nancysan

[nancysan]

I have too many thoughts about Ghost of Thornton Hall, and I need to get rid of them to make room for new thoughts, so I'm moving them onto Ao3 in the form of little Clara character study scenes. If you are also sick about this game, check it out! If you're normalcore, keep scrolling, brother

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MEGANGATE: A Complete History

Given the way the lore of Megangate keeps cropping up in the Clue Crew and because some people have expressed confusion as to what it was, I thought I'd compile a COMPLETE history of Megangate so that even if you weren't there, you can feel like you were! This is compiled entirely through my own point of view; although I was very involved and kept regular tabs on #Megangate drama, I may well be missing information or funny posts that were a part of it. I encourage you to add anything I missed!

Long post, so TL;DR: During the pandemic, a bunch of us went insane trying to figure out who was behind the sideblog @picture-of-megan that literally just posted pictures of Megan Vargas from Warnings at Waverly Academy as that was a meme at the time. Full story under the cut.

The Setup

Even before Megangate, Picture of Megan was a meme in the Clue Crew. It all began with a post by @shawnandthecenturion-blog from 2014, six full years before Megangate would be upon us.

(For those who haven't played or watched Warnings at Waverly Academy, there is a part where you need to get a picture of someone named Megan by beating another character at air hockey, which can be difficult.)

From then on, we joked that a picture of Megan would be rewarded whenever we truly botched puzzles or needed a pity win:

This meme floated harmlessly around the Clue Crew for six years or so until April of 2020, when a sideblog called @picture-of-megan (or POM, as it was later known) appeared, and rewarded Clue Crewers expressing frustration with puzzles with pictures of Megan:

The blog revealed no personal details or links to their mains or other sideblogs, but knowing the in-joke, they were obviously a member of the community. Being mystery fans who were stuck inside, it didn't take long for people to start asking who was behind POM...

The Controversy

The first accusations of Megangate, to my knowledge, occurred on April 27th of 2020. After some discussions about who POM could be, which even included analyzing typing patterns and emojis, @henrikvanderswoon accused @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld in this historic post. In short, she believed that @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld was in a Tumblr chat with herself because the URL of POM was listed first, which wasn't the case when she messaged other people, leading her to believe that the culprit had slipped up and the chat had actually been screenshotted from POM's perspective.

Of course, this was debunked quickly as general Tumblr bugginess in this subsequent post. But the first accusation had been made, and it had been made with memes and Ace Attorney-esque argumentation. It was undeniably fun, and soon accusation after accusation was flying right and left as people were trying anything to reveal who was behind the blog. (The linked accusations are only a small sampling of the accusations flying around at the time; everyone had their own theories and they weren't afraid to share them!) At one point, I sent anons to almost every Nancy Drew blog I followed and to POM to see who would respond closest to when POM responded... It was a dark and desperate time.

Because of this, I was dubbed the head investigator of Megangate, a title I took proudly (I made the sideblog @megangate to save important Megangate-related posts), and I was even invited to the @clue-crew-podcast episode that week, covering Megangate... WHERE POM HERSELF WAS ALSO INVITED TO SPEAK:

This, of course, largely eliminated myself and the three others who hosted the podcast (@naancypants, @professorhotchkissesta, and @hurricanesonny). POM's speaking voice also made it unlikely that the culprit was a male, so the few male members of the Clue Crew were largely dismissed as suspects as well.

But far more importantly, POM herself had teased a reveal! The end was in sight...

The Copycats

Now, Megangate was getting a lot of attention. From the beginning, reply-heavy posts and accusations dominated peoples' dashes, and the memes were booming. (The memes linked are, of course, only a small sampling.) This was, understandably, annoying to some people, but others wanted in on the action!

As mentioned in the podcast, as Megangate gained more attention, copycat blogs and anons falsely claiming to be POM herself started taking off. @picture-of-picture-of-megan, @painting-of-megan, and @picture-of-painting-of-megan all sprung up in one day. Anon messages like this one appeared in many inboxes, spurring more controversy with their choices of emojis. Before POM herself denied ever sending anons, it was difficult to discern the fakers from the real POM, and some were made with the intent of framing others.

Additional copycats, like @horse-shirt, @iambucket, and a Dwayne Powers persona blog sprung up, taking on the identities of people or objects from the games.

You'll notice that a lot of these blogs aren't around anymore... That's because the copycat blogs came and went remarkably fast, as they didn't gain nearly as much attention as the original POM.

The Reveal

As promised, the original POM blog launched an online puzzle series event that would culminate in her reveal. This was excellent timing, as many of us had gone as far as we could with our investigations and were getting nowhere fast.

In a rather cryptic reply, POM set a date for her reveal. Graciously, she specifically made it after my university classes let out so that I could devote myself more to her reveal puzzles.

On May 9th, 2020, after quite the hype, POM dropped this link. A webpage with a puzzle for every Nancy Drew game, truly a treasure for us, like a love letter to the games and the community. Nancy Drew-themed playlists made by members of the Clue Crew were promoted on the site for people to listen to while they worked, and POM happily gave out hints. People worked individually or in groups to finish all of the puzzles and put together POM's true identity. I would highly recommend visiting the site and playing through the puzzles yourself, as they're all still functional and it's much more satisfying to see the reveal video after working for it.

But if you really want to know, click here to watch the reveal... Or here if you'd prefer to forgo the video.

Overall, Megangate was just such a weird and wonderful thing that was made a billion times better by the culprit's willingness to not only go along with the whole thing, but design such a wonderful series of puzzles. I really think it helped bring us together as a community, and it was very rewarding for those who chose to get involved. I would like to say that the only reason I went so far in for Megangate was because the pandemic made me a little looney but... well, I just spent an hour typing up this retelling of it. I would love to see more weirdness like Megangate in the future, and I hope that if that happens, people don't hesitate to get involved, make your own posts and accusations, and have fun with it!

I really can't thank the mastermind behind POM enough; it was definitely the highlight of my experience in the Clue Crew on Tumblr, and I've been here for ten years this year!!

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Requested by anon

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The BBC is releasing over 16,000 sound effects for free download

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Original Nancy Drew ghostwriter Millie Benson reviewed the first Nancy Drew game, Secrets Can Kill in her Toledo Blade column, published April 3 1999.

HeR Interactive sent a copy of the game to Millie, along with chocolates and flowers, and in return she wrote them a review.

The HeR offices had a framed copy of the article, along with a letter Millie wrote back to them:

Image description: CEO Megan (and Producer Robert behind the frame) with the framed copy of the article in 2010.

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Wait, yes but also...

OG dead mom is definitely Nancy Drew

I’m afraid Her Interactive is falling for the Disney problem. The sheer AMOUNT of female characters in these games with dead mothers is actually funny:

Joy Trent (the OG sad mom story)

Frances Humber

Emily Crandall

Pua Mapu

Kyler Mallory and Fiona Malloy

Rachel and Kim Hubbard

Yumi and Miwako Shimizu

Jamila El-Dine

Harper, Charlotte, and Clara Thornton (and Jessalyn, depending on the ending you get 👀)

Elisabet Grimursdottir

Lauren Holt

Elka Strojník

It makes the number of living mothers in Curse of Blackmoor Manor (3 if you count step-mom Linda) astounding!

Now that I think about it, I’m actually kinda perturbed that they fall back on making a female character more interesting by having a dead mom. They NEVER do this with the male characters, give them a dead mom or dead dad just for some edge, except maybe Henry and Grigor, but Grigor’s backstory was interesting because of how sucky the foster system is.

Lets find other ways to deepen female characters, okay?

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Have you ever had a Nancy Drew dream and the dream itself was somehow in point-and-click style?? So weird

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when she takes you back to her place and this is how her place looks

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Nancy Drew Quotes That Haunt Me:

- “the older your father got, Joy, the more he realized that life was made up of memories. he realized that even bad memories have a place in a good life” (Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine - CAR)

- “they hung Dirk at noon. I thought I would be glad but I ain’t.”

“The Harrison’s Yellow which Frances said was her favorite flower in the world is just a pile of brown stix now. I don’t know how to look after delicate things like that so it is my fault that it died… I ain’t seen or heard from Frances in a year. I tell people she is on her way home but when I look in my heart I know this is a lie.” (Meryl Humber, SHA)

- “Some women with noses that would put birds of prey to shame are perfectly content with their appearance, while others with perfectly acceptable features are convinced they are more hideous than Frankenstein. Self image– it can make people do strange things.” (Jean-Michel - DAN)

- “You watch this dark rampaging monster go tearing across the land, wrecking everything it touches, til all of a sudden, it ain’t there no more. Ya can’t go after it, ya can’t make it put everything back, ya can’t get even with it, ‘cause it’s just… gone. All you can do is stand there thinkin’… now that ain’t fair. That just ain’t fair.” (Pa - TOT)

- “You think you’re entitled to a straight answer? Who are you, Nancy? A stranger. You forget that too easily.” (Miwako Shimizu - SAW)

- “Saw Maggie on a walk today with her new boyfriend. She gave me a sad look, and there was something else there… was it pity? Am I to be pitied now?” (Alexei Markovic’s journal - ASH)

- "I can't help but wonder if they're misfortunate fools, or just addicted to Sunday clothes and the sound of a spade takin' a bite out of cold clay."

(Savannah Woodham - GTH)

- “I wanted to be her when I grew up. But then one day I was older than my older sister, and older still today.” (Harper Thornton - GTH)

- “And I hear your song, whenever the world is quiet enough.” (Nancy, talking to her mom - SPY)

- "Family. People. That's what matters. The rest is useless noise." (Elisabet Grimursdottir - SEA)

And, finally, this nightmare from a dead soldier:

- “VICTUM INVIDEO SILENTE : The Conquered shall envy The Dead.” (Milo Penvellyn’s Coat of Arms - CUR)

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IOS users and Patreon. Big old heads up.

"Apple is requiring that Patreon use their in-app purchasing system and remove all other billing systems from the Patreon iOS app by November 2024. This means that starting in November, new memberships purchased in the iOS app will be subject to Apple's 30% App Store fee.

First, we want to be clear about one thing: this will not impact your existing memberships at all. Apple's App Store fee only applies to new memberships purchased in the iOS app beginning in November 2024."

Apple users, if you make your pledges through your browser you can dodge this fee.

This is just apple doing its usual nickel and diming to take a slice of every pie.

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Requested by anon

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you know what I never understood?

how these stairs never woke up everyone in the manor with the noise they made

i can imagine poor jane hearing them in her sleep because nancy decided to be nosy in the middle of the night

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it's up to you as nancy drew in....the phantom of venice!

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(Vote for me to have to make this. Joe Hardy approved)