#lina benson

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Different side teams of the Silver League!

This is it folks! No more members will be added to the silver league! Now I’ll be working full time on the story!! Don’t worry. Cody, Marcy, and fymryn are still in the story but they are not members of the league, they are recurring characters

See ya soon!

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Red Character Bracket

Minor Bracket

Hello, and welcome to the Red Character Bracket: Minor Bracket. This is how it’s gonna work- 64 contestants. Double elimination. Only one will make it out victorious. Now, for our contestants:

Apple White (Ever After High)

Hua Cheng (Heaven Official’s Blessing)

707/Saeyoung Choi (Mystic Messenger)

Matsuno Osomatsu (Osomatsu-san)

Riddle Rosehearts (Twisted Wonderland)

Opera (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun)

Ikuyo Kita (Bocchi the Rock!)

Cromdo Face (Bugsnax)

Courtney (Dead End: Paranormal Park)

Char Aznable (Mobile Suit Gundam)

Alucard (Hellsing)

Anna Akagi (Kiratto Pri☆Chan)

Taiga Kagami (Kuroko's Basketball)

Tokiwa Anzai (Mewkledreamy)

Fuuta Kajiyama (MILGRAM)

Strawberry Shortcake (Strawberry Shortcake)

Ringo Akai/Mew Ringo (Tokyo Mew Mew)

Reimu Hakurei (Touhou Project)

Jibanyan (Yo-Kai Watch)

Shotaro Kaneda (Akira)

Jake Long (American Dragon: Jake Long)

Akito Takagi (BAKUMAN。)

Ruby (Battle for Dream Island)

Red Blood Cell/AE3803 (Cells at Work!)

Blast (Club Penguin)

Rosemaster (Cucumber Quest)

Honey Kisaragi/Cutie Honey (Cutie Honey)

Lilith (Darkstalkers)

Lina (DotA)

Red (Everhood)

Jack of Blades (Fable)

Wilt (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)

Nobuo Akagi/AkibaRed (Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger)

Ib (Ib)

Padparadscha (Land of the Lustrous)

Sally Yumeno (Sally the Witch)

ProtoMan.EXE/Blues.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network)

Dianite (Mianite)

Flain (Mixels)

The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python's Flying Circus)

Orko (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe)

Camille Severin (Muted)

Tom Servo (Mystery Science Theater 3000)

Pop Harukaze (Ojamajo Doremi)

Scarlett (Papa Louie)

Pucca (Pucca)

Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2)

Benson Dunwoody (Regular Show)

Mira Hanayashiki (Sekko Boys)

Corporal Giroro (Sgt. Frog)

Kate (Shadows House)

Crow (SHOW BY ROCK!!)

Stereo Monovici (Space Goofs)

King Kazma (Summer Wars)

Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)

James the Red Engine (Thomas & Friends)

Captain Red Rackham (The Adventures of Tintin)

Clover Ewing (Totally Spies!)

Gold Ship (Uma Musume: Pretty Derby)

Rika Kawai (Wonder Egg Priority)

Pyra (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Yona (Yona of the Dawn)

Yugiri (Zombie Land Saga)

Polls will be posted every day at 12am EST, starting on April 2, 2023. The Major Bracket will be revealed at a later date. Good luck to all of our contestants ❤️

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Corruption Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Corruption Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Baxendale, Trevor: Eater of Wasps Bellatín, Mario: Salón de Belleza (Beauty Salon) Benson, E.F.: Caterpillars Brennan, Joseph Payne: The House on Stillcroft Street Butler, Octavia E.: Bloodchild

Camus, Albert: The Plague Catling, Patrick Skene: The Chocolate Touch Christie, Agatha: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side Cresswell, Helen: The Bongleweed

Dick, Philip K.: The Hanging Stranger Disch, Thomas M.: The Roaches

Enríquez, Mariana: Pájaros en la noche (Birds in the night)

Gilbert, Stephen: Ratman's Notebooks Grant, Michael: Plague

Herbert, James: The Rats Hagen, Ingeborg Refling: The Bridegroom Hawthorne, Nathaniel: Rappaccini's Daughter Hodgson, William Hope: The Voice in the Night

Kaaberbol, Lene: The Cruel Empress Keyes, Daniel: The Touch Kingfisher, T.: What Moves the Dead Knight, Harry Adam: The Fungus Krall, Dan: Sick Simon

La Sala, Ryan: The Honeys Lovecraft, H. P.: The Rats in the Walls

Mann,  Thomas: Death in Venice Mariotte, Jeff: Black Train Meruane, Lina: Fruta podrida (Rotten fruit) Messenger, Stephanie: Melanie's Marvelous Measles Meyer, Stephenie: The Host Milson, Matthew: Plague City Moreno-Garcia, Silvia: Mexican Gothic Morris, Tiffany: Green Fuse Burning

Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita Nutting, Alissa: Ant Colony (From the book Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls)

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolayevich: The Storm

Poe, Edgar Allan: Fall of the House of Usher Poe, Edgar Allan: The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar Poe, Edgar Allan: The Masque of the Red Death Pratchett, Terry: The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents

Quiroga, Horacio: El almohadón de plumas (The feather pillow)

Raymond, E.S.: Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo Rumfitt, Alison: Brainwyrms

Scarrow, Alex: Plague Land series Smith, Guy N.: The Festering Stine, R.L.: Go Eat Worms! Stine, R.L.: The Bugman Lives!

Tran, Trang Thanh: She is a Haunting

Umansky, Kaye: Pongwiffy Series

van Dahl, Fiona: Eden Green Vian, Boris: L'écume des jours (Froth on the Daydream)

Zelazny, Roger: To Die in Italbar Zamyatin, Yevgeny Ivanovich: We

Baxendale, Trevor: Eater of Wasps

Synopsis: "The TARDIS lands in the sleepy English village of Marpling, as calm and peaceful as any other village in the 1930s. Or so it would seem at first glance. But the village is about to get a rude awakening.

The Doctor and his friends discover they aren't the only time-travellers in the area: a crack commando team is also prowling the Wiltshire countryside, charged with the task of recovering an appallingly dangerous artefact from the far future — and they have orders to destroy the entire area, should anything go wrong.

And then there are the wasps... mutant killers bringing terror and death in equal measure. What is their purpose? How can they be stopped? And who will be their next victim?

In the race to stop the horror that has been unleashed, the Doctor must outwit both the temporal hit squad, who want him out of the way, and the local police — who want him for murder. "

Why it's Corruption: There's a dude filled with mutant killer wasps, and there's also a whole bunch of family drama and toxic love.

Bellatín, Mario: Salón de Belleza (Beauty Salon)

A strange plague appears in a large city. Rejected by family and friends, some of the sick have nowhere to finish out their days until a hair stylist decides to offer refuge. He ends up converting his beauty shop, which he’s filled with tanks of exotic fish, into a sort of medieval hospice. As his “guests” continue to arrive and to die, his isolation becomes more and more complete in this dream-hazy parable by one of Mexico’s cutting-edge literary stars.

Bellatín shows the horrors of the AIDS crisis and how the disease strips you of your humanity and body.

Benson, E.F.: Caterpillars

In the beautiful Villa Cascana on the Italian Riviera, all is not as it seems. Why does the hostess leave a perfectly charming bedroom unoccupied? Why does Arthur Inglis present our nameless narrator with a caterpillar in a cardboard pill-box one lunchtime? And rather more bizarrely, why do luminous, bloated and gigantic versions of this creature haunt his dreams? Or could it possibly be that he is wide awake?

At the end of the story, the narrator is visiting the Stanleys in England. It turns out that Inglis is riddled with cancer. No operation is possible to save him. Mrs. Stanley can’t help but thinking he caught it at the villa even though she took precautions to clean that vacant room and have no one stay there. It seems that someone had died of cancer in that room a year before. The notion of cancer as something infectious may, given the state of medicine at the time, been prevalent (and some cancers are caused by infectious agents).

I don't think that I need to explain why caterpillars either supernaturally spreading a lethal disease or being a metaphor for said disease is peak Corruption.

Brennan, Joseph Payne: The House on Stillcroft Street

A carnivorous plant takes over reclusive collector Millward Frander's house -- and Millward himself.

Butler, Octavia E.: Bloodchild

In the world this short story takes place in, human hosts (almost always male) act as incubators for eggs of the female aliens, who look something like human-size centipedes. If the host is lucky, the mother gets to him in time to extract the newly hatched larvae before they eat their way out. This relationship is presented as approaching symbiotic; the aliens (mostly) cherish the human families from whom they select their hosts, but the hosts don't get a lot of choice in the matter.

In various interviews and her afterword to "Bloodchild," Butler explains the motivations behind the story's creation. She wrote "Bloodchild" to explore her fear of parasitic insects invading her body, specifically the botfly. She also aimed to depict a human male's experience of pregnancy, including the physical risks and the development of maternal feelings towards his alien offspring.

***

A short Science fiction horror story about the unusual bond between a race of large, centipede-like aliens called the Tlic and a colony of humans who have escaped Earth and settled on the Tlic planet. When the Tlic realize that humans make excellent hosts for Tlic eggs, they establish the Preserve to protect the humans, and in return require that every family choose a child for implantation.

Camus, Albert: The Plague

A haunting tale of human resilience and hope in the face of unrelieved horror, Albert Camus' iconic novel about an epidemic ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature.

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Rieux, resist the terror.

***

The story is set in the Algerian city of Oran, which is quarantined after an outbreak of bubonic plague. The novel's protagonist works tirelessly to combat the disease and care for the sick, all while grappling with the existential questions that arise in the face of suffering and death. The novel presents a snapshot into life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view.

Catling, Patrick Skene: The Chocolate Touch

The book is a children's adaption of the myth of King Midas. As punishment for overindulging in sweets against doctor's orders, John Midas becomes cursed by a mysterious shopkeeper and finds that everything his lips touch turns to chocolate. Becuase of this, he can no longer hydrate himself with water or eat nutritious food, and his mother turns to chocolate after he kisses her. This aligns with the fear of sickness, both from the spread of the titular 'Chocolate Touch' and, because of the moral lesson the book imparts, sickness from unhealthy eating.

Christie, Agatha: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

One minute, silly Heather Badcock had been gabbing on to her movie idol, the glamorous Marina Gregg. The next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. It turned out to be a deadly poison. But for whom was it really intended?

Marina’s frozen expression suggested she had witnessed something horrific. While others searched for material evidence, Jane Marple conducted a very different investigation – into human nature. Serious Spoilers for why this works as Corruption Leithner: Years before the plot Heather the victim got sick and was told to quarantine. She did not do that. She went to see her favourite star Marina Gregg instead, infecting the idol with disease costing her her child and ruining her life in many ways. Marina killed Heather. With this book showing the corruptive effect of... well Corruption.

Cresswell, Helen: The Bongleweed

Warning: Bongleweed on the loose! The Bongleweed plant is weird and wonderful, and it grows faster than anything! Becky tricks stuck-up Jason into sprinkling some seeds in Pew Gardens -- but fun soon turns to fear as a bushy Bonglweed jungle springs up, with no signs of stopping. Before long, the Gardens and the local graveyard are completely covered - and now the Bongleweed is heading for the rest of the village! It's up to Becky and Jason to stop the wickedly wild weed before it's too late...

Dick, Philip K.: The Hanging Stranger

The protagonist, a store owner Ed Loyce, is disturbed when he sees a stranger hanging from a lamppost, but finds that other people consider the apparent lynching unremarkable. He finds evidence that alien insects have taken over, manages to get out of town, talks to the police commissioner, who believes him, and after getting all the information about what Ed knows, explains that the body was hung to see whether anyone reacted to it, anyone they didn't have control over. He then takes Ed outside and hangs him from a lamppost.

Disch, Thomas M.: The Roaches

Marcia Kenwell has an obsessive fear of cockroaches. She routinely scours her apartment with roach-kill, disinfectant, and cleaner. Ever since she moved to the city she has been unable to rid herself of the pesky bugs. She was warned about them by her aunt and her mother had a phobia to all bugs, but Marcia first encounters them at one of her first jobs and it has been a never-ending battle since then. She desperately seeks a new place to live especially after the neighbors move in next door. The two men and one woman (unclear who is related and who is a lover) are loud, foreign, and dirty as Marcia sees it. Their presence brings in more roaches and this deeply angers Marcia. One day, she encounters some roaches in her apartment and without thinking, she verbally commands them to leave. In an instant, all the roaches leave the apartment. She slowly finds she has the ability to command the roaches. In a frenzy of anger, she directs them all into her neighbor's apartment. She hears yelling and screaming and then tells them to disperse. When the landlady comes the neighbor's room, she sees the mess and demands they leave. Back in her room, Marcia opens a cupboard and all the roaches flood out onto her. Instead of repulse, she feels utter love and invites all of New York's cockroaches to visit her.

Enríquez, Mariana: Pájaros en la noche (Birds in the night)

A girl has a medical condition that makes her skin begin to rot. She becomes a walking corpse in her teen years, loses her limbs, eyes and body to the rot.

Gilbert, Stephen: Ratman's Notebooks

"When his nagging mother discovers a rat infestation, the anonymous writer of these notebooks sets out to drown the pests, but finds himself unable to go through with it. Instead, he befriends the rats, learning to train and communicate with them. Before long he has the idea of using the rats for revenge against a world in which he has been a failure. His target is his hateful boss, Mr. Jones, who treats him with supreme disrespect and plans to fire him and replace him with someone less expensive. The narrator records his plans in chilling detail as his campaign for vengeance progresses from vandalism to robbery to the most horrific of murders..."

Grant, Michael: Plague

It's been eight months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.

They've survived hunger. They've survived lies. But the stakes keep rising, and the dystopian horror keeps building. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach.

But enemies in the FAYZ don't just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate. Sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they'll escape - or even survive - life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love?

Herbert, James: The Rats

The Rats In the Walls

Hagen, Ingeborg Refling: The Bridegroom

A tragic romance novel set in Norway at the onset of the Black Death. The protagonist, Elise, is in love with a fiddler, Erik Ekset, and plans to meet him at the midsummer festivities. When he does not arrive, she waits for him until the news of the plague comes -- and the plague comes with it, killing her family. Distraught, Elise sets out to find her beloved and journeys through a nightmare of plague-stricken countryside, and she dies trying to find his grave.

Strong themes associating disease with music, love, and community throughout -- the plague first strikes at a wedding with a dead fiddler arriving in a cart pulled by a pale horse, and the bride -- now bereaved -- appears again near the end, inconsolable.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel: Rappaccini's Daughter

Giovanni Guasconti, a young student renting a room in Padua, has a view from his quarters of a beautiful garden. Here, he looks at Beatrice, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini, a botanist who works in isolation. Beatrice is confined to the lush and locked gardens, which are filled with exotic poisonous plants grown by her father. Having fallen in love, Giovanni enters the garden and secretly meets with Beatrice a number of times, while ignoring his mentor, Professor Pietro Baglioni. Professor Baglioni is a rival of Dr. Rappaccini and he warns Giovanni that Rappaccini is devious and that he and his work (which involves using poison as medicine) should be avoided.

Giovanni notices Beatrice's strangely intimate relationship with the plants as well as the withering of fresh regular flowers and the death of an insect when exposed to her skin or breath. On one occasion, Beatrice embraces a plant in a way that she seems part of the plant itself; then she talks to the plant, "Give me thy breath, my sister, for I am faint with common air."

Giovanni eventually realizes that Beatrice, having been raised in the presence of poison, has developed an immunity to it and has become poisonous herself. A gentle touch of her hand leaves a purple print on his wrist. Beatrice urges Giovanni to look past her poisonous exterior and see her pure and innocent essence, creating great feelings of doubt and confusion in Giovanni.

In the end, Giovanni becomes poisonous himself: insects die when they come into contact with his breath. Giovanni is troubled by this, which he sees as a curse, and he blames Beatrice. Professor Baglioni gives him an antidote to cure Beatrice and free her from her father's cruel experiment. However, when Beatrice drinks the antidote, she becomes sick and dies. Before realizing that Beatrice is dying, Dr. Rappaccini excitedly welcomes the love between his two creatures, his daughter and her suitor, Giovanni, who has been transformed so that he can now be a true and worthy companion to Beatrice. While Beatrice is dying, Professor Baglioni looks down from a window into the garden and triumphantly shouts "Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is THIS the upshot of your experiment!"

Hodgson, William Hope: The Voice in the Night

The main character and his fiancée, aboard the ship Albatross, were abandoned by the ship's crew, who took the remaining lifeboats. After building a raft, they escaped from the sinking vessel and found an apparently abandoned ship in a nearby lagoon, covered with a fungus-like growth. They attempted to remove this growth from the living quarters but were unable to do so; it continued to spread, and so they returned to their raft. The nearby island was also covered with this growth, except for a narrow beach. Eventually, the man and his fiancee found the fungus growing on their skin and felt an uncontrollable urge to eat it. They discovered that other humans on the island have been entirely absorbed by the strange fungal growth.

As the man in the rowboat rows away from the sailors to whom he is telling his tale, just as the sky is lightening, the narrator can dimly see a grotesquely misshapen figure in the rowboat, scarcely recognisable as human.

Kafka, Franz: The Metamorphosis

1) "One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin."

2) Gregor's family is horribly toxic to him. none of them work, relying entirely on gregor to provide for them. Gregor's job is hard and exhausting, he wants to quit but feels unable to since his family depends on him so much. when he becomes an insect, his family treats him horribly and worries more about the money than Gregor's wellbeing

3) After Gregor's transformation his sister, mother, and father all get a job, proving that they were capable of providing for themselves all along. after Gregor's death they go out. "Leant back comfortably on their seats, they discussed their prospects and found that on closer examination they were not at all bad—until then they had never asked each other about their work but all three had jobs which were very good and held particularly good promise for the future." Gregor's sense of duty and the family's unwillingness to work were keeping them all miserable and codependent.

Kaaberbol, Lene: The Cruel Empress

"When Hay Lin receives an ancient lantern from one of her grandmother's friends, strange things begin to happen. She wanders into a store and finds a magical mirror, and then hears a mysterious call for help. The other Guardians of the Veil are worried. Together, they try to find out who is trying to contact Hay Lin. To solve the mystery, the Guardians travel through a portal to a city where they face a cruel empress...and an unfulfilled promise. "

In this boos W.i.t.c.h girls fight the titular Cruel Empress who uses control over insects to rule over people with an iron fist. So they fight a Corruption avatar essentially.

Keyes, Daniel: The Touch

The book follows Barney and Karen stark who are trying for a baby. an incident at barney's workplace contaminates him with radioactive dust and barney spreads it to his home and his wife. Fortunately, the incident is noticed quickly, and starks and their house are put through a decontamination process. Unfortunately, their neighbours are so terrified of radioactivity that they cut all relations with the Starks and bully them. isolation exposes the worst side of Barney who begins to get violent, and Karen copes by escapism, focusing entirely on her newly conceived baby. The Touch is corruption-aligned because the relationship between Karen and Barney is strained but they keep trying for a baby, the hostile community of the neighborhood is reminiscent of the episode 164 'the sick village', and the entire novel is kickstarted by Barney's contamination with radioactive dust.

Kingfisher, T.: What Moves the Dead

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

***

Based on The Fall Of The House Of Usher, this adaptation delves deeper into the characters and the minutiae of their fear than the original, with much more gore and in-depth time spent at the titular house. As the plot synopsis says, "a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife"

Knight, Harry Adam: The Fungus

London mycologist Jane Wilson's efforts to cultivate a new species of agaricus bisporus fungus, using an experimental enzyme, CT-UT-8471, have success in the laboratory. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts at containment, she accidentally carries several thousand microscopic cells of a. bisporus infused with CT-UT-8471. The enzyme spreads throughout England, causing all manner of local fungi to begin growing like crazy, soon overtaking the whole country, including infesting the bodies of human beings. None of this was on purpose, but once the fungus has taken over Britain, Jane goes full mad scientist and declares that it is Gaia's Vengeance, so she goes from unintentionally causing catastrophe to being glad that she did. It's eventually revealed that she isn't as immune to the fungus as she thought; after she's killed it turns out her insides are riddled with the stuff.

Krall, Dan: Sick Simon

The book follows Simon through a week of school, as his illness spreads to everyone around him. The illustrations are just. So gross.

La Sala, Ryan: The Honeys

Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance. But when Caroline dies under horrific circumstances, Mars is propelled to learn all he can about his once-inseparable sister who'd grown tragically distant.

Mars's genderfluidity means he's often excluded from the traditions -- and expectations -- of his politically-connected family. This includes attendance at the prestigious Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy where his sister poured so much of her time. But with his grief still fresh, he insists on attending in her place.

What Mars finds is a bucolic fairytale not meant for him. Folksy charm and sun-drenched festivities camouflage old-fashioned gender roles and a toxic preparatory rigor. Mars seeks out his sister's old friends: a group of girls dubbed the Honeys, named for the beehives they maintain behind their cabin. They are beautiful and terrifying -- and Mars is certain they're connected to Caroline's death.

But the longer he stays at Aspen, the more the sweet mountain breezes give way to hints of decay. Mars’s memories begin to falter, bleached beneath the relentless summer sun. Something is hunting him in broad daylight, toying with his mind. If Mars can't find it soon, it will eat him alive.

Lovecraft, H. P.: The Rats in the Walls

link: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/rw.aspx

After his son dies from injuries sustained during the Great War a man named Delapore leaves New England, with his nine cats, to purchase and restore the hereditary lands of his ancestors, the De la Poer family, in England. Helped by a friend of his son's, who just happens to be the nephew of the man currently in possession of the land, he discovers generations of mistrust and suspicion aided by local traditions of horrible, nasty deeds attributed to the land and his ancestors specifically. Then the cats start acting weird, the narrator starts having troubling dreams and the newly renovated ancestral home may be overrun by an army of nocturnal rats. And things just go downhill from there...

Mann,  Thomas: Death in Venice

CW for stalking and themes of child sexual abuse. The main character doesn't get around to acting on his feelings, and the whole thing is very symbolic, but still.

Death in Venice is the story of a German writer, Gustav von Aschenbach, who develops an unhealthy obsession with a Polish boy, Tadzio. The writer follows Tadzio's family to Venice, stalking the boy and having a series of encounters that remind him of death, decay, and aging. In the city, a cholera epidemic rages, and Aschenbach begins to draw connections between the plague and his corrupt obsessions. He eventually tries to ward off his own aging with hair dye and makeup before succumbing to the plague.

Death in Venice explores themes that resonate with the Corruption in a neat package--disease, decay, and obsessive passion all intermingle in a short but memorable novella. For what it's worth, Wikipedia claims that author Thomas Man wrote in a letter that he wanted to explore "passion as confusion and degradation."

Mariotte, Jeff: Black Train

Two cowboys find a stopped train completely overrun by a black mold that infests people and animals, turning them into zombies. They rescue a man named Franklin from the train, who turns out to be the Mad Scientist who created the mold (as a bioweapon), and has devices that can kill it. Unfortunately, Franklin turns out to be more interested in getting revenge on his family than stopping the plague, and the cowboys have to take matters into their own hands before it can spread further.

Meruane, Lina: Fruta podrida (Rotten fruit)

Zoila del Campo and her sister María, known as “The Elder”, live in a small town in industrial Chile called Ojo Seco (“Dry Eye”). Here their lives revolve around Zoila’s degenerative disease and María’s job at a fruit export company.

In this setting we see the pressure Zoila is put under when she chooses to resist medical care, and the elaborate means her sister takes to gain money and power in the workplace and, as she does so, the tensions she creates that give the story its shades of the surreal.

Messenger, Stephanie: Melanie's Marvelous Measles

A highly controversial children's book with the moral of the story being that vaccines are bad and measles aren't that bad and will make you stronger in the long run.

Meyer, Stephenie: The Host

Silvery centipedes that burrow into your brain and take over your body? A constant emphasis put on how "kind" and "altruistic" these alien centipedes are and how utopian their society is compared to us violent and selfish humans? Unhealthy romance that never gets acknowledged as such by the narrative? Reads like Corruption to me.

Milson, Matthew: Plague City

Plague City is set in a world beset by a lethal plague, with the city presented as one of the last holdouts of humanity. We’re unsure if the city is alone in this, as there is no communication with the rest of the world, and no one could leave through the city wall even if they wanted to — the belief among the populace is that it’s all that keeps the plague out.

Mayor Coal knows better, however. He knows that the plague is already within the city, with them. He hates it. He detests it on a personal level, and strikes out against it with a vicious ferocity bordering on the monomaniacal, committing atrocities in the process.

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia: Mexican Gothic

In 1950s Mexico City, beautiful young socialite Noemí Taboada receives a letter from her cousin Catalina, begging for help. She firmly believes that her English husband, Virgil Doyle, intends to poison her. Suspecting that Virgil may be after Catalina's money, Noemí's father, Leocadio, sends her to the Doyle home, High Place, which is located in the mountains outside of a small town named El Triunfo. Once there, Noemí is struck by the strange and unwelcoming atmosphere of the Doyles' house and the controlling and patronising attitude of its inhabitants. Catalina is proclaimed to be suffering from consumption and Noemí is mostly kept away from her cousin. Noemí spends her time learning about the Doyle family, which also includes Florence Doyle and the frail family patriarch, Howard. The family has a history of incestuous marriages and deep intergenerational traumas, such as one of Howard's daughters, Ruth, killing several family members before shooting herself.

Twist: When she begins to sleepwalk and experience strange dreams and visions, Noemí decides that she must leave the Doyle household, only to be told that she cannot leave. They reveal that Howard discovered a strain of mushroom that has a symbiotic relationship with humans. The Doyles use this fungus and remain at High Place, the house infused with the spores of the mushrooms, which has grown inside its walls and all around it, in order to heal themselves and prolong their lives. As the fungus's potency is lessened depending on the individual's genetics, the Doyles have intermarried in order to ensure that their offspring can also receive these benefits. Because it is interlaced with mycelium and infested with the mushroom's spores, the house can hold memories, which the family refers to as the "gloom". The spores can also help the Doyles control people who have inhaled them, which frightens Noemí. She grows more horrified, however, when she learns that Howard's wife Agnes was used as a sacrifice to grow the spores - and that Howard can use the gloom to take over the bodies of family members, which he's used to further preserve his own life.

***

Socialite Noemi Taboada enjoys her lavish life in the 1950s Mexico City. She lives in a swirl of taffeta, parties, and unadulterated glamor. However, after receiving a disturbing letter from her newly-wed cousin, Catalina, Noemi finds herself in the remote estate of Catalina's husband, Virgil, and his family. High Place has been in the Doyle family for decades, if not centuries, and seems to pulse with a life-force of its own. The longer Noemi stays, the more bizarre and disturbing things she sees, or at least thinks she sees. With the help of Virgil's younger cousin, Francis, Noemi unearths the dark secrets of the place her beloved cousin now calls home. And all the secrets come with a sickly sweet stench and golden glow.

Morris, Tiffany: Green Fuse Burning

After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him-about his childhood, their family, and the Mi'kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita's girlfriend Molly forges an artist's residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up. On the first night at the cabin, Rita wakes to strange sounds. Was that a body being dragged through the woods? When she questions the locals about the cabin's history, they are suspicious and unhelpful. Ignoring her unease, Rita gives in to dark visions that emanate from the forest's lake and the surrounding swamp. She feels its pull, channelling that energy into art like she's never painted before. But the uncanny visions become more insistent, more intrusive, and Rita discovers that in the swamp's decay the end of one life is sometimes the beginning of another.

Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita

In the foreword, John Ray Jr., an editor of psychology books, states that he is presenting a memoir written by a man using the pseudonym "Humbert Humbert", who had recently died of heart disease while in jail awaiting trial for an unspecified crime. In his childhood, Hubert fell in love with his friend Annabel Leigh.This youthful and physically unfulfilled love is interrupted by Annabel's premature death from typhus, which causes Humbert to become sexually obsessed with a specific type of girl, aged 9 to 14, whom he refers to as "nymphets".

Hubert eventually lodges with widow Charlotte Haze, who takes him to a garden where her 12-year-old daughter Dolores is sunbathing. Humbert sees in Dolores, whom he calls Lolita, the perfect nymphet and the embodiment of his old love Annabel, and quickly decides to move in.

The impassioned Humbert constantly searches for discreet forms of fulfilling his sexual urges, usually via the smallest physical contact with Dolores. When she is sent to summer camp, Humbert receives a letter from Charlotte, who confesses her love for him and gives him an ultimatum—he is to either marry her or move out immediately. Initially terrified, Humbert then begins to see the charm in the situation of being Dolores' stepfather, and so marries Charlotte for instrumental reasons. After the wedding, Humbert experiments with drugging Charlotte with sleeping pills with the intention of later sedating both her and Dolores so that he can sexually assault Dolores. Charlotte later discovers his diary, in which she learns of his desire for her daughter and the disgust he feels towards Charlotte. Shocked and humiliated, Charlotte decides to flee and writes letters addressed to her friends warning them of Humbert. Disbelieving his false assurance that the diary is only a sketch for a future novel, Charlotte runs out of the house to send the letters but is hit and killed by a swerving car.

Humbert destroys the letters and retrieves Dolores from camp, claiming that her mother has fallen seriously ill and has been hospitalized. He takes her to a hotel and plans to make sexual advances on her that night, only being stopped by the sedative he gave her being weaker than expected. In the morning, Dolores reveals to Humbert that she engaged in sexual activity with an older boy while at camp that summer. Humbert then advances on Dolores, having sex with her. After leaving the hotel, Humbert reveals to Dolores that her mother is dead. In the coming days, the two travel across the country, driving all day and staying in motels, where Dolores often cries at night. Humbert desperately tries to maintain Dolores' interest in travel and himself, increasingly bribing her in exchange for sexual favors. They finally settle in Beardsley, a small New England town. Humbert adopts the role of Dolores' father and enrolls her in a local private school for girls.

Humbert jealously and strictly controls all of Dolores' social gatherings and forbids her from dating and attending parties. It is only at the instigation of the school headmaster, who regards Humbert as a strict and conservative European parent, that he agrees to Dolores' participation in the school play. Dolores eventually convinces Hubert to take her on another road trip, but as they travel, he becomes increasingly suspicious. Humbert increasingly displays signs of paranoia and mania, perhaps caused his growing certainty that he and Dolores are being trailed by someone who wants to separate the two. In Colorado, Dolores has to go to the hospital, where she is checked out by someone claiming to be her uncle; after failing to find Dolores, Humbert barely sustains himself in a moderately functional relationship with a young alcoholic named Rita.

Deeply depressed, Humbert unexpectedly receives a letter from a 17-year-old Dolores, telling him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of money. Humbert, armed with a pistol, tracks down her address against her wishes. At Dolores' request, he pretends to be her estranged father and does not mention the details of their past relation to her husband, Richard. Dolores reveals to Humbert that her abductor was the famous playwright Clare Quilty, who had crossed paths with Humbert and Dolores several times. She explains that Quilty tracked the pair with her assistance, and took her from the hospital because she was in love with him. However, he later kicked her out when she refused to star in one of his pornographic films. Humbert claims to the reader that at this moment, he realized that he was in love with Dolores all along. Humbert implores her to leave with him, but she refuses. Accepting her decision, Humbert gives her the money she is owed from her inheritance. Humbert then goes to the drug-addled Quilty's mansion and shoots him several times.

Shortly afterward, Humbert is arrested, and in his closing thoughts, he reaffirms his love for Dolores and asks for his memoir to be withheld from public release until after her death. The deaths of Humbert (shortly after his imprisonment) and Dolores (in childbirth on Christmas Day 1952) have been already related in the foreword.

Nutting, Alissa: Ant Colony (From the book Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls)

"When space on earth became very limited, it was declared all people had to host another organism on or inside of their bodies. Many people chose something noninvasive, such as barnacles or wig-voles. Some women had breast operations that allowed them to accommodate small aquatic life within implants. But because I was already perfectly-breasted (and, admittedly, vain) I sought out a doctor who, for several thousands of dollars, drilled holes into my bones to make room for an ant colony."

It is with that paragraph that begins Ant Colony, a short story published as part of the book Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, the debut short story collection of author Alissa Nutting. Beside the obvious Corruption theme of its very premise, the rest of the story also touches on another, often overlooked element of this Entity: Twisted, unhealthy love.

The plot twist of the story is that the ants hadn't begun eating the nameless narrator alive from within because the queen ant hated her, as the other doctors she talks to had theorized, but because the doctor who she had paid to implant the ants into her bones, who had already been established as having a creepy crush on her, had been purposely manipulating things in order to get the ants to assimilate her consciousness and eat her whole from the very beginning, all so that he could get the ant colony to inhabit him next because, as he puts it: "When you all crawl inside of me, we will all be one forever."

Ostrovsky, Alexander Nikolayevich: The Storm

This play was meant to critique Russian merchant class and how they abuse worker and hinder social progress using religion as a reactionary force. The heroine, Katerina, is being abused by her husband's mother. She is new in town and doesn't fit in. When her affair with a merchant's nephew is revealed she is driven to suicide by the townspeople.

Poe, Edgar Allan: Fall of the House of Usher

From Goodreads: "The Fall .. " recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan before it is -- quite literally -- rent asunder. Or what if a family was so isolated, so inbred, and so obviously dying that it manifested not only in the last daughter’s chronic illness but the disrepair, moldiness, and rot of the structure itself? What if her death didn’t end the story, but only hastened the family’s end?

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar

An unnamed narrator performs a remarkable experiment when he hypnotizes a man In articulo mortis—at the point of death.

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Masque of the Red Death

The Red Death was a disease spread throughout the land, and eventually taking on a physical form to spread the disease to those nobles who isolated themselves. It came in the form of a party goer dressed as a victim of the disease, manifesting in the way that would cause the most terror as they realised it could not be escaped or killed.

It fits the theme of disease and other parts of the Corruption manifesting as something human-ish, as well as it gradually consuming even those of try to escape it.

Pratchett, Terry: The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents

Rat! King! Rat! King! Rat! King!

Quiroga, Horacio: El almohadón de plumas (The feather pillow)

The quiet, fragile happiness between Alicia and her aloof but still deeply in love husband Jordan is cut short when, just three months after their wedding, she mysteriously falls deathly ill. Jordan keeps bringing doctors to check on her, but to no avail: No doctor can answer why this young woman is suddenly and visibly dying with every night that passes.

Saying anything more would spoil the plot twist, so here's the Project Gutenberg link: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606301h.html

Not only are bloodsucking parasites well within the Corruption's domain, but it should also be noted that a common motif across those who fall victim to this particular entity is a desire for love or to connect with others, which the Entity takes advantage of. Alicia's wish for 'childish fancies', her resigned frustration with her husband's unaffectionate attitude and her seemingly complete lack of other human relationships besides said husband would make her fit right in with that pattern. And in a TMA context, the bug growing that impossibly big and yet no one being able to notice it until it was too late could easily be explained as being due to both the bug and the circumstances around its existence being supernatural in nature.

***

From the book Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte (Tales of love, madness and death) A newly-wed woman falls terribly ill. She can't leave her bed. Strange marks appear on her skin. The groom believes he has cursed her with his love. When she dies, it's revealed that a parasitic bug was living inside her pillow, feeding from her blood. The story shows love as a parasitic thing, something that drains and corrupts you, while also showing a very real parasite.

Raymond, E.S.: Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo

It begins with a zoo where all the animals are sick with what appears to be a respiratory illness and the zookeepers don't know why. The narrator then explains that the reason the animals are sick is because a sick girl named Felicity Floo went to the zoo, ignored the "Don't Pet the Animals" signs, and petted the animals with snot on her hands, which is what got them sick.

Rumfitt, Alison: Brainwyrms

One of the main characters has a fetish for parasites and learns that the reality of being infected is more horrific than they imagined. A new kind of parasite is sweeping the world, and certain people are consumed with it, intentionally trying to infect others\

Scarrow, Alex: Plague Land series

“Leon and his younger sister, Grace, have recently moved to London from New York and are struggling to settle into their new school when rumours of an unidentified virus in Africa begin to fill the news. Within a week the virus hits London. The siblings witness people turning to liquid before their eyes, and they run for their lives. A month after touching Earth's atmosphere, the virus has assimilated the world's biomass.”

Probably one of many pandemic based books that will feature in this tournament which contain similar themes like fear of infection etc, this series has a further twist that manifests aspects of The Corruption more than most:

It turns out that this virus is sentient, and as it is liquefying and assimilating Earth’s biomass, it is learning and evolving into more complex forms, eventually able to mimic life forms such as horses and eventually humans, to help infiltrate and spread into the last remaining pockets of survivors. This of course breeds constant fear and mistrust, leading to extreme acts (including immolation) of those even slightly suspected of infection. The virus, and subsequent liquefied biomass, is also a hive mind, evolving from crude simple consciousness, to being able to convert and replicate assimilated people’s consciousness, making infiltration and infection even more efficient. When it does choose to reveal itself and converse with survivors, it tries to entice them into joining it by describing the harmonious bliss of the hive mind. Truly a book series that touches on many aspects of this entity.

Smith, Guy N.: The Festering

A couple move to the English countryside to escape urban life. Their plumbing is dodgy, so they have well dug in their garden. Unfortunately, an ancient, diseased corpse was buried there, and the lads who dig the well end up contracting the disease.

This disease causes you to grow disgusting boils all over and to leak stinking pus and slime from every orifice. It also increases sexual and aggressive urges. Those who get sick end up going on violent rampages and end up as a rancid puddle of noisome muck.

Stine, R.L.: Go Eat Worms!

Obsessed with worms? That's putting it mildly. Todd is so fascinated with worms, he keeps a worm farm in his basement! Most of all, Todd loves torturing his sister and her best friend with worms. Dropping them into their hair. Down their backs. Until one day, after cutting a worm in half, Todd notices something strange. The rest of the worms seem to be staring at him! Suddenly worms start showing up in the worst places for Todd. In his bed. In his homework. Even in his spaghetti! What's a worm lover to do when his own worms are starting to gross him out?

Stine, R.L.: The Bugman Lives!

Here lies the Bugman. Woe to anyone who wakes him. Janet didn't mean to disturb the Bugman. It was an accident. She was just mowing the lawn when she ran over his tombstone. Now insects attack her everywhere she goes. Wasps, bees, ants. Even a huge, hairy tarantula. Janet is afraid the Bugman is back from the grave -- and out for revenge.

Spoilers: Her new best friend is actually a Bug-GIRL, and is determined to make Janet one as well. By the end, Janet accepts enthusiastically.

Tran, Trang Thanh: She is a Haunting

When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.

But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

Umansky, Kaye: Pongwiffy Series

Pongwiffy just loves dirt and being dirty. She is a Corruption Avatar and her books are Corruption Leitners.

van Dahl, Fiona: Eden Green

An alien needle symbiote spreads across a small group of humans, gradually taking over their bodies as it heals their wounds. Each infectee can eventually reach milestones at which their brain and even entire body is made up of needles, with horrible mutations possible along the way.

Vian, Boris: L'écume des jours (Froth on the Daydream)

the story of a wealthy young man named Colin and his love for Chloe, a girl dying of a water lily in her lung. the effects of which, besides a cough, are largely to make her beautifully pale and languid.

Zelazny, Roger: To Die in Italbar

When the immortal being 'H' meditates in a certain way, his immune system goes into a sort of Super Mode that can instantly cure anyone of any disease simply by being in his presence. However, when he goes long enough without meditation, he begins sort of radiating every disease he's ever been exposed to. When, due to a number of mistakes and understandings, he goes MUCH too long without meditation he is driven completely insane, eventually reaching the point where he can kill entire planets with a brief tour, and his powerful immune system can't keep him from being covered in open sores.

Zamyatin, Yevgeny Ivanovich: We

'We' leans heavily into a collective consciousness aspect of the corruption. It describes a society that seeks to eliminate any and all diferences in thinking so much so that people live in glass houses (literal glass houses - they can see their neighbours through the walls and the floor) and go through their day in accordance to the hour table which has a daily routine planned down to minutes. They wear identical clothes, they have numbers for names, they even chew in tact. The main character interacts with I-330, a woman so recalcitrant he cannot comprehend her, which fascinates him in a way. From this point on he falls out of synch with others, and describes this feeling of individuality as something horrible that is growing within him. He even goes to a literal doctor about it but gets told that he has a rare disease called 'a soul' and it's incurable

[airasora]

I was the anon with the suggestions and I'm glad and happy to have given some food for thought at least.

I personally was obsessed with Thomas for some reason because from what I remembered from your hollina aus you made him a stern yet anxious military boy, and so a character like Miguel seemed fun to me (because I could see him being like almost too relaxed, as in a "hippie" so to speak lol), but granted, idr much about it and I don't wanna force you into any of my suggestions. Plus looking back I think Thomas may be the younger brother and Miguel defintely doesn't feel or look like a teen still so it may be a tad creepy granted.

But I also like Pocahontas as a choice, especially cause she gives me queer vibes as well usually, like technically I view both as more gay, but they could be a bi4bi power couple as well lol

Actually, you're pretty close to why I "can't" ship Thomas with Miguel and it is indeed because of my Hollina AUs! Could I just ship them on their own? Sure, but that's not how my brain works lolol xD But it's because Thomas already has an entire character arc in my Hollina AUs and adding a lover, no matter their gender, would mess it up - so any lovers he may have would be AFTER "Hollina" has been established, so to speak.

To give just a quick idea; Thomas is the oldest brother of the three children where Lina is the middle child and Jenny is the youngest child. Thomas looks up to his military father to the point where he almost copies everything he does, including following him into the military etc.

This varies from Hollina AU to Hollina AU, but in the High School AU, Lina's father is very homophobic causing Thomas to learn some of that behavior. When Thomas discovers that his beloved little sister (whom he is extremely close with) is in love with another girl, it causes a complete paradigm shift in him that he struggles with for some time; he suddenly feels like he has to choose between his sister and his father.

And that's all I'm gonna say about his character arc for now. Adding a lover to his story would deviate from the paradigm shift in the way I want to write it. And if it were to be a man, then his paradigm shift would start overlapping with Lina's story and that's not the direction I want to go with either redhead Cx

I absolutely agree with you that Thomas and Miguel would be fun with those vibes! Perhaps I can sneak Miguel into a Hollina AU where homophobia isn't as much of a theme so that his character arc could be different from Lina's character arc. It'd be fun to experiment with Thomas having always been attracted to women, suddenly feeling attracted to a man, and then questioning everything: Is he bi? Is he gay? Is Miguel's casual view on sexuality just rubbing off on him? What's happening??? xD

And it'd kinda be fun to make Miguel one of Holli's friends or something, like you mentioned too, so that both Benson teenagers fall in love with a sexually free-spirited blonde pffft xD

[ulkaralakbarova]

When her mother falls for a wealthy man, Lina Cruz must move in with her new stepfather and transfer from an urban East Los Angeles public high school to an exclusive prep school in Malibu, where she struggles to fit in with her affluent new peers. After snooty cheerleading captain Avery blocks Lina from varsity, Lina recruits her best friends from her old school to help her whip the pathetic junior varsity cheerleading squad — the Sea Lions — into fighting shape. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Lina: Christina Milian Evan: Cody Longo Avery: Rachele Brooke Smith Sky: Holland Roden Isabel: Laura Cerón Henry: David Starzyk Christina: Nikki SooHoo Treyvonetta: Gabrielle Dennis Kayla: Meagan Holder Gloria: Vanessa Born East LA Girl #2: Janelle Martinez East LA Girl #1: Jessica Martinez Victor: Brandon Gonzales Cholo: Christopher Martinez Whitney: Brittany Sarkisian Hot Guy: Carlos Diaz Shoe-vite Girl: Julia Lehman Rich Girl: Megan Hubbell Eavesdropper #1 / Sea Lion: Alexander McCarthy Eavesdropper #2 / Sea Lion: Kyle McCarthy Announcer: Lisa Arturo Self: Джулиана Ранчич All Star Jaguars Dancer: Eric Butts All Star Jaguars Dancer: Greg Farkas All Star Jaguars Dancer / Dancer: Janelle Ginestra All Star Jaguars Dancer / Dancer: Lauren Gottlieb All Star Jaguars Dancer: Danielle E. Hawkins All Star Jaguars Dancer: Theresa June-Tao All Star Jaguars Dancer: Devin Jamieson All Star Jaguars Dancer: Jordan Johnson All Star Jaguars Dancer: Michael Lim All Star Jaguars Dancer: Bryan Marsh All Star Jaguars Dancer: Andrea McQueen All Star Jaguars Dancer: Brittany Anne Pirtle All Star Jaguars Dancer / Dancer: Liz Porter All Star Jaguars Dancer: Kristy Rios All Star Jaguars Dancer: Brian Schulze All Star Jaguars Dancer: Bailey Stump All Star Jaguars Dancer / Dancer: Devin Walker All Star Jaguars Dancer: Brad Weber All Star Jaguars Dancer: Tori Wirgler All Star Jaguars Dancer: John Witters All Star Jaguars Dancer: Elle Young All Star Jaguars Dancer: Chris Zuehlke East L.A. Squad Dancer: Daniel Altman East L.A. Squad Dancer: David Carmon East L.A. Squad Dancer: John Cronin East L.A. Squad Dancer: Neda Emamjomeh East L.A. Squad Dancer: David Ezell East L.A. Squad Dancer: Leon Henderson East L.A. Squad Dancer: Megan Honore East L.A. Squad Dancer: Dominique Kelley East L.A. Squad Dancer: Chanel Malvar East L.A. Squad Dancer: Carissa Martin East L.A. Squad Dancer: Candace Montez East L.A. Squad Dancer: Nicole Niestemski East L.A. Squad Dancer: Carina Olis East L.A. Squad Dancer: Sean Patrick Parnell East L.A. Squad Dancer: Daniel Pera East L.A. Squad Dancer: John Rames East L.A. Squad Dancer: Marquita Scott East L.A. Squad Dancer: Allysa Shorte East L.A. Squad Dancer: Monica Soto East L.A. Squad Dancer: Isaac Tualaulelei East L.A. Squad Dancer: Julianne Waters Sea Lion: Jeffrey Alarcon Sea Lion: Paulette Azizian Sea Lion: Shaylene Benson Sea Lion: Britton Bickel Sea Lion: Mike Burns Sea Lion: William Caldwell Sea Lion: Kassie Cook Sea Lion: Marty Dew Sea Lion: Aisha Jamila Francis Sea Lion: Rebekah Giles Sea Lion: Erin Yvonne Sea Lion: Jeremy Hudson Sea Lion / Dancer: Chris Moss Sea Lion / Dancer: Katrina Norman Sea Lion: Shannon Pape Sea Lion: Jonathan Rice Sea Lion / Dancer: Jenny Robinson Sea Lion: Gina Starbuck Sea Lion: Dollar Tan Sea Lion: Jordan Wentz Cholo Squad Dancer: Noel Bajandas Cholo Squad Dancer: Kenny Harlow Cholo Squad Dancer: Oren Michaeli Cholo Squad Dancer: Oscar Orosco Cholo Squad Dancer: Jonathan ‘Legacy’ Perez Cholo Squad Dancer: Michael Vargas Cholo Squad Dancer: Roman Vasquez Cholo Squad Dancer: Ivan ‘Flipz’ Velez Dancer: Ryan Adams Dancer: Brandon Henschel Film Crew: Editor: Richard Halsey Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter Editor: Michael Jablow Hairstylist: Sheryl Blum Writer: Alyson Fouse Executive Producer: Armyan Bernstein Executive Producer: Charlie Lyons Original Music Composer: Andrew Gross Director: Bille Woodruff Writer: Elena Song Producer: Sean McNamara Makeup Artist: Martha Callender Supervising Sound Editor: Charles Maynes Stunt Coordinator: Julius LeFlore Assistant Editor: ...

[x-queen-of-disaster-x]

My attempt at a candy-styled type video for Hollina. Inspired by @airasora. It’s not the greatest because I don’t have an advanced video like Vegas but I did try.  Credits: Masks by AiraSora, Blissbirdie, VarRoman, and Pastard.

[meikomoodboards]

Hollina: Entre Nous AU

@airasora

[sunnysynthsunshine]

Fictional couples, and relationships I was interested in as a teen:

Usagi and Mamoru (Sailor Moon)

Akane and Ranma (Ranma 1/2)

Kaoru/Tomoe and Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)

Haruhi and Tamaki (Ouran)

Italy and Germany (Hetalia)

Misaki and Usui (Kaichou wa Maid Sama!)

Mitsuki and Takuto (Full Moon Wo Sagashite)

Noriko and Shinoda (Cubism Love)

Yasmin and Eitan (Bratz)

Frankie Stein and Jackson Jekyl/Holt Hyde (I don’t why I said Heath Burns)

(Monster High)

Alvin and Britney (Alvin and the chipmunks)

Ace and Buttercup (Powerpuff Girls)

Asuna/Lisbeth and Kirito (Sword Art Online)

Finn and Flame Princess (Adventure Time)

Leonardo and Kurai (TMNT)

Spongebob and Sandy (Spongebob)

Tomoya and Nagisa (Clannad)

Hinata and Naruto (Naruto)

James and Jessie (Pokemon)

Homura and Madoka (Madoka Magica)

Rias and Issei (Highschool DxD)

Ayumu and Hellscythe (Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka!)

Seras and Pip Bernadotte (Hellsing)

Ennis and Firo (Baccano!)

Kyoko and Makoto (Dangan Ronpa)

Pinoco and Blackjack (Doctor Blackjack)

Kokonotsu and Hotaru (Dagashi Kashi)

Carly and Freddie (iCarly)

and Lina and Gourry (Slayers)

[melancholicmarionette]

I had an image in my head that wouldn’t go away here you go.

TW: profanity, blood, speeding

next

—

Danny Fenton, Tucker Foley, and Sam Manson were missing—and the Amity Park police department seemed to not want anyone to care.

Paulina heard it all through the grapevine—the grapevine being papa didn’t have an indoor voice even regarding important phone calls—getting a report issued had been like pulling teeth for all three families, and papa, a Sergeant on leave after his back surgery, wanted to know why.

“These kids go to my daughter’s school, goddammit! What’s going on over there?!”

Paulina didn’t know if he got any answers. She spent the last four days trying to stave off the overwhelming anxiety that came after those losers disappeared. She didn’t care about them much, personally, nice as Fenton was to her. But when three kids go missing at once, and it isn’t chalked up to running away, the air around you gets eerie as you wonder what’s next.

Paulina and Star didn’t do much for the search—they wouldn’t know where to start. What was it—the first 48? Those were long gone. It was in the back of Paulina’s mind as she drove toward Clarkson’s barn.

“Are we late?” Star asked, checking her phone anxiously. Star Benson was never late. Paulina was sure her own parents were hoping that trait would rub off on her.

(So far, it has not.)

“Just consider anyone already there as being early,” Paulina told her. She did press the gas a little harder, and the little white Yaris picked up some speed.

Clarkson’s barn was out in the sticks, just over the county line, “abandoned” for years but forever known as the perfect place to have a private party with proper refreshments. Dash invited them, though Paulina wasn’t sure if he was throwing the party or if he was latching onto someone else’s plan as an opportunity for free beer. There wasn’t really an occasion for a real rager—graduation wasn’t until June, and currently April still had a bit of a winter bite to it, a Midwestern special.

“So you never answered,” Star began. She locked her phone, and needed a distraction, “are you breaking up with Dash tonight?”

“I…” Paulina just exhaled. She never answered because she didn’t know. What she did know was that it was time to focus on her future—she knew the life she wanted, the posh one she was used to, and she didn’t know if there was room for whatever Dash Baxter had planned in it.

If he had anything planned. That was kind of the problem.

“Depends on if he embarrasses me tonight,” she finally answered. She saw Star purse her lips, unsatisfied but not surprised. “If he shotguns a PBR in front of me we’re—“

“Lina!” Star shouted, and at the same time Paulina caught sight of a shape on the unlit road, too tall and skinny to be a deer but damn if she didn’t break and swerve like it was one. Luckily the side of the road was just mud and grass, no sheer drop offs like there were about a mile back. When they came to a stop, she exhaled, her heart practically vibrating. She looked out the driver’s side window and saw the figure was still there—a person.

“What the fuck?” She tore off her seatbelt and got out, “are you fucking insane?! Who do you think you are?!”

“Lina, don’t do an…” Star began, stepping up behind her friend, but she trailed off after a second. “Holy shit.”

Paulina followed her gaze and fully took in the appearance of the stranger, who hadn’t run away from them.

Standing before her and Star was a bloodied and bruised Sam Manson, looking like she’d walked through hell to get there.

[augustvandyne]

Who I Write For

anything in bold i’m more motivated to write, but feel free to request anything

— Grey’s Anatomy

Meredith Grey

Izzie Stevens

Cristina Yang

Callie Torres

Miranda Bailey

Lexie Grey

Arizona Robbins

Jo Wilson

April Kepner

Maggie Pierce

Teddy Altman

— Station 19

Andy Herrera

Maya Bishop

Victoria Hughes

Carina Deluca

— Private Practice

Addison Montgomery

Charlotte King

Violet Turner

Amelia Shepherd

— Marvel

Pepper Potts

Natasha Romanoff

Maria Hill

Wanda Maximoff

Hope Van Dyne

Yelena Belova

Carol Danvers

Maggie Lang

Eleanor Bishop

Kate Bishop

Clint Barton

Scott Lang

Peter Parker (all 3)

— Criminal Minds

Jennifer Jareau

Penelope Garcia

Emily Prentiss

Tara Lewis

Alex Blake

Kate Callahan

Elle Greenaway

— Ginny & Georgia

Ginny Miller

Abby Littman

Maxine Baker

— TVDU

Elena Gilbert

Katherine Pierce

Caroline Forbes

Bonnie Bennett

Hayley Marshall

Davina Claire

Rebekah Mikaelson

Camille O’Connell

Freya Mikaelson

Hope Mikaelson

Josie Saltzman

Lizzie Saltzman

Penelope Park

— Riverdale

Betty Cooper

Veronica Lodge

Cheryl Blossom

Tony Topaz

— Euphoria

Rue Bennett

Cassie Howard

Lexi Howard

Maddy Perez

— Jane The Virgin

Petra Solano

Jane Villanueva

Lina Santillan

Luisa Alver

— How I Met Your Mother

Lily Aldrin

Robin Scherbatsky

Tracy McConnell

Barney Stinson

Ted Mosby

Marshall Eriksen

— Stranger Things

Eleven Hopper

Max Mayfield

Steve Harrington

Joyce Byers

Jim Hopper

— The Rookie

John Nolan

Lucy Chen

Tim Bradford

Angela Lopez

Wesley Evers

Nyla Harper

— Oceans 8

Debbie Ocean

Lou Miller

Daphne Kluger

Tammy Robinson

— A Quiet Place

Evelyn Abbott

Regan Abbott

Marcus Abbott

— Random

Lorraine Warren (The Conjuring Universe)

Ed Warren (The Conjuring Universe)

Gracie Hart (Miss. Congeniality)

Margaret Tate (The Proposal)

Lucy Moderatz (While You Were Sleeping)

Misty Day (AHS: Coven)

Cordelia Goode (AHS: Coven)

Madison Montgomery (AHS: Coven)

Zoe Benson (AHS: Coven)

Winter Anderson (AHS: Cult)

Sidney Prescott (Scream Universe)

Gale Weathers (Scream Universe)

Dewey Riley (Scream Universe)

Judy Hicks (Scream Universe)

Rob Geller (Never Been Kissed)

Karen Nelson (Halloween)

Jim Halpert (The Office)

Angela Martin (The Office)

Pam Beesley (The Office)

Larissa Weems (Wednesday)

Wednesday Addams (Wednesday)

Enid Sinclair (Wednesday)

[noblcsse]

Lina isn’t sure what time it is when she finally arrives at home. The only thing she’s certain of — aside from the fact that it’s been hours since the last rays of sun outside — is the ache permeating through every inch of her body. 

Stupid holiday.

Over the past 48 hours, as many complaints have crossed her mind as there have been roses to de-thorn. She doesn’t want to think of tying another fancy bow or struggling to remember cursive for those cheesy, personalized cards. Even worse, she doesn’t even want to think about her other work— the one that she actually holds some semblance of pride in. She only longs for the comfort of her bed sheets for what few hours she has before her next duties.

She comes to quick a halt when she eyes the gifts at her door. Her brow furrows. Did she miss some deliveries? 

Impossible; she had double-checked the lists twice. Her movement resumes, slower than before, until she’s close enough to make out the names on the various items. Although perplexity still comprises most of her expression, she can feel something tug at the corner of her lips. It’s likely the slight and sudden flutters in her abdomen.

Confusing holiday.

Roses and chocolates were left on your doorstep!

To: LINA

From: Chris.

Message: you receiving a flower was too ironic an opportunity to miss. hope you have a good day today!

Chocolates and a personalized card were left at your doorstep!

To: Lina

From: Andy

Message: happy valentines day!! 

To: Lina

From: Naomi

Message:

Whoever said Valentine’s day is only for lovers?  Happy Valentines Day!

Chocolates and a stuffed animal have been delivered to your doorstep!

To: Lina

From: Holly Benson

Message: Happy Valentine’s Day!! I hope you have a good day :D

[airasora]

Holli's family and friends (Hollina AUs)

Sophie Would

Holli's mother, sometimes deceased, other times not, sometimes a great mother, other times not at all. So let me first explain the reason for me changing her name. As some of you may remember back in 2017 I was in @mxdisney and that's where I first came up with Holli's background story, which wound up resonating so much with me that it became part of my Hollina AUs, which weren't even a thing back then yet.

First time we see Holli's mother, she's portrayed by Aurora and called Roxanne, and that's in my round #4 video for MxDisney. Even back then, I was considering using Madellaine, but I wound up choosing Aurora because I felt she had more fitting scenes for the story, but I changed that to Madellaine some time later. Then I made an AU where Holli's mother didn't commit suicide, and that's when Sophie was cast as Holli's mother.

Since then my Hollina AUs have become massive and complicated, so for the sake of making this easier and more consistent, I've decided to rename her (again) to Sophie. Everyone else in my Hollina AUs have their canon names, it just didn't make sense to have her be the only one with a different name.

Joseph Dimitri Korso

Holli's... I don't want to say father, but she does unfortunately has his disgusting genetics. (For those unaware, Sophie was sexually assaulted on her way home from work at a strip club called Tenderloins (the strip club from the Stripperella show and yes, those characters are in the Hollina stories too, but they're very minor so they won't be mentioned in this post) by this asshole right here.

In the absolute majority of Hollina AUs, Joseph is never heard or seen after this... in the majority 👀 Yes, I'm not telling in which AU he shows up in, that's for ME to know and for you guys to theorize xD

Jessica and Roger Radcliffe

Jessica is Holli's best friend, almost kind of her only friend, since she's the only one Holli would ever confide anything to. (Except for Sophie in the high school AU) Jessica is asexual and is dating/married to Roger Radcliffe. Their relationship is pretty much the same as Jessica's canon relationship to Roger Rabbit, except Roger Radcliffe is slightly less cartooney, and he always plays the piano when Jessica sings professionally sings. Their relationship is the happiest and healthiest in all the Hollina AUs.

Ariel Turner

Ariel is Jessica's mute little sister who ends up dating Jim Hawkins, one of Lina's best friends, in some Hollina AUs. Yes, Jessica's maiden name is Turner, this is after Jessica's voice actor Kathleen Turner, so Ariel and Jessica's parents are called Turner. They aren't in any of the AUs. So far at least... who knows what my brain may come up with in a year or two x'D

Michael Goldwyn and Daniel Studi

So... remember how I said that I changed Nancy's name to Sophie because she was the only character who didn't have her canon name? Well, that's a little bit bullshit... Michael (Tarzan) and Daniel (Little Creek) are actually both named after their VAs. Tony Goldwyn was Tarzan's OG voice in the movie and Michael Weiss in the show, I mixed the name cause I didn't think Tarzan looked like a "Tony", and Little Creek's voice actor is named Daniel Studi.

I've changed their names for hopefully the obvious reason that their OG names just stand out too much in the Hollina AUs. BUT they are both strippers at the Tenderloins, where they met, and their stage names are Tarzan and Little Creek, both performing in their own stereotypical male stripper set-up. Female strippers do this too, but male strippers almost ALWAYS act as a character. Fireman, cop, etc. so that's Michael and Daniel's connection to their canon names.

They're briefly mentioned in my Baby Blues fanfic, but they're one of the minor characters in the Hollina AUs, but the absolutely most important strippers at Tenderloins.

Click here to read about Lina's family and friends

[haitilegends]

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE À JEAN CHARDAVOINE.

GRAND GUITARISTE, COMPOSITEUR, INTERPRÈTE HAÏTIEN.

Wanted ! On recherche un grand guitariste : Jean Chardavoine

Publié le 2018-04-11 | Le NouvellistE

Culture -

Rassurez-vous, il n’a commis aucun délit, aucun crime de droit commun : c’est une plaisanterie de notre part. « it’s just a joke » !

S’il y a meurtre, c’est celui de la facilité et des sentiers battus. Car Jean Chardavoine ne fait pas dans le prévisible, la routine et la dentelle. C’est un musicien complet : grand guitariste, arrangeur et compositeur. Ce fils d’Haïtiens émigrés, élevé dans la diaspora, a fait de solides études musicales ; c’est une fierté pour Haïti que ce grand musicien. Le jazz et ses métissages sont le champ d’élection de cet artiste.

Jean Chardavoine, pour autant que nous nous en souvenions, a rendu hommage à ses racines haïtiennes dans une ou deux de ses albums précédents. Cette fois, l’arrangeur-compositeur explore des pistes plus célèbres et fréquentées, plus courues par la communauté américaine et internationale de jazz contemporain. Ce sont les voies accessibles et tout public du jazz-fusion « binaire » avec un goût prononcé pour la samba-jazz, expérience réussie et renommée dès les années 60 au XXe siècle, et le « funk » ou « funky » à tendance latine. Nous osons mentionner le funk et nous insistons, même sans la fameuse basse qui claque, qui « slappe ». On sent certainement son influence rythmique, particulièrement par la frappe du batteur, dans deux ou trois compositions. Samba et « Funk » se sont influencés réciproquement, si on se rappelle la carrière d’une Tania Maria Correa Reis aux États-Unis et de la grande Eliane Elias. Quelque chose en est resté.

Le compositeur aime également le moule de la contredanse haïtienne (méringue- contredanse dite « mayoyo ») que l’on sent confusément suggérée, mélangée aux tendances latine et funky ; sans toutefois occuper le premier plan de la perception rythmique et auditive.

Par contre, « Ode to Arco », 6/8 et huitième morceau figurant sur le CD est un beau et franc « Yanvalou » bien de chez nous (d’autres diraient mayi ou djouba, rythmes proches). La tradition rythmique américaine du jazz « ternaire » et «swing » à 4/4 est honorée dans le dernier thème « Cul-de-sac ».

Du point de vue mélodique, les compositions ou thèmes ne se laissent pas cerner facilement par leurs contours. Ceux-ci ne répondent pas toujours aux grilles traditionnelles de lecture du jazz, comme celles de la forme « blues » ou de la forme « song » consacrées. Les morceaux comprennent des introductions typées et soignées, véritables ouvertures qui les coiffent avant l’entrée du thème principal proprement dit. Les phrases du canevas proposé sont souvent longues, à vous perdre, à vous égarer, si vous n’y prenez garde. D’une manière générale, il y a une première section A, plus souvent complexe que simple, parfois comprenant des strates ou couches surprenantes. Il y a un pont ou « Bridge » B, très personnalisé, très en relief et structuré. Pour finir, il y a reprise totale ou partielle de A.

De belles improvisations de guitare, de piano, de saxophone, de trompette, de contrebasse et d’harmonica développent par leurs commentaires des idées puissantes contenues potentiellement dans les thèmes ou canevas et leurs harmonies.

Les harmonies aux tensions modérées ou fortes sont, en tout cas, modernes, très excitantes, très cohérentes et agréables. Elles sont source de couleurs, à côté de l’instrumentation.

L’instrumentation est déployée dans des formules, allant du sextette au combo à dix instruments. En général, le septette ou l’octette suffisent aux compositions du musicien, qui déploie sa science et son habileté d’arrangeur-compositeur talentueux.

CREDITS:

Guitare électrique et classique (Jean Chardavoine) ; batterie (Kim Plainfield et Phoenix Rivera) ; basse acoustique ou contrebasse (Michael O’Brian et Kenneth Jimenez) ; trompette (Chris Rogers et Pacha Karchevsky-Suyazov) ; sax ténor (Peter Brainin, Azat Bayazitov, Felipe Lamoglia) ; sax soprano (Peter Brainin, Felipe Lamoglia) ; piano (Steve Sandberg, Mike Orta, Misha tsiganov) ; harmonica (Hendrik Meurkens) ; pads (Yayoi Lina Ikawa) ; synthéthiseur (Frédérique Lasfargers) ; percussions (Emedin Rivera, Daniel Pena, Renato Thomas) ; congas (Eddie Germain) ; vocals-scat (Brandley Midouin, Karen Bernod) ; violon et viola (Caroline Buse) ; violocelle (Megan Martier).

PRESENTATION

Huit morceaux élaborés superbement figurent sur ce CD. Leur structure intime est complexe, difficile à résumer par des croquis d’analyse acoustique. Nous regrettons de ne pouvoir faire d’exégèse selon des partitions comme les musicologues (nous ne sommes pas musicologue d’ailleurs). Contentons-nous de les citer.

1-Théresa

Une samba-jazz irrésistible, dans la droite continuité des années 60, avec quelque chose de très tonique en plus. « Intro » en majeur, au sax, très remarquable. Thème en mineur dans la première partie. Pont très simple, peu bavard en majeur. Chorus : guitare et trompette.

2-« Deep Within »

Titre éponyme du disque. Le rythme ressemble à un mélange de « latin » (samba ?) et de « funky ». Un thème composé dans sa première partie par un motif de trois notes, ressemblant à une bribe d’arpège, progressant en zig-zag, en ligne brisée, par ascension et descente. A contient quatre strates, quatre phrases, légèrement différentes les unes des autres, à un ou deux détails d’intervalles : a, a’, a’’, a’’’ (lire a, a prime, a seconde, a tierce comme en géométrie). Un très beau pont B impressionnant. Reprise partielle de grand A (au moins deux phrases).

3-« Yum-Yum)

Nous semble de la même veine que le morceau précédent. C’est peut-être l’un des thèmes les plus complexes : AABAB. Exposition tendre au saxophone soprano. Chorus : sax soprano, contrebasse, guitare électrique.

4-« Forgotten dreams »

Funky. Funk-jazz à la George Benson, du temps de l’album « Breezing ». En majeur, avec la belle présence de l’harmonica, à l’exposition et en solo.

5- « Happy to be nappy » ou « Fier d’avoir les cheveux crépus »

La pièce de résistance du compositeur. Très composée et arrangée. Très soignée. « Intro » très méditative, pausée, de type « classique » et « ad lib », tendre, entre la guitare électrique, le violon, le viola, le violoncelle. Puis, vient la samba entraînante.

6-« Karamell »

Ambiance ressemblant à la précédente. Bons solos de guitare et du piano de Steve Sandberg.

7-« Astrida »

Tendrement introduite par une guitare électrique libre et récitante ; presque avec un lyrisme de ballade. Le rythme s’avère être ensuite celui, irrésistible, d’une espèce de samba-funky avec la figure typée, obsédante de la basse, invitant à la danse. On aime Karen Bernod et ses onomatopées aux « vocals » doublant la mélodie.

8-« Ode to Arco »

Un 6/8 et « Yanvalou » bien de chez nous. Avec les vents en relief, le solo du pianiste et celui de Felipe Lamoglia au sax ténor.

9-« Cul-de-sac »

Quand on retrouve et honore la tradition du jazz « ternaire » et « swinguant » en 4/4, à tempo modérément rapide. Pour faire plaisir aux conservateurs.

Réserves

On aurait voulu entendre une ou deux ballades vraies sur cet album, pour changer de climat.

Appréciations

Un grand album ou CD, aux thèmes imposants, parfois complexes. C’est bien arrangé, bien développé, mais toujours dansant. « Bailable ! », comme on dit en espagnol.

Wanted : On recherche un grand et dangereux guitariste : Jean Chardavoine. Étourdissant ! Époustouflant !

Roland Léonard

Auteur

#JEANCHARDAVOINE

#GUITARISTE

#HUGOVALCIN

[x-queen-of-disaster-x]

*Soulmates under the stars...*

Some edits I did of the lovely image shared by @airasora

Top is gifs of a zoom motion effect, bottom is stills of the very end.

[hermanwatts]

The Origin of the Avenger

One of the delights in reading the pulps is being able to trace various sources of inspiration, such as Manly Wade Wellman’s wild west plots or C. L. Moore’s use of the Gothic poisoned garden. Some of these inspirations are more direct and well-known. The Secret Six millionaires who funded the fight against Al Capone resurfaced in Amusement, Inc. The Shadow and Doc Savage both drew heavily on the adventures of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, most recently of The Lost City of Z fame.

I recently came across another direct pulp inspiration in another media. Inside the pages of Hitchcock, by Francis Truffaut, the famed suspense director Alfred Hitchcock is interviewed about many of the movies in his career. One in particular sounded familiar, 1938’s The Lady Vanishes, the film that brought Hollywood’s attention to Hitchcock. From Wikipedia:

“The film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady’s disappearance.”

Swap the train for a plane, the elderly lady for a wife and daughter, the menacing spy ring for the mob, and the young woman for a Doc Savage style adventurer, and you have the origin story for 1939’s The Avenger, as Richard Henry Benson’s adventures begin when his wife and daughter vanished mid-flight from the seats next to his. Everyone thinks Benson is insane, with a brain flu that tells him he has family not his own. The shock turning Benson’s skin and hair a steel gray is a unique touch though.

Hitchcock’s movie is drawn from the 1936 book by Ethel Lina White, The Wheel Spins, but he indicates that there might be an earlier source:

The whole thing started with an ancient yarn about an old lady who travels to Paris with her daughter in 1880. They go to a hotel and there the mother is taken ill. They call a doctor, and after looking her over, he has a private talk with the hotel manager. Then he tells the girl that her mother needs a certain kind of medicine, and they send her to the other end of Paris in a horse-drawn cab. Four hours later she gets back to the hotel and says, “How is my mother?” and the manager says, “What mother? We don’t know you. Who are you?” She says, “My mother’s in room so and so.” They take her up to the room, which is occupied by new lodgers; everything is different, including the furniture and the wallpaper.

It’s supposed to be a true story, and the key to the whole puzzle is that it took place during the great Paris exposition, in the year the Eiffel Tower was completed. Anyway, the women had come from India, and the doctor discovered that the mother had bubonic plague. So it occurred to him that if the news got around, it would drive the crowds who had come for the exposition away from Paris.

The criminality and spycraft is distinctly White’s addition to the story, and the close parallels to The Wheel Spins and The Lady Vanishes suggest that Lester Dent, Walter Gibson, or Paul Ernst was familiar with either the book or the movie. However, Gibson also drew heavily on French influences for The Shadow, so it would not be a surprise to find out that he drew on the Paris version of the story to help create The Avenger. The real answer might be hidden within the Street & Smith archives.

At the end of the day, this story became a springboard for Richard Henry Benson and a handful of those victimized by crime to fight back as Justice, Inc.

The Origin of the Avenger published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/