The Snarly Yow

Age: 57

Date of Performance: 04/03/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Overseer of Data Centers

Primary Language: English

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Another [legend] that was pretty popular as a kid was the Snarly Yow. Yeah, it was this phantom black dog that was kind of an omen. And guess what, it also has red eyes! Apparently, it’s been around for a while, since the Civil War, actually, and it’s typically harmless. A lot of the sightings were around the South Mountain, but I heard most of them in passing. Most people who have seen it had elected to shoot it, only to find that their bullets phased right through, ha! When I grew up, the most I heard it ever did was chase random cars of unsuspecting hunters or teenagers. Someone’s even claimed to have ran over it, too! Poor thing, really. They say it’s aggressive, but of course it’s aggressive when you shoot at it or throw rocks at it or run it over! So, that’s the Snarly Yow.

Oh, yeah, I did mention that it was an omen. I guess when I mean omen, I mean it’s ambiguous. It’s not good, but not necessarily bad. Just a sign of things to come, maybe. Forces beyond our understanding. The sort. With the cultural significance, it’s like the Mothman. I’m not sure the Snarly Yow even exists, but that doesn’t matter to me. It’s tied to my childhood and upbringing, and it’s something I love to share.

…

Analysis:

It appears the Snarly Yow is another type of cryptid, a legend that people share. I have heard of stories of animal spirits before, a liminality between the living and the dead. It serves as a reminder that not all fears come from what is seen, but what is believed. And greater, it is a distinct symbol of Appalachian identity and a warning to travelers who venture on its isolating roads.

The Rake

Age: 19

Date of Performance: 04/04/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Irvine, California

Do you know what the Rake is? … Yeah, it’s like that. It’s like the Wendigo. I first saw it on a Youtube video and read about it on an online forum when I was like 9. The Rake is a Creepypasta and there was this awful photo of it hunched on the edge of a bed, and it terrified me.

It was like white, naked, hairless, long limbs, pale skin, hunched over, and huge eyes. It looks human, but it’s not. Really uncanny. Apparently, if you keep thinking about, it will target you next, which is a really bad intrusive thought to have when you’re in 3rd grade, haha.

Nowadays, it doesn’t really scare me anymore. Like, I’ve seen other similar Rake-like creatures and stories on the internet that have similar designs and the idea of being next. My theory is that the Rake is based on sleep paralysis. Like having sleep paralysis demons. I’ve had a few episodes, and sometimes you do see things you can’t really explain.

…

Analysis:

So, I have heard of the Rake. It fits an archetype of a pale, slender, unstoppable creature of the night, similar to the Wendigo and SCP-096. These are also adjacent to what are known as skin-walkers, creatures and entities that shape-shift and disguise themselves as animals and humans, often possessing uncanny and not quite human-like features. It often appears in bedrooms or forests, liminal spaces associated with fear and vulnerability.

Unlike many traditional monsters, the Rake doesn’t chase or stalk; instead, it watches, waits, and evokes a dread through pure silence. Its presence is unsettling not because it attacks outright, but because it signifies something more intimate, a kind of personal invasion. It sits at the foot of your bed, or stares by the edge of a forest, it whispers in the dark, it knows you. It reflects a deeper anxiety about what we consider safe and private.

The Mothman

Age: 57

Date of Performance: 04/03/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Overseer of Data Centers

Primary Language: English

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Well, growing up in the woods [West Virginia], we always had fun stories to tell. When I was a kid, we always spooked each other with legends and monsters and the like. The big one we always heard about was the Mothman. It had like this stranglehold over us kids, man. Like you just couldn’t escape it. And someone was always claiming to have seen it, too. I even had some friends whose parents set curfews because of the Mothman. What’s interesting about it is that I grew up 20 minutes north of Point Pleasant, which is where the first sightings were. He was huge during the 70s.

He was big and tall. He had these beaming red eyes. That’s his defining feature. His eyes. You can look up photos of him and it’s the first thing you’ll notice about him. I know I’m using these ‘he’s and ‘him’s in reference to him, but I can’t help myself, haha.

Cultural significance? Umm, well, there’s something almost nostalgic and personally meaningful when I talk about these kinds of legends. It’s attached to the place I grew up in, you know? I know it’s probably not real, but that doesn’t really matter to me, at least.

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Analysis:

I’ve heard of the Mothman before, a harbinger of doom and future disaster. He is like a regional spirit, a symbol of Appalachian weirdness, the gaping unknown that swallows the forest. It’s funny hearing that the informant has a personal attachment to the creature while all known canon and descriptions of the Mothman offer a more unsettling picture. Maybe to the informant, it’s a symbol of his childhood, when the world seemed much bigger, more fantastic, more exciting, than the monotony and reality of adulthood. When growing up with cryptids, they take on a more personal attachment and stick with the listener throughout their life.

The Backrooms

Age: 19

Date of Performance: 04/04/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Irvine, California

How about the Backrooms? Yeah, everyone knows that. The Backrooms is this dimension you can ‘no-clip’ into at any point, And the room is yellow and goes off into infinity. The lore and canon of the Backrooms seems to keep building on itself since 2020. Some Backrooms have monsters, and there are apparently multiple levels of Backrooms. I can’t really describe the exact look of the Backrooms, but all of them have a mid-2000s feel to them. Things from our childhood, or spaces that remind of us of our childhood.

…

Analysis:

The Backrooms are an example of a recent phenomenon and fascination of what are called ‘liminal spaces,’ spaces that have 2000s aesthetics and atmosphere. They are supposed to be unsettling, but nostalgic as well, many of which have their own associated stories, lore, monsters, etc. The conception and rise of the backrooms may be a reflection of a current desire to go back when the world was simpler, though filled with greater unknowns.

Rites of Passage and Community in Wargaming

The Informant

The informant AG has been playing wargaming for over five years, and he has not only painted his own miniature sets but also developed his own homebrew games. The informant mostly plays ‘miniature agnostic’ games with abstract rulesets that enable players to bring their own unique miniature sets.

The Text

A common experience in becoming a member in the wargaming community is painting your own miniature sets, and it tends to be very poorly painted. The informant reports wargamers as largely older demographics amongst historical wargames while younger demographics play sci-fi wargames. A rite of passage the informant notes is learning how to thin the paint, as amateurs can be identified by blotches of paint on their miniatures that blot out the miniature details. While any wargamer can be identified by having miniatures of units on display, a passionate wargamer and a “poser” can be differentiated by the types of miniatures they have on display in their house. Uncommon miniature sizes like 6mm, 3mm, 2mm, and scaled ships or uncommon historical eras such as Medieval or Ancient as these miniatures aren’t usually commercially mass produced, and the players must go out of their way to acquire them. The base for the miniatures are also a good indicator, as companies like Litko allow specified customizations on base sizes and even material, offering wood or metals instead of the mass produced plactic, which proves further investment in the hobby. The Miniatures Page and Tactical Command are forums where these hobbies gather online, but they are rather dated in terms of web design. Tournaments and expos are events where wargamers gather, and people bring their own miniature sets while miniature studios market their services. If someone disrespects another person’s miniature set by stepping on them, tossing them aside, etc, they will be disqualified from the tournament or asked to leave if at a home game, likely to never be invited back again. These players often have special cases for carrying miniatures.

Analysis

There are a few folk aspects to this interview, starting with membership identification with a folk community through the miniatures, which seem to be highly valued and personal within the community. The existence and even preference for “agnostic” wargame systems suggest importance placed on the personalization of miniatures, and the personal offense taken when one’s miniature set is disrespected suggests a Frazeristic contagiously magical connection to the miniature as an extension of the self given the time invested on customizing and painting them. As such, they have meaning to the players in the sense that players convert their own time and labor into these products. Similarly, painting one’s own first miniature set is considered a rite of passage for becoming a member of the wargaming community, beyond first setting foot into a game store with the interest of trying a game with someone else’s miniature set. The choice made in how one creates or even carry their miniatures reflects Stuart Hall’s reception theory of identity expression in consumerism, with specific studios offering customized miniatures. Furthermore, tournaments and conventions serve as a festival where players can gather to share this common love for a niche hobby which they do not have much opportunity to express their affiliation in public otherwise. In a sense, performing this identity is an inversal of the norm, which the spatially and temporally localized festival enables and encourages.