Transcription:

Interviewer: “What do you know about Creepypastas?”

Informant: “Uh…I know they are uh…well generally speaking it’s kind of an umbrella term for like…short horror stories written on the internet. Typically, they somehow involve like…technology like I know there’s a lot about like creepy video games like ‘Oh I bought this video game and it was fucked up. Sonic came into my house and killed me’ or something. And like other ones that involve the internet in general or like…technology but they don’t necessarily have to. And uh…sorry I got distracted by the cute dog video. But uh… I think they originated on a site called Creepypasta hence the name but I think now it just sort of refers to any story of that…uh likeness.”

Interviewer: “Are you familiar with Sonix.exe?”

Informant: “Yes. The…I don’t remember it precisely but I know the gist of it. It’s like uh…from my recollection somebody like…somebody buys like a sketchy Sonic like used Sonic game. And then, there’s a bunch of creepy shit, hyper realistic blood, and other Creepypasta tropes. And then they die? I don’t remember the end of the story.”

Interviewer: “I noticed you said hyper realistic blood.”

Informant: “Yeah it’s kind of a Creepypasta staple.”

Interviewer: “Is that a term that’s used a lot?”

Informant: “I feel like it is. Like I haven’t read that many but I feel like whenever people joke about Creepypastas, they’re like ‘yeah the hyper realistic blood in this otherwise innocent video game’.”

Summary:

The informant talks about creepypastas, a type of story that is circulated around the internet. They are known to be about technology and video games. It’s possible they first originated from a site of the same name but now they can be found anywhere. I asked about one of the more popular creepypastas Sonic.exe. Despite never having read the story herself, the informant was able to remember the general gist of the story. It stood out to me that she mentioned hyper realistic blood so I asked about that as. She says it’s a line that’s said often in creepypastas. I found it interesting that despite not having read many creepypastas, she is still very aware of the tropes and jokes regarding them, showing how widespread they are, at least in the gaming community.

The title screen for the sonic.exe creepypasta game