Figured I’d share this wild and wacky story since it’s been a while and I find it entertaining now. This one is a long one so buckle up and get comfortable.

Every so many months, there’s a big game jam that happens called “Ludum Dare” (pronounced Loo-dumb darray and anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool). I’ve participated in a few Ludum Dares previously. This story takes place in early August of 2018, during Ludum Dare 42. I had no easy internet access at this point in time, since my sister was paying for my family’s internet bills but she had just left her job (actual hero for paying them for a while though). I also lived out of town a smidge, a little over an hour to walk into my small little town. My mom’s car had been busted for almost 2 months at that point too. And even if I could make it into town, I wouldn’t be able to do much since I only had a big desktop PC. So things weren’t looking good for this jam.

However, things started turning around. My brother got to borrow his pals laptop, so that he could download shit on Netflix and whatnot (he didn’t have internet access either, but he lived further out of town than me, and also it was only a few days before when I had perfect internet). So maybe there was still a chance I could work on stuff for Ludum Dare. I had planned on working with my homeboy FuShark for another Ludum Dare (for LD 41 we made Prom GOblin, you can listen to the backstory podcast here). All I needed was decent internet access for a decent amount of time and there was a chance that I could still make something with Fu. Luckily, my mom’s friend was out of town visiting his wife (she was sick at some hospital). His house had real good internet, it was only a 5-10 minute walking distance away, and said that it was cool if me and my brother hang out there to use the internet. So I was going to have full uninterrupted internet access basically all friday night, and most of Saturday. So I packed some things and went there with my brother. My sister also let me use it for internet shit since I didn’t have any sort of device like that to uset. Again, what a hero.

That friday night went pretty well. I talked to Fu about game shit for a while and we had a good idea of what the game was going to be. The next day, I got to work on a bunch of programming stuff, and just worked for most of the morning. My brother left at some point and just walked home. I was still able to use our pal’s laptop though. Few hours go by, and my mom’s friend gets home. I didn’t really know him too well, but he seemed alright. I had only interacted with him a few times previously. Now I should mention that my mom is an alright person I suppose, but she kinda gets mixed in with the wrong people sometimes. I don’t exactly know how my mom knows this guy, but I assumed it was through mutual friends. Anyways, he got to his house and we just sorta hung out a bit. I was able to work on the game and do shit for quite some time and he’d just watch TV or something.

I kept on working for a while, when my moms friend (lets call him Shaun or some shit) started talking to me some more. I really had no problem with Shaun talking to me since I was kinda ignoring him for a while. He talked to me about his wife and whatnot, and he got on the couch beside the chair I was on and showed me various pics and whatnot. I gave him my full attention and listened to everything he said. Then he mentioned some stuff from his past. He mentioned how his wife’s ex-husband was a big motorcycle club gang leader way back in the 60’s or 70’s (‘Shaun’ is probably in his late 50s or early 60s) and told me some stories about that. Honestly I thought that was pretty interesting so I kept on talking to him. Well really, the conversation was ridiculously one sided. I’m pretty socially anxious and I’m not too good at conversations, and he was the complete opposite, just talking non-stop. He told me shit like how back in the day, his brother, who was some drug dealer of some sort, would use Shaun to intimidate, and possibly beat up, people who were duckin on payments or something. Hey I can’t remember all the details and I know jack shit about all that stuff lol.

But anyways, he told me all these wild stories about shit I myself would probably never experience myself about this side of society I guess. Even when he mentioned he used to sell cocaine (maybe it was crack) I was still somewhat intrigued by his tales. However I still had to get some programming work done. I told him what I was doing, and why it was important for me to do the work (the deadline was in a few days, etc.). At that point, I was still using the laptop and talking to people and not exactly giving my full attention to him. And not too long later my mom came by to check on me I guess, and to see if I was heading home that day. I figured stuffs been going pretty well so far, and I still would like to use the internet, so I told her I’d stay for a little while longer, maybe even for the night again. So I told her I was fine hanging out still and she headed home. I was planning on getting on voice call on Discord with Fu when my mom came, so I figured I should stay to do that at least.

I moved the laptop off the couch and I did a little setup in the small kitchen table behind Shauns living room, about 8-10 ft away from his recliner to get a distance. I was just about ready to call, I even told Shaun that I was going to be on call with someone and asked if that was okay, since I am a polite gentleman. However Shaun started talking to me more when I was at the table, so I wasn’t able to call. Shaun was also the kind of guy who was like “interact with real people, the internet is ruining real life connections!”, so I suppose I also felt a bit hesitant to talk to someone over the internet because of that too. But Shaun kept on talking to me, really about random shit I guess. I can’t remember any specifics of that conversation. I should mention that the previous conversation, when we were both in the living room, had lasted about an hour or two. So I had lost out on a good chunk of programming and working time, but I figured that wasn’t too much of a big deal. He’s letting me hang out and use the internet so talking to him was the least I could do. However Shaun was REALLY at it and kept on talking to me, as if our previous conversation just kept on going, even though he knew that I was planning on talking to my boy Fu. Then, the first very noticeable “red flag” was when he stopped talking for a while, and then he walked to the computer and wanted my attention. He told me that I couldn’t tell ANYONE his address, or else he will have to kill people. He told me to look right in his eyes as he said that and told me he was being dead serious. He was probably super paranoid, but even him saying that, along with the other shit he told me, pieces started to come together, and it started to put me on edge a bit.

That’s where the night really started to take a turn for the worse. He kept on bugging me and talking to me when I was trying to get stuff done. It got to the point where he actually sounded a bit annoyed, and straight up told me to go in the living room and talk to him. And I did just that. I got off the computer, and went onto the couch while he was in the chair, and ‘talked’ to him. Again, the conversation was ridiculously one sided, with him just talking and me hittin him with the occasional “yeah”, or a small little chuckle in agreement to whatever he said. One moment that was funny though was when he said something, and there was an awkward silence, and he laughed and said “well say something!”. And I did, and told him what I thought of what he just said, but he just disregarded it anyways and kept talking. Anyways, this time the talk lasted for HOURS. Like probably 4 hours straight he was tellin me shit. He’d often repeat stories he told only 20 minutes earlier. And like the other time, he told me some wild stories about his life, and how he was so tough and could beat people up and shit. But after that warning he gave me earlier, I was a little more unsettled when he told me these stories. It seemed more like he was making sure I knew that if he wanted to, he could beat me up, which was probably true lol. After a while, I somehow managed to gather enough courage to tell him I needed to get back to work. This guy took away about 6 hours of the day from me so far, just from telling me shit. It was about 8PM, and I finally was able to get back into programming. Shaun went to bed around that time too. Everything seemed to be going good. Maybe I could’ve actually gotten something done that day lol. But then Shaun got out of bed and went back into the living room.

This time he was a bit more rude to me. He again told me to talk to him for a while, I told him I really had to get to work on stuff, then he got up and walked over to me, and told me I was disrespecting him or something like that, and he got me once again to get on his couch and talk to him. And again, he would just talk about the same shit over and over again. At that point I knew I had to get out of there just because he was givin me bad vibes and shit. He was probably drunk or something and I just didn’t want to deal with that. Maybe I was safe, but I was constantly on edge because I felt like if I said one wrong thing he’d do some shit to me. It was super stressful. That’s also why it was harder to just simply walk out, because I had no idea if he’d force me to stay or something like that. He was a wild card. Every once in a while I’d head to the bathroom and message Fu over Discord. I sent some vague shit about the situation that may have freaked him out a bit so lol sorry Fu for worrying you. I said shit like I was considering sneaking out the bathroom window, and how this guy was being weird and whatnot. While I’m on the bathroom shit, I also noticed he had a kitchen knife just sitting on the bathroom counter, so if for whatever reason he busted through the bathroom doors, I at least had something to defend myself with lol.

After talking about bullshit for another 4 hours, it was now around midnight. He wasn’t slowing down on the talking however, but I decided to man up and go back to the computer. At this point my priority wasn’t getting stuff done, it was getting out of there. Again, in most other scenarios, I probably would’ve just bounced, but in this case, I couldn’t really find a way to slyly get out of the house. I had told him I was staying the night, it was midnight, and to him, there seemed to be no problem between us. But to me he was some weird oddball who may or may not beat me up and/or kill me. I was a bit worried for my life at that point so I felt I needed to be ridiculously careful with everything I did and said. Things got a little more heated when he wanted me to switch his TV from his DVD player to his cable box lol. I was fixing it up and he just kept on giving me attitude and shit. Telling me I broke it, or that I don’t know what I’m doing. I stood up for myself and told him that I’ve shown him nothing but respect for the whole day, so the least he can do is not shit on me when I’m trying to help him. He got out of his chair and we were face to face, less than a foot away. He was definitely trying to intimidate me at that point. Maybe he said some stuff but it was a while ago so I can’t remember all the details there. But I knew that if I said the wrong thing, he definitely would’ve swung at me. I went back to the computer and we were arguing a little bit. And then he said something that brought the most satisfying sense of relief to me. “If you don’t wanna talk to me, or if you don’t respect me, you can get the fuck out of my house”. That was my out. He specifically told me to get out. Hell yeah. I told him that was fine with me. I gathered most of my stuff the fastest I casually could, and got my shoes on. He began backing up and saying shit like “Oh come on, its raining don’t fucking walk home” and “I’ve had beers with guys I’ve gotten into physical fights with, this is petty” or shit like that, but I just deflected his shit, got all the computer stuff packed, and got out of his house.

Like he said, it was raining out, and it was also a little past midnight. It was summer time and hot during the day, so I had nothing but a t shirt and shorts on. At night it was pretty damn cold though, especially with the rain. Outside of his house I sent one last message to Fu while I was still connected to Shauns internet, just telling Fu that I got out and I’m safe and shit. While I was walking home I was shivering cold. I was actually a bit paranoid that Shaun was following me and was going to chase me for some reason, so at a few points I began running. Shaun knew where I lived so I was a bit worried about that too. After 10 minutes of walking in the freezing rain, I got home safely though. My mom was sleeping on the couch and I woke her up to tell her I left Shauns. I just went straight to bed.

I kept on working at the game the next few days though. I didn’t want that goober to be the reason why the game didn’t get done. And I suppose he wasn’t. Even though he wasted a day for me, the game ended up not working out, even after working on it for another week. The game was confusing, and wasn’t really that fun. I’ll release the demo eventually I’m just lazy lol.

But man that shit was a wild ride. If you got through this whole newspost you a fukken MVP. Sorry if I rambled on and on and gave irrelevant details, I just wrote this shit all in one go lol. Figured I’d share this wacky ass story. I mean I just program games and bullshit around online so my life is pretty mundane, so this was way out of the ordinary and I thought some might find it interesting.

Anyways Monster Mashing deluxe edition coming soon lmao keep an eye out for that. It’s comin to Nutaku and shit so save ur money so you can give it to us lolol.