Spending My Evening Reading This Was Exactly How I Wanted To Spend My Break, U Ate This Up Fish

Spending my evening reading this was exactly how I wanted to spend my break, u ate this up fish <333

this shit terrifying whoever the mod is you’re doing an awesome job

I know this ask has been here since the beginning of the blog, but I think it is a nice time to finally answer this one.

Alright, so I decided to make this entire long post dedicated to explaining in full detail on what I did during the entire time the Richard blog was running. I just felt like you guys deserve to know what exactly comes to my mind during the process, and I just really wanted to talk and reflect about it, since it did took a bit of dedication and planning to pull it off. So, as a thank you for all the support (and for the hilarious reactions on the reveal), here is a fully detailed explanation on how, where, and why I made Richard.

Where did the inspiration come from?

Now, I do know that we already talked about this in one of the Mod QnA questions, however I do like to get more indepth with what exactly happened now that I can be more honest with y'all.

Yes, all of this IS still inspired because of Leonard [see this post]. It was a genuinely nice concept, since I have NEVER heard of non-human LOTF OCs, and it was GENUINELY creative and inspiring. In my infinite (autistic) creativity, I just decided to make a hivemind, and in just an hour, I made Richard.

Now, his exact character was kind of like a half-canon, half-OC since he IS based off of the ACTUAL beast in the book (aka the pig's head). It seemed really cool and interesting, so I played along. However, instead of claiming ownership publicly like the rest, I decided to be a little secretive over it, which brings us to another question:

What was Richard's lore exactly?

Richard's lore was mostly improvised on the spot, really. I just kind of set up a general guideline (for this case, I just basically flesh out what Richard's core identity is and what motives he has), and that is what pretty much helped me go through the entire creative process without running into problems. I recognized that most of the LOTF OC lore is kind of made up at the spot based on what the other might react unless they planned it, however I DID have interesting facts and things that I WISHED was utilized more during the whole runtime.

Richard isn't just a bunch of flies! In fact, he can actually attach himself into anything that the boys (or anyone on the island) think he is. His hivemind form IS the one he commonly uses (and his favorite one), but if we are realistically looking at the book, he was technically the dead pilot AND the pig's head. He is also the symbolic representation of decay and rot, and it doesn't even have to be anything ACTUALLY rotting either. He can also be the boulder, the fire, the wooden spears, the rosary, the skull— literally ANYTHING.

He is also essentially a nature documentor to the boys, as it has been such a long time that he has ever seen a human being —much less approximately thirty boys on the island — in years. He would have been very excited to observe them, as he has been dormant. Richard is basically like a nature documentor to these kids to observe their every move, every intention, every interaction, and perspective. Sometimes that documentor would throw a chunk of meat to the lions for kicks. In my opinion and interpretation, the beast is unfeeling, a third person, a narrator, a director. If you notice in the earlier days, however, he seems to be more of an active mocker, and it's because I was planning on making him more of a character that points out people's flaws in the most humiliating way possible, however I was planning on changing that and toning him down because it seemed too predictable.

I wished Richard was used more often, but I guess the reason why none of these were utilized more was because of the lack of opportunities presented. It felt really empty sometimes but hey, it was a good run.

Now for the part that I might have to yap a whole lot on:

The Creative Process

Now, this is where I talk about the process and operation I had to do— how I kept my identity hidden for so long, how I managed to fool a couple of people, my thought process on every single action I made, and why I did all of this.

It really all started when I got bored.

So I did made Richard, and I was like "man I would REALLY love to make this into my OC", and then the mischievous idea of making an OC blog with an anonymous mod came to my mind. You see, I kind of have done this kind of bit before back then, so I have slight experiences with this kind of thing (it WAS complicated tho since this was during a time of trauma and stress and it gave me an identity crisis so whaddya know). I decided to use that experience to make Richard, just messing around seeing if people could catch me.

Slowly, but surely, I did make Richard have some impact in the community. It's not that much, but it was worth the entertainment.

I pretended to just be a REALLY big fan to attract some attention from other people. I recommended him to people, reacted to his crazy responses and all that jazz, all the while being the mod. I got bored once again and decided to terrorize everyone by inserting Richard into their ask boxes instead of waiting for people to go to his ask box. It did get some nice buzz around, and just casually seeing the panic as everyone talks about how Richard got to them. Sure, there was multiple other blogs, but I got to most people atleast.

Now, I was part of this small investigation team dedicated to Richard, as I decided to join them because I was curious what they would uncover. Granted, I did help (and sometimes misdirected them) in the investigation, but it was so amusing and actually exciting to see how dedicated they are while having fun in the investigation, which is why I decided to start adding more ciphers in the mix. Of course, most of it will come to an end since the trend died down, and it was the most fun I had yet.

Most of it was just a mix of being a menace and improv, really. Sure, I acted performative and formal with my Mod persona, but it was all in good fun. If anyone was actually emotionally hurt or felt like I genuinely deceptively used this project as a way to manipulate anyone, I never mean it in a malicious way nor do I ever even intent to do so. I was actually pretty worried about this aspect, so I was making sure that no one was hurt during this, but seeing the initial reactions, no one seemed to be offended. Again, if anyone has any problems with me they can always slide up to my DMs and talk it there. I am not scary to talk to, dw.

My General Opinions

Honestly? I wished we could have done this a bit differently, even though Richard is decent as it is. My execution is okay-ish in my opinion.

I wished I could have leaned into the mystery and the menace and really push the boundaries, to make him a bit more well known. It's not that Richard is a bad character per say, I just don't think he is well known enough. I am satisfied with what happened, but I wished I could have collaborated with other creators on what Richard's lore is, but that might leak my identity.

Speaking of me, I feel CRINGED at my Mod posts. I think I tried way too hard with what I was doing just to get people keep looking, and I think that instant gratification is NOT great in hindsight. Sure, I was bored to death and I wanted to shake things up, but man.. I sometimes don't really like how I did it.

Overall? He's alright.

Would I do this again?

Maybe. It really depends what you think I will be doing in the future. Yes, I do have other accounts, but they are mostly multi-admins and I barely talk there, however I MIGHT plan on something interesting or two. It really depends what you are guessing.

This project kind of rekindled the creativity I have in my head, since it forces me to quickly think a lot. I find myself wanting to be in a different person's shoes, or even multiple at the same time. It just feels right for me. Whether or not it's morally correct is something I am still questioning myself.

Now, if someone tries to (theoretically) do this kind of thing, I don't really recommend it unless you REALLY know what you are doing. I don't want to dwell on this topic since this feels WAY too dramatic but srsly I don't recommend it unless you also want to have an identity crisis or smth. Your choice.

This project really gave me some awesome ideas and a LOT of fun, seeing people and knowing how they work, what makes them human, and what makes them tick. I am still everywhere, folks. Still do.