Anomalous Nintendo DS Entity

    Back in 2009, my brother and I were each begrudgingly given a Nintendo DS lite by my carer as a means of entertaining ourselves when they did not want to attend to us. I suppose this was the 2000s equivalent of skulking off childcare responsibilities with an ipad or cellphone.
    Coral pink DS lite We had a handful of games we both enjoyed playing together very much via the Download Play feature (Mario 64 DS, New! Super Mario Bros, Kirby Squeak Squad and Sonic Rush).

    We also frequently used to use the Pictochat feature to furtively exchange secret messages under our duvets when we were supposed to be asleep.
    If you're not familiar with Pictochat, it was a built-in tool that let DS's connect via wi-fi even without being set up on the network, provided it was very short range. This range was only a couple meters, so the other parties would essentially have to be in the same room. Once connected, users join a room and can draw small black and white doodles with the stylus or text.

    There were a few occasions where my brother was required to leave home for a week or so at a time, with Montauk and I left behind, completely alone besides my carer. At about 3am on one such night, when I was particularly restless and sleep deprived from nightmares, I flipped open my coral pink DS lite hoping to exhaust myself with some mindless Super Mario until I could drift off. There was a 'minigames' collection bundled with the game, which I had fun grinding high scores on. I however accidentally clicked the multiplayer 'Vs. Battle' option, which by default launched into the Download-Play connection prompt, showing the currently empty user-list besides my own DS name. Frustrated with my drowsy miss-click, I went for the back button but was jolted by an unexpected but familiar bleep -- the sound of someone else connecting to the game. My eyes darted back to the top screen and I saw two names in the list:

    Heyoka
    YOPYOP     SMB multiplayer minigames screen
    Immediately there was this hard, cold knot suddenly twisting in my guts. I turned the DS off almost instinctively. Staring blankly at the now empty screens with the only light being the dark, almost subaquatic blue oozing in from the night sky outside. I leaned over to glance at my brothers bed: vacant, as expected. Montauk was laying on top of his bedding, solidly asleep. He had been taking care of me in my brother's absence and was completely drained so I didn't dare disturb him. Seeing him gave me enough reassurance to turn the DS back on.

    I entered Pictochat, perhaps hoping to investigate the phenomenon, but more likely simply hoping that nothing would happen and I could excuse the experience as mere imaginings of my frenetic mind. I tapped Chat Room A; '0/16' users it said.

    Now entering [A]...: Heyoka

    I mess around doodling for a while and then it happens again. The same cheerful melody and...

    Now Entering [A]...: YOPYOP

     I am afraid again, despite the comical name. I start breathing heavily. Montauk awakens to this and gingerly asks me if I'm alright. I said "No, I don't know what this weird glitch is", explaining everything outlined above and showing him the username in the chat.
    "Huh, that's weird", he murmurs passively, sleep still releasing its grip slowly, "maybe it's [brother]".
    "He isn't here". I reply, flatly.

    Suddenly, something dawns upon him that sends him pale, wide-eyed. Just as I notice his expression, I realize what the revelation is myself. That connection can only be established if the source is in my room.

    YOPYOP, as if located feet away and overhearing this exchange, sends one message in chat, but before the DS graphics can render it, the system crashes, causing both screens to go a blinding magenta. It had to be hard-shutdown to recover, but I did not bother turning it on for the rest of the night. I did not use it again until my brother returned home. DS purple kill screen

    To this day, I still do not know for certain what 'YOPYOP' was, whether it was just an illusion presented to me by the forces that show me other similar visions. It could have been a glitch, I suppose. The experience haunted me for years; years of dreading the day YOPYOP would mysteriously reappear in a DS multiplayer lobby, but it never did.

    I did some further investigation recently and learned that the only thing even tangentially related which contains the string 'YOPYOP' was a Nintendo DS emulator: DeSmuMe. YOPYOP is the default name for the DS user profile on DeSmuMe. The only non-glitch, non-metaphysical conclusion, then, is that my carer must have downloaded the emulator onto his computer in his study and orchestrated this while attempting to spy on me, knowing somehow that I was awake.

    Bedroom blue hour.

    Those were such lonely years for us.