I hate that I hate Newgrounds now.
No it wasn’t me finding out the hard way on how it really works, i’ve been a user of the site for about 7 years. In fact, it was my childhood!
Okay, so that’s why I grew up mostly going to the principal’s office. Moving on..
NG was (unironically) my comfort zone, where I could truly be myself. I didn’t have to put on an act when around my family or irl friends (except for one boy who moved away months ago). I thought it couldn’t be affected by anything.
That’s until FNF released in October 2020.
Sure, it’s…harmless. But it brought a swarm of newbies who only came to see that blue fucker and his girlfriend. It’s annoying seeing little Timmy’s comment on my posts saying I should draw their “comfort character”.
So, out of anger, I decided to scribble a drawing of BF, well my interpretation of him.
It was based off Boyfriend of course, and I purposefully drew him like I was still in 5th grade and failing art. He wore a dunce cap and had both of his eyes crossed, his shirt having a hazardous symbol on it (bc I thought the handicapped symbol was too overused). For a finishing touch, I added a string of drool hanging out of his lip.
I wasn’t really good at naming stuff, so I just decided to call him “PLAGUE”. I saved him into my files and planned to post it later in the day.
Somehow, I still felt angry, like I could punch three holes in my wall. But my mom would probably yell at me and take my phone away, so I had one other option.
I could play Pokemon Black.
Sure, Pokemon wasn’t really a “cool” game now. But I make parodies of it, comparing it to dogfighting of course, so I'm allowed to play it.
I booted up my DS and got the cartridge (stored in a Zip-Loc baggie) from my drawer. God it’s been a while since I played this, was I at the Elite 4?
Well, it’s the p-
No
No no no
Of course it had to do this
All of my precious hours, all that grinding..it was lost
I shut my console off and punched my pillow out of anger, flopping my face down into it and crying like I just lost the love of my life.
I know it was pretty childish (and would’ve happened if I played it earlier), but I couldn’t help it. That game was special to me, really special. It’s the only thing that made me happy, alongside Newgrounds of course.
After 30 minutes of sobbing, I decided to get back onto my computer. I saw that one of my friends had sent me a Gamebanana link on Discord, I could already tell what it was.
My friend’s message said “Oh my gosh this mod is so spooky” with three scared emojis, yeah this was probably just a joke. Nonetheless, I clicked on it, I had some time to kill and maybe if I tried it out, my perception on FNF would go up slightly.
After downloading the base game (and trying to get a hang of it), I was pretty sure of myself that this mod would be easy. Besides, it just looks like a stupid skin mod.
But why did that fuckface have features of a Chatot?
I realized it had the tag of Pokemon on it’s webpage, whatever. Let's just play it.
I clicked on Week 1, and it was oddly normal. Well for the Chatot-human hybrid, a set of speakers without anyone sitting on them and a scared DD. He sang the first part of “Bopeebo” and I waited for my part. There was only one note coming, and I boringly pressed it.
A loud bit-crushed screech echoed through my speakers, making me instantly turn it down to a better volume. DD’s ears seemed to bleed out, making him faint right on the ground. I stood there in silence until…
I cackled like a madman. Now you might’ve thought I would scream like a banshee and burn my computer down, then roasting myself in the flames. But I grew up on Madness Combat, I wasn’t going to let some blood scare me!
I decided to move on and play Week 2, laughing my ass off once again. The joke was simply crude, but it was better than people trying to make a story out of a rhythm game. This was the best mod ever!
Well until I got to Week 3.
Was that..Pico? I knew he was in the base game, and the stupid dev made him an ex of BF. But why did he look so depressed, oh don’t tell me. He’s going to-
“BF, what happened to you?”
A cutscene suddenly started, catching me off-guard. I clicked on it, expecting to see what the next textbox would say.
“...”
Didn’t BF just beep and boop in response? Why was he so quiet?
“You have to answer me”
“..”
“I said answer me”
“...”
“You’re not being funny”
“...”
“Okay i’ll give you the count of three to talk..”
“...”
“1”
“...”
“2”
“...”
Right before Pico said 3, BF once again screeched. This caused Pico’s ears to ring and start to bleed out. The screen then shifted to BF’s smirking face, as a loud BLAM could be heard, no doubt about it being from Pico’s Uzi.
Okay, this wasn’t funny anymore. Why would someone code a mod where Pico dies like this? BF didn’t even give him a chance to sing, unlike in Week 1 and 2!
I hit backspace and saw only one week was present, what the hell?
I then realized the week’s name.
Chatty
I-I..knew that name!
I could’ve just clicked right out and forgotten about it in a few days, but I couldn’t. I had to find out why this Pokemon was “haunting” me and took a deep breath, clicking on the week.
I found the Chatot-human hybrid staring at me, drawn in a much more detailed style. I haven’t really had the time to “admire” the design, which was oddly some of Chatot’s signature features slapped onto the og BF. But the weirdest thing was…
It looked like it was..mocking me.
“Hello there, Damien was it?”
A textbox then appeared, and I decided to type out that my name wasn’t Damien.
“Oh dear, looks like I forgot…”
Chatty put his face up to the screen, his eyes beady and unblinking.
“Just like how you forgot me..”
I tried to stay calm, I wasn’t going to let a stupid bird from Sinnoh mess with me.
“Now you might be wondering why i’m doing this, hm?”
Another textbox appeared, making me choose Yes or No. I chose Yes, since I wanted an honest answer.
“Well it’s please you!”
Chatty’s face seemed to soften, but I still felt this dark energy around him..
“Besides, I know you’re still mad that I don’t evolve”
“To the point….”
“YOU RELEASED ME INTO THE UNFORGIVING WILDS”
He then opened his eyes, staring directly at me. His mouth agape in an unnatural manner, I swore I could’ve seen someone in that thing..
The screen then shifted to the entrance of N’s Castle, looking like the original style of Black and White. My old team seemed to be put into a line by the walls. I tried talking to them to see if they would try to join my party, or at least give me an item to help me.
But instead I got this each time I pressed the A button.
“Samurott is too scared!”
“Stoutland is too scared!”
“Bisharp is too scared!”
“Mienshao is too scared!”
“Krookodile is too scared!”
“Haxorus is too scared!”
I then clicked my team, wondering what type of Pokemon I would get.
Unfortunately, it seemed like I got the worst imaginable team. The team didn’t make sense at all! But then I looked at their names, and it all clicked.
They represented the NG characters I adored.
A Whismur for Issac.
A Meowth for Henry Stickmin.
A Delcatty for Hank J Wimbleton.
A Elgyem for Alien Hominid.
A Bastiodon for Captain.
A Pichu for Pico.
Okay, my team didn’t look the best (all of them seemed to have the level of 0), but maybe if I spammed Full Restore on them; I could win. Besides, a stupid Chatot wasn’t that hard to defeat, right?
I walked inside and went up to find that nothing would interrupt my task, all of the NPCs seemed to be gone. There was no music either, just an unnerving silence.
Chatty’s almost ear-bleeding cry could be heard once I got to the fourth floor.
“Chatty calls for you!”
This caused my character to move to where Chatty was, replacing Reshiram. The Chatot still had this aura of smugness, I was going to wipe off that stupid fucking grin…
No matter what.
As the battle started, Chatty let out his cry once again, it sounded like a bitcrushed animal dying. I sent out the Pichu first, hoping it would have a move that would paralyze Chatty.
Thankfully, it had Thunder Wave. I picked it and…it missed. Great, now i-
“Chatty used Scream!”
Chatty’s scream played once again, making the Pichu shake.
“Pico can’t handle it!”
“Pico fainted itself!”
I groaned, seriously? Fine, if that stupid Chatot won’t play fair, I won’t either. I went to my items to find every single item (except for a Dubious Disc for some reason) was gone.
Okay, maybe I just needed to send out Bastiodon and hope it had Rock Slide.
A cycle then started, each time I sent out a Pokemon that had a super effective move to use against Chatty, that fucking bird used Scream and made my Pokemon faint instantly. I was pissed off at first, but this feeling of dread grew in me as the battle went on.
All of my Pokemon fainted, but I didn’t black out. Instead another textbox appeared, it’s writing almost unreadable.
“FINALLY, TRAINER BOY. ALL OF YOUR POKEMON FEAR ME, I SHALL BE YOUR ACE!”
Chatty seemed to jump up and down in childish glee, which made my fear skyrocket. Was he treating this like some sort of game?!?
“WE SHALL BE TOGETHER. ONCE AND FOR-”
The screen went black, waiting in anticipation. I was expecting some sort of jumpscare, but I found myself in N’s Castle once again, and checked my team. It seemed to be my old team, but all at level 10 and as pre-evolutions.
The supposed corpse of Chatty was covered by black pixels, I thankfully couldn’t uncover it either.
I was shocked to find the one who saved me was…
“P-Plague?”
My character went up to him, already starting another conversation with my “interpretation” of BF. He still looked like his normal form, but more pixelated and had a microphone with a bit of blood on it.
“Are you..mad at me?”
I got to choose either Yes or No. I would’ve picked Yes (since he saved my life back there), but was still angry at him for..I really can’t put my mind on it. Let’s hope he doesn’t go insane and bash my skull in.
“Oh..okay…”
“....”
“Why are you mad at me?...”
It let me type out my answer this time, and I would’ve just typed in about how he’s stupid. But that wasn’t appropriate, I needed to tell him how I really felt about him and his parasite of a community. It was pathetic really, but a weight was lifted off my shoulders when I finished it.
“Oh..that’s a lot to unpack…”
“Well..i’m not really the best at words..since I beep and boop most of the time..”
“But..”
“Do you..think it’s healthy to..latch onto the past?”
Without any hesitation, I chose yes. This made Plague look..disappointed in me, like a dad who found out their child stole money from the drawer.
“I know this would..probably do nothing for you. Just..hear me out”
“Was…Newgrounds really that great during that time..?”
Memories of constant harassment and crudely drawn racist caricatures flooded my mind. Ya know, this blue-haired brat was..sort of right.
“I’m not trying to..make you think the newer Newgrounds is..better. But..wasn’t it lonely when your friends went offline…for the night? I know..how it feels actually, being shoved..into a folder for..what seemed like hours”
I felt my tough-skinned heart twang a little bit, he was so lonely, but why hadn’t he tried to kill me like Chatty?
“Listen, I know that the newcomers..seem like pests. But they’re still kids..you know what it was like being young..and dumb right? Just..try to treat them with some respect, maybe..even show them how..your lovely site works..!”
Plague seemed to have a genuine smile on his face, not sicked and twisted like Chatty’s.
“Besides..my game is..a love letter to..Newgrounds after..all!”
I then got the option to either delete or not delete him, despite it, he was still smiling.
“Just choose..whatever option you feel comfortable..with. I’ll be fine..with it”
I clicked on yes, not out of malice. But because I wanted to redesign Plague, maybe even make him into a oc.
“Great choice..I can come back..don’t worry”
Tears of joy streamed down his cheeks, as a strange portal of light appeared behind him.
“Besides..i’m a phoenix after all..”
I was sent back to my computer screen, sighing in relief when I saw nothing in my computer was tampered with. Well except for Plague and Chatty’s files being deleted from my computer, I also had an emulator of Pokemon Black on there now.
I don’t know what the fuck happened last night, but I think I had more respect for that blue-haired rapper after that.