"But I do not have the time to study so much!" The girl cried, and then a little creature appeared behind her.

"I can make sure you pass the test, but what would you give me?" Said the creature.

"My healthy sleep schedule," said the girl. He accepted the bargain, and she passed the test.

But then she was put into honors classes, and again found herself locked in a room with only a pencil and a Scantron.

"What would you give me if I help you pass?" Said the man, appearing behind her again.

"I would give my active social life," said the child, and the bargain was again struck.

Then the girl was put into another room, with more tests than she knew what to do with. When the creature appeared again, she said she had nothing left to give.

"Of course you do," said the creature, "simply give up your identity and self esteem, and you shall pass the tests!"

The girl gave it up, and she graduated with high honors. But she was not happy, and neither was her cruel father, for his prized child was no longer in school and so he could no longer brag about her.

Finally, she went to therapy and the therapist helped her name the creature: he was guilt and shame, familial expectations, a system designed to crush children to pick out the "gifted," the melancholy of lost opportunities and the anxiety of the future. Knowing the creature's name, the girl was at last able to reclaim her sleep, then her friends, and finally her sense of self.

"What you really need," said the therapist, "is a hobby."

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.