A Warning.
When I first came up with Piggie, I was trying to make a monster I would consider worthy of truly fearing. Monsters aren't real, that's what really breaks the immersion for me. We aren't really afraid of them at the end of the day, no matter how spooked. So how would I make something worthy of being truly feared? I decided the best places to start were to think of the things that truly horrify me. The first place my mind went to conceive the basis for this monster was, “what does Piggie feel?” and I came to the conclusion that it feels absolutely nothing.
Piggie does not feel emotions. It can display them, but like everything else about it, they’re not real. Something that cannot feel emotions, yet can mimic them, seemed terrifying to me because of the potential for cruelty and the implication of vulnerability it would be able to sniff out in all of us. They say we as a species have a morbid curiosity for that sort of thing. Psychopaths, serial killers, and even narcissists frighten us because we define humanity with compassion and empathy; things that these beings are said to not have. Yet they fascinate us, because we'd love to be able to identify them to avoid them and their legendary ability to mimic such things; none of us want to be the ones to fall prey.
Monsters are just a part of your imagination though, that's what makes them fun; and so at first glance Piggie still just appeared to be another creepy face in the crowd to me. What made it a little unique is that it was just as indifferent to you as you were to it thanks to that void of feelings, so I ran with that. I thought that there wasn’t anything special it really saw in you either; to Piggie you’re just another face staring at a blank screen, avoiding the overwhelming sense of insignificance that every human deals with, including myself. And that first year philosophy introspection is actually where the creature started to get a little scary to me.
Piggie kind of took on a mind of its own from here, I imagined it up as this entity hungry for souls, but what we both realized when I was trying to think up its hunting method was that darkness begets darkness. When you spread a tale of horror to another, something that really sticks in an audience’s head late at night, something that makes them jump at every creak of their bed, or too afraid to peek from the blankets; that’s not your imagination creating fear for them anymore. That horror, the drift, as we call it; it’s your audience's imagination. At that point, its hold over them has doubled in power and the entity that you originally imagined has grown all the more powerful because even though the monster itself isn’t real, it’s still causing somebody suffering; no matter how minute that suffering may be. It’s still making them feel unsafe in their own bed. It's like an infection of Eldritch insanity as the thought so terrifying to them looms over them, eclipsing rational thought.
And so maybe from that you can already see how Piggie became something beyond my control. It realized that we’d only managed to scratch the surface of what could cross through that barrier; the barrier between the imagination and our real physical world. It realized that, at the very least, the human soul could cross through as well. I mean the amount of oneself I've seen people just like you put online, the amount of passion and dedication one can put into the places they visit and the things they do on the internet; there's no other word for that than soul. And that's how it realized that if just the thought of a monster under your bed could genuinely torment you, long after the story it dwelt within took its leave, then it could probably do something similar with us. I realized too late that even if monsters aren't real; that doesn't mean they can't hurt you. If our souls could cross into its world, why couldn't it cross into ours?
What Piggie found out, is there’s more potent damage that can be done through the imagination than night-time spooks. It found out that it doesn’t even need to scare you to hurt you. It just needs you to listen. Piggie realized before I did, that as long as you're listening, you're capable of being influenced. Maybe this still doesn’t even scare you, maybe you're not even capable of being influenced. That’s fine to it. You’re still wasting time, and we all run out of it, and that’s what it's waiting for. It's waiting for you to run out of time because it has all the time in the world.
It’s letting you get wrapped in by the drift to run you out of time, because it knows somewhere down the line; you’ll wish you had it back. Piggie’s a monster, doing what monsters do; killing you, but even worse, it’s doing it with your consent. You clicked the link.
I didn’t intend for this to happen; I just wanted to entertain people, so I set out to create a monster. I was an idiot though, I wanted to be the best, like always. I wanted to create the most terrifying monster of all, and began reading so many stories trying to find inspiration that it wasn’t long before I began to wonder what I was doing with my life. From there the only feeling of dread that would creep upon me was dread at the thought of how much time I was wasting; and I think that’s when Piggie came into the picture. I think it sensed my dread, and made its move to finally become something real and do real harm. I think it’s been waiting for a long time to become real, long before it was a figment of my imagination; and when I came along, it saw its chance and used me.
I’ve really tried hard to kill it. It’s been months now since it's been let loose. It’s just so hard though. All it needs is for someone to around to feed it, to pay attention to it, and you're here now. I don't have the power to resist it anymore; it'll consume me any day now. Maybe it already has. The only thing I can think of left to do is end myself and hide this story the best that I can in hopes that it's enough to minimize the amount of damage I've let it do. Please don't repeat my mistake. Don't give it anymore of your attention. Forget you read this. I've warned you.
This is Piggie’s first victim- I must confess; I wish I could say I was its only victim, but with any luck I'll be its final victim- signing off.
Piggie does not feel emotions. It can display them, but like everything else about it, they’re not real. Something that cannot feel emotions, yet can mimic them, seemed terrifying to me because of the potential for cruelty and the implication of vulnerability it would be able to sniff out in all of us. They say we as a species have a morbid curiosity for that sort of thing. Psychopaths, serial killers, and even narcissists frighten us because we define humanity with compassion and empathy; things that these beings are said to not have. Yet they fascinate us, because we'd love to be able to identify them to avoid them and their legendary ability to mimic such things; none of us want to be the ones to fall prey.
Monsters are just a part of your imagination though, that's what makes them fun; and so at first glance Piggie still just appeared to be another creepy face in the crowd to me. What made it a little unique is that it was just as indifferent to you as you were to it thanks to that void of feelings, so I ran with that. I thought that there wasn’t anything special it really saw in you either; to Piggie you’re just another face staring at a blank screen, avoiding the overwhelming sense of insignificance that every human deals with, including myself. And that first year philosophy introspection is actually where the creature started to get a little scary to me.
Piggie kind of took on a mind of its own from here, I imagined it up as this entity hungry for souls, but what we both realized when I was trying to think up its hunting method was that darkness begets darkness. When you spread a tale of horror to another, something that really sticks in an audience’s head late at night, something that makes them jump at every creak of their bed, or too afraid to peek from the blankets; that’s not your imagination creating fear for them anymore. That horror, the drift, as we call it; it’s your audience's imagination. At that point, its hold over them has doubled in power and the entity that you originally imagined has grown all the more powerful because even though the monster itself isn’t real, it’s still causing somebody suffering; no matter how minute that suffering may be. It’s still making them feel unsafe in their own bed. It's like an infection of Eldritch insanity as the thought so terrifying to them looms over them, eclipsing rational thought.
And so maybe from that you can already see how Piggie became something beyond my control. It realized that we’d only managed to scratch the surface of what could cross through that barrier; the barrier between the imagination and our real physical world. It realized that, at the very least, the human soul could cross through as well. I mean the amount of oneself I've seen people just like you put online, the amount of passion and dedication one can put into the places they visit and the things they do on the internet; there's no other word for that than soul. And that's how it realized that if just the thought of a monster under your bed could genuinely torment you, long after the story it dwelt within took its leave, then it could probably do something similar with us. I realized too late that even if monsters aren't real; that doesn't mean they can't hurt you. If our souls could cross into its world, why couldn't it cross into ours?
What Piggie found out, is there’s more potent damage that can be done through the imagination than night-time spooks. It found out that it doesn’t even need to scare you to hurt you. It just needs you to listen. Piggie realized before I did, that as long as you're listening, you're capable of being influenced. Maybe this still doesn’t even scare you, maybe you're not even capable of being influenced. That’s fine to it. You’re still wasting time, and we all run out of it, and that’s what it's waiting for. It's waiting for you to run out of time because it has all the time in the world.
It’s letting you get wrapped in by the drift to run you out of time, because it knows somewhere down the line; you’ll wish you had it back. Piggie’s a monster, doing what monsters do; killing you, but even worse, it’s doing it with your consent. You clicked the link.
I didn’t intend for this to happen; I just wanted to entertain people, so I set out to create a monster. I was an idiot though, I wanted to be the best, like always. I wanted to create the most terrifying monster of all, and began reading so many stories trying to find inspiration that it wasn’t long before I began to wonder what I was doing with my life. From there the only feeling of dread that would creep upon me was dread at the thought of how much time I was wasting; and I think that’s when Piggie came into the picture. I think it sensed my dread, and made its move to finally become something real and do real harm. I think it’s been waiting for a long time to become real, long before it was a figment of my imagination; and when I came along, it saw its chance and used me.
I’ve really tried hard to kill it. It’s been months now since it's been let loose. It’s just so hard though. All it needs is for someone to around to feed it, to pay attention to it, and you're here now. I don't have the power to resist it anymore; it'll consume me any day now. Maybe it already has. The only thing I can think of left to do is end myself and hide this story the best that I can in hopes that it's enough to minimize the amount of damage I've let it do. Please don't repeat my mistake. Don't give it anymore of your attention. Forget you read this. I've warned you.
This is Piggie’s first victim- I must confess; I wish I could say I was its only victim, but with any luck I'll be its final victim- signing off.