The Memetic Symbol
Even as I come to the realization that nothing in this world can pierce the hopelessness that ruins every stimulus I can still come upon, I find a reliable sense of wonder when imagining how patient it has been. Its origins and its creation, its nature and its effects.
This always makes me shudder with a palpable sense of despair mixed with awe at my strange fate – I have regressed into sympathizing with it, into turning to its titanic lack of mercy and all-encompassing designs in order to feel anything. It is the only real thing, I guess. The only thing with a purpose left in it.
I used to be a studier of memetic theories – advanced sociology, with a specialization in all things information technology. I had written some well-respected studies on general behaviour on the internet – the spread of ideas, the way people communicate depending on the subject matter. “2 girls 1 cup”, but with more analysis, detachment and looking at how quickly things get attention, and how it is related to man’s creation of culture. I decided to turn towards outliers next, the fringes and the corners of the internet. Lost information.
I scoured for obscure P2Ps and used extensive programs to make my investigations go faster. I simply looked for anything forgotten, useless, half-cooked, unique, empty, lonely or downright useless on the internet. I figured it could become a book, a study or a decent hobby.
When I found it there was one thing that called to my attention – the channel name. I was using any and all ways to access any kind of IRC there was, trying to see what stood out. Where I saw it I have long since forgotten, but what I saw was exactly what I was looking for. The name of the channel was skewed at an angle rather than a smooth line of text with a designated box. Rather than text it was designated by a symbol, and not the kind available through any unicode or any script I knew of. Yet upon examination of the site’s code there was nothing indicating an image rather than a script. In fact, there was nothing indicating that the channel could even exist – the script didn’t allow for more than a few channels, and the one with the symbol made one too many.
The next day I took my hard-drive to the garage, and then prepared to hook up my spare with my trusty screen and keyboard. Upon connecting I noticed something that made my face lock and prickly moisture form underneath my eyelids. The letters, arrows and other symbols on the keyboard had been… Usurped. Absorbed. Eaten. The symbol had taken every spot. On the screen’s frame the name “PHILIPS” had been replaced with a row of seven symbols. A bag of snacks lying on my desk had met the same change, and only the symbols could be read. Stunned as I was my mind didn’t take to work until I accidentally glanced at my watch and saw that I was late. The more profane, sheltered part of my brain won me over, declaring the whole thing an impressive prank designed by a pair of friends noted for their odd humor and knowledge of my new hobby. It even assured me they could have made the snacks bag simply to test their commitment. I took the bag and everything affected along with the hard-drive, and with a flash of instinct I threw them into a rocky ditch on my way to work.
Work went easily, and a quick phone-call to my girl-friend, who usually lived with me but was on a conference, assured me that she would be home soon, eager to hear of the amazing joke the infamous pair had pulled this time. By lunch I had made up my mind for take-out, and drove to a sandwich diner. I entered, placed myself in line, opening a newspaper lying abandoned on a nearby table. Surveying the menu I decided upon something grilled first, and then felt the visual equivalent of a sucker-punch as I saw that symbol sitting innocently in place of the word “mayonnaise”
With what must have been unsettling concern I asked the person behind me whether he saw the symbol on the menu. I can’t recall the person’s gender, but I do remember the look. It was as if my question broke a rule. The face of the person twitched as if I had jumbled its mind to mush just by asking. The twitching hastily stopped and was replaced with a look of the most complete lack of understanding, all this apparently unremarkable to the person in the closest line who had seen the whole thing. I rounded on the cashier, asking for my order and, with a deep sense of foreboding, asked for some mayonnaise on the side. Her young frame made a strange quivery motion that seemed to involve every single one of her muscles, and then simply looked at me -her face normal save for an awkward lack of understanding- as if I had asked for something with a foreign name, or at least a kind of condiment she had never heard of. I waved my demand away, took my order and, by now forgetting any sense of inhibition or proper behaviour, bolted out of the place. I rushed for the first deli I saw.
I looked in every isle, drawing worried and disapproving glances as I surveyed every square inch for mayonnaise, asking every shopper I met whether they knew what mayonnaise was, only to be given the same dumb stare. When I did happen upon the place where mayonnaise should be found, the shelves were stacked with small statuettes, featuring the symbol in perfectly gray stone upon a small gray dais. Remarking upon this to the nearest shopper created the same spasms followed by a look I myself have given to those asking for something in a foreign tongue. I directed their gaze towards the symbols, and then I watched in fascinated horror as the spasms overtook them, only to leave them turning their gaze away, looking towards me with a look of inquiry suggesting my request had been completely unintelligible. The memory of seeing the symbols had… Glanced off. Or perhaps, been received and then forgotten. Maybe erased, the instant they were seen. To this day I wonder how, even as I spend most of time whispering “whywhywhywhywhywhy?”
I found a bookstore, scoured dictionaries for the word only to find the haunting symbol, in every copy. Cookbooks showed the same replacement even in recipes where no real substitute for mayonnaise could exist, and where the dish would suffer.
I knew by now that this was no prank or a unique hallucination on my part, and in a last bid for sanity I asked the first person I came across to indulge me by reading the recipe out loud. He tentatively took the book, shot me a curious look and read the list of ingredients. I had no real sense of hope, but I did feel my mind jettisoning all its notions of reality and convictions about the paranormal when he started spasming the minute he was to pronounce the symbol, only to proceed with the next ingredient as if nothing had happened. I asked him what you got if you mixed egg yolks with vegetable oil, vinegar, salt, mustard and pepper. He simply said “Sounds as if it would taste funny, but good”, still eyeing me with bemusement and suspicion.
“You get mayonnaise”, I said, and the spasms overtook him.
He angled his head as if he had not heard me, and then said “Sorry?”
I dropped my shoulders, and said “You get… keziv. A Russian paste. Make it fluffy.”
“Keziv… Sounds tasty with tuna.”
By the time I had come home I was deathly nervous, having bought a dictionary and looking patiently through it. With a permanent film of sweat upon me I scrutinized every page. I trembled at the thought of what effects the symbol could create next.
A knocking at the door. I left the dictionary open on my desk, and opened only to find my live-in girlfriend beaming back at me, her eyebrows stuck between concern and amusement at my no doubt harried air. I explained myself as having come back from a jog and embraced her happily. She responded in kind, and I hoped to brush over the spreading sense of being at the mercy of the symbol by asking her about her journey while I prepared her some dinner.
Having recently read of the dangers of red meat and its many tasty by-products our household was recently swearing by chicken, and I was preparing some fajitas for us while she detailed the conference – she is… Was an employee at a company selling risk assessment for other companies interested in investing in third-world countries. Apparently the war launched by New Carthage had not sustained critical problems to the poor citizens in the remains of the Ottoman Combine – the place was now quickly being invaded not by troops sent to kill their dictator but rather people hoping to make a buck and gain a footing. The conference would mean her company had busy days in the future. I asked her about the journey back as I placed pieces of chicken breast in my special marinade. I can still remember the glottal sounds as her body repelled the word “normal”.
It grew at an exponential rate after that. Time and time again I showed my girlfriend the symbol that had taken the place of “normal” in the dictionary, on the internet, in writing and, presumably, in speech. Every time she would have the same small paroxysms, only to ask me “LOOK AT WHAT?!” exasperated as well worried about my frightened weeping.
I tried to keep her with me for as long as possible – I wanted her comfort and humanity while I still could, yet at the same time watching her represent the same deconstruction all other humans felt tore at me so badly I could barely keep a straight face, not even to make her happy. It was like… watching an amputee keep on working as if the amputated part had never been there, working around the absence as well as she could, only to spasm and forget as soon as her mind turned to the thing that would have been there. Before the symbol.
But it wasn’t just the word. It was its very substance, meaning, concept and form that was replaced. Things the humans of my dimension dictated to be “statues” turned into those brooding, gray effigies one day. Then the other day, the word “nails” was gone, and building collapsed en masse while my girlfriend – along with all other humans – had her fingertips covered with the symbol. I stayed with her until the day I awoke only to see a pair of symbols where her eyes should have been. She flailed for me as I left. She wasn’t in panic, she didn’t even remember that she once could see. She just… Saw darkness, but she remembered that I used to be with her, and now I was not. I… strangled her. What else could I have done?
Compared to what met the others, it was mercy. Even before everything thought to be “eyes” was exchanged with the symbol people had been rendered pathetic and unstable by the unfelt absence of words like “strong”, “pyramid”, “particle” – yes any imaginable word disappeared, only to leave… The symbol, I guess. The words as well as what they represented… Disappeared.
Soon the night sky had an enormous symbol instead of the moon, and naturally the tides became erratic, flooding the blinded people who lived by the shores even as they fought starvation, trying their best to talk in between themselves, trying to understand why it was they could not see things – as for a cruel play, humans lost the concept of sight and vision weeks after their eyes became replaced with the symbol…
Of course, soon dehydration and hunger killed those not dead of accidents, and I was glad that their mouths disappeared as quickly as they did, freeing me from hearing their broken pleas for help. I watched in a mixture of complete sorrow and detachment as skyscrapers, lampposts, trees, dogs, cats and so on turned into gray symbol statuettes of varying sizes.
Why did it leave me? Why do I have a field around me in which I could store whatever foodstuffs I’ve been able to find before it was replaced? Maybe it sought to play with me, punish me or even thank me in its own little way. It matters not – as I write this last part on a paper and pen I’ve successfully managed to keep in my little pocket of safety and meaning most of the elements in the earth and its crust has turned into the inert and nameless element the symbol is and represents. Perhaps this cancerous element is made up of countless smaller symbols. I do not know – the earth’s magnetic field is waning, and soon all will cook. Unless the stars, and our sun with it, turns to titanic symbols before that, of course.
Perhaps my entire universe will turn into one great symbol – piece by piece it has, after all, sought to cover every element, concept and whatever else comes to mind. It will become everything soon. Perhaps it is lonely. The symbol.
Perhaps my message will come across your dimension once I’ve given up. Perhaps it will not. All I know is that I’ve remained safe, and while the ruination of my universe does not stir any emotion in me, the thought of the symbol enveloping another dimension, or all of them, like a tumor fills me with dread even while nothing else can.
Wordy, but yummy pasta. What an idea.
For some reason this reminds me of the manga The Drifting Classroom. At least the first issue… For some reason this both terrifies me and fascinates me. I like.
This was interesting. Just not… Creepy.
ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ
Interesting concept, and executed very well. I enjoyede this one very much. It was long, but managed to keep pace and keep the reader interested in “the symbol” during the duration. It also was an interesting take on an apocolyptic end to a world (or even universe), what with everything – and the meaning behind those everythings – become effigies of the same symbol.
Only thing that plagues me is what did the author invision as the symbol? It would be interesting to see what spawned this symbol that swallowed an entire reality. Well done.
First!Long one…
THEN WHO WAS MESSAGE???
It’s like that matrix world from the animatrix movie
lol sweet
That was pretty interesting thinking that all things becom one inert unintelligble thing is the greatest fear of humankind not being able to understand something and only being able to let it happen.
WHO WAS SYMBOL?
It was going so well, then “WITNESS”
Tasty pasta was tasty.
Interesting concept.
This was really awesome.
sad and confusing.
Massive déjà vu here. I’ve read this before, and I could have sworn it was on this site.
Original and superb. No ending twist, which I was pleased about, as it needed one. Excellent degeneration of human society by a virulent symbol that devours all.
Fantastic.
as it didn’t need one*
Awesome
I love the originality of the story, although it wasn’t creepy at all.
well, i’m impressed.
What the hell?
What the hell?
nice pasta…. hey.. pst whats the symbol X_X
First.
holy shit, that was good.
Oh snap.
I love this one. Old, but it’s great.
SO WHAT WAS THE SYMBOL?!
while reading the first few paragraphs, i was a bit apprehensive that the vocabulary was going to choke the story to death for those of us who haven’t memorized the dictionary, but it worked out fine and it’s completely justified by the narrator’s background. plus, even the ‘now it’s going to get yooouuu!’ worked in with the story.
i’ve been missing creepy pasta like these <3
first
and delicious pasta a bit long but good
LMAO, mayonnaise.
Didn’t like the ending, I hate reading for over 10 minutes and being let off like that. thought shocker ending was coming and it never did. 3/10 sorry.
I must say this was a rather excellent *jerks, spasms, then forgets*.
Well done.
MAYONNAISEEEEE. D<
BE CAREFUL. GUARD THAT DELECTIBLE TREAT CLOSELY. WATCH FOR SIGNS…
read this a while back on another now-defunct site, still ranks among my all-time faourite pastas
Why they be stealin’ my Yellow Sign?
I’m just glad masturbation and porn haven’t been replaced yet.
҉҉҉҈
Interesting concept at first, but then it really failed to go anywhere. The hardest part was actually reading the damn thing. I could’ve accepted it if they used purple prose, but they didn’t. They tried way too hard to describe really simple stuff. I think it could’ve been written differently and still retained whatever you people thought was interesting about it. Bad pasta was bad.
@NewFag: You need to stop expecting “shocker endings” in everything you read, as shocker endings are often only done for the sake of being a shocker ending, and its a trend that doesn’t represent ‘good storytelling’.
Lovely. Has become one of my favorites.
Great idea, but this is too long and is kind of boring in some parts. I didn’t even finish it.
i liked it, it was quite interesting,
BUT SO LONG!
I loved this pasta… It was long, but good, and incredibly scary to imagine something like this actually happening..
THEN WHO WAS MAYONNAISE?
tl;dr
Niiice…
tl;dr
I must be playing too much Kingdom Hearts, because the instant the author referred to the mysterious symbol I thought of the Nobody symbol.
This is some delicious pasta. The ending wasn’t a shocker, just an “I hope this doesn’t happen to you” message that wrapped it up quite nicely.
Gah, I just brought up my nVidia monitor and in place of expand there was a messed up symbol.
You guys do know the word expand?
Please?
Mayonaisemayonaisemayonaisemayonaise…. Will….not… %… Will… Not… % loll
Interesting concept, I would have liked to see something a little more intense. After all the eyes started turning to symbols, you could kind of guess the rest.
And one bit of constructive criticism:
DON’T YOU EVER, EVER, EVER USE AN ELLIPSES IN A PIECE OF WRITING! EVER!
The “2 girls 1 cup” reference totally ruined it for me.
Now this is perfect. Excellent job! I was worried in the very first paragraph, that it was going to be an exercise in masturbatory wordsmithery, but I was wrong. Excellent plot development, unique take on one my favorite themes (slow-burn end to humanity), paced well, and a very good ending.
I don’t even understand “2 girls 1 cup”, but nice idea.
I actually freaked out when I saw the comment with the ҉҉҈ symbol in it.
lovely.
not creepy at all
but still a delicious story… it made me feel quite ҉҉҈
Very good, but the ending was a little weak.
reminds me of “Uzumaki” – where one symbol slowly manifests itself everywhere. In this case it’s that weird symbol.
BUT WHO WAS MAYONNAISE?!
This was a great pasta, but for some strange reason, whenever I imagined the symbol, I imagined @. So when the part where people’s eyes were replaced by the symbol, I started laughing at the face of @.@
This was awesome, my favorite creepy moment was when the symbol replaced eyes. This would make an amazing horror movie.
I couldn’t help thinking of the symbol as a red X. Even though it’s described as being grey…I just see the whole universe turning into red X’s as if reality’s image server went down.
Interesting idea, but poor execution. Way too wordy, and the usage of several words seems to betray that the author doesn’t really know their meaning. When trying to write something creepy, you’re better of _not_ trying to emulate Lovecraft’s writing style. Also, look up the basics of technology you want to write about before writing about it; the reference to looking at the “script” of an IRC channel does not make sense.
The part about mayonnaise disappearing was pretty good.
Interesting idea, but poor execution. Way too wordy, and the usage of several words seems to betray that the author doesn’t really know their meaning. When trying to write something creepy, you’re better of _not_ trying to emulate Lovecraft’s writing style. Also, look up the basics of technology you want to write about before writing about it; the reference to looking at the “script” of an IRC channel does not make sense. The ending seems fairly cliché, not as interesting as the rest of the concept.
The part about mayonnaise disappearing was pretty good.
I was expecting a triforce.
Interesting concept, but its length made it a little boring to read.
۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈۩҈
THEN WHO WAS MAYONNAISE?!
Going to come down critically on this…
Needs moar clue.
You divorce reality with the first few paragraphs, both academically and technologically: “Information Technology” is not related to Sociology; you might have meant “information theory”. Unless you’re just exploring the weird as a hobby, in which case you’re not producing anything “well-respected” in the academic world. Sociological “studies” involve a group of subjects and well-founded surveys; what you’re doing is at most a research paper.
Looking for “any kind of IRC there was” is like finding “all the HTTP on the intertubes”. You’re looking for “networks”, not “sites”. And so on.
If you start out credibly, a gradual slide from the normal to the paranormal will work wonders for suspension of disbelief.
This is what happen when someone messes with the Matrix and its database tables.
I would fuck it with my 16 inch dick
not bad. Very creative idea.
Nicely done.
Extra credit for, ۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩, with his finding of a symbol that creepy. Actually made me jump, which is funny. By the way, the symbol was Goatse. XD
Seriously, though, what was that fucking symbol? I mean, Goddammit! For ۩’s sake already! This is ۩ I mean, why ۩ someone not at least ۩ a description?۩I۩mean۩really۩۩come۩the۩۩۩۩۩۩sake!۩
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
“the channel name.”
“The name of the channel was skewed at an angle rather than a smooth line of text with a designated box”
Lulz, the symbol is /b/
Oh, man, I just had an Uzumaki flashback!
I can’t see spirals now without twitching.
Zalgo?
Also, Uzumaki yes!!! God those books have me the heeby jeebies, i still don’t look at ҉҉҈ the same way.
RemickZeroLight, I don’t know if it’s sad to say but I must admit that we have similar taste.
KH, CG, and DN. Nice.
BUT WHO WAS MIRACLE WHIP?
Reminded me of an episode of Twilight Zone at first. But the guy’s words began to become jumbled. I remember people were saying Dinosaur meant lunch and everyone looked at him like he was some idiot for always saying lunch. Then eventually all the words were gibberish to him, while everyone else saw his words as gibberish. However the more I read into it, it changed to become quite interesting. A very curious piece.
Everyone who said first is fucking gay.
One of the best.
What’s…mayonnaise?
Nothing will ever be the same again without the tangy zip of ۩۩۩۩۩۩۩ ۩۩۩۩. Thank you Manx for finally realizing it was /b/, but I personally prefer to imagine it as the symbol that prince replaced his name with. Also, wouldn’t everything have ceased to be as soon as particles were replaced with the symbol?
Nice pasta thought it was a bit ҉҉҈, I’ve read better ones
Shame that you couldn’t ҉҉҈ us the symbol, I would’ve freaked out if i ҉҉҈ it i guess
but that’s just me
and i’m not ҉҉҈
boooooring it was like reading nothing, my mind kept wondering off I had to force myself to pay attention…
THEN WHO WAS FNORD?
I liked it…makes you wonder if there’s things in the universe already replaced with this “symbol” that us normal people have been made to forget about/ignore.
Why do people complain about pastas being “too wordy”?
I liked it. I imagined the Yellow Sign.
i think it was great. it was a new take on things..gave a sense of fear and dread that’s different from the usual. it was creative; a bit wordy, but forgivable. i like these kinds of pastas. classics are great, but some mistake cliches for it.
fucking delicious pasta
Damn, and I was going to write one today where the whole world converts to binary symbols
Now it would just be a cheap ripoff. I suppose I’ll have to wait a few months. In any case, absolutely delectable pasta. To sum up the range of emotions spilling from my bleeding heart after reading this epic yarn… MOAR!!! <3
Oooh. Yummy pasta. I love the whole “glitchy reality” concept.
The symbol…. of memes?! DEAR GOD THEYVE ALREADY INVADED!!
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia? Perhaps the narrator became so obsessed with the symbol that he in turn caused the destruction of the universe in his paranoid delusions, or perhaps he is merely trapped in his own mind. Random thoughts aside, I liked it, kinda long, and parts kinda made me say ok, wtf, but good.
The “2 girls and 1 cup” sorta ruined the whole pasta for me… :-/
The sun turning into a @ symbol was nightmare retardant for me.
Didin’t hold my interest once I got to the keviz part with the mayonaisse.
It looks like it’s missing a word between “my” and “does” in the last paragraph. Someone help me out?
The word you’re looking for that goes between “my” and “does” is “¶Þ▒╩Ỡ”. You’re welcome.
P.S. I have a whole damn charmap and I’m not afraid to destroy the universe with it. ;p
I really enjoyed this ҉, it was pretty damn ҉ even though it might have been a bit too ҉ for my taste. But you know, ҉.
I actually started thinking of an image like the SOS Brigade icon…
I imagined it as a swastika. o.o
Memes will destroy the ☈☰☱☲☳☴☵☶☷
… For some reason, I envisioned the symbol as looking like a “Q”, but… wrong. The round part was too small, and the line was too long, in the wrong direction, and at the wrong angle. And there was some sort of… bubble-thing at the top.
I’m gonna miss Þ▒╩Ỡ
This pasta is looooong, but very good. In fact, I believe that shortening it would have ruined it. I was glued to the screen for the entire text.
THEN WHO WAS ಠ
Totally didn’t see the posts with missing words coming.
Awesome, could have us̲̙̤̈̇̋̄̿͜e̛̬̮͕͖̱̝ͅ ̨̮͉͈̞̮̫̆͗ͭ̉͛̎f͓̮ͮ̌̃͋̇ǐ̅̓ġ̤͕͓̩̯͎̝͆͌̃̚̚͘hͭ̄ͧ̄҉̥̺t͕͎͎̝̞͕̀͘ ̢̳́ͬ͑̓̽̐ͅt̠̼̳͓̹̣͂̓̍̑͌̉h̗̘͙͎̥̊ͅe̛͓͕̅̅̊̓ ̩̹̙̇͜l̶̤̎ͫ͊ȯ͂̽
Change the title to “404 Reality Not Found” xD
Seriously, wouldn’t it be funny if all those things suddenly turned into 404′s?
But I guess we don’t have to ҉҉҈ about that, do we?
fnord
I could use a nice sandwich with Lunch meat, Mustard and ҉,…Oh, Fuck. it’s started. nice knowing y’all.
i think this makes a good origin story for zalgo.
Good shit man.
I was imagining the symbol as a martini glass for some reason. ._.
It was quite odd, imagining a martini glass with the toothpick for eyes, and the sun, and the sea. xD
Though, I loved this pasta. I was really expecting the symbol to be something like ! or * at the end, but the lack of that or really any twist made me happy c:
10/10
WTF? Shitty pasta was shitty.
Started off promising, then they threw in some symbols in some sentences
Then it got worse, and there was a symbol per sentence.
Nearer the end, it was all just symbols.
Is that meant to be the point?
brilliant *applauds* *twitches* *spasms* ҉҉҈ ҉҉҈ ҉҉҈
Shouldn’t this pasta be one big symbol then?
That’s stupid. Everything in existence assimilating into one giant MacGuffin? I would NEVER do that.
I thought the symbol was ಠ so people would have faces like ಠ_ಠ when their ಠ were switched with the symbols
Was there a point buried in all this verbage?
I wish the memetic symbol had annihilated this guy’s thesaurus first. Great plotting, great horror…but my god, the words, the words!!!
I loved this. It\’s not especially verbose I don\’t think; they don\’t all have to be colloquial. But then again I enjoy Lovecraft and this reminded me of his stuff; in fact this is sort of an apocalyptic \"Dreams in the Witch-house,\" inverted so that the madness leaves the narrator untouched and applies itself to the universe instead.
Needs to be a film.
If he was one of the only humans left couldn\’t he just change the names of things. Names only he knew so then they would not be symbols anymore.
I feel like this could have been a recounting of the brief moments before you got the dreaded glitch while playing Pokemon games.
Got about 1/3 and then decided tl;dr and boring as he’ll. Guess it just isn’t my style. 5.5/10
I didn’t like it. This failed it for me (in part)
“Cookbooks showed the same replacement even in recipes where no real substitute for mayonnaise could exist, and where the dish would suffer.”
Really? Even where the dish would suffer? Wow.
…very good.
Personally I found this tale to be rather interesting for several different reasons–although since this is just supposed to be a brief comment, I will not extend upon my thoughts here.
But really, all I have to say here currently is that I am happy to have read what you have created, author-that-I-do-not-know.
For some reason, as soon as the symbol was mentioned, I imagined it as the Abstergo logo from Assassin’s Creed. 3 trapezoids, each at a different angle from each other, making a sort of an A shape.
Like this:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101103113657/uncyclopedia/images/3/35/Abstergo-logo_60160.png