's by Wallace the Magpie on Creepypasta.wiki.

[00:00:44] And I believe it's one of the passes of the month. I think it's like one of the more recent ones. So yeah, as of this recording, so August. But yeah, I'm excited to dive into it and find out what it was all about. But, and kind of segueing from that, let's give our initial recommendations. I'm going to partially recommend it.

[00:01:12] I am not going to recommend it. I'm also sitting on a partial. All right. Well, let's find out why we gave those recommendations or non-recommendations or partial recommendations. Anyways, let's find out why. Starting with the rundown. Wizard Glum is this game that Nair remembers and is looking into from the PS1 era.

[00:01:40] You play as a wizard, the titular Wizard Glum, and leveled up spells as you navigated a dark void that you, the player, also created the dungeon levels in. The more complex the dungeons, the more assets and experience you got to play with. There was also this one NPC character named Sapkrizin.

[00:02:05] A tall, black-suited figure with pale skin and an oddly shaped head with round glasses. The character lived in a gray house and gave very strange elaborate messages that bordered on philosophy and secrets.

[00:02:21] Nair starts digging deeper into the game and its company, Star Crimson Entertainment, and soon learns that the company has undergone several different names and business changes, including a medical company called Silver Sun Wellness and Medical. After getting brushed off by the person answering the helpline on the back of the game box, where he also discovered the company's location was now Silver Sun Wellness.

[00:02:51] He digs further online and finds a blog packed with strange existential philosophy by a man named Wade Gray. And also a location not too far away at a gas station that sells products from this Silver Sun company. When he goes there, a strange man is also there and invites him in as another member of this group, offering him pills and other strange holistic products.

[00:03:17] And then he takes Nair into the back of the building where there's like a living area. And that's where the man's horribly mutilated but still alive girlfriend is and offers up some of her flesh to Nair. Um, it's pretty horrific. Uh, Nair rightfully nopes out of the situation, but still wants to get to the bottom of this whole thing.

[00:03:43] Uh, he travels to the address from the helpline earlier and finds a seemingly empty office building. It's here, he meets, who at first he thinks is a like mock-up of the NPC from the game, but soon realizes it is Wade Gray, who shot himself in the head and seemingly lived through that. Hence the oddly shaped head of his.

[00:04:08] Um, hence why he was, why he was confused that like from the, uh, the NPC character from the game, because he had like an oddly shaped head and such. Um, uh, but even though this guy is still alive from this, this injury, uh, he's now just a gibbering mess. And Nair decides to continue Wade's teachings and way of thinking and at, and, and spread those teachings from his, from the blog and such further after this encounter.

[00:04:37] Finn. So yeah, that's, uh, that, that's basically the wizard glum in a nutshell. So, uh, I suppose we'll move on to. Our one tolerates the gram inquisitions. At this point, uh, I've got one in this one. His words of wisdom would come in the form of unique dialogue, ranging from meaningless philosophical cones, two lines, which hinted at deeper secrets.

[00:05:04] And to this, I was just like cones, like K O A N S. So I learned a new word today. Cones are paradoxical stories, questions, or dialogues used in Zen Buddhism, such as what is the sound of one hand clapping to bypass logical thinking and trigger sudden spiritual awakening. But yeah, I guess, yeah. New word today. Um, I was not aware of it. So, uh, but that's all I have for the grammar inquisition. Uh, so Mikey, these stents are evil.

[00:05:35] All right. Um, so I have one here. Uh, just when I thought I had wasted my data on a dead number, the music stopped and I heard of all things a human. I feel like data is the wrong word. It should be minutes. I guess. Wasting his minutes because he's on a phone call. That's true. Yeah. No. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Um, that is weird.

[00:06:07] Uh, and then I have a conjunction junction. All right. And next stop conjunction junction. It's funny. The significance that even the most flawed games can have in our early childhoods. So I did the rest of my digging online.

[00:06:29] It was filled with incredibly dense, though impressively articulate, philosophical writings. But this name had been changed many times. It took only a matter of days before the link had been scrubbed.

[00:06:50] It wasn't long before the door opened from an offshoot of the closed gas station and a voice called out. It just makes a little more sense every day. You hear me? And we only recently started to mutual feed.

[00:07:15] It may well have been a rat, but nonetheless, in an abandoned building. It had his features. Chalk white skin, pale glasses, that oddly shaped head which looked especially strange in physical space.

[00:07:39] It looked as if it was damaged on the side, but was mended hastily and without sufficient material. It moved. It moved. Oh, wow. Okay, so it seemed like he was searching for this video game and then showed up at this gas station and then met this guy who's also into the video game.

[00:08:07] And then he introduced him to the guy who had some weird deformed head. It just completely bypassed the girlfriend thing from the actual story. And it's like, oh no, he's introducing him to the guy, Wade Gray in the back. And then his head was all misshapen and some of that as if mended hastily and without sufficient material. And then the head moved. I wasn't picturing him moving.

[00:08:34] I was picturing something wiggling out from the weird indentation or something. The way that I saw this is he goes to the gas station, hears a voice from inside the gas station that recites multiple things. And then the gas station looks kind of like an oddly shaped head. And then it moved. The gas station moved. It went to get up. Oh god, it's a Baba Yaga house. Yeah. I thought it looked weird.

[00:09:03] I thought it looked oddly like a chicken. But yeah. For those unaware, Mikey grabs all the sentences, throw it a story that start with words that they probably shouldn't, like its ends or butts. Strings them together into a sentence with sometimes hilarious results to be taken out of context. Basically to highlight that there's generally better words to use. Indeed. All right, so gamer. What do you have for the grammar in yellow?

[00:09:32] I mean, not much. I learned a couple other words too, but I put those in notes. I can bring them up now if you want. Go for it. Sure. You play as the eponymous wizard. I think I've heard that word before, but I didn't actually get the definition. So the definition is literally just, it's in this context, it's the wizard that the game is named after, basically. Which I got through the context of reading it, but clarification. Yeah, I think it's synonymous with titular. Titular?

[00:10:02] Yeah, I was going to say, you used titular, yeah. Yeah. Then my next one is, he extolled the virtues of the silver sun, which is, extolled is to praise with enthusiasm, which I was not aware of as well. Okay. Yeah. And that's all for learning new words. And I didn't catch anything that's actually spelt wrong or anything. Yeah. All right.

[00:10:30] Then I suppose we move on to actual thoughts. So I'm going to start with this one here. Wizard Glum was an obscure game for the PS1 and was nearly the only content by Stark Crimson Entertainment. The others being forgettable or forgettably generic titles like Turbo Shot Pinball and Deep Water Bass Fishing. So first off, credits. Like right off the hop, it's like Wizard Glum, credits. It's...

[00:11:03] Secondly, I had to look it up because it's me and check to see if we were dealing with a wholly fictional game studio and game similar to like Polybius and its like supposed creators. And not simply like one that was borrowed from real life and just twisted into the... Like for a vidgepasta as we've had in the past as well.

[00:11:23] And while I'm here on the subject of the video game aspect of the story, it is sort of odd to me that this story starts with this creepy video game narrative. Like aspect that we've seen in other creepypastas above vidgegames. And then kind of just spirals away from that pretty quickly. At least to me it felt like it kind of like just... Like this was just sort of like the opening hook. And then it just sort of like we're not going to really talk about the video game any further.

[00:11:52] We're going to go into this weird like corporate... Like this weird corporate cult thing going on. Like by the end, like the video game aspect is basically superfluous. It's merely the catalyst for Nair and their investigation into this company. And I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not. It certainly subverted expectations for me. Just possibly something worth noting, I thought. It was like... That's kind of weird that like...

[00:12:22] Because like again, I dove into this like, oh, it's a video game creepypasta. This guy's looking into like this weird company. It's very similar to Polybius. And then we just kind of veer off from that to like deal with this like... This Silver Sun wellness thing and like their weird philosophy and all that stuff. I was like, what did that have to do with the video? Okay. All right. We're going into this weird culty thing. Cool. It shifted gears really quickly.

[00:12:48] I feel like a better title would have been that character's name in the game that is like Wade Gray, that Sop Grison or whatever his name is. Yeah. That would be a better name because like... That'd be a better title because like technically it's about Wade Gray. Yeah. And like the stuff that he did. Yeah. Like Sop Grison is clearly like sort of like an insert character of Wade Gray. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:16] Because like Wizard Glum is like in this for like five minutes and then gone. Yeah. Well, you know, Wizard Glum is the name of the game, right? It's also the name of the wizard that you play as in Wizard Glum, I assume. Because it says it's the eponymous dude. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, so... Just sort of like an interesting thing about the story, like kind of subverted expectations for anybody going into this thinking it's going to be like another vidgepasta. Hmm.

[00:13:46] I mean, in some ways it is, but like it's an interesting take on it because it's like a more grounded way of that. It's like something you'd see like Black Mirror or like maybe even like something from like The Outer Limits or something where like it's like, oh, it starts with a video game. But that's just like a front for like this guy trying to get his like philosophy and his like his crazy viewpoint across and spread it like through a video game. But that wasn't even it. No, I mean... Because like that stuff wasn't even in the video game really.

[00:14:15] Like there was some like weird shit that the characters said in the game, but none of it was really highlighted as like being especially fucked up or anything. For all intents and purposes, it was a normal ass game. Yeah, like I feel like it was trying to do that, but like it didn't like like you said, like there wasn't enough of it in the game aspect.

[00:14:36] Like if it had been like if the like it does mention like it's like, oh, like like the Subgrism was like would give out these really weird cryptic messages and that were like bordering on philosophy like things and such. But like it never really went too hard on that. No.

[00:14:52] And I feel like and like connective tissues time a little bit here because like I'd actually just recently watched something like some old documentary about like how like back in the 80s and 90s, like government stuff was like afraid of video games were going to like spread messages to the youth. And it was like that's kind of what the story seemed like it was going to do. And then we just ignored that part of the story. It was kind of like I started reading like, oh, it's a video game creepypasta.

[00:15:19] It's been a while since we've read that and there's no more video game anymore. Yeah, it's actually this really gross, creepy, like cult or like like holistic wellness cult thing. Yeah. But yeah, again, like that was like, oh, OK, interesting. That. All right. And actually a little bit more further on the video game aspect for as long as it is in the story. We have this Mike, this quote here.

[00:15:47] The player was not only in control of Wizard Glum, but of two floating white gloves, which would assemble the dungeon around him as he'd progress. The more contrived and twisting you could make these dungeons, the more experience the hands of greater scope could accrue, which would then be used to buy more parts of dungeons. So this kind of like the way this like it's an interesting like idea for a video game.

[00:16:16] Honestly, it does kind of remind me of like Super Mario Maker. But if you had to build the levels on the fly while you're also playing Mario, it's it's kind of like that Blueprints game. Oh, OK. There's a what's that one about? It's it's called Blueprints, like as in like Royal Prince, but Blueprints. It's a pun name as well. We're like you're I forget the plot, like you're trying to solve a mystery or something.

[00:16:45] But you go to a big ass mansion and you step in and there's a couple of doors. And when you go through one of the doors, you have to pick what type of room is there. And then you go in there and like basically you're trying to find like the keys and passwords and stuff to get through and get to the end without getting into dead ends. Because you you can see the outline. You can see the floor plan. Yeah, basically of the entire mansion. So you can run yourself in a wall and go nowhere and be screwed and have to start over.

[00:17:13] Or you just keep creating the the the layout of the house inside until you find enough stuff to get to the next level or whatever. Okay, cool. Also, I do. I do both love and hate the the pun name. Right. It's so good. I hate how good that is. But yeah, like again, I was I was intrigued by the actual like game mechanic of this thing. But like, again, that's unfortunate, though.

[00:17:43] Yeah, because it is interesting. Yeah, I hate that it's not in this story. Like it's mentioned that this is kind of cool. And it's like, okay, this isn't just like he's just a wizard guy in some generic like Mario style like side or platform. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's it's something that's actually unique, but it's it's not it's underutilized. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I totally get the interesting thing about the story.

[00:18:09] Not because I'm the gamer in yellow because it's an interesting like game mechanic that's brought up. And it's immediately abandoned for all the real world stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do. I yeah. Like you're just saying, like this game is actually kind of interesting. I just kind of wish it was more it was utilized more.

[00:18:28] And like maybe like you like it does seem like the game mechanic itself and like or like these hands of greater scope, like building this this dungeon around the character that you're playing. And some of that does fall in line with the philosophy of this of these these people and like this Wade Gray guy. I just kind of wish it went harder with the video game aspects like. Yeah, because like if they're just making this random game that is just going to be mentioned in this for five minutes and then you move on.

[00:18:58] I figured it would be like it would just be like slop like a take it take a standard game engine reskin it put some of our inspirational quotes in there to try to convert the children ship it and move on. Yeah, but like they actually make this unique game mechanic and it's just like not like shown really. Yeah, not not done hard enough on in the game or in the story. Yeah.

[00:19:28] And the next thing I have here speaking of like again like the the secrets and like the that that NPC that's in the game and how he kind of just talks about like weird weird stuff and and and whatnot. Um, these secrets were well kept indeed even looking into the game's files. I found them encrypted this being the only nook or cranny that I did not fully explore. I refused to be deterred.

[00:19:57] Fortunately, I had a dubious ace up my sleeve on the back of the box was a number you could call for hints. I could not help but let my curiosity get the better of me. Okay, so this is basically the end of like the video game aspect like we're now just going right into like his investigation and such. So this is this is something I don't believe gets clarified even by the end there.

[00:20:23] There is a bit at the beginning of the story where Nair's invest like like there is no there is no like kind of inciting seemingly inciting incident for Nair to investigate this game. Um, outside of I guess like at the beginning it does mention that like he recalls this game I guess from the PS1 era.

[00:20:44] But like I just I kind of wish the story had like given us a reason for why Nair like discovered rediscovered this game or was like looking back on it and like started digging into it and like finding the reason to investigate further.

[00:21:04] Like it just sort of like the story just sort of like introduces the game and then without really like any sort of like details just kind of dives into Nair's investigation into the game like deeper like beyond the game and like looking out like looking at the game box and like finding the the the phone number and stuff like that and just kind of slips into the investigation.

[00:21:30] It was like wait wait when how why did you start doing this like what what intrigued you like I wanted a little bit more clarity on like how he discovered like the weirdness of this game and started digging further. The best explanation I got was he was fucking bored. Yeah, like that's literally it. Yeah, like legitimately sitting at home doing nothing and all want something to do to go outside. You're right. It does say that.

[00:22:00] Oh my God. You're yeah, you're absolutely right. He was just oh my God. This is like so I have a feeling the story might have been taking place around like COVID. I just need to get out of the fucking house. I need to get out of this house. Oh my God that also. Yeah, like I guess it does say it does explain why like like kind of dumb. Reason between the lines. It's dumb.

[00:22:23] I mean, it is also dumb like it is also unfortunately I could see somebody doing like doing an investigation like this like a deep dive for those reasons in real life. Like it's not the most like interesting way, but it's definitely a way that people have like deep dived into an investigative thing. It's just because they were born, but like it's kind of lame at the same time.

[00:23:14] Yeah. Of the narrative. Well, it almost yeah, you're right first off because it kind of when I was reading it almost seemed like he's like doing this at like this is current time. Like just in the present, but I don't know if it was meant to be going like through present time the whole time or the whole thing's a recollection.

[00:23:38] Well, because like by the end of the story, like he is like he even says like like for a time I felt it unfair that such a man like basically like him like continuing the work of Wade Gray and like his philosophies and stuff. So that is all this was a previous was a recollection of what happened like how he got to that point. Right.

[00:23:59] So yeah, yeah, I know like there is something to be said about like starting in media res and like I guess the story kind of does it but I like I don't know it doesn't kind of in a way that like even I kind of like I'm a little like confused as like I kind of wanted more at the beginning. Yeah, all the transitions were very like confusing honestly.

[00:24:20] Like it's starting up and then it's switching from the game to the gas station and then him being like, oh, okay, I'll just go to the main headquarters now. Like it's all kind of glossed over. Well, I mean like we know that like he has we get the address and so that because he does call the helpline on the back of the box and like he gets that information about that but he doesn't go there first.

[00:24:46] He goes to the he decides to like hold off on that and like look online and find like about Wade and like this wellness center place and then like finds like an air like a I guess like a restock location, which is that gas station. And so he goes there first gets traumatized or fucked up from that and then decides to go to like the weird way to the office building space. Probably because the gas station is a hell of a lot closer. He probably had to go on a hell of a road trip to get to the main headquarters. That's true. Yeah.

[00:25:15] But yeah, so yeah, like we're saying like, yeah, the transitions to different scenes are a little off in the story. But I will continue to the next thing I have here. Uh, the creator of the blog credited himself as Wade Gray, but on his about page where a photo of the author would normally be, there was instead an illustration that of a pale figure with dark round glasses.

[00:25:43] And to this, I'm just going to snarkily say was the head also oddly shaped, i.e. hinting at like, oh, it's like an illustration of the character from like the NPC character from the game. And then I have an update from after reading the story proper. It's like, well, from what is discovered later decidedly, yes, it would be oddly shaped in that illustration as well. Well, not necessarily. It could have been an illustration before the incident. Oh, that's true. Yeah. I also, okay. I don't think I noted exactly in my notes. Where am I? Let's take my hand here.

[00:26:14] Um, yeah, I don't really say at the beginning of my notes, but I do kind of like when like at the end of the story, um, it is, it does sort of tie things together. Like the NPC character, like the way it's drawn, um, Wade and like Wade being that guy that shot himself and like the wound that he suffered after surviving that gunshot, like has been like kind of crimped together.

[00:26:39] Like crazy, like it's been sealed and crimped and like fixed kind of in a way that like misshapened his head, thus giving us the, like sort of the, like art imitating life sort of aspect of it. I liked how things just sort of like connected by the end. I was like, Oh, he was, Wade was the guy that shot himself in the video that in the, in the, um, I'm not sure if it's a video or a photo. I can't remember if it was, but like, we get that whole thing. Yeah. Security footage. Yeah.

[00:27:05] Um, so it was like, Oh, I remember like going when I was reading, Oh, that's probably like that explains like why, why the head's misshapen and such. Question. What, uh, year do you think this takes place in? Honestly, like the 2020s somewhere, like sometime. So he's been, Wade Gray has been in that like headquarters for that building for like 20 years living there by himself. Maybe. Okay.

[00:27:34] Just, just want to clarify that because he, his character is drawn in the wizard glum game from the PS one with an off the head. So it's presumably that was post him shooting himself. Yeah, that's true. Actually. Yeah. Cause like, maybe it isn't set in the 20, maybe this set a little, it's supposed to be set a little bit sooner to the PlayStation one era, but like it does kind of like reference, like.

[00:28:02] Uh, well, it was an obscure game for the PlayStation one. So it's like, it doesn't actually say like specifically, I imagine it's probably like a few years after the PlayStation one era at the very least. Um, but yeah. So, uh, we're just saying in our early childhoods. So he's referring back to like a while ago from the sounds of it. Yeah.

[00:28:30] And then it also, like, I do think it might be more horrific that this guy's just been like sitting there, like drooling and gibbering, um, for years like that. Like that's kind of like, that's almost more like tragic and creepy and sad. Yeah. But who's taking care of him? I don't know. The person who entered the phone. Oh yeah. There was that guy, there was that, that, uh, woman that was, uh, that was apparently in the, uh, the booth or maybe like just in the office. And yeah, she, she sort of just disappeared. Where the hell did she go?

[00:29:04] What we don't see in the story is that she actually like went to go get like groceries and then comes back and like, what are you doing here? Yeah. Cause yeah, that would have been a good person to like give exposition, you know, to Nair. Honestly, I feel like this story was really playing off of, um, the sort of just like boom out of context thing, boom out of context thing.

[00:29:30] Like boom, like just sort of like, it is sort of just a series of like fucked up shit that Nair encounters. So, but, um, yeah, move on to the next thing I have here. Um, the County tax assessor map did indeed indicate that the land parcel at 2300 industry drive belonged to a Silver Sun wellness LLC.

[00:29:59] But this name had been changed many times. At one point it was mystical, Mystic Naturals LLC, uh, G, uh, uh, Julon Sun LLC, big popper street wear, and yes, star crimson entertainment. So I'm not going to lie.

[00:30:18] I was beginning to suspect that the connection here, like between the various like aliases was going to be like a stellar body and a color as the naming convention, because like star crimson, silver sun wellness. But then like, it kept going with like these other ones, like mystic naturals and big popper street wear. And so that's like, okay, maybe that isn't like, I don't know.

[00:30:44] I felt like it should have been like, like silver strunt, silver sun wellness, or like, uh, blue moon, uh, LLC, or like just like using a celestial body and a color as like, it's different. The varying aliases for it. It all tied together a lot better. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then the next thing here.

[00:31:05] So this is when, when Nair finally decides to, uh, or goes to, goes to check out the, uh, the gas station, uh, and, and, uh, encounters the man, uh, as he, as he's like looking at the, uh, the, uh, clearly working, but like, but like out of order in quotes, uh, gas, gas tills and such. Um, he itched at his bald head and swung his working hand into mine with, for an impressive firm shake.

[00:31:35] I'm Gappo man, man. I'm sorry. If I knew you were another silver sunner, I would have invited you in the first, the first glance. He ushered me into the closed down store and filled my arms with boxes and with box after box of pills. The packaging had a cheap rainbow sheen and holographic letters printed off center in multiple languages. Congrats Nair.

[00:32:03] You've stumbled upon a cult or, or a drug ring or both. Probably both. You went looking for this video, for some weird video game thing. And now you've stumbled upon a drug cult. Mm. All because she had an abundance of free time. All because you were bored. Honestly, that is the start of so many like pandemic era, like rando nodding or just like, oh, I'm bored. I want to like, I'm going to go outside.

[00:32:31] I'm going to go out and like do some hiking and then discover something weird and fucked up. Like that is honestly kind of relatable in a way, in a weird way nowadays. But, um, yeah. Uh, the next thing here is something that I actually had a, so I, this is a, this is a point where like, I took the description of something literally in my head for, for a split second. Um. I wonder if it's the same one I did. It might be.

[00:33:01] Uh, before I even noticed the bed, I could tell that this was a dwelling by the smell of unwashed skin, which coated the walls. So I know that this is likely meant to be describing the overpowering smell that is soaking into the room of like human body odor and such. But I definitely envision just human skin, like stapled to the walls. Me too.

[00:33:27] And it wouldn't be that weird, uh, figuring out, like considering like the end result of his trip there. Speaking of, here's my next quote and comment. Before you move on though. Yeah. The way that that could actually be corrected with the, the smell is like, um, the well, the wall smelled of occupant of the occupants unwashed skin. Yeah.

[00:34:20] Thing I have here. So this is like when, uh, Gappo, um, goes to like, uh, goes to his, uh, his girlfriend and, and they're talking about, and he's talking about like, we've started, um, what's, what does he call it? We've started, uh, mutual feeding. Yes. And that has a lot, like I was, I was confused for a moment what that meant. And then we get this part here.

[00:35:11] Take hold of a steak knife and a plate. As he approached an area of raw exposed flesh. I fled the scene to which I was like, only then did you flee? Yeah. Like, holy fucking red flag, Batman. Yeah. It was bad quite early.

[00:35:35] Like this whole sequence honestly feels like a, like perfect fodder for a Delta green scenario. Um, cause they're usually pretty horrific in terms of like the human depravity side of, of the Cthulhu mythos and stuff, especially with like modern, with modern day, like bullshit and such. Um, like this scene honestly was on for me, it felt like it was on par with something out of God's teeth or the labyrinth campaign of Delta green. Like just really messed up criminal shit.

[00:36:06] Um, yeah, no. Um, so, and suddenly again, the, that we begin mutually feeding, uh, suddenly has different, uh, has suddenly different, um, perspective when you realize, oh, they've been mutually feeding. Cause like he also had bandages on himself. So he's been like, they've been feeding each other their flesh. Yes. So yeah. Fucked up. Holy crap. And then his arm was wrapped up. I knew like there was going to be something fucking weird about that arm. Yeah, no, for sure.

[00:36:36] Um, but, uh, then we get this part here at the, uh, so the very next day I received a printed letter from Silver Sun Wellness. Hello. We thank you for your interest in our wellness mission and our writing back to help you with this matter. If you look into this further, we will take action against you. We would like to assure you that our team of dedicated professionals is looking into this and prioritizes your health and safety above all else. May wise hands guide your path.

[00:37:06] Silver Sun Medical. I could not help myself. I traveled by two connecting Greyhound buses and a train to finally see what was really there at 2300 Industry Drive. And to this, I'm just like, really? Cause I don't know, man, that, that letter felt like a threat. They absolutely directly threatened. Because also you copy this into your notes.

[00:37:33] Uh, that part that says, if you look into this further, we will take action against you is in bold. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So like, they're being very clear, like, stay away. We will kill you. And then like, reads this and then just immediately goes. He, he doesn't like, there's no reaction of him being scared or thinking like, are they threatening me? Are they going to kill me? Wait, how? And he doesn't even realize like, they know where I live. How do they know where I live? Yeah.

[00:38:02] They sent him home. Yeah. They received a printed letter. It's not even like an email. It was a letter with his address. Yeah. Like all the creepy stuff in this scene here is, he just ignores it all. I know. Like, it just feels completely safe that he could just, oh, well, I'll just go. Fuck you. You say, I can't. Well, screw you. I'll just go do it. Clearly. Yeah. I got nothing better to do. Like, I need to get out of this house.

[00:38:31] Yeah. Yeah. Clearly Nair lives in Durpland. Yeah. Whether it be the town, the country, the province, the state, the mind. The multiverse of Durpland. Yeah. The multiverse of Durpland. Yeah. Yeah. Everything after the surface level, like, video game stuff Nair has been investigating has seemed like a red flag. Yeah. And, like, he just walked into it. Yeah.

[00:39:00] I'm fine with these being red flags. I need to see some reaction from the character, like, to show that he cares or, like, to show the reader that, oh, this is threatening. Oh, this is scary. Meanwhile, it's just, like, this is nothing. I don't care. Like, I've said this before. If the character doesn't give a shit, why should I?

[00:39:19] No, I'm mostly, like, I'm kind of with you on this one because it's just, like, we've literally had, like, in the previous episodes of the show where we've talked about, like, how, like, oh, if this thing, if this character wasn't dumb, the story wouldn't happen, like, kind of thing. But, like, this is legitimately one where, like, I can't tolerate that in this. Like, this is ridiculous. Like, I'm sorry. I could not help myself, period. It's not a viable excuse after reading that letter.

[00:39:49] It's, like, you read that letter, it's, like, oh, this is really threatening. Like, he's, like, talking to his buddies. I was, like, guys, I can't help myself. I got to do this. It's, like, what are you talking about? No. Like, you're putting yourself in danger. You're putting us in danger. Like, don't. Yeah. Like, I would, like, definitely be concernicus if I got this letter a day after going to an old gas station with some goddamn cannibal drug traffickers. Absolutely.

[00:40:17] And, like, if this character is meant to be that kind of guy that's, like, well, fuck, you tell me no? Well, screw you. I'll go do it myself. I'll do it. You can't tell me what to do. You're not my dad. Like, if that's the way the character is, fine. Describe him that way. Show that he's, like, oh, they know where I live. Oh, crap. They're trying to, like, say that I can't do this. Well, screw you. I'll go do it. And you won't be able to get me here because I'm not going to be here because I'm going to be at your base.

[00:40:46] Like, then he leaves because, like, that's his rationale. Like, I'm not safe here. So I'm going to go track these guys down and deal with this because they're not going to know. They're not going to expect me to show up at their house. They're trying to out-crazy the cultists. Yeah. Like, you can't fire me. I quit. Yeah. If that's the way the character is, fine. But give us something to show that that's him. Because as it is, he's a cardboard cutout that's just picked up and placed in different scenes.

[00:41:17] Yeah. So my last thing here, my last note for the afterthoughts, it does actually have something that kind of, that brought to mind. And I was like, oh, maybe that's why this Nair is, like, just doing all this stuff for these reasons. I'm not going to say this is, like, my excuse for it. But we'll get there in a second. You know what? I think I know what you're going to say. Maybe. Yeah. All right. So at the end of the story, we get, like, Nair discovers Wade and, like, how he's, like, gibbering.

[00:41:47] And he's got all these, like, messages about, like, the weird, like, all his, like, philosophical messages all over the place and such. And Nair kind of just, like, comes to this realization that, like, he needs to continue the good work. And so, like, we get the last thing of the story where it is, I understand now that all that occurs is simply as it was. Willed by the hands of greater scope. And that's kind of where the story ends. And it was this point I was like, ah, I see. So Nair has been rolling sand checks this entire time.

[00:42:16] And it's just rolled, uh, has failed one too many sand checks from seeing weird or horrific shit in his investigation. And that loss has made him now a cultist to this philosophy of madness. Okay. I, I like that. I, like, if that's the way it's going, that's, like, how we got there at the end. Like, I was like, I like that.

[00:42:40] I need a little bit more elaboration on that descent to madness throughout the story. Yeah, because as it is, it's not a descent. He flips a light switch. And that's all it is. Like, because he's, like, he doesn't like any of this cultist shit going on the entire time. And then he runs into Wade Gray at the end. He's like, oh, I'm a cultist now. Yeah. Oh, I believe you. Oh, I'll carry on your work. What work? Like, it's like, no one convinced him.

[00:43:09] He's just decided to do it. Yeah. It's almost like, again, because he has nothing better to do. He sees that this guy can't continue his work anymore. So he's going to do it for him. Like, yeah. Because he feels bad about that. Yeah. He, like, what is it when you, like, he voluntarily Stockholm syndromeed himself to this guy's, like, plight. This guy's madness. I guess.

[00:43:38] Yeah, no, again, like, because I've seen this before. Like, we're like a character, like the character's writing the story in a logical way, like logical recollection of the account. And then by the end, the character has indeed gone mad and has embraced his fate, basically. And, like, by the end, it's like, yeah, yeah, Cthulhu, Fatagan. And, like, ah, I was a cultist all along, really.

[00:44:04] Like, recollecting the story has brought me to this point of, like, realizing I'm just a cultist. Yeah. Like, I'm pretty sure that's how the shadow over Innsmouth kind of ends. It's, like, the guy's, like, retelling his excursion out to Innsmouth, dealing with all the fish people and, like, all the weird stuff there. But then realizing he has a connection to that town and its people and, like, the whole, like, Deep One thing.

[00:44:28] And then has started having dreams of his grandmother, who is from Innsmouth, like, telling, like, beckoning him to go into the sea with her and join her in the ancient Deep One city. And that's where the story ends, basically him just got, like, going nuts and embracing his Deep One heritage. But in this story, like, I don't know, like, it is sort of being, like, we do sort of, like, realize by the end that, like, this entire story was told by a madman recollecting this.

[00:44:58] But I kind of wanted more of, like, the journey of that madness through the recollection. So this is where I thought you were going to go with this, but you're not directly going there, so I'm just going to steer you there. Grab the steering wheel. So, okay.

[00:45:16] So by the end of this, he is somehow a cultist to these guys and believes Wade Gray, whatever the hell he was doing, because we don't even know, he was doing the right thing and it should be continued. And he's recollecting, he's writing down this whole story, I'm assuming, after the fact. So all these scenes where we're like, why isn't he reacting? Why doesn't he think this is scary? Why doesn't he think this is fucked up?

[00:45:44] It's because in his mind as a cultist, these are all fine. This is all fine here. These are all normal things. Like, this is how things should have been. So I don't need to describe that. Like, even if he is remembering, like, oh yeah, I was actually terrified here. Oh yeah, I didn't want to go, um, like, uh, track down the headquarters after I got the threatening mail.

[00:46:10] Like, it could have been weeks after he went, but he's omitting a bunch of stuff because we can't, like, believe what this guy's saying because he's nuts by the end of it. Yeah, we're reading a story from an unreliable narrator. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, Nair's last name is unreliable. It's Nair Unreliable. It's not a Tor. No, sorry. It's Nair A Tor Unreliable. Tor Unreliable. It's Tor Unreliable.

[00:46:40] Yeah. It's, uh, it's Greek. Ah, okay. Gotcha. Um, but yeah, no, it's like, yeah, no, whatever said, like, that's what I came to the realization by the end. And, like, again, like, I, I like that idea, but, like, also, like, I, it's, it's one of those things I think that you've had a problem with where it's like, I have to completely restructure my, my theater of the mind. Yeah. Yeah. From, like, from, like, what I've read previously.

[00:47:06] And, like, that doesn't bug me as much, but it's just, like, there is an inkling of annoyance, but, like, also, like, oh, I'm, uh, okay. But think about, like, this, like, is it technically more realistic the way that all the transitions and everything happened with him, like, not showing any character or anything or any resistance to these things? Is it more realistic because he's writing all of this from his crazed state?

[00:47:31] No, yeah, 100%, like, that is, because, like, he would be, like, in, as he's writing this down, he probably would have thought, like, oh, how foolish of me back in, when I was, when I saw this, like, and I, and I feared, and I fled from that. But, oh, how foolish was I? Like, I should have just embraced it. Yeah. That's kind of, like, what he's, like, thinking as he's writing this down, but, like, we're not getting that in the words. It's, that's the stuff that's in between the lines, sort of, and it's not until the end that we get to, like, suddenly see all those words in between the lines.

[00:48:01] Yeah. It's, I guess this is a, what a revolution! Kinda, by the end. Yes. Doesn't matter, like. Alright, fair enough. I don't know if it makes it better or worse. Yeah, yeah, again, like, it's... Regardless, by the time I got to that end, I've been reading a whole story where everything has been confusing and annoying.

[00:48:23] So, like, unless there's some massive, awesome twist at the end that makes it all worth it, then I'm still gonna be at least somewhat annoyed by the end. Like, even with our discussion here and me, like, in my own head, rationalizing that some of these decisions are made because he's already a cultist, it's still, like, kind of an annoying read to me. Like, I still don't know if I would recommend it to someone, you know? Yeah.

[00:48:52] It doesn't make it that much better with that revelation. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I can see how people would like this, but it's gonna be a divisive read, I think, for some people. Yeah. But, yeah, that's all I've got for my actual thoughts. Mikey, these stands for evil. Let's see here. Uh, so...

[00:49:22] So... Uh, we... Uh... My first note here... Is about the game. Uh, so... Uh... The visuals, while unpolished and blocky, even for the time, had a certain charm. Um... So we get that. And then... Uh... We get... Uh...

[00:49:51] For the, uh... One character. He was a tall figure with white skin, black featureless clothing, dark rounded glasses, and an oddly shaped head. It's gonna be a blocky head. Uh... Oh, that's true. Yeah, it is sort of like... I imagine it's... It might even be, like, kind of like the... The graphics from, like...

[00:50:15] In Five Nights and Freddy's 2, I think, is when they start introducing, like, this weird, like, kind of, like, almost Atari-style, like, secret, like, level or, like, secret gameplay thing. And, like, it's very much like that. Like, it's just... It's just, like, squares, like, like, poppled together to make shapes. Like, make organic shapes. So... But here's the way I'm seeing it. Um... It's oddly shaped in relation to the rest of the characters in the game. True. Because Wizard Blum is a humanoid.

[00:50:44] So he has a humanoid-shaped head, and that is the way that this game shows a, quote-unquote, normal-shaped human's head. And then this other character has an oddly-shaped head, comparatively. Yeah. I do kind of wish they had described why it was oddly-shaped. Like, is there a dent in it? Is it L-shaped? Is it, like, what makes it... Like, just saying, like, oh, it had an oddly-shaped head. It's like, what makes it odd? Yeah.

[00:51:13] It can say, like, there was a chunk out of the head. Yeah. Then that at least gives you somewhat of a, like, an idea. Even as the pixel character. So, because, as you said, it would be, like, somewhat L-shaped. Because it would be, like, a rectangle or a square or something. But, like, one of the top corners would be chunked out or something. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, it'd be nice to have more description about how it's oddly-shaped.

[00:51:40] Knowing that graphics are blocky PS1 graphics. Oh, yeah. I'm also thinking, like, yeah, it's PS1 graphics. So, is this even... Is this 3D or 2D? Because, like, PS1 did a lot of 2D and 3D. So... Well... The fact that it says blocky graphics tells me it's 3D. No, you're right. Yeah, it's probably just, like, low-poly, basically. Yeah. Because if it was 2D, it could be, like, really good sprite work for all we know. Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

[00:52:11] Yeah. And then my next one here is going back a bit. The secrets were well-kept indeed. Even looking into the game's files, I found them encrypted. So, for this, I just shake my head. Because it's a PS1 game. And it's been compiled.

[00:52:37] So, in order to view the game's files, you have to decompile the files to look at it. So, I'm guessing you just didn't know what to do and thought they were encrypted. Yeah. Again, some of this could have been, like, fixed if, like, the narrator had described, like, oh, they work in computers. Because, like, you can't, like, he could have, like, been somebody who can compile or, like, decompile a game. Yeah.

[00:53:06] But it's just sort of, it's just sort of, the way it's said in the story, it's just kind of like, oh, it's this way. It's like, that's a lot more work than you think it is, bud. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, again, connecting to history time a little bit, I also recently watched some videos because of the war on physical media about how you can, like, take some of your old games and, like, put them on your computer and stuff like that.

[00:53:35] But it was, like, it was a whole process. Like, then you need, like, certain software and stuff like that to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Because there is some encryption based on the system. Like, PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 all have different encryptions on the disc in order to be played on that media.

[00:53:59] And so to put it onto a computer, you have to decrypt the disc from what it originally was to something that the computer can read. Yeah. So. So. And again, that's also decompiling stuff and whatnot. It's just. It's a lot of work. Yeah.

[00:54:27] If it had said that this was, like, a computer game from, like, that same era, like, I could buy that a little bit more because, oh, it's a computer game. Like, that's easier to, like, look into the code. But. Well, but at the same time, it isn't. Because, I mean, if it's an exe file that's compiled, you still have to decompile that exe in order to view it. And it's like, oh, it was an exe. It must have been encrypted. Like. But when you install a game, you'll install thousands of files on a computer. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:54:56] So the guy would have an easier time of accessing those files. But. Yeah. But some of that's just libraries. Okay. Type thing. So it's stuff that the game needs to run, but it doesn't necessarily tell you what the code is. Okay. So. Yeah. So it's just a lot of work to get in and you just basically, oh, it was encrypted and gave up.

[00:55:27] Yeah. Which is weird. Cause he has like so much time on his hands. I was literally going to say, I was, I was thinking that exact thing. Like, I was like, I'm not going to say this, but like, like, oh, because he has so much time on his hands. Yeah. He could have figured it out. Yeah. He was between the, again, he was between jobs, like those being like that of like a, a hacker or some kind of like computer analysis or something or something like that. Yeah.

[00:55:58] Okay. Yeah. That was more along the lines of just like, he could just start Googling stuff until he learns everything. That's true. Also. Yeah. You can learn a lot from just YouTube tutorials. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, clearly he doesn't know how to use the internet because this all started because he wanted to foam the tip line to find out how to get past a section in the game. Yeah.

[00:56:26] From a game that's like possibly years or decades old. I think he just wanted to call it just to see if it was still active. Not because he literally needed help. I don't remember. Hang on. Where is it? Where is it? I'm on the back of the box was a number you could call for hints. I could not help, but let my curiosity get the better of me. I'm seeing that as a pattern in this story. I couldn't help myself. I had to do it. Like, that's not a reason. Once I dialed the number.

[00:56:55] You're way ahead. I'm referring to like his words of wisdom would come in the form of unique dialogue ranging from meaningless philosophical cones to lines that which hinted at deeper secrets. These secrets were well kept indeed. Even looking into the game's files, I found them encrypted. This being the only nook or cranny I did not fully explore. I refused to be deterred. So basically, like he wanted to figure out what all that shit meant. Yeah.

[00:57:23] Then he said, fortunately, I had this dubious ace up my sleeve on the back of the box. There's a number you can call for hints. Yeah. So yeah. I guess he did try to call it for hints specifically to explain all the weird shit that's being said, which was probably set up on purpose to like have them say the character say all this weird stuff for kids to want to call the actual cult and be like, what does this mean? You know, and then like to slowly indoctrinate them. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[00:57:52] No, I, I, that again, like if that had been like, and again, like the story does like, like, like we're looking at here, it does hint at that, like that that is another avenue that this cult is using. Like the video game is clearly like another one, one avenue this, this cult is using to like spread its influence. You know, what's weird too is like, what? Okay. So the, the number still works.

[00:58:17] So if someone calls that number and says that they're playing the wizard glum game and need help, why wouldn't they still try to indoctrinate them? Why, why is the lady on the, uh, on the, the phone being like, oh, we don't do that anymore. Uh, and she's like acting all weird about it. Like she should have like, the weird part should be the fact that this 20 year old game still has an active helpline. Yeah. That would be fucking weird.

[00:58:46] That is. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like the woman, like saying, oh, we're, this is silver sun wellness. Now we're not, we're not star crimson entertainment anymore or something like that. And just like being, and then just kind of shrugging off, uh, Nair and like, even like basically just blocking her, his calls afterward was like very suspicious and like, kind of just like, what did this achieve? Like, cause it doesn't really come back up aside from like, oh, like it just confirmed

[00:59:12] like where, like this girl, this woman just confirmed for Nair where the address was, which he also found on the back of the box. Yeah. Like the whole call was completely useless. Yeah. I, yeah. The story, like anything, like the, the way that she responded, it made me feel like, okay, that's a dead end. He has to go somewhere else. Meanwhile, that wasn't a dead end at all. So like he worked by here's, here's the thing earlier, but like the story just has like scenes

[00:59:40] or like, like things that the narrator, the Nair encounters during the investigation that are intriguing, but ultimately have no, uh, like there's, they're just, they just sort of happen. Yeah. Before they get interesting, it cuts to the next scene. Yeah. Like they entice you with something. Oh, this could be interesting. And then just out new thing. Like, yeah. He's throwing new things at you hoping, hoping something sticks. Maybe it's cause this is for like the TikTok generation that can only stand like one minute long videos.

[01:00:10] Oh God. I don't know, man. Don't be that old man. Too late. My beard is progressing underneath my mask now. Big white beard. You have a cane. Yeah. Yeah. But it's also a sword. Yeah. So anyway, my, uh, Mikey.

[01:00:36] Um, I think you were, I think you think this is your, this is your, uh, yeah. So the, uh, my, my last note here, uh, is when he's researching the, um, silver sun wellness and whatnot. Um, and he finds, uh, a new story about an employee who has seen us your security camera

[01:01:04] smiling and waving before producing a handgun from his backpack and ending his life with a shot to the head. Um, and it says later in that paragraph, it took only a matter of days before the link had been scrubbed. So like that means, or that would mean that that event literally just happened.

[01:01:30] Unless it's referring to like, they were somehow tracking the, they saw that someone saw it. That someone recently played that video and like did extra work to scrub it. Cause maybe they thought the, the video was buried enough, but Nair managed to get through and find it. See, I, I didn't realize that was like a more recent story in the news.

[01:01:57] I thought that was something from, from previous, like from like at least like a few years back, but that makes a lot more sense if this is like something fairly new, like it was fairly new in the, in the, in a news, in a, uh, uh, in a news story. And it also makes sense why Wade is still like, it's just in that room gibbering and like, like he's, he's not like not been, he's not actually been sitting there for, for, for years. It's been more like closer to months, maybe. I mean, it doesn't say the time.

[01:02:26] It just says the address mentioned in a local news story about an employee who's seen on a security camera. But then at the end of that paragraph, after like all that description, it says it took a matter of, it took only a matter of days before the link had been scrubbed. So either that's like either he, he, but like, so I'm just trying to like, he might be remembering back. Oh no. Cause he's doing, he's, he found this because of the rabbit hole is going down. Yeah, exactly. So yeah.

[01:02:55] The only thing that makes sense in regards to it being scrubbed is like, he did some deep diving through the dark web or something to find it. And then like, because someone noticed that the link was played or someone was tracking him or something, I don't know. Regardless, they scrubbed it after he watched it specifically. Yeah. So when he went to go back to it, like it was gone, it was like, oh shoot, it's been, it's been removed kind of thing. Yeah. So we couldn't prove it to anyone, I guess. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

[01:03:24] We need time frame stuff in here, honestly. A little bit. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. That's the end of my actual thoughts. All right. Gamer. I got a little bit left. First thing is like, I found it kind of weird how Nair goes and checks out the game devs website and he finds some weird, like messed up website there with like bodies being wrapped up and all this weird stuff being said. And then he proceeds to read it for hours instead of being like, this is weird.

[01:03:54] This can't be the real website. I'm leaving. But he's like intrigued by it all of a sudden. Well, this was the first instance where he started rolling sand checks and failing. So he was just kind of rabbit holing into madness at this point. Again, that's my theory. It's not like confirmed, but like that's, that's what I'm going with in my head. So. And my next note is basically just how like Nair must have balls of steel or be like, it's

[01:04:22] so incredibly bored that he just wants to do stuff, as we said, because like he's being led to his investigation leads him to like the gross back room of the gas station. And then like, he hears like all the ramblings of that gap was talking about. And then like, he sees that he's been like him and the woman have been eating each other and she's okay with it. And then like, he runs away and gets a professionally threatening letter in the mail.

[01:04:50] And then like all of this and all this happens. And then he somehow just immediately gets on a bus and just continues. Like he's not deterred at all. But again, this could be because unreliable narrator. So he's, he's not going to be shit talking his own people or anything like that. You know, he's going to make this seem as normal as possible. But that's me thinking after the fact, after reading the whole thing with that potential headcanon,

[01:05:19] but reading through it the first time, it's just like, why is he doing this? Why is he doing that? It was just annoying me the more I was going down. Like, there's definitely a way you can do that in the story where it's like, well, because the story could sound a lot more unnerving because Naird is not, has no problem with what's, with the horrific shit he's like describing with like, like, and not like, and then as it goes on or like have some like retrospect, it's like, oh, in hindsight, like it wasn't that bad. Like it was, they were a nice couple. And you're just like, what the fuck is he talking about?

[01:05:48] Like, and then by the end we get the reveals, like, oh, that's what it would make a little bit more sense. It would be a little, wouldn't have come out of left town that he's gone insane. Hmm. I don't know. I feel like the story would have ended better if it ended on the note, the letter that was given to him. Basically saying like, I did not proceed further because they threatened to take my life. You know, that's, that would be basically the TLDR if it stops there. Yeah.

[01:06:17] Cause it would be, it would hit harder, you know? A little bit. Yeah. I, or like, he like sends it to the cops, like the letter and they shrug it off or something. And now he's like on the run because he's like, like he keeps getting like harassed by the sun, the silver sun medical. It kind of just ends on that. Like it ends like, like have a little blurb at the, after the, after the letter. Maybe, but either way around the letter, I feel like it would end better compared to how

[01:06:44] it continued after, because like, it's a way more concerning point of the story where like he should be fearing for his life at this point. Yeah. And he just witnessed cannibalism, you know, like there should be a lot of shit going through his head right now. It should not be, I'm going to get on a bus. Yeah. I was like, I couldn't help myself. I need to do, I need to look into this. Like, or you, you've literally seen two people eating, starting to eat each other on and being on like holistic drugs.

[01:07:13] Like there's basically two meth heads, um, eating each other. And then you got this weird corporate, like culty letter from, from some like group. It's like, you can help yourself. You have the power there. Um, but yeah, no, I, I, I, I definitely could agree with that. Like if it had ended with like him just kind of like stopping after like getting that letter,

[01:07:40] like, and have that, like have some foreboding, like send off of just like, yeah, I, I, I'm done with this. I like this startup. I was just looking up a video game and I've gotten way too deep and I, and now I feel like I'm being watched and that just ends. Yeah. Who would have known that looking up, trying to find tips for a video game would show, would lead me to cannibals and, um, threatened by a, uh, a company to end my life. I'm done. Yeah.

[01:08:07] Or it's like, like maybe even ended off with like, so like the, the story starts with, it's funny, the significance that even the most flawed games can have in, in our early childhood. And then end the story with like, it's funny, the consequences that even the most flawed games can have in our early childhoods. Just like, just like someone have a wraparound or something like that. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:08:36] And then, so in regards to him, like wanting to continue Wade's teachings, like we kind of brushed on this. It's basically, so the way that you guys are seeing it is he like somehow, how do you actually get indoctrinated to all this? Cause, cause no one said anything. Is it just like, we don't know why, because it's not said why? Right. No, my, there is stuff throughout the story that like, if you, if you take it and like

[01:09:03] add it together, it kind of like, you could maybe draw the conclusion that like, oh, he's just basically been like rolling. Like he's been, he's been seeing such weird, horrific shit. And he's been like reading up on this, this doctrine from the blog and from the game and all any, and then like even the stuff that the, the weirdos have been telling him about that it's just sort of gotten into his head and he's gone insane by the end. And like the final revelation of seeing this man gibbering in this office space, like it was the last straw for his mind.

[01:09:31] So we now it's just like, now he's just like, I need to spread, like, I need to spread the good word of, of, uh, of the greater scope. So it's just like, it seems so sudden. Yeah. It is. It is maybe too subtle in the story. Like I, again, like, I think my problem is there needs to be more like kind of, of, we need to see more like definitive, like spiral than. Yeah. Like when he sees the cannibalism and the shit, he should be like going back and like reciting

[01:10:00] stuff like, Oh, maybe they're doing that because of this line in the passage that. Yeah. We gray said, Oh, maybe that makes sense why they would want to do it. Like, but like there's, there's nothing. That's the biggest problem I have with this is just, there's so little, there's so much here and yet there's so little here. Yeah. Like there's just, again, just out of nowhere, like stuff. Stuff happens and that there's no, no, no ration. No, no trying to rationalize what he's seen. No seeming rhyme or reason for what he's seeing. Yeah.

[01:10:30] It's just, we're getting, again, things are just getting flung at the, at the wall to see what sticks. More or less. Yeah. One more note. What I would have loved with this is if by the end of reading it, we as a reader understand what the religion is about, you know, like the game should be like saying, Oh, Oh, wizard glum was, uh, this, this guy from long ago that did this and that, and, uh, went to like,

[01:10:59] like all of the game story should be what their religion is, you know? It does. And we as readers should get that. Okay. We don't get it though. I kind of got it from the game. Tell me it. What is the religion of it? The whole thing is about like, um, you have no free will. Like everything's in the control of the greater scope. Like it's, it's for the greater good, the greater good kind of thing.

[01:11:24] Um, like it's so like the game mechanics actually do kind of emulate the philosophy that's being like thrown at them for like the, um, uh, by the, uh, by the cultists and stuff in the later part of the story. Like you're having to travel through this thing, uh, like through this, through this world that's being built around you by these, by these hands of greater scope. I thought, yeah, I thought the hands are like controlled by the player though. That is true.

[01:11:54] Um, which means, I mean, you have free will, you are choosing. Yeah, but okay. I thought I had it. Um, like, like there is like definitely like, there's definitely like the story is definitely like trying to like get this idea of like, like using the game, like to, to spread their theology on like, like you don't worry about like, like you have no control over your life because like, it's, it's all like in like the greater universe is trying to help you

[01:12:25] sort of angle. Hence again, why like you're building the place, the thing around you, but you're like, I guess like maybe like the cult is also like you, like you have no control except for what the world, the universe gives you when it gives you control. I don't know. It's, I might be drawing at straws. Like maybe it is sort of an existential, like is a weird, like fucked up existential, like fatalism kind of angle.

[01:12:50] I think it was going for, I guess, but like with the sop grism guy, it, it just says like, he says a bunch of nonsense. I want to hear the nonsense. Give me the nonsense. I want to hear what some other passages are like. Yeah. What does this mean? He just says a bunch of random shit that he doesn't understand. I want to see those words. Yeah. Like even like gibberish or is it just stuff that doesn't make sense?

[01:13:16] Like, I think even in like the blog stuff, like it describes a little bit, but not a lot about what's going on. And even like the crazy guy, like in the gap, always like say, it's like, oh, like I thought it was, I was lost until I like fall, start following the way. And then it's like, it's just all like, it's out there, man. Like that kind of thing. And then even by the end, like we get Wade, who's just like gibbering and like, where, where am I? Where, where, where? Where?

[01:13:45] So it's like, yeah, like the story, it has this like, I guess you could almost say that it has this pretension of like this weird philosophy that's like driving people mad, but it's not telling us what the philosophy is. Yeah. And like, maybe that is because the story is trying to be like, kind of like one of those cosmic horror things where it's like, um, we can't actually like the story doesn't actually have that like cemented, like that philosophy.

[01:14:13] It's one of those things where it's like, oh, these texts drove a person mad. It's like, well, what did it say? It's like, well, you know, we can't say it in the story cause it would drive you mad or cause it wouldn't actually drive you mad. But for the fiction, it would drive you mad if you, if you knew the exact text sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But like, that's where it kind of like seemed like it could have gone, but yeah. And while this story like could be like, even with the head cannon at the end of he's crazy and he's doing this to try to make them look good.

[01:14:41] He would be putting the passages in here of what they believe in. So even just reading through it, you would get it. I just got so little. It just bothered me. Fair enough. Yeah. But that's basically all I got to say on this. All right. Well then on to final thoughts. Um, so I think I'm still going to partially recommend it, but it is low end. Like not really, I wouldn't really recommend it.

[01:15:08] I'm not going to recommend it like for the reasons that like we usually would like I was intrigued by the investigation and the, and the, and was sufficiently creeped out by spots. Like it does, it definitely gets the horror of a creepypasta in mind. Um, but the narrative didn't really feel like it had a beginning for, for like Nair's investigation. Um, and in, into this game and like, then the, the company and the cult that kind of like

[01:15:37] made it, um, also Nair pressed on way longer than any logical person should have, um, without any rationale as to why. With no questioning. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like he experienced all this weird shit. Like by all, by all accounts, like hell, like even seeing Gappo, like come out of the, coming out of that gas station. As soon as he got started getting like boxes of pills, I'd be like, I'm sorry.

[01:16:02] I'm, I'm, I can't, I'm, I run like, that's what I would have run is if that for sure. Um, I wouldn't even get into the back room. No. Um, but, uh, again, like, and again, a story needs to have like, like you want the story to continue because of like, that is like what's going on. But we also, we need, we need a rationale. You need to, a reason why this character is pressing on and not just because like, I couldn't help myself.

[01:16:32] Yeah. Exactly. Like he's too curious. Like, is that literally all it is? It's curious George here. Yeah. Curious George or like curiosity killed the cat here or like, or curious, curiosity drove the cat insane. Um, and yeah, so it's just like, I, I've really, like, I really feel like the story again, just to heart, keep harping on it. Like Nair just keeps encountering weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff and horrific stuff.

[01:17:00] And then, uh, doesn't rationalize why he's like, how he feels about this stuff just continues pressing on. And now he's insane and a cultist by the end. Oh, and the video game really was just sort of like a superfluous, like it was a front weirdly enough, actually kind of like thematically it, the video game of this story was a front for the actual horror that's going on of like this, like kind of weird, real world, like holistic drug trafficking stuff.

[01:17:29] And like weird, like cult activity that's going on much like how like this company kept changing names to be a front for the theology and the philosophy of these people and their madness. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's just like, I, it just was kind of a kind of like weird and like just needed more clarification or like more elaboration on like the reasoning for this character to keep going.

[01:17:54] I would say like I, like I brought up, uh, this would make excellent material as inspiration for a Delta Green scenario. Like, especially with some of the newer material that's coming out from Arc Dream, the creators of Delta Green and like Caleb Stokes' Dead Channels. Um, not to plug a really good thing, but plug, plug, plug, plug, plug, go check out Dead Channels. It's really grim and modernistic Cthulhu mythos stuff with Delta Green.

[01:18:20] Um, but it's also very similar in, in theme to like the, like some of the weird shit that's going on in this story. And so you could like take this story and draw inspiration for like a fucked up, like drug cult to some elder whore or something like that. Like, um, but the creepy pasta itself, I, I think needs a little bit more work.

[01:18:42] Um, like it, it is just a little too, um, out of context madness, uh, than even I'm willing to tolerate. So, um, it needs a little bit more of a through line, I think is what we're getting at here, but they need some tissue. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's why I will only partially recommend it. Mikey, these stands for evil. Yeah.

[01:19:10] Uh, as you pointed out, we need the spiral into madness, not the jump off the cliff. Uh, because the, to me, it's not even a jump off the cliff. It's a trip off of the cliff because a jump, uh, leads to assume that he chose to do it. It's more along the lines of he just accidentally happened, you know, cause just how sudden everything was.

[01:19:34] Well, he, he chose to go down the rabbit hole only to find out that it was a bottomless pit. Yes. And that, uh, unfortunately didn't really, um, like, like that ending to me makes no sense. Uh, cause it's basically, I'm the CEO now for this company.

[01:20:01] Uh, um, which I mean, good on him to suddenly become a CEO. Oh my God. Oh my God. This actually, okay. So quick, quick back to like what I was talking about this being good fodder for Delta green. I could see this also being like a King in yellow scenario. Like this is just a, uh, a Haster cult. Um, you should believe that word. Yeah, I should.

[01:20:32] I definitely like, I took a second to like, should I say the word? Fuck it. I'm saying the word, but yeah, like, um, yeah, like being like, like this is all like the, with the drug fueled weirdness and like these people's like delusion in this philosophy, the video game aspect that's in this and like, kind of like art influencing life, influencing art kind of stuff. Like that's very much a Carcosa, like Lovecraft or like Carcosa, like King in yellow Delta green scenario, especially in the modern day.

[01:21:02] So, but yeah, sorry. Back to you. Back to you there, Mikey. Yeah. And I mean, the video game stuff was neat, but as we've pointed out, it doesn't stick around long enough and he just descends into researching and not doing that good research because I mean,

[01:21:32] he didn't look up how to decode this PS1 game. Yeah. Again, a little bit more, a little bit more explanation for how he was able to like, like, look into the code of this game, a little bit more elaboration. There could be a couple of lines of like, I tried to look on, I tried to look up on the internet, what all of these sayings that this character was saying meant, but there was no mention of this game. So I had to try to figure that out myself.

[01:22:01] And then, and then that's what like led him to like, oh, fortunately I had an ace up my sleeve. The, the help line on the back of the box. Yeah. Cause I actually had a physical copy of the box. Yeah. So the, um, yeah. And like the, I really have no idea how this company could stay in business and even with the changing of names.

[01:22:31] Well, I think it's drug money. I think ultimately that, that is what it is. It's just like, it is, they had some kind of cashflow probably from drugs. Um, maybe from like some kind of like whoever's like, maybe Wade gray has some kind of like funds from like his family or something like that. And just like, that's so that stuff happens in real life. Like, like that whole, like having like just a, just burning cash from like a, some kind

[01:22:58] of a fund or, or a flush or a slush fund or whatever, like to do some kind of illegal bullshit like this, like this sort of like thing is how drug trafficking works. And considering there, when he like showed up at Gappos and he's just like, I'm here for medicine. And Gappos like, oh yeah, here. He gives them a bunch of stuff immediately. Like the intent is if you were a member of the, the silver sun, like you, you're here to pick up a delivery, you know? Yeah, exactly.

[01:23:28] Tell some of this shit. Oh yes. A fellow silver center. Come on. Come on, man. Let's go. Yeah. Anyway, uh, I was, you know, on the, but the main issue I have is the ending just didn't make sense to me and how quickly he seems to have gone crazy. Um, so I'm not going to recommend it. That's fair.

[01:23:57] And gamer. I'm basically going to be just dittoing both of what you guys said, but that is kind of how it is. There's, um, there's not enough story here in this story. Unfortunately, it's a bunch of different scenes that like flow together way too quickly without too much rhyme or reason one way or another. Um, and like, I had to come up with like that headcanon reason as to why we don't have explanations of this, that, or the other because of, oh, well, he's writing this when he's

[01:24:26] already a cultist. So he's not going to be shit talking his own kind and stuff like that. He's going to try to make it look as good as possible. But I don't know. I don't even know how much weight that holds because it still describes the cannibalism scene as like horrific. And like, he had to get the hell out of there because of how gross it was. I feel like if this was meant to be bully with like rose colored glasses or over top of what actually happened, it would be describing it as like, oh, there's this beautiful scene

[01:24:54] between two lovers where he is like, uh, eating some of her flesh and he, and she's going to have some of his later. It was great. They chanted. Yeah. I mean, I do get you on that. Like, again, I had to look back on some other stories that I've seen where this, where the character was insane the entire time. And like, but we still got like a horrific story or horrific details, like told from that perspective of like a rational human being. And then by the end, it's like the, you just watch the person like as a recalling go mad.

[01:25:24] But yeah, I do think it would be really, the story might actually have benefited from him just like describing this horrific shit, but like trying to put a positive spin on it. Yeah. It would be more fun that way. Or it'd be more fun if this was done in a journal format where it's day one, this happens day two, that happens. And then through the days you can see how he is getting more and more cultish and thinking more about it.

[01:25:50] And like, he starts like reciting lines in, in his, um, uh, in his journal entries and stuff. And then by the end you see, no, he's fully committed to them now. Yeah. Like that would hit a lot better than this or stop it earlier. Like I said, right after the, the death threat mail, it's like, okay, well they know where he lives. They know what he did. He's going to stop because if he does anymore, he will die. Like that's where the horror is. Yeah.

[01:26:17] It's like a corporate horror sort of thing with by the end. Cause like, they're going to kill him sort of deal. And or the cannibalism of like, and drug trafficking that was happening right before that, you know, there's already a lot of horrible stuff to end on. Puts new meaning to the word cannibal corp. Yeah, it does. Nice. You're proud of me, son. If it was multiple corporations, then it'll be cannibal corpses.

[01:26:47] Yeah. Oh, technically it was different companies cause it was like different company names. That's true. You're right. Cannibal corp. Yeah. Yeah. Also, yes, I'm proud of you, son. Thank you. Um, so all in all by the end, I actually don't think I can recommend this to someone just because it's a confusing read and you have to headcanon the hell out of the ending to try to make it make sense. And even then to me, at least it wasn't worth it.

[01:27:18] If it stopped at the letter, I would have been happier, but it is what it is. That's just my opinion. That's just a theory. Uh, a gamer theory in yellow. Thanks for listening. Anyway, sorry. Um, no, I'll say like, I'm, I'm with you. Like I, I probably wouldn't recommend this. Like my, that's where my partial comes in. It's like, I don't, I don't think I'd recommend it as a creepypasta, but as like, as a inspiration

[01:27:46] or material for a, for a Cthulhu game or Delta green scenario, it, it, the, the materials here, like it's worth using. Um, yeah. To basically like, it's just, it's, it's, it's so lightly done that like the, the potential squandered and that's what bothers me the most. Yeah. It doesn't go hard enough. Yeah. Like I said before, like the number on the back of the box still worked. But the, the, another weird part could be the fact that the company is still using,

[01:28:16] answering that phone line and trying to indoctrinate quote unquote, help people through that old game. Cause like there's no reason that that lady would be so like dismissive. Oh, we don't do this. That yeah. Like the woman should have been like, hi, welcome to, welcome to Silver Sun, uh, Silver Sun wellness. Uh, uh, and then it's like, oh, is this not a Crimson Star? Oh, that's one of our previous, uh, our previous, um, uh, employers. No, they're not around anymore. We're now Silver Sun.

[01:28:46] Can I, can I ask you something? Like basically like go like all Pleasantville or like, uh, there is no war embossing say sort of thing where it's just like very pleasant and like, uh, some weird, like creepy, pleasant facade, uh, to try and sell you the, the, the product that is the Silver Sun wellness. Well, I imagine that they would still have information sheets of how to help like gaming kids calling to ask for help, like actually keep it up.

[01:29:13] Be like, oh no, we're Silver Sun now, but that used to be our, our previous name, but I have all the information to help you on this game. What's the problem? You know? And they're like, oh, well, what does this passage mean? What this guy says this? Well, you see when, what this means is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then he's starts to give all the information of their cult or like, it's like, oh, well, like if you want the, like that, that passage, uh, actually references, uh, some, like something that you'll have to, it's part of a, part of us, a little, like a little game outside of the game.

[01:29:42] You have to go to Gappo's gas. Like that kind of thing. Like basically like, again, have things connect to the next thing. Yeah. Hmm. That'd be nice if it, if it did, but it didn't. So yeah, it kind of bothered me throughout the read. So like you said, it has prompt, it has like interesting premise and stuff like that. And then like the game mechanics that are mentioned are unique and kind of cool, but everything

[01:30:12] that's neat, that's shown is shown and then quickly taken away. And then you're showing something else and then it's quickly taken away. I wish it stayed on something and explained it and let us like soak in it, you know? Yeah. And that's my biggest problem with it. Yeah. All right. Well, that's two non-recommendations and a partial, but honestly, at the end of the

[01:30:38] day, like in terms of like this being a creepypasta, I guess it is three non-recommendations. Like there is potential here, but I think it needs some work as a creepypasta. Yeah. Because the, the ideas here and like, even like the, the sequences in the story are good. It's just, it needs a little bit more structure work. Yeah. But that's it for tonight. If you like what you heard, or if you didn't leave us a comment in the comment section below, wherever this gets posted. Some of us are on blue sky. Mikey is at the East ends for evil and I'm at review cultist.

[01:31:08] Wait, you can also say that could be another one of their company names. Oh my God. You're right. Yeah. Oh, I don't trust blue sky anymore. Well, it's fine. You weren't on it to begin with. That's true. Um, and you can also send us emails at al dente rigamortis 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.

[01:31:35] Where you can also leave us suggestions for creepypastas, SCPs, spooky things. You creep it, we'll peep it. Yeah. Yeah. And if you'd like to help support our show financially, you can go to Patreon. 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 it. And to our listeners and the authors of these stories, thank you immensely.

[01:32:05] Cause without your listenership, it'd be like screaming into the void, a void that will not be getting, uh, have a dungeon constructed around us. It's just a big empty void. If, if, uh, we didn't have you the listeners, um, You construct the dungeon around us and we thank you forever. Yeah. You are the greater, the, the hands of greater scope. Um, we are, but the wizard glum. All three of us. We're Shoggoth, the wizard. Yeah. We're the wizards.

[01:32:34] We are the wizards that say glum. Um, and, and for your authorship writing and posting these stories online, we really wouldn't have much of a show cause we'd have nothing to talk about. So thank you. Now's a good time to mention that we are part of a podcast network, crit in the night, an actual play and creepypasta podcast network. We're there alongside our sister podcast, one less die and our cousin podcast, the role

[01:33:03] playing exchange for things that go crit in the night. Until next time. I have been your host review cultist. I'm Mikey. These dance people. And I'm the gamer in yellow. And this has been Al Dente Rigamortis. Sleep well.