Ritual Festivity
15/03/2024
I don’t know, nor would I dare ponder, how it was Matcha came to ascend beyond the confines of printed paper. But I am certain they are now a force greater than those who willed it into existence. Ideas are such fickle things–one moment an extension of our very being, and the next a rogue agent beyond any measure of our control.
That’s what I think they are–Matcha I mean, an idea gone astray.
Conceived in 2015 by Gabby, a now alum of the evergreen state college, Matcha at its inception was a green flying squirrel wearing goggles, a glowing medallion, and a red bead and band on its tail. They were a nameless entity until 2019 when they were dubbed Matcha. Through the years details changed slightly but one thing that always remained true was an element of reverence, a level of respect I think Matcha came to expect.
In 2020 a pandemic struck, upending as well as everything else the foundations of Chibi Chibi Con. They were forced to cancel that year’s convention as well as those that came in the two years that followed. For three years Matcha was starved of attention and no longer revered in art. Come 2023, as Chibi Chibi Con was to make its return, Matcha was removed, only being lightly referenced in their core mascot’s scarf as a simple graphic. I believe the combination of its three-year absence and its 2023 removal are what led to the strange events that followed. It is my hope that my findings may help prevent any future “incidents,” and perhaps help to combat the claims that I am not sane, that I merely imagined what happened to me.
November-08-2022
Chibi club faced significant setbacks as members reported electronic issues that rendered materials inaccessible and made electronic communications impossible. They managed to recover materials from the corrupted electronics and borrowed devices in order to continue moving forward. Later that month a rumor got out that some of the members got together to burn their old devices in the woods–to keep “it” from spreading.
December-07-2022
A Chibi Club member reports seeing fellow member Kit Summers consume Chibi Chibi Con 2023 promotional flyers, sparking drama. Kit denied the allegations but cannot explain the vanishing 1/3 of promotional flyers. The remaining 2/3 of flyers disappeared soon after replacements were printed for the missing third.
January-06-2023
Olivia Brand, an artist involved in promotional content, was chewing her thumb nail while viewing documents. She proceeded to eat the entirety of their nail and started to strip the flesh from her finger, to the point of revealing bone. She was reportedly unbothered and in a trance-like state as blood spilled onto the papers she was reviewing. An onlooker claimed they were frozen in shock–only once they saw her pull out and swallow her distal phalanx were they able to scream. Jostled by the scream, Olivia was said to stare stiffly at the remnants of her thumb, fainting shortly after. Following recuperation at a hospital, she reportedly stopped attending club meetings–no further information on her whereabouts is available.
February-05-2023
Simmons, a super-senior in his 5th year with the Chibi Club, was found by faculty wandering the school’s steam tunnels, naked, adorned in green skin paint. He was found to have green felt loosely hot glued to his skin, and sported a thick dangling moss colored tail that had been affixed onto his body. Faculty said he was unresponsive and glassy eyed, staring aimlessly into the tunnel. The faculty tried asking him to leave, but he was uncooperative. One of the present faculty, John Budrick, tried to move him physically. Upon grasping his shoulder, David reacted by mauling John, beating his head into the ground till he went unconscious and proceeding to bite and scratch him. The other faculty fled, exiting the tunnels to phone campus security. David was arrested and expelled. John survived but lost an eye. If his claim is to be believed, David had sucked and gnawed it out of his skull. The eye is believed to have been consumed by David, but there is no concrete evidence of this.
Feb-25-2023
It was the day of the con. I, a 3rd year greener who hailed from Mississippi, had never really been to a convention or had much contact with anime, so I was excited for the experience. I got some food at the Maid Cafe and headed over to the CRC to look at the vendors’ goods and artists’ pieces. I found the displays amusing if occasionally a little cringy, taking particular delight looking at everyone’s costumes. I found myself in the artist’s alley. As I people watched in a room I would later come to learn was titled Matcha Hall, I began to feel light-headed. This was nearly imperceptible at first but soon impossible to ignore as I tried to grasp onto the nearest wall, certain I was a few moments away from collapsing. The last thing I saw was a boy being pushed around in a chair as someone nearby passed out papers. I don’t think I fell, and if the accounts given to the police are to be believed I and the five others walked out of that building with all my faculties intact.
My eyes opened to darkness as a oozing chill ran down my body. The air was heavy, with a chemical smell, containing lingering tones of sour milk. Tuning in my soaked crusted ears I could hear a steady drip not just from myself but people nearby. Plump flesh smacked the ground around us as some unseen giant paced aimlessly. Engulfed in darkness without even shadows to guide me, running seemed pointless but my fear would not let me stand still.
Bolting backwards I stumbled upon some unseen figure that tried grasping at my flesh. Whatever soaked me caused them to slide off with ease; but it also turned my steps into sporadic uncontrolled slips and tumbles.
The big mass seemed to have taken notice as I could now hear the lurching mass making its way towards me along side smaller wet steps. I took to the ground hoping I could move faster by pushing off the floor with my hands and feet. Sprawled like the unfit animal I was, I instinctually and foolishly looked back into the abyss. To my surprise I was met with a clear image, a gigantic green decaying squirrel stood behind the squelching masses I could only hear. Its eyes were dead glossy white and its body rife with tunnel-like holes. I could see bits of it fall as it slowly lumbered forward. Urged by sheer horror I slithered across the ground with renewed vigor, eventually smashing into a steely surface. I scrambled to my feet to examine it. My spirit elated to feel the delicate frame of a handle, I pushed the door open and ran. I found myself in the bowels of the lab II building, groping through a narrow hall, naked and covered in rancid green paint but too scared to care. I was detained quickly after surfacing, my story ridiculed and ignored. The blame for the strange green graffiti in the tunnels and the missing persons pinned on me.
