# Pastebin o1JfOgMh
11:17 AM <~barredowl> alright, then. let's jump into our first impressions
11:17 AM <+cybersqyd> i like this but i can't really put my finger on why
11:17 AM <~barredowl> i like it, too
11:17 AM <MalyceGraves> I don't understand why it has +420
11:18 AM <BlueJones> Before we jump into things, I have to know why this is considered horror by users?
11:18 AM <MalyceGraves> Yeah
11:18 AM <MalyceGraves> that too
11:18 AM <+cybersqyd> because it descends into a series of alternate dimensions where stuff is almost but not quite right
11:18 AM <MalyceGraves> maybe 'cause stuff in the nested universes looked at the POV?
11:18 AM <%red3> I enjoyed the surrealist elements, but I feel like it didn't go far enough. I enjoyed the very subtle hints as to what it's actually talking about, but that's also a double-edged sword because some people might not understand what's even happening.
11:18 AM <+cybersqyd> before ending on a scene that implies they've found the matrix
11:18 AM <~barredowl> i was thinking the same thing, blue: this isn't really "horror" until the latter half of the article. for the rest of it, it's... subtly atmospheric
11:18 AM <+cybersqyd> yeah
11:19 AM <+cybersqyd> i would've said this was horror adjacent over actually horror
11:19 AM <~barredowl> yeah
11:19 AM <MalyceGraves> But it isn't even really good atmospheric. Like it really tries to capitalize off of the sopranos fandom
11:19 AM <+cybersqyd> but i don't think "isn't horror" spoils my enjoyment of this
11:19 AM <MalyceGraves> and shows that were popular concurrently
11:19 AM <%red3> BlueJones: Since the POV forces the show to keep going in real time, the characters realize that they're characters. They start to cry, stop performing their actions, basically go against the system. In the final test, where the POV flies into static, it enters a hallway. I think that this hallway is meant to represent a sort of bridge between the fictional universe of The Sopranos and our reality.
11:19 AM <~barredowl> yeah, i can see that, malyce.
11:19 AM <BlueJones> But... That's not really horror, thats more an exploration/adventure into unknown worlds than a horror piece.
11:20 AM <BlueJones> red3: OHHHHH okay that makes sense
11:20 AM <%red3> Yeah. Like I said, annoyingly fucking subtle.
11:20 AM <MalyceGraves> I guess it tries to play off the fear of "what if WE are the show being played for SOMEONE ELSE"?
11:20 AM <+cybersqyd> yeah
11:20 AM <BlueJones> MalyceGraves: Like hte Truman Show
11:20 AM <+cybersqyd> idk i mean i think it's a little too subtle to really work here
11:20 AM <+cybersqyd> but i think it'd work even worse if it was less subtle?
11:20 AM <%red3> MalyceGraves: Yeah, I think that's where the main fear comes from. But the problem I have with it is that since it takes such a long time for the reader to get to that conclusion, almost all of the tension is lost.
11:21 AM <MalyceGraves> But I don't think that the subtlety plays well and it doesn't really evoke that kinda feeling at all. It took tooooooooolonnnnngggg to get there
11:21 AM <~barredowl> i didn't really get "the characters realize they're characters" out of this, tbh
11:21 AM <~barredowl> and yeah, the buildup is... a bit excessive
11:21 AM <+cybersqyd> yeah
11:21 AM <MalyceGraves> It's long, fairly boring, and I don't give a rats ass about the sopranos or the simpsons or family guy
11:21 AM <%red3> It's like if a movie tried to make you search for the horror but it did it for 40 minutes. Like, okay. I'm going to be in suspense for a good few minutes, but at some point I'm just going to say "fuck it" and stop caring about the horror.
11:22 AM <BlueJones> Yeah this was wayyy too subtl for me and I actually had to speed read to get through and find an odd detail to go "Oh why's that there"
11:23 AM <MalyceGraves> Any of y'all read the creepypasta about the Back Hallways?
11:23 AM <MalyceGraves> the yellow hallway things
11:23 AM <~barredowl> i sorta have
11:23 AM <MalyceGraves> I dug that stuff
11:23 AM <MalyceGraves> this kinda felt like that, but way more bland
11:23 AM <%red3> MalyceGraves: I think you're getting too hung up on the pop culture references. They're not there so the reader can drool over popular characters, they're there to kind of show how such popular characters are really suffering.
11:24 AM <~barredowl> i feel like it only had that backrooms vibe to it at the very end of it all.
11:24 AM <MalyceGraves> I guess? Like they're being forced to play out stuff for our own amusement?
11:24 AM <+cybersqyd> YEAH
11:24 AM <MalyceGraves> Maybe because I don't connect to people very well, I really didn't care about that at all
11:24 AM <+cybersqyd> oops
11:24 AM <+cybersqyd> i didn't mean to be that enthusiastic
11:24 AM — MalyceGraves offers cybersqyd a calming tonic
11:24 AM <+cybersqyd> thank you
11:25 AM <%red3> Well there's that and there's just the fact that it never really explains the core theme besides really pretentious notes with poetic things written on them being placed in a few places.
11:25 AM <MalyceGraves> I didn't really get the purpose of the poetry either
11:25 AM — MalyceGraves shrugs
11:26 AM <MalyceGraves> it didn't vibe with me so maybe I'm only attaching to the popculture as the only thing that was really relevant to me
11:26 AM <MalyceGraves> The suffering is bleak but they also never really felt "real" to me anyway
11:26 AM <%red3> Maybe.
11:26 AM <~barredowl> i can see that
11:26 AM <MalyceGraves> We have no real reason to identify with any of these characters
11:26 AM <~barredowl> hmm. still introspecting as to why i kinda like part of this
11:26 AM <%red3> Yeah, that was what I meant when I said it didn't go far enough. Yeah, we see characters crying and refusing to play along, but we never really know any of the characters.
11:26 AM <+cybersqyd> yeah it feels like the characters are super briefly mentioned here
11:26 AM <MalyceGraves> so they could just be projections that are continuing to "suffer" because the observer is observing
11:27 AM <MalyceGraves> and without the pop culture connection, why would any of us care about someone named "tony soprano"?
11:27 AM <%red3> Something like Don't Hug Me. I'm Scared did something similar to this, with the characters realizing they're part of a show, but they actually gave the characters personalities so that we could empathize with them.
11:27 AM <~barredowl> in my interpretation, i didn't really... consider the characters as refusing to play along?
11:27 AM <%red3> I mainly got that from the Snakebite scene.
11:27 AM <%red3> > Slasher film found to be playing in abandoned suburban home in the Caroline, Caroline setting. Entered during a scene in which the killer, a mentally deranged farmer with fangs, corners the main character in a swamp. Upon entering, both characters turn to look directly at the POV and remain unresponsive from that point forward. All characters have been shown to behave in this way. POV directed out of Bayou Louisiana 
11:27 AM <%red3> into a local movie theater. All persons encountering the camera followed its movement.
11:27 AM <~barredowl> ah
11:28 AM → Mew-ltiverse joined (uid372380@queenofthemew.ltiverse)
11:28 AM <+cybersqyd> it feels like that happens way too late into the piece
11:28 AM <%red3> The characters seem to be trapped in their art form, forced to act out this scene until the POV gives them freedom. So with this freedom, they refuse to continue the story.
11:28 AM <~barredowl> mm, yeah.
11:28 AM <%red3> I do agree that this happens too late, though.
11:29 AM <MalyceGraves> I do have one redaction thing
11:29 AM <MalyceGraves> > POV traveled east for ██ days before entering what appears to be an outer-space void colored pink and yellow.
11:29 AM <+cybersqyd> the escalation is janky; there's too many notes where not much happens and then like, the final things are just, rushed
11:29 AM <%red3> If there was a sort of arc, with the characters slowly realizing together that they're characters and trying gradually to escape, then there'd be a better progression.
11:29 AM <MalyceGraves> This seems like SUCH A POINTLESS redaction
11:29 AM <+cybersqyd> ehhh
11:29 AM <MalyceGraves> like, we hear a bunch of other time lengths, but why this one
11:29 AM <%red3> cybersqyd: Really true.
11:30 AM <+cybersqyd> half the notes ending on 'Data Expunged' feels like worse redaction
11:30 AM <MalyceGraves> Yeah, that too
11:30 AM <MalyceGraves> but 
11:30 AM <~barredowl> speaking of redaction and the like, do we want to talk about how it's used here? there's a fair amount of [DATA EXPUNGED]
11:30 AM <+cybersqyd> i don't like how it uses redaction
11:30 AM <MalyceGraves> It's all bad
11:30 AM <MalyceGraves> none of it is justified in any way
11:30 AM <+cybersqyd> there's like, hints of it being used to hide interesting stuff but it's not really enough
11:30 AM <~barredowl> i remember when i read this a while back and thought the expungement was... evocative but looking back it doesn't really appeal to me anymore.
11:30 AM <MalyceGraves> like I would hav ebeen more willing to go into it if the Luminous Character was expounded on, like, at all
11:31 AM <+cybersqyd> I think something more like 'extraneous information expunged' or w/e would work better?
11:31 AM <~barredowl> by a while back, i mean a while while back
11:31 AM <MalyceGraves> but we know jack and shit about any of this and it never returns to it in any meaningful way
11:31 AM <%red3> Yeah, especially with the Jesus Christ crucifixion scene. I have no idea what the lady represents or what she does. My best guess is that Jesus dying on the cross to save humanity from their sins is meant to parallel how the fictional characters are now able to see that they're characters? But that theory is built on very little evidence.
11:31 AM <MalyceGraves> so we get "something happened" but we don't know enough to even know why it was redacted
11:32 AM → Popsioak joined (uid397494@frozen.garden)
11:32 AM <+cybersqyd> yeah
11:32 AM <MalyceGraves> So it just feels laaaaazyyyy
11:32 AM <MalyceGraves> Which is 90% of my problems with most redactions
11:32 AM <+cybersqyd> mmm yeah
11:33 AM <%red3> The only redaction I can really see some kind of justification for is the final one, since that implies that the Foundation discovered something mysterious and covered it up. Everything else seems to be pointless.
11:34 AM <+cybersqyd> even then, it feels like it needs to hint more towards what they found
11:34 AM <~barredowl> i feel like the picture did a lot for that?
11:34 AM <~barredowl> even still, i'm not a fan with how the expungement was handled.
11:36 AM <MalyceGraves> All in all, the prose is bland, some of the universes explored feel more lolrandom than any sort of meaningful addition to theme, the horror was handled poorly, and it took too long to get anywhere useful. Easy -1
11:36 AM <%red3> I can't really speak on whether there should be more hints because I got it immediately, but when half of us can't figure out what the story's trying to say, I can say with a good amount of confidence that this is way too vague and unpolished.
11:36 AM <MalyceGraves> if something like this popped across my desk today I'd be very uncharitable with it
11:36 AM <~barredowl> i think i'm more sliding towards downvote territory with this myself.
11:36 AM <~barredowl> anybody else have any concluding thoughts?
11:37 AM <%red3> Yeah, this is a downvote from me. Even understanding what it's implying, the horror takes too long to develop, leaving me bored and unimpressed. Downvote from me.
11:39 AM <BlueJones> I don't really like this, took took too long, was bored and honestly, the horror fails to make me "Oh no I don't like this". Downvote