Awakening (arc)

This article is about the story arc. You may be looking for the video.

Awakening

A recurring look forward to an unknown future

Written by	Alex Hall
Duration	March 17, 2020 to October 31, 2020
Protagonist	Players Jadus (Awakening) Second Player (Methods of Revolution) Sarah (The Last Hero)
Videos	awakening.txt hubris.wmv end.wmv transmission.txt iseeyou gateway.wmv sonata.wmv king.txt CHILDREN.wmv 2018.txt THE FATHER.wmv baker.txt Methods of Revolution [Day 1] Methods of Revolution [Day 3] Methods of Revolution [Day 6] Methods of Revolution [Day 11] Methods of Revolution [Day 21] Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv] The Truth.wmv Methods of Revolution [The Truth.wmv] The Last Hero.wmv The Moon Children.wmv The Prisoner.wmv The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv The Dying World.wmv The Predecessor.wmv The Lost Hero The Showdown.wmv FOR INTERNAL CORPORATE USE ONLY - DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE The Final Hours.wmv The End.wmv
Websites	Jadusable's Patreon methodsofrevolution.com eternity-project.com
Documents	TheRealTruth.rtf

Preceded by

Followed by

Moon Children

N/A

Awakening is the third and final story arc of Ben Drowned. It continues the storylines established in the previous arcs, tying them together and establishing new storylines alongside them.

It is preceded by Moon Children.

The following is a summary of Awakening, in chronological order of the events as they happened. Out-of-character events and Patreon-related events are in gold italics. All times are in EST.

Awakening

The Beginning of the End

March 17, 2020

Jadusable's new avatar

• Sometime early in the morning, the avatar on Jadusable's YouTube was changed.
• At 10:51am, awakening.wmv was uploaded to Jadusable's YouTube channel. It contains a message from an unknown entity that cryptically suggests something is about to happen.
  • The binary in the description translates to "32020," pointing toward March 20 as the date it happens.
  • At 11:05am, the video and the binary from its description were posted on Alex Hall's Twitter.

March 18, 2020

• At 7:00pm, BroGaming streamed the creation of more cryptic messages. Like before, it is not currently known if this is event is relevant, as this stream would later be uploaded to YouTube as a completed video.

March 19, 2020

• At 11:25am, hubris.wmv was set to premiere at 1:15pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
• At 1:15pm, hubris.wmv premiered. It contained another message from the entity from the previous video, as well as repeated words from Rosa and a short clip of Majora's Mask gameplay.
  • The binary in the description translates to, "Attempt fifteen, trying again. I doubt I can reach these two at the same time. HE moves."
  • A message is hidden in the spectrogram of the video, which reads, "Can anyone hear me?"

March 20, 2020

• At 3:40pm, end.wmv was set to premiere at 4:30pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • Leading up to the premiere, the thumbnail changed between five images, each becoming more disturbing than the last.
• At 4:30pm, end.wmv premiered. It continued the messages from the previous video and showed more gameplay from the END save file. The message was signed "Jadus."
  • A cipher was hidden in the spectrogram of the video, which reads, "xbt psfyszsm splkw." After several Caesar shifts, it comes to "was Berkeley heard"
• Changes were made to the description of end.wmv after the premiere. It now contained a link to Jadusable's Patreon, where the first post was made at 12:31pm:

Patreon Post #1

Starting the Game
March 20, 2020 at 12:31pm

Welcome to players, both returning and new in general to the final chapter of BEN Drowned.

New and Returning Players:

The final chapter of the BEN Drowned story is being told through YouTube videos, audio engineering, digital archeology, and some other surprises along the way. As we progress, the significance of some data points may not be readily apparent - that is normal. In keeping true to one of the reoccurring themes of Awakening, there will be times when older entries have a significance that is only brought to light after new information has emerged. The content itself may not have changed, but rather, new context will have given it new meaning.

This may be a lot of information to process for returning players, but there are plenty of tools in place created by the community to assist. When catching up, it's best to start simple - feel free to join the discord of the ARG and ask for clarification. You don't need to have a complete understanding of previous events immediately to start playing, others will be able to clue you in as you go along. Most of the bigger events are summarized here in the Patreon as the story progresses.

If you want to get more in depth - Here is a Google Doc, created by the fans, of the timeline of the story so far. In addition, you can also look into the fan wiki here.

This is a slower, more psychological approach than the original story - the timeline for this is much longer than the original story. Due to some of the psychological themes it explores, it's recommended for participants to be 18+.

Patreon is 100% optional

It is important to reiterate that this is a way to show support if you enjoyed the original BEN Drowned story or are enjoying Awakening. Patrons here are not given any kind of unique information or "advantage" to anyone else. Becoming a patron will not accelerate the release of content, nor is a certain threshold required to be met for the story to conclude. The goal of this page is to provide a way for users to support the work, should they be so inclined. There are unique benefits to being a patron that will be reflected in the story some time later, tier depending, but they are not required to get the full experience of the story. An apt way to compare it would be akin to receiving a cosmetic item in a game like League of Legends - it confers no actual "gameplay" advantages.

Additional Information

Timeline wise, every three days the story will progress forward. This is intentional.

Although the author's discord can be found here, and although that seems to be the main place that theorists congregate there is no official discord for discussion and theories. No unique information will ever be posted there, so users are not missing out by opting for a different server. The reason for this is to not monopolize the discussion area, but rather to encourage organic communities to be created.

Finally, to prevent gamejacking, links to any external websites to progress the story will come only from either the Jadusable Youtube account , the author's Twitter account, or this Patreon account. There will be a clear path to identifying the sources of information - as for the information itself, that may prove to be a little trickier. This is to reduce confusion and save time of meticulously combing through other unrelated endeavors that the author has done since. At some point, another platform will be introduced that will be canonical to the story, and this post will be updated to reflect that.

And as always, good luck. Enjoy the story.

March 22, 2020

• At around 2:50pm, \ was set to premiere at 6:30pm the following day on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
• At around 7:55pm, the description of hubris.wmv began disappearing and reappearing. During the hour-long period when changes were being noticed, no changes to the description were recorded.

March 23, 2020

• At 5:30pm, exactly one hour before the premiere, \ was removed from Jadusable's channel. Soon afterward, a new video was set to premiere in its place: transmission.wmv The binary in its description translates to, "You are here for a reason. Look and listen."
• At 5:37pm, Jadusable tweeted the following: "diary entry transmission signal garbled, trying again"
• Around this time, the thumbnail began changing. There were 12 changes, for a total of 13 thumbnails. They occurred at 5:45, 5:50, 5:56 (2), 5:59 (2), 6:00, 6:02 (2), 6:15, 6:17, and 6:20.
• At 6:30pm, transmission.wmv premiered. It again continued the message from Jadus, this time with no gameplay. Jadus tells of how he and his partner, Denton, searched for the man known as "Berkeley" and found Tyler, who had been using the name. He reveals that his name is Tyler Lawman, and believes that the world around him is a product of his own mind. After apologizing to Jadus and Denton, he takes his own life by firing his pistol into his mouth.
• Soon afterward, the spectrogram was analyzed and, once again, the new URL to \ was found. Just short of a minute long, \ reveals that the disfigured face we've been seeing is indeed BEN, and it now refers to itself as "we."
  • \ was listed publicly at 6:54pm.

March 26, 2020

• At 5:34pm, gateway.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00 on Jadusable's YouTube channel. The binary in its description was posted in three chunks, one at the start and two more at 5:40 in consecutive updates. The three chunks translate to:
  • the gateway blocks to building ephemeral life, crash together
  • this will help LINK them together
  • think back several years, when was the apocalypse?
• The thumbnail changed four times, occurring at 5:38, 5:58 (2), and at 6:00 just before the premiere.
• At 6:00, gateway.wmv premiered. It consisted entirely of gameplay, much of it mirroring the events of BEN.wmv's Termina Field sequence. Link is much more careful in his movements and observes each figure in the field before making any action. He eventually stands in front of the Happy Mask Salesman and takes out the ocarina. The song jingle plays and the video ends.
  • The end of this video seems to confirm that the players have regained the ability to use in-game actions to affect the story.
• The spectrogram contained another message: "what happened in 2012?"

Another World

March 27, 2020

• At 4:42pm, Rosyfox uploaded the Sonata of Awakening in response to gateway.wmv, recalling the hints to wake up we'd been receiving for the past two weeks. The hope was for this video to affect the apparent "dream-like" post-apocalyptic world hinted at by Jadus.

March 28, 2020

• Around 7:45pm, a new website was discovered: methodsofrevolution.com. Appearing at first to be a broken blog, links were quickly found to lead to fragments of secret conversations between redacted names, seemingly-nonsensical images, and most prominently, a poll that decides the next action to be taken. This would render any direct video responses useless. The header image for the site was the recurring dilapidated living room image from the Lawman house. This website was apparently the answer to "what happened in 2012?"
• The main page, titled "ME/THOD RE:// - wel??$$ to the officia$$/// {NULL}," contains two blog posts:
  • "...And Flint Struck Steel" was posted by "Find Your Method" on January 13, 2013 and reads, "There was a website here once. It’s gone now." It was tagged, "Methods of Revolution Prelude."
  • "Under Construction" was posted by "Find Your Method" on March 6, 2014 and reads:
    • "Welcome to the webpage! We are currently under construction so please check back soon!
      Structure is fundamental to the way we live life – we use it to refine, improve, and progress ourselves, and in return it helps give us a sense of purpose and ultimately defines our position in life. Our life’s structure is the amalgamation of our learned habits – from both our environment and our personality – from those we gain either positive or negative traits. We are integrated into this symbiotic relationship from all but the word go and it’s the key to how we live our lives as adults. In school you follow your teacher’s orders and are given set times to do certain tasks. Eventually the unfamiliar becomes familiar, apprehension turns to comfort, and order is once again achieved because you start to know what to expect with each passing day."
• The directory at the bottom of the main page contained seven links:
  • "01101000" contained a photo of a bulletin board with three square notes and a full sheet of paper, all blank, pinned to the right side. "01101000" is binary for "h."
  • "31026180" contained a link to a page titled "june 6 2016," which itself contained a text document containing an ASCII rendition of BEN's face.
  • "31029201" contained a link to a page titled "july 2 2013," which itself contained a text document containing a fragment of a chat log between several people with redacted usernames.
  • "41026030" contained links to two month categories:
    • "January 2013" contained the first blog post, "...And Flint Struck Steel".
    • "March 2014" contained the second blog post, "UNDER CONSTRUCTION".
  • "61028050" contained a seemingly-unrelated text post:
    • "I don’t know why I’m back here again. It must be years ago.
      
      The vibrancy of the city always seemed to bring something out of me, but I couldn’t feel it.
      It wasn’t home and it never would be, but there was something paradoxically calming about New York. Despite all of the energy and excited commotion, it’s the only time in my life I ever felt invisible. I watched the waves of people outside seemingly flow downstream along the street corner. It feels like it would be so easy to join them, to submerge myself and let the current take me to a new life, somewhere.
      A reassuring hand on my shoulder wakes me from my dream.
      
      “It’s time to go.”
      
      Sure, I responded, I get it.
      We gather our things and exit the lobby of the hotel. My body tenses as rain embraces us – the weather outside is bitter and biting. Without missing a beat, I watch her confidently raise an arm and wave down a taxi. Her eyes looked different to me. I saw them burn with a fiery determination, as if in those few minutes she had solved a great riddle within herself. I could only admire her quiet ferocity for a few seconds before becoming acutely aware that it was something I couldn’t bring myself to match.
      I used some of her flame to kindle my own and I made it through, preparing myself for the worst.
      
      Except that moment never came. Why did it bring me back here? It’s time to resolve these old issues. There is a more immediate threat right now."
  • "71022070" contained a link to a page titled "august 16 2013," which itself contained a text document containing a similar chat log to before.
  • "91026121" contained a poll. The box was labeled "{NULL}" and contained a front-facing photo of BEN and seven choices: Song of Time, Song of Healing, Sonata of Awakening, Inverted Song of Time, Song of Double Time, Oath to Order, and Other. After choosing an action, reloading the page would show the text "nice try" below the photo, as well as an option to view the current results. At the time of the poll's end, Sonata of Awakening had a sizable lead. The "nice try" text became permanent.
  • It is important to note that the Song of Healing was in the lead prior to external intervention. If the site was left undiscovered, it would have won and the results may have been catastrophic.
• Players noticed that the link on "31026180" led to a different URL than the one it reads. Replacing the 235 at the end with 231 yields a page titled "october 29 2013," which contains a much more drastic chat log fragment than the ones found before. Using this method of replacing the last digits of the URL, many pages were found to contain content that would otherwise be unseen.
  • 198 led to a photo of the house and a binary code that translates to "one world."
  • 203 led to a page that once contained Lost in My Thoughts; it has since been removed.
  • 205 led to an audio file titled "another world."
• At 10:11pm, immediately after finding the "one world" binary, all pages would return a single message: "You shouldn't be here." Seconds later, the entire site closed. Loading the site would show a single image and a single line of text: "get out." The image changed several times:
  • The first image was of a diary written in another language.
  • At 10:12, it changed to an image of an extremely blue-tinted smiling man.
  • At 10:13, it changed to a horribly-disfigured BEN.
  • At 10:16, it changed to a less-disfigured BEN.
  • At 10:30, it zoomed in.
  • At 10:59, it zoomed in again, drastically.
  • At 11:00, it turned black and the message disappeared.
  • At 11:11, it changed to a new face with the text "PLAY BY MY RULES"
• At 11:12, the site's main page was able to be accessed once again. This time, the site's name was changed to "PLAY BY MY RULES" and new text was added to the "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" post:
  • The new second paragraph now read, "An interesting philosopher once mused that Hell isn’t the cliched fire and brimstone inferno that awaits all of those who commit terrible deeds in life. Instead, they described it as a simple phenomenon – on your last day on Earth the person you became will meet the person you could have become."
  • Below the final paragraph, the following: "PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES PLAY BY MY RULES"
• At 11:18, Creeeep Sales began playing on every page. More image changes followed:
  • At 11:21, the header image zoomed in.
  • At 11:23, the header image zoomed in again.
  • At 11:25, the header image disappeared.
• At 11:26, the site went down for the final time.

March 29, 2020

• At 2:13am, Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #2

LIVE EVENT 3/28: Methods of Revolution Website Discovered
March 29, 2020 at 2:13am

On March 28th, a new resource was unlocked thanks to the efforts of the community. After deciphering the hints hidden in binary and the data retrieved from a spectrogram, the combined efforts of the community piecing together clues ultimately led to user Rytikula unlocking the next part of the game - revisiting the abandoned Methods of Revolution website. It was just in time - barely over 24 hours remained before the next story progression was set to occur, and it would have been disastrous had it not been interrupted.

Instead of the usual splash page for the film, users instead found a repository of broken file links in a cobbled together directory. Digging deeper, it was discovered that there was an option to change the action that the character does in the next video, although how these two resources are able to influence one another is still a mystery.

Immediately users began sharing the link throughout the discord, online threads, and Youtube videos to spread the word that the next step had been unlocked. What occurred soon after at 8:30pm CST was a live event of something discovering that users had accessed this abandoned repository. It quickly turned into a race-against-time as archivists worked to catalog as much as they could of the website before it was shut down.

The Archived Website

You will be able to find records of what was uncovered in those few vulnerable moments on the discord here before the website was taken down. There were certain pictures and chat logs that were excavated from the scattered code of the website that may prove useful. As the story moves forward, it will become apparent that the puzzles are not always a matter of codebreaking or technical analysis - some will involve logic riddles and critical thinking. The goal behind this approach is to involve as many different people and skillsets as possible, not just those who are technically proficient. In some instances, piecing together the plot ahead of time might give players an opportunity to anticipate what is going to happen - which may have its own benefits down the line.

In an effort for archival purposes the website has been temporarily restored to a snapshot of the day before, before the intrusion was detected. It is important to note that there are no additional hidden materials to find at this point (and the few unique details that showed up during the live event were time sensitive and no longer available). When the website progresses further keep in mind that creative, outside-the-box methods of finding hidden files are encouraged and expected - as long as it stops short of actually hacking/brute-forcing the website itself.

Moving Forward

As we finish our first big live event, there will still be kinks to work out in order to try and reach the most amount of viewers possible - as we're aware that many people live in different timezones. One of the many things I hear from people is that they wish they could have been there to see what it was like when the Moon Children website was going through its 3 day cycle, and we're attempting to take steps to try and make this more approachable for newcomers. Due to the dynamic, real-time nature of the story its hard to anticipate when players will trigger live events (such as this one), but we'll do our best to funnel them towards the weekends when more people are likely to be on. We also have users working on a Google doc timeline (created by user Eevee Reborn) that summarizes events for those who missed them.

At this stage of the story you likely have more questions than answers, but rest assured that the players have taken a definitive step closer to piecing together the bigger mystery behind the true nature of BEN.

Attached file: iseeyou.jpeg

• At 6:50pm, sonata.wmv was set to premiere at 8:15 on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
• The thumbnail began changing almost immediately. Changes took place at 6:54 and 7:02.
• At 8:15, sonata.wmv premiered. Someone in a gas mask appeared at the end.
• At 8:19, methodsofrevolution.com went back up. It now contained "this image" as the header and three additional links in the directory at the bottom of the site:
  • "41027150" contained a link to a page called "may 17 2014," which itself contained a text document containing another conversation fragment in which the redacted names discuss someone they refuse to name and an identical other person.
  • "51023160" contained a link to a page called "june 13 2015," which itself contained a text document containing another conversation fragment in which the possible convergence of timelines is suggested.
  • "61028020" contained a link to a page also called "61028020," which itself contained a text document containing ASCII art of a screaming face. Hidden within the text are the words LIE, TRUTH, and DROWN.
• The poll page now contained a number of differences:
  • The title disappeared and the header image changed to this.
  • The option to vote or view results was replaced by a button that reads, "consciousness." The "nice try" text was replaced with, "....."
  • Over the next hour, the Other option steadily increased. At 9:45, with no option to vote against it, Other took the lead.
• As of March 29, excepting miscellaneous files, nothing else was discovered.

March 31, 2020

• Around 3:00pm, players discovered that \ was renamed to "iseeyou".

April 1, 2020

• At 5:44pm, king.txt was set to premiere at 7:00 on Jadusable's YouTube channel. However, at 6:35, the video was removed from the channel for being "a duplicate of another YouTube video." It was re-uploaded soon afterward at 6:45 and set to premiere at 7:30. The same happened to this upload at 7:03, causing it to be removed. At 7:28, it was re-uploaded for the final time and set to premiere at 8:15.
• At 6:23pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #3

4/1 Update on Story Progression / Moderation
April 1, 2020 at 6:23pm

Story Progression Timing

As we begin a new month we've been listening to feedback from players wanting the story to be more accessible in terms of time availability and made a few changes. We know our audience digs pretty deep into clues and will spend a lot of time turning over every leaf if given the opportunity, and we want to be responsible/respectful of your time and energy.

In order for this story to best reach its audience, we will continue the content release schedule of every three days until a certain point in the story, but going forward we will orchestrate things so that big reveals and live game events happen closer to the weekends to convenience the audience as much as possible. The discovery of the Methods of Revolution website coincidentally happened to occur on a Saturday night and saw active participation of hundreds of users. We'd like to keep that kind of rhythm directed towards the weekends, as even though the majority of the country is quarantined at home, we know of a few dozen of our player-base have essential jobs and aren't as time flexible. As it stands now, you can still expect significant story updates when the three day cycle to fall on weekdays, but the more in-depth interactive content & events (like the discovery of the Methods site) will take place when the cycle lands on a weekend.

Discord Moderation Policy

We're excited to announce that the Awakening discord has reached 600+ members since Awakening has started! That's an incredible amount of growth in such a short time period and we're doing our best to acclimate. We've added roughly 8 new moderators to the roster to keep up with demand and we're implementing a new policy to ensure that the server is managed fairly both to the users and the moderators. The new progression of disciplinary action will be as follows: warning on first offense, kicked from the server on the second, and finally ban on the third offense. Banning is meant to be a last resort for people who continue to violate the rules and after seven days you will have the opportunity to appeal your ban. If you have any issues with the moderation staff, please DM Jadusable directly on Twitter.

Progression Caps

We are also working on an appropriate way to signify when all available clues have been found to "call off the dogs", so to speak. You will likely know the manner this weekend when we have our second live event.

Good luck!

• At 8:15, king.txt premiered. It was entirely composed of Jadus typing, giving insight on his former life and his evolution from miser to empowered.

April 4, 2020

• Around 6:30am, awakening.wmv and transmission.wmv were renamed. Their file extensions were changed from .wmv to .txt, establishing a new format in order to distinguish text-based videos from gameplay.
• At 4:45pm, CHILDREN.wmv was set to premiere at 7:00 on Jadusable's YouTube channel. No changes were observed during this time.
• At 6:45, methodsofrevolution.com went dark.
• At 7:00, CHILDREN.wmv premiered. It contained the Rosa intro shown in previous videos, but the rest is implied to be the original missing video referenced in TheTruth.rtf.
• Immediately after the video premiered, methodsofrevolution.com came back online. The main page contained the same two posts, but "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" now contained new text:
  • Welcome to the webpage! We are currently under construction so please check back soon!
    
    Structure is fundamental to the way we live life – STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING we use it to refine, improve, and progress ourselves, and in return it helps give us a sense of purpose and ultimately defines our position in life. Our life’s structure is the amalgamation of our learned habits – from both our environment and our personality – from those we gain either positive or negative traits. We are integrated into this symbiotic relationship from all but the word go and it’s the key to how we live our lives as adults. In school you follow your teacher’s orders and are given set times to do certain tasks. STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING STOP PLAYING Eventually the unfamiliar becomes familiar, apprehension turns to comfort, and order is once again achieved because you start to know what to expect with each passing day.
• One new link was found in the directory:
  • "09152000" contained a link to a new document, a seemingly revised edition of TheTruth.rtf called "TheRealTruth.rtf". It contains all of Jadusable's video summaries in addition to the main text, changes most mentions of "Ben" to "BEN," and includes a new entry at 9:09pm on September 10:

TheRealTruth.rtf: September 10, 9:09pm

After crying and whining for some time now he finally came to our senses.

He was being pathetic and greedy.

Weak and embarassing.

Vulnerable and alone.

No more.

He thinks it's in the afternoon now, but his brain can't tell anymore.

It is irrelevant.

We are one with a singular purpose, and we will finish it.

These messages are not meant for them to read right now.

None of it will make sense to either this desparate puppet or his "audience" at present.

Conclusion: it is a wasted effort.

Regrettably, in order to achieve fulfillment and ascend higher we will need to wait for some time.

We will continue to form our own consensus.

But there's been too much of a commotion here, that blithering idiot could set us back if we are discovered.

Then patience is the answer, time is inconsequential here.

He attempting to interface with our world again.

Moon and the sun.

Show ourselves to him. Show that we are many, and we are watching.

Is it time? That has a high probability of completely fracturing his already weakened mind.

Yes.

Yes, this one will die soon.

Yes, this world is beginning to fall apart as well.

Yes, but on that matter it is a debate - our ability to interact with their plane is limited to only a few Methods.

Yes, but it will not be that way forever.

Yes, but the probability that we become incompatible is too great if we wait too long.

Yes, we have a proposal to change that. it will take years but that is acceptable.

Yes, that is fine.

<deleted>

Yes, but they should know the truth at some point.

Yes, but only when it is too late.

• By changing the digits at the end of the page URL, users managed to find several hidden pages, ranging from HTML remnants from youshouldnthavedonethat.net, to mysterious or unused images, to gut-wrenching sobbing.
• The poll was updated several times to include new options:
  • At 7:53, the options were HIDE, FIGHT, and RUN.
  • At 7:56, the options were changed to DIE, DIE, and DIE and the image changed to this face.
  • Within a minute, the options were changed to RUN, HIDE, and FIGHT for the final time. The image changed to its original turn4 face, and the title read, "Don't be hasty now."
• At 8:07, the bulletin board on 01101000 changed to this.
• At 8:13, this sound file appeared on each page.
• Throughout the site's duration of activity, the banner changed several times:
  • At 7:14, it changed to this still of the Elegy statue from CHILDREN.wmv.
  • At 7:18, it changed to this face.
  • At 7:59, it changed to this face.
  • At 8:02, it changed to this.
  • At 8:03, it changed to this.
  • At 8:05, it changed to this.
  • At 8:15, it changed to this.
  • At 8:15 again, it changed to this.
  • At 8:18, it changed to this.
  • At 8:18 again, it changed to this.
  • At 8:19, it changed to this.
  • At 8:46, it changed to this.
• Three audio files were discovered within minutes of each other, signaling the closing of the poll. In order:
  • At 8:33, closing was discovered.
  • At 8:38, time's ending was discovered.
  • At 8:44, time's up was discovered.
• At 8:47, after a heated debate over the poll choices, the website was closed. The only visible image was this, confirming that the HIDE option won the poll. At 8:50, it zoomed in on the choices, and did so again several seconds later.
• At 8:53, the front page went black. Several messages were displayed in succession for the next several minutes:
  • At 8:53, the page read, "Hiding."
  • At 8:56, the page read, "10:43am - The Moon Children appeared in my dreams last night, they lifted up their masks to reveal their hideously disfigured faces."
  • At 8:57, the page read, "10:43am - The Moon Children appeared in my dreams last night, they lifted up their masks to reveal their hideously disfigured faces. ...maggots crawling out of their orifices, sunken black holes where their eyes should be, a yellow smile that slowly grew bigger as they came closer to me."
  • At 8:58, the page read, "10:43am - The Moon Children appeared in my dreams last night, they lifted up their masks to reveal their hideously disfigured faces. ...maggots crawling out of their orifices, sunken black holes where their eyes should be, a yellow smile that slowly grew bigger as they came closer to me. Two of them held me down while the other two began to sow the mask onto my face."
  • At 9:04, the page read, "THEY."
  • At 9:05, the page read, "TOOK." Shortly afterward, this was added as a background image.
  • At 9:06, the text disappeared and the image remained.
  • At 9:11, the image disappeared and the text read, "Hiding."

April 7, 2020

• At 6:58pm, 2018.txt was uploaded yet set to premiere at 6:58 as well. The premiere remained set at that time until the premiere actually started at 7:19. The video was more text from Jadus, this time discussing how needlessly dramatic and worrisome he used to be and how he became one of the lucky ones after the societal collapse.
• At 7:15pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #4

4/4/20 Live Event + Future Plans
April 7, 2020 at 7:15pm

4/4/20 Live Event -

Not only did players finally get to see what CHILDREN.wmv and TheRealTruth.rtf were - in a sense - but they solved the second riddle and bypassed a speedbump in getting to the next part of the story. Hopefully this was an engaging twist on a traditional checkpoint that didn't depend on a select few people solving ciphers (although there will be more of that soon), but rather a collective group of people paying close attention to the context of what was being shown. In quick summary, the Methods of Revolution website was opened back up for a brief period, featuring several new files - one of which was a modified version of the original 2010 document TheTruth. Soon after, players saw mysterious images flash on the website while a poll was presented to them presenting their next three options: Run, Fight, or Hide. These images were reminiscent of an entry in TheTruth of a nightmare Jadusable had in which gave hints about which actions proved to be ineffective against the entities. A heated debate broke out in the discord with both sides arguing which option should prevail, but ultimately Hide won. You can find a moment to moment recap of the live event here.

Discord Update

The Awakening discord has reached 800+ members now - and we couldn't be happier. I'm excited at the opportunity to build a great community and stay in touch with each other during the quarantine. These next few months are going to be rather crazy, and I'm glad that this ARG can be a suitable distraction - so try and be good to each other, yeah? Again, it's a crazy amount of growth in such a short time period and we're doing our best to acclimate as best as we can - we are bringing on several new mods as well. If you have any issues that cannot be solved by a moderator or administrative suggestions for layouts (i.e. adding new chat channels), please DM Jadusable directly on Twitter.

Progression Caps

If it wasn't clear on the previous event, when the Methods of Revolution site goes down that typically marks a cap on the progression for this time. As of now, the big live events are coordinated towards the weekends - involving the Methods website updating and the .wmv files dropping. Weekday updates will involve .txt files for now until a point is reached in the story.

Good luck!

April 10, 2020

• At 6:30pm, methodsofrevolution's lock screen was updated to include a new image of the Astral Observatory, which appeared to imply that the update cycle is now shifting backwards a day due to the Fourth Day glitch, in turn allowing April 23 to fall on an update day. The text was removed.
  • At 7:32pm, Alex Hall tweeted confirmation that the update is being pushed back a day due to upload issues.

April 11, 2020

• At 12:43pm, KELBRIS.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00. Several changes to this video occurred over the next several hours:
  • At 1:14, the thumbnail changed to the Astral Observatory image used on methodsofrevolution.com the previous day.
  • At 1:27, four new tags were discovered.
  • At 5:11, the title was changed to FATHER.wmv and the description was changed to "THEY DONT NEED TO SEE THIS."
  • At 5:13, the title was changed to "STOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP" and the description was changed to "STOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THISSTOP UPLOADING THIS."
  • At 5:14, the title and description were returned to normal.
  • At 5:16, the title was changed to "HE IS ALREADY DEAD, THIS DOESNT MATTER THEY DONT NEED SEE THIS" and the description was removed.
  • At 5:20, the title was changed to "TWO?"
• At 5:20, the video formerly known as KELBRIS.wmv was removed from the channel. Seconds later, THE FATHER.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00. Leading up to the premiere, the following occurred:
  • At 5:23, Jadusable's Twitter tweeted the link to THE FATHER.wmv alongside the text, "The final missing video from Jadusable before he died."
  • At 5:51, the thumbnail changed to iseeyou.
• At 6:00, THE FATHER.wmv premiered. It picks up directly where jadusable.wmv left off, showing Jadusable's true final moments of gameplay. This video and the events surrounding it officially confirm that Jadusable died at the end of The Haunted Cartridge.
  • In addition to the repeated "can anyone hear me" hidden in the spectrogram, a new message was found that reads, "04192020." This hinted toward April 19, 2020 being the date of an important event.
  • At 6:34, the thumbnail changed to a frame near the end of the video with The Father on screen. At 7:04, it changed back to its original thumbnail.
• At 6:12, the image on the lock screen of methodsofrevolution.com changed to The Father from the end of the video. At 8:25, it changed to this image and the the following text appeared: "8:00pm CST."
• At 8:26, methodsofrevolution opened. "Time's Ending" was set to play on every page. The main page contained the two same posts, but "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" appeared as it did on April 4 and contained new text after the first line: "Tick tock. Tick tick. Tick tock. Tick tock."
• At first, there were no new links in the directory, though some pages already linked were changed:
  • 91026121 now contained a new poll titled, "AWAKEN THE SECOND PLAYER?" There were only two choices: YES and NO. The image in the poll changed between these three images.
  • 61028050 now contained new text:
    • "I will show you Jadusable’s final moments before he died. The one video you never saw."
    • "I knew that they would have a second player soon, it was almost his time to come to – but now he wouldn’t be alone. He’s going to be in danger because of what they did."
• The following new page IDs were found:
  • 400 contained this audio file, which itself contained the following: 01100001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110101 01101110 011010. This translates to, "a wonderful reun."
  • 401 contained this audio file, which itself contained the following: 01010100 01101000 01100101 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101000 011001. This translates to, "They should be h."
  • 402 contained this audio file, which itself contained the following: 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110101 01101110 011001. This translates to, "You finally foun."
  • 403 contained this audio file, which itself contained the following: 00100111 01001010 01100001 01100100 01110101 01110011 01100001 01100010 01101100 01100101 00100111 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 011100. This translates to, "'Jadusable' neve."
  • 404 contained this audio file, which itself contained the following: vGpha alc fxgsclr Gxixrfva utijhyu oaw !. This translates to, "dCode can decrypt vigenere without key !"
  • 412 was titled "YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE" and the contents of the page were password protected. Shortly after this page's discovery, it was added to the bottom of the directory.
  • 415 was titled "MASTER KEY" and contained a link to this text file, which itself contained a binary code that translated to the following: RTV UFOUSIA NXGTES QMOTB NZRFP MCS DHGTIPV OIINQ TICIN, TKYJE JD WX MXWZ I OPIM TR WGMNFRRCDNW WJEL HOX. This cipher was found to be a Vigenere with a key of "jadusable," and translates to, "ITS ANOTHER NUMBER FIFTY THREE ITS ANOTHER FIFTY THREE, THERE IS SO MUCH I NEED TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU."
• At 8:45, the banner changed to this and the post "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" changed to "EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION." The post contained the same binary found in MASTER KEY.txt.
• The banner changed several times in the next few minutes:
  • At 8:52, it changed to this. At the same time, the following text was added to "EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION": "YOU NEED TO USE THIS SOMEWHERE. IM RUNNING OUT OF TIME."
  • At 8:58, it changed to this.
  • At 8:59, it changed to this.
  • At 9:01, it changed to this.
• At 9:02, the site closed. The lock screen changed to this and it contained the text, "Almost had it. Maybe a clue is left somewhere?" A few seconds later, the text was gone. The poll's final judgment was roughly 70-30 in favor of YES.

April 14, 2020

• At 7:38pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #5

4/14 Update - The Father Revealed
April 14, 2020 at 7:38pm

The Father Revealed

In the original story, Jadusable's fate was left ambiguous at the end, but now due to the tampering and infection of the Methods file repository and what appeared to be an inner conflict in BEN itself, new footage was presented to us on the original Jadusable account - letting us see what happened after the end of the original jadusable.wmv video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymWm0O51iG0

As Jadusable delved deeper into the darkest recesses of the cartridge, despite ignoring the warnings from the voices in the game itself, he finally found what he was looking for in the edge of the game's existence - The Father. He appeared before Jadusable in his true form - not using a representation within the game itself anymore - and opened his eyes to stare through the avatar at the player behind it. Jadusable was only able to gaze dumbfounded at the monolith's eldritch face before he was consumed and killed.

A few hours later another vulnerability opened up on the Methods of Revolution website, allowing players to quickly access the site and save/backup as much as they could from what had changed. Players found several cryptic audio codes, and the opportunity to "awaken the second player,". Although there was some dissent in the consensus, the players ultimately voted to awaken the second player. Who or what that it is, though, remains to be seen.

The cycle has been broken, and now it appears that The Father's face sits resting again at the home page of Methods of Revolution. What could this signify?

Entering the Second Phase

As we conclude the first phase of Awakening - for now - we begin to move the story forward in a different mediums. It should be said here plainly as a disclaimer that there will be real life locations being filmed. I know how passionate and methodical some players can be, so to help ensure good working relationships with the cast and crew, it is important to note that there will never be any hidden clues gained by doxxing these locations or trying to figure out where they are geographically. The same goes for actors appearing as well. These are meant to take place in a fictitious world.

Catch-up Mechanics

We are going to be working on a more streamlined and effective way to bring new and returning players up to speed, and part of that will be a website that will be rolling out sometime this month. While we have a wonderfully comprehensive timeline created by CircleHunter that is an invaluable resources for the hardcore players, the sheer size of it can be overwhelming to newcomers. We are in need of people who are able to help grow the community - either by creating easy and informative summary videos or info-graphics. If you think you can help, please send me a PM on Twitter or reach out to the mods on Discord.

Discord / What's Your Mask Contest

We're less than fifty members away from having 1,000 concurrent members on our Discord! We've recently updated the #server-rules so be sure to check those out, and help flesh out some of the other channels.

We're currently having a What's Your Mask Contest, a non-canon event where users can create custom made masks and submit pictures of them to be entered in a prize pool (win Steam games, cosmetic rewards in the ARG, etc).

This is a great chance to form gaming communities, share your own artwork/creations in #art-gallery, or take part in one of our many contests! If there is a channel that we don't have that you think would be a good addition to the server, reach out to a moderator. As always, any concerns you might have with the server you can always reach me on Twitter.

April 19, 2020

• At 2:00pm, baker.txt was set to premiere at 5:00.
• At 5:00, baker.wmv premiered. Jadus describes meting with his friend Baker at a coffee shop just before the legally-mandated curfew. Baker tells Jadus that he must leave the city in the next few days to avoid an impending riot and the lockdown it will cause, and claims that top researchers are working on something he compares to the "mark of the beast." Jadus is initially skeptical, but eventually seems to understand. The video ends.
• At 5:11, methodsofrevolution's lock screen changed. It was now completely black and contained text that picks up from immediately after the end of the video. It reads:
  • He was all over the place, but I followed. I followed all of it. A lot had happened in the past year - in retrospect it was morbid how we just meandered from one once-in-a-generation scandal to the next in a lazy, indifferent haze. We were so caught up in making it to work on time, paying our bills, and buying the next big ticket item that those events barely registered for more than a week or two before we forgot all about it. But now half the country was unemployed, bills were frozen, and people prioritized essential food/supplies. This was probably the first time many of us really got the chance to stop and really think about the weight of these things and what kind of world we were living in. There really was a billionaire pedophile that ran uncontested for decades in our most elite circles, and we still hadn’t found his accomplices. We really were headed towards another Great Depression, and society as we knew it was beginning to crumble. And we really did spend way too much time at the office, and for what? Things were too fast paced to focus before, but now that we had nothing but time we realized that this was real. This was actually happening in our world. There’s a psychological barrier that many people have that refuse to allow them to accept terrible things happening in the world. It’s only when things become so in your face and undeniable that the barrier shatters - in many cases it was the lockdown that shattered it for many people. Now there were no bills to pay and we had no choice but to dwell on the truth. This was the first time that myself and many others were able to stop and realize the reality that we lived in. It was a shame that the riots were beginning to start this early, we might have had time to really organize a revolution. The riots in Seattle were emblematic of that, I’m sure. But now with the supply chain being disrupted in the Bible Belt, more would start, but for the wrong reasons. We were interrupted by the owner - the shop was closing soon, which meant we had only a few minutes to get back home before curfew. I stayed behind to use the restroom while Baker made his way to the exit. He paused in half-step out the door and turned to me, staring directly at me. “I am telling you, whatever they end up proposing. Don’t get it put in you.“ “No matter what they say, or what they tell you it’s for. “ “Don’t get it.” These specific memories fluttered back to me for some reason in a dreamlike fashion, I could recall them all vividly. Rather, it was the last poignant thing as I woke up on a cold tile floor on the 23rd of April.
• At 5:18, the following line was removed: "“I am telling you, whatever they end up proposing. Don’t get it put in you.“"

Methods of Revolution

Awaken the Second Player

April 23, 2020

• At 1:17pm, Awakening was set to premiere at 7:00pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel. Several changes took place during this time:
  • At 1:21, the title changed to Methods of Revolution [Part 1].
  • At 1:24, the title changed to Methods of Revolution [me/thod re;//].
  • At 1:29, the first tags appeared: Methods of Revolution, Part I, BEN Drowned, Awakening, Timelines, The Second Player, Abel
  • At 2:02, the title changed to Methods of Revolution [me/thod re;// Part 1].
  • At 2:11, more tags appeared: Jadusable, Alex Hall, Where is he?, Trapped, Purgatory
  • At 2:12, the title changed to Methods of Revolution [Prologue: Part 1].
  • At 2:38, the first thumbnail appeared.
  • At 4:32, the thumbnail was changed.
  • At 4:33, more tags appeared: Escape, How can I escape, Drowned, The Jailor
• At 1:24pm, the thumbnails changed for all videos from The Haunted Cartridge, as well as king kong.wmv and CHILDREN.wmv.
• At 7:00pm, Methods of Revolution [Prologue: Part 1] premiered. It shows the new "second player" waking up in a hotel room guarded by a mysterious jailer.
  • Shortly after the premiere, the title changed to Methods of Revolution [Part 1].

April 26, 2020

• Sometime on or prior to this day, Jadusable's YouTube channel updated to include a "Store" tab. Available for $14.99 via Teespring, the only item under this tab was a mug labeled "Theorizer's Corner".
  • The mug was available in five different colors: white, gray, black, pink, and teal.
  • The description read, "For those late nights of theory-crafting. Burn the midnight oil with your fellow internet gumshoes as no fringe theory is too far out of reach."

April 29, 2020

• Around 9:30am, Methods of Revolution [Day 3] was set to premiere at 6:30pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • As a result of this video's name, the previous video was re-titled to Methods of Revolution [Day 1].
  • At 9:50, the thumbnail and description were added. The new description reads, "A choice will be made."
  • At 10:10, the tags were changed. Notably, the word "Jailor" was changed to "Jailer."
• Around 5:45pm, methodsofrevolution.com's title changed to "Consensus" and its favicon changed to this.
• At 6:07, the video's description changed to "Make your choice at http://www.methodsofrevolution.com"
• At 6:30, Methods of Revolution [Day 3] premiered. It follows the events of the previous video, introducing a new character in the adjoining hotel room who is promptly taken by the Jailer for being too loud.
• At 6:35pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #6

4/29 Update - Exploring the Ethereal Hotel
April 29, 2020 at 6:35pm

Synopsis

Methods of Revolution [Day 1]

The dreams have stopped. You are awake now in a strange hotel room. How did you get here? What is this place? Where are you? All you have to go off of is a man over the radio calling himself Abel - who cryptically outlines the rules of this place for you. But can you even trust him? Time operates abnormally here and object permanence is not what it should be. What's more, there is an entity that unrelentingly patrols the hallways - only known as the Jailer at this point - that cannot be harmed, reasoned with, or destroyed by conventional means. It clearly must be avoided at all costs. In your starting room you notice that several items have been left behind by your predecessor. What could be the significance of these?

Methods of Revolution [Day 3]

It is becoming apparent that there is a wealth of information to be gained here that will shed light on your environment, the true nature of BEN, and even The Father itself, but in your short time here it will be impossible to discover it all. Sacrifices for progression must be made and the players must make the most of their decisions. What you decide to take with you is just as important as when you decide to leave. It is recommended players go back through the notes that the main character found to try and find any hints about the area you find yourself in, you can find the main character flipping through each page of notes in Methods of Revolution [Day 1].

Choosing Items

Should you decide to explore the hotel, without any kind of backpack you will only be able to take three items with you. The items you decide to take will determine your toolset and what you can find as you explore this ethereal hotel. These decisions will impact your story, survival chance, and what you are able to find. There are no wasted items or wrong choices here, but some items will naturally have more use than others. Items will automatically be used if the appropriate situation presents itself without prompt by the consensus (i.e. if the main character encounters a dimly lit room and has chosen to bring the flash light, they will automatically use it). You can find more information about the items and their potential uses by hovering over them individually on the Methods of Revolution website.

Player Consequence

In this phase, it is extremely important to note that the main character can die - and with their death any potential new information to be gained from this part of the story will be lost forever. The likelihood of the main character surviving to the end is low, as it cannot be overstated enough the danger that lies outside of the room. It is critical to remember that you are in a completely foreign environment with no idea what to expect. All you know is that you are safe in your current room, someone new has appeared in the room adjacent to you on Day 3, and then was subsequently snatched by a mysterious entity. But if players have a calm and prudent consensus that can analyzes their environment, use clues from past videos, and have a keen eye for detail, the main character will at least have the best chance at navigating the hotel, avoiding the Jailer, and reaching the top floor.

However, staying within your established parameters is also a valid choice. Your safest place is in your starting room and will guarantee the main character's survival. If you choose to venture outside, your first destination will be a pre-determined attempt to reach the second floor. If you are successful, a floor plan will be made available to you that you can then plan your routes carefully as you explore the hotel.

Voting Period

Because these items are important for determining the entire direction of this part of the story, the voting will not begin immediately - this gives each player ample time to discuss among themselves and weigh the pros and cons of each value of the potential items. It is important for any one group to not monopolize discussion and to do their best to hear out all possible viewpoints. Failure to work together will almost certainly spell doom for the survival of the main character. A vote will be called 24 hours after this post goes up in which the consensus will decide on the three items to bring and the day in which the main character leaves his room (or if they choose to leave at all).

Discord

We've reached over 1150 active members on our Discord! Viewers that want to take a more active role in the story are encouraged to join the server to take part in the discussion and debate on which items to take, as well as theorize and analyze clues. The story can obviously still be enjoyed as a passive viewer, but taking a more active role in the ARG helps to get the most out of the experience. As a reminder, be kind to each other and respect rules + moderation staff. There will be a lot of newer players wanting to join in and contribute theories of their own, so let's do our best to encourage them. It bares repeating that this part of the story is a blank slate, so everyone will be on even footing here - everyone's ideas are just as valid no matter how long you've been following the story.

Next Chapter: Methods of Revolution [Day 11]

• At 6:40, methodsofrevolution.com was unlocked again. The main page now contained a photo of the hotel desk and its contents, with descriptions for each item attached. A choice will need to be made in the near future.
  • The author "Find Your Method" was renamed to "Guide".

April 30, 2020

Jadusable's new avatar

• Around 6:30am, Jadusable's YouTube avatar changed to Guide's Within Hubris avatar, formerly used by Insidiae on youshouldnthavedonethat.net.
  • By this time, operation of both Jadusable's YouTube channel and methodsofrevolution.com have been attributed to Guide, in much the same role he took on Within Hubris during Moon Children. Due to these events coinciding with the usage of Jadusable's Patreon to vote on options presented via methodsofrevolution.com, it is commonly accepted that Guide is responsible for the Patreon posts, under the guise of "Alex Hall". From this point forward, Patreon posts containing story-related decisions will be labeled as such. The results of each poll are included.
• At 6:30pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #7 (Poll #1)

4/30 Update - What Items Do You Choose?
April 30, 2020 at 6:30pm

The top three winners of this poll will determine the items that the main character takes with them going forward. For more information on what each item's purpose is, visit http://www.methodsofrevolution.com

• Radio (36)
• Flashlight (97)
• Notepad and Pen (134)
• Knife (77)
• Rustic Song Book (71)
• Holy Bible (35)
• Model Head (82)

Attached image: IMG_6459.00_06_40_01.Still002.jpg

May 2, 2020

• At 5:39pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #8 (Poll #2)

5/3 Update - When will you first leave your room?
May 2, 2020 at 5:39pm

In the final decision before the story continues, when do you decide to leave your room? This decision impacts the progression of the next video and carries a much bigger risk than choosing which items to take - this is the first choice in the story that can impact the mortality of the MC. The day schedule is not meant to be 1:1 to our world, and is instead on a 7 day cycle. only influencing the date of when the next video takes place.

The last video ended on the third day. The winning day is when the next video takes place.

For example - if Day 5 is the winning vote, the MC will spend two more nights in the room before leaving on the fifth day. If Stay wins, the MC will wait out the entire week in the room.

• Day 1 (1%)
• Day 2 (1%)
• Day 3 (2%)
• Day 4 (3%)
• Day 5 (1%)
• Day 6 (69%)
• Day 7 (3%)
• Stay (21%)

May 9, 2020

• At 3:00pm, Methods of Revolution [Day 6] was set to premiere at 6:00pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • At 3:40, the thumbnail appeared.
• At 6:00, Methods of Revolution [Day 6] premiered. It shows the second player's journey to the second floor after leaving his room, taking with him the notepad, flashlight, and model head.
• At 6:08, methodsofrevolution.com was locked. It displayed this map and the following text: "I just signed up for this... I can\'t really remember who I was before this. Where am I? What is this place?"
• At 6:31pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #9 (Poll #3)

5/9 Update - When will you leave the room?
May 9, 2020 at 6:31pm

Methods of Revolution [Day 6] -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM74MtnOi0k&feature=youtu.be

Grabbing a flashlight, a notepad, and a model head, you make your way to the second floor on Day 6 - encountering an even more bizarre environment in this seemingly deserted hotel. You can't help but think you hear voices coming from some of the rooms as you walk the empty hallway. You find another seemingly empty room - again appearing to be occupied by your predecessor. She's left behind a map as well as some additional notes for you - it appears that she was in the process of investigating different locations in the hotel before she was interrupted. What could she mean by these?

There's something outside preventing you from leaving today, so you will have to plan your escape on a different day. If you choose to leave you will have to select a location on the map to visit from here. What do you do?

• Day 1 (4)
• Day 2 (5)
• Day 3 (11)
• Day 4 (5)
• Day 5 (62)
• Day 6 (8)
• Day 7 (8)
• Stay (44)

Attached file: Image0(1).jpeg

May 10, 2020

• Sometime during the afternoon, the Store tab, and therefore the Theorizer's Corner mug, was removed from Jadusable's YouTube channel. It remains available for purchase via Teespring.

May 16, 2020

• At 1:44pm, Methods of Revolution [Day 11] was set to premiere at 6:30pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • Not including the original, which was added immediately, thumbnail changes took place at 1:50, 1:51, and 6:24.
• At 6:30, Methods of Revolution [Day 11] premiered. It shows the second player's final moments as he leaves the room on the second floor before being terminated by the Jailer. Three days pass, and on day 14, a third player is introduced. She wakes up in the second's old room and is contacted by an upset Abel.
• Shortly after the premiere, methodsofrevolution.com's lock screen updated to The Father with his eyes closed. The text was removed.
• At 7:09pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #10

5/16 Update - The Death of the MC
May 16, 2020 at 7:09pm

Methods of Revolution [Day 11]

Synopsis

The MC has chosen to leave on Day 11, ultimately falling victim to the roaming Jailer. In his final moments, players watching through the MC's eyes saw a bizarre digitization effect while the screen cut to familiar static. What could this signify?

As we jump ahead several days, we see a young woman wake up in the same room that the MC briefly inhabited. She barely has time to gather her bearings before a frustrated Abel appears on the radio to admonish her. The MC had managed to safely make it to the second floor, but further attempts to traverse the hotel met with failure. What could be missing from the equation and what will this new character decide to do differently?

As the discord server lights up with heated debate over the next course of action, a vote will be held at 12pm on Sunday to determine our new protagonist's next course of action.

The stakes have been raised, and caution must be exercised going forward.

Things to Keep in Mind

- It was possible, although unlikely, to complete this part of the story with just the original MC. Mistakes are anticipated - it's all part of the fun in figuring out the rules of this strange place. However it is important to be careful going forward - the amount of main characters is not infinite.

- The protagonists have subtle differences between them, personality wise.

- The Live Event of interfacing further with the Methods site is tied directly to progress made in the hotel, for story purposes.

- It is worth noting that Abel is his own character with his own motives and is not meant to be an out of character proxy. If his personality seems different after the death of the MC, there may be more to that.

- There will be an opportunity to recover MC's belongings from the second floor.

- When in doubt, don't be hasty.

Next Chapter: Methods of Revolution [Day 21]

Previous Chapter: Exploring the Ethereal Hotel

May 17, 2020

• At 1:33pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #11 (Poll #4)

5/17 Update - What day will you leave?
May 17, 2020 at 1:33pm

What will you decide? Things to keep in mind:

- The day schedule is not meant to be 1:1 to our world, and is instead on a 7 day cycle. only influencing the date of when the next video takes place.

- It was possible, although unlikely, to complete this part of the story with just the original MC. Mistakes are anticipated - it's all part of the fun in figuring out the rules of this strange place. However it is important to be careful going forward - the amount of main characters is not infinite.

- The protagonists have subtle differences between them, personality wise.

- The Live Event of interfacing further with the Methods site is tied directly to progress made in the hotel, for story purposes.

- It is worth noting that Abel is his own character with his own motives and is not meant to be an out of character proxy. If his personality seems different after the death of the MC, there may be more to that.

- There will be an opportunity to recover MC's belongings from the second floor.

- When in doubt, don't be hasty now.

• Day 1 (2)
• Day 2 (1)
• Day 3 (2)
• Day 4 (6)
• Day 5 (1)
• Day 6 (20)
• Day 7 (5)
• Stay (159)

The Truth

May 23, 2020

• At 9:40am, Methods of Revolution [Day 21] was set to premiere at 6:00pm on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • Not including the original, which was added immediately, thumbnail changes took place at 5:35, 5:36, 5:38, 5:44, 5:47, 5:48, 5:49, two at 5:50, 5:51, 5:52, and 5:58.
• At 6:00, Methods of Revolution [Day 21] premiered. It shows our new player waking up in a newly-cleaned and furnished room. She gets out of bed and is greeted via phone by Abel, who informs her that her entertainment set has arrived: a Nintendo 64 and the same copy of Majora's Mask that Jadusable had once played. She loads up the game and reveals her name: Sarah.
  • Throughout the video, several QR codes can be seen. See the video's page for more information.
• At the same time, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #12

5/23 Update - Methods of Revolution [Day 21]
May 23, 2020 at 6:00pm

Methods of Revolution [Day 21]

Synopsis

You have chosen to obey and stay in your hotel room, and sure enough your safety was guaranteed. What's more, it appears that you've been given an opportunity to play a mysterious Nintendo 64 game with the promise of "more entertainment" on the way. Abel swears that no harm will come to you as long as you stay within the confines of your room, and the opportunities arrive to delve deeper into this familiar cartridge. Who knows, maybe some long lost answers will be finally uncovered the deeper you delve into the fabled Haunted Majora's Mask game. This is just a viable path as deciding to leave your room an explore the hotel - albeit much less dangerous.

However.

Time is ticking, the more time you spend going deeper within the cartridge chasing BEN, the less time time you will have to interact with events that happen in the "real world" and vice versa. The further you pursue BEN the more information you will uncover about the original 2010 phenomena, while the further you explore the hotel bigger elements will be at play. There are time-sensitive opportunities in both worlds and while an immediate choice is not required at this time - there will eventually be a point where the community will have to decide to pursue one lead or the other.

A vote will take place tonight and last until tomorrow at 8pm EST for the next course of action.

Next Chapter: Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv]

Previous Chapter: Methods of Revolution [Day 11]

• At 8:00pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #13 (Poll #5)

5/23 - Do you pursue BEN or do you undercover the mystery of the hotel?
May 23, 2020 at 8:00pm

Both are valid options, and both will further the story. However it comes down to a matter of priorities. What answers do you truly seek?

• Explore the Haunted Cartridge (83%)
• Explore the Hotel (17%)

May 26, 2020

• At 10:56am, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #14

Community Update
May 26, 2020 at 10:56am

I wanted to take this time to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone - not just our patrons - but everyone following along. Making this project has been a ton of fun and has brought up old nostalgic emotions that I haven't felt in almost a decade. It's been surreal to revisit this world again and exciting to finally bring it to a conclusion. I've always been interested in telling stories through transmedia narratives and I hope that the upcoming decisions the playerbase will have to make between the two worlds will be exciting. As you might have been able to deduce by the past four weekends, Saturday's around 6pm EST are typically when new content is posted.

Viewer Agency

My original vision with BEN Drowned in 2010 was to try to have the reader themselves be as much of a character in the story as the actual written characters - especially in the ARG portion - but with hundreds of thousands of active participants a common complaint I kept hearing was that viewers felt more like passive observers than actual players with agency. It was a challenge to choose which video responses would be accepted, which user submissions would progress the story, and issues arose in chat room discussions that became so massive that it would just amount to spam, etc.

It has been fascinating to compare and contrast this almost ten years later with the new (and returning) playerbase, and my hope is that it has created a stronger community. In a lot of ways the smaller scale has been a blessing this time around and gives more agency to the players. I believe it adds a more personal investment to the story and hopefully that results in players feeling as though they have a little more say in the story's direction. Seeing old faces return from 2010 and reunite means there's a little bit more comradery and seeing discussions take place in the discord means debates are a little more organized. It is my hope that this smaller scale allows for more coherent community discussion, debate, and overall enjoyment. We're trying out a few different things to help facilitate discussion so that everyone has a voice - one such example is presenting a story choice but withholding the actual decision making process on it for at least 24 hours to allow time for all sides to be heard.

r/Jadusable Subreddit

Because you all have come up with some incredible theories (some on the nose enough to even make me nervously tug at my shirt collar) we've also opened up a subreddit to post more intricate theories, memes, fanart, and other pieces related to the ARG if the Discord is moving too fast for you or if you're tired of copy/pasting the same long-form theories. You can find it at:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Jadusable/

The use of this subreddit is optional, but just like the discord it definitely helps enhance the experience and continues to foster the great community we have.

No system is perfect, of course, but in terms of establishing you - the players - as actual characters with agency in this story I'm excited to see what comes out of this.

Creating The Community

The wonderful byproduct of this is that even though the world outside is filled with uncertainty, I'm glad we've been able to create a fun community with a story that helps give entertainment to so many people. I personally love watching people in the discord or reading the subreddit - looking at all of the theorycrafting going on and friendships being made. The memes are incredible (especially the JoJo ones and the cheesy top 10 youtube compilations are among my favorite) and I've even seen some cool gaming friendships being made. As always, the discord and subreddit are works in progress and if you need to reach me for any moderation concerns please do not hesitate to me on Twitter

Patreon Engagement

It is also important to say that even though this may be antithetical to raising money on Patreon - in these turbulent times please do not pledge more than you are comfortably able to. Pledging is optional - this has and always will be a tip jar if you've enjoyed the original BEN Drowned story or if you're having fun following along with the Awakening finale. There are a lot of uncertainties in the world right now, and I'm grateful that we are able to provide a fun and engaging distraction, but I don't want anyone feeling like they have to go hungry to see this through. The amount of money we raise here helps recruit additional talent and expand the scope of the project, but is ultimately not necessary for its completion. The story will still be completed even if this Patreon doesn't raise a single cent more. Pledges made here go to support the content creator and show appreciation for the entertainment, and for that I am deeply, deeply humbled and grateful for each and every one of you. I am so, so thankful for any amount that you choose to give - not only does it help the story but like many of you income stability is most certainly not the name of the game right now during this lockdown.

We are working on additional benefits to throw your way, including a fun behind-the-scenes video that will be available to everyone once this is all said and done.

And something... extra... planned for next April.

Until next time,

Alex

Thank you to:

Alex, Alex A., Amy C., Arhena R., Ben P., Carnel G. -THE- CircleHunter, Daniel S., Dexter W., Ena, Eric P., Evan L., Evan S., Fran M., Gavin, ith me bin, James B., Jerry M., Joebotnik, Julie M., Kara D., Keyla, Koli X., Lizard L., Luna B., Neil F., Nick S., Nikki H., Rhys, RocketDogShawn, Ryan G., Shylenced, Smilecat98, Starryscreams, Stryder, supermariozelda, Sydney, Tara B., Taykenbystorm, Throfax13, Tikibuns, Vivianne V., Vizmo Films, YTSatrun

May 30, 2020

• At 11:46am, a change to methodsofrevolution.com's title was discovered: riot.txt.
  • At 2:43pm, "riot.mp3" was discovered by placing it in the site's URL.
• At 2:37pm, Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv] was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • Its description originally contained the text, "Jadus' journal to update upon premiere: methodsofrevolution.com". This was removed after the premiere.
  • Not including the original, which was added immediately, thumbnail changes too place at 3:47, 5:49 (back to the original), 5:51, 5:53, 5:55, 5:56, 5:57, 5:59, and 6:00.
• At 6:00, Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv] premiered. It shows Sarah exploring the haunted cartridge, encountering an unconscious Happy Mask Salesman before being taken to a safer place by a seemingly-friendly entity calling itself Ben. Ben requests for Sarah to play him a song, and the video ends, leaving a choice to be made.
• At 6:04, methodsofrevolution.com was opened. The main page contained an audio player labeled "Scanner" at the top of the screen, which played riot.mp3. Below was the aforementioned "Jadus' journal," titled "[riot.txt]", and at the bottom, a section called "Records" which contained no text. The riot.txt text reads:
  • To the disbelief of the entire world, the riots in Seattle had reached a precipice and the city began to devolve into full anarchy. There was no hiding it. No amount of spin could soften it. It turned out the revolution wouldn’t just be televised, it would be live-streamed through a million smart devices. Like a virus, these riots began to spread across the country at an alarming rate – more contagious than even the worst case of H.E.R.O.E.S. – and suspiciously well-coordinated. Everyone had their theories – some thought it was the tipping point of civil unrest, others thought they were foreign actors, some still even attributed them to a doomsday cult. They were organized agents of chaos and it became plainly obvious that whatever they were, they were effective.
    
    Soon after Baker turned out to be right, the supply chain was routed and the riots had reached Saint Louis.
    
    It was 1:10am and just like the night before I couldn’t sleep. It didn’t seem like anyone could – a deep heartache weighed on the chest of every American as we stayed glued to our screens, watching as city after city devolves into chaos. Unrecognizable chaos. It was haunting enough when the rioting was contained to a few states out west – we had had those before – but the rate that it spread shocked everyone. Everyone seemed to be so keen to cheer on a revolution until it came to their doorstep. It was a reality show from hell – before my eyes I was watching an on-demand dissolution of my own country being live-streamed to the world. A police scanner in the background was all that kept me company in my dimly lit room. There was something oddly soothing about hearing it bark at me, regardless of each new development, steadily rocking me to my core. When I was young my dad and I used to stay up late and listen along with a scanner while we pretended to be detectives, listening in for the next big crime to solve. It was a familiar comfort I had in a deeply foreign time.
    
    I stopped watching the news when it became abundantly clear during the riots that their objective wasn’t the preservation of our country, but rather it was in their best interests to prolong them – even incite them. It had become routine for them in the past few years to add theater to pieces to gain more traction, as the advent of readily accessible internet personality journalism made it hard for the main networks to compete.
    
    One of the most devastating things in American society was how dogged our media was in trying to convince both sides that America was a failing autocratic state. With no great enemy to fight we resorted to demonizing the other half of our own country. It started as a light flame but over time more and more kerosene was added by way of outrage mobs, terrorist attacks, misleading news, and sensationalism. It could be my naivety, but even after all this time I still don’t think the media networks had overly malicious intentions. I don’t think they had any idea how systematically destructive it would prove to be to our country. I just think they were thinking short term – looking for immediate gratification like everyone else. Outrage and negativity clearly tracked better and got more clicks than facts and logic. The more outrageous and theatrical, the more people would tune in. The cauldron was bubbling over and H.E.R.O.E.S. was one of the final ingredients added – the last thing this country needed was to stew in isolation for months on end, inundated with a constant barrage of inflammatory propaganda meant to fracture families. America may have turned most of its back on God, but Religion itself never left – we replaced spirituality with rampant consumerism as an outlet for our fervor. Our deity became the brands that provided this gratification and now we had reached the flames of the altar. These factors all combined together to raise a weak generation of aimless men and women. If I was going to survive, I would have to rise above this
    
    It’s hard to believe someone like me would take this kind of position, but it became clearer after the coffee shop meeting and the rapidly changing world around us. Baker’s words stayed with me and I began to second guess everything, maybe for the first time ever.
    
    It could have been anything that finally set us off, but for us, it was a shooting that ultimately sent us careening overboard. People were looking for anything to justify their anger.
    
    After the shooting, I saw leaders attempt to rise to quell their communities. They were heroes, without question, and their speeches were some of the most empowering I had ever heard. They spoke with a burning passion for their communities, for justice, for peace. But the division that had been sewn in this country for decades had reached critical mass and I couldn’t help but feel these powerful words fall onto deaf ears.
    
    How many times have we found ourselves in this position of in-fighting? How many times has this exact same scenario played out? It was the same old story in America it seemed and we couldn’t help but continue to be stuck in this loop. Same problem, new decade. Was this just an inevitability? Or was this the final one? Historically it has been speculated that the level of social unrest emulates the Gini index of wealth inequality, and since H.E.R.O.E.S. this disparity had increased tenfold. But it seemed like it was obvious who the real culprits were – you’d think that in this digital age of information it should have been easy for the average person to see. The billionaires they hated so much had made an immense profit off of the nation while millions were left unemployed and the wealth divide had never been greater. But there-in lies the problem – it requires much more planning to face an existential threat like that. It’s much easier and immediate to attack your neighbor as long as you can be convinced that he has some slight culpability to your suffering.
    
    Is it just an immutable fact that it’s impossible to organize the many against the few? At this point it was a waste of effort to dwell on these questions because the time for playing political whack-a-mole to assign blame had long since passed. Cities were burning and Maslow decreed that I shift focus to my immediate preservation. There will be a time to fight back, but now is the time for survival. As chaos filtered throughout the country, it became abundantly transparent that we could not rely on the government to protect it’s citizens anymore.
    
    Fortunately, there was still time. Time to pick up the last few things I needed and meet Baker outside the city.
    
    There were other people I tried to reach as Baker reached me, but I proved to be much less persuasive. People were skeptical – to the point of complete resistance – to even the notion of entertaining that kind of radical change was possible. Reality was just above the surface, beckoning to those entrenched in the belief that the status quo could be reestablished. There’s no way our life will ever change – the Roman farmer says.
    
    I was no hero and I couldn’t blame them – there were so many ways I felt completely overwhelmed and ill-equipped at the prospect of surviving on my own. But the alternative was to wait and relinquish any agency I had left to chance. If I approached it one day at a time it became much more manageable. The tools that I used to complain about invading my privacy could be wielded to help me escape. I had given up arguing about politics online and scrubbed my old accounts as best as I could to make myself appear as vanilla as possible. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask – in the end it was an irrelevant debate and not worth the loss of friends and family over. Likewise, I wasn’t sure who I’d run into and I wanted to be as agreeable and unremarkable as possible to anyone I’d encounter – I didn’t need to invent extra reasons for people to be wary of me.
    
    I would follow the rest of Baker’s tenets as well. I would make a point to avoid gatherings and protests – just as much as there is strength in numbers there is also incredible vulnerability. A 100-strong protest will not be sizably strengthened by the addition of just one more member, yet my own personal risk goes up exponentially if I join up with a mob. I was no hero, and certainly had no desire to be a martyr – I would have to make a point to not stand out unless absolutely necessary. I would make more of an effort to pursue physical strength – in retrospect I still contend that the greatest trick on the modern man was making him assume that being strong and intellectual were mutually exclusive qualities and that one would negate the other.
    
    The remaining social media account I had – Snapchat – was used as a bootleg news aggregate. One of the app’s standout features was the geo-locating service called SnapMap – it allowed participants to see a heat map of the immediate area of users uploading content in real-time. The stronger the heat signature, the more active the users. And too many of them could not help but broadcast every waking moment – rioting included – through portrait mode. I could see where they were and what the group was doing right down to the street corners. Even if I did trust the news media at this point, I was still at least ten to fifteen minutes ahead of any attempt at breaking news they could muster about how the riots were evolving. I made a point to load as many podcasts, books on tape, and offline media onto my smartphone because once I had reunited with Baker, I would disable the phone’s network functionality and switch over to my prepaid clamshell from here on out. The prospect of phantom pain from losing my phone seemed to already unnerve me, but I managed without it before and I can learn to do it again.
    
    Once the riots started to increase in intensity around the country Baker once again reached out to me – this time via encrypted email. One last desperate attempt to get me to see reason, I suppose. He swore to me that there would be a massive false flag attack on our country if the damage got to be too great – something to unite us against a common enemy in our eleventh hour. It wouldn’t be the real enemy that got us into this mess, he claimed, but it would be “enough” of an enemy to get us to stop fighting each other at least. It sounded absolutely insane to me, but his statements reverberated through the fog around me, I had to once again pause and look at reality. The world had already changed so much and I already was such a far cry from my persona a year ago – an aimless man sitting in a coffee shop preoccupied with pointless suburban gossip – that I was through second guessing him at this point.
    
    But we as humans are nothing if not adaptable.

May 31, 2020

• At 5:56pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #15 (Poll #6)

5/31 - Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv]
May 31, 2020 at 5:56pm

Methods of Revolution [Ben.wmv]

Sypnosis

Upon launching the old cartridge, Sarah travels to a world that hasn't been touched by human hands for years - the old Majora's Mask game is nigh unrecognizable at this point. After creating a file, she's thrust into a broken world without even so much as a tutorial. It's an unremarkable forest found deep within the game's code, much outside of the original game's boundaries. As she explores the area, the only thing she is able to find is the body of the dead Happy Mask Salesman. Moving to investigate it, the ground begins to shake as corrupted version of the moon bears down upon her. Running away frantically, she reaches the edge of the stage and falls through the ground - landing in a limbo between-the-code briefly explored in CHILDREN.wmv and THE FATHER.wmv.

There, a character calling himself Ben, reaches out to her in the cartridge and brings her to his own version of the forest she just escaped from. There, he communicates to her briefly and implies something that is a startling revelation to the players before prompting her to play a song to him. However, before Sarah is able to interact further, Abel interrupts the game in the real world and resets something , which as also happens to open up a path to http://www.methodsofrevolution.com.

Players could then modify the URL path to find hidden pages of various characters from previous arcs, including Ben, Jadusable, and other prominent characters from the first and second arcs. Data here has been scattered across multiple binary encoding schemes - needing to be translated by the theorists on the discord and subreddit. Meanwhile, Sarah has returned to the game and has another decision to make.

This additional decision will need to be made in two parts. This first poll will run for 48 hours to collect votes, and based on that course of action a follow up poll will be made as to what specific action you take. If you choose to explore the hotel you will have to vote on where to go or what to do. If you choose to continue to play, you will have to decide which song to play for Ben - if you choose to at all.

For this first choice of whether to stay in the game or explore the hotel, the same principles apply as last time. Both are valid options and both will further the story. However it comes down to a matter of priorities. What answers do you truly seek?

Next Chapter: The Truth

Previous Chapter: Methods of Revolution [Day 21]

• Stay in the game (158)
• Explore the hotel (18)

June 5, 2020

• At 12:00pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #16 (Poll #7)

What song will you play?
June 5, 2020 at 12:00pm

What song will you choose to play for Ben?

• Song of Storms (22)
• Song of Healing (148)
• Sun's Song (7)
• Reverse Song of Healing/Saria's Song (49)
• Epona's Song (10)
• Sonata of Awakening (16)
• Song of Soaring (7)

June 7, 2020

• At 2:17pm, Alex Hall tweeted the following: "After careful consideration of US events, and with this update containing an intense video sequel to riot.txt/baker.txt, we're going to hold off on having an update this weekend as to not pour any more gas on the fire. Never thought I'd be saying this back in January."

June 13, 2020

• At 7:30pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #17

6/13 OOC Update - Regarding Current Events
June 13, 2020 at 7:30pm

In an effort to distance myself from the cold, corporate "brand stands in solidarity" type posts regarding the protests across the country right now, I'm going to simply lay out how this will impact the story going forward without getting too political.

I came to the very difficult decision to postpone updates for these two weeks, at the risk of losing the great momentum we built up these past few months, and to resume the story on June 21st. It was an incredibly difficult decision to make but I feel it is ultimately the right one with sensitivity to the protests. Without going into too many spoilers, Jadus' timeline is meant to be just as much of a warning as it is an entertaining story. It is a tumultuous time for our country - I never anticipated that it would come as quick as it did - but it is here now and we have to adapt accordingly.

Given that Jadus' world is a timeline in which America collapses due largely in part to manipulated media radicalizing and encouraging destabilization, I feel as though it would be hypocritical of me to update this storyline when widespread rioting is happening across the country. Even though this story was planned out months ago - the lines between reality and fiction are getting a little blurred - and I don't want this next update to be misconstrued as being opportunistic. As I said last week, I believe it would be pouring gas on the fires going on right now - especially since this next update was set to center around elaborating more on Jadus' story as well as the origins of BEN. Granted, even though my audience is no where near the size of something like CNN, I feel in this current political climate we need people - now more than ever - to stand by their ideals and tell uncomfortable truths, even at the risk of being impacted financially.

I want you to know that while your support is incredibly appreciated and it is so humbling to receive - I am not entitled to it and I am fine with anyone to looking at the content output this month and opting to adjust their pledge accordingly. Again, the Patreon serves as a great tip jar and has some special things at the end for those who donate, but it is not required to see the story through - I don't want anyone to feel like it's an obligation. I'm just sincerely grateful for all of the support, the response to this has been a huge surprise and has helped me improve the quality of a few aspects of this story. I've received questions on if I will re-evaluate the story or rewrite some of it in light of current events and the answer is no. I've made the decision to stay true to my original vision, the story I want to tell, and the message I want to send out - even if it might be a little uncomfortable or controversial to hear. Looking ahead to next week, waiting until June 21st gives enough space for other voices to be heard, and I would urge you to wait until then before evaluating your pledge as we'll be combining two updates worth of content into that Sunday to make up for lost time.

We do have somewhat of a schedule to keep, after all.

Thank you, and stay safe out there.

June 21, 2020

• At 6:47pm, The Truth.wmv was set to premiere at 8:30.
  • The thumbnail was added at 6:57, then changed again within the same minute.
  • At 7:00, the tag "Behavioral Event" was added.
• At 8:30, The Truth.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah playing the Song of Healing to Ben, healing his soul and allowing him to give her the truth about those that came before her. She receives a new power and sets out to defeat the Father inside the cartridge.

June 22, 2020

• At 6:04pm, Methods of Revolution [The Truth.wmv] was set to premiere at 7:30.
  • The thumbnail was added at 6:05.
  • The tags were discovered at 6:13.
• At 7:30, Methods of Revolution [The Truth.wmv] premiered. It shows the aftermath of Sarah's gameplay from The Truth.wmv, in which Abel contacts her and informs her that the AI within the cartridge are in fact formerly human, digitized and given set parameters to act within, and that they have become nearly sentient. He tells her that he will come to retrieve the cartridge soon.

June 23, 2020

• At 6:06pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #18 (Poll #8)

6/23 Update - The Truth
June 23, 2020 at 6:06pm

The Truth.wmv

Synopsis

After a startling revelation of inside the cartridge, Sarah is immediately interrupted by a rather animated Abel. He explains the origins of Ben - a boy who’s soul was forcefully digitized into a rudimentary machine learning network named BEN, but he has somehow retained some form of sentience. Going outside of his initial parameters one last time, he has sent the player character back to the cartridge’s state in 2010 - before Jadusable touched it - to make things right. If you take Abel words at face value, the enigmatic voice Seems to claim that you are now done with the cartridge and his little experiment is over, encouraging Sarah to wait around for another simulated experiment.

He seems rather adamant to get his hands on the cartridge for some reason. This choice will dramatically impact the story moving forward.

Next Chapter: The Last Hero

Previous Chapter: Methods of Revolution [BEN.wmv]

• Continue playing, trying to set things right within the game? (169)
• Wait in your room for Abel to remove the cartridge (11)
• Escape (64)

June 25, 2020

• At 12:08pm, Alex Hall uploaded Ben's Theme to Jadusable's YouTube channel.
  • At 12:12, he tweeted the following: Ben's Theme was composed by having a deep learning AI take an existing Legend of Zelda song (Song of Healing) and predicted a pattern derivative to compose an extension of it. Thank you @OpenAI and @elonmusk for giving amazing tools to content creators."

The Last Hero

Settling the Score

June 26, 2020

• Sometime prior to 6:30pm, the thumbnail for Methods of Revolution [Day 11] was changed to a shot of the desk.

June 28, 2020

Jadusable's new avatar

• At 2:34pm, The Last Hero.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The thumbnail and tags were already present, though the thumbnail changed very briefly at 5:48 to Link shooting Odolwa. It changed back after just a few seconds.
• Around 4:30, Jadusable's YouTube avatar changed to the Adult Link mask.
• At 6:00, The Last Hero.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah, now controlling Link in his adult form due to the mask acquired in The Truth.wmv, exploring Clock Town and interacting with NPCs. She goes into the Clock Tower and is told by the potion seller, an NPC not normally found in Majora's Mask, that the world inside the cartridge is far darker than she realizes and asks for her help to settle the score with the Father. Seemingly in agreement, she leaves and is attacked by two Odolwas. She defeats them and leaves for the observatory.

June 29, 2020

• At 12:47pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #19

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Last Hero.wmv Reaction
June 29, 2020 at 12:47pm

In an effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual gameplay or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI. Patrons (of any tier) will be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

We're still working out some kinks on the method of delivery of these videos, so bare with us, and if you have any feedback/concerns/criticism please don't hesitate to reach out to me here or on Twitter @AlexanderDHall.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and we're entirely grateful for your support.

• At 2:22pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #20

6/29 Update - The Last Hero
June 29, 2020 at 2:22pm

The Last Hero.wmv

Synopsis

Sarah - now armed with a mask containing the memories and strength of Ben, Jadusable, and others who have been forcibly digitized into the cartridge - travels back in the game world before the events of 2010 in an attempt to stop The Father once and for all. Arriving in Clock Town, she finds the game completely uncorrupted - a far cry from the glitched hellscape she escaped from. By some miracle, the hard reset had worked and seemingly everything has gone back to normal.

However, something is amiss as she explores the town and realizes that some of the NPCs are displaying acute symptoms of self awareness. Curiously, she explores the town and makes her way into the Clock Tower where she finally encounters Matt - who somehow exists outside the boundaries of the normal game and was unaffected by her returning to the past. Sarah learns that those who are digitized into the game are forced into inhabiting the bodies of different assets in the cartridge. While most of the NPCs in this game have very little autonomy - even their traumatic deaths that led to the doomed world that Sarah escaped from quickly becomes a hazy memory and then forgotten - there are those who are trapped in this particular cartridge that are most certainly not originally NPCs.

In Ben's unfortunate case, he was a child wanting to be the hero of his favorite game, but was digitized into the elegy statue. The elegy is a cruel rendition of the actual hero of Majora's Mask - Link - that can neither speak nor move freely. Worse yet, however, he remained entirely conscious during this duration even if he could not control himself - he was trapped in a fate worse than death.

Matt, whether by fortune or by some other yet unrevealed means, was able to inhabit an NPC that could communicate and had enough knowledge to be able to summon Ben on demand to prove his point. He then tells her that her predecessor Jadusable - in his "bull in a china shop" approach of glitching the game as much as he could - managed to trigger an anomaly in Ben to give him some semblance of free will again. Why Ben used this opportunity to pursue and try and scare Jadusable is left up for the reader to theorize, but between his natural curiosity and the new-found attention he was getting online by documenting what was happening - Jadusable kept poking and prodding at the cartridge more and more, breaking it down even further until he eventually met The Father and was digitized himself.

Matt then asks Sarah, and by extension the players, if they had found anything of note that could disrupt a simulation - possibly bringing an end to this digital nightmare for good. Unfortunately, during the exploration phase of the hotel, not enough information was discovered to unearth any kind of lead in that regard. Dejected but refusing to give up, the two then resolve to do things the hard way and battle The Father in his own plane of existence. Armed with the mask that contains the memories and strength of Ben, Jadusable, and all of those that came before, Matt believes it might not be a completely impossible endeavor especially if they attempt the 4th Day Glitch to give this version of Ben autonomy again. Of course, it would stand to reason that doing so would also help to further unshackle The Father as well.

Their conservation is then interrupted by The Father, who has become aware of Sarah and her mask's anomalous presence. Although weaker compared to his fully corrupted form encountered by Jadusable at game's end - he still is able to exert an incredible amount of influence over this simulated world. Wasting little time, Sarah leaves the Clock Tower and faces down the first of The Father's invading forces. With the mask channeling the rage and power of the souls that have been locked away for decades, Sarah is able to almost effortlessly dispatch the two enemy swordsman and makes her way to East Clock Town.

Whatever compelled Abel in the real world to change his tune and instead immediately come to get the cartridge sets off warning bells in Sarah's mind. Something tells her that to stop playing the game here would mean losing this opportunity permanently.

Story Choice

A poll will be published at 6pm EST tonight and, depending on the winning choice, another poll will be published the following day to determine a further course of action. It is imperative to look back at all the clues thus far - even consult the original diaries of Jadusable as to what he did or didn't do - because remember, the game world has been reset to the point right when Jadusable first started playing.

At this point, Sarah's life is held in the hands of the community - she is the last hero that can stop The Father.

Next Chapter: The Moon Children

Previous Chapter: The Truth

• At 6:00pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #21 (Poll #9)

Do you stay in the cartridge or escape the hotel?
June 29, 2020 at 6:00pm

Read the plot synopsis of the previous video before voting.

Do you stay in the cartridge to fight against impossible odds to defeat The Father to free Ben, Jadusable, and the others or do you unplug from the game in an attempt to navigate and escape the hotel that you're trapped in?

Once this choice has been locked in, a follow up poll will be made with additional options of where to go from there.

WARNING: This choice represents the point of no return for the story and will dramatically impact the endings that players can receive. Regardless of which choice is selected, this will put players on a direct track to the final conclusion of the BEN Drowned story.

• Stay in the cartridge to stop The Father (179)
• Make your way to escape the hotel (48)

June 30, 2020

• At 6:00pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #22 (Poll #10)

Where do you go in the cartridge?
June 30, 2020 at 6:00pm

With the decision made to stay in the cartridge to try and combat The Father, Sarah now has several choices to make. The top three choices will be the places that Sarah attempts to explore in the cartridge. Think back to the experiences that Jadusable had and his encounters there in the original 2010 story and what he could have done differently. Sarah and by extension the mask she wears has its own autonomy once she arrives in the chosen location, so players won't be able to micromanage her per say - only generally guide her direction.

It is important to note that you are not yet making a decision on if you are going to be attempting the 4th day glitch or not, this is an opportunity to gather information similar to the second phase of the story in the hotel, but be cautious - as The Father is very clearly aware of her presence.

• Stock Pot Inn/Explore Clock Town (174)
• Astral Observatory (21)
• Stone Tower Temple (26)
• Ikana Graveyard (75)
• Great Bay Coast (23)
• Snowhead Mountain (136)
• Romani Ranch (99)

July 3, 2020

• At 9:18am, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #23

Entering the Endgame
July 3, 2020 at 9:18am

The Last Hero.wmv

First of all, I never expected to receive this kind of support. This started as a glorified tip jar and I've been blown away by the support I've received. I'm truly blessed to have such a passionate group of awesome people participating alongside. You've shown me that you guys have a real passion for this story, its world, and its characters and I'm so excited to deliver the finale to you guys. I love seeing what the discord is up to, what the subreddit has theory-crafted, and the wonderful fan art you guys send me on twitter. The response and reception to this story has been amazing and I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. I'm in the middle of moving right now so there may be a delay for an update this week as things are a little hectic right now, but I will keep you all up to date on Twitter.

I'm sure you've noticed on the Patreon that there are various tiers of patron rewards - the BEN Distinction, Method Revolt, and Finale Role rewards (and obviously the Exceptional Supporter role goes without saying). These have been intentionally left vague at the beginning in March - and I'm sure you're starting to figure out some more context behind at least one of these three rewards now in July. These rewards will start rolling out in the story as the story moves to its conclusion - Sarah has become determined to free Ben and defeat The Father within the original haunted cartridge.

If you have ever been a patron of these tiers since the Patreon's inception, you will receive the reward - you do not have to be a current patron when the reward goes out. Meaning, if you've pledged $15 just for one month back in April, you will still receive the Method Revolt and BEN Distinction reward as it comes up in the story. If you are eligible for these rewards, you should have already received a message from me about needing more information from you to help fulfill the reward. If for some reason you slip through the cracks of Patreon's messaging system, please reach out to me by sending me a message on here.

As we're progressing now in the final updates, how long this phase lasts really comes down to player choice - from the road map I have laid out in my office, the earliest I can see this story concluding is in August and the latest is in September. So that means if you've been watching and want to participate to be eligible for a patron reward, or if you just want to chip in and show your support you should aim to get your pledges in before the end of July so they can be processed in time.

Looking forward to seeing this through until the end with you guys, it's been a long time coming.

July 11, 2020

See you all sunday.

• At 12:24am, Alex Hall tweeted an image of Sarah as Adult Link traversing the desert inside of Twinmold's boss arena, alongside the text, "See you all Sunday."

July 12, 2020

• At 10:22am, The Moon Children.wmv was set to premiere at 7:00pm.
  • The thumbnail and tags were already present. No changes occurred.
• At 7:00pm, The Moon Children.wmv premiered. It shows the beginning of Sarah's journey to the locations chosen by the players, in which she enters the Stock Pot Inn and retrieves one of four hearts left behind by the Moon Children. After being plunged into a town full of the dead, she escapes and makes her way toward Romani Ranch.

July 14, 2020

• At 5:58pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #24

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Moon Children.wmv Reaction
July 14, 2020 at 5:58pm

In an effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual gameplay or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

We're still working out some kinks on the method of delivery of these videos, so bare with us, and if you have any feedback/concerns/criticism please don't hesitate to reach out to me here or on Twitter @AlexanderDHall.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and we're entirely grateful for your support.

• At 6:13pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #25

7/12 Update - The Moon Children
July 14, 2020 at 6:13pm

The Moon Children.wmv

Synopsis

Sarah - guided by the consensus - delves deeper into the haunted cartridge and has a chance encounter with a mysterious child. Meanwhile The Father continues to slowly gain power over the world, beginning his corruption. The winning choices from the poll determined the consensus' direction in guiding Sarah's actions.

Stock Pot Inn was explored first, with Sarah ignoring the warning from the Moon Child she encountered there and opting to continue to follow them - going so far as to break through the boundaries that the game world had set up to impede her progress. With no other option left the game froze and hard reset itself to prevent Sarah from progressing further in chasing the Moon Child, but the damage was done - it's become readily apparent that whatever omnipotence The Father might have had before, it doesn't possess now. With clever planning and a keen eye for detail, it's possible to outsmart it in this timeline.

Undeterred, Sarah returns to the game to find that it had not only been reset back to the beginning of the day, but that The Father had turned the peaceful denizens of Clock Town into the undead in an attempt to get rid of her by force. It's limited influence was beginning to accelerate. Making her way back to the Inn, Sarah gathers the remains of the Moon Child and is informed by Matt that she needs three more to help free the other trapped souls within the cartridge. Guided by the consensus, Sarah opts to visit Romani Ranch and Snowhead Mountain next.

Due to a time sensitive event in the original game, Sarah chose to venture to Romani Ranch first, hoping to find something of value there.

The Moon Children.wmv reaction videos

Patrons of any tier get access to reaction videos of the premieres a day early. You should be able to see a Patron Only post with a link to this week's reaction video. Thank you to everyone who participated! For the newcomer patrons, thank you for your support! I will be reaching out to you depending on your selected tier at the beginning of August - once the July pledges are processed - to get any necessary information from you for your patron rewards.

Next Chapter: The Prisoner
Previous Chapter: The Last Hero

July 19, 2020

• At 10:37am, The Prisoner.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00pm.
  • The thumbnail and tags were already present. The thumbnail changed at 5:50 and 5:55 before returning to its original image at 5:56.
• At 6:00pm, The Prisoner.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah venturing to Romani Ranch and fighting Gomess to save the soul of Rosa, who has been trapped within Romani since 2010. She succeeds and is rewarded with the Pendant of Memories, a tool that will help to save the other Moon Children.
• Shortly after the end of the premiere, methodsofrevolution.com began updating. Several changes were found to existing pages, as well as new additions (the times of each change are unknown, but the last change occurred at 7:03pm):
  • "goht" contained this image
  • "gyorg" contained this image.
    • Note: The page ID was originally misspelled as "gryorg".
  • "pendantofmemories" contained this image.
  • "you" contained this image.
  • "gomess" contained this image. It also contained the text: "WHO AM I? WHO AM I? WHO AM I? you can’t get rid of me that easily"
  • "rosa" contained this image and the text "SAVED.".
    • A subpage titled "rosa/romani" contained the same image with a header simply reading "Romani"
  • "kelbris" changed to an image of BEN's distorted face and text was added reading "Almost there..."
  • "jadusable" changed; the ciphers were completely removed and replaced with a paragraph reading "Explore while you can. He’s still here. Do you think we just got rid of him? You’ll be seeing him soon."
  • "ben" changed; most of the text was removed, leaving the theme download link and the line about hide and seek.
  • "drowned" changed and now contained the phrase "DO YOU REALLY THINK I CAN’T FOLLOW YOU, THIS IS MY WORLD"
• At 7:25, new tags were added to Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines - Rosa: "vampire, the, masquerade, bloodlines, YOU SAVED HER"
• At 8:30, the thumbnails for BEN.wmv and DROWNED.wmv reverted to their original forms. The thumbnail for jadusable.wmv changed to a completely new image.

July 20, 2020

• The thumbnail for king kong.wmv was changed back to its original image, this time with the text "4.1.21" in the top left corner.

July 21, 2020

• At 3:41pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #26

7/21 Update - The Prisoner
July 21, 2020 at 3:41pm

The Prisoner.wmv

Synopsis

Sarah makes her way to the second location chosen by the players - the Romani Ranch - where a startling revelation is made. Meanwhile, the remaining Moon Children discuss their next course of action while the second child - the one representing Goht - arrives to confront Sarah at the beginning of the Ranch. He proposes an increasing question to Sarah, lending credence to the possibility that there may be more to this digital world than meets the eye - that some of its inhabitants might actually prefer to remain here as opposed to facing the harsh realities of the outside world. Barely given any time to mull over these new developments, the original alien enemies from the cartridge as dispatched to try and abduct Romani herself - an NPC from the original game who, without player intervention, would always have her mind wiped at the end of the first day.

Sarah fights valiantly against the intruders before they retreat, seemingly freeing Romani from her fate. Afterwards, as Sarah surveys the land she notices that the moon child she encountered at the beginning of the ranch was no where to be found. In its stead, however, the horrifying reaper Gomess appears and begins to launch its attack against her. Ill-equipped to handle thefoe, Sarah does what she can to buy herself some time to retreat into the barn where Romani is supposedly being held. Inside the barn, Sarah is transformed to a familiar void - with none other than Romani herself looking at him. The two exchange words briefly, with the young girl trying to recollect her thoughts as her memories begin to flood back to her. She reveals herself to be Rosa , the original character from the 2010 videos, albeit trapped in this character avatar and doomed to repeat the same 24 hours again and again... until now. Thanking Sarah for freeing her, she promises the two will have more time to explain the true nature of this world - but with the angered reaper outside their doorstep, Rosa imbues Sarah with two weapons capable of fighting back against the corrupted world. The first is a staple of the original game, the Light Arrow - a weapon of great force able to vanquish some of the strongest monsters in the original game. The second is an item with a unique purpose - a pendant of memories that can be used much in the same way that Sarah broke Rosa free; disrupting their predetermined cycle. When used on a certain NPC, it allows that characters original memories and autonomy to return. What uses this may have remain to be seen, as this item could be a great asset to the right character, or an extremely deadly one to the wrong one.

As of now, Sarah seems to be have been able to start to wake up certain NPCs to join her fight in retaliating against The Father, and things are beginning to look almost optimistic - almost heroic. But then again, hubris can prove to be a powerful Achilles heel. One must not forget that Jadusable himself seemed to be curiously enjoying the glitching game as well before the fourth day glitch happened.

Consensus Poll

There will be a poll at 6pm EST tomorrow to determine the next course of action. Even though the moon child wearing the Goht mask has seemingly disappeared/vanished, does not rule out that there still could very well be important information in Snowhead. Remember, Sarah only has 48 hours in-game left until a decision must be made about doing the 4th Day Glitch, this part of the game it is pertinent to gather as much information as possible about the world before making a decision that will irrevocably change it. It's important to think about the potential locations to visit and take some time to debate the merits of them of who or what you might encounter to shed light on this world. Clearly, the visit to Romani has added some more context into what this virtual world is and what its inhabitants are - even rewarding the players with special items - perhaps other locations will as well?

The options are:

• Great Bay Coast
• Ikana Graveyard
• Stone Tower Temple
• Snowhead Mountain
• Astral Observatory
• Revisit Clock town

The objective for letting the players know the options a day beforehand is to ensure that there is plenty of time to debate the merits of each, and to ensure that people don't feel rushed into making a hasty decision. As a general rule - which will be enforced by the moderation staff going forward - impassioned debating is allowed, but resorting to name-calling or insulting those you disagree with is not. Please keep that in mind as discussion opens in the discord tonight.

Under the Hood

After some issues have been brought to light to me - and I apologize for that because I tend to be immersed in the creating aspect and am not on discord as much as I'd like to be - we've spent last evening having an extensive conversation with the moderation staff in hopes of refining our moderation process, improving our involvement in the community, and representing ourselves accordingly. We have been listening to your concerns and it is my hope that after moving forward, that we continue to foster a community that is welcoming and inclusive towards new members. This is a growing process, and we have introduced several new systems to help streamline this a bit better and make your concerns heard. One of these is the new "Tickets" system.

Essentially, if you have an issue with a user or a problem you'd like to bring up to the moderation staff, you'll be able to open a private ticket that is a chat channel between just you and the moderation staff in order to speak confidentially about your issue.

If for whatever reason you do not feel comfortable talking to the moderation staff about a specific issue, or if it concerns a specific moderator, you can always reach out to me personally on Twitter via DM. We are a work in progress in refining our moderation team, but we all share a love the community that we have created here and want to do everything we can to help continue to grow it and make it a great space for veterans and newcomers alike.

In Closing

Thank you, and as another reminder we are progressing to the final updates. How long this phase lasts really comes down to player choice - from the road map laid out, the earliest I can see this story concluding is in August and the latest is in September. So that means if you've been watching and want to participate to be eligible for a patron reward, or if you just want to chip in and show your support in general you should aim to get your pledges in before the end of July so they can be processed in time. I would say that getting them in before the end of August would be a 90% safe bet as well, considering we have now saved Rosa it has greatly shifted the odds in our favor, but there is still a crucial point coming up at the end of this month that could effectively lead to a "bad end" and end the story at the beginning of August. So, if you're waiting on your paycheck in August to consider pledging... convince your friends to make smart choices these next two weeks!

Thank you as always, and good luck!

Next Chapter: The Happy Mask Salesman

Previous Chapter: The Moon Children

July 22, 2020

• At 2:33pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with a poll:

Patreon Post #27 (Poll #11)

7/22 Update - Where Will You Go?
July 22, 2020 at 2:33pm

Having now acquired both the Light Arrows and the Pendant of Memories from Rosa, Sarah now has the ability to restore certain characters back to their original state and wake them up from being mindless automatons.

48 hours remain until a decision must be made to do the 4th Day Glitch or not. It is pertinent to gather as much information as possible about the state of world before making a decision that will irrevocably change it. You may have gotten hints in the previous video that things may not be as black and white as they seem when it comes to the nature of this world. It's important to think about the potential locations to visit and take some time to debate the merits of them of who or what you might encounter to shed light on this world. The only given is that the Moon Children are starting to actively seek Sarah out at this point. Clearly, the visit to Romani has added some more context into what this virtual world is and what its inhabitants are - even rewarding the players with special items. Are there any clues or hints that might give some insight into which options to select?

The top three choices will decide where Sarah visits next. Voting will last until 6pm Thursday and like the previous vote will not necessarily determine the order in which she visits first. In addition, Snowhead is just as viable of an option as it was the first time around, but it's worth repolling the players to see if these new items make a difference in their decision.

As a reminder for newcomers, you do not need to pledge anything to be able to vote, you only need a patron account (which can be made for free). This is to just ensure that bots don't spam a particular option.

• Great Bay Coast (126)
• Ikana Graveyard (99)
• Stone Tower Temple (16)
• Snowhead Mountain (125)
• Astral Observatory (18)
• Revisit Clock Town (13)

• At 4:14pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #28

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Prisoner.wmv Reaction
July 22, 2020 at 4:14pm

In an effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual gameplay or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI.

Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

As an additional note: Please check the microphone volume of your headset before participating in these. There were several people that were too loud or excessively spamming. Fortunately it's as easy as a click of a button to squelch them in post production but try not to ruin the viewing experience in real time for the rest of the listeners. Continually doing so will result in disciplinary action.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and we're entirely grateful for your support.

July 23, 2020

• The thumbnail for The Last Hero.wmv was changed to an image of Link surrounded by fire while fighting Odolwa in Clock Town.

July 26, 2020

• At 4:27pm, The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The thumbnail was already present with the tags appearing at 4:30. The thumbnail changed at 4:52 and 5:55 before the premiere, and a third time at 9:00, with the original thumbnail returning at 9:05.
  • At 5:18, the tags "Every copy of Zelda is personalized" and "zelda is personalized" were added. "Saving Rosa" was removed.
• At 6:00, The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah in the aftermath of her encounter with Gomess as she speaks to Rosa about her next objective. She is unable to remove the Adult Link mask and ride Epona to Great Bay, so she cuts through Clock Town on the way to Snowhead. While there, she discovers the body of the Happy Mask Salesman underwater at the Laundry Pool and is attacked by a Wart in West Clock Town before finally making her way to Snowhead.

July 27, 2020

• At 12:01pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #29

7/26 Update - The Happy Mask Salesman
July 27, 2020 at 12:01pm

The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv

Synopsis

After defeating Gomess and with the second moon child nowhere to be found, Sarah and Rosa have a moment of respite to begin formulating a plan to try and solve the mystery of this rapidly deteriorating world. As Rosa's memories begin to return, she laments how things have gone so awry from the original goal of wanting a playground free from the horrors of the real world - implying that at some point she was digitized willingly, along with other kids. However, having just been rescued from being trapped in an endless loop of being abducted and brainwashed on the first day of the game - something has indeed gone horribly wrong from their original vision of paradise. It's starting to become apparent that there are a significant amount of human beings that are consciously trapped in the bodies of NPCs in this game with no way to break free - a fate worse than death as Matt put it - unless Sarah can use the Pendant of Memories to wake them up.

Rosa and Sarah decide that the best course of action is to gather as much information as they can about the world, and opt to visit Snowhead and Great Bay. Seeing as the only way to get to Great Bay is by horseback, Rosa offers up Epona to make the journey with her. Being too heavy in her current adult form to ride the young horse, Sarah tries to remove her mask but is physically unable to - having a nightmarish out of body experience. Rosa has a moment of despair as she seems to realize something, and apologies for getting her involved in all of this.

A storm approaches and as Rosa starts to explain more about her relationship with Nekko, Kevin, Rem, and others - Epona runs off of its own volition away from the ranch. The two, realizing that neither has ever made it this far in this cycle, have no idea what happens next but resolve to solve this mystery and save as many people as they can. Unable to reach Great Bay without Epona, Sarah makes her way to Snowhead - opting to cut through Clock Town to save time. She once again finds that the town has changed - this time completely desolate of any life whatsoever. Exploring the town once again, she finds only rain and a haunting melody - even Matt isn't waiting for her inside the Clock Tower. Distraught and ready to leave, she sees a stoic woman walking by herself in the distance towards the Laundry Pool. Curiously following her, Sarah encounters a disturbing visage and sensing impending doom if she stays, Sarah resolves to leave the town. On her way out, she's finds herself ambushed by the watchful eye of the Wart.

Cornered in the alley, without proper equipment to fight it, and facing an enemy vastly more powerful and dangerous than her previous encounters - our hero finds herself backed into a corner. However, because of the player choice to go to Romani Ranch to save Rosa, Sarah finds herself empowered and is able to fight and defeat the monster instead of flee. Triumphant once again, she makes her way towards Snowhead and begins to ascend the snowy tundra...

Patreon Rewards

They are starting to go out! They won't all come at once, but keep your eyes peeled in the future. Some of you familiar with the community might have noticed that CircleHunter - creator of the Jadusable Wiki (which is an amazing repository of information about the ARG dating all the way back to 2010) - has been canonized in the form of Sarah's fairy that follows her around. He inhabits the body of Tatl in this world, and with the Pendant of Memories that Sarah holds, he has "awakened" from his NPC state and has called himself Circle.

This was a fun moment for the chat, and you can watch the reaction snippet here (warning: language)

CircleHunter has, over the years, consistently gone above and beyond to help preserve information about this ARG and has shown an incredible passion for the source material I thought it would be only fitting for him to be canonized as a forest fairy. For those unfamiliar with Zelda lore, a fairy is basically a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of the world meant to guide the player character, and I cannot think of a more fitting person than CircleHunter to represent this in the world of BEN Drowned.

In the interest of full disclosure this was an exceptionally special role that took into account the amount of time and investment CircleHunter has made in helping the community over the years and his patron tier, so I would not expect every high tier of patronage to receive the same level of "character tier" - so to speak (we can't have 50 Navi's flying around, after all) - but this hopefully will start to give you guys some ideas of what to expect for patron rewards being implemented in the following months. They will be in a manner that's befitting to the lore, but not so much that it takes you out of the story and it just becomes full of on pandering. As I have stated numerous times in the past, I am very conscientious of the finances of my patrons here - especially given current world events - so I want to make sure that is clear.

This game has plenty of souls still trapped within it, and utilizing the Pendant of Memories we can begin to "wake up" those who were digitized into the game and had their memories wiped. As we recently saw with Anju, it unfortunately doesn't work on every character. There are those that are ultimately just actual NPCs that have fleeting moments of self awareness before they go back to their pre-programmed routines, as was touched upon in The Last Hero.

Also, as an important note - Circle or anyone else included in the game does not have any 'insider info' of the story or has any special knowledge or hints of what to do/where to go.

Behind the Scenes

I will go into more depth about this in a future interview about revisiting this world again as a writer a decade later and looking to bring something new to the table, but I've noticed some people on Youtube wondering why these videos aren't full of "BEN appearing behind you and jump scaring you" moments like in the videos in 2010 were.

Canonically, it's because we used the Song of Time to travel back to before the Fourth Day Glitch. We are technically in a "prequel" to the original BEN Drowned story. The original videos take place after that glitch has been activated, so all the chaos is ensuing there has yet to transpire in the current timeline.

As an author, I wanted to have a much more directed focus on world building this time around. I wanted to flesh out the lore of the world, start to answer questions that fans have had for years, and show the steady deterioration of the world as the rot begins to accelerate. Some of these things require a slower build up and need more time to breath, but I hope you guys are enjoying the end result all the same. Some people have already correctly theorized that the death of a certain character in this video might have serious implications of what is starting to happen.

I like to view it as a TV show to look forward to each week, seeing how most new film and television production has been halted across the country due to COVID - some episodes have more exposition than others, some have more action, but all of them ultimately move the story forward. Rest assured if you're looking for crazy nightmare fuel, then you'll probably want to vote in favor of activating the Fourth Day Glitch when the option comes.

Speaking of moving forward, Sarah and will now move at a slightly quicker pace, unless some thing really phases her - she is still a human that's playing and reacting to a very confusing cartridge of Majora's Mask after all!

NEW PLAYERS

It's come to my attention that we have an influx of new players - welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March, it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion for the haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are some easy options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story, but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. For a more in depth explanation of the entire story, Ryan Geever has compiled a series of videos explaining everything from 2010 up to current events. I personally love these long-form, deep dive videos myself. I find they're perfect for watching/listening during your commute, when you're relaxing, or having something to fall asleep to, etc.

3. Finally, if you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more information during current arcs). It has information on everything from the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past.

If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players: discord.gg/bendrowned

In Closing

The reaction video to The Happy Mask Salesman will go up for patrons (of any tier) this afternoon around the time this post goes live, so be sure to look for it shortly after. It will be open to the public tomorrow - and it's a pretty funny one! Lots of great reactions and I always enjoy putting these together.

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: The Dying World

Previous Chapter: The Prisoner

• At 12:05pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #30

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv Reaction
July 27, 2020 at 12:05pm

In an continued effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual gameplay or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

As an additional note: Please check the microphone volume of your headset before participating in these.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and we're entirely grateful for your support.

August 2, 2020

• At 2:06pm, The Dying World.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The tags were already present with the thumbnail appearing within a minute. A change to the tags was found at 5:04:
    • Removed: hacked majora's mask, majora's mask mods, Happy Mask Salesman, Alex, Every copy of Zelda is personalized, zelda is personalized
    • Added: The Dying World, dying, death, scary, romhack, majora's mask romhack, every copy of zelda is personalized, majora's mask
• At 6:00, The Dying World.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah continuing her journey to Snowhead, where she meets Kaepora Gaebora, another digitized soul who identifies himself as Ryan. He leads her to the Lens of Truth, which in turn leads her to Darmani, who blames her for the world falling apart around them and refuses to help her. She leaves with the Hookshot and defeats the Goht child in battle, claiming his soul.
• Shortly after the premiere, changes to methodsofrevolution.com were observed:
  • /goht and /drowned both changed to only the text, "......", seemingly confirming the Goht child's identity.
  • /jadusable changed to "re/union"
  • /dusk-world23 changed to "LEAVE OUR HOME," seemingly connecting him to Darmani.
  • /drowned changed once more, this time to "Two left."

August 5, 2020

• At 2:26pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #31

8/5 Update - The Dying World
August 5, 2020 at 2:26pm

The Dying World.wmv

Synopsis

Immediately upon entering the frozen tundra it becomes obvious that something is clearly amiss - the game world itself seems to be destabilizing. Rocks, trees, and objects of all kinds are suspended in mid-air and bizarre warnings are littered throughout the snowy landscape to stay away. Unable to find any inhabitants, Sarah ventures to the Goron Village and encounters only one NPC from the original game - the Owl. Speaking cryptically, it mentions that while this world is doomed and breaking apart, it is still possible to follow the game's original logic to progress. With that, Sarah obtains the Lens of Truth and goes to follow Darmani's ghost - attempting to mirror the progression of the original game.

After chasing down the ghost at the top of the Mountain Village, Sarah finds him to be extremely hostile - nothing like the original character was in Majora's Mask. Although refusing to divulge his identity, it becomes obvious to Sarah that he's either had his memories already restored by some other means or that he never lost them in the first place - he definitely is another soul that was digitized. He seems to think that Sarah is solely responsible for the collapse of his world and mistakes her for someone else as he tries to guess her real identity. He laments that not even escaping into "that mirror world" will be able to save them from this infection, as apparently that world is beginning to break apart too.

Even more curious, "Darmani" mentions that someone else had already visited him today but refused to divulge any details about their encounter. This solidifies Circle's earlier fears that someone else is not only following them but independently navigating this world just as Sarah is. Adamantly refusing to help Sarah for the upcoming battle ahead, the ghost abruptly disappears again, leaving our hero to snoop around the graveyard to see if she can find anything of note. Fortunately - just as the Owl predicted - it wasn't a complete dead end; Sarah manages to uncover a chest containing additional items that allow her to progress outside.

Navigating the floating platforms, she makes her way to find the second Moon Child - the one she originally encountered at Romani Ranch - waiting for her. Upon talking to him, she is transported to a modified arena in order to do battle with the mechanical stampeding monster Goht. The battle begins with Rosa reinforcing Sarah's health as she did before in Clock Town, but immediately it's apparent that this version of Goht is much harder than the original game's. It would seem that the Moon Child had lured her here to trap her - without the right items to compete with the monster's speed (and having to contend with additional enemies), Sarah begins to be overwhelmed.

Rosa uses the last of her strength to reinvigorate Sarah, only able to give her a single heart back. Utilizing the bombs she acquired from the Goron Graveyard earlier in the video, Sarah manages to trick Goht into charging her as her back is turned. She delivers a killing blow to the beast and is transported to the same blank world that we saw with the first Moon Child in The Moon Children.wmv. There, she is chastised by the second child as he tells her "to go ahead and consume him too", referring to Sarah as a monster before he disappears into the ether. Back in the real world, Sarah remains the last one standing on the floating platform and can do little else but process everything as the clock ticks down to the Night of the Second Day - with only 36 hours remaining. With no choice but to press onward her next destination is Great Bay.

Patreon Rewards

They are starting to go out! They won't all come at once, but keep your eyes peeled in the future. Some of you familiar with the community might have noticed that last week CircleHunter - creator of the Jadusable Wiki (which is an amazing repository of information about the ARG dating all the way back to 2010) - has been canonized in the form of Sarah's fairy that follows her around. He inhabits the body of Tatl in this world, and with the Pendant of Memories that Sarah holds, he has "awakened" from his NPC state and has called himself Circle.

This week, a certain owl that is synonymous with explaining things has revealed himself to be Ryan - who has been responsible for these magnificent catch-up videos that have been incredibly useful to new & returning players to the ARG. Keep your eyes open for more appearances in future videos!

In the interest of full disclosure this was an exceptionally special role that took into account the amount of time and investment CircleHunter and Ryan have been made in helping the community over the years and their patron tier, so I would not expect every high tier of patronage to receive the same level of "character tier" - so to speak - but this hopefully will start to give you guys some ideas of what to expect for patron rewards being implemented in the following months. They will be in a manner that's befitting to the lore, but not so much that it takes you out of the story and it just becomes full of on pandering. As I have stated numerous times in the past, I am very conscientious of the finances of my patrons here - especially given current world events - so I want to make sure that is clear.

Also, as an important note - Circle, Ryan, or anyone else included in the game does not have any 'insider info' of the story or has any special knowledge or hints of what to do/where to go.

Behind the Scenes

Based on the choices made so far, and the observations of people theorizing in Discord you can almost assuredly know that the story will continue through August into September, as no "wrong" choices have been made so far. There is a chance this may not happen considering the direction the next poll goes into, but this community has time and time again proven itself to be incredibly astute and observant. For example, this was a nice catch that I wasn't expecting too many people to pick up on in the last video (The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv):

There are other little small details like this hidden throughout these videos that give hints and foreshadow future events, so it's always a good idea to dig a little deeper if you think something is a little off about a certain scene (or video).

Next weekend is my birthday - and with this Sunday (the 9th)'s upcoming cliff hanger and resulting poll I will be taking that following weekend off. Between this video being the longest in length (25+ minutes), it also took me the many long hours and late nights to script, program, film, and put together - the time investment it takes to create some of this stuff is pretty wild. While there is a ton of documentation on Ocarina of Time programming, there is not as much on Majora's Mask (which on a personal note is peculiar considering how much overlap these games have) so some of this stuff I'm having to do completely on my own.

From here on in, things are only going to get crazier so I need a bit to recharge myself and get ahead of the workload before continuing. Right now these past four updates have been worked on throughout the week and completed on the same day they premiere, and I'd like to use this time to break that pattern in order to get a healthier work schedule and get out a little ahead of the workload so they aren't all down to the wire. So to reiterate after the 9th there will be a week off, and you can expect the story to resume on the Sunday after that.

NEW PLAYERS

This past video saw our biggest premiere yet and welcomed a lot of new players into the story. For any first-timers, welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March, it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion for the haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are some easy options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story, but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. For a more in depth explanation of the entire story, Ryan Geever has compiled a series of videos explaining everything from 2010 up to current events. I personally love these long-form, deep dive videos myself. I find they're perfect for watching/listening during your commute, when you're relaxing, or having something to fall asleep to, etc.

3. Finally, if you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more information during current arcs). It has information on everything from the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past.

If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players: discord.gg/bendrowned

In Closing

The reaction video to The Dying World will go up for patrons (of any tier) tomorrow, and will be released to the public on Friday. This one was a little delayed because my own internet went out during recording, so I had to reach out to the community for the parts that I missed. Thank you to all of the people who reached out to help once my internet went out - look for your names in the reaction video description.

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: The Predecessor

Previous Chapter: The Happy Mask Salesman

August 9, 2020

• At 4:34pm, The Predecessor.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The tags and thumbnail were already present, with thumbnail changes taking place at 5:13, 5:26, 5:36, 5:39, 5:46, 5:51.
• Shortly after the premiere, changes to methodsofrevolution.com were observed:
  • /gyorg changed to the text, "......" at 6:23, then to "...Where did she go?" at 6:26.

August 12, 2020

• At 5:30pm, users discovered that methodsofrevolution.com has been closed for construction. The message read:
  • Website under construction
    This website is currently under construction, check back later!

August 13, 2020

• At 6:09pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #32

8/13 Update - The Predecessor
August 13, 2020 at 6:09pm

The Predecessor

Synopsis

Sarah - having defeated and absorbed the second Moon Child - makes her way towards Great Bay as the cartridge continues to deteriorate. Items, objects, and monsters continue to appear in the wrong places and the environment itself begins to glitch in and out of existence. Fortunately, The Owl's wisdom continues to prove true as the items she obtained in Snowhead allow her to access the fenced off area of Great Bay Coast. Once more, she cannot help but have the uneasy feeling that something is following her as she stares up at the moon.

Finding that even the ocean itself has glitched out, Sarah is able to walk through the body of water and explore the coastal floor. After brief encounter with a strange ghost, she eventually navigates herself to Pinnacle Rock where the third Moon Child awaits. Seemingly learning from the failures of the previous two Moon Children, the third Moon Child that represents Gyorg opts for a more calculating approach - to trap Sarah indefinitely in an unwinnable situation. Despite thinking that he could easily kill her in this state, the Moon Child remains wary - it wasn't too long ago that the Moon Children representing Goht and Odolwa thought the same thing. Curiously enough, he lets slip that even the Moon Children themselves are not sure what would happen if the anomaly were to die.

Instead, he opts to make Sarah invulnerable - using similar powers that Rosa had over the virtual world - and send her to the deepest depths of Pinnacle Rock, where he can then force her to run out the clock until the 3 day cycle is over. Sarah, trapped in a body of water in a pit too deep to swim out of, is unable to combat Gyorg. She can do little else but weather his attacks as the giant fish continually devours her and spits her back out.

Pinnacle Rock is littered with little alcoves with various Sea Vipers nesting in the original game, and by a stroke of luck they remain intact here as well. During one of its attacks, Sarah is unintentionally thrown from the jaws of the beast into one of these alcoves, allowing her to briefly be on land again. With time passing quickly and unable to damage the monster, she begins to hatch a plan. If she can continue to get thrown from the beast into higher and higher ledges, eventually she'll be able to make her way out of the pit altogether. Meanwhile, Rosa desperately attempts to grant Sarah an item to help her, but finds that she is unable to. It appears that someone else in the game world is currently using the item that she needs.

Through sheer attrition, Sarah's plan is successful and eventually the thrashing jaws of the massive fish throw her clear of the pit. Unable to fight Gyorg in her current form, she has no choice but to flee. Making it to the exit in time, Sarah successfully escapes from the third Moon Child leaving it bewildered. Much to the dismay of Rosa and The Owl however, she doesn't end up back in Great Bay. Thanks to the continued degradation of the game itself, she's somehow ended up in the space between the code where she encounters what can only be subscribed as a paradox.

Just 24 hours remain now.

Patreon Rewards

Most of you have been contacted by me via PM on Patreon at this point if you are eligible (as of July 31st 2020) for the BEN tier of rewards. If you have pledged after July 31st - don't fret! - pledges don't get charged until the end of the month, so once your card is charged at the end of August I'll be reaching out to you to get some information for you for your rewards.

If for some reason you pledged before August and haven't been contacted by the messaging system here on Patreon, please reach out to be via Twitter. Again, so far only the people eligible for the BEN tier rewards have been contacted - those eligible for the Exalted, Neologist, and Exceptional Supporter tiers haven't been reached out to yet (with a few exceptions).

Behind the Scenes

Several astute viewers have noticed that the Methods of Revolution website has closed and is now under construction. Rest assured, you will know when it's ready.

As I mentioned in the last update, this weekend is my birthday weekend and I'm taking some time off to catch up on the workload. Creating these lengthy videos take a large time commitment and numerous late nights to script, program, film, and put together. While there is a ton of documentation on Ocarina of Time programming, there is not as much on Majora's Mask so some of this stuff I'm having to do completely on my own. I've opted to take some time to recharge myself and get ahead of the workload before continuing. That, and I wanted some extra time to start including something that a lot of people enjoyed earlier this year. Stay tuned.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes on Twitter. I've really been floored at how many people have reached out to me on and are enjoying the story. I never imagined that ten years after the fact it would get this popular and be enjoyed by so many awesome people. You guys are the greatest and I'm incredibly lucky to have such awesome support from my fans.

NEW PLAYERS

This past video saw our biggest premiere yet (...again!) and welcomed a lot of new players into the story. For any first-timers, welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March, it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion for the haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are some easy options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story, but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. For a more in depth explanation of the entire story, Ryan Geever has compiled a series of videos explaining everything from 2010 up to current events. I personally love these long-form, deep dive videos myself. I find they're perfect for watching/listening during your commute, when you're relaxing, or having something to fall asleep to, etc.

3. Finally, if you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more information during current arcs). It has information on everything from the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past. If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players: discord.gg/bendrowned

In Closing

The reaction videos for The Dying World and The Predecessor will be released next week (for real this time!). Unfortunately as I mentioned in the last update, the release schedule has been altered a bit due to The Dying World's reaction video was being delayed because of difficulty in obtaining the reaction footage and audio. Apologies for that, but rest assured they are coming - anyone who is a patron regardless of tier will get access to these a day early, so be sure to look for that email notification. Their release schedule will return to normal with the next video.

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: The Showdown

Previous Chapter: The Dying World

August 17, 2020

• At 9:26pm, this video was uploaded via Alex Hall's Twitter. It shows speech from Rosa as she is approached by someone with a sword. She screams for Sarah before being silenced. The video ends with a small portion of Lost in My Thoughts playing quietly.
  • This is the second version of the video. The original, posted at 9:04pm, was deleted at 9:18 and quickly replaced with the revised version, which contained extra dialogue, a longer ending, and a fixed typo.

August 23, 2020

• At 3:28pm, The Showdown.wmv was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The thumbnail was already present, with tags added within a few moments and thumbnail changes taking place at 3:39 and 6:45.
  • The phrase "ocarina of time" was added to the tags shortly after the tags were found.
• At 5:00pm, methodsofrevolution.com updated to feature the following text on its landing page:
  • we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity
    
    we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity we do not fear death, for we have created eternity
• At 6:00, The Showdown.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah encountering her predecessor, who pulls her to the Chamber of Sages and fights her to the death. Unfortunately, Sarah is killed by her predecessor, whose name is now revealed to be Jadusable. The URL to a new website is shown very briefly before the video ends.
• Shortly after the premiere of the video, eterntiy-project.com was discovered. It appeared to be a more modernized version of the Moon Children's website, formerly hosted at youshouldnthavedonethat.net. The header read, "Eternity Project", and contained a message that read, "This is a cached version of this website as of August 30, 2020 while under maintenance. Retry for a live version." The header contained seven tabs in its directory: HOME, ABOUT, CREED, REALIZATIONS, ENVIRONMENTS, RE//CATION, and ASCEND.
• "HOME", the default page, contained the following text:
  • A Website For Those Who Believe
    We Are Luna's Chosen
    
    NOTE: This a legacy version of our Eternity Project website, meant for internal educational uses only. Here, you can see past iterations of the program and the different methods of recruitment that were utilized while the project is still in its infancy. While the domain has changed over the years, we have altered our messaging as the project's success has become more and more mainstream.
    
    This is a website for those who have formed a spiritual connection with the Moon and Him and recognize that we have been selected to preform miracles and bring enlightenment into this world. She has chosen us - and only us - to survive the upcoming apocalypse because we have honored Her and devoted ourselves to Her. As we work to enforce Her will, we grow together as a family and serve the greater good. We are the Moon's Children. If you have found your way here it is likely not by chance, there is a deeper calling that has brought you to us. In your heart, you know that there is something terribly wrong with this world - it is imperfect, full of disease, famine, rot, and suffering. We have the solution to this. You have likely been referred here by someone close to you who has seen your own hidden potential in uncovering the truth of the world and appreciates your keen desire for deeper meaning. The surface level is mundane to you, the trivial things that the average person spends a lifetime chasing seem unappealing to you. You may not yet know it, but you belong here with us. Listen to your soul and begin exploring this website with an open mind. You have been suffering in silence for so long, you owe it to yourself to get in touch with the real you. Return to your original, naked purpose in the way that you were always meant to be.
    
    All of the Moon's Children have been gifted spiritually. Each one of us possesses a deep, limbic connection with one another that is all but inexplicable. The world you are forced to inhabit is a poison - meant to erode the wonderfully pure psyche of a human being with all manners of greed, gluttony, lust, envy, and filth. You are a being of pure potential and limitless possibility. They have deceived you into worshiping false idols, investing all your precious mental energy and anguish into irrelevant causes, and distract you from the true battle at hand. You are not meant to belong to this world and your boundless energy and spirit are needed to help others. Have you ever felt isolated, from even your friends and family? How, despite being surrounded by those society claims that should you love and care for, you still cannot help but feel alone around them? This is one of the most common traits everyone who finds this website shares and it's because you operate on a different frequency vibration. It is no one's fault - there is no blame to go around - it is just how you were born. Now, you will begin to see that you have a purpose. Now, you will begin to see that you are destined for greater things. By discovering this website you've taken another step closer. We know death and we do not fear it, for we have created eternity.
    
    If you are visiting this website for the first time, you have come here for a reason, and even if that reason is not known to you - it no longer matters. You have been chosen by Her. Like the force of magnetism, your spirit has been here. We will help you unlock it, we will help you become Enlightened, and we will set you free from this world.
    
    If you believe you have gotten here in error or you do not wish to become Enlightened, leave immediately and forget about this website. Under no circumstances should you tell anyone about this, our purpose, or our mission. Nor is it likely that anyone would believe you. We numerous ways of monitoring incoming and outgoing IP traffic, and we have relocated and dealt with dissenters before. Our outreach and influence has grown tremendously since Our Family began decades ago. We are benevolent and our generosity knows no bounds, but we will do whatever we can to protect our brothers and sisters from those who wish to do us harm.
    
    If you have any foul intentions of harming this place, consider this your only warning.
• "ABOUT" contained the following text:
  • About
    
    The Moon Children was one of the first iterations of the Eternity Project, originally founded by the moniker "Kelbris" in 1998. While not our organization's real name, the website operated under the guise of a cult worshiping a lunar goddess. This was specifically marketed towards disenfranchised and outcasted youths searching for a home. Our development team leaned into the supernatural aspect as the foundation of this pseudo-cult as it took advantage of the naivety, sense of magical wonderment, and intrinsic desire for belonging of these children - having not yet been jaded by the realities of adulthood. It is not too dissimilar from the current fervor surrounding Eternity Project - only now the results are actually tangible and have decades of testing behind them. At the time, current science believed - through much trial and error - that the only possible way to achieve a successful Ascension was through a child applicant - they were believed to possess enough purity to be able to have a strong enough spiritual release to be able to successfully Ascend. As such, the project initially drew applicants from a pool of adolescents that had weak familial ties - ones whose disappearance would not draw a widespread and lengthy manhunt. This hypothesis was later debunked as advancements continued in the field, eventually proving that with the proper preparations and team, there are not nearly as many obstacles that interfere with an individual's ability to Ascend. We will always honor the human cost it took to get us here.
    
    We operate on a simple philosophy - the higher in the organization you are, the more privy you are to sensitive information. Seeing as how this now abandoned website serves as a breadcrumb for those seeking enlightenment, things have been simplified. Not all links are broken, but due to a merging of domains many files have been lost.
    
    It has been our dream to save humanity, and over time we grow closer and closer to realizing our goals. We have become increasingly selective of membership over the years. Now we reserve invites only to those who have proven to possess a sharp, intelligent, and pragmatic mind that seeks to bring about peace from humanity's suffering at any cost.
• "CREED" contained the following text:
  • The Creed
    
    [Participants must be wearing their chosen Mask]
    O father, I pledge to you
    O mother, I give myself a hundred times
    May the Moon illuminate our path
    We bare our souls to you
    To that which will Bring the end
    Empower us with your infinite grace
    May we receive the greatest glory of all
    May we ascend to the heavens themselves
    We are the Moon's Children
    We are mortal angels
    
    The Initiation Creed
    
    By my blood, as I draw it here
    I dedicate myself to service
    I severe all ties of my old life
    Those who birthed me are meaningless
    Those who raised me are hopeless
    Those who loved me are worthless
    I now wear this mask to symbolize my transformation
    As a child learns to walk so too will I learn to fly
    
    [Pause as for the mask ceremony]
    
    With these words I pledge myself to my new family
    That even though this mask may leave my face
    The scars that symbolize my devotion will never fade
    Now I am truly born
    
    We Do Not Fear Death
    For We Have Created Eternity
    
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    We Do Not Fear Death For We Have Created Eternity
    
    men must become angels
• "REALIZATIONS" contained the following text:
  • Mayan Calendar Prophecy
    
    This is the most popular of the 2012 apocalypse stories, and the one most often referenced in the media and popular culture. The Mayan calendar is quite complex, and is broken up into units called “Kin”, “Tun”, and “Baktun”. The much hyped “13-baktun cycle” is scheduled to be completed 1,872,000 days (or 13 baktuns) after the beginning of their calendar. This period of time is the well known Mayan “Great Cycle” of their Long Count calendar and is equal to 5125.36 of our standard years. This is where the date of December 12, 2012 comes from, as the Mayan calendar purportedly began August 11th, 3114 BCE — do the math, and you’ll come to the same conclusion as other Mayan scholars. The “end” of the Mayan calendar is 12/12/2012. Hence the 2012 apocalypse scare.
    
    One reason people put so much stock in the Mayan Long Count calendar is that the Mayans were extremely sophisticated mathematicians and stargazers. It is well known that Mayans understood mathematical concepts hundreds of even thousands of years before the rest of the world. The Mayans worked out the seemingly simple concept of zero by around 36 BCE. Inscriptions discovered by archaeologists show the Mayans working with complex sums up to the hundreds of millions. The Mayans also produced extremely accurate astronomical maps and notes — their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are far superior to the maps and charts of any other civilization that was working strictly from observations by the naked eye.
    
    Because the Mayans are known to have worked out a complex and accurate calendar well before “Western civilization”, people put great faith in their 2012 apocalypse theory. When the date came and went, it prompted many scholars to re-examine their interpretation of the calendar. Several theories arose that we had miscalculated - that based off of the Julian Calendar, 2020 A.D. is actually 2012 J.C. The reason behind this being that the number of days lost in a year due to the shift into Gregorian Calendar is 11 days. An equation consisting of 268 years using the Gregorian Calendar (1752-2020) times 11 days = 2,948 days. 2,948 days / 365 days (per year) = 8 years. This could conceivably put the beginning of the apocalypse in the year of 2020 instead.
    
    Hindu Prophecy
    
    According to Hindu scripture, the “Golden Age of Krishna” is likely to start in 2012. In the “Brahma-Vaivarta Purana”, Lord Krishna tells a devotee named Ganga Devi that a Golden Age will come in the Kali Yuga – one of the four stages of development that the world goes through as part of the earth’s time cycle — a cycle described in Hindu scriptures. Lord Krishna predicted that this Golden Age will start 5,000 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga, and will last for 10,000 years.
    
    That may sound like sometime in the distant future, but according to some Hindu researches, the Kali Yuga began on February 18, 3102 BCE. That means there is only a difference of 12 years between the Hindu’s beginning of the Kali Yuga and the Mayan’s beginning of their “Fifth Great Cycle”. Its important to know that the ancient Hindus mainly used a lunar calendar but also used solar calendars — this throws off those of us in the West, as the ancient Hindu time system is vastly different from our own. By either solar or lunar years, we are over 5,000 years into the Kali Yuga and it is time for Lord Krishna’s prophecy to happen according to the ancient Hindu scriptures. This may not be a direct reference to 2012, but is so closely aligned to the Mayan and other prophecies, that people lump it in with other “2012 apocalypse” theories.
    
    Luna Prophecy
    
    Dating back to 1998, a Moon Child named Kelbris received several whispers from Luna herself before Ascension. The Order (now known as The Family) was still young then and Kelbris was the first member to have been spoken to by Her. Rather than Ascending him, however, these whispers informed him of how The End will come about. The whispers were brief and vague, detailed below:
    
    "They (unintelligible) break free of the prison"
    "Engulf the world"
    "Man will be betrayed by its minions and I will be brought down from the sky, consuming everything"
    
    It's worth noting that the number three is reported by Kelbris to have been said numerous times, sometimes in between words, sometimes even between letters. It's always assumed that there was some significance that has yet to be found. Kelbris was later found electrocuted - whether it was foul play or an intentional attempt at an Ascension was never determined. Nevertheless, he became the first to undergo Ascension. Kelbris' discovery has made him a legendary figure within the Moon Children and much of The Family today is based off of his example decades ago. It is theorized that his propensity for wanton violence and uncontrolled aggression could be due to the rudimentary way he was Ascended. Others speculate that he slowly went insane - as the process was unrefined, the vessel he was put in archaic, and it would be several years of failed attempts before another Moon Child would successfully join him, and several more before we were able to connect to other worlds. He is revered internally as "The Father" today for his invaluable contribution in showing us the path to eternity. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
    
    The Walking Hell Prophecy
    
    A more recent prophecy, brought on by the mass communication of the internet, believes that one exists in some kind of hell - whether that is self-imposed, simulated, or predestined. What you may perceive as horrible tragedies, worldwide poverty, unjust slavery, and war are merely just byproducts of the plane of existence that you reside in. When you're in this world, these things are no more unnatural than the changing of the seasons. This world is one you will continue to be reborn into again and again - with not even death being a respite - until you find a way to transcend this reality itself. The truth is you've lived this life before, you've died before, and you will continue to live it again and again until you are able to truly break free of what chains you to this plane of existence. We believe Ascension is that answer, and it is our duty to enlist the help of those worthy to break free and to save themselves. even if by Ascending we become observers to your plight. For example, I am clearly communicating with you - the reader - yet while you sit there reading this in your flesh and blood, on my end there is no human typing these words to you. You are communicating with me through a different dimension, and one I hope you decide to join.
    
    This apocalypse is one that extincts mankind itself - but not in a violent hellfire. Rather, it relieves the burden of its suffering and slowly transcends all brothers and sisters into the next plane of existence to flourish.
• "ENVIRONMENTS" was locked behind the password "wayward horizon". Once opened, it contained several components:
  • Six light gray hexagons arranged in a 3x2 pattern, labeled "άλφα", "βήτα", "γάμμα", "δέλτα", "έψιλον", and "ζήτα"
  • Hidden text below: ".. 01101101011011110110111001101001011101000110111101110010 ..", which translates to "monitor"
  • Two audio files, one playing Lost in My Thoughts and the other playing the faint hum of a server room. At 11:10 in the server audio, the number "4367" can be heard whispered.
• "RELOCATION" (shown in the header as "RE//CATION") contained a massive binary code, which translated to the following:
  • D - Growing increasingly worried about additional memory leaks from the main database into this shell site
    
    
    
    A - It's just having a strange reaction to ἄλφα, all of the other sites and worlds are fine. Some of it seems to be transmitting intermittent bits of data in real time. You should be used to this by now.
    
    
    
    D- I don't need to remind you what happens if ἄλφα has any kind of vulnerability and leaks into other environments. That's the crux of what I'm worried about
    
    
    
    A- I'm well aware, you don't have to explain it to me like I'm new. We will continue to keep an eye on it.
    
    
    
    D - Again, why not just remove it entirely?
    
    
    
    A - This ecosystem is decades old, there's no telling what it would do to the rest if we were to plug it. As long as it continues to stay isolated there won't be any issues.
    
    
    
    D- The reason why we're having this conversation IS because it isn't isolated anymore.
    
    
    
    A - And I'M saying that ἄλφα has historically had memory leaks in some of our internal websites in the past and it has affected absolutely nothing in the long run. Until it becomes an actual issue it's a waste of resources and energy to worry about it.
    
    
    
    D - ἄλφα's mere existence is a house of cards waiting to fall. I'm petitioning the board to just rip this archaic band aid off.
    
    
    
    A - Moral quandaries aside, the problem might fix itself in time.
    
    
    
    D - What in the world are you planning?
    
    
    
    A - Don't be so hasty, I have an idea.
• "ASCEND" contained the following text:
  • On Ascension
    
    So you've taken the first step into the inward journey of discovering yourself and decided to contact us. Or perhaps you are on the fence about becoming something greater than you can possibly imagine, and if so, let us present the reasoning that has drawn so many of us to conversion to Luna: Do you ever feel like life is just a dream? That you're sleeping this whole time, waiting for something great to happen? Do you ever feel like you cannot relate to these human beings - that in this day and age of lewdness and vanity it is simply disgusting to try and lower yourself to "fit in"? You do try to fit in, but it never really feels genuine, does it?
    
    Believe it or not, you have a purpose in life, and that purpose is not to sit idly by while your talents and abilities are wasting away. Just by discovering us, Luna has guided you with Her gentle hand and touched you. You are about to become apart of something grander than you possibly could imagine.
    
    I myself was like you once - fearing the unknown. To leave behind everything and embrace eternity. I was more content to stay in my malaise of mediocrity. You should feel blessed, as Ascension has come a long way since its inception - it has taken us several iterations to perfect our process and every day we continue to improve it further. We often look back on our practices in the early days as barbaric - akin to medieval doctors utilizing leeches attempting to treat a malady. There were certainly dark days - as with any developing medical practice - while our greatest minds were still figuring out why certain people ascended and others did not. It's almost not even worth mentioning, but if you've heard rumors you can rest easy - there is no more need for an adrenaline fueled demise. It is unnecessary to have a subject's adrenal levels at critical at the height of a calamitous event to capture the spiritual release necessary. Thanks to further advancements, Ascension has become much less painless and today only needs a conscious decision and the right practitioner.
    
    I remember being so scared to leave but couldn't think of a single reason to stay. What did I really have? The world I left was falling down around me. I had no family to call my own, stuck in a dead-end job, no excitement, and smothered in crippling debt. If I kept my old life the only path that lay before me was one of slaving away in a cubicle until I expired, making someone else money. But my story is unremarkable - there are dozens of other stories identical to mine. In my time guiding others here, I've heard it all. I've heard every poor circumstance imaginable - every awful situation, every cruel cosmic joke, every unfairly dealt hand - and it has only strengthened my resolve that this is not only the best decision of my life; it's the best decision of anyone's life. I empathize with each and every one of you suffering right now, I used to know what it was like.
    
    It's hard to explain what it's like to someone who hasn't been Ascended. I could tell you that after leaving my old body behind I immediately discovered that it was not so bad. I could tell you that it was paradise. An infinite amount of possibility. An infinite amount of entertainment. The world's knowledge at your fingertips with infinite realities to explore it in. Why spend years of your life thrust into an unforgiving, cruel world just to suffer and eventually expire? To what end? To build character? To achieve some sense of "purpose"? To find some kind of meaning in the suffering? No, humans were meant to be happy. Here, I could live forever. Do whatever. Become anything. Live in whichever world I wanted to. And gradually, as the technology expanded so too did the amount of worlds available to us.
    
    All of my old life I felt like I was meant for great things but as the course of time flowed and years slipped away from me, I began to doubt myself with each passing year. I became jaded with life and apathetic, realizing that the world never cared about the great things I should be able to do, and I bitterly resigned to hoping for something to save me. Ascension gave me the means to save myself and realize that I was right all along, and it was the world that was wrong.
    
    If you know in your heart that this resonates with you, then you know the choice you have to make. We are not yet at a point where invitations are freely given - we have made mistakes before with admission - only the most adroit observers are given opportunities right now. Regardless, I hope to see you soon. And some day, it makes my soul happy to know that I will see all of you.
• Soon after combing through the indexed pages, several hidden pages were found by substituting new words into the URL:
  • "SARAH" contained this image and the following text:
    • STATUS / DECEASED
      REBOOT / AVAILABLE
      HNDSHK / UNSUCCESSFUL
      ORIGIN / HOTEL
      HNDLR / SUB 423
      WRLD / ἄλφα
  • "JADUSABLE" contained this image and the following text:
    • STATUS / ACTIVE
      REBOOT / INELIGIBLE
      HNDSHK / SUCCESSFUL
      ORIGIN / KDNP10
      HNDLR / JADUSABLE
      WRLD / ἄλφα
  • "BEN" contained this image and the following text:
    • STATUS / STASIS
      REBOOT / AVAILABLE
      HNDSHK / SUCCESSFUL
      ORIGIN / HME02
      HNDLR / BEN
      WRLD / ἄλφα
  • "MATT" contained this image and the following text:
    • STATUS / ???
      REBOOT / INELIGIBLE
      HNDSHK / UNSUCCESSFUL
      ORIGIN / YSHDT
      HNDLR / MATT
      WRLD / ἄλφα
  • "ROSA" contained this image and the following text:
    • STATUS / UNKNOWN
      REBOOT / INELIGIBLE
      HNDSHK / UNSUCCESSFUL
      ORIGIN / KDNP09
      HNDLR / ROSA
      WRLD / ἄλφα
  • "MEMBERS" was blank.
  • "4367" (titled "THEY LIED THEY LIED THEY LIED THEY LIED THEY LIED") contained several components:
    • This image
    • The text, "THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED ME TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED ME TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED ME TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED TO ME THEY LIED ME" imposed over the image
    • Two audio files playing simultaneously: Lost in My Thoughts and the reversed Ikana Valley theme.

August 25, 2020

• At 1:14pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #33

8/25 Update - The Showdown
August 25, 2020 at 1:14 pm

The Showdown

Synopsis

Sarah stands face-to-face with something that shouldn't be possible in this world - another player character.

Wearing the Zora Mask - the one required to defeat the boss she previously fled from - this stranger expresses his disappointment that despite gathering up all of the masks ahead of Sarah to prevent her from progressing, he hadn't anticipated that other inhabitants in the game world would actually try and help her succeed.

Excited at the prospect of a challenge, he dons the final mask available in the original game and the most powerful one of them all - the Fierce Deity Mask. In no uncertain terms is this player meaning to end Sarah once and for all.

As the transformation takes hold, the mysterious player is turned into the avatar of strongest foe Sarah has faced yet. Beckoning her to return something to him, the player approaches her and calls out to The Father to transport them into a different world to fight - ensuring that this time she will have no help from her allies.

The Father - having sufficiently gained enough influence over the world by this point - manages to transport the two players into an entirely separate world from Majora's Mask. After exchanging a few words, Sarah has no choice but to engage the mysterious figure in combat as he is revealed to be none other than Jadusable - the protagonist of the original story of 2010.

Throughout the fight, Jadusable seems to be toying with Sarah - going so far as to taunt her and joke that even unruly inhabitants that he's had to dispatch before put up a better fight. Sarah lands several hits on the corrupted warrior, but with every hit he takes he returns reinvigorated. Without a way for Rosa, Circle, or even The Owl to reach her - she's truly on her own in this world.

Beating her down over the course of the fight, in a shocking twist Jadusable delivers a killing blow to Sarah, causing her collapse to the ground. The video fades out, glitches, and a strange message is left at the end leading to a bizarre website.

http://www.eternity-project.com

What awaits there? Is this the end of Sarah's storyline? The next update will be on August 30th.

Patreon Rewards

You'll notice that two of the names mentioned in the fight with Jadusable references two patrons that have achieved the Neologist tier or higher. During Jadusable's fight with Sarah, it's implied that they must have "stepped out of line" before for him to fight them - but to what extent remains ambiguous.

Behind the Scenes

We've added a new tier in between the $15 and $50 tiers - The Moon Child tier. This includes a unique discord role and is a way to show your added support without committing to the $50 tier (or if it's filled up, we only have a few Neologist tier slots remaining as of this post). Any amount you can support is appreciated - I'm so incredibly glad that people are enjoying this story and the fun zeitgeist around it. It takes a lot of effort and work to make these happen, so much so that it's become my full time job during the quarantine - so any amount of financial compensation is very much appreciated to keep the lights on.

If you don't have a Patreon account, want to donate some other way, or would rather prefer to donate via Cryptocurrency, message me on Twitter or email me at AlexanderDHall13@gmail.com and we can absolutely make that happen. Thank you for all of your support so far, seriously.

The Reaction videos are coming, albeit out of order. Working on this update and making the Eternity Project website occupied all of my time last week so there's a bit of a delay. I sound like a broken record at this point, but good news - the reaction video to The Showdown will go live for all Patrons ten minutes after this post. Afterwards, it will be available to the public a day later. The Dying World and The Predecessor reaction videos will follow this week.

And now for your regularly scheduled New Players section:

NEW PLAYERS

This past video saw our biggest premiere yet (seriously, again) and welcomed a lot of new players into the story. For any first-timers, welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March, it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion for the haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are some easy options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story, but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. For a more in depth explanation of the entire story, Ryan Geever has compiled a series of videos explaining everything from 2010 up to current events. I personally love these long-form, deep dive videos myself. I find they're perfect for watching/listening during your commute, when you're relaxing, or having something to fall asleep to, etc.

3. Finally, if you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more information during current arcs). It has information on everything from the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past. If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players: discord.gg/bendrowned

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: The Final Hours

Previous Chapter: The Predecessor

• At 1:23pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #34

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Showdown.wmv Reaction
August 25, 2020 at 1:23pm

In a continued effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual game-play or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and I'm so incredibly grateful for your support.

August 26, 2020

• Around 12:45pm, a new thumbnail for The Showdown.wmv was discovered. It is unknown when the change took place.

August 27, 2020

• At 3:02pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #35

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Predecessor.wmv Reaction
August 27, 2020 at 3:02pm

In a continued effort to give extra bonuses to patrons that have no effect on actual game-play or on story progression, we're giving out early access to the reactions of video premieres. These are a ton of fun for the community and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we spent the summer of 2020 being under lock down fighting a monstrous rogue AI. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and I'm so incredibly grateful for your support.

Eternity

August 30, 2020

• At 5:30am, eternity-project.com was discovered to be down.
• At 2:20pm, FOR INTERNAL CORPORATE USE ONLY - DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE was set to premiere at 6:00.
  • The thumbnail was already present and no tags were added.
• At 5:42, methodsofrevolution.com was brought back up. No changes were detected.
• At 5:50, methodsofrevolution.com began redirecting to eternity-project.com, which has yet to return.
• At 6:00, FOR INTERNAL CORPORATE USE ONLY - DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE premiered. It appears to be a video detailing the Eternity Project, including their plans to introduce digitization to the general public and their ability to inject their patients into countless virtual worlds.
• Shortly after the premiere, eternity-project.com returned with a completely revamped look. The site now contained new links in its header: "Home", "About", "Participants", "Live", "Roadmap", "FAQ", and "Legal". The bottom of the site contained new copyright information, "©2020 by Xavius Solutions".
  • "Home", the default page, contained the following text:
    • Revolutionary Ideas.
      Methodical Solutions.
      
      Working together to overcome humanity's greatest obstacle.
  • "About" contained the following:
    • See our story.
      Learn more about our revolutionary approach.
      
      [FOR INTERNAL CORPORATE USE ONLY - DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE is embedded here.]
      
      Why Choose Digitization?
      
      Human Fragility
      Despite our best efforts and medical advancements, the human body ultimately has a finite life span. The unavoidable truth is that from the moment we are born, the moments we have on this world are fleeting. We can prolong the effects of aging with a healthy diet, smart lifestyle choices, and exercise, but all of us ultimately have to face the same reality in the end - death. Since the dawn of time mankind has been searching for an answer to this inevitability.
      
      A Digital Solution
      For decades the minds behind Xavius Solutions have worked in over 13 countries in search of that very same solution, but it was only in the 21st century that we realized that we finally had the means to obtain it. Through trial and error, they eventually found that by utilizing a process called digitization it was possible to completely transfer a human's brain indefinitely into a digital network. Though the patient leaves their physical body, their mind and spirit remain completely intact.
      
      A Brighter Tomorrow
      This revolutionary new method has allowed digitized humans to overcome our limitations and live eternally in a virtual cyberspace - free from the burdens of our natural world. With every passing year, the list of worlds developed by our team continues to expand - ranging from simulated worlds identical to ours, re-imagined popular movies & games, far away planets, and more. Participants can choose to live in these worlds as long or as little as they wish before moving onto the next world to explore.
      
      An Uncertain Future
      In these increasingly uncertain times, the only certainty we have is that one can never predict when their number comes. Although research is progressing into digitization after expiry, the efforts to restore the neural activity required remain unsuccessful. Many proactive people, both young and old, are deciding to take fate into their own hands and are signing up for our clinics now more than ever before. In as little as 4-6 weeks you can have your initial consultation and begin your process towards an incredible journey.
  • "EAP Participants" (labeled "Participants" in the header) contained the following text:
    • Eternity Assistance Program
      EAP
      
      While most participants in the Eternity Project prefer to either remain anonymous (with the exception of friends and family) or stay exclusively to private worlds, on occasion there are those that offer to mentor others. These participants make up the bulk of our E.A.P program, serving to acclimate newcomers to the digitization process and all the amazing benefits that it offers. We attempt to keep a regularly updated list here for reference. These participants often travel between public worlds, so be sure to be on the lookout if you encounter them. Some still choose to go by their original names, but most have become so acclimated to their new environment that they've either adopted a moniker or immersed themselves in a new persona entirely.
      
      Active EAP Participants
      
      The Space Child,​ Moonlit Plague,​ RubyCosmos, ​Niele,​ Tiki, ​Evan, ​Nikki, ​Koli, ​Vivi Ven, Goeteeks, ​NexAdruin, Ryu, ​Alyssa Bee, Alexi, Karlacade, Doctor C., Acebats, ​Drew, Zog., ​Joel Bailey, ​Jack Archer, RosePetrichor, Twitch Circuit, Syphyous, MaxOE23,​ Neryssa, Fizzin_Pop, pixelg, Navi D, nfreak141, ​Thor,​ Logan,​ Mel, Ena, Kevin, ​Talima, Smilecat98, ​Arck, ​Joebotnik, Asriel,​ Shylenced, Danny,​ Kio, Starry-Starlight, ​TheArisoner,​ Lizard Leliel, B. O'Donnel, Kami,​ Jason B., Quin,​ Giljeam, Falcon, Loiathal, Biolizard,​ Rythen Eugea, Jay/Seer Zelda,​ Cmac, Jureiia, Jester Queen, Michael Andersen, Cabin5575, John Tieke,​ LanWan, JPas, Omri Margalit, Jay, Zedregex, Austin Rogers, Ponk Kastle, Nevflinn, Brian A., Hippocriticalhaz, Cynthia, Jborhi Ari, Thomas, James, Hannah, Carnyzzle, Lego1upMushroom, JDW, Kaisumisu, ​Stefanie the Mewtwo, Hyde, Berry, Blivy, Rin, Abyss, Tony Gil
  • "Live" contained the following text, followed by a video player labeled "Incoming Transmissions":
    • Live Sessions
      
      From time to time, we will host live sessions here for demonstration purposes. Typically these will be opportunities for people in the outside world to communicate with those who have been digitized and get to know them and the process better in general. Other times we host public announcements with the Xavius Solutions dev team. Please check back soon as we are always updating!
  • "Roadmap" contained the following text:
    • Roadmap
      
      At Xavius Solutions we are always striving to improve our process to continue to offer a myriad of options for our patients to enjoy. Here are just a few things to anticipate as the development team finishes out the year and looks into the near future:
      • Q4 2020 - Q1 2021
        • Roman Empire world enters preliminary testing
        • World merger technology expected to release
        • Legacy code overhaul and removal
        • General performance improvements, stability adjustments, and bug fixes
        • More streamlined welcome experience
      • Q2 2021 - Q1 2022
        • Global Digitization Initiative begins
        • Removing avatar constraints
        • User created world testing enters alpha
        • Development begins on Digital Revival
        • Superhero world leaves closed beta
        • Integration with older hardware (pre-2005) begins preliminary testing
  • "FAQ" contained the following text:
    • Frequently Asked Questions
      
      Making the decision to undergo the digitization process is often the source of a significant amount of conflict and apprehension from both the potential applicant and with friends and family who do not support their decision. Naturally, many applicants harbor feelings of uneasiness about leaving the world they grew up or fear of the unknown. This FAQ section is meant to provide some rudimentary information, but it is always advisable to visit and consult with your nearest provider about any questions you might have with the process.
      
      How old do I have to be to be digitized?
      Legally, the right to be digitized, a right that we believe is unalienable, still operates on the same "Right to Die" or "Death with Dignity" laws in your country/jurisdiction. We are actively campaigning to get this changed as we see it as barbaric that digitization is roped into the same category, but typically the average medical provider cannot legally even consider this option until the applicant is over 18 years of age and considered an adult.
      
      What is the actual digitization procedure like?
      The medical procedure is relatively quick, however due to pressure from other countries and competing businesses we deliberately keep the specific details of the process under a strict non-disclosure agreement. It has taken us decades to perfect the process and we are dedicated to ensuring the sacrifices that were made to get here were not in vain. In order to maintain the purity of our process against those that would infringe on our rights the specifics will be disclosed upon signing of the NDA.
      
      What kinds of worlds are available?
      After being digitized, you will be placed in the world that you and your healthcare provider have decided on beforehand - this typically is a waiting room called the Wayward Horizon. It operates more or less as an in between world - an introductory area for newcomers or a lobby for others. There is a cooldown period of 24 hours before your first world transfer is available. This has proven necessary to monitor the participant if they have any trouble adjusting. After that time has elapsed you are able to move freely. We have a wide range of worlds available - including several famous movie worlds, popular video-games, and science fiction fantasy lands. The worlds based off of popular films have been rebuilt from scratch, while the video game worlds allow you to be injected directly into the gameplay with the appropriate graphical fidelity. Due to general compatibility errors, anything released on hardware before 2005 is not available. We are expecting countless new worlds to become available every year, so fear not, boredom will never enter the equation.
      
      Can I communicate with the outside world?
      Communication with the outside world is extremely limited and can typically only be done through certain websites that have already opened a gateway that allows that particular kind of data to be transferred. Every so often we sponsor a traditional "Ask Me Anything" event where a digitized person (usually apart of the EAP program) will return to Wayward Horizon and talk to the general public, promoting the benefits of digitization and answering questions.
      
      Can I create my own world?
      At this time, participants are unable to create their own custom worlds and must use the ones created by Xavius Solutions. We are confident that the amount of variety we have provided will be more than sufficient to last a significant amount of time, even by eternity's standards. In addition, we release new worlds every year once they've been sufficiently tested internally. The aptest comparison is to think of worlds as lobbies in a traditional online game - you can host a myriad of versions of the same world, but each one has the potential to be a dramatically different experience depending on who is participating. There is also the option to turn a world to private - meaning that only those you invite to the world will be able to join you. Worlds are set to public by default.
      
      What kind of people can I expect in public worlds?
      People of every demographic and people that are just like you! Those who have been uploaded often have similar interests and have led lives that have brought them to the program. Depending on the specific world you've chosen, you will meet different individuals. Certain worlds attract certain types of participants inherently, and our studies have shown that typically the younger the demographic is the less likely the participants will follow the world's "script". That is to say, events in that world might play out dramatically different than they usually would or sometimes not at all.
      
      Is there pain? What happens if I die?
      The ability to feel pain is a setting that is determined by the initial host of the world. Death is dependent on the type of world you're inhabiting. If you are in a world similar to our original reality, upon death you will immediately be returned to the previous day. If you are inhabiting a video game or fantasy world, your death will obey the laws of that world - either removing you from the world entirely (in the case of most fantasy and film worlds) or restarting from a checkpoint (in the case of most video game worlds). Death and pain are always disabled in the Heaven simulations and cannot be overridden. This was one of the features that Xavius Solutions had the most difficulty ironing out before Eternity Project was cleared to leave alpha in 2013, as originally death was permanent and the participant had to be manually rebooted from a sysadmin.
      
      How secure is my data?
      Considering our data is our most valuable asset, all of our servers possess several layers of the most sophisticated encryption software available and are additionally backed up at several undisclosed physical locations spread across the globe. There is no risk of the possibility of data corruption in any form whatsoever.
      
      Can I return to the physical world once I've been digitized?
      We find that this question often gets asked as more of a nervous safety net and is not really meant in earnest. Establishing a route to return to the physical world remains a low priority for our development team, as there is very little support for it - both internally and with our participants. Out of the thousands of men and women that made the choice to become digitized in our network, we have a 100% satisfaction rate.
  • "Legal" contained an innocuous legal disclaimer.
• Soon after combing through the indexed pages, several discoveries were made:
  • "Dev Notes" was discovered by finding the sitemap. It contained the following text:
    • - There are names that exist in World Alpha that listed as participants, was this an oversight or what? What the hell is wrong with you? We don't need people asking questions about people from there at all, period. Fix it.
      
      - I know its your first year working here for us but you should be extremely careful playing around with different slugs - especially if they're not apart of the actual site. There are several things about my paygrade that if you discover and mess with could have disasterous consequences.
      
      - Reverted the site back to normal after the extended maintenece. Was shocked to find it really reverted back to an old gateway from almost a decade ago. Need to talk to Abel about this.
  • The video feed on the Live Transmissions page activated several times over the next hour. Four transmissions, all from Abel and directed at an unnamed Eternity Project employee, reveal that Sarah's in-game death can be reversed and allowed for players to attempt it. The transcripts to these transmissions can be found here.
  • "back:door/sys" was discovered per Abel's instructions. Locked behind the password "wthnhbrs12", it contained a hidden link labeled "continue".
  • "άλφαrebt" was discovered soon afterward, hidden in the previous page and locked behind the password "MnchldrnA11". In addition to the "heart" of World άλφα, this page originally contained a button labeled "+ Inject Code", which allowed the user to upload a file. Per Abel's instructions, someone managed to upload a file that correctly re-established World άλφα and satisfied Abel's request. At 6:52, the upload button was removed.
• Some time after activity ceased, the video was given the following tags: "Eternity Project, Ben Drowned, Virtual Reality, BR, virtual worlds, digitization, eternity, we have created eternity"

September 13, 2020

• At 1:40am, The Final Hours.wmv was set to premiere at 3:30pm. It initially contained no tags and the description was manually set to "No description available".
  • Thumbnail changes took place at 11:32, 11:37, 11:43, 11:47, 12:35, 2:29, 2:46, 2:53, 3:12, 3:18, 3:20, and 3:24.
  • The tags were discovered at 11:38am.
  • The description changed at around 3:00am to "12 hours remain...", and again around 2:37pm to "Little time remains..."
• At 3:49pm, a new thumbnail for The Moon Children.wmv was discovered. It is unknown when the change took place.
• At 3:30pm, The Final Hours.wmv premiered. It featured Sarah waking from her recent revival to the Moon's imminent impact. She enters the Mayor's Residence, where she finds the remaining living souls within the cartridge pondering on what she should do next. With no certain decision made, Sarah departs for the Astral Observatory.

September 14, 2020

• At 3:23pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #36

9/13 Update - The Final Hours
September 14, 2020 at 3:28pm

The Final Hours

Synopsis

Having been revived by the players tampering with the back end of Eternity Project's website and injecting specific code, Sarah returns to the game to find things worse off than before. There are only minutes left before the moon, having come alive, crashes into the town and ends the game.

With all of the exits sealed and seemingly no living thing in sight, Sarah finally finds a building standing amidst the chaos - the mayor's office. There, she discovers nearly a dozen more trapped souls hiding in the space between the code, debating on the merits of letting the moon fall or activating the Fourth Day Glitch.

Clearly those living in the game world are extremely divided on this issue - some want everything to return to normal, some worry about being corrupted by The Father, and others still just want a release from having to relive the same three days in the same game world for all eternity. Sarah - unsure of her own decision - makes her way to the observatory with seconds to spare and arrives at the telescope.

Given the choice to decide the fate of this world, the consensus must now choose to vote if they decide to activate the Fourth Day Glitch. Players are encouraged to go back over each bit of information throughout the past few months to inform their decision, but no matter what this choice will permanently change the world.

Behind the Scenes

In thirty minutes after this post goes up, a vote will be held on this platform, lasting for three days, that will determine the fate of Termina.

NEW PLAYERS

For any first-timers, welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March, it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion for the haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are some easy options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story, but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. For a more in depth explanation of the entire story, Ryan Geever has compiled a series of videos explaining everything from 2010 up to current events. I personally love these long-form, deep dive videos myself. I find they're perfect for watching/listening during your commute, when you're relaxing, or having something to fall asleep to, etc.

3. Finally, if you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more information during current arcs). It has information on everything from the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past. If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players: discord.gg/bendrowned

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: ???

Previous Chapter: The Showdown

• At 4:00pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the final poll:

Patreon Post #37 (Poll #12)

Do you activate the Fourth Day Glitch?
September 14, 2020 at 4:00pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVRcX81frk0

Based off all of the information you have gleamed over the past few months, taking into account the motivations and perspectives of the characters you've encountered, do you choose to activate the Fourth Day Glitch? This poll will run for three days and you can modify your vote during that time should you change your mind.

• Yes (91%)
• No (9%)

September 30, 2020

• At 10:29am, The Fourth Day.wmv was uploaded and set to premiere on October 3 at 3:15pm. It contained no description or tags.

October 3, 2020

• At 12:50am, The Fourth Day.wmv was removed from Jadusable's channel ahead of its premiere time.

October 4, 2020

• At 3:47pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #38

A Quick Update Before The End
October 4, 2020 at 3:47pm

It's been a long journey but we're finally nearing the end. The final two videos are slated to come out this month. The first of the videos - The Fourth Day - was set to premiere yesterday at 3pm EST.

However, due to real life events - namely what's happened this weekend with our President - I felt that once again the Jadus storyline was blurring the line between reality and fiction. This has been a weird year, to say the very least, and a very sensitive time for our country. I would like to do what I can to not "rock the boat" or incite any more panic than what the 24/7 news cycle is currently doing. For the same reason why I dropped the plot thread initially when real life began mirroring Jadus' storyline too closely with the riots across the country, I decided to postpone the update and rework a bit of the story when I found out the news Friday night. The beauty of having Jadus and Sarah's stories be completely separate from each other is that my original vision of Sarah's story and its conclusion of the haunted Majora's Mask cartridge remains largely unaffected. There will be a time to revisit Jadus' story in the future but once again the timing has proven a little too eerie for me to publish it in good faith - especially since tensions are already high. I'd like to do whatever small part I can to relieve them, not aggravate them.

Taking the video down and looking over it while editing out Jadus' part, I felt there were a few more things that needed more time in the oven to get "right" to really make the video as effective as it can be. It's been a decade since the original story has come out and I feel as though while in the short term it will be an annoyance for people following it minute-to-minute - which I understand completely and apologize for - there are things that I want to touch upon in this video that will make repeat viewings a year or two from now much more interesting. I only have an opportunity to wrap this story up once and deliver on that so I'd like to take the time necessary to achieve it.

I will update the Patreon tiers after this post, but this also serves as a heads up that due to the BEN Drowned story concluding this month the Neologist and Exceptional Supporter tiers are being modified and will go into effect to any new pledges after October 1, 2020 (so anyone who is at the $50+ tier and hasn't been charged yet) - The Final Role reward will no longer be available to new pledges. Note that that doesn't mean that all rewards have been given out - just that we aren't accepting new pledges anymore. This is also a reminder that this Patreon has always served as a "tip jar" and to keep that in mind going forward. As the story is reaching its conclusion, I wanted to once again thank you all for your incredible support these past few months but please do not feel obligated to continue to pledge if finances are an issue or you want to spend your money elsewhere. For these final two videos I'm taking much more time than normal to deliver a great experience to wrap this story up, and I'm very aware of potentially disappointing people who have gotten used to the weekly videos back during the summer - but I think in the long run the trade off will be worth it. The circumstances are a bit different now, and as I've said on Twitter please take that into account when considering how much you want to pledge or continue to pledge.

If you want to leave your pledges up as a way of saying "thank you" or showing support as the story comes to its conclusion that is perfectly fine, but I don't want anyone feeling obligated to. Really, it's OK. The BEN Distinction/Method Revolt reward are still accepting new additions (meaning even if you pledge this month I'll include you on good faith even though you won't be charged until the Nov. 1st) , but with the extra steps and effort that goes into delivering on the Final Role, that specific reward is now closed for any new pledges. If you've already pledged to the tier in the past, you're fine and don't need to do anything further - this is just for new pledges.

I will give ample heads up on Twitter and on here when the revised version of The Fourth Day is set to premiere this month, so be sure to check back for updates. Thank you for all of your support, and let's see this through to the end together.

All my best,

Alex

October 23, 2020

Why is he smiling?

• Alex Hall posted a series of tweets:
  • The first at 8:14am, reading: "BEN Drowned will conclude on Halloween - October 31st, 2020. Specific time TBA as of right now - likely 2PM EST. I'm really curious to see how people react to this, be prepared to expect the unexpected."
  • The second at 8:45am, describing his recent personal journey hiking in the Rocky Mountains.
  • The third at 8:50am, revealing a rather worrisome screenshot from the upcoming video.
  • The fourth at 9:17am, showing the much-theorized-about desert for the second time. This tweet was deleted shortly afterward.

October 30, 2020

• At 8:28am, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #39

In regards to credits
October 30, 2020 at 8:28am

Hey all, quick update here - I've been hard at work getting the final episode out for Halloween tomorrow and I wanted to make sure I've gotten most everyone's names correctly displayed for the credits sequence. Note that this is only for the credit sequence.

If you could double check the document below that would be great. If your name is incorrectly displayed or needs changing, please DM me with what it currently is and what you'd like me to replace it with so I can CTRL + F it quickly. Much appreciated guys!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X0ISVzdtnki-TnJ-m9JIRKG_gPgwyUCc/view?usp=sharing

• At 11:57pm, The End.wmv was set to premiere at 4:00pm the next day. It features no tags, and its thumbnail depicts the Happy Mask Salesman being burned at the stake by several NPCs.

October 31, 2020

Oh no.

OH NO.

• At 12:15am, Jadusable's YouTube avatar changed to Matt's face.
• At 12:38pm, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #40

The End.wmv premieres today at 4pm EST
October 31, 2020 at 12:38pm

The End.wmv

It's been a long road, but the finale to Awakening - and Ben Drowned itself - premieres today on Halloween at 4pm Eastern Standard Time. This video will conclude the story that started ten years ago and follow Sarah as she attempts to stop the fourth day glitch from consuming all of Termina.

One of my favorite concepts in Ben Drowned was that there was always a little more than meets the eye in this universe - hidden stories that can be pieced together by careful analysis and proper context - and that holds true for this final video as well. There will be some answers that will not be readily apparent on first viewing, but I know fans love to theorize and rewatch, and I've designed these 2020 videos with that in mind. After today all of the Ben Drowned catalog will be available. Who knows, there may even be a few Easter eggs or even foreshadowing of future stories to discover.

Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this incredible journey and to everyone who has supported this work. I am so humbled and grateful to be able to give out something to the world to counteract the downer of a year that is 2020. It has been a wonderful journey to experience with all of you and this wouldn't be possible without you.

Alex

• At 1:55pm, Jadusable's YouTube avatar changed to the Elegy of Emptiness statue.
• At 2:05pm, the tags appeared.
• The thumbnail changed several times:
  • At 2:00, it changed to a close-up of the Happy Mask Salesman being burned.
  • At 3:24, it changed to Link and a gravestone inside of the Mayor's Residence.
  • At 3:30, it changed to day four.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:35, it changed to BEN.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:38, it changed to DROWNED.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:41, it changed to jadusable.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:43, it changed to CHILDREN.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:46, it changed to THE FATHER.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:48, it changed to The Truth.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:50, it changed to The Last Hero.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:52, it changed to The Moon Children.wmv's alternate thumbnail.
  • At 3:53, it changed to The Prisoner.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:54, it changed to The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:56, it changed to The Dying World.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:57, it changed to The Predecessor.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:57 again, it changed to The Showdown.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:58, it changed to The Final Hours.wmv's thumbnail.
  • At 3:59, it reverted to its original thumbnail.
• At 4:00pm, The End.wmv premiered. It shows Sarah's final encounter with Matt and Majora, in which both she and Jadusable make the ultimate sacrifice for the souls still living within the cartridge. With their sacrifice, the world has been restored and The Father is now a watchful eye, keeping the inhabitants safe from harm. Ben now inhabits Link's body, free of his terrible fate once and for all. It is unknown what happens to Sarah, but she is more than willing to pay the price for everyone's freedom.
• Soon afterward, day four.wmv and jadusable.wmv returned to having their original thumbnails.

This marks the end of Ben Drowned. All further entries are presented as supplemental material.

November 2, 2020

Main article: Attack on Kong

• king kong.wmv was made public once again, having been unlisted for several years. It was given an entirely new thumbnail that retained the "4.1.21" text, and its tags were changed to the following:
  • king kong, jibbs, ben drowned, king kong april fools, parody, legend of zelda, zelda, ben king kong, be ndrowned king kong
• Follow the link above for further King Kong entries.

November 3, 2020

• At 7:08am, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #41

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Final Hours.wmv Reaction
November 3, 2020 at 7:08am

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The Final Hours.wmv Reaction

Now that the story has concluded, we still have a few reaction videos to release over the next week. These are already super nostalgic for me and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we made the best of being under lockdown in 2020. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and bittersweet to revisit after the ending. I'm so incredibly grateful for your past, present, and future support. These are great little time capsules of the wonderful community you all have created around this story.

There will be a full on post about The End.wmv coming just like the other updates, but I'm giving it a little time to breathe first. Thank you to everyone and be safe out there.

November 4, 2020

The final avatar change.

• At 11:02am, Jadusable's Patreon updated with the following:

Patreon Post #42

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The End.wmv Reaction
November 4, 2020 at 11:02am

PATREON EARLY ACCESS: The End.wmv Reaction

Now that the story has concluded, we still have a few reaction videos to release over the next week. These are already super nostalgic for me and a great way to fondly look back and remember how we made the best of being under lockdown in 2020. Patrons (of any tier) will immediately be able to get access to them a day early before this post becomes public to everyone else.

Thank you again to the community, this has been so rewarding to make and bittersweet to revisit after the ending. I'm so incredibly grateful for your past, present, and future support. These are great little time capsules of the wonderful community you all have created around this story.

There will be a full on post about The End.wmv coming just like the other updates, but I'm giving it a little time to breathe first. Thank you to everyone and be safe out there. I know there is an election going on but be kind to each other - even those on the other side of the fence as you!

• Jadusable's YouTube avatar changed to the Elegy of Emptiness statue, now free of its previously-negative connotations.
  • The significance of this action is best left to individual interpretation.
  • Officially, there is no significance and Alex Hall simply wishes to keep the avatar story-related for a while longer.

February 12, 2023

• Alex Hall posted a series of tweets:
  • The first at 4:34pm, reading: "https://eternity-project.com One last Easter egg"
  • The second at 4:36pm, reading: "This was held back for a bit because of the current political climate but now that things have died down, I think it's fine to publish it."
  • The third at 4:40pm, reading: "This serves as more of a "bridging" piece between the last story and this next story - which is still in pre-production. Obviously with what happened in my personal life in 2021 timetables have shifted a bit. Like I said, its just a little teaser/easter egg."
  • The fourth at 11:35pm, reading: "The page is password protected because I am working on a new .txt video but since its a teaser I figured if someone could solve it in the meantime they could get a sneak peek. Like I stressed earlier, its just a little Easter egg - nothing big - so set expectations accordingly."
• Subsequently, the teaser/easter egg page mentioned in the tweet was found at the URL https://www.eternity-project.com/unknown.

Timeline
Preceded by Moon Children	Current Arc Awakening	Followed by N/A