The Shape You Make: Teaser #3
/techsupport
Thread: Weird visual artefact in corrupted video file. Can anyone identify it? Posted by u/Static_Screen • 2 years ago
u/Static_Screen (OP)
Hi all. I’m a video editor and was trying to recover a corrupted file for a client. Most of it was garbage, but one frame had this weird... smudge. It’s not like a thumbprint on the lens, it feels like it’s behind the image, looking out.
The weird thing is, it’s hard to focus on. When you look right at it, it’s just a blur of static, but in your peripheral vision, it’s got a shape. Tall. Like a person standing at the edge of your sight.
Has anyone seen a data-corruption artefact like this before? It’s giving me this monster headache, right behind the eyes, like a pressure.
EDIT: I’m not sharing the file. Client privacy.
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u/Codec_King
Sounds like a classic I-frame corruption. The data from a previous frame is bleeding into a new one. Run it through a different recovery software and it’ll probably disappear. Nothing to worry about.
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u/Pixel_Peeker
I’ve seen it. Old security footage. A tall, dark smear that just... stood there between frames. Like a rip in the world. We put it down to tape degradation, but it gave me the creeps. Felt like it was sharper for a split second right after I blinked. I had trouble sleeping for a week after that.
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u/CynicPrime
It’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, mate. You see one weird smudge, and suddenly you’re seeing them everywhere. It’s not in the data, it’s in your head. Your brain is a pattern-recognition machine and sometimes it gets it wrong. Go outside.
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u/Static_Screen (OP)
@Pixel_Peeker that’s exactly it! The blinking thing. I’ve deleted the file, formatted the drive, but I can still see it when I close my eyes. It’s like a burn-in on my retina, and every time I blink, it feels like it takes a step closer in the dark. It’s been three days. I’m so tired.
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u/Redacted_Times
Be careful. This sounds like those old rumours about ‘Project Chimera’. They were trying to record brainwaves at the point of death. Story goes they recorded something, but everyone who viewed the raw data had a complete psychotic break. Acute paranoia, terminal insomnia... one of them apparently died of a seizure. All scrubbed from the net now, of course.
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u/CynicPrime
@Redacted_Times Oh, here we go. It’s always a secret government project. The guy has eye strain and hasn’t slept. Get a grip.
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u/Quiet_Hands
The mind is a strange place when it’s tired. The important thing is not to fight it. Don’t carry the burden alone. It only gets louder when you’re isolated. Sometimes, sharing what you see is the only way to get some peace.
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u/Static_Screen (OP)
@Quiet_Hands sent me a DM. Said he runs a support group. Said he knows what it’s like to be followed by a shadow only you can see. He said a video call would help so I could see I wasn’t alone.
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[This user has deleted their account.]
u/Quiet_Hands • 1 year ago
He was so tired. I’m glad I was able to help him finally rest. I feel much clearer now.
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[This thread has been locked by the moderators. Comments on this post are now disabled. Reason: Concerns for user wellbeing.]
/r/TheNoughtiesAndBeyond
Thread: Memory Test: The weird public health messaging from the first lockdown. Posted by u/NostalgiaSeeker90 • 2 years ago
u/NostalgiaSeeker90 (OP)
Randomly remembered this today and it’s bugging me. Back in the first lockdown, Spring 2020, alongside all the “Hands, Face, Space” stuff, does anyone else remember seeing those stark black posters with red letters? The ones that just said KEEP YOUR EYES DOWN?
I saw them at bus stops and on the Tube. My first thought was it was some weird off-brand social distancing thing—like, don’t make eye contact in the queue at Tesco. But looking back, it feels... odd. I can’t find a single picture of them online. Did I just dream this?
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u/ArtSchoolDropout
100% a viral art installation. It was the perfect time for it. Empty streets, everyone on edge. Some art student trying to make a statement about surveillance or public paranoia. Classic.
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u/JustTheFacts
@ArtSchoolDropout I’d believe that if it was just in one city. But people reported these from Glasgow to Plymouth. The logistics for a student project don’t add up. And they all vanished at the same time, almost overnight. That suggests something coordinated.
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u/SleeplessInSalford
My dad had a really bad time in that first lockdown. He was a postman, out on those empty streets all day. He became obsessed with those posters. Then he just... stopped sleeping. Said he’d seen something out on his route, an ‘Empty Man’ he called it. Said it was tall and thin and made of the quiet. He started telling me he could see it getting closer every time he shut his eyes. Smashed every mirror in the house before they took him to hospital. The doctors said it was a breakdown from the stress.
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u/Corvid_Eyes
That’s the thing though. The official guidance was about physical distance. It never said anything about not looking at people. I remember being told off by a community support officer for staring out the window of a bus. He was really aggressive about it. Said it was an “anti-social behaviour.” This was May 2020.
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u/Grandads_Ghost
There’s old wisdom in it, though. My gran was from the Hebrides. She always said, “In times of plague, you pay no mind to strangers. Keep your eyes on your own feet.” The old belief was that a curse could be passed in a glance, and it would follow you like your own shadow until it claimed you.
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u/NostalgiaSeeker90 (OP)
@SleeplessInSalford I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. That’s awful.
It’s the blurriness that gets me. I can picture the “2 Metres Apart” stickers perfectly, but the “Eyes Down” posters are like a fuzzy spot in my memory. Like trying to read a word in a dream. The more I think about it, the more it makes my head hurt.
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[THREAD LOCKED]
Moderator Note: This discussion has run its course. While a fascinating look at the collective memory of the pandemic, the topic repeatedly veers into conspiracy and misinformation. Official public health campaigns from the 2020-2022 period are well-documented. This thread is now locked to prevent the spread of unverifiable, and potentially harmful, anecdotal claims.
/r/ModernFolklore
Thread: Collating Post-2020 Perceptual Myths (Smudge Theory, Mirror-Dreams, etc.) Posted by u/FolkloreCollector • 2 years ago
u/FolkloreCollector (OP)
For a personal project, I’m collating the surge of digital and neo-folkloric beliefs that sprang up during and after the pandemic. I’m particularly interested in the cluster of myths around the idea of a “perceptual contagion.”
So far, I’ve logged:
“Smudge Theory”: The idea that a hostile entity hides in digital artefacts, and viewing it can “imprint” it on the viewer’s retina, leading to paranoia and chronic insomnia.
“Mirror-Dreams”: A belief that looking into a mirror in a dream can invite a “doppelgänger” or “shadow” into your waking life, which you can only see in your periphery.
The Echo Chamber: A specific paranoia about online ‘support groups’ for perceptual disturbances, with rumours that older members deliberately seek to ‘share’ their affliction with newcomers to gain temporary relief.
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u/HoaxWatcher_UK
Oh, this nonsense again. This is all debris from The Watch Hoax, a government psyop from 2020 meant to keep people indoors and scared of each other. The real conspiracy isn’t the smudges; it’s that people are still falling for this state-sponsored fearmongering. Don’t be a sheep.
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u/Glitchy_Reflection
I had a mirror-dream once. Two years ago. I looked in the wardrobe mirror and my reflection wasn’t me. It was taller, and it had my father’s posture from when he was angry. The face was just a static blur, but I knew it was smiling. I woke up screaming. Ever since, I feel like I’m not alone. Sometimes I see it behind me in shop windows. If I turn, it’s gone. I don’t sleep much anymore.
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u/TheFoldIsThinning
It’s not a theory when you can see the smudges walking behind people on the street. It’s not an archetype when you make eye contact with a stranger on the bus and see the shadow behind their eyes, and you both just nod in recognition and look away. We are the real folklore. Some of us are just trying to warn you. It’s not a hoax when your friends ask you to just look at what they’re seeing, just for a second, so they can get some rest. Don’t do it. Never do it.
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u/Looking_for_Quiet
Stop talking about it like it’s a fucking hobby. Some of us are living this. I haven’t slept more than an hour a night for three weeks. The static is so loud. Please. Somebody. I just need to show someone. Just a quick video call. I can’t do this alone anymore. I just need a little quiet. DM me.
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u/KeepYourHeadDown
Stop. Talking. About. This.
Don’t name it. Don’t describe it. Don’t look for it. You’re lighting a candle in a dark room full of moths. Delete this thread.
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[THREAD LOCKED BY MODERATORS]
Moderator Note: This thread has devolved from an academic discussion into unsubstantiated personal anecdotes and what appear to be targeted attempts to distress community members. We are locking this to ensure the wellbeing of our users.
Eyes to the ground, don’t let them stray,
Keep them covered, keep them away.
Step by step and never glance,
Looking up is a deadly chance.
Hush now, hush, don’t let them see,
Shadows stir where glances be.
Close your eyes and hide your face,
Sleep will keep you in your place.
If you wake before the dawn,
Keep your gaze where it belongs.
Under the bed or behind the door,
The Shape you make will watch no more.
You have a great skill at turning the mundane into something frightening.
A brilliant concept brilliantly executed and (and this is a rarity, genuinely undettling. The uncanny discomfort put me in mind of House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski which in our house is high praise indeed.