#Shadow Morton

[the-paper-apricot]

John, Paul & the Shangri-Las

Whatever happened to The life that we once knew?

It's fairly well known that these lines from the bridge of 'Free as a Bird' are adapted from the lyric of 'Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)', written & produced by Shadow Morton and performed by the Shangri-Las. Where the Beatles, in lyrics begun but not completed by John, call up shared memories, Mary Weiss sang of "the boy that I once knew". That John reused these lines to voice his own preoccupation with an unresolved past adds much tenderness to 'Free as a Bird'. Being a Shangs fan, there are a couple of other connections that I just wanted to write about.

The Shangs looking dangerous.

Today I love you more than yesterday

'I Know (I Know)' from Mind Games (1973).

Although the melodies are completely different, the Shangri-Las song 'Love You More Than Yesterday' seems to find an echo in the most emotive lines in the bridge of John Lennon's 'I Know (I Know)'. The song was a B-side to their 1966 spoken-word ballad 'Past, Present & Future' (which, incidentally, took Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' as its theme, like the Beatles' song 'Because' after it). Quite rightly the nod to 'Yesterday' is what strikes us most, but I'm not at all sure that the similarity to the Shangri-Las title is pure coincidence. We saw in Get Back how easily song titles and lyrics were used by John and Paul in the current of their talk.

It proved difficult to find John speaking about the Shangri-Las, despite the Beatles' enjoyment of records by other girl groups like the Shirelles, and they're not among the artists on John's famous 40-disc mobile juke box that he brought when the Beatles went out on tour. (Only one woman, Fontella Bass, appears among the discs. The juke box doesn't even include 'Angel Baby' by Rosie and the Originals, whose fresh, unrefined first-love sentimentality appealed to him so much he covered it.) It's a little easier to find something from Paul on the subject however.

Mary and Betty Weiss from the Shangri-Las, photographed by Jini Dellaccio in 1966 (left: screenshot by @ohhellno on tumblr*; right, my screenshot, both from the documentary Her Aim is True, about the photographer).

Of course he calls out "Shangri-Las versus The Village People!" at the beginning of 'Mr. H. Atom'. But glorious as that is, perhaps more informative are the occasions where Paul has spoken of his enjoyment of the Shangri-Las' style, and the way he appreciated Linda's voice in this mode.

If she’s a singer, she’s very much a Shangri-Las type singer; I don’t think any of them could get into opera, but I prefer them to opera. Linda wouldn’t put herself up as a great vocalist, but she’s got a great style. I think anyway.

'McCartney Gets Hungry Again', Musician, Feb. 1988

I've always maintained that she has a kind of Shangri-Las type of appeal.

'Can Paul McCartney Get Back?' Rolling Stone, June 1989

When you know how warmly Paul regarded their style, you can't miss the similarity of Linda's spoken intro and closing of 'Wide Prairie' ("I was in Paris, waiting for a flight..."), answered by Paul, to the chat in Shangri-Las songs like 'Give Him a Great Big Kiss', where the other girls ask Mary Weiss whether her guy is tall ("Well, I gotta look up!") or if he's a good dancer.

Did they meet?

On the 20th September 1964, the Shangri-Las performed on the same bill as the Beatles, at a benefit concert in New York for a cerebral palsy charity. Mary Weiss explained that Mary Ann Ganser was jostled backstage as one of the Beatles sought them out:

“She turned around and it was Ringo. So that was some contact, anyway. I almost wanted her to take his drumsticks.”

'Weiss Leads Again', the New York Sun, September 2007.

This seems to be the only documented contact between the groups, although if you know of others, or further instances where John or Paul spoke about the Shangs, I'd love to hear about them. The music that the Beatles listened to has been written about extensively, and there's almost a canon of influences that's become pretty standard. Given their admiration of their performance, and seemingly in John's case, of Shadow Morton's words**, I hope for some recognition of both Lennon and McCartney's creative responses to the Shangri-Las.

(* Many thanks to @ohhellno for letting me use this great screenshot.)

(** The interest was of course mutual, as Morton produced the Beattle-ettes single 'Only Seventeen', supposedly a response to the Beatles from the girl's perspective, with hand claps and cries of "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" The single, by an untraced group, was released in 1964. In summer the same year his first songwriting hit, 'Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)' was the breakout success for the Shangri-Las. It was racing up the Billboard Hot 100 as the Beatles toured the States in the second half of August. By the time they had a day off in Key West, on the tenth of September, it had reached the top ten, one place below 'A Hard Day's Night'. If John or Paul tuned to a pop radio station, they'd have heard it. The song peaked at number five.)

from the Billboard Hot 100, week ending 12th September, 1964.

[kdo-three]

The Shangri-Las - Remember (Walking in the Sand) (Stereo) George "Shadow" Morton from: "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" / "It's Easier to Cry" (Single) "Leader of the Pack" (LP) "The Shangri-Las: Myrmidons of Melodrama" (1995 CD Compilation)

Pop | Girl Group | Brill Building

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: The Shangri-Las: Mary Weiss: Lead Vocals Elizabeth “Betty” Weiss: Backing Vocals Marguerite “Marge” Ganser: Backing Vocals Mary Ann Ganser: Backing Vocals

Produced by Jeff Barry / Artie Ripp / "Shadow" Morton

Recorded: @ Mira Sound New York City, New York USA July, 1964

Released: August, 1964

Red Bird Records

[julio-viernes]

"Leader of the Pack", una de las más conseguidas "canciones de muerte" de los 50s-60s junto a "Endless Sleep" de Jody Reynolds, "Tell Laura I Love Her" de Ray Peterson y "Dead Man's Curve" de Jan & Dean. Mary Weiss supo evocar muy bien tragedias adolescentes, melodramas pop en ocasiones teñidos de muerte. Fue el segundo y mayor éxito del trío- cuarteto femenino (1964, nº 1 en EE. UU., nº 11 en UK). Las grabaciones para el sello Red Bird de George "Shadow" Morton incluyeron una producción lujosa con gran orquestación y efectos de sonido, y "Leader of the Pack" en concreto combinó música con el rugido de motocicletas y el sonido de cristales rotos.

En un plano mucho más ligero y jovial, su tercer hit "Give Him a Great Big Kiss", canción que recuperarían en los años 70 en rock los New York Dolls, y posteriormente Johnny Thunders en su primer álbum en solitario, "So Alone" (1978). En nuestro país Burning convirtieron la versión de Dolls o la de Thunders en "Es Especial", una excelente versión en castellano (LP "Bulevar", 1980).

[marksman-ofthe-mist]

i realise, i think, i can just like... post my designs, just my designs, right?

[thefelinefox]

*doesn’t elaborate*

[samthecookielord]

I FORGOT TO . POST THIS EARLIER HSFFGSDGS (westie - @thefelinefox )

[spilladabalia]

The Shangri-las - Out In the Streets

[evilfoundfamilytournament]

Bowser, Bowser junior and the koopalings VS Team Dark

in this corner we have the grade-A, 100% prime cut final boss, King Bowser, his biological son that's mother is an alternate dimensional being (Shigeru Miyamoto) and 7 siblings called the koopalings that he just obtained.

in the other corner we have team dark. Consisting of three antagonistic characters that teamed up together, despite many ordeals they have trusted each other and sacrificed a lot for each other.

[valentinbelleyh505]

happy belated birthday! :D, if you saw the fnaf movie does that mean the koopalings, broodals and others were there too? Were they dressed up, if so tell me what costumes they were in :3

tysm!! 💜💜💜

and of course koopalings and others watch the FNaF movie! And yes they're go with cosplay! The list of they cosplay oldest to youngest:

Boom-Boom — Molten Freddy (Five Night at Freddy's 6 - Pizza Simulator)

Spewart — GlitchTrap (Five Night at Freddy's VR - Help Wanted)

Ludwig — Puppet (Five Night at Freddy's 2)

Pom-Pom — Circus Baby (Five Night at Freddy's 5 - Sister Location)

Roy — Foxy The Pirate (Five Night at Freddy's 1)

Rango — Funtime Foxy (Five Night at Freddy's 5 - Sister Location)

Lemmy — Ennard (Five Night at Freddy's 5 - Sister Location)

Iggy — Helpy (Five Night at Freddy's 9 - Security Breach)

Hariet — Vanny (Five Night at Freddy's 9 - Security Breach)

Motley Bossblob — Eclipse (Five Night at Freddy's 9 - Security Breach DLC)

Topper — Toy Bonnie (Five Night at Freddy's 2)

Wendy — Mangle (Five Night at Freddy's 2)

Morton — Lefty (Five Night at Freddy's 6 - Pizza Simulator)

Larry — Gregory (Five Night at Freddy's 9 - Security Breach)

Vivian — Cassie (Five Night at Freddy's 9 - Security Breach DLC)

Bowser Jr. — Balloon Boy (Five Night at Freddy's 2)

Bonus:

Crispen — SpringTrap

John — Ballora

Valentina (this is me!) — Security Puppet ( Five Night at Freddy's 6 - Pizza Simulator)

[janmisali]

Super Mario Bracket: basic seeding information

okay to prevent any more "oh no [character that's in the bracket] isn't in the bracket" comments (it's already happened twice) here's a basic plaintext list of the 128 characters that are in the Super Mario Bracket, in their seed order.

Vivian (215 nominations)

Luigi (104 nominations)

Rosalina (101 nominations)

Waluigi (90 nominations)

Daisy (81 nominations)

Yoshi (71 nominations)

Catherine (66 nominations)

Shy Guy (60 nominations)

Fawful (59 nominations)

Mario (56 nominations)

Dimentio (51 nominations)

Sonic (49 nominations)

Wario (45 nominations)

Bowser (45 nominations)

Goombella (45 nominations)

Abe Lincoln (39 nominations)

Count Bleck (34 nominations)

Toadette (31 nominations)

Dry Bones (31 nominations)

George Washingtoad (30 nominations)

Peach (27 nominations)

Gorbachev (26 nominations)

Captain Toad (24 nominations)

Mimi (24 nominations)

Kirby (23 nominations)

King Boo (22 nominations)

Funky Kong (22 nominations)

Kinoppe (22 nominations)

Tippi (21 nominations)

Toad (21 nominations)

Mr. L (21 nominations)

Peasley (20 nominations)

Kamek (20 nominations)

Twink (18 nominations)

MC Ballyhoo (18 nominations)

Boo (18 nominations)

Strollin' Stu (18 nominations)

The Old Psychic Lady with the Evil Eye Who Reads Fortunes and Knows Everything Before It Happens (17 nominations)

Geno (16 nominations)

Bowser Jr. (15 nominations)

Penny (15 nominations)

Nabbit (15 nominations)

Orbulon (15 nominations)

Ashley (14 nominations)

Roy (14 nominations)

????? (14 nominations)

Slammer (14 nominations)

Link (14 nominations)

Iggy (14 nominations)

Starlow (14 nominations)

Bow (13 nominations)

Bowser's brother (13 nominations)

Yellow & Blue Toad (13 nominations)

Nastasia (13 nominations)

Ludwig (12 nominations)

Bobbery (12 nominations)

Boshi (12 nominations)

Shadow (12 nominations)

Dry Bowser (11 nominations)

E. Gadd (10 nominations)

Samus (10 nominations)

O'Chunks (10 nominations)

Koops (10 nominations)

Goomba (10 nominations)

Donkey Kong (10 nominations)

MIPS (9 nominations)

Cyndi Lauper (9 nominations)

Blooper (9 nominations)

King Bob-omb (9 nominations)

Whacka (9 nominations)

Popple (9 nominations)

Lemmy (9 nominations)

Petey Piranha (9 nominations)

Monty Mole (9 nominations)

K. Rool (9 nominations)

Captain Lou (9 nominations)

Pink Gold Peach (9 nominations)

5-Volt (8 nominations)

Toadsworth (8 nominations)

Bobby (8 nominations)

Dreambert (8 nominations)

Peachette (8 nominations)

Mallow (8 nominations)

Cappy (8 nominations)

Wiggler (8 nominations)

Albert Einstein (8 nominations)

Broque Monsieur (8 nominations)

Dorrie (8 nominations)

the letter "p" (7 nominations)

Pauline (7 nominations)

Ms. Mowz (7 nominations)

Gooigi (7 nominations)

Inkling (7 nominations)

FLUDD (7 nominations)

Goomba Tower (7 nominations)

White Mage (7 nominations)

Rawk Hawk (7 nominations)

Spike (7 nominations)

Morton (7 nominations)

Francis (7 nominations)

Pikmin (7 nominations)

GLOM (7 nominations)

George Washington (7 nominations)

I am a teacher: Super Mario Sweater (7 nominations)

Huey (6 nominations)

Plato (6 nominations)

Mii (6 nominations)

Lanky Kong (6 nominations)

Captain Syrup (6 nominations)

Koopa Kid (6 nominations)

Chuckster (6 nominations)

Bill Gates (6 nominations)

Chunky Kong (6 nominations)

Fracktail (6 nominations)

Gandhi (6 nominations)

Blaze (6 nominations)

Undodog (6 nominations)

Elvira (6 nominations)

Poochy (6 nominations)

Big Bertha (5 nominations)

Bill Board et al. (5 nominations)

Ninji (5 nominations)

Elvis (5 nominations)

the Yoshi kid (5 nominations)

Midbus (5 nominations)

Punio (5 nominations)

Mary O. (5 nominations)

Dribble & Spitz (5 nominations)

[birdsthatsingaftermidnight]

This Evening, in UK Politics - What Even is Happening?!

Suella Braverman, somehow an even more vile person than Priti Patel, has resigned because she sent an email from her personal account and also governments should be held accountable for their mistakes. Agreeing with Suella Braverman makes me feel dirty all over. Still, a stopped clock is right twice a day.

The fracking vote is being framed as a confidence vote.

There is a three-line whip. Any Tory MP not voting in line with the party will be removed from the parliamentary party and have to sit as an Independent MP.

The Chief Whip has resigned maybe.

It is no longer a confidence vote.

The deputy Chief Whips have also resigned?!

Jacob Rees Mogg and Thérèse Coffey are manhandling MPs into the lobby to vote?! There's an account of at least one MP crying as they did so.

Liz Truss was too busy arguing with Wendy Morton, the possibly-former Chief Whip to vote. On a vote with a three-line whip.

No Votes were recorded for 40 Tories, including not just the actual Prime Minister but also Boris Johnson (who has more important things to do than represent his constituents in parliament apparently), Nadine Dorries (no doubt wherever Boris is, hoping he notices her or something), David Davis, Greg Clark, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Kwasi Kwarteng, Theresa May, Wendy Morton, Alok Sharma, Priti Patel, and Ben Wallace (who's actually in Washington D.C. on government business, so he gets a let). These are all party grandees, former Prime Minsters, former leaders of the party, and Nadine Dorries.

I mean, I'm assuming they're not going to withdraw the whip from the Prime Minister and members of her own cabinet (Alok Sharma in this case since Mr Wallace is abroad), although I'm willing to bet there are several Tories darkly hoping that someone will. That's one way to get rid of her!

Wendy Morton apparently has resigned.

Wouldn't it be amazing if she said, "No, I didn't resign and I've withdrawn the whip from Liz Truss!"

According to various sources and polls, if there was an election tomorrow, come Friday the SNP would be the official opposition, because the Tories would have fewer seats than the Scottish National Party and Labour would, obviously, be in power.

If Liz Truss had become Prime Minister and then done nothing whatsoever she would be doing better than she is now.

Let's have a look at some quotes!

“It’s a shambles and a disgrace. I think it is utterly appalling. I am livid,” veteran Tory MP Charles Walker told the BBC. “I hope all those people that put Liz Truss in Number 10, I hope it was worth it. I hope it was worth it for the ministerial red box, I hope it was worth it to sit around the Cabinet table, because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Asked if the government can survive the night, one Tory MP replied: “I hope not.”

Labour MP, the shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray, tweeted that he had "never seen scenes like it" in the voting lobby. He said he'd seen Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg shouting at his colleagues, whips "screaming at Tories", and "dragging people in".

Alexander Stafford tweeted -  "Lots of rumours flying around tonight. This vote was never about fracking but about Labour trying to destabilise the country, and take control of Parliament." This is my favourite, because he's trying to blame the Opposition for this!

[nightwonder7]

what’s your opinion about the theory that an upcoming hunter is Mike Morton’s hunter persona?

Okay, so, from what I've heard, Mike potentially getting a hunter identity has been a theory going around before the teaser with the Hullabaloo story mode dropped.

(Disclaimer! I haven't delved too deep into this and have probably not done enough thorough research, so don't take what I say as gospel. It might very well be nothing or NetEase could do a 180 for all we know.)

One main thing that supported this theory lied in the character sheets. I got this screenshot from a discord server. Survivors would have "Survivor" in the title of their character sheets, but there were a few characters who strayed away from this pattern:

And so far, Norton and Melly have been confirmed to have/get hunter identities. Could this detail about the character sheets be intentional? And could that mean the other characters here will get switch systems in the future? Time will show.

Then we have the teaser for the story mode, which showed us some brief, yet interesting shots. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. Are we seeing hunter Mike? Or is it trying to mislead us into thinking that?

Finally, there is his birthday portrait. So far we have seen that certain characters have a different shadow appearing behind them. Namely if they have multiple identities. For example, Norton has Fool's Gold's shadow in the background. But Mike also has a peculiar shadow behind him. Suspiciously hunter-esq.

To me, coupled with the other things, it kinda solidifies that he's getting a hunter identity. Though I'm still keeping a foot out the door until NetEase themselves confirms it in a QnA or what not.

Honestly, Mike is one of the characters I least expected to get a hunter identity. And if it becomes real, perhaps he'll drop with the upcoming story mode. I'm curious to see what they'll do with it if so.

[the-empress-7]

If Meghan’s memoir is about royals, nobody going to pay big for that since that is old news but If it is like Andrew Morton’s book of Diana and her marriage, even I can pay for that lol. Divorce is new drama. Finding new boyfriend is new drama. Diana did it beautifully.

For all of Meghan's delusions when it comes to being Diana's second coming, she will never come close to having the public's attention or sympathy. I don't care how ugly the divorce gets or what accusations she throws at Harry. As much as I hate Harry, I already know without a shadow of doubt public will pick his side.

Meghan the most unreliable narrator in her own story.

[julio-viernes]

Pero mi favorita del grupo de las hermanas Weiss y las hermanas Ganser es "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", su primer éxito en verano de 1964 (EE.UU. #5, Reino Unido #14).

No sabía esto y me ha dejado un poco trastornado: "Un joven Billy Joel tocó el piano en las sesiones de este y del siguiente (y mayor) éxito de The Shangri-Las, "Leader of the Pack". En una entrevista de 1987 con la revista Q, Joel explicó: “Conocí a un chico en un concierto de Echoes; tenía unos 15 años y me preguntó si quería tocar el piano en una grabación. Entonces fui a ese pequeño estudio en el sótano de un tipo en Levittown, Dynamic Studios, y tenían esa partitura allí. Había dos canciones, una se llamaba "Leader Of The Pack" y la otra se llamaba "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" y era bastante fácil de tocar y luego entró Shadow Morton. Un tipo bastante extraño Shadow. Llevaba una gran capa y gafas oscuras y desempeñó el papel de productor hasta el final. Creo que tenía algo con Phil Spector. Quería ser el Phil Spector de la Costa Este. Y hablaba en esos términos salvajes, dramáticos y teatrales: quería más "trueno" y quería más "púrpura" en el disco".

Amy Winehouse hubiera dado un brazo por cantar algo así.

Otra favorita, "Out in the Streets", su quinto single para Red Bird, sello del "extraño" Shadow Morton.

[reborrowing]

snake tank (part one maybe?)

little snake lady can have a borrower. as a treat. ~2100 words cw: captivity, dehumanization, neglect, cruelty, violence, fear, pet…treatment? - I don’t want to call it pet trope because that implies sentient pets are normalized and this is weird and awful in-universe as well. not actually vore! idc if you interact from that side of tumblr, but you'll be disappointed if that's what you're hoping for

Poe

I threw myself against the glass one last, futile time as I heard the door on the far side of the study creak open. My fingers nearly brushed the lip of the prison I’d been placed in, nearly caught onto that ledge that might let me pry open the lid and make an escape. I was still in the air when I felt his eyes land on me. My fur stiffened as his heavy footsteps approached. His towering form blocked out what sunlight had filtered through the closed window as he sat at his desk.

“You quit that, now. You know you aren’t getting out. Unless you’d like to try speaking with me again?”

I turned to face him rather than wait for him to spin the jar I was sitting in. I slunk to the floor, drawing up my knees as if they could shield me from his . He looked annoyed this time, rather than intrigued. I shook my head and stared at my hands. It wasn’t as if I would want him to dump me into his cold hands even if he wasn’t upset. I was bruised enough.

“I don’t have anything else to say. Sir,” I said.

He rolled his eyes.

“There's no one else!" I insisted. “It’s just me, the others ran away months ago, I’m the only one left.”

It wasn’t the truth, though by now it was close. The Copper family had moved out after Mellie reported that the master of the house was now collecting dangerous, exotic pets in his showroom. It was just the most stubborn of us left, or the most foolish.

“What to do with you, then?” the master of the house hummed.

He tapped a finger on the glass thoughtfully, right behind my head, in case I needed the reminder that my skull was no larger than the tip of his finger. I grimaced and looked back up at his face, where his wide lips twisted into a grotesque smirk. I closed my eyes as they curled back and revealed his teeth. My stomach twisted as he kept talking.

“My …friends tell me your kind is more trouble than you’re worth. But perhaps I could get some entertainment out of you?”

“Let me go, please. I’ll leave. I won’t bother you again,” I begged.

“Oh, but I do believe you owe me, little thief. How long have you been squatting here, hm?”

I slumped and curled in on myself. I had thought maybe, just maybe, if this guy cared for a zoo of strange animals, he might have a thread of compassion hiding in his oversized heartstrings. I’d—god, I had bet my life on it, hadn’t I? And now I was going to pay up.

Entertainment.

~

Hecate

A hand lifted away the log that I’d been curled up under.

I flinched awkwardly at the sudden light, then rolled to face the front of my enclosure. The man liked it when I “looked” at him. I couldn’t tell if he knew I was blind or not. All my eyes told me was that there was a large, blurry shadow standing over the tank. It could’ve been a tree, for all my eyes could understand.

I knew it was him though. I could sense his blazing warmth through other means. More importantly, I could smell him.

The hands. The nice hands. The man. Hugh Morton.

I smelled something else, too, something new. Another person, maybe? I listened intently for another heartbeat, another guest. I didn’t want to be shown off right now. I wanted to go back to sleep.

His hand reached back down to ruffle my hair, then run a rough finger across my scales. He rumbled something about feeding and I slumped back down to crawl back to bed. I wasn't hungry enough to want to fight and for all the good these hands did, they never killed my meals for me like the last ones did.

"Don't be so fussy, Hecate, I’m giving you a treat,” he chided. The ground shook as he flicked a finger against the glass wall. “You must get bored lying around in there all night.”

I huffed and and backed into a better position, against the side of one of my ceramic caves. I was still nursing a bite on my flank from my last dinner. 

I licked the air as Hugh slid open one half of the wall. I frowned. The prey was not a creature I knew. Hugh’s hands dangled a warm shadow by a long tail, then flicked it into the soil and the prey squeaked as it landed. It didn’t smell like a rat or any other rodent I’d encountered before. It did smell afraid.

It already understood it was being hunted. I didn’t like that. Scared meals fought back. I had scars to prove it.

Hugh scoffed in annoyance as the creature scrambled towards the opening in the glass. He knocked it back into the enclosure several times while I waited for a chance to strike.

“Don't make me break your legs," Hugh sighed.

The creature stopped moving. Strange. Its little heart was hot and hammering. Was it trained? Why would anyone take the time to train food?

Maybe it was afraid of Hugh’s voice. 

I took advantage of its stillness and lunged. It turned to run in the split-second before we collided. It slammed into one of my open arms. I fumbled as it flailed, then got myself curled around it anyway.

It felt strange against my scales. Not furry. Not naked. Synthetic. Was it wrapped? Humans wrapped their food, but not mine. They used those crinkling papers. This was wrapped in something soft.

Was it clothed?

I hesitated in my confusion and the prey bit back. Something long and sharp stabbed in between two ventral scales. I flinched, hissing, and the prey slipped away. It left the sharp thing behind, but it didn’t bleed. I put a hand on the sharp thing and realized it wasn’t a tooth. It had some kind of handle. Plastic. The point was metal. Some kind of tiny knife? I swayed uncertainly and let the little creature run.

What was he feeding me?

~

Poe

It had never occurred to me that there might be peoples other than humans and my own kind living in this world. I wish I had the time to found out.

The caged creature I had been placed with was, as most things were, comparatively massive. Its front was that of a vaguely humanoid woman, small, but still at least twice the size of my own top half. Her eyes were vacant and unfocussed. She was pale, fat, and lined with scars that told me she had much more experience than myself in fighting. 

The bulk of her body was what truly scared me. She was a python that trailed lazily across the near half of the terrarium. She was coiled, so I could only guess at her true length, but her girth was easy to make out. I regularly crawled through tunnels narrower than this snake, making it all too easy to understand what would happen to me. That the master of the house had returned my thumbtack seemed like a joke. I had no prayer here. This would be a cruel combination of all the worst deaths I'd been taught to fear—caught, crushed, and consumed.

Entertainment!

I wanted to refuse him the satisfaction. I let myself lie down and cry as the master of the house threw me back into the dirt with an unambiguous threat. I might as well. No one else would know to mourn me for weeks, even months.

It would turn out that my inborn will to survive was stronger than my desire to spite the host I'd lived under for so many years. I rolled out of the way, only a split second two late, as the snake woman pounced. She caught me in the crook of her elbow then shoved me into a wall of scaled muscle. The python whipped around me before I could take a breath. I barely had the space to think, never mind resist. It was sheer luck that wedged my thumbtack between two plates of her underbelly.

And it was enough. She spasmed and let go of me.

I fell forward into the dirt, coughing to refill my aching lungs. I don’t think she had left any part of me unbruised, though didn’t waste time taking inventory of my injuries.

“Hey, don’t let it get away now, girl, get up!"

I scowled up at the master of the house as I pushed onto my feet. There was nowhere for me to get away to, not while he was leering over the open door.

I didn't understand him.

I didn't understand how a thinking creature such as himself, with all his power and all his resources, would resort to blood sport for entertainment. The study I'd spent my life beneath had a beautiful library. Page after page told of the world's endless mysteries, of beauty and majesty and life for him to go out and pursue. And he would choose to spend his time watching some monster eat me alive.

I saw the snake-woman moving out of the corner of my eye. My stomach twisted at the utter silence of her movement over the dirt even before she started sliding towards me, and then it was like a switch went off in my head. Gone was higher thought, blown away by the sheer force of the ancient instinct to run.

The terrarium was full and well-decorated, with plenty of greenery both faux and alive as well as several dark spaces to hide. I doubted any would shelter me, this place had been built for her. 

I had nowhere to go and I ran and I ran and I hit the glass and I ran and there was a branch so I climbed it and I reached the ceiling and there was more glass and I turned around and there she was crawling after me and I jumped and her hand brushed my leg and I kicked and she fell  around me like an avalanche and it was over.

Her long body surrounded me and as soon as I moved, she struck. Walls of scales encased me again and this time, no tack would save me. Everything went dark.

Several seconds passed. She loosed her grip. I heard the master’s muffled voice droning through her flank. I took a breath and shuddered. Long minutes of silence passed and the knot she’d wrapped me in fell away. 

I admit I didn’t know much about snakes, but she didn’t seem to be very good at this.

I sprung to my feet, desperate to get at least a few inches between us again, but her hand wrapped around my face. She grabbed the back of my shirt’s neckline with her other hand and I thrashed as she pulled me off the ground.

Slowly, her palm pulled away from my face. She rubbed two fingers over my eyes, traced the curve of my nose, and drew a thumb across my lips. I bit down as hard as I could. She barely flinched, just wiped a little blood off on the side of my face.

“Beb?” she croaked.

Her blank eyes narrowed in concentration as her tongue flicked out of her mouth and brushed against my nose. Tasting me. Her lips twitched. I felt cold.

“No, please! Please, please, please, kill me first, please,” I cried.

She tilted her head to the side. Her tongue flickered twice more and both times I flinched. She babbled something in a tortured voice. 

“Please,” I begged. “If you can even understand me, please, just kill me before you eat me. I don’t want to suffer.” 

She frowned and hissed several times. My blood trembled through my veins. She slowly shaped her tongue around some word I did not know. She patted my head and sighed, then set me gently on the dirt beside her and slithered away.

~

Hecate

The prey had the face of a person.

The little thing was clever enough to talk, but not smart enough to understand me. They were small like a hatchling. They ran on legs like a bird. 

They screamed and cried so I let the little one have some space, whatever they were.

I hoped they would come back to me. They were very warm. Like the sun, but in a person. Like food. Like Hugh.

Like this lovely little cave in the back of the tank. I curled up and burrowed into myself for a cozy rest.

I hoped they wouldn’t try to kill me.

[its-to-the-death]

Villain Song Showdown Bracket E Round 2

Open Up Your Eyes (My Little Pony: The Movie) - Villain: Tempest Shadow

When You're Good to Mama (Chicago) - Villain: Mama Morton