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miyuskye · 4 months ago

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HERE I GO with this super interesting event from the All Ships Ship Week event hosted by @ficwip

The ship dossier! And what ship I could've dossiered if not my current hyperfixation, aka Jon/Elias??? Sooo, the thing with loving a podcast is that you don't get a lot of official art, since the physical descriptions are also very scarce by author's choice. BUT! they recently made a TTRPG game based on the podcast, which these semi-canon designs. My personal image of the characters in influenced by the huge amount of fanarts circulating around, but, probably an unpopular opinion, I like these designs too. With reference to the image, the top one (not in the ship sense) is Jon, aka the Archivist, aka the pet project/obsession and the bottom one (again, not in the ship sense) is Elias/spoiler, aka the mentor/obsessed.

It would have been great, if I did actually understand the assignment and not gone off the trail with a full AO3 statistical analysis. Under the cut because probably not a lot of people are interested in my ramblings. The dossier is intended for both people familiar with the series, but also for people who know nothing about it. Warning for sparse spoilers about the whole TMA series (not TMP since I still have to listen to it!) (as I said, Elias is a big spoiler himself lol)

Let's begin this trip with a biiig disclaimer. Sadly for us avid AO3 users, the AO3 fandom does not represent the fandom in whole, so these stats are based only on the number of works in the AO3 context. Looking around at non-fanfic related site, i.e. reddit, I know there are some JE shipper there too, though I can't really be sure in what percentage with respect to the non-shipping community (or the people only shipping the canon couple). Links to the guru of fandom stats! toastystats (tumblr), AO3. There's also a github repository but I personally found it a bit cranky to use and it doesn't use an AO3 updated DB, though for big data statistics is fine due to the central limit theorem but for smaller fandom/tags it might be a bit inaccurate. Also the code is in python 2, which is now a bit difficult to use. I personally made my stats by doing targeted searches using the AO3 search function! Super easy to use, albeit a bit repetitive. Stats were made on Oct, 19-22, 2024. Again, I think the results won't change much through the years, especially regarding the main TMA tag data, but who knows if JonElias will surge in popularity (hehe it's a distant hope, I'm pretty much sure that the population distribution is already well-established).

TMA (The Magnus Archive) is a horror podcast, following the events of Jonathan Sims, aka Jon, aka the first part of my ship, who works at the Magnus Institute. This Institute is a facility researching in supernatural events and records supernatural encounters in the form of statements given by volunteering people. Jon is the Head Archivist, meaning he manages the statements and records some "odd ones", as per request of the Head of the Institute and his direct superior, Elias. Sooo yes, he's also his boss. :) lovely for them.

My lovely idiots are the 3rd most popular ship! Such a big achievement for me, who I usually ship obscure ships. As of today, we have 1434 JE works out of the whole 29751 works in the TMA tag. Way to go, JE community, let's keep this up!

The Jon/Martin ship is actually canon in the podcast, so that big percentage, compared to other fandoms, is largely explained by that (instead of simple popularity like Oikawa/Iwaizumi in the Haikyuu fandom). My other favorite ship is Jon/Tim, and I proudly contributed to that 2.78% (ofc also to the 4.8% of JE but it seemed quite superfluous to write).

Fun fact: speaking of spoilers, Elias' character tag in AO3 is a MASSIVE spoiler. It was what ruined the plot twist for me, because I looked for fanfics around ep 40ish (out of 200) and got that spoiled :( I understand why AO3 did that, because before the reveal the tags referring to Jonah and Elias were separated and I guess they wanted to unite them (since I also read some Jonah/Jon works before the reveal - all of them ended up having Elias being somewhat connected to Jonah OF COURSE, but I believe that before The Reveal there was also the belief that Elias was one of his descendants. I became part of the fandom after that, though, so it's just speculation based on older posts I came across).

This is probably my most favourite slide. JonElias has the highest Mature-to-Gen ratio (based on the AO3 rating system) with respect to the other ships. Jon/Martin, being 40% of the works also leads most of the general fandom stats, so it's more correct to actually cite the ship that makes the stat. I also believe that a lot of the more Gen-oriented fics feature Jon/Martin due to them being canon, that is also one of the possible factors influencing their and the whole tag ratios. Due to this, I believe that the Elias/Peter ratio might actually influenced by that, since they're a non-conflicting couple with the main one and are thus frequently included in their fanfics. The other fave of mine also has a higher Mature-to-Gen ratio than the general one, but not as high as JE.

Jon is the main character, so it's obvious that he is the most cited in all the works. Elias is the villain, so it's not so strange. Also, this refers to the characters tags, and this means that Elias might be included as a character even in other ships-based works. I believe the same happens with Tim, since ships with him have a lower presence in the fandom, but he is the third most included character. It's probably because he gets included into most of the Gen/JMart works.

These are the most used AO3 tags for the JonElias main ship tag. Do I really need to explain? They just do the talking in my place lol

A few words on the Alternate universe tag: AUs are somewhat canon in the show, due to plot-related reasons, and I believe this gives us space to imagine, stories where Jon is as deranged as Elias without denaturing canon. I personally believe Jon has the capacity of being feral as, if not even more than, Elias. Canon showed us a glimpse of what we could have but ended up not getting, again, due to plot-related reasons. Some fanfics are based on those glimpses. Also the Do not Archive will be an interesting topic to talk about later!

These are the most used tags for the individual characters. Some of them are also matching but not in their JE tagged works. For example, the tag Fluff might be present in 12% of Elias' works but more than half of those works are Jon/Martin-based works, so he's included in the work but, in a way, not actively participating in the fluff. Also, Jon is canonically asexual, hence the related tag! A few words on that, this doesn't and rightly won't stop people from producing M and E-rated works with him and characters (not necessarily Elias), contrary to what some people might think. And I assure you, as an asexual person, that no one of the JE fanfics I read (even the ones without the Asexual character tag) erased Jon's asexuality. If anything, the ones where Jon's asexuality was present and acknowledged were also my favorites!

Small digression on the Do not archive tag. I noticed that both JE and Elias' tag had a percentage of works being under that tag. Which is used when an author does not want the series staff to read their works. It's mostly used on M+E works (77% of DNA tagged works are M or E rated on AO3), as one would expect. At first I guessed it was related to the pronounced M-to-T ratio of the JE tag (which is even more pronounced on the DNA tag), buuut it turns out the main cause was just a quirk of the data/bias of the data case. As I said, there are only 1434 (as of end-October 2024) works in the JE tag and this means that this number can be biased by a single external source, which causes the shift in the data. This means that this is not a trend!

By excluding the cause from the analysis, the Do not archive tag percentages for JE are still higher than the other ships, but not by such a large margin (around 7% which makes sense).

Nothing to say here, the series reaching its peak in terms of fandom response and also due to COVID making people consume more media content, the JE rise followed the general raise of fanfics in the TMA tag. Which isn't surprising but not to be taken for granted either! Another sad but probably not a trend fact is that Jon/Elias production was slightly more flourishing during the earlier years of the series (especially 2018-2019), than it is now. This might probably related to a ship actually being made canon or probably fandom disappointment in the TMA finale (which I can understand). I read in a lot of earlier JE fanfics very excited comments about "omg I can't wait to see him and Jon in s4/5" and I was like *sad violin noises*, because they didn't get the amount of (canon-expected) interactions the JE fandom thought they would get. Again, this is just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unexpectedly, M+E JE works have more words that Gen-rated ones (expected on the JE tag due to their M-to-T ratio, but kinda unexpected compared to the whole TMA tag).

JE fanfics are slightly more kudo-ed and bookmarked than the general fandom trend.

A conclusive remark, is that I made this just to see what behaviours could be extrapolated from such a tiny tag in an otherwise medium fandom (as for 2020, median number of fanworks in labelled big fandom was 45k. Havign roughly half of that number means that TMA is, on AO3, a medium fandom to me).

Anyhow, I wish you happy JonElias day which for me is once again every day since twp months ago :)

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thebrokengate · 8 months ago

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The Record of Stan Frederick: A Study of Amendments

This is an analysis that is long overdue. If there’s anyone in the world that could tell you how much I love The Record of Stan Frederick, it’s my best friend whose ear I’ve talked off endlessly about it, and they would probably tell you that Amendments is not only my favorite episode of the series, but also that it’s my favorite Slenderverse video of all time. If anyone who hasn’t experienced the Slenderverse asked me to show them one video from it that would paint them a picture of what the spirit of this universe is all about, this is the one I would point them to, because its characters, story, and editing encapsulate everything that I’ve loved about the Slenderverse for years all in one episode. I believe that Amendments is not only just a brilliantly made episode among many others in The Record of Stan Frederick, but it is also crucial to our understanding of the narrative, of what both separates and brings together our primary protagonist and antagonist, how the events of each character’s lives and how they felt about them affected their choices, and how the overall story of this series promotes the cautionary tale of not letting yourself fall into perpetuating the cycle of violence.

This is a case study of Amendments.

In the context of The Record of Stan Frederick, the dictionary meaning of the episode’s title would be defined as “a change made by correction, addition, or deletion” as our protagonist Stan Frederick’s goal in this particular video is to correct his error of putting off stopping his ex-partner in crime, Connor Dwight, from hurting the people around Stan when he had known how to stop Connor for at least a year. Stan put everyone else’s monsters ahead of his own, which only led to further destruction that could have been avoided—yet another huge mistake that cost him greatly. With his metaphorical will to live gone when he lost Willow, a child Stan was trying to help who was being hunted by the monsters known as Seedeaters, who manipulated her sister Dana to give her over to them—an event that Connor had a hand in tricking Stan over after being given Willow’s death prophecy by another monster known as the Rake, in which Connor proceeded to give Stan a warning ahead of time that other characters they knew could be the next to die, but never gave Willow’s name as an option—Stan finally worked up the nerve to take care of him once and for all.

Stan returns to his childhood home years after the loss of his little brother Erik and his parents, the place still as empty as it was then, save for the monster who took them all, standing at the top of the stairs waiting for him like it had never left. The Slenderman, as we know him, a monster who Stan used to fear so much and once gave into survival to appease it, and now Stan needs its help. It’s such a cruel twist of fate when he had taken everything from Stan in the past, and he has to question it: Can the monster feel emotions like pain or fear, and do the things that it does mean anything in relation to what it is? The reality of this question is to wonder if this faceless being who never speaks its mind has any level of consciousness humans can understand. Is it just a monster meant to prey on people like an animal for its own survival? Is it meant to play games with the mind until its victims are broken and nothing more? Is it something so far removed from us? Or is it like us at all, able to understand the horrors it puts humanity through, but does it anyway? Could it ever have felt the pain that Stan felt every time it took someone from him, and could it have ever understood him? But they’re questions that never come with an answer. It does what it does and that’s all we know.

But there is one other thing that Stan knows: how to please it. He makes a deal with Slenderman, not a far cry from making a deal with the Devil, that if he would make Connor human again so that he can be killed, Stan would let Slenderman take him in return. Turning the corner up the stairs, Stan finds that Slenderman has disappeared at the request, and at first believes that this was a denial of the offer on the monster’s part, only to look back down the stairs and see him now at the bottom instead. The deal Stan made effectively reversed their roles where Slenderman went from being both literally and metaphorically above him to being below him, showing that Stan now is the one who has control over the monster, it doing his bidding instead of the other way around—a relatively uncommon thing for a protagonist of the Slenderverse to make happen. This is one of the many things that makes The Record of Stan Frederick unique in general, because the story is told from the perspective of someone who has already been through this and knows the monster’s behavioral patterns instead of someone who has never had these experiences before.

With his deal accepted by the monster, Stan enters his old bedroom with only his camera that he sets up on the windowsill, and Connor’s gun. For a moment as he loads the gun, he thinks back on the last conversation he had with his brother Erik the day Slenderman took him, a memory that we as the audience also hear, before putting the gun to his head which lures Connor out. The trigger is pulled and despite the gun being loaded, no bullet comes out, because Stan isn’t allowed to die. The Rake still owes him for having given Connor to him years ago, and Connor can’t kill him because he’s under the Rake’s protection. Similarly, Connor can’t be killed in his current form as what’s known as a corruptelam—an echo of a person much like that of a ghost that can be left behind when a monster consumes a human. So with the two of them now standing face to face, both unable to be killed by the other, they’re finally at a stalemate. This is also reflected in the framing of the scene in which neither character stands above or below the other, showing that they are currently equals, unlike before for example in the episode People where Connor stands over Stan and Serena after fighting them off.

This is when Stan tries to appeal to Connor’s emotions, asking him if he remembers when they first met and saying that he knows Connor forgot a lot of things. It’s unspecified just how much Connor did forget as the type of corruptelams Stan had described the Rake leaving behind being echoes of the body rather than the mind, the type which Connor is, but we do know that day was one of the things he seems to have forgotten. Stan reminds him that they were once just kids in the foster system, both afraid of the same monster and the only ones who seemed to have been followed by it, which is when they clicked. And interestingly enough, for a second, Connor almost seems… sad. He bows his head and stares at the floor, and Stan mirrors the same position. Mirroring someone’s behavior in psychology is often a sign of empathy, giving the other person a non-verbal sign of connection and understanding, and it’s often something subconsciously done in our every day social environments. It shows that both of them are in sync, engaged in the same discussion and nostalgia of the past they endured together.

Stan didn’t know anything about Connor back then, certainly not what he was capable of becoming, but he knew even less about what he himself would become and what they would become together. Fear drove them both to survival, as equally guilty in what they did as they are in their equal inability to die. It’s what they both wanted at one point, to be able to live without that fear. To want to survive is human; when we’re faced with death, most of us will do anything to stop it, just as they did. But sometimes we go about it in a way that brings harm to others. Sometimes we become selfish creatures and throw others to the weeds if it means we’ll get a good night’s sleep. The truth is, the only thing that makes Stan better than Connor here is the fact that he woke up one day and realized he didn’t want to live that way anymore, to hurt others to keep himself safe. They’ve both been victims and they’ve both been perpetrators, but only Stan broke that cycle.

Stan then lifts the gun and points it at Connor, who reminds him that Stan can’t kill him. Stan replies that he knows because Connor is a corruptelam, the phenomena which he had named himself, to which Connor points out that he finds this whole situation embarrassing. This moment and the moment before are so surprisingly human, taking a step back and looking at the portrayal of Connor’s character up until this point as an otherwise threatening and intimidating figure. But, being completely unphased by the gun, Stan wonders if Connor had forgotten that, too—how to be scared, knowing now that he can’t be killed as a corruptelam and feeling that nothing bad would ever happen to him again because he’s something stronger than a human now. This conversation perfectly mirrors Stan’s earlier questions to Slenderman of if he can feel emotions and if the awful things he does have any purpose relative to his being, because Connor has truly become their own monster: perpetuating the cycle of violence, taking what he can from Stan to hurt him, and now unable to die. He’s forgotten the times that he used to lie awake in bed every night, terrified that their monster would come back again and harm him, and that’s something he outright tells Stan. “You move on. You make it better for yourself. You forget!” he argues. “No, you don’t! You don’t forget that,” Stan responds. “I certainly don’t. I forgot a lot… But I would never fucking forget that.”

To remember our fears, in Stan’s eyes, is what keeps us human. It’s what reminds us that other people in our own personal situations have the same feelings as us, and makes us ask what right we have to make them suffer while we find peace. What makes us our monsters is not the hardships we face, but the hell we choose to make others go through to feel better about ourselves, and we have to be careful not to cross that line. We are all as capable of continuing the cycles of torment we experience as we are capable of breaking them, and Connor unfortunately never did.

It’s at this point that Stan allows Slenderman to complete his request, to turn back the clock and make Connor human again. Connor falls to his knees before his monster and screams as Slenderman does this, remaining on his knees even when it’s over and Stan points his gun at the back of Connor’s head. This scene shows that their stalemate has finally been broken with Stan now being above Connor rather than on equal ground with him. Connor begins to make one final plea for his life, but Stan cuts him off by shooting him, ending his life for real this time. Blood covers the screen, hiding Stan’s face from view as he too falls to his knees, now becoming his monster himself. We can no longer see his expressions beyond the blood, we don’t know his exact thoughts, if he feels better for taking Connor out of the world so he can’t hurt anyone else, or if he feels more grief for having to take his life with his own hands this time around—having also been stated in one of the book excerpts to have hated himself for giving Connor over to the Rake originally—or if he’s feeling some strange mixture of both. We don’t know what his emotions are toward that action in that moment, just as we don’t know what Slenderman’s emotions may be when he hurts people, if he even has any at all. There’s only emptiness left in the silent room that we as the audience feel, until Stan leaves Connor’s body behind for the Rake to find and goes back downstairs to accept his fate in giving himself over to Slenderman, completing their arranged deal.

Except he doesn’t.

As Slenderman tries to take him, Stan talks back, explaining how Slenderman used to be so huge and terrifying to him as a kid, and how he took everything from him. He asks the monster then if he really thought that Stan was going to let him take him too before using the same gun he had just killed Connor with to shoot himself, finally able to die as he was no longer in the Rake’s good graces. A body for a body. And not to get all David Kushner’s Daylight here, but that gun, too, is a metaphor for how Stan and Connor drinking poison from the same vine of survival led them both to their deaths. It was Connor who owned the gun first, the person who also initially suggested the idea of sacrificing other kids to their monster in return for their own peace, which Stan agreed to. The blood from the same deal they made was always on both of their hands, but Connor choosing to share that poison with Stan made Stan his own undoing from the beginning as he would always be the one to stop Connor. The awful truth is, if not for Stan, Connor’s way of surviving may have been proven to always work. It’s a horrible way to go, but no one else ever brought him down. If Connor truly wanted to survive in that way, picking Stan as his survival partner was the wrong move, unbeknownst to him at the start. The gun is a symbolic reflection in this scenario of Stan’s original plans when he had initially accepted Connor’s proposal of harvesting—that he was going to poison his and Connor’s cups of coffee which would kill them both, stopping Connor from going through with perpetuating the cycle of violence and ending his own life because he never stopped feeling guilt and grief from losing his brother to Slenderman.

The narrative actively punishes Stan whenever he chooses to live, and fate seems to scream that he has always been meant to die that day with Connor before they could ever do any of the horrible things they did together. Whether that be the time he handed Connor off to the Rake and got to live again only to be stuck trying to make up for their mistakes, or this time in Amendments when Stan returns as a corruptelam for one last try at making something of his life and he loses the last of the people that he loved, it’s always a punishment that he doesn’t die. He committed unforgivable sins that he could find no redemption for unless it was to choose death, and there was never another option to redeem him. The tragedy of The Record of Stan Frederick is like something out of a Shakespearian play, that there is no atonement and no end to Stan’s suffering unless he dies when all he wanted to do before was get out alive—just as his favorite song said. Amendments perfectly conveys the message of this story like no other, that becoming your own monster can only lead you down two paths: one of a never-ending cycle of hurting others to feel better about yourself, or one of never-ending regret. There’s no hope in that cycle. But there is hope in reaching out to others for help when you need it, and that is part of the message, too. After all, it’s Stan who tells his support group in the episode titled Support Group that they have each other and tells them how important that connection is. The support of those going through the same troubles as us is meant to lift us up, to help us survive together in a positive way, not to abuse and exploit it as Stan and Connor once did. It’s up to all of us to decide which path we’ll choose, and it’s up to us alone to accept the responsibility of those actions—just as Stan finally did.

#Stan Frederick #The Record of Stan Frederick #Slenderverse #I've been working on this all afternoon and now I can't see because I've been staring at my screen too long #worth it #I feel like I should have a tag for my analyses and essays at this point but I don't #and here I thought I'd never be writing essays again after high school but apparently I'm neurodivergent about fiction so here we are

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ramdom-stupid-sketches-of-mine · 7 months ago

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My coral island farmer OC, Fazlyn Dirynhai Base on the convo, interaction and behavior , these are her character I came up with all info i have at the time. So Imma gonna put it here for the record for future reference?? since the game have presented main personality through text, context and subtext a lot. I need to keep track of her somehow. [contain SPOILERS about questline/heart scene, convo, interaction] Here I go.

She likes starfruit. (; Luke Convo)

She can eat raw vegetables like eggplants. (; Luke and Raj Convo)

She likes making joke and puns. (; Interact with people's room and shop)

She can be 'respectful', rarely. (; Interact with Mollie's closet)

She talks a lot, even with someone she barely know. (; Leah and Mark convo)

She's yogi (; Ben convo)

She likes romantic homey dinner kind of date. (; Answer Pablo Question)

She likes eating flower than admiring one. (; Answer Scott Question)

She can be unintentionally flirt sometimes, but it just being nice in that case. (; Answer Mark Question)

She usually collapsed at night from exhaustion (; Behavior)

She worked in art field before. (; Answer Zarah Question)

She likes gossip, sometimes, of course *wink* (; Bree convo)

She can drink alcohol in little amount (; Scott's heart scene)

She likes horror movie(; Rafael's heart scene)

Other info about her.

She remembered Alice and Lily when she arrived. (; Alice and Lily favorite shown since we arrived to the town, before the farmer spoke to both of them.)

She didn't remember Nina, but they were childhood friends. (; Nina's questline)

Her name isn't her given name. (; Raj Convo). // I came up with the story that her legal name come from her nickname and her old first name, it started from she had the same name with her classmate. So, she's the one with the nickname for convenience. Then after that she kept found the incident recurring a lot, so she changed her nickname to her legal name for good. Her old first name is Lyn.

Speaker in Luke's shop is easily broken, she used to buy that speaker's brand before and it's broken in 6 months. (; Interact with top right shelf in Luke's shop.)

She also owned a clock like the one Luke sells back in Pokyo. (; Interact with bottom left shelf in Luke's shop.)

She tasted Betty's soup without permission. (; Interact with the pot in Betty's kitchen.) [imo, i want to smack her hand for that.]

Her vow in her wedding with Luke was 'Luke, a lifetime is not long enough for me to wake up every morning next to you.' (; Married day, obviously.)

Anddddd, these are my headcanons for this character. Just base on my random guess and thoughts.

She was closer to Alice than Suki when they were kids.

At some point, I think Nina, Luke, and farmer had played together, but it just 1-2 times, so only Nina can remember that. Since Luke is too young to remember the farmer and haven't been contacted with, and the farmer played with Nina more than Luke and she still didn't remember her, she doesn't good with remembering and such.

Suki, Alice, Nina, Lily and the farmer was a childhood friend group.

She hadn't talked with Tavern siblings or blacksmith brother before, from the first convo they had.

Her hair and her blue eyes come from her mother side, her mother is from San franciskyo

Her grandparents who owned the farm are on her father side, so they should be Indonesian(?).

Her parents met in Pokyo and she grew up there. That's the reason she had Pokyo accent from Leah's convo.

Her first talk with Taco, the dialog is like, '[He smells a lot like Luke]', but she hadn't speak with Luke at that point. So, she kinda buffled a bit. 'Wait, who's Luke??'

Her first rescuer for collapsed after 2 AM is Luke, I remember this because it's happened in 2nd Spring in the Year 1. So, in Year 2, the farmer gave him the locket that day, 2nd Spring.

2nd Spring in Year 3, she changed her hair as celebration of sort?? idk, it's pretty coincidence. I just wanted to change something a bit about the hair and just noticed that it that day. huh.. Wonder what will happend if I continue playing until next year.

#spoilers #coral island spoilers #coral island #coral island oc #coral island farmer #for future reference comic or so

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frankendykes-monster · 1 year ago

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There is a popular quote attributed to both Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek arguing that it is “easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” It is an odd thought to process while watching Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a schlocky horror film that reimagines A. A. Milne’s loveable anthropomorphic teddy bear as a hack-and-slash movie monster. Still, it’s something that bubbles through the film’s very existence. Blood and Honey can be understood in a couple of different contexts. Most obviously, it is a transgressive horror film that uses the iconography of beloved childhood figures in a grotesque and unsettling way as a shortcut to cheap thrills. There has been a recent spate of these movies, including The Banana Splits Movie and The Mean One. Later this year, Five Nights at Freddy’s will adapt the beloved video game, riffing on the same basic idea of cute childish things turned violent. However, Blood and Honey stands apart from these contemporaries. It isn’t a pastiche like Five Nights at Freddy’s, it isn’t a licensed production like The Banana Splits Movie, and it’s not an unauthorized parody like The Mean One. It is an adaptation of A. A. Milne’s beloved children’s classic, made possible by the fact that Winnie the Pooh has entered the public domain. Nobody has to pay to use the character, and no authority has the power to veto what can be done with him. Copyright law is an interesting thing. The Copyright Act of 1790 enshrined legal protection of an author’s right to their work for “the term of fourteen years from the recording the title thereof in the clerk’s office.” However, that period of protection would be expanded over the ensuing centuries. With the Copyright Term Extension Act, arriving in 1998, that protection was extended to the life of the author plus another seven decades. Of course, the reality is that copyright doesn’t always protect the artists. It often exists to enrich corporate entities. Much of the most lucrative intellectual property on the planet is controlled by faceless companies that ruthlessly exploit the artistry of their employees and contractors. Comic book movies are a billion-dollar industry, but key creative figures have to fundraise to pay medical bills, like Bill Mantlo. Creators like Jack Kirby or Bill Finger never got to enjoy the spoils of their labor.

Indeed, these extensions to the period of copyright were largely driven by companies holding these intellectual property rights. The Copyright Term Extension Act was known in some circles as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” reflecting Disney’s proactive lobbying in favor of the extension. Incidentally, Disney paid $350 million to buy Winnie the Pooh from the A. A. Milne estate in March 2001. It is ruthless capitalism, rooted in these companies’ desires to control the public imagination. The Copyright Term Extension Act ensured that no media entered the public domain between 1998 and 2019. As much as writers like Grant Morrison might argue that superheroes are the modern equivalent to the classic Greek gods, this ignores the fact that mythology is a public resource. The classic myths were not owned by large corporations that could use the threat of legal action to pull Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker from the Toronto International Film Festival after a single screening. This makes Blood and Honey a pointed act of transgression. The film comes from writer and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield, best known as a producer of low-rent schlock like Dinosaur Hotel and Dragon Fury. Realizing that A. A. Milne’s beloved childhood fable was entering the public domain, Frake-Waterfield sensed an opportunity. With a budget of under $100,000, he set out to make a quick cash-in slasher movie. Of course, Frake-Waterfield could only draw from elements included in the earliest stories. He had to avoid the iconic material added to the mythos in the years that followed. “Only the 1926 version is in the public domain, so those were the only elements I could incorporate,” Frake-Waterfield admitted. “Other parts like Poohsticks, and Tigger, and Pooh’s red shirt — those aren’t elements I can use at the moment because they’re the copyright of Disney and that would get me in a lot of trouble.” Blood and Honey is a bad movie. It is lazy, uninspired, and boring. It has no sense of character, theme, or basic structure. It’s a lazily reskinned version of Halloween or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from a filmmaker who spent a significant portion of the press tour passive-aggressively complaining about how Halloween Ends took “itself too seriously.” There is nothing of any merit here, nothing to hold the audience’s interest. The film’s 84-minute runtime lasts several lifetimes. That said, there is a germ of an interesting idea in the central concept, which has an adult Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) returning to the childhood fantasy that he abandoned to go to college. He discovers that his childhood did not take well to this abandonment. Winnie the Pooh (Craig David Dowsett), now a feral and mute beast, chains Christopher up and tortures him. He whips the adult with Eeyore’s tail. However, Winnie the Pooh cannot kill Christopher. He must possess him.

It is too much to suggest that this plot is mirrored in the story of the film’s actual protagonist and decoy final girl, Maria (Maria Taylor). Maria is taking a trip into the country with her girlfriends, recovering from a traumatic experience with a male stalker (Chris Cordell). When Maria’s friend Lara (Natasha Tosini) spots Pooh lurking around the Airbnb, she assumes that he must be Maria’s stalker. Pooh’s psychopathic sidekick, Piglet, is also played by Cordell, to underscore this connection. At times, Blood and Honey seems like it might be a clever and subversive commentary on the way in which so much modern pop culture infantilizes its audience. Christopher has tried to grow up and leave his childhood behind, even planning to marry his fiancée Mary (Paula Coiz), but his childhood won’t leave him behind. Pooh needs Christopher, his validation and his love. However, that relationship is not as innocent as it appears framed through childhood memory. Many modern adults would empathize with this idea, as their childhood nostalgia is weaponized against them by streaming services and studios. Even if one lives in a remote cabin in the woods, franchises like Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and X-Men: The Animated Series are inescapable. Entertainment that was once aimed at children is now aimed at the adults those children became. There is no indication that these corporations are ever going to stop. Of course, this gives Blood and Honey too much credit, suggesting that it can be read as a subversive commentary on the role that this sort of intellectual property plays in cultural stagnation. In reality, Blood and Honey is an illustration of just how pervasive this model of capitalism can be. Frake-Waterfield isn’t using Pooh to make a point about the cynical exploitation of these cultural touchstones. He is using it as a cynical exploitation of these cultural touchstones. Blood and Honey grossed nearly $5 million at the global box office, and one suspects that it performed very well on home media and streaming. There is already a sequel in the works with “five times the budget.” More than that, Frake-Waterfield has made a conscious effort to expand the brand into a shared universe built around similar properties. He will direct Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and will produce Bambi: The Reckoning, which was sold to international distributors at Cannes this year. Frake-Waterfield doesn’t just have his eye on these sequels and spin-offs. He dreams of a bigger childhood horror shared universe. “The idea is that we’re going to try and imagine they’re all in the same world, so we can have crossovers,” he boasted. “People have been messaging saying they really want to see Bambi versus Pooh.” It’s incredibly ruthless and cynical. It is a transparent attempt to build a massive multimedia franchise from elements that the production team don’t have to pay for.

In theory, the liberation of these iconic characters from copyright should herald encourage creativity and ingenuity. It should allow for more projects like The People’s Joker or Apocalypse Pooh. There are certainly artists engaged in that sort of work. It also provides the opportunity for commentary and engagement with the modern media landscape. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is already salivating at the satirical potential of Mickey Mouse’s entry into the public domain. Blood and Honey suggests an alternative to these creative uses of works leaving corporate purview. Blood and Honey is just as cynical and ruthless in its exploitation of this intellectual property as Disney had been. Frake-Waterfield is clearly aspiring to exploit these properties in exactly the same way that Disney did, hoping to create a scale model of their production machine. It is a trickle-down shared universe, a reheat of a familiar meal constructed from pre-digested ingredients. For all the moral handwringing about how the movie “ruined people’s childhoods,” this is the real horror of Blood and Honey. It suggests the limits of creative imagination, an inability to conceive of an alternative to the model of intellectual property management that defines so much contemporary pop culture. The roots of this mode of thinking run so deep that it seems impossible to imagine any alternative. The public domain doesn’t free this intellectual property from endless exploitation, it just means somebody else gets to take a turn. If the rights to Winnie the Pooh are entering the public domain, why wouldn’t somebody use the brand recognition to make a quick and easy buck? After all, the business logic behind Blood and Honey is the same logic behind something like The Little Mermaid or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. People recognize the brand, and that will make it easier to sell. Even this seemingly subversive and rebellious act is just a cheaper, more cynical, and less competent iteration of the larger processes that drive modern media. All things considered, the cynicism of Blood and Honey is a small price to pay for the possibility of more work like The People’s Joker. More than that, if it helps to undermine or shatter the brand loyalty that these corporations have cultivated among generations of movie-goers, it may serve some purpose. Still, it’s disheartening to watch Blood and Honey, realizing that these modes of exploitation are so deeply ingrained in pop culture that they perpetuate even in the public domain. Even as the end of copyright becomes a reality, the end of this intellectual property churn remains beyond imagination. Oh bother.

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youraveragedeltafan · 4 months ago

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Jarod and Lola

A small rant fueled by a dubious take I heard on Jarod and Lola's relationship in both the game and first book, I've never fully read About a Girl so I can't vouch for that one.

((Now that I think about it, the OP was probably from a troll but it's too late I'm in too deep))

That being said. Spoilers.

TW for abuse and a brief talk about implied SA

Did Jarod abuse Lola in some way? It's likely, especially considering he slapped her in the first book. While it only happens if Lou decides not to do anything, it shows that Jarod is willing to hurt his child.

To be clear: hitting your kid is never okay. Even when he's trying to get her out of a dangerous situation, it's clear that smacking her did nothing, and that it wasn't an accident. It was retaliation for pushing off his hat. The direct quote is:

"The man’s long and thin fingers are clutching Lola’s bright red arm. The kid continues to flail, knocking back the man who loses his hat in the process. His response is immediate, a slap hard enough to knock her head off her shoulders." (31)

Lola's response directly after doesn't help

"The man sits at the wheel of the cab, and leers at Lola who flips him off. Once the car is gone, she stands up and dusts herself off." (251)

No reaction. We don't know what Lola was like before the Brigades, but I think anyone would be at least somewhat shocked after their parent hit them if it wasn't normal. Even if it was the first time, it's still entirely unnecessary. This was put there for a reason--to depict what kind of a person Jarod was before the attack. It shows that Jarod is not an innocent man who was pushed over the edge, and wasn't exactly a shining beacon of good or even halfway decent parenting before Lola's death.

Even without this, we already know Jarod is an objectively bad person. If we take away the nuance, he's still at his core a scary fictional bad guy who has it in him to hurt his daughter and kill people if they annoy him too much. So yeah, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he abused Lola even before the Brigades, and might have contributed to why she left. This is reprehensible on its own.

HOWEVER

It's okay to like Jarod and find him interesting, he's meant to be the archetypal stranger you shouldn't talk to in horror movies (the hitcher), and plays that part well. It doesn't make you a bad person to like Jarod. Look at it this way: just because you like the Joker doesn't mean you're gonna get a clown mask, rob a bank, then burn the money.

Back to Jarod though. I think if he did anything else, it would've been implied. If they wanted to go that way with his character (SA), I feel like it would be kind of irresponsible of the writers to leave it at small 'hints' (that for the record aren't really there). Making a shrine for your dead daughter isn't weird; the 'shrine' was in front of what was basically her bedroom--something parents of dead children tend to keep untouched. Being obsessed with your dead daughter, while probably unhealthy, isn't weird.

Just because Jarod has a short fuse and likes to threaten and kill people when his cold anger meter breaks doesn't automatically mean he gets some creepy sexual pleasure from doing so. It isn't implied like, at all. The closest things I can think of that's even remotely iffy without context is Better Be Good To Me, but even then it isn't about the crosser, it's about the cop.

TL; DR: Jarod, from what we know in canon, probably physically abused Lola before and after she joined the Brigades, however, there isn't enough evidence to say the writers (both book and game) wanted Jarod to be read as a sexual predator. To be clear: It's fine if that's *your* personal interpretation, as at the end of the day its art, but trying to stand on a moral high ground about a fictional character for something that was never remotely implied in game is really...yeah.

#road 96 #lola road 96 #jarod road 96 #tw sa mention #tw abuse

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rallamajoop · 2 years ago

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The RE4 Remake and Luis Serra Navarro

I have a gazillion thoughts about the new RE4 remake, and a dozen different aspects I kind of want to talk about. But you’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s talk Luis.

I doubt it’d be controversial to call Luis “easily the most interesting new character introduced in this game.” We’ve got complex and questionable motivations, a bunch of plot-relevant backstory, and a bonus-serve of extra random details about his childhood – much of which is very easy to miss, and rewards you for paying attention. By the end of this game, I’m pretty sure I know more about Luis than I do about Leon, and I still have questions. He’s not just one of my favourite parts of this new game, he’s a perfectly little microcosm of all the ways the remake has reworked awkward aspects of the original – mostly for the better, but not without creating new problems in the process.

But to get into all that, let’s start back with the original Luis from 2004.

So, for context, I haven’t actually played the original RE4. Since getting into the franchise, I’ve been consuming past canon instalments mostly by the lazy strategy of watching cutscene compilations on youtube. I am fully aware of the important place RE4 has in gaming history, the way it defined 3rd-person-shooter over-the-shoulder-gaming (or, to use my preferred term, lookit-the-booty-shooty). I have watched Jacob Geller wax rhapsodic about multiple different versions of this game.

But for all that people remember about the original RE4, the plot rarely seems to be more than a footnote. And for my own money, all I can tell you is that either this is just not a gaming experience well-served being experienced through the youtube-only medium (hardly the stuff of serious critique), or me and the original RE4 just aren’t clicking somewhere. I’m all for campy horror (see everything I’ve ever written about the Hammer films just to begin with), but RE4’s sense of humour largely leaves me cold. And Luis is – again – a pretty good demonstration of the kind of record-scratch moments that made it so hard to get into.

You can find a compilation of all Luis' cutscenes here, for reference. Like the remake, Leon first finds Luis tied up and gagged in a village house – apparently the only un-infected person in the vicinity. His first act on being un-gagged is to ask for a cigarette – a decent little character-moment. Luis claims to be a former cop from Madrid, who quit because he felt his work went unappreciated. Given Luis’ general demeanour, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn he was actually let go for taking bribes or something, but that’s more of a vibe. When Leon admits he was a cop back in Raccoon City, Luis claims he ‘might have seen a sample of the virus in a lab at the department’, and… hang on, Madrid PD has T-Virus samples lying around? The hell? Where’s this going?

But we don’t find out, because the conversation is interrupted, and Luis makes a break for it.

As in the remake, Luis’ next scene is to show up for the cabin siege scene, where he backs up Leon with a handgun. Cool, that tracks with the whole ‘former cop’ backstory.

Luis gets two further appearances, though the first mostly consists of him running up to say “I’ve got something for you guys! What… oh, shit, I must have dropped it,” and going away again, and it’s exactly as awkward as it sounds. But he does at least establish that the ‘something’ is a plagas-suppressant, as he knows Leon and Ashley are infected, and wants to help.

His final scene has him return with the suppressant, only to be stabbed in the back and killed by Saddler. As he lies dying, he admits he was really a researcher working for the Los Illuminados all along, only lately turned traitor – and we’ve officially hit our record-scratch moment.

So what was all that stuff about being a cop? Luis has good reason to lie about being a researcher, but ‘unemployed former cop’ is a heckuva cover story for a scientist, and what was that about Madrid PD having T-Virus samples? Luis-the-researcher might well have seen the virus somewhere, but why bring it up at all?

More than anything, these feel like leftover artifacts of a character who’s been substantially reworked somewhere in development, just without actually rewriting the start of the script to match. Luis’ story, like so much of this game, feels badly in need of a second draft.

Luis goes on to get something of an afterlife in collectable documents, and another scene in Ada’s DLC campaign. He’s still trying to get a plaga sample to her in this version, and he’s still responsible for the lab that cures Leon and Ashley of their infections. Ada's commentary on his character is interesting, and documents suggest he had a grandfather who used to hunt in the region, but he doesn’t get much more backstory.

Regardless, nearly 20 years later, Luis has finally got his second draft, and there’s a lot here that’s improved. (Have a new cutscene compilation link for reference.)

To begin with, any talk about being a cop is gone (an easy win). We find out he’s a researcher much earlier too – Leon is a lot less trusting of Luis this time, and calls in for a background check. He’s informed Luis used to work for Umbrella, and reacts as you’d expect. The cabin siege scene still goes off in similar fashion (though this time, Luis doesn’t feel it necessary to comment on Ashley’s tits the moment he meets her – another definite improvement).

This time though, Ashley starts coughing up blood immediately after they escape, and Luis’ offer to help remove the parasites happens right after the cabin siege, rather than being left for some awkward whoops-I-dropped-it moment later. The new scene actually finishes with the very same exchange (“Why are you helping us?”/ “It just makes me feel better”) – but this version, similarly, feels so much better. A+ revision work so far.

The remake also spells out Luis’ deal with Ada sooner too – her first proper scene in this version is her first contact with Luis. Again, Luis’ story ends in the castle with a stab in the back, and the stolen sample he was carrying being reclaimed by one of the villains (Krauser, this time, since Saddler apparently likes to delegate more in this version). But in between, things get a little odd.

Having already offered to help them, Luis contacts Leon by radio a couple of times during the castle chapters – firstly to say he’s waiting for Leon and Ashley in the courtyard. But Luis isn’t in the courtyard. His next message claims that he ran into trouble, and he’s had to retreat to the ballroom. But he’s not in the ballroom either. No further calls happen, nor does Leon react to his absence in either location.

Leon finally runs into him, apparently by chance, after being thrown down a hole and wandering for some time through tunnels deep under the castle. How did Luis end up down there too? No idea.

I’m glad he does though, because the following chapter you spend with Luis as your cabin-siege-style partner is a very good time. Though Leon is still distrustful and Luis still evasive, they exchange some great banter and generally make a good team. We encounter Luis’ love for Don Quixote, he admits he was working for Los Illuminados… and then Krauser stabs him, and Leon lights one last cigarette for him before he dies. It’s touching and very well done (not to mention dense with slashy subtext, if you want to take it that way).

Exploring Luis’ lab during the game’s final chapter adds some nice details too – equipment pilfered from Umbrella, an old photo with his colleagues, and naturally, text documents everywhere. But it’s his email logs with “A.W.” (Ada, obviously) that will most reward anyone paying attention – particularly the line you still remember the code phrase?

In this version, ‘got a smoke?’ is still almost the first thing Luis says to Leon. But you might notice it’s also the first thing he says to Ada. And this time, we’ve got a whole new explanation as to why.

Admittedly, the execution is still a bit lacking. Luis calls Ada by her first name just a few lines after using his ‘code phrase’, and seems to know her well enough not to need a code phrase, so what's going on here? If Luis knew Ada herself was going to meet him, why try his code phrase out on Leon? Alternately, if he suspected Ada might have sent someone like Leon instead of coming in person, how did he know it was her when they met? Maybe we could still have used another draft. But it’s a otherwise a fun little easter egg to recontextualise something from the original in a creative way.

Much more has been added to Luis’ backstory hidden in documents from the village. You can find photos of 'a boy with his grandfather', an old diary left behind by said grandfather – and if you’re paying really close attention, a label on another copy of that photo naming the pair ‘Navarro’ – Luis’ last name. You might also notice that the boy in the story has Luis’ fixation on Don Quixote (another character trait added by the remake).

But young Luis’ story ends in tragedy, the conclusion picked up elsewhere in the village elder’s records: the grandfather is bitten by a wolf, begins experiencing what seem to be known symptoms, and tells the village elder "you know what to do." The old man is killed, and his cabin and everything in it burned to the ground so the infection can’t spread.

Now, the idea the village has been quietly dealing with plaga-infected wolves for generations despite the fact that the plaga were supposedly sealed under the castle until recently has problems of its own, but that’s a bit beyond scope. The more relevant problem is the idea that Luis comes from the same village where all the action takes place – why? What does this add to the story? With Luis’ new Umbrella-Europe-backstory, making the village his birthplace seems like little more than meaningless coincidence, thrown in without anyone thinking it through.

But there is one intriguing possibility buried in the subtext of Luis’ story, and it’s an angle I’d love to see explored.

The village records end with the scene of a young Luis watching in silence as his childhood home burns to the ground, his only family still inside, then walking away, never to be seen again. Now, suppose that’s the very moment that inspired him to go into medical research, driven to understand infectious agents like the one that took his grandfather’s life, that the people he grew up with only knew to treat with medieval superstition. Suppose that’s what made him seek out shady employers like Umbrella, the only outfits with the interest and funding to delve into that area. The drive to find cures, to find proof that what happened to his grandfather didn’t have to be treated like a ritual witch-burning could’ve fuelled a lot of denial in Luis about where the funding was coming from. And after Umbrella’s collapse, you can only imagine how he might jump at the chance to work on the same parasites that had infected that wolf from so long ago.

If that was the intent, though (and damn do I want it to be), I honestly think it’s a little too buried in layers of subtext to carry. I can only hope maybe we’ll be seeing more of Luis in DLC to come – in Ada’s Separate Ways, if not his own – that might expand on those parts of his history a little more explicitly. Or at least cover what he was actually up to all that time he keeps messaging Leon from different parts of the castle (did he genuinely run into trouble? Was Ada pushing him to keep Leon moving for her own purposes? How did he wind up down in the mines?)

The notion of Luis as a village native still has its problems though. The house you find him in seems to be the same one he grew up in – it’s a cabin by the lake, his grandfather’s diary and photo is there, etc. Only those old village records spell out very clearly that that cabin burned to the ground as part of a major character moment. Which is it, game? You can’t have it both ways.

Even if we ignore that awkward ‘burned to the ground’ detail, are we to take it the ganados caught Luis in his old house and left him tied him up in his own cellar? Wouldn’t they move a prisoner like him? Speaking of which, was that one guy banging on the floor supposed to be hammering the hatch shut? Why? Was Luis being left down there to die? Don’t they still need to question him about that sample he stole? This stuff does not stand up to scrutiny.

And the idea of Luis as a native still doesn’t completely work for me, because shouldn’t there have been some clue in the way he talks about the place? Chief Mendez is a man Luis knew from his childhood – when Luis sees him coming in a cutscene, his reaction betrays no more familiarity than ‘not this guy’. In that cabin siege scene, surely there must be faces in that crowd he’s firing on that he recognises. And fuck, how do you come back to the place you grew up, find its residents reduced to zombie slaves, and think, “sure, I could work for these people…”?

I do realise expecting this level of humanity out of characters in a Resident Evil game might be a little much, but this stuff throws me. It builds the impression the Luis who grew up in the village is a character that exists only in text files, largely independent from the cutscene-Luis of the rest of the game. When you expect your audience to notice minor details like a surname on a photo in order to put together a main character’s backstory, you’re demanding they pay close attention. And once you’ve demanded that much investment, it’s worth keeping track of whether the cabin by the lake was supposed to be burned down or not, why Luis should be able to call Ada by name but treat Mendez like a stranger, and other such confusing detail. And Luis’ story is still positively logical and consistent compared to that of Chief Mendez himself, or anything much else in the game’s lore.

Luis is genuinely one of my favourite parts of the remake – he’s complicated, interesting, and fun. But trying to make sense of him could be a more rewarding experience. Many things are improved from the original, but for my money, they could still have stood to go for a third draft.

#Luis Serra Navarro #Resident Evil 4 #Resident Evil 4 Remake #Resident Evil #meta #character analysis

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strangestcase · 1 year ago

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Not sure if you've ever made a post like this/someone has already asked this and you've answered but I was wondering if you had a list of J&H adaptions (of any kind and as well as other fans making things that are just online stuff rather than big professional things) that you really like and think people should get into if they haven't really explored or even know of just yet? I'm curious because I've only branched out a little bit and got some stuff that was fairly. Meh.

I have made a few posts about the matter but! I’ll gladly repeat myself.

the trick with finding good J&H adaptations is to forget about 1:1 plot accuracy and instead focus on theme accuracy. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover a lot of adaptations (including crossovers and pastiches) understand the book and what it’s getting at.

Here’s my personal list of recommendations:

-MazM Jekyll and Hyde: a Korean visual novel that adapts the book to a T. The main timeline (chapters 1-8) are free to play, but chapters 9-10 and a few other tidbits are very cheap. Since it’s styled like an RPG, you can talk to NPCs that will give you some insight in the historical and cultural context of the novella. It has a spin-off game called Hyde and Seek in which Hyde is one of the antagonists, if you’re interested.

-Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier aka The Doctor’s Horrible Experiment: originally released as a TV movie in 1959 but later released in cinemas, this Jean Renoir production tightly follows the book plot with very small changes. The biggest change is that the story is set in 1950s Paris rather than 1880s England, with all the characters having different names. It has a budget of five dollars and a shoestring but it’s very well written and well acted, with a professional mime playing Jekyll and Hyde. My friend @nemeyuko has a copy with English subtitles. WARNING: there is a rape scene near the end.

-I, Monster: a 1971 Amicus production (basically a knockoff Hammer movie) with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as the leads. Some character’s names and events are changed, but the plot is very much recognizable as a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation. The setting is also changed to the Edwardian period. This adaptation focuses on the psychological element of the story, including overt references to Freud and modern psychoanalysis, and putting the spotlight on Jekyll’s addiction to the serum.

-The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 2003 Norrington movie that has almost nothing to do with the comics it was adapting from, but it’s considered more enjoyable by most people since it isn’t as dark and gritty. I specially recommend the movie for its take on Jekyll/Hyde, since it doesn’t shy away from the addiction angle. Hyde is entirely done with practical effects. The movie novelization is available in the Internet Archive, and it has a bit more focus on Hyde.

-Jekyll and Hyde at the Old Vic: a dance adaptation that reimagines Jekyll as a dorky botanist in 1950s England. It doesn’t have any dialogue and it’s mostly about an angsty love story but I really liked it (basically imagine Jekyll and Hyde meets Little Shop Of Horrors, and I’m not exaggerating!). It was available for free on YouTube a while ago but it’s been taken down- if anybody has any recordings let me know!

I have a rather lengthy list of adaptations I’m watching on YouTube, a lot of which I haven’t even started yet (and a lot of which aren’t particularly worthwhile) but here’s a little documentary and a couple of funny sketches.

#jekyll and hyde #the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #dr jekyll and mr hyde

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thegayhimbo · 1 year ago

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Stranger Things Runaway Max Review (1/3)

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my other Stranger Things Reviews. Like, Reblog, and let me know what your thoughts are regarding the show or the upcoming season! :)

Stranger Things Comics/Graphic Novels:

Stranger Things Six

Stranger Things Halloween Special

Stranger Things The Other Side

Stranger Things Zombie Boys

Stranger Things The Bully

Stranger Things Winter Special

Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen

Stranger Things Into The Fire

Stranger Things Science Camp

Stranger Things “The Game Master” and “Erica’s Quest”

Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons

Stranger Things Kamchatka

Stranger Things Erica The Great

Stranger Things “Creature Feature” and “Summer Special”

Stranger Things Tie-In Books:

Stranger Things Suspicious Minds

Synopsis: Witness the events of season 2 from Max's perspective as she recounts her past in San Diego, her relationships with Neil, Billy, and Susan, her subsequent move to Hawkins, and her meeting with the Party as Lucas invites her on an adventure that will change her life forever.

Observations:

For a book that's short and easy to read (only 231 pages), this was rough to get through. Not because it's badly written (if anything, it's arguably one of the BEST Tie-In novels for Stranger Things), but because this book delves into hard topics like abuse, depression, and isolation, and does not sugarcoat any of it. While Max never had a perfect life in California, the moment Neil and Billy came into the picture is the moment things went sideways for her. There were parts of this book that were distressing, and the way Max's story plays out in season 4 makes a lot of what happens here look harsher in hindsight.

I've said before in previous reviews that the supplementary material works better when it helps enhance the story and mythology of the show. To the book's credit, it manages to do that effectively. While it does retell parts of season 2 from Max's perspective, it gives the audience more context about her past, the circumstances behind Billy and Neil coming into her life, how she views each of the characters she encounters, and it allows the audience the opportunity to get to know Max better.

Part 1: Max And Her Monsters:

In my Creature Feature review, I mentioned Max had a love for horror movies similar to Will, and that Halloween was her favorite holiday:

She even goes on record stating Michael Myers is the horror movie monster that scares her the most, and therefore fascinates her:

There's a dark irony in how Max's fear of Michael parallels her later fear of Vecna: Both of them are serial killers, both of them are mentally disturbed, both of them are strong and will do everything to hunt their targets down, both of them cause collateral damage in their rampages, both of them take heavy injuries and still manage to keep pushing forward, and both of them act as an unstoppable force of terror. The big difference is while Michael is portrayed as a physical threat, Vecna acts more as a supernatural AND psychological threat who can bring your worst insecurities and memories to the surface in order to drive you to despair before he consumes you.

Max had an interest in horror/slasher movies, and then her life became one. Poor girl can't catch a break. 😞

Her love of horror movies predates Vecna and Billy, but there is something to be said about her fixation on monsters, and how she talks about them in context of her situation: In order for her to deal with monsters, she either needs to understand them and their mindset, or she needs to find some way to keep the monsters close to her so that she'll never be caught off-guard by them. There are several instances where she refers to Billy and Neil in this manner because of the abuse they inflict on her, and she desperately tries to understand their behavior as a means of coping with them:

Anyone who's ever been in an abusive situation can relate to what Max is going through. She's forced to live with Billy and Neil despite not wanting to, she feels like no one (including her mom) is stepping in to make things better, and she initially thinks the only option is to weather the storm. She wants to "understand" how her monsters operate and keep them focused on her as a means of protecting others from getting caught in the crosshairs.

In a way, it's similar to her situation with Vecna in season 4. Despite Lucas's suggestion that they go back to Ms. Kelly's office to see if Vecna's targeted other kids, Max refuses because she believes she understands how Vecna works, and would have a better chance of dealing with him compared to a unprepared stranger going up against Vecna:

Max (to Lucas): We don't have time for any of that, okay? And even if we did, even if your plan did work, we'd be putting a total stranger at risk. A stranger who has no idea what they're up against. I do. He uses my memories against me. But… only my darkest memories. Same with Chrissy and Fred, right? It's like he only sees the darkness in us. So, I'll just run in the opposite direction. Run to the light. And maybe he won't be able to find me there.

Lucas: Now, how exactly do you plan on doing this?

Max: I'm not sure. But it's my mind. Not his, right? So I should be able to control where I am. I just need to… push him away. Find a happy memory and hide there. Hide in the light.

Max's arc has not only been about dealing with her "monsters," but also allowing others to help her and realizing she doesn't have to fight them alone. It's a new concept for her because most of her life has been her believing things would only get worse, and that no one would step in on her behalf. Given how her mom was complicit in letting Neil and Billy railroad their lives, it's understandable why she's hardened herself and adopted a cynical outlook. After Billy drives away Max's friends in San Diego and breaks the arm of her best friend Nate to create a wedge between them, Max loses hope that her living situation will improve, and decides she'd rather have Billy's rage directed at her instead of seeing others close to her continue to get hurt. The result is she becomes isolated, just like Billy wanted.

However, in spite of appearing closed off on the surface, people continue to reach out to her once she moves to Hawkins. Dustin and Lucas invite her to go Trick-or-Treating with them, and despite Billy later trying to run them off the road with his car, they still want her to be a part of their group. There's even a brief scene in the book (which should have been on the show) where Max gets injured while skateboarding outside of the store Joyce works at, and Joyce comes to see if she's okay. Max is surprised by this because it's one of the few times she's seen someone express any genuine concern for her:

Later on, Lucas is ultimately the one who opens up to her about everything related to El and the Upside Down, takes her to the junkyard to show her proof of their story, listens to what she's been going through while reassuring her that she's still a good person, and takes the time to get to know her. And as Max sees from everyone else in the Party, despite their arguments and differences, they do care about each other and will fight for one another when the going gets tough. Lucas himself shows he's willing to fight for Max despite how scary and awful Billy is, and despite how standoffish Max initially presented herself. She's never truly had someone do that for her before, and witnessing that is what finally allows her to stand up to Billy at the end of the book and save Steve's life in the process:

And come season 4, they show up for her: The moment everyone realized Max was next on Vecna's kill list is the moment they sprang into action to protect her to the best of their ability while attempting to take Vecna down.

There was an interview where the Duffer Brothers admitted they originally planned to kill off Max at the end of season 4 before changing their minds. I know there are people in this fandom who complain about certain characters having plot-armor (and I could do an entire separate post about how that term gets thrown around willy-nilly these days), but in Max's case, I'm glad they didn't go through with it. For a character who's an abuse survivor and has endured repeated trauma in the hopes that thing would eventually get better, killing Max off like that would have been a mean-spirited way to end her story. It also would have made her entire arc pointless and nihilistic. At least here, there's the possibility of Max returning from the brink.

In both my reviews of The Other Side and Erica The Great, I've talked about how it's likely Max's consciousness has been assimilated into Vecna following the battle at the Creel House, which is why her mind is blank when El tries to communicate with her at the end of season 4. Based on that, Max's arc may be about maintaining her individuality from within Vecna as a means of continuing to resist him, and eventually finding a way to break free from his control and regain her sense of self. Thematically, it would also serve as a satisfying conclusion where she's no longer defined by her trauma or the monsters in her life who have repeatedly dragged her down (Billy, Neil, Vecna). She can finally have an identity and life outside of that.

Of course, there's also the fact that even if her consciousness escapes Vecna's control, she'll still be returning to a broken body, with the very real possibility of being blind and crippled for the rest of her life. I'd actually be interested in seeing that as opposed to the Duffer Brothers coming up with some Deus Ex Machina to magically fix Max's body and make her whole again. Scars and injuries of that extent don't fully heal in real life, and even though Stranger Things isn't a show grounded in reality, it would be nice if they could show a character that's become disabled who's still able to find a way to adjust to her situation, live fully, and gain some semblance of peace within herself.

Part 2: Max And Her Friends

Part of the brilliance of the book is we get a lot more insight into Max's thought regarding certain characters and what she thinks of them, which helps shed more light on how she relates to them on the show.

Take her relationship with Mike for instance: She is (rightfully) not impressed by how he keeps trying to exclude her from the group and shows her nothing but hostility. I know Mike's gotten flak for this from fans, and while his behavior isn't entirely excusable, there is at least context for how he acts here: To him, Max is a stranger who has no idea about El or the Upside Down, and he's not entirely sure he can trust her with that information. On top of that, he worries about Max becoming a replacement for El after her disappearance. It's not a rational way to think, but there is an emotional component to this that Max understands:

Couple of things to note here:

1.) Max is consciously making a choice to be better than Billy. She sees Mike in a rare moment of vulnerability, and even though it would be easy for her to be snide and mean towards him, she instead chooses to be empathetic. That may not seem like a big deal, but I can say from personal experience that I've encountered people (both online and off it) who act like sharks the moment they smell blood in the water. Show any kind of vulnerability or weakness, and they become the most condescending, belittling, self-righteous person you can imagine. For whatever reason, they get some kind of smug superiority in tearing others down to elevate themselves. I've been on the receiving end of that one too many times, and I have nothing but contempt for people who act like that. They are devoid of empathy, and are unkind to others when it is convenient for them. I will always have more respect for those who show compassion towards the vulnerable over those who tear them down.

2.) For as much as Mike and Max are at odds with one another on the show, they have many similarities: They're both headstrong, with a take-charge attitude. They both have issues conveying their emotions in a way that doesn't make them appear moody or hostile to others. And they both care deeply for those they love.

For as much as Max acts emotionally distant on the surface, she wants to have friends and belong somewhere. She wants to be Mike's friend despite how he initially treats her. It's why she continues reaching out to Mike, and even suggests becoming the Zoomer of their Party while roller-skating around him to make him laugh.

It's also why she jumps at the opportunity to get to know El better in season 3 when she takes her shopping and introduces her to other aspects she hasn't experienced yet, like the mall and Wonder Woman comics and sleepovers and so on.

Side Note: In recent years, I've gained a new appreciation for the El/Max scenes in season 3, especially with how important they were in briefly helping Max break free of Vecna in season 4. It's also the first time Max has ever had a friend who's a girl, and she intended to make the most of that during her time with El.

We don't really get much interactions between Will and Max in the book, but I love how she called out the stupidity of Will's nickname "Zombie Boy," and notes that someone who allegedly came back from the dead is not the kind of person you'd want to bully:

She also notes the difference between Lucas and Dustin in how they talk to her, which gives more context for why she ultimately ends up with Lucas by the end of the book:

I like Dustin, but I'm in the crowd that believes Lucas and Max make a better couple, and that Dustin and Max work better as friends. Lucas is the one who listens to her and allows her to be vulnerable in a way where she feels safe and not judged.

He's also the person who (aside from Steve) Max felt protected by. She can be around Lucas without worrying about whether or not he'll abandon her:

Speaking of Steve, I know it's a common perception in the fandom that he's the "big brother figure" Max wishes Billy had been, and this book leans heavily on that interpretation. Unlike other adults, Steve isn't condescending to Max, goes out of his way to treat her as one of the group despite only knowing her for a few hours, and later protects her from the demodogs when she's in danger:

That's probably the first time someone's really stepped up for her like that, and she repays him later by saving Steve from Billy.

Finally, there's this little bit regarding Max's thoughts about Nancy:

It's refreshing to see the breaking down of stereotypes here, and the idea that women have to channel male qualities in order to be "badass" or taken seriously. Nancy is able to be her own person, in her fear, bravery, and determination, without having to emulate Hopper or Steve or any of the other male characters in the room, and Max realizes she can be as well. I would even argue Max channels Nancy when she's later holding Steve's spiked bat over Billy:

She managed to emulate both Steve in his protectiveness towards others, and Nancy in her fierceness, and it's an empowering moment for her.

To be continued in Part 2.........

#stranger things #max mayfield #stranger things runaway max #lucas sinclair #lumax #anti billy hargrove #neil hargrove #mike wheeler #will byers #el hopper #dustin henderson #joyce byers #steve harrington #nancy wheeler #tgh opinions #tgh reviews #the duffer brothers

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markerofthemidnight · 5 months ago

Note

Sense you mentioned it, what's the name and general plot of the DND campaign you were worried would go on infant hiatus? Only if it's a public/streamed/recorded campaign.

-An Observatory 🌙

Well, then. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this.

The campaign was a sort of slightly (emphasis on slightly) comedic, yet still very much horror-focused, version of the infamous Curse of Strahd.

The channel, if you’re interested, is called SpiffyNeedleGeeks. They’re a very small channel, being most famous for Smash trailer reactions back when Ultimate was just coming out a few years ago. Besides the DND, it’s mostly big AAA games they do, but they also cover horror every now and again each October!

Only about, like, 5% of their 2.5k subscribers pay any attention to their DND stuff. Besides that, they’re running two other (not cancelled) campaigns: Ravnica: Trail of Dragons (which I will admit I haven’t watched), and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (which I have watched).

Anyways, back to Curse of Strahd… I’m pretty sure everyone knows how that campaign goes, but this one has a lot of unique twists and turns to add a sense of spice to it. If I were to sum it up in a very out-of-context way:

Basically, a dragon-worshipping Disney princess, a magical macaroni velociraptor soldier, Interdimensional Shitlord Pinocchio, a green Simon Belmont ripoff, a sword-wielding shiny Charizard with a fairy waifu, Big Bird, and the least scary demon you will ever meet try to fight a vampire and then get deeply traumatised.

Go… check it out, if you’d like! They’re not technically listed as podcasts on YouTube, but it still makes for a pretty fun thing to listen to as, like, background noise!

BUT: I will warn you first, try to avoid looking at the thumbnails of any future sessions at ALL COSTS. The thumbnail art updates as the PC’s designs change in-universe, and thumbnail art updates tend to happen pretty commonly over the course of the campaign. Each contains MASSIVE spoilers, so try and avoid them by any means necessary, as difficult as it may be.

And, if you see a playlist marked “SNG Streams: Dungeons and Dragons”, don’t open that either. That playlist is meant to hold oneshots and silly character creation streams, but for some reason a good 2/3rds of it is filled with Curse of Strahd sessions. JUST CoS, for some reason. And it begins with Session 20, a long way into the 30-session campaign. So don’t click it. Just click Curse of Strahd, and don’t scroll too far.

Anyways, if you do intent on listening to Curse of Strahd- or, heck, any of their campaigns- try and update me! I have been stuck waiting to be able to talk to someone about this after two and a half years of it being a hyperfixation of mine, so I’m… kinda going bonkers at this opportunity?

Anyway, have fun, Observatory! And whoever else is reading this, you can all check this out if you like!

#asks #sng&d #(that’s what I call their shared DND multiverse :D)

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creativecuteness · 2 months ago

Text

Memories of an Angel’s Past

Summary: Christmas used to be an exciting time for Macy Graywhinder, now those days were nothing but a far-off memory; she couldn’t look at the holidays without feeling gloomy and depressed. But that didn't mean she was going to spend it sulking on her own, not when her friends are enjoying the holidays themselves.

Or after breaking free of her prison Macy struggles to prosses the truth and suffers a mental breakdown while watching a movie. However, an unlikely duo is there to take care of her.

Minor trigger warning for mental breakdowns and panic attacks; along with minor depictions of violence it's nothing too graphic I think but viewer discursion is advised.

(Emily Jones Paranormal Investigator Extraordinaire AU)

Auther Notes: This is an AU I've been wanting to write about for a long time, and I mean a long long time. Emily Jones Paranormal Investigation Extraordinaire is a YouTube Channel concept that have been circulating in my mind for years it wasn't until 2021 that I finally finalized the idea however it heavily relays on artwork and well, my art game wasn't even close to being ready to create the channel at the time also moving during that time and not having a good enough recording set up didn't help either but now I think I'm ready to start fully plaining it out. So don't expect too many lore heavy fanfictions since I want to create the story in its original intention so expect a lot of art and hopefully animation one day. Sighs hopefully one day.

Alright time for the context, I'm sure most already know what Harmony and Horror is and who Macy is, and yes in this AU somewhere in the timeline Macy is freed and is able to think for herself again. You'll see what I mean once we get into the story, as for her friend I recently got introduced to the Morgue Files by David Near and oh boy once I get some experience under my belt expect a Morgue Files video and arc on her channel. David's versions of Jeff the Killer, Homicidal Liu/Sully, and even Ticci Toby are soo good and I didn't even grow up with these characters. Never really went through a creepypasta phase as a kid but man the Morgue files is so good you've got to check it out. Also give me your theories and opinions on this AU because your encouragements will give me the courage and motivation to make it happen with that said on with the story.

Christmas used to be an exciting time for Macy Graywhinder, the smell of gingerbread wafting through the kitchen; her parents dancing to holiday music on the radio while she and her brother played; Ava’s laughter as she reached for the hanging toys in her bouncer seat, Banzo barking and running around as he ripped open the wrapping paper containing a squeaky toy her dad brought and or made. Her uncle Arthur coming over, bringing gifts to put under the tree in a Santa sack; watching her dad work on toys for the H&A Harmony toy drive as if he himself was Santa. In fact, he even dressed up as Sant Nick one year. The laughs and cheers during Christmas dinner, staying up late hoping to see Santa and his reindeer only to fall asleep and reawaken in the morning to see multicolored gifts under the tree and excitedly rush back upstairs to wake up her parents and older brother.

Now those days were nothing but a far-off memory; Macy couldn’t look at the holidays without feeling gloomy and depressed. What she wouldn’t give to enjoy one more night with her family before it all went wrong, but even then she knew it wouldn’t be the same. After being released from her plastic prison and her demonic father’s control, she discovered the truth surrounding the family massacre pretty quickly, and let’s just say she wished she hadn’t.

Macy would be lying if she said she wasn’t struggling to process the information contained in those VHS tapes. The contents made her skin crawl, but that wasn’t the only thing that made her sick to her stomach. The fact that Martin might not be her actual father, and it broke her heart in more ways than one.

The young angel knew her father was a horrible person, but it never used to be this way. Her father used to care so, so much; he wanted nothing more than to have kids with her mother, Gloria, and they did: three children who loved them unconditionally. However, it seemed to come at a price, the price being Martin’s infidelity and Gloria likely going behind her husband’s back and having kids with their uncle and tried to pass them off as their miracle children.

Macy didn’t know if this was the whole story or if it was all lies fabricated by the devil her parental figure made a deal with. However, the young girl didn’t have the stomach to get the truth from its source. Despite her mother’s ghost currently residing in S.P.I.E Headquarters and has offered to tell her the truth, she declined. Macy wasn’t ready, and the truth is she was scared. She already blamed her parents for her and her sibling’s fate along with Banzo and Arthur’s death and possession. To learn her mother might’ve had an affair with her uncle just wasn’t something she could mentally handle right now.

Yeah, Macy was going through it; the innocent child who loved to sing and dance was gone, and in her place was a girl with a hardened heart and partial cursed angel status. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t at least try to enjoy the holidays; after all, there was someone else who was trying to reclaim part of his stolen childhood too.

Liu Mason was someone Macy recently became acquainted with; he was a young man in his early twenties. He had short brown hair, wore black rimmed glasses, and an ugly Christmas sweater Dakota’s friend Mabel knit for him. It was white with little gingerbread men, green trees, and other details that you’d see on holiday knit sweaters.

From his kind eyes and gentle smile, you’d assume he was as normal as can be. Certainly, one of the more normal squad members in Emily’s team, but Liu himself had a dark past, a past the gang was still trying to unravel.

The youngest Mason sibling suffered from dissociative identity disorder, which was undiagnosed for most of his life until two months ago at his first therapy session with Dr. Amy Jones, Emily’s older sister. Since then, he has been working with her to understand his trauma and create a better system between himself and his alters, one that wouldn’t lead to their self-destruction. While Liu was theorized to be less dangerous compared to his brother. The last couple of years have been a tremendous blur thanks to his mind repressing the traumatic memories and his alter Sully fronting for longer periods of time. But even he was trying to work towards a better future, and we mean heavy emphasis on trying.

But today was a festive one at S.P.I.E Headquarters. The Superior Paranormal Investigators Extraordinaire were tasked with decorating the building to prepare for Christmas. Emily was currently decorating the Christmas Tree with Spencer, Dakota, Liu’s older brother Jeffrey, and Toby; all of which were apart of Emily’s team in one way or another. Meanwhile Macy was dragging her friend down the hall so they could watch a movie. It was Liu’s idea; he figured watching an old childhood animated film could lift Macy’s spirits and take her mind off her missing family members and she agreed.

Liu popped the cassette tape into the player and sat down, clutching his stuffed rabbit, Sully, named after his deceased pet bunny, whose death became the primary trigger for his alter’s creation. Neither knew if his primary protector named himself after the stuffed toy, the rabbit, or was a representation of the anger Liu felt at seeing his beloved pet’s dead body along with being too young to process said emotions. However, considering there were three Sully’s in the Mason household, they had to be careful to specify whenever referring to the alter, the rabbit, or the stuffed toy. Which, thankfully, hasn’t given them any trouble so far.

The two sat around a bowl of popcorn as Macy cuddled with her Singing Sofia Marionette doll, the toy that hid the remains of her body and soul after Martin killed her and still houses a piece of her soul, which allows her to give the doll partial control by tapping into the darkness within it or full control by possessing it. Which comes in handy depending on the situation. However, Macy didn’t want to think about that as she and her friend focused on the TV and happily munched on the popcorn.

Thirty minutes into the special, Liu ended up falling asleep, to which the angel covered him with a blanket and continued watching the movie while making sure he didn’t roll off the couch. If Macy was being honest with herself, she was having a great time; somehow, reliving positive things from her childhood healed her in a way; she really did need this. She swayed in her seat when a dainty tone came on and soon froze when she realized it was the song “My Two Front Teeth.” She tried to focus on the character singing, but memories from a horrific recurring nightmare invaded her mind. The dream made it seem she and her family were in an old cartoon, but she didn’t care; they were a family again. The first few days leading up to Christmas were filled with joy and warmth, but one by one they began to go missing until she was the last one left.

She closed her eyes shut as she recalled the pain she felt, her jaw being ripped open, her little sister being dead in a present, and worst of all, her waking up screaming and thrashing around on an operating table. she still didn’t know why she was bound there nor how she got there. Macy found herself unable to breathe as she attempted to choke back sobs, but she was trapped in her memories and soon forgot where she was as she cried.

Sometimes, she wondered what life would’ve been like if she was never born. would Martin have thought twice before selling his soul and killing all those poor innocent people or would it only minimize the damage? At least her, Banzo, Thomas, and Ava would’ve been spared. Hopefully Uncle Arthur and Gloria would’ve been too. No matter how many deep breaths she took she couldn’t calm down the slew of intrusive thoughts.

However, it was those cries that ended up waking Liu as he rubbed his eyes with a sigh and put on a white bracelet. He walked around the crying girl and grabbed a bucket in case she became so overwhelmed to the point of vomiting. Placing the bucket in reach, he positioned himself behind the angel and wrapped his arms loosely but gently around her.

“Shhhhh, shhhhh.” He shushed robbing her back and rocking her back and forth, “Don’t cry; I’m here. wherever you think you are you’re not there anymore.”

Macy’s cries died down a smidge as she looked at her friend with tearful eyes. Feelings of guilt mixing with her pain knowing she woke him up. “L-Liu?”

The man shook his head, showcasing the bracelet with the name Sully spelled out in beads. “I’ve been watching you for a while.” He spoke in a raspy tone almost like he was possessed by a demon, “Liu didn’t notice, but I’ve been in the forefront of his mind, aware enough to listen. I was planning to co-front and watch along with you but the movie you chose was so childish I couldn’t be bothered so I distanced myself a bit until he fell asleep.

“I-Is he?”

Sully shook his head, knowing exactly what Macy was referring to. “No, Liu’s still sleeping. I made sure not wake him when I fronted, I figured it’d be easier this way.”

Macy nodded at that information. to be fair she didn’t know much about DID, she got a minor crash course from Amy when her and Liu began getting to know each and even more reading material when she decided to become his guardian angel, but she’s been so busy trying to hunt down the remaining members of her family and her father she hasn’t had time to dive deeper. Plus keeping Sully and the rest of the system in lane was a full-time job in itself. The Last thing Liu needed was more emotional damage, she had a lot to learn, and Sully wasn’t exactly an expert in this field either he was a protector not a psychologist. As much as he hated relying on others, he’ll leave that level of research to Dr. Willson and Amy.

However, there were more pressing matters at hand as he tried to comfort the angel who was still crying in his arms, “Why does it have to be me?” He wondered with a scowl; Sully wasn’t very good at comforting people, let alone Liu and the other alters. Unlike the primary host, who wore his heart on his sleeve, Sully didn’t and hated being babied; it reminded him too much of their overbearing mother and how her constant worrying and mollycoddling disrupted Liu and Jeffery’s emotional development, among other things. The protector wasn’t one for vulnerability; being vulnerable showcases weakness, and Sully wasn’t weak, unlike Liu. Well, more like he wasn’t as weak as Liu. However, Macy opened up to him during their first proper conversation and told him a lot about her family history; it only seems right to continue being that shoulder to cry on.

“What’s troubling you, Macy? it’s not like you to get this worked up. What happened?”

“Sully? What’s going on? is that Macy I hear crying?” Liu questioned in his mind, great just what he needed at a time like this, “Ship, I fall asleep for thirty minutes and this happens!”

“Shut up, Liu.” His alter growled, making Macy jump in his arms, “We both know your panicking will only make this worse. Just stay out of this; I’ll take care of her.”

“A-Are you sure? We both know you’re not one for comforting people.”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” He yelled this time in his mind; not all their conversations needed to be heard. “Look Macy has opened up to me about her past before and I have a feeling she’ll do it again, if she talks to you first, she’ll withhold information and dodge the topics. We…” He paused with a sigh, “Speak from experience, just let me handle this. You can talk to her once she’s calmed down.”

Liu went quiet for a few moments until Sully heard him sigh, going deeper into his headspace to give the two some privacy. However, he was still lurking in case they needed to tag team this. Macy’s trauma went deeper than theirs, and while they had a decent understanding of what the young girl went through and the aftermath of it, They weren’t professionals despite being victims of various traumas; sad to say, they couldn’t relate to being skinned and stuffed into a tiny toy brought to life by a satanist in a demonic retiral. Thankfully, that’s one trauma they didn’t have but if push comes to shove and this situation becomes too big for even them Emily was down the hall, and they had Amy on speed dial for situations like these.

“Sorry about that; you know how Liu can get. He has a habit of worrying when those he cares for are hurting; he gets that from our mother.” Sully spoke with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Macy giggled a little bit; even though her cheeks were wet with tears, her tiny smile put both men at ease as Sully made relaxing motions on her cheek with his thumb.

“Macy, I know you’re not a fan of worrying us with problems regarding your family. But I’ve never seen you break down like that over a movie before. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

Macy sniffled, trying to get her breathing under control. “I don’t w-want to-to talk a-a-about it.”

“You must.” He insisted, as much as he hated being forceful with her, Amy used this tactic a few times during the sessions. Liu needed a push to confront a particularly painful memory that he was purposefully avoiding. Sully wasn’t going to beat around the bush Macy was bottling her feelings up and it was negatively impacting her mental health. He needed to know what was troubling her so he could help. But if she didn’t want to talk to him, he’d make her talk to Amy. He didn’t know how angel hierarchy worked these days. But if she felt more comfortable talking to a fellow cursed angel, so be it.

“Macy, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you’re bottling your feelings up. I understand your life ended in tragedy and you’re discovering things about yourself that are upsetting to you, but you don’t need to hide your pain behind a brave face. Facing this burden alone is only going to lead to bigger consequences in the future; look at me, Liu, and Jeff. We underestimated how important mental health truly is and refused the ones who could’ve helped us improve it; we were so insistent that we didn’t need anyone that it cost us everything. Jeffery gave in to his inner demons and fell into the depths of insanity; he went on a killing spree; he killed our parents and so many innocent people. As for me and Liu…” Sully paused, trying to put his thoughts into words so Macy wouldn’t use them to change the subject. “Let’s just say our hands aren’t clean either. Look, what I’m trying to say is, we’ve all got mental demons we’re fighting and things we wished we either did differently or ended differently. Liu and I aren’t made of glass; we may be facing our own problems, but we’re facing them together and with guidance. Whether you like it or not, you’re a part of that support system; we can’t dump all our problems onto you if you won’t be open about your own. And if you won’t talk to me, I’m getting Amy; perhaps speaking to a fellow angel will make you feel more comfortable.”

Sully pulled apart from his angel and went to the door to show he was serious; he slipped into the hallway and lingered. He wanted to give her at least a chance to decide for herself.

“Sully, wait.” She spoke, holding her hand out,

A moment later he popped his head in, “Yes.”

Macy stood up, looking towards the ground; at this point, she was able to regain her composure, but she still felt she could burst into tears again in a moment's notice. But she trusted Liu, and Sully; she trusted Amy too but just wasn’t ready to truly open up to her fellow angel yet. Taking a deep breath, she spoke her mind.

“I had a nightmare.”

Sully’s face softened, while he had a feeling that wasn’t the whole reason. It was a start, “Come here.” He said, pulling Macy into a hug and directing her back to the couch. He wrapped a blanket around her and replaced Singing Sofia with his stuffed rabbit, thinking something softer would be a better stress reliever. Once satisfied with Macy’s placement, he sat next to her, slinging his arm around the back of the sofa as an open invitation to cuddle if she needed it. Macy smiled; she knew Sully wasn’t one for physical affection and hated it when people touched him without him consenting to it or being the one to initiate it. She was one of the only exceptions to that rule, and it made her feel special. Well, she was special, being his angel and all, but that was beside the point.

Macy knew Sully wasn’t a bad person; he was just like her—broken. He was angry at the world and the ones who wronged him and Liu, and what’s worse is he never learned how to process these emotions in a healthy manner nor got proper treatment until recently. She didn’t blame him for being so misunderstood, but under all that hatred and rage was still a person who deserved as much love and respect as anyone else.

“So, start at the beginning. what was your nightmare about?”

Macy didn’t need to think too hard on it; she remembered it clear as day. “It was Christmas time, about five days before it. I was with my family again in a log cabin. But Thomas and I were Sofia and Henry in my dream, in fact aside from Uncle Arthur none of us looked the same as we did before. But I didn’t care I was just so happy; Arthur gave me a piece of paper and I wrote my Christmas list to Santa while singing “My Two Front Teeth. And when I was done Dad took it to the mailbox outside.”

“That song.” Sully realized he briefly heard it playing on the TV shortly before Macy broke down, “So, that’s what happened; that song must’ve been the trigger.”

“Please continue, Macy.”

The girl nodded, taking another deep breath. “I had diner with my family shortly after and ended up eating way too much. I got a stomachache shortly after and Mom told me to sleep it off and I did. I remember seeing snowmen and a scary demon in my dream too, the next morning dad wasn’t there, and I saw Mom standing in the hallway, but she didn’t say anything to me, so I told her I was going to see Uncle Arthur and left her be. Arthur told us Dad wasn’t feeling well so we made some gingerbread cookies to give to him later. One of them was burnt, in fact I think it was meant to represent Mom who was the next to go missing. I ate too much again and went to bed with another stomachache. But somehow even as I slept, I could tell there was someone there watching me, at first, I thought it was Mom, but it wasn’t. It was a demon impersonating her Sully.”

The alter pulled Macy into his embrace as she blinked back tears. “The next morning Thomas and I couldn’t find Uncle Aruther, so we split up to search for him, we came up empty handed and went to bed. Finally on Christmas Eve, I heard Ava crying and went looking for her. I followed her cries into a dark room and saw my mom, but I soon realized it wasn’t her. The door closed behind me, and I became locked in and saw my family had become monsters; they surrounded me. I was trapped, I couldn’t move due to a paralyzing fear and…” Tears began to fill Macy’s eyes as she struggled to relay the last of her nightmare. “And they captured me, they…they…they tortured me, they broke my jaw and ripped my mouth open, so that way I…I can eat more of my mother’s cooking.” She fully broke down again, throwing herself into the younger man’s body and Sully held her tight, rubbing her back as he spoke comforting words to her.

He dreaded the question he was about to ask, but curiosity was eating away at him: “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to your sister?”

Macy looked at him with teary eyes, and the answer she gave him broke his and Liu’s hearts: “She was dead; in fact, I think she’s been dead for days. Her body was wrapped up in a box Dad wanted me to have for Christmas. Arthur gave it to me the morning we made gingerbread cookies, and I had no idea she was even missing.”

Sully had never wanted to strangle anyone more than Martin Graywhinder. It almost rivaled his hatred for Jeffery and their parents, but even they weren’t that bad. Martin killed, skinned, and weaponized his kids just to make the perfect toy and because he believed Gloria was cheating on him; he made a deal with the devil that backfired and now was forced to live the rest of his days as a servant to Satan. Sure, Jeff was a danger to everyone, including himself, and their father was somewhat neglectful and didn’t take their cries for help seriously until Jeff nearly lost his life. By then it was already too late, and to Sully, it served their parents right, even if Liu would fight tooth and nail on that opinion. But Martin was a monster by every definition: he kidnapped children and forced them to undergo the same terrifying transformation as the rest of his family. And is still at large to this day.

“Macy, I promise Liu and I will do everything we can to help you stop your father and release you all from this pain. I swear once I get my hands on him, I’ll make him wish he never destroyed your lives for his unachievable goal that is a promise.”

“You—you don’t need to do that.” Macy insisted, while she was touched that her friends would go above and beyond to help her. This was still her battle to fight; Emily and her friends had already dived too deep, and it nearly cost them their lives. She couldn’t risk anyone else falling victim to her dad’s madness just to set the remainder of her family free.

“You’re right, we don’t need to, but we will. Macy, you wanted to know me and Liu because you related to us; we’ve been through experiences we wouldn’t wish on anyone. Martin’s goal consumed him, and you all had to suffer for it. If you ask me, he didn’t deserve you; even if Arthur is your real father, he certainly cared a hell of a lot more about Thomas, Ava, you, and Gloria than her own husband did. And if that’s not what a father is, I don’t know what is; he’s certainly better than ours.”

Macy couldn’t keep the smile off her face; she really didn’t know what to say, so Sully kept talking.

“We’re a team now, Mace. where you go, we will follow. Because…because.” Sully closed his eyes, feeling Liu wanting to switch and complied,

“Because you’re not alone anymore; you’re one of us now, Macy, and I couldn’t have asked for a better emotional support buddy. You’ve become a sister to me, and I know that sounds weird since you’re our angel and all, but you’ve done so much for us, and I’m forever grateful that I got to meet you. I never want you feeling like a burden if you need to talk about your problems with me or another one of my alters. According to Sully, they speak quite highly of you and want to help too. And when the time comes, and you want to talk to Gloria about everything, I’ll be right next to you holding your hand.” He giggled, scratching his head, “If you want me to, that is.”

Macy was at a loss for words; Liu was truly a sweetheart. it was hard to believe he was related to a psychopathic killer. But that was beside the point, what mattered was she was loved, wanted, cared for, and had some of the greatest friends in the world. For a time, it seemed like she’d never be able to break through the darkness that trapped and warped her sense of reality. She’d almost forgotten what her life was like before the massacre and who she used to be, if it wasn’t for Emily looking into the case and meeting Glenda on that fateful evening. Macy never would’ve returned to her senses to warn him about the danger the angel and her friends were in when they went to Harmony Arcadia for more clues. The aftermath leading the former cursed child regaining her freewill and becoming an angel. She never would’ve regained her humanity if it wasn’t for them.

“Liu, thank you, and you too, Sully. I really appreciate you being here.”

Liu smiled, happy he and his alter were able to bring the young angel’s smile back. “Anything, for you, Macy. Is there anything else we can do? do you want to talk to the others about this?”

The ginger shook her head, “No, I’m not ready to speak to them about this yet. But Liu, can-can I just stay here and cry for a little longer?”

“Of course, Macy You don’t need permission to cry. We’re always here when you need us; just let me know if you start feeling sick, okay?”

Macy nodded and cuddled into her friend and started crying again. She and Liu stayed there for hours until she cried herself to sleep. Liu gently lifted her off his chest and carried her to the cot Emily slept on when she needed to stay the night. Bon already made the bed with fresh blankets, pillows, and a few plushies. Liu smiled as he laid her down; he walked back to the couch to grab Sully the Rabbit, Singing Sofa, and tucked himself in alongside her. Sleep took its hold pretty quickly, and Liu was once again sound asleep, cuddled up to a cursed plastic marionette puppet, a worn but loved stuffed rabbit, and a very kind, loving, and special guardian angel. He smiled, wondering what more could he ask for.

Gloria Graywhinder cried hearing about the torment Macy was going through; she tried to talk some sense into Martin before things got further out of hand. But he pushed her away; it seems that’s all that’s been happening lately. For years she blamed her husband for the deaths of the kids, Banzo and Arthur, but in the end it truly was her fault. She only wanted to see Martin happy; she too wanted kids just as much as he did, but she never should’ve gone behind his back about this; there were other ways to solve their problem; she didn’t need to seek Arthur’s help. At the time she didn’t see it as an affair but suragency; Arthur was the one who suggested it. They didn’t even have sex; the sperm was delivered through different means. Or… at least that’s how she remembered it going. But that wasn’t an excuse; she still lied and hid the truth; she was a fool for thinking Martin would automatically be okay with this. They should have talked it out beforehand; maybe they could have come to an agreement. She should have known something was wrong when he was taken into the station on account of child abuse. He was hurting Thomas; he killed their dog and his brother for goodness sake. Why didn’t she notice something was off sooner? There must be a way to fix this; she couldn’t let them suffer in silence anymore.

“You have to tell her, Gloria.” Emily stated sternly, “You can’t keep avoiding this anymore; Macy needs to know. I know it’ll be hard, and I know you want her to come to you. But at this point you’re prolonging the inevitable. If she doesn’t get the truth from you, she’ll get it from a VHS tape, and who knows how she’ll react to that? It’s either get it from the source or from a third-hand account. pick your poison Gloria!” She snapped when her phone binged, “Give me a moment.”

Emily dug her phone out of her coat and saw Amy replied to her text.

“Hey, Amy, I don’t know when you’ll get this but Macy’s having a mental breakdown. Sully’s taking care of her, but can you come over?”

Sent 12:45

“Hey, sorry, I just got your text. I was busy with another patient; how’s Macy?”

Sent 2:03

“She cried herself to sleep ten minutes ago; Liu’s asleep with her, but her mental health is getting worse. She doesn’t want to open up to us, but carrying all this inside isn’t healthy. I don’t know what to do, Amy, but she needs help.”

Sent 2:05

“First of all, we can’t force her to open up when she’s not ready to. Many trauma victims are the same; the fact she’s comfortable enough to open up to Sully of all people shows a deep level of trust. All we can do for now is keep an eye on her; however, I’ll keep my schedule open in case an emergency session is needed. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

Sent 2:10

Emily sighed. “I sure hope you’re right.” She texted and slipped her phone back into her pocket, returning her focus to the distraught mother who was peeking into the room, where Liu and Macy still slept. “Look, Gloria, I know you thought you were doing the right thing; I get it; I really do. However, you can’t hide the truth from them forever. Sooner or later, they will find out, and if they’re still cursed when they do, it could lead to unforeseen consequences. You don’t need to tell Macy now, or in the days leading up to Christmas. But promise me you’ll tell her before the year ends so we can start healing her from the aftermath. Just please think about it.” Emily pleaded unable to stand by when a trauma victim was hurting.

Gloria stayed silent as she watched her daughter sleep somewhat soundly. Emily was right, of course she was. She must’ve delt with this a thousand times before she retired after becoming a Cursed Heartless Angel. She turned to her and nodded, “Okay, Emily if she doesn’t come to me by the end of the holiday season. Then I’ll come to her.”

Emily nodded as well, satisfied with the ghost’s answer as her cyborg sidekick entered the hall. “Emily, I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but we need some help in the kitchen. Spencer and Jonhson are having some trouble wrangling the turkey for dinner.”

The cursed angel raised a confused eyebrow. “What’s wrong with the turkey?”

“It’s a little ha, undercooked.” She chuckled, rubbing the back of her head, “Spencer accidentally spawned a real one.”

“Oh, say no more. Come on, Gloria, you can help too.” She ushered, walking alongside Cyborg Noodle,

Gloria spared one last glance at the figures of her sleeping daughter and assigned human. She knew she had to tell Macy the truth eventually; it’ll hurt, and it may split them apart forever, but it needed to be done. She just hoped when the talk does happen, she’ll continue to have the support of Liu and his system, Emily and her friends, Glenda and her family, and Cyn and the rest of the Actor Drones. As long as Macy has a support group to fall back on, then Gloria would be happy. This was the wish of a sorrowful, foolish, and ignorant mother, a wish she prayed more than anything would come true.

Yes, I did some research on DID for the terms and I believe I used them right along with the depiction of it however I'm not a system and I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the condision. Please let me know if I got anything wrong. Liu and Sully are still pretty underdeveloped since Jeff was the primary focus in episode two. We'll just have to wait until Liu's episode for us to hopefully see the inner workings of his system and his mental state. Whether he becomes a sort of anti-hero who tries to help or if him and Sully will make the same mistakes and fellow in Jeff's footsteps regardless, I have my own head canons as to where Liu has been for Emily's AU, but you'll have to wait for that. (Might be a good long while actually.)

Also, yes H&H's Christmas Special My Two Front Teeth was all a dream Macy had, Battinton confirmed it in a community post. I don't know what compelled me to pair these two up together maybe it's because Liu and Macy have suffered a lot in their lives also Macy needed someone to watch over, but just know I have no intention to ship these two for obvious reasons. The reasons being age gap and the fact one of them is dead (Even though this wouldn't be the first time I've shipped an angel with a human, but I digress.) For this month only I'm taking requests and opening my ask box for anyone who wants to submit fic ideas you want to see in this au. Granted I won't be doing anything that spoils any major lure bits but I'm sure I can make a couple of loopholes and exceptions. So don't be afraid to ask. Anyway it's late this chapter took me a good few days I'll see you all next time.

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