Previously: The Testing Game.
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In July of 2018, Saya Yomino of the website Saya In Underworld made a surprise reappearance: After more than three years of inactivity, she began posting to her blog again. In October — on Halloween, no less — she brought us yet another game in the “how to go to a different world” vein: The Fed Up Game.
Like many of Yomino’s posts, the Fed Up Game is an English translation of a Japanese thread found elsewhere on the internet. Do you speak or read fluent Japanese? If so, the original Japanese version of the Fed Up game can be found at Dread.jp, which functions as an archive of ritual games originally posted to 2ch.
[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]
Like most online message board communities, 2ch, which allows its users to post anonymously, covers just about every topic under the sun — but, perhaps unsurprisingly, my personal favorite posts are the ghost stories and other strange tales that have emerged from it over the years: Hachishakusama (Eight Feet Tall), Kisaragi Station, and “I Proposed To My Girlfriend, But She’s Been Replaced” all originated at 2ch.
If you’re already familiar with games like the Elevator Game, Closet To Another World, and Mirror To Another World and have been looking for something similar, the Fed Up Game might fit the bill. Interestingly, though, this new game bears one detail in common with another ritual that’s otherwise quite different: The Nesting Doll Game. Both involve leaving something under your pillow while you sleep — in the case of the Nesting Doll Game, the smallest doll in your matryoshka set, and in the Fed Up Game, a small piece of paper — and looking to see if it’s still there in the morning. What the disappearing object means, though, is… not the same from game to game.
Also, a warning: As is the case with Closet to Another World, it’s not recommended that you attempt this ritual unless you have absolutely no intention of remaining in your original world.
As always, play at your own risk.
Players:
- One principal.
Requirements:
- A square piece of paper measuring exactly 5 cm by 5 cm.
- A writing implement. A pen with red ink is strongly recommended.
- A bow compass. Optional, but recommended.
- A ruler. Optional, but recommended.
- A safe place to sleep.
- A deep, unshakeable sense of discontent with your world.
- The strongest possible desire to leave your world.
- A fervent wish to find another world.
Instructions:
Wishing:
- Begin at any time.
- Using the writing implement, draw a large hexagram on the piece of paper. Make it as big as possible; fill the page with it.
- NOTE: You may draw the hexagram freehand; to make a simple hexagram, draw two equilateral triangles placed directly on top of each other, one with the point facing up and one with the point facing down. Your finished drawing should resemble a six-pointed star. However, for best results, use a bow compass and ruler. See: Concerning The Hexagram.
- With the piece of paper in front of you and the writing implement in your hand, think about your discontentment with your world. Think about everything about it that disappoints you. Everything about it you find wanting. Everything you wish were different. Focus this discontentment and channel it into your desire to leave your world, and your wish to find another world to go to.
- Hold these three thoughts — your discontentment, your desire to leave, your wish to find something else — in your mind. Give them all equal weight; do not drop or lose any of them.
- Focus.
- Now: Inside the hexagram, write two little words. Just two. Write: “FED UP.”
Sleeping:
- Before you go to bed that night, place the piece of paper under your pillow. If you have no pillow, fold it into your own hand — but hold onto it tightly. You wouldn’t want to lose it — or for anyone else to find it.
- Lay down. Close your eyes. Sleep.
Waking:
- When you wake in the morning, check beneath your pillow or open up your hand.
- If the paper is still there: The ritual has not succeeded. Your discontentment, your desire to leave, and/or your wish to find somewhere else is not strong enough. Heed the message: It is not time for you to go. Burn the paper and dispose of the ashes. You may try again another time… if you are certain the time is right.
- If the paper is missing: Look around. Listen to your intuition. Is something… different? Do your surroundings look different? Are there any details — any at all — that don’t appear the way they once did? Do you simply feel different — or feel a difference? Congratulations; the ritual has succeeded.
- You may explore your new world now.
- I hope it is everything you wished for.
- For once you have made the journey to reach it…
- …There is no way to journey back.
Additional Notes:
Do NOT enlist the help of any partners or allow any bystanders to be present while playing this game. You must play it alone. You may ONLY play it alone.
Should you find the paper gone, note that it is NOT because it has vanished. Rather, it is because you are no longer in the world in which the paper exists.
Concerning The Hexagram:
To draw a hexagram using a bow compass and ruler, first fix the writing implement to the compass and use it to inscribe as large a circle as possible on your piece of paper.
Then, without changing the compass’ radius, place the point of the compass on the edge of the circle. Position the other leg of the compass so that the writing implement intersects with the circle’s edge. Lightly mark the edge where the writing implement meets it.
Now place the point of the compass on the mark you just made. Again, position the other leg of the compass so that the writing implement intersects at a new point with the circle’s edge. Make another mark at this point.
Continue working your way around the circle’s circumference until you have come back to the point at which you started. Your circle should now have six marks equally spaced around its circumference. Remove the writing implement from the compass and set the compass aside.
Use the ruler to draw three lines through the circle. Each line should connect each mark on the circle’s edge with the mark directly opposite it on the other side of the circle. The lines should each split the circle in half, and all of them should meet at the circle’s center. These lines are the diameter lines.
Now use the ruler to draw three more lines. These lines should connect every other mark, forming an equilateral triangle with the point at the top of the circle.
Use the ruler to draw another three lines, again connecting every other mark for the marks not used to create the previous triangle. These lines should create a second equilateral triangle with the point at the bottom of the circle.
Find the points where the sides of the two equilateral triangles intersect the three diameter lines. Using the ruler and the previously described method, create two more, smaller, equilateral triangles, one with the point facing up and one with the point facing down.
You may further darken and define the lines forming the hexagram if you wish; however, this step is optional.
Your hexagram is now complete.
More information and step-by-step diagrams may be found here.
Concerning Your Dreams:
Beware them.
Some players who have failed to complete the ritual have reported experiencing troubling dreams while sleeping with the piece of paper in their hands or under their pillows. Of particular concern are figures or characters who, within the dreams, have attempted to wrest the paper away from the players. Upon waking, players who have had these dreams have found their papers crumpled or damaged.
It is therefore recommended that players acquire proficiency in lucid dreaming before attempting this game.
Should any figures or characters attempt to steal your paper in your dreams — or should anything else occur giving you cause for concern in your dreams — use any and all lucid dreaming techniques you have at your disposal to wake yourself up as soon as possible.
Do NOT allow your paper to be stolen away by anyone — or anything — else. To do so would be disastrous.
A Final Warning:
As previously noted, there is NO WAY TO RETURN to your original world once you have left it using this ritual. Do NOT attempt it unless you are positive — POSITIVE — you do not wish to return.
Remember: You may not have much — if any — control over the world you travel to.
It may be a different world to the one you just left… but it won’t necessarily be a better one.
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[Photo via kasgirl/Pixabay]
