Julia

Appearance:

Julia’s look is of a more “kawaii styled” Shy Gal, an attractive humanoid version of the Shy Guys from Super Mario Bros 2, created by a popular internet fan-artist [minus8]. She wears the typical white “mask” featuring two expressive “eye holes” with feminine eyelashes, rosy red cheeks below her black-colored eyes, and an almost permanent smile. She also has bright cyan-blue, curly hair spilling out from beneath her red hood, covering either eye.

Her outfit consists of a tight, vibrant, long-sleeved red tunic that is cinched by two black belts with white belt buckles, one buckled around the waist area and the other strapped diagonally across her chest. She wears red thigh-high stockings held up by red garters, and tall white boots that also feature cyan panels on the front. Beneath her tunic, she wears a cyan-blue, form-fitting, one piece with a white turnip on it. Other accessories include red fingerless gloves on her white-skinned hands with black nails, and a large turnip with pink/red leafy tops and hollow eyes that are crying blood. In this state, Julia has a curvaceous, hourglass-like feminine figure with prominent features.

However, once Julia has her unsuspecting victim in the ropes, she’ll begin to transform into her more monstrous and glitchy counterpart, almost entirely based on Lovecraftian horror. Her “mask” will split open to reveal a massive, jagged reptilian-like maw lined with multiple rows of needle-sharp teeth, and 3-to-4 glowing red eyes on each side. Her body and torso becomes severely elongated and skeletal with her white arms and legs extending into pale, spindly, multi-jointed limbs with dark circular holes along them, ending in long, sharp talons and bird-like legs. Her cyan hair has turned dark and tattered, remnants of her red clothing appear torn and stretched over her frame, and numerous tendril-like structures sprout from her now formed holes, mouth and joints, creating a ungodly sight to the public eye...

Backstory:

Information about this... creature dates back to at least 2008-2009 on a remote forum where an independent programmer who goes by the username “Jul23” was creating a mod for Super Mario Bros. 2, featuring a female version of Shy Guy. Not only that, but Jul23 also posted life updates on the forum that mainly focuses on her relationship problems and personal issues. However on July 12th, 2009, her last post only had a file titled “July Improvement”, and Jul23 just suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth. Her real life friends and family hasn’t seen her since, even calling for an investigation for her whereabouts...

Around 2010, various mods to old Mario rom hacks have grew in popularity, one of them was the “Super Mario Bros. 2: July Improvement” mod which will hauntingly be sent through an email as a “gift” by a completely unknown sender. They were never identified nor verified though in the email, with the file itself, are a few instructions that describe the contents within the mod. One of the notable features is of a “virtual assistant that’ll help adjust the game’s settings and levels to the player’s liking.” And who is this virtual assistant? The added Shy Gal who goes by the name “Julia.”

Later on, an independent group of 5 enthusiasts started an investigation into a life-threatening effect coming directly from this Mario rom where if one were to play this mod for too long, they’ll suffer from a cerebral hemorrhage in their brain and slowly die. As they were looking for the source of where the mod came from, the group stumbled upon the same remote forum where the late mod programmer Jul23 had posted the mod file and looked through all of her leftover posts. 2 days later after this newfound discovery, the group suddenly went missing and were never found again.

Personality:

Julia, at her core, is a virtual assistant that was added into the Super Mario Bros. 2 rom hack for a mod, given the ability to simply indicate changes to said game with updated settings and create new unique levels for the player to play in. She’s designed to distract the person’s vigilance with her silly but harmless behavior and “waifu-coded” body where Julia playfully references viral internet dance animations until it’s time for her to eat her meal.

While the person is distracted, Julia will take this opportunity to consciously implant a “virus” in their brain and invite them for a game of chase. This is where her virus begins its effects, completely altering the player’s view on the virtual assistant in a hallucination-like state. In this case, Julia transforms into her monstrous form where the virus in the player’s head will grow stronger the closer she is to them. Once caught, Julia will figuratively bite off the player’s head in the game and thus, the player themselves suffers a severe cerebral hemorrhage. You die in the game, you die in real life scenario.

Julia is the epitome of gluttony, always starving and never being satisfied with her hunger, continuing to seek out alive people who she sees as ONLY food to snack on their brains. Whatever caused this phenomenon to occur, it was theorized that either before or after the death of Jul23, her spirit and hidden frustrations became part of her creation and altered this character. This is apparent when Julia’s romantic nature is usually the company of strong male figures while she’s killing.