/soy/ - Soyjaks

Hey, 'teens. I don't usually like to blogpost, but something really unsettling happened to me last night, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. Hopefully some of you might be able to tell me what's going on, or give me a rational explanation. Because right now, science fails to explain what I saw and heard.

I'm sure all of you have heard the scary stories about Nophono: the eerily silent, faceless man in the haunted VHS tapes. And, like many of you, I wrote them off as just that: scary stories. But still, I always found the mystery intriguing. What is Nophono? Is he a ghost? What does he care about? I guess that's why, when I saw a catbox link labeled "NOPHONO_3.MP4" on the 'log at 4am, I clicked it. That was one of the worst mistakes of my life.

Upon opening the file, I was greeted by what I would expect from a video purporting to be the "real" nophono tapes. At first, it was just the sound of static, accompanied by visuals that were so fuzzy I couldn't make out what they were supposed to be. I assumed it was an intro song, but I really couldn't tell. Then, it abruptly cut to Nophono, in his bright blue suit, staring at the viewer. Everything except his suit and tie was monochrome. He was in what appeared to be the set of a children's show, like Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, but it was oddly sparse of furniture. There were exposed wooden rafters, as if it were filmed in someone's attic, and the only objects visible were the table in front of him and some puppets scattered around.

After staying completely motionless for a time, Nophono glided silently through the set to the other side of the table, his feet not making a sound as he walked. The camera followed him, and he was shown to be standing in front of a rudimentary wooden doll with a bulbous head, green shirt, and red lips. Despite how smooth and graceful his walking was, the way that he handled the doll was clumsy and fumbling, like some kind of mentally challenged toddler. More than that, his manipulation of the doll didn't seem to be to any real purpose - he just kind of grabbed at its arms and dropped it, like he was struggling to keep it in his hands at all. Then he just went right back to staring at the camera.

By this point, I was thoroughly unimpressed. This just seemed like some AI video someone had generated to try and be a spooky ARG, but it was so blatantly AI. The way Nophono just stood completely still before going into action, the way that his movements didn't seem to have any goal at all, the totally unnecessary camera movement to an unrelated scene… it had all the hallmarks of something sloppily put together on Pixiverse or something. So, I tried to skip forward in the video to see if there was anything actually interesting in it.

But what happened next sent a chill down my spine. I couldn't skip forward. When I clicked ahead on the bar, the progress ticker didn't move. It stayed exactly where it was. Whenever I did, Nophono would change positions; in one scene, he would be holding a doll, in another, walking aimlessly around the room, in another, standing with his back facing the camera. But no matter how many times I skipped forward, the video didn't end. It was like it just went on forever.

Panic started to take hold. How could that be possible? An infinite video? Even a video half this length would have taken hours to download, especially with the Sharty's shitty servers. So, overwhelmed, I just closed the video.

Nothing happened. I was left staring at my screen, at the file still sitting on my computer, somehow only 22 MB despite the apparently immense length of the video. I tried inspecting the file, but got no more insight. I started to wonder if maybe the video was hacked, or it was an EXE disguised as a video file that was broadcasting something to my computer. Worried that might be the case, and that it might be a virus, I disconnected my PC from the internet.

Then, out of curiosity, I opened up the file again. It was the same static opening as before, the same video of Nophono. But as I skipped ahead, a dawning horror arose in me: It was still that long. It still seemed infinite.

I kept clicking, mindlessly, trying desperately to find the end, find any reason to believe it wasn't true. But no matter how many times I clicked, I couldn't.

Finally, exhausted, I slumped back in my chair, spacing out. I couldn't make sense of what I was seeing. But before I could have a moment to process the situation, I noticed movement on the screen. Nophono, who had been sitting still facing the camera, was now walking to the back of the room, where a toybox shaped like a treasure chest lay. Out of it, he picked various dolls and figures, and, taking them in his arms, brought them back to the table, laying them out. I was intrigued by this new behavior, but then a pit sank in my stomach.

One of the dolls looked exactly like me. It was my hair, the same shirt and pants I was wearing, the same shoes. I denied