Where's Waldo?

Day #29 of 31 Days of Halloween

Where’s Waldo?

I preface this one with a few warnings just in case. Always have parents' permission before giving personal info including your GPS location. Never go onto private property. Never venture into unsafe areas. Never go alone. Stick to daytime hours only. Always make sure your phone is fully charged…and maybe just don’t do it?

Technology is at our fingertips, and therefore so is entertainment. Except even the mild-mannered next-door neighbor no longer gets the thrill of playing mindless games or watching Tiktoks. It's human nature to always want to push that little bit further.

A few years ago AR (alternate reality) Games came out, and the horror genre took that away running. Piquing the interest of the unknown and sometimes scary thrills of new choose your own adventures.

The app popped up during the pandemic and has been making people a tad uneasy since its debut. Randonutica is an app that touts itself as “the world’s first & only quantumly generated Create Your Own Adventure app.” And by that, it means that it generates random coordinates for people to walk to and check out. The real mystery comes from the app’s questionnaire, which asks users their “intentions” and then, as is so often the case, seemingly produces those desires out of thin air with coordinates. The internet is full of stories, photos, and videos from Randonautica users (Randonaughts as they are called) who have stumbled upon some creepy business

It doesn’t stop there, you can type anything as per your intentions. Happy Green Space, Watery with flowers, Scary abnormality, creepy and unknown. “Negative intentions are HIGHLY discouraged,” the site also states. In other words, the app isn’t encouraging you to creep into the insidious corners of your neighborhood. Randonauting abides by a “good vibes only” mindset.…leave it up to the wilds of human nature to take an app to the extreme.

For example; a Reddit user posted a story about setting their intention to finding "a mysterious object in the woods," and eventually stumbled upon this mysterious zebra toy. Weird but cute coincidence.

How about the time someone wanted to find a glitch, and came to a door that wasn't there, or the app went literal and sent 2 people on an adventure to find something Spooky and came to a Road by the name of “Spook”

They aren't always so innocent. By far the most famous scary experience on Randonautica, and one which has been thoroughly verified, is the case of the Seattle teenagers who stumbled across two dead bodies stuffed into a suitcase.Randonautica led the teens to a rocky shoreline and pier, and sitting among the rocks was the suitcase. You can watch the teens’ story from Inside Edition as they eagerly open the case, expecting money or a similar prize. Instead, they were greeted with trash bags and an overwhelming odor, which prompted them to call the police. Authorities then confirmed that the suitcase’s contents were two sets of human remains, both victims of homicide https://youtu.be/TUp3DP9PCBw

If you're curious, have I tried it? Yes, I have with positive intentions we were taken to a beautiful spot between Savona and Kamloops, with some very happy wild chickens. However, I have tried and tempted the fates with not-so-pleasant keywords, and well I'll just say the world can be a creepy place.… Don't do it.