What Lies Below, Day Fifty Six
Welcome back! I took a few days off! I don’t have a good reason, I just felt like it! This finishes Tier 10! That’s halfway down the Iceberg, baby!
NINGENS — A cryptid! It seems to be Japanese in origin even though it doesn’t live in Japan. I think this is just because tales of it first appeared on Japanese website. Anyway, it’s sometimes depicted as a little white two-legged critter that is adorable, and sometimes as more like a big man-faced fish with arms that is decidedly less adorable. There are ‘pictures’ out there and some stories.
SUN COLLAPSE — Suns collapse. Ours is on the way there in a few billion years. But naturally a small number of people think it’s actually coming really soon, like in our lifetimes. Probably not though! Not much to this one! Sorry!
VICE CITY SPIDERS — This is unfortunately not a cryptid, but instead a piece of video game lore. This is based on a couple ultra-obscure references that may or may not have even been intentional, and on a single window in the game in which some people say a blob of pixels is depicting a giant spider. I don’t see it.
SHADOW SUBWAY — I think this may be referencing ‘Metro 2’, a vast Soviet-era subway system in Russia that allegedly is bigger than the ‘public’ system and has been discovered by urban explorers. While it being as massive as alleged may be up for debate, there is a fair amount of evidence that something of this sort is down there. I’ve heard rumors of similar things existing in the US that work as secret nwo/illuminati/cabal transports, trafficking things, etc.
TOMMY WISEAU=D.B. COOPER — D.B. Cooper sure pops up a lot on this thing, huh? I have no idea where this originally formed but it was assuredly just a meme, though at one point Wiseau was asked about it and gave an expectedly weird answer so that only fed into it.
3301337.CF — A weird website from a few years ago that seems to be gone now. Discussion about is all over the place: it’s part of an ARG, it’s a rogue AI or the home of one, it’s a leak of secret info, it’s aliens, it’s a portal to the dark web(or places deeper than that), and so on. A lot of the sites and things people reference in discussion have also since gone away, which certainly makes one wonder!
469 BONELORD LANGUAGE — This is a number-based language spoken by characters in a very old online game called Tibia. That’s uh, that’s it. People never figured out how to speak it, but it is a ‘real’ language. Not much to it, but it’s neat to see these niche MMO things live on as internet lore outside of the game.
THE PHONE MAFIA — This appears to rest entirely on a single post by a single person on a forum somewhere. It’s just an allegation of a ‘mob’ who use phone call scams in an organized way, which like…yeah that’s a very common thing but I don’t know that it deserves its own conspiratorial entry!
MORMON BIGFOOT — A very obscure bit of folklore that seems specifically based in Mormon communities, but I don’t think anyone believes: Bigfoot is Cain, from the bible, forever cursed. Or he is somehow a direct descendant or otherwise related to that. If all bigfoots are really just one guy, he really gets around!
ANTARCTIC PYRAMIDS — There are mountains in the Antarctic that look like they may be pyramids. People spot them in photos or especially on satellite photos from above. Skeptics say it’s just an illusion caused by snow/lighting/perspective, believers think it’s your usual range of ancient civilizations or aliens or entry points into the hollow earth. This is a really neat thing but also not really exciting to write about, you know? Like, it’s very simply explained so it seems I’m being dismissive but it’s definitely cool!
GHOSTS ARE BIOLOGICAL — What it says on the tin. Not many people believe this one. Even most folks who didn’t think ghosts are dead people still think they’re some sort of spirit or entity, not like…a weird animal. But it’s a theory you occasionally here suggested based on alleged residue or whatever. Sorry, not much to really say on this one!
TOD SEES — A hunter in Pennsylvania who disappeared one day. After a large manhunt, his body was found. Allegedly he was free of apparent injury, wearing only his underwear, and “emaciated”. There were some odd things following, though: a sealed casket funeral, the family isn’t asked to identify the body, and the FBI seemingly takes an interest. Later there are suggestions drugs may have been involved, but people aren’t convinced. Some folks think aliens, but there really isn’t any “official story” to contradict that with other than “he was coked up”.
LEVEL 3 MONSTER REALITY — I have seen this phrase exactly once, in an old imageboard thread where someone posted a lengthy rambling scary story. Someone in the comments suggested they were manifesting a ‘level 3 monster reality’ with their mind or something and uh I don’t know, maybe it became a meme? Sorry, I don’t think there’s a rabbit hole under this one!
We did it, friends! Halfway! While we’re only halfway through in terms of tiers, we’re well past halfway when it comes to the amount of raw items. The next three tiers or so are still pretty dense, then things ease up considerably.
