#zodiac killer identity

[schmergo]

Reading headlines about professional theatre these past few years is an absolute wild ride. Maybe all this stuff was happening before the pandemic, but I never heard about it. Now every two seconds, it's something like this:

"Inspiring! 'Retired' Broadway actress stars as Elphaba in Broadway with no rehearsal after 8 years away from the theatre working as a biologist in Antarctica... and she's never even SEEN Wicked before!"

"The Show Must Go On! Tony-winning actor announces that he performed at the Tony awards on a broken leg, will be taking two days off to have it treated"

"The Zodiac Killer to join the cast of Chicago as Roxie Hart! He will be wearing a bag over his head at all performances to hide his identity, but we are training AI to recognize his voice patterns"

"Audience wowed by all-understudy performance of Sweeney Todd with the role of the Beadle eliminated entirely and Johanna played by the French horn player from the pit"

"Previously announced production of NAPOLEON! THE MUSICAL to be canceled two days before scheduled opening after playwright pulled rights due to 'unauthorized changes' and 'offensive casting.' Director defends choice to have a chimpanzee play the title role."

"After 147 years, beloved local theatre company announces closure due to ongoing poison-resistant ant infestation. Site to become a research lab about these spectacular ants!"

"5 billion dollar new AI-written Broadway musical BABY SHARK to close after 2 performances, both of which took place on a partial set because it wasn't finished yet"

"After 109 years, beloved local theatre company canceling their 2023-2024 season because they only got 2 sales and that was from the artistic director's mom and her next-door neighbor Debra (who drives)."

"Shocking! Artistic director of beloved local theatre exposed! Actors report seeing multiple interns and swings sacrificed to a minotaur living in the boiler room during his time at the theatre.'

"Beloved local theatre company announces new membership structure! Top membership tier (names engraved on lobby wall, premium seats for whole season, free admission to exclusive parties and events) will consist of donors who gave full or partial organs to our uninsured non-union actors!"

"Onward and upward! Phantom of the Opera now spotted living under Shake Shack!"

[qc-wiggles]

I can't figure out the punchline for the zodiac killer comic. Could you explain?

the whole gist of it is that the identity of the zodiac killer is one of the most famous unsolved criminal mysteries, and i thought martin jokingly asking jon who it was and jon casually blurting the answer out from the eye’s knowledge (which is. you know. secrets) would be haha funny. im not sure how people got to the conclusion that martin was the zodiac killer though

[notoriouskillers]

The Zodiac Killer

Hi, my name is Logan Price and this is the start of my many blog posts about notorious killers. Whether they are serial killers or just average killers, I will cover 10 of what I believe are the most famous, or successful. This started off as a little joke, but as I was researching more and more I became interested in the topic. But without further ado, here is the first of ten blogs about notorious killers.

For my first blog I will talk about who I think is probably the most interesting, the Zodiac killer. The Zodiac is very different compared to most killers. Active in San Francisco during the 1960s and 70s, he was known for calling the police to report his own doings, and sending letters or encrypted messages to newspapers. The first message, and probably the most famous one, is the one sent to two different San Francisco newspapers on July 31, 1969. The message went a little something like this, in these exact words. ‘’I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FOREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERIENCE…’’ What I find most interesting is that many of his encrypted messages were not cracked until 2020. After his first message was cracked in the first 24 hours, it is said that he was not very happy about it and made the next ciphers less sensical and more difficult to decode.  And also, they have never identified the Zodiac and the only thing close to his identification are his famous 1969 sketches. Not knowing his identity means the man has never been caught and might still be out there (if he is not dead from old age). He could have probably seen the Zodiac movie, the movie about himself, which I think is crazy if he had done so. One of the closest encounters the police had with the Zodiac, was after he killed his cabdriver, there were many witnesses that saw the incident. The police had a perfect description of him but there was a little miscommunication in between the police officers, and they thought they were looking for an african american male, and not a white male. The police had seen him, but because of the confusion the Zodiac got away with it. Hope you all learned something in this blog. Come visit again next week for a new blog about Ted Bundy.

[ofhiraeth]

( choi soobin. gender fluid. any pronouns ) - the new york city resident , haneul redgrave , was seen sporting hermès on park avenue today . the twenty six year old is an author in the city & has been here for their entire life . since being here , they have been told to be timid, but also intelligent , who really knows ! according to nycslam , they have a ghost writer. anyways , guess we'll find out for ourselves!

statistics :

basics :

full name: hanuel redgrave. nickname(s): han, hannie. birthday: february 22. age: 26. place of birth: new york city, new york. sexuality: homosexual, homoromantic. gender: genderfluid ( any pronouns ). zodiac: pisces.

appearance :

faceclaim: choi soobin. voice claim: choi soobin. height: 6'1. piercings: none. tattoos: none. aesthetics: an inviting smile, slim fingers clutching a worn down book, big glasses taking up half your face, oversized sweaters hanging over their hands, a warm cup of tea, old books with the edges folded over.

personality:

label: the recluse. 3 positive traits: empathetic, curious, affectionate. 3 negative traits: naive, meek, insecure. mbti: infj. likes: the smell of new books, oversized sweaters, rain, handwritten letters, tea, sunflowers. dislikes: bright overhead lights, wearing socks to bed, fireworks, crowded places. hobbies: writing, painting, pottery, reading, journaling, scrapbooking, gardening. love language: touch.

additional information:

occupation: author. languages: english, spanish, asl and korean. education: masters in literature.

a bit about them :

han has always been drawn to books, it was always an escape for the quiet child who could put themselves in the shoes of the character and live that adventure through the pages. so it just made sense when they started writing stories of their own eventually becoming a full fledged author.

they write a murder mystery series that has gained a pretty loyal following and the next book in the series is set to come out in a few months, making everyone in the community excited to learn the identity of a killer who was not revealed in the last book.

they have pretty bad agoraphobia which makes the whole ' famous ' thing pretty tricky. they have been tackling it more and more in the recent years but there were definitely times where it was much worse and they hardly left their home.

their name means " sky " following the redgrave family tradition of having nature themed names.

they have a degree in literature from NYU and if they weren't so afraid of public speaking would love to go back and be a professor some day.

wanted connections :

a best friend / ride or die !

childhood friends from the city

a " this is how to be famous " bestie who helps them prep for book release parties and appearances, basically gets to play dress up with a very confused and out of place han !!

exes ! bonus points especially if it ended on bad terms and theres drama i love some drama

adversaries / enemies for some more drama

[funnypages]

Peter’s other secret identity is the Zodiac Killer.

[bighermie]

Investigators Claim FBI Knew Identify of Zodiac Killer Since 2016, Kept DNA In Headquarters | The Gateway Pundit | by Anthony Scott

[eris-anansi]

Dreamwood 1999

Episode 4: When They Hatch

Dreamwood is plagued by pigeon overpopulation and the police department is tasked with decreasing their numbers. What begins as a clever attempt at population control involving fake pigeon eggs takes a disastrous turn.

CW: Implied murder, graphic depictions of murder, depictions of violence, character death, body horror

Associated Song: underscores - trustfall!

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Monday, September 13th, 1999.

Dreamwood was no big city, but it shared some common problems with big cities. Among them being pigeons. Winged rats, as the townsfolk called them. The flying vermin had plagued Dreamwood for years, and the people were starting to look to the town’s leadership to do something about their feathered adversaries. Responsibility inevitability fell to the Dreamwood Police Department. 

Chief Bowers sat in his office on the phone with a rather important man. “Yes, Mayor Rogers. I’m well aware of the gravity of this situation.” 

“You say that, but I still feel the need to remind you,” the voice on the other line began, “I am receiving urgent letters every day about birds invading homes. Just yesterday Farmer Dale reported having his kitchen raided by a gang of the damn things! It’s a war zone out there!” 

“I don’t know what you want me to do, Mr. Mayor.”

“Make them disappear! Whatever it takes!” 

The voice of a secretary in the Mayor’s background could be faintly heard informing him of another pigeon-related report, before Rogers hung up suddenly. Chief Bowers sat quietly in his chair for several seconds processing the situation. “Pigeons,” he mumbled to himself as he set the phone down.

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In the forensics lab, Jeffrey Woods was examining the body of the shapeshifter Randy had shot. He was perplexed at the fact that its DNA tested to be almost perfectly identical to Thomas Wheeler’s– but moreover he was fascinated. He wondered if it had died in the form of the Zodiac Killer, would the real killer’s identity have been revealed through the DNA test? It was ideas like these, cases like these– those which dwelled in the land of the esoteric and the macabre– that fueled Jeffrey’s passion for his profession. He lived for exactly what this was. in the background, an old television atop a desk played Dracula’s Daughter, an old black and white horror film from the 1930s. A reclusive yet undeniably talented investigator, Jeffrey’s life seemed to revolve around the darkness. 

When he heard the beep of a notification from his desktop, he switched gears and made a beeline for his computer chair. He sat down and checked the source of the automated noise- a message he had received in a private chat room conversation between himself and an anonymous salesman. A salesman whom he believed had something that Chief Bowers would find incredibly valuable given the current situation. The salesman had confirmed that he in fact still had more of his product in stock- enough for Jeffrey’s elaborate scheme. Pleased with the results, Jeffrey smiled and typed his response.  

There was a knock at the door, then a low creak as it opened. Parker Caldwell entered the room. He took a look at the television screen then the metal slab on which the shapeshifter’s body laid. He took a breath before asking his question.

“Who is he, Jeff?”

Jeffrey nearly jumped in his seat. He spun around in the office chair and met Parker’s gaze. “Jesus christ– good morning to you, too, Parker… I honestly can’t give you a definite answer. His DNA is interacting with our database in a very strange way.”

Parker paused for a second. “...What does that mean?”

“As far as we know his name is Thomas Wheeler and he’s a detective working for the Dreamwood Police Department. His parents are David and Margaret Wheeler, he’s thirty-six years old, and he was born and raised in Dreamwood, Massachusetts. He has no criminal record. Do you see the problem here?”

“Yeah. I see the problem. The Thomas we know is outside cracking jokes with Officer Harrison and Officer Darcy. This is… frustrating. All of our leads seem to stop at a dead end.”

“That tends to happen when we try to apply logic to the illogical,” Jeffrey observed. “Some things are beyond our limited human comprehension, and meant to stay that way.”

Parker blinked. “What are you saying, Jeffrey?” It always got on his nerves when Jeffrey got like this.

“I’m saying that we’ve exited the realm where cases are solved with clues and evidence. The nature of the thing on that table is completely detached from our world.”

Parker glanced once more at the TV screen playing the old vampire movie. He chuckled a bit, slowly wrapping his head around what Jeffrey was saying. “What, you mean like vampires and ghosts?”

“Something like that. I mean, how else would you explain what you and the other guys encountered on that hill? What about in the woods? Or in the interrogation room? Dreamwood does have a history.”

Parker scoffed, choosing to brush him off and get back to work. “Come back to me when you’ve found me some solid, tangible evidence, yeah? This is a serious case, Jeff.” 

With that, he walked out of the room. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, September 16th, 1999.

It was business as usual at the Dreamwood police station. Secretaries typed away at their computers and officers answered phone calls. Parker, Thomas and Officer Darcy stood on a platform overlooking the offices, watching their coworkers go about their duties as they themselves engaged in casual small talk.

Two officers carried boxes into the Dreamwood police station, passing by desks and officers. Parker Caldwell watched them pass by, and gently nudged the shoulder of Thomas who stood beside him. 

“What do you figure is in those boxes?”

“Heck if I know, but I’m certainly gon’ make it my business,” Thomas said with a smirk. 

The officers carried the boxes up to Chief Bowers’ office, setting them on the chief’s desk. “Your delivery, sir.”

“Ah, there it is! It was supposed to arrive today.” He observed that the boxes were marked ‘FRAGILE’ in red ink. He raised an eyebrow at the two officers, “You handled the boxes with care, yeah?”

The officers nodded. “The contents should be fine.”

“And what might the contents be?” Thomas’ voice appeared behind the officers. A smug and curious Wheeler made his entrance with Parker and Darcy in tow. 

“A little idea of Jeffrey’s– imposter eggs we can plant in pigeon nests across town to trick the pigeons into reproducing less. Jeff thinks this could be the key to slowing the growth of our pigeon population,” Bowers explained.

Thomas chuckled. “I’ll give Jeffy Woods one thing: he is a diabolical genius. This might just work.”

Darcy frowned. “Tricking pigeons? That feels a little cruel.”

“Part of our job description is literally shooting things,” Thomas reminded him. “This is a lot less cruel than just shooting the birds, don’cha think?”

“Where did you get the eggs from?” Parker inquired. 

“Jeff ordered them off of some website on the internet. Personally I don’t really understand computers but I hear you’re able to shop on them now,” Bowers said.

Thomas nodded. “This technology thing seems to be the future.”

The other two officers started to open the boxes, unveiling several dozen artificial eggs in each box. One officer lightly tapped the eggs and hummed. “Huh. It’s hollow.”

“That’s weird,” Bowers commented, but he didn’t think much after that. He simply shrugged it off. “The pigeons oughtn’t notice.”

Thomas sucked his teeth and said, “Hopefully we aren’t underestimating these birds…”

“In a few weeks time we should have our answer,” Parker said. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, September 27th, 1999.

Over the weekend, the police department launched a campaign against Dreamwood’s pigeon population. Fake eggs were planted in nests all across the small city and kept under careful surveillance. Even a few pigeons were tagged with cameras. 

The whole affair felt like a waste of time to Parker; a hindrance to his greatest concern, which was getting back on the Jackson case. But alas, no leads had turned up since the shapeshifter. Damn that Randy, he would find himself thinking. That Skinner bastard. Because of Randy, he thought, he and Thomas had been put on pigeon-camera duty. Yes, it was all Randy’s fault. Parker should be out there being a goddamn American hero right now.

“I swear I already done seen that same leaf get blown by twice now,” Thomas observed, taking a long drag from his cigarette. He leaned back against his chair staring at the monitor with an expression that only began to convey the heavy boredom that Parker felt right now.

“I still can’t believe they’ve got us doing this,” Parker sighed.

“Hey, don’t take it personal– if it makes you feel any better I bet Randy and Keith are in our same spot right now.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better, no.”

On the monitor the two men watched a pigeon circle a nest of eggs tucked away in a tree not far from Devil’s Lake, two out of the three were fakes planted by the DWPD. The bird appeared to be none the wiser. It had been a couple of hours now, and the pigeon hadn’t seemed to notice. Parker and Thomas carried on with their conversation.

“I swear Randy has it out for me,” Parker continued. “He glares at me whenever I enter a room.”

“Well he is a Skinner,” Thomas hummed. “Last I heard your family and his family have quite the history.” He purposefully understated said history.

“The Skinners have been trying to steal this town up from under the noses of people like my father and my grandfather for generations. They’d run Dreamwood into the ground if they ever did.”

“And I don’t doubt that,” Thomas chuckled lightly. He tapped his cigarette into a nearby ashtray. 

“That’s part of the reason why Jackson wanted me to run for mayor. Follow in his footsteps. The whole reason why I ran away in the first place.”

“I remember, brother. I remember. And look at you now– fulfilled his dying wish of returning home, and now you’re leading the effort to solve his murder. Fate is certainly a cruel mistress. You think Randy thinks he has a shot at the mayoral campaign this season? He is a fairly popular detective.”

Parker snorted. “The idea is laughable. He would be crazy to go along with it.”

“I got a feelin’ we have yet to see just how crazy that man really is. But I got a question I been meanin’ to ask you, Parks.”

“Yeah?”

“Back in the interrogation room with that demon lady, she implied that you were hidin’ somethin’ from the rest of us. She said, ‘Tell him what you stole’.”

Parker felt a small chill run down his spine. He was afraid of being put in this position– one in which he would have lie to his best friend. 

“Now, I figured that she was just tryna screw with our heads so I tried not to think much about it,” Thomas said. “But lately I can’t take my mind off it. It was almost like she knew you.”

“I never met her before in my life,” Parker said. 

“Well do you know anything about her whole thing with your apparent theft?” Thomas asked again more directly. 

“Thomas, look.” Parker pointed to the monitor. The pigeon had landed in the nest and seemed to be inspecting the eggs. It prodded at one of the fake eggs with its peak with an uncharacteristic roughness.

“Ah, hell,” Thomas cursed. “They’re figuring us out.”

Abruptly, the pigeon pulled its head back and cocked it in apparent confusion. 

“What’s it doing now?” Parker mumbled.

Thomas shrugged audibly. “Heck if I know. Do I look like a birdologist?” 

The two men soon realized that the egg had cracked. 

Wait- it cracked?

“Parker, what the fuck.”

“Thomas– is it supposed to do that?”

“I was gon’ ask you that! But we really should be askin’ Jeff, he was the one who ordered ‘em.”

“Wait, maybe we just lost track of the eggs. Maybe that one isn’t one of ours- maybe it’s real.”

The pigeon continued to watch the egg intently, as if waiting for something to happen. The crack spread until both the bird and the two detectives were able to peer inside of the egg which seemed to contain nothing but a black void.

“Officer Sterling said the eggs were hollow…” Parker recalled aloud. He had a bad feeling all of a sudden as he continued to observe the live footage, the feeling was similar to that of watching the series of events leading up to a highway accident. From the hole in the egg emerged a thin ribbon of smoke, quite like the smoke from Thomas’ cigarette. The only difference is that it was completely black. It rose into the air and seemed to frighten the pigeon. The sentiment was shared among Parker and Thomas.

“That’s definitely not one of its eggs,” Parker confirmed. 

Upon contact with the smoke, the pigeon promptly fell on its side and violently convulsed. Red foam bubbled at the edges of the bird’s mouth and spilled from its open beak. Parker and Thomas watched the brutal display in horror, unsure what to make of it. The pigeon continued to twitch for dear life as its body appeared to shrink-- no, flatten-- no, deflate like a balloon. It was as if the air was sucked out of the bird’s tiny body, leaving nothing but a hollow husk of a thing. 

Thomas’ jaw was at the floor at this point. He repeated, “Parker… what the fuck.”

Parker’s eyes were glued to the monitor. He might not’ve even heard Thomas at that moment. His bad feeling was indeed validated, but nothing in the world could have prepared him for this.

Then, somehow, it managed to get worse. The pigeon… inflated again. It seemed to be recovering from its previous condition, but it was soon clear that its proportions were all wrong– it looked like an amateur artist’s interpretation of a pigeon given high definition life and color. It was horribly uncanny. It scurried on its wings as if they were front legs, and darted down the tree out of the camera’s sight. 

Parker and Thomas both looked at eachother.

“Remind me, Thomas, how many eggs did we plant out there?” Parker asked.

“At… at least twenty of ‘em,” Thomas answered. The gravity of Parker’s question was sinking in fast.

“We need to alert Bowers. Quickly.” Parker got up out of his chair and rushed to the office. Thomas followed quickly.

Chief Bowers had just gotten off the phone with Mayor Rogers again and appeared to be in a great mood. He wore a rare but not unusual smile that Parker had learned indicated good news- otherwise the chief was most often a stoic and serious man much like himself. 

“Great timing, Caldwell! Mayor Rogers just informed me that the pigeon population has started to drop in the last week and is expected to continue. Our efforts seem to be having the desired effect!”

“Yeah, about that–” Thomas started,

“One of the eggs hatched.” Parker blurted before Thomas could finish.

Chief Bowers blinked slowly, processing what Parker told him. “One of our eggs hatched?”

“Yes! One of ours!”

“Caldwell, how is that possible?”

“We’ve got footage, chief. Parks ain’t lyin’.”

Once they got through showing Chief Bowers the footage, his face had turned noticeably pale. He now understood why Parker and Thomas were acting so urgent. The images of the pigeon deflating and emerging a shapeless monstrosity danced fresh across his psyche.

 “We’re still holding some of these eggs in the forensic lab,” he realized aloud.

Without a second thought, Parker bolted out of the office and made a beeline for the lab. Thomas ran after him and so did Bowers. 

Jeffrey and Officer Darcy were standing over a table with the eggs still in their box when Parker came charging in. He stopped in the doorway to catch his breath, then looked at Jeff. “Woods, you’ve got some explaining to do.” Thomas and Bowers weren’t far behind.

Jeff paused and looked at Parker. “Huh? Explaining?”

Darcy blinked like a confused dog. “Is something going on?” He was holding one of the eggs in his hand. 

“Did you know the eggs would hatch? Did you know they’re hatching??”

“Hatching??” Jeffrey’s voice bent in disbelief.

“So you’re right where we are,” Parker sighed. “Where did you get those eggs?”

“A website for pest control services,” Jeff explained. “I spoke to the seller one-on-one through a chatroom or something. Are they really hatching?” He sounded more interested than concerned.

“Yes, damnit!” Thomas said. “Can you contact the seller now? Maybe he can tell us how to fix it.”

Jeffrey turned on his computer and typed the website’s URL into the address bar. He clicked on the link, only to turn up a screen that said ‘Page Not Found’. It seemed the website did not exist. He blinked. “That’s weird– I could’ve sworn that was the address…”

“Jeff- what did we order in those boxes?” Chief Bowers asked, trying his best to keep his composure.

“I don’t know! I thought they were regular fake eggs!” Jeffrey was growing frantic as well.

Darcy glanced between his colleagues. “Guys– I don’t understand, why is everybody yelling?” 

“Darcy- put the egg down,” Parker spoke calmly. 

Darcy didn’t ask any questions. He put the egg down gently- just before it started to crack. He gasped, “Did- did I break it?”

“Darcy!” Parker shouted in a panic. “Get away from it!” Parker, Thomas, and Bowers clamored for Darcy to get the hell away from the egg.

But it was too late. He had already inhaled the black ribbon of smoke that escaped the hollow shell. He recoiled, his face going pale and his eyes widening. His body let forth a violent retch as he leaned over the table, before he rushed to the nearest bathroom at the end of the room and slammed the door. From the other side, Parker, Thomas, Jeff, and Bowers could hear violent heaving. 

Then, the sounds came to an abrupt end. The silence somehow felt worse.

Jeff, who was closest to the door, slowly got up from his chair and backed towards the detectives and the chief. Parker watched the door carefully, and Chief Bowers had begun mumbling a silent prayer. 

Then the door creaked open.

Parker, prepared for the worst, reached for the gun on his hip. Thomas did the same. Bowers was the last to react. 

“D..Darcy?...” Thomas called out weakly. He wasn’t sure if Darcy was still Darcy anymore, and he sensed that he and Parker were on the same page. Parker’s gun was already aimed at the door, something Thomas still couldn’t bring himself to do. 

Officer Darcy emerged from the bathroom and collapsed on his knees in the doorway, breathing heavily. He coughed. “Jesus christ– what was in that egg?? It smelled awful-”

Parker slowly lowered his weapon and rushed to Darcy’s side. Thomas let out a sigh of relief, “Oh, thank god.” Parker inspected Darcy for any signs of adverse effects– and found none. He seemed perfectly fine aside from puking his guts. “I guess it only affects birds,” Parker thought aloud.

“What only affects birds??” Darcy asked.

Parker was hesitant about showing Darcy the footage after what had just happened. He disregarded the question and turned his attention back to Thomas and Chief Bowers. “We need to track down those other eggs.”

Bowers nodded affirmatively. “Right. Before more start hatching.”

That was when Keith made his entrance. “Chief– we’ve got a situation.”

The chief turned to Keith and said, “If you tell me one of the eggs hatched…”

“How did you know?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parties were dispatched to the two locations were hatching eggs were reported. Parker and Thomas led a party- including Officer Darcy and three other officers- to investigate an area closer to town where another egg had hatched. The nest was located in a tree near a road leading out of town, and Officer Sterling was currently climbing the tree to reach the nest. When he reached the branch where the nest was situated, he shined his flashlight down on the nest. 

“Parker, Tommy– this isn’t good!” He shouted back down to the squad.

“What is it, Sterling?” Parker called back.

“There used to be four eggs- one of ‘em was ours. But now there’s only two. One of them is the one we planted, and the other one ain’t. But it don’t look like a regular pigeon egg either, it’s more the size of a goose egg- it’s way bigger.”

“Those things have already started laying eggs…” Thomas murmured. 

There was a surprised shout from the tree. Parker and Thomas saw black smoke rising from the tree branch, but they could not see the nest nor Officer Sterling. Soon, they heard Sterling begin to cough violently. 

“Oh, fuck…” Parker whispered to himself.

Up in the distance, Sterling violently heaved- much like Darcy– only Darcy had sounded mild in comparison. From what they could hear, Sterling was fighting for his life. What they heard was confirmed when a heap of blood rained down from the tree– Sterling’s vomit.

Parker, Thomas, and the other officers quickly backed away from the tree. A guttural shriek rang out and carried across the forest. It was at that point Parker reached for his gun and aimed at the tree, prepared to shoot the first thing he saw rear its head from within the leaves. He was certain of one thing- that shriek wasn’t human.

“Sterling?” Parker called out.

The leaves rustled. Something traveled quickly across the treetops, and was soon out of earshot. 

Once they felt safe enough to investigate the nest, they found that Officer Sterling– and the egg– were both gone.

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“That’s all of them?”

“The ones that didn’t hatch, yeah.”

Randall and Keith’s squad had managed to recover a sizable number of the eggs, and brought them somewhere isolated at the outskirts of town. Parker and Thomas’ group joined up with them along the way. They stood in front of a crude pile of eggs, Randy holding a container of gasoline in one hand and a box of matches in the other. He fully intended to set fire to it all. 

“And what about the ones that did?” Randy asked, his eyes narrowing.

“There are more that didn’t. We’ll cross that other bridge when we get there,” the officer responded.

“I like that answer. That’s a good answer. You’ve got good answers.”

Randy turned his attention back to the pile of eggs. He began to pour gasoline over them. “I’m gonna send you abominations back to hell,” he grumbled as he shook the container over the egg pile. 

“You do realize that we’ll have to hunt down the hatched pigeons after this, right?” Parker pointed out. “They’re going to lay more eggs, and they seem to reproduce faster than the real pigeons do.”

“Nobody said you can’t be out there doin’ that right now, ‘stead of tellin’ me what to do,” Randy replied. He pulled a matches stick out of the box. “Swear to Jesus I’m gonna kick Jeff’s ass when I get back to the station. None of this would have even happened if it wasn’t for that freak.”

While Randy wasn’t paying attention, a squirrel scurried to his feet and began scratching harmlessly at his leg. “What the-” he looked down, and saw an oddly shaped animal prodding at his pants. Upon further inspection, he found that it wasn’t a rodent at all. Parker identified it before Randy did- it was a pigeon. And not one of the native pigeons, either. 

Randy stumbled back, while at the same time Parker fired his pistol at the pigeon. The impact of the bullet spun the malshapen bird around and it dropped sideways, it chuffed out a cloud of smoke and flattened like a balloon losing air. More pigeons emerged from the forest, some with uneven wingspans- some wings larger than the others, some wings bloated and outsizing the rest of their bodies. They were cheap, gruesome imitations of birds. Parker and the rest of the DWPD wasted no time mowing them down.

“Good God!” Randy exclaimed. 

Parker wasn’t finished, though. He nudged Thomas and alerted the others to approaching rustling in the nearby leaves. Something was headed towards them- something bigger than a pigeon. 

The air fell silent. The men waited as the rustling drew closer. 

And closer. 

And closer still. 

Until they caught the glimpse of something that their brains struggled to make sense of.

What emerged from the trees was a mass of flesh more than seven feet tall, constructed in ways that barely made sense. Parker couldn’t tell if he was looking at the creature’s front or its back. Its elbows were folded inwards. It dragged itself across the ground like a slug. Strands of hair hung freely from a large pulsing bulb which appeared to be its head, though no distinguishable facial features were visible. Still, Parker had a feeling he knew what he stood facing- or rather who. The creature’s half-torn clothes- the remnants of a police officer’s uniform- gave away its identity. 

“...Officer Sterling?” Parker’s eyes widened in horror at the realization.

At this point Officer Darcy was holding back tears. “Oh… oh God…”

The creature froze at the mention of its name, as though some part of him still clung onto his old identity. It was quickly overridden, though, as it let out a gurgling growl at the armed men and began to charge. It dragged itself towards them to the best of its ability, its arms unfolding and reaching forth with sharpened, elongated nails. The men opened fire on the monstrosity wearing Sterling’s skin, but bullets did little to deter the abomination. 

Randy lit his match stick and hurled it into the pile of a dozen or so eggs. Thanks to the gasoline, the fire ignited quickly and soon spread to Officer Sterling. Both he and the unhatched eggs went up in a storm of flames.

A shocked Darcy gazed at the spectacle, the dancing flames reflecting in his eyes. He didn’t hear Parker, Thomas, and Randy shouting at him that it was time to run. Thomas had to tug on Darcy in order to get his feet moving, he was barely even aware that he was moving until the fire almost wasn’t in sight anymore.

Then he saw something else.

Beyond the fire, from within the dense forest, Darcy saw two pairs of green eyes staring back at the detectives. They were attached to a figure shrouded in a long trenchcoat and a wide brimmed hat. Darcy was sure the eyes would linger in his memory for years to come. He felt them clawing at his very consciousness.

More importantly, he swore he had seen those eyes somewhere before. Somewhere recent.

“Darcy! Snap out of it!”

He snapped back to reality and was now focused on Parker- the voice that had pulled him out of his stupor. 

The men retreated into the woods as the fire roared on in the distance. Sterling’s agonized screams carried for miles in the frigid autumn air.    

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the police station, Parker, Thomas, Randy, Keith, and Officer Darcy sat in silence. They had been doing so since the hour after they escaped the forest. 

They were stuck in a daze as they sat around processing the events of the day. It was hard to believe that it had all began with something as simple as pest control.

A voice spoke up suddenly. It was Officer Darcy’s.

“That… could have been me.”

Darcy had thought back to the time he inhaled the smoke. He thought he was going to die in that room, but through some miracle he turned out fine. After he saw what had become of Sterling, who suffered a similar fate, it had caused his life to flash before his eyes.

“...Why wasn’t it me?” He mumbled seemingly in a trance.

“Life works in mysterious ways, Henry,” Thomas exhaled. He had gone through three glasses of bourbon already, and the bottle was still close by.

“We were just lucky those things seemed to be in some kinda early stage of development,” Randy said. “I don’ think they had fully learned how to mimic nature yet. But they coulda learned if we let ‘em live a bit longer. I know they could.”

“Then let’s hope we destroyed them all,” Keith audibly thought. “I would hate to think what could happen if one of those things learned how to perfectly mimic a pigeon– much less a human being.”

Henry Darcy looked back at his friends, and with the most sincere expression he’s ever had, he said, “There is something truly, deeply wrong with this town. I’ve felt it before, but I know it now. There was something else watching us back there...”

Parker nodded slowly. “Yeah, I saw it, too.”

“The green eyes?” Thomas questioned.

“The eyes, yeah,” Parker confirmed. Judging by the look in his eyes, he was deeply troubled. 

“I couldn’t look away from them at first,” Darcy admitted. “I felt like a deer in headlights. It was a strange feeling, something I’d never felt before. Something… primal. It was like-”

“Standing face to face with your natural predator?” Parker guessed. 

“Yes- yes, exactly,” Darcy nodded.

Parker hummed. “Up until today, I didn’t think it was something possible for humans to feel. I thought it was only exclusive to animals.” His gaze turned to a nearby window and he gazed out into the cloudy distance of Dreamwood, Massachusetts. He wondered if he’d be able to see the sun in Manhattan.

“I thought we were at the top of the food chain.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Note 

The storyline of this episode is heavily based on the r/nosleep story “The Pigeons Around Here Aren’t Real” by Manen Lyset.

If you enjoyed this episode especially, you will surely love their work!

[spookalittlelouder]

My Idea for Scarecrow in a The Batman (2022) Sequel

TW/… Referencing True Crimes

In a similar way to how they "grounded" Riddler by taking inspiration from the real life Zodiac Killer and Pizza Bomber case, the writers should draw influence from The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.

In my mind, this iteration of Crane is a disgruntled psychology professor who was fired from Gotham University. He has worked up some controversial theory involving fear that he tries teaching to his students, but is booted from the university. The theory- perhaps drawing from his recent "Fear State Theory"- is then put into action on Gotham.

It could be in part to help it become more resilient and in part to vindicate himself/get revenge on those who ousted him from the university. Like it is implied with Riddler, he claims to be trying to help the city, but is in part doing this as a way to lash out.

Small bombs are hidden across the city- in parks, outside of public institutions, at the university. However, when they detonate, they spread the fear toxin, driving the person opening the device, and anyone in the immediate area into a panicked frenzy. Keeping with the Fear State Theory parallel, this is the "Shock to the System" first step.

Next, he begins contacting the media, sending (fake?) manifestos to make them think there is another "Riddler-type" running around Gotham. Maybe he suggests that he has tampered with Drops, or some other drugs, and reveals the Scarecrow identity to the public.

Perhaps his theory doesn't work as he planned? The people do not confront the strawman he has created. The Fear State he has created only encourages despair. Batman, now a source of hope instead of vengeance, is the only one able to rise up and stop Crane.

At least, that is the set up, but here are some other ideas:

Crane sends little straw dolls instead of his bombs occasionally. Some have fear toxin-poisoned pins inside.

I like the idea that the Drug-Tampering threat is false, only something to scare people further. Perhaps something else is actually tampered and the resulting panic from the initial threat creates a bigger problem.

I don't really want Crane to be involved with Arkham until he is eventually caught.

When he is caught, I imagine him going peacefully with the GCPD. He is wearing old, tattered clothes and is generally disheveled looking.

Police investigating his hideout accidentally infect themselves with the toxin. In preparation to being caught, Crane laced some of the items around his hideout with the toxin. Rusty farm tools, the awl he used in making his costume, things like that.

I envision his costume to be inspired by the Alex Ross design. Something simple, yet iconic.

[cranes-menagerie]

Beware the bat character drop: ragdoll man

(art by @philchoart)

Voiceclaim: Fizzarolli

As of now unidentified

The ragdoll man is a Sadistic serial killer who is a contortionist. His murders are usually themed around bending the human body in ways it wasn't supposed to, with his victims being mangled and disfigured.

(Writer crane here) the ragdoll man who is in beware the bat is different than he usually is. With him being inspired from figures like Jack the Ripper and Zodiac(killers who are renowned but their identity is a mystery). Originally I was going to go with Bill Skarsgard as the voice claim (the actor who plays pennywise) but I didn't want to confuse the ragdoll man with joker. Also I'm aware that ragdoll man is a flash villain in most interpretations but he makes his home in Gotham in Beware the Bat

Fizz is my voiceclaim due to him being about as energetic as I want ragdoll man to be, with some anonymity

[harryforvogue]

What is the best anime ever?i wanna venture into it

for me, the best anime ever are given, yuri on ice, fruits basket, and attack on titan.

but here are some more for you! (i got carried away)

entry level animes are ideally the short ones that are cute and get the job done. a lot of these are romances:

given - a love story between a boy who is mourning the death of his ex boyfriend and a guitarist. i LOVEEOEFJOSEJRFT this anime.

Romance killer - this shit is hilarious and very short so you can def binge in a weekend.

yuri on ice - ice skating story about a young ice skater who lacks serious confidence and his new coach who is also his role model and IT'S A LOVE STORY ugh it's beautiful and the soundtrack is gorg.

kamisama kiss - one of the older ones but still a classic romance. it's about a girl who gets turned into minor god and she has a very stubborn companion (idk what to call it in english) who doesn't immediately try to help her settle into her duties.

Yona of the dawn - fantasy with found family. Spoiled princess turned badass warrior. Romance subplot 

doukyuusei - short movie about classmates falling in love.

Angel beats - just depression.

Literally any Makoto Shinkai movie. So cozy. often with a beauriul romance. Recently watched suzume and it’s my fave from that series.

then i would go into some longer anime

Spy x family - a family of freaks fr it’s about a couple that marries for convenience though neither know each other’s true identity and a plot to bomb and kill and shit. There’s a psychic kid involved too. It’s a whole thing.  I didn’t love this but it’s a cute show.

fruits basket - one of my all time fave animes. recently had a reboot and new animation so it's gorgeous. all the men are so hot idc. there are romances and tear jerking moments. it's so wholesome and beautiful. it's about a girl who wants to break the zodiac curse of a family (the curse that turns the members into their zodiac animals and leads them to be controlled by their "god"). love it. shigure.... the man that you are.....

noragami - i haven't watched much of this but it's about a young minor god who is trying to become a major god and have lots of worshippers. also has a subplot romance hehehe

And then there’s the heavy ones with a LOT of plot (and hot men)

Attack on titan: one of my favorites also. long and it just ended like two weeks ago. It’s about titans that walk the earth, murdering everything in their path. The world knows nothing about them. A young boy and his friends join the army to kill these titans but what they find out is horrifying. You WILL cry and it’s pretty graphic so :D 

Chainsaw man - disgusting but in a different way. I’m gonna be so fr i only watched this for Aki. story isn’t hard to follow. It’s about a certain sect of a government using fiends to kill devils. It’s gory and very very graphic.

Banana fish - an ex army soldier kills his whole squad suddenly and with background rivalry and killing of gangs in new york, a young photographer from japan and the head of one of the gangs have to solve the mystery of the drug that caused the soldier to go crazy. If you’re gonna watch this, you NEED to look at content warnings. It has everything. Under the sun. EVERYTHINg. Beautiful animations though i am MAPPA’s number 1 fan.

Jujutsu kaisen - hot men wonderland fr. about exorcizing curses with found family, a super hot villain and lots of death. Currently on going. A little confusing at times but the graphics are GORGGGGG. Mappa again.

[butchdykekondraki]

Okay so. We haven't yet watched any theory videos/essays the like, so maybe we're just stating what everybody already knows, but e have a loose theory that it has some sort of tie to the Zodiac Killer. For one, if you remove Wally and his house (main character (and suspect) and the house, which is for some reason apparently considered a '9th neighbor'), you have 7 remaining side characters -- the Zodiac killer has officially claimed 7 victims, although he himself claims to have killed much more (around 37?). This could also be a hint that the viewer is going to be one of the 'unconfirmed victims' so to say. Along with this, the show began October 11th, 1969, which is the date that the Zodiac Killer claimed his final victim, and ended in 1974, when he officially ended activity and sent his last known letter. There are also some notable name similarities. I haven't gone through everyone yet, but Eddie does have a name similar to Edward Edwards (pff), a serial killer and former suspect of the Zodiac Killer's identity, but was later cleared of suspicion (of being the Zodiac Killer, I mean. He still killed people lol). He also has a name similar to Linda Faye Edwards, a possible victim, but that seems to be a bit more of a reach to me. Eddie being a postman also aligns with the theme of letters, which is essentially what the Zodiac Killer was known for. Along with this, despite the misplaced letters on the website being able to be arranged into different links, they could also be at least a nod to how the Zodiac Killer would use ciphers. Not to mention, the neighborhood as a whole is often portrayed as picturesque and perfect, like a paradise. The Zodiac Killer (god take a shot every time I've said that so far) had an odd obsession with the concept of paradise (referencing 'paradice' in several of his motives, even saying that he does not fear the gas chamber, as it would only bring him there quicker). Unrelated and I'm sure people have said this before, but the whole thing gives somewhat of a 'cult' vibe to it, as much as I hate to say it. Just the way that you're told that you'll be welcomed and accepted, that you are already an integral part despite not being a part of it -- yet. As far as I'm aware, it's basic cult recruitment tactics; get someone who's in a low place in their life, offer a place for them to belong, to feel welcomed and loved and as though they will finally have a purpose and find their true selves there. But yeah, all that is just theories, and I haven't looked into everything yet (still need to scrutinize similarities between other characters and suspects/victims/etc). Sorry for the massive wall of text :]

HI THIS MADE ME GO FUCKING NUTS. GOES INSANE FERAL EVEN. ???? THIS IS SO ????????? /VVVVPOS

[vomitdodger]

Imagine that. FBI hiding evidence.

[exeggcute]

admittedly I don't know much about the endless theories and suspects of the zodiac killer case but this seems like... a fairly compelling avenue.

[radiant-reid]

zodiac killer Rossi except he didn’t give the team a way to crack the code. Reid cracked it by remembering something Rossi said about it earlier and the code is basically giving away his and Gideons identity because they knew no one would get it

When him an Gideon started the BAU and used to drive around cases (hey, season 15 plothole, I’m ignoring you) they must have needed something to talk about and since they of course think they’re so smart for starting the BAU and other departments seem to dislike them, they would come up with some inventive code just for laughs

[carf-writes]

I think Oliver Queen would find out Batman's secret identity mostly through vibes...

When he was ten, his parents tried to get him to strike up a friendship with Bruce Wayne because it can’t ever hurt to know the richest man in the country but Bruce is just so fucking weird and morbid. He drags Ollie into his room and starts showing him his anatomy books and taxidermy and has he seen Taxi Driver? Because Travis Bickle inspired a real attempted assassination. But also maybe he had a point? And then Bruce is taking down his books on the Zodiac Killer and explaining how he thinks he’s cracked the cipher. And Ollie is just scared out of his mind. He thinks Bruce is going to vivisect him or something.

At the end of the night, he tells his parents that he spent the whole time with Bruce but he was actually hiding under a table somewhere for like two hours.

Then after that he tries to avoid Bruce at all times. Which isn’t hard because they’re ten and they live on opposite sides of the country. Until Oliver gets an invitation to Bruce Wayne’s 18th birthday party which is supposed to be a very big, very expensive bash. He doesn’t want to go because it might turn out to be weird but all his friends are going so he goes anyway.

… And it turns about to be pretty cool. (It’s a very big, expensive party with a lot of really drunk, really rich teenagers but it’s cool by Oliver’s standards) But no one actually seems to see Bruce there. He doesn’t make a speech, they don’t get him a cake or sing happy birthday, he doesn’t take over for the DJ, nothing. There are no pictures of him anywhere. Nobody gets any pictures of him. No one says they saw him. It’s like he wasn’t even there. 

But everyone insists that Oliver must be wrong. Who would throw a party and then never show up? Creepy Bruce Wayne, that’s who.

For the next several years, Bruce is supposedly out of the country doing an indulgent world tour. Hotels get booked out for him but they can’t say if he actually check in. People claim to have seen him but they don’t have any proof. It’s always so-and-so told so-and-so that they saw him here. He’s kind of like this fun cryptid. The richest man in the world is somewhere in the world. The late night shows do a spoof of Carmen Sandiego about it.

But every year, Bruce supposedly shows up to his birthday bash except Oliver goes every year and never sees him. There’s photos that circulate around but Oliver’s met Bruce and these are just some random other dark haired guys. He puts together that every year the crowd unknowingly selects some random dude to be that year’s Bruce Wayne, sometimes there’s two or three or four.

One year Oliver even dyes his hair and he gets to be Bruce Wayne for the day. 

It’s fun. But the real Bruce? He’s up to something. 

When Oliver comes back from his sojourn on an island and is deciding to clean up his act and maybe start dressing up in green and shooting people with arrows, he finds out that Bruce is back in Gotham. He’s gone from a guy who nobody knew what he looked like to one of the most recognizable faces.

Every week the gossip rags have a new crazy Bruce Wayne headline. 

“Bruce Wayne accidentally schedules two dates with two models at the same time, at the same restaurant. Models proceed to fight over him and wreck the restaurant, forcing Wayne to buy it.” There’s a viral video and everything. Except it’s not hard for Oliver to find out that the “models” are actually amateaur professional wrestlers.

“Bruce Wayne trips and knocks ice sculpture onto newly elected Gotham mayor.” Nobody bothers to mention that getting absolutely clobbered by an ice sculpture is what saved the mayor from being shot by a political rival.

“Bruce Wayne lets child ward drive his car. Kid accidentally puts car in reverse instead of drive and backs into and wrecks Lex Luthor’s custom McLaren.” That one just seems intentional. The kid even looks behind him as he’s backing up.

Sure people change over the course of 18 years, Oliver has certainly changed but he just can’t square this absolute buffoon with the kid who bragged about how he was already studying calculus. And it’s just so calculated. Just like the parties, it’s like a facade of being a rich playboy, not the real thing. Oliver knows the real thing. He’s been the real thing.

Then he walks into a meeting of the new, as yet unnamed, coalition of heroes and meets Batman for the first time. The familiar wave of hibbie-jibbies runs up his spine but he’s not a kid anymore so he just smirks.

“So do you still think Travis Bickle was kind of right?”