This topic has 73 replies, 30 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by 
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I have to give the story a little background. A couple weeks ago, I posted about the call I got from Mary. While I was on the call with her, I got call waiting from another “No Caller ID” number. Because I didn’t pick up, they kept calling back. I finally got off the phone with Mary and was able to answer the call…and it was Mason. The conversation we had led to him asking me for a resume because I suggested that he needed help based on 91…”meetings”…he needed to have and that he could probably use some help…so yes…the resume Mason posted in Slack was one I sent him, but it seems you guys already figured that out. I didn’t confirm or deny it because, well, I didn’t want anyone else sending in resumes to a job that I wanted and was “interviewing” for. The less competition the better right?
Fast forward to today. Earlier this afternoon, Mason called me and gave me a “proper” interview. Like a legit interview…he asked about my strengths, my skillset, what I could bring to the table, etc. etc. He ended the call by saying “Ok, show me what you got” and hung up.
Well Mason, here’s what I got
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What the fuck have you become, @mike.
What the fuck have you become that compels you to bring pain to the person that matters most to you.
It hurts me to see you come back to us with so many truths about accepting yourself only to turn around and become a tool of pain and chaos.
This isn’t you.
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@mike and @itsnotmason, the both of you are acting eerily similar. Consider the possibility that you have been implanted with the same program. This may not be who you really are. I hope that this is not who you really are.
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@mike I’m not sure what Mason is offering you, but you need to seriously reconsider.
What happened to the guy that opened up in front of everyone at the seminar?
I hate to use guilt because none of us are blameless, but this is not what you want. Stop. Now.
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I knew who it was before he opened the door. The voice that got me into the Tension Experience. clear. @mike committed the most soul-forsaking act we could have imagined for him and he did it as an audition. If this is where he chooses to start, he’ll stop at nothing. What more could a potential employer ask for?
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The. Fuck.
Mike, what the fuck.
I let you into my home. Both you AND Russell. I swear to god if you have truly gone “Team Mason” and this isn’t another prank video like the one we did, then just… FUCK.
What the fuck can we do about this?
Hell I let you have me hooded while you had (I assume) the very same bat you had in this little video. Had I known your little Mason act might have been more than an act I never would’ve agreed to that. Hell you could’ve actually bashed my head in with the bat.
Guess it’s time I tried to get some god damn sleep.
Fuck.
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Wait wait wait @nothenrygale what the heck are you talking about?!
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Sorry, backing up a bit.
Awhile back we met up at Kansas Collective and the both of them were doing a show at ZJU later that night. I live right up the street from ZJU so I invited the two of them to kick back here while they waited for their second show. This was right after the Joyce video and I owed a shot for #caps so we cooked up a shot video that played off Mason. Baseball bat and everything.
https://www.periscope.tv/NotHenryGale/1zqKVROnEeLKB
I just thought it was Mike just doing a Mason impression, but now given this, who the fuck knows.
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@mike has embraced his Shadow. Or perhaps it has embraced him. I think the latter — as I mentioned before — once that happens, we don’t recognize that person.
One hopes it is only temporary.
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Has anybody been able to reach either of them since this video went up?
I texted them both last night, but nothing.
I texted Russell again just now; nothing.
This feels like Joyce all over again.
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@bcbishop Nope, though Mike and I didn’t talk all too much online, Russell and I even less so. Most of the time when we talk is when we run into each other for a show or something. I can ping them both and see if we get a hit though.
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Man there’s a lot to unpack here:
Either Russell is in legit trouble. Some are asking how old this video is. The last time I personally heard from @russell was 10/20 when he was telling me what he thought of the Kaidan Project, a show I personally recommended him to see. I’ve texted him as well to check in, I have not heard back.
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Mason is telling @mike to show him what he got and Mike is just doing an audition with no intention to actually hurt @russell. Mike damn well knows that without Russell there would be no My Haunt Life (and visa versa). More so, those guys are best friends, I really feel like there’s no way suddenly Mike would actually harm Russell just to get a shot to be partner in crime with Mason. My FB messenger shows that Russell was “active” 7 minutes ago at the time of writing which can be indicator that he’s fine and well.
Or that Mike has his phone.
There are several things I can’t shake:
1.) Tape–that looked pretty serious, especially tape over the eyes…ow.
2.) Birthday card in video appears torn at the corner–sign of a broken friendship or maybe it just looks weird on camera.
3.) Odd forum activity notification for me. This could be totally a coincidence but yesterday I got three e-mail notifications at 8:58pm of Russell personally tagging me in a comment. I figured it was WordPress losing it’s mind or something but now the timing seems…very concerning because these were all old responses and they have no signs of being edited. @thegilded or @daela can you confirm you that you didn’t clean up old posts or something that would cause this odd activity?https://i.imgur.com/GJ7TuuA.png
The first notification was from the thread Worried for Megan .
Second notification was from the thread 9.12 IG from Mason?.
Third notification was from the thread “9/7/17 Briarberg”.
Anybody experience the same thing?
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@mkarrett – I also received an e-mail notification of Russell tagging me in a comment, also at 8:58 last night. The tag was from a post from two weeks ago. I thought it was just Yahoo being crappy, but if the same thing happened to you, it’s something else.
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@mkarrett @remrelganaps I had the same thing happen to me (and I assume one is the same post, did you get an email for it too @wanda102). I also received a second notification about a post that @nothenrygale had tagged me in.
At the time I figured it was just some forum weirdness, but now, who knows? Can you tell if your post was edited at all Brad?
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I just realized that all of the Russell notifications that Melissa received belatedly were from posts concerning Mason, and so was the one I received. What about yours, Kevin?
Mine is here: https://thelustexperience.com/forums/topic/10917-mason-makes-a-slack-account/#post-25924
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Mine was this one: https://thelustexperience.com/forums/topic/9-12-instagram-from-mason/#post-24561
While the post was about Mason, it can also be read and applied to Mike given what happened last night. Still not totally sold on it being anything but a glitch, but a strange coincidence with this post for sure.
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I also got a email notification from Russell. It wasn’t tagging me but it was a thread I commented on and subscribedto updates from.
Specifically it was the “Worried about Megan” thread, which is quite a huge coincidence because that’s the thread where no one could get ahold of her the night of Mason’s visit. The Russell reply was a comment he had already said, not a new one, so someone must have done a very unnoticeable edit to make it ping the notification.Post Link: https://thelustexperience.com/forums/topic/worried-for-megan/#post-24662
It’s him noting that if everything that is occurring to Mason’s daughter is true then at the very least it’s emotional abuse.
Which is hopefully a better case scenario of the current situation. Hopefully Russell walks out of this with just some emotional abuse and is physically unharmed.
Although if there is one thing that Mike lusted after it was adding murder and real darkness to The Experience. Hopefully he didn’t throw his life away for that desire.
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Shit, I’d hire him. That’s some serious dedication right there. This goes pretty far beyond dressing for the job you want- this is literally performing the job you want. That’s awesome.
Aside from that, I also utter the choral “what the fuck”. But not in fear, shock, or distaste. But wonderment. Yeah, murder, kidnapping, and God knows what else is pretty bad. But the better question is not what, but why. Why is Mike doing this? Motivation needs to be considered. What’s equally chilling, intriguing, and potentially frightening is how Mason and Mike appear to be acting as almost one of the same- however, Mike seems to be a little bit of an exaggerated caricature.
Time to start digging.
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@mkarrett I received 16 emails for old posts, all at 8:58pm. I’m thinking it’s a glitch, but if someone is digging, I’ll send you all of the stuff.
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Wow this really does strike too close to home. I don’t really care about Noah, Sabrina or Joyce, but I do have a lot of love for both @mike and @russell
I don’t know what they did to you Mike, but if any part of your old self is still there, fight those bastards that are fucking with your head. I mirror what most people are saying, this isn’t you.
I don’t know what any of us can do to help you and Russell get out of this, but I’m not giving up on you both.
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Holy shit WTF @mike, guess it shows how much huh. But was it really enough for Mason?
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I want to tell @mike not to do this. Not to harm someone he’s had an incredible friendship with for years.
But I can’t. Because I think telling him not to isn’t going to work. He chose @russell for a reason. He chose his closest friend, his most valuable friend and put him up as a proof to Mason.
Will Russell die? Idk. I don’t know if Mike’s got it in him to live with that.
But there is an angle I don’t think we’ve considered.
Anybody from Tension remember Buz, the box and III?
This could be that. It could be a play to get to Mason, get close enough to him and then kill him.
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It could be a play to get to Mason, get close enough to him and then kill him.
@mumumusings No way. Mike has been Team Argyle from day one. But you bring up an interesting point. Mason could use him to kill off another character. -
Watching the video again I had a thought.
There’s a point around 2:13 when Russell is staring at the knife. He says “Seriously dude this was not…”
I think it’s was. It could be is.
But that sounds to me (and I may be reading WAY to much into a single syllable) like there was a plan. that Mike and Russell hatched together. And then Mike went off the rails. Like Russell was expected to be tied up. Maybe the tape on his mouth and eyes was a bit further than he was expecting. Then he sees the knife and freaks out. Then he realizes that he can’t get out of the handcuffs and is really panicked.
Again, I may be reading too much into that one moment. But if this was a plan that they made, and Mike used it to get what HE wanted, I’m terrified.
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@bruinbown I actually would find that somewhat… comforting? Maybe this was something that Russell was OK with, until he wasn’t. I cant wrap my head around the thought of Russell still being handcuffed to that pipe. That seems impossible. Maybe Mike thought this would be a fun prank and a good way to get Mason’s attention without any intention of harming his friend. This is the only way I can rationalize that video. This certainly doesn’t justify anything, but it would at least get the knotted feeling out of my stomach.
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@lilmsfancpants
The reason it scares me so much, is how easily this could happen to any of us. Every time we get into one of those cars, or go meet a character for a moment, there’s the chance that it goes completely sideways and we end up in something we’re neither prepared for nor ok with. If he used the trust Russell put in him to get him to go along with something, and then use that to do something like this. It could happen to any of us at any time. -
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@coryphella “…we are about to truly fuck your world up.” The fact that this was said after so much fuckery had already been done makes me nervous. It was said in the post about moving the MSE. Now, we have that info, and I think it only gets darker from here.
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@nothenrygale – you may have said those things but I certainly didn’t. When I’m spending the morning *actually* upset because friends are actually upset, and I’m worried for real about where things are headed…then yeah, it’s dark.
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Lots of good friendships are about to be seriously tested
I’m with you on this at least, @coryphella. If they haven’t been already.
I think we’re about to learn what it’s really like to lose.
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@coryphella @chelsea @wanda102 Yuuuuuuupp. I’m genuinely nervous as to what’s to come.
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I’m just catching up with everything. My little group seems to have been compromised and it doesn’t sit well with me. I can’t help but believe that there is some end game that @mike isn’t sharing with us. I can’t imagine he’d do anything to @russell. I mean, that’s his person as well all know.
@mumumusings I am with you on this one. I shared this with @bcbishop this morning. My gut is telling me we don’t know everything. @mike wouldn’t just throw one of his closest friends under the bus. If there is anyone in this that I have respected consistently and the most, it’s @mike.-
@michelle – I really need you to stay in the game. :/
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I’m not going anywhere, @michelle. No matter what Mason does to the people we care about, I’ve got your back.
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Same @bcbishop … I have your back to the end as well. I’m here for you.
I know that you haven’t gone anywhere @coryphella but it looks as though it’s only Bryan and I who haven’t been touched by the Mason virus. I love you but you’re judgement is clouded in regards to him. I don’t know what to think in regards to @mike and Mason. I’m still holding out hope that he’s not on the Mason train but it isn’t looking good. I won’t rush to judge Mike though until we’ve heard more.
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HOLY CRAP! What in the actual fuck is going on?
Admittedly, I’ve been a little removed from Lust these past few weeks but when I logged on today I certainly wasn’t expecting to find out that @mike had turned full psycho and betrayed his best friend!! Hasn’t @russell been through enough this year?!
Looks like I have A LOT of catching up to do!
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Still catching up from a weekend mostly offline, maybe someone’s already said this..
But it’s crazy how when @mike literally shows us that he’s handcuffed @russell to a rail in a dark basement and threatens him with a sharp object, he’s probably cool, it’s part of some secret endgame.
Are we affording the same benefit of the doubt to everyone else now too?
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@addisonborn THIS. Over and over again, we ignore it whenever somebody shows us who they really are if it makes us uncomfortable, anxious, or forces us to rethink our preconceptions.
Maybe it’s a prank. But there’s a good chance it’s not. We shouldn’t assume anything.
You’d think we would have learned our lesson the minute we found out Addison Barrow didn’t really exist.
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A few days ago Mike brought up that Morgan needed to cut it out with the IG/OOG bullshit or something similar. That would have been after sending Mason his resume, but prior to today’s interview. Given Mike’s stance a few days ago, where the fuck does that leave him now? If he’s not subscribing to any IG/OOG distinctions, that’s nerve-racking…
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You guys haven’t seen much of me recently. I have been out of town much of the last few of weeks. Doing some doctor stuff, too. You know… life.
The last few days, I have been rearranging a few things in my life.
Furniture. Fixing window latches. Locks re-keyed.
Battening down the hatches, you might say.I’m not going to say much. Friendships are tricky things.
Friends are tricky things. They can surprise yu.Upon getting back in town, I intended to catch up with Mike – guess that ws Sunday. I was hoping to even talk a bit about LUST with him becasue my travels have left me a little out of the loop on current events. I did not realize how far out of the loop I really was on some specific subjects.
Mike and I have our differences, but he knows I trust him overall. He’s a smart guy. It didn’t strike me as odd when he asked me if I could come over and help him with something. We help each other. We’re friends. But hell, the hood and crap? Gotta admit it freaked me a bit. And it hurt. (Hey – he knows how not to leave bruises. Guess that’s a marketable skill. Well… morbid humor helps me deal.)
I can’t respond to all of the questions. I don’t have answers. Please, I do ask… have sympathy for a friend of mine who seems to be wrestling with a few things. I know sympathy and kindness do not come easily to some people around here. Seems @111error has seen that, I wonder if @mike is sensing it now? Am I about too?
However, to @nothenrygale, I do want to say soemthing. I enjoyed that night hangin out with you and Sarah. The night of the CAPS video? You mentioned it earlier. But… to be honest, I was afraid I was appearing rude to you that night. Maybe it’s me overthinking. Maybe you didn’t even notice that @mike and I were always on the opposite sides of the room when we visited you. That’s why I didn’t join in on the video game. Didn’t want to get that close. I just sensed something was… offf… between him and me. After Mike tricked me to get me into that position on Sunday, he left me alone for a while in the dark – saying he needed to “fetch a friend” – does that sound familiar Brad??? What did he say that night at your place when he went out to his car??? He came back to me a few minutes later, apparently having gone to grab his bat.
I must also report something odd. At 5:30 am on the next morning I was in a very deep sleep. Monday. I was a bit sore and achy, I had just collapsed when I got home. I realized my phone was ringing… at 5:30 am. Where I come from, early morning phone calls usually bring bad news. I grabbed the phone and it registered in my brain a moment before I accepted the call… No Caller ID. Very groggily, I croaked out a “Hello” and was immediately disconnected with three electronic beeps.
What was that call?
To me, the most logical answer is that it was Mason ringing my phone… checking to see how far Mike had actually gone.
He went far enough, in my opinion.I feel compelled to say one final thing.
Please do not ask for details.
Please do not ask me why.If I never see another damn argyle sweater as long as I live,
that will be fine with me. -
@russell – I am so, so happy to see you posting and see your message on FB. Glad you’re ok. Please reach out if you need anything.
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Quiet glad to hear you’re OK @russell. Yeah, I noticed something felt off, but didn’t think you were being rude at all. Just glad to hear everything is OK with you man!
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Welcome back @russell. Sorry you went through that. Friends shouldn’t put friends through that kind of shit. Glad you’re ok. Glad you made it out the other side.
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I’m glad you are okay @russell. But I sensed that you were.
As I stated on another thread:
“@Mike appeared sufficiently entranced by Mason to pro-actively pursue employment. He was, I believe, seduced by a kindred (Shadow) spirit more so than Briarberg itself. He auditioned by engaging in the activity most likely to capture Mr. Silver’s attention.
Which is why I think Russell is fine. Because @mike would prank but never harm Russell. Never. Mike would tell @Russell to lay low and feign having vanished because he needs to appear livid with Mike, and to appear intensely traumatized by the “experience”. That would impress Mr. Silver, perhaps even more than gutting poor Russell.
And it’s all consistent with @Mike getting what he lusts after, embracing his Shadow.”
As Russell said, “have sympathy for a friend of mine who seems to be wrestling with a few things”.
Wrestling with his Shadow — “the element of irreducible rascality”
I really suggest listening to this:
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@russell I was so happy to get a reply to the fb message I sent you and now this forum post. It means you are alive and that @mike has not gone completely off the deep end. I mean..he’s facing that direction but it could have been much worse and I’m thankful it wasn’t. Mike is clearly in a dark place and I feel like maybe it could be a very deranged cry for help?
Maybe Mike needs his friends more than ever right now instead of judgement for following Mason’s footsteps. I don’t think he would EVER hurt Russell beyond what he thought Russell could handle. @russell is no delicate flower. Something Russell said in his message to me makes me very worried about Mike tbh: “Let’s just say the camera does not show everything. Sometimes things are worse than you think.”
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@bruinbown Sometimes… shit happens, even between friends. @mike has stood by my side more than he has turned his back.
@sfire8 There is some upset. But I will deal with that in my own way in my own time. Rest assured.
@larry To be clear, I was not following instruction of Mike’s doing. I needed to observe for a bit.I, too, can make choices and I have my reasons.
It’s not like I have a history of attempting to “save” a friend, or anything.
Oh… wait.Yes, @pandace88 Let’s be clear – damn clear.
I am not a delicate flower. -
I’m glad to hear you’re okay, @russell. I’m incredibly impressed by your level of composure and capacity for grace given what you went through too. Not even the physical aspects, but the sense of betrayal from a friend.
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@russell definitely glad to hear you’re OK. From everything you’ve said, Mike seems like a good guy at the best of times. Right now is the worst. He doesn’t have to become a Mason 2.0 if those closest to him can figure out how to bring him back from it.
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Glad you’re ok. You had all of us worried there for a moment. I think it takes a lot of heart to face a friend that has hurt you and say that you have faith in who they truly are. You can never erase the things that happened, but maybe you can move on and find yourself in a better place.
My boss said something today about how when you break bones, if they heal properly they come back stronger. He was talking about weathering my own run ins with unfortunate events, but I hope that applies here
Like I’ve said before, I’m not giving up on @mike and I’ll do my part to help if ever given a chance.
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@russell First of all (and this should go without saying) we are all SO happy that you’re safe. I know I’m definitely not alone in feeling that both you and Mike mean a great deal to me, first as the MHL welcome wagon to this entire universe, and later as real-life friends. We all want the two of you to pull through this. Heck, I’ve seen male friendships go though worse. Huge, tumultuous fights and physical altercations where you think that they’re going to kill each other, and then the dust settles or someone laughs and everything’s just fine again. We’re here for you. We’re here for him. Nothing happened that can’t be undone with time.
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I’m glad you’re okay @russell, I give you props for being so forgiving. I’m going to take your word that we need to give some benefit of the doubt to Mike here because knee-jerk reaction tempts me to continuously be angry with him.
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