34 - Their First Lesson

 

Story 34

The students all watched him run. He was supposed to be teaching them advanced magics and preparation. But for the last two weeks this is what he was doing, running around the grounds and the lake. Every class they walked over to the grounds and watched him stretch and then run. He never spoke to them and they never spoke to him. It was the most bizarre feeling knowing that something was supposed to be happening and it just was not. 

The professor in question was someone they, the students, had never heard of. Even when they asked around there was not much information to go on. The Headmaster had hired him from the Southern Mountains, a small city on Zinq. When he showed up he was overweight and dirty. He quickly cleaned up. The day after he arrived he started running. That was over a month ago, it was seen as an oddity at first but now it was starting to get on the nerves of the students. How dare this person just run around the lake and not teach us.

Finally a tall boy with blonde hair spoke. “Fuck it” he said and caught up to the professor. Together they ran. There was no speaking, the student may act tough but you did not talk out of turn to the professors of the Academy, it just was not done. After a few laps the student whos name was Douglas, started to flag. He was not going to be able to keep up with the professor. As he started to slow, so did the man next to him. Eventually they both stopped on the far side of the lake. Far from the group of advanced students. The professor looked at the boy and said “not too bad. Why did you decide to run?” Douglas was not sure exactly what to say, so he told the truth “You are supposed to be teaching us. If this is what you are doing I might as well join.”

The professor smirked and looked up basking in the sunlight. “You know,” he said, “I have not been able to enjoy days like this in a long time. There is something about this valley air that really brings out the best in people and freshes the mind.” Douglas did not know what to say, he agreed that it was nice out but what was this person talking about. “We have not yet been introduced, my name is Stem, Christopher Stem.”

Douglas responded “MY name is Douglas Cross, but everyone calls me Duggy.”

Professor Stem chuckled lightly and said “Is that what you like being called, Duggy?”

Douglas shook his head and said that he preferred to be called Douglas. “Well then Douglas, why do you think I have been running around this lake during your class time?” Douglas had not actually given it much thought. The students collectively thought it was very rude for a professor to not teach lessons and even when they had complained to their other professors nothing was done about it. After just a few brief sentences with this person , Douglas saw the situation very differently. Not only did this professor understand he was supposed to be teaching, he claims that he actually was teaching. 

Douglas finally answered “ Well, this is the first time we have seen you stop so it is likely that you were waiting for one of us to join or stop you.” Professor Stem smiled at that and nodded his head. He chuckled as he responded “At first I was just being a jerk, I do not want to be here, but then you all refused to engage so I wanted to see how long it would take and determine who the strongest students were. So now Douglass, not Duggy, what should we be doing?” Douglas thought hard about this question. Professors generally did not ask the students what they should be doing, they taught and the students listened and learned. Douglas responded “We should be learning Advanced Magic and Preparation. We should be shown what to learn and what we need to practice at.”

Professor Stem looked Douglas up and down and nodded. “Ok” he said, tomorrow have the class will meet here on the far side of the lake and we can begin. Then he turned around and started jogging away. He had laps to finish after all and talking to students was exhausting work.

Douglas watched him go and when it was clear the Professor was not coming back, Douglas walked back over to the other students. “What did he say” they all asked. Douglas turn and looked towards where the Professor was then turned back and said “We start tomorrow.”

Flea Foot Buffett

They came over on the Noobie or The Leet,

They sat down close to his feet,

They didn’t need a menu,

They loved this venue,

They came here for the meat.

Carved on the momument for the fallen in the west garden of the Jedi Temple

We are the Jedi,

For generations we fought for peace and stability,

Now we are all but extinct.

We lost sight of what was important,

Balance is not about the light and the dark,

But about those who us the force to protect,

And those who use the force to attack.

Now you, the next Jedi must these lessons and forge a new,

Use what you have learned, protect those who need protection

Love those who need love,

And fight for those who cannot fight themselves.

No longer shall you hide. You must stand as the pillar of righteousness,

You must guide the Universe, You must teach the people.

You are Jedi.

33 - Why I like to watch other people play games

Today I was reminded that one of my personal favorite video games of all time, Chrono Trigger was made in 1995. 23 years have passed since then and I can still remember the day I got it. I couldn’t tell you what I did on a lot of days but I can tell you what I did that day. I had to go to the dentist.
I can still see a 13/14 year old me sitting in the dentist chair waiting for the doctor to come in while reading the instruction booklet that contained the basic instructions, some other basics about the game world, and a bunch of cool art. I spent countless hours leveling my characters up to ** (double stars was the highest level) and endlessly replaying the game on the New Game + setting.
While I was thinking about all of this I started to think about my most recent experiences with Chrono Trigger. The first, I plugged in our old SNES to my 55 inch television and played some Chrono Trigger with my son, who was four at the time. The other, is watching speed runners named Puwexil and Essentia, blow through the game in ~3 hours. Then I thought, wow those two things are actually very similar. I was enjoying Chrono Trigger with others my son and these two people I did not know in real life, but the effect was the same. It brought me right back to being a kid again loving Chrono Trigger.
My mother asked me in the last year “Why do you like watching people play video games, why not play them yourself?” The thing is I do play video games myself...all the time. I explained to her that it was the ease of being able to sit down for 20-30 minute or 4 hours depending on the event and just enjoy the game. As someone with two kids, a full time job, and a loving wife I cannot always sit down in front of the TV for 6 hours like I might have when I was younger.
Now though, the more I think about it, it's not really “watching” someone play a game, it is being with other people taking part in the gameplay experience. Watching someone play a game I know well, like Chrono Trigger, would not be the same without their commentary and knowledge. I get to experience something that I really like and learn something about it at the same time. Not only am I being entertained and educated but I am doing it with other people.
I remember fondly the days when my best friend and I would get together and play JRPGS. One of us would be controlling the characters while the other was talking and playing along. At the time it seemed very natural, playing video games gave us something to do together that was both engaging and did not require us to continually find new things to talk about. I do not get days like that anymore, except maybe with my wife and kids and that’s OK. But what I can do, is tune into someone on twitch or YouTube and easily slip back into those worlds that I lived in as a kid.

Gone are the days of multiple 12 hour “World of Warcraft” sessions with my wife. But I can watch someone run Final Fantasy 6 while I clean the house. I may not have the latest version of Zelda, but I can watch and enjoy others playing it, while my kids do homework.
I enjoy the social aspect of gaming as I except most people do. They use gaming as a way to relax, vent frustration, release pent up energy, and communicate with people. I find that watching someone else play and enjoy a game that I love is just as satisfying as playing it myself.

Halloween - Carving a Pumpkin

I decided to try my hand a free drawing a picture and then do my best to transfer it over to pumpkin.

Cut the paper and used a normal Carving kit to poke holes around my lines.

The two biggest pieces were cut out.

Cut up and cleaned. I put the candle in but you cant really tell.

Scary Witch!!! I was pretty happy with it and it looks just like my drawing.

32 - The Vander House - 3

The group of kids around me. All of them are nervous and even though they agreed to speak with me, no one wanted to talk. So I picked one of them and started asking questions.

“OK.” I said “so you think that Kevin is either in the house or somehow in the well. Then what?” One of them looks at me, he seems to be the leader of the group. He starts “ We were all on Skype just talking about it. We knew he had to be there. We felt responsible, you know? “ I nod my head and agree. Kevins parents had scolded all the kids and blamed them for Kevin disappearing.

He then started the story. The other boys all jumped in during this recounting And they proceeded to tell me the story as a group as they each told me individually. They had decided to meet up at the house early in the morning. This would give them as much daylight time to search around. One of the group had done some rock climbing at the gym with his parents and understood knots and hooks. He would bring his gear so, if it were necessary to head down the well and look there. Another kid brought some basic camping equipment including lanterns, canteens, and a small tool box.

The all went through the front door and past the police tape. They decided to split up into groups of 3 and 2. Kevin went in alone and it seems that none of them wanted to be alone. Three of the boys went to the second floor while a pair decided to check the first floor. The house had a deep film of neglect and dust. There were broken beer bottles in some of the rooms and most of the furniture that was there was destroyed to one degree or another. In the master bedroom across the wall was spray painted “Whores must be killed” followed by three swastikas. The upstairs master bath was in complete disrepair, and contained nothing of interest. The young boy's room however was different.

In here there was also a film of dust over everything, however that was the only noticeable change. The room was left alone. The rest of the house had creaky doors, floors, broken windows, and the sound of the wind. This room was quiet. Stepping into the room made all other noise fall away. You could hear your heart beating. You could hear the heart of the person next to you. Each of the kids that went upstairs described this separately and mentioned that they had never before felt so isolated from the rest of the world. They were all glad that they went up together. One of them said that being alone together is what let them leave the room. They suggested that if one of them had come in alone, they silence and unease of this place would have driven them crazy, and they also suggested that no one had been in that room since the boy was killed years ago.

I mentioned to them that when I looked through the police report, there were no pictures of the room, that I could find. It is also not mentioned at all even in passing. Viewing blueprints of the house, the child's bed was directly above the well shaft in the basement. Perhaps whatever is down there pools in this room?

The kids upstairs continue to look around the children's room. When when of them went to pick up an object, a force knocked it out of their hand. The object fell onto the floor with a loud bang, startling the rest of the kids. They then described what happened next “After the toy hit the floor, we all jumped. It broke the horrible tension in the room and then we three looked at each other and laughed. A voice from downstairs called up and said “Are you guys alright?” “Yeah” we yelled back. Then we stopped laughing. After we had all taken our eyes off the toy it started to move. No roll, like on a hill but move. Like it was being dragged. It was dragged slowly across the wooden floor. Achingly slow it traveled, then the screeching started. Screeech. The quiet and tension of the room came flooding back. The door started to close. One of the kids jammed his foot in between the door and the frame to stop it. Everyone had looked away to see the door and when they had looked back. The toy and the sound were gone.

The kids started to panic, toys just do not disappear. Then the laughing. Quiet, quiet laughter slithered into their ears. “Hello?” One of the kids said. “Is someone there?” But there was no answer, only the laughter. A small childs giggle, like he was playing a game and hoping to be caught. One of the kids lowered himself down to the floor level and using his flash light looked under the dresser. No toy, now the sound of someone swallowing their laugh. The flashlight then moved to the shelving that originally held the toy. Nothing was there either. The quiet moved in on all of them again. The kid then turned the light to under the bed. There was an old blanket still hanging down and covering the side and part of the floor. Near that blanket was clean marks like something had been pushed under it.

They kid moved over to the bed, when suddenly “What are you doing man? Dont look under the bed.” The kid stopped. “That thing went somewhere, maybe there's something wrong with the floor and its point at a trap door or something.” The kid said. “Well that's fine, but you know you don't look under the bed, right?”

The kid ignored his friend and moved closer to the bed. He got down as low as he could and slowly lifted the cover. There the toy stood, it was some kind of wooden bear with one of his jeweled eyes missing. Then from the shadows a hand reached out and grabbed it, “got cha!” a voice screamed, and a pair of blue eyes and old small teeth appeared out of the black. “Nooooo!” the kid screamed and ran for the door. The others ran right behind him and out of the room. The door then silently closed and locked itself.

The kids raced downstairs to find their friends who were examining items in the kitchen. The boy who looked under the bed was babbling about some kind of creature that tried to grab him. He then said “I can’t do this” and he left the house. They grabbed him and said they needed him to find Kevin. “I don’t think we are going to find Kevin.” He told them. This intervention seems to have been enough to calm his nerves because he stayed. The other boys who had gone upstairs tried to explain what had happened. The others did not believe them. “There has to be some kind of explanation. Let's go check it out”

31 - The Vander House - Part 2

Kevin Raymen was a 15 year old boy who lived near the old hill neighborhood. Old Hill was the name it was given after the last people there died and everyone moved away. He was dared by his friends to enter the house , head down the stairs, and take a selfie with the well spot. A known spot on the basement concrete where there is major discoloration from the well below or from the woman who died there. Kevin went into the house at approximately 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon. The quest should have been easy, in through a broken first floor window, down the stairs, snap the selfie, then back out. After 15 minutes his friend who were outside heard a scream and a door slam. Two of his friend went into the window after. They told police later that they have figured he fell down or scared himself and ran into a door. They were not able to find him and the door to the basement was locked and would not open. They also reported a strange small noise, that they described as kind of a whine. The boys assumed that it was Kevin stuck at the bottom of the stairs in the basement.

The two boys went back to the window and had their friends call the police. When police arrived the broke down the front door and with great effort broke down the basement door. There was no Kevin. They did find his phone with a picture of him in front of an open well shaft. The strange thing was, the well shaft was closed when the police arrived. They questioned the other kids, thinking they had been there before. The kids swear they hadn't and later investigation of the phone would show that the pictures were taken that day.

The police even went as far as breaking the top cap of the well and sending men down to see if Kevin had fallen down the shaft and perhaps the cap had closed on its own. But to no avail, there was no body found at the bottom of the well shaft and no body was found at the house. Currently police believe that this was a prank gone wrong and that perhaps the kids were playing a well planned prank.

The kids of course, denied this. Even if it was a prank why would Kevin have disappeared for so long? If they had recorded it to put on the internet, where is the footage? The kids claim and continue to claim that it was just a dumb idea they had one day. Kevin went in the house, screamed, disappeared, they called the police and then Kevin was gone. Kevins parents did everything they could to locate the boy. Search parties were sent to the area no less than four times. 13 days later late at night, there was a scream heard from the area of the house. A local boy claimed that it was screaming for help and said “They have me down here, but I got away, please someone help me...please help me!”. Police searched the house again and came up empty. They once again claimed that they were pranked and rounded up the orginal kids. They all had solid alibis either reliable business owners or their parents.

On the 17th day since Kevin went missing. He friends, the kids from the original dare decided that they needed to go look for Kevin. They knew the stories, they know what they were told by the police, but they did not believe it. Kevin was somewhere in that house, either in the house proper or deep in the well shaft. They were going to go in there and find him.

Five boys gathered infront of the Vander house on a Saturday morning loaded with backpacks of flashlights, rope, first aid kits, walkie-talkies, and radios. Five kids went into the Vander house to find their friend. The story they came back with was the most fantastical thing I had ever heard and I will do my best to put it down on paper. Even now I think of their fantastic story and my mind goes dark. According to the boys the places they went were not to be described, even though I will try. I first interviewed them separately to get each of their stories, then i interviewed them as a group. I still cannot believe the things they told me.