#mudering children mentioned
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#antisemitism#anti israel#star of david#jews#judaism#free palestine#politics#tw discourse#jew#jewish#ethnonationalism#nationalism#mudering children mentioned#zionism
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Hello there. Can you do an imagine where the MK1 characters finding out that the reader has an abusive family and how will they react to it when they find out?
[ ~"No Your Home"~ ] - Mortal Kombat 1
Congrats on being the first user to send a question! I am so sorry for the late response on this, somehow tumblr did not notify me of this until I checked out my activity, it is a really interesting prompt/idea! hope I did it as you like <3 and if you really suffer from this, I'm so sorry for hear that :( i hope you can seek for help to get out from that dangerous relationship and be in a better place safe
What contains?
Abuse Topic, Sensitive Content, Mention of Gore/Death
How is visualized as?
Cople Relation Ship, Family Relation Ship, Friend Relation Ship
Raiden
-He already had some suspicious, mostly at first when he wanted to wave or put his arm up to do a high fight and you reacted so scared and tried to cover yourself with your arms, something surely dint expect Raiden you do, at first he thought it was a just a misunderstanding for the first time, but when he see this sometimes repeat he have douts
-No Only that, but you using a clothes that cover most of your body also makes him suspicious, he does not judge anyone clothes style, but he cant stop feeling something was odd about it
-He always wanted to address this but he dont know how to, until one time he found you hided crying alone, he slowly get close to you and ask you whats wrong, he surely will be ok if dint want to address this or dont feel comfortable to talk what ever is bother you, but once you told him about the abuse you suffer from you parents he get mostly froze
-He can't believe you have such abused parents, not in a literal way, you are just a good person why do you deserve to be treated like that? and mostly by you own parents, he surely will talk to you all you about it and try to find a way to fix this, he will try to talk you parent try to make a deal in the most pacifist as possible, but if you parents are really aggressive and stubborn, he will use his Earthrelm champion title for this situation, or most tense parts, use his thunder powers to scared them and show dominance that way they let you free
-His house is welcome if you dont have a place to go to live with momentary, he even dont mind if you want to live in his house permaly as long you safe is what makes him feel relief, at the moment the first Raiden will do is take you to a doctor to check all you injures you parents did to you, make sure you get fully healed
Kung Lao
-Surprisely he surely will figure out more faster a difference from Raiden, he saw your odd reactions but he thought you were just that shy or he that scarry? I mean he a very buff guy~ (in his imagination)
-Surely he will figure out in one of his jokes, tickles you or carry you up for the fun, seeing your injuries and purple marks from the clothes as been lifted up a little from the playful moment, making the joke be fully over
-He will straight up asking what happened and who did this two you?, you try to hide your injures and stay away from him, just saying is nothing but of course is not, Kung Lao will insist a lot until saying the truth, he will not leave your safe until he knows why you are hurt
-Finally, you reveal about your abused parents, ooh Kung Lao is pissed, so badly, who dare to hurt you like that!? he dont care are your parents, they need to be teaching a lesson to not hurt their own children like that, he will just straight go to your parents house and start a discussion about it, if things gets intense fight will be make (dont worry he will not muder you parents but he wish)
-After that, he will make sure you will be safe, taking you to a doctor to check the injuries, and invite you to his home so you have a place to live, if your parents dare to try to take you back he will keep sure they will not try to archive that, keep you safe is his priority
Smoke - Tomas
-I think he will be the same fast to know it as kung lao, after all, he live an abuse experience with Bi-Han so he knows the feeling, seeing you trying to cover yourself with your arms, he has a worried look, straight asking "who is hurting you?...."
-Even if try to hide as much as possible, Smoke will be keeping close to you, he wants to figure out who is hurting you, he wants to help you, there is no need for to you hided this, he wants to help...
-He will always send hints about it, hints of you have someone there to help you, trying to earn your trust and trying to free you from this prison of fear you parents as made you, making you think you have no one to help you, thanks of all this hints and support from Tomas, you finally say about you Abuse Parents
-He was not even mad, or sad, he disappointed, disappointed from your parents for do this to you, he will comfort you and make sure to you feel safe, he as raiden will try to negotiate with you parents peacefully, if things dont work out, he will not just let leave you in that bad home, he will take with you to be safe not matter how much your parents yell or try to take you, he will protect you, after all, you parents dont know who is dealing with
Kenshi Takahashi
-Well, he not a hand person so he would never have seen this odd reaction from you, even so, Sento already told him something was not ok with you, which made him be in alarm
-I think the way Kenshi will figure out about your abusive parents on his own is you two are cuddling surely you already sleeping due to how safe you feel in his arms, in an accidental touch, he feels one of you injured, confused and in worried he carefully touch your body, making as possible not uncomfortable you or not broke you personal space, after all, was your body and he was not having permission to touch it, but as he found more and more injures, he get more worried, and more when he feel a lot of them are very recent
-After that, he will ask you about it, about this injury and what or who is causing it, you try to not say it and keep it as "its not big deal", but Kenshi will make you feel safe to make you talk about if, after all he can't leave you after he found you poor body badly hurt
-After you talk about your abusive parents, he is angry but not the same angry as Kung Lao, but definitely angry, he will try to your parents in a passive-aggressively way, and if they dont want to cooperate, Kenshi just straight you take out his katana and point it at your parents, to make them know who are dealing with, after that, he will take you to a doctor to check you injures, if you need a house to live, he will ask Jhonny for make you a house where you can be safe and far away from your parents (he dont think you are safe if you live with him, due all the yakuza situation and all the stuff he have to live as part of the Eearthrelm protectors) with all the things you need, even ask Jhonny for have you a job where you can get money, but dont worry, he always will have a day he will check on ya
Reiko
-He already saw the odd reaction, and he just felt proud having no idea why you acting that way, he thinks is because he strong looking and you feel dominated by his appearance, is because you acting such way, he may have abuse of this a little, just to get proud feeling
-Maybe the way he figure out this if you have a breakdown, posebly he was training and you dint know entering straight into the mouth of the wolf he almost hit you, you lucky you was slowly entering the room to avoid the hit, and that triggers you a lot making you fall from the floor crying, he will at first chuckles about this and telling you "come on, dont be dramatic i dint even hit you by luck" but seeing you not respond is what concern him
-He will try as best to comfort you, he will carry you carefully and take you to a room where you are comfortable and safe, waiting for you to stop crying and calm you down, once you finally calm, Reiko ask for explanations about you behavior early, and you know there not excuse or way out from this, so you told him about you abuse parents
-He at firts wil be silent, but you can see his expression got serious, he straight ask you where they live, and once you father open the door he will get pass out from Reiko punch in the face and bleeding from the nose, you mother not even have time to react what happen, but lucky for her, it was they warning, because Reiko will not have mercy next time if they try to do something to you, he will take you to his home so you be safe, and take you to doctors to cure you injures, and mostly he apologies about taking chance of you trauma for fill his ego, after what all that after, he mostly more sweet with you and mostly protective
Rain
-Again, he is not a very hand person, but surely he will notice you odd behavior when he moves his staff, making you react and cover your body with you arms, he mostly ask you ok, he mostly thinks he was too close to you and almost could hurt you, but when this happens a couple of times now he have suspicious
-He will ask trick questions, making sure to get all the information he wants to know about it, to know what is causing you react that way if something happens to you to always be alert of everything, everytime he asks the question about "is someone in particular doing something at you" you get oddly quiet, his suspicious just increase
-Finally he just straigt foward about it, just asking "who is hurting you", as long you try to denied you not free from Rain until you tell the true, once you tell about you abuse parents he angry about it, you parents? that is fall so low, he will to you parents home and try to negotiate to them, and if they dont agreed, well, Rain will just drown them a little, dont worry he will not kill them even if he wish but he will just show them a little of who are dealing with, just egnoft before remove the water from they heads so they can breath
-Now safe in Rain's hands, he is your doctor! he knows how to cure your injuries and even make them they not even exist to the first place, after all, he feels angry and sad seeing your body being hurt that way, you will live in his home where you can safe from you parents
Baraka
-He already smells your blood, the smell does recent injuries you have have that have a little of your blood, maybe still bleeding a little, knowing are from you he will straightforward ask you if you ok, and he will know you are lying, his intimate appearance its not make you so much option to say about your abuse parents
-Oh he dont like that, he was a parent before the tarkat take over him so hearing about his burn his blood, he will ask you about where you parents live and not for talk, he will straight murder them, not letting anything behind, he will not let you see this tho so you will never know about the murder of you parents
-He will take you to a doctor to cure your injures and ask Syzoth help if can find you a home where you live and be safe, he wish he can be near you to keep you safe from anyone, but yea...the tarkat
-but something sure, he will be a family to you, the family you never have and the family you need it, always checking on you and telling you praises you parents never told you, he will make you have what you never had and is very aware you need that
Shang Tsung
-To be honest, he was just confused of your odd reactions but did not really think about it, i think the most way he surely find about your abused parents is when he caught you trying to heal your own injuries alone
-After hearing his voice catching you off guard his words "Why you are alone there" Having already a smug expression due to your reaction, he mostly not even ask why you have those injures and straight fogar wanted to know about them by himself, slowly surprised of how much you have, you almost a broken doll
-you have his curiousity and he ask what happen to you, his voice have nothing of pity, even if you dont want to tell him, you know you are not safe from Shang Tsung's grip and you told him about your abuse parents
-He at first will be not care and just leave you alone, but as the day passes he feels....jealous? angry? He does not even know how to figure out this feeling, he just feels "the only one who allowed to hurt you is me" thing, he not even will ask where you parents live, he will follow you from the distance and arrive at your parents home, once he knows where you parents leave, he takes they souls and problems solve~
-Knowing you eventually find they corpse you will tell Shang Tsung about it for not say almost interrogate him about it, he will act like he dont know about it with that fruity and smug expression, at least you can live in your home peacefully, but if you not feel comfortable in that house, Shang Tsung is more that happy you live with him, about you injures, I dont know, mostly you can ask about it for help you, but he will do it? you can trust him? only Shang Tsung knows that answer
Syzoth
-Again no hand person but he can smell your blood from your injures, knowing it from you he is worried, already telling you you are bleeding, making you nervous, he tries to make you be calm as possible and offer his help, he very supportive boy :(, so he find odd when you refuse his help
-Seeing the blood smell dint go away and he knew was recent each time, he found it odd, why you always bleeding? and acting like nothing is happening, he try to address this as best as possible, trying to not make you uncomfortable about the topic, he just worried about you
-Once he knows about you abusive parents, ooooh he angry, again he was a father before Shang Tsung take them, so he can accept you are suffering from you parents, he mostly will comfort you and make you feel safe, but mostly ask you to talk to them
-He will try to address it as peacefully as possible with you parents, but he will not be very patient with your parent's attitude and when his patience is over he straigth forward show his zaterran form, he dont care about what you parents think about him, he will show them do not mess with you
-After that, he invites you to live in his place, takes you to a doctor to cure your injuries and be the parent you never had, of course will be different due to Zaterran parents acting diferent from human parents, but he will try as possible to give you what you never have
Havik
-He thinks he scared you becuse of his odd powers or his scary appearance so he will not think about it, possibly the way he figure out about your abuse parents are one of does moments he talks (rants) about the abuse and suffer he feels his people and everyone have the right to live freely, all does talk make you feel motivate or more confident to talk about you abuse parents
-Once you finally tell him about it, oh you can see the HELL in his eyes, he can't believe you being abused by your own parents, someone so good and someone who can't even defend yourself, he will demand you were you parents live, and he will not talk, straight kill them
-You will shocked from so gore scene, telling Havik he didn't do that, but he with his blood hands try to comfort you, telling you is what they deserve for treating you that way, that was they punishment and now you was free from they hell
-Maybe you dont want to live with havik after that and he will respect your decision, even he feels a little sad to make you feel that way, he dont regret doing it for the good of you, and promise you will be safe under his protencion
Liu Kang
-he could noticed it, and surely could know you suffering from some sort of abuse, is was a normal reaction from someone who suffers it, he will not go straight forward making sure you say it when you feel comfortable, so he will have his hands behind!!
-He will be so sweet with you :(, making sure you have a good time knowing you passing from something horrible, is what you deserve, surely you cry sometimes when he was too sweet with you, is something you cant belive you know? it was a feeling you cant process after you get use to the abuse
-Finally thanks of Liu Kang's Actions you told him about your abuse parents, he so sad to hear this news, he thought it wil be a friend or a partner you have, but your own parents?, is heart breaking, and he promise to try to make something
-He wil not even try to look intimidating or dominant, he is a god yes but he will not use his rank for things like this, he will try to talk to you parents peacefully, and if things dont work out, well, this goes straight to judge, dont worry of course Liu Kang win it and you parents go to jail
-He will offer you multiple houses to live, and he is definitely ok if you want to live in his place, he will continue to be as sweet as he has been, trying to replace does bad experience you have, remove all that trauma and you be free from that abuse you have from you parents, and even you scared you parents come back dont worry, Liu Kang will make sure of they wont
Geras
-Yep, he knows, he already saw about your abusive parents, how they treated you and hurt you, it was something sad to see, he even saw other timelines where you parents actully love you, or straight they abandoned you or kill you...
-He dont know if he has the right to be in your life, after all are mortal decisions and he can't change those decisions, surely tell this to Liu Kang to seek of opinion about it, knowing you and Geras are close to each other he will allowed it as long you make the decision to tell him
-and there he is, being on your side, trying to show you beautiful things and make you forget about the bad experience with you parents, same as Liu Kang he will be so nice to you in his way, posebly knowing he the guardian of time surely you figure out he knows, not even telling him just asking if in a future you parents will love you or they did feel love
-Is sad to hear his answer but he wil make sure you dont have to see them anymore, no matter how hard your parents try to find you they will never be, you will be safe in your new home, and living the life you deserve it away of any danger or abuse
#Mortal Kombat Masterlist#mortal kombat 1#MK1#Raiden#Kung Lao#Smoke#tomas vrbada#baraka#geras#havik#kenshi takahashi#liu kang#rain#reiko#tomas vrbada x reader#Reader with abuse family#You with abuse family#Y/N with abuse family#Reader#You#Y/N#TW: Gore#TW: Death#TW: Abuse#shang tsung#Syzoth#Reptile
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Run little Bunny Run
-Trigger Warning- This Story contains muder, blood, mention of smut, mention of killing and drugging.
Read on your own risk. Also please be kind to me since english is not my first language.
Chapter 1. “Some stupid killing.....some Stupid Runa”
Natasha Romanoff never withdraws herself from a hard job. Working as an assassin was hard and difficult. But she loves it, she loves the kick it comes with. She loves killing, she always did. So when some stupid rich guy contacted her to kill the professor which was the reason why his stupid rich son fails the college class. Natasha sighs….she hates doing the dirty work…but still…the guy pays huge and even paid in advance she was in for the job.
The following nights she stalked the professor…where she lives, her work routine and even her social contacts. One night it was perfect. The female professor should be alone at home…her husband was away and will arrive in the morning. So Natasha grabbed her large knife and in case…always a syringe with a sedative drug. Just in case something goes wrong…Natasha was always prepared.
Completely in black and with a thin bullet proof chest plate and a mask which covers the lower side of her face she stepped through the window. The flat was huge and beautiful decorated. White and Black furniture with green details and plants. Natasha moved quietly…as she followed the Professor in the kitchen. The college teacher was only wearing some panties and a huge oversized shirt…she was making a late night snack…looks like some instant mac and cheese. But before the Professor could even add the plastically instant cheese powder to the noodles, Natasha grabbed the Professor Carol Danvers from behind….holding her mouth shut so she can not scream….before she sliced the woman throat.
Carol gulped and choked on her own blood…the floor quickly was dark red and the bloody liquid was everywhere….Natasha took her favorite knife and stabbed the woman a few times in the heart too….just to make sure. Natasha loves the risk…she loves killing with her knife, sword or even just and heavy object. She loves hearing the screams and see her victims dying slowly. But also Natasha always made sure they are dead…she does not want that her clients are disappointed. So Natasha took a quick picture of the dead woman and send it to the rich guy….only a few seconds later a huge amount of money was on Natasha bank. She smiled and wanted to turned around…when she heard a whimper
Natasha was confused as she turned around. Carol had not pet, children or other roommate. So when Natasha turned around and saw a young woman…pale and with blond hair. The woman looked like she was not even in her twenties…maybe a college student too. Natasha cursed in Russian…of course Danvers was sleeping with some student….The girl was dressed halfway….she was wearing a black skirt…and a white plain bar….her white shirt was in her hands…also her backpack…it seems she wanted to leave after the fun night of sex with her professor.
The student looked at the dead and bloody corpse on the ground and then at the masked Natasha. She whimpered again with tears in her eyes…as she wanted to run…but Natasha was quicker….with a swift motion she grabbed the student and pulled her towards her. Natasha thinks for a moment.
She hates killing people when she is not getting paid for it….it was no fun. The Student in her arms trashed and tried to scream…but Natasha quickly pulled out the syringe with the strong drug and injected it into the smaller woman. She immediately became weak and Natasha softly lowered her on the floor.
Natasha smiled…she loves how fast the drug was working. She did mixed it herself…and even accidently stitched herself with it also. It was a strong medication…which made people sleep deeply for hours.
Natasha looked at the Girl…her blond hair were messy…her make up too….
Natasha sighs…..this was stupid…at the wrong place at the wrong time. Natasha sighs as she lifted the woman up, took her backpack also and slowly dragged her out of the large apartment.
Natasha lifted her in her black car with ease…the student was smaller and lighter as Natasha thought.
She went into her car, the girl was laying on the back seat unconscious. Natasha took her backpack and searched through it….a few books, notebooks, pencils, her wallet and a phone with a charger. Natasha took the identity cart out of her purse and looked at it: Runa Fely Jones -19 years old
Natasha smiled…Runa was naughty…sleeping with her professor…and then getting kidnapped…what a shitty day. Natasha did searched her walled too….only a student card and also a bit of money. Also there was a name tack….Runa works at a near bakery…probably to get some extra money….
Natasha laughs…stupid. Before she took Runas phone…..she turned it one…and unlocked it -no password. Stupid Runa.
Natasha searched her social media….not much friends…and family lives in a completely other state….lucky Natasha.
Natasha put the wallet back in Runas bag….she kept the phone…she put her weapons and chest plate back in a little black bag…before she hide Runas sleeping body under a thick blanket.
Natasha drove away from Carol Danvers home….before she smashed Runas phone on her steering wheel….breaking it in two pieces….the first piece she threw away…before driving 15 kilometer to throw the other half away.
Natasha was smart…she does not want anyone to track the last locations Runas phone sendet….so she drove around a few block….and then when Runas phone was laying somewhere….she drove back home.
Nat looks behind her….she needs to kill Runa…or Runa will get her arrested…even if Runa had not seen her face….she still has enough details.
Natasha sighs…Runa Jones was a beautiful woman…she can not lie….but still….was it worth the risk. Natasha does not like using her energy for nothing…..no money if she kills Runa…and then getting rid of the corpse..Runas things….Natasha groans…she hate that part…so much.
Getting into two different locations to bury Runa…and then getting rid of her things. She needs to spray Runas things across the state…so that the police will get confused…maybe even she needs to break Runas body apart….All the work for no money.
Natasha grits her teeth. Why was this stupid girl in her victims apartment….arg.
She took a look in the mirror…seeing Runa under the blanket…what if? No!
It was stupid…but the thought of keeping Runa crossed her mind. If she gets bored of her…she can kill her easily too.
Natasha shaked her head…maybe it was worth the risk…no one will search for Runa in her house…in her basement. Also when Carols Husband will get home by tomorrow and find the corpse….Runa will be number one suspect
Natasha chuckles as she drove home. She drove into her garage and closed it…she has a huge and expensive home. Yes…making money with killing was great. She loves it.
Nat softly picked Runa up and carried her into her house as soon as the garage closes. She carried Runa into her pantry where food and other stuff is stored. The assassin pushed the shelf into the wall revealing a secret hidden door.
She opened the door with a code before walking down a few steps and then a long hallway. At the end of the hallway a thick metal door can be seen. A code and a fingerprint was needed to open it. The hidden basement was huge…almost like a little apartment with a few other rooms. It was barely equipped and arranged. A bed was placed in the middle of one room. A little Kitchen in another room and a bathroom in some other. Most of it was empty…since Natasha only used the room to help people hostage….or torture them before her client want the person to be killed by her.
Nat layed the girl down on the bed…before cuffing her onto the bed. Runa looked cute cuffed. Natasha can understand why Carol was sleeping with the girl…Natasha chuckled as she slide her finger over Runas naked stomach. Natasha will have some much fun with Runa.
#wanda x natasha#Natasha Romanoff x female character#Natasha Romanoff x reader#Natasha Romanoff x Wanda Maximoff#Dark!Natasha Romanoff#Dark!Wanda Maximoff#Natasha Romanoff
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Idk if you’ve seen what’s been going on in owl house yet but let’s just say it’s not looking good for Belos simps. Tbh I’m glad I stopped simping for him a long time ago. And I understand pointing out the similarities between his motives and Nazism and stuff and critiquing it, but despite that it still doesn’t sit right when I see others shaming people for liking Belos or saying they need to be “contained” as if they aren’t human beings. I’ve seen several tweets about this too.
Yeah, I don't know why people do this when it comes to any character, especially when it comes to villains.
Wow. Belos is a bad guy?????? Damn, you've really changed my view on life. I better go to church to get some wholesome Christian values and cleanse myself of these impurities! Now that I know the main antagonist is being antagonistic, I shan't look at him with such thirst ever again! /s
I mean....y'all know that Belos is just one of the many, many Disney villains that have traumatized and attempted to muder children, right? Not to mention the whole Nazism or "unfaithful ideals" (they literally had to change Frollo's role to not get in trouble with the church, while placing HEAVY biblical imagery). Hell, Belos isn't even the first Disney villain to kill his own brother!!!
Scar did it before it was cool x3c
People seem to not realize that we've seen characters like this in Disney or just in media before. Y'all just decided to be gross have morals XD
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Complete Monster Near Miss: Evil Cole MacGrath
Disqualifying Factors:
Truly cares about his friend Zeke, risking his life to save Zeke on numerous occasions and screaming in anguish after his death. I can argue away all of Cole's other redeeming qualities, but this one stays even at his worst.
Genuinely thinks he's saving humanity by killing everyone without superpowers, though the fact that the only alternative involves his own death raises questions as to how altruistic his own motives are here.
Cole gradually sheds all other redeeming qualities he demonstrates throughout the series.
Qualifications:
Heinous Standard Met: Yes
Infamous 1
One of the strongest powers in his arsenal is the Bio-Leech, where he slowly and painfully rips the bio-electricity directly out of someone's brain to empower himself.
After discovering that Sasha's minions are innocent civilians mind controlled into serving her by her toxic tar, Cole continues to mow them down without a second thought, even forcing bystanders to infect themselves with the tar for his own benefit.
Upon realizing that Sasha's tar drains his powers, Cole destroys several infected water towers full of the stuff, infecting and potentially killing hundreds of civilians just to avoid getting infected himself, brushing off his girlfriend's horrified protests all the while.
Saves a train car full of innocent civilians on Moya's orders, only to start killing them himself when they don't appreciate his rescue.
Activates the Ray Sphere, a device that absorbs the bio-electricity out of everyone around for miles to empower the Conduit using it, as soon as he gets his hands on it. When a horrified John White tries to stop him, he gets inadvertently ripped apart atom by atom, to which Cole only responds with smug satisfaction that he got what he wanted. This act is shown to have wiped out half the remaining population of Empire City and permanently locks Cole into the Evil Karma alignment, leaving him incapable of redemption.
Is completely indifferent to The Beast destroying the world and is content to simply allow it to destroy humanity so that he can keep ruling Empire City, as he doesn't consider himself human anymore. He only changes his mind in the sequel after being offered new powers in exchange for his help and then to get revenge for the Beast beating him up and taking his powers.
Infamous 2
While he was shown to have genuinely loved his girlfriend Trish in the last game, to the point of swearing revenge on her killer, that redeeming quality is completely absent by the second. The Good Karma route makes a point of showing Good Cole still mourning her loss by refusing to start a relationship with Kuo, while Cole here eagerly jumps into a relationship with the muderous thrill seeker Nix without a second thought, never even mentioning Trish.
While he does seem to have a genuinely loving relationship with Nix, even comforting her on the loss of her family, that care evaporates as soon as she turns on him. His tone of voice when asking her to join him in destroying humanity is mocking and condescending, and he doesn't show an ounce of regret after killing her.
What standards he does claim to have are entirely hypocritical. He kills a militia member for expressing joy in killing women and children, despite eagerly doing that same thing himself and berates Kuo as a coward for joining the Beast under his breath before immediately turning around and doing the exact same thing. He continuously expresses the opinion the morals don't apply to him because he has powers.
Upon finding out that the militia has set up shop in a small fishing village, Cole blows up the entire village by overcharging the generator, killing militia member and innocent alike before leaving the wounded survivors to die.
Rams a militia stronghold with a burning truck packed full of explosives, killing several of their innocent prisoners and risking Kuo's life in the process, despite supposedly trying to save her.
Manipulates the rebellion into trusting him by disguising himself as a militia and going in a rampage with a turret gun in a false flag operation, slaughtering rebel and civilian alike while gleefully threatening to kill their children and pets.
Kidnaps several of Bertrand's swamp monsters to turn them into his own personal army, despite knowing that they're all innocent civilians that Bertrand had forcibly transformed into mindless, bloodthirsty beasts.
His idea of going on a date with Nix is to go on a rampage with her across the city, throwing cars at buildings and slaughtering civilians in mass.
Upgrades his Bio-Leech power to be even more deadly, allowing him to drain the life out of dozens of people simultaneously.
While his joining up with the Beast is mostly driven by him genuinely believing it's the only way to save the human race from the plague, the fact that the only other cure would kill him played a big role in his decision, despite the fact that said cure would not kill nearly as many people.
Slaughters all of his former allies when he joins the Beast, only showing regret when he kills Zeke.
When the Beast expresses regret for all the people he has and will kill, Cole urges him to keep going. The Beast grants Cole his powers knowing that Cole will see the mission through, allowing Cole to personally destroy all of mankind, leaving only superhuman Conduits left to rule the Earth. The final shot we get before the credits role is Cole preparing to vaporize a city as innocent civilians beg for their lives.
Played Seriously: Yes
While Cole is not afraid to crack jokes, he's still a power hungry monster who is completely indifferent to human life. The list of people he cares about is short and grows shorter whenever they inconvenience him and he's depicted as a barely human monster by the end of inFAMOUS 1.
No Mitigating Factors: No
See Above. Even after killing him, Cole still mourns Zeke's death.
@starmeadowsystem @bumblingbee1
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Muder boy, his manipulated wife, and their children
Fun fact!
They are presented, left to right, in the order that they were born.
Another fun fact, they are also each seated beside their favourite sibling. Though they all got along very well (at least until Black's pregnancy), Light and Swan were best friends, Grebe and Broken were best friends, and Grey and Black were best friends (though the two latter came from a younger litter).
It was also mentioned on another post that Broken was a very shy kit and Grebekit acted like his protector.
I think I mostly wanted to see Red and Marble together
@ambitiousauthor
Base: cat family base f2u (ms paint friendly) by snowylynxx on DeviantArt
#queued post#redjay#brokenwhistle#lightstream#swanmist#blacksong#greydusk#grebeglade#marblegaze#eye-out family#wooden teeth family#gorsedaisy's nightmare#sciamachy
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Hunting Log Tamamonomae
So I read though Tamamonomae bios and Kuzunoha is mentioned, but it does not tell us when she and Tamamonomae first met each other.
Another thing I want to say is that while Tamamonomae was wrong for trying to destroying the city, I thought that the gods who killed his wife and tried to kill him and his children as well as the onmyoji who killed his children were in the wrong and still unknown and the murders are treated as a non-issue by the narrative. These are technically unsolved murder mysteries and we do not know if the child mudering onmyoji were killed in the fire or are they are still walking around free and unscathed.
Also, Tamamonomae said that he does not trust the gods in his SP Memory Scroll because according to him they did not help him and is yet on good terms with Mikestu, Enmusubi and Suzuhikohime. Now it is good for a character to realize that it is not okay to generalize a group of people, but the story needs to explain it.
Speaking of Suzuhikohime, she knows Kuzunoha but the story never said how. I am speculating that is because Suzuhikohime is Ame-no-Uzume and Kuzunoha in Japanese Mythology was one of Ukanomitama/Miketsu's disciples and messengers and that Mikestu and Ame-no-Uzume were both Inari Gods. Ame-no-Uzume was also called Omiyanome.
See this page for more information.
I am still waiting to the writers to provide us with more information about Kuzunoha and Masuki and have them make a physical appearance. Also how was Kuzunoha able to mask herself very well and keeping the other onmyoji from finding out she was a fox spirit?
#Onmyoji#Onmyoji Mobile Game#Onmyouji#Tamamonomae#Kuzunoha#Onmyoji Tamamonomae#Onmyoji Kuzunoha#Miketsu#Enmusubi#Suzuhikohime#Onmyoji Chiyo#Onmyoji Aika#Onmyoji Yuto
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Can you do ei , venti , childe and scaramouche where they have to babysit their s/o younger sibling for the day ?
Synopsis :
They babysit their s/o's younger siblings
Characters :
Ei
Venti
Childe/tartaglia
Scaramouche
Warning :
None
A/N :
I made the child they babysit around or under 10 because I don't really see an older child being babysitted because as soon as I was ten I was allowed to stay at home alone, the child age isn't mentioned though only hinted
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ei :
When she leave her plain of euthymia itns either to spend time with you or take care of urgent matters in inazuma
So let's just say your dropped your sibling by directly in her consciousness which suprised her
At first the two of them are really akward, ei only knows fighting for as long as she can remember, but the similarities between your sibling and yourself are undeniable
It makes her nostalgic of her own sister
So she try to make the conversation but she was talking in a very distinguished manner which didn't helped the both of them to relax
Until your sibling asked her if she liked dessert
She immediately said yes and precised her favorites were dango
You sibling asked if she could make some and she grimaced
Telling them she is unable to cook led the two of them to stroll in inazuma searching for someone who sells dango
Until she saw that stand who sell dango milk
She let your sibling try it before asking for one herself, then they headed to the narukami shrine to pay a visit to miko
She couldn't help but tease ei, saying that the way she babysit your sibling make her look like a good mother
Ei decided then the visit was over and came back home until you went to pick your sibling back
She isn't against babysitting them once more though
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Venti :
He tried to make your sibling drink alcohol before he get reprimanded by diluc
So instead he'll go to windrise to play with them
He'll summon wind current so the two of them will able to glid around freely
When it'll be nap time your sibling will lay against venti as he sing a lullaby for them, he might even stroke their hair
At the end of the afternoon they'll both visit dvalin in stormterror's lair, venti introducing them as his brother in law which will surprise dvalin
You'll find them still there early in the evening and greet politely dvalin who acknowledge you as venti's partner and so as someone he should protect too
If your sibling legs hurt from all the walking dvalin will propose to drop the three of you at the front of mondstadt gates so it'll be faster
And the way the knight of favonius in fonction at the moment made a face you're not ready to forget from seeing you, your sibling and your boyfriend getting down from a litteral dragon's back
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Childe/tartaglia :
He is in heaven he has to babysit your sibling
They remind him of his own brothers and sisters back in schneznaya
If he has the day for himself and he is able to walk around liyue with them he will, and he'll also spoil them rotten
You bring your sibling the morning, by the evening they've become spoiled royalties
Even when you tell whilde to not spend so much on them
He can't help it
You're his partner so your sibling are kinda his siblings too in his head
And it's only narutal to give the best to his family members
He'll put the toy maker act before your little sibling so they think you're dating someone super cool and not a blood thirsty muderer from the fatui
But unfortunately his covers is blown up by you at the end of the day when you mention that his mens were searching for him
Your sibling was a bit upset childe lied to him, but he thought that being a soldier directly under an archon is way better than a toy maker
You didn't totally explained them that a fatui harbinger isn't only a soldier for the tsarista
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scaramouche :
He is canonicaly genuinely kind hearted toward children
So he's not thrilled to have to play banysit but he isn't complaining
If they ask questions about what is this thing or that one he'll answer honestly but as simple as possible and as kindly as possible
But if something is really dark like a torture engine he'll have some filter and to outright say the truth
He'll also play with them and let them borrow his hat and pretend to be him
But he won't let them near the other harbinger expect maybe childe
As much as he dislike childe he know he will not harm them since he has himself younger siblings
You'll find your boyfriend doodling with your younger siblings, smiling happily
Your sibling will probably run to you telling you how cool scaramouche is and that he accepted to do the fandango for them
Scaramouche ended up really embarassed with your sibling declaration but won't say anything
~I hope you'll like it~
🌸Request are open🌸
#genshin#genshin headcanon#genshin impact x reader#genshin x reader#writing#request#venti#venti x reader#Ei#Ei x reader#Raiden shogun#Raiden shogun x reader#Childe#Childe x reader#Tartaglia#Tartaglia x reader#Scaramouche#Scaramouche x reader
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WHY CHRYSIPPUS' STORY IS SUCH A TRAGIC FORGOTTEN MYTH AND YOU SHOULD GET KNOWN ABOUT IT
(A THREAD)
Barely known and almost forgotten, but hella fascinating myth. It had unquestionable influence at the events of Oedipus Rex. It has many versions, more or less dark. However I'll try to show in this thread why it is really worth knowing about!
ACTUAL MYTH
It all starts years before the events of Thebean Trilogy. King Pelops of Elis (yes, son of Thantal who was known for challenging gods), despite being married to Hippodamia, had a half-god son born of either nymph Danais or Aksioche. After his golden hair, the son was named Chrysippus, what meant literally a Golden Horse. And it was knowingly firstborn and most beloved son of Pelops, who later also had about 12 children with his own wife.
But the fate of said son turned out to be rather tragic. When, as an exile from Thebes, future king Laius appeared in Elis looking for a place to stay, he was welcomed honourably. However while staying there, he eventually fell in love with the golden-haired prince, who he had teached riding a chariot. Sources do not precise, if this was a mutual feeling; despite that, when Lauis was asked to escort the prince to Nemeian Games, he chosen to kidnap Chrysippus instead.
There are many versions of what happened from there. So let's just list it up:
ENDING 1. SUICIDE
From what I've read, it's one of the most common endings of this myth. In short, it claims that after being kidnapped and forced to love, Chrysippus had killed himself. One thing unsure is when and how would he do that. Either way, his son's death would cause King Pelops to put a curse at the house Labdacis, which eventually lead to horrible events of Oedipus Rex.
ENDING 2. MURDER
This one should probably be separated, since there are two potential murderers; it was either King Laius, or Hippodamia.
As this ending claims, Chrysippus would be left on a desert to die, or pierced by a sword. First version accords to King Laius, but the question is, why would he kill someone he himself has kidnapped? And loved? This is why for me personally this one seems a bit irrational.
However, the other one, about Hippodamia, is very much worth considering. She's said to hate her husband's illegimate son up to a point she might've actually consider mudering him to provide the throne of Elis for her own sons.
In version including Hippodamia, it was either herself, who pierced Chrysippus with a sword while he layed sleeping by the side of Lauis, or her sons, Atreus and Tyestes. Either way, murder weapon stays the same and is named precisely: it was King Lauis' own sword, taken from a wall, probably to make people blame him for Chrysippus' death.
This plan does not succeed, though. In the last breath Chrysippus blames the real murderers of his.
These events would casue Pelops to set the curse, as previously, but also exile his wife and sons out of Elis. This would actually connect with why Atreus and Tyestes were said to rule Mycaene in other myths, and not Elis, as would be logical.
ENDING 3. GOD'S INFLUENCE
There is also one ending where it is not precised if Chrysippus dies or not and I think it is worth mentioning. In this version, it is Hera herself who set the curse, together with Sphinx, as a punishment for unrightful love which King Laius had for Chrysippus.
DOUBTS
As with many myths, there are also few doubts, caused by multiple versions of this story. Main of them are the following:
how old was Chrysippus when these events occured? (some of sources claim 'a youth', others - 'a child', 'a boy')
did this cause a war between Thebes and Elis, or not? (at least one of sources I found states that King Pelops actually went seeking revenge after his son kidnapping; Elis won, but Pelops let his enemies go after hearing a 'mercy plea' from King Laius and 'deciding not to punish love')
were the gods involved into this? Or is Hera's influence a made-up?
Very sadly, we do not even have opportiunity to to check these out. In ancient times, there was a stage play named Chrysippus, but it's one of these gone in time.
DARK PARTS
(tw; pedophilia, rape) (may skip this if feel disturbed by these themes)
This one connects strongly to the part of doubts. And things get darker as we read into them. Some of the sources I found claim that Chrysippus was a child when things described in the myth happened to him. The age they state is around 12-14. Read this way, entire thing kinda changes it's meaning, right?
More describeful sources also state that it was not love what drove the King Laius into kidnapping, but rather sexual desire, and this version is oftenly connected with ending involving leaving Chrysippus on a desert. In these terms, it's also often repeated that Chrysippus was raped and thus might've suicided.
AFTERMATH
Shortly, aftermath of this myth is well-known. Labdacids were cursed, and Lauis was at some point foretold that his son will kill him marry own mother. This is why he avoided Jocasta as much as he could (though some of sources say simply, that he had avoided her, because of being gay). She hadn't known about the curse, though. And one time humiliated Jocasta got her husband drunk enough to make a child with him.
And this is how Oedipus happened. Later on everything was revealed and as we know, child was abandoned to die; however it didn't, and the fate was fulfilled.
SIDE NOTES
So, well, here is the end of this thread! Hope you enjoyed, my personal theories will be included in another post, but feel free to share your thoughts and discuss. I wonder if any of you heard about this myth before? And which from the variety of versions do you find most believable?
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Wallace and Gromit Retrospective FINALE: Curse of the Were Rabbit: Hop of the Heap
Hello all you happy people and welcome to the FINALE of my Wallace and Gromit retrospective! It’s been a heck of a fun ride: We’ve seen cheesy trips to the moon, criminal pengys in thrilling model train chases, robot dogs who can somehow own a business and whose business model is “muder a bunch of sheep, murder some humans ????” profit and...
...... the kind of things an elder god pops into your head to drive you hoplessly insane. IT’s been a fun ride, all thanks to my creative partner and fincial backer @weirdkev27. If you have cartoons you want me to cover, just hit up my inbox, and you can commission your own reviews.
But the ride ends here... as I mentioned last time I decided to end with this film rather than Matter of Loaf and Death as I felt it was a far more fitting climax for this: Wallace and Gromit is one of the most iconic bits of animation in both the UK and US, and it only made sense not to end with the whimper of an okay, traumatizing short.. but with the bang of their first and most likely only feature film: Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Curse was Aardman’s second feature film after Chicken Run, an utter classic that also proved to be a massive box office success, and as of this writing 21 years later is still the highest grossing stop motion animated film, with a Sequel coming to Netflix next year thankfully Mel Gibson free.
So with that momentum and a four film deal with dreamworks, it was only natural they planned a Wallace and Gromit movie.. AFTER their next planned film, Tortoise and the Hare. You all remember that childhood classic right?
So yeah let’s talk about that for a sec because i’d never heard of this failed project and i’ts honestly fascenating: Aardman, wanting to get another hit out as soon as possible, rushed the script for TAH into production, something their own spokesman admitted in. This went about as well as trying to ride a bear after taking a bath in a tub filled with salmon: The film was a mess and aardman was forced to halt production and lay off over a hundred staff members, something to their credit they deeply regretted and took full responsblity fore unlike most layoffs. Here they ddin’t have a choicec and fully intended to, and likely did, hire them back once they got started proper on Curse of the Were Rabbit.
So with it’s comptetition having caught fire and jumped into an oil derrick to douse the flames, Wallace and Gromit was bumped up to their current feature.
So naturally things went better this time with more planning and what not.
There was still a massive problem though... and that problem was Dreamworks.
See despite the simple facts that Chicken Run was one of their biggest hits, Wallace and Gromit being both a fincial cash cow and a critical success with two oscar wins and one nomination across the original trilogy, the fact said oscar loss was to Creature Comforts ANOTHER aardman short that made Katzenberg want to do buisness with them in the first place, DreamWorks having thought anything about Antz from trying to make what’s essentially a woody allen movie with antz into a childrens film, to the horrible art style, to having anything to do with known child molestor woody allen.... Dreamworks decided they knew better and wanted to make some changes to make the film more “marketable” in the US by americanizing it. They wanted a more bankable name to play Wallace, him to drive a cool big dicked sports car, and in general wanted it to be “less british”. Nick Parks reaction to this was swift and just:
And he and the rest of Aardman stood their ground: Sallis was irreplacable as Wallace and his car being a throughly british junker was part of the charm. They made a valid compromise though adding some bigger name british stars to the mix in side rolls with Helna Bohm Carter as Lady Tottingham and Ralph Finnes as the Villian, Lord Victor Quartermaine, both of which are terrific and i’ll get more into that soon enough.
As far as I can tell Dreamworks didn’t succeed in “amercanizing it” and as an american I kinda scoff at the idea they did: the terms, structure of the small town, and general everything still feels quintesentially british as always. And it’d be the last time dreamworks made a horrible mistake...
THE LAST TIME
As you can probably guess the partnership here didn’t last much longer: They made one more film with Flushed Away and ended it early, a story I will also likely get to someday. For the present join me under the cut as I take a look at Wallace and Gromit’s Finest hour.
Cleanin Up The Town:
So we open with the classic theme, amped up slightly for theater and a lovely intro where we see our heroes over the ages including Puppy Gromit and 70′s rocker hair Wallace. There’s even a really creative bit that has the heroes getting into a tiff, ending up in seperate photos and making up, including the sweet detail that gromit was knitting a new sweatervest for wallace that’s purple that I honestly wished while watching he’d wear in more stuff.. only for it to show up later in the movie! It just goes to show if you ask something of 16 year old movie it’ll give you what you want. Maybe if I try that with Are We There Yet? it’ll cease to exist. Ya never know till you try.
So our film proper opens as we pan over the town with everyone preparing for the annual tottingham hall big veg competittion, where the biggest veg, the very british term used here, earns it’s owner the coveted golden carrot. We’re introduced to many of the old folks including the Vicar who i’ll get to later because he is a treat.
The important one here is Mr. Growbag an old man who finds something nibbling on one of his wife’s pumpkins
Thankfully he presses a button and calls our heroes who are now running the cleverly titlted pest control service Anti-Pesto. Another touch I like is that there are paintings all around the duo’s house, each with a picture of a customer whose eyes light up when baldy and pupper are called to save their produce.
Our heroes get a neat sequence and easily capture the offending rabbit and throw him in their van. It’s a nice, short, but sweet sequence that shows our heroes new job, how valued they are in town, the automatic sensors they have set up to summon our heroes right away, all sorts of important exposition delivered almost entirely through actions. It’s a masterclass in storytelling honestly and something I only realized as I sat down to write this review.
So the next morning our heroes get on with their day: After Gromit feeds the rabbits, who their keeping on site for now in lieu of killing but are running out of space for, Wallace gets served breakfast which tragically isn’t some cool contraption this time but just him serving Gromit some veggies. Turns out Wallace is putting on some pounds, can relate, and is on a diet. Yes that old chesnut. It’s shown up in just about every sitcom, most comic strips, and I think was even chissled on some rocks some where in caveman days. Though it DOES occasionally work...
It’s just to me personally most diet jokes boil down to “the food dosen’t taste good” or
This being Wallace and Gromit though, they manage to make it work: It’s a minor element of the plot more there to set up that Wallace dosen’t like vegtables for plot reasons so it dosen’t take up too much time and we get two really cracking good gags out of it: Wallace having to be HAMMERD down the chute due to his weight, with Gromit looking at a jar labeled middle aged spread while he presses the button for it, and when Wallace tries to get some cheese while Gromit checks on his watermelon for the contest from his secret stash, he instead finds a mousetrap.
Though what also helps is unlike mos tof these plots where either someone’s forced to diet because someone else is or there’s just a lot of nasty sniping in general Wallace dosen’t resent Gromit and vice versa: Wallace gets it’s for his health, itt’s just like most of us he also dosen’t have any impulse control.
So Wallace decides to go with the most Wallace sollution imaginable: use a nifty invention to fuck with his own brain, the mind manipulation o-matic. Because as Psychonauts 2 showed absolutley nothing can go wrong when experiment iwth your own brain, certainly NOT mass murder, MPD or goat based cooking shows no sir.
Before Wallace can make his own brains extra crispy our heroes get another job and we’re introduced to one of the best parts of the film and it’s arguable third lead, Lady Tottingham. I honsetly didn’t remember totty much from my memories of the film so I was shocked at just how good a character she is. Helena Bohm Carter just fits perfectly into the flow of Aardman’s throughly british humor, bringing a nice amount of innocent, perky energy you normlaly don’t see in her rolls. Totty is a kind, sensitive and energetic young animal lover and rich lady and you just can’t help but like her and out of Wallace’s three love intrests, she’s easily the best. Granted one’s a murderer, but still she gets the most time and fleshed out personality and is one of the better love interests i’ve seen in a kids film.
Wallace is excited about the job because having a high profile, wealthy client like this could really improve their standing socially and economically and Gromit is.. well Gromit about it but nonetheless the two speed off.
A potetial obstacle to our duo’s big break pops up at the door though, Lord Victor Quatermaine, played by Ralph Finnes who like Carter does a REALLY amazing job, having a perfect air of an egomanical jackass who thinks shooting animals compensates of his lack of caring, personality and junk that dosen’t spotantiously light on fire when he’s arroused. Victor has been “courting” her ladyship . And by that she’s been reluctantly dating him while he’s been pushy, trying to shove her into marriage, and ignores her opinon on anything, wanting to gun down her Rabbit Problem when she not only keeps telling him she already has professionals on teh way but wants this done humanely.
Another thing I only noticed when I thought about the film for this review, and something I really like is it has a message: the film is clearly for no kill pest control, with our heroes running a no-kill service and it being very clear that while the people of namleless wallace and gromit town deserve not to have their hard raised crops eaten, these bunnies don’t deserve to die for it. Furthermore hunting, and hunters themselves are shown through victor which while not subtle, given rich white idiots like Victor love going to other countries to shoot precious wild life to replace the love their parents never gave hem with a big dead carcass, is something that really DOSEN’T need a subtle hand. It dosen’t whack you over the nose and GO this is bad.. it simply SHOWS why via victor, and shows an alternate method, if in a fantastical way: simply caputring the animals and finding somehwere else to put them.
That’s what our heroes end up doing, arriving to find a whole yardfull of bunnies.. .and while their usual neck trap won’t work on THAT many, they have a vaccum for that. Granted I don’t know how humane grabbing rabbits by the neck or sucking them up via vaccum is... but compared to lord “shot them and use their dead carcasses to prove my love to you”, it’s still far less psycotic. They also suck up Victor’s hairpiece, to his annoyance.
Her Ladyship though is throughly impressed.. and throughly turned on by wallace. And while as we’ve established the thought of Wallace climaxing...has an effect on me
I can see why he’d be attractive to someone given he’s kind, thoughtful and while a little attracted to her ladyship a through professional. She invites him to stop by any time. Lord Incel is not amused now that his girlfriend you know, has an option that cares about her and not trying to break his neck swimming aorund in a pile of coins because unlike Scrooge he has no upper body strength.
Profiteering!
There’s still the storage issue though. I mean i’d love pile upon pile of rabbits in my basement, but that’s on a conceptual level. Feeding them’s expensive, the waste situation would be too horrifying to comptemplate and my brother currently lives down there so I think he’d have a few objections to that. So Wallace goes for the simple solution: Brainwash the bunnies into not liking veg using the mind manipulation-o-matic!
But lucky for Wallace the ethics commity for small wallace and gromit town consists of a really stern poster of alan rickman that says DON’T under a picture of him that Wallace already lost, so tampering with the minds of innocent creatures it is!
So Wallace hooks himself up to the Bun Vac which I gotta take a second to say is just a gorgeous effect, though one using CG. But it’s telling I honestly couldn’t tell watching it, and i’m perfectly okay with mixing cg into a stop motion animatied movie to do things you simply CAN’T do with clay or puppets.
So shockingly Wallace trying to change a creatures basic nature with a giant fishbowl helmet hooked to a giant vacum on his head goes badly and a bunch of rabbits get jammed in the top of the vac an donce gets into Wallace’s helmet directly. The resulting explosion seemingly cures the Rabbit of liking Veg, Wallace considers it a success and the two go to bed.
Naturally given the film’s title and Wallace doing something that’s dumb even for him...
We get the titular were-rabbit that night that makes a mockery of Wallace’s own defenses, eats metric tons of Veg, and scares the shit out of the local Vicar, whose a parody of your standard doomsaying old man in a horror film.
So the next morning our heroes awake to ALL the alarms going off, and a pissed off town meeting ensues
Naturally our heroes are yelled at for not doing enough.. even though their traps were built for a regular rabbit and not the immortal hulk of hares. Though our heroes sleeping through it is on them.. and you know CREATING this problem in the first place.
The Vicar naturally rambles for a bit about the beast in classic Hammer Horror fashion. What a pro. Crazy Ralph would be proud. To throw assholine on the fire, Victor comes in, says the poor old man is drunk, and then wants to shoot this monster in the head.
Thankfully Totty stands up for our heroes and shoots down, pun not intended but welcomed, Victor’s “kill the thing we don’t understand plan. So our heroes now have the biggest job of their lives catching a beast they unknowingly created.
So Wallace naturally has a plan: Build a sexy lady giant killer rabbit to lure it out and have gromit show it off.
SHOCKINGLY this only results in said puppet falling off the roof and Wallace going to repair it .. only to disappear. Suddenly the beast shows up, if only underground.. but making a giant hill as it goes. Gromit gives chase and we get an excellently crafted chase sequence... but despite having a lasso, Gromit looses the beast.
The next day Wallace is mad because Gromit supposidly abadoned him.. which is the ONLY time in this entire retrospective he’s been rightfully mad over anything. Who knew?
But Gromit soon gets distracted when he notes a trail.. and finds it leads to their basement, seemingly confirming that one of the rabbits, Hutch, is the monster.
So they go to their specalities: Gromit actually tries to solve the problem by building a trap and Wallace welll....
youtube
And don’t get me wrong he makes all the gadgets.. .but at the same time those gadgets have also caused problems in 4/5 of these works: Leaking oil, which pissed off the Moon Meter Robot Thing, allowing the plot of wrong trousers to happen, giving preseton the means to make sheep into meat and of course deciding to play god with a rabbits mind then being shocked that it went horribly horribly wrong. So it’s really hard to give him credit for his inventive mind when it screws him over as much as it helps him.
So while Wallace goes to tell her ladyship the good news, and her ladyship invites him for a light super/date, Gromit finds more tracks after imprisoning hutch.. that go straight to wallace’s room.. which is caked in half eaten vegtables. Wallace is the Were-Rabbit... and the suns about to go down
And Then There’s The Other Guy....
So Gromit scrambles to go rescue Wallace from himself...
While Wallace has a good dinner with chemistry with her ladyship, even wearing the purple sweatervest.... while also showing signs he’s a rabbit man now. It’s just a cute as hell scene.
So Totty takes Wallace to her secret place.... which thankfully isn’t some slang term but her vegtable garden, which is worse for her than if she had actually taken him to bed but better for me and my sanity after last time. So anyway, we then get the two giggling together sensually offscreen just as Victor arrives for another half assed courting attemped and is naturally incredibly cross about this.
....
Okay putting my horror in a box and shoving it under my desk with all my other garbage, let’s talk about the fact Totty is semi-cheating on her boyfriend. She IS in a relationship with Victor, and shoudln’t be doing this and shoudl’ve just broken it off with him as it’s implied she was simply too polite to tell him she dosen’t want the kind of relationship he does. Just because your partner is an asshole it does not make it okay to cheat if you CAN break it off. She still retains some sympathy because Victor is a massive asshat and clearly dosen’t care about her, but it’s clear Aardman didn’t think the implications through on this bit.
Victor stomps off while Gromit pulls up to stop the date and uses the sprinklers to do so. Wallace is ONCE AGAIN actually legit pissed at Gromit... granted he’s not asking WHY Gromit’s doing these things but at the same time Gromit isn’t TRYING to explain it. Though in this specific case, he dosen’t have a choice. He can LATER but right now he needs to get Wallace too.
Unfortunately for our heroes they hit a few road blocks: a giant log in the road, without the proper hm to take care of it.. and Victor who shows up as Wallace is trying to remove the log and, in a shocking show of smarts, has his hunting dog keep Gromit inside as even someone with his head up his ass like Victor can see who the real threat is. Victor wants to beat Wallace up for “stealing” lady from him, which even if I don’t like the cheating thing... isn’t exactly how to solve this, and if she wants someone else beating the other guy up isn’t going to make her want YOU more. If you being a hypermasculine pile of orangutan cocks was something that was attractive to her in the first place why would she be going to someone like wallace?
Still the point is moot as there’s a bad moon on the rise... and thus we get our transformation sequence. And as you’d expect from Aardman, it, is, GLORIOUS. It’s horrifying, played completely straight and really would fit in a claymation horror movie, but also beautiful, easily topping some actual horror movies i’ve seen, with Wallace’s pain and slow growth hauntingly desplayed. victor is terrified as is his hound who wants in the truck with Gromit just.. giving him a slow motion head nod no in the best way possible.
And thus we meet Were-Wallace.. and he’s naturally adorable as the real thing, and props to them for this puppet. It’s still a practical effect, though unlike the usual puppets due to it’s size parts of it are automated so they can control it remotely, something that really COUDLN’T be helped given it’s size. Still it looks fantastic. Wallace then throws the giant log.. but not at victor he just wanted to get home. Gromit speeds off, hitting his lordship on the way...
Though Victor.. has plans and goes to the Vicar to get himself prepared... to slay wallace. Yes he’s decided to MURDER the guy just for dating someone he was also dating.
The scene with him and the vicar is fucking amazing though including the classic line where the Vicar says what will take out the rabbit is...... is..... a bullet. Victor of all people has to get him to specify what kind.. which turns out to be gold.
24 Carat to be percise. God I love that pun.
Back at home wallace, despite having Rabbit ears now is in denial about being a rabbit monster, and Gromit is naturally annoyed with it and takes Wallace downstairs, showing that Hutch not only is still locked up.. but unleashing the HORROR that is his current form.... or rather the adorable as we get our animal sidekick for the picture.
Turns out Hutch has become a mini wallace, wearing his sweatervest and saying pitched up old lines from past shorts and this very film. I love everything about this and have no notes.
So Wallace finally accepts he’s become the very thing he’s been hunting and resolves to fix it, while in town at the festival turns out Wallace went on the rampage last night again, so the town wants to cancel things, which Totty is against because this is her family’s legacy. Victor offers a solution though: he’ll shoot the creature and everyone but Totty agrees.. with Totty forced to go along with it for her family name and promising the asshole to make it quick. My heart just breaks for this poor woman and given how Callous victor is about just.. ignoring how she’d feel about this and taking blatant advantage of her desperation, yeah I can’t blame her for cheating. Still don’t think it’s 100% right for personal reasons, but Victor is a monster through and through.
So that night Wallace TRIES to fix things.. but his brain is too rabbity and unfocused to access his usual genius, which makes the poor guy break down. Thankfully Hutch inherited his poppa’s genius and begins fixing the mind manipulation o matic, while Totty shows up with the bad news and her disappointment in Wallace for seemingly lying to her, when in fact he simply jumped the gun. He’s forced to shoo her off... and transforms again, once again looking amazing and with that we’ve reached our climax.
Rabbit Rampage:
To avoid his master being shot, which for a refreshing change of pace feels earned in this film compared to “Wrong Trousers” and “Loaf and Death” as Wallace hasn’t actively done anything ot make the dog’s life worse this time and the worst he’s done, create this whole mess by turning himself into a were bun, is just as bad for him as it is for everyone else.
So Gromit uses the rabbit puppet from earlier to fool Victor and lure wallace out.. who procedes to grab the rabbit puppet’s ass.
I.. I couldn’t end this retrospective with my brain in tact could I aardman? you just had to put in twice the horny Wallace.
But naturally Victor tries shooting the puppet and while this allows Wallace to escape, it also leaves him amok, gives Victor free reign to toss Gromit in one of his own traps and then into his own greenhouse and then head after Wallace.
At the fair everyone assumes Victor won and is happy about it... except Totty who understandably isn’t happy a sentient creature was snuffed out for something he coudln’t control. Things take a turn for the panic as Victor TRIES to tell the local constable the rabbit is still alive quitely.. and he procedes to shout it into a megaphone.
So with that a panic insues as Victor tries to dispell the panic... by shooting into the air, leaving him with one bullet. We also get a great scene with Mrs.Growbag, the customer from the begining, running off with her “baby”.. only to run into Wallace.. and then to bring Wallace right TO them.
Thankfully Gromit arrives> While all this has been going on he’s been trying to escape only to give into despair.. only for Hutch to save him, since his voice pring also works as he has wallace’s voice just a bit squeaky, and the two team up, using Wallace’s prized melon to lure the hungry bun-man. It almost works.. until victor naturally screws things up again by shooting. He misses thankfully, but he proceeds to dig himself digger by trying to yank the golden carrot, the prize for the festival, as he’s out of golden bullets.
He made one mistake though.. he made an ex green beret mad.. no wait no.. he made a giant hulk-like rabbit man made. That’s actually worse. Nick Park admitted he had fun with this scene as it was a reason for Wallace of all people to go on a rampage as Wallace as he attacks Victor and hurls him away
This of course looks to the crowd like he’s just hurling an innocent man protecting them aside and not a steaming bag of dicks given human form so a king kong homage insues. In order to catch up to him, wallace takes one of the coin operated plane rides at the contest, it also has alls orts of neat carnival stuff, and RIDES IT UP A BUILDING IN ORDER TO CHASE AFTER HIS MASTER. But wait, there’s more, then Victor’s hunting dog Phillip decides to give chase leading to a LITERAL DOG FIGHT IN CARNIVAL RIDE PLANES ATOP A SKYSCRAPER AND SOMETIMES IN THE ACTUAL AIR.
It’s every bit as magical as it sounds and proves that Aardman CAN do a theatrical sized climax. We have Wallace pulling a king kong, Phillip chasing after him having stolen the carrot and put it in an elephant gun that’s on display for some reason, and Gromit trying to get to him while dog fighting ANOTHER dog. It might tie “Close Shave” for best climax in the series.
We also get a great bit mid-dog fight where Phillip has gromit on the ropes via a bar, about to push him over when Gromit’s plane, which is coin operated runs out, so they have to stop to refill it, with Phillip even having a lovely flower pouch for his coins. It’s just.. beautiful.
So while Gromit has the fight of his life, Wallace gets Totty alone, and eventually shows her who he is, by doing the little rabbit gesture he did at dinner I forgot to mention because this review has taken several days longer than it should've.
So Victor comes in and tries to shoot him only for her to mentoin it’s wallace and you know, maybe don’t shoot a person.... only for Victor to let it slip he KNOWS that and wants to kill him anyway. Thankfully Totty finally comes to her senses, sprays the guy with Pansy Spray...
And dumps him.. which she shoudl’ve done earlier but hey. No time like the present. Victor isn’t deterred though and has a villianous breakdown chasing after Wallace into the fairground.
Thankfully Gromit finishes his dogfight in time and takes the bullet, so to speak, for Wallace with his plane, saving him, winning the crowds respect for.. some reason.Wallace and Gromit fall into the cheese tent, while victor tries to gloat.. only for Lady to smack him with the reclaimed trophy.
So with all four now in the tent, Wallace seemingly dies only to be revivied by some Stinky Bishop cheese.. which is a real, actual factual brand of cheese. With that he’s saved, and they put Victor in the rabbit costume and let the mob chase him into the sunset. A fitting end for sunch an unfit wanker.
So with that our heroes go back home and un-wallace hutch, Totty presents gromit with the award and says she can’t be with Wallace, and Wallace has a smaller portion of cheese. Huh a bit unsatisfying really, seems like it’s just a lesser version of the close shave ending.... and as the creators said Hutch was so much of a character at this point, it seemd a shame to basically kill him. Really weak stuff
Yup that was just the alternate ending to the film. The real ending has Totty give Gromit the carrot and it seem like her and Wallace are getting married.. only for it to be her and the constable them breaking up amicably and our heroes letting the buns loose on the Worchestcire border, a joke so british my yankee ass dosen’t get it. A little better.. but let’s try this one more time shall we?
Yeah as you could probably guess, this was ANOTHER unsused endings, both rejected for obvious reasons: the first not only basically killed Hutch, but was again a retread of Close Shave, intetionally so but clearly underwhelming> The second was a BIT better and they were going to pipe in audio, but they felt wasn’t nice to wallace.
So we get our real ending. We get the carrot, which Gromit damn well earned, and the wedding fake out.. but this time instead Totty has turned her manor into a bunny sanctuary. The buns are freed onto her lawn included hutch, giving them a new, safe home, Totty friends and Wallace and Totty a future at some point. I like to think the next flim happened, THEN they got together after as they were just friends during the course of that film. I mean their just cut together.
So our heroes drive off into the sunset as we conclude this epic story.
Final Thoughts on the Film:
This film is excellent and I hope it streams again someday so everyone can share in how awesome it is. Aardman has the rights so WHY it isn’t I have no idea. But regardless this is the finest work in their catalouge, an epic journey with great side characters, a wonderfully daft main concept in a were rab bit and using vegtables as the victims in a horror spoof and SOOOOO many jokes I couldnt’ cram them into this review without it getting tedious. If you can find this movie cheap on dvd, pick it up. It’s gorgeously animated, acted and scrpited and is Aardman’s finest work i’ve seen to date, and that’s high as praise as I can give any film. It has everything that makes the franchise work stuffed into a 90 minute magnum opus.
Final Thoughts on the Franchise:
Well that does it for now. If it turns out I can play the game on my comptuer, or it ever comes to switch, i’ll review the telltale game at some point, and I might return someday to do the shorts and the world of invention series. But ofr now the sun has set on everyone’s faviorite british duo.
So in rewatching the series what did I think of it? Simple.. it’s excellent. I had my issues here adn there but overall these films are STILL masterworks, some of the best short subjects ever spawned, and easily one of both Dreamworks and Aardman’s finest films with this one. The sheer mind boggling feats they can do with clay, the warm and loving humor and the utterly amazing climaxes make this series a true classic and worth revisiting if you haven’t in a while. I was happy as could be to revisit it over these past few weeks and would gladly do so again and again and again.
So to close this out a quick ranking of the works just for funs sakes, though if you’ve been following these you can probably guess. From best to weakest...
Curse of the Were-Rabbit
A Close Shave
The Wrong Trousers
A Grand Day Out
A Matter of Loaf and Death
So with that I bid these boys a fond farewell. I do intend to return to Aardman at some point, though I can’t say for certain when as i’d have to grab most of their filmography first, but if nothing else this film made me want to grab the rest of the aardman catalouge and relive my life a bit. So look forward to that.
As for what Kev, who made this whole thing possible’s got cookin for me next: this week I go back to the disney afternoon for the tailspin and chip n dale pilots, and then.... it’s time to face a god. After that.. it’s halloween... and I think things are going to get a bit...
Thanks for reading.
#wallace and gromit#wallace and gromit the curse of the were-rabbit#curse of the wererabbit#dreamworks#aardman#helena boham carter#ralph finnes#peter sallis#hammer horror#horror#veg#clay mation#stop motion animation#stop motion#2000s
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For the trope mashup, 13 and 59 for Jonmartin or Jontim?
Okay this is gonna just be SO much angst but ,,, (Detective AU mixed with Love Confession AU !! With JonTim!!)
I'm picturing Jon as the detective, he's a rookie and despite his vigorous work ethic lacks a lot of the interpersonal skills really needed for the job. He's worked for The Magnus Institute, a private agency, for a few years before eventually given the file of The Skinner, an infamous killer that no one really thinks exists beyond in scary urban stories.
He sets off to research and finds startlingly little except that he always seems to strike around carnivals. Going off of that tiny sliver of information Jon begins staking out any mention of "The Circus" or carnivals and clowns in general.
After months of exhausting work, he finally manages to pinpoint The Skinner's next target, after already losing track of him multiple times.
Its a vintage circus that appears to have come out of no where but is making its next stop in Leicester.
Jon steels himself, and gathers all of his knowledge about The Skinner and sets off to the carnival. (Much to the ire of his co-workers who have gone beyond thinking this was busy work to thinking that its a frankly creepy obsession.)
Jon arrives and the show commences without any sort of remarkable events. But, while there he does run into the most attractive man he's ever met, and in their brief conversation they share a mutual irritation at the show but need to be there for "work reasons."
The circus itself is uneventful and turns up no further evidence.
Jon redoubles his research, instead focusing on non-active circuses as over the past year he's had no luck with finding any suspicious activity surrounding the operating ones and the killer is definitely still at large.
In the year of working, Jon has began having nightmares about The Skinner and how his victims faces are torn off and their remains desecrated and the stress of the case is making his coworkers even more suspicious. (Except for his boss, Elias, who seems proud of his sudden shift in intensity.)
Eventually he uncovers an ancient wax museum, and that it seems to be a cover for strange happenings. The entire place is rife with records of bright flashes, screaming from unknown origins, and occasional, disturbing reports of music playing even though its been abandoned for years.
Jon tracks down its location and with all the resolve, and obsession, he can muster goes to the museum.
He never makes it though.
On his way, and only a few minutes before he could arrive at the museum, he drives past a tiny cemetery.
He ignores it at first, but there's a man kneeling beside a grave and he is abruptly, so abruptly he almost careens off the road, reminded of the man from the circus months ago.
His dark hair is falling over his cheekbones and he is wearing a heavy coat, but even from the distance his long legs and athletic form are clear and something about the set of his jaw makes Jon certain.
And he is still absolutely as gorgeous as Jon had first found him, but suddenly other tiny details begin to click. The dark hair, the sharp toothed smile, the charisma that seemed to hide something more, the eerily casual way he hung around the circus without flinching and/or being there with children or any form of significant other.
Jon lets out the tight breath he was holding and turns the car around.
Sneaking through the scraggly cemetery he can't help but feel a sense of regret, and of pity.
The man, The Skinner, is knelt beside a grave, whispering in hushed tones to a plain stone. His eyes are glossy and beneath this dark hair there are tear tracks across his face.
"I know you're there." He calls
Jon jumps but with any sort of resolve he has, he stand up straight.
"You're The Skinner."
The man nods his head once, and when he lifts it, Jon is struck again by how beautiful he is even with the pain clear across his face.
"Yes. I am. I knew you'd find me eventually." He grins in an almost rueful way despite the situation. "I knew you wouldn't let it go after I met you at the carnival. People like us," he gestures to the grave, "We can't let go can we?"
"You killed those people?" Jon's voice comes out both sharper and more fragile than he wanted.
The Skinner nods again. "They took everything from me."
His eyes trail back to the grave.
For the first time Jon notices the details, the well worn grass beneath The Skinners feet, the neatly trimmed bush of flowers encircling the grave, and the neat script across the stone. Daniel Stoker.
"He was all I had." The Skinner sighs, long and dull.
"He was your brother." Jon isn't sure where the knowledge comes from but in the recesses of his mind he recalls the name Danny being intertwined with the first and most gruesome of the muders. "You killed him."
"What?" Tim eyes snap back to him, suddenly sharp and ferocious.
Jon can't help but stagger back a step.
"I didnt, I'd– I would never." He said, putting a strong hand against the gravestone. "I loved him."
"He was your first victim."
The Skinner huffs at him. "You're pretty slow on the uptake for a detective."
"I am not." Jon says indignantly before he can help himself.
"Yeah, sure." The Skinner huffs again. "I didn't. I would never kill Danny. I'd never even thought of killing anyone before they took him."
Jon doesn't get a chance to say anything, but the burning questions he has must show on his face because The Skinner continues.
"The Circus." The Skinner waves a hand roughly towards the road, in the direction Jon had been traveling. "Organized crime, still not sure what branch they are, but they took Danny when we were. We were kids. And they killed him, skinned him."
He pauses again.
"So I started skinning them."
Jon feels at once a flash of fear, and a flash of something bright and sharp that feels a lot like sympathy.
"You're looking for revenge." It isn't a question even as his voice wobbles.
The Skinner sighs and nods. "Yeah, I am."
He traces long fingers over the gravestones cursive. "I love him too much to not to."
"Are you going to kill me?" Jon asks suddenly.
The Skinner looks up and for a second there is something dark in his eyes before it flickers away.
"I should, but I won't."
"Why?" The word jumps out before Jon can realize the implications of aksing why a serial killer would choose not to murder you rather than being grateful.
The Skinner gives me a long look and something like a smirk tugs on the corner of his mouth. "Cause you're in it for the same reasons as me. Even if your ways more on the legal side."
Jon stands stock still, the image of the man known as "Mr. Spider" flashing before his eyes and his sudden escape from a certain death.
The Skinner breaks the silence.
"What are you going to do?"
"What?" Jon startles.
A tiny hint of a smile creeps across the Skinner's face. "Slow." He chuckles under his breath. Louder he says, "You've caught me. Am I going to prison for the rest of my life? Or am I just going to die here?"
Even though the words are flippant his eyes drift towards the grave in a way that suggests, with near certainly, that if he has to die then he wants it to be here. With Danny.
Jon's thought catch, and race through a hundred scenarios. He in no way is liesenced to kill anyone, regardless of the fact that that option is off of the table. He can't simply let him go, The Skinner is known nationwide even if it mainly through ghost stories. He could theorically pretend as though he had had found nothing and give up the case.
Instead what comes out of his mouth is, "I want to offer you a job."
"What?" The Skinner rocks back onto his heels, still kneeling.
Jon hiestates for a second. He is certain he has no hiring power or any sway beyond being a half decent researcher but he can't just let the man go.
"I work for The Magnus Institute. We investigate things like this, things like you. And you– well you can research The Cirus." He pauses, his voice lowering. "Like you said, people like us."
The Skinner sits back in silence.
"You don't even know my name." He says.
Jon gestures the grave. "I would guess that your last name is Stoker?"
A flicker of amusement breaks up the shock on The Skinners face.
"That it is. My first name is Timothy. Tim really though."
"I'm Jon, Jonathan Sims." Jon says automatically.
Tim laughs. The sound is raspy, but the clear mirth to it still has a traitorous part of Jon warming from the inside out.
"I'm going to need details about this Magnus place." He says, his hand resting easily on the gravestone as he rose to his feet.
Jon nodded. "Of course. I can provide any information that you need."
The Skinner, Tim Stoker, nods and his fingers trail off of the stone. "I guess I'll follow your lead then."
(Sorry there's no read more cut !! I wrote this on my phone !!)
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BASICS
GIVEN NAME : carmen leonor maldonado ( later flores )
CURRENT NAME: carmen / carmen denali
NICKNAMES : carmelita ( by her human family, potentially by eleazar )
BIRTH DATE : early 1700s
BIRTH PLACE : tossa de mar, girona, spain
AGE : 28 / 300+
SPECIES : vampire
OCCUPATION : na / tbd
MORAL ALIGNMENT : true good
AFFILIATIONS
COVEN : denali coven - tanya , kate , irina , eleazar
ROMANTIC TIES: eleazar ( mate )
OTHER TIES: olympic coven
ENEMIES: newborn army, victoria, the volturi ( neutral )
APPEARANCE & SKILLS
HEIGHT: 5′5
BUILD: slender & athletic
EYE COLOR: black ( when abstaining from blood / underfed ) , golden ( due to ‘vegetarian’ lifestyle ), brown in human life
HAIR COLOR: deep brown
PREFERRED HAND : right hand dominant
COMPLEXION : olive
ABILITIES: traditional vampiric abilities, exceptional self control, exceptional singing voice
MEDIA INFLUENCES : angelica schuyler ( hamilton ) , fantine ( les miserables ), jane bennet, marmee ( little women )
BACKGROUND
mentions of child death, death, muder, & assault below
CARMEN WAS BORN the eldest daughter of five children to a fisherman and his wife. from what she can remember of her youth , she had a happy childhood with parents that loved her very much. carmen was known widely in her village for her beauty, extraordinary kindness, lovely singing voice, and temperament , making her a desirable spouse to many eligible bachelors within the village.
while her family muddled by financially , carmen knew it was her duty to elevate the family’s status and offer them a better life. when a well - off merchant proposed his hand in marriage , carmen had little option but to accept. lorenzo was a decent enough husband - he was kind to her and treated her with respect . there wasn’t much more she could ask for - she was content. her live was made truly blissful when she was blessed with twins , her luz de la vida. carmen dedicated her entire life to being their mother.
in the village lurked another presence - a man ( or something like a man ). she caught him gazing at her at night , passing by her home in the early morning, watching from a distance. occasionally, he attempted to catch her eye , to win her favor with flowers and exotic fruits - laces & gems , all under her husband’s nose. carmen had no idea what a singer was , but carmen was his. she was his prey, his plaything, and he wanted, it seemed, to be her mate.
lorenzo had to leave on a trading voyage , despite carmen’s pleas for him to stay , and she was left alone with the children . it was then in the dead of night that her SUITOR made his move.
it happened in an instant , unbearable pain - - followed by complete darkness. the transformation had occurred so brutally that it took nearly a week for her to awaken. when she did , the burning in her throat was nothing in comparison to the pain in her heart upon realizing that her husband , her bebés were nowhere to be found. they were GONE. and all that was left was him.
whispers had begun to circulate in the village of pequeña carmelita, la bruja. lost , terrified , alone , and so very thirsty , carmen had little choice but to follow her tormentor - the only one who could ‘keep her safe.’
she traveled with her personal demenio, away from the only place she had ever called home. she learned how to be a vampire under his tutelage, pretending to indulge in his romantic fantasies for her own safety. but carmen was more clever than her captor realized - - clever enough to realize that she was far stronger than he in her newborn state. she exacted her revenge, ending whatever misery he had chosen to call a life. every day she mourned her children, her husband. she traveled europe as a nomad, taking only the lives she deemed worthy of extinguishing.
at some point during her travels, she encountered eleazar. her life , shrouded in darkness , was suddenly flooded with sunlight. in him, she found a kindness she thought she had lost , and a goodness she thought had become extinct from the world. she understood one thing with complete clarity - she would follow him anywhere.
carmen returned to volterra with eleazar, but was disconcerted by their operations & concerned for eleazar’s safety. they needed a life that was as compassionate as they were, and soon carmen urged eleazar to leave the volturi. the two were allowed to depart and lived a nomadic lifestyle before stumbling upon the denali clan. their way of life was exactly what they had been looking for, and carmen and eleazar soon found that they had a family.
TIDBITS
i’m still figuring her out , but carmen is genuinely one of the kindest and most selfless individuals you will ever meet. the needs of those she loves will always supersede her own.
she is cautious potentially to a fault - she does not readily throw herself or her family in harm’s way, but will fight for those she loves ( the cullens included ) if it is required of her.
everything that should have hardened carmen to the world only made her kind, and that in itself is her gift. she’s endured so much but she’s still so soft ? protect her.
she often acts as a peacemaker within her coven, or the voice of reason when things become contentious.
i will be adding more i’m just overwhelmed rn
please just listen to her singing voice i am begging you
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Another Assassins Creed is in the bag!
In a highly appropriate and ironic (at least to me) outcome, the first game to be completed in the year 2018 was Assassin's Creed: Origins. And I didn't just beat the game... I platinumed it.
While I enjoyed the game immensely, there was a few things I wish had been touched on more or even added. Like Layla. From what I understand I'm one of the few people that actually enjoys the present day storyline. And I just wish more had been done with her. While it was a step back to the roots with being able to actually move and not just watch from a camera or being hacked, it still could have been so much more. I mean, the moment I saw the computer I just got so excited, I thought the humerous emails were back but there was nothing. There wasn't even a chance for conversations to build Dee and Layla's characters, and after the events about halfway through the game, I lost even that. Not to mention the fact that the fate of Rebecca wasn't even mentioned. I mean, I understand why it wasn't, it would just come entirely out of left field otherwise considering no one except for old WM would have known and why would he say anything about it, Layla wouldn't have cared either way. The only reason I even know Rebecca is still alive is cause I read the Last Descendants novels, but I'm sure not everyone read those so the fact remains that Rebecca's fate is still left unexplained after two years since Syndicate's release.
That being said the reappearnce of old WM was a nice surprise at the end. Just wish more had been done with the ending for Layla.
The only other thing that was missing for me was I think an issue with almost everyone: the database. From what I understand, Ubisoft is releasing an interactice database early this year (which will be pretty fucking cool, don't get me wrong) but the lack of it still hurt. The history nerd inside of me cried everytime I met someone or passed by a building and I couldn't go look up more information on them. And once again, I understand why there is none storywise. It's confirmed early in the game that the only people working on this project are Layla (a computer engineer) and Dee (a nurse), neither huge historians from what I understood, and they're both keeping this hidden from Abstergo so there isn't exactly a historian on hand to make a database as they go along. But the exclusion of it just felt wrong.
Also, some endgame spoilers now, but Aya's tomb just doesn't make sense anymore. It was shown that Aya ran off to Rome to make a bureau there while Bayek stayed behind to make one in Memphis. And after the events of the game, they broke up their marriage and I'm assuming she died in Rome. So why was her body buries with Bayek's? Unless something happened way later and they made up, she shouldn't be there. And it wasn't Bayek's second wife or anything, cause Layla was able to see Aya's memories from the sample she took from the mummy.
That being said, Bayek was adorable. I loved his interations with children and I hope he got his own son or daughter later on. The fact that women also played a huge part in this game, being more often than not the most driven and badass characters was nice. I like to think that Bayek's bureau was made of mostly women, seeing as they were more often than not the ones who went on a muderous rampage of revenge while the men tended to stay behind and cried. It was nice.
#fireflysong gaming#assassins creed#ac origins#and with that ac is still the only series that ive actually beaten all the games#took ages though#i was like 3 years behind at one point#i vividly remember just finishing off black flag when syndicate came out#but its done
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The Phantom
No one knew more about the West Texas Phantom than grizzlymane415.
I exhausted all of the available information online - the Wikipedia page, the citations on the Wikipedia page, the weird blogspots, wordpresses and even a couple of Angelfires back in the day, the annoying slideshows which promised shocking revelations, but delivered none and just crashed my browser - they had all been laid to waste. My last bastion for any good information about the Phantom was an unsolved murder subreddit populated by other lonely weirdos who were probably collecting unemployment checks and ignoring the creepy messages on their numerous online dating profiles.
The group was great for the passionate discussions about the Phantom I could only have with complete, anonymous strangers who didn't assume I was some kind of sociopathic serial killer myself when I wanted to talk about my fascination with the still free killer of more than 20 people who stalked the plains and oil fields of West Texas in the late-80s. The group was also well-stocked with fascinating theories, like how the Phantom may have been a railroad conductor, or how he was a well-known high school football coach named Butch whose crimes were covered up to protect his legacy.
I also relished when some "newb" would wander into the group and start spouting out information we all had already dissected down to the finest molecule. It got to the point where I put a sticky on top of the page which focused on the six principle pieces of information which defined the Phantom and led to my gang's particular fascination with him. Unless someone had NEW information about any of these principles, any posts about them would be promptly deleted.
The Phantom took all of his victims in broad daylight (whether or not they were killed during the day was up for debate)
All of the Phantom's victims were regular women, not the common prostitute victims most serial killers claimed
He used an 1894 Marlin Model rifle. An incredibly rare and valuable weapon.
It is likely he had a regular, white collar job as his killing sprees tended to take place just once a year in two-week spans.
It is possible he used railroads for transportation as nearly all of his killings took place near rail stops.
Tracks from a 1959 Chevrolet Apache truck were found leaving a few of the scenes.
However, none of this fully-satisfied my appetite for discovery. The only person who was able to do that was grizzlymane415.
It all started when grizzlymane415 posted viciously gruesome autopsy photos of one of the Phantom's first victims. The images were so horrifying I felt I should have put that white powder they use in autopsy rooms in cop shows/movies underneath my nostrils so I didn't vomit all over my keyboard. Full disclosure, about 90 percent of what I know about crime comes directly from TV and movies.
RachWhov: How did you get that?
I couldn't have typed the question fast enough. I never got an answer.
That would be far from the last juicy nuggets grizzlymane415 would post. Within days, he posted a copy of a letter to a news reporter at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. The letter took credit for the first three murders which had been attributed to the Phantom and another I had never heard of which had never been connected to the Phantom.
RachWhov: Where did you get that?
I would get an answer this time from grizzlymane415, but not necessarily to that exact question.
(Note, for some reason, grizzlymane415 always typed in all caps. Sorry, I know)
grizzlymane415: THE PHANTOM LEFT CLUES EVERYWHERE. HE WAS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE SLOPPIEST SERIAL KILLERS TO NEVER GET CAUGHT. SOMETIMES I THINK HE DID IT ON PURPOSE. DID YOU KNOW HE USED TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE WALLETS OF EACH VICTIM AND THEIR JEWELRY TO RAISE AT LEAST SOME DOUBT IN THE COPS' MINDS THAT MAYBE HIS VICTIMS WERE SIMPLE VICTIMS OF ROBBERY?
RachWhov: I never heard that.
grizzlymane415: IT'S TRUE. CHECK ALL THE CASES. DO A LITTLE MORE GOOGLE SEARCHING. YOU WILL SEE SOME OF THE THEORIES.
grizzlymane415 was right. Everything I could find online suggest The Phantom had stolen money from each victim and their jewelry. Reports never seemed to focus on that too much, but it was occasionally mentioned. While it was never really mentioned in the stories, online threads and comment threads on stories frequently pointed it out, sometimes with foolish dissenters chiming in that he was just a random thief or many of his killings were just random robberies in the area which were attributed to him.
grizzlymane415: DON'T BELIEVE THE FOOLS THAT SAY IT WASN'T HIM EITHER. THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. THE COPS KEPT TABS ON ALL THE PAWN SHOPS AND GOLD BUYERS IN TEXAS AND NONE OF THAT JEWELRY EVER WAS SOLD AGAIN. SO IT WAS NOT SOMEONE KILLING FOR A QUICK BUCK.
RachWhov: I believe that, it wouldn't make a whole lotta sense.
grizzlymane415: AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE CRAZY PART YET. THE JEWELRY SHOWED UP AGAIN, BUT IT WASN'T SOLD.
RachWhov: What?
grizzlymane415: CORRECT. THE JEWELRY STARTED SHOWING UP ON STATUES AROUND CHURCHES IN TEXAS. ANY VIRGIN MARY STATUES THAT HAD FINGERS WHICH COULD FIT THE RINGS OR NECKS FOR NECKLACES.
grizzlymane415 attached a few pictures of virgin Mary statues with rings and necklaces on them in what looked like Texas settings. The hair on my arms stood at attention. It was enough for me to put the brakes on the forum, and grizzlymane415, for a little while. I slunk back to my other favorite haunts of the Internet – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, OKCupid – for a little while to stay safe and warm.
But I had to go back to the forum. At first I thought I would just ignore grizzlymane415, check out other cases, chat with my other super non-creepy, anonymous Internet friends, but I just couldn't do it. Here was my dream. Someone who could help me solve the crime which had engrossed and haunted me for years and I was going to run away because I was a scared, little girl? Plus, what's the worst that could happen? It was an anonymous board.
I cracked.
RachWhov: Where did you get those pictures.
grizzlymane415: THINGS ARE OUT THERE. HAVE YOU READ ABOUT THE JUDY PARCH AND PETRA HOLLIVER MURDERS?
RachWhov: Nope.
Tip – don't ever Google the Judy Parch and Petra Holliver murders. It is one of those cases which cues up first-page results of gruesome photos which will cling to your brain like an old stick of gum burned onto the sidewalk of a city street. My search pulled up a black and white photo of two women who I assumed were Judy and Petra clinging to each other in the backseat of a car, a blood-drenched blanket just not quite covering the damage of their faces.
To me, it wasn't even the gore of the photo which struck me so hard. It was the image of these two women who were clinging together like the last thing they wanted to do in the world was let each other know they loved one another before they suffered the world's great insult. They didn't even get the respect of having their final moments filled out with color. Nor, did they get the closure of having their case solved. Which brings me to one of the first major curiosities of grizzlymane415.
The murders of Judy Parch and Petra Holliver had never been connected to The Phantom in any way that I could find. Plus, they were murdered more than 1,000 miles away from The Phantom's stomping grounds of West Texas in Yucaipa, California, 50 miles or so outside of Los Angeles.
Overall there wasn't much information about the murder of Judy and Petra, other than a few archived articles from 1990 in the The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California and some brief cold case pages. Not even a Wikipedia page frustratingly lacking of hyperlinks to other stories to engross yourself in. Their murder was just a little footnote in the murder history of the Inland Empire of California.
RachWhov: There is nothing at all on the Internet which connects The Phantom to the murder of Judy and Petra. Where are you getting this?
grizzlymane415: CHECK THE RECORDS ON THE CASE. OTHER THAN THE LOCATION, IT ALL POINTS TO THE PHANTOM. REMEMBER YOUR OWN PRINCIPLES ON THE TOP OF THIS PAGE.
I did live in California, but hours away from Yucaipa, so driving out there to check their public records search wasn't in the cards. However, my fascination with The Phantom runs deep, and I was able to get in touch with an old high school classmate who lived in Yucaipa who I Paypalled cash in return for wasting a Saturday morning and afternoon going through old murder records for me.
grizzlymane415 was correct, the Yucaipa muders covered all of the bases of my principles except the sixth.
The bodies of Judy and Petra were found just before sunset on a February day, meaning they were murdered sometime during the day.
Both women worked for the school district and were married, with children. They were in no way prostitutes or people who operated in "risky" behavior.
Ballistics showed the women were shot with an 1894 Marlin rifle.
The women's murder occurred in middle of the two-week stretch of The Phantom's last killing spree.
The bodies were found less than a mile from train tracks.
RachWhov: You were right. Everything adds up to Judy and Petra being victims of The Phantom. Why is this not out there anywhere? Couldn't that bring a huge break in the case?
grizzlymane415:
RachWhov: I get it, cops suck, but this isn't right. Have you told the police there?
I didn't get an answer. A week went by.
RachWhov: ???
Another week.
grizzlymane415: I THOUGHT YOU WERE CAPABLE OF NOT NEEDING HAND HOLDING ON THIS, BUT JUDY WAS THE WIFE OF THE POLICE CHIEF IN YUCAIPA. YOU THINK HE WAS VERY INTERESTED IN KEEPING THE DETAILS OF HIS WIFE GETTING MURDERED IN THE BACKSEAT OF A CAR, HALF NAKED WITH ANOTHER WOMAN IN THE PUBLIC EYE? YOU DO THE MATH.
Another curiosity. I couldn't find anywhere, or in anything my friend from Yucaipa sent me where it said Judy and Petra were "half naked" when they were shot. A self-taught expert on my murder myself, I knew this reeked of a detail cops would deliberately leave out of public record to filter out false confessions. Something only the actual killer would know about the murder.
My house grew cold in the middle of an 80-degree day even though I didn't have air conditioning. It's entirely possible grizzlymane415 was completely making this detail up, or it was something he had heard through word of mouth, but those goosebumps upon my arms also knew another thing most self-taught murder experts learn in their 101 class. Murderers love to brag about their work, even though they know it almost always leads to them being caught.
I went over to the front door of my house and checked the lock.
I cut off all communication with grizzlymane415. He probably wasn't really The Phantom, but at best, he was an asshole who was trying to get underneath my skin. I didn't need that. I already had three online dating profiles adept at connecting me with sociopathic beta males who get off on messing with your head.
I remained on the board. I couldn't pass the monotony of semi-employed life and single woman living in a town of just 16,000 without the comfort of faceless online companionship which revolves around the cold murders of human souls.
Things were fine for quite a while, probably a few weeks, before I received another message out of the blue from grizzlymane415.
grizzlymane415:
grizzlymane415: KNOW WHAT THAT IS?
I didn't have to even look it up. I just assumed it was an 1894 Marlin rifle.
He was probably some dumb fuck 15-year-old boy fucking with me who pulled the image off of Google or a gun message board or something, but I can't act like I wasn't totally scared shitless by the thing.
My response came in the form of deleting my account. It may have been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but it was all I could do to keep my sanity. It wasn't worth it. Sorry Reddit.
*
Tyler came back in the heat of summer. I flinched when I heard the familiar rumble of his old motorcycle pull into the gravel of my driveway. Tears welled into the corner of my eyes when I walked out onto my rickety porch to see him pulling his helmet off of his shaggy brown hair.
Tyler and I were engaged, technically maybe still engaged. We never officially broke it off.
We met just after college, when both of us were fighting off the adult world by being full-time snowboard bums in Tahoe. We moved in with each other in just a couple of months out of financial convenience, but somehow dated just casually for a few years before we turned up the heat.
Tyler finally proposed about a year before this. That's when things started to get weird between us. I don't think either of us could take the pressure. Engagement meant we were creeping towards adulthood – getting real jobs, paying taxes, moving off the mountain. We decided we would start working on getting "real jobs" in Reno - maybe even Sacramento. We got a rustic rental house in Truckee, California to stay in an earthy little town, but still get a little bit away from Tahoe and try to figure out our lives.
We were in no way ready and took it out on each other. I shocked myself when I discovered I was in no way interested in an office or professional job after a few interviews where I felt I wanted to rip the business casual outfit off of my body and run out into the snow to do what I truly wanted to do with life.
Even more shockingly, Tyler went in the other direction. A quick taste of an internship at a law firm stoked the fire of opportunity which apparently burned inside of him once you got past the haze of weed smoke, shaggy hair and dirty beard.
Tyler came home late from work one night, told me about his plan to move us to the Bay Area where he had a full-time job opportunity lined up and we slowly but surely slipped into a fight which led to him driving off on his motorcycle to go to "San Francisco."
It would be more than six months before he would come back.
I couldn't believe it was him when I saw Tyler walk up the porch, but he didn't let me get a word out before he grabbed me sternly on the back of the head and pulled me in for a kiss. We went inside the house without a word spoken and headed to the bedroom.
We would exchange a few words for the next hour or so, but it would be dark before we had a real conversation.
"How was San Francisco?" I broke the numbing sound of our breathing as we laid in bed.
Tyler just gave a dismissive laugh.
"Not good?"
"No. I was just only there for like three weeks, sleeping on Mike's couch. Couldn't get a job, couldn't afford to live there."
I could tell Tyler was embarrassed when he responded. He knew what question was coming next. He tried to distract me by grabbing the modest engagement ring he gave me months before out of the pocket of his jeans which were sprawled next to us on the bed. He slid the ring onto my ring finger.
"Did you go to your parents?"
"Yeah," Tyler almost whispered his answer before he kissed me behind my ear lobe.
I figured Tyler ran back to the comfort of his parents' five-bedroom house on the coast in Orange County once he said San Francisco didn't work out. I would have done the same, but swap out Orange for Marin.
"What...
Tyler pushed his index finger upon my lips.
"Let's not ruin the moment. Talk about that stuff now. We're just going to get into a fight about it."
"Okay," I agreed, upping the pitch on the second half of the phrase.
"How the fuck is it so hot in here?" Tyler broke the silence and jump up out of the bed naked.
Tyler shuffled over to the large bay window doors of the master bedroom of the house, unlatched them and pushed them out onto the little deck which housed a few pots filled with neglected plants about 10 feet up off of the ground below. I admired Tyler as he stood in the pale moonlight the open doorway let in, his back to me, his arms outstretched. I slipped the ring off of my finger and placed it in a little crystal bowl I kept by the side of my bed.
Tyler yawned when he turned back to me and crawled into bed. He pulled another item out of his jean pocket before I could ask another question.
"You still?" Tyler sheepishly offered up a pipe.
"Yeah, yeah," I took the pipe right after Tyler filled it.
I lied. I hadn't smoked since Tyler left. Too poor. Too depressed and honestly too lazy to go out and get weed myself.
I took a heavy, heavy hit and deflated back down onto the bed. It felt divine.
I watched Tyler take a stiff hit himself. Turned down his second offer.
The hit kicked the malaise and fatigue which was pumping through my veins into overdrive. It wasn't long before I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I could tell I was going to fall asleep before 10 and that was fine for me. I let it come, a cool, gentle breeze drifted through the open bay window doors and gave me a kiss goodnight.
*
I woke up with a calm in my blood I had not felt in quite some time. The comfort of no longer sleeping alone seemed to put my soul at ease. The fresh morning sun of Summer was shining bright through the open door, melting away the refreshing cold of morning. It was just about a damn perfect morning. The kind you would see in a commercial for coffee.
I yawned and looked over to Tyler asleep on his back next to me, the pipe comically rested on his shoulder like the parrot of a pirate. I moved a little bit closer to him but hoped to not wake him at the same time.
My attempt to keep Tyler awake didn't work. He weaved his hand into mine as soon as I slipped over to his side of the bed.
"What happened to the ring?" Tyler said with a froggy, morning throat.
"Oh, uh. I took it off. My fingers swell up in my sleep sometimes, so I don't sleep with rings on. But I can put it back on."
I stretched my body back over across my side of the bed and blindly dropped my hand down into the little bowl. The ring wasn't there. I furiously scanned my hand around the dish a number of times.
"What the hell?"
"What?"
"The ring is gone?"
"You sure you didn't just put it somewhere else?"
"Yes."
I got up out of bed and stood over my nightstand. The ring was not in the bowl or anywhere near it. I dropped hard down to the floor and combed the slick hardwood, looked underneath the bed and behind the nightstand. It was nowhere to be found.
Crawling on all fours, I turned my attention to the floor which led to the open deck door. Quickly stopped dead in my tracks.
Ever-so-faintly pressed into the dust of the floor were boot tracks – the tread of the boots looking like cookie cutter stamps of dog kibble upon the floor.
"Shit."
I traced the tracks to the open door of the deck.
"We didn't just lose a thousand dollars, did we?" Tyler asked from behind.
"That's the last thing I am worried about right now," I shot back. "I think someone came in here and took the ring last night."
It took Tyler a few seconds to reply, but when he did, his voice carried the tenor or building fright.
"Are you serious?"
I turned to see Tyler looking down at me.
"You're joking, right?" He added.
I looked down at the boot tracks one more time.
"Unless you walked around here with boots last night and lost the ring, I'm not."
My mind instantly went to grizzlymane415. I hadn't communicated with him for a while, but he was the last creepy thing taking up residence inside the dark recesses of my brain.
But how the hell could he have tracked me down?
I never shared any personal information with grizzlymane415. There was no information on my profile. I was unsearchable on Facebook and pretty much everything else and he didn't even have my real name. Even RachWhov didn't have a direct connection to me. Rach was short for my middle name and Whov was a play on my last name of Hoover, but the combination of those two would lead nowhere.
Oh shit. Nevermind.
The thought building in my brain shut down every single sense of my body for a moment.
Instagram. Fuck.
My username on the Instagram account I hadn't updated in nearly a year was RachWhov and it was a picture journal of my life for the past few years, including a fine documentation where I visually bragged about our killer little house in Truckee.
"You think someone climbed up onto our deck in the middle of the night, snuck in here, grabbed just the ring, nothing else, and left without us waking up?" Tyler asked from over by the deck.
"Uh huh. We, were, high."
"Well that's comforting," Tyler snipped before turning back around to me. "Who the hell could have done that?"
"No idea."
I lied. I was not yet ready to tell anyone else about my online life and I myself was far from convinced grizzlymane415 was the one who took the ring. It was a pretty outrageous thought that he found my Instagram and was able to find exactly where I lived and snuck into my bedroom and stole the ring.
I logged into my Reddit account to see if I had received any new messages from grizzlymane415.
grizzlymane415: WHERE DID YOU GO?
grizzlymane415: SORRY IF I WAS A DICK. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SHIT?!?!?!?
What followed was a link to an article detailing a string of three murders which had taken place across the Southwest over the past couple of weeks – one in West Texas, one in New Mexico, one outside of Las Vegas. All three had the calling cards of The Phantom, including taking place in a two-week cluster. Worse yet, they occurred in the order which suggested The Phantom was moving in a Northwest pattern, right towards Northern California.
grizzlymane: HE'S BACK.............
I typed up: Where do you live?
Was about to hit Enter...
"Hey," Tyler's voice shot up from behind me in the living room.
I jumped up out of my seat, scrambled to close my browser.
"You looking at porn?" Tyler quipped from behind me.
"No."
Tyler let out a deep exhale.
"I found something weird in the mailbox."
Tyler pushed a bullet into my face. I don't think I had ever actually seen one in-person so it would have been a jarring vision even if he hadn't explained it was resting in our mailbox.
"It was just sitting in there. There weren't letters or anything else."
"Shit. Shit. Shit."
"What?"
"This just has me totally freaked out."
"Well let's go down and talk to the cops."
Tyler had a good idea for the first time in a really long time.
"I gotta take my motorcycle down to Devin's shop anyways."
He followed it up with a really bad one.
"Just take my car with me. We should go together."
"Devin just texted me. If I don't get it down there in like twenty minutes, I won't be able to get it looked at till Monday and I might need it this weekend. I'll just meet you at the station."
I didn't even want to know why Tyler might need his motorcycle for the weekend.
"Fine."
"Alright," Tyler grabbed his motorcycle helmet before he had even finished the word.
"Wait," I pleaded.
Tyler was already out the door.
"Motherfucker."
I could still see the dust lingering from the tires of Tyler's motorcyle when I walked out into our dirt driveway. I fought the urge to call him. He wouldn't answer anyway.
The morning glow which made the start of the day so glorious was long gone. A hazy sky of moist gray hung above, threatening rain and a cold wind whipped around the side of the house.
I jumped into my battered Ford Focus. Shook my head to myself about Tyler's ridiculous selfishness, wondered if I should just say fuck it and drive straight to my parents' house in Marin, but I couldn't do it. It was only about a 10 minute drive down the highway to the station and I was pretty sure the cops would be able to at least bring me some soul relief for a little while.
The road from our house to the main highway was probably the last road I wanted to be on at the moment. It was a glorified gravel road, lined with trees and tree-surrounded little shacks and shanties next to the river. Once upon the road, my eyes lingered on something sticking out of the tall grass next to the road - Tyler's motorcycle, propped up halfway between the road and the woods.
I took my foot off the gas, slowly pushed on the brake, felt the world outside my car window come back into regular speed.
Then I felt something hit my bumper.
What the?
I shot a hurried look into my rear-view mirror to see a black truck stuck onto the bumper of my car. The afternoon haze and the brevity of my glance didn't allow me to see the face of the driver behind the wheel, but I took in the outline of a dark hat and dark gloves draped upon the steering wheel.
Another thud hit hard upon my bumper, pushing me off to the side of the road. I tried to correct, but couldn't pull it off, my car went off the embankment of the country road and rumbled into the tall grass field which flanked it.
It now felt as if I was on some kind of rocky road amusement park type ride. My car bounced up and down, roughly and wildly, everything inside the cab, myself included, thrashed about violently. The seatbelt was the only thing saving me from smashing up against the windshield or the steering wheel.
I had much more sinister fears at the moment than smashing my head against the wheel and there was no way a seatbelt could save me from them. Another look out my rear view mirror while airborne allowed me to see more of the truck which had slammed into me from behind and I recognized it all too well. I knew nothing about trucks, but I could pick out a 1959 Chevrolet Apache in any lineup.
My car finally started to slow as I approached the line of trees which led into the woods. The entire world around me got darker when the front of my car smashed into the light shrubs at the edge of the tree line and started plowing over some of the younger trees. It came to a stop just under the cover of the tall firs.
I wasted no time in ripping off my seatbelt, going for the handle of my car door, but it wouldn't budge. The door appeared to be wedged up hard against the thick trunk of a tree.
I climbed over to the passenger-side door. My eyes threw a glance out the back window of my car and saw the black Apache parked on the side of the road.
"Ah, shit!" I screamed when the passenger-side door wouldn't open either.
I shot another look out of the back window – didn't see any movement, but heard the familiar sound of a truck door closing. I didn't wait to see if anyone was walking out of the truck, dove into the backseat and tried one of the back doors.
The highest I have ever felt in my entire life was when I felt that back door give and open out into the darkened forest. I piled out of it before I even got the thing all the way open.
I dragged my field of vision across the grass between the Apache and the back of my car when I climbed out of the car. The driver of the truck was out of his vehicle, his black cowboy hat obscured his pale face just enough to where I couldn't make it out. He took tall strides around the front of the truck in a long, black trench coat.
I wasted no more moments in observation, turned into the woods and fled, pissed at myself for leaving my cell phone in the center console. It didn't matter now, my only hope was running deeper into the woods, finding a house, the river or something, basically just losing the approaching stranger behind me.
For a second, I thought I heard the rumble of the river coming in front of me, but the sound quickly took a familiar form. It was Tyler's motorcycle. I slowed my sprint, shot a look over my shoulder. At the edge of the trees was Tyler on his motorcycle, he reared back on the cycle, tried to maneuver his way through the brush which served as the doormat for the thicker forest.
"Tyler," I screamed through the trees. "Call the cops. Call the cops."
But he couldn't hear me over the sound of his motorcycle. I came to a complete stop and watched him make his way into the forest where he would have a little bit more space to snake his motorcycle around trees. I tried to also look out behind him, where the truck was parked up near the roadway, but couldn't see that far.
Tyler put the motorcycle into a skid just before he reached me. He killed the engine and jumped off, was greeted by me screaming out at him over the sounds of his dying engine.
"Where is he?"
Tyler whipped around, looked back through the woods.
"The guy in the truck. He ran me off the road."
Tyler lifted up the belly of his shirt to show a horrible road rash sprayed across his stomach.
"I hid in the woods for a while. I tried to call you, but you didn't answer."
"He ran me off the road too," I screamed in Tyler's face. "Where is he?"
Tyler kept his eyes off through the woods.
"He peeled out and drove off when I got back on my motorcycle. He's gone."
I followed Tyler's eyes through the darkening woods and had to agree. There were no signs of the driver, or his truck.
*
The cops had a really tough time not just believing what I told them happened, but even understanding it. I had to pull up Reddit on one of the officer's computers to show them all what it was and how it worked.
Honestly, it seemed like they all thought we were concocting some kind of elaborate alibi to cover up a domestic squabble and/or drunk driving accident. They basically did the least amount of work they could to document it and stopped returning our calls after a couple of weeks. I told them all of the details about The Phantom of West Texas. They didn't care in the least. I may have well just said The Phantom of the Opera.
Making it a little harder to believe my story, I deleted my account and apparently so did grizzlymane415. There was no record of our conversations, all of our comments within the board said they were posted by [deleted].
I found the generic form email for the FBI and a couple of police departments in West Texas, but I never even heard back from them. Maybe the only people who still cared about The Phantom were me and my weirdo Internet friends. Maybe it was a sign that I should just forget about that kind of stuff. At least that was Tyler's opinion.
We left Truckee that day, took the important stuff out of our house and never came back. We moved to Marin County where Tyler was able to get an entry level job with my dad's company and I could find a real job in the office of the local hospital with some of the friends I grew up with.
Speaking of growing up, it was officially time to. I left the Internet serial killer groupie community behind me and focused on my job and trying to re-plan a real wedding with Tyler.
The months went by and I had almost completely forgotten about that old life and that horrible cloudy day, or at least I tried to, but I could not fully run away. My blood ran cold when I received a voicemail on my phone after getting a missed call from my former landlord, Dale, back in Truckee.
I initially thought the message would be a scolding for the state we left the house in or bailing on the last five months of our lease, but Dale actually seemed to have a softer tone than he usually used. He wanted to get in touch with me because someone had left what seemed like an important piece of mail for us in the mailbox. He just needed our new address so he could send it to us.
I chewed my nails down to the tender skin the next few days, feveriously anticipating receiving our unopened mail. Dale was polite in insisting he would absolutely not open our mail for us, even if we wanted him to (which I did).
I tore into the little forwarded envelope as fast as humanly possible when it showed up.
I recognized exactly what was in the envelope as soon as I opened it up. It was my engagement ring, the tiny little diamond perched upon the top of it glittering back at me.
A note fell out of the envelope.
It was just a cursive signature written in black ink.
It read: The Phantom.
Originally published by Thought Catalog on www.ThoughtCatalog.com.
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Ducktales Reviews: The Trickening!
Halloween Havoc continues! Louie’s greed and lack of concern for his brother’s feelings or well thought out schedule leads them to a real life haunted house with vampire clowns, dummies, a scary well lady and a gelatinous cube. Because there’s’es always room for gelatinous cube. Meanwhile Della wants to use Launchpad’s dangerous misconceptions about halloween to traumatize children for funzies and Donald had a problem with that for some reason. Also Scrooge is kind of an asshole on Halloween it turns out. No one is suprised. Ghosts, goblins, and full review with spoilers under the cut.
Happy halloween month everybody! Halloween Havoc, aka my spate of halloween reviews continues as I roll into my first actual halloween episode review of the season! Yeah weird but so far we’ve covered demons getting exorcisims, little girls thinking they can raise the dead, and a horrifying plauge guided by the human incarnation of all that is evil, but not the actual holliday itself. Weird ain’t it? Well that changes with this so as always pitter patter.
It’s HALLOWEEN here in duckberg, and the mansion kids are planning Trick or Treating. Natural given Huey’s OCD, he has everything planned out a and naturally the kids all have unique and adorable costumes. Huey is gizmoduck, though with a GK instead of GD, a nice nod to “New Gizmokids on the BLock’ From the original series, an episode I haven’t seen but have heard of so theres that. It’s also because he likely wants to be Fenton’s kid sidekick which.. yeah please do that show. It’d be so fucking adorable. Plus Huey needs to be happy for once without having to go through a gauntlet of misery first. Let my boy be happy. +
Anyways Dewey’s is rather disapointing as it’s a “pirate on vacation” which while hilarious and very dewey, is kind of an anti-climax after months of speculation. Webby is some kind of ancient demon king as apparently in the duckverse the origins of halloween are based on appeasing various monsters, and this is so she can hide from them effectively. And Louie.. is Huey. Which means putting on Huey’s hat and a terribly insulting impression of him.
Meanwhile Donald and Della are an angel and a devil, with, which I didn’t realize until a tumblr post, Della’s costume being the one one of the boys wore in the classic disney trick or treat short. So that’s a nice nod. Donald wants to nicely give out candy while Della wants to terrify the children. Both end up disapointed as Scrooge instead boots everyone from the house and locks the mansion gates, as he doesn’t like giving out handouts which.. yeah that tracks.
As it turns out Scrooge also has his own plans.. which are gloriously ludicrous, sounding like something Glomgold would do: He’s going to go trick or treating himself, as when he was a boy, this was the one time of year a poor lad like him could get treats and he worked his tail off to do so and wants to prove he’s still got it. And as we see later SOMEHOW he still gets candy. It’s like if THIS was actually sucessful.
I would genuinely not be suprised if Scrooge too hadn’t tried to get an oil well from an elementary school this way. As for leaving candy out he leaves out an empty take one bowl which is as clever as it is douchey. So in other words Scrooge in a nutshell. So with handing out treats and scares at the house a non-option, Della and Donald go to see what Launchpad’s doing since Beakly.. is.. I have no fucking idea. NO I really don’t, she shows up for the ending, but before that? If they mentioned where she was I clearly missed it because she’s just.. missing for most of the episode and given every other member of the main cast is accounted for this episode, it’s VERY noticable. Give her more to do dangit!
So yeah we get our two plots, which i’ll cover seperately, then cover the ending where they dovetail together. Kay? Kay.
The Kid’s Plot centers around Huey and Louie.. specifically Louie wanting to go to a real life haunted house while Huey, as mentinoed has heavily established plans for their night. As for why Louie would go into danger, well as usual for when he does that theirs something in it for him: Rumor has it no kid has ever made it out with their candy.. thus leaving decades worth of candy just waiting to be nabbed and thus never having to trick or treat again. One big score for a payoff.. which didn’t make a lot of sense on first thought and my best guest is whatever preservative Gyro used for Oxy Chew, since it was still edible decades later, was probably spread to other candies since there’s no way in hell Scrooge would pass up a zillion dollar invention like that. Either way works.
Huey is outvoted as Dewey naturally wants the excitment and Webby wants to see if her demon costume works on actual demons. However things quicklky go wrong as they ecoounter a dewey dummy and a killer dummy, as well as a monster clown and a gelatonous cube, which yes. I may not play DnD but I love these things.
The kids escape the house by accident while tryign to escape and Louie, still being a dick about things, finds out Huey DID know abotu the stash btu avoided it and Louie lays into Huey.. a bit much honestly, feeling he was agaisnt it purely because it wasn’t on schedule.. when you know, Louie could’ve asked to put it on schedule or actually given a damn about this, especially since Huey’s planned their trick or treats EVERY YEAR, so he’s had a full year to ask for this insane idea, or even the short time he’s known about it if shorter. Sure huey might of sputtered a bit, but Louie knows his other siblings, Webby and Dewey could convince him to loosen up and include the house. Louie’s just being kind fo a selfish dick here.. however i’ts not so overwhelming as to overpower the episode, as he has been before and while he should know better about risking his family’s lives after “Timephoon!” it is in character for him to protiize a big score like this over other people’s feelings and it’s not even the first time this season he’s done that. So fair enough.
But we soon get the second best reveal of the episode: As the kids are backed into a corner by monsters.. they grumble theres no candy and it turns out the monsters.. ARE REAL.. but their traditional monsters like frankenstein, dracula, and the bride of frankenstein, just dressed up like this to scare kids. As it turns out the WHOLE THING is an elaborate yearly scooby doo hoax to get kids candy, with the brilliant twist it’s done by actual monsters> As the vampire points out they can’t exactly shop during the day.. or he can’t at least, so this is how they get candy for the year.. at tribute if you will. Also the Gelationous Cube gets a nice hat as you see above. It’s a REALLY clever twist and I absolutely love it. I DID NOT see it coming and even with some spoiler screenshots I thankfully did not have it spoiled for me. REALLY good stuff.
As for why Huey’s been so obessed with his planning.. it’s actually really clever and really good character stuff: Huey simply got really into it because back when they were with donald this WAS their adventure for the year: the one time he let them cut loose and have fun, and he got a real kick out of it.. and Louie getting candy for life kind of destroys that. And that’s why Louie still works here.. because he instnatly realizes from this that was the problem and apologizes in his own way. It’s a nice bit of character from both: We’ve rarely had their pre-mansion lives factor in and it’s nice to see it for a change, and it’s nice to see Louie isn’t all dick, just like 20% dick. Unforutnately having no candy dosen’t appease the monsters who are pissed and descend on the kids.. until.. well for the until we have to back up a bit.
So onto the adult plot we go! Della and Donald go to Launchpad whose dressed in a jason mask and ash williams/jason coveralls, weilding a power sander and having barricaded his place. After he scares some children, a bit too much, and Della and Donald are reallyd amn confused, he explains.. and we get the best reveal of the episode.. which given the above is saying something but it’s clear like the “blath” gag in “Astro BOYD” and the non-anthro ducks gag last week, this is one of those things Frank has been keeping under his hat all series.
So as a boy Launchpad crashed his tryke into the mansion, ran into the monsters after reading off a candy wrapper.. and now assumes he unleashed a horde of monsters onto the world every halloween.. and tha’ts what he assumes the trick or treaters are. I just .. dont’ have a lto of words. This is pure comedy gold and easily the best gag of the episode and oen fo the best of the series. It’s clever, fresh, and really fits the character. Naturally Della wants to exploit this to terrify children ebcause she has underlying issues to adress while Donald tries to stop her. Thankfully before Della can get launchpad to scar children for life, Scrooge shows up and fights launchpad.. it’s part of why I also find scrooge’s dickery acceptable as launchpad beats the shit out of him.. it’s still an even fight, as not to suspend disbelief, but Scrooge still looses. I mean he gets out of being trapped in his candy bag easily because scrooge btu still, props to launchpad. So Launchpad decides to go face his fears and Donald and Della decide to stop him before he doesd a muder on a child.
Which leads to an AMAZING climax as Launchpad scooby doo chases the scared monsters around as they have no idea what the fuck’s going on and hte monsters end up really enjoying his scar eof htem and bowing to the master. It’s a good way to end it. After Della explains what’s going on, Louie and Huey decide to explain halloween to Launchpad by taking him to the once house he hasn’t been: the Manor. Scrogoe has finally opened it up, with a line of kids no less, the monsters bond with some kids in line. As for why.. as Webby sadly figures out Scrooge is charging admission, thakns to dewey who thought an all night candy store was a good idea which.. yeah it is. So everyone gets a happye ending and the monsters hang a photo of hte night up in the mansion. A really sweet ending, pun uintended but eh it’s welcome.
Final Thoughts.
Easily one fo the series best. While the characters are a bit exagerated in places, i.e. della, launchpad , scrooge and louie, it works for the plot well enough and the jokes well enough to make it okay. My only real complaint is a lack of even a cameo from Lena and Violet, as it feels weird to not even have htem in the ending, much less trick or treating with their friends. It just feels odd and could’ve used a throaway line. I get WHY not , as Lena even pre-blue would’ve destoryed the tension with the monsters, but it still feeels really weird to not have them. But it’s a minor quibble in an otherwise REALLY funny and creative episode and a fun halloween treat to revist every year from now on. Really good work.
That does it for this week. For more halloween treats, follow this blog throughout october. So far i’ve done reviews of Demonicsim from Star Vs The Forces of Evil for Tomtober, Croaked, the Casagrandes day of the dead Special and the first of Marvel’s mini-series adapting Stephen’ King’s epic novel The Stand. And until next monday, or sooner if you decide to check any of that out, happy halloween!
#halloween#ducktales#the trickening#huey duck#louie duck#della duck#donald duck#dewey duck#webby vanderquack#scrooge mcduck#launchpad mcquack#monsters#super creeps#keeps me running running scared#october#reviews#animation
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