ADR - Episode 644: Auspicious

[00:00:05] Oh fuck bud, hi there and welcome to Al Dente Rigamortis. I'm Review Cultist eh? I'm Mikey, the East Center Evil. And I'm the Gamer in Yellow. We're here to discuss those internet stories, most creepy and most pasta. Oh yeah bud. Oh yeah, you betcha. And tonight we have... Auspicious.

[00:00:37] So yeah, um... You might be wondering why uh... We had demasked and put on our, like taken on our Canadianisms for this episode. Uh... That'll become clear uh... Once uh... We get into this story. Um... But yeah, we are covering Auspicious tonight. Uh... It is by Tawawai on Creephoss.wiki. And uh... Yeah, uh... I suppose we should uh... Get into this with our initial recommendations.

[00:01:07] I'm gonna recommend it. I'm going to partially recommend it. I'll recommend it. I'm curious what the partial's about though eh? Oh yeah, you betcha. Mm-hmm. Very curious. Yeah, yeah. Uh... But yeah, I suppose uh... Guess we'll find out and uh... Dive into the rundown. Start off. During a late summer weekend, a group of friends and their dog... Uh... Traveled to their annual cottage spot to drink beers and party Muskoka style.

[00:01:36] They are down one of their members this year, Evan. But they're... They soldier on without him. Bringing the terribly cheap beer Auspicious Ale to also drink in his honor. The weekend goes great. Only one real hiccup. When Duke the dog starts violently barking at something in the woods at night. But ultimately, nothing seems to come of it. As things are being packed up for their return to normal life on the final day...

[00:02:05] Nair and another friend decide they don't want to drink the last of the bad beer. And think it'll be funny to find a spot in the woods near the A-frame cabin. And bury it for next year. You know, just for shits and giggles. Uh... So they find a spot. And while digging up, uh... That spot in the woods, they end up finding some empty cans of the crappy beer and a dead body. They do the smart thing and call the cops.

[00:02:35] Uh... And then as the investigation starts, the group is asked to look at the body. And it is revealed that the body is identifiable as Evan, their friend that didn't come out with them this year. But as far as the group was aware, he was alive and well, just out west planting trees. The authorities tell them that they aren't immediately under suspicion, but they're kind of under suspicion. Um...

[00:03:03] And so are told to, like, stay put for a few more days while the investigation continues on. And so the group remains in the main cottage. And then things get worse. A fog rolls in, denser than anything, and they become further isolated for several days as the phones stop working reliably. Uh... The dog gets loose and causes one of their number to vanish into the fog. The dog returns, but is, uh... Visibly shaken and afraid by something.

[00:03:32] And then when another one of them tries to get to their car through the fog, a horrid crashing sound, or series of crashing sounds, happens. And that friend is never seen again. Uh... The fog remains, and the remaining group stay inside the cabin or the cottage. But then they start hearing voices, and by the end, another person runs off into the fog.

[00:03:59] Only a few of them remain, including the dog and Nair among them. Um... And the story ends with something trying to get into the cottage. Something that looks an awful lot like Evan. Finn. So yeah, that was auspicious. I suppose we shall now move on to... Everyone tolerates the Grammar Inquisitions, eh? At this point. Um... I have nothing of note.

[00:04:27] Like, that was, like, I deemed noteworthy to, like, mention. So... Mikey, these dance for evil. I have a conjunction junction. All right. And next stop, conjunction junction. Doot doot! It was the perfect time of year. It was a bomb to see one another again. It was unapologetically dirt cheap.

[00:04:52] It was a roulette as to when it would go off. But eventually, it would shoot like a sudsy rocket. Then we'd scramble to try to find the smoky can and drink whatever hot, hot remnants were inside. Depending on how drunk we were already.

[00:05:15] It certainly beats waiting 20 minutes for a bus that may not even really exist every morning. It's not always easy to do, especially on the spot. But in the dark and silent night, it wasn't too hard to make anything sound scary. It was that same spot that Duke kept staring at, behind the A-frame.

[00:05:45] It was a bit buggier than we'd hoped, but there was a small marsh, so it wasn't a big surprise. It was a bit of a roundabout trail. It started to the west of the main cottage, near where we parked the cars, and ended on the northeast side of the property, behind the A-frame.

[00:06:11] It had to be close enough to the cottage that we would be able to remember and find the spot, but not so close as to be in the way. It was harder than you would think. It couldn't be. It's a skull. It looked just like Evan. It was colder than it should have been.

[00:06:38] It wasn't peaceful or serene. It was haunting. It sat blanketing the whole area, like an otherworldly cemetery. The skull was set. I was like, wait. Okay, okay, okay. Colder than it should be. That's weird. And then it sat over everything. It's like, oh God. It's like... But you're worth my last kind of vibes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, oh my God.

[00:07:07] The moon is the skull of Evan. Mm-hmm. Sorry. It wouldn't have been uncommon while he was off planting. I rationalized to myself. It was the early evening on the last day we were stuck up there that things started to turn grip.

[00:07:33] It felt like we hadn't seen the sun all day and the fog was even thicker. Yeah, because the giant moon skull is coming down. Just looming over hell. Yeah. Yeah. It's ringing. It's... It was Tom. It's obvious we can't go out there. It was a foolish notion.

[00:08:02] It was obviously very close. A tree had fallen and a damn big one by the sounds of it. It was Kurt. It sounded off, though. It was definitely Dennis's voice. It was what I had said to Dennis before we decided to bury the auspicious ales. It was in my voice.

[00:08:32] It was Evan. It. Yeah. Giant moon skull. Just fucked up everything. Would have seen that coming. Yeah. Man, that's the kind of weird stuff that happens when Mikey grabs all the sentences through a story that start with words that they probably shouldn't, like its ends or buts, and strings them together into a sentence, with sometimes weirder, hilarious results.

[00:09:00] Basically to highlight that there's better words to use. Mm-hmm. Except when it's dialogue, but we let him do it for the bit. Yeah, exactly. All right. Gamer, do you have a grammar in yellow? Yeah, I got one. Dennis, is that you? Kate asked back without using a question mark on that statement that she should have had a question mark on. So it should have been like, Dennis, is that you? Like, no questioning to it? Just like...

[00:09:29] Oh, I'm fine with exclamation. Because it's exclamation. But it should be exclamation and also a question mark. Because it's yelling a question. Yeah, no, that's what I mean, though. Like, there should be no, like, questioning, like, aspect to it because it's clearly a statement there. Or like, no, it should be a question. But because there is not a question mark, it just sounds like she's just saying that like a statement. Yes, which is weird. Yeah. Agreed. But yeah, that's the only one I found. All right.

[00:09:58] Then I suppose we'll move on to actual thoughts. I'm going to start with the title. And I guess the beer as well. So I looked up auspicious because I wasn't entirely familiar with that word. Like, I'd heard it before, but like, I wasn't entirely sure on, like, the meaning. So the definition is suggesting that a good outcome... Outcome? Um, suggesting that a good outcome is likely, especially at the start of an event.

[00:10:26] So like, basically, like, signs are favorable or like, successful future kind of thing. And that's kind of funny that, uh, like, because it's definitely for the story itself, it makes sense. Because like, the story starts off, like, it seems like things are going to turn out well. Like, it's a start of a good weekend and stuff like that. And then things turn for the worse. So like, it's a nice, like, sort of dichotomy there. Or the sort of like, turn on, turn that word on its head or that meaning on its head for the story.

[00:10:55] Um, but yeah, for the beer itself, because the beer is called auspicious ale. Um, and I had to look it up just to see, it's like, is this, is this an actual beer? So I, as far as I know, there is no, like, really cheap beer. Like, as cheap as this story was kind of like saying auspicious was, um, outside of like, there's some craft beers that are sold in like, Wisconsin and like, maybe like somewhere else in the States and stuff. But like nothing in Ontario or Canada.

[00:11:23] Um, but I did look up what the cheapest beers are in Ontario. Um, the sea, just like what, what, like, what would the comparable, like in our reality versus the fiction? Like, what would that be? So they either got like a Laker lager, which is like $32, uh, for a two, four, um, or bush lager, which is awesome. I'm thinking it's more of like a bush, a bush light is probably more comparable to what this beer is.

[00:11:51] But just because that's basically like piss water, uh, don't at me people who like bush. But you know, it is. Yeah. You know who you are. Um, but yeah, uh, that's, that's all I got for the title and like the beer in question for the initially. Um, I suppose I'll dive into the actual quotes I have here and some comments on those. Uh, start with this one here.

[00:12:18] As was somewhat of a tradition, we would get the fire really built up in the evening and find an old log with a rotted out core to toss on top of the fire. As it, as it eventually caught the flames and started to burn from the inside out, we would shake up an auspicious and drop it into the center upside down. It was a roulette as to when it would go off, but eventually it would shoot like a sudsy rocket.

[00:12:48] Then we'd scramble to try and find the smoky can and drink whatever hot, hot remnants were inside. Just depending on how drunk we were already. So I am familiar with dumb, drunk cottage shenanigans. But this is just stupid. I mean, because it's dumber than what you would do doesn't mean that it's not.

[00:13:17] Oh, for most people, I've thrown some dumb shit. Me and my cousins and stuff at the cottage have thrown some dumb shit into a fire. Yes. Just like when we were, when we were teens and stuff like that, like, but man, like, like, I'm not even like, it's like the problem of like, like, throwing the thing into the fire and watching it explode. That's, I mean, that's perfectly fine and adequate, like cottage country, like shenanigans.

[00:13:45] Drinking the hot, what's the remnants of it? Yeah. That's like. Oiling hot. So a little connective tissues. I recently watched Evil Dead Burns, the newest Evil Dead movie. And there's a scene where like one of the, one of the possessed characters is just straight up drinking like the melted wax from a candle while the candle's still lit. And just to like to show how fucked up they are.

[00:14:07] And it's just like, that's exactly, that's the imagery that came to mind is they're drinking this hot, like remnants of this beer from the can. Yeah. That's a choice. It was such a choice, but also like, I guess this also makes it like, it is also kind of relatable to people who, who go up to cottages in like our neck of the woods. Like, cause it is that kind of stupid shenanigans that does happen, especially like the younger you are and such.

[00:14:39] But yeah, I'll move on to the next thing here. I feverishly cleared away the dirt, clump by clump, pulling some stray roots aside. Dude, let's just put it there. That should be deep enough. What are you scrambling around for? Dennis muttered impatiently. That's when I cleared enough to see what was really in there. It's a skull, I grimaced.

[00:15:04] We immediately stopped the whole process and started, or and stared into the shallow grave. The remains were not totally decomposed. You could tell because there were plenty of insects scrambling about. Now, or now that it had been unearthed. So like, yeah, when they finally like, they go and like search, like to find like a spot, like seemingly a random spot, right? To, to like, to bury these cans.

[00:15:33] Like they, uh, and they like find a spot where like, they'll be able to like recognize where it is like for next year. And then they start digging and then they just happen to find a skeleton or like the remains of a person and some cans. Like that I've left from the, uh, from that auspicious from like, from seemingly a few months ago or even like a year ago. That's a hell of a coincidence that they chose that exact spot that like a body and old beer cans were buried.

[00:16:02] Um, and it, it almost made me wonder at this point in the story, if we were dealing with some sort of like lost memory time loop horror, like turns out that's one of them. And like, we're just going through another iteration of, of time. Mm-hmm. Or just like whatever creature is in this situation, basically guided them to unearth it. That's also true. Yeah.

[00:16:26] That could also, honestly, they, as the story goes on, they do start kind of feeling like they're being manipulated or being like, um, no, you're not puppeted or controlled, but like definitely influenced by something. Um, cause yeah, there's something in the story where like, actually this kind of links up to that, that thought kind of links up to my next thing.

[00:16:47] So, uh, the next quote I have, our story was met at first with disbelief, but everyone could tell deep down by the manner in which Dennis and I told them. It wasn't a joke. Tom couldn't believe it. At least he didn't want to. We took him to the corpse to show him. We need to call the cops. We all agreed. The cops questioned us all, but it didn't feel like any of us were being accused of anything.

[00:17:18] Wait, wait. Reasonable characters in a creepypasta? I don't, what, what? Yeah, that doesn't make sense. This shouldn't happen. What? They called the cops and the cops showed, what? Like they didn't, they weren't going to try and like just handle this themselves. Wait, I don't even, I don't even guys. I I'm lost. Yeah. Um, now, unfortunately this, this sort of like intelligence starts to dwindle as the story goes.

[00:17:43] But again, you can kind of like get away with that in the story because like they, it like there's desperation. There's, there's like, uh, they're, they're being, they're, they're told to stay put. And then, then like that fog, like a supernaturally dense fog rolls in and there's something outside that like might also be influencing them. Like whatever this, this evil is or whatever this thing is, it is, does seem to be influencing their actions or their, their, um, decision making in some cases.

[00:18:12] So I'm not going to be too hard on them as the story goes on and for being, for starting to get a little bit derpish or a little bit, uh, horror movie tropey. But like right off the hop here, it's like, wait, the characters are calling the cops and the cops are arriving and like they found the body and the body didn't disappear. Like they're just like, they're handling it. Holy shit. It gave me again, another glimmer of hope. It's like, wait, competent characters in a creepypasta. That's so rare. It kind of is. I hate to admit it.

[00:18:41] Because usually competence like makes it so the creepy stuff can't show up because people don't write around it like they do here. Yeah. And this story, it's just like, no, like they're doing all everything that they like somebody would do in real life. It's just the supernatural was just like, no, you are not getting out of this. Yeah. Um, the entity is just like, oh, my beer. I forgot that we're not in Durplin. Yeah. It's weird.

[00:19:09] Like, again, like there's the whole reason we cut, we have the whole, like the whole bit with Durplin is like, because of care, the way characters don't just like nope out of a situation. Or don't call the cops when they should. It's funny that these guys that threw beer into the fire to drink the boiling hot beer aren't from Durplin. Again, it's just like, no, they're not, they're not from Durplin. They're just from Northern Ontario. Yeah.

[00:19:33] They're just a bunch of good old, good old folks that, uh, they go there on weekend warriors that go to a cottage every weekend or something. Uh, yeah, no, they're, that's definitely a type up here. I hate to admit it. Is that correct use of, uh, weekend warriors? I kind of, well, it's what like my folks like would call like people that like come up to the, uh, the cottage, like from the, from the city. And there's, there's, there's, there's, uh, there's more offensive, uh, words that we call people from the city that go up to their cottages like city.

[00:20:02] It's yeah, that's it. That's the word. Yeah. Yeah. Especially up in Muskoka. Like, like people like the locals in Muskoka call people coming up from Toronto, like city. It's and such. So, yeah. It's a funny insult name. Yeah. Uh, I mean, they're, they also like call it, like it goes even further. They're like the, the, the locals that are in the, like the woods and the hicks, basically like the sticks call the people from the town, like brace bridge and such townies.

[00:20:32] So, yeah, it's just, everybody's like kind of, kind of just, uh, anointed everybody else sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, I'll move on to the next thing I have here. Um, I told the officer, I knew how crazy it was. There was no way. Evan came back with us last year. I've seen him multiple times since then.

[00:21:02] He'd been in contact, if only loosely. We did all the same things we'd normally had done together since the body was supposedly buried. Gone for drinks, watched movies in my basement, played online games, nothing added up. We'd even been in, although sporadic, communication with him while he was out west planting. So, quick little insert of a meme thing.

[00:21:30] It's like, is this fucking play about us? Like, just the way these characters, like, like the characters, these characters felt very relatable in terms of like, yeah, we'd go for drinks. We'd watch movies in my basement. We'd even play online games. It's like, this feeling awfully familiar. Mm-hmm. Something awfully familiar about all this. I know. And I, we have, I have a cottage that we, we, we sometimes go to.

[00:21:57] Like, again, like I was getting all, I was getting all of the, uh, all of the personal hits with the story. Yeah. If we're out there and then some crazy fog rolls in, it's gonna be like, uh. For sure. Or if one of the dogs just starts barking violently at the woods while we're all around the campfire. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:22:18] Uh, secondly, though, um, y'all are now, like, so like, back to the actual story, like what's going on and like them, like being, like them calling the, like, like them being the cops in here, them being brought over to the body by the cops. And then like being able to identify who the cop, who the, who the, who the body likely is, even though it's like, um, even though they even admit like that's impossible. That's him because like, we, we've seen him before, like since then and such. Yeah. And it's like, y'all are now definitely not going anywhere.

[00:22:47] Like, because admitting to knowing the victim is definitely grounds for suspicion. At least initially. Like you may not be like immediately like arrested for like under suspicion, but like knowing the body definitely puts you on the list. Oh, for sure. And they straight up say that, like, we know we're not going anywhere. Yeah, no, for sure. And it's just like, yeah, it's just like, wow. Yeah. Like this is like, this sort of such a great weekend too.

[00:23:15] And then it's just, and then we found a body. Then we unburied a body. Like, uh, yell at Nair for like, why did you suggest that we do this? We could have been home by now. Yeah. We should have just left. Why did we, we should have just like left the, left the beers in a, like a stump or something. Yeah. But thirdly, I kind of love in a macabre way, the idea that a mimic entity just offed their friend.

[00:23:45] Like the previous year assumed his form and went back to the city to continue his life smells like a buddy horror to me. A little bit. Like it does kind of feel like a, it also kind of feels like a flesh gate story. Um, which is like sort of the, we we've covered flesh gates before and they're basically like entities from the woods that kind of like, uh, manipulate you into like gaslighting you into thinking like they're one of you, like one of your group. Hmm.

[00:24:12] So like that, uh, manga guy. Oh yeah. The, the, the summer, um, the summer. Yeah. Hikaru died. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like that, honestly, it's the summer Hikaru guy. Yeah. The summer Hikaru died. When I first like found out about it and I started reading the manga, it gave me such like Appalachian or Appalachian, like cryptid mimic in the woods sort of vibes. Um, like right down to like the fact that the story uses like when they're, when the characters

[00:24:42] are talking since they're from like the, the, the, the rural part of Japan, the English gives the characters a draw, um, versus people from Tokyo who have like a regular voice because apparently in Japan, like in, in the Japanese like, um, dialogue, there is a, there is the, they use the sort of like much more casual rural dialect of Japan, of Japanese for the, for the

[00:25:07] characters who are from the sticks versus the characters in Tokyo from Tokyo or the city who have more of like a metropolitan like version of Japanese. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. Again, I just liked the idea that just like this mimic creature, just like assume this guy's body, like this guy's like, uh, for a form in life and just started like, you know, drinking beers, watching movies, like just living his, living his best life back in the city.

[00:25:34] It's interesting that he's like, he's out West, like planting stuff. Meanwhile, like his body is planted in the ground right now. Oh yeah. Nice. It's like a sort of a nice little like kind of contrast of like, and that's assuming like he is actually out West, right? Like, yeah, you might just be saying that he's out West when really he's back in the woods. Like just like, that's he's the same. Yeah. Cause that's the other thing. Like, is it actually, so like, here's the thing.

[00:26:03] Here's the question at hand, I guess. Is the entity that has assumed his form in out West? Supposedly. Is he all, is he actually out West just like living this guy's life? Meanwhile, like the rest of that thing's family or whatever is in the woods, like waiting for like more, more like victims to usurp. I don't think so. Or is it like, just like, oh, like I'm totally out West guys. Send more people into the woods. Yeah. I think it's more along the lines of that.

[00:26:33] Yeah. Cause like they try calling him and he doesn't answer and he like gives up reasons why he probably didn't pick up the phone, but it's probably because he's not actually at West. Yeah. He's, he's back in the woods waiting for them. Yeah. Yeah. He spent a year with them, like being like, like enjoying this guy's life. It's like, all right, I'm done with this friend group. Time to switch it up. I'm eating them all next time. It'd be kind of fun if like he tries calling him and then like you can hear through the

[00:27:02] open window, his ringtone, but it's like, yeah. Oh, or they find the ring. They find his phone. Like after they hear the ringtone somewhere in the woods by the body or like the creature that's walking around, you can hear the phone call come from him. Um, yeah. The phone calls coming from inside the mimic. It's actually the A-frame. The A-frame is the mimic. Oh, totally. Yeah.

[00:27:30] It is also true and funny because like, again, they, they describe like the, the cottage property is having like a main cottage and then like, or like a main cabin and then this A-frame cabin. And like, I like right off the hop, I like, again, this might just play into like the fact that I have like a personal, like, um, or familial background for this story, but like I can envision like the campground, like this cottage site so well. Like, I know what that A-frame looks like.

[00:28:00] Yeah. Especially because like even location based, they're like the main cottages here. And then they say like the A-frame is over there and all of that is X direction away from where they parked the cars. Like, yeah. While I was reading it, I was like, oh, I can actually see like a bird's eye view of this area. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but yeah, the next thing I have, uh, is sort of in regards to like how things start

[00:28:27] going, start getting a little bit, they either start getting dumber or something is definitely going on. So, uh, this is like when they've, when the fog is rolled in and they're kind of trapped and then, um, uh, one of them decides to go to the car to try and like get the car to go into town kind of thing. Yep. Um, we heard a car door open and slam shut a small relief until a huge crash split the silence. Then the alarm of Dennis's car began blaring. Tom started towards the car, but Kate stopped him.

[00:28:57] He'll be fine. I'm sure. And if he's not Tom blurted out angrily, then you won't be either. If, if you run headlong into the fog, like an idiot, another huge crash followed silencing the car for good. 20 minutes had passed since Dennis ran into, ran to his car. 20 minutes had passed since Dennis ran to his car. We never heard the engine start. Hope was failing. Okay.

[00:29:24] So part of me, I was like either, either cat, either Kate just got horror movie dumb, like derp. She got derped. Um, because it was like, he'll be fine. I'm sure. Like after that crashing sounded like the car, like the car blaring. And then like, she stops Tom. But then like, it kind of also makes sense. Like, like she's just kind of like trying to rationalize. It's like, no, like, like we need to all stick together. We can't go help Dennis. Like, no, somebody should probably help Dennis.

[00:29:55] Like he's the second guy that ran out. Right. Uh, no, he was. Yeah. Uh, yes. Cause Kurt, I think went off to chase the dog and then, um, then he went, Kurt vanished into the fog and the dog came back. Yes. And then Dennis wanted to go into town to get, uh, get help. Cause they couldn't get anything in the, uh, they couldn't get any, uh, any of their phones working. So he went off to the car. They hear the car door open and close and then the crashing sound. And then the car alarm goes off before it is also silenced by another crash.

[00:30:24] So something just like wrecked the car and Dennis. It is a little early to be like telling people like, no, don't go into the fog. Because at that point you just think that the one guy got lost and couldn't get back. And the other guy, he just got to his car as some, uh, force of nature. Like a tree just happened to break and fall in the car or something like so far. There's no proof that anything fucked up and supernaturals happened.

[00:30:54] So stopping someone to go over there and help them seems like a dumb idea at this point. Like, yeah, it's, to me, it was either like, oh, Kate's starting to become a little bit more horror movie derpy or maybe either she is in the know of something that's going on. Like my paranoia is starting to slip in a little bit. Like who can you trust already? Or this is just some sort of like, this is sort of hinting at what happens in the kind of like later events.

[00:31:20] It seems where something is beginning to affect and manipulate or influence them. Like, so something is like trying to like keep them isolated. And so like, like her set, like to me, cause it was just weird. Like, it's like, he'll be fine. I'm sure after the, after the crash and the car clearly being damaged to the point where there's a blurring, it's like, no, he's fine. Don't worry about him. It would have been even worse. It would like, it's like, he'll be fine. I'm sure. And if he's not Tom, Tom blurred out.

[00:31:48] Um, and then like the car, uh, suddenly there was another crash, uh, another huge crash that, uh, silent, uh, silence the car for good. And then she, and then she's like, see, it stopped. He's fine. That would have been worse. That would have been like even more derpy. It's like, see, clearly he's fine. Like there's no alarm anymore. That would have made me even more suspicious of Kate, honestly. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, it's like, like, cause like at this point, like Kate, like, and there's no

[00:32:18] reason for like, like, for like Kate to have been already like a creature or anything like that, because like she never goes off into the, uh, into the fog or anything. Although she does go, I think one of them during the, during the night where like the dog gets like freak starts freaking out, does go to bed early. Right. So like maybe she got grabbed then, but again, that's just more of my paranoia. I started to kick in. I'm like, who can I trust in the character group and in the character cast? I think that was Crystal. Cause she was saying like the dog, uh, Duke needs to go to bed and it's kind of late anyway.

[00:32:47] Oh yeah. That was Crystal. Cause that's her dog. Yeah. Yeah. So again, this was like one of those moments where it's like, is the character starting to get derpy or is this just like, is something more actual, like intentionally sinister here afoot? Um, and then the next thing I, we have is like, so they, they were having trouble, like getting, um, calls and such. Uh, but then they finally managed to get one of the, uh, uh, one of the lines go or one

[00:33:15] of their, one of their, uh, phones finally starts working. And so it's like 9-1-1, what's your emergency? Hello. My friends and I are trapped in a cottage west of Bracebridge. Two of them went out into the fog and have gone missing. We need help. And this, to this, I was like, cause up to this point, I had had a feeling that it was set in Canada because there was the use of cottage, which is apparently a local dialect, a local, like reference to like summer homes or weekend or some, or like, or weekend. And like, it is not a Canadian only thing.

[00:33:46] According to my friends from Kentucky, Indiana, and even Minnesota, it, uh, they do not call cottages, cottages. They call those cabins or like, uh, weekend homes or something like that. So like, so anyway, yeah. Weird. I guess cause I've seen it in my whole life. So I think it's normal. Exactly. That's, that's exactly what I was thinking. Like, cause like when I went down there, like they, like there was like, they all, it's all cabins and they don't refer to cottages. What we think of cottages as cottages.

[00:34:15] Cottages there are actually like country houses are what, what a cottage is. Other people don't call, uh, carbonated beverages pop. That's just, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, only Northern States, Southern, the more, the farther South you go, the more it becomes soda or, or just cola. Yeah. Yeah. So does that mean the States has cabin cheese and weekend house cheese? Damn, that's good. Oh man. Nice.

[00:34:46] They do now. You're ever in the States and you're wanting to buy some of those. You need to call it that. I was even in a cheese aisle the last time I was down there. Like, cause I was trying to share with them poutine and by God. Yeah. So nicely done, sir. Um, but yeah, so back to my point here. Yeah. So I already thought had suspicions that this was set in Canada or somewhere North because like they're using cottage, they were using kilometers.

[00:35:15] And then I heard Bracebridge, like it's like West of Bracebridge. I was like Bracebridge. I know that place. Like it was just kind of awesome that it's up in Muskoka and like, we need more. I, I need more cottage country, creepy pastas. Absolutely. Also in regards to Canada, um, it does say way earlier than Bracebridge. It says like between the Canadian weather and soil composition in the area, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:45] Yeah. Yeah. So I knew somewhere up in Canada, but like, I didn't realize it was like so close to us. Yes. Like it was like so close to our neck of the woods. Um, like I don't think the title to the, like the narration is horror in the Canadian woods. Yeah. Well that's, that's somebody's narration. Yeah. That's a little, yeah. It's a little on the nose. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. There's a couple of those. Like, yeah. Like that one auspicious one. Yeah. And then there's like also the cottage trip, which is an, I guess another title for the story, but yeah, it's a little on the nose, but like, again,

[00:36:15] didn't know it was in Bracebridge, which is kind of cool. Like up in the Muskokas. So that's pretty fun. Um, yeah, again, I, I, this, I got the same kind of vibe. I are the same kind of feels I got when I found out 1999 was set in Caledon. Yes. So it's again, just, yeah, I, I love, I don't know. This is something about like, you guys know me. If I, if I gotta die, I want to be immersed in creep pasta. Like being somewhere where a creep pasta happened or like where a, where a horror

[00:36:45] movie happened or a horror story, any kind of like story happened. And like, I I'm for it because it's that level of like familial immersion, I guess. Mm-hmm. Where it's like, I can go there. I can like, I can, I can be in that place of horror. Yeah. Which is so weird. And unfortunately, like for most other people, it's not as a big, not as much of a big deal. It's like, Oh, this story takes place in New York. I live in New York. Neat.

[00:37:12] But like so many stories take place in like New York or LA and stuff. But like when it's a small town, like Bracebridge. Yeah. That's what shouldn't like, if like even like, Oh, it's out and uploading. I'll go. It's like, it's the same as like, Oh, like this creep pasta takes place in Algonquin Park. I was like, or, or Huntsville, like Huntsville, like to a lesser degree. Cause it's like, all right, is that Huntsville, Ontario? Or is that another Huntsville? Cause like Huntsville's a pretty common name, but Bracebridge is pretty like.

[00:37:38] Like iconically like Northern Ontario or like Central Ontario. I watch it. Google. And there's like 30 of them in America specifically. Yeah. Yeah. It's just all in the Northern States. It's like, I should Bracebridge is very common. That's like, well, fuck off. I mean, this is also how I feel like when I see a character that's like left-handed, I'm like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. Mm hmm. Mikey, you were going to say something? Oh, well, they just need to reference.

[00:38:08] Santa's village to confirm. Oh my God. Yeah. Santa's village. Or we're just like, uh, uh, we're, we're west of Bracebridge and north of Gravenhurst. Like our exact address is here on this lake. You can, you can look it up on Google maps. It just does that in the story. Yeah. Well, they are. I can do a 911 emergency operators. Yeah. Um,

[00:38:38] Um, okay. It is like, they cut off the, um, the 911 operator right before they say exactly where it is. So they don't like dock some random person. That's true. Also. Yeah. Um, yeah. Like even if they had mentioned like a certain lake, um, up there, like that's so easily able to like be found, like, cause so there's so many little lakes up in Bracebridge area and Gravenhurst, like up, up in the Muskoka is like that, like it would be, and there's very,

[00:39:06] a lot of those little lakes have like only like a handful of like cottages like on them. So like, yeah, yeah. You could definitely like, as much as I would love to just like Google map and just like, oh man, that's cool. It's there. I could also see there's like a sort of like, you don't want to like dock somebody or like the person's actually not from the area. They're just using the location. Like they don't want to cause that kind of an upset just in case they don't want to accidentally dock somebody. So yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah,

[00:39:33] actually kind of relate to what you were just saying with like, it's kind of nice that like, it's kind of good that they, they cut the call short naturally. Yeah. Cause that's my next, uh, quote and comment here. So, it's dot, dot, dot, a huge crash sounding like a tree being felled could be heard from a distance outside the cottage. Then the line cut Tom stopped. We all couldn't believe it. Immediately. She tried redialing, but there was no service again. And to this,

[00:40:03] I was just like, wait, were they talking on a landline? I thought they were using cell phones or something like that. Like maybe, maybe the, maybe the crashing sound was actually like a cell tower or like, um, cause I mean, I know some, some places like up in like the rural parts, they will like disguise us. Um, they will, they will disguise a cell tower as a tree and such as well. Yeah. Um, but yeah, like, it could have also been, that could have also been a cell tower rather than an actual tree coming down.

[00:40:32] And that's what like ruined their service because like you need cell towers up in those regions. Otherwise you are fucked. Hmm. Um, like even that, even that close to like where we live, like up in the Muskoka is like, there are like, like reception is terrible unless you're near a tower or you have a satellite phone. And even then sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. So if that is the case that like the creature, like realize that they're trying to use their phones, it's like, shit, where's the near cell tower? And then it could somehow like pick up on the,

[00:41:01] like the not radio waves, but the cell cellular like stuff in the air. Yeah. What's the, what's the term for that? I think it's just cellular. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cell signal, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. You just pick up on the signal and like track it down and just destroy the tower because of that. Yeah. Well, I initially when, when they weren't having, when they were having trouble, like getting reception at all, like through with any of their cell phones, I was just kind of thinking, it's like, Oh cool. They're doing the thing with like,

[00:41:31] where like the fog itself is like creating some kind of like a dampening field. Um, or, you know, again, they're up in, they are West of Bracebridge. It could just be the fucking Hills. Yeah. Cause like, again, I know for a fact, like Muskoka, like up in that, up in that neck of the woods, like even near us, like that, like our region is like rife with like dead spots and like iffy locations for, for data or cell phone service. So for sure.

[00:42:01] But yeah, and it's not like the characters were like actively using their cell phones a lot throughout the story or nothing. So odds are they just had crappy reception the whole time. Yeah, for sure. Uh, and then the next thing I have, uh, is, uh, regarding the dog. What about when Duke has to go the bathroom again? This is in regards to like, when they're like, no one's going out, like, like the fog is, is taking us. No, one's going out like a way, like into the fog room like that. And then Kate says like, what,

[00:42:31] what about when Duke needs to go to the washroom? Um, we can't go any further than the porch. None of us can. I hastily responded. And I was like, finally, a story where the dog doesn't die. Yeah. At least on camera. And by the end. So, you know what? I'll take it. 10 out of 10. Absolutely. Gonna just post, just gonna go on to does the dog die.com. And put auspicious does not have,

[00:43:00] the dog does not die in auspicious, the creepy pasta. Yeah. For that one person that might check out the, the, uh, does the dog die.com when they start reading auspicious, the creepy pasta. Mm. Well, dog was mentioned. So. Yeah. I know one person that would absolutely check that. Yeah. Captain Solanum. Yep. Absolutely. But yeah, um,

[00:43:30] I guess I'll move on to my, my next comment here. Or my next quote and comment. Guys, where are you? He yelled again. Crystal came running out tears in her eyes until now. She'd done a remarkable job of keeping her composure since his disappearance. Kurt, thank God. She almost unintelligibly wailed out as she ran just ahead of me on the edge of the porch. Hey guys, guys, where are you? We heard again, something wasn't quite right. God,

[00:44:00] I love this kind of like creepy mimicry ploy when it comes to horror in the woods. It's just really unnerving. When you realize something is amiss. Like when they start repeating, like the same, the same lines, like completely perfect. I was like, Oh, Oh, that's not your friend anymore. Or that's, that's either, that's not your friend anymore. Or that's just not your friend. It's the same thing. It was like,

[00:44:30] Hey, who turned out the lights? Hey, who turned out the lights from, from Dr. Who? When like they, with the, uh, with the, the, that giant ancient library they go to visit. Oh, I would have went with it. Yeah. yeah. Vashto Narada. Yeah. I, I, I, I wasn't a hundred percent sure how to say that word. So, yeah, the first thing that went, that I went to was,

[00:45:00] uh, the predators want some candy. Yeah, no, exactly. Like honestly, the predator, it's kind of funny. Like the predator having that mimicking thing also kind of like falls in line with like the creepy, like woodsy thing where it's like, if you start hearing somebody like repeating a voice or something or like using mimicry, uh, it's likely some kind of thing that's hunting you. Mm-hmm. I mean, I wonder if that, until the, the creep, until like you see, um,

[00:45:29] Evan at the end, I was like half, uh, in the, the head cannon that there's just a predator killing them and like, just shooting trees with plasma casters to knock them down to make it seem like it's an accident. Yeah. Or he just, it, it just, it, uh, the crashing sound they're hearing is actually just the sound of the plasma caster, like being, being shot. Yeah. Or like it, he, the, the, the Yatcha crashed down on the car, uh, initially to like,

[00:45:59] like on the engine, basically to like, to like, like landed on there and like, basically like broke it. And then he used the caster again to like silence it. Yes, for sure. After silently killing, what's his face? Uh, Dennis. Right. Um, yeah, no, honestly, I, it makes me wonder, like, obviously like I, that feels like that whole mimic thing, like the mimicry of, of lines of some, somebody in the woods definitely feels like it,

[00:46:27] it came before the predator movies. So. Oh, I'm sure they did not invent that. Yeah, no, I, but it makes me wonder if like, that's actually like where they took that from idea from in, from those movies is like the, the fact that like some weird creatures or weird things like in the woods, like will mimic somebody's voice. Or, you know, you know, I just realized what it actually, what, what more likely what,

[00:46:50] what they were referencing in that is a fact that we like duck hunters and like deer hunters use deer calls and duck calls. That's basically what they're doing. It's a person call. Yeah. Yeah. They're human calling. Yep. But I digress. I'll move on to the next thing. Um, we backed toward the door, not wanting to turn away from the fog. Just as I, the last one was entering through the doorway.

[00:47:18] I heard the most bone chilling phrase, try to dig them up next year. And then it's kind of, it's insinuated right after this, that like, that's the same, the exact same line and like, um, uh, pronunciation and what, or like basically it's the exact same line quoted that he said early on in the story when they were talking about the beers. And I was like, Oh, that is so good.

[00:47:41] Cause the MC is using a line stated earlier about digging up the beers as a threat regarding the bodies of their friends. Yeah. I kind of love that. It's just like, again, it's a much, it's very similar to like the, uh, uh, the predator thing. Like we were just referencing. It's like, it's like, come on, motherfucker. Let's dance. And then the prayer just walking up to like Bill Paxson's character in the, in the subway. It's like, want some candy? Like, it's like, cause like the want some candy was the line from a kid in the,

[00:48:12] in the cemetery that the predator was like stalking, um, uh, the characters, uh, in, and then like the, the little kids saw the, saw the predators like outline and, and, uh, and saw him. And so like, he said, like want some candy before the predator, like off to the kid and then ran off. No. Yeah. I was going to say, I don't think the predator killed the kid. No, the predator didn't kill the kid because like, well, he was going to, because like, uh, the kid had like a little like sparkler, like sparkler gun toy, which could be a weapon. Well, and the predator perceived that initially perceived that as a weapon,

[00:48:42] but then realized it was a toy. And, and also the child and predator, some predators do have a code of not harming the young, um, or the pregnant or the, or the infirm. Don't. All of them. Cause it's all about the thrill of the hunt. Yeah. No, no, it's, it's hunting the worthy. Yeah. So like, they won't go after children. They won't go after somebody who's pregnant and they won't go after somebody who's like infirm or like really, really old. Cause like in the alien versus predator movie, they, that's one of the reasons that he does, they don't straight up kill, um,

[00:49:12] or initially kill, uh, Waylon, uh, the Waylon character, uh, Lance Henderson's, uh, characters because they do a scan of him and realize not only is he super old, he's also like terminally, so it's like, Oh, he's not worth like, he's not worth the kill. But anyway, back to this movie, this, this, back to the story, not movie. Yep. Um, yeah, again, I just really liked that. Like the, the, the, the creature, the entity using the lot,

[00:49:40] like using that mimicry that we were just referencing and then using a line that like, it just like in a really cool, impactful way. Like again, the line that from the main character, essentially the narrator character, um, back at them. It's like, Oh, you'll be able to dig them up next year. Uh, I don't know. I really liked that. So it was cool. And then the last thing I have for the story is actually the, the image. So at the very end of the story, we get an image,

[00:50:10] a photograph really of, um, uh, what looks like it basically, I caught a lake country cottage scene. Like there's a dock on a, on a lake with some, a pine tree in the forefront and like a bench, basically like one of those, one of those lakes I was mentioning that you, uh, like obviously a scene from probably one of those lakes up in the Muskoka's, uh, or up near Bracebridge. Like this, it definitely like you like, I look at this as like, yeah, I could, this could be from any one of the lakes surrounding Bracebridge.

[00:50:40] Um, and then it also has like either, I feel like there is the, there's a fog effect put over top of the, of the photo. And I feel like that was, it's likely like a Photoshop comp. Um, because it feels very like, like the kind of like, like a layered, like white out sort of like, sort of, uh, yeah. Cause like the light is still coming through on the, uh, on the water and stuff. Yeah. It feels it's to me, it feels, I don't think it's natural. Cause it,

[00:51:10] it feels too much. Like there's too much light, like reflection, like you're saying. Maybe, but it still does a great job. Oh yeah, no, I, yeah, I should, I should like also preference. Like it's a good job. Like, like even with, even as a comp, like it's still, it, it does, it, it, it works very well. I cannot do for the story. Not that I'm good at this. I, I might be able to do it. But that's just like, again, like, honestly, like it's, it's a perfectly, it's a perfectly good, uh, photo for the story.

[00:51:40] Um, and it doesn't spoil anything. No, not at all. It just, it shows the fog, which is exactly, which is like a set, a set piece, which is perfect. Um, and again, like, I get, I hit, I get the vibes or like, I get the feels a little bit. Cause like, I know I, I can, I, I know several cottage properties that look like that on the shoreline. Yeah. So yeah. Um, but that's all I've got for auspicious.

[00:52:10] Mikey, these stands for evil. Right. Um, so my first note here, strangely, the path was more, the path was more and more cleared closer to the A-frame. It looked like several trees had been uprooted, then replanted farther back in the bush or brush. So at this point, uh, my mind was thinking,

[00:52:39] why would anyone uproot and replant? Uh, and I was thinking that, uh, the beer, cause they don't like the beer and they do all this shenanigans with the beer, that the beer would get into the soil and we might have an end infestation. Drunk Ents. Hmm. Yeah. They couldn't remember where they're rooted. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Oh man.

[00:53:09] Oh fuck. So drunk Ents. And then like, there's the, uh, cops of trees having to come in. It's like, all right guys, are you drunk? Cause like, I'm not, I'm not drunk. I can leave whenever I want. I was like, all right, before you leave, please, uh, please follow the, uh, like walk along this line. Okay. It's just this massive tree with it's like roots kind of like flailing all the places trying to walk straight. I, sir, I haven't seen, uh,

[00:53:39] uh, I haven't seen flailing like that since the whomping willow. Step aside, sir. Step aside, sir. Oh, yeah. Step aside, sir. Yeah. It's just, it's just barfing up chlorophyll. I love and hate this at the same time. I kind of need an, and a cozy horror and, uh, and flavored, um, game. Not gonna lie.

[00:54:10] Yeah. Yeah. Tree cops. You've done the, the cops of trees. I have, I have used, and yeah, I have, I have made some, uh, CS I have that. You could see on our sister podcast. One last time. Plug book public. Mm hmm. So, yeah. Uh,

[00:54:38] so my mind obviously was more rooting for the trees. Oh, fuck. So, you're out of nowhere. My defense is down and everything. Uh, but, uh, yeah, uh, unfortunately we don't get that. So, uh, but,

[00:55:07] but that's where my mind was going because I mean, Evan, who use off planting trees. So he has a green thumb. Guys, this is the web group. Awesome. We could reference the, uh, captain planet, uh, from SNL say tree. Evan, just walking around tree, tree, tree, tree, skeleton, skeleton, skeleton. Yeah. Uh,

[00:55:37] sorry. All right. Anyway. Uh, so my next actual thought here, Dennis and I wandered around the property looking for a good spot to dig a hole. We wanted it to be deep enough so that it wouldn't freeze in the winter, bursting the cans. So my thoughts, so you're digging at least six feet under, or like,

[00:56:07] where are you digging a grave? Like, like that was my thought process. And then I was like, Oh no, but they didn't find one. Yeah. Also, I just gotta say like, again, since we found out that this is from, this is set like west of Bracebridge, like in that area, good luck digging a deep hole in, in that region. It's all fucking Canadian shield. Like, yeah. Like there's so much exposed, like granite bedrock.

[00:56:36] And they say that too. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. They do. Yeah. I thought, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Like it's a pain getting through and we had to move a bunch of rocks and shit. Well, yeah. It moved a bunch of rocks and like roots and stuff, but I'm kind of said that it doesn't bring up the fact that like they had to find a spot that wasn't just sheer rock because yeah, yeah, there's so much of that up in that region. So to be a little bit more like actually for the story, but one part I found kind of weird is like,

[00:57:05] they said they want to find a place that is good to dig and it's relatively close so they can remember. So after walking a kilometer and a half into the woods, yeah. Yeah. That's, that's again, where it was like, it's like, wait, so they, they, they would like a kilometer and a half into the woods just to a random spot in quotes and started digging and then found a body and not only a body, but a body with a bunch of those, a bunch of empty beer cans of the same beer they were about to

[00:57:36] bury. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, that was a point where it's like, are we getting some like weird, like they don't remember, like, like, remember the last summer, I know what you did last summer where we killed our friend and buried him. Like, like that's, that's where I was like that point in the story. Like, that's what I was saying. Whereas like, I wonder if this is going to be like a memory loss kind of thing or a time loop where like, it's one of them that's, that's been buried. Yeah.

[00:58:05] This whole thing could have been like a, uh, like a mundane normal horror where like last summer, uh, Evan was there and they went through a bunch of stuff. They got drunk, but for some reason, one of them ended up killing Evan one way or another. So they just buried the body and like through just the trauma of the situation, they actually forgot about it. Planting trees out West is the equivalent of, uh, going up to, going to a farm upstate.

[00:58:35] Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, a lot of, you know what? A lot of people do go like out West, like for work and stuff like that. I'm here in Canada. So like, honestly, that could be like, you could, you could make that like, Oh, she, uh, they've got to go to a, uh, they've got to go to a farm upstate. Oh, they've got to go, uh, for a job out West. Yeah. I kind of like that actually. Yeah. That's kind of good. I hate, I hate that. I love it at the same time, but, um,

[00:59:05] yeah, no, I, um, yeah, I think it's either that or whatever creature is drawing them to release it because like to, to justify why they went a kilometer and a half to do this stupid little joke instead of just doing it in the backyard. Yeah. Like the, the, this, I, there's definitely an under, an underlining in the story where like the thing is, is influencing them on this property. And like, at first it's kind of subtle because again, they, they do play smart thing. Like they call the cops,

[00:59:35] the cops come to investigate, they identify the body and stuff, but then thing, and then they, they get isolated and they, they, they continue to be kind of smart, but there's some like dumb things that they do. There's like, is that, is that dumb plot, like plot hole stuff? Or is that like the influence of some, malign entity? Yeah. Definitely kind of reminded me actually of that scene from cabin in the woods, uh, the movie where like all the characters start off like very intelligent and stuff.

[01:00:05] Like even like the big buff jock guy, like he's like, all right, we got to stick, we got to stick together. They're like, we got to play this smart and stuff like that. Like they're all like actually like reasonable real world, smart people. And then the people that are orchestrating the, the ritual to like of the, of the main, like the meta plot that's going on in the movie, they instigate like a dumb gas basically that like, or like they, they implement like a gas in the cabin, but it turns that starts turning them into stereotypes of horror movie things. Wow. That's great. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, it was a really fun thing. It's like, oh yeah, like they,

[01:00:34] they start off like actually intelligent and like reasonable human beings, like real world human beings. And then, but to keep the, the, the ritual on track, the shadow organization needs to like make them dumber and like, and influence and influence their actions. So they fall in line with like stereotypes from horror movies. So yeah, that's kind of funny. Yeah. Spoilers for cabin in the woods a little bit, but yeah,

[01:01:06] so again, at that point I still assumed it was ants because they're basically hiding the body and hiding. Well, keeping the cans of beer under the ground so they can access it. Yeah. You think they would like be a little bit more like, uh, they wouldn't want to do like a landfill kind of situation with the cans. You think they'd like have those like in like, uh, weirdly enough, we found a blue bin about a hundred, about a kilometer, a kilometer and a half out of the, into the woods with a bunch of like crushed,

[01:01:35] uh, beer cans. We decided to dig there. Just a blue, just a little blue box. Yeah. Cool box. Anyway. Yeah. All right. Uh, so my next, um, actual thought here is, uh,

[01:02:00] I grabbed the machete on my side and we slowly crept out of our first floor room. Why is there suddenly a machete? Like, I mean, ever mentioned once and it's never used. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's not, it's, I mean, it's not, it's not the most outlandish thing to have at a camp or at a, at a cottage site. Like I'm,

[01:02:27] I'm surprised it's not like a hatchet or an ax because a machete is a little. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody, yeah. Cause somebody does have an ax in this, but yeah, machete is, I'd say it's, it's less rare and more maybe like uncommon in terms of an item you'd find in a, uh, uh, in a, in a cottage up north. So like it's green quality. It's not blue quality. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, there's a, there's a slightly less chance than norm than a common item that you'd find at a

[01:02:57] cottage to drop in this. Yes. Yeah. But like, I, yeah, I don't think I, it, it, it's not like too, I don't, I didn't think it was too outlandish for the guy to have a machete. I thought it was a little like, I mean, cause honestly, like given what they're experiencing and what they're like dealing with, like, yeah, I, I definitely would like, I could definitely buy that there, a bunch of them are just like, or finding whatever implement they can to like defend themselves or like sleep. But at this point,

[01:03:22] like defend themselves from what all that's happened is people that have left, haven't come back. Like they're not being attacked. Except I would, I would say that like, I would, I'm sorry if, if, if I'm trapped in a cottage, uh, with a fog around me and one of my friends had gone up to the car and that car got smashed several times and he never came back. I would be like, I need a weapon. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm sorry. Like that is like my go to,

[01:03:51] like right off, like right off that hop. It's like, yeah, we need, there's something in them. There's, there's something in them fog and woods. Yeah. There's no downside to having a weapon just in case. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And that's the end of my actual thoughts. I was disappointed with the ending when it didn't turn out to be trees. It was just heaven. God, that prankster heaven.

[01:04:22] Unless Evan was an ent all along. Wow. I don't know. Just like, he's, I don't know. it's been glamored as a human being or something or like, or again, an ent that is assumed. Maybe that's like what, what, what those Appalachian or like woodsy mimics are. They're just ends that can like shape shift. Fungal creature or something like that. Maybe. Yeah. Just swamp thing.

[01:04:51] Or I guess forced thing in this case, lake thing. Or 40 K work. Yeah. Well, unless, unless those guys, those, those are, those guys are pretty obvious. Yeah. But, uh, marsh thing. Yeah. Marsh thing. Yeah. they describe there's a marsh nearby. So yeah. Oh fuck. Yeah. Marsh thing. Marsh thing. Ah, yes.

[01:05:22] Marsh. But all right. Yeah. To make it different from swamp thing. Marsh boy. Or, or marsh stuff. Marsh. What's it? Yeah. Marsh. Who's it? Uh, God. Marshmallow. Nice. Marshfellow. Mmm. That's a good one. Yeah. Or a marsh doohickey. No. Anyway, uh, gamer, your, uh, your notes, your actual thoughts. Already. Did you? Okay.

[01:05:52] Regardless. Regardless. Um, my first one is, uh, it was a bomb to see, uh, one another again. And for me, like, I've never heard that term before. What? Like it's, it was a BALM to see each other again, but apparently it's a thing. I just, Oh yeah. Yeah. It, it just seems. I think you've referenced that. I, I've never used it, but I can see where, like why they use it. Cause it's like a BALM. I've been like something like a healing thing, like to see my friends again. Oh, right, right,

[01:06:22] right, right, right. Yes. Yeah. If I've heard someone say that to my face, I'd be like, you mean like an explosion? Yeah. Oh man, you're the BALM. It's such a BALM to see you again. Like, what is it? Radical. Suddenly they have like, like their, their BALM cap is like reversed over the, they've got shades on, they've got their skateboard. Hell yeah. You do BALM, man. Anyway. Or maybe the main character is just really into lips and he likes seeing lip balm. Hmm. Yeah.

[01:06:53] Sure. It's a very different cottage visit. It really is. Anyway. Oh yes. Our annual cottage orgy. Oh God. There I went. All right. All right. We can move on. Until dawn. Yeah. But moving on from there. I kind of mentioned this earlier, but like, I feel like they jumped to conclusions pretty quick when it comes to the fog being deadly.

[01:07:20] Like the idea that there's a being out there that's dangerous dangerous in the fog. Like that part's only like brought up and visually seen later. Um, so it's like purely the fact that they think the fog is so thick that they can't see where they're going, I guess. And they'll get lost. Like that's. Yeah. Their, their, their fear up front. Yeah. Like it's not safe to like drive or even like walk in this fog. Cause you don't know where you're, where you are. Yeah. Which is fair.

[01:07:49] But like the vibe of it, like jumps real quick from we're stuck in here because of the weather, weather to, we have to survive the killer fog. Like, yeah. I can't, that to the other. I do think, honestly, I don't think it, I think it has a pretty decent like climb because like, again, one of their friends, like, like they're, they're worried. Like, like, don't go in the, like, uh, like you can't, you can't get back into town. Like, it's like peace soup out there. Like, Oh no, I'll be fine. He goes out to a car. And again,

[01:08:17] the car gets destroyed by something as far as they can hear. Yeah. So like, I'm sorry. Like again, that like the car getting smashes up is kind of pretty damning evidence that there's something else in that fog you should be worried about. Yeah. I mean, it could just be like someone else was driving on the road and like smashed into them. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how far off the road they are though. I would be with you except like, Hey, they never, they,

[01:08:46] they state that they never heard the car like turn on. Uh, and also that like the car, like the first crash caused the card, like have, it's like, it's, it's alarms go off. And then another crash happened and the car went dead. So like, I don't know necessarily if a second car crashing into them, like maybe it's the cops like crash in the first time, like cause that first alarm. And then a second, the second car patrol car behind them crashed into the car.

[01:09:15] I don't think that would silence the car's alarm. You never know. I don't hit it real hard. I'm, I, I'm thinking this is a little bit more reasonable of a climb of, of like escalation than, than you were giving it credit, but maybe the driveway is like on a bend in the road, but like, because you can't see, you can't see where the bend is. So they just drive on the road directly into the driveway and hit shit. Maybe, but I don't know. Like, I know, I know you're, you're trying to, you're trying to mundane, to fight. It's just not happening.

[01:09:45] I'm sorry. What I kind of wish they did at some point in this, even though, like, I do understand that, like that dude probably died. So they're not wanting to go out there, but like, they never did a, Hey, let's find some rope and tie it to the house. So we can find our way back. Then we could have a moment where like the person with the rope, like tied around them goes out there.

[01:10:13] It gets tugged really tight and they start like trying to pull them back. And then it gets really slack. And when they pull it back, it's been like ripped in half as bloody and such. Yeah. Because a couple of them are at the, a house, a frame house still. So it could be like, we should go check on them. It's like, no, you'll never find your way back. I got rope. They actually aren't at the a frame. They all, I think migrate to the main cottage, like early on. Did they? Yeah. They never go back to the later on. They're like, Oh, thank God you guys were okay. No.

[01:10:46] Search this real quick. It's only 10 instances of a, of a frame. Where's the last one? Ding. That's dude. And he ran towards a frame. Oh yeah. The last time. It's like when. Duke's like running off into the fog, actually, which was pretty damn early. Yeah.

[01:11:15] Cause the other ones are just references in like direction wise. Okay. So maybe I misunderstood that part, but still. Yeah. That, that could have been a cool moment. It could have. Yeah. I get, I do like that. Cause like, I've seen that in several other things where like somebody goes off into the mist or the fog with like a rope and then like gets tugged and then they pull it back and like the half the guy's missing or like the guy's just gone and the ropes been either cut or ripped. Yeah. I like just having the rope just cut and gone.

[01:11:43] Cause like that is very damning evidence that, okay, there is something hostile out here for sure. Or even worse because like, we're all assuming that like a tree came down on the car or something like that. I keep thinking it's like some kind of giant because I'm getting flat. I'll be honest. I'm getting flashbacks from that, from a Delta green game called, uh, I think it's called Sentinels of twilight or it's, um, also known as operation fulminate where the, uh, where you, your park range, you're, you had to go up to like, uh,

[01:12:13] some, some national park, uh, to search, uh, to find it because you found a, uh, a boy who went missing back in the eighties has returned like the same age. And then as soon as you get to the cabinets of that, like the weather changes. And then there's like reports of a giant, like fucking up shit in like, in the parking lot where like you guys like in the parking lot of the center where you're keeping the kid and such. So I kept envisioning like, like this could be also a really good scene where like the rope, like the guy goes out there,

[01:12:41] rope gets tight and then goes up like impossibly. Yeah. Goes impossibly up at an angle. It's like, Oh, at that point it was like, just cut the rope. He's done. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Cause if something has the power, it has the strength to like lift that rope. Like you better hope that rope gives and that, and the, uh, that the, um, the banister or the porch, like column, like support column doesn't give. Yup.

[01:13:13] But yeah, that would have, again, just, again, just sort of like hammering home here that like, yeah, that would have been a really cool scene if they'd had like somebody with a rope go to go find Dennis. And then, and we lose, we lose, um, who was it? It wasn't Kurt. It wasn't Dennis. It was, uh, Tom, I think that like Tom went missing though. Yeah. Oh, is it Tom or Kurt went missing at the, like last, uh, I didn't write down everyone's deaths until we started doing this.

[01:13:42] So Tom died when they were already in there. And Tom was like, he's missing. We need to go find him. I'm going, I'm going, was he the one that went to the car? I think it was Dennis. So went to the car. So give me a second. That one just, um, yeah. Hang on. Who? Okay. I'm trying to figure out like who went last. Why are you? Oh yeah, it is Tom. It is Tom. Tom, Tom leaves. Tom is the last to go. So it's like,

[01:14:09] if we had lost Dennis and Tom at the car, but again, like Tom, like basically like put a rope around his, his like, again, put a rope around himself and went out to go find Dennis. Then that's where we get that scene. We're like the, the rope gets pulled. Yeah. Like a fucking fishing line. Absolutely. Yeah. That'd be a good scene for that for sure. Yeah. And then that point is like, Oh fuck, get back in the house. Like we're not leaving the cottage. We're staying in,

[01:14:37] in the very deepest interior core of the cottage. No one go to your windows. So how many of them survived? Did Kurt die? Yeah. Kurt went missing first. Then Dennis, how did he die? No, like what was the reason he ran off? He ran into the fog to chase a Duke. The dog. Oh, right. And then the dog came back, but Kurt didn't. And then Dennis went to the car and that all happened. And then later on,

[01:15:07] like a night that either that night or the next, the next night, Tom lost his shit and was like, I need to go into the fog and went into the fog. Right. And then, so it was really just Kate Crystal and Kate Crystal, uh, Nair and Duke were the last, were last seen alive at the very end of the story. Yes. And I maintain headcanon that if no, if anyone survives, it's Duke. Like, I don't, all the,

[01:15:37] all the humans could get, could, could have vanished into the fog when the, when the police arrived like the next day. Yes. And just Duke's there. Duke will live. Yeah. Reference an old, this Todd's critic joke. Boomer will live. Yes. Yeah. Uh, the other question, what if Duke is the monster all along? And you know, it could have been because Duke comes back out of the fog, though. They do describe him as like shaky and afraid.

[01:16:06] So like maybe the dog saw something, but honestly it could be a thing situation where the dog is actually in on it this whole time. Well, I think he means like dog ran off to go fight the monster. The monster took out the dog, became the dog and ran back. That's literally what I, what I was referencing. Is it? Yeah. Yeah, no, that's legitimately what I was just saying. Okay. That's normally what you do to me.

[01:16:34] I know I can be dumb sometimes too. Sometimes. No, I'm kidding. I mean, I'm not going to argue that. Oh no. Well, what if the story is a memetic virus and returning to dirt plant? No. Oh God, please. God. No. Oh man. Oh God. Oh man. Oh God. Oh man. All right.

[01:17:05] I am both dumb and done. Aren't we all. Yeah. So yeah, gamer, I continue on. Honestly, the only other note we talked about, just like, I like the mimicking aspect of it. It makes it really creepy. Yeah. Again, I love that. Like the forest be scary. Oh, brought that back. But also like the whole like mimics in the woods, like the, like the, how like the forest goes quiet.

[01:17:35] And then like you start hearing your voice or the voice of your friends out in the woods, like chef's kiss on like spooky forest story. Yeah. For sure. And then you read it. Did a really good job of just actually being creepy. Yeah. And then you just simmer the story in like a fog that chokes out like all signals and like visibility. Like it's perfect. Yeah. Not being able to see like really sucks. Like that's a,

[01:18:05] it's equivalent to like, you know, the stories takes place in the nighttime. Cause nighttime scary, but like. Fog is scary all the time. Yeah. Cause it's all about the obscure, like not being able to see it's the fear of the unknown. Yeah. And it's like the, yeah, you're basically, you're removing senses, like, like natural senses. Um, and like basically isolating somebody, isolating the characters in that way. So, yeah, no, cause it does a good job with that.

[01:18:37] But yeah. Okay. Uh, all right. Then, uh, we'll move on to final thoughts. Um, yeah, I'm still going to recommend it. Uh, I love the spooky mimic in the woods vibes and that it seems to be set somewhere very familiar. And local to, to us. Um, that was really fun. Like just as a being able to like perfect, almost perfectly envision, like where it's located in like the, the, the setting and the set pieces and such. For sure.

[01:19:07] Um, I do think the characters get a little dumb compared to how they start off with in the story. Kind of, again, very auspicious. Like they start off, like it starts off very like, Oh man, there's actually intelligent characters. And then they start getting less and less. Well, I wouldn't say that it's becoming dumb. I'm not. Hang on. Hang on. I understand. I do have, I do have a correct say. It's like, I do think they, they start, they, they, they get dumb compared to where they start off with,

[01:19:33] but that could be excused as like, well, excused with like desperation, the exhaustion of being isolated like that. And probably some kind of manipulation on the part of the supernatural element in the story. So I am willing to give that, like, it's not like so bad as we've seen in some other stories where it's like, why is this character like just this? Why are they from Durpland? Yeah. Like this story, we start, we, they start off with smart characters and then like,

[01:20:01] just like the marathon or the gauntlet of the, of the, of the situation makes them more and more rat brash and more like, um, poor choices. Uh, also again, head cannon, regardless of the outcome, the dog made it out alive because we never see him die. We never see him. Like he never dies on, on screen. As far as I'm concerned,

[01:20:30] soul survivor. Yep. At the very least, soul survivor. Mm-hmm. Um, cause he is the Duke. Damn right. But, uh, yeah, uh, recommendation for me. So Mikey, these stands for evil. All right. Um, so, um, the main issue I have with the story is myself. Cause I read between the lines. So you ruined it for yourself. Yeah.

[01:21:01] so like I was reading between the lines. I was getting really hyped up for the ends to come in at the end. Uh, you're really hoping for tree beard. And then we just get Evan and it has called us. It's like a flesh gate type scenario or whatever. And I was just like, ah, cause the setup was there. Yeah. In my mind anyway. I mean, you're not wrong. Like it is definitely like, it definitely could have gone that way. And it like,

[01:21:30] I love ways. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously we, we, we brought up a bunch of things that were, that could have happened instead, but I mean, yeah, like that, that is sort of like a more personal preference thing. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, so not now because of that, I am still only going to personally recommend it because what we get is good. And Canadian.

[01:21:59] And that you might actually recommend someone, but your idea is better. You're saying because of your own personal failings. Well, I'm just saying you got to warn people that it's not ends. You really don't have to. You really don't. Put a not predator warning as well. Yeah. Yeah. No yachts. No ends. Yeah. Like,

[01:22:29] uh, you know what? I'm not even going to recommend it anymore. I'm done. Like, yeah, we, every, what we, what we came up with was so much better. I'm like negative 10 out of 10. Yeah. Totally. Totally could have done a better job. Typed it up and posted it on the internet. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not meaning to trash on your, your, your recommendation. It's just, I mean, I mean, I am being critically silly.

[01:22:56] I am being extremely critically silly with my reaction to your correct. Yeah. Mm hmm. Hey. Yeah. So that's it for sure. Okay. End gamer. Uh, for me, I liked it. Uh, fog is always an unsettling visual to have, especially when the characters are like basically being fed to it over and over. Um, how can a million salad Hills be wrong? Right.

[01:23:26] Um, I do feel that they jumped to conclusions pretty quick with the supernatural deadliness of the fog. Um, I kind of wish that they kind of like Claire, like they had a more clear visual that that's what's going on until like the very end when you actually see it. Um, but it was still like a great visual and, um, a truly terrible position to be in, honestly, like deciding if it's better to wait or try to go find your lost friends. Like that's not a good situation.

[01:23:55] Could they stay or should they go now? Yeah. If they stay, there will be trouble. If they go, there will be double, you know, this double of the double the smashing of cars. Yeah. Right. Oh, we were on fire today. Sorry. But yeah, the only real complaint I have is just like the characters are like kind of one dimensional. Like Tom owns a place. Crystal has the old dog.

[01:24:25] Duke is the old dog. And the other people are names. Yeah. They're, they're, they're really like, they are a, the group has more character as a whole than individual characters. Yeah. Like because the characters aren't really fleshed out or nothing. This feels like the opening kill scene in a movie. I wouldn't go that far. Cause, cause I would, I would agree with that. If, if this movie, if the story for this movie, if the story was shorter,

[01:24:55] because the way, how long this goes on for like, this just kind of feels like a, like if you're going to go with like that, like they, they lack the character development, like that kind of character development. I'd say this is more like a, just a, uh, a B rated, like slasher flick. Yeah. Maybe, I don't know, but I can see like there, Kate and crystal and Duke, obviously like being the main characters in the main story. But like, this is what happened last summer. Yeah. I know what you drank last summer.

[01:25:26] Auspicious. Ale. Yeah. But overall, I'll still recommend it. Cause I enjoyed it. All right. Uh, well, uh, yeah. So I guess, um, two recommendations and a partial recommendation, uh, do with that what you will. And, uh, that's it for tonight. So if you like what you heard, or if you didn't leave us a comment in the comment section below, wherever this gets posted, uh, some of us are on blue sky. Uh,

[01:25:56] Mikey is at the East stands for evil and I'm at review cultist. You can also send us emails at al dente, a rigor mortis at gmail.com. That's a L D E N T E R I G A M O R T S at gmail.com, where you can also leave a suggestions for other crew pastas, SCPs, spook things. You creep it. We'll peep it. Yeah. And if you'd like to help support our show financially, you can go to Patrion. We have special episodes,

[01:26:24] early access and extra content to all our patrons helping with the show. Thank you immensely. Cause you're helping keep those hosting bills at bay. And as always, we very much appreciate that. And to our listeners and the authors of these stories, thank you immensely. Cause without your listenership, it'd be like screaming into the void. Just this nebulous fog beyond our doorstep. And without your authorship writing and posting these stories online,

[01:26:53] we really wouldn't have much of a show cause we'd have nothing to talk about. So thank you. Now's a good time to bring up that. We are part of a podcast network crit in the night, an actual play and creepypasta podcast network where they're alongside our sister podcast, one less die and our cousin podcast, the role-playing exchange for things that go crit in the night. Until next time, I have been your host review cultist. I'm Mikey, the East Ends Revo.

[01:27:22] And I'm the gamer in yellow. And this has been Aldente Rigamortis. Sleep well, eh?

[01:28:14] Oh man, do I want to do this in like a Canadian accent? Why? Because this story takes place in Ontario. Oh, fuck, bud. Yeah. Oh, fuck, bud. Hi there. Welcome to Aldente Rigamortis. I can't do it. Hang on. I need to take two. That could have been good enough. You could have just. Yeah, I got that. Oh, hi there. And welcome to. No, hang on.