Ben Drowned



Ben Drowned (also known as You Shouldn't Have Done That, Haunted Majora's Mask, or just by its author's name Jadusable) is a Creepypasta turned Alternate Reality Game created by user Jadusable about how he got a free Majora's Mask cartridge from a strange old man.

This goes about as well as you'd expect. After he gets home and plays it, he notices some odd quirks and strange bugs. After performing the fourth day glitch, things get... very frightening.

The first part of the story can be found here, the second part is here, and what has happened in the third part so far can be found here. It's not a good idea to read them if you plan on getting any sleep tonight. Also, OOC happenings can be found here. There is also a Character Sheet that needs Needs More Love.

Jadusable himself has a Twitter account set up to answer any questions as well as provide general updates.

Ben Drowned should not be confused with Dan Browned.

This ARG provides examples of the following tropes:

 * And I Must Scream: Literally, in Jadusable's nightmare where he gets transformed into another Elegy Statue.
 * I tried to scream but the mask was pressed so tightly against my face that it was my new face... and my new face had no mouth.
 * : king kong.wmv seems to be one for.
 * Apocalyptic Log: Jadusable's account of what he sees in the game starts becoming one of these.
 * : king kong.wmv.
 * Arc Number: 423.
 * Arc Words: "You shouldn't have done that."
 * "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
 * The Artifact: Majora's Mask elements went on the back burner after the retooled second arc began. The original draft of the game, before Jadusable ran into financial problems, would've kept said elements to the end, however.
 * Being Watched: Jadusable starts feeling like this not long after he gets the game.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Even though the story is really terrifying, the videos are all shot within the engine of Majora's Mask, an E rated game.
 * Surprisingly, at 4:42 in Jadusable.wmv, Link suffers an instant death as a blood splatter appears on the screen. Truth is, Ocarina and Majora both had blood for when you got hit, but was so unrealistic looking (though it was indeed red) that the games got an E-rating anyway.
 * Body Horror:  Also, although a less bloody version than usual for this, Link's "glitched" back.
 * Creepy Child: The Elegy of Emptiness statue. And to a lesser extent, BEN...
 * Dead Person Conversation:
 * Defictionalization: A rare collaborative and (mostly) non-deliberate example. After reading thetruth.rtf, hordes of people started inputting BEN-related questions and answers into Cleverbot, effectively training it to play the role of BEN when prompted.
 * Development Hell: And HOW. For starters, the real trailer to the game was supposed to come out on May 10th. Overall, due to development issues and financial setbacks, this trope applies.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu:
 * Evil Detecting Dog: a pack of them is present in the orchard from the Ryukaki arc.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy: In this case, evil IS a toy.
 * Eye Scream:
 * Filk Song: Hey I'm Ben (Shadow of my Chair Mix) and Set Me Free, for starters.
 * There's also Tower of Torments (Supermoon Synth Mix), which is a dark remix of . Depending on how you classify it, it also counts as a Villain Song for Skull Kid / Ben
 * The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You
 * Gaslighting: Mentioned in passing in thetruth.rtf.
 * Get Out: The first time the Wayward Horizon was broken into, someone cut off the Welcome Post by Guide to tell us in Binary that we shouldn't be in there, and to GET. OUT. Minutes later, another thread is posted, this one by Kelbris, simply saying "GET OUT" after which the password was changed.
 * Haunted House: Reversing the reversed portions of Ryukaki's final video (so that they play normally) will reveal that
 * Heartbeat Soundtrack: "h b i s r ea l".
 * Interface Screw: ...in real life.
 * Irony: The reverse Song of Healing is notoriously creepy and unsettling, especially in the context of the story and videos. But what do you get when you play the Song of Healing backwards in the actual game? Saria's Song, one of the most upbeat tunes in the series.
 * The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The garage sale Jadusable got the game from. When he goes back to talk to the old man who gave it to him, he only finds a "for sale" sign.
 * Madness Mantra: ""
 * Missing Episodes: Some of the videos, such as "huntyoudown.wmv" have been taken down from Jadusable's account. They'll probably be reuploaded by someone else any day now...
 * And they were. Here's huntyoudown.wmv.
 * Mistaken for Evidence: No, Cleverbot is not important.
 * Nor is this, if Jadusable's youtube channel is a reliable source. Or not...
 * Word of God says any information that isn't found here or here is not to be accepted as clues or evidence. Theories are welcome, but nothing outside of those two locations is to be taken as official (presumably with the exception of the Ryukaki arc).
 * A group of investigators within the ARG broke away from the main group to try and calmly sort through the mystery themselves. Naturally, once they initiated a sequence that led to the game progressing, people called them out on "taking credit for things they didn't do." One of the most notable of these underdog geniuses was someone who went by "Nero," though he certainly wasn't the only one.
 * The Most Dangerous Video Game
 * Nightmare Sequence:
 * Nothing Is Scarier: All does is make vague threats, and mess with his computer. It's surprisingly creepy, and it leads to a horrifying nightmare sequence.
 * Off the Rails: To the point that gamejacking attempts eventually contributed to tighter moderation.
 * Oh Crap: In the first arc, you have one when you discover that
 * A mix of this and the fandom rejoicing when Jadusable announced that the third part of the game revolves around BEN screwing
 * One Hundred and Eight: 108 minutes after Jadusable posted TheTruth.txt,
 * Also, in jadusable.wmv, there are 108 rupees being carried.
 * Plot Parallel: A retroactive example, in that
 * Rule Thirty Four: It is out there. Jadusable himself was reportedly responsible for the crackdown on what can be posted on the official forums. Arguably justified, as it's harder to take it in stride when your character is an Author Avatar rather than a fictional creation.
 * There is a fic called the Orchard of Love that features KaydXBike, BENXBike, and KelbrisXBEN action.
 * Schmuck Bait: Thetruth.txt wasn't posted to 4chan, but to a file sharing service as an .rtf file
 * Schedule Slip: The ARG was apparently supposed to conclude (or have something important happen) on 4/23. Due to Jadusable's coding buddy being busy with work, it (and the rest of the third arc) got delayed.
 * Sealed Evil In A Cartridge:
 * Shout Out: The name on Ifrit/Matt's Gmail account was "Matt HUBRIS", the capitalization on the name possibly being a subtle shout out to Everyman HYBRID.
 * There seem to be a few for either adaptation of The Shining. The whole "Link Statue following you" thing seems to be based on the hedge animals that follow that story's protaganist, Danny. Then there's the line "Come play with us..."
 * Weeping Angels are also referenced.
 * Try asking the real Cleverbot who drowned BEN, and chances are you may
 * Un Cancelled: Jadusable announced that due to low funds, he would not be making any more chapters of Ben Drowned. Two days later he announced that he had gotten such an overwhelming amount of donations that he would in fact be able to continue after all.
 * And the ARG started back up, working the original announcement about the cancellation into the ARG itself by Breaking the Fourth Wall. It has been implied that The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.
 * No, it most certainly will not. The latest series of events are the chronicles of one Ryukaki, who was originally One of Us and was simply following the ARG until shit literally got real (at least according to his first video).
 * Unreliable Narrator:
 * Wham Episode:
 * The Wiki Rule: The Jadusable Wiki.
 * A Wizard Did It: The haunted Majora's Mask game The in-story explanation? BEN did it.
 * Word of God: Jadusable did a long blog post (found here) about the plot, and revealed a few things with this. First of all,
 * Jadusable held a Q&A on Feb. 16th answering some burning questions such as . Most questions were met with noncommittal responses or a Shrug of God, though. Transcribed here.
 * You Bastard: Comes up in the letter.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: In the letter.
 * You Bastard: Comes up in the letter.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: In the letter.

"YOU

DIDN'T

SAVE

HER"