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sunny6677 · 2 months

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It's Spooky Month! - Spooky Month: The Novellized Version - Book 1.

Summary:

After eagerly waiting all day and night for the month of October to finally spring—a kid who calls himself Skid goes on wacky adventures with his friend who goes by the name of Pump! What sort of adventures will they get into? What sort of antics will arise? The answers are kind of unknown, because there's no predicting what can possibly happen when they're around!

Chapter 7: Missing Someone.

TWS FOR GRIEF REGARDING THE LOSS OF ONES PARENT, IMPLIED NEGLECT

————

"Weheheheh!"

Skid gave an eager laugh as he rocked back and forth on the couch, clenching his hands over his small kneed while Pump sat next to him. The TV glowed upon their large masks with a warm heat of artifical radiance—seeping into the holes of their mask as a skeleton came on screen and started to crawl up from out of a hole in its grave.

It was still night. And because of the incident with leaves a few days ago, they both had some minor bandages over their faces. But since they had refused to take their masks off (and didn't even bother to tell Skids mom the truth of what had actually happened to them). In fact, Skid's mom hadn't exactly noticed their injuries until she caught them with their masks off. Skid had only managed to tell her that they ended up tripping on the sidewalk after running too fast so she didn't have to really know what happened, which only prompted his mother to tell them to be more careful.

Yet as his mother had treated his injuries, Skid thought about the one with the beanie. The one with the light brown skin who he was sure he had seen at the house of his mother's friend. Hadn't he seen him before? What would happen if he happened to go over to his house again and see him?

...

Eh. It didn't matter! What was the worst that could happen? I mean, if it was only a one time thing, he was sure the boy probably wouldn't do it again!

A sharp scream came from the skeleton on screen as it leaped out at a person, and they both giggled with glee, shaking their fists.

Skid felt himself lean foward, trying to gaze even further at the screen. As he did so though, he heard a feminine voice talk from behind the couch, and he flinched in the voices direction. Though he quickly came to an even wider smile on his face once he saw who it was.

"Hey, kids—" His grandma spoke with a smile on her wavering glips, walking foward from the shadows of the living room. She held a bag in her hands. A white bag with a bright pink taffy wrapper imprinted on it as the sign. "I brought you some candy!"

Skid immediately let out a gasp, completely turning around. Pump whipped around at the same time, grinning at the side of the bag. "Woaaah—really? Cool!"

She lowered the bag onto the couch, giving a raspy chuckle. "I noticed a new candy store opened up downtown, so I figured I'd get some for you two. Make sure not to make a mess, okay?"

Skid gave a firm nod, reaching his little hands over to the bag, and opening it. He heard his grandmother's footsteps begin to slightly walk away from where she was standing as he looked down at the bag. He heard her cough faintly, until her voice eventually faded from the room.

With a giggle, he reached inside, taking a small lollipop wrapped in plastic in his little gloved hands. He beamed while Pump reached in, and took out a chocolate bar—

"Hey, Pump! We.. eheheh.. you know what else we should do for spooky month?"

"What?"

"We should go to the new candy store and see what else they got!"

"Oh, yeah! Ehehehe.. I'll go ask what it was called!"

"Okay! Ahahahehe.."

With a hop, Pump leaped off of the cushions of the couch, landing onto the floor. As he rounded the couch, he left Skid alone in the darkness, slowly unwrapping the lollipop in his hand.

———–

It was a special day! A spooky day, in fact. Bathed in the cold conditioning of the classroom while loud chatter, squealing and giggling echoed from around the room. Adults stood in the room, talking with eachother, sitting with their small children. There was a faint scent of pumpkin pie in the air, along with candy, and cookies, and all sorts of special treats.

Skid sat at one table in particular while leaning foward, giggling with Pump sat beside him. It wasn't just Pump who sat here with him though. In fact—his mother was here! Sitting beside him, wearing a pastel purple polo shirt compared to her usual get-up. A smile was on her lips as she looked around the room, filled with children running around and laughing. His grandmother was here—sitting there beside his mother with a neutral frown on her face, sniffling.

On Pumps side—there was his grandfather, who his mother simply addressed as Mister Wonder. He was a sad-looking elderly man with pale skin, and wrinkles drawn on every part of his skin. The top of his head was bald—except for the sides of his head which held patches of grey hair. He simply wore a yellow buttom-up with a white collar, along with a red sleeveless vest worn over it. He always wore dark brown pants, and black sneakers—and always seemed to faintly smell of the scent of furniture, but Skid could never quite place why. He was a nice man anytime he came over, but was usually quite quiet and slept fairly often.

On the other hand beside Mister Wonder was a small teenage girl with a frown on her lips. Then again, she always seemed to frown.

It was only Susie, Pumps older sister who never seemed to particularly like him, or Skid for that matter. She always yelled in her same high-pitched, squeaky voice that softened anytime she spoke to Lila, or anyone else besides them anyway. Her hair was wavy, warm-brown. And she always wore it up with a yellow tie around her ponytail. Her skin was a lighter brown than Pumps—and her dark brown eyes seemed to always stare at them with such contempt or irritation. And anytime Skid came over, she was usually wearing her same pink shirt with a pastel yellow heart symbol imprinted on the left side, some blue shorts, and yellow socks.

Susie always yelled—and she yelled so often Skid wouldn't be surprised if she lost her voice at some point. She always screamed anytime they went into her room. And she faintly smelt of.. crayons or colors most of the time. She usually always just.. spent time in her room, or drew, or did both. Other than the times she screamed, she barely talked to them, unless they did something bad anyway.

Still, as she sat in the room with them with thousands of children running around, she didn't speak—simply leaning foward with an irrigated expression at all the loud ambience. She and Mister Wonder (along with Skids own family) were here for a special reason. And that was because it was a spooky party! A spooky party for their elementary class specifically due to them being the best class out of everyone else.

As Skid looked upon his side of the table which held simply a plate of pie, along with some cookies beside it—he gave a smile, reaching his hands foward. "Eheheh.. this is fun!" He beamed, looking over at Pump.

"Yeah! It is!" Pump nodded. His smile then slowly began to falter though, and he grumbled. "..I wish my parents were here though."

Skid blinked, frowning. He tried to respond, but was interrupted by the sound of Mister Wonders gruff exhausted voice. "Oh, don't worry over that, son! They'll be back soon." A faint smile played on his wrinkly lips, "And I'm sure they'll be excited to trick or treat with you again."

Pump simply sat for a moment, before grinning, and looking back down at his plate which held only a few cookies and some candy.

Skid smiled again, yet it quickly faltered the longer he sat. Still, and motionless in the playful heat of the room. He had his mom, and he had his grandma, but..

"Is.. everything okay, son?" His mother asked.

He paused, and mumbled. "..I miss dad."

His mom simply looked down at him, her dark eyes slightly widening. After a moment of hesitation, she gulped, and let out a slow sigh. "Oh, son.. I miss him too."

She stopped, and slowly wrapped her arm around his tiny body, "I know things have been a bit tough lately, but.. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. Even if he's not here with us in this world anymore, he'll.. he'll always be here." She slowly lifted her other hand, and placed it on her chest where her heart was.

Skid blinked again, and nodded, "..yeah. I guess so." He mumbled lifting his little hand and pressing it to his chest.

"Hmm.. here—why don't we come up with all the other stuff you're gonna do for spookiest month? It's not over yet, right? You still have plenty of time for other stuff." She smiled, her voice sounding friendly.

Skid paused again, and gave a smile. "Yeah.. its not. Hey, Pump!"

Pump looked over to him. "..yeah?"

"I know what else we can do for spooky month!"

"Oh! Eheheh.. what is it?"

"Well..."

#spooky month #skid spooky month #lila spooky month #pump spooky month #susie spooky month #mr wonder spooky month #skiddad spooky month #skids grandma spooky month #spooky month: the novellized version #read the tws

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fandomlurker · 4 years

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A Ponderous Rewatch: Jockey For Position

Now that we’re done with that long cameo, it’s time for our feature presentation for tonight, and it’s a doozy!:

We open with Pinky frantically running on a spinning globe while Brain stands above him on the…globe holder? I don’t know if that part has a name or not.

“[winded gasps] Can I stop now, Brain?”

“Not until I finish my demonstration.”

Brain, that’s just… Well I was about to say it was mean, but given that Pinky understands the details of his plans better when Brain demonstrates it or draws elaborate diagrams, maybe it’s for the best? I doubt Brain could make that large globe spin just by using his hands, and Pinky’s been seen a lot of times running on the mouse wheel in their cage so he’s gotta be pretty in shape. Still, it feels like Pinky’s been running for a lot longer than he needed to…

You know what? I change my mind. It is a bit mean, Brain.

“When I build my reverse geotropic arrestor, Pinky, and throw it from the North Pole like this…”

The word “geotropic” doesn’t quite sound right. I wonder…

…Okay, yeah, Brain’s getting worse at naming things.

“…In a matter of seconds the cable will become taut, gravity will cease, and everyone will fly off the face of the Earth!”

Oh my GOD, Brain. This has got to be the stupidest plan you have come up with yet! Nothing about this will work.

Well, there goes poor Pinky.

“Leaving us alone to assume control.”

It’s still “us”, huh? Noted.

Long Pinky.

“Egad, Brain, brilliant! Haha hehe heh—!”

Pinky, sweetheart, I know praising Brain is kind of your thing but this is one time I’m going to have to call you out on your bias because this is super not brilliant and I’m actually a little worried for Brain’s mental state.

“—Oh wait, no, no. What’s going to keep us from flying off the Earth?”

That’s one flaw of many, Pinky, but I guess it’s as good a start as any.

“We will duct tape ourselves to a tree.”

Because the tree will totally stay in the ground when the Earth abruptly stops spinning. Not that it will stop spinning, because none of this makes any sense.

Brain, did this idea come from, like, a dream you had or something? Is that why the plan is working on dream logic?

I know this is a comedy cartoon and this is all a joke but sometimes Brain’s plans are so fucking out-there I just have to roast him for it.

“Unfortunately we still need to raise money to buy a one billion ton magnet. But I have a solution!”

Oh boy, can’t wait to hear the solution to this one. It’s gonna be stellar if the whole plan today is anything to go by.

Oh nice, Brain’s the one sewing for a change! Usually this is Pinky’s area of expertise, but it’s always nice to see that Brain can do some classically domestic things too.

“Tomorrow is the running of the Kentucky Derby. Do you know what that is?”

Most of my knowledge on it comes from “My Brother, My Brother, and Me” goofs, so my mind keeps autocorrecting it to “Kenfucky Derby”, but go on.

“Umm… Oh! A very large hat?”

“Promise me something, Pinky. Never breed.”

“I’ll try.”

Well, that’s going to come back to haunt them.

“The Kentucky Derby is the biggest horse race of the year. There’s a one million dollar purse going to the jockey riding the winning horse.”

“And I am going to win that purse!”

Okay, first off: Pinky, are you just going to stand there and stare at Brain as he gets changed? Like, I understand they’re naked normally and this is the exact opposite of stripping but umm…

Secondly: Brain, did you really have to get that up close to tell Pinky this? You two are making this too easy for me.

“Zort, Brain! A million dollar purse?!? Ooooh!~ You’re going to need matching pumps and earrings for that!”

Pinky’s got his priorities in order.

“Focus, Pinky, focus!”

“Now watch.”

And now Brain’s ordering Pinky to watch him dress and I just…I have no words. This is all so suspect. Why do you two even need a dressing screen if you’re usually naked anyway? And it shouldn’t matter if anyone sees you get dressed unless this is some weird reverse nudity taboo you two have developed and if that’s the case, why are you allowing Pinky to watch? And if it’s for a dramatic reveal WHY ARE YOU ORDERING HIM TO WATCH YOU CHANGE???

This episode is already so goddamn wild.

I am really not sure how I feel about that pan-up of Brain when he’s thrust his pelvis forward. At least the outfit is cute, though.

“Narf! Oh, Brain, I get it! You’re a beautiful lawn ornament!”

“Beautiful”, huh? Also noted.

“Look at me, narf, I’m a pink flamingo! Ahahaheh!”

Oh LORD, Pinky, how are you—?!?

“I’m a cement deer! Ah hah!”

PINKY, STOP, YOU’RE SCARING ME! D:

“Oh, I’m one of the seven dwarves, Brain!”

That’s more acceptable but Pinky, sweetie, warn me if you’re going to nightmarishly shapeshift again, okay?!

I guess we can add that to the list of random abilities Pinky has.

“Stop it, Pinky, or I shall have to hurt you.”

You are much calmer about this than I would be if this happened in front of me, Brain.

“Oh. Right-o, Brain. Narf.”

“Now let us make haste, for we have much to do before the race begins.”

“Poit.”

So then we cut to Churchill Downs, and I can only assume another roadtrip adventure was had off-screen.

“First, Pinky, we must visit the stables.”

“Inside, we will find the winning horse.”

“Err… How are we gonna do that, Brain?”

“The racing form, Pinky.”

My bet’s on... [squints] hLUUNO the horse.

“By analysing the velocity-based pace line, mile turf win and bayer speed figures, we’ll find a grade one stakes claimer who’ll give us a key horse situation.”

“Key Horse Situation” would be a great band name. Also, whoops, little bit of an error on the name plaques, background artists.

What do your mouse eyes see, Pinky?

“Err, can’t we just ride the pretty one?”

SHE!

So here she is, one of the few characters debuting in the Animaniacs run that will matter to PatB lore going forward aside from our main duo.

A fun fact for you all: Phar Fignewton’s name is a triple reference joke. “Phar Lap” was a champion thoroughbred race horse in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Fig Newtons are small pastries filled with fig paste. Lastly, “Fahrvergnügen” was a slogan for Volkswagon starting in 1990. Translated, it means “driving enjoyment”.

Phar Fignewton makes a whinnying noise and ends it off with a goofy laugh.

Brain is not impressed.

“Heavens, they’re multiplying…”

Pinky is instantly smitten with her.

BONK!

“This is a business trip, Pinky!”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, Brain.”

“Here is our horse.”

“’Daddy’s Little Angel’…”

I guess it’s an ironic nickname.

“Pinky… Are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“Whu… I think so, Brain, isn’t Regis Philbin already married?”

…

Now I’m wondering if Pinky is suggesting that one of them marry Regis or if he’s suggesting that Regis marries the horse. Either way, what the fuck?

Yeah, same.

“The race, Pinky. By combining the statistics and my low body weight, this horse cannot lose! The prize money will be ours!”

GAH! Brain, I’ve had enough minor heart attacks from this episode because of Pinky’s eldritch morphing ability, I don’t need another one of your bizarre close-ups to do the same!

“Now I must take the place of the real jockey.”

“Hello?”

“Is this the Jockey who’s going to ride ‘Daddy’s Little Angel’?”

“Yeah.”

“This is Ed Mcmahon from Publisher’s Smearing House. You’ve just won ten million dollars.”

Pinky delightedly and silently listening in and chuckling in the back is precious.

And honestly, Brain, I don’t know why you’re crouching here, but it’s also cute.

“I won ten million dollars… I WON TEN MILLION DOLLARS! I am outta here! Later!”

The mice are lucky that he’s so excited about winning all that money that he forgets to do basic things like ask when and how he’ll get the money.

“Louie! Louie!”

“Later!”

“Who’s gonna ride my horse? I mean, Louie is the smallest, lightest jockey in the entire world!”

Did you know that there’s a weight requirement for jockeys, but no height requirement?

“Not anymore!”

“[GASP]”

Whoops, I just noticed another error, though it’s minor: Brain’s jockey outfit throughout this scene is light tan and purple instead of the pea green and purple that it’s supposed to be.

“You’re a jockey?!”

“Actually, I am a mouse in the early stages of an elaborate scheme to take over the world.”

The more this happens, the more I’m starting to think that Brain does this shtick on purpose to emotionally and mentally disarm people who would otherwise suspect that he’s not human. The fact that it works shows you just how idiotic the human beings of this world are.

“Well, fine, we all need a hobby but…will you ride my horse?”

Oh, sir, I think it’s much more than a hobby at this point. If only you knew…

“I shall ride! And win!”

His design is a little odd here, but it’s still a good pose.

So Brain next has to be weighed to make sure he meets the requirements.

“Saddle: Seven pounds. Saddle and rider: Seven pounds 3 ounces.”

So if you can recall from the previous rewatch post, a house mouse on average weighs 19g, and a common wood mouse weighs 23g (it can be up for debate which type of mouse Brain is). Converting Brain’s 3 ounces of weight to grams would result in him weighing 85.0486g.

Brain does have a bit of a cute little potbelly thing going on, but he’s also consistently much smaller in height and width than the average adult mouse in the series. I think the incredible difference in weight is mostly coming from the heft of Brain’s, well, brain and skull…and the muscle mass packed into that tiny body to help keep him upright.

“A genetically perfect jockey! This is fantastic!”

Please don’t phrase it like that.

“…Let’s look into early retirement.”

That jockey on the left is going through some shit, man. He looks like how I feel after working an eight hour shift on the holidays.

And so we skip to the beginning of the race!

That poor, poor jockey…who changed colour schemes for some reason.

There’s Phar Fignewton with a jockey who honestly looks like he’s high.

And here’s our little mousey fella, who has somehow managed to make this aggressive horse obedient.

“Camptown race is five miles long, do-dah, do-dah.~”

He’s so happy he’s singing to himself! This is honestly so precious that I completely forgive him for not getting the lyrics correct.

Coincidentally, Daddy’s Little Angel is positioned next to Phar Fignewton.

“Ooh, isn’t this exciting, Brain?”

Uh oh.

“Pinky, what are you doing here? Your weight will disrupt my winning calculations!”

I don’t know if it’d be that off, Brain. The combined weight of two mice is still much less than that of a human jockey.

“But Brain, it’s too exciting! I—“

[TARGET LOCKED]

“Oooh! Heh. Hello.~”

I think I’m going to save my thoughts on this whole…thing until the end. Right now I will say, however, that I wasn’t quite expecting the tongue-hanging-out-of-gaping-mouth lovestruck/horny??? reaction.

“Pinky, the race is starting!”

Too late, Brain.

And we’re off!

Bye, Pinky.

“There’s baloney in our slacks…~”

Pfft.

So as the race goes on, we get to know a few more of the horses’ names: Isle of Yap (a nice callback to the first PatB short), Flamiel (which is apparently the WB writers’ favourite word?), and Leggo-my-Egoiste (a double reference to an old Eggo slogan and the name of a cologne).

The other jockeys are more than a little surprised by Brain and his steed taking the lead early in the race.

Phar Fignewton is trailing way behind.

Meanwhile, Pinky’s woken up from fainting, seeing the oncoming horses—

--and promptly freaks out and stumbles back down again.

“Victory, she waits for me! Oh, the do-dah-day!”

You really have to stop tempting fate like this, Brain.

Phar Fignewton’s very tired, but what’s this?

Is that…Pinky in harm’s way?

ThePowerOfLove.mp3

Determined and fueled by her inexplicable crush, Phar Fignewton starts gaining ground on the other horses.

Brain didn’t calculate for this!

…Oh! Hi, Warners! Looks like they’re cheering Phar on.

“Oh no! Yah! Yah! Yah!”

I didn’t think whips were allowed in races like the Kentucky Derby, but apparently they are. Their use was only restricted—not banned—in the summer of 2020, which is alarming to say the least.

On a different note, I know some of you folks are now jotting down the fact that Brain knows how to use a whip. I see you.

She makes the save!

And she also wins the race! Way to go, Phar Fignewton!

“In the words of the great Willie Shoemaker: ‘Nuts!’”

It was a good try, Brain, but honestly I’m glad you failed this time if only so that you wouldn’t embarrass yourself with your actual world domination plan’s failure later. Maybe take a couple nights off to rest up a bit and formulate plans that aren’t totally bonkers, hmm?

I might as well go ahead and talk about this now. I…am conflicted on this whole Phar Fignewton thing. It makes for a very strange one-off joke about Pinky instantly falling in love with a distaff counterpart of his that’s a horse for whatever reason…but the fact that she’s not a one-off character is baffling in and of itself. Like I’ve said before, she’s mentioned a couple of times going forward as being Pinky’s girlfriend, or as a bizarre joke at Pinky’s expense about him being in/having been in a relationship with a horse. There’s even a small running gag about Pinky’s reaction to people’s disgust about it: “People can be so intolerant!”. I don’t know if the joke is supposed to be one about racial segregation or a wink and nod to queer folks in the only way that the writers could get away with in a cartoon at the time (in a “see, Pinky’s down for a relationship with anyone, even outside of his species!” type of way).

Phar Fignewton herself is a sweetie but besides that she has no personality to speak of and we’re just meant to assume based on physical appearance that she is equivalent to Pinky. And like, she hasn’t been uplifted to human levels of intelligence and sapience like Pinky has because of Acme Labs, but she seems to be naturally sapient for some unknown reason and just simply unable to speak English.

On top of all this, the relationship is very shallow and the only reason we’re given as to why Pinky likes her is because he finds her pretty. It’s perfectly in character for Pinky to easily fall in love, as he does so with other animals a couple more times in the spin-offs, but it just feels weird that this is the one that sticks around purely to become a running gag that gets mentions that are sometimes literal years apart from one another.

And listen, I know the writers most likely made this a thing just because they thought it was a funny joke and a few of them managed to remember about Phar and would use Pinky dating her as a gag. I know this. But it doesn’t make it any less confusing and weird. I remember the jokes about Pinky and horses from way back when I first watched Animaniacs and the PatB spin-off when I was a kid and I never had any context for it because I don’t think I ever saw this specific episode. Coming back as an adult and seeing all these episodes in order and watching this one in particular and finding out the context is “Pinky thinks a horse is pretty and the horse and him are in love and long-distance dating now” is both underwhelming and leaves me with more questions than answers.

…Also, if my earlier theories on why the writers made this joke are correct, does this mean Phar Fignewton is metatextually a beard for Pinky?

I just don’t know, folks. You’re welcome to leave your thoughts on this in comments.

Let’s wrap this up.

So as we can see, Brain is, as usual, back to work on another plan that involves—

—a goddamn cannon, holy shit! What is he using the glue for? That’s a little ominous, given what’s been involved in this episode.

There’s a hammering noise in the background and we see Pinky putting up a photo of Phar Fignewton.

“Pinky, will you please stop that? I’m trying to concentrate on tomorrow night!”

Wow, you’re more irritable than usual, Brain. I didn’t think some delicate hammering would annoy you that much.

“Mwah!~”

…Despite my ramblings earlier, that’s very cute of you, Pinky. I’m sure you could’ve gotten a better photo, though.

“Why, Brain, what’re we gonna do tomorrow night?”

Try to take over the world, of course! Right, Brain?

“Guess.”

…

Umm, wow. That’s a first. You look like you’re absolutely enraged, Brain. All this over some hammering sounds?

This had me taken aback a bit when I watched it the first time, not gonna lie. We’ve seen Brain after a plan’s failure plenty of times before. He’s been frustrated, sure. Humiliated at times, or maybe he just sighs in resignation and walks off into the sunset. It always ends with him simply using these feelings to fuel the fire in him to do better tomorrow night.

This is the very first time we’ve seen him jumpy and irritated at the most minor of things and so angry that he literally refuses to participate normally in his and Pinky’s shared catchphrase. And this was for a plan that was just to fund the real plan! So why is this time any different?

Oh.

OH.

Okay, that’s… That makes a lot of sense, actually. Damn.

Hey, fanfic writers? Ya’ll ever use this as the very first time Brain experiences romantic jealousy? Let me know.

“Oh yeah, try to take over the world. Right.”

I think even Pinky’s put off by this development, if his hesitant and quiet finishing of the saying is anything to go by.

And that’s what we end off with.

All in all, this episode is a wild ride of strangeness in small moments and bizarre additions to lore and ends on the first subversion of the long-running closing gag of the series. It’s not exactly a great episode, but that ending is intriguing enough for one of the main purposes of this rewatch. In short, I’m just baffled.

Luckily the next episode is much better. Next time, the mice head on down to Tennessee to seek world domination via country music.

See you then!

#Pinky and the Brain #PatB #Jockey For Position

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