#torch the angler fish | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-headbop-wraith · 3 years

Text

3 _ 40 _ The Land Time Forgot

Part 2

Before the Mystery Skulls could begin officially on their new assignment, they swung by headquarters office and met with security. Temporary passes went to each member, even the Mystery hound. Once the park was shut down fully and the cleaning crews made the final rounds, the crew took one assigned golf cart over to the Land that Time Forgot attraction. Arthur was issued the keys, and he was the one grumbling about coming out to do this gig.

“Just pretend we’ve been called off holiday for an emergency exorcism,” Lewis, once again, tried to appeal for optimism.

Arthur held the staff access open for his crew. The corridor extending within dark and though the emergency lamps buzzed active, only afforded so much light for them to navigate by. They had backpacks with essential supplies loaded up, flashlight torches among the essential gear, but for the time the trope worked with the shoddy light and let their eyes acclimate.

“I’m goin’ through with this, right?” Arthur snapped. “You go, I follow. Let me have my bitchin’ gripes, okay.”

Mystery set a paw on his knee and yipped.

Through the corridor Vivi led the way, with Mystery behind her, and Arthur with Lewis trailing. “We have maps,” she stated, “but we’ll take a patrol and get our orientation.” She swung around and pointed to Arthur. “Make sure walkies are on.”

Arthur placed a hand on his chest. “I, turn my walkie-talkie off? Never.” He pinched his thumb and forefinger together, and whispered to Lewis, “I turn it down super-duper, itty-bitty low.”

“Maybe don’t confess that.”

The entirety of the ride was inactive and still, like browsing through the clothing section of a store alone, while the mannequins judged your every move. Though the animatronic dinosaurs were not immediately visible, their watchful gaze was felt by the members of the Mystery crew. No draft skittered through the interior building, and despite the abundance of foliage, there was an unnatural ambiance in the dearth of nocturnal presence. Everything about the attraction became otherworldly, detached from an established norm prevalent in the former active day – wherein lights and sound ran rampant. The isolated world of the ride was by perception boundless, yet sterile and contained like an ordinary jelly jar fitted with twigs and a bit of soil to appease a small insect or lizard.

After making the rounds of the ride, the group placed themselves at the loading dock. The carts sat on their tracks within the suspended dividers, where guests could stand to climb in or out of the carts. The dull gleam of an emergency light draped its light over the collected members. Mystery leapt into one buggy and put his paws on the front handlebars.

Yap!

Arthur pulled out a folded page and slapped it to the hood of the buggy. “Okay, fifteen animatronics. All chillin’, save for one.”

“Allo,” Lewis presumed. “Won’t stop, can’t stop. Any idea where our dino-terror might be off to?” Vivi shifted at his side, digging around in her backpack.

“There’s no tellin’ how much truth there is to Mr. Klayton’s story.” She clicked on a torch, but quickly shut it off. “But he’ll likely respond to light or sound, and movement.”

“Like a real T-Rex,” Arthur groused.

“Precisely,” she whispered. “We’ll trust it responds strongly to light, over sound. So be very quiet. Arthur.”

Arthur glared. “Why’re you picking on me?”

Lewis poked his shoulder. “You scream. Very loud. Alerts our foes. Not good.”

Vivi came around to Arthur’s side and clicked on her light, though she kept a had capped to its side. “Our first order of business is determine how much control can be managed over this mechanical nuisance, wouldn’t you say?”

Arthur nodded. “Yeah. Good start.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’ll depend on what’s bugging Allo, or what’s controlling him. That’ll give us a foundation for what we’re dealing with.”

Lewis whistled, and Mystery gave a soft yip. The dog came over to his group and waltzed around them. “Let’s get a move on then. Get this thing flushed out, and see what it’ll do.”

“I’d rather not,” Arthur whimpered.

Vivi pointed to him. “You and Lewis then. You brave boys, see what you can figure out about the deactivated animatronics.” She turned away, studying the abyss of the ride interior. “You wanna start from the exit or entrance?”

“Exit,” Lewis vouched. “You and Mystery then? What’ll you two get up to?” Arthur was already folding up the page, and began rummaging through his own backpack.

“We’ll see about coercing Allo out.” She adjusted her backpack and moved her hand a little off the flashlight. “Don’t worry about us. We won’t get into any excitement without permission.”

Lewis started after her. “But Vii, that’s dangerous!”

From a considerable distance, she called back, “Turn on your walkie! We’ll meet you back here!”

Lewis sighed, and reached around to his backpack for the volume switch. “En un buen comienzo, no es así.” He clicked the transmitter. “Viiiii….” Arthur grabbed him by the sleeve and began dragging him.

“We’ll meet them middle way on the track. The sooner we start, the quicker we can finish.” He spoke, hushed. “But make too much noise, that dino will zero in on us.”

Once released, Lewis hopped off the end of the loading slab and followed. “You have no escrúpulos about this?”

Arthur grumbled under his breath. “Let’s set the record straight, she saved your butt today. Don’t forget that.”

When they moved beyond the range of walls and certified fortifications to guide them toward the world outside, the attraction became more unsettling as the artificial jungle scenery enclosed and thickened around them. High and in the distance, a red sign blazed faithfully above the gloomy fronds towering, but it seemed a mocking landmark, enticing misguided travelers. A lure on an angler fish, while unknown perils lurking like jagged teeth ready to ensnare the gullible.

Trekking within the thicket was monotonous, given that Arthur examined each and all of the inactive puppets dotted throughout the foliage. This task was made possible due to an interesting and terrifying feature of the animatronics; a mirror in the eyes reflected light, similarly to genuine nocturnal animals. By setting the flashlight to their face, it illuminated the eyes and singled out where each machine was if within the appropriate range.

“I’m getting jumpscared trying to find the chill pacifists,” Arthur muttered. He held a clipboard in both hands, while Lewis held a torch. The two sifted among the plastic and cloth replicated plants, working closer to the giant carnotaurus. The animatronic gazed into the endless black, a sentinel. “That thing is a ship with teeth.”

The two stood beneath it, dwarfed.

“Can you imagine if this ONE was running around?” Lewis whispered, but a little too loud. He capped his flashlight. “The damage it’d do.”

Arthur stumbled forward, but Lewis caught him before he could fall. He grumbled about the uneven floor, where fabricated vegetation lay tattered. “Damn. Yeh. Another tally for human interference.” They made the remainder of the way to the column legs. “I haven’t seen all the entrances or exits, but it’d be more practical for them to access a machine with mobility security.” Lewis moved away from him, taking the light with him.

“Here’s another penny for your thoughts.” Lewis aimed the torch down on the carnotaurus feet and prodded the claws with his sneaker. “Allo shredded those fences and bit a poll in two.”

Arthur knelt, the clipboard balanced on his thigh. “Yeah, I was there. Well, sorta. What’re you getting’ at?”

“The wood was reduced to toothpicks. Toothpicks.” Lewis applied more pressure to the claw. “Klayton said the animatronics were made nerfed, so they wouldn’t damage each other if they get into a ‘brawl’.” He did air quotes, momentarily redirecting the slice of light through the canopy. “And to prevent them from tearing up the set. But all the animatronics we’ve looked at, have pliable rubber claws. The toes here, too.”

Arthur wrote onto the notebook pinned to his clipboard. “Good catch. So, our feathered nightmare can’t be a part of this attraction. The question now, where did he come from?”

“Or when he arri—” Arthur leapt up and capped a hand over his mouth.

“Shh!” He went into alert mode, spiked hair standing on end and eyes dissecting the area over-and-over. “The light,” he hissed. Lewis shut the light off. In the blanket of null and sensory deprivation, Arthur uttered, “Yu hear that?”

Lewis wouldn’t dare move, aside from rove through the daunting gloom with his limited visual capacity. However, he trusted Arthur’s perception, there was good reason to be alarmed. Also, Arthur was rarely wrong. For a short time, nothing trickled through to suggest a presence or any direct threat. Then, a faint but ambiguous rustling – it was impossible to determine the direction. He tugged Arthur’s hand down.

“Vivi? Mystery?” he squeaked. The sounds ceased. Not good. “Let’s go this way.” He pushed Arthur sideways. “I hope that thing doesn’t see in infrared.”

“Don’t jinx it— ARGH!” Arthur twisted around, his legs became tangled with Lewis’ ankles and the two collapsed. This incident was to their benefit, when the allosaur launched its snout through the shrubbery and snapped on empty air. “RETREAT!” He took off running, but more shredded, decorative texture in the terrain sent Arthur crashing in a stringy-bean heap.

Lewis rolled aside and plucked up a rock. “You stop that right now!” He brought the suspiciously light rock down on Allo’s head, which succeeded in destroying the fake plaster prop between his palms. The Allosaur seemed to blink off the assault. “I pictured that going a lot differently in my head….”

The allosaur swung its head back and screamed a prehistoric yowl. Lewis grabbed the flashlight he dropped and staggered backwards, mind churning through the benefits of turning tail and running versus trying to face the machine. Bottom line, he needed something to slow it down with. The team studied the machine, it’s many malfunctions, and how to locate the thing….

But forgot to devise the certified way to incapacitate it! And it was going to require more than dropping an anvil on its head.

With a piercing snarl the allosaur thrust its jaws out, cutting the distance between it and Lewis in mere seconds. Its teeth clamped down on soft material and it began thrashing, hissing, and snorting.

Arthur released the chunk of fake palm trunk he swung into Allo’s teeth and back peddled. “I’m all for solving this case lickety-split, but we won’t do much of that in traction.” He snatched away Lewis’ flashlight and searched the ground, until he spied the notebook with the clipboard.

“Valid point.” Lewis began after Arthur, springing over a cracked log. “Vivi!”

“Viv-vi!” Arthur hollered. “Where’s the road?” He jammed the notebook in the backpack and fitted it safely to his spine. One more shield between him and teeth!

Lewis bolted between two close standing trees. “Keep running, the track winds around here. We’ll intercept with them, we gotta! Vivi!”

A fearsome wail shot through the once silent theme ride. Despite the ground Arthur and Lewis covered, the noises of cracking timber and thumping footsteps propelled after them from the oppressive gloom. The thunder and rumble gained, growing intense and closing fast.

Arthur barely dodged a set of small standing dinosaurs, emotionless and motionless in the dark. “Help us, we’re gunna DAI!”

There was absolutely no way some hulking, mechanical nightmare could navigate the staged scenery without alerting her or her companion. The slightest movement issued rustling or crinkling, from the material used to fabricate soil and lush greenery, to the low hanging branches lumped by carefully sculpted cloth, and the canopy high above. Everything smelled artificial and tinged with dust, it reminded her of offices with the fake plants that hung around forever. Not the nice ones that looked real, but the very fake, obvious fake plants with plastic stems and ratty cloth soil with the green Styrofoam base. It was likely more impressive with the lights and sound ambiance of living things, even if artificial. She wished they had a chance to go through the ride and see what it was like.

“Hello!” Vivi called. “Rawr! Rawr-rawr!” Then, she paused and listened. Not an echo nor a snort. Would the animatronic snort? In all the excitement that day she didn’t see much of it in action, aside from its retreating tail end. “That’s ‘I love you’ in dinosaur!”

Bark. Mystery kept his tone low, while he slunk beneath some fern leaves.

“Machines need love too.” She swung her flashlight through the faux grove, a thick haze of dust swirled through the blue beam. “Echo!”

Mystery’s eyes glint as he rolled them. He trotted ahead, sniffing at the ground. It was spongy and soft, a layer of plant fiber set above sand or wood chips.

“Any leads?”

Woof. He toed at a fake collection of rocks – them being fake because they were glued together.

“Maybe the therma frost broke it for good.” She snuck around a tree trunk, the structure made of cement and rock hard. A lush green, petrified tree. “I hope not, I was looking forward to cracking this case.” The light she flashed through the depths of interwoven branches, and wiggled it swiftly like a strobe.

Mystery yipped.

“Therma, perma. What’s the differ—ENCE!” She froze, her light caught the burning glare of twin orbs suspended three meters above the floor. “Mystery….”

Mystery gave a noisy snort and inched forward, but wiht caution. His ears straight, eyes intense.

Vivi let the light trail down. “Hmm?” She swung the light down and up. “Oh, that one’s way too big.”

Borf. Mystery trotted the remainder of the way, with Vivi in tow.

“That looks like a mini-Rex. Baby T-Rex?” she posed. She went up and touched the underside of the belly. “The eyes glow. That’s nice to know.” She continued prodding the mini-Rex. “Squishy.”

Mystery yapped. When she turned a light on him, the hound nodded aside and resumed his trek.

“You gotta admit, they are cool. For cheesy attractions.” Vivi whistled, as loudly as she could muster. Sometimes she would give a hoop, or a holler. “Aside from the technicians, no one else is probably allowed this close to them. Except for Allo nuisance, he does his own thing.” She took a deep breath and gave her loudest yell yet.

Mystery stopped in his tracks and gave her the widest-eyed stare.

Vivi aimed the torch through the brush, listening. “Where could it be? We don’t have the time to search half the park this night.”

A few yards away, Mystery padded up a decorative slanted log and perched at the peak. Nothing to the right, nothing to the left. Yip! He leapt off and landed beside Vivi. He grumbled under his breath and barked.

“Let’s wait ‘til we meet up with them. We might cross paths on the way there.” It would be a while before they returned to the entrance of the ride, but somewhere they had to cross paths with the Allosaur. That is, if the machine was still within the attraction, or within sensory range to her dino-summons. She was beginning to doubt it remained inside the attraction, if like Mr. Klayton indicated, it was becoming more mobile. That was going to be a problem.

“If we can’t draw it out,” she began, “we can’t devise a way to coax it, or restrain it. It shredded a fence just fine, but maybe we can tangle it up in a good net?”

Yarf.

“Cliché. But effective.” A sound from the rear startled her. She whipped around with the flashlight, holding steady and listening. It wasn’t a sound, was it? The fake foliage settling as they passed, nothing ominous or pursuing. “A snare?” She flashed the light over the tree branches. “Hmm. But what sort of cable and how much tension?”

Mystery whined.

“I want to get with Arthur on that.” She turned her light and recoiled! An ominous and hulking shape crouched behind a flowering palm plant. A stegosaur, or something. It stood on four short, but column legs. “I don’t trust the owner, or Ms. Attorney Lady. But I wanna catch him in a lie, and try getting a read if he’s into something shady or….”

The walkie-talkie crackled against her backpack, squealing with a surge of static and muffled yammering, all of what might’ve been voices.

“Or if he’s not very bright,” she ended, in sigh. She unclipped the communicator and snapped the send button. “Lewis! That you?”

“AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Lewis.” She snapped the device away when a roar ripped through.

Mystery sat down and gave his ear a well-deserved scratch.

“Talk to me, boys! What’s happened?” She picked up with a run, the beam of her torch bounded across the uneven terrain and across elephant ear leaves. “I think I know what’s going on, but are you okay?” Mystery caught up at her side, his collar rattling in rapid succession with his zipping stride.

In the background and distant, Arthur came through chattering up a panicked storm, “It found us! We’re bein’ chased— WeWereSoFuckingCarefulThisIsUtterBullShit!”

“Language Arthur!”

“My gods, Lewis! We’re gunna DAI!” The communicator gave a dramatic, electrical wail as Vivi toggled the relay switch.

“Okay! Okay! We’re on our way, don’t panic!”

Bark!

“Who’s panicking?” Arthur wailed. “We’re being chased! We’re so lost, and we’re being chased!”

Lewis hollered through, loud and clear, “Where are you!”

“Not at the entrance.” One of the animatronics was in her path, once again freaking her out – what with all the noises churning through the communicator. “Find your way to the backside! I don’t know where we are! Can you make it to the back? This place is a box, we can follow along the wall—”

A response was not forthcoming, not for her. Lewis gasped, speech labored, “Watch out!” Following came snippets of silence, with patches of Arthur screaming and the Allosaur shrieking. Some sort of distinctive weight thumped, almost vibrating the walkie-talkie in her palm. There was some cussing in there and harsh scuffling. The screech of the Dinosaur became intense, until it was right there in the communicator.

“What’s happening?” Vivi halted in her tracks and listened through the device, terse and powerless.

Mystery shot by, his barks fading as he tore through the pseudo jungle. Vivi resumed in a job, leaping logs and some sort of small animal puppet. The whole time, the communicator was treacherous and silent.

“Hang in there! Mystery and I got your trail!” When she snapped her finger off the transmitter, Arthur’s voice punched through:

“This was a bad idea! I told you guys, didn’t I say? I called it! One Hundred Percent CALLED IT! I’m a fucking seer! AYYYEEEEEE!”

RAAARRR!

“Just shut up and run!” Lewis snarled.

How far the Allosaur was behind them, this was hard to say. It followed with intense, single-minded focus, pronouncing the diminishing stretch by cavernous bellows. The duo was in some horrendous video game level with an instant game over, snapping at their heels.

The jittering beams of their flashlight flickered across the thick fibrous carpet, revealing snags and gleaming across sinister disasters hidden among the shadows. Though, neither Arthur or Lewis paid much mind to the ground beneath them – except to save them from colliding with a low branch – focus was averted high above, to the bright mocking glare of the EXIT sign. It was a beacon in the night, the easiest recognizable landmark in the abyss of the hellish attraction.

“Hang in there! Mystery and I got your trail!” crackled through the radio Lewis gripped, the plastic creaked under intense pressure.

He toggled the transmitter, “THANK YOU!” He was having a hard time keeping up with Arthur, despite inspiration being super motivating.

The Allosaur gave a peeling shriek, the noise of it vibrating in Lewis’ ears, growing louder and more deafening. It was right at his backside.

Lewis scrapped between two narrow trees, nearly getting wedged in the narrow space. A rebounding Thunk! echoed, and the Allosaur hissed. But the sound of it did drift away. However, he did not stop to look or spare a thought, he recovered his speed and tried to catch up with Arthur. He pinpointed him by the sporadic patches of yellow light flittering through the shrubs, and managed to catch his stride.

“Pepper!” he panted.

“Kingsman!” Lewis vaulted over a rock.

“Nice day at the office!”

“Marvelous! Absolutamente asombroso!”

“Technically, it’s nighttime.”

Lewis exhaled, “True!”

A thundering screech crashed through the plastic flora somewhere to the left. The Allosaur was gaining, due to the fact it was not a living animal. On the other hand, Lewis and Arthur ran on fumes.

“The Exit, there should be a door!” Lewis huffed. The red beacon was neigh ninety degrees airborne, a few more meters they should come to the boarders of the building.

The line of his light did hit a sheer and solid surface, which by the explanation of his light revealed a rugged boarder of stone standing at about ten or eleven feet. Well above his height clearance. But there was no clean cut wall, no slate, and no irrefutable explanation of exit. Nothing but a cliff face.

Being more spry and agile, Arthur flew up the wall like a squirrel. He chucked his light up, his hands caught grips with practiced ease and with a small bit of leverage propelled himself skyward.

That looked easy! Lewis jammed the flashlight between his teeth and felt for a handhold. His fingers easily found a knot, he braced his foot and—

Fell backwards. With a hunk of cheap plaster gripped in his hands.

“Lewis!” Arthur set his light down on his teammate, and hissed, “What the FACK?! Get up here!”

Lewis bit down on his flashlight and scrambled to his feet. From his safe perch, Arthur held the light steady while Lewis took another fixture of the coarse wall and shoved his toes into niche. He managed to ease himself up a foot or so, but applying too much weight and the crappy Styrofoam snapped. The outer layer was stiff and scrapped his knuckles when he came down. Lewis looked up at Arthur and they locked eyes.

“AAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The Allosaur shrieked. Arthur turned his light up, catching the eye sheen of the animatronic as it barreled through the fake jungle. “Oh my god! Um, Don’t move! I’ll get help!”

Lewis spat out the flashlight. “Arthur?” The Allosaur expelled another echoing howl. He turned, angling his light through the thicket. “Arthur!” The soft yellow light that drenched him, was now gone. Lewis had never felt so alone, so utterly betrayed. “ARTHUR!”

The thundering parade of the Allosaur hurtled toward his focal point, everywhere it went the plants rustled and crashed. It snarled, the sounds of its violent procession closing in on him. It must have infrared vision!

Lewis pressed his back against the cold fake rock. The Allosaur bounded through the thicket, the frayed ends of his light brushed against its snout. It closed in with terrible swiftness, weaving around artificial plants, but never once detracting for more than a millisecond. Lewis began inching away, if he timed it right, it might just shatter its CPU. But his timing had to be impeccable.

A blissful light drenched his shoulders, along with a stringy long rope thing. Likely a vine prop. The tale end of Arthur’s hoot, “—Tight!” Came through, and Lewis had enough foresight to piece together the full phrase. Without delay he dropped his flashlight and grabbed the rope.

The Allosaur barreled forward, chewing through the remaining few feet, teeth glittering in the spotlight Arthur cast. Lewis braced himself, he wasn’t sure what for. A Tarzan themed holler peeled from above high, and Lewis shot up at rocket speed. The angle of the line zipped him across the upper edge of the plaster cliff face. He cleared it but barely, his jeans scrapped eliciting a sharp yelp. Out somewhere across the open air, the Tarzan yowl waned in its descent.

Then Arthur really started screaming.

Lewis had to release the vine thing, or he would have gotten skinned on the concrete surface of the floor he was on. He crawled to the edge, and peering down tried to make sense of the swaying murk below. A succession of snarling poured forth of the large, black heap; it thrashed and swept into a stray flash of the yellow beam Arthur held. He thought this was clear indication where Arthur wound up, but the light cut off. He heaved off his backpack and dug through the folders and tools, until his palms clasped the large cylinder camping lamp.

“I did NOT THINK THIS THROUGH!”

He clicked the light on and turned it down. There was Arthur, running around the erratic animatronic. The dinosaur roved in circles, shaking and snapping, not fully invested in chasing the yellow blur. After affording a brief examination, he recognized the actual issue. The other end of the rope was snagged between its teeth, and the animatronic was fighting to cut it free. The line was tangled somewhere, this provided by how every time the Allosaur went to turn on Arthur, it’s head snapped sideways.

“Arthur!” he hooted. “ArthurArthurArthurArthur!” He dashed along the edge of the cliff flailing the flashlight around. “Get over here ya dweeb!”

The rope at last snapped with a grueling CRACK! and the Allosaur swept its snout towards the tiptoeing figure. A peeling shriek, something like an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE shot out of Arthur as he did a one-eighty and charged out into the jungle thicket.

A rumbling snarl thundered out as the Allosaur resumed its chase, it’s tail flashing out of sight within the shrubbery.

Lewis stamped his foot. “Damnit!”

Meanwhile, Arthur was running for his life. Several times he nearly stumbled or lost his footing. Though he had the advantage of choosing a tight pathway difficult for Allo to pursue, the animatronic was not distracted by a second target. It was able to lay full focus on him, and track him with crazed efficiency. Or frenzy. He managed to catch his second wind in the meager intermission, but his muscles were giving out. Running on the spongey floor was strenuous, and the Allosaur’s grating call was closing in. If it got a clean opening, it would have its jaws on his neck.

There! He took a sharp right, in the line of sight of Allo. The dinosaur lunged, but Arthur already tucked into a stunt roll. Its feet trounced the earth right behind his shoulders, but he kept going until he was back on his feet. At no more than two meters there was some shadow, and bent – what he guessed would be roots – the trees weren’t real. But that black, unmistakable, hollowed space – there was no mistake on what that was. He’d stake his life on it, as he was about to.

The roots were concrete, hard as stone, bent and arched around a gouged hollow beneath the fake tree. Arthur clambered through the wedge, with the Allosaur not more than a breath behind his feet. His immediate thought was, ‘How deep is this!’ He smacked his flashlight against the wall and the light doused, the space around him blacked out. His hands prodded the walls seeking space or drafts, he jammed his elbows and shoulders at every inch, pushing further away from the hissing hydraulics of the Allosaur as it snapped and worked its way after him.

He felt the walls and ceiling, using his legs to kick for any missed crease that might afford an exit. There was nothing but concrete on all sides – left, right, up, and down – solid, unyielding.

“SHIT!”

The Allosaur snapped its jaws inches from his knee. “Fuck you!” Arthur tried kicking its snout, however ineffective it was. The machine twisted its neck and squeezed in further, the servos in its jaws whirling. It wouldn’t help, even if he wasn’t exhausted. He had nowhere to go—

Something snagged his collar and yanked him upward. He gave a little sob.

“Gotcha! I got ya Artie!” Lewis heaved him out of the hollow between the knotted roots, and dropped him on the ground. “You okay?” He adjusted the camping light, checking Arthur over, making sure he was in one piece.

“Yes, fuck! That was too close!” Arthur gave his own body a full pat down. All there, except for the gash in his vest where he fell earlier. All the stuffing on that side fell out. “It almost turned me into bubblegum!” He got onto his feet and paced a bit, before stopping to hunch over and set his palms to his knees. He just needed to breathe a moment.

“Take it easy now, you’re fine.” Arthur took a noisy breath and gargled. “Smooth, climbing into that… what is this? A burrow?” Lewis turned his light onto the opening, where he hauled Arthur out.

“I don’t give a toot what it is.” Arthur rounded the side of the tree, but cautiously. The Allosaur was still being raucous, snarling and grunting. It sounded like they had some time to catch their breath. “Probably for those lil dinosaur thingies. Are they chickens? The small nuggets.”

Lewis quirked his brow and shined the light across his face. “Raptors?”

“Chicken tenders,” Arthur insisted. Lewis came over with the light and stood beside him, observing as the Allosaur persisted with its struggles. And failed to free itself.

“It’s… not getting loose, huh? It’s stuck.” He shined the light lower, against the backside and shoulders of the unruly thing. It was surreal, watching the rubber suit cover on the dinos backside jiggle, but not ripple like the way muscles should. As muscles would, if on a real animal. For most of the night they were running from this thing, and it felt very real, like a hunting predator. Not some deranged AI, or whatever went off with it. Nonetheless dangerous, but creepy and sinister.

“Y’know what,” Lewis went on, stunned, “I think you caught it!”

Arthur gasped. “NO!” He leaned a little closer, but wouldn’t get too close. “No! Really? I did it? I did it! The case is over!” He throws his arms up. “WHOO! I am a mastermind!”

“Don’t get too hyped,” Lewis warned. “We caught it, but we still don’t know what’s up with it, or if someone is controlling it.”

“CASE CLOSED!” Arthur hooted. “Our contract said we have only gotta catch it! Done deal!”

Lewis chuckled and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Por el amor de…” he sighed. “Y’know, lemme be honest, I thought you bailed back there. On that cliff.”

Arthur dropped his arms and gave Lewis a befuddled stare. He winced when Lewis shined the light his way. “What! What kind of loser do you take me for? Abandoning my best bro. Get outta here.” Lewis laughed.

“It was pretty stupid.” He turned the light back onto the Allo. “I have a habit of overestimating myself, getting in over my head. You guys… always come back, and keep me outta trouble.”

Arthur shrugged. “Eh, we’re even now. Right?”

“Right.” He held up his fist. Arthur smirked, and returned the fist bump.

The Allosaur gave a grating wail, gears grind in its neck as the body twisted, the rear legs shoved at the padded terrain. At the cement roots, they crackled and squealed. With another shriek, the Allosaur ripped its shoulders free – a flint of light ignited off the Allosaur’s neck.

“Shit!” Lewis backed up, and pulled Arthur with him.

“Fuck a balloon!”

The Allosaur hauled its arms and neck free, the cement barrier that once caged it snapped apart. Lewis swung his light on the dinosaur, the beam momentarily illuminated a space on its arm torn open, revealing foam and inner padding. It was fleeting, and before Arthur or Lewis could react to what would happen next, the dinosaur veered aside and charged off. Disappearing into the fake foliage of the eerily silent jungle. The thundering footfalls and rustling shrubbery diluted after seconds, until once more silence tormented the fabricated fauna sprawling abundant.

Arthur dropped, but Lewis caught him before he collapsed entirely. The taller figure held onto his friend, and used his other arm to pat his back. Arthur sniffled and shuddered.

“There-there. We knew it was way too easy.”

“We never get a freebee!”

Off somewhere, echoing yaps rebounded through the area. Lewis gave a holler, and reached down to take up the camping lamp. “Over here!” He swung the light around, flashing the vibrant rosy beam through the clutter of petri-timber. “We’re okay!”

“No we’re not!”

Lewis sighed. “We’re in one piece!”

“Yeah!”

Soon, the panting rasp of a dog threaded its way towards the two. Once Lewis was able to interpret the direction, he hauled Arthur with him toward his teammates. “Vivi?”

“Yeppers!” she called. She was not far from the dogy gasping. “You got away from it?” The swaying blue beam preceded the clopping footfalls as she raced to them, out of breath and hair frazzled. “What happened? You’re both okay?” Upon seeing Arthur hanging off Lewis, she handed her flashlight off to Mystery and knelt before him.

“He’s in a little shock.”

Arthur whimpered, “It got away.” Vivi scrunched up her face.

“That’s… not something I expected to hear from you.”

Arthur brought his hands to his head. “No! We managed to trap it—”

Vivi turned her eyes up to Lewis. “You caught it!”

“Eh,” Lewis shrugged. “Isn’t that past-tense?” He moved down the slope, guiding the path with his lamp. “Temporarily snared.”

Vivi groaned, “I miss all the fun stuff!” Arthur balked.

The group examined over the area, inside the warren and the arched cement tree roots, decorative fantasy décor for the ride-goers. Vivi took interest in the snapped root ends, where the rebar stuck out, warped and shattered.

Vivi poked the corrupt end of rebar. “Can we decide how much gauge of cable to use, when we need to catch it?”

Arthur stood nearby, gazing off into the thicket with Lewis’ lamp flittering through the grove. “Sure. I don’t think it’ll have that much tensile strength in its hydraulics.” He perked his lips and nodded his head. “But we’ll work on how to keep it from tearing loose later. We kinda fucked up figurin’ how we’ll get it into the trap, though.”

Lewis was crouched, giving Mystery’s shoulders a rub while the dog laid on the floor resting. “True. But we can vouch that Mr. Allo is on someone’s payroll.” He perked, and stood. “Did you see, Art? It did rip its skin cover, on its arm.”

Arthur didn’t answer immediately, vouching to listen and study the perimeter. “We can try shorting it, given if the interior wiring isn’t insulated. That’s no guarantee.” He patted his own arm. “Insulation takes time to incorporate, and costs extra. It would also bulk out the equipment. So, we can think of that as an alternative, if getting it to behave doesn’t work.”

Vivi stretched and gave a yawn. “Okay, we have some intel to work with. It seems like time to call it a night, sound good?”

“You won’t hear a complaint from me,” Arthur chimed. “Stick a fork in me.” He was already walking away, with Mystery hurrying after. Lewis grabbed up his backpack and followed.

“The Allo might need to recharge,” Lewis mentioned. He took Vivi’s hand, and helped her up a loose fitted slope. “Each animatronic has a battery life for a few days, but we don’t know how long our friend has been running amuck. That might be the reason it took off.”

Vivi adjusted the light between her hands. “We’ll snoop around the park in the morning, try and find where it went and build our game plan. Did you guys hear me, I was making a lot of noise. That thing didn’t give a truck about Mystery or me.”

Ruff!

“I didn’t hear ya, but I’ll take your word for it” Lewis affirmed. “Someone has access to the Allo controls.”

Vivi stroked her chin. “Someone that knows we’re investigating the park.”

Together, Lewis and Vivi did a dramatic, “Hmm….” Simultaneously.

Arthur yawned and rubbed his face. “Can you guys draw up accusations tomorrow? After we’ve slept on it.”

Woof.

Together, the Mystery Skulls navigated their way through the fabricated jungle, trading stories on the encounter with the Allosaur and their escape. At one point Arthur stopped midsentence and in his tracks, then turned the camping lamp around the area they were currently within.

“Where the fuck are we?”

#mystery skulls #Alive!Lewis #msa #mystery skulls fanfic #mystery skulls fanfiction #fanfiction #msa fanfic #msa fanfiction #msa arthur #msa vivi #msa mystery #mystery skulls ghost #mystery skulls animated

15 notes · View notes

mapsofthelost · 4 years

Text

A Light In The Darkness

You have to watch for the tides on around Morecambe Bay on the north-west coast. They steal in faster than you can run, catching the unwary and cutting them off from the shore. You might find yourself in that unhappy position, enjoying the sunset over the sea and not noticing how the water has crept closer, almost as if it is not moving, until very suddenly it is. Panicking, cut off from the obvious route home, the light fading, you strike off in a different direction, but the silver water comes and it comes. In the distance, you hear a shout, and the wave of a torch. Cold water rising around your ankles, the acid taste of fear in your mouth, you splash off in that direction, hoping that your saviour is not too late.

As it happen, your saviour has timed it very well, as you will find when you reach them, and realise that the two of you stand on a small island of sand, with water all around you, and…

Well. You know the angler fish? Well.

#folkhorror #folk horror #horror #weird #eerie #Flash

15 notes · View notes

toho-literature · 4 years

Text

Perfect Memento in Strict Sense: Pages 10-11 - Cirno

Fairy of the Ice

Cirno

Ability: Manipulation of the cold

Threat level: Low

Human friendship level: Normal

Main place of activity: The Misty Lake

Close to the lake, there are times when the temperature lowers drastically even in summer.

A fairy you are likely to encounter at such times is this ice fairy.

Among the fairies around the lake she has a leader-like presence, and is stronger than the other fairies.

She belongs to the more belligerent variety of fairies, and so it is necessary to be careful.

She is quite short and dressed in blue with wings of ice.

Being able to freeze small objects instantly, she is a bit more dangerous than regular fairies.

She emits cold air constantly, so her vicinity is always chilly.

Since where she lives is totally unknown, there is no way of telling how she spends her everyday life.

Not just Cirno's, but all fairies' homes blend into nature, preventing them from being seen by humans.

Eyewitness Reports

"I saw her freezing a part of the Misty Lake's surface and sleeping defenselessly(*1) on the ice." (Hikozaemon)

"I saw her sleeping sloppily(*2) next to the lake. The surrounding flowers were frozen." (Anonymous)

Since there are many other sightings near the Misty Lake as well, it is presumed that is where her home is located.

It is possible that she has a house underwater.

"I saw frozen frogs in the rice fields. I think this is the work of fairies." (Anonymous)

An ominous prank. There's little direct harm, but still...

"When I pulled in some fish from the Misty Lake, it was already frozen. That was a real surprise, but the fish kept a long time, and was delicious." (Angler with a big appetite)

And here I thought that no humans fished at the Misty Lake...

There is the danger of other youkai appearing in that area, so inexperienced people would do best in not copying this example.

Countermeasures

If it suddenly gets cold, there is a possibility that the ice fairy is nearby.

At such times you should be obedient and flee, or look for the shape of the fairy.

Fairies usually do nothing and keep their distance when they understand that they are noticed.

Since Cirno is easily noticed, I assume that as long as one is not very careless there is little risk of being injured.

Still, if you are to pass through a place where she seems to be around, what's the best way of doing it?

She's weak against fire from torches and other objects too hot to touch.

If you're holding a torch to start with she probably won't go near.

Since she can freeze things she touches instantly, refrain from touching her even if she is asleep.

There is a risk of frostbite.

If by any chance Cirno should attack, just start calmly talking about anything, and ask her a riddle when she shows interest.

When you do that, she will start to think of the answer, giving you an opportunity to escape.

No matter how simple the question, she can certainly not answer it.

*1: Really defenselessly.

*2: Really sloppily.

#touhou pmiss #perfect memento in strict sense #touhou #touhou project #project shrine maiden #cirno #touhou cirno #cirno (touhou)

7 notes · View notes

head---ache · 2 months

Text

oc posting:))

#sth #sonic oc #ferocity the spider #torch the angler fish #joy the horse #index the secretary bird #tools the chinchilla #prince the peacock

63 notes · View notes

gal-liveblogs · 4 years

Text

RWBY Chapter 7: The Emerald Forest, Part 2

Alright people, let’s get back into RWBY.

Glynda: Our last pair have been formed, sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Poor boy, I can’t possibly imagine those two getting along.

Well you don’t know shit then, because they are obviously the bestest of best friends and will more than likely end up being a couple at some point in this show.

Glynda: Still, he’s probably better off than Miss Nikos. Ozpin: Mm. Glynda: I don’t care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat.

Wow, Glynda is just awful at reading people, isn’t she? Pyrrha is the one who sought Jaune out. I wonder what Jaune’s transcripts say?

Weiss: It’s definitely this way! Weiss: *disappears offscreen before walking back the other way* Weiss: I mean... this way! It’s definitely this way.

Wow, Weiss is terrible with directions, who would have known? This must have been going on for a while for Ruby to be sitting on the ground bored out of her mind.

Ruby: Ugh! Weiss: Oh stop it, you don’t know where we are either! Ruby: Well at least I’m not pretending like I know everything! Weiss: What is that supposed to mean?

Eactly what it sounds like, Weiss. I’m with Ruby on this one. You’re both completely clueless, but at least Ruby can admit to it. She’s not putting on airs and potentially getting them more lost.

Man, watching these two going at it is reminding me of Glynda’s appraisal of the other teams. Those two teams clearly will have the best cooperation meanwhile this teamwork is nonexistent, yet she thought those other ones were doomed to fail and no mention of Ruby and Weiss here.

So Yang and Blake are the first ones to make it to the Temple! At least, I assume that’s the temple. Might just be some random ruin.

Oh cool, chess pieces! Are these the relics they’re supposed to collect? I wonder if which one they take has any significance?

Blake: Chess pieces? Yang: Some of them are missing. Looks like we’re no the first ones here.

Oh? Who got here first then?

Jaune: Think this is it?

No, I do not, but you should check it out anyway! There’s cave paintings! I wanna know what’s inside! Be on the lookout for giant scorpions, though. I have a feeling one might be roaming about.

Pyrrha: I’m not sure this is it. Jaune: *sigh* Pyrrha, I made the torch, could you at least humor me for five more feet?

I agree with Jaune, if you let him go through the hassle of making a torch you should at least give him the time to explore.

Oh, and then he immediately trips and drops the torch into a puddle, making it go out. Great.

Jaune finds something that glows in the dark, sways out of his reach, and is shaped like a giant scorpion’s tail. I have the feeling he just found a giant scorpion that has learned to hunt like an angler fish.

Yep, ‘bout what I expected. I told you guys to be on the lookout for a giant scorpion!

Jaune: *screams* Yang: Some girl’s in trouble!

Aw, come on, was that really necessary?

Wow, Jaune is not doing himself any favors as he grovels and whines.

Ruby: *yelling*

And suddenly... Ruby is falling from the sky? I expected Jaune, sine the scorpion just yeeted him. What happened, Ruby? Last I saw you were firmly on the ground and arguing with Weiss.

That was an unexpected end. Where is Jaune? Will Pyrrha escape from the scorpion? Where is Ruby landing and why is she falling in the first place? Will Yang and Blake help anyone? How are Nora and Ren doing? Will Glynda ever realize who actually will have good teamwork?

#rwby #rwby liveblog #liveblog #gal liveblogs

6 notes · View notes

jellywalkerz-moved · 6 years

Photo

RIPTIDE: THE WATER-BENDING HERO!

Horikoshi’s original costume for Masaki was awful, so I edited @vamptenya ‘s design onto him! , Original Blank and Alternate versions under cut. Changes are as follows

more stylish and colour-coordinated outfit

looser clothing for comfort

fins on the side of his face act like headphones for communication

angler fish light acts as both a torch and a mic for comunication

a cooler name and title, nothing about “manual” and “the normal hero” is any good

he has sharp angler teeth (unshown)

REBLOG AND GIVE CREDIT IF YOU USE

136 notes · View notes

the-magnus-archives-archiver · 5 years

Text

Anglerfish

Case: 0122204

Name: Nathan Watts Subject: An encounter on Old Fishmarket Close, Edinburgh Date: April 22nd, 2012 Recording by: Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London

This all happened a couple of years ago, so I apologise if some of the details are a bit off. I mean, I feel like I remember it clearly but sometimes things are so weird that you start to doubt yourself. Still, I suppose weird is kind of what you guys do, right?

So I’m studying at the University of Edinburgh. Biochemistry, specifically, and I was in my second year at the time this happened. I wasn’t in any sort of university accommodation at this point and was renting a student flat down in Southside with a few other second years. To be honest I didn’t hang out with them much. I took a gap year before matriculating and my birthday’s in the wrong part of September, so I was nearly two years older than most of my peers when I started my course. I got on with them fine, you understand, but I tended to end up hanging out with some of the older students.

That’s why I was at the party in the first place. Michael MacAulay, a good friend of mine, had just been accepted to do a Master’s degree in Earth Sciences so we decided a celebration was in order. Well, maybe ‘party’ isn’t quite the right word, we just kind of invaded the Albanach down on the Royal Mile and drank long enough and loud enough that eventually we had the back area to ourselves. Now, I don’t know how well you know the drinking holes of Edinburgh, but the Albanach has a wide selection of some excellent single malts, and I may have slightly overindulged. I have vague memories of Mike suggesting I slow down, to which I responded by roundly swearing at him for failing to properly celebrate his own good news. Or words to that effect.

Long story short, I was violently ill around midnight and made the decision to walk the route home. It wasn’t far to my flat, maybe half an hour if I’d been sober, and the night was cool enough that I remember having a hope the chill would perk me up some. I headed for the Cowgate and the quickest way to get there from the Royal Mile is down Old Fishmarket Close. Now, I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that there are some steep hills in Edinburgh but Old Fishmarket Close is exceptional, even by those standards. At times it must reach a thirty or forty degree angle, which is hard enough to navigate when you don’t have that much scotch inside you. As I have mentioned, I had quite a lot, so it probably wasn’t that surprising when I took a rather nasty tumble about halfway down the street. In retrospect the fall wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but at the time it really shook me up and left me with some nasty bruises. I picked myself up as best I could, checked I hadn’t seriously injured myself, no broken bones or anything, and decided to roll a cigarette to calm myself. That was when I heard it.

“Can I have a cigarette?”

I was startled out of my thoughts by the words as I thought I had been alone. Quickly trying to compose myself and looking around, I noticed a small alleyway on the opposite side of the street. It was very narrow and completely unlit with a short staircase leading up. I could see a light fixture a little way up the wall at its entrance, but it either wasn’t working or wasn’t turned on, meaning that beyond a few steps the alley was shrouded in total darkness. Stood there, a couple of stairs from the street, was a figure. It was hard to tell much about them as they were mostly in the shadows, though if I’d had to guess I would have said the voice sounded male. They seemed to sway, ever so slightly, as I watched, and I assumed that they, like me, were probably a little bit drunk.

I lit my own cigarette and held out my tobacco towards them, though I didn’t approach, and asked if they were ok with a roll-up. The figure didn’t move except to continue that gentle swaying. Writing it down now, it seems so obvious that something was wrong. If I hadn’t been so drunk maybe I’d have noticed quicker, but even when the stranger asked the question again, “Can I have a cigarette?” utterly without intonation, still I didn’t understand why I was so uneasy.

I stared at the stranger and as my eyes began to adjust I could make out more details. I could see that their face appeared blank, expressionless, and their skin seemed damp and slightly sunken, like they had a bad fever. The swaying was more pronounced now, seeming to move from the waist, side to side, back and forth. By this point I had finished rolling a second cigarette and gingerly held it out towards them, but I didn’t get any closer. I had decided that if this weirdo wanted a cigarette, they were going to need to come out of the creepy alleyway. They didn’t come closer, didn’t make any movement at all except for that damn swaying. For some reason the thought of an anglerfish popped into my head, the single point of light dangled into the darkness, hiding the thing that lures you in.

“Can I have a cigarette?” It spoke again in the same flat voice and I realised exactly what was wrong. Its mouth was closed, had been the whole time. Whatever was repeating that question, it wasn’t the figure in the alleyway. I looked at their feet and saw that they weren’t quite touching the ground. The stranger’s form was being lifted, ever so slightly, and moved gently from side to side.

I dropped the cigarette and grabbed for my phone, trying to turn on the torch. I don’t know why I didn’t run or what I hoped to see in that alley, but I wanted to get a better look. As soon as I took out my phone, the figure disappeared. It sort of folded at the waist and vanished back into the darkness, as if a string had gone taut and pulled it back. I turned on the torch and stared into the alley, but I saw nothing. Just silence and darkness. I staggered back up to the Royal Mile, which still had lights and people, and found a taxi to take me home.

I slept late the next day. I’d made sure I didn’t have any lectures or classes, as I had intended to be sleeping off a heavy night of drinking, which I guess I was, although it was that bizarre encounter that kept playing in my mind. And so, after making my way through two litres of water, some painkillers and a very greasy breakfast, I felt human enough to leave my flat and go to investigate the place in daylight. The result was unenlightening. There were no marks, no bloodstains, nothing to indicate that the swaying figure had ever been there at all. The only thing I did find was an unsmoked Marlboro Red cigarette, lying just below the burned out light fixture.

Beyond that, I didn’t really know what to do. I did as much research as I could on the place, but couldn’t find anyone who’d had any experience similar to mine, and there didn’t seem to be any folklore or urban legends I could find out about Old Fishmarket Close. The few friends I told about what happened just assumed I’d been accosted by some stranger and the alcohol had made it seem much weirder than it was. I tried to explain that I’ve never had hallucinations while drunk, and that there was no way this guy had just been a normal person, but they always gave me one of those looks, halfway between pity and concern, and I’d shut up.

I never did find out anything else about it, but a few days later I saw some missing person appeals go up around campus. Another student had disappeared. John Fellowes, his name was, though I didn’t really know the guy and couldn’t tell you much about him, except for two things that struck me as very important: he had been at that same party and, as far as I remembered, had still been there when I left. The other was just that, well, on the photo they’d used for his missing persons appeal I couldn’t help but notice that there was a pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes poking out of his pocket.

I haven’t quit smoking, but I do find that I take a lot more taxis now if I find myself out too late.

Archivist Notes:

The investigation at the time, and the follow-up we’ve done over the last couple have days, have found no evidence to corroborate Mr. Watts’ account of his experience. I was initially inclined to re-file this statement in the ‘Discredited’ section of the Archive, a new category I’ve created that will, I suspect, be housing the majority of these files. However, Sasha did some digging into the police reports of the time and it turns out that between 2005 and 2010, when Mr Watts’ encounter supposedly took place, there were six disappearances in and around the Old Fishmarket Close: Jessica McEwen in November 2005, Sarah Baldwin in August 2006, Daniel Rawlings in December of the same year, then Ashley Dobson and Megan Shaw in May and June of 2008. Then finally, as Mr Watts mentioned, John Fellowes in March 2010. All six disappearances remain unsolved. Baldwin and Shaw were definitely smokers, but there’s no evidence either way about the others, if they’re even connected.

Sasha did find one other thing, specifically in the case of Ashley Dobson. It was a copy of the last photograph taken by her phone and sent to her sister Siobhan. The caption was “check out this drunk creeper lol”, but the picture is of a darkened, apparently empty, alleyway, with stairs leading up into it. It appears to be the same alleyway which Mr. Watts described in his statement, the one that, according to the maps of the area, leads to Tron Square, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the photograph at all. Sasha took the liberty of running it through some editing programs, though, and increasing the contrast appears to reveals the outline of a long, thin hand, roughly at what would be waist level on a male of average height. I find it oddly hard to shake off the impression that it’s beckoning.

Source: Official Transcript and Podcast (MAG 1 Angler Fish)

#the magnus archives #magnus archives #MAG #MAG1 #MAG 1 #Anglerfish #Statement #The Stranger #The Anglerfish

8 notes · View notes

travelnortheastindia · 3 years

Text

9 Best Road Trips to Unexplored Places in Northeast India

As one of the most underexplored regions in India, Northeast India has held its appeal over people for centuries. Because of its geographical isolation, the Northeast has been able to remain closely connected to the country's happenings and preserve the native culture. The Northeast states are surrounded by mystery and intrigue. Many unexplored areas of Northeast India are hidden in the 'Seven Sisters' states. These destinations can be accessed today thanks to the rapid development that has occurred over the past decade. These are the top places you should visit in Northeast India to plan your next vacation.

Book Your North East Holiday Packages Now!!

9 Places You Must See in Northest

Varsey Trek in Sikkim

Jatinga, Assam

Krem Puri Caves in Meghalaya

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

Mawlynnong Village in Meghalaya

Subansiri River in Arunachal Pradesh

Living Root Bridges, Meghalaya

Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh

Loktak Lake in Manipuri

1. Varsey Trek

Varsey Trek in Sikkim

Tourists looking for thrills and excitement on their trips to Sikkim will love Varsey Trek. It can be done on a short or medium-distance trek, reaching up to 3300m above sea level. This place is adorned with the red and yellow Rhododendrons trees. You can also book camps to spend the night under the stars during the three-day trek.

The best time to visit is October to May

2. Jatinga, Assam

Jatinga, Assam

Jatinga, a small village in Northeastern Assam is known for its bizarre phenomenon during monsoon. The Jatinga Bird Suicide is a phenomenon where birds from this area are disoriented on dark moonless nights between 6:30 and 9:00 PM. They then plunge towards the lights and torches in the town. All 44 species of birds are affected by the phenomenon. Villagers used to kill and capture these birds. However, the practice has been stopped in greater numbers after education campaigns were introduced.

The best time to visit is September to November.

Looking for travel packages for north? Book North East Tour Packages Now!!

3. Krem Puri Caves in Meghalaya

Krem Puri Caves

Krem Puri Caves is one of the longest sandstone caves found in India. The caves were discovered in 2016, and are 24,583 meters deep. If you've ever wanted to go on a spelunking expedition or just want to explore the underground, these caves have everything you need. For those who are interested in ancient fossils, the cave of Krem Puri can also be a delight. You can travel to this cave from Shillong, or you can stay in Shillong.

The best time to visit is May-September.

4. Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang Monastery, which is India's largest monastery and the second-largest in the world, can show you the spirit of Buddhism. As you observe the monks go about their daily lives, you can get up close and personal experience. The Tawang River, which runs nearby, is the city's name. Tawang has Gorichen peak and Jaswantgarh. These memorials are dedicated to Jaswant Singh, the Indo-China war hero.

The best time to visit is March-June, September-October.

Are you looking to visit our North India? Book Assam Tour Packages Now!!

5. Mawlynnong Village in Meghalaya

Mawlynnong Village in Meghalaya

Mawlynnong Village, India's cleanest village, is open to visitors. The entire village bans plastic and you can find bamboo dust bins all over the place. The entire village is prohibited from smoking. People take pride in their surroundings and organize cleaning drives.

The best time to visit is March-June.

Thinking to visit Meghalaya? Book Meghalaya Holiday Packages Now.

6. Subansiri River in Arunachal Pradesh

Subansiri River in Arunachal Pradesh

The largest tributary of the Brahmaputra River is the Subansiri River, which flows through Arunachal Pradesh. Adventure enthusiasts love to whitewater raft in the river's rapids. Anglers love the lower Subansiri, where they can catch Goonch and Trouts as well as Golden Mahseer fish.

The best time to visit is March-June, September-November

7. Living Root Bridges, Meghalaya

Living Root Bridges, Meghalaya

Living Root Bridges combine human efforts and natural phenomena in a unique combination. This place is just a few minutes away from Mawlynnong and will make you feel like you are in a fairy tale.

A beautiful, thick root can be used to commute from one end to the other after the plant shaping of the rubber tree's aerial roots.

The best time to visit is September to May.

8. Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh

Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh

Ziro is a hidden gem in Northeast India that offers peaceful vacations. This beautiful town is home to green pine-hills and rice fields. It offers quiet and peaceful vacations. The town is home to one of India's largest outdoor Indie music festivals, which is held every year.

The best time to visit is March-October

Looking for a Wilflife Safari? Book Kaziranga Safari Package Now!!

9. Loktak Lake in Manipur

Loktak Lake in Manipur

Loktak Lake, Manipur is the only floating national park. The Phumdis, which are floating islands found only here, can be seen here. These Phumdi are the foundations of many houses that cover large areas of the lake. Sangai Deer and other animals can be viewed. It is one of the most unusual places in Northeast India.

The best time to visit is November through March

These perfect tourist spots in the Northeast are a great way to see a different part of India. It is a rich tourist destination because of the diversity and customs and flora that you will encounter, as well as the fauna and flora. Renting a self-drive vehicle from Revv car rental service allows you to drive to many of these locations and eliminate the need for taxis.

#NorthEastTourPackages #NorthEastIndiaTour #NorthEastPackage #NorthEastHolidayPackages

0 notes

desdemonafictional · 6 years

Text

You’re Prettier in Pieces

or, Devi the Homicidal Maniac

JTHM : role reversal

part two on Ao3

Warning for pretty explicit and intimate violence

Devi buys groceries. She’s new to the neighborhood, it’s not a good neighborhood but at least it’s a self-absorbed suburban kind of poverty rather than the desperate meanness of the apartments she’s occupied thus far in her adult life. Her new house is the only thing she can afford with her savings, and it’s a rat’s nest to be quite frank. She buys Lysol and bactine and rags and thinks of all its old corners and how tired her elbows are going to be by tomorrow, and ignores the cashier’s advances with gritted teeth. She doesn’t think she is going to make this place a home. She’s too tired for anything that sentimental. She just wants it to be livable.

Devi does not sleep well. She moves her bed from one end of the room to the other, which does nothing. She buys soothing CDs and chamomile tea, both of which she hates. She boards up the bedroom windows. And then, because it’s so satisfying, she boards up the rest of the windows too. She still does not sleep.

Her new house has a basement, which she uses to store her easels and canvases. There are rats in the darkness. She is not afraid of rats, but she doesn’t like them either. She lays out rat traps under the old furniture and sheets and she waits, and she waits, and. The traps gather dust. The cheese goes hard and green. Devi stands in the midst of the mess, tapping her foot on the sagging floor, and hears even now the rustling in the walls. Her traps lie where she left them.

When the thug in the alley backs her up against a corner, Devi does what she learned to do in art school and lashes out, slams the heel of her palm up into his nostrils and crushes his face. She can feel the cartilage crunching against the blow, bone shattering, sinuses collapsing - the whole thing caves like old fruit, and she’s left heaving with the aftermath of adrenaline as he gurgles and twitches on the pavement. She watches his eyes roll back into her head and she thinks - should I be strong enough to do that?

Devi paints, and she paints, and when she runs out of canvas she just tears bookshelves from the walls and starts painting there, desperate to drain the thing in her head into paint. There is a trap door in her basement floor. She descends into the darkness like Hecate carrying her torch into the underworld, flashlight squeezed tight in her hand.

Devi doesn’t know how to be quiet and keep her head down. When the world pushes on her, she pushes back.

Devi covers the walls in grappling monsters and childhood nightmares, working through the night and into the indistinguishable day, closed inside of her boarded windows and buried underneath the earth. She hasn’t taken a job in weeks. Maybe more. She forgets to pay the electricity but the lights stay on, she forgets to pay the water but the water keeps coming. She buys cheap food. She’s never eaten much.

Devi wrenches her sticky fist free of a stranger’s eye socket and stands, wobbling, under the light of the Seven-Eleven fluorescents. Fluid drips down her knuckles. Did she do that?

Tenna runs into her as she’s picking up a new work shirt from the mall, and she’s a whirl of enthusiasm as she leads Devi over to the slushie kiosk and buys her a drink and berates her for never answering her phone, honestly Devi I know you get tunnel vision when you’re working but you couldn’t spare one minute for your old pal Tenna? Devi doesn’t know what to say - she can’t remember the last time she heard the phone ring. It’s been six months, Tenna says, a hint of accusation finally slipping through her forced cheer, I was starting to think you died or something.

Devi watches the man who just cooked her dinner claw at his own neck, eyes bulging. The trachea is collapsed. No matter how hard he sucks there’s no air getting through that ruined pipe. The skin blooms red and purple in the shape of her fingers. He claws madly, tearing himself open, and Devi imagines that she can see the red and purple veins tearing underneath his greedy fingers. He should have kept his hands to himself. She wipes her hand on her thigh and pops another shrimp puff into her mouth.

Devi meets a guy at the art store on her side of town, the new cashier, sharp like a knife in every sense of the metaphor, from his cutting cheekbones to his gloved fingers to his dry, relentless commentary. He says it’s the only job he can get with half an art degree. He throws in a couple texture sponges for free and tells her that when he burns this place to the ground he’ll be sure to grab a box of copics for her.

Devi observes a moving truck through a crack in the slatted window. Neighbors. Nothing good comes of neighbors. Walking around on her lawn, trying to look in her windows. Watching her house. Nothing good.

Devi pushes her hair off her sweat-slicked forehead, smearing tacky blood all over herself. When did her hair get this long? She pauses in the middle of wrenching a man’s teeth out of his jaw and goes to find some scissors, she knows she has some scissors, maybe she left them with the barista in the other room.

The basement only seems to go deeper and deeper. Each time she searches for a trap door she finds one, stairs and endless stairs, deep enough into the earth that she cannot help but know that she is lost in the stomach of some primeval behemoth, some gravedirt angler fish, navigating its hungry intestines. Devi looks up from her work to find that she no longer knows how she came to live here.

in the afternoon sunshine, Devi offers the husband a glass of lemonade with dust all muddied down at the bottom. His wife sags listless against the moving truck, glassy eyes and withered limbs. Nothing good comes of neighbors. Even now her skin is crawling at the thought of them watching her, monitoring her, with their inscrutable human desires. The husband is bent over the trunk of their car, scrounging in the junk for the CD he says would have made him a rock star if it wasn’t for the little snot, and Devi is reaching out for his neck, for the column of vertebrae that will snap like a wishbone under her hand - when the kid wanders out of the house. Their eyes meet. He has these big watery eyes, these little-red-riding-hood eyes, clutching his teddy bear to his tiny chest. For a half second the two of them freeze in place, watching each other. She can almost hear his heart slamming frantic against his ribs. His huge watery eyes are reflecting her nightmare shape back at her, the monster that will haunt his sleep for weeks after this moment is over, the inhuman inscrutable thing that holds his life in her paint-stained palms. Slowly, she lowers her hand. Not today, she decides. Another day, perhaps.

When the paintings start to talk back to her, Devi only talks over them.

The walls are a rotting fresco of brains and oil paint, and she cannot stop adding to them. She cannot stop. She doesn’t know why, but it’s imperative - it’s dire - that she not stop. It isn’t finished, she tells herself. I’ve just got to finish it.

They sit on his car on the cliff over the city and watch the stars through the smog, a purple and white world rendered clean and lovely in the darkness. It all looks so beautiful from up here, she says, her hands warm against the rust-spotted metal. He frowns up at the sky, dark circled eyes and bitter thin lips. A beautiful lie, he says. A concrete blemish.

Devi waits for him to let her down, like all the others. She waits, and she waits, and she waits.

I’m glad I asked you, she says, and she leans in. She leans in to meet him half way with his parted lips and his wide eyes, and - he pulls away, ducking down into the cage of his skinny arms, breathing hard. I’m sorry, he says, I’m sorry, you’re so - relentlessly magnificent and I’m just - I -

The walls are whispering to her, all the painted white mouths and fresco teeth in a hissing chorus, telling her how sweet he is, how naïve, how precious. Your work, the walls hiss, think of your work. How will you work with this sweet lovely thing distracting you? Dragging you away from the house? Taking you away from your work?

Devi watches her own knuckles bend and crack as if they belong to someone else.

Kill him, the walls whisper, kill him like the others. They’re all prettier in pieces.

The glass in the mirror shatters as his head cracks into it, a fracture that blinks back at her with a menagerie of endless eyes, her own eyes. She can feel his pulse in her hand, the wild rabbit thump. She could break him with a twitch, all his hollow bird bones and razor edges. She never holds them like this, this closely, never long enough to hear their rabbit fast hearts in her palm.

I could keep him, she thinks. I could keep him. Just until he disappoints me.

He licks his lips, nervous tick, and he says, So you - you weren’t joking about the murder stuff I guess. His hand trembles, but it settles over her wrist, just lightly enough that she almost can’t feel it. You should know this isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. For me.

The walls howl. They seem to throb all around her, stretching and writhing, reaching for her. Devi hooks her fingers inside of his mouth to hold it open and silent, watching the thick heave of his throat from the inside as he swallows. She could break him. She could keep him. She could tear him open.

Devi is a screaming manic ragged collection of compulsions, the trigger and the finger itching on the trigger, and the only thing left of her now is her want and her resentment. She hunches her back against the howling of the walls. Let them howl! She knows what she wants! She’ll have what she wants and this thing that suckers at her fingers and screams for her attention can eat its gruesome oily heart out.

Devi looks down at the hand on her wrist, the bony fingers, fraying gloves. The pale knuckles almost look swollen against the spun-glass thinness of the bones.

They all look prettier in pieces. Bite sized. Manageable. Johnny has been sweet so far, but even he is ugly up close, a collection of blemishes held together with string. The difference is only that his ugly interests her. Endears her. Why can’t people be like paintings? Malleable? Perfectible? There is only the work and there is only the work and so she’ll keep him. She’ll keep him.

The knuckles first, she decides. The knuckles first, and then the eyes.

#jthm #devi d

45 notes · View notes