Story (Full) 2

Johnisdead shares many elements with Ben Drowned - an ARG created by Alex Hall in 2010. The first few sections of this story recap will be dedicated to covering the story of Ben Drowned so that readers will have full context required for Johnisdead.

((Header Image))

On September 17th, 2010, several ciphersA cipher is an encoded message that must be solved before it can be read. Ciphers introduce a puzzle element to the story, requiring users to identify and solve each one's type of encryption before they're able to be translated and reveal their hidden message. appeared on Jadusable's YouTube channel. These read as follows:

WE ALL WEAR A MASK, SOMETIMES. KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED - MOTHER, I WONDER WHAT IT IS YOU WHISPER FOR DUSK TONIGHT. GOOD LUCK.
.NET
THINK.
.NET IS YOUR ONLY CLUE
HTTP://WWW.SHOWEQ.NET/FORUMS/ARCHIVE/INDEX.PHP/T-3355.HTML

BEN was attempting to lead the players to a website ending in ".net". As a hint, the players were led to an old post on some tech support forums that contained the phrase "You shouldn't have done that". Putting two and two together, players discovered the URL that BEN was trying to lead them to - Youshouldnthavedonethat.net. For the sake of brevity, this website will simply be called YSHDT.net throughout these pages.

Youshouldnthavedonethat.net

"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 apocolypse 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."

YSHDT.net belonged to the Moon Children - a cult that worshipped two figures simply referred to "Him" and "Her". The website's introductory paragraph implied that the group believes in some sort of spiritual powers and supernatural connections. The front page also featured a variety of posts from various high-ranking Moon Children:

Ifrit (mod)
Posted: 9/14/10 @ 11:35am

Subject: Welcome to the new site!

Luna shine, brothers and sisters. We now have a new home! It's going to be a busy couple of days trying to put everything together and while we're doing that the forums will most likely be down. Feel free to use the Guest Book below to talk to each other, if the Guest Book isn't your thing there's always the IRC chat if you know it. We're looking at maybe a week or so before we're all done with the website. But for now just sit back and relax and let us do all the hard work.

Ifrit is one of the Moon Children's most prominent members. Here, he can be seen welcoming users to YSHDT.net three days prior on September 14th. The website is still under construction - as well as its Forums. In the meantime, users are told to communicate via the Guesbtook - a section of the website's front page were comments can be posted. The Guestbook will be covered in more detail later on. It's also implied that the Moon Children have their own IRC chat somewhere. It's worth mentioning that YSHDT.net also featured an "About" page where more details were revealed about its users. Ifrit's entry on this page read as follows:

Ifrit - Rodney R.
Likes - Helping people decide to join our cause, Seinfeld, Playstation 2, and reading
Dislikes - "Troublesome" people, long nights, and waiting
Ambition - Building a sense of community here, and of course Ascension, who doesn't?

Ifrit, whose name is revealed to actually be Rodney, claims to be a fan of something called "Ascension". More will be revealed about this mysterious term soon. Back on the front page of YSHDT.net, another post could be found:

Nekko (mod)
Posted: 9/15/10 @ 1:34pm

Subject: we're back

Hey guys its Chris! So glad to finally back with my (true) family! I hope you're as eager as I am to finally have a new place to call our own. anyway, like Dusk said, we lost a lot of content that we had stored. The good news is that I've got saved some of our testimonials, so that page should be up by tomorrow., but a lot of this will be under construction (bleh). we've got a few new toys, this new host gives us a lot more room to play around, however with the new domain I wouldn't be surprised if we get more than our "usual" amount of visitors, some may have potential, others may "think" they are good enough to join us. we're not ready to open up yet - we want to at least have a few pages working before we welcome you guys back in, so by the time you read this this will be a few days ago. how's the future? Do we have flying cars yet (heh)? Also, If anyone asks the background music is entitled "Lost in My Thoughts", i really like it.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be a mod for much longer - my Ascencion date is coming up really soon :) :) He finally told me when it was going to be and it's..... TOMORROW!! haah it's all I can really think about now, my family can't understand why im so excited haha :D

This post was from another one of the website's moderators - Nekko, whose real name is revealed to be Chris. This post was made two days earlier on September 15th. Chris claims that he's saved some of the Moon Children's past Testimonials and hopes to have them uploaded by the next day. He also refers to a post made by a user named Dusk. However, this is strange - the only other post made at this point was by Ifrit. After this, Chris once again mentions "Ascension", claiming that his own Ascension will be transpiring very soon. He was supposedly informed of this by someone simply referred to by "Him" - possibly the same "Him" worshipped by the Moon Children.

Unfortunately, Chris's entry on the "About" Page was not archived. It's likely that it also spoke highly about "Ascension". Back on the front page, an announcement from another new character could be found:

Duskworld23 (mod)
Posted: 9/15/10 @ 8:24pm

Subject: Rebirth

DW here. You may notice the slight name change, figured it was symbolic. We're back for what looks like to be for good.

First of all, I'd like to say congratulations Chris! He sure has taken a huge interest in you lately (lucky), I'm not surprised it finally gave you an Ascension date, I'm happy for you man (can you tell I sound jealous?).

Anyway, about the move - I know its been a hectic past couple of days with the domain change and all, but I think that we've finally found our home (fingers crossed). This will no doubt attract more potential Children, all the more merrier I say.

The site's going to be under construction for a while due to me and Rem having to transfer all of the data over here - unfortunately not everything ended up saved and we lost of stuff so we're going to have to try and rebuild. We've done it before, we can do it again. If you guys know of any of "our guys", feel free to link them to this site, but try and keep it somewhat exclusive. Some of our old siblings (and you know who) were not meant to be part of our group.

And please guys, don't make Mr. D upset.

- DW

This seems to be the "Dusk" individual mentioned by both Chris and BEN - "Duskworld23". He mentions that he recently changed his username - presumably from "DarkWorld23", given that this is the filename of his avatar. Dusk congratulates Chris for his upcoming "Ascension". He also mentions the name of a fellow Moon Child who's helping with YSHDT.net's reconstruction - Rem. Strangely, Dusk mentions that "some of our old siblings" are not welcome to the Moon Children and are forbidden from being invited to YSHDT.net. This seems to imply that the cult has some enemies. He ends off his post with a warning to not make "Mr. D" upset. Mr. D is possibly the same "Him" who schedules Ascensions and is worshipped by the Moon Children.

Spencer's entry on the "About" Page reads as follows:

Duskworld23 - Spencer L.
Likes - Vigils, Eurotrip, Who's Line Is It Anyway, and drawing
Dislikes - My parents, wishing I was Ascended already
Ambition - Leaving this piece of shit place behind taking as many people as I can with me

Insidiae - Kevin F.
Likes - Studying the occult, fantasy, demons, and spirits
Dislikes - People who lie
Ambition - Ask me again in two years

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BEN

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