About that Kiss...

Hey, Doodle Doods.

I know today's post seems a little strange, but I'd like to ask you to bear with me while I tell a little story before explaining what's going on with the comic. 

Alright? 

Here we go.

There's this girl in Will's class named Meagan. Neither of us had ever really spoken to her before but we both knew who she was. Earlier this week, we were hanging out in the library in between classes(Will was nursing a black eye and didn't really want to call attention to himself) and Meagan randomly walked up to us and pulled Will close. She looked like she had been crying and hadn't slept in days - dark circles under puffy eyes and really messy hair. After hesitating for a second, she kissed Will on the cheek. Just an innocent little peck.

Then she literally ran off without saying a word. Later on we heard that she got permission to leave early that day, and we haven't heard from her since. When we asked her friends if she was alright, they told us that Meagan had been acting weird for a while now because of "night terrors".

It wasn't exactly Megan Fox, but it was close enough for Will and I to let out a unified "HOLY SHIT!" as soon as the girl was gone. I know this isn't emperical proof of the supernatural, but something was definitely going on, so Will and I decided to test our new "powers" as soon as we left school.

We locked the door to Will's basement and after a brief conversation discussing the difference between predicting events and manifesting them (we still don't have a good answer), I began coming up with easily testable scenarios involving Julami. Will's job was to turn these ideas into simple comics.

Our first "trial" was enough to confirm our suspicions. I scribbled something in my notebook and placed my pencil on Will's desk. Then I handed him the script.

Panel 1: 
Julami standing next to a table with a pencil on it.

Panel 2:
Julami extends his hand and slaps the pencil.

Panel 3:
The pencil falls to the floor.

Will drew it in a couple of excruciating minutes. Then came the fucked up part. I swear to fucking god that the pencil slowly but surely rolled itself onto the floor, almost like there was an invisible little ant violently nudging at it.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. We were right.

So we kept experimenting. First with the format of the drawings themselves - resetting the pencil and then having Will draw the same script over and over again in increasingly worse quality. It worked every time until Julami was reduced to a stick figure standing next to abstract shapes. Then we tried single drawings instead of sequential comic panels, with Will adding motion lines for movement (think Jack Kirby). This worked, but only when the instructions were easily understandable. We also tried using no drawings at all and just giving Julami direct commands through text, but that got us nowhere.

After that, I came up with a few more easily testable actions: turning the lights off and on again, lifting heavier objects and even levitating a piece of paper. Everything worked, but there was an obvious delay on the heavier stuff.

Then Will said that he wanted to ask Julami if he was okay with doing these favors for us, but we couldn't come up with any way for him to answer that without his response being pre-determined by us. Will also tried to conjure Julami on his TV, and that kinda worked. The screen powered on by itself, but there was nothing there. Will swore that he could make out a horned figure in the static, but that was probably just wishful thinking.

We were just having fun up until that point - it was kind of like having a supernatural Tamagotchi - but then we started to talk about how we could actually use Julami to bring our plans to life. So we started testing more complex tasks, like having him show up at Will's doorstep with a sac-full of money. You know, like in an old cartoon.

This one took longer than usual. After about an hour, we heard the doorbell ring, so we ran upstairs to answer before Will's mom could get to it. We opened the door and found a handful of quarters spread out on the porch. It was only when I went home the next day that I realized that someone had smashed my old piggy bank. I don't think I have to tell you that this came as something of a disappointment.

Anyway, we kept at it all night, testing weirder and weirder theories until the sun was peeking over the horizon. We tried one where Julami brainwashed me and then made me sing along to Justin Bieber, but it turns out he can't actually mind control people, he can only nag at them until they do what he wants (I couldn't get the lyrics to Baby out of my head until I sang along to the music video on YouTube). The next comic had him magically giving me amnesia so I'd forget the incident, but that one (unfortunately) did not work. We also tried finishing two comics at the exact same time, but Julami would only ever react to one of them (probably the most recent, down to the nanosecond!). We even made a comic where Julami drew a comic of himself drawing a comic of himself drawing a comic. That just made Will's drawing supplies shake all over his desk until he drew something else.

We also did a little research. Will found a blog written by a guy called Dr. De Roche who claims to be a specialist in Chaos Magick (yes, with a "ck"). You guys know I don't take these things very seriously, but I was a little more open-minded after everything we'd seen. Besides, this Dr. wrote a lot of stuff that seemed to make sense:

"Even if you don't believe in a larger Universe filled with unseen entities and incomprehensible forces, there exists an alternate (but no less fantastical) explanation for paranormal entities in the form of Tulpas -  literal Thoughtforms. From Hebrew Golems to the Machine Elves reported by DMT users, nearly every culture describes living entities brought to life through sheer force of will. 

Personally, I've had several successful experiences with Magickal Servitors - entities created by isolating portions of the Magician's own psyche. After being given an identity through name and symbol (usually a Sigil), not to mention plenty of cognitive reinforcement, these entities can perform simple tasks for their master. However, the more the Servitor is used, the stronger and more independent it'll become.

In fact, with enough popular reinforcement, a Servitor can become an Egregore (a similar kind of Thoughtform borne from collective experience) and - in extreme cases - a Godform. Though, once we reach this level of practice, it's worth questioning if the Magician is creating these entities for his benefit or if they're creating the Magician for theirs."

Name. Sigil. Cognitive reinforcement. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

From what we've seen and read, there's no way of knowing for sure if we accidentally summoned Julami or if we made him, but one thing is certain: he's real. We'll just have to keep testing if we want to learn anything else. I still don't understand why we can only get him to work through this specific combination of images and text, but maybe that will change in the future. Hell, it'd be a lot easier if I could just type things out instead of always having to go through Will.

In the meantime, we've come up with some ground rules based on what we've observed so far:

1. Julami's instructions have to be physically possible.

2. Julami and his instructions have to be easily identifiable in the drawing.

3. Julami can't conjure objects (conservation of energy?), only manipulate them.

4. Julami can't control minds, only influence them.

5. Julami's new task will always override the previous one.

We want to start testing things like distance (how far does Julami's influence reach?) and computer stuff (like cheating in videogames and messing with school servers), and that's why today's comic is Julami giving us straight As on the next math test. No punchline needed.

I'll be honest, I'm so excited about all this that I can hardly sleep. I mean, if this kind of shit is real, what else is out there? Besides, having a pet demon could definitely open some doors for us, and I haven't had this much fun with Will in months.

Anyway, we'll keep you guys updated.

Chainsaw cheers,

- Robby

PS: Why don't you guys try testing your own Julami requests? Let us know how it goes in the comments. Just use Will's drawings as a reference!