Story

Johnisdead is an ARG set in the universe of Ben Drowned. Spanning across seven different arcs and countless websites, it can be difficult to understand Johnisdead at first. While the Timelines contain the most comprehensive retelling of events, this article aims to explain the story of Johnisdead in a more easily understandable format.

Jadusable's ARG - Ben Drowned

Before diving into the story of Johnisdead, it's important that one first has a basic understanding of Ben Drowned - the ARG created by Alex Hall. Maybe events and characters from Ben Drowned are referenced and built upon throughout Johnisdead, making it required reading before proceeding.

1. Foreboding Premonitions

The year is 2009. An unsuspecting YouTuber named Jadusable - real name Alex Hall - uploads a video featuring gameplay from Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines containing an interaction with a character named Rosa. Though she is a minor character in the game, Rosa has psychic abilities that allow her to foreshadow upcoming events and even break the fourth wall as well by addressing the player directly. A few days later, Jadusable uploaded another video to his channel titled Prototype: All Consume Kills (Warning: Extremely Graphic), showing off some special kill animations from the game Prototype.

This YouTube channel was just like any other on the website - completely unassuming among the hundreds of thousands of channels. However, one year later, everything would change.

2. The Haunted Cartridge

In September of 2010, Alex Hall is attending college. One day, he comes across a yard sale held by a strange Old Man. The Old Man appears to be blind in his right eye and he had strange mannerisms. On display were strange items and amateur inkblot paintings. Alex asked the Old Man if he had any video games for sale. After rummaging around his garage for a few minutes, the Old Man returned with a tattered copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The Old Man gave Alex the copy of Majora's Mask for free. After thanking the man and began walking away, Alex heard him say, "Goodbye, Ben!".

Alex face to face with the Elegy Statue.

When Alex arrived home and began playing the game, he immediately noticed that something was off. The game had a preexisting save file named BEN, which would occasionally get referenced by NPC's in Alex's brand new file. As Alex continued to play the game, it soon became clear that these odd "glitches" were actually sentient hauntings from an entity calling itself BEN. Wherever Alex went in the game, the Elegy Statue would follow. References are made of an authoritative figure known as The Father and the phrase "You shouldn't have done that" are repeated ad nauseam. The number 423 is implied to hold some significance as well.

As time went on, the hauntings worsened. Alex began having nightmares involving strange cults, masks, and BEN. One day, Alex decided to revisit the Old Man with his friend Tyler. However, all they found was an empty house. Back in his college dorm, Alex slowly began going insane. BEN had now manifested on his computer, having traveled through Alex's recording equipment via wires and circuitry. BEN and Alex began speaking through Cleverbot. Through these chats, BEN revealed that he was a truly malicious spirit - torturing Alex for pure thrill and pleasure. Alex discovered that Ben, the original child who owned the Majora's Mask cartridge, had drowned. However, Alex also believes that the malicious spirit known as BEN might not even be related to Ben at all, and instead it's just a preexisting entity that stole his name.

On September 15th, 2010, Alex's roommate upload a collection of notes written by Alex over the past few weeks. These notes were titled "TheTruth.rtf". As players read through these notes, they began noticing strange oddities. Hidden messages spelling out "LIE", the fact that these notes were supposed to be a txt file instead of a rtf file, and the theory that Alex may have not had a roommate at all called the authenticity of these notes into question. Many believed that BEN may have tampered with "TheTruth.rtf" while inside Alex's computer. These fears were confirmed when players reached the end of the document, revealing this message from BEN:

BEN

"Lastly, thank you for taking the time to open this and open yourselves up to me by hearing my story, despite maybe not beliEving me. You didn't have to do that - really, you shouldn't have. Your support this entire time has kept me going and now I am finally free of this."

By downloading the file en masse, the players had inadvertently spread BEN all across the internet. He was now free to spread his hauntings to every corner of the world.

3. The Moon Children

The front page of Youshouldnthavedonethat.net.

Following the upload of "TheTruth.rtf", the Jadusable YouTube channel began behaving oddly as strange, garbled messages began appearing. Players soon realized that these messages were actually ciphers - coded text that hide secret messages. One of these ciphers led players to a strange website, Youshouldnthavedonethat.net - the home of a moon worshiping cult known as the Moon Children. The Moon Children believed in a moon goddess named Luna, and were led by a figure known as The Father. Other strange entities appeared on the site as well - a mysterious authoritative figure called Mr. D, an entity wearing a gas mask named Drowned, and a deceased Moon Child who was electrocuted named Kelbris.

It's believed that Kelbris's death was not an accident, but instead a part of a Moon Child ritual called Ascension. Essentially, ascension is a ritual suicide that is meant to result in the victim spiritually transcending and presumably gaining immense power. Players began learning more about ascension and the cult's history through the various moderators on the site - Matt Hubris, who also went "Ifrit" and "Rodney R.", Chris, who also went by "Nekko", Spencer L., who also went by "Duskworld23", and Kevin F., who also went by "Insidiae". By searching around the site, players discovered Matt's email address, allowing them to speak directly.

Kelbris's grotesque form on Youshouldnthavedonethat.net.