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mysterykidscasefiles · 4 years

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

Summary: Norman, Neil, Coraline, Wybie, Raz and Lili arrive at Grunkle Stan’s Summer Camp with the hope of having a summer of fun, or in the case of the two Psychonauts, with the intent of investigating a psychic disturbance. When they meet two twins that seem to be experts on the secrets of Gravity Falls, they find themselves reluctantly teaming up. But how much can they actually trust each other? There are secrets in this town, but more surprising are the secrets being kept from each other.

Table of Contents

Chapter 23: Lost and Found

“What? B-but that’s not possible!” Wybie exclaimed as he stared flabbergasted at the old cabin in the giant tree. “We walked away from it! In a straight line! How can we be back here?”

Coraline placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I know, Wyborn, believe me, I know.” Coraline looked miffed, but not quite as freaked out as her friend.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Wybie continued in frustration. “I built this compass myself and we only traveled east! We couldn’t have made it back here!”

Dipper rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This happens sometimes, but don’t freak out. Actually, we’re lucky. In this forest, we could have ended up in worse places than here.”

“What do you mean?” Norman asked. “Has this happened to you before?”

“A few times,” Mabel said with a shrug. “It happens sometimes when we get lost or when we go too deep into the forest. It’s like the forest doesn’t want us to leave.”

Mabel’s tone was as cheerful as always and it seemed out of place for the situation. Raz wasn’t sure if it was comforting that she wasn’t worried, or if the girl just had an underdeveloped sense of danger.

“You two talk like the forest is alive or something,” Wybie said.

“It is alive, genius,” Lili said while rolling her eyes. “The forest is made out of trees and trees are alive.”

“That’s not what he meant, and you know it,” Coraline said, jumping to her friend’s defense. “He meant the twins talk like the forest has a conscience.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dipper said, “But sometimes it sure seems like it… wants to keep us here.”

“What do you guys think we should do?” Norman asked the twins. “You two know the forest better than we do.”

“Well… we have to stop relying on our eyes,” Dipper said. “It’s only going to confuse us more.”

“And forget about common sense,” Mabel added. “It's useless here. Right is left and left is right. Backwards can be forwards and going in circles might as well be going straight.”

Dipper nodded. “The best thing to do would be to wait for nightfall so we can use the stars to guide us out. If we try and get out the conventional way then we’ll end up wandering around the forest until we pass out or get lost somewhere worse. We're lucky we keep coming back to this tree. One time Mabel and I wondered so far it became dark in the middle of the day.”

Mabel's smile faltered. "It wasn't a normal kind of darkness. There were no clouds or stars."

"How did you guys get out?" Neil asked with rapt attention.

Mabel glanced at Dipper, who has a far-off look in his eyes. “We’re not sure…” Dipper admitted. “To this day we still aren’t sure what happened. It was so dark that I couldn’t see Mabel even though she was standing right next to me. Luckily we had flashlights so we could walk without running into the trees. We were walking for about an hour, probably getting even more lost, when we heard a scratching sound coming to our left. When I shined the flashlight on where the noise came from we saw a small arrow scratched into the bark of the tree. It was fresh, so we knew something had just been right next to us when it had made the arrow.”

Did you follow the arrow?” Neil asked.

“We didn’t have much choice,” Dipper admitted. “Up to this point we were wandering aimlessly and I don’t think we could have gotten more lost. A few minutes later, we heard another scratching sound off to the side, but when we turned our flashlight towards it, we couldn’t see anyone. When we looked closer at the tree, there was another arrow carved in the bark. This continued to happen and we kept following the arrows until the sky started to lighten again and we could see the sun. No matter how hard we tried, we never saw who…. or what helped us.”

“I saw fur!” Mabel exclaimed eagerly. “I’m pretty sure whoever helped us had fur...I think. It was pretty dark.”

Dipper shrugged. “Those are the only things we have to go on. It might have had fur and it was obviously agile enough to avoid our flashlight.”

“You guys have seen a lot of strange things, haven’t you?” Raz asked thoughtfully.

“It’s this town,” Dipper admitted. “It’s weird… really weird. Mabel and I have seen things we can’t explain. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can, but I didn’t want to drag you guys into it. As you can see, it can get dangerous.”

Raz entertained the possibility of searching through Dipper’s memories the way he had Coraline’s. There may be something in Dipper’s memories that would lead them to the disturbance they were searching for. However, something gave Raz pause.

He was still feeling guilty about the way he rummaged through Coraline’s memories and caused her to have a nightmare the previous night. He had wanted to find information that might lead him to the psychic disturbance, not to retraumatize her.

In addition, Raz didn’t really know what he was looking for. He knew Dipper and Mabel had seen weird things in the town, but would they really have information about the psychic disturbance they were looking for? There were also restrictions around looking through civilian memories, especially minors, Unless Raz had reason to believe they had information related to his mission, he wasn’t supposed to go through a civilian’s memories.

Raz decided that he would first try to ask Mabel and Dipper more questions about the mysterious things they have seen in Gravity Falls, as well as try and look around the town. If Raz discovered that Dipper or Mabel might know something related to the disturbance, and refused to share, then he would search through one of their memories.

“So, assuming we aren’t going to be saved by a potentially hairy monster that carves arrows into trees, what should we do?” Coraline asked.

“We are just getting ourselves more lost by wandering around,” Dipper said. “As much as I hate to be in this forest at night, we might have to wait for the stars to guide us out. That’s usually the safest way once we’re already lost.”

"We have to stay out here until it gets dark?” Wybie asked nervously, glancing around.

“I know it’s not the best plan,” Dipper agreed, sounding just as worried. “But it’s the only thing I can think of that wont get us more lost.”

“Actually, Lili is really good at reading a forest,” Raz spoke up. “The tree’s look different the farther you go in, and Lili can notice little differences like that. We don't have to wait. We can follow her out of here. After all, she was the one that knew we were going in the wrong direction from the very beginning.”

Lili didn’t react to Raz’s vote of confidence, but he could tell she was pleased. Raz knew Lili could use her herbaphony to get them back home easily.

At least, he hoped it would be easy. They had used a compass, gone straight, and still ended up back where they started.

“Hold on, it’s because of Lili we’re out here in the first place,” Coraline pointed out. "How can we trust her not to get us more lost?"

"Listen, Blue." Lili sneared. "I'm the only one that can get us out of here within the next few hours. So unless you want to wait until it gets dark and the Little Dipper can use the Big Dipper to get us home, then you'll shut your trap and follow me."

Coraline raised an eyebrow at Lili at the same time Mabel broke into a fit of giggles.

"Mabel, it wasn't that funny," Dipper said in annoyance.

"No Dip, it was hilarious!" Mabel choked out, barely able to breathe. “Little Dipper!”

"Well then..." Coraline said, a smile tugging on her lips. "I guess anything is better than nothing. Lead the way."

Lili turned around and walked past the giant tree. She was heading in the opposite direction they had been traveling in. There was hesitation from the group at first, but then everyone began following her. Raz tried to suppress the feeling inside of him that told him they were going the wrong way. He trusted Lili and she knew what she was doing.

Lili led them west, then north. Raz swore they passed the same trees that they had seen just minutes ago, but he kept quiet. There was one point where Lili led them around in what he thought was a definite circle only for them to end up in a completely new area.

Lili was frowning the entire time, a confused look on her face. She looked as lost as everyone else, but she seemed to put her faith in something other than her sense of direction.

They were traveling for a half an hour, but even Coraline held back her sarcastic commentary. Raz knew what Coraline was thinking without having to read her mind: Lili had either gotten them closer to home, or twice as lost.

Finally, the trees began to thin and Dipper let out a squeak of excitement. "I know where we are!" he shouted. "We're almost to the town!"

“How did you do that?” Neil asked Lili in awe.

“Like Raz said, I’m just really good at understanding plants,” Lili explained with a shrug.

“Man, it’s going to be so easy navigating the forest with you around!” Dipper said with a laugh.

Lili glanced at Dipper from the corner of her eyes, her eyebrows twitching upwards in surprise.

“Yeah, not bad Plant-girl,” Coraline said, nudging Lili with her shoulder playfully. “Looks like you are useful for something.”

“At least one of us is,” Lili said with a smirk.

Coraline rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. After a moment, Coraline’s expression faltered. “So umm…” she began awkwardly. “I guess I should have trusted you earlier when you said you knew the right way to go. That was my bad.”

Raz had a feeling that was as close to an apology that Lili was going to get, but from the look on Lili’s face, that was more than she had been expecting.

Lili shrugged. “Whatever, Blue. One of these days you’re going to figure out that I’m always right.”

Rax placed his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders. “And if she’s ever wrong, we’ll get the bravest or the most gullible person we know to break the news to her, so the rest of us can run for cover.”

Lili gave him a shove. “Shut it, Raz!”

Raz chuckled, stumbling a bit. He grabbed Lili’s hand in his own as they walked, and she allowed him to. This was the first time Raz noticed that Lili was slowly starting to relax around the other kids.

Raz glanced at his girlfriend and then back at the other kids. Raz knew this mission wasn't anything like what he and Lili had expected. They went into this thinking it would be a simple recon mission. They were just supposed to find the psychic disturbance and report back to Agent Nein.

Now, they were no closer to finding the psychic disturbance, but they did find a ghost of a psychic kid with false memories, a blue haired girl who was being hunted by a terrifying otherworldly creature, a magic cabin that used to belong to witches, and an even stranger forest.

Raz hoped that whatever happened next, he and Lili would be able to handle it on their own, and the other kids wouldn’t get themselves involved. However, with this group’s track record for seeking out dangerous and unusual situations, Raz wasn’t holding his breath.

End of Act 1

I actually finished act 1? It’s been how many years and act 1 is finally complete?! I’m still having trouble believing it. This story still has two more acts to it. I have a lot of Act 2 written, but it was written a while ago, so I have to do a lot of rewriting. But at least I have a pretty good outline.

Thank you all for all your comments, they really keep me going and inspire me to continue to work on this story. Let me know what you guys thought of act 1.

If act 1 is all about meeting each other, then act 2 is about learning to trust each other, and act three… well, I wont say too much there.

If you want to support me, here is the link to my ko-fi

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#Mystery Kids #Mystery Kids Case Files #gravity falls #coraline #paranorman #psychonauts #Whispering Rock fic

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neopuff · 4 years

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social

ship: sasha/milla word count: ~2050 summary: Milla invites Sasha out to dinner. warning: first Psychonauts fic! probably the first of many. takes place several years before the first game

[ao3 link]

He didn’t enjoy paperwork, but he certainly enjoyed the satisfaction of completing a tedious, draining task, so Sasha was happy to climb through the mountain of paperwork that awaited him after returning from his last mission with Agent Vodello.

It was only a day long mission and Milla opted to sleep on the train rides there and back, so he’d been working diligently ever since they returned. Which, as he looked at his watch, was over twelve hours ago.

Time flies when you’re bored out of your mind, he supposed. And there was still a hefty stack to go through, so he didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Of course, planning on something didn’t always guarantee it happening. Especially not when Milla Vodello had her mind set on something else. Which was exactly the impression he got when his office door slowly opened and she poked her head inside, smiling as he looked up at her.

“Hello.”

“Sasha, Darling,” Milla said as she floated towards him. “How long have you been sitting there?”

“A few hours.”

“Have you eaten? Or rested at all?” She crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet onto the tiled floor.

He pushed up his sunglasses and pointed to a pile next to him. Milla frowned as she looked over the contents - three empty coffee cups and the wrappers for a few granola bars.

“You couldn’t even reuse the cups?”

“I was busy.” Sasha shrugged, continuing to write while she spoke. The sort-of-expected-but-still-technically-unexpected interruption wasn’t going to slow him down if he could help it.

“Let’s go out.”

“Let me rephrase - I’m still busy,” he corrected, not looking up at her.

Milla stepped around his desk and floated up to take a seat on top of the pile of papers he still needed to go through, giving him the option to TK her off of there or to relent to her wishes. “Milla, you’re in my way.”

“Oh, is that so?” She feigned surprise and put a hand on her cheek. “How silly of me! I am not sure how this could’ve happened…”

He sighed and looked up at her face, taking in her current outfit as he moved his gaze upwards. She was in more muted colors than usual, a pale blue dress that shimmered but didn’t blind. It wasn’t as distracting as some of her outfits, but there was a distracting feature on her face - she had deep, dark bags under her eyes.

Come to think of it, she had bags under her eyes while they were on their mission, too. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but he knew she’d slept plenty while they traveled, so it stuck out to him.

“Are you alright?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Milla mirrored his look. “What do you mean?”

“You look...tired.”

She looked surprised for a moment and pulled a compact out of her purse, checking herself out in the mirror. She scoffed and frowned after seeing herself. “I guess I need to try a different concealer...or maybe just get a new setting spray.”

Sasha took a mental note of the cosmetology terms that he knew nothing about. “You were sleeping just fine on the train. Is something going on?”

Milla smiled despite her outward appearance - flattered by how concerned he was. “No, no, I just haven’t been sleeping well. I slept much better knowing you were in the seat next to me.”

He frowned at that and blushed the lightest tinge of pink. “Do you...I can come over if you think it will help. If you want.”

She chuckled a bit and leaned towards him. “If you’re so worried about me, Darling, then you should come out with me!”

Sasha huffed out a breath and considered her point. He wasn’t working on anything particularly urgent, and he was quite concerned. Plus, he did enjoy spending time with Milla - just the two of them being social.

Not too social. But social.

He cracked his back and stood up, shifting his pen to the exact position it was in when he’d arrived. “Alright.”

Milla let out a small squeal - too loud and she knew he’d change his mind - and floated off his papers to give him a quick hug. Her arms around his neck always felt nice. She made him feel warm inside with even the briefest of physical contact and Sasha wondered if it made her feel the same way.

“And before you even suggest it, I’m not going to a club.”

“Darling, it wasn’t even on my mind!” Milla chuckled as she hovered next to him. “I don’t want you running off, so I thought we could just get dinner. Somewhere nice!”

He pulled out a cigarette and started walking towards the door. “Do you have somewhere specific in mind?”

She smiled. “I do.”

Rather than explain, she grabbed his hand and floated out the door, tugging him behind her so fast he barely had a chance to close his office door. Normally he’d lock it, but he was sure he’d be coming back here after dinner anyway. And as she dragged him along, Sasha felt himself staring at their entwined hands and putting more thought than necessary into the sensation. His cheeks tinged pink as he considered how much he was focusing on physical contact with his partner lately.

She was always very touchy and though it caught him off guard when they first started working together, now he was so used to it that he experienced a slight case of touch deprivation if he didn’t see her for a few weeks. Not that he’d ever tell her that...she’d probably tell him to let other people hug him, too. There was absolutely no chance of that happening.

He realized belatedly that she’d been talking while they walked to the door, and she let go of him to push it open. His hand felt cold.

The drive was filled with light chit-chat and her continuing to not tell him where they were going. It didn’t really matter since she was driving, and she knew what food he liked so he didn’t doubt they’d have food he’d eat. Even when she brought him to parties or clubs that weren’t his style, she always made sure there was something there for him.

Milla smiled brightly as they pulled up to the restaurant. Sasha looked out the windshield and immediately recognized it, unable to stop himself from smiling. “Dehaene’s? Is this a special occasion?”

She parked and smirked at him, shyly tugging at her hair. “Does it have to be?”

He leaned back. “We haven’t been here since I was promoted to Senior Agent.” Sasha raised an eyebrow at her. “...should I be paying tonight?”

“Oh, Darling,” Milla reached over and pressed on his seatbelt buckle. “You were always going to pay!”

He smirked as she got out of the car and considered what she might want to tell him. Either she was being promoted finally as well (he felt she should’ve been promoted after their mission in Barcelona, but Zanotto claimed it ‘wasn’t the right time’) or she wanted to talk about something more...personal. Probably the promotion.

Sasha got out of the car and followed her to the door. He should order the same champagne they had when he got his promotion - she’d probably like that.

Dehaene’s was a French restaurant about an hour’s drive from the Motherlobe. It was important to keep their headquarters in a remote location, but that meant food options were limited unless they went for a bit of a drive (or flight, but Sasha was against using the jet for anything other than missions). The food menu was small, wine and champagne menu thicker than his arm, and the atmosphere was dark and romantic with low lights from fake candles and classical music on a constant loop. It was a frequent date/celebration spot for Psychonauts, to the point where they started getting discounts if the host recognized them.

Lucky for them, it wasn’t busy - being a Wednesday at 9:30 probably had something to do with it. He and Milla slid into a booth and he smiled at the gleeful expression she gave him as the waiter walked away.

“So this is a special occasion.”

“Of course it is!” Milla laughed and leaned into her palm. “I just haven’t decided when to tell you, Darling.”

Sasha rolled his eyes. “Perhaps I could guess and save you the trouble of deciding.”

“Alright, go ahead,” Milla smiled. She knew that he knew and she was just excited to hear it out loud.

Before he could guess, the waiter came back and asked about drinks. Sasha thought back to their first time here together - when they’d returned from their first successful mission and he was feely cocky enough to ask the sommelier for a recommendation. He smiled. “A bottle of Dom Pérignon, if you will.”

The waiter nodded and left to grab their drinks while Milla just gaped at him. “Sasha! I hope you didn’t think I was kidding about you paying!”

“Well, I thought you would want to celebrate your promotion to Senior Agent with something nice.”

She couldn’t even pretend to disagree with that and opted to reach over and squeeze his hands with her own. “Thank you, Darling! I’m so excited! ”

“You should be.” He turned his hands over to squeeze hers back. “This has been a long time coming. I still say you should’ve-”

“Ah, ah,” she interrupted. “No complaining about how it should’ve happened sooner. Don’t you know what this means? ”

“Assuming nothing’s changed since my promotion…” he mumbled. “Fifteen percent pay increase, the premium health care plan, access to all personnel files and company resources, and you get to-”

“- I get to choose my own missions!” She beamed at him and took her hands back, needing to move them around to properly express her excitement. “There’s been some psychic criminal activity in São Paulo, so I’m taking that and then I can see my family while I’m down there!”

He smiled. “I’m sure they’ll be excited to see you.” Though he was excited for her, there was a little thing nagging at his mind...she probably wouldn’t be gone for more than a few weeks, but usually they went on missions together. Did she want him to tag along? Meet her family?

The champagne arrived and they ordered their food - Milla excitedly gulped down two glasses of champagne before Sasha could even finish one. He liked wine, but he was always a slow drinker.

“So when are you leaving for Brazil?”

Milla tapped her glasses. “I was hoping to go soon...and I know you have vacation time saved up, but I don’t want to rush you. You probably have a lot of work to finish.”

That answered his question. “I didn’t realize you wanted me to come along.”

“Of course, Darling!” Milla smiled brightly. “My family would absolutely love you. And we’d only be there for a few days.” She paused for a moment. “Ah...if you want to come, of course! You could always leave after the mission if you didn’t want to use your time off, I just thought it could be fun. Relaxing, even.”

“It’s been a while since my last vacation,” he mused. “I’ll be bringing my laptop, though.”

Milla let out another squeak and grabbed one of his hands again. “Oh, Sasha, I could kiss you! This will be so much fun!”

Before he had a chance to tell her she could certainly kiss him if she felt so inclined - their food arrived, and conversation shifted. But he was very excited to travel with her, especially considering this would be their first vacation together. Maybe he could take her to his home, next, though it’d been many years since he’d last spoken to his father.

Regardless, he was satisfied in knowing that she just expected him to come along with her. Though their relationship wasn’t officially more than a...professional friendship, he really enjoyed their time together and it seemed she did, too. Maybe this vacation could lead to that personal conversation he was thinking about earlier in the day.

#psychonauts #sasha nein #milla vodello #scienceparty #science party #carrofics #yeah this is the worlds speediest restaurant its fine

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brothermouzongaming · 4 years

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My Game Awards thoughts

I'm not going to cover everything that happened but I am going to go over some news breaks, my thoughts on the ceremony as a whole, some announcements we got/ ones we didn't, and maybe some "entitled gamer rage" just cause I can.

results for the awards here

The Xbox Series X announcement was unexpected but it is a nice jab from Microsoft to get the idea of the console in the minds of people even if it's just the physical look alongside what I can only assume was supposed to display its power and graphic fidelity. The ball is in Sony's court, I can't wait to see what they come up with. I suspect E3 2020 will be when we get something similar to what Microsoft did but maybe even bigger since they've had the time to work on it by then.

Let's stay on Microsoft for a minute cause that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 trailer was... a trip. If Microsoft keeps this up I'm definitely going to have a difficult choice to make come holiday 2020. The tone and visuals of the trailer as a whole are disturbing and gorgeous all at the same time. I was captivated the entire time and love the more psychological/mythological mesh they're really diving into. I literally had to go and watch it before I moved on to other topics while writing this.

That shark game Man Eater got another trailer, I am kind of surprised that hasn't come out yet. Not hyped or anything but I mean it does look like fun the way Untitled Goose Game does. Woooah here she comes (sorry couldn't help myself).

No More Heroes 3 coming out with the big weird trailer. Seriously I was so intrigued and caught off-guard. Touche Nintendo, every day you bring me closer to getting a Switch. Bastards.

GodFall a self-proclaimed "slasher-looter" action rpg by Gearbox Productions dropped a vague, but beautiful, cinematic teaser. It also subtly drops that it will come to PS5 and PC. This is the first mention/marketing for the PS5 at all, and it's through a short CGI trailer that tells us nothing. Weird.

Ghost of Tsushima got a great cinematic/ gameplay trailer that was teased at the State of Play event Sony just had. It was entertaining and gorgeous but I need more gameplay, still very interested.

Sons of the Forest This is interesting because it appears to be a very interesting step forward after The Forest's 2014 release. Definitely leaning into the blend of mysticism and body horror with the new trailer emphasizing on a sexually confusing four-legged woman and several fleshy faceless husks clearly intended to be enemies. I gotta try The Forest especially if this one fulfills the fantastical horror it advertises.

Control not only won Best Art Direction and was nominated for many more awards, but they also dropped new content. Bless. Expeditions are a new repeatable mission type that sends you into a Jukebox (if you've played it you'll bear with me here) where you can get new and high-grade mods as well as an outfit. This requires you to scavenge the world for the coins that get you into the...Jukebox...world place. The rewards seem meager, like what is going to keep me coming once I beat the highest tier and get the outfit? That said, it's a nice reason to pop Control back in and boy is it nice, even better with the patches that improve performance and finally let the game flow the way it's supposed to. I wish it was a little deeper and maybe there's more to it than we know now, but it's clear that this is supposed to hold players over until the first DLC drops. Not a complaint, more of a matter of fact.

Wolf Among Us 2 was announced...interesting... I guess they really are pushing that whole "TellTale is back" thing huh. We'll see, they can't afford to fuck that up. It's clear this is a tactical move to build hype and get people wanting that game they've been wanting since 2013. Why not come back with the one game you know anyone who cares about "TellTale" will, therefore, care about? Makes sense to me, don't fuck it up new guys.

Where the fuck was my Batman announcement? The Harry Potter rpg that we know is in development? BioMutant, where the hell is that game? There are so many games in development and some even close to release that really could use some shine on a stage like this. Since I'm out to prove a point: Last of Us 2? Marvel's Avengers? RE3? Dying Light 2? Vampire Masquerade 2? Watch Dogs Legion? Psychonauts 2? Moons of Madness? Digimon Survive? Since we're so focussed on turning back time (more on that later). OddWorld? Little Nightmares 2? I hope my disgustingly exacerbated point is made, we could've had so much more. One or two of any of those games would've made it way much better.

My point is if I'm Geoff Keighley and I'm ending one of the biggest broadcasted gaming-related events of the year and it ends with a FAST AND THE FURIOUS GAME? You bet your ass I'm taking however much Google paid for all those bullshit (though entertaining) Stadia commercials and I'm sweetening the pot for Sony, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, WB Montreal, Capcom, literally anyone for an exclusive news drop of some kind. I'm sure any of those studios could've been persuaded in the name of publicity and hype and could've met/exceeded the excitement levels for a Fast and the Furious game. Fucking pathetic, is this 2009? Did you see those graphics?

Also...Green Day...? Seriously did I wake up in 2009 and no one told me? You have CHVRCHES on stage, you're handing out awards to bands and composers, you have a full orchestra for more musical numbers than even I'd care for...and you thought Green Day should be the headliner. I understand it was more of a personal choice by Geoff since he's a big fan but fucking hell go to a show don't subject us to it.

All in all, this night was pretty underwhelming with some flashes of entertainment strewn throughout. Yes, you have huge moments like Microsoft announcing the Series X, but when those are followed by minutes of Stadia commercials, moments like "Teh ken" and "This is gaming it's supposed to be free. Free love," and the myriad of obscure and nothing announcements it really shows that there are just some demons this award show can't seem to shake. No, I don't expect full gameplay reveals and walkthroughs but there is a middle ground between twelve-second trailers for new IPs and full-on presentations.

Ikumi Nakamura was there so I'm gonna start demanding she appears at all Game awards/ presentations thank you very much.

edit: all this ranting bullshit and I never mention that in my opinion, I think DMC5 should've taken GOTY. I totally understand why Sekiro won because it's great. It's deep, beautiful, visceral, rewarding; but so is DMC5. What tipped the scale was how much fun I had playing DMC5 and no Sekiro isn't for conventional "fun" but I thoroughly enjoyed DMC more and that really is what it boils down to when everything else is so evenly matched.

#The Game Awards #Microsoft #Xbox Series X #Sony #PS5 #No More Heroes 3 #Control #Man Eater #Wolf Among Us 2 #Godfall #Ghost of Tsushima #Sons of the Forest #Fast and the Furious

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shirlleycoyle · 3 years

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WTF is Wearable Ketamine?

When I first heard about wearable ketamine a few weeks ago, I almost spit out my cocktail at the person who had casually mentioned it to me. I had no idea how it worked, but the concept alone seemed outrageous—was this a new fashion trend, like smartwear for psychonauts? Would I one day spot club kids sporting it under leather harnesses while standing in line at Berghain? “No, no,” laughed the person I was speaking to, shaking her head. “I’m afraid it’s not as sexy as that.”

So what the fuck is wearable ketamine? The answer, it turns out, lies at the bleeding edge of ketamine therapy, and while the futuristic-sounding device is still a few years away from hitting the market, it could unravel yet another layer of this extremely useful—yet deeply mysterious—drug.

Bexson Biomedical, a California-based company, is already in the process of making such a device. Here’s how it works, in theory: wearable ketamine will be a Bluetooth-controlled device that you can stick on your skin, most likely your belly area. The device will contain a disposable cartridge filled with liquid ketamine, which is injected via a tiny needle into the layer of fat between your skin and muscle.

This is called a subcutaneous injection, and works similarly to an insulin pen. It is less painful than injecting into your muscle or veins, and the drug is absorbed into your bloodstream at a slower rate—but much faster and more effectively than intranasally. Each cartridge will hold 70 to 200 milligrams of ketamine, released slowly over a 24-hour period. This comes out to around 4 mg per hour, which is a low-dose—a typical k-hole dose is around 125mg—so no, you won’t be tripping balls. Instead, the company says the effects will be slightly less intense than drinking a glass of wine or martini.

A computer rendering of Bexson Biomedical's wearable ketamine delivery device

While much of the recent media hype around medical ketamine has so far centered around it as a breakthrough treatment for depression, wearable ketamine is intended for another condition that ketamine is remarkably good for: pain relief—specifically, acute postoperative pain following surgeries and other medical procedures. “The ‘ketamine for depression’ story has already been done, and we wanted to go where others have not,” said Gregg Peterson, co-founder of Bexson Biomedical. (Bexson also plans to target mental health conditions like depression at a later date.) The company is betting on the device getting FDA approval by 2026.

Right now, ketamine can be legally prescribed by doctors, but licensed ketamine therapy is prohibitively priced; an IV infusion at a ketamine clinic can cost up to a thousand dollars per session, and usually requires multiple rounds under the supervision of a doctor. While the company has not yet set a price for its device, FDA approval would potentially allow Medicare and insurance companies to cover the cost. Another factor is that the device will not require multiple doctor visits; rather, it can deliver a steady infusion of low-dose ketamine at home, thus potentially democratizing the pool of people who have access to this therapy.

One issue with ketamine injections is that they can cause pain, swelling, and redness on the injection site because of the drug’s high salt and acid content —(Peterson compares it to a “very salty orange juice.”) So Bexson also worked with leading ketamine researcher Jason Wallach to devise a novel formulation of ketamine they named “BB106” that has lower salt and PH levels, making it more comfortable for a steady stream of infusions. Subcutaneous injections are also more wholly absorbed by the body and more consistent in dosing compared to other methods, like intranasal ketamine sprays and lozenges. “A lot of people suffer from pain and it’s no secret we need better and varied approaches,” said Wallach. “As [Janssen Pharmaceutica founder] Paul Janssen would say, ‘The patients are waiting.’”

Bexson Biomedical’s biggest bet—and what it is pitching to its investors—is that wearable ketamine will chip away at the US opioid crisis, a grim epidemic that has been raging for the past two decades and shows no signs of abating. According to the CDC, opiate overdoses claimed 50,042 lives in 2019, with over 40% of deaths involving a prescription opioid like oxycontin. In comparison, ketamine is a powerful pain reliever that has been used as an anesthetic since the 1960s, and there is some evidence that low-dose ketamine is as effective as opiates like morphine for controlling acute pain.

One of the most fascinating differences between ketamine and opioids is their effects on memory, which plays a huge role in managing pain and addiction. “Pain is a learned experience,” said Jeffrey Becker, a Bexson Biomedical co-founder and ketamine researcher. “Ketamine creates a psychological distance from pain so that it is [a] signal but not necessarily having a grip on your consciousness,” said Becker, “while opioids accelerate the development of chronic pain.”

Pain following surgery, a $12 billion market and the leading cause of opioid abuse and addiction, is “the gateway to an enormous amount of suffering and death,” Becker said. By targeting this gateway to addiction, Bexson hopes that patients who go home with their devices won’t need to use opioids—or at least be able to use less of them as a form of harm reduction, or “opiate-sparing” to use medical-speak.

“Ketamine is currently restricted to a hospital and that makes it very cumbersome,” agreed Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. While she was excited by the potential of wearable ketamine, she cautioned against idolizing it as a panacea—drawing a comparison to cannabis, another drug marketed as the “answer” to opioid addiction. “It’s like a fairytale: we want to believe in the magical properties, and ignore potential negative effects."

“Pain is very challenging to treat and saying this is the solution that can address the opiate crisis is very simplistic,” Dr. Volkow continued. “It’s much more complex than that.”

Long-term ketamine use can also lead to kidney and heart problems, as well as memory loss. A recent Stanford University research study also raised the possibility that ketamine’s antidepressant effects work through the brain’s opioid system—a surprising finding that suggests a complicated interaction between depression, pain, and addiction that researchers are still unpacking. Still, as Dr. Volkow pointed out, the probability that someone will get addicted to an opioid is much higher. Bexson also cites several safety precautions, including making sure only one patch can be worn at a time to prevent someone from pasting devices all over their body—a (hilarious) hack I hadn’t even considered.

Wearable ketamine could be game-changing, but its ultimate dent on the public health crisis of opioid addiction remains to be seen. When I met a fentanyl addict recently and told him about wearable ketamine, he laughed at the idea, but told me that he had gotten hooked to painkillers after surgery as a teenager. Now, he’s trying to kick his dope habit—and using ketamine to help the withdrawal suck less.

“Maybe my life would have turned out different if I had gotten this wearable ketamine thing instead of Oxys?” he said slowly. “Yeah… maybe.”

WTF is Wearable Ketamine? syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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skriaki · 4 years

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A Hat In Time REVIEW - "Unbelievably charming"

PLEASE NOTE: This game has very little story to spoil but I will be talking about the entire adventure, so consider yourself warned

RELEASED: 2017

FORMATS: PC, Mac, PS4, Xbone, Switch (review based on PC and Switch)

I debated long and hard how best to open this review, and in the end I decided that nothing introduces A Hat In Time better than its astonishing soundtrack. Though I’d been aware of the game since before it released, I never actively sought it out until I happened to watch the launch trailer. Not only is the kaleidoscope of levels and characters eye-catching, what stood out as truly special was Pascal Michael Stiefel’s music. The trailer features the game’s main theme, which is striking, energetic and playful, easily one of my favourite videogame themes of this generation, and a perfect encapsulation of everything A Hat In Time is about.

At the risk of spoiling the end of this review, I usually find that the hardest games to critique are the ones I love most. A review of a bad game almost writes itself, because all I have to do is point out the wonky mechanics, or boring story, or the fact that one or more of the developers are bigoted pieces of shit (ION FURY), or whatever. But when I try to sum up my opinion on an excellent game, it’s hard for me to maintain some level of objectivity. So I guess we should all go into this on the understanding that I freaking adore A Hat In Time.

As mentioned, what strikes you first is the sheer, weaponised cuteness that A Hat In Time wields like a sharpened umbrella. I think Nitro Rad put it best when he said the game was just unbelievably charming. How many soundtracks outside of Star Trek prominently feature theremins? Other than a tiny smidgen of slowdown in the larger areas (even on my reasonably beastly PC), ON SCREEN NOTE: THE SWITCH VERSION IS LOCKED TO 30FPS BUT I LOVE THE PORTABILITY it’s an explosion of visual and audio polish that would be impressive from a bigger studio, let alone a developer which originally relied on volunteers. From the moment Hat Kid wakes up in her time-travelling spaceship only to soon find herself stranded on a weird planet populated by surreal characters, the expectations have been set sky-high.

But this tiny quibble didn’t distract me for long, because the opening Mafia Town chapter gives you a bright and colourful seaside town to get lost in, with highlights including a sequence where you pretend to be a ghost and chase a terrified henchman, and an operatic 2D showdown against the mafia boss. I actually think Mafia Town might be the game’s weakest chapter overall, but that’s like being the worst port of Metal Gear Solid 3: still pretty fucking good. Afterwards comes Dead Bird Studio, where you have to help two rival directors film stunts to earn a prestigious award, with particular praise going to the hilarious murder mystery on a train. It’s very neat that the winning director is decided by how many collectables you gather in their respective levels. Then comes the game’s darkest sequence in Subcon Forest, which starts with Hat Kid literally selling her soul to a melodramatic demon who’s probably the standout performance in an entertaining voice cast. One of his levels is a startlingly spooky manor which honestly might be too scary for younger players. Although no game will ever be as scary as that one bit in Banjo-Kazooie (shark clip). Next, however, you get a relaxing change of pace with Alpine Skyline, which subverts the established level structure with a more open-ended village hub which made me think of the original Jak and Daxter. At this point you’ll have most of the hats, which makes it easier to scoop up enough time pieces to unlock the final chapter, which is a single level consisting of some fiendish platforming and a suitably spectacular boss. While the narrative’s sudden attempt to tie unrelated characters together during this last sequence feels a bit forced, I eventually warmed to it as a "look at all the friends we've made along the way" affair. Plus the chapter itself is undeniably climactic, and I couldn’t help get a little emotional when that phenomenal trailer music which I refuse to shut up about kicked in during the credits.

The Gears For Breakfast team have cited 6th-generation 3D platformers like Mario Sunshine and Psychonauts as their main inspiration, which is when 3D games arguably hit their stride, and their game flaunts those influences with pride without being afraid to forge its own identity. Hat Kid is not only adorably cheeky, with an expressive face that reminds me of Wind Waker, she can also jump, dive and walk on tightropes so that the platforming feels precise and forgiving, and she quickly picks up an arsenal of hats which grant various powers. This is one of those collectathons where I suggest speeding through most levels before coming back later with all the abilities unlocked, because some macguffins can seem tantalisingly just out of reach, but won’t actually be accessible without certain hats. All the powers are great, though, and see frequent use, from straightforward ones like the hat that makes you run faster to the one that lets you jump on ghost-blocks. They complement Hat Kid’s default moveset really well and getting a new hat always feels like a big moment. There are also badges, which grant similarly useful upgrades, but you can only equip a few at a time. This is one minor gripe I have: swapping between hats makes sense, because using them all at once would break the game, but some of the badges (such as one that lets you climb walls after a dive) just feel like basic features which make the game worse if you don’t equip them. Limiting how many badges I can use at once just adds a bit of unnecessary faffing about in the pause screen. Pro tip: buy the “no bonk” badge from the creepy merchant straight away and never look back.

From start to finish, I genuinely struggled to find meaningful problems with A Hat In Time. I could have forgiven a lot of problems for the fun and inventive situations the game threw at me, but I never had to. Instead I have to say I found myself wondering when a game had last struck me as being filled with so many little surprises and unnecessary extra touches, including an entire co-op mode that’s apparently a bit buggy but awesome nonetheless. Hat Kid mainly communicates through one-word sentences but stands out in a sea of platformer protagonists because of the obvious love that went into her animation and soundwork, and the game as a whole has an amazingly strong aesthetic. I was genuinely upset to find that the Hat Kid plush toys are currently out of stock. There’s not much of an overarching plot but each chapter tells its own story and feels distinct, and there isn’t any filler content even though you only need 25 out of 40 time pieces to reach the ending. This is definitely more forgiving than Yooka-Laylee, which has yet to let me fight the final boss. A Hat In Time has at least a few challenging sequences for completionists to endure, including a badge that makes you die in one hit if you hate yourself that much, but crucially that stuff is optional if you just want to have an adorable adventure without too much swearing.

I’ve tried very hard in this review not to come across as overly gushing, because no game is perfect and I definitely have a soft spot for ambitious indie projects. As someone who only really heard about the game once it was out, though, A Hat In Time snuck up on me with how impressive it is as a crowdfunded game. Despite the many obstacles described in interviews, Gears For Breakfast delivered a platformer which I honestly hope Nintendo takes a few notes from, given that Mario has had a bit of a monopoly on 3D platformers ever since the genre went out of vogue. Super Mario Odyssey represents the peak of what a big-budget 3D platformer can do, but A Hat In Time is undeniably impressive as a smaller project and I honestly prefer it in a lot of ways, not least of all because it packs so much charm into a small package and introduces the world to an lovable new platformer mascot. Even if Yooka-Laylee disappointed a lot of people, it’s still really cool to see games like A Hat In Time and Snake Pass giving Nintendo some competition again. After years of 8 and 16-bit indie games, there now seems to be a growing nostalgia for games from the early days of 3D, and as someone who grew up around that time, the prospect of new games that revive and improve ideas from that era is obviously thrilling.

Hyperbole aside, probably the greatest compliment I can give A Hat In Time is that it lives up to the standard of quality set by that theme music: beautiful, original and unrelentingly exciting.

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laughing-one · 4 years

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((Not about Bitcoin. Thiss is on fractal economics and fractal everything.. i have all the research now proving fractal universe also))

2 papers on fractal economics:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316646968_Demonstrating_Lorenz_Curve_Distribution_and_Increasing_Gini_Coefficient_with_the_Iterating_Koch_Snowflake_Fractal_Attractor

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316646767_Quantum_Mechanics_Information_and_Knowledge_all_Aspects_of_Fractal_Geometry_and_Revealed_in_an_Understanding_of_Marginal_Economics

((Had to edit the crap outta this one again. Still didn't fix the beginning which rushes off immediately into "tangent" land.. but it's finally "done"!! It might actually have ONE funny sentence in it now haha. Happy Hopeful Holonic Holidays!! Quadrupling it up like infinitely scaleable tetrahedra to the heart of the matters that might matter.. somewhat elatedly and a-ideologically yours truly! Nobody!

Links in comments to Blair MacDonald's research -- dovetailing this article by DW -- and others attempting to replace zero sum, winner vs loser game theory models with symbiotic, fractal, negentropic and regenerative re-mappings of social structure/economics/science/emotion etc.. science may be now be uncovering higher-order dynamics at work. The non-dua insight balanced thru golden ratio physics?? Or what Drew Hempel -- borrowing from Taosist texts -- calls 'complimentary opposites'?? Maybe not to him lol, seeing as he concludes -- similar to David F. Noble in "The Religion of Technology" -- that western logic has reached its exclusive limits. This being demonstrated thru the inherent bias towards technology, geometry, the exponential topheavy and war dependent economics.. the built in racism -- the assimilation of less dominant consciousness structures.

But in relation to all this again, regardless of their differences, both Drew Hempel and Grayham Forscutt's insight seem valuable in overcoming the global situation, the past, the future, and the paradoxes we find ourselves in. I'm starting to find them compatible (and perhaps "complimentarily opposing") GF is certainly more hopeful. Both are clearly "pioneering" researchers, psychonauts, physics buffs, aware of psychology and esoteric streams --all be in different ways.. (one who is publishing papers for academic review). Grayham (like Dan here) believes that golden ratio can solves many of the paradoxes from physics to political and social structures. Anyway all three are worth checking out.

Plus I'd consider it a dream come true anyway if I ended up like Drew putting together a small forest garden and cooking with a frigin rocket stove. All while I build up enough energy from the big empty to sit in full lotus and project myself clearly into dreambody! Like the good old days when I was first born thru into my teens lol. It's just a great way to live! ((Really tho. His repetitive diatribes are hilarious and informative if anything! And priceless are the photos/stories of living in a dilapidated, triple tarped, mud and straw insulated, rocket stoving, post-apocalyptic, recycled teepee, firehazard, thingamajig WHILST pretty much alone in the cold north woods with not much but birds and qi for company. Really does love the birds and wild critters like mom. He loves taking the time to understand and document the wildlife around))

Anyway! Back off of the tangent train.. These middle way ideas --in the article -- get me hopeful about the future bc they take into account TIME while attempting to resolve the global situation!! Methods for circulating the energy/ideas/bliss and therefore money, (unified not separate) in ways optimized by the golden ratio (see pictures) which is a universallly scaled guiding template for unfolding life itself from microcosm to macrocosm (see the comments for some of this) Not only that but this mentions the important idea of restoring the life giving, ineffable, blissful, childlike capacities of internal inspiration and intuition (like JG mentions in comments) which I think we can all prove together subjectively, by recounting our lifetime of experience.. ((alot of the "genius" of all these folks like August Kekule, Carl Jung, and Walter Russell.. ie: getting

inspiration through non-linear day dream, nightdream and vision))

May not be a scholar of economic and political theory but I think it's safe to say our system needs an update along with ideas of what money, ideas, and the energy of life itself is for! There will be two papers linked to fractal economics touting the end of zero sum game theory and new symbiotic ways of looking at classical economics as an emergent fractal dynamic that can be tapped into for increasing negentropic order in our society. Wow!!

This largely unconscious, blissful, undirected, guiding force is what makes us feel alive as children before it is largely obscured by cultural-social processes --for better and for worse? A double movement? ((Thanks Scott Preston)) We may sometines act like kids aren't smart or useful but they are waay smart/capable and could be our greatest teachers. Why all the wise soothesayers speak of becoming like children again?

So to the article..Trying to find middle ways thru "the paradox if freedom" ? Find that article in comments..

"...Well it is obvious that perfect sharing in many respects is an introduction to socialism. But there are some breakthru insights here which refine the concept. Consider PROUT- Progressive Utilization Theory -from the Ananda Marga tradition. This is an example of a move- to distribute resource consistently- to highest and best (social) use. Obviously- this has been tried in many ways (communism) - with limited success. We are suggesting here- that what is new in fractal economics- is a scientific way- to define success in sharing- and thus produce agreement on how to share resource...."

"...Fractal money would understand the theory of perfect branching / perfect sharing. Money like water would gain energy and value- by becoming better shared- better distributred- even changing hands more often. The only tax needed would be on money that does NOT circulate or share. Stagnant water and stagnant money - trigger a tax- on failure to share.

Tax systems thus design rewards for charge/ money circulation- and only tax failure to circulate/ share. If your money as a symbol for the human energy you have stored- circulates more - you would be rewarded- if it failed to circulate- only then would you be taxed. The ratios could be determined by nature...."

"...Elimination of storage by the perfecting of distribution- for economics - is as old as JUST IN TIME- parts shipping for manufacturing. The new information is that the map for this concept- is literally - roselike and fractal. It is just like perfect branching for trees- or lines of dominoes. The mathematics of the perfect array for maximum distribution- with minimum storage- IS the same as the old definition of phy(PHI)lotaxes: maximum exposure with minimum superposition. This concept of perfect SCION- as perfect branching is literally the etymologic root of the word SCIence..."

"...Some people believe that if all human interactions were about money- we would all become mean. However- if as in Celestine Prophecy- we realize WHY- 'all human interactions are about (spiritual) charge' - then we could point them all toward the natural and sustainable bliss that results. Fractal money defines value- by what causes the aura to grow. This is simple- AND elegant. Whether it is building value, food value, education value, or entertainment value- when success is defined in biologic perameters- our skill to serve each other (to serve bliss) - becomes real..."

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include the making of a Hearthstone card, a couple of neat Horizon: Zero Dawn video pieces, and behind the scenes on seminal 2D fighting game Samurai Shodown.

I also comment on this below, but the rise of 'creators making interesting content about their own games, especially in video form' is something I'm really starting to note and enjoy. (This week - Hearthstone, Runescape, Horizon: Zero Dawn, & more.) This makes sense, especially since some of these games make a lot of money and third-party options for making money covering those titles are way trickier.

Obviously, there's mixed feelings about this - is the only way you can cover games in-depth in the future as part of an embedded team funded by the game's creators? But there are also counter-examples like the excellent Spelunky making-of video posted by Danny O'Dwyer's Noclip below. So maybe a mix of sources will be just fine, absolutists out there! Until next week...

Simon, curator.]

-------------------

With Scorpio rising, Phil Spencer looks to the future of Xbox (Alex Wawro / Gamasutra) "Here then is a rundown (edited for clarity) of our conversation with Spencer about everything from Microsoft's VR plans to the future of the game console business, and how Project Scorpio represents an attempt at "learning from some of our PC heritage.""

The Runescape Documentary - 15 Years Of Runescape (Jagex / Runescape / YouTube) "[SIMON'S NOTE: good to see companies documenting their own history, even with the inherent rose-tinted glasses that might bring in - we still get SOME good historical context.]"

Tim Schafer Talks Shyness, Comebacks and Being Asked Not to Touch George Lucas (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "During an hourlong conversation, Schafer talked to Glixel about his reputation as a project manager at LucasArts, his career-long fight for creative independence, and the troubled development of Psychonauts, followed by the game's remarkable staying power."

A Chat With a Live Streamer is Yours, For A Price (Laura Parker / New York Times) "Andre Rebelo, a 24-year-old YouTube streamer from Vancouver, British Columbia, live-streamed himself playing the game Grand Theft Auto V on his YouTube channel, Typical Gamer, in mid-January. This time, he added something different for his audience."

Building Non-Linear Narratives in Horizon: Zero Dawn (Leszek Szczepanski / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 session, Guerrilla Games' Leszek Szczepanski explains how Guerrilla Games tackled sidequests and open-world activities in Horizon: Zero Dawn, by creating a quest system which has non-linearity at its base."

From GoldenEye To Yooka-Laylee: Grant Kirkhope Reflects On His Career (Zak Wojnar / Game Informer) "If you’ve been a gamer for any length of time, Grant Kirkhope’s tunes have probably been stuck in your head at some point. His music defined some of the Nintendo 64’s greatest games, such as GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie – the latter being the direct inspiration for his latest project, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee."

The Making of Samurai Shodown (James Mielke / Polygon) "With SNK in a bit of a revival at the moment, we went on a quest to track down some of the original Samurai gumi team members and learn more about the origins of the Samurai Shodown series. A chance conversation at Tokyo Game Show 2016 put us in touch with Yasushi Adachi, the original series creator."

Ironsights: A Big Buck Hunter Mini-Documentary (Twitch Creative / Twitch) "The 22-minute story follows Sara Erlandson, Wisconsin bar owner turned Big Buck phenom and Twitch streamer, as she travels from her hometown of Beldenville to the World Championship in Austin, Texas."

The Socialist Surrealist Oikospiel Has a Wild Vision for the Future of Videogame Labor (Daniel Fries / Paste) "Oikospiel, the new experimental game from David Kanaga and Ferdinand Ramallo, wants to make sure you’re paying attention. It doesn’t want you to get wrapped up in its story or relax and have fun playing a game. It’s constantly trying to jar you out of any trance or flow state."

Everything I Said Was Wrong: Why Indie Is Different Now (Liz England, Lisa Brown, Rami Ismail / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Ubisoft's Liz England, indie designer Lisa Brown, and Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail break down why some of their older advice for starting indie developers hasn't held up, how they'd update that advice, and how developers can better think about giving advice to each other and interpret advice."

Snake Pass and the unexplored territory of the game controller (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "The way the input feels is intended to be a part of the whole experience – to the point where Liese was lobbying to ship without a mouse and keyboard option at one point because they hadn’t found one which adequately expressed the same physical elements of playing."

Clark Tank plays: Northgard! (Brace Yourself Games / YouTube) "I'm veteran indie game developer Ryan Clark, and this is the Clark Tank! Every second Friday at 1pm Pacific time we stay on top of the latest game industry trends by examining the Steam top 50, scrutinizing the latest Kickstarted games, and by playing the most prominent recent releases. [SIMON'S NOTE: Love Ryan's Twitch stream, and this is an experimental edited-down version of a recent stream, xposted to YouTube.]"

Doom (2016): To Hell and Back (David Craddock / Shacknews) "Marty Stratton knew a good sound when he heard it. He had studied commercial music composition at University of Denver and, with bachelor degree in hand, had headed out west in 1995 determined to land a job in the entertainment industry. [SIMON'S NOTE: this is a GIGANTIC, almost book-length piece, and very well done.]"

The stray dogs of The Silver Case (Gareth Damian Martin / Eurogamer) "For Goichi Suda, those murders would begin a fascination with grotesque crimes that would reappear throughout his career. He was still at developer Human Entertainment at the time, but only a year later, Suda, eager to pursue new ideas, set up his own studio: Grasshopper Manufacture."

Behind the Card | Amara: Warden of Hope (Blizzard / YouTube) "Peek behind the curtains to see what went into creating the cards Awaken the Makers and Amara, Warden of Hope. [SIMON'S NOTE: more deep dive content created by the team making the game - in this case Hearthstone!]"

The first decade of augmented reality (Ben Evans / Ben-Evans.com) "In February 2006, Jeff Han gave a demo of an experimental 'multitouch' interface, as a 'TED' talk. I've embedded the video below. Watching this today, the things he shows seems pretty banal - every $50 Android phone does this! - and yet the audience, mostly relatively sophisticated and tech-focused people, gasps and applauds."

How emergent AI encounters can be beautiful in The Signal from Tolva (Bryant Francis / Gamasutra) "The Signal from Tolva, which comes from the creators of Sir, You Are Being Hunted, is yet another game about science-fiction robots from UK developer Big Robot. And while creative director Jim Rossignol told us yesterday on the Gamasutra Twitch Channel that’s partly because it’s easier to animate beings that don’t have facial animations, he also said it’s because there’s something beautiful about what happens when you program groups of A.I to have their own missions. [SIMON'S NOTE: we're doing a lot more live Twitch chats with devs recently on Gamasutra - here's a good example!]

From hacker to Valve and back again (Brian Crecente / Polygon) "Before co-founding her own augmented reality headset company, Jeri Ellsworth was a technology chameleon, finding niches in electronics and mechanics, mastering them and helping redefine how they worked."

Horizon Zero Dawn - Neil Druckmann Interviews Hermen Hulst (PlayStation / YouTube) "Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann sat down with Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst to discuss the studio's shift away from Killzone, and the long process of bringing Horizon Zero Dawn to life."

Gaming under socialism (Paolo Pedercini / Molleindustria) "But the question of what gaming would look like in a socialist world has haunted me for days. Not only because I’m a leftist and I care about games, but because of how it relates to many crucial issues of 21st century radicalism. [SIMON'S NOTE: so Ivory Tower it hurts, but thought-provoking, fo sho.]"

How Steam brought shmups out of arcades and into a new PC renaissance (Matt Paprocki / PC Gamer) "How Steam and passionate fans pulled shoot-em-ups out of exile in Japanese arcades and back into the limelight."

How Ninja Theory's Canceled Co-op Game Led To Hellblade's Bold Future (Ben Hanson / Game Informer) "With our new cover story on Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, we've shown off plenty of gameplay footage from Ninja Theory's game. Today, the game's creative director Tameem Antoniades explains more about how the talented studio arrived where they are today. [SIMON'S NOTE: good honest video interview with Antoniades here on 'the space between AAA and indie'.]"

Searching for the truth of a fake world at EVE Fanfest (Adam Smith / RockPaperShotgun) "Like many EVE players, he’d come to Fanfest, a gathering of hundreds of players, devs and press in Iceland, to represent his in-game character. People wear the insignia of their corporations and alliances, and chant those same names at presentations and pubs. As a spectacle, it’s fascinating, but it’s also confusing."

Spelunky - Noclip Documentary (Danny O'Dwyer / Noclip / YouTube) "For almost a decade players have gleefully explored Spelunky's refined brand of player discovery and emergent gameplay. In this documentary, we talk to the game's creators about building the rules of its procedurally generated worlds."

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

#IFTTT #Blogger

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mysterykidscasefiles · 4 years

Text

Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

Table of Contents

Chapter 22: To the East

Mabel hovered over Dipper’s shoulder as he stood in front of the cabin looking at the symbols on the door frame and then back at the symbols in the book they found called Wards, Runes and Protection Magic. Mabel knew Dipper was itching to get out journal number 3 and compare the symbols in the new book to the ones in the journal, but she also knew he wouldn’t bring out the journal in front of the other kids.

Normally, when Dipper was doing boring nerd stuff, Mabel would explore. Coraline was still exploring the rest of the cabin with Wybie, Neil, and Norman, and a part of her wanted to be with them. However, Mabel found that she couldn’t tear herself away from what Dipper was doing. More accurately, she couldn’t stop thinking about those symbols.

They gave her a strange, happy feeling that made her feel safe and protected. She liked them and she wanted to put them on everything she owned. When she asked Dipper if he felt the same way about the symbols, he just gave her a confused look. None of the other kids seemed interested in them like she was.

Mabel wondered why her artistic muse was screaming at her so loudly to draw these symbols.

“Mabel, I think I’ve figured out what these symbols on the door mean.”

Mabel leaned closer to her brother to get a better look at the book.

“The one that looks like a sideways hourglass… I think that means day or rebirth. And the other one, I think it’s a rune of protection.”

“Told you they weren’t bad things,” Mabel said happily. “Can I see the book?”

Dipper closed the book slightly and held it away from her. “As long as you promise not to draw any of the symbols until we know more about them,” he said sternly.

Mabel huffed, but nodded. “Fine, fine! Just let me see it!” She grabbed the book from her twin. The open page was littered with pictures of wards and ruins, each one incredibly distinct in it’s design.

“They’re all really similar,” her Dipper said. “Some of them I can hardly tell apart.”

Mabel glanced up at her twin in confusion. “You’re crazy, Dip. None of them are the same, can’t you tell?” she asked. How could he not see, or feel, how different they all were?

“Hey nerds!” Coraline said as she exited the cabin door, her hands on her hips. “It’s getting late and I’m getting hungry. I think it’s time we head back.”

Carefully, they all climbed down the ladder without incident. Mabel had taken the book about wards and ruins along with her. She promised her brother she wouldn’t use them until she learned more about the runes, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t look at them.

When she landed back on the ground, Mabel realized she never took a good look around the clearing. It was strange that the clearing was nearly empty of most plant life, despite the abundant sunlight. It was almost as if the vegetation was giving the giant tree a respectful distance.

There was only one plant that dared to grow by the base of the tree. Mabel approached it to get a better look and was delighted to discover it was a flower she had never seen before. The flower had not yet bloomed; it’s long, white petals were tightly shut together in a spiral-pattern.

“Hey, look at this,” Mabel called moving closer to get a better look. “I’ve never seen flowers like these before.”

“That’s Datura,” Lili said with sudden interest. “I wouldn’t touch them, the petals and seeds are poisonous.”

Mabel stopped in her tracks, recoiling her wandering hand.

“It’s strange for them to be in this forest,” Lili mused thoughtfully.

“Oh, I’ve heard of those,” Coraline said, moving to get a closer look. “They’re called moonflowers, right? They only bloom at night. But, wait, aren’t they supposed to be tropical? What are they doing here?”

Lili gave her a surprised look. “Yeah, they are. How did you know that?”

“My parents write and edit for a gardening catalogue,” Coraline explained. “How do you know about them?”

“I uh… just like flowers,” Lili said, awkwardly glancing away from Coraline to look back at the white flowers.

“Fitting,” Coraline said. “You know, with your name and everything.”

Mabel thought the flowers smelt amazing, and she hoped that she would be able to come back at night to see them bloom, even though traveling through the forest at night was probably a dangerous idea.

“Umm, does anyone know how to get home from here?” Neil asked, looking around at the forest. He cast an earnest glance at Dipper. “Please tell me you know where we are?”

Dipper looked around the forest nervously. “No. I already told you, we’ve never been this way before.”

“Can’t we just retrace our steps?” Coraline suggested.

“We can try,” Dipper said while biting his lip. “But in this forest that’s more likely to get us even more lost. If you get too deep in the forest it’s hard to get back out again. It’s like the forest changes to purposely confuse you. You have to know exactly where you’re going or it’s easy to be misled.”

“The forest is trying to confuse us?” Coraline asked with a raised eyebrow. “Lili basically ran in a straight line to the tree, so we just have to walk back in the opposite direction. Wybie has a compass so we can make sure we're going the right way.”

Wybie pulled a bulky compass out of his pocket. It looked like he not only built it himself, but added extra gadgets onto it as well. The device was also boring and black. Mabel thought that was a shame. If you went through the trouble to build something yourself you might as well add some color to it.

“That direction is to the east,” Wybie said. “Coraline’s right, we just have to keep going east and we should make it back to the town.”

Lili frowned. “Wait.” She walked forward and placed a hand on the bark of a redwood tree. “That’s not right,” she said after a brief second. “The town is back the other way.”

“But that’s the opposite way that we came from,” Coraline argued. “Look, we approached the cabin from the front. We know for sure that we came from this direction.”

Lili shook her head in confusion. “I know we did, but that’s not where the town is. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’m sure the town is that way,” she said, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Wait guys, this can be solved easily,” Wybie said. “Dipper, Mabel, you two have lived here for a while, right? Which direction is the forest from the town?”

Dipper sighed. “The forest surrounds the town. Even though we walked in one direction, we could be anywhere by now. I already told you guys the forest can do this.” He bit his thumb nail worriedly. “This is why we shouldn’t have come so deep into the forest.”

“What do you mean by that?” Norman asked. “Have you guys gotten lost like this before?”

Dipper glanced at his sister. “It can happen if you walk in the forest without knowing where you’re going. If you follow a path you know, you’re fine, but the moment you stray it can be hard to find your way back. It’s happened to us a few times. When this happens the only way to get out is to wait until night and to use the stars, but trust me when I say, you don’t want to be in this forest at night.”

“Guys, we’re not lost,” Coraline insisted. “We just have to head in this direction. You all can use your eyes. This is the direction we came from.”

“That is the direction our eyes told us we came from,” Mabel agreed. “But that doesn’t mean it’s the right way to go.”

“Well, we have a choice,” Coraline said. “We can either take Lili’s hunch and go in a direction that doesn’t make any sense, or we can go back the way we came.” Coraline started walking forward towards the east. “Besides, we have a compass. If it’s the wrong way, we can just turn around.”

Dipper shrugged. “Fine, we’ll go your way. Maybe it will be fine?” He didn’t sound convinced.

Mabel glanced back at Lili. She and her brother knew how useless it was to rely on your eyes and sense of direction in this forest, but it would be best for everyone if they all stuck together. Whether they were headed in the right direction or not, it was more important that no one got separated.

“Lili, I know you know where you’re going, but we can’t let them get lost,” Raz said to his girlfriend. “We have to go with them.”

“You make it sound like losing them in the forest would be a bad thing,” Lili snarked under her breath, but she relented and the two of them followed the rest of the group.

Hi everyone! Yes, I am still writing this story, and I’m so sorry I’m awful at updating. But the good news the next chapter will be the last chapter of Act 1. And then I will start act 2 and then act 3... geez, I've been writing this story for so long and I still haven't lost inspiration. It may be slow going but I’m still really interested in telling this story, which is a first for me. Something about this fandom will never leave my brain.

Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

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#Mystery Kids #Mystery Kids Case Files #coraline #gravity falls #Paranorman #Whispering Rock fic

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mysterykidscasefiles · 6 years

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

Table of Contents

Chapter 17: Coraline’s Nightmare

“Lili, wait!” Raz called after her, but the door to the Shack had already slammed closed behind the angry girl.

Raz followed after her quickly and yanked the door open, the worn wood of the door protesting loudly against Raz’s harsh treatment. He stepped inside and scanned the Shack for Lili. He found Stan slumped over asleep in his armchair; the glow from the TV flickered across Stan’s face as some black and white soap opera continued to play.

Lili was nowhere to be seen, so in a move that was as reflexive as breathing, Raz opened his mind and reached for her in hopes that her emotions would help him locate her faster.

Instantly, Raz was hit with an unexpected wave of regret and self-loathing that caused him to recoil and take a step backwards. He quickly sensed that these emotions were not from Lili. They lingered from a time long since passed and hung in the old Shack in the form of psychic residue. Usually, psychic residue would decrease overtime, but the maelstrom of betrayal, loss, and desperation clung stubbornly to the walls of the Shack like an old grudge. Regret was a bitter taste in the air, and Raz could almost swear he could hear long forgotten words that were never said but should have been.

Raz gritted his teeth and took a step further into the house. His instincts told him to shield his mind again until the psychic residue was once more nothing but a muted murmur in the back of his mind, but he had to find Lili, and the quickest way to do that was to keep his mind open and search for her.

However, the longer he left his mind open, the more Raz could feel himself self drift deeper and deeper into the kaleidoscope of emotions the old Shack contained. He could tell the psychic residue came from at least two different people, one lost in the throes of desperation and paranoia and the other just… lost.

Raz got the distinct impression that he… no not himself, but one of the people who left such an imprint in the Shack (although it was getting harder to tell the difference between where his emotions ended and the other’s began...), had lost something important. Something as a part of him as an arm or a leg. Something irreplaceable.

No… it wasn’t something… it was someone.

An unshakable, feeling of hopelessness crawled up from below the floorboards and clawed at his chest, it’s fingers winding around his heart and squeezing until he could barely breathe.

What have I done?

This is all my fault…

I need… I need to get him back!

Raz gasped, his heart pounding wildly as he yanked mind away. He forced his lungs to take a deep breath, and he used everything he could remember from his Psychonauts training to untangle his own emotions from the residue.

Raz stared down at the floorboards where the most intense emotions were seeping up from. Did this place have some sort of basement, and if it did, what in the world had happened down there so many years ago?

Raz took a few breaths to steady himself and he continued to break his mind free from the psychic residue. These impressions left behind seemed almost familiar in a way, but Raz knew he couldn’t dwell on them any longer or he would risk getting sucked in again. His extra sensitivity came in handy as a psychonaut, but right now it would only burden him if he couldn’t learn to control it.

He forced himself to focus on only the newer emotions. He thought of Lili, how she was probably feeling right now, and it didn’t take long to locate her once he had managed to orient himself properly to the emotions in the Shack. He could sense her in the room the twins had introduced them to as the guest room.

Raz followed followed Lili’s emotions and hesitated before the door, the waves of anger and hurt coming from Lili only made him feel more nervous about entering. Raz thought about knocking, but he pushed the notion aside and entered the room. He knew full well that Lili had already sensed him, and she wasn’t one for pleasantries, especially not when she was this upset.

He found her sitting on the ugly orange couch with her arms crossed and her back half turned away from him.

“Lili…” Raz said softly as he closed the door behind him.

“Save it, Raz,” She cut him off harshly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I think we need to talk about it.” Raz insisted cautiously as he moved to sit on the couch next to her.

Lili shifted further away from him and he sighed.

“Lili?” he prompted again.

Silence was his only answer. How was he supposed to do anything to help her when she shut him out like this?

Gently, Raz mentally reached out to read her thoughts, but he wasn’t surprised to find she had put up a mental block between them. Not even a passing surface thought would get through the barrier she carefully constructed around her mind.

Raz mildly wondered if she had blocked her thoughts and not her emotions because she wanted him to know how angry she was, or if in her anger, she had forgotten to hide her emotions.

Raz knew that he could push through into her head. Lili was a powerful psychic, but he had her beat when it came to mental defenses and he could find a way to get through her barrier if he tried. However, he knew that invading her privacy would only make things worse between them. She had to want to talk to him, and right now, it felt like she didn’t want anything to do with him.

Raz sighed and leaned back against the couch. He had no idea what happened, or why Lili had gotten so upset. He and Lili fought occasionally, but usually when they did, they would argue, get their points across, and when things had finally cooled down they would figure out a solution. It was a pretty good system, and as partners they needed to be able to work together even when they had conflicting ideas.

However, this was different. Now Lili was just shutting him out! How was he supposed to make anything better if she wasn’t willing to talk about it?

“Are you mad that I didn’t agree with you or that I didn’t back you up?” Raz asked finally.

One of the first things the Psychonauts taught them were partnered Agents were always supposed to present with a united front. Even if they disagreed with each other privately, they weren’t supposed to let it show to others when they were on a case. If their enemies sensed that they lacked cohesion, then that could be used against them. Raz had to admit, he probably could have handled his response better, but she had asked him the question so suddenly he hadn’t known how to react without lying.

Slowly, Lili unfolded her arms, but she didn’t turn around to look at him. “Both, I guess…” She admitted softly. “I just didn’t think that you would disagree with me.”

Raz looked over at her in surprise. “Lili… do you… do you really believe that?” he asked. “Do you really believe that normal people can never accept psychics?”

To Raz’s surprise, Lili turned to face him and there was a small, pitying smile on her face. “Sometimes I forget how new you are to the psychic world.”

“What do you mean?”

Lili sighed to herself and pulled her feet up on the couch until she sat cross legged. She was staring down at her hands in her lap, her expression distant.

“Did you ever ask any of the kids in camp what their life was like before they came to Whispering Rock?” Lili asked. “Did they ever tell you about their family or the kids at their school?”

Raz gave his girlfriend a look. “I was a little busy, Lils. I was trying to gain every merit badge before I was forced to go home, and then there was that little matter with everyone’s brains being stolen.”

Lili rolled her eyes. “I thought so.” Her eyes met his gaze again. “Well, if you had talked with them more, you would have heard the same story again and again. Psychic kids with normal parents who don’t know what to do with them, so they ship them off to a psychic summer camp. Sending them away is easier than having to deal with their kid’s weird powers. Of course that’s not true for all of the kids. Some of them come from psychic families, but not all of them are as lucky.”

“Come on, I’m sure not all non psychic parents are looking for an excuse to get rid of their kid,” Raz reasoned. “Most parents want what’s best for their kid, right? They can’t teach their kid how to control their powers, so they sent them to Whispering Rock to get the training they need.”

“And I’m sure that’s exactly what they tell themselves,” Lili said spitefully. She paused and seemed to be carefully considering what she was going to say next. “You went into Doctor Loboto’s mind in the Rhombus of Ruin. I read the report. His parents feared and hated him for being psychic. Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon for psychic children who have normals for parents. Even at school, psychic children get shunned by the other kids and teachers. Many normals can tell that there is something different about them, even if they can’t tell what it is. And psychic kids feel like outcasts, because they have to hide who they really are.”

“Luis said something about that happening at his old school,” Raz noted. “And you said you had the same problem with your school too. You said it was best for psychics stick with their own kind.” Raz felt like he was looking at his girlfriend anew. During the conversation earlier that day on the lakeside, Lili had mentioned she never felt like she got along with normals. That conversation had worried Raz a little bit, but he had mostly chalked it up to Lili not wanting to be social. It wasn’t until now that he realized that she truly believed that friendships between psychics and normals were impossible.

“I guess…” Raz said, trying to wrap his head around this new realization. “I guess I didn’t realize how strongly you felt about this.”

Lili shrugged. “Most of the psychic world feels the same way.”

“But-”

Lili cut him off with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry Raz, I know your mom’s not psychic. I wasn’t trying to say anything about your family. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“It’s okay, Lili. In a way, you’re right. My mom is still trying to get used to the psychic thing. My dad too, and he actually is psychic.”

Lili nodded thoughtfully. “It’s okay if we don’t agree on everything, but while we’re working on a case we can’t disagree openly like that. We need to be a team.”

She gave him a pointed look and Raz nodded. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay… I didn't exactly handle it the best,” Lili admitted, playing with the end of one of her braids. “I shouldn’t have run off like that.”

“It’s been a long day,” Raz supplied. “We’ll both do better next time, right?”

She smiled for a split second before it faded. “Raz… I know we don’t agree on this, but I have to warn you. Just because you feel comfortable blending in and being friendly with normals, doesn’t mean they wont turn on you the moment they find out you’re a psychic. Normals will never be comfortable with what we can do and it will always scare them.”

Raz opened his mouth to say something, but Lili cut him off.

“I know you don’t want to hear that, but that’s just how it is. You might be able to blend in, Raz, but you will never fit in.”

If Raz was anyone else, that statement might have been too harsh and would have caused him to draw away from her. Instead, Raz reached over and grabbed her hand. Lili blinked at him in surprise and gave him a curious look.

“Good thing I don’t care about fitting in then,” he said with a cocky smile. “Standing out is much more fun.”

Lili laughed and shook her head. “You’re such a show off, Raz.”

Raz chuckled, happy that he had been able to lighten the mood, but as his laughter died away, he thought back to what she said. Maybe Luis’s parents would never have been able to accept him. Maybe they would have feared his ability and that would have pushed him away more. Maybe Lili was right. She obviously knew more about this stuff than he did.

However, he couldn’t help but still think this generalization about normals and psychics was a bit ridiculous. Maybe it had to do with his circus family and how even though he was psychic, he now understood they would accept him no matter who he was or what he could do. It was an adjustment for the family, but they still loved him.

Lili tensed and he felt the presence of the other kids coming down the hall. Lili pulled her hand away and stood up just before the door opened. Raz followed her example and stood next to her.

Coraline was the first to enter and her eyes quickly took in their awkward expressions. “If you guys are making out might I recommend the twins bedroom?” Coraline suggested while gesturing to the ceiling.

“What? Ew! No!” Dipper protested.

“Kidding, kidding, Pines,” Coraline soothed with a laugh. “What, only your sister got the sense of humor in the family?”

“And the sense of fashion,” Mabel chimed in as she and Neil lead an exhausted Norman onto the orange couch. As soon as they laid Norman down, his eyes closed and didn’t open again.

“How’s he doing?” Raz asked, eyeing Norman with concern. The boy was even paler than the last time he saw him a few minutes ago and the bags under his eyes made it look like he hadn’t slept in weeks. Norman’s life-force had always been difficult for Raz to sense, but combined with the fact that he currently resembled a corpse more than a sleeping person, Raz couldn’t help but worry.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Dipper said as he pulled the blue blanket that had been laying on the headrest of the couch over Norman’s body. “His breathing and pulse are both steady. I think he’s just really tired.”

“Well, out of everything that could have gone wrong today, my cousin passing out is probably best outcome we could hope for,” Coraline said. “We were… surprisingly successful.”

“Yeah, we achieved a lot together,” Neil agreed. “We went to the lake, we explored a haunted house, and we even helped Luis talk with his parents again!”

“And that's just on the first day here,” Coraline added with her hands on her hips. “Neil’s right, we did do a lot, and you guys weren’t too shabby at it either.”

“So, camps not too boring, huh?” Mabel hinted with an enthusiastic grin.

Coraline glanced at Wybie who shrugged.

“Terrifying, but definitely not boring,” Wybie admitted. “And if we called your parents and went home now, you will be complaining about what you might have missed out on all summer,” he said to Coraline.

Coraline frowned at her best friend but didn’t correct him.

“Besides,” Wybie added. “It’s not like this ‘camp’ is going to get any scarier than psychic ghosts, and you did want an adventure, Jonesy.”

“Okay, okay,” Coraline relented. “This camp might be a scam, but it might be worth it to stick around for a bit, as long as Norman is okay with it.” She frowned down at her sleeping cousin. “He was able to help Luis, but he ended up putting himself in danger. He might not want to stay after that.”

“You really want to stay?” Dipper asked in surprise “Even with that Other Mother thing after you?”

Coraline shot him a tired glare. “It looks like it doesn’t matter where I go, she can still find me. Plus, running isn’t my style. Now come on,” Corline ordered. “Norman has the right idea. Let’s all get some sleep.”

Coraline was the last one, besides Raz, to fall asleep that night. The twins had left for their beds in the attic, Norman was still asleep on the couch, and everyone else was in their sleeping bags on the floor. Coraline, Wybie, Neil and Norman had been smart enough to bring small air or foam mattresses for an inch of extra comfort. They offered Norman’s mattress to Raz and Lili, but they had both turned it down, since their sleeping bag were padded. It was standard issue for psychonaut agents.

Coraline’s cat was curled up against her side sleeping peacefully. Raz wondered when the cat had arrived and how it managed to figure out where she was staying. Coraline had offered no explanation and had acted like this was a common talent most cats possessed.

When Raz was certain Coraline was asleep, Raz mentally reached into her mind. He needed to find out more about this Other Mother creature in order to figure out if it might have something to do with the psychic disturbance he and Lili were looking for.

The surface thoughts of her dream were easy for him to hear, but he needed to go deeper. He needed to see what she had seen, and to do that, Raz had to access her memory. He could have done this when she was awake, but searching through her memories had the possibility of causing Coraline to relive them. If this happened, Coraline might try and suppress them, especially if they were particularly upsetting, and that would make the memories harder for Raz to access.

Raz could have used the psychic door and enter Coraline’s mind as an astral projection, but he would need special permission to use the door on a minor. In addition, although the psychic door allowed for a better understanding of a person, it wouldn’t necessarily lead to the memories Raz needed to see, since the mental world was more abstract and symbolic.

Raz shifted through Coraline’s memories and just focused on one word: Other Mother.

There were walls and barriers surrounding those two keywords that were impressive for a non-psychic to construct. The harder Raz had to push, the closer he knew he was getting. Finally he reached a mental image of a small door barely big enough to crawl through. The door was locked so he had to step back from this image and search for the correct key within her memories. It took a few minutes, but he finally found it hiding in a deep hole in her subconscious. It was a black key with a button on the handle. He knew for certain it was the right one, because the same feeling of dread that was emanating from the small door was also emanating from the key. He turned the lock with the key and found himself in the place Coraline never looked, but always carried with her.

I’m your other Mother, silly.

Colors and lights and warmth. It was all so fantastical, and it was all for her.

You could stay here forever if you want to.

‘Yes, please!’ screamed every fiber of Coraline’s being. It was better than any dream she could ever conceive. Why would she ever want to leave?

There is one tiny little thing we need to do…

Buttons?

For you, our little doll.

The sudden terror that shot through her froze her to the spot.

I want you to let me go!

Where are my parents?

She had never felt so small and childlike. This world used to make her feel loved and powerful, but now she saw herself for what she really was: Nothing but a fly caught in a monster’s web.

YOU HORRIBLE CHEATING GIRL!

YOU DARE DISOBEY YOUR MOTHER!

DON’T LEAVE ME!

I’LL DIE WITHOUT YOU!!

A muffled scream reached Raz’s ears and he wasn’t sure if it was his own or Coraline’s as he was ripped out of her mind. Blinking in the darkness of the room, he felt sick and shaky. He hadn’t just watched her memories, he lived them as if they were his own.

Maybe he probed too far. Maybe he should have gotten more training on this ability before he used it. One thing was for sure: that was truly one of the most terrifying things he had ever experienced.

Coraline was sitting up in the dark, breathing heavily on the floor not too far away from him. She clutched at her chest as she tried to calm her breathing.

“Coraline, are you okay?” Raz heard Wybie’s voice ask in concern and watched his silhouette sit up next to his friend.

Coraline didn’t answer as she continued to to struggle to take calming breaths.

Wybie reached a hand out to Coraline, as if he was going to put a comforting hand on her back, but then he froze uncertainty before bringing his hand back down to his side.

“Did you… did you dream about her again?” he asked hesitantly, his voice low so he wouldn't wake anyone else up.

Coraline managed to take a proper deep breath before she nodded her head jerkily.

“Coraline, maybe you should-”

“I’m fine, Wybie.” Her dismissal was cold, but Raz could hear the slight waiver of fresh tears in her voice.

“Jonesy…”

Coraline sighed and shook her head. “Really, Wybie,” she insisted again, but this time there was a sincere tone to her voice mixed in with the exhaustion. “I’m okay. It must have just been because of what Luis said today. It just brought back memories, you know?”

The hint of vulnerability in Coraline’s voice caused Raz’s stomach to constrict further with guilt. Not only had Raz invaded Coraline’s traumatic past, but he had caused her to have a nightmare, and now he was listening in on a private conversation. He shouldn’t have done this.

“She’s not going to get you,” Wybie said suddenly, his voice carrying a little too loudly in the small room.

Coraline seemed to feel the same as she glanced around to make sure no one had woken up.

“And how did you come to this brilliant conclusion?” she asked in a quiet voice, and Raz was relieved to hear some of her teasing nature color her tone.

“Because you already beat her,” Wybie said simply. “And because now you’re even stronger and smarter than you were back then, and this time you have me to back you up. She doesn’t stand a chance.”

Coraline considered him a long moment in the dark. “Wybie… go to sleep,” she said at last. But then she added as she laid her head back down on her pillow: “If you are going to be any good as backup then I need you to be well rested.”

Wybe gave a short laugh as he settled back in his bed.

Raz felt terrible as he closed his eyes in the dark. A part of him wished he had never looked into Coraline’s mind because he felt guilty and the other part of him wish he hadn’t done it because of the terrible monster saw. Now Raz had understood Coraline’s inexplicable and sudden terror at the mere mention of this creature. It was no wonder why Coraline didn’t want anyone involved.

Most people wouldn’t stick around town if they thought a creature like that was looking for them, but then again, most people wouldn’t have been able to beat it in the first place. If he could say nothing else about Coraline, she was definitely brave.

But one question remained. Was this creature, this Other Mother, the one making the psychic disturbances he and Lili were sent to find?

He hoped not, because as much as Raz was usually up for a good fight, he really didn’t want to go head-to-head with that thing.

Oh man, I really hope this chapter is good. I had to rewrite it so many times. I kept getting writers block and changing my mind. It was a mess. Also... happy late Parapines day I guess?

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#Mystery Kids #Whispering Rock fic #gravity falls #psychonauts #paranorman #coraline #mystery kids case files

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mysterykidscasefiles · 6 years

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

Table of Contents

Chapter 12: Secrets

Coraline’s mind hadn’t stopped racing since she and the other kids left the mansion. Her feet seemed move on their own accord as she made her way down the street without even looking up to see if the other kids were following her.

Coraline didn’t understand, how was She back? Coraline hid the key in a place where She would never find it. And now, even miles away from the Pink Palace, the Other Mother had hunted her down. How? And why wait for so long? None of this made sense, and yet, it felt… inevitable.

There was a part of her that always knew this was going to happen. The Other Mother was going to dig her sharp claws back into Coraline’s life and rip everything apart. She had always suspected that her hard earned victory had been nothing but a momentary reprieve.

Coraline’s eyes blurred and she attempted to blink away the newly formed tears. It didn’t matter how scared she was. She didn’t have time to cry. She had to stay sharp and ready for when the Other Mother came for her. She was not going to lose.

“Coraline,” Wybie whispered from behind her, making her to jump. “What was that about? Is She coming back?” The fear in his voice reflected her own and the tightness in her chest grew.

Coraline ignored his question. Instead, she chose to stop in the middle of the street and turn to face the other kids.

“So, where are the Cardinals living now?” she asked in the strongest voice she could manage. “Do you guys know?” She asked the twins.

The other kids stopped as well, and the looks they were giving her caused her stomach to twist.

They were going to ask. She knew they would. Coraline hadn't given them a chance to do so yet. As soon as they had promised Luis that they would convince his parents to come and talk with him, Coraline had left the mansion as quickly as she could in order to avoid their questioning eyes.

She didn’t want to talk about the Other Mother with these kids. One, it wasn’t any of their business, and two, there was something about these kids that didn’t make sense. She wasn’t able to pinpoint what it was until she watched them all rushed up the stairs into the attic without hesitation, knowing full well that a dangerous ghost could be waiting for them. Most kids… normal kids… would’ve been headed in the opposite direction.

The other kids had said that they had never experienced anything paranormal, but only now could she see how obvious of a lie that had been.

Even now, Coraline could see the difference between how most kids, even most adults, would have reacted to a paranormal experience and how these kids were reacting. Most people would be overwhelmed and jittery after a dangerous encounter with a ghost, but these kids looked completely unshaken. Even Neil, who Coraline had pegged as someone who was scared easily, looked unperturbed as he walked beside Norman, giving concerned glances every few seconds.

Then there was Dipper, who had been so adimate that ghosts didn’t exist, but then had talked back to the spector as if this were a daily occurrence. Mabel had been even more nonchalant about the situation to the point where Coraline wondered if the girl even understood how much danger they had been in, but then she and Dipper would share a short but meaningful look, and it became clear that she not only understood as much as her brother, but the two of them were hiding something.

Lastly, there was Raz and Lili, who instead of looking shaken, wore thoughtful, serious expressions on their faces as they examined Coraline intensely. She could tell they were trying to piece everything together.

Wybie was the only one who looked rattled, but Coraline really couldn’t blame him. This was his first real paranormal experience. Sure, he had saved her from the Other Mother’s severed hand, which had been attacking her, and helped her seal away the Other Mother by throwing both her hand and the key down a deep well. However, that had been nothing compared to seeing a real life poltergeist. Wybie liked to live in the world of science where everything made sense to him. Paranormal stuff wasn’t his usual thing.

“Hold on a moment,” Lili said, making no attempt to hide her irritation. “I think you owe us an explanation.”

Coraline bristled, but she was prepared for this.

“No, what we have to do is get to the Cardinal’s house before it gets too late,” she insisted. “We need to tell them about Luis.”

Lili placed her hands on her hips. “Who is this Other Mother?” Lili demanded, getting straight to the point. “You said she tried to kill you and now she’s… manipulating Luis? But this is all a trap to get to you? What’s going on?”

Coraline sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Look, you all heard what I said to Luis. There’s nothing more to discuss, and it’s none of your business. I don’t want anyone else involved, okay?”

“No, not okay!” Lili snapped. “This Other Mother sounds like a dangerous creature, and if she was able to twist Luis’s memories and emotions, or whatever you said, then who knows what else she can do? You need to tell us what you know.”

Coraline growled and stepped forward, but Lili easily held her own against the taller girl.

“I don’t need to do anything,” Coraline said between clenched teeth. “That creature is after me, not you guys. This. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.”

“And what if it does come after us?” Lili asks, jestering to the rest of the group. “Or what happens when it comes after you again? What are you going to do on your own?”

Coraline could feel the other kids staring at them, but she didn’t care. If she shut Lili down then maybe the other’s wouldn’t ask. “I beat her once I can beat her again! I don’t need some little kids thinking they can help.”

“Kids?” Lili growled. “We’re only a few years younger than you and I can guarantee you that Raz and I can handle a hundred times more than what you can, especially since the mere mention of this creature makes you cry.”

Coraline could feel face heat up as she glared at the smaller girl.

“I didn’t cry,” Coraline denied fiercely. “And the fact that you think you can handle Her so easily is exactly why I'm not telling you!”

“You don’t know what I can handle-”

“Lili, Coraline, please stop,” Raz broke in. “This fighting isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“You don’t get to talk!” Coraline snapped, rounding on Raz. “It was your fault Luis heard my name! Now he might tell Her where I am!”

“You can’t seriously blame Raz for that!” Lili yelled. “You’re the one that lied to us from the beginning and told us you had never seen anything supernatural before. If you had just told us about the Other Mother beforehand we could have been prepared-”

“Oh, don’t act so innocent,” Coraline said with a sneer. “You and your boyfriend practically ran up to that ghost. No one deals with the supernatural that easily their first time. How about you tell us about that, Lili?” Coraline accused. “You want me to confess what I’m hiding? Well, why don’t you go first?”

Lili continued to glare.

Coraline smirked triumphantly. “Thought so.”

“Coraline, hold on a minute,” Dipper said. “Lili has a point. We have a right to know what’s going on with this Other Mother creature. This isn’t just about you, it’s about everyone’s safety. If it comes after us, then don’t we deserve to know about it? And even if it just comes after you, we can help.”

“Yeah, we want to help,” Neil encouraged. “Just like we’re helping Luis.”

Coraline paused for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. “Listen,” Coraline said slowly. “You guys can yell at me all you want, but I’m not telling you anything more. You don't need to know about this because you don't need to be involved,” she stated firmly. “Now come on, we have to get to the Cardinal’s home before it gets too late.” With one last glare at Lili, the Coraline turned and stormed away.

“Jonesy, wait a minute!” Wybie called after her.

“Wait… Wybie, do you know anything about this?” Dipper asked the boy, causing him to freeze and turn around slowly.

Coraline thought about turning around and instructing Wybie not to tell them anything, but she knew if she tried to speak again, she wasn’t sure if she would yell or cry. She just needed some space and time to think. If motormouth wanted to tell them, then fine, he could do whatever he wanted.

“Can you tell us about this creature?” Raz asked.

There was a long pause and then: “S-sorry guys, I can’t,” Wybie said sheepishly.

Lili’s eyes narrowed. “So... you do know something?”

Wybie sighed. “Guys, I really can’t. I’m sorry.”

The next thing Coraline heard from behind her was the sound of fast-paced footsteps coming towards her and Wybie’s voice shouting: “Jonesy, wait up!”

She slowed down enough to allow him to catch up.

Hey guys, it’s another short chapter but to make up for it the next one should be out in no more than two days (it’s already mostly done, I just need to do a few last minute edits). Now that I’m over the hardest part of Act 1 (which were those Luis scenes) the rest of act 1 should be a lot easier for me to get out to you quickly.

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mysterykidscasefiles · 7 years

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

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Chapter 11: Other Mother

“It’s you!” Luis yelled. “You’re the girl Mother is looking for!” Luis advanced on a frozen Coraline. “How dare you run away from Mother! Mother loved you! Mother gave you everything! How dare you hurt her!”

Luis moved forward quickly, and every step he took left a scorch mark on the wooden floor.

Coraline was frozen in place, her eyes were wide as she helplessly stared Luis approach. She seemed lost. Her thoughts were racing so fast that Raz couldn’t make them out properly, but he knew none of them were about the angry ghost making his way towards her.

“I’m going to make you pay for what you did to Mother!” Luis screeched and flickered out of view.

“Coraline, move!” Wybie shouted.

Coraline stumbled backwards as if in a daze.

In a blur of red and pink, Lili ran forward and knocked Coraline out of the way just as the ghost appeared where she had been standing. Luis’s arm was outstretched in an attempt to grab her.

Lili and Coraline landed on the floor in a heap of limbs.

Raz rushed forward, placing himself in between the ghost and the two girls.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Luis, but you need to back off!” Raz shouted. He chanced a glance at his girlfriend and Coraline, who were both getting back on their feet.

“This is none of your business! This is between me and Coraline! She knows what she did!” Luis yelled.

“I didn’t do anything!” Coraline shot back. Coraline was steady on her feet again as she swiped her blue hair out of her eyes.

Raz was relieved that the frozen, scared Coraline he had seen moments ago had vanished, and was now replaced with a very pissed-off Coraline.

Coraline continued, her anger only increasing with each word. “That creature you’re calling your mother is nothing but a monster!”

“How dare you say that about Mother-”

“NO,” Coraline shouted, stepping forward and making Luis flinch. “How dare you defend her! She’s tricking you! It’s what she does! She finds kids that don’t feel loved by their own parents and she gives them everything they could ever want, but it’s all a lie! She’s using you!”

There was no hesitation in Luis’s retort. “Mother would never lie to me! She made me strong! She made me happy!”

“Well you don’t look happy to me!” Coraline spat back. “And she never lied to you, huh? Then I guess she didn’t leave out the fact that both your parents are still alive.”

Luis stopped cold. “Wh-what?”

Coraline paused, allowing her words to sink in. “Your parents are alive, Luis. The news said Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are the ones who are paying the construction crew to fix the house. They’re living across town now. They’re fine.”

“But… but they got trapped in the fire!” Luis protested weakly. “I heard their screams.”

Coraline shook her head. “They must have escaped somehow.”

“No!” Luis stomped his foot. “Mother told me that their souls had left this world. Mother told me that it was okay that I killed them because they were horrible people, and horrible parents! She reminded me of how bad they were and how they didn’t deserve a child as special as me. She helped me remember all the times that they had ignored me and I realized that I had been blaming myself for nothing! They deserved to die!”

Raz didn’t know how Norman did it, but as soon as he stepped in front of Luis’s line of vision, the ghost seemed to turn his focus back onto him and his rage seemed to quell.

“Luis,” Norman said in a soft voice. “I don’t exactly know what’s going on, but I promise you that your parents are alive. Whoever this Mother is you keep talking about, there is a reason she was able to make you feel so strong enough to chase away those construction workers.”

“What do you mean?”

“You died thinking that you had hurt your parents. You blamed yourself and that made you feel terrible and small, right? Just like you were afraid you would hurt me?”

Luis shrugged and looked away. “I guess…”

“But then you said you met this Mother thing today. She convinced you that they were horrible parents and they deserved to die. She made you hate them and hating them was much easier then hating yourself. You grabbed onto that and let it fuel you.”

“She made me strong, Norman. ”

“You feel strong for a little bit, but how strong do you feel when you can’t control your powers?”

“I- I don’t know… “ Luis admitted shakily. “It’s scary.”

“Exactly. You have all this power but you don’t know how to use it. She gave you power, Luis, but that’s not the same thing as being strong. She’s trying to control you with lies and your own anger. Coraline is telling the truth, your parents are alive.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Luis shot back. “It doesn’t matter if they are alive or dead! They were still horrible parents and they hated me. The only Mother I need is my Other Mother!”

“But she’s not a real mother, Luis,” Coraline insisted. “Think about it. You only met her today, the same day that I arrived in Gravity Falls. She’s after me. In fact, I’m pretty sure she only used you in order to lure me in. She knows I wouldn’t be able to resist a haunted house. I’m sorry, Luis, but the Other Mother is just using you. She can’t… feed off of you, you’re already dead. It’s me she wants.”

“No, that’s not true! Mother does care about me!”

“Even though she lied to you and made you a dangerous, rampaging poltergeist?” Coraline challenged. “That doesn’t sound like she cares about you at all! You’re not really happier hurting people, are you?”

Luis looked down at the ground and wiped his eyes. “N-no.” He seemed to wilt, suddenly looking exhausted. The hair on the back of Raz’s neck had begun to relax as the attic started to cool in the night air. There was nothing left in the small boy before him. He just looked…. Lost.

“I- I just don’t understand.” Luis’s voice shook. “If Mother doesn’t care about me… then no one does.”

“That’s not true,” Norman said gently. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t care. And your parents… I can help you talk to them if you want. It’s up to you, but… it sounds like you guys might have a lot to say to each other.”

“It’s that great?” Mabel asked with a small smile. “Now that you know they aren’t gone, you must have lots of things you want to talk to them about.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Lili warned. “What if it doesn’t go the way he wants? Luis will just get pissed again and he can’t handle his emotions very well.”

“I- I don’t even know if I want to see my parents,” Luis said honestly. “Not after everything that happened.”

“Really? You don’t have anything you want to say to them?” Neil asked astonished. “You spent all this time thinking they were dead and you never thought of one thing you wanted to tell them?”

Luis fidgeted. “Well, I guess… I always did want to ask them why they hated me so much. Why they couldn’t just accept me.”

“All ghosts have a reason for sticking around,” Dipper said. “Maybe talking with your parents might help you move on?”

Luis frowned. “Well, what if I don’t want to move on?” He challenged half-heartedly. “What if I want to stay right where I am?”

“Forever?” Neil asked sadly. “Forever is a really long time.”

Luis’s stubborn expression fell from his face.

“Everyone needs to move on sometime,” Norman told him. “We can’t stay stuck in one place forever or we get sad. And sometime when we get sad, we get mean. You don’t have to move on right away, but talking with your parents might help you feel better.”

“You… you guys are really going to help me talk to them again? Even after I almost killed you?” Luis was looking at Norman, but he stole a concerned glance at Coraline. Coraline, however, didn’t miss the look.

Coraline let out a long sigh. “Look… I don’t blame you, okay? I’m not happy you attacked Norman, but I get why you were upset. You’re only like this because your thoughts got twisted. She does that, the Other Mother, she twists the world around you and makes you believe in the wrong things. The important part is that you don’t let her win.”

Luis clenched his fists. “I still can’t believe that Mother would lie to me, but,” Luis hesitated, “I don’t think you’re lying to me either. I don’t know what to believe.”

“Luis, this is very important,” Coraline said in a different, more urgent voice. “I know you said you’ve never seen Her, and that she was just a voice to you, but do you know where she is? Is there some place where she lives in this house?”

Luis shrugged and wouldn’t look Coraline in her eyes.

“Luis, you need to understand. I’m not her daughter that just ran away, or whatever she told you. She tricked me and tried to kill me.”

Luis looked up in surprise, his eyes wide as they searched Coraline’s face. After a moment, his shoulders slumped downwards. “In the basement there is a small square door. I’m not sure what it was used for, but I think that’s where she lives.”

The muscles in Coraline’s arm clenched as her hand formed a fist. “And do you have a key for this door?”

Luis shook his head. “No.”

“Good.” Coraline held out a stern finger. “Never open that door, do you understand me? No matter what happens or what she says.”

Luis nodded wordlessly, but Coraline did not relax.

I guess this is really happening, Raz heard Coraline think. She’s coming after me again. Well then… She better be ready for a fight!

It’s a short chapter but at least it didn’t take me months to get it out to you!

I also wanted to say that I’m a writer on the new Mystery Kids project (episode 2) and if anyone is interested in getting involved we still need voice actors, editors and artists! Check out themysterykidsreturn for more information!

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mysterykidscasefiles · 6 years

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

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Chapter 18: Arts and Crafts

The next morning, Norman was still sleeping. Neil was a little worried because Norman never slept in this late, but Norman had been exhausted from the possession, so Neil thought it was best to just let his friend sleep.

Mr. Pines made everyone pancakes and all the kids were all gathered in the living room floor eating in front of the television. Mr. Pines sat on his recliner with his own stack of pancakes.

“So let me get this straight…” Mr. Pines said slowly. “You actually went to see that little cretin?”

Dipper shook his head and waved his fork in front of his face. “Not on purpose! We had to talk with some people who went to see his show. Unfortunately, Gideon popularity hasn’t taken a hit since he was able to convince everyone that those cameras were planted on him.”

“Hey, hey! We don’t use that name in this house!” Mr. Pines reprimanded loudly.

“Yeah! Call him Creepy McLiar-Pants-On-Fire like we agreed!” Mabel shouted with a mouth full of pancakes.

Mr. Pines leaned back in his chair. “There could be video of that kid throwing poison in the town water supply and he could get away with it. Meanwhile, all it takes is a few counterfeit dollar bills and we end up in county jail!”

“I told you that was a bad idea,” Dipper grumbled.

“Eh, we would have been fine if Mabel hadn’t ‘improvised’ on Benjamin Franklin,” Mr. Pines said while shooting a glare at his great niece.

“My artistic creativity was being stifled!” Mabel defended. “I needed to express myself!”

At this point, Neil was staring wide-eyed at the arguing family, and he wasn’t alone. All the other kids were staring worlessly at the strange and very incriminating argument. Neil caught Wybie’s eye and they exchanged incredulous looks.

“What kind of family is this?” Coraline said under her breath, her expression a mixture of disturbed fascination and amazement.

“It’s a good thing none of us are secretly government agents,” Raz joked and was immediately elbowed in the ribs by Lili.

At that moment, Neil heard the faraway sound of the door to the gift shop opening. He heard two voices talking before the ‘employees only’ door opened and a large man with a question mark on his green t-shirt and a teenage girl in flannel walked into the living room.

“Hey dudes!” the man greeted with a friendly smile.

“’Sup guys,” the teenage girl said with a nod.

“Hey Soos! Oh, h-hey Wendy!” Dipper greeted the girl a bit too eagerly.

Mr. Pines raised his eyebrow. “Wendy? What are you doing here...” He checked his watch. “On time?”

Wendy shrugged. “What can I say? I wanted to meet the ‘campers.’” She made quotes with her fingers. She looked at all the kids sitting on the floor. “I’m surprised you guys are still here.”

“Well,” Coraline began, “Between being blackmailed by our camp counselor and not having the absolute worst time… we decided to stay.”

“So, in other words, you’re home is even more boring than staying at the Shack,” the teenager clarified.

“Super boring,” Coraline agreed.

“Well, I’m Wendy and this is Soos.” She stuck her thumb out to indicate the man. “We work at the Shack.”

“Nice to meet you dudes,” Soos greeted.

“‘Come on Soos,” Wendy said, waving her arm. “I smell pancakes. I figured you would be making a lot of food today for the campers. You don’t mind if we have some, right Mr. Pines? Thanks!” Wendy didn’t even wait for Mr. Pines to speak before she headed towards the kitchen.

“That’s why you’re really here early,” Mr. Pines grumbled. “You freeloader!” he shouted after her.

“So, what are we going to do today?” Wybie asked.

“I’m glad you asked, kid,” Mr. Pines said, rubbing his hands together. “I have a… camp project for all of you!”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Neil said. He couldn’t imagine what a man who thought it was a good idea to get twelve-year-olds to attempt to counterfeit money would think up for a projet.

“The Shack needs some new attractions and we haven’t had a big gig in a while,” Mr. Pines said. “So I was thinking, what would draw in a crowd more than a mummy’s curse? Since you need a mummy to have a mummy's curse, and I don’t have one on hand, I figure you kids could whip something up. I’ll take care of the curse part. I’ll make up some rumor about the mummy walking around town at night.” He gestured vaguely. “That’s spooky, right?”

“Is he serious?” Wybie asked, glancing around at the other kids.

Neil had no idea how they were going to pull that off. They had to make a mummy? That sounded impossible.

Mabel, on the other hand, was grinning wider than Neil thought should be physically possible.

“Okay, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel said slowly, “but we are going to need a couple of things first.”

Mr. Pines’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Okay, I’ll bite. What are they?”

“First off, the basics. Glue, scissors, lots of newspaper, flour, large plastic bags, lot’s of white bandages, and black tea.”

Mr. Pines nodded slowly. “I’ll see what I can do about those. I’m guessing you’re not done?”

Mabel shook her head. “Just a few more… necessities,” she assured him with a crafty glint in her eyes. “One, you have to wear that sweater I made you out to dinner tonight. Two, you have to take us all out for dinner tonight! Let’s see… three…”

Dipper leaned forward and whispered in his sister’s ear, and Mabel nodded.

“Three, all of us don’t have to work at the Shack for the rest of the week! And four is…” She thought for a moment. “You owe us one big favor that you can’t say no to!”

Mr. Pines sighed and rubbed his face. “I’ll wear the sweater, but I pick where we eat. You get the rest of the day off today once you’ve finished the project, not a week, and you can forget about that favor. Deal?”

Mabel crossed her arms. “No favor no mummy. Unless you think you can make it without my arts and crafts genius?”

Mr. Pines frowned unhappily. “You make a realistic mummy, and then we’ll talk about that favor,” he said at last. “Ask Soos for the supplies and he’ll get them for you, I need to get ready to open the Shack.”

Their camp counselor stood from his seat and left through the door to the gift shop.

Raz turned to Mabel. “Do you really know how to make a realistic looking mummy?”

“Pshh,” she scoffed with a wave of her hand. “Don’t worry, it will be easy. We just need a volunteer.”

“A volunteer for what?” Wybie asked. He did not like the look on Mabel’s face.

“Why me?” Wybie asked. His torso, arms and legs were wrapped up in plastic bags and the bags were currently being covered with glue and newspaper.

“Because you have terrible luck, Lovat,” Coraline said with shrug. “Now keep your arms at your sides or the body cast will dry weird”

“Here you go, a bucket of black tea,” Soos said as he set the bucket next to Dipper. “I had no idea you dudes were so thirsty.”

“It’s not for us to drink,” Dipper explained. “Mabel had the idea that we can soak the bandages in the tea and the stain will make them look old. I’m going to make sure they come out the same color as four-thousand-year-old bandages would be.”

“Huh, interesting. So, uh, are you going to be stuck in that mummy suit for the entire exhibit?” Soos asked Wybie.

“He sure is!” Coraline said before the boy could answer. “Don’t worry Wybie, we’ll poke air holes in the nose so you can breathe.”

“Not funny, Coraline,” Wybie grumbled.

“Nah, they can get him out,” Raz explained. “The plastic bag keeps the glue from sticking to him so all they have to do is cut him out once the cast dries. Then we’ll stuff the cast with paper so it doesn’t cave in and we can cover it with a layer of paper mache.”

“And you guys are working on the head?” Soos asked Raz and Lili.

Raz nodded. “Yeah, we’re using a mask from an old halloween costume as the base.”

“Sweet! Let me know if you dudes need anything else.”

Neil smiled. What they were doing was pretty cool and it was nice that everyone was working together and not arguing. They actually worked surprisingly well together when they all had the same goal...

A half hour later, Wybie was completely covered with newspaper and glue from the neck down.

“Okay, now cut me out of this thing!” Wybie requested urgently. “I really, really need to pee.”

“I told you to go before we got started,” Coraline chastised.

Wybie rolled his eyes. “You sound like my grandmother.”

Coraline grabbed a pair of scissors. “Okay, Wyborn, you’re going to have to hold still.”

“Umm…” There was a noise in the doorway and everyone looked up to see Norman, finally awake, and staring at the mess in the living room. “What... are you guys doing?”

“Norman!” Neil shouted happily, jumping up from his spot on the floor to hug his best friend. It was nearly afternoon and Norman had finally woken up. “You’re okay! We were just…” Neil looked back at Wybie covered in a cast of dried glue and newspapers. “Umm… actually it’s kind of hard to explain…”

“How are you feeling?” Coraline asked as she stood up and made her way over to him. She inspected him closely and Norman squirmed under her scrutinizing gaze.

“I feel fine,” Norman answered awkwardly. “I was really tired yesterday, but now I’m okay.”

“Just okay?” Dipper asked from the floor. “No strange feelings, no weird memories that aren’t your own, no side effects at all?”

“You sound a little disappointed,” Raz commented.

Dipper frowned. “I’m not dissapointed, I just want to make sure we don’t miss anything. He might feel fine now, but we have no idea what kind of effects getting possessed for that long could have.”

“No weird side effects that I can tell,” Norman said as he allowed Coraline to pull him towards the group and onto the floor. “I feel fine.”

“How do you feel about staying in this town?” Coraline asked after Norman got settled.

“Huh?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking,” Coraline said slowly. “Even though this isn’t a real camp, it might be worth it to stick around for a little bit longer. It’s pretty boring back home for me and Wybes, so we don’t have anything better to do. But I know you probably didn’t have the best experience yesterday, so if you really want to go home we can still call my dad and he can come pick us up. It’s up to you.”

Norman looked around at the group of kids watching him curiously. “Well, if everyone wants to stay I don’t mind staying eigher. Neil and I didn’t really have any plans back home, did we?”

“Not a one!” Neil agreed. Neil also felt like Norman might have a ghost-related reason for staying, namely making sure that Luis was okay if he was still around, and Neil wanted to back him up on that.

“Great, I’m glad we are all okay with staying,” Wybie said. “Now can you guys please... GET ME OUT OF THIS THING!”

A more lighthearted chapter this time! Hope you guys liked it!

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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