#Yellow Waternoose

[the-omega-artist]

The waternooses react to Barbie

[the-omega-artist]

Undeniably my most iconic DD OC, Mr. Yellow, aka the Doom Ducky. :)

haven't drew in a while

soo

✨️DRAWING REQUESTS✨️

(doesn't matter dd-related or ocs)

[ironychan]

Scary Monsters

@dysphoria-sweatshirt @30spiders @sweatersexual @angrylittlesliceofpizza

Part 1/? - Rocco’s Closet

Part 2/? - School for Monsters

Part 3/? - The Waternoose Family

Part 4/? - The Terrifying Humans

Part 5/? - Hiding Places

Part 6/? - Nobody’s Fault

Part 7/? - Edge of Disaster

Part 8/? - Caged Monsters

The Waternooses had not come alone. Behind them were at least a dozen people in the head-to-toe yellow suits of the exterminators, and none of them were as small as the tiny one Luca and Alberto had seen in the bathroom. Any one of them was big enough to lift the boys or Curtis right off the floor, and a couple looked ready even to take on Sullivan.

Sullivan placed his formidable bulk between the boys and the approaching exterminators, and roared like a tiger in a cage or an angry elephant seal. He rushed at the oncoming exterminators, and five or six of the yellow-suited figures immediately dogpiled him. For a moment Luca could only watch the fight, transfixed. This was not supposed to happen! They'd tried to plan this so that Sullivan wouldn't get in trouble, and now it looked like he was going to get in more trouble than any of them! What had happened to Louise? Had she gotten out of the factory okay? Because if they caught her in here after she'd already been fired...

A clawed appendage came down on Luca's shoulder, and he shrieked in terror and grabbed Alberto – but it was only Curtis.

“Come on, he'll hold them off, let's go!” Curtis urged.

Luca tore himself away, and he and Alberto ran after Curtis, who went straight for the nearest emergency exit and wrenched the door open. An alarm began to blare and sunshine flooded in, only to be eclipsed by the hulking shape of yet another exterminator. The boys and Curtis scrambled to a halt as this figure ducked through the door, having to bow each of its three heads in turn in order to fit. When they turned to run the other way, an exterminator with a tiny body slung between many long, spider-like legs had stepped into their way.

One of these legs darted out, and the pincer on the end grabbed Luca by the shirt and lifted him off the ground. Then it dashed him onto the metal floor, and two smaller exterminators pinned him down and put cold metal shackles around his wrists. A moment later, Alberto was beside him, also chained up, and then Curtis. A set of keys jangled as they fell out of his fur and tumbled across the floor to land at the feet of a knobby creature with a club on the end of its tail.

This individual, who was wearing a tie, bent down and picked the keys up, examined them for a moment, then scowled.

“Liebermann! So you're the one who keeps taking my keys!” it shouted.

“No! No! I swear, today was the fir...” Curtis began, but an exterminator put a hand over his mouth, shutting him up.

The group fighting Sullivan had him on his knees, and it looked like he would soon be on the floor with the rest of them. Then he seemed to get a second wind. With a snarl, he shoved off the three-headed exterminator, which had been trying to shackle him, and got to his feet. Three-heads staggered backwards and fell against Rocco's door, knocking it out of the clamps holding it.

“Oh, no!” Luca exclaimed, before an exterminator pushed his face against he floor again.

Sullivan knew they needed that door. He moved forwards to see it if it were damaged, but the others exterminators grabbed him from behind. This time, one of them pressed some small object against his neck, which seemed to cause him a lot of pain. Sullivan hollered and his fur fluffed out like a frightened cat's, then he went limp, and the exterminators were able to get big shackles around his wrists and ankles.

At last, all four of them were on the floor, and all that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the exterminators in their suits.

“Mr. Borisov!” said Curtis. “I promise you, everybody borrows your keys! It's not just me!”

The knobbly creature looked around the room. “Do they really?” he asked, suspicious.

“No!” said the nearest monster.

“Never!” another agreed, holding up all three hands.

“I told Lieberman to stop doing it!” a third chimed in.

“Oh, come on, guys!” said Curtis.

The three-headed creature had gotten up, and it picked up Rocco's door. The door looked rather bent, with splinters coming off one edge of it. Luca swallowed. Would it still work?

“Get rid of that,” Waternoose ordered. “Everybody, no need to panic. The incursion is handled. You can go back to work. Sawyer will be around with nondisclosure agreements for all of you to sign.”

The three-headed exterminator crumpled the door like it was wringing out a wet cloth. The knob fell out, and rolled in a circle on the floor.

Harry scuttled forward with a big smile on his face. “You see, Dad?” he asked. “I told you they'd come back! I told you they needed the door!”

Waternoose ignored his son, and put his fists on his hips to look the four prisoners over critically. “Now,” he said, “what are we going to do with you? The two boys from the human world I would have just killed, but now we've got Liebermann and Sullivan involved, and if they vanish they'll be missed. Shame about Sullivan. Your teachers absolutely raved about you, you know that?”

Sullivan scowled.

“Dad,” Harry insisted. “Dad, I was right, wasn't I? Wasn't I right?”

“You pipe down,” Waternoose told him.

“But I told you that...”

“Shut up!” Waternoose barked. “If you hadn't let them escape from the factory in the first place, we could have handled this days ago and we wouldn't have had all this bad press! Next time, think a little before you go running around trying to be clever!”

Harry stared at him, shocked and frightened.

All around them, other employees were very slowly moving to get things set up again and return to work, but almost all were still watching this spectacle going on in the middle of the room. Waternoose looked around and glared at people.

“What are you all staring at?” he demanded. “Let's see some work. The city needs power!” he punched his palm. “For now, we'll just find somewhere to put these four, and deal with them later.”

The exterminators picked up Alberto, Luca, and Curtis bodily off the ground. The one who had Luca and Alberto carried one boy under each arm, while a second, smaller individual slung Curtis over his shoulder like a sack of flour Three people dragged Sullivan to his feet, and he had to shuffle along with his ankles still shackled as they dragged him out of the room following Waternoose.

Harry scuttled beside his father, nervous, but eventually he got up his courage again. “Dad,” he said, “I know I screwed up, but I fixed it, right? I told you...”

“Oh, give it a rest, Harry!” groaned Alberto. “Your Dad is never going to be proud of you!”

“Nobody asked you!” Harry told him. “That's not even true. Dad's proud of me. Right, Dad?”

“Go home, Harry,” said Waternoose grimly.

“Tell them you're proud of me!” Harry insisted, an edge of desperation in his voice.

“I'll be proud of you when you do something worth being proud of!” snapped Waternoose. “I've been waiting eleven years! Now go home. Your mother and I will discuss your punishment this evening.”

Harry stopped. A few seconds went by while he just stood in the middle of the hallway while his father, the exterminators, and the prisoners got further and further ahead. Then he turned and ran.

Luca sniffled. The corners of his eyes were getting sticky from tears he couldn't quite keep in, and he couldn't brush them away or wipe his nose with his hands locked up behind his back. “You shouldn't have said that,” he told Alberto.

“Yeah, I should,” Alberto replied. “It's true.”

Luca supposed that when it came to Dads who were never happy, Alberto was the one to know.

Waternoose led them through a maze of hallways and down a flight of stairs. Luca wasn't sure if all the twists and turns were necessary or if this were just to confuse them in case they escaped. When they arrived at their destination, however, he decided it had to be the former, because there was no way they were going to escape from here. The basement room they'd been brought to had pipes and wires in the ceiling, and bare concrete on the walls and floors. The floor sloped down to a drain in the back corner, but it was only about ten centimetres square, too small for any but the tiniest of monsters to crawl through. Anyway, the big cage in the middle of the room was metres away from it. The bars were an inch thick.

With a chill, Luca realized this had been here for a long time. It hadn't been built for them, it had been built for something else, possibly much worse. Luca wondered who or what that had been.

They were thrown in one by one. The cage was about as big as an elevator car, and while the elevators here were fairly large, being built to accommodate larger monsters, with Sullivan in there it was still a bit of a squeeze. The door shut with a very final-sounding thunk.

“I'll have to mull this over,” said Waternoose. “Write some nice letters to the Sullivan and Liebermann families and tell them how sorry I am about the tragic accident. You two walked right into a slumber party and were overcome by the pack.”

“Why don't you just send us home?” Luca asked.

The others all turned their heads to look at him.

“What?” asked Curtis.

“Why would he do that?” Alberto wanted to know.

“Because he's worried we'll tell everybody that humans aren't dangerous,” Luca pointed out. “If we go back to our world, we won't be able to do that, and we certainly never want to come back here! You can send Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Liebermann with us, so they can't tell anyone, either. You can think of it as...” what was it the ancient Greeks had used to do? He'd read about it in a book, which had used a specific word for when they made somebody leave a city forever. Luca couldn't remember it, so he substituted a similar one. “Banishment! You can banish us!”

His heart beat hard as he watched Waternoose. It probably wouldn't work, but maybe, just maybe, if the big monster could be made to think of it as a solution rather than another problem...

Waternoose snorted. “Send you back to tell the humans that monsters aren't dangerous? I don't think so. Besides, Liebermann knows the door schedules. He'd be back on the next available shift.”

With that, Waternoose and the exterminators left. The lights went out behind them, leaving only a red 'exit' sign above the door. Luca and Alberto could see each other's eyes shining by this feeble illumination. Sullivan's eyes turned out to be similarly reflective, but Curtis' were not. Another book had taught Luca that this was caused by a layer in the back of the eye which reflected light so that creatures like cats, owls, or sea monsters could see in the dark. Apparently only some of the closet monsters could do that.

“I'm sorry,” said Luca, into the oppressive silence left by the shutting of the door. “I didn't really think that was going to work, but I had to try.”

Alberto's shackles jingled as he shrugged. “I mean, you're the idea man.”

“What would we do in the human world, anyway?” Curtis asked.

“We'd find something for you,” Luca promised. “We talked about it with Louise. It'd be the same for you. People in Portorosso don't mind sea monsters, so they could get used to you, too.”

Sullivan just groaned. “My parents are going to be so disappointed,” he said.

“You're worried about your parents?” Curtis asked. “I mean, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's going to murder all four of us.”

“They were proud of me! Valedictorian of the scare class, with job offers right out of school,” Sullivan said. “I almost didn't talk them out of coming to see me on my first day. I would have died of embarrassment. They're probably wondering why I haven't called yet. I told them I'd phone at lunch every day.”

“Are they gonna be mad?” Luca asked.

“No,” sighed Sullivan. “Like I said, just disappointed.”

Luca nodded. “That's worse.”

“I hope Louise got out okay,” said Curtis.

“Yeah, me too,” Luca sniffled, then perked up a bit, a tiny fire of hope lighting up in his chest. Maybe... maybe Louise could help them. If she were hiding somewhere in the factory and realized they weren't coming back, she could come looking for them. Louise was almost as huge and strong as Sullivan. If she could take the exterminators by surprise, it might just work!

About half an hour later, another group of exterminators came in, dragging Louise. Obviously she had fought – she had a black eye, and one of the exterminators had a sleeve torn off his yellow suit. They stuffed her in the cage with the rest of them, making things even more crowded, and then left once again.

“Ma'am?” Luca asked cautiously.

“Are you okay, Louise?” Curtis wanted to know.

“I'll live,” she grumbled.

“What happened?” asked Luca.

“Maureen smuggled me down into the garbage room and told me I could hide out there,” Louise told them. “Then the exterminators came looking for me and I had nowhere to go.”

Luca hung his head. “I'm sorry.”

By the red light of the exit sign, he could see Louise's resigned smile. “What did I tell you about being sorry? It's not your fault.”

“It's gotta be somebody's fault,” Luca pointed out.

“Then it's Mr. Waternoose's fault,” Alberto decided. “He's the one who made a big deal out of things. If not for him we could have just gone home.”

There was another long silence then. The one red light in the room kept it from being totally dark, but there were no clocks or even windows to give an indication of time passing. Curtis had been wearing a watch, but he couldn't look at it with his hands locked up behind his back. It seemed like all they could do was sit there, and they didn't even know how long it had been.

Alberto was the first to fall asleep. Sullivan was second, and snorted a bit. Luca decided he might as well shut his own eyes, and leaned against Louise to use her as a pillow. He hoped she wouldn't mind, and it didn't seem like she did – when he woke briefly a little later, he found that she was asleep, too. At least with all these bodies in the small space of the cage, it wasn't cold in here, and leaning on Louise was something like having a dog or cat in bed with him, warm and furry and reassuring. Luca settled down again.

The next time he woke up, he heard a jingling sound.

For a moment he couldn't think what it was, although he knew it was familiar. Then he realized it was the sound of keys. Keys meant somebody was coming in, and somebody coming in might mean Waternoose had decided what to do with them. Suddenly wide awake, Luca sat up and shook Alberto.

“Wake up! Somebody's coming!” he hissed.

“Huh?” asked Curtis, on the other side of Louise, then seemed to hear the noise himself. “Oh, no.”

All five of them were awake by the time the door began to open. Sullivan and Louise both stood, awkwardly with their legs still shackled but determined to meet this with whatever show of force they could. Luca, Alberto, and Curtis stayed behind them, but peeked between and around the larger monsters to see what was going on.

The jingling went on as if somebody was trying to find the right key by trying each of several in turn. Then the door creaked open, and several eyes, glowing pink, seemed to check the room out before their owner entered. This small, roundish figure scuttled across the floor towards them, and Luca and Alberto recognized the motion at once. It was Harry.

“What are you doing here?” Alberto hissed at him.

Harry came closer, but stayed just far enough from the bars that nobody inside the cage could reach him. “You said your Dad was terrible, so you left him and found a new Dad,” he said to Alberto.

“Yeah, I did,” Alberto replied cautiously.

“So we got home and he just yelled at me a bunch more, and then him and Mom had a big fight and he called me a disgrace to the family. And I realized you were right, he's never gonna be proud. So now I'm gonna go find a better Dad in the human world, like you did.”

Luca had a feeling that wasn't going to work, but he didn't say so. It would have been nice if Harry's Dad had loved him, but right now they just needed to go home and keep the people who'd helped them out of trouble. When he glanced up at the adults he found them looking skeptical, but none of them said anything, either.

“How are we gonna get there?” Alberto asked. “They broke Rocco's door.”

“All doors lead to the human world,” said Harry. “We'll just pick one.”

Louise's shackles clanked as she tried to gesture, but couldn't. “The one I found you in was fourth shift. I think it was section...” she frowned and looked at Curtis.

“A-113!” he said. “If we can find another door from that sector, it ought to be close.”

Luca and Alberto weren't too sure about that. “How big is sector A-113?” Luca asked.

The monsters didn't seem to care. Harry found the right key and opened the door, and then started opening the shackles as the prisoners crawled out one by one. Luca's arms and legs were stiff after being kept in one position for so long, and he had to shake and stomp to get the feeling back into his fingers and toes. Once everyone was free, Harry cracked the door open and peeked outside.

“There's a lot of exterminators wandering around the factory,” Harry told them. “Just checking up on things. So we'll have to be really quiet.”

“Got it,” Alberto promised.

They crept out into the hall and Harry turned left, which turned out to take them to the elevators. These, however, could not be used. There was an exterminator, in his full suit, sitting between the two sets of elevator doors and reading a magazine with a furry monster in a swimsuit on the cover and a tagline promising two, three – even five beautiful faces! Luca remembered how Marie and Jeanette at the school had interacted, and wondered if a monster with five heads had even more trouble agreeing on things. It would be like having four siblings you couldn't get away from.

Harry chose another direction, and they found their way to a set of stairs. Everybody moved softly on all fours to make as little noise as possible as they climbed. The numbers painted on the wall told them when they reached the ground floor. Curtis cracked the door open, then froze as another exterminator walked, by, whistling. Everybody held their breath, but it didn't seem to see them.

“Okay,” Curtis whispered. “I know where we are now. The door warehouse is this way.”

He took the lead now, escorting the others through the grid of hallways that all looked the same as far as Luca and Alberto could tell. If they heard anyone coming, they would duck into a washroom or down a side hall and let the exterminator or security guard pass. Luca thought he might die of sheer anxiety as they passed through one close call after another, but they finally made it to a set of doors marked warehouse. Maybe they'd used up all their bad luck that morning. Maybe they were going to make it after all.

The doors were, of course, locked.

“All right,” said Curtis. “I guess I'm gonna go get Borisov's keys again. Man, he's gonna kill me.” He sighed. “We'll need a scream canister too, to activate the door.”

“He won't kill you,” said Alberto. “You'll be safe in the human world.” He and Luca were both sure that, if nothing else, the monsters wouldn't follow them there.

“I don't know if I like that any better,” Curtis said, mostly to himself. He slipped away into the dark halls.

It seemed to take a very long time for him to come back, but at least this time there was a clock. It was hung on the wall over the warehouse doors, and showed that it was just after eleven at night. The hands crawled around the face again and again for five minutes, then ten, then fifteen. Finally, after a very slow and nerve-wracking twenty-five minutes, Curtis came back looking apologetic. He was carrying one of the yellow canisters, with a gauge on the side indicating it had a little bit left in the bottom, but there was no sign of keys.

“I can't find them in any of the usual spots,” he said. “I think he must've taken them home or hidden them after he yelled at me earlier, and I don't want to make too much noise by searching for them.”

Sullivan pointed a thumb at the door. “Is this alarmed?”

“Of course it is,” said Curtis. “Closet doors are dangerous. In the wrong hands...”

“Then we'll move fast,” Sullivan interrupted, and slammed his shoulder into the door.

The first blow bent it, but did not break it. Sullivan backed up and did it again. This time, the doors bowed inwards, opening a crack to show the darkness within. An alarm began blaring. The third time, Louise joined in, and the doors flew open, the hinges screaming as they were torn from the wall. More alarms started to wail, and the lights began to flash red.

“Follow me,” Curtis ordered, and dashed in.

Luca, Alberto, and Harry ran after him, with Louise and Sullivan bringing up the rear. The pulsing red lights that went with the alarm made everyone seem to be moving in jerks, and Luca was having trouble seeing where anything was, but Curtis knew the way. He turned right into the A section, and ran down an aisle with doors hung from railings on either side, like shirts in a shop. The numbers above the rails started at A-001, and Luca's heart sank thinking how far they would have to go.

“Second floor!” Curtis said, hurrying up a flight of stairs onto a metal walkway. The numbers at the bottom had been at A-010, but on this level they were at A-110, and Luca felt a little better. Once they'd all reached the top, Sullivan ripped the stairs from the bolts holding them to the walkway, and tossed them to the floor so that anybody following would have to find another way up.

They made it to number 113, and there they paused. It was just one line of doors out of the thousands that were in here, but there were still hundreds of them on the rail. They had no idea where any particular one might take them.

Shouting voices and running footsteps could be heard below. They had to find one.

“Which one?” asked Louise.

Curtis flipped through them. “I don't know. Kids, you got any input?”

Luca followed him down the side walkway, but all the doors looked the same. It looked like they would just have to choose randomly before they ran out of time, and deal with wherever they ended up.

Then something caught Luca's eye. “Stop!” he told Curtis. “That one!”

Louise took the door down from its hook, and Luca grinned at the sight of it.

“That's Dorotea's door from school!” said Luca. “Giulia and I did a group project at her house once. She said she drew on it with crayon when she was little.” The stick figures of herself and her dogs that she'd scribbled years ago had been party worn away, but were still identifiable. Exactly as Luca remembered it.

The monsters didn't have time to ask questions. They leaned the door against the walkway railings, and Curtis counted down from three before opening the scream canister at the same time as Louise turned the knob. The sound of a child screaming, distant and tinny from being stored in the can, echoed through the warehouse. Lights flickered above doors that were still on the railings, and Louise opened the door. The other side was almost too bright to look at in the dark warehouse.

“Get in there!” Louise pushed Luca and Alberto in, and Harry after them.

Passing through was a little odd, because of the door leaning at an angle. Louise dropped Luca in as if he were going to fall all the way, but after passing through he suddenly found himself going up before dropping again and landing on the floor with a thump. A moment later Alberto was landing next to him, and they rolled out of the way to make room for the larger monsters as Harry came through.

Harry turned around, and slammed the door.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Luca asked.

“We're almost out of scream anyway,” Harry told him. “They're too big, the humans will be too scared of them.”

“They helped us! We have to help them!” Luca took the knob while Alberto pushed Harry out of the way, but when they wrenched the door open again, there was nothing on the other side but Dorotea's closet. She'd stuffed a bunch of clothes and toys into it so her parents would think she'd cleaned her room. A couple of these fell out, including a round object that Harry scooped up and looked at.

It was a doll's head. The eyes opened when he held it upright, prompting him to scream and throw it across the room.

“What's wrong with you, stupido?” Alberto demanded, clearly taking some pleasure in using the phrase for its intended purpose. “It's just a toy!”

Then the other door opened. All three turned to see, and found Dorotea's mother, a woman with short dark curls, wearing a polka-dot blouse, standing in bedroom door staring at them. It was hard to say whether she'd noticed Alberto or Luca. Her eyes were fixed on Harry. She stared for half a second, then pulled the door shut with a bang and they heard her footsteps running down the stairs.

“Oh, no,” said Luca, and ran to follow her.

Behind him, he could hear Harry shouting at Alberto: “don't close the door! Prop it open!” he was saying. “They can't activate a door if it's open on this end!”

“Signora Molinari!” Luca called out, hurrying down the steps. He followed the woman into the kitchen, where she pulled a telephone book out of a drawer and began madly flipping the pages. Luca ran up on the other side of the counter and put his hands on the book to make her stop. “Signora Molinari, it's me, Luca!” he said. “I go to school with Dorotea, remember?”

She stopped short, staring at him. “Luca? What are you doing here? Don't you and Giulia go home in the summer?”

“We need help,” said Luca.

“Of course,” Signora Molinari replied, “but you...”

There was a sound on the stairs. Luca and Signora Molinari both looked, in time to see both Alberto and Harry duck out of sight behind the wall that separated them from the kitchen.

“Okay,” said Luca. “This is Alberto, he's my friend from Portorosso. Alberto, come out.”

Alberto emerged, and gave Signora Molinari a friendly grin as he waved at her. “Hi.”

“Yes, you mentioned him,” she said.

“And this is Harry,” Luca added. “He's, uh... he's the monster who lives in Dorotea's closet. He looks scary, but he's not gonna hurt you.”

“Kinda like us,” Alberto agreed.

Harry came down the stairs, eyes wide as he looked up at Signora Molinari. Luca had to wonder what he was thinking. He looked awestruck to be here in a human's house, staring up at just one in a whole world of creatures he'd only heard about, but had never seen. Signora Molinari needed a moment to collect herself, and then forced a smile.

“Lovely to meet Luca's friends,” she managed.

Luca was thinking as hard as he could, trying to figure out what to do next. Harry couldn't stay here, not any more than he and Alberto could stay in the world of closet monsters. They had to send him home. They also had to find out what had happened to Louise, Curtis, and Sullivan. The adult monsters had only been trying to help, and now they were trapped there and had probably been captured again, at the mercy of Mr. Waternoose and the exterminators. How were they going to do any of that?

At least Luca knew where they were. That was a start. “We need to keep the closet door open so no more monsters can follow us here,” he told Signora Molinari. “And then I think we better go back to Portorosso. Can you please call Signora Marcovaldo and tell her we're here and we need help with monster stuff?” Giulia's mother would at least be partly prepared if she heard that.

“Uh, yes. Yes, I can do that,” Signora Molinari decided, with a glance at the phone book. Luca carefully removed his hands from it, and the woman closed it and dialed Signora Marcovaldo's number... all while keeping her eyes locked on Harry.

Luca pulled a chair out and sat down at the kitchen table. Alberto sat next to him, and Harry would have joined them but quickly realized that the chair was not designed for his physiology.

“I still can't believe you did that,” Alberto told him. “What were you thinking?”

“What do you mean, what was I thinking?” huffed Harry. “You think she'd be calling your friend if those three grownups were here? She'd be calling the police instead.”

He might have been right, but Luca came to a much more depressing realization. “He was thinking the same thing I was thinking when I shouted sea monster,” he said. In that moment, the only thing Luca had been able to do was try to save himself. He'd thought Alberto had already ruined things for himself, and Luca couldn't end up the same way. It had been the worst thing Luca ever did, and he'd regretted it immediately, but at the moment there'd seemed to be no other way. “He was just scared.”

“I was not!” said Harry.

“Hello, Signora Marcovaldo?” Signora Molinari said to the phone. “It's Giada Molinari. My daughter Dorotea goes to school with Luca and Giulia. Um... Luca is here with a couple of friends, and they say they need your help.”

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #481

Top Ten Pixar Villains

Those rascals and rapscallions at Pixar are famous for twisting our emotions, aren’t they? Perverse masters at making us cry with sadness or joy, often at the same time (I’m looking at you, Inside Out, with your yellow and blue marbles). Oh yes, they’ll stick the knife in and give it a good old yank, like John Travolta teaches his daughter to do in Face/Off when he’s not really John Travolta and it’s a bit icky but then she stabs him at the end of the film so it’s alright really.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. Pixar, renowned for turning grown men into blubbering messes, mostly because an adult character was convinced to part with old toys he no longer plays with. But I’d argue that one thing they’ve done less well than their parent studio (that’s Disney) is crafting iconic baddies. I mean, we all know the Disney Villains; they’re so iconic and successful as pop culture icons that there’s an entire trilogy of movies based on what would happen if a bunch of them had kids (apparently they’d sing a lot). Pixar baddies though? Hmmm, maybe not quite so iconic. I can’t see someone making a live action prequel movie about Chef Skinner.

But that’s not to say they’re not great; in fact, rather than going down the route of snarling, moustache-twirling villainy, Pixar actually does a great job in creating antagonists instead. Sometimes they’re misunderstood; sometimes they’re not the person you thought they were! Quite often some kind of redemption is offered, and the villains are very, very rarely dropped off something tall. A lot of them aren’t even defeated, so to speak! A good deal of nuance and shade goes into a Pixar villain, and if they haven’t made as many all-time-great iconic ne’er-do-wells, it does seem as if their approach is starting to rub off on Disney mothership (the likes of Frozen II and Moana either don’t have, or at least subvert, the notion of all-powerful bad guys).

So what do we have? Well, hopefully, we’ve got a list of really cool villains from Pixar movies. most of them are presented as the film’s “big bad”, although there are a couple of lesser baddies. And I think we do see the pattern emerging, of more mundane levels of villainy; the selfish and greedy and damaged. It makes for great characterisation and some beautiful storytelling; some complex and pitiable characters. And, yes, a few absolute bastards too. Let’s tut disapprovingly.

Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty, Toy Story 3, 2010): a superb performance from Beatty as a seemingly nice, jovial old bear who’s really a manipulative, power-hungry, gaslighting bully. Realistically portrayed as damaged and bitter, he has a tragic backstory that feels real, and a sense of pain and loss that feels earned in this universe. Questions the nature of everything the movies are about, and is a genuine threat in more ways than one. Plus he literally leaves them all to die in the furnace!

Syndrome (Jason Lee, The Incredibles, 2004): Buddy Pine’s backstory is one of belittlement and rejection, so his switch to villainy is as well explored as many a comic book bad guy. But he’s interesting partly in what his character says about Mr. Incredible – in a way justifying the criticisms of superheroes, as Mr. I does ignore the admittedly-annoying Buddy rather than mentoring or respecting him – but also because he prefigures notions of toxic masculinity about a decade or so before they became, well, a threat to global democracy.

Al (Wayne Knight, Toy Story 2, 1999): Like how Lots-o can be seen as a dark examination of toy life (all toys are replaceable, kids don’t really love you, etc), Al also shows us another dark facet of toy-dom: namely the life of a “collectable”. Toys, in this world, want to be played with, preferably by children, so a big ol’ man-child who stores them in boxes or puts them on display is not ideal. It’s an inversion of what a toy is for; an object of joy reduced to a commodity. Is it entertainment versus art? Who can say? Also, he’s really just a massive jerk and a huge slob, so we feel no pity for him once he gets his comeuppance at the end of the film.

Sid Phillips (Erik von Detten, Toy Story, 1995): man, they nailed the Toy Story villains, didn’t they? Maybe there’s even more to come! But right out of the gate, Sid was a classic. An utter sadist in a skull t-shirt, torturing toys for kicks; adults can see the traits of a genuine sociopath (some serial killers start by torturing animals, remember!), and he’s portrayed like a character in a horror movie. Seriously, in 1995, Sid’s room was legitimately disturbing. I’m not sure what moral lessons his actions teach us, but just as a pure article of terror, he’s supreme.

Hopper (Kevin Spacey, A Bug’s Life, 1998): it feels a bit weird, if I’m honest, to celebrate a Spacey performance. But as a character, Hopper is excellent, one of the best things about the generally-overlooked-but-still-a-bit-lesser-Pixar Bug’s Life. Riffing on biker gangs, Hopper’s locust swarm in, revving their wings. Hopper’s a classic tough guy thug, dominating through violence and threat; a creature with a small amount of power determined to hold onto it, and ultimately eaten by a terrifying bird. Just don’t look at the cast list.

Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt, Coco, 2017): after the horror of Sid and the thuggery of Hopper, de la Cruz is a different, more insidious villain. He’s a thief and a betrayer who exploited and murdered his best friend, condemning him not just to death but to a forgotten obsolescence in the afterlife. He’s a perfect example of the gaslighting, friendly-seeming bad guy, more in the mould of Lots-o, but with the world on his side and a sweet guitar. Genuinely hissable.

Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammar, Toy Story 2, 1999): what, more Toy Story? Well, yeah. Don’t blame me, blame Pixar. And so Stinky Pete; a far more relatable and understandable villain, one driven to desperation through a lifetime of rejection and broken promises. Unlike the Machiavellian, power-hungry Lots-o, Pete just wants everyone to retire quietly together; he can’t accept the risks of freedom and only becomes sneaky and, indeed, violent after all else fails. But he does kinda get a happy ending, even if he doesn’t realise it; this is a villain who I feel could eventually be redeemed.

Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi, Monsters, Inc., 2001): Waternoose is the real baddy in Monsters, Inc., of course; a conniving capitalist who’s prepared to sacrifice the world’s children to keep his monopoly. But it’s Randy who sticks in the mind; his selfish, vain lackey, a monster with a huge chip on his shoulder. His design – lizard-like, snake-ish, with a huge mouth and invisibility – is seriously disturbing. Hearing Buscemi’s voice come from that form – an aggravated teacher, a furious accountant – adds something special, something darkly hilarious.

Evelyn Deavor (Catherine Keener, Incredibles 2, 2018): visually and conceptually, The Screenslaver (great name) is pretty cool, but when it’s revealed that the Big Bad is really under-appreciated tech genius Evelyn, that’s a great twist. A smart woman propping up her schmoozing brother, her criticisms of the heroes – like Buddy Pine’s – have resonance, although she’s learning the wrong lessons from tragedy. Her relationship with Elastigirl, from friendship to enmity, is very well-written and performed, and her belligerence at the end is a nice touch, denying the heroes of any catharsis from her capture.

Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard, WALL-E, 2008): I was originally going to feature the autopilot, but then I figured, if you can get Fred Willard in your list… and really, who’s the big villain here? It’s us, right? We killed the Earth. But Willard’s smiling, happy CEO is there, encouraging his customers to buy, promising them safety and security, promising them a repaired world… but really he’s shovelling them off the planet, secretly commanding the computer to take humanity far away and never look back. It’s a devious, horrible plan, giving the people unending luxury, making them want for nothing, turning them into fab, soporific blobs, basically because that’s easier than the alternative. It’s a horrible indictment of humanity (also: he’s the CEO of a company, but also – it looks like – that makes him rule the world? Creepy). So, yeah, the autopilot might be a baddun, but it’s the man in charge who’s the real villain of the piece, even hundreds of years later.

Sadly no room for John Lasseter, who may not have tried to enslave humanity or torture children, but still managed to be a huge jerk and a phenomenal disappointment.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Pls tell me more about Regan Leary, adding a corporate spy during this comedy of errors transition sounds hilarious

Omg ty! Let me infodump more about this oc;

Regan Leary:

Is a graduate of Fear Tech, graduated as an English Major with a minor in Horror theory. Got in with a gymnastics scholarship but suffered a nasty injury during a stupid frat party and lost most their funding. Borrowed money from some bad people, and is now working as a corporate spy for Fear Co to repay the debt.

Their mission was to infiltrate Monsters Inc by posing as the new Fearbucks barista, and to collect information on Waternoose's recent shady investments despite the company's falling numbers. A few weeks into their new job - the Boo scandal occured, and Regan recieved a new assignment; Figure out wtf the company was going to do now.

Regan collects information mainly through eavesdroping during coffee runs and stealing documents. They've become friendly with the MIFT staff as an attempts to learn the camera blind spots and to justify being in odd areas of the building. But, Ooops! They actually like these weirdos!

Regan puts up an amicable and friendly front, but is exhausted and just wants to confide with someone personally. They miss their athletic and social college days, and envies Tylor's academic success. Has a short fuse and will blow up at rude customers/Monsters Inc employees.

Is not a scarer in the slightest. Grew up being discounted/bullied for being "too cute". Has a feline head/body, with bird's arms and talons. Think the Sphinx of greek legend but instead of lion and a hawk, its a turkish angora and a chicken. Very fluffy/downy with light tan fur/hair and black bird limbs. Big yellow cat eyes.

Wears clothes outside work, which is considered kinda weird and frivilous by Monster standards. At work they're mostly seen wearing the Fearbucks-typical green apron. Outside, they have a rotating wardrobe of gaudy outfits ala Fran Fine.

Ty so much for showing interest in this oc of mine!

[ebaeschnbliah]

M O N S T E R S   I N C

________________________________________________________________

... and it’s stunning similarities with Sherlock BBC

MONSTERS, INC  is a computer-animated comedy from 2001, produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. A modern fairytale, so to speak. I stumbled across this movie by accident while researching the ‘221b door’ tag on my blog and found an old tweet from Arwel Wyn Jones (x) posted during the filming of Series Four.  Watching the movie turned out to be quite the eye-opener.  :)

It’s not so much the plot of that movie but rather certain images which remind me strongly of Sherlock BBC. A lot of images, to be precise, but also some dialogues and one distinct voice. Watching MONSTERS, INC really left me speechless at times.

Related posts:  The Monsters are loose  (initially I’d chosen to name this post ‘Monsters Inc’ but that was before I watched the movie)   Overlaps    Playing with skulls (soon)   Laughs or Screams, additional informations

The ‘monster post’  is waiting below the cut for the fearless  ….  :))))

For anyone who hasn’t seen the movie:  MONSTERS, INC mostly plays in Monstropolis, a city in a parallel universe. The only places where the monster- and the human-world can connect, are the closet doors in children’s beedrooms. Here skilled monsters - the ‘scarers’ - appear at night to harvest the screams of terrified kids. Just like in the human world, the majority of the monsters aren’t evil, nor mean they any harm to the children. Monsters are actually more scared of human kids than the kids are of them. The harvested screams are badly needed because they provide the energy which is necessary to power the monster’s world. And because children are constantly becoming less easily scared, the screams decrase more and more, which means that an energie krisis threatens.

Initially the storyline for MONSTERS, INC  had been a different one though:

Pete Docter's (director and writer) original idea revolved around a 30-year old man dealing with monsters, which he drew in a book as a child, coming back to bother him as an adult. Each monster represented a fear he had and conquering those fears caused the monsters to eventually disappear.  (X) 

The logo of MONSTERS, INC,  the powerstation where screams are harvested to light the Monster’s world, combines the symbol of the eye and the letter M. I simply can’t help unsee a certain similarity with the logo for TheGameIsNow. That’s quite thought provoking, to say the least. 

The two leading characters in the monster world are scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and his best friend and roommate Mike Wazowski, who is also his assistant at work. A big blue, fluffy guy wearing horns and a short, one-eyed, green guy who prefers to sit in a green egg-chair …. a bit similar to the one from the stagnight scene inTSOT.

Sulley holds the top position among all the scarers of Monstropolis. With military-like training Mike takes care that his friend stays in best form. 

Hey! Less talk, more pain, marshmallow boy! Feel the burn! You call yourself a monster?

The most successful scarers are celebrated like stars. Everyone knows them. They can’t go anywhere without being recognized and asked for autographs. And when they enter their company it looks like a hero parade. 

Future scarers have to undergo a special training in a high-tec simulation room. Here they are taught everything of importance, including the art of scaring children most efficiently in order to get the perfect scream. 

Listen to the lady in front of the surveillance screens who teaches screaming (at 01.40) …. but beware … she sounds an awful lot like Eurus Holmes ….

And this is the big boss, the chairman of MONSTERS, INC … Mr. Waternoose. He is very proud of his job, which has been passed down through his family for three generations. He acts as Sulley’s mentor and holds great faith in him as a scarer. Additionally …. he reminds me very much of Mycroft in TAB.

The monsters believe that harvesting screams is enormously dangerous, because children are deemed to be toxic, that their touch could kill them. Agents of a special task force - the Child Detection Agency - are on constant alert to neutralize any contamination with objects belonging to the human world. 

As soon as anything suspicious has been detected, the ‘big bad bouncy red alert’  goes off, cameras zoom in and then CDA agents enter right through the skylights to take care of the problem. Like AGRA in Tiblisi , really! I couldn’t help a yelp watching this little scene below ….

And then ..... shaved by AGRA … sorry, by CDA, of course ….  :))))

The day comes, however, when the unimaginable happens and a human child enters the monster world. And Sulley, the most famous scarer of all, is almost scared to death. I’m really tempted to call this an ‘Eurus-efffect’ ...

Thankfully, Sulley also has a heart of pure gold. He overcomes his fear - a little bit - and takes the human child home. His partner Mike is definitely not amused but helps anyway. Courageously, the friends prepare for the worst case scenario ...

Sulley, the Viking, with shield and horned helm and Mike, who seems to have ransacked the kitchen Cabinet instead. The little ‘killer-girl’ though is completely unimpressed ...

The evening starts rather chaotic, which results in some remarkable accidents …   I guess I know now where the idea of shoving a big pack of cigarettes into Sherlock’s mouth comes from …. and maybe Sherlock’s spraying attack on the CIA agent in ASIB as well.

Finally the situation calms down. Sulley beginns to supect that human kids might not be toxic after all. The little girl has a real crush on the fluffy, blue monster. She believes Sulley is a big cat and starts calling him ‘Kitty’. Looks like ‘killer girl’ is a cat lover. :)  Against Mike’s advice, Sulley decides to give the girl a name as well. He settles for ‘Boo’ because she likes nothing more than to scare him.

And Boo likes to draw …. Spoiler: Boo doesn’t burn down the house.

Eventually Boo gets tired. A trace of goodies (not breadcrumbs) leads the little girl to bed.

By the way: The book based on the film gives Boo's "real" name as Mary Gibbs, the name of her voice actress. (x)

The architecture of Mike’s and Sulley’s flat … the wide arch in the living room and in Sulley’s bedroom (Mike’s bedroom is never shown) … instantly reminded me of the very similar structure chosen for the 221b Baker Street livingroom set in PILOT.

What would any fairytale be without a good old-fashioned villain. In this case it’s a villain who looks suspiciously like a Chinese dragon. And naturally, where there is a dragon there needs to be a dragon slayer as well.   

Randall, the dragon-like monster is one of the most wicked characters in Monstropolis. He works as scarer but holds only the second place on the company’s success-list behind Sulley. Randall’s envy is huge. He is driven by his desire to displace his opponent from the top of the list. One can safely say that ‘murderous jealousy’ is a good description of Randall’s motivation. But his plan to capture the all-time scare record, only scratches the surface of his sinister agenda. 

But before it comes to the ‘slaying’, the nasty reptile tries to torture Mike, to find out where the missing human child is hiding. 

Randall:  SAY HELLO TO THE SCREAM EXTRACTOR!   (Jim in TAB:  Well, say hello to the virus.)

This is what Randall has created in a secret lab to prevent the looming energy crisis of his world … a machine to harvest the screams of children by force and not through the acting skills of trained scarers. Mike’s unimpressed answer to this realisation: 

Mike:  WELL, SOMEBODY'S CERTAINLY BEEN A BUSY BEE    (Mycroft in TEH:  You have been busy, haven’t you? Quite the busy little bee.) 

That’s not a joke … and the way down to the secret lab looks strikingly familiar as well ...

Needless to say that Sulley arrives just in time to rescue his friend … but that’s not the end of the story and also not the end of similarities with Sherlock BBC. 

Some nice little images in-between:  a fish mobile from Boo’s bedroom in which Sulley gets tangled up in, a toy train, a toy ship and a toy plane from the high-tech simulation room. Rater similar items can be detected in Sherlock BBC as well (TST, MHR and TFP). Especially the plane reminds me of the one Eurus’ plays with near the brook.

More familiar images:  

the prominent display of the letter M - often in combination with an eye 

a precious littel thing ... Boo, who wears pink underneath her disguise as monster, hides in a bin

a rather ‘big G’ painted on a wall

And there are eyes wherever one looks ...

Even contact lenses can be found ...

Mike’s love interest is a lady with hissing snakes for hairs, who works as receptionist in their company …. 

At one point the hero’s life is threatened by a deep fall, caused by his opponent, Randall, the nasty ‘dragon’. 

Seeing Sulley’s life threatened, Boo overcomes her fear of the reptile-like monster. She attacks him violently. This gives Sulley the time he needs to get out of the critical situation. 

And WOW!!! What changeable creature this villain is ……. even Jim ‘I’m so changeable’ Moriarty would be inmpressed. 

Randall’s exceptional talent for any kind of masquerade is also demonstrated in a little scene involving a portrait of the company’s chairman, Mr. Waternoose.   

The face of a chairman, covered by something related to a dragon … this reminds me instantly of TBB and Sir William, the former chairman of the bank, whose face had been covered with the yellow spray-paint, applied by a member of the Yellow Dragon Circus. 

To their dismay, Sulley and Mike discover that Randall isn’t just a jealous colleague. What is far worse, the changeable villain doesn’t work alone. His partner in cirme turns out to be none other than Mr. Waternoose, the big boss of the company. The two of them intend to use Boo for their experiments with the scream extractor, while Sulley and Mike get banished from Monstropolis and are sent into exile .. to the Himalayas. No return expected. 

There is no plane involved as in Sherlock’s case, but strictly speaking, the way in which the ‘sending into exile’ happens, can indeed be seen as a variation of ‘flyihg’ … 

Snow falls at the place where they land, somewhere in the Himalayan mountains.

While the Himalayas, more precisely Tibet, is closely connected to Sherlock’s hiatus after Reichenbach, the falling snow can also be found in TAB, the place Sherlock finds himself in, as a result of his ‘going into exile’ at the end of HLV … London in the winter 1895. 

And it doesn’t take long before the dark shadow of a scary creature falls over them … a seemingly monstrous creature which is covered all over in ‘bridal white’ fur  ….

May I introduce you to ….  Yeti, the ABOMINABLE snowman!

"ABOMINABLE"!  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?  DO I LOOK ABOMINABLE TO YOU?  WHY CAN'T THEY CALL ME THE ADORABLE SNOWMAN OR...OR THE AGREEABLE SNOWMAN, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD?  I'M A NICE GUY. 

He is really a very nice guy and helps Sulley and Mike to get back where they came from and where they are badly needed by Boo. Randall is not amused but this time it is him who looses the game.

Yeti’s nickname was inspired by the Abominable Snowman from the 1964 animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (X).  Knowing this, one could view that bridal-white character also as a sort of Christmas connection. :))))

And have I mentioned those horns?

Some more lovely images:  a shot from the inside out of a small box (without a severed head in it though), no fire-extinguisher but it looks like one, silhouettes behind glass, safety helmets (X) and ... flickering screens ….

At the story’s finale, the simulation room from the beginning - a bedroom on a stage with a ‘fake’ victim lying in it and with a moving wall - I’m not kidding - becomes the ‘confession room’ for the main culprit. And of course, every word of his confession gets recorded. Somehow this reminds me strongly of another scene … another film … what was it again? It’s on the tip of my tongue ….

It turns out that chairman Waternoose had already been under close observation by CDA undercover agent 001 - code name Roz (not AMO). An elderly, quite steely lady, who turns out to be his superior. Waternoose gets arrested and Sulley becomes the new chairman of MONSTERS, INC.

Now the time has come for Boo to return to the human world. Sulley takes the little girl back through the closet door into her room, where they part after a big good-bye hug. 

Then the closet door which leads to her bedroom gets shredded, to prevent any future contact. But Boo’s short visit to the monster world had a huge impact. It proved that a child's laugh has ten times the power of a child's scream. The energy crisis of Monstropolis is solved. From now on laughter is harvested instead of screams and the power generated this way, is enormous. Mike turns out to be best harvester for laughs ever. 

Because Mike knows how much Sulley misses the little human girl, he collects and secretly reassembles the pieces of Boo's shredded door so that it can be activated again. 

The End

The song "If I Didn't Have You" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Mike: ♪ But I must admit it. Big guy, you always come through. I wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have you. ♪ Mike and Sulley: ♪ You and me together. That's how it always should be. One without the other don't mean nothin' to me. Nothin' to me. ♪

Sulley: ♪ I don't have to say it. 'Cause we both know it's true.♪ Both: ♪ I wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have... I wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have... I wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have you. ♪ Mike: ♪ You! You! A-E-I-O... That means you. Yeah. ♪

And doesn’t this almost sound like …. ‘just the two of us against the rest of the world’? 

Hopefully you enjoyed the rather long ride. I can highly recommend this movie to anyone. It’s so much more fun watching it with ones own eyes than just reading a summary. This said, I leave you now to your own deductions. Thanks for reading that far. :)

August, 2019

[selena-shoenoff-the-first]

Name: Selena Brooke Shoenoff

Nickname(s): Sel, Worthington's Girl, ROR's VP, Princess

Personality: Kind, Caring, Loving & Competitive

Pros: Very creative, Able to seduce/manipulate anyone to get what she wants, Has a high agility, Learns new scares very quickly

Cons: Easily distracted by Johnny (Especially when he's in a mood or herself.), Easy to frustrate

Race: Succubus

Gender: Female

Nationality: Monstropolis

Birthday: February 14

Age: 19 (Monsters Univerisity) ; 27 (Monsters Inc)

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 130 lbs

Blood Type: AB-

Star Sign: Aquarius

Occupation: Scare Student (Monsters Univerisity) - Scarer (Monsters Inc)

Hair: Pink

Style: Long with curls at the bottom

Eyes: Yellow

Favorite Food: Pizza & Sushi

Least Favorite Food: Tomato (Allergy of hers)

Favorite Colors: White, Black, Gold & Silver

Favorite Music: Hard Rock, Pop, Electropop, Dance

Fur Color: Pink

Signature Outfits: White leggings with her Roar Omega Roar sweater vest (Monsters University) -- Black leather jacket with a white blouse underneath, jeans (Monsters Inc)

Her views on others:

Roar Omega Roar Members

- Johnny Worthington III: Loves him dearly, but, hates it when he doesn't pay attention to her. She's also very overprotective of him.

- Chet Alexander: Hates him with a passion since he was extremely attached to Johnny when she first joined ROR. Chet also apologizes to Selena during the graduation banquet.

- Chip Goff: Doesn't mind him, thinks he's pretty chill. She tends to hang out with him if her and Johnny don't talk after a fight and loves to get drunk with him (They're the definition of party when they're drunk together.)

- Javier Rios: Doesn't mind him, she tried talking to him once, but, she didn't understand a word he said. By their final year, he learned English so she could understand him.

Oozma Kappa Members

- James P Sullivan "Sully": He's one of her childhood friends, she'd never be able to stay mad at him for a long period of time. Johnny also doesn't like their friendship.

- Mike Wazowski: When she attended MU with him, she despised him and said she'd beat his team during the Scare Games... Boy she was wrong. Now that she works with him at MI, she learned to handle him.

- Terry & Terri Perry, Don Carlton, Art & Scott "Squishy" Squibbles: Isn't fond of them in general as they were the bottom fraternity.

JOX Boys: Doesn't mind partying with them, especially with Roy (The president.)

PNK Girls: Hangs out with them a lot during the Scare Games, also loves gossiping with them. (Naomi is also jealous that she's the Queen Bee of MU.)

HSS Girls: Can tolerate them since Natasha is part of their group.

EEK Girls: Loves their attitude for being constantly positive, they sometimes let Selena join in on any activties they got going on if Johnny's busy or they're fighting.

Close Friends

- Natasha Paltworth: Enjoys her friendship with her, loves her dearly and is willing to beat someone whoever hurts or breaks her heart. Is also the godmother of her children in the future.

Status: Taken

Crush/Boyfriend/Husband: Jonathan "The Jaw" Worthington III

Kids: 3 (Twins girls and a son)

Kids' Names: Johanna "Josie" Alexandra Worthington (Eldest Twin), Sierra Zoey-Dawn Worthington (Youngest Twin, Middle Child) & Jonathan Worthington IV

Shipping Name(s): Jolena

History: As she is the third child born into the Shoenoff family, Selena was the one to get away with anything in the family than her five other siblings. Growing up, her only best friend was James P Sullivan aka Sully as her father- Mark Shoenoff- worked along side Bill Sullivan as a famous scarer. Sully and Selena were a unstoppable duo. Once she got into high school, Selena met Natasha Paltworth and Selena instantly became friends with her, after there was an a fight between Selena and one of her classmates Selena dated. Once Selena got accepted into Monsters University; Selena's father made a deal with Dean Hardscrabble; allowing Selena to do whatever made her happy and join whatever sorority or fraternity of her choice. Going against her own rules, Hardscrabble allowed it and was in charge of Selena from there on. Once Rush Week began at MU, Selena planned on joining Roar Omega Roar as they were the most Elite Fraternity on campus. Selena soon met the president whom was Johnny Worthington the Third. As she talked to him about how much she enjoyed scaring and saw herself doing that for a career and giving him a transcript of her marks throughout high school; he automatically let her in. After being in the fraternity for a month, Johnny and Selena began getting closer which lead to Johnny taking Selena on dates secretly behind everyone else’s back and being partners for assignments during Scaring 101. During Selena's exam, Sully hit the Deans canister which flew past Selena and nearly knocking her out, but, she fell of the stage, which Johnny ran over quickly to catch her. After the canister stopped moving, Selena looked at Sully and left the classroom along with ROR. Selena lost her best friend at that moment and she stayed in her room still she was to leave for the holidays to her parents. Before she left the ROR house, Johnny stopped by her room and gave her a confession that he admired her talent and that he wanted to date Selena. Selena was left speechless and said yes, soon becoming MU's Scare Couple for the games and soon dating in secrecy. By her fourth year in University she learns her fathers scaring technique which leads into ROR winning their final Scare Games Event. During the grad banquet, Johnny was to give a speech to his follow grads, but, to Selena's surprise... He proposed! Selena said yes and ran up on stage in her long red sequined dress and kissed his face about a thousand times. After they got an apartment together and worked at two different scare companies (Selena MI, Johnny Fear Corp.) They promised they'd live through it all no matter what. After Waternoose was arrested, Selena told Natasha, Sully and Mike that they'd need to run the business for 9 months.. It left them confused until Natasha figured it out that she was pregnant. 9 months later, Selena gave birth to Johnny's twin daughter; Johanna and Sierra. After 9 years later, Selena had conceived with her and Johnny’s third child— Johnny Worthington the Fourth.

- Other than scaring as a profession, Selena likes to sing for a hobby; which she has sang before in front of a crowd and the ROR boys.

- Selena & Johnny's wedding was on Selena's birthday/Valentine's Day

- Johnny's older than Selena by a few months.

- Selena likes stealing Johnny's sweater, but, he's clueless that it keeps disappearing.

- Johnny, Natasha & Sully are the only ones allowed to touch Selena; anybody else-- Back up.

Voice Actress: Laura Prepon

[the-omega-artist]

Toying around with concepts for Mr. Yellow/Doom. Love the contrast between dread duckies looking utterly dejected and doom looks like he’s the happy birthday boy

[the-omega-artist]

dad and son(a) ?!?

[the-omega-artist]

THE BIG ONE’S BACK.

[the-omega-artist]

YELLOW ?!?! CAMEO OF YELLOW !! RARELY SEEN MR. YELLOW MOMENT!!! ITS THE FUCKING DOOM DUCKY !!!!!

[the-omega-artist]

look whos art style changed yet again

I love him, he’s so much more terrifying now and I fear he may go feral at any given moment

[the-omega-artist]

ref sheet for my friend’s oc, Alcina Jane Waternoose! She belongs to @ryantbhh and is yellow’s beloved wife :))

[ironychan]

Scary Monsters

@dysphoria-sweatshirt @30spiders @sweatersexual @angrylittlesliceofpizza

Part 1/? - Rocco's Closet

Part 2/? - School for Monsters

Part 3/? - The Waternoose Family

Part 4/? - The Terrifying Humans

Part 5/? - Hiding Places

Part 6/? - Nobody's Fault

Once out of the car, the boys quickly got wet in the rain again, and once they were completely transformed Curtis led them up to the middle-sized building. As they climbed the steps, Luca looked to his left and saw a tiny car pull up in front of the smaller building. A creature the size of a rat climbed out, carrying paper bags that seemed to contain things like a single strawberry and one large snail. This being hopped up the steps, and then went to an even tinier door set within the already small main one, and balanced a grocery bag on one knee as it got out its keys.

Back at the middle-sized building, Curtis pressed a button next to the door. Something made a buzzing sound, and a speaker crackled. “Who is it?” asked a voice, distant and tinny but recognizable as Louise.

“It's me,” Curtis replied. “I brought you some of Maureen's birthday cake.” He glanced at the boys on either side of him, then apparently decided not to mention them yet.

“Oh! I totally forgot Maureen's birthday,” Louise sighed.

On the right, the door of the biggest building opened, and a towering dinosaur-like creature with eyes that glowed like red coals looked out. It held up a hand, then called to someone inside, “it's still raining!”

“Then don't stand with the door open!” another voice boomed.

The giant monster shook its head and rolled its eyes, and went back indoors.

“It's okay, Louise,” Curtis said into the speaker. “You've had a lot on your mind. Can I come up?”

“Of course,” she said. The door went click, and Curtis opened it.

“Come on, kids,” he said to the boys.

Louise lived on the second floor. When they reached the top of the stairs, she was already standing in her door waiting for them, with a creature under one arm that resembled a cross between a cat and an iguana. She smiled at Curtis, but then stiffened when she saw Luca and Alberto.

“These young men have a story to tell you,” Curtis said.

“They already apologized this morning,” Louise replied. “I told them it wasn't their fault.”

“From what they said to me, I don't think you heard the whole thing,” Curtis told her.

Louise heaved another sigh. “Come on in,” she said, more resigned than welcoming.

Her apartment was no bigger than the Marcovaldo home above the Pescheria, but less cluttered. It was clear she lived alone except for the iguana-cat. There was a colourful crochet afghan thrown over the back of the sofa, a little threadbare as if it were second-hand, and a variety of photographs on the wall, apparently of members of her family since most of them were also orange and yellow monsters with short horns. A shelf of cookbooks seemed to represent cuisines from around the world, but the titles included strange selections like Best of Terrorkish Cooking and The New Grrrman Kitchen as well as more normal things like Anyone Can Cook.

With the door closed, Louise put her pet down, and it went up to sniff Alberto's ankles. He offered it a hand, and it tried his fingers next before bumping its head against his hand, asking for pats. It had no external ears, so Alberto scratched it under the chin instead.

“Here's your cake.” Curtis offered the box. “It's too bad you couldn't join them for lunch.”

“I doubt they'd have let me back in even to the cafeteria,” said Louise. She took the box, then smiled awkwardly at the boys. “Can I offer you something to eat?” she asked. She didn't sound enthusiastic. The question was merely polite.

Luca swallowed. “No, thank you, Madame,” he said.

“We each had three slices,” Alberto explained.

“They were hiding in the trash processing break room all day,” Curtis said.

“I see.” Unwilling to eat it in front of guests, Louise set the box of cake on the table and gestured to the sofa. “Sit down.”

Luca and Alberto sat. Louise pulled up a long ottoman which had been made to accommodate her three legs, and Curtis took the armchair by the wall. The cat-iguana hopped up into Alberto's lap and settled down.

“Okay,” said Louise. “What else do I need to hear?”

Having already told the tale to Curtis, the boys were quite a bit faster and more organized in the version they gave Louise. A few minutes into it, they both began to dry out, but they'd already told her about the Change, so they simply let it happen. Curtis noticed it first, and watched Louise carefully for her reaction. As the boys' faces transformed, she took a sharp breath in through her teeth and began to stand up.

“No, no, it's okay!” Luca held up his hands.

“We warned you,” said Alberto.

“Yes, you did.” Louise glanced down at her hands. These, Luca noticed, were no longer bandaged, but the fur had been shaved from the backs of them and the palms, already hairless, were covered with scrapes and small cuts. Whatever they'd done to 'decontaminate' where she'd touched the terrifying humans, it looked like it had been painful. Louise looked around the room, then went to the window and pulled the curtains, already half-closed, all the way shut. “Sorry,” she said as she returned to her seat. “Go on.”

The boys continued their story, bringing it up to when they'd spoken to Curtis while hiding in the cupboard. Although Louise had said they'd already apologized, Luca couldn't stop himself from doing it again, now that they had the context to explain exactly what had gone wrong.

“We didn't know there really was a monster in Rocco's closet,” he said. “If we had, we would have... I don't know, wrote you a letter or something instead of trying to scare you back.”

“Yeah,' said Alberto. “We, uh...” he turned to Luca. “You think that's how humans feel about us? Not the ones in Portorosso, obviously, but...”

“No, you're right!” Luca realized. The humans had thought sea monsters probably didn't exist, but if they were, they'd be scary and dangerous and... well, not people. That was exactly how, in those terrifying seconds as the door opened, Luca had felt about Rocco's closet monster. “So yeah,” he said to Louise, “we didn't know. We're very sorry, and we'll never do it again.”

Louise sat quietly a moment, and then asked, “why are you apologizing to me?”

“Well, because you lost your job,” said Luca. “You wouldn't have if we hadn't been there.”

“Yeah, but that's just my job!” She stood up and started pacing up and down the little living room. “You two... you've lost your whole world! Your parents must be frantic. If I had a kid who went to a sleepover and just vanished, I don't even know what I'd do. And now Mr. Waternoose is... you two have to go home!” She sat down again and held on to her horns, the way a human might push their hands through their hair. “You're sorry? I'm sorry. I didn't know what to think when I found you there. I'd seen the tour group earlier and I assumed... I should have asked more questions. What are we going to do with you?”

Luca hadn't expected that. It hadn't occurred to Luca that Louise might feel bad about what she'd done to them. It had been an accident!

It must have occurred to Alberto, though, because he gently elbowed Luca in the ribs and said, “I told you it was her fault.”

“Don't say that!” Luca protested.

“No, he's right,” said Louise.

“It wasn't anybody's fault. Nobody knew what was going on,” Luca pointed out. “Anyway, it's also not fair that Mr. Waternoose is hoarding all the screams. If he wasn't doing that, we wouldn't be in danger now.”

“Never mind that right now,” said Louise firmly. “We have to get you home. We'll have to get that door out of... the door was sent to review, wasn't it?”

“Yeah,” Curtis said. “I couldn't take them there after hours with everything locked up. I told Maureen I left something in the kitchen but there wasn't any excuse I could have made to the review workers.”

“Taking them there when the place is up and running isn't going to be easy, either,” Louise said.

Curtis thought about that. “Security around review can be pretty tight... but the door's not the only thing we're going to need.”

“We need a scare station,” Louise agreed.

Luca looked at Alberto, who shrugged – he had no idea what they were talking about, and nothing to contribute, any more than Luca did. They were just going to have to trust these people.

“The easiest thing to do would be just slip the door into the scare queue and then smuggle them through while everybody's busy,” Louise said. She stood up to pace again. “Except of course that I've been fired! We'll need another scarer, but who would risk their job for this? Scarberry is a stickler for rules, he'd turn us in at once. Zamora is probably thrilled I'm not there to make him look bad anymore, as if it's my fault his kids prefer to yelp than scream. He won't help. I don't know about Yamanaka but I'd bet...”

“What about the new guy?” Alberto asked, desperate to offer something. “Sullivan?”

Neither of the boys had actually seen the monster who'd apparently replaced Louise. When they'd heard his voice in the little kitchen he'd sounded nice, but then, a lot of monsters probably sounded nice when they weren't terrified of a human. Much like a lot of humans sounded nice when they weren't afraid of a sea monster.

“I don't know... I've only known him the one day,” Curtis said carefully, but he seemed to have the germ of an idea. “He just started yesterday, and he's not familiar with procedures yet. He definitely won't recognize the door, and if I tell him he's supposed to be scaring in that room, there's no reason he wouldn't believe me.”

“He might lose his job, too, though,” Luca protested.

“No, he won't,” Curtis assured him. “He was at the top of his class at MU – Waternoose had to outbid a company that wanted him to move to Lake Eerie. If we're caught, I'll take the blame. Louise is right, this is more important than her job or mine.”

Luca didn't like that. He didn't want to cause any trouble for people who were trying to be nice to him. It didn't seem like he had much choice, though – he and Alberto didn't know enough about this world, while Curtis and Louise actually lived here. So all he said was, “thank you, Sir.”

“All right, let's figure this out,” said Louise.

She and Curtis set to work, planning how they would get the boys into the factory unseen. They decided to rent a truck and pretend they were making a delivery – then they could enter through the back of the building and avoid witnesses. From there, they would have to retrieve Rocco's door from the review department. Curtis said he would lie and say he'd written a wrong number on the form, substituting the next door in the set for Rocco's. From there, he would place it in the day's queue. After that...

... after that they weren't quite sure. Keeping Sullivan in the dark would be easy, as he was still learning and would do what he was told. Other people, however, would know that something strange was going on, and if anyone asked questions Curtis would have to improvise. As for getting the boys through the door, that was impossible to plan ahead for. They would have to just wait for an opportunity.

“It doesn't matter if you're caught,” said Louise. “The only thing that matters is getting them home.” Luca started to protest again, but she reached as if to grab him by the shoulders, before apparently thinking better of it and withdrawing her paws. “You said you didn't want to cause trouble and I appreciate that, but whatever trouble happens, we're adults, we can deal with it better than you can.”

Luca nodded. He and Alberto didn't want to stay here, and wouldn't have been able to even if they could.

With their plan set, Louise and Curtis agreed to meet early the next morning – Curtis would bring the truck, and Louise would pretend to be an employee. They said goodnight and Curtis headed home, and Louise looked them over again. She'd been giving them uncomfortable glances throughout the planning session, perhaps bothered by them just sitting there looking them looking like creatures she'd been taught to be afraid of. Several times, she'd even checked to make sure the curtains were shut, even though she was the one who'd closed them only minutes ago.

“I guess you two need somewhere to sleep,” she said.

“Yes, Madame,�� Luca said.

“Do you have a treehouse?” Alberto asked.

“No,” said Louise, not sure what to make of that question, “but I do have a sofa bed. Get up.”

The boys obediently stood, and Louise handed them the cushions to hold while she unfolded the sofa into a mattress. Then she disappeared into another room, and came back with a pair of oversized shirts. At first, Luca and Alberto couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do with these, unless make tents out of them – they were sized for large monsters, and even Massimo would have found them big.

“Nightshirts,” said Louise, seeing their confusion. “I'll take your clothes down to the laundry.”

“Oh, thank you!” Luca said. It would be nice to wear something clean again.

“I'm sure you'd also like a bath,” Louise added. “It's in there... um... will that make you change back to normal?”

Luca and Alberto exchanged a glance. “Well, yes,” said Luca, “but it wont' stay. We'll Change again when we dry out.”

“It's not that one's normal and the other isn't,” Alberto added. “They're both normal. It's just what we do.”

“Right, sorry,” said Louise. She opened the bathroom door and showed them in. “Do they all look like you? The monsters where you come from. You've both got scales and fins, and you're about the same size.”

“Yes, they all look like us,” said Luca, though he found it a strange thing to say. In his mind, sea monsters all looked very different from each other, even more than humans did – but to monsters who could have various numbers of legs, eyes, and wings, they probably would all look the same. “It's because we live in the water. Our fins and gills help us survive.” He'd learned about evolution and how it affected organisms in school.

“That makes sense,” Louise decided. She ushered them into the bathroom.

Like the rest of her apartment, this was small but comfortable. She even had several scented soaps, although they had labels like tidepool and titan arum and the boys decided to use the unscented ones. It was a marked contrast with Harry's house, which had been so over the top in the places where the family lived and so bare everywhere else. Luca and Alberto washed up, and when they came out again, clean and dry and back in human form, they found that Louise had made up the sofa bed for them with sheets and pillows. She looked disappointed to see they'd already Changed again.

“We can get wet if that would help,” Luca offered.

“No, I don't want my sofa getting wet. It'll take forever to dry,” Louise replied. She'd sat down on the end of the sofa bed and turned the television on, and was watching something identified by a title card as Scary Mason. The boys weren't sure where they were supposed to go, but Alberto decided to go sit down on one side of Louise, so Luca sat on the other.

“So you two are from...” Louise thought for a moment. “It was Mean Time plus one hour. I don't remember the name of the place.”

“Italia,” Alberto supplied. He didn't know much geography, but he'd learned to find Portorosso on a map of Europe, and was quite proud of that. Luca, the one who'd taught him, nodded.

“What's it like?” asked Louise. “All I've seen of the human world is kids' rooms at night.”

“We're right by the ocean,” said Luca, “and there are more hills than here.”

“It's warmer, too,” Alberto said. “They grow grapes in the hills and tomatoes, and olives. There's sheep, too, which are like big white sponges on legs, and they keep cheese under their wool so you have to shave them in the spring to get it out.”

“In the water we raise seagrass and goatfish,” Luca added, “and sturgeons for their eggs, and some of the richer families have groupers.”

“The humans catch fish, but they're careful not to take the ones the sea monsters keep,” Alberto said. “We've explained it to them, and they stay away from the pastures.”

“It sounds like you get along very well,” said Louise.

“Yeah. Humans are just people,” Luca said. After his earlier revelation, he wanted to emphasize that. “I even go to school with them in Genova. That's a big city, although there are bigger ones. My friend Giulia says the biggest is Roma. They've still got buildings there that are two thousand years old. We've never been, but we're definitely gonna go someday.”

Luca stopped there and thought for a moment. He was starting to have an idea... he wanted to fix the problems they'd caused Louise by being here. They couldn't do that in this monster world, but maybe they could somewhere else...

“I'm pretty much the greatest fisherman in town, except for my Dad, Massimo,” Alberto said. “He's only got one arm, but he's stronger than any of the guys with two. Every morning I deliver the fish on my bike. I saved up to buy myself one, because Giulia said I wasn't allowed to ride hers anymore. I didn't even crash it on purpose.”

Louise nodded. “I've never met a human I wasn't trying to scare,” she admitted, “but I always got the idea they were skittish, bitey sorts of creatures, like... like raccoons or something. Like they'll attack you if they're cornered.”

“Nah, they know we're good,” Alberto said. “Even when people from out of town visit, their relatives just tell them we're okay and they're fine.”

That seemed to be confirmation that Luca's idea was good. He took a deep breath. “Maybe you could come with us?” he suggested. He was pretty sure that taking Harry would have been a disaster, but Louise was very different.

Louise laughed. “Oh, I'm sure that would go over great!”

“No, I mean it,” Luca said. “I'm sure you could get a job there. The fishermen always need help, and there are jobs on the farm at the end of summer. You'd just have to apologize to Rocco.”

“Yeah!” Alberto agreed, sitting up a little straighter. “Or you could even work in the Pescheria! If they're okay with us, they'd be okay with you.”

“They're okay with you two because you look like them,” Louise said. “I suspect they think you're really just humans deep down, like I'm okay with you right now because I know you're actually monsters under the skin.” Despite these words, she got up and moved to the ottoman again, shifting it so she could still see her detective show. “Besides, you two don't want to be away from your own kind forever, do you? Neither do I.”

“Oh. You're right.” Luca hadn't even thought of that. Of course he and Alberto wanted to go home. Why would Louise be any different. “Sorry.”

“Don't apologize,” Louise said. “I'm sure I can get another job here. There are other energy companies, even though Waternoose is doing his best to gobble them up. Or I could try something else. I do like my job. I like knowing when a light goes on that I helped make that happen. But there's other stuff in the world and maybe I wouldn't have to put up with idiots like Steve Watkins.”

Once Scary Mason was over, Louise took the boys' clothing and some other laundry down to the basement, and they settled into the sofa bed. It wasn't the most comfortable bed in the world, having rarely been used and the fold lines in the mattress very distinct, but it was still better than the bed with no blankets at Harry's house. Part of it was because there was no need to fear discovery here, it was probably also because Harry had hidden them away in part of the house for things his family didn't want to think about. Louise, on the other hand, had unfolded her sofa and made room for them in her home.

“I hope we don't get her in any more trouble,” Luca said.

“I don't think she minds. She seems really nice,” Alberto replied with a yawn.

This was meant to make Luca feel better, but instead it seemed even more unfair that Louise was having to find a new job because of them. If Mr. Waternoose was working hard to buy up all the other scaring companies... what if he bought one and found Louise working there? Would he fire her all over again? Maybe it would be better, after all, if she just did something else.

There must be a solution. He would just have to think about it long enough.

Going to sleep at Louise's apartment was very different from Harry's house, and so was waking up. Yesterday morning they'd been alone and hungry and hadn't known what to do, and had only barely gotten away. Today they woke to sunshine and the smell of food cooking. Luca yawned and sat up, and looked towards the kitchen. Squinting in the sun that was coming directly through the window, he made out Louise at the stove. She looked back and saw him, and waved.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Buongiorno, Signorina,” replied Luca. He wondered what time it was. It felt very early, and if the sun was right in the window it must be quite low.

“I'm making pancakes,” she said. “Want some?”

Next to Luca, Alberto stirred. “Hmm? Breakfast?” he asked. The iguana-cat had been sleeping by his feet, and it raised its head and yawned, showing off long sharp teeth.

“Yeah, frittelle!” Luca told him. “Come on, let's get dressed.”

The pajamas they'd worn for their sleepover at Rocco's were now clean and dry, and while they were stained a bit from all the muddy water, it was still much better than wearing them dirty, or the giant nightshirts they'd slept in. Both Luca and Alberto were cheerful and smiling as they bounced into the kitchen.

“Here you go.” Louise put plates in front of them. “I've got butter and syrup, too.”

“How about Nutella?” Alberto asked.

“I think there's some here somewhere.” Louise opened a cupboard. “Let me see.”

Luca poured syrup on his pancake and took a big bite. Monster food seemed to taste okay, even when, like the three-eyed fish, it didn't look very appealing. The pancakes just tasted like pancakes, and the syrup like syrup... though it wasn't enough to make him regret refusing Harry's eyeball lollipops.

“Found it!” Louise put the jar of spread on the table, and Alberto dug into it with a butter knife.

“Thank you, Madame,” said Luca politely.

“You're welcome.”

Alberto, who always ate as if he hadn't been fed in a week, stuffed half a pancake in his mouth. “You got any kids?” he asked, around this mouthful.

“No, I don't,” Louise said. “I do have two little nephews, and I spoil them rotten on their birthdays. Is the pancake that good, that you're already asking me to adopt you?”

“Nah, I'm already adopted,” Alberto assured her. “I was just wondering.”

A buzzer went off. Luca and Alberto looked up in alarm, but Louise just crossed to a speaker on the wall and pressed a button there. “Yes?” she asked.

“It's me,” replied the voice of Curits. “I've got the truck.”

Luca relaxed – of course, they'd seen the other side of that last night.

“Great, come on up,” Louise said. “We're having pancakes.” She pushed a different button.

Curtis knocked on the door a couple of minutes later. Louise let him in, and the iguana-cat looked up from its breakfast – a bowl of what appeared to be dried mealworms and roly-polies – to see who was there. Once the animal realized this guest was familiar, it returned to the bowl. Curtis bent down to give it a couple of pets, then stopped short as he saw Luca and Alberto sitting there eating.

After a moment, he relaxed. “Sorry,” he said. “There's this old safety poster in the locker room at work, showing a human kid with blood all around its mouth, but the colours faded over the years so the blood looked brown.”

Luca turned to Alberto, who had Nutella smeared around his mouth. Alberto realized what Curtis was referring to, and grinned sheepishly before wiping his mouth on a napkin. Luca giggled.

“Pancakes?” Louise asked.

“Yes, please!” Curtis pulled up a chair. “Your cooking is always a treat, Louise.”

“There's no need for flattery, it's just a pancake.” She handed him a plate.

“Maybe you could work at a restaurant,” Luca suggested.

Curtis had been busy cutting a piece of pancake, but at that, he dropped his cutlery. “What, give up scaring?” he asked. “No way, Louise is the best!”

“She must be pretty good at it,” Alberto mused. “Signora Marsigliese said Rocco never wants to go to bed at night anymore. Sometimes he sits and cries for ages after Louise has been in there.”

“Sounds like my younger nephew,” said Louise. “For a while he was convinced there was a human under his bed and didn't dare get up at night. He thought it would grab him if he dangled a limb over and then...” she glanced over her shoulder at the boys, then shook her head and took the last pancake out of the pan. “Well, silly thing to worry about, anyway.”

They finished eating and washed the plates, and then it was time to head for the factory. They wanted to arrive by seven AM, not so early as to look suspicious, but before too many people arrived for the day. They also didn't want to frighten anybody on the way, so Alberto and Luca got wet again, and the group headed downstairs. They could hear people moving around and talking in the other apartments, but the halls of the building were empty.

They opened the front door onto the step, and there they got a shock.

A bundle of Monstropolis Argus newspapers had been left there – and these ones had a headline reading JUVENILE DELINQUENTS CAUSE CHAOS AT MONSTERS INC. Louise untied the twine and picked up the top copy, which unfolded to show a pair of police sketches that were obviously meant to be Luca and Alberto, although they looked much scarier than the boys actually were. Since the monsters here seemed to consider scariness something to aspire to, maybe they ought to be consider this a compliment.

Louise blinked at this a couple of times, then quickly folded the paper, put it back on top of the pile, and hefted the whole thing into the garbage bin. She then went and grabbed the much larger papers on the steps of the bigger building next door, while Curtis went to grab the tiny ones on the other side. These went into the bin as well, and Curtis filled two buckets with water from a spigot on the wall so that the boys wouldn't dry out in front of anyone.

The rental truck was parked in the lot. It was a big boxy vehicle, painted with a colourful underwater scene featuring a squid-like creature and text to inform the viewer that the Tully Monster was the State Fossil of Chillinois. Luca and Alberto scrambled into the back and Curtis climbed up on the bumper to pull the rolling door down.

It was almost closed when a booming voice rang out: “Louise! You're up early!”

Curtis quickly shut the back and the lock clicked, leaving the boys in warm, stuffy darkness.

“Good morning, Cynthia,” said Louise. “Curtis is just helping me get some stuff from the factory.”

The truck rattled as giant footsteps approached. Luca grabbed Alberto, terrified.

“You must have practically lived there!” said Sylvia's voice from high overhead. “Shame about your job. Who were those boys your friend had with him last night?”

“Uh... boys?” asked Louise.

“Alan went to check if it were still raining, and stood there like a fool with the door open,” Cynthia explained. “When he finally shut the door and came back in, he said your assistant was there with two little boys.”

“Oh, they're my nephews!” said Curtis. “Yeah. My sister married a fish monster from Fort Clawderdale! They want to be scarers when they grow up, and Louise is kind of their hero, so I brought them to visit.”

“Very nice young monsters,” Louise agreed. “Nothing like some of these delinquents you hear about. I can't stay and chat, though, I've got a lot to do today.”

“Of course,” said Cynthia. “I just came out for the paper, actually. Isn't it here yet? I could have sworn I heard the truck.”

“Maybe he's running late,” said Curtis, climbing into the cab.

“See you later, Cynthia!” Louise got in the other side, and the engine started.

Luca sat down and curled his tail around him as they pulled out into the street. What would happen when Cynthia eventually saw the paper? When it never arrived on her step she would surely go looking for one elsewhere. If this place were anything like Portorosso there would be a dozen places to get newspapers. Signor Gamacchio's store carried everything from the local Giornale to the Secolo from Genova to the Tempo all the way from Roma.

“Hey, cheer up.” Alberto sat down beside him and patted him on the back. “We're going home today.”

“Only if this works,” said Luca.

“It will,” Alberto promised him. “Louise and Curtis are good. I never trusted Harry anyway.”

Luca's eyebrows rose. “Oh, you didn't?” he asked pointedly.

“I didn't! I only pretended to because I thought it was the fastest way home!” Alberto huffed.

Luca looked him right in the eyes. Alberto stayed sullen for a moment, then his shoulders sagged. “I knew it was a bad idea,” he admitted. “But we needed somebody to be nice.”

“Giulia says sometimes you really gotta listen to Bruno,” Luca told him.

“You never know when until afterwards, though,” Alberto said. “Do you think Harry's in a lot of trouble?”

“Probably,” Luca sighed. His annoyance with Alberto's lie had been fleeting – yeah, trusting Harry had been a mistake, but it wasn't as if Luca had been able to think of anything better. If it had been up to him, they would probably have just been left standing in the car park until they dried out again, and heaven knew what would have happened to them then.

They'd been nothing but trouble to anyone in this world, he thought, including themselves. Why did it have to be that way? Why did everybody have to panic? It seemed that monsters of all kinds – whether land, sea, or bedroom closet – were so scared of each other when they really didn't have to be. All of them were just people.

Maybe that was what made all three monsters.