Being with an ooman brought forth a good number of oddities, most of which they adored.
You were different from them, in terms of looks, yes, but also in terms of culture. And as they whiped away the liquid streaming from your eyes they realized once again how different you were in terms of morals as well.
"I'm a monster!" you sobbed, your voice frantic and shaky, and they took you into their arms on instinct at the sound.
"You're overreacting." They attempted to console you, which didn't quite work as intended they came to realize as you slapped their chest.
"I killed it! The poor little fella... they already have such a short lifespan..."
Seeing you in so much pain over the death of a being that didn't even have a conscience, they wondered how you managed to think of them as anything other than a monster. With their walls of proudly displayed trophies.
Some of them had only half your life expectancy, some lived longer than them. Some even had family.
"Fella?" they instead focused on consoling you through your strange breakdown "what makes you so sure it was male?"
You gasped, your eyes suddenly wide in horror "I didnt even think of that! What if it was female? What if it was expecting? What if I just killed an entire bloodline??!"
Though they were apparently not very good at it.
Unsure on what to do or say, they simply continued to hold you, the purring that they've subconsciously started to do getting louder.
"If it brings you any comfort", they began quietly as they heard your sobbing come to a slow stop "its unlikely it felt any pain, being the size that it was."
"It does," you mumbled, only parting from them shortly to whipe at your face "thank you."
They simply nodded.
How your species managed to become your planets apex predators remained a mystery to them.
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Horror | 1.0 `yautja`
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Vague imagery of honey dipped college memories suddenly tainted with screaming and the indescribable sensation of hearing literal bodies being torn into pieces. The cracking of ribs so each bone snapped from the sheer pressure, flesh squished together as blood vessels burst and spewed out geysers of blood mixed in with their bodily fluids. The stomach lining, organs, soft fleshy innards not covered by bone was consumed like hard liquor on Saturday club night.
Being hit by a car or shanked for belongings in parking lot would've been considered a calculated mercy or bittersweet memory compared to the last moments of the town's population in the past forty-eight hours.
The faint scent of gasoline tingled her nostrils, sending a very faint high to her brain like the chemicals in the pools does. Resisting the urge to cough to flex the muscles of her body in the cramped space of the trunk, the female waited several moments in silence for the slightest shifting of movement or prowling seekers looking to harvest on the strength inept species. Feeling around for the latch on the backseat, bright midday sun poured in through the opening, she inched it forward as she paused every second or so.
'Goddamn it's bright.'
She noticed the torn edges of her emerald painted nails once she fully leaned the seat forward, stringy grime matted locks absorbed the rising heat in the car. Glints of other vehicles windshields momentarily made blackish spots float in her vision, she opened a water bottle once she slid herself out of the car's trunk. The milk spoiled, eggs overheated and bread crusty.
'Good morning America, today's going to be sunny clear skies, maybe chance of rain showers, highs in the whatever seventies and lows- oh shitzerdoodle.'
Leaning on her side to stay within the cover of the car's seat position, she peeked around the edges of the leathery seat, seeing a black mass creep by the front of the vehicle. Ducking down though avoiding on moving her weight around too much, the female stayed in that awkwardly tense angle until she heard it bash through a boutique's doorway a street down.
Sorting through the groceries, she salvaged whatever wasn't affected by the mid summer day heat. Collecting granola bars, a flashlight, screwdriver and some bullets, she found scattered underneath the driver's seat, into a fanny pack. Pressing the button for the window, it slowly slid down. Immediately the intense heatwaves of summer hit her skin, soaking into her body as her clothes suddenly felt too thick to wear at the moment once she eased herself out.
'In this heat I bet ice cream and water would boil. Why couldn't it be a hazy day of clouds.'
Crouching down a little she steered clear from fragmented and little clusters of splintered glass, her footsteps being silent as she could manage. Keeping herself fully aware to pause every few minutes to take a thorough survey of the area, ensuing she didn't have any creatures tailing secretly. Her eyes and top of her head peeking just over the edges of windows, hoods and tailgates of vehicles left stationary in the main street. The crevices of her body's figure little by little condensed with sweat.
Padding herself down a little, she silently lamented as she felt the grains of sand, smears of oil further clogged her pores. All that hard work going down the drain the longer she stayed in the heat and in these ripped and frayed clothes. Without notice her heartbeat sped up, an automatic nearly cemented reaction to the soft skittering of talons, menacing hisses and breathy snarls passing through frosted razor sharp teeth.
She crouched down, doing a quick three sixty view of side to side, top to bottom. Seeing all the possibilities where her position made her vulnerable and potential to life ending choices. The vehicles were spaced enough for running and could be jumped across by anything. Though not many of the vehicles had high suspensions to crawl under. And several of the vehicles blocked her in, preventing her from crawling over the hoods from how big or sloped the hood is. Calculating the estimated seconds it would take to jump up, crawl onto the vehicle, run then do the same thing.
Another raspy hiss, like sizzling acid in a softer tone.
She flinched, her body contracting to still every nerve then slowly releasing to edge forward in a slight crouch.
They were moving by her, a mere vehicle apart.
A few feet away from her fate of being harvested and once again encapsuled in goop to be the fertilizer of an alien colony. She thickly swallowed, forcing back images depicting her chest being tore open from the inside, the sickening sensation of crunched bones. One step, the next and then her body responded in kind. Her fingers kept thumbed over the smooth fabric of her fanny pack, a small assurance against an illusion of control.
'My nails are so damaged and cracked. I should take them off.... though those charms are pretty.'
Her hands turned a bit red from touching hot asphalt. The shattering of a window made her heart burst into a flurry of emotion though she made herself keep stationary. Slowing peeking back over a window, she noticed they had rummaged through a van. More glass sprinkled to the ground.
A bony black mass that showed every ridge of it's unnatural existence skittered then body slammed into a vehicle as they fought over scraps of a child.
'Damnit, that's so disgusting- don't, don't think about it. Keep moving.'
Hurrying in the most silent way possible, she crawled underneath a truck and stayed there for a moment to reassess the situation. Her heartbeat had calmed to a considerable pace without her having to manually breath slower. What she didn't calculate is the sudden crashing sound on the truck's roof, making it cave in as the vehicle itself sunk down a little from the weight. Seeing it's shadow on the asphalt, she realized it's the other creature.
He's crouched, his head swiveling around for a quick moment as it let out a roar. A shinking noise of a blade. Those spindly creatures screeched and lunged for him or a very few ran away.
Curled up beneath the vehicle, she felt it's weight shift and sway as the muscular thing fought. A couple vehicles exploded. Heat razed the ground, acidic blood dripped and splattered onto metal and paved rock. Melting it cleanly beyond repair.
'I can't stay here.'
The truck's undercarriage smacked against her head only solidified that thought. She let out a yelp then instantly felt her heart speed up, the accompanying blush and her mind working nanoseconds ahead. She turned her head and saw one of the black creatures hissing loudly at her while the two species created carnage just on her other side. It tried to reach it's talons inside, she fumbled for her screwdriver in the fanny pack.
Yanking it out, she hit the asphalt several times but got her few strikes in against the black alien, making it rethink it's strategy. Knowing it'll likely try to crawl in, she kept wildly swinging her screwdriver around while she felt around in the fanny pack for the few bullets.
The humanoid creature in weird armor slammed a black alien into a car.
She flinched as more acidic blood dripped down from it's broken skeleton. Finally pulling out a handful of bullets, she tossed the shells across the street and right by the burning vehicles destroyed by a plasma cannon blasts.
A roar and an answering screech, more limbs being cut and slashed into individual pieces.
Letting out a sharp exhale, she swung and frantically swiped at the black creature now joined by two more. One of their talons cut into her lower calf, nearly dragging her out before the tossed bullets ignited. They went off and ricocheted, startling the black creatures a few feet and making the beige colored creature snap it's attention to find the source.
Without hesitation she made a break for it, keeping ducked down as she rolled out on the other side of the truck, scrambling to her feet and sprinting hard. She vaulted, slid over the hoods of vehicles to the other side of the street. Noticing some other black creatures crash out of boutiques and whatever woodwork they came from, chased after her.
She wasn't from here though she did know which streets and areas had been the tourist hotspots. Bigger buildings, more hiding spots. Running barefoot on the hot streets of the town, she didn't look back and she didn't stop or veer off to hide. Pumping herself faster than ever, the female saw the distant shining chain link fence of the fair grounds. Darting to her right, she went down a sandy hill of pointed stones, passing by a few tall cactus before coming right up to the fence.
Jumping it, she crawled up and felt the links snag on her jeans to sharply pinprick her skin. Throwing herself over it to land in a puff of dust, she heard them crash into the fence and scramble up it as she continued to run.
She passed through the carnival, her feet sinking a little into the fine sand and feeling the gravel drag on the soles of her heel. Her sights settled on a merry go round, heading over to the controls, she bashed her hands against everything until the ride turned on and the music blasted out of the speakers. Every noise being amplified in her mind.
Their screeches raked her eardrums and made her body turn cold despite the very dry summer heat.
Running in the opposite direction, she went into a house of mirrors. Her figure reflected on the narrow figure warping surfaces. Taking a breath of air, she slowed her footsteps and moved deeper into the entertainment house. Her cheeks red and bright from exertion and anxiety, her heart thundering in her ribcage, she closely listened for any sounds of the black creatures as her breathing seemed to drown out everything else, even her thoughts.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧┍━☽【❖】☾━┑✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧*ੈ✩‧₊˚
A shift of movement as the female rubbed her upper arms, one of her hands keeping a hold on the flashlight she had. She stared at her reflections, the afterthought of an idling mind being how she needed a shower and change of clothes. As she still kept finding small pieces of that secreted goop on her person she'd been cocooned in only hours ago.
Rubbing away the crusted blood on her wrist, the female let out a silent sigh. Slowing getting up, she paused every few moments with her head slightly tilted and her body making minimal movement to determine whether or not she's safe to breathe.
Measuring her footsteps she walked to the exit that's aesthetically covered by a curtain, listening for another moment she heard nothing. Though her heart pounded a bit harder. Holding onto her flashlight, she noticed no sun shined at the bottom of the curtains or made the fabric seem thinner from it's light.
It must've been hours but at this point, hiding and waiting out for hours seemed to become her only source of exercise and constant state of what her life has come to. Peeking out, she drew the curtain to the side with the end of her flashlight's handle. The orange bulbed lights of the solar controlled lights were on, the sky completely black and the desert terrain standing still just like her.
As if the world now knew the events of what happened in the last five days changed the course of mankind's present and future forever.
The female gently tested her weight on the wooden steps before descending down the short staircase. On a last second thought, she took the curtains with her. Wrapping it around her figure like a jacket and dress, she quietly walked through the fair grounds.
Popcorn bags, cotton candy cones and some push toys laid on the dirt. Some lights of rides flickered like a dying candle running on the last threads of it's wick. Her flashlight in one hand and currently unlit, she went to a small gift shop. There was no phone or landline and no internet for the working iPhone she found dropped on the floor. Picking out a shirt one size smaller than normal, couple water bottles and some paper towels despite no one being around, she still went behind the cashier counter to change.
Uncapping the lids of the water bottles, she dunked the paper towels in the water, wiping it over her skin as she took most of the dirt off. Scrubbing and washing away the grime, blood, sweat and essentially the memories that came with the reason there's blood in the first place.
Sliding on the new shirt, hoodie, wrapping the curtains around her shoulders like a strap for future purposes. She found a water basin for apple bobbing, she dunked and shook her hair free what she could. A relief of one problem being dealt with settled her thoughts. Still no shoes to wear.
That night she opened one granola bar for dinner and slept in the cubbyhole of where they kept the extra plushies and boxes of other prizes.
*ੈ✩‧₊˚✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧┍━☽【❖】☾━┑✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧*ੈ✩‧₊˚
There was no hurry to leave or go anywhere though one designation remained present in her mind the next day when she woke in the afternoon. Her family- well her grandparents had a place up in Alaska. If her memory served her right, which both fortunately and unfortunately did, there'd be enough canned food and natural resources for her to survive there without any worry. They hadn't sold the property but kept it as the ideal family vacation house in the winter.
With that her mind she gathered up four water bottles, dozens of granola bars, candy and some pop tarts from the fair grounds remaining food supply. Finding another flashlight, some batteries and a phone charger in the abandoned vehicles nearby. Apparently no one had kept extra shoes in their once day to day work life. Sliding on her backpack and keeping her fanny pack, she walked the cactus and brush ridden terrain.
SIDENOTE | reblog, comments and lmk if you wanted to be tagged for the next part.
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Patterns I Notice In (Male) Reviewers of Childrens Media
You know, I've started to notice something.
I've been watching a lot of movie reviews lately, not limited to children's movies but still a lot of children's movies as obviously children's literature is my main focus as a writer.
Remember how in my post where I talked about how Ruby Gillman showed some of the wrongs in children's media today and I had a back and forth in the comment section with someone who pretty much slammed Ruby as bad but as we talked more and more they ended up being like, "It's just not my cup of tea," as I pointed out his/her core issues with the movie was just personal opinions?
These past months, I became a bit more familiar with reviewers who will just claim a movie is bad if it doesn't comes with profound philosophy and/or not their cup of tea and I actually noticed a pattern.
In regards to the people who use their real voices in YouTube videos or the authors listed in review articles, its mostly men who will downright claim a piece of fiction is terrible based on their opinion instead of wether the story is approaching subject matters in a harmful manner, etc. I barely see any women acting like 'I hated this movie, so should everyone else'.
An obvious example that comes to mind, is Monsters vs Aliens.
To me, it's not a masterpiece either and there were definitely a writing decision or two that was made poorly. However, I don't think it has earnt the label of bad or terrible whilst I've heard/seen multiple men call this movie as such.
On an entertainment level of value, does it entertain kids? Yes. As a kid I thought it was okay at its worst, good at its best moments.
Does it have a harmful message or premise? No.
Are the minor storybeats problematic or unrealistic? No. In fact, Derek breaking of their engagement not only mirrors insecure men threatened by more powerful women but it also mirrors some of the douchebags people who developped a terminal illness or disability have dated. Because of the many ship edits, I know not a lot of people actually know the story behind Arcade, the Eurovision hit by Duncan Laurence.
In ship edits, this song often gets used for tragic ships or doomed star crossed lovers, but it's actually about having wasted everything for a relationships that is not worth it and that is the key part of the song people always miss. You see, the story behind the song is this;
Duncan Laurance had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer and she had no chance for recovery. Her boyfriend, rather then being there for her in her final moments, broke up with her and she spent her final days, lovesick on her deathbed waiting for him to come back but he never did. Duncan wrote the song in her memory but also to be a cautionary tale for himself, to never become the idiot wasting their final moments on a asshole who left you to die with a broken heart!
Susan and Derek reminds me of that story, because men like Derek would have also left Susan if he found out she was terminally ill or got into an accident that left her disabled.
So the movie's storytelling isn't downright terrible by any means and the animation is also decent. But again, I've heard multiple men take a dump on this movie for being trash.
I'll admit my brain is too foggy to remember how well the other monsters were written but considering the main story rested on Susan's shoulders and that was told acceptable enough and they gave her the self-acceptance she needed, how well they are fleshed out isn't too much of a deciding factor wether its good, okay or bad when it comes to stories aimed at younger children.
How well characters outside of the protagonist are developped and how important that is to the overall story really depends on the age demographic as well as the kind of story at hand. The more characters a child is meant to empathize for and follow their direction during the story, the more difficult it is to grasp for the really young ones. Small kids prefer having one fleshed out protagonist with a weaker cast over every character having a deeply developped backstory. Flat side characters are a thing in children's media for a reason.
Shows have a somewhat unique position for their ability to flesh out the characters because they have way more time to tell the story so they can easily create a filler episode where a background character shines even if its meant for a way younger audience and it also has the option to have the characters grow and become semi-fleshed out alongside the viewer if the show gets popular enough for a long-run.
In the case of a slightly older kid demographic, this can lead to fully fleshed out masterpieces like ATLA, though not every kid show should be on their level for us not to bash the property. Brain dumb entertainment can still be a masterpiece in a kid's eyes and could lead to them becoming a long-time fan for nostalgic reasons.
What we should bash, are harmful kids shows like Cocomelon who's animation was literally proven to be too fast for a young kid's brain to follow hence the infamous Cocomelon zombie-kid and the Cocomelon tantrums became a thing, because their brain speed has adjusted to a speed faster then real life speed. Anyone who listened often to Nightcore and then went on to listen to the original version, likely encountered this effect with the original song suddenly sounding slower then you remember it- thats your brain speed having adjusted to the Nightcore version.
I couldn't believe my eyes when the far right recently turnt on Cocomelon because of there being some LGBT episode, when Cocomelon was already proven to mess up a kid's brain speed and in kids with brains that are still that lacking of development we don't know how much fucking with their brain speed will lead to in their development. I saw parents turning away from that show during the Pandemic for this very reason so I was flabbergasted so many parents on the far right still let their kids watch Cocomelon in the first place!
It's cheaply made harmful material and I was quite literally fuming with all the stupid parents saying 'God, I really have to keep in mind what type of content my kids consumne', like yeah no shit Sherlock! The fact your kids were still watching all of it after the many controversies, proved you never cared about the quality of media your kids consumne in the first place, don't pull that stupid Pikachu face! The fact LGBT content is the straw and not the actual harm this show does to children's brain development makes me want to punch someone in the face.
Can male reviewers please start targeting the actual bad children's movies and shows and not shit on movies who simply didn't managed to strike the gold of a masterpiece in storytelling and possibly animation? If someone were to force me between watching Dreamworks' Trolls franchise the entire day over and over again and just one hour of Cocomelon, I'd still pick Trolls in a heartbeat.
Because watching an okay is always more better then watching a movie/show that actually deserves the label terrible.
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