Windows SpongeBob OS

*Note: this is episode 56 of the XP Blackmoon Trilogy series*

Does anybody remember the television series called *SpongeBob SquarePants*? If you do not know about it, I will gladly tell you what it is:

It is a show that revolves around the title character and an ensemble cast of his aquatic friends. SpongeBob himself is an energetic and optimistic yellow sea sponge who resides in a submerged pineapple as his home. SpongeBob has a childlike enthusiasm for life, which carries over to his job as a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant called the "Krusty Krab".

The series officially premiered on July 17, 1999. It gained enormous popularity by its second season and has subsequently received worldwide critical acclaim. It has inspired so many millions of children worldwide, that includes me, I remember watching one episode of it when I was a little kid.

But what I'm here to tell you is that there is an operating system much worse than you would except, and it would contain the stuff that would be found in people's nightmares. Let me tell you the full story:

Back in the year 1999, shortly after the show was released, Microsoft and Nickelodeon both agreed to sign a contract about creating an advanced operating system that would be focusing specifically on SpongeBob-themed content. It was called the "Microsoft Windows SpongeBob SquarePants Operating System", or simply the "Windows SpongeBob OS". It is an operating system that would bring revolutionary features like never before seen in the history of technology. The team of software developers had been working hard for months already on creating, testing, and finalizing the operating system, hoping that everything should go well with its release.

However, as the release date drew closer, strange glitches began to occur, the SpongeBob OS was reported to have mysterious bugs and glitches that couldn’t be explained at all, some examples of bugs that the team reported were that files would randomly disappear, screens would flicker, computers would often freeze, and strange whispers were heard coming from the speakers, as if the computers were talking to them.

Despite their best efforts, unfortunately, the team was not able to successfully fix the unexplained bugs before the designated release date approached, and so, the SpongeBob OS was therefore released in mid-2000 with the bugs remaining unpatched. This is when things started getting weird.

Shortly after the release date happened, users began to report strange occurrences while using the SpongeBob OS, here are some of the things they reported:

Some users claimed that their desktop icons would move around on their own and sometimes files would even disappear before reappearing in unusual spots. Some users claimed that their screens would flicker, and cryptic messages were shown, others said they heard strange whispers coming from the speakers, even if the computer was turned off. Some people also said that programs would open by themselves, other said that their task bar would randomly change colors every time they tried shutting down the computer, others said that they claimed to have seen a figure resembling SpongeBob, except he is all black and that he had white glowing eyes, and every time they tried to click away from the screen, the figure would follow their cursor no matter where it goes. Some reports also claimed that the desktop background would change to show disturbing imagery involving SpongeBob characters whenever the user leaves the room, others claimed that their menus would open up by themselves and every time they tried closing it, their desktop background would brighten for a little bit.

As the unexplained glitches continued, Microsoft and Nickelodeon were both forced to recall the Windows SpongeBob OS within 4 days after its release, and the company never spoke of it again. But some say that the SpongeBob OS's code lives on, hidden deep within the darkest corners of the internet. And if you're not careful, it may just find its way onto your computer, bringing with it a world of terror and darkness that you may never escape.

Now fast forward to today. Right now, I am and have been a worker at Microsoft. And very recently, I stumbled upon an old dusty computer with the SpongeBob OS operating system installed on it. When I turned on the computer, the boot screen showed the Windows 2000 boot screen, but with the SpongeBob characters on it and that the operating system name read "Microsoft Windows SpongeBob OS Professional", the startup sound was the same as the one used in Windows 2000 and Windows ME. The user interface was also similar to the interface of other Windows software at the time. Everything was normal until strange things began happening.

Files would disappear and then reappear in unusual places. The screen would flicker, and cryptic messages would appear. Menus would randomly open and strange whispers were heard coming from the speakers, even if the computer was turned off.

When I clicked on the Internet Explorer icon, it opened up the browser window. Everything was normal at first, but when I visited the Nickelodeon website, something strange showed up. The screen was an empty yellow background, and in the middle of it was a figure resembling SpongeBob SquarePants, the once cheerful worker at the Krusty Krab, except he was all totally pitch black and had white glowing eyes. Shivers were being sent down my spine as the figure looked straight into me, with his gaze piercing beyond the screen. Until then, the figure said in a distorted voice "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME!!!"

My instincts then urged me to close the browser page down. as I delved deeper into the files, I discovered a folder called "SpongeBob Episodes" a folder that was buried deep within the chambers of the SpongeBob operating system. When I clicked on the folder, it showed video files of the many episodes of the *SpongeBob SquarePants* series, I scrolled down and I decided to watch one of them, "Dumped" While the episode played, everything went normal this time, until something strange happened.

During the scene when SpongeBob was about the cry for Gary while holding two soap bottles labeled "Fresh Scent" and "Heavy Duty" respectively, instead of SpongeBob desperately crying like in the final episode, SpongeBob instead puts said soap bottles down onto the floor, and then, he blinked his eyes and afterwards, his eyes abruptly turned pitch black. The whole scene stood still, as he was often blinking his eyes without saying anything, his mouth disappears, and then the whole scene lasted for an uncomfortably long moment. After several minutes of waiting, the screen suddenly froze, and an error message appeared right in front of me, it read "The file 'Dumped.mov' cannot continue playing any further and needs to close itself."

After closing the folder, I saw a file appear on the screen, it was called "SpongeBob OS's Chambers" When I clicked on it, it showed a cryptic message. The message was encoded in a Vigenere Cipher and read: "Did you really think you could?"

After closing the file, I continue to delve deeper into the files of the SpongeBob OS and eventually I discovered a very dark secret:

It turns out that the SpongeBob OS was not an ordinary operating system after all, it was a sentient program that has become possessed by a sinister force lurking in a realm far beyond human comprehension.

Knowing that I had done a grave mistake, I decided to open the menu and then I restarted the operating system to see if the glitches would stop. Fortunately, they eventually did. But until then, shortly after I tried turning it on, a Red Screen of Death appeared on my window. After that the PC forcibly shut down itself.

Afterwards, I tried to turn the computer back on, but it refused to start up, and the hard drive was completely wiped clean. And so, I never found out what happened to that SpongeBob-themed operating system, but the legend lives on as a cautionary tale about the dangers of exploring deep into the unknown parts of the labyrinth of ones and zeros where there are dark secrets that remain hidden in plain sight.

Credited to JunoTehPlanet