Ratking | Creep Cast

15:22Dopabeane:We're talking about light. I think that it would offset the folds and grundle grundle and and and and textures that cover my fat skin so we're talking like alopecia right we're

15:37Max Voynich:not just talking about bald on the head we're talking about i'm gonna say if we're going this

15:41Dopabeane:far i'm gonna say like alopecia but we're also going like mole people like we're blind we've

15:46Max Voynich:definitely been underground that kind of vibe it's hard to imagine you without the beard to be honest oh it's hard to imagine you that weird i feel like we would both look like weird grub things because i have such a weird head i don't think either of us would look good the problem with me

16:05Dopabeane:i think i'd look terrible the problem with me is i you at least the bat you're you ever see a like a like a lake like a still lake you know what i mean like a still lake and then a breeze goes by and it ripples the water that's what like the entire backside of my leg looks like

16:26Max Voynich:and it's horrifying so you're saying the body hair is doing you a few favors the body was it's not

16:33Dopabeane:doing me favors it's keeping me human it's it's it's the only thing that shields anyone who sees it even just a general public there's times man where i go out in public i'll have like a pair of basketball shorts on i'll go to a grocery store i'll bend down and just get like i don't know some cheese or something and i just know that like a little bit of my ham hocks peeking out just from underneath like right near my hamstring or something and i'm like whoever's seeing this must be absolutely revolted it looks like a beehive just like to the texture it's just absolutely unbelievable and i refuse to make changes which is the worst part i'm too set my ways.

17:11Dopabeane:Right. Right.

17:13Max Voynich:Uh, I need, you were talking about my lips, uh, and I need to show you this. So I was switched dentists recently, right? Because we moved, um, and then they're like, Oh, well you need to send your records over from one dentist to another. Um, and they, uh, the first dentist office sent me like their records of x-rays and photos and stuff like that and they were all x-rays and like inside my mouth pictures of my teeth but they sent one image of my mouth i'm gonna be honest i don't appreciate the angle it's a delay hold on i'm about to send it to you i just i'm gonna send it to you directly and i want you to keep it keep in

18:02Dopabeane:mind that we're business partners not even sending it in the creep cast server no i don't this is

18:07Max Voynich:just for you. This is, we keep in mind, we're business partners and we're professionals first and foremost.

18:31Dopabeane:First, why is the image so oddly sexual, doesn't it? I don't know if I'd say that. Oh, I would. Oh, I would in a heartbeat. It looks like a fucking Sabrina Carpenter album cover or something like that.

18:47Max Voynich:I saw that picture and I was like, maybe it is that bad. Maybe I do have a problem.

18:53Dopabeane:It looks like a donkey's mouth or something. It looks like a farm animal. Okay, all right.

18:58Max Voynich:We don't need to go in all that detail. Oh, wow.

19:03Dopabeane:You better show this on the episode. People have some context because good God. I tell you what, these are two fucking Peruvian pillows just stacked on top of each other. Good Lord, look at these sons of bitches. How is your top lip so impossibly white? It's like they drained all the blood out of your supple lip.

19:24Max Voynich:It didn't lose any form. There had a giant flash bulb in my face when they took the photo.

19:29Dopabeane:Well, that's the thing. Your bottom lip is almost blister red, and the top lip is translucent white. Yeah, it was the most fucked up thing, though, is there's no blood in there. They didn't lose shape at all. I mean, it is still plump. You got too excited.

19:44Max Voynich:You peaked. What'd you say there? Okay, whatever. I don't need to hear whatever you were saying. This fucking photo. Unbelievable. You know what? Holy hell. Also, I went to...

19:58Dopabeane:Don't delete it! What are you doing? Also, dude, the file size is so small. So whenever you open it, You have to like zoom in like 400 times to even see the fucking image. Why did they give you a higher res deal?

20:19Max Voynich:Because they sent me. Okay, so funny, funny image that because the new office was like, we can't use any of these. And I'm like, why not? And they're like, the image quality is way too small. And I pull up the email and I go to the images. every single picture was collaged onto one page of microsoft word it was like 80 pictures there

20:40Dopabeane:wasn't there was enough ink in the printer to get those lips in there sorry buddy we have to do just teeth from now on you're like good that's all i wanted you the image you're seeing now is just a

20:52Max Voynich:crop screenshot i took of the little that's why it's so small there is absolutely no way there's

21:00Dopabeane:no way that your dentist doesn't use this to kiss and to have some kind of I feel like this is his just like perfect lips folder and he puts it in there and he does oh my god perfect lips I'd go back in and I would say what are you doing with this I'd say I'd go back I'd demand it he's like you want some floss I'm like no put the fucking floss away from me I'm like what are you doing with these pictures I'm like I go to a dentist and there's this is 80 % lip like there's barely any teeth in this yeah what are you getting with this picture there's 40 x-rays this is such an anomaly to your bottom row of teeth there's like four teeth there

21:43Max Voynich:okay we don't get into this level of detail i'm pretty sure this violates hipaa at this point

21:51Dopabeane:god i've never seen teeth look so big yet so small it's so uncanny it's like a goddamn Salvador Dolly painting. I'm like, God, Lord. All right. We got it. If I can read a story, you should have never sent that picture to me. You should have never sent that. Cause I'll tell you what, that's just for my own personal hell. I thought I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do with that. I downloaded it too. I'm I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't.

22:22Max Voynich:I'm glad you're getting so much mileage out of this. I can't.

22:27Dopabeane:I can't go a world without having that picture if you deleted that if I even deleted that I'd freak out okay oh god

22:40Max Voynich:okay well yeah glad we had that aside so the story the rat king I like the setup with the younger brother sick and I really like that one line they said where they were describing like the cough and everything and it's like I don't want to stop playing either the second cough drops to his knees kings don't get sick but little brothers do so it establishes like this very idyllic world and it's a very simple way to give us some weight to the characters and their connection like the older brother wants to be stronger for the little brother and the little brother's ill, but he doesn't want to stop like this world he has with the older brother.

23:30Max Voynich:And it gives us a lot of relationship context very quickly. And also just like we were talking about with the tunnel and stuff like that, the idea of people underneath the town, like, you know, subterranean people, it's just a cool idea. What?

23:50Dopabeane:all I'm picturing all I'm picturing is that big white lip flapping up and down being able to form words that's actually people can understand you must have so much muscle in your face to flap those big fucking beaks around

24:07Max Voynich:I'll admit the picture looks pretty rough but when you look When you look at me in the face, it makes sense in context. Okay. It's fine. You were really, people have been like, oh, you have big lips, but you're the first person I met that's really honed in on that. It's like a thing. It's unavoidable. Unavoidable. Okay.

24:37Dopabeane:You're like the kid in glasses of shit in his pants and everyone's trying to pretend they can't smell it. Bullshit. I'm like, look at this. look at these lips flapping around this photo I'm telling you we're in February and I feel like it's Christmas this is a treat this is a true gift you just gave me right here why does that mean so much to you I've already said it to Harry I've done all kinds of stuff I think this is going to pop up in all corners of the internet

25:14Max Voynich:this is an insane invasion of my privacy you don't even care you just send it out it's gonna show up in a meat canyon cartoon it's done avoiding it what have you done with this this picture was promised to me 3 000 years ago

25:48Dopabeane:Where are we even at? We're in the story. Yeah, but we're at. Are we at some? Oh, God.

25:59Max Voynich:I was trying to get back on course. We're back. I'm back. I'm back. I was talking about how I like the dynamic No, I heard all that I'm saying where are we at on the text deal Okay

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27:34Dopabeane:ZocDoc.com slash creepcast. Thank you, ZocDoc, for sponsoring the episode. Back to our spooky story.

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28:53Max Voynich:The note, this applies to new subscribers only and varies by plan. Get in now and eat like a pro this month with Factor. Once again, that's factormeals.com slash creepcast50off with code creepcast50off to get in on this incredible offer today. Thank you to Factor for sponsoring the show. Their link will be in the description. And we are now back to the episode. Whatever the truth is, there's something below the surface. Something wrong. Something that makes the children sick and the adults weary and paranoid. When we get home, my parents rush my brother to the hospital, and he stays there for several days whilst they run all kinds of tests.

29:28Max Voynich:I'm allowed to visit on the third day, and I find my mother sat in the waiting room, holding his twig crown in her hands. She gestures to the crown.

29:38Dopabeane:Contamination risk.

29:39Max Voynich:My brother seems to have somehow shrunk in the past three days, although perhaps that's just perspective. He is, after all, surrounded by huge machines that whir and beep. tubes that loop over the side of his bed. He smiles when he sees me, makes movement to give me a hug, but a doctor calmly puts his hand on his chest. No set of movements. I try and hold it together, to be the best big sister I can be, kissing his forehead, stroking his hair, telling him he's going to be alright. I try and ignore the look in the doctor's face. At the end of the third day, they take my parents into a separate room, and I can only make out their silhouettes through the misted glass.

30:20Max Voynich:I can see my mother put her head in her hands, and my father put his arm around her. They don't say anything until we get home, or my father calmly takes every plate out of the drawer and smashes them against the wall. A dozen porcelain explosions, and he collapses to the floor with huge animal sobs. I cook dinner and we eat it out of the pan. I understand. Our life has become a series of trips to and from the hospital, and I am entrusted with carrying out tests that were meant for my brother it's strange although he was far younger than me six years to be precise there must have been some tradition about these falling about the man in the family each week i take bundles of food and water to several spots just upstream from various tunnels or sewer entrances there i place them in the water and watch as they follow the course of the water down and round and eventually disappear into the black mouse of the tunnels Sometimes, if I leave it until it gets dark, I can hear things coming from these entrances.

31:25Max Voynich:Paranoid whispers, muted wails, something like humming. It's as if a hundred people are speaking all at once, a thousand miles away, and the echo of the echo of the echo of their voices is drifting out into the night. So, is she saying that it's part of the family? Like, the men are supposed to go feed whatever's down this river?

31:47Dopabeane:well i i think that it's saying that well i think she's saying that the men in the family are like ones that get sick are the ones that are being like it seems like men in this family are the ones at least that's how i read it are people that are are appearing like that's why it's affecting her brother i know which i want to i want to say i do love that line how uh creepy is that to like uh you take you take the bundles of food down to the tunnels whatever and then from there you can hear like the echo of an echo of an echo of like thousands of like tons of people talking thousands of miles away just such an interesting like like picturing that in your head just hearing it it's so soft and so like just like a just a slight whisper into your ear

32:31Max Voynich:really fun yeah yeah i make sure that whenever i visit my brother i bring him strawberries his favorite food chili grows too weak to eat them until i have to cut them up with a knife and fork into small bite-sized pieces which i feed to him we pretend for a while that he's still the king i'm just a knight who's making sure my king is fed and healthy but it soon becomes too painful it's a reminder of the years spent outside long summers with the promise that we both might someday grow old around a month later he comes home he's almost skin and bone at this point but but we still make the effort to have a little welcome home party.

33:11Max Voynich:My father acts strange at dinner. I can see it in the way he moves, the redness around his eyes, and that suggests he's been crying. A boy like that shouldn't have to face death.

33:22Dopabeane:He shouldn't have to grapple with it, to try and understand it, to rationalize it. He looks to me. A boy like that should live forever.

33:32Max Voynich:My brother was always the favorite, and I knew that. I didn't mind. It was my favorite, too. that's a heartbreaking line that's so sad

33:43Dopabeane:it's heartbreaking but sweet given the context but yeah I mean it's it's I think that it's I don't think it's supposed to be something where it's malicious or it's not supposed to be something where it's like the parents are obviously loving the child more I think it's just that like this is a being that is impossible not to love like you know what I mean

34:05Max Voynich:yeah also it does remind me of what is that thing with there's a word for it but kids who was raised with a sick sibling while the attention was directed towards the sick siblings because they're kind of neglected there's a word they have for it but it kind of reminds me of that which I don't know I may be just paranoid but something about the father's line a boy like that should live forever makes me feel a little suspicious I mean don't get me wrong it's

34:36Dopabeane:it's a it's a weird line but also if your son is dying of cancer i mean it's a real like outside of the

34:46Max Voynich:context of it being a no sleep story yeah that's perfectly reasonable but because it's in a no sleep yeah i mean it's a red herringer but yeah it's a yeah it's a sign that's coming that night i hear a rustling hush whispers and the lock to the back door spring open curious i peek out my blinds and see, still partially illuminated by the light from inside, my father, and in his arms, a bottle of white cloth and a face, my brother. Immediately I get dressed and make my way noiselessly downstairs and out of the house, following as best I can in the dark. I follow him down the back roads, through the fields, and eventually to the mouth of a tunnel.

35:28Max Voynich:The roar of water coming from it muffles my movements and I lurk at the very edge of my father's glow as we enter. Thankfully, he does not look back often. When he does, he seems to be in a trance, eyes glazed over, a grim expression on his face. It gets quieter as we get further and further into the tunnels and I have to take care not to make any sound, holding my breath, making exaggerated short steps. There are noises, though. My father holds an old-fashioned lantern in his hand, which casts a small sphere of light across the tunnel, and every now and again he'll freeze and hold it in front of him, as if challenging someone to come out from the dark.

36:09Max Voynich:Whispers bounce off the walls of the tunnel, saying all sorts of strange and horrible things. I hear the faint sound of manic laughter over some tuneless hum. My father carries something that makes strange periodic clicking noises and every so often starts clicking rapidly until he moves on there's writing on the walls and the further we get the more demented it gets it goes from teenagers graffiti to genuine warnings telling people to stay away but they must not go any further welcoming us to hell then smaller stranger writing and scrawled almost childish letters stay a while i think about the rats we were warned about imagine them as a pack stalking me in the same way i'm following my father milky-eyed and hungry peering at me from crevices in the wall and from under the surface of the water we start going down an incline and i have to hang further back trying to time my steps with my father so he doesn't hear me crouching and covering my face whenever he turns around.

37:16Max Voynich:Voices are getting louder now, and more manic. There's so many of them. I can hear arguments, confessions, laughter, songs, monologues.

37:30It makes me wince.

37:36Max Voynich:Sounds like all the thoughts of an asylum. And the smell. It starts to reek not only of shit but of sweat and bile and curdled milk. I wonder if it's the rats speaking or if it's some great mind leaking. There are worries and anxieties and desires spilling out and into our world. My father pushes on and we get deeper. The tunnels turn from brick to concrete and the graffiti turns to actual printed text. Plaza, one mile approximately. Oh, so I guess that does point to the idea that there was a city down here at one point, right? yeah like there's like roadsides yeah the noise starts to hit me like a wall and i grow my confident standing up straight there's no way he can hear me over this

38:28Max Voynich:incomprehensible so many words layered over each other it sounds like tv static

38:39Max Voynich:and then we emerge into this vast underground chamber seems to be illuminated by small lights around the edge although they're so faint it takes a while for my eyes to adjust but even in the dim light i can see how big this thing is how massive as if each light is a star hinting at unknowable depth and height. Something changes as we enter. My clothes and skin have the texture of used gum. Everything becomes sticky, like a leather seat on a hot day. My vision swims slightly. A wall of stale heat hits me. The temperature of sweat. Hot breath. Whatever it is that's here, it's emanating into the room and reality around us.

39:21Max Voynich:It stinks. The voices are deafening. I can see the bundle of clothes in my father's arms start to wiggle and shake and he holds his lamp up and I can see, see it first as a wall, a wall the color of pallid skin until I can make out familiar shapes, hands, arms, faces, all coming from, attached to this wall, legs and ears and fingers all bursting from this wall like spots or growths, hundreds of mouths moving, hands endlessly grasping at nothing, legs spasming and trying to move along the slick ground, and some shapes are more defined than others. You can see some bodies that are half absorbed by this wall, some that still have the shape of a human, shoulders, bellies, and some that have been completely absorbed, so that all that's left is facial features spread out of a mass of skin.

40:13Max Voynich:And it occurs to me that these are, were people. And the sound and the stench is coming from this thing, whatever it is, this thing that laughs and screams and whoops and mutters and spits until it dawns on me that it's not just a wall because somehow, slowly and with great effort, it's moving, swaying and stumbling and fraction by fraction it starts to make its way towards us. The eyes that litter its surface fixed on the white bundle in my father's arms, the mouth filled with yellow teeth hollering and wailing, fingers across the surface contracting acting and spasming like dying insects. And frozen in horror, it's all I can do to watch my father take my brother out from the bundle of clothes and hold him out, with the grabbing hands and flailing arms, until they take him, pull him in, and he's too weak to resist, and the voices seem to reach a fever pitch, united for just a second as he joins, and I can hear him scream louder and louder, until I lose his voice amongst the others.

41:17We watch for a while, trying to keep track of my brother's body,

41:21Max Voynich:before the thing shifts and wobbles and new faces appear. It was once my brother disappears into the dark. My father turns around, walks straight towards me, grabs my hand and pulls. We have to go, now. I have so many questions. How did he know I was here? What is this thing? Is my brother okay? But he's stronger than me, and when he tugs on my hand, I stumble after him. He says only one thing to me Once we're far enough away for the sound to turn back to whispers He says it with tears in his eyes And for a moment I can see that he's not just a man But also a boy Deep down And that he's just as scared and hurt and confused as I am

42:06Dopabeane:That thing It does not die

42:10Max Voynich:It does not age A pause As he wipes the tears from his cheeks he will not die down here when we return home my mother has fallen asleep at the kitchen table waiting for us when we wake her she looks at us as if we had killed him ourselves i think of my father's words we will not die down there i wonder if perhaps death might have been better bro oh my gosh okay we're almost over then i'll talk about oh man I still do the jobs that were meant for my brother, the strange rituals that were meant for the man of the family. I still pack and send the bundles of food into the tunnels. But now that I know what's down there, I take a few extra steps.

42:54I make sure to put strawberries amongst the food, picking the biggest and juiciest I can find.

43:00Max Voynich:If I've got a spare hour or so, I'll make a little crown from twigs and string and hope that it finds them somehow in the dark. And if I get close enough, close enough to hear the whispers and shrieks and laughter, sometimes I can make out his voice amongst them. The voice of my little king, my rat king. Oh, brother. Oh, oh, oh, I forgot about the title of the story. It gave me chills there at the end. Oh, that was sick, bro.

43:35Dopabeane:I love this. I really like in horror. you kind of see this with like I mean like I'm a huge Cronenberg fan and with uh stuff like the fly and these horror narratives or these things were stories where the main character is it's like somebody's just dying in front of you and there's nothing you can do the kind of moral dilemma of people having of like well do you like the dad giving his son off to this creature this thing in the sewers this rat king itself uh it's like a pet cemetery it's just like it's just a it's a fun act of desperation and the unwillingness to be able to let go and be and be able to say goodbye is such a personal inhuman thing that i don't i feel like everybody would have so many people would have a different response to that what that dad did i think some people would be like oh i would do anything to keep my child alive as well but i think that Like it, it does, you know, even in the story, they do have a, it, there's literally the pet cemetery line of sometimes dead is better.

44:40Dopabeane:You know, it's like that kind of thing. I love that.

44:45Max Voynich:It, I think the context is a little different because I, I agree with the sister at the end where she's like, maybe, you know, sometimes dead is better versus becoming a part of this amalgamation of eternal flesh. Right. But I think important context is the mention that one of the theories people have around this thing is that it was started by a cult sometime in the past, right? That they conjured up something so awful and now people are trapped down there, which seems to be 100 % is a nuclear test or something. The dad's a part of that cult and the family has been for generations. Yeah, yeah.

45:19Dopabeane:The family is definitely a part of it. And I think even that's why the mom is like, you might as well have just killed him because she knows exactly what she knows what it is.

45:26Max Voynich:I mean, they're the one. it says the men of the family take the food to the river, right? Yep. And they feed whatever's down there the whole time. So it's different for him who is a part of this cult and has seen this thing for generations possibly to be like, oh, we'll give it to the eternal mass rather than, you know, let him die. Which goes back to that line. The dad said, where he's like a boy like that should live forever, where he comes to the decision of like, I guess I'm going to give him to the mass, right? But man, the opening where the sister was like, they were playing pretend and he was a king and then at the end she put strawberries in the crown on the food she sends is so heartbreaking but that last line my rat king oh my gosh what's a fun uh

46:07Dopabeane:it's a fun idea of that you're playing dungeons and dragons at the at the beginning and then you literally go into a sewer that is like a dungeon and that's where yeah he gets to be his king you

46:16Max Voynich:know what i mean and then there's like the description where he's talking about uh or the sister is talking about uh how she was his night she would bring him food and take care of him while he was sick in his hospital bed and now she's continuing to do that as he's a part of the mass this is one of those stories where sometimes you know after sometimes when these stories because

46:37Dopabeane:this was a nice short story sometimes after we read these short stories i'm always like man i wish that there was more but with this story i just there it was so i just really loved how everything was approached you know you got to understand the child was sick you get a little element of the cult like nothing was ever overstepping itself and he's got just enough of information to make it satisfying like i really do feel like this is just like a perfect link through this type of concept and the way that they executed i think max did a great job yeah

47:06Max Voynich:yeah this this was fantastic this is the first story we've read by this guy and that was a banger like down to the the pacing of it and the execution i like how the father knew she was there the whole time but was like i guess she has to see this at some point especially if she's going to be the one feeding this down here right well yeah and it lets her follow i always love in

47:24Dopabeane:these cult like in these stories where somebody knows somebody knows about a monster or they're dealing with a monster we kind of had this in the story where uh the moth with the moth oc yeah

47:37Max Voynich:very similar.

47:40Dopabeane:I love when there is, when there's a character, I mean, even in the Mothlessy episode, it was like, there was the father who even kind of knew what the son had to do. It's this thing of like, when you have your beliefs and it's hard to swallow, and it's like, even the dad at the end, I don't think that he's particularly stoked that his son is just a part of this monster, this amalgamation now. He's not. You know, but it's a thing that they obviously still believe in they take care of and they do that so in a way it's seen it's just i like that because it's justifiable why he would be like you know it's better than death in his eyes because it's obviously something that he cares about that he takes care of

48:21Max Voynich:so it's just like he can't let go of his son yet so now he's like oh well if i do this my son will be there in some way right yeah um even if i don't get to see him directly I know I'm still taking care of him. I know he's still in the dark somewhere, right? I also like the subtle kind of world building stuff where it's like they go down there and there was a plaza. So it's like, was there a city down here? Is this all part of whatever this spell, this ritual is? But then the description of the room where there's lights in the distance that might as well be stars because they give off impossible depth to the space.

48:59Max Voynich:It reminded me of John Milton, not John Milton, the other John, the guy that did the Paradise Lost depiction, hold on. There is one piece of art from Paradise Lost that I think about all the time. John Martin's who I'm thinking of. John Martin. John Milton was the author of Paradise Lost. Yeah, Pandemonium. Okay, hold on. Let me send you this image real quick. so uh when describing hell and satan's throne paradise lost john milton gave this depiction of it and what i love about this image is uh you see satan on the throne and then you see like the rows of people behind but you see the lights hanging on the ceiling and you kind of have a sense of depth on the first row of how far back they go but then there's rows and rows of lights and it's like this room he's in is impossibly large right so i when she talked about walking into the room and then seeing lights that were impossible death it reminded me of this and now i'm thinking maybe the all because the author is max voinich named after voinich manuscript he obviously into like some weird esoteric stuff maybe that's kind of the idea he was conjuring the idea of this uh underground like circle of demons this infinite cask of um like the devil and his power and that probably ties back into the cult and like this creature this is made but all that's done but the point I'm trying to say is I got all these ideas off of a sign that said plaza and then a description of how big the room was and it's like oh maybe it's this maybe it's that and he does so much with so little by using the time he has to get these really cool ideas across and like maybe these cool theories theory crafting you could do with the little pieces he gives it's like he has a cohesive idea of where this stuff came from how it all came to be but he just sprinkles clues of it so you can try to put it together and i think that's really neat yeah i really love this story i thought

51:02Dopabeane:it was awesome the use of the body horror too at the end is awesome i eat that shit up all day but it's also something where it's a fine line you gotta ride because sometimes that shit just it all sounds the exact same so sometimes you have to just be and i feel like that was just it was just enough to give you a fun understanding of this like actual rat that is tied together in a literal flesh sense without just being something that's like generic, you know, it served its purpose in a great way to that lends itself to the story versus trying to take the limelight and be like, isn't this crazy?

51:33Dopabeane:It's just like a fun accent to the story, which was nice, but I'm excited that we get to read another one from him.

51:39Max Voynich:Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, we'll have his stuff linked in the description. This guy has a ton of stories on his Reddit. It's a shame he hasn't posted in six years. I want him to keep writing.

51:49Dopabeane:Who knows? maybe with uh some support here and maybe with uh once he sees this maybe this maybe the it could be something too maybe he's cooking something huge who knows could be but uh it would be very

52:00Max Voynich:cool if you all if you like this to show him some support so that you know gets on board that'd be cool or he gets to making more stuff or something because i want more of this anyway our second story from him today is called if we misbehaved as children we had to stand in the shed something else stood with us. So, are you ready, Hunter? Let's do it. It was as simple as that. You misbehaved. You stood in the shed. As I've grown older, I've come to realize that it wasn't just if we were naughty, but if our parents wanted some space, some time alone to get rid of us when they had guests over. They were always throwing these lavish and expensive dinners with services and and Latin, incense, and all the guests masked and dressed in black.

52:43Max Voynich:They needed us gone. The shed itself was rotting, an old, wet structure that sat at the bottom of our garden. Maybe three or four minutes walk from the main house. Sure, that might not sound like the longest time, but try walking for four minutes in any direction you choose and see how far you get. Go on, time it. I think you'd be surprised. So after we'd made the mistake, chewed with our mouth open, asked a rude question, used the wrong cutlery, we were sent off. If we were together, Naomi, my younger sister and I, the walk dancing too long. We could talk, try to take our minds off the shed, off the fact that it had its own wail, the fact that sometimes it was so dark you couldn't see one end from the other.

53:26Max Voynich:We try and ignore the fact that sometimes the tapping on the windows sounded less like branches and more like some form of echo location, like some giant and curious creature on the other side trying to draw us out. We'd stand there, shaking hand in hand, humming songs we could have remember, whispering stories to each other, anything to make the time pass. I tried to keep her spirits up to make sure she wasn't as terrified as I felt, as I couldn't let on that I felt. Sometimes she'd repay the favor and she'd tell me about her favorite animals, how big they were, what they ate, where I might find them if I was interested.

54:02Max Voynich:It helped. The quiet, focused tone of her voice. The obvious pleasure she took in naming them all, despite our situation. I was much worse behaved than Naomi. She was all blonde hair and smiles. Ribbons, long and looping handwriting, and pristine diaries. I wasn't interested in any of that. Being a boy, and being so proud of being a boy. Brandishing my scraped knees and torn clothes. refusing to bathe until my father would hold me down and force me upstairs. As such, I spent a lot longer in that shed than she did. As time passed, I began to realize there was something wrong with it. Sure, the air in there was colder, stiller than the air outside.

54:44Max Voynich:Sure, rats and mice lived under the floorboards, squealing and gnawing and climbing over each other in the dark. Sure, if you came in the daylight, you'd see a flock of crows talk to each other as you entered, trading little cause as if discussing you. But there was something else. A sense that you were never truly alone there. A sense that shivering and hidden in the dark, something was watching you. I like, again, Max does a really good job in the two examples we've seen of giving you so much with so little. Because there's a little description of the parents where it's like when they needed, they sent us out whenever they needed time to their self.

55:24Max Voynich:and it has a mention that they throw lavish and expensive dinners with incense and all the guests masks and dressed in black. So it's like their parents are some cult, something like that. But then you have this shed that's probably related to whatever their practices is. And there's a ton of weird stuff that happens around it, like the crow showing up and things like that. So it's like how much of that is supernatural and how much of that is just like the eeriness that he feels being around a structure like this. um i think it's almost interesting how from a kid's perspective the the mass the masquerade parties your parents throw like the ritual stuff isn't the interesting thing it's the shed but because of the masquerade we're almost positive there's something supernatural about the shed

56:07Dopabeane:right yeah well coming from the perspective of like a younger kid teenager these things that are so normalized in their life are said in such a way that seems like well of course you know they're in a mass party you know as like it said so matter of fact that it isn't drawn out to be some kind of like creepy big thing i just like how normalized it feels and it just is a it's a piece of vital information that you could easily miss which i think is kind

56:34Max Voynich:of fun yeah yeah i want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor harry's razors anyone with body hair can tell you that there are few things more annoying than a dull razor you get midway through a shave and then your face starts to hurt and then you can't even shave the rest. And what you do shave is red and covered in blood, which Hunter may find attractive, but I don't. But now I don't have to be worried about being attractive to Hunter anymore thanks to Harry's. That's because Harry's lets me have German engineered blades and barbershop quality shaves whenever I want. The razor itself is metal, so rather than throwing away a bunch of plastic every year, you get to reuse the same well-built razor over and over.

57:11Max Voynich:It's designed in such a way that when you screw it in the right amount of pressure is put on the blade to bend it just enough to take off your hair but not your skin. So because of that in combination with the fact that Harry's own razors have things like aloe and vitamin e in the cartridge keeps my skin way smoother and less irritated after a shave than any other razor I've tried. Their same facility has been making blades for over a hundred years. Now you can get that top-notch quality at a great price. Plus Harry's has a risk-free trial so if you don't love your shave you can stop with no questions asked.

57:41Max Voynich:Right now is the perfect time to get started with Harry's because for a limited time our listeners can get Harry's plush trial set for only$10 at harrys.com slash creepcast. That's right just 10 bucks. With the plush trial you'll get the all-new Harry's plus razor, one refined five-blade cartridge, a two ounce foaming shave gel, and a travel cover to protect your blades on the go. Once again that's harrys.com slash creepcast to get in on this incredible offer today. And after your purchase if you could let them know we sent you we'd really appreciate it thank you to harry's for sponsoring the show their link will be in the description we are now back to the episode my suspicions were confirmed when naomi was sent one evening or i'd even had a chance to misbehave and as such i'd been sent to my room preemptively the dinner they were hosting seemed special and my mother spent the whole week fretting about who was setting where and what to serve and if they'd be able to find the house old and crooked as it was nestled on the edge of thick black woods that had no obvious markings to tourists something else though frenzy in the kitchens my father holding a set of keys i'd never seen before heavy in brass dogs locked in the kennels my mother's hands covered in paint they had wanted us out interesting okay dogs and kennels paint on her hands or maybe blood and then a set of brass keys also when it said the house at the edge of the woods dark and The crevice I thought of the house where I saw the can man.

59:08Max Voynich:God. It started to become far more disturbing to me, far more scary. And so I spent the evening in my room, head against the window, watching the guests come in, their long and pointed masks, the lanterns they carried, and the way they bowed as they met my mother at the door. There was a goat tied to a post a few feet from the entrance, and I was trying to work out why each guest would take a moment to say something to the goat or bending to kiss its horns. I'd never seen the goat before, and I remember wondering if it was a gift or if my parents had brought it for some sort of game. I felt sorry for Naomi in the shed when, beginning to howl, which I knew brought strange, lifelike noises from the holes in the old wood, made the window rattle, and the rat shelter between the floorboards.

59:57Max Voynich:I felt sorry for how alone she must have felt. that is till i saw her when naomi came back her hair was braided it was tied into one long plate that curled around her head the hair bound together by neat red ribbons wildflowers punctuating the plat every so often to give her the impression of a wild princess her nose and cheeks were flushed from the cold and she spoke in between sniffles wrinkling her nose each time still shaking I asked her where she learned to do her hair our mother was never one for anything like that preferring either military ponytails or simply combing it until Naomi could fight back tears and I thought perhaps Naomi had read it in a book somewhere she'd loved books but was clumsy able to name all the animals of the forest but forever scaring them off with her heavy footfall She shook her head.

1:00:53No, it wasn't me.

1:00:55Dopabeane:Someone at the party?

1:00:57Max Voynich:I asked, knowing full well that she wasn't supposed to attend, but that often guests couldn't resist saying at least a hello to the little blonde girl on the stairs. She shook her head again. Something turned to my stomach, caught in my throat.

1:01:11Dopabeane:Who, Naomi?

1:01:12Max Voynich:I asked, trying to hold back the panic in my voice. Pointed to herself. did this strange rasping voice and on the in-breath spoke her name in syllables. Nay. Me.

1:01:30Dude. Bro.

1:01:36Max Voynich:Okay. Imagine there is a little girl, right? And you're like, oh, hey, Sarah. How are you doing? And she points herself. She's like, Sarah. It's like, no. no we got sorry hey your daughter's dead cool i'm leaving yeah bye-bye i'm so sorry for your loss you should burn that thing anyway bye your dress is so cute uh i have to go take a shit i'll be right back that's what i'd run yeah crawl out the window yeah yeah oh i'm sorry i meant i have to go do that at home i have to go all the way home but it's my home because i'm leaving the state now. I said it again, firmer this time, the tone I'd used when I scolded her.

1:02:17Max Voynich:Who did this?

1:02:19Dopabeane:Who was in there with you? Who put the ribbons and flowers in your hair?

1:02:23Max Voynich:The reply was the same, on the in-breath. Naomi. I knew neither of us could go back, and although I was on my best behavior, Naomi didn't seem to care. She seemed to be oblivious as to what waited at the bottom of the garden for us. my mother said the party was a success that she'd be having another one she seemed younger I thought her feet by her eyes had smoothed and her mouth seemed fuller I tried to beg for her to hold off but she replied by looking out the window towards the shed and I have no choice but to shut up interesting so it seems like they're doing this as like a rejuvenation spell right I wonder then how old they are and if this is even their kids right Because they clearly have a contempt for them, like they brush her hair until she cries and like super strict and things like that.

1:03:14Dopabeane:Yeah, I mean, they almost seem like sacrificial victims or something.

1:03:18Max Voynich:Yeah, maybe they're just like fattening them up, so to speak, for some eventual ritual. Might have already done it if Naomi's now possessed by a skinwalker or whatever. Yeah. I asked about the goat and was told that there was no goat, that I must have imagined it. and when I pushed her on this she slapped me hard in the face till I tasted blood and said that boys who lied spent weeks in the shed and had their food slid under the door until they knew better the shed hung at the bottom of the garden it didn't shadow I tried not to look at it terrified I'd see faces in the window pressed up against the glass staring back at me I thought that maybe somehow if I tried as hard as I could to pretend it didn't exist I'd be safe I was wrong My parents were looking for any excuse the night of the party.

1:04:07Max Voynich:Before I even knew I'd done something wrong, I was sent to the shed. I tried to find Naomi, tried to ask if she was there, but she was nowhere to be found. My parents' patience grew thin. They said if I didn't go right this minute, I'd be sorry. My father's lips shook like it did when he was angry or drunk, when he wanted to use his hands or his belt to bruise. The walk to the shed had me breathless. my old body was shaking in fear in anticipation of something i didn't understand i could feel my knees weak as each step took me closer the sun was beginning to set and the trees cast long shadows on the grass crows were quiet this evening strutting down branches to watch the door to the shed was already ajar and for a moment thought i caught motion inside I was still, silent until I heard the flapping of wings and patter of rats.

1:05:01Max Voynich:I took a breath. I was going to be okay. There was nothing in the shed that could hurt me. Naomi had learned to braid her own hair. I decided upon entering that I would do what any boy should do, what any man should do. I slowly paced around the walls. I thought that this would dispel any ideas I had about something else being in there with me, about anything sharing the space. My footsteps were marked by the groan of old floorboards, a faint echo as they bounced from the wall. Each footstep followed by an echo. A slight delay, and so after I'd walk three paces, I'd pause and hear a step, a step, a step.

1:05:44Max Voynich:I'd walk three more, same thing. A step, a step, a step. Except I realized it wasn't an echo. It was the sound of something behind me. Something mimicking me. Following my exact footsteps for fear of being heard, I felt sweat begin to break out on my back. My mouth went dry. Couldn't breathe. Whatever was behind me knew I'd be listening out. A noise startled me, made me gasp, and I realized I hadn't taken a breath in almost a minute. The window in front of me, something was tapping against it. I still had the impression of something behind me, something huge, something watching. And part of me knew I had to turn around, but I couldn't bring myself to.

1:06:33Max Voynich:I think I had it somewhere in my head that maybe I could still pretend this was all a game or a mistake, that by turning around, I'd somehow make my fears real. Tapping on the window continued. I squinted to see better. There, against the window, was a crow. feathers, dark beady eyes, a huge and sharp beak, but it seemed bigger than I thought possible, orfing my reflection, and I thought maybe it was because I was still some paces from the window. Then the tapping came again, and I realized that the sound wasn't the crow, couldn't be the crow, because the crow was completely still, and I could see it now, a long and low branch that actually was tapping, and I realized that what I thought was the crow was actually something behind.

1:07:25Max Voynich:Something huge and dark and still and I turned around. It must have been about eight feet tall. Huge and with thin limbs covered in black robes. Robes so dark that unless you were really looking for them, really aware of their presence, they'd have seemed invisible and emerging from the hood a long and pointed beak, two eyes that only appeared as glints. We stared at each other for a while. I could feel my heart beating so fast it hurt, a tension in the left side of my chest that grew and grew. Slowly the bird thing lifted its hand, pointing a long and gnarled finger at me. It opened its beak to speak, and the sound reminded me of a parrot father's friend had, mimicking human speech.

1:08:16Max Voynich:uncertain, grating as if the words were not meant for it. Naomi. I shook my head. It was all I could do. The thing cawed and the crow screamed in response. It asked again. No. It was all I could manage.

1:08:34Dopabeane:No.

1:08:35Max Voynich:Then the thing seemed to fly into a panic, all limbs in frantic movement, bending itself, folding itself through the door and out into the forest. And as my eyes followed, I could see the faint glow that it headed for some glow that threw shafts of orange light between the trees and the sound of drums. And this dude, this is sick. Giant crow God. Giant crow God. That's friends with Naomi. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the parents are like this ancient, like, you know, religious practice, which I also like how the thing that made the mom younger was that her crow's feet went away. Ha ha. but it's like and the thing I said earlier it's like are the crows supernatural or is that just a thing the kids noticing because the shed's creepy but no the crows are part of the supernatural aesthetic of this whole thing and you have the family it's part of the stark cults and does these rituals to stay young and then you have this crow god and there's this group of people in the forest with drums and stuff it's so cool it's sick I followed as fast as I could my knees and shins whipped until they bled by wild grass thick it's slow bushes but I kept on pushing on.

1:09:42Max Voynich:Something in its tone had disturbed me, some sense of panic or purpose, and I had only the safety of my sister in mind. I ran until the glow turned into a deep light that cast its own shadows in the dark, that illuminated pale figures standing in a circle around it. A fire, surrounded by naked figures who wore masks made from thin branches and reeds, prude shapes who were all flesh, some with drums made from bone with leather stretched, some empty-handed, some holding books and totems and lanterns. There, unconscious, in a chair in front of the fire, in a red robe with a crown of wildflowers, Naomi.

1:10:21Max Voynich:Some would come forward from the crowd on the beat of the drum and kiss her forehead gently, the way you might do to a baby. She sat bolt upright, eyes closed, as she dreamed the figure in front of her read something from a book. Her voice echoed by the crowd, growing louder and louder in language I did not, could not understand. The drums grew faster now, as if drawing in on something, converging, and the voices grew excited, and I saw in the figure's hands something glint in light. A knife, a long and thin knife. They were slowly raising. I wanted so much to do something, to stop this, but my limbs seemed to freeze, to stop.

1:11:04Max Voynich:It all happened so fast. There was a The caw, angry and clipped. And then the caw echoed around the woods, coming from every angle, from the roots to the bows to the tops of the trees, from behind me and above me. And then the fire was snuffled out like a candle, a commotion, screams. People began to run, only lit by the dim light of the lanterns. And I could see that somehow Naomi was gone, her robe and crown all gone. Revelers began to run towards me, heading into the forest to get away from whatever this was, faces still covered by masks, screaming, and I had no other choice. I couldn't tell what they'd do if they'd found me, if they'd run past or if they'd grabbed me too, taking me to wherever they were sheltering, and I ran until I was sure my lungs would collapse, and then ran some more.

1:11:53Max Voynich:I ran until the spit dried in my mouth and in my lungs, and every breath made me shake. I ran until I was two towns over, covered in blood and my feet torn. They found me on all fours in the town center, retching onto the cobblestones. It took two days for me to finally speak. When they finally took me back, they made an effort to disprove the parts of my story they didn't believe, although even then I could tell they were holding back. They could not find my parents or the guests at the party. They found evidence of a bonfire, but no masks. They could not find Iommi either, and the case would stay open for years, decades.

1:12:32Max Voynich:No one had seen anyone like her description come through, and it was assumed that, for one reason or another, she had disappeared with my parents. They did comment on the sheer number of crows in the garden. It took me years after that to finally return to that house. It took enough time for me to have children of my own undergo years of therapy. I found things that helped me piece together what happened. hidden rooms stone slabs runes carved wall old books that smelled like rot and had strange diagrams in them but i never found her i like to think whatever took her saved her although if i'm honest i can't be sure i like to think that she roams the forest now with her crown of wild flowers and her red robe passing her blessing over all the creatures she loves so much and although the shed has been demolished now floorboards and walls removed to reveal the bones of livestock sometimes i'll hear it when i'm walking in the woods working in my room whispered by the wind cries of birds

1:13:44Dopabeane:man that is two for two dude yeah i uh what i liked about both of these two is like well the it's hard to say this one seems like it has a bit of a darker ending well both of them have like a darker a darker ending but yeah the first one was super happy with the kid getting absorbed by the flesh wall the creature like the crow i don't think that the eight foot tall crow

1:14:06Max Voynich:dude was like a bad entity he just wanted naomi and then he left yeah yeah it's like his buddy

1:14:11Dopabeane:so then when naomi wasn't there he was like wait what the fuck and it seemed like he went out was freaking out it looked like it seemed like the cult was going to sacrifice her

1:14:18Max Voynich:yeah yeah they're gonna stab her but then when the crow god saw her in the chair it screamed and then the crows came from everywhere and the fire snuffed out and everyone ran into panic yeah and Naomi was just gone she wasn't dead or anything she was just gone from the chair so it's like the crow took her like I wanted to be with

1:14:41Dopabeane:her yeah I'm wondering if she like it's just an interesting

1:14:46Max Voynich:I think it braiding her hair is a good note. I think it's, I think it's the idea that it cares about her and doesn't wish her harm.

1:14:57Dopabeane:It, the, the, the ending makes me think, and it's, it feels similar to two. Well, it's interesting is it's two children that are afflicted by something. In the end, it seems like they are joining in on what the cult is worshiping. And to me, it just seems like the, the crow is the God that those people are worshiping the mass. I assume I was thinking of like a plague doctors, beak kind of mask and stuff but I do wonder if she was able to ascend like this is a happier version of the last story like it seems like this is like maybe she was able to join in or like maybe she was transformed in some way that is like not in a flesh wall but more so maybe she becomes a crow herself or does something that is acclimating her into the nature that she loves so much you know because it seems like the entity or the god really seemed like they liked her a lot.

1:15:47Max Voynich:Well, I will say that her life was miserable, right? Like, these parents were cultist monsters, and they abused her and all this stuff. So it's almost like when the crow god was probably summoned here by whatever was going on, it sees her, and then it braids her hair, and then it takes her away from this, right? So it's like it wanted to save her from what the parents, especially right before they were about to kill her, or before our own parents were about to kill her. I also like the end where it's like the sheer number of crows in the garden was alarming it's like did the cultists get turned into crows is that the implication why more and more crows show up or maybe it's just like you know there are crows around the crow god

1:16:26Dopabeane:that or did the cultists get like did they get a comeuppings and that like are the crows positive spirits are they positive entities you know what I mean it probably makes more sense that the entire cult got turned into crows of some kind But regardless, it seems almost like the cult was going, it seemed like the crow God was blessing the girl and it seemed like they were going to like sacrifice her. And because she was blessed in some kind of way, I mean, I'm reaching, but that's just kind of what I'm taking from it. But once again, a really fun story, Max, fun stuff. Very fun.

1:17:05Max Voynich:Yeah. Yeah. I think what's interesting is the similarities between both of those stories, because they're both about an older sibling who is protective over a younger sibling, who both of them are the victims of some cult or some practice that their parents are a part of, who their parents, in one story, give them over or try to give them over to these dark forces for their own gain or their own selfishness in some way, even if in the first story it was just the selfishness of wanting your kid to live forever. and then it ends with the older sibling reminiscing on hoping the younger sibling's okay

1:17:42Dopabeane:yeah it seems like the first family in the Rat King story actually loved their children versus this story I don't know if you felt this way too but it seemed like almost like the children were just literally a commodity to be sacrificed

1:17:55Max Voynich:yeah they were the mother turning and not even like

1:17:59Dopabeane:acknowledging the child or whatever I was like alright yes

1:18:02Max Voynich:cool yeah it is uh it is uh they were the fatted calf they were saving them for the ritual whenever it was to come um whereas in the first story the father still did the wrong thing and he was still part of a cult that you know turns your kids into these like flesh amalgamations um but it came out of a point of wanting his son to live not out of like wanting to be younger right well should we Those were both excellent stories. So check out Max Voynich. Again, he hasn't posted well. I really want to see more stuff out of him. We'll post him, his account in the description, and we'll also post the Max Voynich subreddit where people discuss his stories and stuff like that.

1:18:44Max Voynich:So be sure to show this guy some love. And Max, if you're watching this, make more stuff. This was awesome. I enjoyed it. All right. So with that, you ready to move on to dopamine?

1:18:58Dopabeane:Yeah. Let's finish off with the Dopa Bean story, which is they told me I was nothing but a dog. Yep.

1:19:04Max Voynich:And we all, like I said at the beginning, we're all familiar with Dopa Bean, wrote the incredible story. The dead girl in my yard was the best friend I ever had, which is it might be a top 10 we've ever covered on this show, to be honest, because I think I know that story. I know fans love it.

1:19:22Dopabeane:I know that we had a great time reading it. So much emotional depth. it's just it's hard not to fall in love with the character like that that girl uh character the spirit this entity and just kind of the the crazy i don't want to reveal too much in case we have our new new viewers if you haven't read that story or heard us talk about it please listen to that episode or go read the story for yourself because it is uh it's really it's really really

1:19:46Max Voynich:fun so i'm excited there were so many good like the dialogue moments where the dead girl's describing like oh the birds came with the trees in the first summers and stuff it was so magical

1:19:57Dopabeane:hauntingly like beautiful like tragic yeah in my head it takes up the same real estate as things

1:20:04Max Voynich:like chronicles of narnia and uh where the wild things are like it's like a child's almost imagination of this world they were on but it has such a like like a undertone of death i mean she's a dead girl, but also with his sick brother or sick, uh, mother and stuff like that. Like, uh, gosh, it was just such a good story, but, uh, yeah. So Dopa being killed it. Uh, and now we're reading another story from them. This was posted seven years ago and it's called, they told me I was nothing but a dog. Uh, once again, Dopa being, uh, their account has been deleted because Reddit it's lame. Um, but we're going to link their sub stack and we're going to link, uh, the subreddit for the North American, what's the name of that big series they write?

1:20:47Max Voynich:The North American Pantheon. We'll have that linked in the description, all their stuff. And I'll verify that Dopa Beans is their new account, but if it is, we'll link that too. So be sure to show them some support, especially now when they need it. So that out of the way, they told me I was nothing but a dog. My father named me Laka because when I was born, my grandfather told him to treat me like a bad dog. To father, Leica was synonymous with dog. He used the name to remind me of my place in the hierarchy. Lesser. Beneath. Inferior. Nothing but a dog. What is, yeah, Leica's the dog the cosmonaut sent up.

1:21:27Max Voynich:Kayla has a Leica tattoo on her arm. What? When they were born, the father said, treat nothing but a bad dog. That's an insane thing. for any human to say.

1:21:42Dopabeane:Very, very, not a healthy relationship right now, no.

1:21:46Max Voynich:No, no, a newborn's there and your father shows up like, treat that nothing but a dog. Like a bad dog. My father meant to humiliate and degrade me with such a name, but he honored me instead. You see, Laika was a stray dog from Moscow. On the 3rd of November, 1957, Soviet Union put her on Sputnik 2 and launched her into space. She was the very first animal to orbit Earth. The Soviets knew how to put a rocket into space, but they didn't know how to bring it back. This made Lake's mission a death sentence. Shortly after reaching orbit, the interior of Sputnik 2 became catastrophically hot. Far too hot for mammals to tolerate.

1:22:26Max Voynich:Mere hours after launch, Lake had died an agonizing death. She perished the same way she'd lived. Lesser, beneath, inferior, abandoned, unloved. Nothing but a dog. I spent many hours imagining her terror, pain, and loneliness. How would it feel, spending my last hours hurtling through divine darkness in a metal bucket? What must it be like to not understand what I was seeing? Why it was suddenly so loud and so hot? What must it be like to not understand why? after being plucked from cruel streets and dropped into a bustling world of kindness I was now alone perhaps I wouldn't think I'd been a bad dog perhaps I'd think this was my punishment Jesus Christ I'm sad do what?

1:23:15Dopabeane:I said Jesus Christ I'm sad

1:23:18Max Voynich:I'm so sad now this is an insanely heavy opening to a story

1:23:24Dopabeane:I have to pull up the picture of your lips there it is

1:23:28Max Voynich:does that make you feel better

1:23:31Dopabeane:slightly actually it kind of made me even more depressed honestly why did the lips make you more depressed it's we just gotta keep going all right

1:23:41Max Voynich:Lake is such a tragic tale I think about her a lot such a cute dog it's like she was just used for you know our understanding of something but she was a casualty from the beginning and that had to be so scary for you know little dog didn't know what was going on yeah tragic that made you feel better right me saying that just

1:24:08Dopabeane:no I was like yeah I'm really I'm in a good fucking headspace I'm sure everybody too is just like now just sitting here quietly thinking about existentialism and stuff it's pretty funny

1:24:17Max Voynich:do you know the song Holland 1945 I love that one yeah that's my favorite song I'm not crazy about neutral milk hotel but I love that song but I see people attribute the end of the chorus to her all the time where it's like and now she rides a comet's flame and never coming back again the world seems better from a star right down from where you are yeah I see all I see all this stuff it'll be like Kayla's tattoo is Laka the dog with an astronaut helmet on her yeah It's just, it's a sweet, what I like about Lake is so much is it was such a tragic moment. And it's such a terrible thing in history where it's like, let's just, let's just kill things.

1:25:01Max Voynich:Let's just ruin creation for our understanding of it, which I understand like disease research, stuff like that. There's a greater purpose. There's an end. But in Lake's case, it really was just for our knowledge, for our getting to know something. Some life was lost and it's tragic. But now there's this reinvigoration of her where people see her as kind of a symbol of tragedy and what was lost. And because of that, they make her beautiful. There's drawings of dogs with helmets and floating through space and on comments and stuff like that. I don't know. I like seeing the art, like the beauty that comes out of it, you know?

1:25:35Max Voynich:Now you're in a good headspace. Now you're really ready to go. Punishment is my mother tongue. I know what it was like to be punished for transgressions I cannot remember or understand. We hurt so badly, my heart rate triples. my mind flies out the window and soars into the stars retracing lake is doomed flight while my husk squirms and weeps on the floor of a dirty house 68 miles below even so i adapted to punishment as i said it eventually becomes a language given enough time anyone can learn a language what i could not adapt to was fear as a child i was afraid of everything you see in the deepest most forgotten parts of the world, there are things that most people cannot believe and even fewer would understand.

1:26:24Old ways, old things, old truths, and old monsters.

1:26:30Max Voynich:Monsters like my father and my grandfather. How can I describe this in a way you will believe? Maybe I can't. Maybe I shouldn't try. So instead, I'll describe my grandfather. He was called Pavel. By the time my turn nine he had gone through six bodies by this i mean he inhabited them using a variant of blood magic perfected by my forebears across many centuries he leapt from body to body okay he was not a spirit he had a corporeal body of his own twisted monstrous thing covered in scars and hard glittering skin a body that could shrink to the size of a garden snake or expand to the size of a house.

1:27:13Max Voynich:But for all its marvels, his body was weak. Sunlight burned its eyes and blistered its flesh, so it entered other bodies, like a hand inside a puppet, and wore them until they rotted away. I'll never forget the sight of him, of many hymns, and different bodies, his flesh degraded and fell away in wet, discolored strings, or the way his eyes, hard, round, yellow eyes, blended deep within their stolen sockets. Grandfather preferred the bodies of men, but sometimes chose women or children. Once he even wore the body of my mother. I was very young then, perhaps three, and the sight of her familiar form standing before the fire sent me into such transports of joy that I bawled from sheer ecstasy.

1:28:00Max Voynich:Yes, Kayla just stepped in. We're talking about Lake of the Dog, actually. This episode, can you show your tattoo? But, uh, hold it up. Yeah. Right. Look at that. He got a little helmet. He's wearing the helmet. He's up in space. Oh, my God. Okay, thank you. Then she turned around, and in her bruised sockets, I saw my grandfather's eyes. Flat, glittering yellow, like rotted gold. I reared back, screaming. My father, who had been stroking a pair of old baby shoes, looked at me with contempt so deep it scorched my heart. Shut up, dog! I cringed. This was a mistake. His contempt exploded into disgust.

1:28:44Max Voynich:He shot out of his chair and stomped upon me. Dirty, squirmy pain exploded across my abdomen. I hobbled away, whimpering, and under the stairs. I lay there alone for many hours. Eventually, my mind left my body and soared into the sky, a reverse dive into a sea of stars. I drifted away, dreaming of diamond-colored constellations and red nebula. At my side was a curly-tailed dog with a striped face, my namesake, Laker. Aw. Gosh.

1:29:21That made me really sad, the idea of an abused kid thinking about being in the stars with Laker.

1:29:28Max Voynich:It's really... I remember that there was this one, this little poem I saw where someone was talking about how Lake is up in space and kind of serves as like a river sticks figure almost for like all astronauts and animals lost in space. Lake of the Guardian, Lake of the Guide. Man. Gosh, that's sad. That's so rough to read about kids. And the story handles it in like a way where it's like part of it and it feels very respectful and like, and it understands the weight of the subject matter, but still you also, why would you as a grandfather possess your son's wife or at least your son's like concubine?

1:30:17Dopabeane:I don't know. It's very odd. Does that seem like some weird incest stuff would happen?

1:30:22Max Voynich:Yeah, that seems weird. That seems very, or, or just to know what if right now, Hunter you Allison was like hey yesterday I was your dad I'd probably kill myself that's the only that's the only option right like the uh which I mean to be fair he is like a fucking immortal

1:30:41Dopabeane:blood wizard or whatever so who knows who knows what in the mind of a blood wizard twilight

1:30:47Max Voynich:vampire sparkling guy would know that's true who knows when I woke I felt her furry and warm chest rising and falling under my hand i opened my eyes for just an instant i saw her in the shadows then she shrank away sinking into the ground i tried to grab her but the floor swallowed her my fingers closed on cold hard floorboards i covered my eyes and wept several months later grandfather within mother gave birth to a child okay see like that's weird right

1:31:25Max Voynich:Hey, son, I possessed your wife while she gave birth to your child.

1:31:30Dopabeane:Treat your kid like a dog and come over here and have sex with me.

1:31:33Max Voynich:Treat your kid like a dog and let me birth my grandchild. I'm pregnant, son. I'm pregnant with your baby. Yeah, this guy's a freak. This is not for being like a multidimensional spirit demon or whatever. He's just weird. A baby boy with yellow eyes and my father's curly black hair. Mere minutes after the birth, Father picked up the baby and took him outside. He returned an hour later, empty-handed. Spurred by horror, I immediately ran out into the night. The cold was brutal, but once invigorating and exhausting. I searched until I found the baby, whimpering weakly beside a snowdrift. He was still covered in birthblood.

1:32:13Max Voynich:I named him Alexander and brought him home. When I walked in, Father immediately slapped me. I reeled back as stars rocketed across my vision. Never! He hissed, contempt dripping from every syllable.

1:32:26Dopabeane:Never disobey me again. Give him to me now.

1:32:31Max Voynich:He reached for Alexander. Grandfather stopped him. I looked up and swallowed a whimper. Grandfather stared back at me through my mother's rotting face, the mouth puffy and discolored with an oddly detached look, quirked into a smile. No, let the door keep her pup. We have other concerns. They certainly did. They worked together and they worked constantly. Father kidnapped victims and grandfather used them. Whenever father brought a new victim to the cabin, grandfather used his hands, long hideous things marked with scars and covered in strange glittering flesh to tear out the victim's tongue and crush their feet.

1:33:12Max Voynich:Then he would wait until nightfall, because remember, sunlight burned Grandfather's eyes and blistered his skin and carried them to his chapel. His chapel was an ancient stone structure at the base of a wooded hill. Within the chapel were three red windows and six rough-hewn pews. At the end of each pew set desiccated corpses facing the altar like sentries. I hated Grandfather's chapel. the very air weighed upon me whenever I entered, crushing my heart and poisoning my lungs. The worst part was the fear, electric and paralyzing, inescapable. Luckily, I was just a dog. Dogs do not spend much time inside chapels.

1:33:53The dogs hear screams, even screams from far away,

1:33:57Max Voynich:echoing down forested mountains long into the night. Grandfather did not often leave his chapel, but when he did, it was always in the wee hours of the morning. I know this because my father and I were required to hold vigil until he walked through our door. Whenever Grandfather came back from his chapel, he looked human again. Smooth skin, wide smile, good proportions. Sometimes he looked a bit like father. Sometimes he looked like his victim. It was as incomprehensible to me as outer space would have been to Laka. The stream of Grandfather's victims never ended. the patrons, the elderly, travelers, orphans fleeing violence.

1:34:36Max Voynich:There were so many. So, so many. You think that maybe it's saying that...

1:34:52Max Voynich:Oh, that was a good stretch. Pop something. You think that it's saying that this isn't actually a grandfather. this is like a demon or something that the father invited in years ago and i was just kind of

1:35:05Dopabeane:worshiping it seemed i mean it's got to be something like that i mean i'm still wondering why the why this motherfucker even had a kid like why why even have why keep one why yeah the only thing i'm thinking is that if during the during the man's when he was with his wife during the pregnancy they had the kid and then between that moment and when the kid was born he had made some deal with some kind of monster to where then the monster was just like yeah you gotta treat that thing like a fucking dog or whatever you know otherwise why would it be this generational thing or

1:35:38Max Voynich:unless it's similar to our last story coincidentally the crow one and the they need the kid for something yeah I mean once like it gets to a certain age they're needed for a ritual

1:35:49Dopabeane:well with the the continuous theme and callback of like I mean it is going to be some kind of sacrifice for some kind of exploration or some kind of, you know, in this case, you know, ritual or something.

1:36:02Max Voynich:You weren't supposed to give that away.

1:36:04Dopabeane:You just told the audience what the theme for the episode is. I can't figure that out yet. Okay, well, it's been two episodes and we're talking about Laika which was sacrificed for science, I guess, if you want to call it that.

1:36:15Max Voynich:You mean the real religion? Yeah, well. The people's religion. I saw a Reddit post the other day, some lady posted, it was in like our, whatever town she was in San Francisco, Denver, whatever. She was like, Hey, my kid, um, uh, is really interested in Christianity. And she wants to go to Sunday school. Uh, I'm not a Christian and my husband used to be. So we're just wondering if there's any churches in the area. Thanks. And the top of applause. Someone said you should check out the local science center.

1:36:53Max Voynich:well maybe teach your kid a real religion

1:37:01Max Voynich:uh anyway um if it weren't for alexander i would have withered into nothing he was more than a brother to me for all intents and purposes he was my son neither father nor grandfather cared for him didn't even feed or clothe him I had to feed and dress him with what little I had. Despite my best efforts, he never learned to speak. That isn't to say he couldn't communicate. He could, with gestures and facial expressions and nonsense syllables. The language eluded him. But it was alright. He grew into a sweet, curious boy with freckles and long, delicate hands. Over time, his terrible yellow eyes mellowed to a clear, bright green.

1:37:43Max Voynich:He was my life. He was my heart. But he wasn't enough. One night, as a little girl's screams came shrieking down the mountain from Grandfather's chapel, I finally went to my father. I lay prostrate at his feet, which is how he taught me to approach him. The wooden floor was rough and painfully cold under my fingers. Why, Father, why do you do this? He sat in his chair watching the fire. At his hands, he held a pair of white baby shoes.

1:38:11Dopabeane:Because your grandfather and I must live, little dog. Will I have to do this to live? Yes.

1:38:20Max Voynich:Then I don't want to live. I understand. He said, his grip tightened on the shoes. But you do not have a choice. I choked back a sob and waited for the dismissal. I could not come to him without crawling, and I could not leave until he told me so. Instead, he said, Stand up, Laika. Hearing my name was like being doused in ice water. Never used it. By that point, in fact, I'd almost forgotten I had a name.

1:38:47Dopabeane:I said stand up, Laika.

1:38:49Max Voynich:It was a struggle to obey. Fear made my bones rubbery and my muscles weak. Father held out the baby shoes.

1:38:56Dopabeane:What do you see? Shoes? Old baby shoes? Those shoes belonged to my sister, Alexandra. I loved her more than anything. More than life. More than my parents. More than your mother. more than you. She was my heart."

1:39:16Max Voynich:I watched him. The firelight threw his face in a relief, grating crevices out of wrinkles. His curly black hair shifted like smoke and his long, sharp nose looked strange and monstrous. Paralytic electricity swarmed my skin, so much like the chapel that I could have wept.

1:39:34Dopabeane:On my twelfth birthday, your grandfather boiled a pot of oil and called Alexander to him. She and I were going to pick wildflowers later, so she dressed in her finest clothes. A blue dress and white shoes.

1:39:49Max Voynich:These shoes. Father did not speak for a very long while. She was my heart. He finally repeated. When my heart broke, I broke it.

1:40:02Dopabeane:It made me like grandfather. Someday I will be just like him. I will live forever. You will too.

1:40:11Max Voynich:That night I had a nightmare of a little girl with sunken yellow eyes melting into blisters as my mother's rotted body doused her with boiling oil. I woke screaming. Moonlight streamed through the window, drenching my room in celestial silver. My heart thumped so wildly that I could see my nightshirt moving. I wanted to escape. I wanted it to escape too, because without it I would die. and when I was dead, I could sail the stars with the other Laika. Small, warm hands touched my face. I turned, expecting Alexander. Instead, I saw my nightmare. Great inflamed blisters bubbled and burst, sending rivulets of pus down her tiny, raw face.

1:41:00Max Voynich:The skin around its mouth had burned away, leaving neat rows of milk teeth fully exposed, closed, burned scalp and dull bone glinted through black curly hair. Blue dress clung to her body, oil dripped from them, soaking my blanket. Don't cry, she whispered. Alexander stirred between us. Get out. The girl's blistered chin quivered.

1:41:27Dopabeane:But you made me come here. Please let me sleep. All right.

1:41:33Max Voynich:I whispered, because I did not know what else to say. The girl burrowed under my blanket. I watched, aghast, as she threw a bony, burnt arm across Alexander and drifted to sleep. That night, I did not sail to stars with Laika. Instead, I sat awake, watching the apparition with mingled excitement and fear. Just before dawn, my door creaked open. I tried to shield the girl as my father stepped into the room. What is that? Please, please don't. The girl shifted and incredibly began to shrink. Her body flattened into nothing, leaving her dress crumpled on the floor. That sank away too, leaving the cold, empty floor in its wake.

1:42:19Max Voynich:What was that? I saw it in my sleep. Her! Her, not it! I saw her in my sleep. When I woke up, she was here. sweat gleamed on father's skin reminded me of stars get dressed you must see your grandfather immediately felt my hands and knees and crawled to him no stand up bring the boy i'll accept she's because they did that i imagine now that it's time for their turn where they have to

1:42:50Dopabeane:sacrifice yeah the the like is gonna have to sacrifice alexander yeah alexander wept angrily

1:42:58Max Voynich:when I picked him up, I ignored him and followed father into the dark forest. The full glory of early spring bathed the landscape. Pale beams of light shafted through the canopy, cutting the thick shadows with gold. The vermin crept through the undergrowth, and deer watched from a distance. The forest was always full of animals. Grandfather was no danger to the birds or beasts, after all. Soon the chapel came into view, an ancient little church with a black spire, red windows, and frost and crested stones. I love, I mean, there's been a ton of videos or episodes we've done that revolve around like an old steeplechurch in the woods, like spire in the woods and stuff.

1:43:39Max Voynich:And I always love it, especially like in Deep Woods, the first part of Deep Woods, where you get the impression that hundreds of years back, there was some ritual that was performed here or there was some spell. And now everything we see is the influence of that. Yeah, the aftermath. Like back where it all began. Yeah, I love that trope. It gets me every time. Father ushered us inside. The moment I crossed the threshold, my skin began to crawl. Dread and fear swept over me. Alexander burst into tears. Father shoved me toward the altar. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sentry corpses twitching.

1:44:17Max Voynich:Chest rose and fell in jagged, senseless rhythms. One especially tall corpse with long copper hair turned as I passed. I covered Alexander's eyes and stopped at the altar. Shadows thickened and rised against the back wall. Back in the pews, bones clattered and dried joints creaked. Something blinked in the darkness behind the altar. Great, flat eyes like golden moons shining in the cold shadows. Grandfather. The dark. Grandfather intoned. And her pup. He snarled, a deep, bone-shaking rumble like that of a tiger. Teeth glinted in the shadows, a shining ivory arc wider than Father's entire head.

1:45:05Pavel, she had a nightmare. When she woke, it followed her out of the dream. It came alive, and I saw it.

1:45:18Dopabeane:Our little dog has talent after all. All good and well. If he loves a pup, do you love your pup, Dark?"

1:45:28Max Voynich:He weirded up from the shadows, twisted, sinewy, and utterly inhuman. Do you love him, or do you feel obligated to him? I opened my mouth to answer. Instead, I burst into tears. Grandfather laughed, a low roar that shook dust from the rafters overhead. Awake, bitch, indeed.

1:45:54Dopabeane:I hope it's in the boy, Mikael. It was always in the boy. That is why we made him. Now go.

1:46:06Max Voynich:Those great yellow eyes flicked to the pews. I do not like to tempt my sentries, not when they are hungry as they are. Fear and disbelief battled across Father's weathered face Do you not understand what I've told you?

1:46:23Dopabeane:She creates life from thoughts A poor substitute from what we were calling Leave, Miguel But

1:46:30Max Voynich:Grandfather rocketed out of the shadows A rippling mass of glittering skin and malformed limbs And knocked Father to the stones The corpse entries uttered a deep sigh and continued to twitch Never! Grandfather snarled sunlight poured through the crimson windows imbuing him strange hide with a red glow he looked like the sky starry piece of outer space never defy me i waited breathlessly for grandfather's eyes to burst in his skin to sizzle he was after all exposed to daylight but it did not many moments later grandfather struck father across the face and whipped back into the darkness We left.

1:47:12Max Voynich:Father did not speak again until the cottage came into sight, and he grabbed me and dragged me off the path. Listen. Listen, Will. I can protect you from him, Ben. He looked down at Alexander, eyes blazing with disgust. When the time comes, I can protect you from him, too.

1:47:34Dopabeane:But only if you help me. Why should I need protection? He's small and loves me as a mother. Do you remember the story of Alexandra? I nodded. Your story is coming. Only Alexandra will be me. And you will be Alexandra.

1:47:53Max Voynich:My heart fell to the cold earth. Carefully pressed Alexandra's head into my shoulder, shielding his face from father.

1:48:00Dopabeane:Listen, dog. When next you dream of my sister?

1:48:06Max Voynich:His voice broke. He pulled away and ran his fingers through his hair. Tears shone in his eyes, which were huge and miserable over his quivering mouth. When she comes again, bring her to me.

1:48:20Dopabeane:All right, father.

1:48:22Max Voynich:I'd never seen him weep before. The sight was frightening and curiously thrilling. I will. Father nodded curtly and left. I nearly followed, but thought better of it. Instead, he stayed in the forest with Alexander. interesting so it's like there's this discrepancy between father and grandfather where he thinks that alexander's not worthy i guess and he would rather it be his daughter even though he hates her because i don't know interesting i will say i really love when it was describing his flesh the red flesh and said it looked like the nebula of space that works so well with the lake metaphor the story's been chasing where like space was this unknowable impossibility to Laka.

1:49:05Max Voynich:And now we see that same image reflected in the skin of Gring and Father. Right. That's such a cool motif. As the morning brightened and birdsong swelled to a symphony, I set Alexander upon the narrow path. He ran forward, humming a tune of his own composition. Shadow and sunlight dappled his skin, turning him into a woodland sprite. Trees were in full bloom. Petals drifted down like snow, carpeting the earth in glistening white. Alexander pulled ahead. After a while, I couldn't hear or see him. He drifted away, slipping under the deep shadows. Panic overtook me.

1:49:44Dopabeane:Alexander? Alexander!

1:49:46Max Voynich:I rushed ahead, grimacing against the pain in my chest. My heart thumped wildly, so hard I could see my shirt move. I wanted to escape again. Alexander! He darted from between the trees. I halted, overcome with relief so powerful I took my breath away. Petals covered his head and shoulders. As I watched, one drifted down and settled on his nose. Wide green eyes glimmered above it, bright as the promise of spring. For the first time in my life, my heart was so full that I wept. That night, Alexandra came to me again, blistered flesh dripping down her face. Her eyes had melted away, being raw, swollen masses of flesh in her melted sockets.

1:50:28Max Voynich:Remembering my instructions, I set up. Father? I quivered. Alexandra reached for me blindly, ruined hands closing on shadows. Father? Father burst into my room, gasping. Alexandra? He shot forward, arms extended as if to sweep her up. She turned. Father froze. Rose. Alexandra tottered towards him. Mikael, Mikael, my eyes hurt. Father collapsed and covered his eyes as Alexandra approached. She left a trail of pus and oil, shining like a tiny river in the moonlight. Mikael, my hands hurt. Father wheezed miserably.

1:51:14Dopabeane:Mikael, my skin is on fire and it drips away.

1:51:18Max Voynich:She stopped before him and crouched. Father whimpered and whined like a beaten dog, twisting away from her hands. She set her small hand on his cheek. Father squalled and writhed, but couldn't break away from her. Mikael. She wept.

1:51:35Dopabeane:You are just like him now.

1:51:37Max Voynich:She jerked and began to shrink, to sink, disappearing into the floor. The moment her hand fell away, Father leapt up to his feet and ran. After that, he did not ask to see Alexandra. This is good, because I did not see her in my dreams after that. I only saw Laika. Oh, that makes sense as to why earlier in the story she saw the vision of the dog. I didn't put that together until just now. That the reason she saw the dog is because she has this power to bring life. Yeah. I spent most nights drifting among the stars with that dear, doomed dog at my side. Imagined or not, sights were glorious. Incomprehensibly beautiful star formations, planets, great multicolored expanses of celestial mists.

1:52:21Max Voynich:Sometimes I woke, leery and incoherent, felt her fur against my skin. By the time I opened my eyes, there was nothing. One winter morning, I woke very early. My stomach growled immediately, and no wonder. Father had it fed me for days. I fed Alexander with table scraps and tree bark. That, I decided, would change today. I crept into the kitchen. There wasn't much, there never was, but I scraped together what little I could and turned around. My grandfather sat at the table, great golden eyes shimmering in his terrible face. Little bitch, what have you done to your father? He no longer hunts. He no longer eats.

1:53:06Max Voynich:He no longer obeys. I felt like I was back in his chapel, crushed by darkness, heavy with dread, on the verge of panic.

1:53:15Dopabeane:Your ability has not been seen on this earth for a thousand years or more.

1:53:23Max Voynich:Of course, the ability wasn't of earth. I no doubt come across it while sailing through space and breathing stardust.

1:53:30Dopabeane:It's just nightmares. No. You take the dark things of the world The fear The hate, the pain And channel them into physical form And that is just The beginning You will be able to do anything You will make bodies Permanent Perfect bodies for me And for you

1:53:57Max Voynich:Oh I see, then why be so Dismissive of her if she can make you a perfect body

1:54:04Dopabeane:idiot I think that if you are like this is an omnipotent being I think he probably wants to it's kind of like Zeus or it's like Kronos being afraid of Zeus or something it's like it's like almost like this thing is going to kill and replace me maybe so maybe he's just like making it he's making like a feel lower than what it actually is potentially

1:54:29Max Voynich:yeah because his whole thing is subservience i guess so it's like you have to continue to make

1:54:35Dopabeane:it a dog so it doesn't get ideas but also he also probably just didn't know that she that you know she had that power until now yeah yeah the relish in his voice made me sick he said our women have

1:54:48Max Voynich:always been weak and talentless i thought the same of you little bitch tears pricked my eyes and my bones thrummed as if struggling to break through flesh and run away. It was no use. Destiny had already bloomed between my grandfather and I, heavy and foul with the promise of despair. Grandfather whispered, Listen closely, for you only hear this once. I was wrong. He left. I ran to the window and watched him hurtle through the trees as sunrise threatened back to his chapel. I waited until the sun was up. Then I ran to my room, bundled Alexander and every bit of clothing I could find, and left.

1:55:30Max Voynich:We followed the path for many miles. Our home was hours and hours from the nearest town. Couldn't reach until long past nightfall. I could only hope the grandfather wouldn't notice our absence until the following day. It wasn't an unlikely hope. Grandfather spent most of his time in the chapel. The second this thought crossed my mind, a glittering dark shape left out of the trees and knocked Alexander from my arms. I caught a blur of twisted limbs and nightmarish hands Of great yellow eyes like flattened moons Alexander screamed as the torrent of blood splattered across the snow It sank quickly, melting red canyons through the pristine white Grandfather at me, narrowing sides, heaving Then he leaned down, tore out Alexander's throat He screamed, birds took flight and mammals ran through the undergrowth The piercing note echoed off the mountains The pain within it should have ended the world, but there was no one to hear, no one to care.

1:56:29Max Voynich:Grandfather grinned. Alexander's blood and sinews clung to his teeth. I broke. I felt it. Crushing weight of sorrow, the almost physical sensation of my spirit tearing and bleeding out into my guts. I fell to my knees and cradled Alexander's head for hours. My father finally found us around nightfall. He had a heel of bread and an oily chicken leg. He pressed them both into my hands, then left. I tore the bread into pieces and dropped them, one by one, into Alexander's mouth. When he did not wake, I burst into tears and hurled the chicken leg into the woods. The moon rose into the cruel, dark sky.

1:57:10Max Voynich:Stars glimmered through the bare branches overhead, creating a breathtaking fractal pattern. I plopped down beside Alexander, pulling him to my body. He was cold, terribly cold. I held him anyway, keeping my eyes trained on the stars. My mind detached with great difficulty, like it was trapped in tar. Finally, it wrenched itself free and sailed upward, disappearing into a silvery sea of sky and stars, rocketing ever higher until I saw the earth spinning below. Laika's rocket zoomed past. I reached out and caught one of the metal bars near the nose. I could sense Laika within. Her terror vibrated through the craft and leeched into my bloodstream.

1:57:54Dopabeane:It's alright. It's alright, Laika. I'm here. When you land, we'll help you out and we'll play together.

1:58:02Max Voynich:Her fear diminished, and so did her pain. So did mine. Together we sailed the stars, looking upon the earth and marveling at the incomprehensible beauty around us. I woke cold, sore, and in more pain than I can describe. Man, something about story, just the idea of a child being in such an awful, I mean, obviously this is like a supernatural abusive situation, but the idea of a child being in like a, you know, such a physically distressing, you know, painful position and taking comfort in the dog who had to go through something like that too. And then not only having the dog as a comfort, but wanting to comfort it.

1:58:44Dopabeane:Yeah, I was going to say, just the idea of something being like, it's also more tragic too that it's understanding how horrible its situation is. Yeah. And like looking up to something being like, don't worry, we'll get through this and we'll play together. It's just, yeah, heartbreaking. Yeah.

1:59:00Max Voynich:I woke cold, sore, and in more pain than I can describe. I set up. Alexander's stiff body broke away from mine. I reached for him blindly. A thin scrim of ice covered his eyes. The wound in his throat was an open horror, one I couldn't look at for long. I drew my knees to my chin and wept. After a while, something warm bumped my hand. Wet nose touched my palm. I knew what I would see long before I opened my eyes. Like a striped face and dear curly tail made me smile, even through my tears. stars glimmered through her fur gently pulsing pinpricks of light what is this grandfather's voice echoed through the trees rage flowed through my blood exquisitely corrosive hate i learned then it's pleasurable it is fury and it is the basis of power grandfather erupted from the darkness scald skin shimmering like a river under the moonlight you waste your talent On a mutt.

2:00:09Dopabeane:Not even on your own pup. No matter. I will correct you.

2:00:16Max Voynich:Laka reared up and leapt, snout piercing one of Grandfather's flat moon eyes. He screamed and shook his head back and forth. Laka fell to the snow, twisting and quickly righted herself. Then she bit his foot. Her teeth sank through that impenetrable, immortal hide like butter. Laka was not large enough or strong enough to kill him, but she tore holes in him the way a match scorches holes in paper. Soon Grandfather was on his knees, mere feet from Alexander's corpse. Lika came to me, panting and collapsed in my lap. She bled from a thousand wounds, some small, some undoubtedly mortal. Good dog, my voice broke.

2:00:59I stroked her gently, willing those wounds to close.

2:01:02Max Voynich:I was a monster. I used Lika just like the others had, calling her down on false pretenses, filling her with hope, before throwing her into the void.

2:01:13Dopabeane:Good girl. Good. Good girl.

2:01:17Max Voynich:I looked up his grandfather's good eye, slid to my dead brother. Something dark bloomed there. A wicked, corrupted hope. He curled in on himself, twisted body shrinking to a withered husk, and slid down Alexander's throat. I screamed as Alexander's body twitched and chuttered. Then he set up, bones creaking and frozen sinews cracking. He smiled, his eyes shone like molten gold in a forge. leica attacked again alexander's face curled into a snarl as she bit and tore his skin exhibiting an energy at odds with her awful wounds i watched helpless and hoping and hurting wishing i could detach and fly into the stars once more except there would be nothing there for me now i'd called leica down from the stars and doomed her snow crunched behind me i whirled around father stood there watching me with contempt and his hands was a sleek gleaming shotgun relief and horror engulfed me this was the end my mind would attach forever this time the fear would finally end like a bit down on grandfather within alexander who hit her she whined but it held fast father stalked past me and cocked the gun no don't hurt her Don't hurt her!

2:02:40Max Voynich:Father pointed the gun at Alexander's head and fired. Blood and viscera and dark, glittering flesh exploded across the snow. Father fired again, then reloaded and fired again and again. Alexander's head evaporated into red mist. Finally, his body lurched and Grandfather, small, pleading, scaled Grandfather, slithered out of his throat. Lake had caught and held him. Father pressed the barrel of the gun against his good eye and pulled the trigger as the sun broke over the mountains. Father stepped back. I reached for him, drunk on hope and gratitude, but he recalled for me. In his withered face, I saw despair, rage, and contempt.

2:03:28Max Voynich:He kept his eyes trained on mine as he placed the gun in his mouth. No! He pulled the trigger. Half his head evaporated, leaving a glistening mass like a fleshy geode. His body stumbled forward a step and crumpled to the snow. It took a very long time for the sun to burn grandfather down to dirty oil. Leica held on until the last scrap of skin melted. Then she stumbled to me and collapsed. I stroked her until her body shrank and sank into the ground, leaving nothing but a scattering of tiny, dim orbs. the stars I'd seen in her fur. I touched one. It was pleasantly hot. I gathered them up and slipped them into my pocket.

2:04:10Max Voynich:I went to Alexander's body, ravaged beyond description, broken in ways that did not seem entirely real, and sat with him until nightfall. Then I stood and walked away, and life went on. At first, I brought them back from my nightmares. Alexander, father, grandfather, even Alexandra. But I quickly taught myself to starve and eventually kill my ability. It's not a good power. It's born of rage, despair, selfishness, and fear. And I cannot tolerate fear. Besides, dogs do not have such awful powers. It is good to be a dog, because they're not necromancers. They're not monsters. they're nothing more or less than the simplest and most loving of creatures that's why I'll always be Blake of the Dog

2:05:09Dopabeane:when that is the end wow yeah what a great one I uh what I love about dopamine stuff is that the way that they write it almost feels like these are like entirely fantasy like they're like it almost feels like you're in the fucking landscape

2:05:28Max Voynich:of like a ghibli film or something yeah we're obviously in these times where at least the

2:05:33Dopabeane:russian experiment went so at least we're in the 50s at most 60s uh but it feels like these things like just being in the woods and having the chapel it's not like it really like addresses it i mean like we we hear about it and we know it's there but in my mind the way that they write about nature especially like the mammals and the animals that live in nature it just makes it sound so fantastical and these stories always wind up being these kind of like grand fantastical conclusions as well i mean i kept picturing the grandfather as just this giant i mean like i kept i don't know why i kept picturing the giant uh like the the bathhouse owner and uh spirited away like a the big nose and you know flying around and all that kind of stuff oh the witch yeah it makes me think Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:06:23Dopabeane:It makes me think of that. I just say it's really very interesting, too. The parallels, too, with Like of the Dog and even the narrator calling the dog at the end and using it the same way that, like, the Russians did. Obviously in a different context, but feeling that kind of, like, guilt and shame at the end was just so touching. And also, too, what a fun way for the author to be able to write a way of, like, Laika being able to come in and, like, bite and help kill the people that sent her out to space. you know yeah uh yeah in a lot of ways in so many different ways this would be so hard to pull off of being like yes literally like of the dog shows up and helps defeat the monster like that sentence alone sounds so absurd but i was so bought in and i love that the way that they just set it up that yes the persons can conjure these things from their dreams to help them it just was just wonderful just really really wonderful dopamine has such a great way of writing and it's just such a treat every time we get to read it I like

2:07:25Max Voynich:I like the parallels between the like a story and like what's happening here and I like how grandfathers kind of stand in for the Russians what was the what was his name Paval Paval

2:07:37Dopabeane:yeah almost I thought it was Paval it was I thought it was Pavlov for a second which I thought was like a dog yeah the dog yeah

2:07:46Max Voynich:um have all cultism i feel like that's a name from something no maybe not um but it's interesting like the i feel like the name pavel would mean something but it sounds like a demonic entity yeah which i looked up and it's i'm not seeing anything immediately well to be fair it's just something from a different time i mean

2:08:11Dopabeane:even references that you know this earth hasn't seen your power in thousands of years or more so he would have to know about that maybe he isn't that old but in my mind when i read that i was like this is like an immortal being that has been around for thousands of years yeah yeah

2:08:27Max Voynich:very well could be um but man there it always uh obviously is heavy like children you know being put in stressful situations but i think this was done respectfully i think it was done with an appropriate weight and i'd like the connection between like this suffering and then like lake of the like of the dog suffering and stuff like that and like you said all the stuff that had to come together for it to make sense and not seem like uh jumping the shark to have lake of show up in the story and help at the end but it came there's it was set up appropriately that i

2:09:01Dopabeane:think it worked yeah no i think it worked really well i think that it handles the themes in a great way in a very influenced way that's just a lot of fun and i just like i said every time we get to read dopamine i mean this is just a second story but it's just such a fantastical big experience that they just feel so they feel so uh tonally its own you know like it just feels it just it dives into that fantastical territory in such a way that it almost instantly i'm just like oh yeah this is a dopamine story which i think is just really yeah really fun yeah like

2:09:32Max Voynich:I said it feels very uh like uh Narnia very like otherworldly you know legendary journey the kids go on kind of thing um there was something I was going to say about oh I also kind of like how the ending of the story almost goes with what I was saying earlier how Laker is such an interesting figure because she was one thing but now culturally she's been made into something so different almost as a way of saying sorry to what she originally was and here at the end of the story we have our we have our Lake of the person physically call down Lake of the dog. And then even then it suffers. So it's almost like a, it may not been going for this at all, but it's almost like a statement about the, like the line at the end.

2:10:20Max Voynich:It's good to be a dog because they're not necromancers. The idea of bringing back these old tragedies for your own use or your own purpose. It's almost better to just be something that shows compassion rather than something that twists meaning and desire for one's own purpose, even if the purpose is altruistic. Well, I don't know. I feel like there's something there.

2:10:40Dopabeane:Abandoning the powers and the line of dogs aren't necromancers. To me, it just seems that dogs are the epitome of innocence and man, no matter good or bad, will always have corruption. Like the power is fueled off hatred. I think it's just another thing that just shows that like man is you like it's better to be that of a dog than it is a man or whatever just because they are at it's at its core good you know i think that that's kind of the idea but man you know for a theme today of being sacrificed what a fun three stories we got to read really enjoyed getting to get in on max's stories for the first time and those are a lot of fun but all in all it's always fun to do a grab bag and i feel like all of these today were just great really really great especially after some last week's debacle.

2:11:29Dopabeane:So, you know, nice little palate cleanser. Thank you so much to our audio listeners over on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And of course, thank you to our patrons who do support the channel as well and get a little bit of extra content on the side. Until next time, guys, stay safe. And hey, pet your dog. Pet your dog on the head. All right. Needs a little pet. Go ahead. We'll take a little break for a second. All right. There you go. Thank you, guys.

2:11:54Max Voynich:and also be sure to support Dumpa Bean at the links in the description again they lost the Reddit account so support them while they need it and also check out all of Max Voynich's stuff incredible authors always like supporting people that write good stories because I like seeing more good stories get made so be sure to show them some love if you can it would mean the world and also be sure to not show Hunter love and if you see the picture of my lips anywhere from my dentist appointment go ahead and report it as an invasion of privacy under HIPAA laws he can't do that it's illegal and a federal crime.

2:12:25Max Voynich:So call the police and get him reported. That would be great. Thanks.

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