ADR - Episode 540: Ellie Lambert

[00:00:08] Oh, hello and welcome to Al Dente Rigamortis. I'm Review Cultist.

[00:00:22] I'm Mikey, the East-Hands Freeble.

[00:00:24] And we're here to discuss those internet stories, most creepy animals pasta, and be critically silly doing it.

[00:00:30] And tonight we have Ellie Lambert.

[00:00:33] So first off, yes, Gamer in Yellow is no longer with us.

[00:00:37] No, I'm just kidding.

[00:00:39] He's he's just not here this week, but he told us to press on.

[00:00:43] And so we will.

[00:00:44] But yeah, so we are we are covering Ellie Lambert, which is another Curtis Phil story.

[00:00:51] It is it is Curtis Phil adjacent

[00:00:54] since this is the story is titled Ellie Lambert, who is a character of note from the various Curtis Phil stories,

[00:01:03] specifically Summer Break and Summer Break 2017.

[00:01:06] And even our previous story that we just read, The Way Through the Woods.

[00:01:10] So the story Ellie Lambert is on Creepost.Wiki, along with all the other stories by M.M. Pratt 99.

[00:01:17] So you can check it out over there.

[00:01:20] But yeah, I guess we should give our initial recommendations before we dive into this.

[00:01:27] I'm going to recommend this one.

[00:01:29] I'm going to not recommend this one.

[00:01:33] Interesting.

[00:01:35] Well, let's let's see why we gave both are quite contrasting recommendations, starting with the rundown.

[00:01:45] So Kess, a safrasian, some kind of of Faye people, perhaps, who has recently become a new citizen to the town of Swanwick

[00:01:57] is attending a welcoming party slash midsummer ceremony in her honor at Town Hall and hanging out with her friend, Vanessa, the mayor's eldest daughter.

[00:02:07] The two are looking on at an awkward girl named Ellie Lambert, who is also new to town, hailing from America and staying with her aunt.

[00:02:17] Ellie is very awkward and strange.

[00:02:19] There are various unpleasant rumors about her and her circumstances.

[00:02:23] And for the most part she's sticking to the corner of the room and not interacting with anyone.

[00:02:30] And as the girls continue to spy upon her, the mayor herself pops up behind them, catching them on a wears.

[00:02:38] After a brief chat, the mayor looks over where Ellie was.

[00:02:41] But Kess notices she's not there anymore.

[00:02:44] And it's as though the mayor has seen a ghost before going off and getting ready for the final parts of the ceremony or the party.

[00:02:54] The party goes on with the full welcome speech from the mayor.

[00:02:58] And Kess and Vanessa eventually head outside shortly after to make a shift stage where a bunch of younger werewolves, imps, and fey

[00:03:09] are putting together a play of John Carpenter's The Thing, complete with flamethrower.

[00:03:16] Things get out of hand and Vanessa and her friends accidentally set a pavilion in some other places on fire.

[00:03:23] Getting them all in trouble.

[00:03:27] Later that night, Kess, who's now back at home in her little cottage with all her gifts from the party, including

[00:03:35] various new caged pets that were gifted to her, remnisses about the events of the evening and her past, especially in regards to this strange girl.

[00:03:46] Apparently one of the last times Kess saw Ellie Lambert that evening, the awkward girl seemed to change her form into a new person

[00:03:54] under the moonlight as she was walking around.

[00:03:57] And thinking on this,

[00:04:00] it dredges up some memories for Kess.

[00:04:04] It's here that Kess tells the story of her past and some stranger goings-on

[00:04:09] that had followed her to her new pets who seem

[00:04:14] eager to listen to her.

[00:04:19] Before coming to Swanwick, Kess had come to a city in a place called Merlia,

[00:04:25] called the Merlia United Kingdom,

[00:04:28] called West Des Moines New.

[00:04:31] After Kess and her people fled the destruction of their homeland of Safrasia.

[00:04:36] It's here that she caught news of various odd things like a person being

[00:04:42] a

[00:04:45] mortal, a fake creature being turned into a mortal as punishment for some killings they were doing.

[00:04:53] And eventually she becomes a server at a local tavern.

[00:04:58] While working there, she saw all kinds come in and out of the tavern, though the strangest and creepiest was at night.

[00:05:08] And only a few times a year,

[00:05:11] when this ghostly invisible thing would wander the streets nearby singing a strange wonky song.

[00:05:17] Folks called it short hoggers.

[00:05:21] One of Kess's associates tried to be an occult investigator and

[00:05:26] about the situation

[00:05:28] and got herself killed in the process.

[00:05:30] And things started to escalate from there.

[00:05:33] Kess left West Des Moines New

[00:05:36] to get away from the killings and it seemed that this thing, this short hoggers would follow her and kill others around her.

[00:05:46] Eventually she emigrated to Swanwick and we are now caught up to the present, but something is yet afoot.

[00:05:53] Something malicious and cold begins stalking over to Kess's cottage and taps and knocks on the door

[00:06:00] just as she is dozing off to sleep. In fact, she thinks that it's

[00:06:04] some local kids just trying to stir up trouble.

[00:06:09] But she goes to check the door and finds it's very cold outside the house. In fact, it's like ice cold, like almost like a fimble winter, as she remarks.

[00:06:21] And there's some arcane locking mechanism that has jammed blades and various like

[00:06:27] shipping rope

[00:06:30] against the doors to keep whatever's outside from getting in.

[00:06:35] That's when something sinister tries to imitate Vanessa's voice beckoning Kess to come outside

[00:06:41] and when that fails it then attempts to bash its way through the door.

[00:06:46] Kess quickly grabs an advanced rifle that she had smuggled into this country.

[00:06:52] This weapon was crafted by her people long ago and has since been banned for its power and lethality.

[00:07:00] She blasts through the door and slays the thing which begins cycling through different identities,

[00:07:08] like sort of begins shifting through different identities, both human and inhuman, including Ellie Lambert,

[00:07:15] before finally melting into a puddle of black sticky sludge.

[00:07:20] Kess frowns at this, her stalker, finally dead, seems,

[00:07:26] before starting work on repairing the door that she blew through, or that she blew a hole through.

[00:07:32] Finn. So yeah, that was the story of Ellie Lambert.

[00:07:41] And I suppose next we shall move on to

[00:07:45] everyone in Tolerance the Gramm-Inquisitions at this point.

[00:07:50] I've got a number, there's a good number of inquisition,

[00:07:56] quotes and such. I'm gonna start with this one here.

[00:08:03] Even her own cousin stand, or even her own cousin can't stand to be around her.

[00:08:08] The eldest one, Sandra, had already moved out and is now stalking or is now staying with friends

[00:08:15] up in Brandshell. So I feel like this is dialogue, but I feel like it should be

[00:08:23] even her own cousins can't stand to be around her. The eldest one, Sandra,

[00:08:30] because it mentions the eldest one so then therefore it wouldn't be her own,

[00:08:35] singular cousin, it should be multiple cousins.

[00:08:38] Yeah, that's fair. Then do you have anything about the double dash?

[00:08:45] Well, the double dash is actually, so I have seen that before and it's basically

[00:08:52] used for an ellipsis. It's sort of like that kind of thing that's used in writing.

[00:09:01] Okay. Yeah. Did you have something more on it or were you just like you didn't like it?

[00:09:07] I just didn't like it. Fair. I mean, you use ellipses already.

[00:09:15] Why use the double dash? Well, I actually did encounter that because like a couple years back

[00:09:20] when somebody was actually helping correct my own writing and stuff and suggested rather than

[00:09:25] using ellipses, use like a long dash or double dash. So yeah. Interesting.

[00:09:35] The next thing I have here, welcome to my tense talk.

[00:09:40] For a moment, just as the girl stepped into one of the moonlit patches, the whole shape of her face

[00:09:47] seems to have changed. So yeah, I think seems should actually be seemed to have changed

[00:09:54] since everything else was like kind of impass-tence. Again, welcome to my tense talk.

[00:10:02] The next one I have here, she could be anywhere,

[00:10:06] Kess or she could be anywhere. Kess thought normally if she could change her face like that,

[00:10:11] then she could look just about anyone. I think you need to have, she could look like just about

[00:10:18] anyone. Yeah. And my next one here, what I say wasn't a slovenly dressed girl with an empty

[00:10:28] face of a large baby. I think it should say what I saw wasn't a slovenly dressed girl with an empty

[00:10:35] bubble. Yeah. And the next one here, also I'd say that that would be dialogue but I think this

[00:10:44] was like when she was, when Kess was telling her story to her animal companions, her cage

[00:10:51] animal companions. So, and the way the story, like part of the story is done is it's done in that sort

[00:10:57] of dial where like the character is like telling a story like vocally through this in the story.

[00:11:05] So it has like a quotation at the front of the paragraph and then when it stops the paragraph

[00:11:09] it goes to the next one. It doesn't have an end quote because it's going to continue going

[00:11:12] like with the same like speech or the same dialogue. So it's technically dialogue but

[00:11:19] I mean it's also like an actual story so like they should have better grammar.

[00:11:26] But I'll move on to the next thing I have. Meanwhile, my roommate was having hysterics

[00:11:32] on the couch and I thinking, and I thinking to myself, oh great someone just caught with a bag

[00:11:38] of sparkle Frieza or brain boasters. So I think first off, and I'm thinking to myself

[00:11:48] and then also someone just got caught with a bag of sparkle Frieza, blah blah blah.

[00:11:58] Then the next thing I have. No, the weather forecast had said it would be a calm night

[00:12:06] with a bit of fog and there weren't any trees close enough to touch, to tough the

[00:12:13] and there weren't any trees close enough to tough the cottage. So I think it's mean it's supposed

[00:12:21] to be touch the cottage for this is when like the the tapping is happening on the on the cottage

[00:12:27] and Kess wakes up to it. And then on a more positive note, while while still like of a

[00:12:36] some nambulant Kess went into her bedroom and carefully fetched down her surprise.

[00:12:44] So some nambulant adjective resembling or characteristic of a sleepwalker sluggish.

[00:12:52] I learned a new word today. I was like what the hell is a some nambulant?

[00:12:57] Though I'm pretty sure she made up stilly. In that sentence.

[00:13:04] Stilly word quietly and with little movement. That's a word? Yep, I learned two words today.

[00:13:14] My god.

[00:13:18] Walking stilly like of a some nambulant. Wow, just doubling down on that description.

[00:13:32] All right, well that is the end of my grammar and position so Mikey your your inquisition

[00:13:38] is the torch.

[00:13:39] Hey, you got the one that I had so it's onto conjunction junction.

[00:13:44] All right. And next stop conjunction junction.

[00:13:48] It's not just me who notices this other people at school, my sisters and dad.

[00:13:57] It's because her aunt happened to be a very prominent business person was Vanessa's immediate

[00:14:04] answer. And she doesn't trust Ellie to be left alone in the same room with a purse or loan

[00:14:12] in a coach and certainly never in the house.

[00:14:17] But why send her here?

[00:14:20] Has exclaimed in disbelief.

[00:14:22] So when it does happen, it's actually cause for celebration.

[00:14:29] But Mayor Desroses or Desrosiers.

[00:14:36] I kind of went with this Rosie.

[00:14:38] Honestly, this Rosie.

[00:14:39] Okay.

[00:14:41] But Mayor Desrosier didn't notice it's just that I thought I saw someone or as Yoda would say

[00:14:52] the wee boo vibe is strong in this one.

[00:14:56] And when Vanessa asked if she wanted to come to a gothic theater production of a famous

[00:15:04] horror movie, Kessamie the accepted.

[00:15:08] It turned out the show was taking place in Vanessa's backyard.

[00:15:14] And it was a reinterpretation of John Carpenter's The Thing.

[00:15:22] It was like when the thing took over a body.

[00:15:26] It left just enough of the host consciousness so that the imitation still felt like the

[00:15:35] original.

[00:15:36] It all started back a few years ago.

[00:15:41] So unfriendly, superficial and self-absorbed.

[00:15:46] And I'm like what exactly what do you mean by a dog's life?

[00:15:55] It was the fat one who spoke up next.

[00:15:59] But that Van De Vru girl looks feeble-minded.

[00:16:07] But, but I swear I just saw it was starting to be a pretty good place to live.

[00:16:20] Although I still didn't like Des Moilles new.

[00:16:24] But on miserable wet nights, when the streets were generally deserted,

[00:16:32] something would wander near the apartment complex and sing in this flummy burble.

[00:16:39] It seemed a mild mannered spook and most of the residents along that particular street were used to it.

[00:16:47] Treating it as a trifling nightly inconvenience.

[00:16:52] Even going so far as accepting it as a rather eccentric member of the neighborhood.

[00:17:02] But as the weeks went by, I eventually got used to it.

[00:17:07] So when everyone was out at a movie one Halloween night, she called that something in.

[00:17:16] Something that she thought was a lost child.

[00:17:22] But a person just can't keep quiet about that sort of thing.

[00:17:27] But that wasn't why I left Marilia.

[00:17:32] Kes went on slowly.

[00:17:35] It would always leave in the morning and all the wicker wood or

[00:17:41] or coaches would all be soaked in black oily slime.

[00:17:50] Unfit for anything but the bonfire.

[00:17:54] But I felt it was all worth it after my harrowing experience in West Des Moilles new.

[00:18:04] But it wasn't about an illegal substance.

[00:18:09] It was about my roommate seeing the short hoggers.

[00:18:15] And when she finally told us the story, a shiver of cold horror ran through me.

[00:18:23] It was squirming and twisting around in a chair, she stammered.

[00:18:28] But I ran back inside and locked the door.

[00:18:34] Its face, it was like the Wiccan girl that got killed a year back in West Des Moilles new.

[00:18:45] And yet it wasn't.

[00:18:48] And I knew there was something hiding behind it.

[00:18:54] Something even more terrible.

[00:18:56] So that everyone in my story and I know nothing more than what I just experienced.

[00:19:08] And I don't want to know anymore.

[00:19:12] It was close to midnight when Kes awoke.

[00:19:17] It had to have been an animal then.

[00:19:23] Maybe even a bat or an owl brushing up against the glass.

[00:19:29] It's like Fibylwinter in here.

[00:19:32] It's me.

[00:19:34] It's cold.

[00:19:36] It's late.

[00:19:37] It's 12am.

[00:19:39] But while the blades put on the display were just inert metal,

[00:19:46] the ones dug deep around the door were of a completely different nature.

[00:19:53] It was a saffrazion made rifle, a room temperature superconducting Langston

[00:20:05] with a telescopic scope and a carbon fiber barrel to be exact.

[00:20:12] But no sooner did that unpleasant thought enter her mind than she quickly shut it out.

[00:20:21] Finn.

[00:20:21] Finn.

[00:20:23] Finn.

[00:20:25] So from what I got of that, from what I gathered from your conjecture there,

[00:20:32] narratively it seemed like right off the hop, again they were talking about this weird girl

[00:20:38] and then she became, and then she was invited to a party, to a goth party.

[00:20:42] And then she chased something and started attacking and then basically just started

[00:20:46] chasing this person all across places until eventually she got put down.

[00:20:50] She got confronted with it and then she used her gun on it.

[00:20:58] But we don't really get the ending of whether or not she dealt with it or not,

[00:21:03] just that she had that gun and things were happening.

[00:21:09] Basically a little bit linear cut version of a rundown.

[00:21:16] But I suppose that's what happens when you start sentences with words that they probably

[00:21:21] shouldn't like it sends her butts because there's always better words to use, I guess.

[00:21:28] I don't know, I don't usually do this.

[00:21:33] Though not bad for like for saying that off the cuff without any, without that being written

[00:21:37] down. Yeah.

[00:21:40] But yeah, so I guess we'll move on since we are down a grammar in yellow.

[00:21:45] Two actual thoughts.

[00:21:48] So I'm gonna start with this one here.

[00:21:50] Her name's Ellie Lambert and she's from California, the state of Jefferson to be exact.

[00:21:55] Wait, the state of Jefferson?

[00:21:58] My American geography is a bit rusty but I'm pretty sure that Jefferson

[00:22:02] isn't among the 50 United States of America and she's from there and also from California.

[00:22:11] So this brought me down a little bit of a rabbit hole googling Jefferson state.

[00:22:17] Yeah.

[00:22:18] So according to Wikipedia, which there's a whole article about it,

[00:22:21] I'll just like give this a little bit of it, the state of Jefferson was a publicity stunt

[00:22:25] organized in 1935 by disaffected residents of Southern Oregon and Northern California

[00:22:34] who were concerned that Salem and Sacramento were ignoring their region's needs.

[00:22:42] So yeah, there's a whole Wikipedia article that goes into it.

[00:22:46] There's a lot more history to it than that but that's basically just of it.

[00:22:48] It was like a publicity stunt to try and raise awareness for like support for the area that they were

[00:22:55] that they were suggesting the state of Jefferson happened.

[00:22:59] I just thought that was interesting.

[00:23:00] It's like, huh?

[00:23:01] But in this also in this world of these stories, is there actually a state of

[00:23:06] Jefferson between Oregon and California now?

[00:23:11] Because that's going to be a running theme through my store.

[00:23:14] My notes here.

[00:23:19] The setting, locations.

[00:23:24] So just be prepared for that.

[00:23:26] I had to look up the state of Jefferson to go, okay, so this is an alternate reality type.

[00:23:33] Yeah.

[00:23:35] I'm guessing that yeah, like we kind of already knew that this was kind of an

[00:23:39] alternate reality because like there are magical beings living among humanity.

[00:23:46] So yeah, it was sort of but yeah, like it's definitely seems like there's

[00:23:51] definitely we're seeing more of the world alterations in this in these stories as we go.

[00:23:57] But I move on to the next thing I have here.

[00:24:01] Unlike Kess who rather was baffled and somewhat flattered by the party thrown in her honor,

[00:24:07] Vanessa thought that the occasion was a total waste of her teenage time.

[00:24:11] And she had way better things to do in Vanessa's case attending a Motley Crue concert

[00:24:17] with all her friends.

[00:24:18] Oh, so Vanessa, you know, like from the summer camp 2017 story, like the wrap around bit.

[00:24:24] And as it turns out, we finally get some clarification about her connection with

[00:24:28] the mayor in that at the end of that wrap up story or that wrap up plot where she is

[00:24:33] the mayor's eldest daughter even.

[00:24:35] So this may give us a bit more context to the previous story we had with Vanessa,

[00:24:41] at least part of it.

[00:24:43] And we do kind of get like a little bit more like this seems to be like

[00:24:45] I think this is a prequel.

[00:24:47] If I remember correctly from M.M. Pratt's comment on YouTube that when she sent this,

[00:24:53] this guy's I believe she sent some of these stories to us as a link.

[00:24:58] But yeah, so I thought that was interesting.

[00:25:00] They're like, oh good, we're finally getting some more character like development

[00:25:02] in some context to like some characters that we've we've heard of in previous stories

[00:25:06] would have been nice if we had a little bit of that context in the other story.

[00:25:08] But it is what it is.

[00:25:11] And the next thing I have here is another geography issue or another

[00:25:14] another geography question.

[00:25:18] But why send her here?

[00:25:20] Kess exclaimed in disbelief.

[00:25:22] Can't she get therapy back in the States?

[00:25:24] The Republic of the Americas pretty much sucks at the whole mental health thing.

[00:25:28] Vanessa replied pointedly.

[00:25:31] Oh, so this isn't in the States.

[00:25:35] First off, like Swanwick is not in the States.

[00:25:37] It's actually in like I'm guessing it's in the UK.

[00:25:41] Just based on the poshness of the upper crust that we see in these some of these characters

[00:25:46] and the town's names being like Brunchel and Swanwick and stuff like that.

[00:25:53] It still seems to be in the Curtisville universe because we have Ellie Lambert here.

[00:25:58] It's just on the other side of the pond as it were.

[00:26:02] Also, the Republic of America and I apparently like looking up that term,

[00:26:07] it is actually a term used for the US.

[00:26:11] So that was I just I've rarely heard it.

[00:26:14] So like heard it said that way.

[00:26:16] So it just it comes off as alternative like reality when you do stuff like that.

[00:26:22] But yeah, but it is reality because the US is a republic.

[00:26:27] So yeah, yeah, I actually looked at like the Republic of the Americas

[00:26:30] and was like, oh, no, turns out that is actually a thing.

[00:26:33] Okay.

[00:26:34] It's just an uncommon use of like an uncommon term for the for the USA.

[00:26:40] Yeah, but and then also it like at this point in the story,

[00:26:43] like we're getting like again conversations with the characters and they're talked about like

[00:26:46] things like the Tour de Fairey and like other things like that.

[00:26:51] And I was like, oh good.

[00:26:51] It's nice to know that we're getting some more of that magical realism that I love in these stories.

[00:26:55] And it comes a lot and it just comes into full force later on in the story specifically.

[00:27:00] And then the next thing I have here that night,

[00:27:03] Kess stood at the window of her new house or Heron Manor as it was known,

[00:27:10] peering into the shadowy Swanwick Forest.

[00:27:13] So I'm noticing a theme of this town, Swanwick, Heron Manor.

[00:27:19] Is there a Stork Creek?

[00:27:21] A duck pond?

[00:27:24] Or a duck bridge?

[00:27:30] Also just putting something together from again the previous story that we just we covered last week

[00:27:37] the Way Through the Woods.

[00:27:39] I'm just tossing this out here, but I wonder if this town is the place Judith saw Lucille

[00:27:46] pass over into from like that portal that she made in the alleyway in the Way Through the Woods

[00:27:54] background story we got.

[00:27:56] Where the character describes seeing a city through the portal that reminded Judith of the

[00:28:02] Scottish capital of Edinburgh with its steep streets and tall gloomy buildings.

[00:28:10] Just because like that's kind of like, I mean not every town in the UK or in that part of the

[00:28:17] neck of the woods is like cobbled streets and gloomy buildings, but I mean they're pretty

[00:28:21] close. They've got that vibe about them, they got that architecture and like that old world

[00:28:26] architecture and such to it. So yeah just had me wondering if like this was the place that

[00:28:32] she was going to especially since there is a connection we know between a Ellie and Lucille.

[00:28:37] So like was this where she was going or like somewhere near this place or like maybe

[00:28:42] to West Des Moines, perhaps.

[00:28:46] But I'll move on to the next thing I have here.

[00:28:48] You would think more people would be moving here on account of the gift giving and hospitality,

[00:28:53] she wondered. Maybe I got this VIP treatment because my arrival happened to coincide with

[00:28:59] the annual Midsummer Eve tradition. So I'm still left wondering at this point if the

[00:29:07] whole world is influenced by fantastical denizens walking among us or if this is

[00:29:13] or if it's just these little towns that are like dotting the world and that are just like safe

[00:29:19] ports for like creatures from other realities in other places that just kind of like live among

[00:29:23] the population or the human population or like live among us kind of thing. Like is this a

[00:29:28] situation, is this a shatter run situation or is this like a storybrook or fable situation

[00:29:33] where like it's magical creatures living among us in secret in small towns or small colonies

[00:29:40] and stuff like that. Kind of like in the sense of like yeah, like I said like storybrook from like

[00:29:46] once upon a time or the community in fable or for you Mikey, like Eureka, like except instead

[00:29:55] of like high tech people it's fairies and magical creatures or is this a full shatter run situation

[00:30:01] where like it's an alternate reality of our world where like this is just commonplace?

[00:30:08] It's an alternate reality. Yeah, I'm getting that more and more especially what happens later

[00:30:13] from a description that we get later in the story which I will bring up. I can bring it up now I guess

[00:30:22] with the quote here hang on where is my notes there?

[00:30:27] Yeah so this is this might kind of like touch me I'm not sure if this is what you're

[00:30:32] referencing but this is what I was thinking. Tattered clouds scutted past the closest moon

[00:30:37] and gray banks of fog rolled in from the Chudderheim channel. I'm sorry the closest moon?

[00:30:45] Is Swanwick on earth or is this another reality? I have so many questions.

[00:30:51] Well the quote that I have is in regard to the smuggling of the gun. Had this happened in

[00:31:00] human dominated Midgard instead, you would have not only being detected by the numerous

[00:31:08] security devices but promptly whisked away and placed in a holding cell somewhere.

[00:31:13] So that confirms it does not happen on earth. Except for this though too like because then

[00:31:20] we get things like this. This is another quote I have. I ended up moving to a house in East

[00:31:26] Dolwitcher with five others in it. I was and this is when she left West Des Moines New which we know

[00:31:34] is in the Merlion United Kingdom. I was to share a room with a chatty Aussie exchange student

[00:31:43] and the privilege would cost me about 550 pounds per month but I felt it was all worth it after

[00:31:53] my harrowing experience in West Des Moines New. So yeah it definitely doesn't seem like we're in the

[00:31:59] mundane world or Midgard because I guess that's the term for the mortal world by these creatures and

[00:32:05] beings but it does seem like at least like for me I'm still trying to figure out where Swanwick

[00:32:10] is like is it in Merlia somewhere or like is it is it like on like some threshold like threshold

[00:32:17] between like our like the mortal world and um and uh and these magical worlds because like

[00:32:26] it's it definitely feels like this area this this these locations are heavily inspired by the British

[00:32:30] Isles so like London and stuff like that like Des Moines like West Des Moines New

[00:32:34] way it was described kind of felt like London to me. Yeah so the way I see it is that it's

[00:32:42] more Midgard adjacent so like yeah an alternate reality where the land masses are the same but

[00:32:54] things are slightly different and you can transfer to our reality at some point if you want. Yeah but

[00:33:03] it's basically the very world separate from the human world. Yeah and I mean it seems like a

[00:33:11] lot of this stuff is like um MMPrap may be pulling from a lot of like fairy folklore which

[00:33:15] does give credence to this because um I know from from like digging into like Vossen and

[00:33:20] and other like fairy lore and folklore um there are like countless like different fairy worlds

[00:33:25] and like fairy lands and realms that are accessible to from our real world like through

[00:33:32] um uh through like gateways and openings that uh some people sometimes you can just

[00:33:36] slip into by accident like they they make it really it's actually fairly easy so it's kind of

[00:33:41] bleeds into our world sometimes um but it is an alternate reality that's just kind of parallel

[00:33:46] to our own it's just like slightly to the side. Yeah um yeah and I really do enjoy the story

[00:33:52] like because again we get things like um uh she's she goes to East Dolwitscher well Dolwitsch or

[00:33:58] Dolitsch um because it's English is an actual place in London so it's clear that like they're

[00:34:04] pulling names from like real world UK while making this like kind of fantasy fantastical version of

[00:34:11] it because we also like she's like reading newspapers like oh like she's reading a newspaper at one point

[00:34:15] with um about like some some creature some uh some individual that gets like um gets uh sentenced

[00:34:23] to become immortal and live out the rest of their days as a mortal for like a few decades

[00:34:29] and me talking to some goblins like this is kind of pulling into that like that goblin market that we

[00:34:35] read in in summer break um and so yeah I it makes me want like I'm just um I'm starting over the

[00:34:44] course of the story I started getting a kind of a feel for like the setting but I was like kind of

[00:34:48] have to I've had to meander through it to figure out like where exactly things were like where

[00:34:53] where are we in situationally um and uh I don't hate it but it's just like it was a little confusing

[00:35:01] at times because trying to figure out like all right it's one week in the real world and it's

[00:35:05] like Curtisville where there's just like there's people there's creatures among us or is this

[00:35:10] in some alternate reality that's just adjacent to ours and like they can go to the real world

[00:35:15] but like it's not the real world or it's not it's not the mortal world it's it's its own

[00:35:19] little dimension um so yeah that was that was sort of my point there for um like as I was navigating

[00:35:27] through the story I was trying to figure out where we were and what was going on

[00:35:32] like I got I got a strong sense of what was going on through the story

[00:35:36] but I was trying to figure where is where is it going on in is what I kept asking

[00:35:41] like question wise yeah uh and then the next thing I have uh you you kind of you brought this up in

[00:35:53] your uh your conjunction direction but I'm going to use the full quote okay uh Vanessa wouldn't go into

[00:35:58] specific details about the incident that caused her to totally reject Ellie's friendship except

[00:36:04] that except to say that it's it nearly ruined her middle school reputation and further cemented

[00:36:10] her hatred for the anime genre and its numerous fandoms a hardcore otaku then cast thought with a

[00:36:17] grimace or as Yoda would say the weeaboo vibe is strong with this one or strong in this one

[00:36:25] I love how there's I love how they're scoffing at this girl for being like a nerdy fan of anime

[00:36:32] um when they themselves seem to be quoting nerdy stuff like Star Wars and Spielberg films like

[00:36:39] with references like y'all are a bunch of fuck yeah now on that point I'm pretty sure it's actually

[00:36:50] Darth Vader who says the force is strong with this one not Yoda but like I had to look that up

[00:36:56] because like I was like because I see like online a lot of people attribute that line with Yoda

[00:37:01] but like even to the point of like it's like on like uh like t-shirts with Yoda's face saying

[00:37:07] it or like on like people it's like decorations for people's walls that have like a photo like an

[00:37:12] image of Yoda and then that like on next to it I was like but that's a Darth Vader line

[00:37:20] yeah also we know if Yoda was the one to say it it would be like strong in the force or strong

[00:37:26] like uh strong with the force uh or um this one is yeah it is yeah yeah yeah

[00:37:35] strong with the force this one is yeah because of his whole like um kind of reverse speech

[00:37:42] yeah but um yeah there's my own nerdiness coming through but like we all knew that already

[00:37:48] yeah but I mean when it comes to star wars uh there's a lot of things that are misquoted like the whole

[00:37:58] Luke I am your father he never actually says Luke yeah that's a Mandela effect yeah yeah so

[00:38:07] it's one of those things where I was like oh yeah I can see Yoda saying this and yeah he would

[00:38:17] like a kind of um attitude toward Ellie's fandom uh I mean I also kind of get that too because like

[00:38:24] really weird hardcore otaku like anime fans out there that kind of ruin it for the rest of us

[00:38:33] so like I do kind of get that like if she's like that kind of person like that like and we kind

[00:38:37] of know Ellie from like previous stories like how weird and awkward she is as well

[00:38:43] So like I can kind of get that she's one of the more toxic fans or like the more obsessive

[00:38:48] Otaku fans or anime fans. So but at the same time again, like y'all are a bunch of nerds

[00:38:53] Don't don't don't berate her for for being a nerd

[00:38:58] Well, they're nerds just different nerds

[00:39:01] Yeah, and they're also teenagers like teenagers are going to do this unfortunately like this kind of life

[00:39:06] Kind of judging and stuff like that. Yeah

[00:39:10] So the next thing here so this is like

[00:39:14] just after like

[00:39:17] Ellie was like or not Ellie. Um, Kes was was

[00:39:22] Speculating about Ellie like being this weird shape-shifting thing and stuff like that

[00:39:26] And then we get this description as they as Vanessa and Ellie or Vanessa and Kesko out back

[00:39:32] Where the kids are sitting with this like play kind of thing

[00:39:35] Watching a bunch of Goths pay homage to the golden age of be rated horror movies. Hey

[00:39:41] John Carpenter is the thing is not a be rated horror movie motherfuckers

[00:39:47] They triggered you

[00:39:56] Accompanied with a heavy dose of hardcore techno and fake gore

[00:40:00] Seemed preferable to waiting around to be eaten by some shape-shifting monster

[00:40:05] It turned out the show was taking place in Vanessa's backyard and it was a reinterpretation of John Carpenter's the thing

[00:40:13] Oh the irony

[00:40:17] Like like she's dealing with like she's like speculating about like Ellie being this like shape-shifting monster thing

[00:40:22] And then it just turns out like the friend of Vanessa's friends are like setting up a makeshift play of John Carpenter's the thing

[00:40:30] Movie about shape-shifting monsters. It's a nice touch for like the allegory of what's going on in the situation

[00:40:38] Especially actually by the end like the story like this by the end of the story like the the creature the this the short hogger or whatever

[00:40:45] But that was was hunting down

[00:40:46] Kes and like she gunned it down. It was shape-shifting and constantly changing kind of like a thing monster so

[00:40:54] Hmm

[00:40:56] The next thing here

[00:40:58] Her mind was teeming with images from hours earlier the corrugated iron and scrap wood

[00:41:05] Arrange or the the corrugated iron and scrap wood arrangement

[00:41:08] That was supposed to resemble an Antarctic research station

[00:41:13] The werewolves died to resemble sled dogs the imps and spriggins

[00:41:18] animating the mechanical monster parts the actors rushing around rushing about heroically in corpse paint and

[00:41:26] Cold weather gear the whole setup the whole set going up in flames

[00:41:32] That would have met with John Carpenter's approval

[00:41:36] There it is in full blast

[00:41:38] Magical realism or fantastically mundane kind of vibes werewolves and imps and other magical beings performing a play

[00:41:46] Based off of a 80s horror an 80 70s horror movie series

[00:41:51] I love it like I was here for this like we are just completely going is like

[00:41:56] Yeah, though they've got werewolves so they're gonna be the sled dogs that turn to the thing

[00:42:01] The imps and spriggins are using their their magic to like animate like various things and stuff like that

[00:42:07] It's just like and they're just all a bunch of kids basically like re re redoing or like

[00:42:14] Retelling the story of John Carpenter's the thing. It says like it's it's just so

[00:42:19] whimsical to me this idea of like

[00:42:22] These magical creatures these these magical creature youngsters

[00:42:27] Like playing around with with with mortal pop culture, I just I just love that kind of that kind of aesthetic

[00:42:37] But I'll move on to the next thing here

[00:42:42] Her new roommates paused in their noisy wrestling to listen and offer up the occasional chirp and squeak

[00:42:49] I think I might have even I think I might have even seen a ghost

[00:42:53] She went on and you know what I've even seen that face before the countless small beasts

[00:43:00] Seized their comments as they all waited patiently for what she had to say

[00:43:06] This is suddenly be this this part suddenly became like a Disney princess scene where like all the little critters being attentive to Kess

[00:43:14] And like seemingly it'd be intelligent enough to like understand her like again

[00:43:18] They don't talk English but they like they seem to be reacting to her and responding to her in a in an intelligent way

[00:43:25] Yeah

[00:43:26] Yeah, I think this is the point or close to the point where she falls asleep

[00:43:32] Yeah

[00:43:34] Because there is no there's no mention of her actually falling asleep just that she wakes up later

[00:43:39] Yeah, she's slowly dozing off as she's like reminiscing and telling the story of her of her background

[00:43:45] kind of thing. Yeah, and I mean we get the the story of

[00:43:49] the

[00:43:51] The thing yeah reenactment and then once the animals start sort of

[00:43:58] Joining in that's was like, okay. She's falling asleep

[00:44:02] Yeah, yeah the way that it's either it's either again

[00:44:05] We're it wouldn't put me back

[00:44:07] It wouldn't I wouldn't put a past the story like the setting though if they were actually like

[00:44:11] semi intelligent creatures that were like paying attention to their their their new

[00:44:17] their new owner

[00:44:21] Because that's kind of thing that happens in fantasy sometimes is like they're like your animals are usually pretty intelligent and responsive

[00:44:29] Yeah

[00:44:31] But yeah, and then the next thing I have here is again just sort of a description of like

[00:44:37] Again something I really enjoyed about the story and also kind of gives us a little bit more

[00:44:41] idea about

[00:44:43] Where Kess is from and like what where we are and like in regards to like

[00:44:47] The fantasy world and then this and then it's relation to Midgard

[00:44:52] Which I guess is the term for the mortal world of of Curtisville

[00:44:58] Which makes sense because Midgard

[00:45:01] mythologically is the Norse name for

[00:45:05] For for earth

[00:45:07] Like where humans live and dwell on some of that in Norse mythology like that's Midgard

[00:45:13] And then there's like other realities and other places

[00:45:16] Where other magical creatures or other beings exist in the

[00:45:22] All within like Iqdrasil the world tree cast stuff

[00:45:26] So we're getting more of a taste of like the cosmology through this series

[00:45:29] Oh, we're getting more of a taste of like the cosmology of the

[00:45:33] Of the worlds of that the Curtisville stories seem to be taking place in we're getting a little more of that in this

[00:45:40] But I'll go with the quote here. I have

[00:45:43] 18 months later. I had nearly forgotten the supermarket incident

[00:45:47] I had a new job waiting tables at this tea and coffee tavern

[00:45:53] The landlord finally got around to repairing the apartment house and

[00:45:58] Evicting of the animal freeloaders a few of my roomies even started up a backyard community garden

[00:46:05] It was starting to be a pretty good place to live although I still didn't like demoyle new

[00:46:11] Then autumn rolled around and with its lengthening chilly nights and thick fog

[00:46:17] Along with the weird wildlife you tend to expect with the closing season

[00:46:23] spectral hounds blue and green goblin cats

[00:46:27] multi-tailed foxes pipe smoking drogger ghost pirates and sailors on shore leave

[00:46:34] people with detachable heads

[00:46:37] Various boogeymen coming over and borrowing the lawn furniture and party lanterns

[00:46:42] This is giving me like so

[00:46:45] First off, this is very D&D vibes

[00:46:46] But also this is like when I started reading this part. It was like this is really like this is some serious

[00:46:52] Miyazaki specifically spirited away

[00:46:56] like vibes

[00:46:58] Like just like again like this this kind of slice of life

[00:47:02] fantasy world

[00:47:05] Like and I love the use of like a tea and coffee tavern

[00:47:10] Like it's not an ale how it's not like an alehouse tavern. It's like it's basically it's a coffee shop in a fantasy world

[00:47:18] and

[00:47:19] Again, like the use of like there's a supermarket in this fantasy world as well

[00:47:25] and then like apparently like as like the season closes we get like they start seeing more and more these like

[00:47:30] More more more like kind of like Halloween-esque inhabitants showing up like with spectral hounds and and draw pipe smoking drogger and

[00:47:39] And boogeymen showing up to like borrow the lawn furniture and some party lanterns

[00:47:44] Like I just I love the the fantasy vibes

[00:47:48] mixed in with like

[00:47:50] like kind of mundane society and like

[00:47:54] Like everyday walk of life kind of stuff. It just really really fills me up and

[00:47:59] It was sort of priming me for the next thing I had here in this story

[00:48:03] with with this quote

[00:48:06] Poor Joanne she was always boasting constantly about her great magical abilities

[00:48:12] She claimed to have even vanquished a nest of shadow demons that normally would never have defeat have been defeated

[00:48:19] By just one person

[00:48:20] She actually thought she was on par with the greatest human spellcasters in history

[00:48:26] Instead of just being a trust fund hippie wick and wannabe

[00:48:31] So when everyone was out at a movie on halloween night, she called that something in

[00:48:38] Something that she thought was a lost child

[00:48:42] The

[00:48:43] Mikey do you do you when you were reading the story?

[00:48:45] Did you also get like feel like you wanted to like play or run a

[00:48:50] A more slice of life urban fantasy game of dnd after this

[00:48:55] Or is that just me?

[00:48:57] That's just you

[00:49:00] Life like dnd game now like this kind of thing like maybe maybe set it in like one less dies

[00:49:06] dat world setting

[00:49:09] And and have like dnd fantasy shenanigans

[00:49:13] With modern amenities like supermarkets and movie theaters and stuff like that and and like coffee taverns

[00:49:21] Sort of like that tv adaptation of terry pratchett's the watch where like

[00:49:25] It's it's the it's the disc world like onk morc pork fantasy like world of disc world

[00:49:31] But they're they've added like

[00:49:33] Like the build some of the buildings and even like some some of the technology is kind of like is very reminiscent of like of like

[00:49:39] modern-day

[00:49:41] uh society

[00:49:42] Though it still has like a bit of a fantasy flair because like the the instead of electricity it's like

[00:49:47] They're they have like it's like the clacks

[00:49:50] So it's like telegraph systems and like the the CTR system that they have is actually just like

[00:49:56] Inside of camera inside of camera boxes

[00:49:58] painting

[00:50:00] frames every like second

[00:50:04] Like that again bad realism, uh basically or like that kind of uh fantastical whimsy

[00:50:11] um mundanity

[00:50:13] Yeah, I just uh like I don't want to run it. I don't want to run it like super high stakes epic fantasy

[00:50:20] I just want to run like an a street level urban fantasy with some occult horror

[00:50:25] That's that's what I want

[00:50:26] I want to run

[00:50:30] Like this was giving me those kind of vibes like so hardcore and I was like here for it

[00:50:35] So the next thing I have here um as we're as we're getting closer to the end of the story

[00:50:39] So we're done like the uh

[00:50:41] Her her telling and her dozing off and then she's waking up to the uh the thing outside

[00:50:46] Um, so we got this her spine tingled as her hair rose on end

[00:50:51] Instinctively she took several steps back and as she did she heard a voice call out from the other side of the door

[00:50:58] It's me venessa. Let me in it's cold venessa despite the cold kes started walking toward the door

[00:51:05] What are you doing? It's late

[00:51:07] And I was just like as soon as I heard that they got to this part in the scene and so I was like wow

[00:51:12] to quote the internet

[00:51:14] This is an obvious fey trap

[00:51:21] I've I've seen enough apalachian trail or apalachian like folklore videos to know that this is a clear like

[00:51:28] Do not go near the door. Do not go near the windows

[00:51:31] That's how they get you

[00:51:32] When they when you start hearing your friend's voice outside and you know, and it's like really late and you know that your friend probably isn't out there

[00:51:40] That's not your friend out there. That's something trying to get you

[00:51:45] And then

[00:51:47] Also, I do want to bring this up so like

[00:51:49] Uh, I don't have a quote for but I just realized it. Yeah, so when she gets to the door

[00:51:53] She finds that like a bunch of the blades are like digging into the into the um

[00:51:57] Uh

[00:51:58] Into the into the doorway and so and she goes to the back door and it's been like

[00:52:02] Something there's like some ropes and like um, like ship rope like ship rope of paraphernalia that's been like

[00:52:08] Lashed against the door and when I when I it wasn't till like the the back door scene that I got

[00:52:13] That I didn't there because I when I first saw the blades like stuck in the door

[00:52:17] I thought it was like oh shit. She's like something bad has happened to her like like something is

[00:52:22] I thought I didn't realize it was a bad. It was a good thing. Like I didn't really it was like beneficial to her

[00:52:26] I thought it was like something bad for her but suddenly these blades were animated in the house

[00:52:32] Um

[00:52:33] And it wasn't until I was brought up a little bit later that like oh, it's like some kind of arcane law

[00:52:37] Because I was like, oh, so it was actually tried like that. It was like some spell put on her cottage

[00:52:41] To to keep her safe from things outside

[00:52:44] I said

[00:52:45] But it took a while for me to realize that so

[00:52:49] Um, because the way I think it was described it felt more like it was like something bad or like something unexpected

[00:52:55] um for even from her and then it and then like later she real

[00:52:58] She realizes in the story

[00:53:01] Clarifying to us that it was actually like a safety mechanism or some kind of security system

[00:53:05] but

[00:53:09] Again, I'll move on to the next thing I have here unless you had something about that mickey

[00:53:15] Uh, no

[00:53:16] No, it's uh, basically to protect against pirate ghosts. Yes clearly. Yeah pirate ghosts and sailors

[00:53:26] Yeah, I mean they're a rambunctious a rambunctious bunch so I understand

[00:53:33] Um

[00:53:34] But I'll move on to the next thing here. Uh, I'm gonna say sorry mickey in advance

[00:53:39] For for what my comments are going to be for this one

[00:53:42] Okay, um

[00:53:44] Uh, it was a sephracean made rifle a room temperature superconducting langston with a telescopic scope and a carbon fiber barrel to be exact

[00:53:54] This weapon had been wrought centuries ago not by the yotar or the dwarves or even the nearly extinct

[00:54:02] ingue

[00:54:03] But by kes's own people the most diligent and talented of the mech of the mecanicians or mechanish

[00:54:12] Machanicians

[00:54:13] The mechanitions

[00:54:17] Mechanicians

[00:54:19] Uh against such powerful weapons

[00:54:23] Foes both human and non-human stood no chance

[00:54:26] In an effort to secure universal peace

[00:54:29] The langston rifle along with the other techno hands

[00:54:33] Our techno hands weaponry were banned from the mortal and free folk territories

[00:54:40] This is truly moving into suddenly shadow run territory

[00:54:46] Now you understand why oh, I said why I apologized in advance

[00:54:50] Yes, like banned advanced weaponry and supernatural beings of fay of fay living and walking among mortal folk and and whatnot

[00:55:01] um

[00:55:02] or or like this like

[00:55:04] Even if you take like there is a part of the shadow run universe where like you could go to like tirna nog

[00:55:10] Like there's like an alternative setting in the in the shadow runs set around game

[00:55:14] um

[00:55:15] Where you can go to like tirna nog and actually deal with like fairy court like situation and bureaucracy and

[00:55:21] And stuff like that in that meta plane because like that's the other thing like the in shadow run

[00:55:26] They have like meta planes which are basically the alternate realities of like all these fantastical places and such

[00:55:31] That you can like translate over to depending on like how you're getting there

[00:55:34] um

[00:55:35] And for the most part you can't bring your own weapon your your weapons translate to something more like similar to that location

[00:55:41] But sometimes you can bring like advanced weapons into those regions

[00:55:46] Uh, and they still like are your weapons from like the modern high tech era

[00:55:52] um

[00:55:53] But yeah, so this is definitely getting that kind of like vibe of like just like shout like high technology and fantasy

[00:55:58] and low fantasy

[00:56:00] Or like or like high technology with like fa fairy folk and and uh and supernatural aspects very shadow run to me

[00:56:08] um

[00:56:08] Also fun fact

[00:56:10] I love the use of the of mortal and free folk territories because

[00:56:15] Free folk is another term for creatures and people of the of fairy

[00:56:19] Like it's another term for the fairy folk or the fae and stuff like that

[00:56:23] um

[00:56:25] so

[00:56:26] So

[00:56:27] Yeah, I guess this also confirms exactly what kes was um or like what what her people were uh to a degree because like

[00:56:33] That was something i've also been wondering since the beginning like she's not doesn't she she appears not to be human

[00:56:39] and she's she's seracean but like

[00:56:42] Or sephracean, but like I wasn't sure what that was

[00:56:48] I I feel like we could have gotten a little bit more of a description of what a sephracean looks like

[00:56:53] um

[00:56:53] um

[00:56:54] To be a little bit more that's the other thing like the story like goes in all this world building of like kind of like

[00:56:59] It's sort of natural world building like through the context of like the story, but we or like through the dialogue and through the um through uh

[00:57:06] some descriptions, but like

[00:57:08] Unfortunately because it's done that way

[00:57:10] We don't get like full like kind of elaborations on what certain things are because we don't have a layman

[00:57:15] In the story to like for people to have to explain something to

[00:57:19] So we're just kind of like us as a reader are kind of left to be like left to wonder or like to have speculate exactly

[00:57:25] What certain things are and what they are and what things are in and it's like it's not necessarily a bad thing but like

[00:57:31] It just

[00:57:32] I feel like there could have been some more clarification through the story

[00:57:35] um for like what certain

[00:57:38] places and people were

[00:57:41] um

[00:57:43] But yeah again

[00:57:45] She I love how she just like she was smuggling this this like illegal high advanced weapon that can kill

[00:57:51] both humans and fey

[00:57:54] it's just

[00:57:55] Suddenly reminded of that scene from the lost in space movie. It's like

[00:57:58] uh, we're like the guy the the the one like

[00:58:01] security guys just like

[00:58:03] Reassembling his gun is like the monsters are coming through the door and like like doing that bad ass turn with the gun

[00:58:09] And just starts like shooting through the door

[00:58:12] um

[00:58:13] It definitely kind of felt like suddenly it like shifted gears as like

[00:58:18] Uh, she was prepared because she smuggled this advanced weapon that could kill anything

[00:58:25] Um, which I guess to a point does kind of take away from some of the um

[00:58:30] The the dread at the end because it suddenly becomes more of a thriller

[00:58:34] Um as she is able to just like like I have a surprise

[00:58:38] A giant lethal gun bang

[00:58:42] Take that like take that elder tore

[00:58:48] But

[00:58:50] I'll move on to the last thing here, which is actually the destruction of the death of that creature

[00:58:55] um

[00:58:56] coughing and sputtering she quickly covered her nose as

[00:59:01] Or yeah, she quickly covered her nose and pushed past the shattered door

[00:59:07] And then fixed her eyes on what lay before her in the middle of the yard tattered and torn

[00:59:12] besmirched with gore and black slime

[00:59:16] slowly

[00:59:16] It began transforming before her widened eye widening eyes

[00:59:22] Clarissa van der ver van devourer

[00:59:26] Clarissa van de vero

[00:59:28] Ali Lambert the nameless frog-like girl and then a twisted myriad of other forms human and non-human

[00:59:37] Some she hardly recognized

[00:59:39] Then there was nothing left of it

[00:59:41] But the sticky

[00:59:43] But a sticky blackish patch on the dewy moonlit grass

[00:59:48] frowning

[00:59:49] Kess went to repair the door

[00:59:51] So I found this very interesting when we finally get the reveal of the

[00:59:56] seemingly slain

[00:59:57] creature this this this thing

[01:00:00] So she was be so it makes suddenly this part of the story kind of makes sense because

[01:00:05] So she was being hunted or stalked by this thing the whole time like when she went to new

[01:00:11] Or to west the well new

[01:00:13] Um, she seemed to have tagged her and started like basically following her following her

[01:00:17] And so she emigrated to swan wick which seemed to be far away from those places

[01:00:22] Things she might be safe and then it showed up anyway

[01:00:25] um

[01:00:27] And she was finally able to deal with it um and put it down

[01:00:31] um

[01:00:32] I I feel like this story on its own works like though um a little bit more clarification on like the setting might help for me

[01:00:40] Um

[01:00:41] It is stated right off the hop of the in an author's note in the on the wiki that this is an earlier

[01:00:47] an early standalone version of a story that was later developed as part of a series of stories known as the last day of summer

[01:00:56] um

[01:00:58] and

[01:00:59] While it does also have connections to

[01:01:02] previous Kurzfeld stories like ellie lambert for example here who who

[01:01:08] died

[01:01:10] Um, I think in like the mayors like near the mayor's house

[01:01:15] In the wraparound plot of summer break 2017

[01:01:19] Um, and yeah in 2017 they le dies in her bed when she

[01:01:25] Was doing some kind of dark magics by like projecting her consciousness

[01:01:30] uh fourth and transforming it into a phantasmal monster that gets shot

[01:01:35] and that kill

[01:01:37] That kills her remotely in the process

[01:01:40] and

[01:01:41] That happened again, like I said that happened near or like at least near the mayor's estate in swan wick

[01:01:47] with venezia present

[01:01:49] So now i'm wondering and probably guessing at this point

[01:01:54] That kes was our narrator in the summer break 2017 wraparound plot

[01:02:01] Um, she's the only she's the one like what like I think like maybe this was supposed to be that phantasm that like that was

[01:02:08] That was uh that ellie was projecting but then like

[01:02:14] It it's sort of odd because like so ellie has known about this all along

[01:02:19] Like or ellie was ellie was basically hunting her down like from back and

[01:02:24] from from uh

[01:02:26] From earlier like when she was dealing with the horrible with the um

[01:02:31] uh when when she was like dealing with this stuff in in uh, uh

[01:02:34] Because it's all taking place in the fantasy world right like in this merlia united kingdom

[01:02:39] and um and like

[01:02:42] Was yeah, was this mom was this short hogger's creature

[01:02:46] Was that ellie lambritz like mind projecting into that reality? Like there's there's a bunch of questions we get

[01:02:52] if if you go down that that train of thought of like like

[01:02:56] If you're connecting this to another story, um, and maybe you're not supposed to

[01:03:01] um, but

[01:03:03] I just feel like maybe the story was

[01:03:06] Maybe this maybe some of that will get developed more in the

[01:03:10] newer version of the story which is the last day in the last day of october series, which we are going to be covering

[01:03:15] Next week and onward

[01:03:17] until the last day of october

[01:03:20] um

[01:03:22] But yeah as a as in terms of a um

[01:03:25] Uh a standalone story. I do think it works on its own because we kind of get like a beginning middle and end

[01:03:32] um

[01:03:33] Like we get the introduction to the characters

[01:03:35] We get a middle part that gives us like kind of the background of what's been going on and like what the situation is

[01:03:40] And then we have a conclusion here where um, we're kess is able to put down what was stalking her and hunting her down

[01:03:46] from her from her background

[01:03:49] um

[01:03:52] But again, uh because I because I know um ahead of time that this is like

[01:03:56] Part this is the there's going to be another version of the story that is part of

[01:04:01] um

[01:04:02] Of another series of stories and it's tied to the Kurdishville stories that we've been reading

[01:04:08] I'm left kind of wondering like what all the I have so many questions about like what's going on exactly

[01:04:13] And like i'm trying to add like connect dots

[01:04:17] Um, and i'm not sure if that's like a good thing to do at the moment. Um

[01:04:23] Because the story the story that we're reading today is is a standalone versus

[01:04:29] What's gonna come next?

[01:04:31] um

[01:04:33] But I think I think it does do well

[01:04:37] Um as a standalone. I think is what i'm trying to get at here is uh in terms of being a standalone story. It works well

[01:04:44] um

[01:04:46] Though I could it could use some more clarification on certain things if it's going to be a standalone like so that you don't have to like

[01:04:52] Worry about reading other stories if if that that was the original intent

[01:04:57] um

[01:04:58] And uh, hopefully the the version we end up reading as part of the last days of october series

[01:05:04] Maybe like fill in some of those gaps or at least like helps tie it together once we've read the other stories that came before it in the series

[01:05:11] um

[01:05:11] But we will we'll have to see I guess so

[01:05:15] Um, that is finally my actual thoughts the end of my actual thoughts

[01:05:20] So mikey he stands for evil. I'm sorry if I took so long

[01:05:24] Uh, you may get fine

[01:05:26] What do you have left?

[01:05:30] Well

[01:05:31] The first thing

[01:05:33] Is in regards to the title?

[01:05:36] Yep, so it's called ellie lambor

[01:05:41] Yet

[01:05:42] She's barely in the story at all. I mean she

[01:05:47] She you're right

[01:05:48] But also she is kind of a key figure in that

[01:05:51] Like the ellie lambor that was at the party at the beginning of the story was the monster

[01:05:57] Yeah, yeah, we get that but it

[01:05:59] Takes so long to get to that

[01:06:02] It does take a little while

[01:06:05] Um

[01:06:06] But it is an interesting reveal at the end he was like oh like yeah this creature that she blasted like starts shifting through different like

[01:06:11] Faces including ellie lambor

[01:06:13] Um, but it could have also been like Clarissa vandevro. Um or like

[01:06:19] uh

[01:06:20] Yeah, what do you have any title suggestions for this one?

[01:06:23] um

[01:06:25] well

[01:06:28] Kess's welcoming party

[01:06:30] Yeah, actually that would that actually sounds like yeah, that would be a good one. Yeah

[01:06:37] Like because it's all about kess and

[01:06:42] Her going to a new town and having a welcome party. Yeah, so

[01:06:47] Hell even just welcome party good would be a good one. Yeah

[01:06:51] Yeah, welcoming party uh, yeah kess is welcoming party

[01:06:57] um

[01:06:58] Do you have any other suggestions?

[01:07:02] Uh

[01:07:03] No, that's

[01:07:05] Okay, that's good enough

[01:07:07] All right, and then

[01:07:15] My next issue

[01:07:19] Which is apparently a running issue with mm pratt stories

[01:07:25] Is stories within stories?

[01:07:28] Yes, but I mean it's it's not a bad thing. It's not a running issue. Yeah, it's just not

[01:07:34] That bad. It's just it's

[01:07:38] I feel like it's getting a bit tired

[01:07:41] For me anyway having read so many of these stories

[01:07:44] You know, oh, yeah, this seems to be like this. This is maybe a part of um of uh mm pratt's writing style

[01:07:52] Yeah, um

[01:07:54] and then

[01:07:56] My other issue is the transitions

[01:08:00] Yeah, as I always seem to have issues with transitions or they're lack thereof

[01:08:05] like

[01:08:07] that there's no

[01:08:09] um

[01:08:10] sleep transition which I mean

[01:08:13] That is sort of okay, but

[01:08:17] Like she stays in bed

[01:08:19] for such a long time

[01:08:22] That you wonder how much of this is just her mind going off and on tangents

[01:08:29] Yeah, because he's trying to sleep

[01:08:31] Yeah

[01:08:32] Well, I think that's part of the point of that part of the of it is it slowly kind of transitioning from like

[01:08:36] Her telling these the story or recalling these stories and it's slowly slipping into dream

[01:08:41] And then like getting a little bit more of like the memory skewed and such

[01:08:43] Yeah

[01:08:44] So when we get to the section with the what goblins or whatever like that's very much a dream like sequins

[01:08:54] Yeah, but it's also a memory. This is the kind of thing that would happen in a movie or tv show

[01:08:59] It's it's kind of it's kind of written like a tv show scene where like a character like

[01:09:04] Uh after like a situation that's happened in a movie in the in the present day

[01:09:07] They they go off to sleep and they like we get them like slipping away into sleep

[01:09:12] And then it cuts to a flashback like that's kind of how I saw it was it was

[01:09:16] Sort of like as they're falling asleep

[01:09:18] We cut away to a flashback of their past where we get more context to their

[01:09:23] Their their previous situations

[01:09:26] Like we see that in tv shows all the time and in movies

[01:09:29] um

[01:09:30] Yeah, but yeah like the the way it was written

[01:09:33] Like it maybe could have like been a little bit more clarified on that in terms of like a

[01:09:36] Transitionary thing I did actually think that the uh transition from like the uh the shenanigans with the the the thing play

[01:09:44] And uh and her suddenly being back at her college. I actually thought that was a pretty safe uh transition

[01:09:49] Like that was a pretty good transition

[01:09:51] um

[01:09:51] Like at first I was like wondering if it needed all the fours on the line

[01:09:54] But then as I like I read it over a couple times. It was like, oh, this is actually pretty good

[01:09:58] Like this is like it states that like sometime later that night. Um, like she's back at her cottage

[01:10:04] And uh, she's uh, she's going over the all our gifts and stuff like that. So

[01:10:11] but yeah, I guess I guess the dream sequence can could feel like, um, it's

[01:10:16] Sort of becoming more of a dream and less memories, but

[01:10:20] I think the the the

[01:10:22] I I think the um the purpose of it was just really to have like a flashback to

[01:10:28] Uh, Kess's past

[01:10:31] Yeah, kind of to kind of catch us the reader up on on what has been going on in her life

[01:10:37] Okay, it just

[01:10:39] I just didn't like the transition. All right. That's fair. Anyway, uh,

[01:10:45] So so now for some um connective tissues time because we gotta do that, you know, yeah, of course

[01:10:52] uh

[01:10:53] Kess thoughtfully sipped her glass of lemonade as she discreetly studied the strange guest in the clamorous town hall

[01:11:02] While I was reading the story

[01:11:04] I was sipping lemonade

[01:11:06] Wow, nice

[01:11:09] Well, I was missing a a guest in your house

[01:11:20] So

[01:11:20] It turns out your brother or somebody was just like that's a friend over or had a friend over is like, I don't trust this person

[01:11:32] Well, there's multiple times where she sipped lemonade and I was like, uh, it's a good time to sedemone

[01:11:37] Oh, so it was it was actually that like it was a it was more of a suggestion like a um

[01:11:42] Was the a form of suggestion. It's like it's like

[01:11:45] Your uh, like the story's talking is like the character was getting hungry. It's like I could really go for a bite right now actually

[01:11:51] As you're reading it

[01:11:53] Yeah

[01:11:55] And I already had lemonade with an arms reach so it's like, okay

[01:11:59] Yeah, or it's like what's something or like

[01:12:01] Yeah, like sipping lemonade sipping coffee and then you start taking a sip of your own coffee as you're reading the story

[01:12:05] It's like the power of suggestion

[01:12:08] Mm-hmm

[01:12:10] Did we just like have a conversation about that in one of our other episodes with uh, I think it was the eighth orphan

[01:12:18] Where that that's where we're talking about the power of suggestion

[01:12:21] Yeah

[01:12:23] Yeah

[01:12:26] So it seems like you aren't immune to the power of suggestion there, uh, Mikey

[01:12:36] So

[01:12:37] That's the end of my actual thoughts

[01:12:42] And although there's one more thing. Yeah, one more thing about it

[01:12:47] One more thing. Um the art

[01:12:50] Oh, yeah, you're right. There is a there is a piece of art in the story. Uh, yeah

[01:12:55] um

[01:12:57] And the issue I uh, you have an issue with it. Okay

[01:13:01] Is that uh

[01:13:04] It describes her as having ridiculously short page boy style hair

[01:13:10] Yeah, I noticed that too. Yeah

[01:13:14] Well the picture does not have short hair

[01:13:16] Yeah, and this doesn't really look like, um

[01:13:22] The description of her transformation, right? Like oh no, it kind of does it does it fit her transformation like when she uh, when

[01:13:29] um

[01:13:30] When kiss sees her in the moonlight

[01:13:33] Uh, well there is no description in the moonlight. Is there I thought there was hang on. Let me double check that. Um

[01:13:39] It just says it transforms and changes shape between multiple forms. No, no, that's that's the end though, right?

[01:13:46] Yeah, uh, no, but like there's a part I thought that yeah hanging. Um,

[01:13:50] Yeah, there's there's a yeah, so her

[01:13:53] Hang on where we go here for a moment

[01:13:55] Just as the girl stepped into the one of the moon

[01:13:57] Uh, oh yeah

[01:13:58] For a moment just as the girl stepped into one of the moonlight patches

[01:14:02] The whole shape of her face seemed to have changed her tight

[01:14:06] Her tight buster brown curls

[01:14:10] Grew law grew loose and dark

[01:14:13] Uh while her cherubim her cherub features grew pimply cheeked and dough faced

[01:14:20] The oh this is like it's become that the bulging frog face girl. Um, this is what just becoming into

[01:14:28] Yeah, I wonder was this is this is this supposed to be a picture of ellie?

[01:14:31] Or is this supposed to be a picture maybe of of uh, not finessa, but um, uh, or casp

[01:14:36] It maybe it's a picture of kes or it could be a picture of that. Um, clarrissa

[01:14:41] Uh individual, um

[01:14:43] And it's hard to say but yeah, I at the beginning it's describing ellie lambart

[01:14:49] And then you have this picture and you go. Yeah, that doesn't work

[01:14:52] No, you're you're absolutely right. Unfortunately like it does like

[01:14:56] She she does have um

[01:14:58] Uh large pale blue eyes

[01:15:01] Yeah, rather we don't we don't see her oversized ears. Um, her nose isn't really pink button nose

[01:15:09] um

[01:15:11] She doesn't have short. She absolutely does not have short page boy style hair in the story

[01:15:17] Um, it is some bleach straw kind of are you it's it or I guess it's a kind of blonde

[01:15:23] Yeah, um

[01:15:24] and she wore

[01:15:27] Uh

[01:15:28] She always wore pretty yet impractical looking dresses

[01:15:31] So and she kind of looks like she's wearing like a pretty dress or something like that

[01:15:34] I don't know. Although we just get the color bit of it

[01:15:37] Um, yeah, it's it's kind of odd like I wonder if like maybe that should be altered

[01:15:44] To more fit the description of the of the illustration because I mean this illustration is by mm prat, um like yeah

[01:15:50] So maybe this was like an earlier version or like a later version of the of the image

[01:15:55] Uh, or before like the description in the story. I don't know like

[01:15:59] That is what what is a page boy style haircut? I need to get a visual of that

[01:16:04] Okay, it's um, so actually it's a uh, it's not too far off actually

[01:16:10] Her ridiculously short. I mean it like if it's ridiculously short

[01:16:14] It is more of like kind of like a not a pixie cut, but it's like

[01:16:18] It's like a sort of yeah, it's almost like a

[01:16:20] It's almost like a like it's almost like a short bob cut or a bowl cut. Uh, or like a longer bowl cut

[01:16:26] Which doesn't match the style in the picture. No, I mean I'm seeing someone

[01:16:30] I'm seeing some of them that are long like the longer ones look more like the one in the image

[01:16:35] But like it specifically says shortened page boy style cut so

[01:16:41] Um

[01:16:42] Yeah, it it's not exactly translating well

[01:16:45] It's a cool image like art wise like like visually it's really it's a really good picture

[01:16:50] But it doesn't fit the description of the character that was it's described in the story

[01:16:56] At least not to a T

[01:17:01] Um, this is definitely a case of like

[01:17:04] There was some like the story came like either the story or the image came out first

[01:17:08] And then the the uh the other thing came out after and like there was some creative liberties done

[01:17:15] Some some alterations that weren't corrected

[01:17:19] Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. So now I'm doing a special class

[01:17:23] Okay

[01:17:25] Well on two final thoughts then

[01:17:28] I'm I'm still gonna recommend it. I do do really enjoy

[01:17:31] I did really enjoy the story and I was able to follow through the story for the most part

[01:17:36] um

[01:17:37] I I really love all the fantasy elements of it and like the later horror aspects with the spectral monster this this

[01:17:44] thing like trying to get into her into her cottage and and the um

[01:17:48] Even in her backstory like the the strange thing that was uh

[01:17:52] Trailing her it seemed

[01:17:54] Um, I've been I've been using the term magical realism a lot throughout these uh,

[01:18:00] m m m prat stories

[01:18:02] um

[01:18:03] But also the term whimsical horror kind of comes to mind as well like sort of like it's it's it's it is horror aesthetic

[01:18:11] Uh with like werewolves and vampires and spriggins and emp and imps

[01:18:15] But like they're all living together in like a town. So it's sort of like you remember that like family that family channel disney channel

[01:18:23] uh, like mini series or movies um, halloween town

[01:18:29] Where like it's it's a town in another reality in like a slightly like just an offshoot of our reality

[01:18:35] Where all the halloween

[01:18:37] Monsters go when halloween is done like they only show up in in the real in the mundane in the mortal world

[01:18:43] When when it's halloween, but when when halloween is over they all go to this town and live there for the rest of the year

[01:18:49] Oh, okay. Yeah, it it starts with like a basically a fan like like these three siblings

[01:18:55] um find out that they were they're actually like they're actually descended from witches

[01:19:00] And the the oldest one like needs to go to halloween town and start her witch training

[01:19:04] Otherwise she'll lose her her magic for other but her mother

[01:19:07] Didn't who left halloween town for the mortal world like didn't doesn't want her her kids learning about halloween town or being a

[01:19:15] witch

[01:19:16] And like that kind of has a fight with her with her with the grandmother about the whole situation because the grandmother wants

[01:19:21] To bring the kid the grandkids into halloween town and such

[01:19:24] um, but it's like it's how like it's all these like spooky monsters and like or like like

[01:19:28] Cyclops and werewolves and and vampires and skeletons and some of that

[01:19:31] But they're all nice like they're all like just jovial and like like everyday like people

[01:19:36] It kind of gave me like that kind of uh, like it kind of brought me back to that

[01:19:41] Kind of a aspect of like a whimsical horror where like it's there's horror themings and there's horror like aesthetic

[01:19:48] But it's whimsical in its way as well

[01:19:51] With the the mundane slice of life kind of aspects to it

[01:19:55] um

[01:19:55] I do feel like I get lost like like I've said earlier

[01:19:58] I do feel like I got lost in the weeds in spots with the story

[01:20:03] because

[01:20:03] I was trying to figure out what the setting was because like

[01:20:07] And part of that might be on me because I was immediately thinking that this was like the uk

[01:20:13] and and like and like the in the real world not the maybe not the uk in some fantasy adjacent world

[01:20:20] But also because we have ellie lambert who we know and it seems to be

[01:20:25] Well at first it seems to be the same ellie lambert from curtisfill, but maybe it isn't maybe it's like maybe kelly

[01:20:32] Maybe it's like ellie lambert's dead and this things took its took her face

[01:20:36] or like

[01:20:38] Maybe this wasn't ellie lamb I don't like again i got i'm getting caught in the weeds

[01:20:41] I think because of the other stories that we've read in this

[01:20:45] by this author um and she's yeah

[01:20:48] Yeah, or or maybe it

[01:20:51] Is ellie lambert, but it's her consciousness

[01:20:55] Controlling the monster and then the monster gets killed

[01:20:58] Well, yeah, and that's that's what i'm thinking like i'm thinking that that's

[01:21:01] Oh, so you're saying like it's not like that like this isn't her her monster mind projected

[01:21:07] This is this monster uh was like possessed by ellie lambert's possession or uh or projection

[01:21:16] So yeah, like because that's the thing like i'm trying like it felt like this was sort of like

[01:21:21] What happened right before the wraparound plot of summer break 2017?

[01:21:26] Like in my head and that's because i've read summer break 2017

[01:21:30] And we were going into these stories expecting to get how to find some connections between them

[01:21:35] Because some of them were prologue some of them were side up were side stories or spin-offs

[01:21:40] That had a couple of characters from previous stories and such like that

[01:21:43] Like we kind of went into this into these stories with that mentality

[01:21:48] So i'm not sure if i'm stuck in the weeds because of the setting

[01:21:52] Because of my own personal like biases from like previous stories that we've been covering and like my own like kind of um

[01:21:59] Uh pre-collections or pre-elections of going into this story

[01:22:04] um

[01:22:06] I again, I do think this story as it is as a standalone works for the most part

[01:22:10] It just needs some clarification maybe some clarification on the on the on the world

[01:22:15] um

[01:22:16] I do like that the the the because like even though we need some clarification

[01:22:20] At least i need some clarification on certain things in the story to make it a little bit better

[01:22:25] um, I do like the way information is given to us in the world setting

[01:22:29] um because it's all done through character point of view

[01:22:32] And it we don't have necessarily have a layman to like have to be explain things

[01:22:37] But that's not a bad thing like it's just sort of sometimes makes things a little bit harder for a reager to

[01:22:43] Get the full grasp of where they are in the story or in the setting

[01:22:48] um, but for the most part I think uh the story is

[01:22:53] Pretty good at building up this world that we we're seeing this like this whimsical

[01:22:58] fantasy world that has like modern amenities like supermarkets and movie theaters and

[01:23:03] John Carpenter's the thing and motley crew and

[01:23:07] But there's but there's apparently more than one moon in the sky and uh

[01:23:12] And like they they know of the mortal world as midgard

[01:23:15] Like that's where humans come from

[01:23:17] And like this is some kind of like diverging or either either some kind of threshold world or

[01:23:22] That's like on the like just neighboring our own reality that they can occasionally like slip into and sort of that

[01:23:30] um

[01:23:31] And I mean again like they know about america like because ellie lambart's uh, uh seems to be a human from from

[01:23:37] The from californ they know what california is so like it's it's very interesting. It's like yeah, like

[01:23:43] They're aware of the mortal world

[01:23:46] But this is not the more it doesn't seem to be the mortal world

[01:23:49] So like i'm i'm proud if you're if you're listening to this at this point if you've made it this far

[01:23:55] Sorry and thank you

[01:23:59] I wouldn't mind some maybe some clarification or even some recommendations from some of your other stories that do clarify

[01:24:05] Exactly this sort of setting

[01:24:07] But the the sort of cosmology you've created because I am genuinely fascinated with that

[01:24:11] um

[01:24:12] Also, do you have a nate some of that we brought up off recording me and me and gamer

[01:24:17] um

[01:24:19] Do you have like a name for this series? We've been calling it them the curtisville stories

[01:24:25] Um or the or the m and pratt stories

[01:24:27] But like is there like a name for that you've come up with for like kind of like like an umbrella name for

[01:24:33] These uh all these stories that are in the seemingly the same setting that you've made um

[01:24:38] Inquiring minds want to know i mine

[01:24:42] So

[01:24:44] Yeah, um

[01:24:46] Back to the my final thoughts. I swear i'll get to the end of this

[01:24:50] Um

[01:24:52] I I do think uh that there is some room for improvement

[01:24:56] Uh for giving the reader some more context to certain things but

[01:25:00] um

[01:25:01] As it is i'm still willing to give it a recommendation because it is a complete story

[01:25:07] Um that you can follow through you can follow through

[01:25:11] Um and and finish and not be like totally left in the dark that you get the premise of the story

[01:25:16] You get the plot line the plot beats and all that stuff you get to learn about these characters and these

[01:25:20] strange fantastical places

[01:25:23] um

[01:25:24] Maybe maybe short hoggers the uh the the the later version

[01:25:29] Um that was like redone for the uh that series of stories will address some of the issues I have

[01:25:35] um, maybe it'll give me more questions

[01:25:38] but

[01:25:39] For now, I think this one's still pretty good and it's still

[01:25:43] There's some room for improvement, but it's still it's still good. What's that? What's that line from from stitch?

[01:25:50] Uh is still good, but still good

[01:25:54] So yeah bottom line i'm still gonna recommend it

[01:25:58] Mikey these tense for evil

[01:26:01] okay

[01:26:02] so

[01:26:04] I guess the number one issue I have with this

[01:26:09] Is that the majority of the story happens while the characters lie in bed

[01:26:15] You really do not like the uh

[01:26:18] Anything that happens you would like dreams

[01:26:20] You don't like the stories of the stories dream stories

[01:26:25] Everything can be false memories

[01:26:29] Yeah, like is she actually awake at the end? We don't know

[01:26:32] Yeah, it is I will I will say to be fair that does like that ending does feel very much like a dream thing

[01:26:39] It's like like where the nightmare suddenly becomes a dream again as the as the the dreamer gains control of the dream

[01:26:46] It's like well, I just happen to have this cool kill kill everything gun

[01:26:50] that I

[01:26:54] Yeah

[01:26:55] Yeah, so

[01:26:58] now

[01:26:59] That being said I know that there are some

[01:27:05] Uh

[01:27:06] interesting things like the whole shape shifting

[01:27:10] plot but the problem is it just

[01:27:13] Take so long for it

[01:27:16] Actually come to fruition

[01:27:18] Like oh you see them and they sort of change in the moonlight and then

[01:27:22] We don't hear anything else about the shape shifter until well talk about the thing

[01:27:28] Yeah, we have like some allegories for the for shape shifting and stuff

[01:27:31] Yeah, but then it's not until the very end. It's like oh, yeah, it was a shape shifter all along

[01:27:37] like

[01:27:38] I mean to be fair like I think

[01:27:41] I mean it is sort of like as a slow burn because

[01:27:44] um on top of like the the overarching threat like we do get an overarching threat

[01:27:49] that is introduced at the beginning and then

[01:27:51] Is speculated on here and there and through the through the bulk of the story and then is revealed at the end to be the threat

[01:27:59] But the rest of the story is kind it is world building and it is like kind of like

[01:28:04] um, it's taking its time to show us like the slice of life and like the situation of

[01:28:08] What's going on and then like linking the threat and the plot with this sort of like background information and these this sort of um

[01:28:16] World building stuff that we're getting so

[01:28:19] Yeah

[01:28:20] It just takes its time it meanders

[01:28:23] Yeah

[01:28:25] Yeah, so

[01:28:28] I

[01:28:31] Am I actually gonna bump up my recommendation a little bit? I'm sorry

[01:28:36] Gamer's like you can't do this gamer's not here

[01:28:39] I he won't believe me

[01:28:41] It's definitely not like we have this world recording. Sorry

[01:28:47] It's

[01:28:48] So I'm gonna give it a low end partial recommendation

[01:28:53] Uh, because there is some things that I thinking about it did enjoy of the story

[01:29:01] But the rest of it is just my own annoyance with stories and stories

[01:29:06] Yeah, your your own preference is kind of budding against the story's style

[01:29:10] Yeah

[01:29:11] Yeah, no that that's actually understandable like not every story is going to appease to everybody's like

[01:29:17] personal tastes and

[01:29:19] opinions so

[01:29:20] Okay, so um

[01:29:24] That was it right?

[01:29:25] Yep. Okay. Uh, so that will so a recommendation and a low partial recommendation

[01:29:34] That was changed from a known recommendation. Wow

[01:29:38] Again gamers never gonna believe this

[01:29:44] Um

[01:29:45] But uh, yeah, that'll do for this week's episode. Uh, so if you'd like what you heard or if you didn't leave us a comment in the comment section below

[01:29:50] Where this gets posted?

[01:29:52] We're all on twitter for the most part

[01:29:54] Uh, Mikey's at the east ends for evil

[01:29:57] And I'm at review cultist

[01:29:59] I'm also on blue sky as review cult so you can send me messages there

[01:30:03] You can also send us emails at al dente rigamortis at gmail.com. That's al d n t e r i g a m o r t s at gmail.com

[01:30:11] Where you can also leave us suggestions for other creep pastas scp's spooky things you creep it will peep it. Yeah

[01:30:18] Mikey I don't suppose you want to do the yeah too or

[01:30:22] No, and if you'd like to help support our show financially you can go to patreon

[01:30:25] Select the back to delete the support us that we have two dollar and five dollar tiers with special episodes early access and extra content

[01:30:31] To our patrons that are helping support the show. Thank you guys immensely

[01:30:34] You're helping keep those hosting bills at bay as always we very much appreciate that

[01:30:39] And to our listeners and the authors of these stories. Thank you immensely because without your listenership you'd be like screaming into the void

[01:30:46] And without your authorship without these stories that you post online for people to

[01:30:51] Enjoy and read and sometimes get creeped out by

[01:30:54] Uh, we really wouldn't have much of a show because we'd have nothing to talk about

[01:30:58] So thank you until next time I have been your host review cultist and I'm Mikey the east hand for you

[01:31:04] And this has been al d n t e rigamortis

[01:31:07] sleep well

[01:31:34] You