| “ | "You shouldn't have done that." | „ |
| ~ BEN's most famous quote. |
| “ | "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" | „ |
| ~ BEN's other most famous quote. |
BEN (short for Behavioral Event Network) is a group of ascended Moon Children within the Majora's Mask cartridge acting under a singular identity within the game.
BEN is often confused with Ben (one of the first victims to the Moon Children). However, it was known that BEN used Ben's image to trick Jadusable (and likely other players) to branch out across the web to succeed in their goals in expanding the cult for "immortal enlightenment".
Origin
Prior to 2009
BEN was initially implied to have been created by Ben's ascension, which took place on April 23, 2002. Sometime between Ben's ascension and Jadusable's acquisition of the cartridge, several other members of the Moon Children ascended, with their spirits forming a network within the cartridge that came to be known as the Behavioral Event Network, which was then abbreviated as BEN. At some point during this time, the spirit of Ben was sealed inside the Elegy of Emptiness statue, rendering him unable to interact with the others.
BEN mentioned in TheTruth.rtf that Jadusable was not its first victim, meaning the encounter with the first victim must have taken place during this time. An unknown amount of time before Jadusable acquired the cartridge, it was left in the care of the old man.
Haunted Cartridge Arc
BEN was first encountered by Jadusable when he bought and played the Majora cartridge. During the recording of day four.wmv, it appeared to manifest itself in the form of the Elegy of Emptiness statue, an action repeated each time the game was played. It drastically increased its activity during DROWNED.wmv, and even exercised the ability to either change the game from Majora's Mask to Ocarina of Time, or alter the video to the extent that it appears to be the latter. This video featured the first use of its signature phrase, "You shouldn't have done that..."
BEN's activity is believed to be initially minimal during jadusable.wmv, as it redacted the first half of the video (then called Matt.wmv) prior to its upload. Having promised to leave Jadusable alone if he helped it, it tricked him into playing further into its game. BEN wrote and posted the summary of jadusable.wmv in the guise of Jadusable's nonexistent roommate, and used the readers' obliviousness to escape via their download of TheTruth.rtf. It appeared to confirm its escape in free.wmv.
Moon Children Arc
Within days of its escape, BEN began to utilize Jadusable's abandoned YouTube channel. The ciphers it posted led followers to youshouldnthavedonethat.net, the base of operations for a cult known as the Moon Children. The avatar used by the admin, DROWNED, contained a hidden image of the Elegy statue when moused over, hinting at a connection between himself and BEN. The next day, during the period of time in which Ifrit was able to communicate, BEN posted lyrics from "Who's That Knocking?" by the Genies, which implies that it was responsible for Ifrit's disappearance.
After the first reset, users figured out the system of using songs to affect events involving the Moon Children, which BEN confirmed. It was then unheard from until Ryukaki began uploading videos. The next mentions of BEN came from hidden files in YSHDT, including mhftt.txt and fate.txt. 2 featured the sound of drowning, a direct reference to BEN.
BEN had an account on Within Hubris prior to its termination.
Awakening Arc
After eight years of inactivity, BEN started showing up in thumbnails for videos uploaded to Jadusable's YouTube channel in March 2020. It finally appeared in iseeyou, in which it reveals that it contains multiple spirits, a fact not previously known. After the discovery of methodsofrevolution.com, it appeared to allow players to vote using the website, warning them them not to be hasty with their decisions.
The document TheRealTruth.rtf contained a new entry for CHILDREN.wmv, revealing a facet of BEN not previously known: that each of its inhabitants are separate entities that retain their free will and can interact with one another. During the period of time between the upload and premiere of THE FATHER.wmv, the spirits within BEN argued with one another regarding the video's title and whether it should be seen by the public. Ifrit would later confirm that Ben was indeed a separate entity, implying that the appearance of the Elegy statue during Jadusable's videos were Ben's desperate attempts to communicate with him rather than hurt him. Later, in The Prisoner.wmv, in-game Moon Children speak in a manner identical to that of the inner dialogue featured in the new CHILDREN.wmv entry.
Appearance
Canon Take
Ben, before the sacrifice, is seen with peach skin, dark green eyes and short, brown hair. In Ben.wmv, Ben is seen with his eyes closed. But, in others, he gradually opens them to stare at the viewer with some of his teeth showing in a small grin. His face also has odd brown marks across his cheeks and chin.
After being sacrificed for the Moon Children, Ben is bound to the Elegy of Emptiness' statue, a lookalike to Link in the game albeit with a creepier facial expression and a fixed position.
BEN itself has no singular appearance, often choosing to visualize itself as uncanny versions of its prior victims to the cult. Sometimes, it may present itself as a child with blond hair. Other times, it could be brunette. Although, a consistent pattern to note would be the fact all the faces it showcases usually end up altered or warped to distort the human faces.
Fanon Take
Ben Drowned - the fanon take on the story/character - is most commonly drawn having black eyes with red pupils, which appear to be dripping blood from them. It's likely that the .EXE era of Creepypasta influenced this adaptation over the years (especially Sonic.EXE) since there's no documented references by Jadusable about this ever happening in the series.
Personality
Ben
Ben - before being sacrificed - was said to have idolized Link from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. So, he likely had been a good child with a heart of gold before his ascension by the Moon Children. On the MethodsOfRevolution website, the page dedicated to him details that he enjoys childhood games such as hide & seek. As well as this, Matt remarks that "Ben didn't have many friends", hinting that the cult had utilized this to target Ben to easily test out the first ascension.
BEN
As more members were sacrificed to the system, BEN became more sadistic in hopes of gathering more followers, using the members' memories/personalities to create a deceptive nature to other players. It shows signs of psychosis, referring to its activity with Jadusable as a game played for its entertainment as well as taking enjoyment in tricking the players to allow it access to the internet via the downloads.
Despite the seemingly psychotic controlling personality BEN has, BEN has been noted to be quite emotional in situations where it ostensibly lacks control or authority. It seems to demonstrate genuine fear during THE FATHER.wmv when it pleads with Jadusable to stop playing the game as he risks awakening the titular entity, although given BEN's duplicitous nature it's quite possible it was all an attempt to goad Jadusable even further with reverse-psychology. Similarly, when the video was eventually set to premiere to YouTube, BEN noticeably made several impassioned attempts to prevent the upload, appearing to argue with the individual controlling the channel throughout. BEN also appeared rather short-tempered in one instance on the Methods of Revolution website wherein it replaced large portions of the site with a mantra of "PLAY BY MY RULES".
Powers and Abilities
BEN seems to be limited in it's capabilities, being reduced to only affecting those who owned the haunted Majora's Mask cartridge it's present within. As other players fell victim to it's manipulation, it was able to grow as a threat, branching out into other AI's databases (e.g. Cleverbot). Alongside tampering with the visuals/audio of the gameplay, BEN can also affect the players/characters to the game psychologically (e.g. Sarah, Jadusable, Matt, etc).
Facts
- Credit for updated information goes to the Jadusable Wiki (an archive dedicated to BEN Drowned with further information about the series in full).
- According to Abel in Methods of Revolution, BEN's name is a backronym of Ben's name that was chosen in tribute to him being the first person to be digitized into the Network.
- The original creator for BEN is still unknown but it was linked to the Eternity Project.
- Ben was sacrificed to a cult known as the Moon Children. The person responsible for killing BEN was a man called "The Father", who sacrificed him by drowning him in a pool.
- Ben's birthday is April 23rd, 1990. In the year 2002, he died on the same day.
- The Creepypasta story was published on September 7th 2010.
- Many people believe that BEN is able to access many web applications, i.e. Cleverbot, and will often chat with online users.
- Other AIs that shared the same database - Eviebot and Boibot - would also make similar remarks from the Creepypasta if prompted by the user.
- There is an April Fool's segment titled "king kong.wmv" posted to Jadusable's channel on April 1st 2012. Considering the timing of Jadusable's comment about ending the series, many - jokingly - wanted to consider it the "canonical ending" to the Creepypasta (albeit with some fans hating the lack of tension due to the joke-style ending). Luckily, other videos were released to conclude the series with a more serious tone.
- Sequels were made years later in early 2020 with the last video dedicated to the joke being released April 1st 2021 titled "King Kong 2: The Return of the King". At this stage, it might be considered an alternative universe to the original series.
Videos
.jpg "Ben Drowned (Former Look).jpg (55 KB)")
