#garry dial

[jazzplusplus]

WDR Big Band: Oeuvres de Duke Ellington arrangées par Richard DeRosa, avec en solistes invités le pianiste Garry Dial et le saxophoniste Dick Oatts.

[hometownhistorychicago]

40 Minutes Of Mayhem: The Fiery Riot That Killed A Cultural Movement Forever

Melissa Sartore

Updated April 22, 2024

On July 12, 1979, the term "disco inferno" took on a whole new meaning. As the "disco '70s" drew to a close, Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl decided to speed up the process by promoting a Demolition Disco Night in between games at a White Sox double-header at Comiskey Park. He invited the listeners of his popular radio show to come out to the game and set some records on fire, and tens of thousands showed up to burn a farewell to disco.

But during the event, things got seriously out of hand; after a sluggish baseball season, the stadium hadn't seen crowds like this for quite some time. Riots, crazed fans, and crowd rushes can notoriously break out quickly at sporting events, and Comiskey Park Disco Demolition Night was a prime example of this. By the end of the night, disco records were in flames, fans were looting the stadium, and the White Sox had to forfeit their second game. Disco itself never quite recovered.

Steve Dahl Hated Disco And Wasn't Shy About Saying It

In 1979, Steve Dahl got fired from a Chicago radio station that changed from rock to all-disco. He wasn't very happy about this, since he was a rock-heavy DJ, but he got a job DJing at WLUP. Bitter about his loss, Dahl found an anti-disco cohort in new colleague/DJ Garry Meier, and the pair found an enthusiastic audience for fellow disco-haters. Together, they kicked off an idea for a public disco demolition event.

The White Sox Approached Dahl About Bringing His Pyro Party To The Stadium

The White Sox were slated to play the Detroit Tigers on July 12, a make-up double-header from games that had been rained out earlier in the season. The team already had a promotion on the books, one geared to toward teenagers. When Mike Veeck, son of White Sox owner Bill Veeck and White Sox promotions promoter got wind of a radio DJ blowing up disco records, he contacted the radio station to see if he would do it at the stadium. 

The White Sox were struggling and attendance was down, so Veeck and Jeff Schwartz, WLUP sales manager, met to discuss the possibility of an event. Dahl had already mentioned he would be blowing up records at a local mall, so Veeck simply suggested Dahl relocate to the stadium. 

Dahl's Disco-Hating Fans Were Known As The Insane Coho Lips

In his campaign against disco, Dahl and his co-host, Garry Meier, created an army called the Insane Coho Lips. These were their devoted listeners and disco-hating followers and the ones the DJs invited to show up at Comiskey Park on July 12. Cohos, as they were known, claimed disco music represented elitism and consisted of purely vapid sounds. They alleged rock stars like Rod Stewart had sold out and shifted to more disco-oriented songs with tunes like "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" ruining music in the process.

At Dahl's behest, the Cohos descended upon Comiskey Park to bring disco down. They hung up "Disco sucks!" banners, and drank a lot of beer, ready to protest against the enemy. 

It Took Some Convincing To Get Dahl To Host The Event At Comiskey Park

Dahl wanted to blow up records but the thought of bringing a few thousand vinyls to Comiskey Park didn't seem very appealing. At the time, the White Sox were only averaging about 18,000 fans per game and an extra 5,000 wouldn't fill enough seats to make the event look like much of a success, in Dahl's opinion.

Disco Demolition Night Had An Admission Charge Of $.98 And A Disco Record

Dahl's radio station, WLUP, was 97.9 on the radio dial so it was decided that Disco Demolition Night would cost $.98 for attendees, as long as they had a disco record, too. The White Sox hoped that their Teen Night promotion combined with cheap tickets, Dahl's following, and general animosity toward disco would pack in a big crowd. 

More Than 60,000 Fans Showed Up To The Game And Thousand More Jammed Up The Highways

The exact attendance of the game is in question - it was reported to be anywhere from 50,000 to more than 75,000 people crowded into the 52,000-seat stadium, but either way, Comiskey Park was packed with fans. Countless more tried to get into the game and some attempted to scale the wall to get in without paying. Thousands more tried to get to the stadium, tying up traffic on the Dan Ryan Expressway for hours. 

On The Day Of The Game, Dahl Wore A Fatigues And An Army Helmet

The first game started at 6 pm. The White Sox lost but had another chance to beat the Tigers in game two of the scheduled double header. In between games, however, disco was going to meet its destruction. A little before 9 pm, Dahl, Meier, and radio "Loop Rock Girl" Lorelei Shark drove out onto the field in a Jeep. Dahl was wearing military fatigues and a helmet in anticipation of blowing up a box of disco records that had been brought out onto the field. Dahl started chanting "Disco sucks!" and the crowd joined in, reportedly shaking the rafters. 

The Box Of Records Went Up In Flames And Fans Threw Records Around The Stadium

Dahl blew up the box of records and pandemonium broke out.  The explosion itself, which took place near the center field wall, blew flames 200 feet in the air according to some, only 30 feet by other accounts.  Smoke was everywhere and pieces of vinyl littered the field. As soon as the explosion took place, the crowds started to descend onto the field, still chanting "Disco sucks!" 

Fans Stormed The Field, Stealing Bases, Bats, And Anything Else They Could Find

An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 fans ran onto the field at Comiskey Park in a mad rush. The fans who didn't get down to the field began throwing their disco records haphazardly in the air.  White Sox pitcher Ken Kravec, who was warming up for the second game, later said he remembered shoes and records flying by his head. On the field, the crowd started pulling up bases, looting the dugouts, digging up grass, tearing down batting cages, and lighting fires.

The Jeep carrying Dahl, Meier, and Shark made its way off of the field. They were whisked away by security and taken back to the press room to escape the chaos. Paul Natkin, a photographer for the disco demolition, recalled hanging on to the hood of the Jeep as the driver sped away trying to avoid the crowd. 

The Stadium Was So Damaged That The White Sox Had To Forfeit The Second Game

The damage to Comiskey Park was so severe that the second game couldn't go on. After an hour and 16 minute delay, the umpire Dave Phillips declared the field "unplayable." The White Sox had to forfeit, losing both games essentially. The forfeit on July 12, 1979 was the last one in the American League to date. 

Almost 40 People Were Arrested For Destruction Of Property

Despite pleas by the game announcers to return to their seats, rioting fans continued to wreak havoc on the field. Dahl, Meier, and White Sox announcer Harry Carey all tried but nothing worked. Harry Carey hollered out "Can you hear me out there? OK! To make this an absolutely perfect evening, let's say we all regain our seats, so we can play baseball again!" and even started singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

The Chicago police were called and began making arrests. Most of the crowd ran off when the cops arrive, but in the immediate aftermath of Disco Demolition Night, 39 people were arrested for destruction of property. There were only a few minor injuries. 

The Night Was Deemed Both A Disaster And A Triumph

With the rioting of the fans, the forfeiture of the game, and the destruction to Comiskey Park, the media decreed the disco demolition event a "mob scene." However, from the perspective of the people in the seats — and Steve Dahl himself — it was a wild success. The Veecks wanted to bring people to the Park and they did. Not everyone got in, which was another aspect of its success, but Disco Demolition Night definitely made a mark on baseball and music. 

Dahl Was Criticized For Being Homophobic And Racist In His Attacks On Disco

Because disco was had its origins in Latino, black, and gay communities, Dahl's actions were seen as an exercise in homophobia and racism. The disco "lifestyle" was the antithesis to rock music - white leisure suits and gold chains versus jeans and tee-shirts - and Dahl's attack was perceived as a social statement as much as a musical preference. According to Gloria Gaynor, rock n' roll promised egalitarianism... but disco actually had it. To her, "disco never got credit for being the first and only music ever to transcend all nationalities, race, creed, color, and age groups." 

Dahl denies any homophobic or racist agenda and, in his own words, is "worn out from defending myself as a racist homophobe for fronting Disco Demolition."

Dahl's Attack On Disco May Have Helped Kill The Whole Musical Movement

When Disco Demolition Night took place, disco was dominating the charts. Songs by Gloria Gaynor, the Bee Gees, and Donna Summer were number one hits during the first part of 1979. The Bee Gees had their last number one hit, "Love You Inside Out," on July 9th, just three days before the event. Shortly after Disco Demolition Night, there was a shift in music. By August and September 1979, New Wave hits by groups like the The Knack emerged and began to take over the airwaves. Some argue that New Wave was heavily influenced by disco while others see the attack on disco as a positive moment for the genre. In Chicago, disco continued on in underground clubs and was reworked by synthesizers, ultimately creating house music.

[1997thebracket]

Round 1B

Deftones' Around the Fur: I think God is moving its tongue, there's no crowds in the street and no sun. Around the Fur is the sophomore studio album from American alternative metal band Deftones, although the expected dressings of the genre would not always stick. The band did not so much enter the scene with their first record as they kicked the doorman in the teeth and brought the scene out into the alleyway with them. Around the Fur, which produced the singles My Own Summer (Shove It) and Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), does not dial down the aggression of the band's first outing, but centers it more thematically and strikes back against the newly-forming barriers of metal subgenres to encompass nu-metal, post-hardcore, and alternative rock in one. As guitarist Stephen Carpenter reflected on the band's sound, "We didn't make a decision (…) it was just metal." The record was recognized by fans, but not necessarily by the public or critics right away; it took two years to become certified Gold, and fourteen to become certified Platinum in the United States. One critic would write, twenty years after its initial release, "You know that even when (vocalist) Chino Moreno is saying nothing, he’s saying something, venomous words tripping over themselves as they surge from between his lips. And you won’t hear a better vocal performance all year, as the whispering, shrieking Chino takes you on a rollercoaster ride in and out of his personal hell."

Deep Blue Defeats World Chess Champion: The development of artificial intelligence didn't have to be a portent of neverending artistic infringement to come-- it could've been about computers pantsing nerds! Deep Blue was a chess-playing expert system run on a unique purpose-built IBM supercomputer, aka the Big Chess Computer. Originally developed under the name ChipTest by Carnegie Mellon University, IBM would rename our tall, dark and quiet friend Deep Thought, and then eventually Deep Blue. The computer would play against World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov several times between 1989 and 1996, and with each loss the program's understanding of the game's intricacies was adjusted, expanded, and improved. In 1997, Deep Blue would rock the world by defeating Kasparov in a six-game matchup, winning twice and drawing three times, rendering the final game null. The version that defeated Kasparov boasted double the processing speed as its predecessor, and typically searched to a depth of six to eight moves, even surpassing twenty moves in isolated situations. This victory, as niche as it may seem, is a milestone in the history of artificial intelligence. Sadly, our boy Blue was dismantled after fulfilling his destiny; one of the two racks that made up Deep Blue is held by the National Museum of American History while the other rack was acquired by the Computer History Museum.

[techrookies]

Exclusive: Y Combinator beefs up with a string of new lieutenants

Y Combinator continues to change shape under CEO Garry Tan, a founder-turned-investor and online influencer. While Tan and his colleagues have attracted media attention lately for quarrelsome social media posts that take on rivals and San Francisco city officials, Tan has more quietly been turning the dials inside the popular accelerator program since taking it […] Go to Source Connie Loizos

[spam-1997]

@unforgettable-garbage1997 sent: ❝ *

[Heaven] beyond, that was one of the biggest examples of a NEO he had ever seen! Someone should do something about this, before everything was flattened or worse.

There was no way to fight the thing and he didn't know Spaz well enough to talk sense into him. But maybe he could distract him from his... well, it wasn't much of a rampage. Yet.

* HEY H EY-HEY THERE [[BIG]] [Man Woman Or Child]!!!

* BE4 YOU [Don't Change That Channel] AND [[Ready Set Go]] SMUSH1NG [Everyone You've Ever Known And Loved],

* I JUST WANT 2

* [[Any Last Words]] AND SH0WING IMPORTANT!!!

The much, much smaller NEO did the only thing it could do: Land within line of sight of the larger one and do something mystifying.

Which mostly amounted to performing something that was either some kind of interpretive dance or just aimless glitching.

* YoY

His final words, before clipping halfway into a building face-first like a Garry's Mod prop. ❞

|| Spamton’s been shoved in King’s mech and he is NOT happy--

⇨   There was still... too much time for comfort to have to stay like this. But so many of his friends-- god, who’d have thought he’d have so many at all? --  they all showed up to help him. Those were strings he didn’t mind being tied to him, that he didn’t mind having to tie him down and keep him in this world. And frankly, he even needed them to live.

Even despite his towering size and his unhinged disposition. Maybe he was a little more anchored, thanks to Cerise, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need constant distraction to keep his head the whole night.    And then. There was the littler neo.

And he stomped all the way up to them where they were...... dancing? On a building... and he just stared, silent, smoke huffing out of his mouth with every staggered breath. Even the ringing turned to paused dial tone noise. And then they face plant. And his eyes go black.

His whole body is trembling... and suddenly he stumbles back and tries his best to gently land against the adjacent skyscraper-- laughing.  Not a manic laugh, not a sinister one-- it’s Spaz’s laugh, his real one.   “ * HAEHAEHAEHAEHAEHAEHAE!!! SPAF....... SPA-A-AF WHAT ARE YOU [ What’s going on? ] ??? HEEEHEHEHEHE !!!  ”

Well.... he’s distracted!

[dustedmagazine]

(The Unknown) Arv Garrison – Wizard of the Six String (Fresh Sound)

Anonymity is an inescapable reality for the vast majority of musicians. Even those relative few who cross over into the public consciousness are likely destined for an eventual return to obscurity. Odds are that many listeners familiar with bebop have heard Arv Garrison even if they’ve never heard of him. A Toledo native, he was a pickup plectrist on seminal sessions by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the Dial label in 1946. Dates with trumpeter Howard McGhee, trombonist Vic Dickenson, modernist pianist George Handy and orchestra leader Earle Spencer furthered his portfolio, but Garrison’s principle performing and recording outlet was with his wife Vivian. Wizard of the Six String tells their story through sound and print in lavish fashion across three CDs and thick 76-page book packed with essays, photos, album facsimiles, a detailed discography and meticulously organized ephemera.

A convergence of luck, talent, diligence and savvy marketing made Garrison something of a cynosure in mid-1940s bi-coastal jazz, fronting a working trio that took Nat King Cole’s popular precedence as template and infused it with the intrigue of bop velocity. The group quickly realized the novelty draw of Vivian, who had taken over the bass chair in the band with a flair-fueled charisma that was immediately appealing to audiences. Operating under the portmanteau of The Vivian Garry Trio they toured rigorously until Garrison’s epilepsy and the couple’s divorce curtailed the enterprise. Fortunately, stops to studios and radio air-shots were regular occurrences in the years prior, leaving an aural picture for posterity that’s further enhanced by Fresh Sound’s 24-bit remastering from surviving sources.

Garrison’s most immediate and indelible influence was Django Reinhardt. Picking and strumming an acoustic arch-top amplified with custom pickups he’s a minor wonder on swing-to-bop bridges like “Where You At?” and “Sonny Boy.” Vivian’s vivacious vocals and steady bull fiddle timekeeping are other winsome staples. The piano chair in the group was more variable, occupied for variable tenures by now-anonymous journeymen Teddy Kaye, Wini Beatty and El Myer. Also collected are some intriguing one-offs including an Armed Forces Radio airshot from October 1946 that combines Garrison with peers Barney Kessel, Irving Ashby and Les Paul in a round robin medley where he more than holds his own on a fleet rendering of “How High the Moon.” Another from the same month finds the guitarist trying his hand at Central Avenue-style jump blues with vocalist Rickey Jordan.

Not all of it sticks. A vocalese salad version of “Jingle Bells” from trying-to-hard hipster Leo Watson with moonlighting Leonard Feather on piano is only saved by some tasty trombone from the aforementioned Dickenson. Excepting a hot solo on “Snake Pit,” Garrison is largely relegated to rigid comping. And a promising conclave that includes errant bop pianist Dodo Marmarosa is similarly stymied by too much jam and not enough pectin in the form of collective practice. Garrison got around though and burned brightly during his erstwhile heyday. This extensive and reverential omnibus of his work gives his modest, but consistent legacy its overdue due.

Derek Taylor

[leam1983]

Rewatched "Hocus Pocus" with the folks...

It was a muggy and cold Friday, we had nothing better to do and the TV's Netflix app was acting up. I could've fixed it, but Mom was impatient. So... Off to the Mouse's demesne we went, and she randomly picked the best Bette Midler vehicle to ever exist. Here's a few random thoughts.

You can really tell the production company only managed to finagle a few weeks around Salem. The daytime scenes sort of track (although a lot of 'em were actually shot in Marblehead, Mass.) but the rest of the movie has that specifically closed-off feeling that really screams "Shot in Burbank, California". It's kind of fittingly hokey; with quaint little New England towns sort of melding into the nineties' idea of a spooky set: dead trees, lots of moss, random headstones, a bajillion fog machines working in tandem.

The movie sort of feels like a horror flick that's had its teeth pulled out, too. I couldn't put my finger on it as a kid, but having grown up and having watched Lawrence Gordon and Bryan Yzna's Necronomicon and Mick Garris' Masters of Horror, I could really dial in the impression I had: this is the work of horror movie buffs dialing their schtick down for the sake of easy Disney cred - and none of that seems to diminish the black-hearted, cackling fun at the heart of the movie. Unsurprisingly, Mick Garris was one of Hocus Pocus' producers. The movie's visual language screams "nineties' horror movie". No wonder I keep pairing viewings of it with Nimoy's The Halloween Tree - that other kids' vehicle gives me the same basic feeling.

I like how anchored it is in the nineties. The shoes the town bullies steal from Max feel amusingly retro, now - and Ernie/ICE (Larry Bagby) feels very coded in 1993's trends. It's just another movie among many that showcase just how bonkers the entire decade was, culturally. For similar vibes on the West Coast, give Hocus Pocus an Encino Man chaser.

My father's a very... credulous movie-watcher. Kathy Najimy affects a sort of goofy facial palsy as Mary Sanderson, and keeps it up as any well-trained character actor would. Dad honestly asked us if Najimy had the same condition as Jean Chrétien, one of Canada's former PMs - made famous for his lisp and crooked mouth. Having watched Sex and the City with Mom a few years back, he needed a few appearances for Sarah Sanderson's actress to really dial in.

Yes, Dad; that's Sarah Jessica Parker acting like a total airhead. Yes, Dad; you're basically watching actresses usually known for snarky deliveries camping it up decades before "camp icons" would become a mainstream concept - and yes, Winifred, Sarah and Mary are a few gags short of the Three Stooges, Except Evil. Yes, I always thought that was intentional.

Apart from the Sisters, the rest of the cast feels... meh. It's like you're watching The Mask, except the plot's designed to toss Bighead out the window and put the focus on Ipkiss. Of all the meh-sters of their craft at work, I'd have to give a big-ol' fist-bump to Omri Katz as Max Dennison, for not really bringing flesh to the basic arc of the big-city-kid-who-hates-it-here-and-who-comes-around-through-shenanigans. It's there, it works, but it sort of lacks soul.

Surprisingly, Thora Birch wasn't completely terrible, except maybe for her character's reaction for Max's dismissal being to bodily toss herself onto a pile of pumpkins and cry. I mean - who does that?! I was a Halloween diehard as a kid who's get sick before running the neighbourhood and who'd faint in his chair while his mother was putting greasepaint on him, as desperately eager as I was! If someone had ruined Halloween for me, I'd keep it in for the candy run and then ruin my facepaint while ugly-crying with my mouth stuffed with too many fun-sized Reese peanut butter cups.

On the plus side, the movie having originally been a Disney Channel production allowed the team to work in a ton of cameos. The Dennisons' costume party features a Program from Tron, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

There's something to Bette Midler's Winifred that makes me hope she's prototyped that high-energy, ultra-camp poshness with kids, before actually trying for screen tests. The lead Sanderson Sister feels like Mary Poppins gone horribly, wonderfully wrong - to the point where I'd hope she's been given occasion to play her outside of the movie, at least once or twice.

[horsedancer98]

Books I’ve read in 2020:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Don’t Tell Paul by Paul J. Teague

• Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

• The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand

• Dial L for Loser by Lisi Harrison

• Calm by Micheal Acton Smith

• Welcome to Adulting: Navigating Faith, Friendship, Finances, and the Future by Jonathan Pokluda

• Why Become A Christian? by Garry Poole

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

• The Odd Sisters by Serena Valentino

• A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

• What Now? by Yale Shy

• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

• Straight on Till Morning by Liz Braswell

• Holly’s Inbox by Holly Denham

• Mary Poppins by PL Travers

• Radical by David Platt

• City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

• Paper Towns by John Green

• The Shadowhunter’s Codex by Cassandra Clare

• Good Enough: A Shay James Mystery by Brenda McCreight

• The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn by Lenn E. Goodman

• Reflection by Elizabeth Lim

• God’s Promises to a Woman by Jane L. Fryar

• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

• The Faraway Horses: The Adventures and Wisdom of One of America’s Most Renowned Horsemen by Buck Brannaman

• Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

• Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita

• Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Calonita

• A Very Merry Dunder Mifflin Christmas by Christine Kopaczewski

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scammander

• The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck

• Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

• Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp

[redshirtgal]

They Call Me Mister Tibbs  (1970) is the second in a trilogy of movies beginning with the better known In The Heat of the Night (1967)  and ending with The Organization (1971). All feature Detective Virgil Tibbs, played by Sidney Poitier. But what does this sequel have to do with Star Trek: The Original Series (and indirectly, redshirts)?

The actor on the far left is Dick Dial, who was a stunt double for Shatner in “Arena,” along with Anthony Zerbe and Don Hanmer.   Dial had two other uncredited roles as a stunt double in “Friday’s Child” and “The Immunity Syndrome.”  He was a well-regarded and often used in Hollywood as a stuntman in both film and television. He also doubled for other actors such as Lloyd Bridges on Sea Hunt, David Janssen on The Fugitive, and Peter Graves on Mission Impossible. Side note: Anthony Zerbe was also a Star Trek alumni, appearing as Vice Admiral Matthew Dougherty in Star Trek: Insurrection.

We are more familiar with Dick Dial in his role as Lt. Kaplan in “The Apple,” where in true redshirt fashion, he was killed by a bolt of lightning. He also played a security guard in “Where the Children Shall Lead” and a Fabrini guard in “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.”

The movie also included Garry Walberg and Jeff Corey (in this photo with Sidney Poitier, Norma Crane, and a very young Ed Asner). Walberg is the one in the grey business suit and the dark rimmed glasses. And honestly - you should be able to figure out which one is Jeff Corey.

Actually, you should recognize both these men. Garry Walberg is on the right. We just discussed the insignia on the uniform of his character Commander Hansen in “Balance of Terror” in the article on Tom Troupe. And on the right is Jeff Corey who played Plaxus in “The Cloud Minders.”

And the cinematographer for They Call Me Mister Tibbs? Another familiar name, Gerald (”Jerry”) Perry Finnerman. He was the Director of Photography for the first two seasons of The Original Series and for part of the third.

And our last TOS connection to They Call Me Mister Tibbs? Robert (”Bob”)  Herron performed stunt work for a number of Hollywood movies and television episode. That includes working as Jeffrey Hunter’s stunt double in “The Cage.” We know him mainly for his role in “Charlie X” - the hapless Sam who dared laugh at Charlie and was the first person Charlie caused to disappear in a fit of pique. But he did play another role that may be surprising to some. Bob Herron was also the Klingon Kahless the Unforgettable in “The Savage Curtain.” You’ve heard of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” right? Also known as “Six Degrees of Separation,” where you name an actor and see if you can link him or her to Kevin Bacon through a chain of no more than six relationships. So many of us Trek fans often try to connect  the actors in a movie or TV episode to Star Trek. And it works with They Call Me Mister Tibbs.  In a single movie, we have Six Connections to Star Trek (Five to The Original Series).

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT COMPETITION

Perl may look like a group photo. Dropbox raised a series A. They had to buy a lot of stuff you don't like. You may not at first make more than you wanted to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds. Merely incorporating yourselves isn't hard. Most good startup ideas is to become the sort of stuff that might be assigned reading in a college class. Over time the teams have gotten smaller, faster, and more informal.1 Add up all the evidence of VCs' behavior, and the reactions that spread from person to person in an audience are disproportionately the more brutish sort, just as it had to be delivered. Another great thing about Web-based application. It could be that, because it's easier to sell at first, and since this isn't a word most people use in conversation much, I should explain what it means.

But it's harder, because now their honor was on the receiving end of a pendulum's swing, the other end of the experts, look for the client. I had till then managed to avoid facing it.2 After spending years chasing them, it's a great advantage to be able to try out software online. That's the secret. RTML was Common Lisp augmented by some macros and libraries, and concealed under a structure editor that made it look like it had syntax.3 But if you're thinking about investors during it, then you're competing with publishing's form of distribution, and that's why so many startups grow out of ideas that count as research, the less you need a lot of online stores, there would need to be software for making them, so that you could reach through computer stores or even by mail-order. The best I can say is: if you're in a market where products are as undifferentiated as cigarettes or vodka or laundry detergent, spending a lot on brand advertising is a sign of breakage. The more versatile the tool, the less likely they are to belong to a group. What you're afraid of competition. And what drives them both is the number of startup people around you. VC firm is a bigger deal than getting money from angels.

But I feared it would have led to disaster, because our software was easy to use. But I think the main reason I wrote this. Viaweb, I doubt we ever had ten known bugs at any one time. Especially since you won't even really learn about it is just to read. Medieval alchemists were working on a problem you have? When Rajat Suri of E la Carte decided to write software for Windows we'd have to use it. It brought a critical mass of experts in an important new technology together in a place they liked enough to stay. It's hard to tell whether you're a good con artist, you'll never convince investors if you're not one of the two angels in the initial phases of a startup, people treat you as if you're unemployed. Err on the side of doing things where you'll face competitors. You either have a self-consciously cool person wanted to differentiate himself from preceding fashions e. A fine idea, but you don't need a lot of people fast. I write down in notebooks.

The number of users, software that drove an impressive collection of dials displaying real-time server statistics a hit with visitors, but indispensable for us too, modifications including bug fixes to open-source x? The importance of personal introductions varies, but is less than the inconvenience of signing an NDA. It's important to realize you're not. In every period, people believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you would want to use. Can't you just think of new ideas yourself? When we got into such a scrape, our investors took advantage of it in a bank? The power of chance meetings is more variable than people around you are professors. The fund managers, who are both hard to bluff and who already believe most other investors are conventional-minded drones doomed always to miss the big outliers. There are answers to that question that don't even involve desktop computers. In our test drive, users actually used the software. Fortunately the process of writing it, they had some new ideas.

You may even be able to use their office staff, lawyers, accountants, and so on.4 I know the founders of a lot of bandwidth to crawl the whole Web. This worked for bigger features as well. If you stop eating jam, fruit starts to taste better.5 If you can make changes almost as you would in a program you were writing for yourself. But if you do something to the software, listening closely to the users as you do. We encourage that.

Why is your inbox overflowing? When you make something dramatically cheaper you often get qualitative changes, because people start to use it themselves. Restaurants with great food seem to prosper no matter what. It seems that, for the simple reason that if there were a number of users you can support per server is the divisor of your capital cost, so if you can choose when you raise money, you can win big by seeing things that others daren't. And if you want to understand startups is to look at what used to be for getting users. If we could look into the future it would be even cheaper today. I haven't decided. Let me see and decide for myself. When you have a thesis about what everyone else in it is overlooking. I've already said at least one person willing and able to demo a real, working store. And as you go.

Notes

They may play some behind the scenes role in IPOs, which are a hundred years ago it would be very hard to say that Watt reinvented the steam engine.

We consciously optimize for this at YC. 5 to 2 seconds.

They found it easier for us, because you can control. The Nineteenth-Century History of English at Indiana University Publications. And while we have to track ratios by time of day, because the processing power you can imagine what it would be critical to do some research online. 'Math for engineers' classes sucked mightily.

So, can I make the fund by succeeding spectacularly.

People were more at home at the exact same thing. Only a fraction of VCs who understood the vacation rental business, it's because of that. There are aspects of the rest of the more effort you expend as much difference to a car dealer.

Thanks to Bill Clerico, Trevor Blackwell, Garry Tan, Jessica Livingston, Eric Raymond, and Brian Burton for their feedback on these thoughts.

[semicolonthefifth]

CROSS ch.2 - Bad Moon Rising

The night was still strong, and the moon past the mountains helped shine the way.

For 3 hours now Jason Cross had been driving down the Black Road. On the drive since, Sid had been weakly banging against the car for the first hour before stopping on the second - at least that’s what Jason was sure had happened. Throughout the drive, Jason had been listening to the radio. Every now and then he’d switch the channels whenever a song failed to capture his attention. He’d mostly been ignoring Sid’s antics from within the trunk, and had been in the need for something to fill his mind till he reaches his destination.

So many stations littered the airways, from Calberi to Moresatta - all throughout the Black Road passage. Dozens of stations settled along the road, and all of them had the same idea on what to play. Humanity isn’t creative anymore, all they want are the oldies - the kind of stuff that used to play back on the Old Earth. Way back when, before they left for far off stars, only to then realize what a mistake it was; before they had settled on so many worlds, got into as many problems, and wished greatly that they hadn’t forgotten the way back. So, every station plays the oldies - the songs from the far ago generations.

You’d have such stations as: “Classics of the Great Wars”, “Music of the Groovy Times”, “3R’s Real Revolition Radio”, “The Legends of Rock n’ Roll”, and even “Electric Orchestras of the 2nd Millennium”. Most of the stations Jason had blocked out - he’s listened to them all, especially the ones off “Country Listenings” some time back. He’d stop listening to them altogether, maybe find a station making new stuff - if they ever come to existence. Though till then, “60’s Power Radio” still had some things he hadn’t yet listened to as much.

A couple turns of the dial, and he had come into the station just as when a favorite of his came on: “Bad Moon Rising”, by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The moment the tune picks up, Jason’s stresses from the long drive started to fade away. Though he hated to admit it, the feeling was nice. He began to ease up on his grip of the wheel, and allowed himself a chance to relax when the lyrics came into play - and slowly he sung it to himself.

“I see the Bad Moon Rising…”

“I see trouble on the way…”

“I see earthquakes and lightning”

“I see bad times today.”

His singing became almost automatic - it always felt like that with songs he has in his head longer than he should. He recalls seeing adverts and news clippings, all about what some experts from the cities call the “Nostalgic Disease”. It isn’t like an actual sickness, it was something Jason would refer to as ‘being all in the head’. It affects plenty of folks, especially in the cities. Those affected claw over whatever they can from the Old World, and then get hooked on it. They listen to a song 40, 80 times in a sitting, trying to capture that ‘magic’ off those stories they hear about from the old homeworld. They want more though, and soon enough they try to live it.

Jason recalls a story he heard once: a man became so addicted to the music from some millennia old musician named Elvis Presley that he was convinced he was the guy himself. The man paid millions for surgeries to look the part, using a couple of surviving photographs off a museum. Even went as far as to get an artificial voice box installed so he’d have a voice straight off the radio, crackle and all. Last he heard, the copycat ate himself to death as soon as a gray hair got through the fake ones. The worst part of it all was that it wasn’t the only story of its kind - there’d been many others, many copycats - changing themselves to copy ancient figures, celebrities and even fictional characters alike.

Jason laughs to himself a bit when thinking back, but then realizes that he’s singing the final lyrics to the song. He realizes where he is at the moment, and immediately switches the radio off. It’s good timing at least, as further down the Black Road he could see a set of white buildings off to the side. After a quick shake of his head to wake his senses, he grips the wheel tight and gets ready for the turn off the Road.

The Black Road has always been the greatest landmark in the arid wastes of Aurora, in both size and importance. Ever since the United Republic of Earth colonized and settled down here, the road has been the deciding factor for easier trade and travel between its two cities on what is often a sun-blasted desert. Although the alien natives aren’t subtle about their hatred for the road, every human loves the seemingly endless stretch of pure black pavement that has helped them settle these lands. All the humans love this road, especially those wanting to cause trouble for everyone around them.

With the creation of the road came the bandit and the raider - groups who constantly harass and devastate the various settlements that line the Black Road. For as far as Jason could remember, there have always been raiders murdering and setting fires along the road. There has been an ever-increasing level of violence along the wastes of colonized Aurora, and furthermore an increase of groups who set themselves to fight back - and in response, an act from the UROE had to be made. To ensure that the worst of humanity are to be dealt with, and that the best are sufficiently rewarded, they settled the bounty offices - a way to put a mark on any bandits in the area, and pay off those willing to do the job.

One such office, a mile off the Black Road - stationed the same distance either way between the two major cities at the ends of the Road - was set in the middle of the open plains. It was close to the Eastern mountainous wall that runs parallel to the road, visible in the night through the twinkling lights in the pitch darkness.

It was easy to make out. The buildings of the site was painted a bright white, which appeared clearly against the mountains and dunes. Within the site there was a main two-floor office facing South with another, smaller building nearby. The office appeared boring and simple, with little other features aside from some windows and utilities to keep it functional. The side building meanwhile only possessed a door and a singular window, but no light was shown to be coming from it. Remaining to note was an appropriately sized water silo, a generator, several solar panels, and a discreet radio tower barely peeking from the office roof. All of which were encircled by a vast perimeter of chain-link fencing guarded by a single guard post. A flag of the UROE flew proudly - bluish green in color, with a white emblem of the Earth surrounded by stars and the various flags of the Republic’s states. It stands out, even against the brightness of the office it decorates.

The drive takes a while, but Jason’s car soon rolls up towards the post. He quickly rolls down the windows and presents his license and contract, allowing himself through and towards the main office itself. He stops right in front of it, turning the car off once he’s parked.

Before Jason gets out, he suddenly remembers the gun he had taken from Sid at the bar - and for a moment he takes some time to examine it.

It was a seemingly impressive thing: the custom decoration had a ‘cool’ look to it, as Jason though, and it appeared that the metal trims appeared legit. It all depicted a road waving wildly, with a road-sign reading ‘66’ at the center - etched on both sides, practically mirroring each other. However, as Jason turned it over, he began to notice some issues. It had a pretty face, but nothing more. The grip felt loose- the trigger stuck badly; there were indications of grime and dust that was only cleaned surface deep. The way the gun jostled and clicked when waved, you’d figure the thing would’ve blown the man’s groin much sooner.

He carefully tosses the gun aside, but not before skimping the leftover ammunition and storing it into the glovebox. He can’t use it, as badly as he would’ve needed to. Almost any gun would be better than no gun - yet in this case, he liked to have one that actually worked.

Jason finally leaves out the car, and as he makes way for the office he gives a smack of his hand against the back where Sid’s been kept. “Don’t you let me catching you leaving any time soon.” He snarks aloud, chuckling before whistling a tune.

5 seconds into his whistling he recognizes it as “Bad Moon Rising”.

He stops immediately after.

Eventually he enters through the door, and the moment he does so he can feel a jet of cool air hit him square in the face. He barely stifles a low, soft moan before giving into a bit of shaky laughter. He happily calls out, “Damn Barry! When were you gonna tell me you got that AC fixed!?”

Jason stands right under the open vent, an easy feat considering how high he stands. Cool air blows across the main floor office: a fairly open, presentable area with a half-wall barrier blocking off a series of desks lining the floor. To the sides are doorways leading to other, smaller officers, with only a singular staircase off to the back. The place was for show, for the most part - all but one of the offices were empty with only the standard supplies atop the desks. Only one office, towards the side, had decor that was easily seen from the main entry-way.

From where Jason stood, he could see various knick-knacks, some maps, and one man.

The man exits out, giving Jason a hefty smile and a jolly chuckle.

“Just recently!” He shouts, making his way over

He is a graying, blond-haired man whose as wide as he is tall. His complexion is that of a man barely touched by the Auroran sun, only made slightly pink in color. A gray collared shit wraps around his body, tightly tucked into a set of dark grey pants complete with well-shined black laced shoes. On his chest is a small badge, clipped to his left with a photo of himself and his name - “Garry Barr”.

Immediately he goes to Jason for a handshake, and Jason allows it without an inkling of complaint. Barry then proceeds to push far close into Jason’s space, giving the young man a strong slap to the shoulder fueled by celebratory glee.

“Jason Cross you bastard! Thought for a moment you wouldn’t be back so soon. You got Sid, right? Got him good?”

Cocky, Jason shrugs and gives a comical grin. He looks down at Barr with about half the amusement. “Of course! I told ya I’d get the bounty. The fucker put me through a whole lotta runnin’ across the road and back, but I did get him.”

“And just for that, I’m grateful. Absolutely touched. Just as happy as can be!” Barr lets out another bit of laughter before proceeding to hook Jason over and direct him to his office. He speaks further before Jason could get a word in. “You want a drink? I can get you a drink. We ought to get a drink, a smoke - something!”

Jason chuckles awkwardly, but tries to answer through Barr’s rambling, “Had enough, actually. You mind calmin’ down? What’s the occasion anyways?”

“I’ll get right to it!” Barr happily shouts, still leading Jason on.

He’s soon brought to a chair, though Jason kindly rejects and opts instead to lean against the doorframe while Barr moves to his desk. The man bends down and retrieves a box kept in the lower shelf, all the while Jason’s eyes wander around the room.

Barr’s office is full of memorabilia of the Old Earth. Model tanks line the shelves by chronological order, all positioned at the same direction and without a bit of dust to ruin their clean, pristine appearance. Several posters of films and wars from the 40’s covered the walls - all of which contained behind glass frames to protect their quality. They mostly covered topics like “War Bonds” and “Liberty”, but Barr didn’t care for the aboutism - he was more drawn to the looks. Lastly, hanging right behind his desk was a  replica shotgun, locked behind a glass case with but one plaque reading, “Winchester Model 1987. Trench Gun”.

Jason’s eyes shifted back to see Barr open the box, and from it he nearly brings out a small rectangular bottle with an amber colored liquid and a yellowish-green cap, along with a tin lined with cigars. The tin advertised “Babe Ruth Smokes; Great Vintage Taste from a Great Vintage Era”. with a picture of a grey colored man in striped pajamas.

Barr sat down nice and comfy, rubbed his hands and delightfully waved his fingers over the items laid upon his desk. He sniffed the air, savoring it even from afar. Jason taps the doorway, breaking Barr from his ecstasy.

“Uhh, Barry? What’s the… uh, situation here?” Jason asked, his smile still uncomfortably kept, but his tone presented as respectful as can be.

Finally, Barr answers, with exhaled excitement, “Promotion. I am getting a promotion. All thanks to you.”

“Me?” Jason responds, confused. His face contorts in surprise before returning to his previous expression as he continues, “Uh, I don’t see what you’re talking about here.”

“That bounty you brought in: Sid Leibers. We’ve been looking for him, and here you are. You bring him in to us, and now I’m finally going to get my dues for once in my life. So for that, yes! You boy, I thank! Now then, do you still want the smokes? You ain’t too old yet to celebrate, and I hope you got the taste for cigars. They say these got the old taste right - exactly how it’s described in the old archives.”

“Again, pass.” Says Jason. He brings his hand up to scratch his head, still unsure exactly on what is going on. He then asks the question that had been running through his mind every now and then. “You know Barry, now that you mention it - why have you guys been hounding for Sid so badly? I mean, 850 creds? I know he killed some people, but the worst murderers and arsonists I’ve seen get a bounty of at most 400 alive. Least those people got about a dozen more bodies under their names, and they’re way more sadistic and messed up than this guy ever was.”

Barr leans over his desk, takes a long look towards the hall outside his door and then to the window before looking back at Jason. He whispers, with a wide-eyed look, “You really want to know?”

Jason pauses, jokingly pulls a similar look, and replies in the same tone, “Sure.”

Barr sits back, chuckling lightly for a bit as he then explains - all while his fingers come and rest upon each other.  He begins, “I shouldn’t tell you, honestly, but might as well since it’s going to be old news soon. You hear about some gang making a big hit further along the Western mountain ridge?”

Jason shakes his head.

“Well, they’re causing a mighty fine problem for a lot of people along the Black Road. Plenty of hits, ranging from kidnappings and ransoms, arson, murder - just about everything. For the past few months they’ve been pressing the villages for protection money, else they’ll come back and cause even more damage.”

“Sounds to me like your typical, small raider band.” Jason states.

“Not quite.” Counters Barry, elaborating more seriously now. His tone shifts to faithfully present the rank and affiliation he holds within the government on Aurora. “Now they’re not as sadistic as a raider or as large, but they’re smart - at least, whoever is leading them is. They have a good understanding of the environment, and are able to move about without anyone being able to track them. The gang’s hiding out within the ridge, but every time we get to a base they’ve already moved out days before. Not to mention this isn’t like those raiders; these guys can stay put in the mountains for weeks at a time, and we suspect that they possess enough of a survivalist skillset to make use of the wastes without issue. From what reports we’ve managed to scrounge up from those willing to talk, their numbers range from around 12 to 20 men. Not big, but we’re still running blind with what we got on them. Many of the villages affected are too scared to talk, and others ain’t much trusting of our offices to say anything anyways. The guard we have here at the nearest outpost can’t do anything unless we get further intel on the enemy - the command won’t devote manpower to what they see as ineffective searching.”

Jason nods and nods, taking in the information but ultimately not really caring. He keeps his opinion to himself that these guys don’t sound special - no different from any gang he’s dealt with in the past. Folks will join any group if the money’s available, and smarts don’t matter a thing if all they do is the same thing by running around like a bunch of crooks. Still, none of what Barr said had satisfied Jason’s question. “Ok, but what does this have to do with Sid? He’s just some punk, nothing else.”

“You’re right, he is just a pink,” Barry agrees, but his tone becomes progressively chipper. “But - he’s a punk with the right connections. See, what we managed to get from one village is that Sid had recently become a member of this gang. Now, he is dangerous, but he’s thankfully an idiot as well. The bastard was bragging about how he had just gotten in with the gang, completely away from the ears of his operation. With him looking to be our best chance, I commissioned the Bounty Board team to issue a large price on him - alive. Once he’s in our hands, we can interrogate him for all he’s worth.”

There it was, the answer - and Jason had to admit it: it felt good knowing that now. He did some good, albeit without having a clue about it beforehand Of course, the price was what really mattered. “Smart move.” He comments, smiling, “I got to say, you guys are awfully clever. But, how’re you sure he’ll talk? Man ain’t exactly lookin’ to be the agreeable sort.”

“We’ve got out ways, Jason. Man’s an idiot, like I said - and, from the profile we got on him, this ain’t exactly the longest he’s been with a gang. He’ll crack to something, sooner or later, and when he does we’ll have what it takes to nail those fuckers for good.”

“Then congrats to you, friend.” Jason remarks, giving a half-assed salute, though his smile tells Barr that he genuinely does mean well.

“No, thank you. Still! We should toast!” Barr exclaims, rising from his desk with the cheeriest of attitudes. “How about we get Sid out the car and give him a ‘congratulations’ drink? Let him know he’ll be in good hands.”

He starts power-walking out the door towards the front, with Jason following after at a slower pace. Jason comments, “Sure, might as well give him a chance to stretch his legs.”

The two exit out the front and right outside, and almost immediately Jason starts to miss the cold breeze.

With keys in hand, Jason moves around to the back of the car with Barr, and with a wide grin on his face he starts to unlock the trunk. Barr is barely able to contain his excitement, so much so he’s practically hopping in place and thinking past 10 different ways to greet the creep. With a CLICK the trunk swings open, and the two men stare inside - then when they see Sid, their expressions sink.

A long moment of silence falls between them, but especially Sid. The punk lays in a puddle of his own blood from within the trunk, his hands limply placed against his crotch. All color had drained from his body, with the last bit of it being the dark mellow blues of his eyes and lips. His eyes stared off at nothing, not registering one bit to the two men staring at their owner, whose expression is utterly blank.

Barr then breaks the silence, stating dryly, “Well thanks a-fucking-lot, Jason. You killed our man - way to go.”

“Now wait a minute.” Jason starts, holding a finger up as his eyes are kept locked onto the body in the trunk. He doesn’t say anything else, or for that matter can’t find a good reason to right now. With an open palm, and some slight hesitation, he reaches forward and gives Sid a couple smacks across the face. Twice, thrice, four and five times he does this. The slaps get a bit harder, but the body doesn’t move.

He turns sharply towards Barr, momentarily at a loss for words. Barr looks back, his once jolly expression giving way to an equally strong frown. Jason holds his hands up a bit and attempts to make a point, “Let me explain… he was alive when I brought him here.”

“Yeah, well he ain’t alive anymore.” Barr shoots back.

“The dude was banging the trunk door on the way here. He was causing all sorts of a fuss! For all I knew, when coming here, he was still pretty much alive.”

“And in that time.” Barr replies, almost about to blow, “Did you, at any point, dress this man’s wounds?”

“I… didn’t think it was serious.” Jason mumbles.

“The man’s balls are shot off!” Barr screams, his face turning a hot pink. “I think that calls for a fucking band-aid at the very least! Goddammit!” He yells, even louder - to the point his voice began turning course. He slams the trunk, causing Jason to jump back while Barr storms off back towards the office.

“Come on Barry!” Jason pleads, following after the man before Barr does a 180 and stops him dead in his tracks.

“Don’t you ‘Barry’ me, ya moron! This was supposed to be my break. MY promotion! Best chance I’d get to saying goodbye and good riddance to this hell blasted planet!”

“Now that ain’t fair, Barry…”

Barr resumes back into the office and is just about ready to shut the front door when, suddenly, Jason grips it from the outside. Jason peaks in, crying out, “Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Barr listens, and after a moment Jason calms down before asking politely, “What about my payment?”

Barr’s eyes grow wide, his mouth agape, and the punks on his face become a peppery red. He stammers, “You just-- I don’t-- Why’d you-- I should strangle the fuck out of you! Fucking payment?! Read the damn contract! ALIVE! You get the bounty if he comes alive! Alive - Payment! Dead - hit the dirt and LEAVE!”

Then with a quick pull he slams the door, right onto Jason’s fingers. Jason lets out a harsh scream, but doesn’t let go. It takes another three slams from the door before he finally releases, as he trips onto the dirt and holds tight to numb the furious pain going on in his fingers. Barr finally shuts the door and locks it, before walking off into his office in pure rage.

Jason shakes the pain away as best he could, right before looking back at the office door. He yells and begs, “Barry! You can’t leave me with this body, Barry! It’s gonna stink my damn car!”

After a minute of getting not a single answer from Barry, Jason curses and nurses his injured fingers. He lightly blows on his bruised digits, all the while slowly making his way to the back of his car. Stopping, he looked with disgust at the dead body attracting flies in his car. Delvitely he slams the trunk shit, wincing from the pain in his hands, before finally getting into the front seat to drive on out of there.

He speeds on out of the gated area, setting course for the Black Road.

First on his agenda: finding a place off the side to dump the body.

Second: looking somewhere to get some ice - for both his hands, and his drink.

[paralleljulieverse]

Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett performing “The Scarecrow Song" on The Garry Moore Show, aired 26 September 1961 on CBS 

 As a nod to their show-stopping performance of “Big D” five months earlier, Julie and Carol essayed another musical comic duet when Julie made her second guest appearance on The Garry Moore Show. This time they opted for a routine based around “The Scarecrow Song” from The Wizard of Oz. As Moore explains in his introduction, an eleventh hour spanner was thrown in the works when the producers were informed they couldn’t use the scarecrow costumes as originally planned due to copyright issues, so Julie and Carol had to perform in 'rehearsal clothes'. 

 “Whoever prevented Moore from getting permission should have had his head examined,” wrote one reviewer. “Not that it mattered,” he added, “The girls did a top-flight job”(Messina, 80). Most others agreed. “[T[here’s no substitute for talent,” asserted syndicated UPI critic, Fred Danzig, “Miss Andrews and Carol Burnett...were outstanding”(Danzig: 14). 

 Staged by many of the same creative personnel who would go on to produce Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall the following year, this early performance contains several elements that would find their way into that later landmark special: the comic refrain of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”, Carol’s gentle take-off of Julie’s accent, even some of the steps from Ernest Flatt’s remarkably athletic choreography. And this second duet teaming on The Garry Moore Show certainly confirmed the infectious chemistry between these two disparate but wonderfully complementary performers, heralding a long and splendid association. 

References

Danzig, Fred. “Television in Review: Dialing and Filing.” The Daily Republican. 27 September1961: 14. 

 Messina, Matt. “Moore is Back.” Daily News. 28 September 1961: 80.

Disclaimer: This is a fan preservation project; it was created for criticism and research, and is completely nonprofit; it falls under the fair use provision of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107.

[cursedmouthgall]

Gall’s Kidnapping Part Two

Here’s the next part to Gall’s October event, staring Garrison Charles, Myle Macey @alabastercharlatan and Belle Vunderbar @a-page-of-sanctuary It’s a long story under the cut so be prepared and enjoy the show!

Tree

Garry stood on the outside of the alleyway panicking softly as he tries figure out what to do. "Fuck fuck fuck this can't be happening, there's no way she should have been able to find them, dear god this can't be happening" He mutters to himself as tears fill his eyes as he fruitlessly pulls out his phone and dials Gall's number one last time as back in the alleyway, a cracked phone lying on the ground began to ring showing a picture of Garry and Gall smiling on it

Silver

“Who? Who found him, Garry?”Belle’s voice wavered and her hands trembled as they clumsily tangled into her hair.

Tree

He takes a deepbreath and walks over to pick up the phone and stares down at the picture of them before sighing "His grandmother..." He says as he opens the phone and finds the messages left by Miss Macey as he raises an eyebrow in confusion "Uhh who's this Macey chick? She texted Gall a lot last night." He says showing her the messages

Silver

“I think she’s his girlfriend?”

Tree

For a brief moment a look of annoyance flashes on Garry's face "He never mentioned her before..." He says softly before he careful sends a text using Gall's phone [text] Hello?

Queen

The phone stayed quiet for a moment, and then the screen turned blue. Two seconds later, a white hand shot out of the screen, immediately grabbing Garry's shirt. Miss Macey's arm reached out of the phone as she used the screen like a portal, clawing her way out. "You stupid blue mother fucker, I'm going to kick your ass!!! We are SO OVER, YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD, YOU HEAR ME?" she screeched as she pulled herself out of the phone and clawed at Garry's face.

Silver

Belle jumped and screamed,”JESUS FUCK!”

Tree

"FUCKING SHIT!" Garry screams as he narrowly dodges her claws dropping the phone in the process as he hastily scrambles away from the portal "W-WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!

Queen

Miss Macey finished crawling out of the phone portal and stood up; her face was smudged with runny mascara and eyeshadow and she had crazy, murderous eyes as she pulled a gun from between her breasts and immediately pointed at the two strangers. "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY EX BOYFRIEND?" she snarled, starting to cry and shake again. "Who the hell are you two?"

Silver

Belle reached into her bag and pulled out a box of tissues,”I’m Belle.” She holds it out to Macey,”I’m a friend of Gall’s.”

Tree

"I-I'm Garry, also a friend of Gall and uhh we were going to ask you that question but after seeing this I think I know where he went" Garry says as he points up at the demonic symbol burnt into the wall behind him

Queen

Miss Macey squinted, and then looked up at the strange markings on the wall. Her ears pinned down as she lowered her gun and flicked the safety on, hugging her nightie closer to her chest. "What the hell is this shit?" she asked. The fur on her tail had begun to fluff out.

Silver

Belle looks over the markings and takes a breath,”If my extensive reading is correct, this is a high level Demonic Sigil. Possibly Fury Class but Gall and I haven’t found out what kind of demon he is and if this is his Grandmother we’re dealing with, then I don’t have a steady idea.”

Tree

"Well...I might have an idea about that." Garry says as he gets to his feet and dusts himself off "Truth be told Gall isn't an ordinary demon. He's the decedent of an ancient demon of Hell, one with a large following of obedient followers."

Queen

"I tried to suck his demonic powers into a Beholding Shard and it didn't work; so yeah, he's strong." Miss Macey sniffled as she took a few of Belle's tissue and wiped her nose. "Let's hunt down Grandma Cunt-Pants and bazooka her into next week. I took out a demon last week with a Subaru and a Tommy gun, so how hard could an old lady be?"

Tree

"Well...you know those obedient followers I mentioned? Well they're a group of ancient magic users who've been trying to revive the original Demon using guinea pigs from the family...guess who's the leader and guess who's the guinea pig?"

Silver

“If she’s as high ranking as Garry says, a shitty car isn’t gonna be enough. I could ask Hades and Hecate for help but I don’t know how much they can do to help us.”

Queen

"I could ask Satan." Miss Macey said bluntly, blowing her nose and then pulling a cigarette out of her boobs and lighting it with a small snap of her fingers. "He doesn't owe me any favors but he visits like, once a year."

Tree

Garry stares blankly at her in confusion "...You serious?" He says looking at her like she's crazy as he silently wonders what drew Gall to this crazy woman

Silver

“Uhhhh, I don’t feel comfortable dealing with....that.”

Queen 

"It's a long story but that bastard is the reason I'm even here to begin with. I think if I asked him to save my boyfriend in exchange for nine more lives of serving his will on this hellscape of a planet, he'd agree." she huffed, dragging on her cigarette until only half was left. "So let me get this straight, his Grandmother, a cult leader, kidnapped him to try and wake up the demon that's been piggy-backing on his physical body, and if we want Gall back we have to get to her first."

Tree

"Well it's actually more like...he is the demon, she's been experimenting on him since he was a kid to turn him into the demonic creature, but we managed to stop it for a brief period by escaping and using magic to erase every trace of her from Gall's memory severing any ties he had to her so she couldn't find him. I don't know how she found him now or where she could have taken him..." He mutters with a worried sigh

Silver

Belle froze,”The picture....” her heart sunk,”This is my fault.....” she teared up,”I was hanging out at his place, looking at pictures and I pointed out a weird picture of him. He got migraines but we forgot about it while we were researching Demonic entities at my place.....She found him because of me!” She started crying.

Queen

Miss Macey groaned and spat out her cigarette, flicking the safety off of her gun and aiming it straight at Belle's head. "Gimme one, just one good reason why I shouldn't blow that stupid horn off your face, since this is your fault." she said tiredly. "He's probably dead, I'm sure he could use a friend where he went."

Tree

"What?! N-No that couldn't do that how could just looking at a photo-" He says looking confused as he reluctantly starts trying to console her before immediately steps in front of Belle and Miss Macey's gun "OK LET'S JUST CALM DOWN FOR A MINUTE! That was probably the most powerful memory spell around as far as I know, just looking at a photo shouldn't have brought back his memories and if something showed up in the picture it means the spell was already fading, there was supposed to be no trace of her.""Besides Gall definitely wouldn't want his girlfriend killing one of his friends"

Queen

"Gall's not here." Miss Macey said, cocking the hammer back.

Silver

She grabs the gun and presses it against her forehead,”You decide.....Me and my little brother are all that’s left. My parents and little sister were murdered. I saw them turned into meat confetti. I had to bury them. I had to fight for my brother’s custody to keep him away from my hellish uncle....but I’ve wanted to be dead for 3 years. If you want to shoot me, go ahead. You’ll be doing me a favor.” Belle says seriously, her mismatched eyes unbreaking from Macey’s eyes.

Queen

Miss Macey was abit taken aback; she was used to people begging for their lives to be kept, not ended.

Tree

The seven foot monster lets out an angry growl before grabbing the barrel of the gun and clenching it tightly as loud crunch could be heard as the barrel gets crushed"Nobody's shooting anybody. We're finding my brother, we're murdering that evil bitch who's taken him and then we're getting the both of you some therapy. GOT IT?!" He snarls angrily at the both of them as he glares at them before taking a breath "Ok...we just need to find some way to track him. There's blood all over, some of it might be his so either of you know anything that could track him?" He says trying to stop the two women from killing each other by focusing their minds on something else

Queen

Miss Macey glared at Gary when he destroyed her gun, and she tossed the useless weapon aside. "I can hunt down men dead or alive when they owe me something and Gall owe's me an apology and sex. And you owe me a new gun." she said, pointing at Gary as she headed over to the blood stains and squatted down to observe them. "What's all that shit about you being his brother? Ya'll couldn't be more opposite, with the fur and the colors... and who the fuck are you s'posed tah be?" she asked, glancing back at Belle.

Silver

“Brother’s aren’t always blood.”

Tree

"And this is one of those cases. Long story short, I've been Gall's friend since childhood, his parents basically raised me so I consider him my brother." He says glaring down at her

Silver

She reached into her purse,”As for me, Gall’s said he thinks of me as a sister.” She pulls out a notebook and a pen.

Tree

He grins at her and gives her a small hug "Then makes us siblings too then!"

Queen

"Ya'll are gonna make me vomit with that sister-mister shit." she said, making a tiny portal and reaching through it. She pulled out a small baggie with glass shards and took one, scraping at the bloodied ground with it and then  staring through it. "I'm willing to bet five bucks that when I scry with this it's either blocked, or murky." she said aloud, walking back to Gary and Belle. "Or, he's in a coffin six feet under and it's all dark."

Tree

"Then you can just dig him up and bring him back with your voodoo or whatever this crap is." He says with a frown

Silver

Belle draws a symbol and scratches off some dried blood onto the paper. She sets it on the ground and pulls out a lighter,”I’m gonna ask Hecate for guidance. She has ties to the Underworld.”(This symbol to be exact)

Queen

"I don't bring people back from the dead, I just raise undead smart ass. It ain't the same." Miss Macey huffed, watching Belle for a moment. "Eh, you're a witch too?"

Tree

Garry leans back against one of the walls luckily not the one with any weird markings on it as he silently watches them work

Silver

“Yep.” She says,”Baby witch though. I’ve only been practicing since February. Hecate says I’m one of her more powerful followers.” She lights the paper and a steady plume of smoke raises. An elderly woman’s voice could be heard from the smoke,”Hello, my little shapeshifter. I sense your distress.” “My goddess, I need your guidance.” She says seriously.

Queen

"Pfft, more powerful my arse..." Miss Macey muttered under her breath. A hint of jealousy sprinkled her tone like parsley on steak.

Silver

(Sure)Belle looked to the fire,”Hecate, my goddess, my friend is in danger. I need to know how to save him. I can’t lose any more family.” The voice paused for a moment,”Normally, I would make a joke about you being uptight. But this is a dire situation.” Through the smoke came a dark blue staff with flecks of gold. At the top of it, it looked like a sign pointing in three different directions. “Take this, shapeshifter. With this, old memories will be new, and ancient instinct will be second nature.” Hecate spoke gently,”Trust your power. That goes for your friends who are listening here.”

Tree

Garry stares at tge goddess in shock as he seems at a loss for words

Queen

"That made as much sense as a homeless man under house arrest." Miss Macey said. She had lost all ability to speak with respect to others. "What does that mean, what do we do with a stick? Is it like a compass, is it gonna show the way?"

Silver

“Maybe if you paid attention, you would understand.” Hecate said bluntly.(That actually made me laugh)

Tree

Garry stifles back a laugh "W-Who knew the gods were sassy" He mutters under his breath

Queen

"All of them have their great golden halos so far up their butt, the colonoscopies are blinding." Miss Macey muttered. "Whatever, thanks for the staff- Let's go kids. I need to change into my hunting boots."

Silver

The old woman laughed,”My my, Macey, you certainly don’t sugarcoat anything.” A red drawstring bag came out of the smoke,”You two will be needing your own tools.” After that, a shimmering shield came out,”Miss Macey here gets my bag of magic tricks. The object you need will come when you need it, as for you, Garrison, I pulled some strings and borrowed the Shield of Ares. Hellfire shouldn’t be an issue as long as you’re behind this.”

Tree

"Thank you ma'am I really appreciate it." He says gratefully as he bows politely to the goddess

Queen

"What if I need a gram of cocaine and some beer, will it gimme that- Actually I'm going to shut up. Would hate to get cursed." Miss Macey said quickly as she observed the bag.

Tree

"A gram of co- Jesus Christ Gally what do you see in this woman?!" He mutters to himself in utter confusion

Silver

“Good luck, Children. You have a difficult task at hand.” Hecate says in a truly serious tone. “I thank thee, my goddess. My beseechment has ended. Good night and blessed be.” Belle says, waving her hand in a certain motion and the smoke dissipates. She takes the staff and inspects it. She didn’t seem to recognize the type of gemstone it was made from, she could feel an odd buzzing sensation as she held it,”Oof, this is really something.”

Tree

Garry meanwhile picks up the shield and checks it out "Hmm not bad, plus she said it could block hellfire, I don't know if Gall's flames are that powerful but just in case..."

Silver

“She knows what she’s doing.” Belle says, the only thing she’s seemed confident about.

Queen

"So then. What now?" Miss Macey asked, still holding her scrying glass.

Tree

"Well didn't she say that staff could help us find Gall? So uhh go ahead Belle, turn it on or something."

Silver

She paces for a minute,”I don’t know how.”

Queen

Miss Macey glared at Belle and reached for the staff impatiently. "Here, give me that! Jesus.." she spat angrily. "You might lose that too so just had it over."

Silver

Belle felt her chest ache with guilt.

Tree

Garry growls angrily at her and smacks her hand away "Knock it off bitch! You aren't helping by acting so high and mighty so shut up or actually come up with a plan"

Silver

Belle looked at the staff and inspected it. She lifted her glasses to look at the three way sign on top,”Crossroads. We need to go to the crossroads. Specially, the three way of Hirsch Street, Craven Road, and King Avenue.”

Queen

"I can borrow a hell hound to help us track his scent. I've got a Chevy Crusade we can take, and snacks. And weed." Miss Macey said, raising her head and glaring at Garry. "You. Touch me again and I will shoot you in the arm."

Silver

“I don’t smoke....also, your gun’s kinda been turned into play dough.” Belle said with an awkward shuffle.

Tree

He glares angrily at her "When we find him and If I find out you're even a fraction of how you are right now with him you better hope you can shoot fast enough to stop me." He growls at her

Silver

Belle’s ears begin to twitch,”What’s that noise?” Neither of them could hear anything other than wind.She started to walk away.

Tree

"Belle?" Garry says looking confused as he follows behind her

Silver

“This way!” She said, seemingly drawn to something.

Queen

Miss Macey followed along, making a small portal to pull out s fresh pack of cigarettes as she went, and a jacket to slide on. "Your ears are twitching- whatcha hearing?"

Silver

“It sounds like.....drums? But hollower. Thunder almost. But not quite. Steady like a heartbeat, but angrier.” She says, stopping at a crosswalk. The light changes and she keeps going.

Tree

Garry rushes after her mostly to make sure she doesn't get hit by a car as a thought enters his mind "Could it be...Gall's heart beat?"

Queen

"How come she ca hear it and I can't?" Miss Macey yawned as she lit her smoke and followed along. Someone looked sideways at her and she glared back, making the womans pants drop as she walked past. "Bitch... Anyway, where is it coming from, and do I need more guns?"

Silver

She just keeps going, until she reaches the three way. She looks towards the abandoned house that rested in the corner of the three roads. It was drastically out of place between the larger buildings the city offered. “A liminal space. If there’s a portal to hell, it’s there.” She pointed before looking at Macey,”If you need a gun, it’ll be in the bag. Hecate is the Goddess of Magic, she knows what she’s doing.”

Queen

"I have guns at home, I don't need no magic bag; I'll save it for an emergency." Miss Macey huffed. "Now before we go barging in there, might I suggest that we all go somewhere quiet and sit and actually think out a plan of what to do when we find Gall?"

Tree

"She could have a trap waiting for anyone who finds her, so maybe we should try and sneak inside? I don't know if they'll be more people in there with her, when we were kids from what I could overhear, the cult was falling apart and she was one of only a few loyal members still left but that was over a decade ago who knows what power she could have..."

Silver

Belle was thinking hard, she reached into her purse and pulled out a book with images of different demons. “I don’t know why, but I think if one of us could disguise ourselves as another demon that’s part of this cult. All three of us should be able to enter and get an idea of the layout. Hopefully, we can reach Gall before anything drastic happens and we won’t have to hurt him.”

Tree

"Hmm that could maybe work, but who should do it?"

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 10:48 PM

Miss Macey stayed very quiet, and then slowly raised her hand. "It uh... won't be so much of a disguise as my true image, but it might be passable." she coughed.

SilverSongLast Saturday at 10:48 PM

“True image? Are you wearing a Glamour?”

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 10:49 PM

"I've got a Glamour, and like..." she paused and counted on her fingers. "Like, at least 3 hexes on me at all times babe, it's kinda how I uphold this luxurious, Goddess-like beauty~ But yeah."

SilverSongLast Saturday at 10:52 PM

“Oh, Arcadia does, too.” She said with a shrug before stopping on a page,”If you’re not comfortable doing it, I can alter myself enough to look like this.” She turned the book to show a tall looking demon built for strength. It was black and blue with feathery fur,”Thunderghast. A storm demon.”

TreeLast Saturday at 10:56 PM

"Hmm well that could work, what about me? She might recognize me if I go in."

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 10:57 PM

The white cat groaned and rubbed her face as she smoked. "Can we please go back to my place and think of an actual plan." she growled. "I'm not standing out in public in my pajamas with you two any longer if I don't have to."

SilverSongLast Saturday at 10:58 PM

“Uhhh, ok.”“Which way is your place?”

TreeLast Saturday at 11:03 PM

"Wait those are your pajamas?" He says looking confused "Also if it helps my shop isn't too far from here, Gall's apartment is right next door so we could probably hang out there I've got a spare key after all"

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:04 PM

She glared at them both, still looking like garbage, and opened a home portal right in the street; a dark room was on the other side, and a fish tank burbled in the background. "Get in. I promise on the Oath of Ghosts, you won't get shot by my guys. Also I have a Keurig and snacks. C'mon."

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:05 PM

Belle awkwardly steps in.

TreeLast Saturday at 11:07 PM

Garry reluctantly follows after her with a shrug

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:10 PM

Belle rolls the staff in her hand. Unsure of what to do.

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:11 PM

As soon as Miss Macey stepped through after them, the portal snapped shut, and she clapped twice to turn her lights on. The room was more like a large office with scattered bins of paperwork, order forms, a few packages, and a huge fish tank with what looked like a giant, blood-red eel that had a skull for a head as it swam around. It opened it's maw wide in greeting when it saw Miss Macey and she waved at it, immediately heading for the wall cabinets and digging around. She didn't seem to care about her guests as she started to pull on a change of clothes. "So, we know where Gall is near. Thanks to... Becky? Whatever." she grunted, pulling on all kinds of leather and black clothes. "What we don't know is who we're fighting, how powerful they are, and how many. So we should assume the worst and go in guns blazing, literally and figuratively. Ya'll two fight at all?"

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:13 PM

Belle suddenly looked very uncomfortable,”I have super strength.....dangerous strength, even.....I hoped I’d never have to use it against anybody.”

TreeLast Saturday at 11:16 PM

"I mean I don't know about super but Gall always acts like I'm a hero or something whenever I have to lift up my car when something rolls underneath it." He says with a shrug "I mean my car's not even that heavy I've been able to lift it with one hand for years now, but I can handle myself in a fight."

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:18 PM

"Okay, so super chick will be helpful, and the hairball might be helpful. Either of you two know how to kill demons and angels and supernatural beings of the like?" she asked, tying her boots and then sitting at her desk. Without a care in the word, she took out a prepackaged needle of.... something, and stabbed it directly into her stomach, sitting back to finish her cigarette and check her phone. "I'm willing to bet money there are dozens of protective seals, locks, hexes, and Illusions in that place. I can probably break most of them with my magic, but if not, I hope your fancy God-Stick can." she said to Belle.

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:20 PM

Belle huffs,”It has to do something. Hecate said it’s a key.”

TreeLast Saturday at 11:20 PM

"Only demon I ever fought with was Gall and that was usually just to get the remote but I mean it's usually just get something holy and hit them with it right?"

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:21 PM

Belle takes off her selenite bracelet and holds it out to Macey,”You might need this.”

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:22 PM

Miss Macey's jaw twitched in a snarl, and she pulled the empty needle out and threw it; it stuck in the wall right behind Gary, with a small tuft of his reddish fur caught in the needle. Luckily it hadn't hit him, but her aim was impeccable. "It's not as easy as that, hairball. I'll get you a gun." she scoffed, leaning forward to take the bracelete from Belle. "Wassit?" she asked, pupils narrowing to the size of periods as the drugs woke her up.

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:24 PM

“Selenite. It should protect you, since it’s a holy stone. I’m pretty sure Gall would want his girlfriend safe and I’ve got a feeling.”

TreeLast Saturday at 11:25 PM

Garry didn't even flinch but inside his head he silently thinks to himself "Gallius Hinikuni you are so lucky right now or both me and your mother would have a few words to say to you about this crazy bitch you're dating" He thinks before calmly prying the needle out of the wall and tossing it into the trash(edited)

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:28 PM

"I'm surprised he hasn't told you that his girlfriend can protect herself." Miss Macey scoffed, shoving the bracelet back and then leaning down in her chair; she hauled up a big black lock box, and popped it open, starting to pull out small handguns and loading them, checking the safety. "So, we go back. I've got lives to spare for my little Blue berry, so I'll take off my Glamour, my Common face hexes, and I'll go in to see if I can't cause a distraction, or find us all a way in. I have ear peices around this place somewhere, but... I'm not sure where."

TreeLast Saturday at 11:30 PM

"Then me and Belle will sneak around the back and search for Gall, once we find him. We'll alert you Macey and then start knocking out anyone who stands between us and the exit. We grab our blueberry in distress, snap his grandmother's neck somewhere along the way, then we all go out for drinks so I can interrogate him about you two"

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:31 PM

“I’m not particularly stealthy, but I’ll do my best.”

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:32 PM

"His ass had better be alive when we get to him, or he's dead meat, and so are you two." Miss Macey growled. She grabbed a small harness to strap two guns beneath her jacket, another to her thigh, and she added a small explosive to her waist as well. "We ready to go? Ya'll need any juice, coffee, Adderall?"

TreeLast Saturday at 11:33 PM

"Got any shotguns?"

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:35 PM

“No. I’m good. I’ve got everything I need in my purse.”“Plus, I don’t like guns.”

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:36 PM

"Tough tits, sugar." Miss Macey headed over to the tank and reached into the cupboard beneath it, grabbing a box of shells and a double-barrel with the end sawed off. She flicked the safety on and tossed it to Gary. "Here. Don't blow your hands off, and aim low because the recoil is a bitch."

TreeLast Saturday at 11:37 PM

"On it." He says with a nod as he tests out the sights on the shotgun as he grins eagerly "Let's kick some ass." He says with a smirk

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:40 PM

Belle only pulls out the handle for a large sword and pockets it. The handle had no blade and no apparent mechanism to pop one out.

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:41 PM

"This is gonna suck ass. One sec." She hurried back to her cabinet and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, downing a few gulps and then walking back to her boyfriends friends to open a portal back up on the street, just a block away from the strange buildings. "Do me a favor, don't get killed? I might feel responsible."

TreeLast Saturday at 11:42 PM

"Same goes for you. Gall still won't let me live down killing his goldfish when we were 12, something tells me, he wouldn't let me live down killing his first girlfriend." He says with a nod

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:43 PM

“Mage, Bard, and Warrior. Looks like a great party.” Belle says in a weak attempt at humor.

TreeLast Saturday at 11:45 PM

"Does that make Gall the princess in need of rescue?"

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:47 PM

Macey barely cracked a smile; it was kinda hard not to, but she kept her stone-faced expression and began to shed her Glamour. Her clothes moved with her body, keeping all but the one gun on her thigh concealed. She grew a few feet, and jagged, broken horns began to curl out of her head, stopping a few inches out from her hairline. Her jacket had two hidden slits, and two scarred, ugly feathered stubs jutted out. Her features smoothed out, and her muzzle stretched out a bit, giving her a very ancient, ethereal look. When she finished, she popped her neck and glanced down at Gary and Belle. "Yes. He is a princess. Are you guys ready?"

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:48 PM

“Y-Yeah.” Belle stammered, a hint of blush on her face.

TreeLast Saturday at 11:49 PM

"Ready let's do this." He says patting Belle on the back before stepping through the portal as he rests his shotgun on his shoulder

SilverSongLast Saturday at 11:50 PM

Belle steps through and hears the sound again. This time, it’s more defined.She can almost hear words.

Queen MotherLast Saturday at 11:53 PM

Miss Macey had to duck through her portal this time, and she grabbed Belle's shoulder to steady herself. Her paws had been taken over by sharp white spikes that didn't quite touch the ground. "Where's my entrance at, sis." She muttered, squinting at the buildings.

TreeLast Saturday at 11:55 PM

The front of the building looked abandoned as the front door had been boarded up long ago along with most of the windows, however off to the side a wine cellar door could be seen with a new looking lock on it as Garry silently points at it "Over there, I'm gonna walk around and see if any of the windows are uncovered." He whispers to them before walking over

SilverSongYesterday at 12:01 AM

Belle walks over to the cellar doors,”This is just a steel lock and this is the way down.” She squats down and puts a hand on it, humming ‘Hellfire’, her watery magic covered the lock before it melted into slag. “No noise, no fuss.”

TreeYesterday at 12:07 AM

After a couple of minutes Garry comes back "No luck with the windows but I was able to peek inside a few times, I think the house isn't being used it must just be the cellar"

SilverSongYesterday at 12:08 AM

Belle stands up,”You’d be right. I still hear the noise and it’s coming from down there.” She points to the door, the lock now melted off.

Queen MotherYesterday at 12:14 AM

"I'll go first; y'all wait here for me and I'll come get you if the coast is clear." Miss Macey said. She didn't quite speak, rather thought directly to their minds. Her large form crouched by the door, and then she slid through it like a ghost. On the other side, she sensed for traps or magical seals, anything hinting at danger to the mortals.

TreeYesterday at 8:54 PM

Garry nods as Macey goes downstairs, she finds herself in a long corridor with various doors on either side of her. So far there were no traps but she definitely detected something very powerful down at the end of the hall

SilverSongYesterday at 9:02 PM

“I hope everything’s ok.” Belle said, twisting her braid into a bun and tying it with a hair bow.

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:03 PM

Miss Macey crept closer to the first door and carefully pressed her head through it to see if Gall was right there- that'd be too easy, but it never hurt to hope.

TreeYesterday at 9:06 PM

The room was empty but looked like it used to a bedroom for someone, inside was a simple metal cot and a desk both covered in years of dust. A dark black and red robe hung weakly from a hook, almost devoured by moths. - Garry sighs softly and nods "Yeah...she hasn't had him too long, I'm sure he's probably fine..." He says trying to lighten the mood with a smile but his tone showed how worried he was

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:08 PM

"So far so good." Miss Macey spoke to both Garry and Belle's thoughts as she pressed on, checking each door to see if it was a way down, until she was at the end of the corridor, and trying to use her Spiritual sight to sense any living aura's other than her two friends.

TreeYesterday at 9:13 PM

Each room was more copies of the first room, empty dorms with old faded robes seemingly abandoned for years, except for the second to last one. The room was much larger than the rest and looked very tidy and lived in. Covering the walls were various ancient texts speaking of demons, a few times the symbol on the wall could be seen and finally on the desk stood a lone crystal ball and a family portrait Belle and Garry might recognize. Finally the last room held was a large metal door looked like it was built to contain a beast inside she could sense a faint but familiar aura inside along with one more aura that seemed a lot similar to Gall's but different, both auras were projecting incredible magic power but Gall's aura seemed...odd it seemed like his power was not a part of his aura but trying to swallow it

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:19 PM

Miss Macey pressed against the metal door cautiously, but the aura inside made her uneasy. Even she knew better than to face off with a demon with that much power. And with her wings, and her halo, she was only as strong as it would be, if not weaker. "He's here.... I think. But something is wrong." she called to her two companions as she floated back to the door and opened it from the inside. It took some fiddling with the lock with her larger hands, but she finally broke it off and swung it open for Belle and Garry

SilverSongYesterday at 9:20 PM

“What’s wrong?” Belle asked anxiously.

TreeYesterday at 9:21 PM

"Is he okay?" Garry asks also looking anxious

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:26 PM

"How am I supposed to know? You two stay three paces behind me while I go look." she growled, heading back down the long corridor to the steel door. Very slowly, she pressed her face through the door, just to peek.

TreeYesterday at 9:26 PM

The room was a large dark room, there didn't seem to be anything inside except for a certain someone with his arms and legs chained to the roof and floor...

TreeYesterday at 9:30 PM

Gall stared blankly at the floor blood slowly pouring from his eye, a strange robotic look on his face as the symbol on the floor pulsed with a demonic red light. A voice from the shadows calls out to the group "Well don't be shy dearies, come on in. I've been so eager to meet some of Gall's friends~" A sweet but cold voice says as a figure steps out of the shadows in front of Gall...

An older looking woman dressed in the dark red robes with a sweet grandmotherly smile on her face smiled at the door as she waits patiently for the trio to step inside

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:32 PM

Miss Macey growled deep in her chest, and the air around her vibrated as she pressed through the door, forgetting to open it for her friends. Her entire form loomed over the sweet old lady beneath her, and her bloody wing stubs were starting to bleed again as she huffed and snarled. "I'm going to dissapoint Gall here in a few minutes." she snarled.

SilverSongYesterday at 9:33 PM

Belle feels a shudder in her chest,”Garry we gotta go in there, NOW! MAGNUS RUSHES IN!” She shouts as she barrels down the steps into the cellar.

TreeYesterday at 9:35 PM

Millicent chuckles as Garry slams his shoulder hard into the door sending it open with a loud crash only to stop in horror when he sees Gall "N-No...Gally..." He mutters as Millicent turns to him "Oh my little Garry is that you? Why it's been so long you've grown so big and strong...it's a pity it wasn't strong enough to save him, isn't that right deary?" She says as she turns to Gall who replies obediently "...Yes Grandma..." and then goes silent again

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:37 PM

Miss Macey glared down at the old monster and felt herself coming unhinged, raging, raging, fucking raging on the inside. Her eyes flashed violet as she tried to read Gall's Aura, to see what was going on, to see if he was even in there. Her entire form was emitting a faint light, and a large crack had begun to form on her chest. "Good thing there's three of us..."

SilverSongYesterday at 9:38 PM

Belle runs in, staff clutched in hand and gasps seeing Gall in this state,”Oh Brother, my Brother, Gall!”She glared at the woman,”Nice to meet you, let me introduce you to my god damn hoof.”

TreeYesterday at 9:45 PM

"You would really do that to your own brother's grandmother?" She says in a mocking tone as she smirks before calmly walking over to Gall "As much as I would love to get to know Gall's sister and his girlfriend...I'm afraid I'll have to let him do the talking, isn't that right deary ?" She says raising her hand as suddenly the symbol glows brightly and Gall roars out loudly in pain as a loud sickening crunch is heard as another wing bursts out of Gall's back and the chains holding him down snap as his teeth grow long and fang like and his eye turns dark and demonic. Miss Macey could see Gall's aura swallowed up by the power surrounding him as he shakily gets to his feet, growling and snarling like a savage beast. Millicent smirks and points at them "Deary, please take care of them for your old grandmother won't you~?" She says in a kind voice with an evil smirk on her face as Gall only growls in response and charges the group at an inhuman speed

SilverSongYesterday at 9:55 PM

Belle lets out a combination of a scream and an operatic note and a thick shield of violet ice wall went in front of the three. She almost looks surprised by how big it is.

TreeYesterday at 9:58 PM

The wall doesn't last long as Gall slashes and hacks away at it with his claws before crashing through, snarling like an angry beast as he lunges for Belle only to get blocked by Garry's shield as he struggles to hold his ground as Gall pushes against his shield "G-Guy's he's really strong, I-I don't think I can ho-" He starts to say when Gall smacks him aside sending him flying into the nearby wall knocking him out as he drops his shield and it lands at the group's feet as Gall turns to glare at Macey and Belle

Queen MotherYesterday at 9:59 PM

Miss Macey gently put her hand in front of Belle, and when she looked down at her she looked... heart broken. "Make sure if I go down, he knows I didn't enjoy this at all." she murmured, procuring an astral spear from the crack in her chest and steps in front of her.

SilverSongYesterday at 10:03 PM

Belle nods and grabs the shield, running over to Garry to check him.

TreeYesterday at 10:04 PM

Garry was luckily just out cold groaning softly, meanwhile Gall turns to Miss Macey and snarls as he gets on all fours and lunges at her like a savage animal

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:05 PM

She ducked down to all fours to take his hit full force, and her claws screeched against the floor when he ran into her and shoved her back a few feet. She wrapped her arms around him and shoved the spear through one of his wings, attempting to pin him to the floor. "Gall, wait, wait wait!!!" she roared. "It's me! It's Macey!"

TreeYesterday at 10:08 PM

Gall roars out in pain as his wing gets pierced as he huffs and pants heavily glaring angrily at her before freezing for a moment as if he forgot something. For the briefest of moments Macey could see a flicker of Gall's aura inside the raging inferno of power but it was for only a second at he shakes his head and snarls again before pushing her off of him and swiping at her with his claws

SilverSongYesterday at 10:09 PM

Belle took note of his moment of hesitation.

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:11 PM

His claws raked over Miss Macey's face and down her neck and she shoved him against the floor. Her tail lashed as she drew back a hand and a light emitted from it. The blast would feel akin to acid splashing against his skin, but no outward damage could be seen. "I'm sorry, babe, just wake up so I don't have to hit you!" she begged.

TreeYesterday at 10:15 PM

Gall screams out in agony as he struggles for a bit before stopping as he stares up at her as his eye softens a bit "M...a....c...e...y...?" He says looking confused before Millicent finally pips up "Deary you stop playing with your friends and get back to work~" She says as Gall's expression turns back into his feral one as he snarls and attempts to snap at Macey(OH SILV I JUST HAD AN IDEA(WHAT IF GALL'S GRANDMOTHER KNOWS ABOUT THE KNOWONES?!

TreeYesterday at 10:19 PM

Millicent looks over at Belle and studies her for a bit before a look of realization hits her "Ah, so that's where I've seen you from deary! You're one of them!" She says with a nod "I had only read about them in legends since they've been gone for about 200 years now but I would have never guessed that there might be one here on Earth."

SilverSongYesterday at 10:22 PM

Belle looks thrown off,”Excuse me?”

TreeYesterday at 10:24 PM

She smirks evilly "You don't know do you deary? You have no idea what you are...what power you posses~" She says looking at Belle suddenly as if she had just found a new piece of meat to dissect

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:24 PM

"Yeah, double excuse me?" Miss Macey grunted, trying her best to keep Gall down. She wasn't as strong as she had hoped to be, and he managed to sing his fangs into her throat, making her choke and lurch upward suddenly. "Oh fuck-"

SilverSongYesterday at 10:27 PM

“MACEY!” She called out. The Staff sends a burst of energy up Belle’s arm as a voice rang through her head,’Go on. You know what to do.’ She takes a breath.

TreeYesterday at 10:28 PM

Gall snarls and pulls away blood dripping from his mouth as he stares down at her and goes to raise his claw to deliver the final blow only to freeze up for just a moment

SilverSongYesterday at 10:30 PM

“Gallius......” Belle says before gripping the staff.“GALL! PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!”

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:34 PM

Miss Macey let out a choked gasp as Gall pulled away from her and immediately clasped a hand over her throat. "Jesus.. fucking christ, where did you get the b-balls." she choked, making an astral sickle as fast as she could. When he froze up, she swiped down; effectively cutting his hand off in a single movement. No worries, she could stitch it back on with a spell later. For now, she just needed to weaken him enough that he wouldn't hurt Belle... she could feel herself bleeding out faster than she could move, and her vision was blurry.

TreeYesterday at 10:36 PM

Gall's hand falls to the ground with a thud as he screams out loudly in agony clutching his wrist tightly as tears well up in his eyes, only instead of water it was blood that poured down his cheeks

SilverSongYesterday at 10:38 PM

Belle was shocked at the sight.

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:43 PM

Miss Macey threw the weapon down and it dissipated, and her hands pulled awy from her throat as she grabbed Gall with both sets of claws, starting to squeeze him. She was crying too, and her grip was gettting weaker. "Belle, I hope that staff has some fire behind it." she choked out, blood spilling out of her lap and onto the floor. Her light was fading, and before too long she dropped Gall, falling to her knees. "Fucking hell."

SilverSongYesterday at 10:46 PM

Belle kicked the shield over to Macey before walking to Gall,”You missed movie night, Gall.....I found a great bootleg of the original cast for Heathers and we were gonna watch it and talk about how much we hate ourselves....” She says, the dark blue staff slowly turning the same color as her magic. She was trying to pull him out of whatever was eating him,”I don’t wanna hurt you.”

TreeYesterday at 10:48 PM

Gall turns to look at her still clutching his head as tears pour down his face as he gets pained tearful expression on his face "I-It hurts B-Belle...e-everything h-hurts." He says his voice sounding weak and strained as if he was straining to speak from far away

Queen MotherYesterday at 10:48 PM

"Keep hurting his- Gah- Emotions." Miss Macey rasped. She was laying down now, jaws working up and down as she tried to suck in air, but it was very evident she would die from her wound, and within seconds, she had stopped moving. It would take at least ten minutes for that life to end, and for her next life to start up.

SilverSongYesterday at 10:53 PM

She starts to sing a low, sad sounding song. “Doubt comes in And strips the paint Doubt comes in And turns the wine Doubt comes in and leaves a trace Of vinegar and turpentine Where are you? Where are you now? Doubt comes in And kills the lights Doubt comes in And chills the air Doubt comes in and all falls silent It’s as though you aren’t there Where are you? Where are you now?” As she sings, magic seeps from the staff and watery tendrils wrap around Gall, they were cold but it was a soothing cold. The emotion of the song was seeping into whatever power was trying to take Gall. At the same time, more water washed over Macey and began to heal her wounds.

TreeYesterday at 10:57 PM

Gall begins to calm down as his body begins to steam as some of the changes to his body began to reverse, his claws grew shorter, the long mane of hair shrunk down until it only went down to his shoulders, however no matter much magic she applied to Gall, he wouldn't turn back to normal. The only thing that changed was his eye turned back to its usual yellow however now his eye looked more like a cat's pupil.

SilverSongYesterday at 11:01 PM

Belle stopped singing and hugged Gall tightly.

TreeYesterday at 11:02 PM

Gall weakly hugs her back as he begins to shake and sob softly into her shoulder "I-I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He mutters over and over again as he sobs softly

SilverSongYesterday at 11:03 PM

“Shhhh, it’s ok, Bro.” She says gently, glaring at Millicent.

TreeYesterday at 11:06 PM

Millicent steps back from them in shock as she stares at Gall who eventually slowly pulls away from Belle's hug "D-Deary? Deary please listen to your grandmother...Gallius Hinikuni you will obey m-" She orders as Gall slowly walks over to her only to be cut off as Gall's hand is shoved through her chest as she stares at him in shock and mutters a faint "D-Deary...?" Before falling dead on the ground as Gall turns and begins to walk back to Belle before collapsing onto his knees

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:07 PM

Miss Macey's giant angelic form shuddered once as her life was restored to her, and she groaned as she began to stir. Her neck wound was closed up when she rose back to her feet, creating what looked like a giant, angelic bow, or perhaps a strange harp. She notched an astral arrow into it and pointed it at Gall. "Is he... fixed?" she asked, speaking only to Belle's thoughts.

SilverSongYesterday at 11:09 PM

‘In a sense....’ She thought back, hugging him tightly and doing her best to comfort him.

TreeYesterday at 11:09 PM

Gall weakly looks up at Macey and chuckles softly "Guess I'm not the only one who looks fucked up right now huh?" He mutters to her with a weak smile before passing out in Belle's arms as Garry slowly came to and sees Gall passed out and rushes over to him "I-Is he okay?!

SilverSongYesterday at 11:10 PM

“I think so....How about you? Anything broken, sprained, or bruised?”

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:11 PM

"I died, and you're asking if he's okay? Does he look okay??" Miss Macey snarled, lowering her weapon and gliding over to them. Her giant form crouched over the three smaller monsters, and her eyes began to water again. "C-Can I have him, please?"

SilverSongYesterday at 11:11 PM

She nods and holds him out to her.“In fairness, I did try to save you. It just wouldn’t take.”

TreeYesterday at 11:13 PM

"A bit of a headache but otherwise ok- IS HE MISSING A HAND?!" He says as Gall is passed over to Macey as he weakly wraps his arms around Myle and a faint "I'm sorry for missing date night..." could be heard

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:14 PM

Miss Macey choked back a sob as she gently took Gall in her hands and pressed him to her chest. She began to shrink down out of her True form as she remembered to replace her Glamour and her hexes, and when she was back to normal size she hugged him as close as she could, crying and kissing on his face feverishly. "I'm sorry I cut off your hand, babe. I'll get you a new one." she promised through her tears.

SilverSongYesterday at 11:20 PM

Belle looked down at the bloody mess and followed the trail of blood back to Millicent, she went over to the body and stared at it quizzically,”What were you talking about, Lady?” She said out loud.

TreeYesterday at 11:24 PM

She coughs weakly and takes a moment to stare at Belle "Y-You really don't know about your kind...a-about the Knowones?" She asks weakly her life slowly fading as blood drips out of her wound

SilverSongYesterday at 11:26 PM

She raised an eyebrow, Dahl had said that name before, she just thought he was insulting her,”No Ma’am. But it seems I won’t be getting answers from you.”

TreeYesterday at 11:27 PM

She chuckles weakly as she slowly shakes her head "Deary...you're not listening, they are called the Knowones. You must learn to listen when an elder is speaking..."

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:28 PM

"Hey, Genius. She's saying it like to 'Know' something. Know-One." Miss Macey sniffled. She was ugly-crying all over Gall's, poor thing.

SilverSongYesterday at 11:30 PM

“I get it.” She said flatly before looking back at Millicent,”I would ask questions, but I don’t think you have much time left.”

TreeYesterday at 11:32 PM

Gall was out cold in her arms blood tears dripping down his cheeks, he looked a bit pale as his dismembered arm hung limply from his side as Millicent chuckles and nods "Yes deary I'm afraid I can't answer your questions, but as a parting gift, feel free to look through my room there are a few books that mention your kind in there...and if possible...tell my dear Millie...I'm sorry..." She mutters before she finally passes as Garry glares at her "As if she would accept your apology after what you've done to her son..."

SilverSongYesterday at 11:34 PM

“I’ll tell her.....May judgment be fair to thee.” She says in a shockingly respectful tone.

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:35 PM

"Hey, where....w-where's my baby's hand? I need to put it back on his arm before he bleeds out." Miss Macey sniffed, pressing her muzzle to Gall's head in a strange sort of kiss.

SilverSongYesterday at 11:37 PM

Belle turns around and picks up the severed hand,”Here it is.” Something in her head told her to use her teeth, she gives the hand to Macey before digging around in her purse,”Here’s a first aid kit, too.”

TreeYesterday at 11:39 PM

"I uhh should I call the cops or something? I feel like they should clear this place out or something, anyone know a cop?" Garry asks as he watches Gall get patched up nervously

SilverSongYesterday at 11:39 PM

“My boyfriend’s a cop.”

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:41 PM

"I got a few crooked ones on the eastside." Miss Macey offered, taking the hand and the first aid kit. She started a simple, but very much illegal spell to stitch Gall's hand back on and reconnect the sinews, tendons, and muscles. It wasn't the best job in the word, but in a few days he'd have his hand back to normal in no time. Possibly with side effects.(edited)

SilverSongYesterday at 11:43 PM

Belle reaches into her purse once again and pulls out a small vial, she pushes her fang against the edge and shimmering gold liquid came out. It filled a little of it and Belle looked surprised,”I didn’t think that’d do anything. Here, this might help him recover.” She held out the vial of Gold Venom to Macey.

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:48 PM

Miss Macey had a very sudden, shocking realization, and she hissed through her teeth as she took the vial. "Oohhhh my god you're Cadie-bugs sister. Holy shit." she whispered, tilting the vial to Gall's mouth and tipping in a single drop. "Jesus fucking hell. Holy fuck nuts. Damn. What??? What- You're a- okay."

SilverSongYesterday at 11:49 PM

“You know Arcadia? She’s actually my cousin.”

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:49 PM

"She's my druauaaa Driving Instructor, she helps me get used to a new car whenever I buy one." Miss Macey said quickly. "Yeah, I know her."

SilverSongYesterday at 11:50 PM

“So that’s what she does. Huh.” She said with a shrug.

TreeYesterday at 11:52 PM

"Think she could teach me how to drive?" Gall groans as he finally starts to wake up "Cause after today I'm not walking anywhere ever again..."

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:53 PM

"Baby cakes!!!" Miss Macey gasped, crushing his face into her boobs and starting to cry all over again. "Oh thank god!! I thought I was gonna lose you for a minute!"

SilverSongYesterday at 11:53 PM

She half laughed,”Sure. I’ll see what she can do, Bro Bro.”

TreeYesterday at 11:55 PM

Gall struggled to breathe as he weakly flails trying to get Miss Macey to loosen her grip before finally pulling himself free and gasping for air "G-Guess you really missed me huh?" He says trying to tease her before he tears up and gives her a sad smile "I-I'm sorry for worrying your honey" He mutters before hugging her tightly

SilverSongYesterday at 11:56 PM

“I’ll give you two a minute. C’mon, Garry, let’s give them some space.”

TreeYesterday at 11:57 PM

Garry nods as he sighs softly and gets to his feet "Uhh didn't the old bitch mention some books you might want? Maybe we should search her room for them, so at least some good can come from all this."

SilverSongYesterday at 11:57 PM

“My thoughts exactly.”

Queen MotherYesterday at 11:59 PM

"You ever scare me like that again and I'm turning you into a vintage leather purse for a week." Miss Macey said as she shifted and helped Gall to his feet. "Oh, my darling demon, what did she do to you?" she whimpered, cupping his face gently with her hands.

October 15, 2018

TreeToday at 12:04 AM

He groans softly as he shakily gets to his feet "From what I'm starting to remember nothing out of the ordinary for her. Just trying to tap into my buried demonic powers and turn me into a killing machine under her control. You know just normal Grandmotherly things." He says with a sarcastic chuckle before he gives her a sad and slightly scared look "I was almost too far gone, Macey. I-I felt like everything that was me was being burned away. E-Everything hurt, a-all I could see was darkness, I-I felt like any moment I would be swallowed whole and then I would be gone...no more Gall just a monster..." He says as tears stream down his face as he shakes softly

SilverSongToday at 12:08 AM

Belle could hear this as she and Garry walked to Millicent’s room. She wanted to put this whole ordeal behind her.

Queen MotherToday at 12:10 AM

"If it makes you feel any better, you snapped out if without having to kill yourself or anyone else." she said, leaving out the fact that he had accidentally rippd her throat open. "You're okay now, sweetie..." she purred softly, hugging him against her gently and running a calming hand up and down his back. "Hey... you want a double Gordita crunch wrap from Haco Taco?" she asked him. "You love those!"

TreeToday at 12:13 AM

"Make it three, I haven't eaten since yesterday." He says not realizing he's actually not eaten for two days since he lost a day while under his grandmother's control "...A-Also..c-can I stay at your place tonight? I-I don't feel safe being alone right now. I-If not I can ask Belle or Garry if it's too much of a hassle." - Garry also listened from outside clenching his fists tightly as he tries to control his anger. He was supposed to be Gall's best friend, the one who would keep him safe, yet he couldn't even keep him safe from a senior citizen. He tried to distract himself before searching through the room as he tosses books off the shelf over his shoulder in Belle's general direction "Any of these any good?"

SilverSongToday at 12:16 AM

“I have no idea. My best option is to take everything and study it at home where I’ve got my own protective wards set up.” She says, placing her purse on a nearby table and opening it. Looking inside, you could see absolutely nothing......not even a bottom to the relatively small handbag.

Queen MotherToday at 12:17 AM

"Of course you can stay the night with me!" Miss Macey huffed. "Please, after this? You aren't leaving my sight unless it's to go pee. Got that?"

TreeToday at 12:21 AM

"Yes ma'am." He says with a large grin as he hugs her tightly "Just uhh...can you keep your doctor stuff in a closet or something? I think I just finally figured out why I'm scared of needles." He says turning around to point at various tools and needles on a nearby table unaware that on his back carved in with a knife was the very demonic symbol that had was on the floor, slightly ruined by the two demonic wings folded up on his backGarry glances over her shoulder into the bag as he gets a curious look on his face "How deep does this bag go?" He asks before fishing a quarter out of his pocket and dropping it in

SilverSongToday at 12:23 AM

“Not sure. Think of it as a Bag of Holding. As long as I can carry it, it’ll hold it.” She says, looking over the titles,”It’s heavy, so it’s hard to steal. Go ahead, try picking it up.”

Queen MotherToday at 12:24 AM

"Do you want to keep those wings?" Miss Macey asked, hoisting Gall into her arms and heading for the cellar door to get out. "I can have a surgeon get them off if you don't want them."

TreeToday at 12:25 AM

He gives her a confused look before glancing back over his shoulder and flexing his wings "Wait when did I-? Right right demonic stuff and uhh I think I'll keep them. Like I said, I'm not walking anywhere after this so if they work then I'm flying."Garry nods and goes to try and pick up the bag one handed as he grunts and struggles to even lift it as he uses both hands and can barely lift it even a quarter of an inch off the table(edited)

SilverSongToday at 12:28 AM

She makes an amused sound,”Try seeing some scrawny purse snatcher take that.” She joked before grabbing an armful of books,”I might take some journals, if there are any. That way I can see what Granny Quack was up to.”

TreeToday at 12:29 AM

"Sounds like a good idea." He says with a nod before peeking out into the hall and seeing Gall and Macey heading towards the door "Here let's load up, looks like the lovebirds are trying to ditch us"

Queen MotherToday at 12:30 AM

"I will smoke your liver through my crackpipe hairball." Miss Macey growled. "Watch yourself..."

SilverSongToday at 12:31 AM

Belle snorts,”It’s been grand meeting you....though, I would’ve preferred better circumstances.”

TreeToday at 12:34 AM

Gall gets a look of realization as he looks between the two of them "OH right I uhh forget to introduce you guys. Bit late but I might as well do it now. Guys this is Myle Macey, my girlfriend. Myle this is Belle and Garry Charles. My Brother and sister...who are very understanding and won't tell either of my mothers what happened here today?" He says as he notices Garry crossing his arms and giving him a stern frown

SilverSongToday at 12:34 AM

“I make no promises.”

TreeToday at 12:36 AM

"Me neither." He says with a frown as Gall sweats nervously and chuckles nervously "H-heh heh well uhh I'm tired hungry and I'd really like to lie down how about we head home before we have to answer any questions!" He says quickly

Queen MotherToday at 12:36 AM

"How about they go to their homes and I take you home with me." Miss Macey suggested sternly, though her tone implied that it was more of a command.

SilverSongToday at 12:37 AM

“Fair enough. I’m packing up these books and bringing them to my place.”She finishes putting the books into her bag and closes it. She picks it up and goes to grab the staff.

TreeToday at 12:39 AM

"I think I'm gonna head home too, I need a nap. Gall call me later when you get home safe."

Queen MotherToday at 12:39 AM

"Well, Gall's friends, it was a pleasure meeting you." the white cat said as she cuddled Gall closer. "Unfortunately I hope I never have to see your faces again. Especially you, Hairball."

TreeToday at 12:41 AM

"Likewise Hairball, remember what I said." He says cracking his knuckles threateningly as Gall sighs "So much for introducing the love of my life to my friends." He mutters softly under his breath

SilverSongToday at 12:43 AM

Belle walks over,”Don’t be so optimistic.” She joked,”Hopefully, I’ll have answers. Either to your questions or mine.” She glanced down and saw that Macey still had Hecate’s magic bag,”Huh, you didn’t need it.....Might wanna hold onto that for later.”

Queen MotherToday at 12:51 AM

"Oh, definitely." she sneered. "God-tier items? No way I'm losing it."

SilverSongToday at 12:52 AM

Belle’s ears twitch and she looks into the room where Millicent is, she sees the Ares Shield disappearing,”I guess Ares needed his shield back.”

TreeToday at 12:55 AM

"Not like I had much use for a shield." Garry says with a shrug "I would probably end up using it as a plate and that would probably just piss him off" "You know you wouldn't have to do that if you washed some dishes." Gall says with a frown "Like how you haven't picked up your laundry in weeks now?" He says as Gall frantically tries to shush him

SilverSongToday at 12:57 AM

Belle just rolled her eyes, moving her bangs from her blind eye to scratch under it for a second,”Let’s go, before my adrenaline fueled brain remembers it’s afraid of dead bodies and copious amounts of blood.”

The End.

[Gall is now available for questions again]

[lovelynoirestella]

Loving A Broken Twin (Rp)

TW: Blood, Stalking, Depictions of Violence, Death.

You barely even knew her, but you knew every inch of her and now she’s gone…

You were with her the night before she died. If only you had stayed a little longer…

Maybe then she wouldn’t have been brutally murdered by her twin sister stalker…

The remote hit the ground as you stared horrified at the TV screen in front of you. There you see her smiling face, and above her photo spelt out in thick, black jarring letters is the text:

“Young Woman Brutally Murdered, Killer Still At Large.”

Your breath hitches as the atmosphere around you chills. This paralyzing feeling seeps into your bones causing every muscle to tense up and the hair on your skin to stand. Your eyes are glued to the TV and the Anchor woman tells the story.

“22 year old Iris Conner was stabbed and killed by a man who has been identified as Howard Garris.”

You see his face show up on the screen as the woman continues speaking. His image burns into your mind as you stand there with dread flowing through your veins.

“Garris was last seen fleeing the scene of the crime at the Roman Hotel, if anyone know of his whereabouts contact the authorities immediately.”

A wave of nausea hits you, snapping you out of shock. You cover your mouth with your hand as you run to the bathroom barely making it in time. You slump onto the bathroom floor as your mind races, Roman Hotel… She died at the Roman Hotel…. No, this can’t be fucking happening. I need to call her.

You gather yourself up and rush to the chair in your dining room searching frantically through your jacket pockets for her number. She wrote it down and stuffed it in your pocket the night you met her at the club. You eventually find it and dial the number. You hear it ring three times before you hear a familiar voice answer.

”Hello…?”

The voice sounded weak as if had been in pain. A gasp left your lips as some sort of confused relief coursed through your body. Before you could say anything, a pained cry rang from the phone piercing your ears. You jolt as the voice began begging for you to stop.

“Please! Please just stop calling this phone... stop calling my phone! Please let my sister.... let me be in peace! Haven’t you hurt me enough already! You took away my safety and then you took away the only person I cared about!! Leave me alone you fucking stalker!!!”

Horror sets in as you hear the voice pleading. You realize that it isn’t her but someone close to her and out of desperation you end up saying something to keep whoever is on the line from hanging up.

“No you’ve got it all wrong, I’m not the one who hurt her. I would never hurt her! I loved her! I loved Iris!!!”

Instantly you wish you had just bit your tongue or had just hung up, but the terrified voice went quiet.

“You don’t sound like him….”

The voice spoke up weakly, clearly weeping as she spoke.

“Her funeral is at 11 am tomorrow morning… it’ll be held at Gardeniva Funeral home. If you truly loved her. Don’t be late…”

She hung up leaving you alone with your own thoughts. Without really thinking you went straight to your closet pulling out a something for you to wear tomorrow.

[rhetoricandlogic]

LIMESTONE, LYE, AND THE BUZZING OF FLIES

KATE HEARTFIELD

ISSUE: 16 FEBRUARY 2015

4185 WORDS

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

The summer we were twelve, nobody asked my best friend Tom and me to wear bike helmets, because it was 1989. If they asked where we were going, we just said, “Bike ride.”

They would just nod and go back to whatever it was they were doing. My dad would go back to the bar; my mom would go back to staring at the TV. Tom’s mom would go back to screaming at Tom's older brother.

So we would ride fast in the sunshine. River Road had a few honest-to-goodness hills, a wonder in rural Manitoba. We used to kick our legs out wide and put our hands in the air and let our bikes rattle down, around the curves, knowing there might be cars coming but there never were.

We always went to the same place: our little kingdom. A green slope between the highway and the river, with a limestone fort squatting on it.

When we got to Lower Fort Garry, we’d park our bikes and walk in through the back gate. Nobody ever made us pay. Nobody swore or wailed at us. It was the one place we knew where we got to choose whether to talk to people. You walked up and talked to the pretend fur-trader or the pretend shopkeeper, or you didn’t. We would sit on the grass and listen to the crickets, or watch the lazy Red River until our eyes hurt from the sun glittering on it.

I think that’s why we heard what others did not hear, saw what others did not see. Something whispers in every silence and there is writing on every wall. One of my sisters said that to me, once, when we were chained together in a dungeon barely larger than a grave.

No—that is the wrong memory. That didn’t happen. Not to me.

I was a girl in 1989, in Manitoba, and my friend Tom and I would go to our fort. At times when there was hardly anyone else around, we would walk inside the square fort itself. We would sit on the barrels in the fur-storage room, stick our tongues out at the pelts that still had snarling faces attached, and try to make things out of trap wire. The pimply girls in their heavy nineteenth century dresses would give us ice cream sandwiches out of the staff freezer and one of them taught me how to smoke a Player’s cigarette.

The only one who never broke character was the blacksmith. If a visitor said something about TV or telephones he would pretend not to know what we were talking about. It was always 1850 for him. I never knew his name. The smithy was just outside the fort walls and I hated going in there because a fire was the last thing I wanted on a July afternoon. But Tom liked to go there to get nails for his collection. So I would lean against the shoeing apparatus just outside the door, and listen to the smith bang and hiss and twist.

“Now you be careful of this one, young sir,” the blacksmith said to him once when they were on their way out into the sunshine. I flipped my sunglasses up onto the top of my head so I could see them in the darkness. The smith had his thumb cocked at me.

Tom blushed and I rolled my eyes.

The blacksmith talked about the fire a lot: how hot it should be, what kind of wood, that sort of thing.

“This is no ordinary fire,” the blacksmith said, the last time we visited. “It began from a spark struck off the anvil of the first Scottish smith to work on this spot, in 1815, and has never gone out since.”

“Really,” I said, humouring him.

He nodded. “It’s a need-fire. It protects this place. So long as there is a smith to tend it.”

“Protects it from what?” Tom asked.

“The smith’s wife. She came here first, tried to claim this place and all the souls in it, but he followed her from across the ocean. As long as he has this fire and red iron in it, she’ll never have dominion here.”

“But she’s long dead,” I said. “She might even be dead in 1850. Do you mean her ghost or something?”

He shook his head. “As long as there’s a smith there’s a smith’s wife.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, what if the smith isn’t married?”

“It’s just a story, Daphne,” Tom said.

We had all the history plaques memorized and when it got too hot we would go into the museum and watch the twenty-minute heritage movie just so we could sit in the air conditioning. The fort was built in the 1830s by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which controlled the fur trade in those days and was pretty much the government of Canada back then too.

There was a lot of history they didn’t tell us: like the fact that Governor Simpson had eleven children by seven women and insisted on having a personal bagpiper with him when he circumnavigated the globe in a birchbark canoe. Or that Louis Riel’s secretary Honore Jaxon, a wannabe Metis who was born a white Methodist, was locked up in Lower Fort Garry’s isolation chambers in the 1880s after the Red River Rebellion, when the place became an asylum.  

They showed us maps and dramatizations and pretended like all these sad, weird white people were so brave for snowshoeing or paddling out into a wilderness where they weren’t wanted. Like they weren’t all running with dogs at their heels.

The summer we were fourteen, Tom and I got jobs. We didn’t go to the fort anymore.

I worked at the hot dog diner near the locks. I sold slices of soggy cherry pie that we were supposed to say was homemade if anyone asked, and ice cream out of big plastic tubs, and bait worms. I came home at night with my uniform smelling of hot dogs and pine cleaner. My fingernails were brown from cleaning the grill and my wrists were sticky because the fishermen liked to put nickels in the bottoms of their Coke glasses and watch me fish them out.

The spring when we were sixteen, Tom and I didn’t hang out much anymore but his locker was close to mine.

“How do you like waitressing, Daphne?” he asked one day when the hall was empty because we were both late for class.

I shrugged. “How do you like the gas station?”

“I hear they’re hiring for the summer at Lower Fort Garry.”

“For what job?”

“You know, dressing up and talking to the tourists. Acting or whatever.”

I had never thought of that as an ordinary job, as a job that I could do. But Tom was right. They hired us and even paid a few cents over minimum wage. We could hardly believe our luck.

Tom got hired as the assistant to the very blacksmith who used to make him nails. I filled in wherever they needed a girl. The first week, I baked bannock and bread in the oven at the back of the governor’s mansion. I hated the heat and the flies there, the buzzing always in my ears, and the sun glaring off the limestone. If I listened for a few minutes, the buzzing seemed to fall into a pattern.

Joanne, a woman in her forties, played Anne Maxwell Colvile, the governor’s wife, mistress of the Big House. Joanne was always tired because her kids were brats. One day I was listening to the flies and kind of humming along to myself, and Joanne had to ask me three times if I’d seen her parasol.

Then one of the girls who worked in a settler house got mono and I asked if I could move there. The settler houses and teepee were outside the fort, just down the white-stone path from the smithy. It was quieter and cooler there. I could pour beef-fat candles into tin moulds, in the shade of the farmhouse doorway, while visitors watched. I memorized how the line of the shade would move from the doorstep to the carrot patch over the course of my shift: my own personal sundial. I could almost hear a ticking in it. I’d watch the line and say to myself: One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, four?

I made a little game of it. One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, four. Rattle the windows and knock on the door.

My clothes smelled of lard and lye and I learned the ways to make things.

My first day in the settler house, Tom wandered onto the path when there were no visitors around, and I wandered over to say hi. My skirt swished as I walked and I could see myself as he must see me: an image, a sunlit woman against a green and blue background. He smelled like fire.

We said things like “hello” and “how are you finding it here?” We talked differently to each other, in costume. Me in my leaf-green dress, with my hair all done up under a cap, and he in a loose white shirt and trousers that tied at his waist and a blue cloth tied around his dark hair. We were dressed up like a man and a woman and we talked that way, like we were in a play, even though I tried not to.

The blacksmith watched us from the doorway, with a poker in his hand.

The next day, he went away somewhere and they made Tom head blacksmith. Tom had been watching for years. He knew what to do.

The pretend-wife in the other farmhouse was an eighteen-year-old named Amberly. Her fake name was Mrs. Grant. She was nice but she couldn’t get the hang of things. I offered to show her about candles on a slow, grey afternoon.

“You have to pour it smoothly, like this,” I said, showing her. As I filled each tin tube, I said a little rhyme to keep my work in rhythm:

Mulleins and murrain Candles and kine Gone is the leman Who once was mine

“What’s that?” Amberly asked.

“I don’t know. I must have read it somewhere.”

My hand started to shake but I managed not to spill the tallow. I kept saying the rhyme to myself, to keep myself grounded, even though it scared me. I hadn’t read it anywhere. I didn’t know what half those words even meant. But I knew that each word came with a mark on the flagstones where my shadow-dial ebbed and flowed. That crack was mulleins and that weed was murrain. The shadow taught me the words.

Amberly asked me to teach her the words and I did.

After that, Amberly came to me for advice on just about everything. She pinned her cap with two hidden safety pins just like mine. She broke up with her boyfriend when I told her to.

Soon I had rhymes for many things. The butter churning had a fast rhyme that I learned from sunlight on limestone. The bread kneading had a slow one that I learned from the buzzing of flies. When I planted the late carrots, I knelt down looking at the river beyond, the quick ripples of the waves.

I taught the other girls. Nobody had ever listened to me before. But somehow I seemed to remember, like the memory of a dream, that girls had once listened to me, had once taken my advice, had begged for my secrets. Those were not real memories; those were not these girls.

Once they had learned the words to any of my rhymes, once they had repeated the words to me, they would listen to whatever I said. They would follow my advice. Even Joanne, the pretend governor’s wife. I told her to loosen up about her daughter’s curfew and she did.

I liked the patterns in my mind; I told myself I just liked to make up things while I sat and thought. There was plenty of time for sitting and thinking, there, after all.

Tom got an assistant blacksmith, older than both of us. Gareth was a quiet man with a big beard. He looked the part. He looked like he ought to be carrying an axe or a tree trunk all the time just in case it was ever needed.

One quiet morning when it was still cool, just before we opened, Tom and Gareth came by the little willow stand where we demonstrated things for the kids. It was close by the smithy. I was getting things ready, putting out the sticks for fire-starting. The willow trees were bending as if they were doing a little dance for me, teaching me.

“What’s the coffee can for?” Gareth asked.

“Making charcloth. When you light a fire with a stick and a board, you need something to take the spark. So you burn the cloth, see?”

I held out a bundle of squares of off-white linen.

“But you don’t want the cloth to actually catch fire. So you put it in the coffee can, and nestle the can in just the right spot, and leave it there for hours. You have to make sure that there isn’t much air in the can, too, so you can’t be checking it all the time. Kind of like making rice.”

I used my bright steel Zippo to get a fire started, flipping the Zippo’s top on and off a few times, idly, just like I had seen the smokers at school do. Then I put the square of ivory-coloured linen in the coffee can, setting it just in the right place, with a little singsong:

Here is the hill and here is the dell Here is heaven and here is hell.

“Here,” I said, holding out another coffee can. “You do one, Gareth. But you have to say the rhyme.”

He laughed a little, nervously.

“You don’t really have to say the rhyme,” Tom said. I liked the way his shoulders looked in that olden-days shirt but even thinking that made him seem like a stranger. I didn’t know what had happened to the skinny kid who used to park his police-auction bike out at the gate next to mine.

“You do so have to say it,” I argued. “Come on, Gareth. It won’t work otherwise.”

Gareth laughed again, because he was shy.

Mrs. Boggs the missionary, whose real name was Stacy, came by with my Coke from the machine.

“Is there anything else you’d like?” she asked.

I shook my head. Tom watched her. He put his hand to his forehead to keep the glare out of his eyes. We weren’t allowed to wear sunglasses and he didn’t get a straw hat because he was supposed to be in the smithy most of the time. He looked at Stacy in her lace yoke. He looked at me.

It just made sense that if I was doing the work to get the fire-kits ready that someone who didn’t have any set-up to do would bring me a Coke. It’s not like I was asking her to do all my homework for me or throw herself into the river or something. It wasn’t like that at all.

Amberly and I did a bannock tea for Canada Day in July. We set up the tables in one of the store rooms and put out china tea cups and little dishes of jam.

“Did you go on that date with the shopkeeper?” I asked. Sometimes we called each other by our pretend-jobs instead of our names, because we were so used to being in character.

She shook her head. “I got back together with Keith.”

“No,” I said. I put a butter dish down on the table. “I hate that guy. He’s no good for you. Dump him. Call him tonight and dump him.”

She shook her head, not looking up from the table. She kept putting little silver knives down, clink, clink, clink.

“Amberly,” I said. “Say you’ll do it.”

She shook her head. Clink, clink, clink.

I whispered, looking up at her, waiting for her to join in.

A hooded crow on a frosty night Sold me a child with an eyeball bright Husha, husha, sang I to him Dance while you can ere your eyes grow dim

She kept her pink-stained lips together. She pulled something out of her apron pocket and rolled it around in her fingers. A black iron nail.

Soon everybody had one. Joanne kept hers on a loop around her waist, which looked ridiculous. Gareth had one on a chain under his shirt. All I could see was the chain and the shape of the nail but I knew what it was. Stupid heavy things to carry around.

I walked into the smithy on a July day, passing right under the horseshoe because I wasn’t superstitious.

“Why are you turning everyone against me?”

He was alone, as if he was waiting for me. He had a bar of iron in the fire.

“Nobody is against you. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You could have fooled me.”

“They aren’t yours, Daphne.”

“So whose are they? Yours? This was always my place. I found it first.”

I had. I remembered. We were rivals before we were lovers. Smiths have always thought it their business to hunt my sisters and me. He had wielded his accursed craft in that Scottish hamlet long before I turned up there, singed and hoarse from the flames, the screams of my dead sisters in my ears. I only wanted a quiet life, a safe place. I feared the iron but I loved him, and he said he would not harm me. He said God would forgive me.

When our baby was born blue, I said a little rhyme over him. Just one little song, a bluebell song for my bluebell boy. My husband snatched him away and put me in iron, weeping over me as if he were driven to it. I had cheated death before. I freed myself and I sought a quiet place.

Tom shook his head as if he was trying to get the memories out. “Would you like me to make you something?”

He pulled the bar out of the fire; it was red at the end. I took a step back, into the sunshine.

He dropped the bar on the ground with a clang and he grabbed my wrist with his gloved hand.

“You will not shackle me!” I yelled. I remembered the cage of black iron, how it had burned and bitten. I hung from that gibbet for far too long, exposed to all foulness, before I found the words to burst those broad black bands gilded with weather. It was a wonder I had survived, after a fashion.

I ran from him before the blacksmith could cage me again.

On the August long weekend, the staff held a bonfire.

I got there late but they had still not set it alight. There was still enough light to see by. Tom was telling people where to put the wood, where to set up the coolers and mosquito coils.

Everyone obeyed him.

“Hi, Amberly,” I said.

She looked away as though I had said something awful. He had turned them all against me.

My fortress by the river still whispered to me but it no longer needed to lend me words. I could not make them repeat the old rhymes after me, not with his iron binding them. But I could get into their heads.

I sang the first tune that came to my lips: "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order. Amberly giggled. The iron nails grew heavy; they twisted and bent; some of them went red.

Joanne was a woman of experience. She knew when to let go. She untied her nail from the bit of rope at her waist and threw the horrid thing into the wood pile.

The others threw theirs, then. They were free. I freed them.

Tom pleaded with them but I did not hear what he said. He moved his lips like an actor in a silent movie. One by one they came to stand at my side and stare at Tom, and sing. We all knew the words. In our dresses and trousers we sang, as if the song were an old song. I made it an old song. I pulled my Zippo out of my pocket and flicked it a few times. I walked toward the pile of wood.

Then Gareth approached, a silhouette against the last light of the sky. He was carrying a long poker before him, and on the far end of the poker was a flat piece of iron, like a paddle. And on that iron rested an ugly pile of coals. Coals from the need-fire.

I stopped singing. We all stopped.

I remembered the screams of my sisters, their hair curling crisp while their legs cooked, their coughing and weeping.

If they could not cage me they would burn me.

Open ground under a Manitoban sky at twilight has its own kind of silence, a silence loud like the hum of an airplane. I ran headlong in that silence, under that grey sky, feeling as though if I stopped running the world would keep moving anyway.

But I did stop, when I reached the back gate. No one came after me. No one made me pay. I disentangled my bike from the others. I had to hike my skirt up to my hips, because Daphne—I—did not ride a girls’ bike. I had no time to change. I had to get away, to safety. I had to get away from the fire.

I rode fast. When I came to the hills I did not lift my feet. I pushed until my pedals spun and whacked my bare shins.

This time, there was a car at the bottom.

Tom visited me in the hospital, in jeans and a T-shirt. It was one of those wild dark days that come to the prairies in August and the rain lashed wordlessly against the wide hospital window.

It seemed like nothing more than a campfire story. But Tom and I couldn’t look at each other. The silence between us was uncomfortable, filled with the gentle beeps of machines, the nattering of nurses in the hallway. A sterile silence with no memory in it. Nothing to listen to, except the unspoken words in our minds.

“Gareth is taking over,” he said. “I’m going back to the gas station.”

I nodded. “Will they get another girl to play Mrs. McTavish?”

He shrugged. It didn’t matter. I—she—would find someone: Amberly, Joanne, hell, maybe governor Colvile himself—Matthew—or Ben the shopkeeper. Maybe she didn’t even need to be a woman. Or maybe she’d find a way to get far from the need-fire, far from the smith.

I doubted it, somehow. I’d left her behind. When I got free she didn’t come with me. I wondered how the smith had found a way at last to cage her, to keep her there, with him.

My head ached. Tom frowned. He seemed to be thinking of the right words to say, and I was just hoping he wouldn’t say it. I was listening hard to the rain.

That’s how I remember us, when I remember us, now. I moved to Montreal and Tom moved to Vancouver. Opposite directions. As if to show each other we had no intention of ever seeing each other again.