Awakening (arc)

Hubris Arc
Written by	Alex Hall
Duration	February 17 to July 15, 2011 (Within Hubris); March 17 to present (Awakening)
Protagonist	Players
Videos	h b i s r ea l; awakening.wmv
Documents	Newspaper Letter

The Hubris Arc is the third and final arc of the Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge ARG. It follows the attempts of several groups to uncover the truth about the Moon Children. The arc was paused on July 15, 2011 and resumed on March 17, 2020.

It is preceded by the Moon Children Arc.

The following is a summary of the Hubris Arc, in chronological order of the events as they happened. Out-of-character events are in italics. All times are in EST. To see each page exactly as described, click the icon for each update.

Note: Many links in this article no longer work due to the Within Hubris shutdown. Some of the pages have been saved via the Wayback Machine, and are linked instead; the links that do not work are kept here for archival purposes.

Within Hubris

Bastion of Defense

February 17, 2011

Around 3:06am, Alex Hall posted an update to Jadusable's YouTube channel, reading, "Looking for three responsible individuals to act as forum moderators. Send me a brief resume at jadusable@youshouldnthavedonethat.net if you think you would be interested."
Around 11:00am, a countdown appeared on the main page of youshouldnthavedonethat.net. The timer counted down to an event referred to as "Another Step," and was set to end at 7:00pm. When hovered over with the cursor, the counter read, "18 Feb 2011 is when you unite."
Alex Hall posted another update on his YouTube channel requesting Skype names for moderator applicants, hoping to secure a meeting that night.
Guestbook entries from the 10th to 16th disappeared.
As the counter ended, the site went down.
Jadusable's channel posted three updates containing pieces of the following binary code:
- 01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01111010 00110001 00110101 00101110 01101001 01101110 01110110 01101001 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100110 01110010 01100101 01100101 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 01010111 01101001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01011111 01001000 01110101 01100010 01110010 01101001 01110011 00101111
- The message was an encoded URL for a forum: http://z15.invisionfree.com/Within_Hubris/
YSHDT's continuous server problems prevented many users from accessing the site.
Two of the binary codes on Jadusable's channel were removed, followed by the third shortly afterward.
Jadusable's YouTube channel posted another update:
- " http://z15.invisionfree.com/Within_Hubris The final piece of the puzzle is sliding into place, when the bastion is completed you will have everything you need."
- Bastion means "a group that defends principle" or "a stronghold into which people could go for shelter during a battle." Bastion refers to this forum, based on this forum post:
  - "This is our last haven, our last bastion of defense. And yet it houses our greatest minds, and our strongest warriors."
Soon after the forum was discovered, two forum groups appeared for around twenty seconds before disappearing.
- Forum group "HELP ME" with subforum "PLEASE GOD HELP ME" appeared first.
- Forum group "MY EYES" with subforum "THEY TOOK" appeared around ten minutes later.
In the list of members, the first thirteen members are listed as "Tenors." The Tenors are Jadusable, Hubris, Ryukaki, Alex, Nekko, Duskworld23, Drowned, BEN, Rosa, Insidiae, Tyler, Kelbris, and Guide.

February 18, 2011

A new, permanent forum group was added to Within Hubris, titled "Wayward Horizon," which cannot be seen without logging in. It contained one sub-forum called "???," which was password-protected.
- When first noticed, there was only one topic there, created by Hubris.
- Minutes later, the subforum was empty.
- Then, one topic appeared, created by Guide.
- Another topic was created by Nekko.
- Then another topic, this time by Duskworld23.
- The fourth and latest topic was created by a new user, ???.
- When trying to enter the subforum, one is met with a login page.
  - On the password screen, it says, "Please do not attempt to enter a password unless you are authorised. Failed attempts are logged and you may have your posting rights removed upon repetitive failure." However, it was soon discovered that this was not true, and failed attempts are simply logged.
It was confirmed by one of the moderators that they have nothing to do with the strange happenings on the site. No one group has more knowledge than any other. They are only there as custodians, keeping the place clear of problems and keeping order. In another topic they admit having no connections to Guide, an admin, and are unaware of the password to Wayward Horizon.
- Also confirmed are the forum categories "Announcements," "Story," and "Community" being out of character. Anything outside of that are out of the mods' control and is being controlled by Guide.

February 19, 2011

The following binary code appeared on Rosa's user profile in the location field:
- 10011101 10011110 10001100 10001011 10010110 10010000 10010001 10010000
- When translated from binary to text, it becomes: žŒ‹–‘
- When the binary is inverted, it becomes:
  - 01100010 01100001 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01101111
  - This translates to "bastiono," which is Esperanto for bastion. This implies that Rosa is trapped within our bastion and alive.
Around 6:24PM EST, YSHDT.net is updated with the following:

February 17, 2011

The time has come to unite.

Almost.

Interestingly, the post refers to the 17th when the previous counter said we unite on the 18th.

The binary code on Rosa's profile changed to:
- 100111011001111010001100100010111001011010010000100100011001000010011001
- Inverted and converted to text, it reads "bastionof," or "Bastion of." Words are missing.
YSHDT.net's title is switched to "Within Hubris."
A user named ProtonConroy solves the puzzle from Rosa's profile: "bastionofdefense." This was the password to Wayward Horizon.
In Wayward Horizon, the posts made by Nekko, Duskworld23, and ??? are present. A few minutes later, a fifth topic by Kelbris appears. (Screenshot)
Below is each post, translated from its original binary. The originals have been recreated here.

Wayward Horizon

Post #1 (Pinned post): "Welcome To The Waywar01011001110000101," by Guide

Description: ????//
You're not supposed to be here.Get.Out.

Post #2: "The First," by Nekko

whatis? wherethis? help me please, i'm so scared. where is everyone?i'm so lonely... mommy im so sorry. i promise i'll be a better son, ipromise i'll be the little boy you've always wanted, i miss you i'm soscared... mommy just please wake me up. please PLEASE MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU

Post #3: "The Fourth," by Duskworld23

I can't stand it. I can't even have a momentI can't stand it. I can't even have a moment no think. I want to kill myself, but I don't know how. Have to find a way, before I lose myself.

Note: required several shifts and conversions for the end result

Post #4: "The Seventh," by ???

I can become God.

I can become everything.

Post #5: "...," by Kelbris

GET OUT
Note: only post not in binary.

Soon after the password was used, it was reset and everyone was logged out of the forum.
The new password for Wayward Horizon changed to "youshouldntbehere." Nothing in the forum has changed.

February 20, 2011

At around 10:35pm, the copyright information on YSHDT.net changed to © 2011 Within Hubris.
YSHDT.net went down again due to bandwidth issues, most likely related to use of reloading browser extensions like SiteDelta.
The password "youshouldntbehere" stopped working for Wayward Horizon.
The URL for youshouldnthavedonethat.net began redirecting to Within Hubris. At an unknown date, it stopped. From this point forward, youshouldnthavedonethat.net is officially no longer part of the story.

February 21, 2011

Alex Hall begins seeking help with the downed YSHDT's problems.
Jadusable's YouTube channel adds another channel, HubrisOST, to its friends list. This new channel is used for uploading songs from the ARG.
At 8:13pm, Alex Hall announces @WithinHubris, the official Within Hubris Updates Twitter account on Jadusable's YouTube channel.
- The first tweet, posted at 7:01pm, reads, "Twitter created. Stay tuned for the "Hubris Reveal" trailer later this week."
As Guide, he posts the entirety of the Haunted Cartridge Arc on Within Hubris, then posts an update on Within Hubris that reiterates the update from the YouTube channel.

Hubris Reveal

February 25, 2011

At 6:09pm, @WithinHubris tweets, "'Hubris Reveal' trailer debuts on Jadusable's Youtube channel on Sunday, February 27th at 6pm EST."
Around ten minutes later, the same message was posted on Jadusable's YouTube channel.

February 26, 2011

Several users of Within Hubris received an envelope in the mail. Contained within were a newspaper clipping and a letter, which detail potential Moon Children activity and a message from BEN, respectively.
- The recipients of the letter were the top fifty donators to the link on YSHDT.net.
Hidden periods were discovered in two posts from Guide. Whether these are significant is debatable.
- The posts were lost due to the Within Hubris takedown.
At 5:51pm, a timer was discovered on Within Hubris. It counted down to an hour before the release time given by @WithinHubris for the Hubris Reveal; alongside it was the ominous phrase, "They have to warn you."
Guide posts A Comprehensive Guide to the Story as promised. It serves to help direct attention to the essential story points. In addition, it also states that you do not have to understand the other arcs in order to enjoy the Hubris Arc. The guide has been lost.

February 27, 2011

Jadusable's YouTube channel posts three updates:
- what are you doing?
- STOP THIS
- /i
Just before 6:00pm, h b i s r ea l, a corrupted version of the Hubris Reveal, is posted.
- The binary code in the video translates to "isn't clear yet."
- Further analysis can be found here.
- At 5:59pm, @WithinHubris tweets, "H b i s r ea l uploaded instead?"
The updates on Jadusable's channel start to disappear and reappear continuously. Something is struggling for control of the account, which was thought to be "safely" in the hands of BEN up to this point.
Guide's post from February 21 is edited. Hidden text is added below the main message, which reads, "not the real not the real not the real not the real not the real."

March 1, 2011

At 1:13pm, Guide posts an update asking for an additional programmer and artist for the game.

April 23, 2011

At 3:31am, @WithinHubris tweets, "There'll be an update on 4/23, look for it around 6pm est." At 5:23pm, it is followed with, "I would also like to clarify that around 6pm est does not mean *exactly*

at 6pm est :P It all depends on when my conference call finishes."

Around 6:00pm, Guide posts an update on Within Hubris confirming May 10 as the release date for the Hubris trailer, as well as some additional information regarding the game.

May 10, 2011

Guide posts an update on Within Hubris, explaining that the trailer has been delayed until further notice, as the person who shot the footage failed to return Alex's calls.

May 27, 2011

Within Hubris user Kylinn receives a reply from Alex Hall, reading, "I haven't updated you guys yet because there isn't really anything to update about, I'm still waiting on that guy to get back to me =\ but I think most likely we'll be able to get something out in the beginning of June. I'll keep you guys posted!"

Early to Mid-2011

Sometime between February 28 and June 8, youshouldnthavedonethat.net stopped redirecting users to Within Hubris. In its place, a notice that it was no longer in use (provided by GoDaddy.com) was present.
Alex Hall assured players that, "Youshouldnthavedonethat.net will be returning, albeit in a different form."

June 8, 2011

A Within Hubris user, MajinMew, finds a member of the Tenor group not previously listed, named Usekeb.
- Usekeb joined on April 22, the day before 4/23, his last known date of activity.
- He has made one post since joining, but it is not viewable, as is the case with the other Tenors.

June 10, 2011

Within Hubris user MessedUpPro messages Alex Hall via Facebook regarding the trailer and receives the reply, "I'm working with him now again finally after all this time, so we should be able to put out something in the next week or so, but I dont want to give a definitive date yet incase it falls through again." When asked how he was doing, he replied, "Hectic, haha, to say the least. As much as I want the game to take precidence over everything else I'm doing, its hard to juggle all this stuff at once, but hopefully we're getting close to the light at the end of the tunnel."

June 22, 2011

At 5:26am, @WithinHubris announced Alex Hall's new official Twitter account, @AlexanderDHall.
Later, Alex Hall held a Q&A in the Knights of Theet Chatango.

The Hiatus

Gamejacking Accusations

July 15, 2011

At 8:43pm, Alex Hall announced that the ARG has been paused indefinitely.
Shortly afterward, Kayd Hendricks began a Q&A, under the handle APseudonym, about his part in the ARG. This interview was controversial in that he claimed that most of his interaction with Alex was ignored, leaving him to handle the story on his own.

July 17, 2011

In response to users calling him out for ignoring Kayd, Alex posted an angry declaration that he had no intention for Kayd's story to happen, and that he had essentially "gamejacked," but was left to continue because he thought Kayd meant well. He continues to say that he had originally intended to keep his story canon, but the bitter aftermath of the interview changed his mind.
- In the same thread, Kayd fires back at Alex by saying that, had he known he was "gamejacking," he would never have continued, but after being called out due to the File 59 cipher and the swarms of players begging for information, he did what he thought he had to. Subsequent contact from Alex showed that he enjoyed the videos, so Kayd felt as if he did everything correctly.

October 26, 2011

Files archived by We All Are Link during the Moon Children incident were released to the public. Some of these revealed never-before-seen interaction with Jadusable's YouTube channel, but no important information was gathered.
- The files no longer exist due to the Within Hubris takedown.

King Kong and Hubris Alpha

March 27, 2012

Users discover that youshouldnthavedonethat.net has been placed for sale. After contact from worried players, Alex Hall stated that he had no plans to use or re-purchase the site, and to disregard anything that happens there.

March 29, 2012

Two videos have been renamed:
- free.wmv is renamed "you can hear me.wmv."
- 2 is renamed "4ucme.wmv."
- Several tags are changed.

April 1, 2012

A new video is uploaded to Jadusable's YouTube channel: king kong.wmv
- Seemingly a version of day four.wmv with Goron Link, its true nature is revealed when King Kong by Jibbs feat. Chamillionaire begins playing.
- This video and the other renames are part of an April Fool's Day joke conducted by Alex Hall. Everything reverts to normal soon afterward, except for a few tags.

Mid-April, 2012

Sometime between April 1 and April 23, the videos 2 and h b i s r ea l are entirely removed from Jadusable's channel. Alex Hall's reasoning is for not confusing new players when he reboots the third arc.
- The videos are available for viewing here and here.

April 23, 2012

Around 6:00pm, in response to the iconic 4/23 date, Alex Hall posts an update for the future of his projects; while he has no new information on the continuation of the ARG due to his working on Methods of Revolution, he gives the players a gift: the Hubris Alpha, a very basic version of the first area of the planned game.
- The game is a stripped version of the house seen in h b i s r ea l. It provides no new ARG information, but was a nice gesture nonetheless.

April 24, 2012

Several changes are made to Within Hubris' design to coincide with Alex Hall's newest project, Methods of Revolution. The banner is changed and a timer counting down to an announcement is added; over the next few days, the banner is changed again. After the promotion is over, all changes are removed and the forum returns to normal.
- No images were captured of these changes.

Final Days

June 2, 2012

Alex Hall announces that Spanosa, a moderator, has been promoted to admin in order to help keep the forum orderly while Alex works on his film. He is given permission to make any necessary changes. Alex also clarifies that any spoiling content that admins could see are now saved and have been removed from the site until he is ready to continue the ARG.

August 9, 2012

Prior to this date, a Q&A thread for the more prominent members of the forum was posted. One member was asked "who [they] would kill on the forums and why," as a joke. Playing along, the user posted a list of players with silly reasons for why they would kill them.
- Many users took offense to this question, which prompted an argument. Subsequently, a report was filed to the police regarding "death threats" having been posted.
- InvisionFree removed Within Hubris from its servers soon afterward. Panicked players began contacting Alex Hall hoping he could bring it back, but he announced that it was impossible, as well as that no back-ups were available. Within Hubris, and most of its content, is lost forever.

August 10, 2012

Around 1:00am, a new version of Within Hubris is created by Kafeite, with help from other members. The new version, created using several archived threads, has no ties to the ARG canon, but houses several things that were able to be recovered from the original site.
- Alex Hall, despite having been invited, has not made an account on "Newbris." It is unknown whether this version will be adopted when the ARG starts again.
- Over time, Newbris evolved from a recreation of the original to a general interest forum.

August 16, 2018

Around 1:00am, CircleHunter solved the cipher from File 59.

mhftt.txt

EBOAKBBYCKWWXQGMEQNOK,RKZVOKCIVOWYJJMBKA
I SEE YOU THREE LIVE, CAN MY DEAR ROSA PLEASE LIVE

April 23, 2019

Around 12:00pm, Alex Hall uploaded an introduction video to his new podcast series The Digital Fireside, a sort of prologue to Methods of Revolution. While otherwise unrelated, it contained the following tags:
- The Digital Fireside, Digital Fireside, Methods of Revolution, Ben Drowned, Alex Hall, Why are you reading this, Technology, career, social, education, internet, social media, talking, philosophy, games

March 16, 2020

Sometime late at night, the BroGaming Twitch channel streamed the creation of several cryptic messages. It is not currently known if this is a canon event, as this stream would later be uploaded to YouTube as a completed video.

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.

March 18, 2020

At 7:00pm, BroGaming streamed the creation of more cryptic messages. Like before, it is not currently known if this is a canon event, 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," seemingly confirming the return of Jadusable for the first time since his disappearance in 2010.
- A cipher is hidden in the spectrogram of the video, which reads, "xbt psfyszsm splkw." This has yet to be completely solved.
Changes were made to the description of end.wmv after the premiere. It now contains a link to Jadusable's Patreon, which explains the following main points:
- "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 is a slower, more psychological approach than the original story. Due to some of the psychological themes it explores, it's recommended for participants to be 18+."
- "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."
- "Timeline wise, every three days the story will progress forward. This is intentional."
- "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."
- "At some point, another platform will be introduced that will be canonical to the story, and this post will be updated to reflect that."

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.

Timeline

Preceded by

Moon Children Arc

Current Arc

Hubris Arc

Followed by

N/A