Paranormal Activity 1 and 2: Changeling Movies?

Last year I reviewed Paranormal Activity which is a really great horror movie using the "Found Video Footage" thing other movies I really liked (Cloverfield, Blair Witch Project) have done.

Well this year its back, as a form of prequel/sequel.

And thinking about it (while naming the entity "Nigel" as if he was a car from Top Gear) I came up with this SPOILERIFFIC TO BOTH MOVIES WARNING DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON explanation of how its really a Changeling backstory/scenario.

So in the interests of any Changeling fans or folks who like tales of the Faerie I present to you this incredibly DORKY analysis of the events of the (rather quite good) Paranormal Activity movies, mostly focusing on part 2.

There is also gonna be some "South Park" level foul language here and there.  I try to avoid it on this blog, but one can't discuss the Adventures of Nigel without it.

Hopefully the below will give some of you ideas for your own Changeling games!

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While trying to get to sleep this morning I had a thought.


Maybe its not a demon but a Fae. 

With a couple tweaks these two movies could pretty much be a Changeling: The Lost game/prequel.

We have Nigel (as I am calling him) who made a deal in exchange for a family's firstborn son. That's such a trope of the mythological Fae it isn't even funny.

Well there have been no firstborn sons for Nigel to take through the Hedge (The land between Arcadia and the Real World) back to Arcadia. Perhaps higher up Fae or someone had made a deal with him for the son and are equally pissed at him.

Thus no physical body for Nigel. Maybe its hidden somewhere or something similar. So he needs power to manifest at all in our mundane world. He needs his Glamour if he is gonna get the deal sealed. Or at least a little payback on them uppity humans...

Big Hooter Sisters' mom was one of Nigel's earlier targets since it was her mom or grandmom who hadn't fulfilled her end of the bargain and Nigel's bosses are kind of pissed. Fae just LOOOVE swiping human babies, and this is one they wouldn't even need to have a Fetch to replace.

(Fetches being the simulacrums the Fae leave in place of the actual humans they abduct.)

His messing with her caused the twins before they had their own twins hur hurr to mess with occult stuff thus giving him more Glamour (spiritual magic Fae type energy) so he could cause more havoc.

Which causes the STUFF THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT. (Coming to you Halloween 2011 or 2012 depending on whichever idea Paramount's beancounters have to milk this action for all its worth. We all know PA3 is coming next year. And its either gonna be a prequel or the Hunt for.. Hunter while Katie F. still looks about the same age.)

Then for whatever reason it stops. Nigel probably used up too much of his Glamour and now he can't do much. Its gonna take a little time and a lot of bad vibes before he can do any manifestations again.

So he is saving up, waiting and watching. Then here comes Hunter. WHAM!! Nigel uses up a big hunk of Glamour and goes apespit on the house. Its time to pay up. Except as we have seen, Nigel is a DICK. He used up too much, which is why shit slows down for a few weeks. He can't do as much, but can cause just enough trouble to get more power than he is using.

Even if that stupid housekeeper and dog keep harshing his mellow. They are gonna get theirs. Oh YES.

He finally gets rid of the housekeeper and has enough power to mess with the dog, taking it out. All those bad vibes and the fear he is causing (plus handy use of Ouija board to give him a stronger grip on the living world) have BK Franchise dad and Allie leave, giving him free reign on Mom and Hunter.

ITS TIME TO BRING THE BEATSTICK. 

He tries to grab mom and her fear, while Glamour creating, isn't quite enough for him to grab her first time. (Plus Nigel is only slightly brighter than his victims and doesn't always do the smartest things. If they did, mom and Hunter would have gone with the other two. And Nigel would already have Hunter. Unless he wants to be a complete dickhead. And Nigel is quite the dickhead.)

But he has enough Glamour now to pop his spirit back in the Hedge and get to Hunter's room before Mom gets back in, and this time she is going in the basement.

Now is when Changeling or "traditional" Fae folklore gets sort of dicey. Does Nigel possess mom which is something Fae don't really DO, or does he pull her ass into the Hedge sending her to a near eternity of madness in Arcadia and replacing her with a Fetch?

Maybe with his currently low status in the Fae he can't produce a Fetch, and just drags her into the Hedge which probably causes her to go completely crazy. (He has been priming the women of this family for that. And they DO have a history of it in the bloodline..) She is weak enough for him to spiritually possess, but not completely. 

Its not a Fae thing to do normally, and he has been using up that Glamour like its Magic Happy Hour at the Fae Bar of Terror and Payback. So he only sort of has a grip on her. Which leads to her being sick and weak, not totally under his control. 

Otherwise he would have already collected Hunter, and been on his way, and with a nice extra Human as an example of why YOU DO NOT HOSE THE FAE OVER IN A DEAL. 

Marcelus does not look like a bitch. And Nigel REALLY doesn't look like a bitch. (Ok, he doesn't look like ANYTHING right now. Which is kind of his point.)

Dad is stupid AGAIN and leaves Allie home while Nigel is completing his grip on Mommy. And he can really only threaten at this point while he gets things settled in there.

(But man is her screaming ever satisfying. She KNOWS what he is doing and she can't stop it. She is trying to fight, but between her grip on reality and sanity being greased with WD-40 and his power she is DOOMED. Enjoy the show bitch. Nigel is gonna take this monkeyshow on the road Frankenstein!)

Sadly for Nigel his attempt to take out Dad fails and that stupid housekeeper gets involved. Maybe the basement is worth another shot? 

ARGH DEFEATED BY A BALDING ASSHOLE WITH A NIGHT VISION CAMERA. 

Oh wait...

Dumb spits didn't stop him.. they just knocked him out of Mom but towards her nearest relative.

One with a bigger set of sweater puppies. And a FAR douchier mate. And no smarty pants dogs or maids or teenaged girls to get in his way.

Micah's Alpha Male routine helps Nigel QUICKLY get his Glamour Groove back and he is getting a handle on this possession thing. Not as effective as a Fetch, but beggars cannot be choosers.

Nigel has a baby to collect.

He takes over Katie a bit slower and safer, and that dumbass helps him lock the deal by throwing away that Crucifix in a fire.

A little more time to make sure Katie is HIS and its time to thank Micah. And show whoever looks at that camera how they do things in Downtown Arcadia. 

(Stupid mortals just don't listen to their own tales. Learn the rules or pay the price.)

That damned psychic almost caused trouble but people with such open minds are easily taught who the boss is.

Now Nigel still isn't completely locked into Katie and he sort of feels bad for his little ego stunt with the camera (Nigel IS an egotistical dick after all!) so he forgets to change clothes and just takes his new form of transportation into the Hedge.

Time is funny in the Hedge so he pops out in his recently forced out of terror grounds and takes out Dad quick like. Katie could never do this, but Nigel has Glamour enhanced Fae power on his side. (And its just HILARIOUS feeling Katie screaming at the murders she is committing. Even if it is causing a mild migraine.)

Nigel wants this action done QUICK in case things go pear shaped. No playing around. Up those stairs and off to collect Hunter do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars. 

One quick slam of his fist takes the confused Mom out and its time to bring Hunter back to Arcadia.

The debt has been collected.

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Yes the above IS incredibly dorky, but it really does fit the movies well.

(Not counting the alternate endings which basically poop all over any connection to Fae and Changelings.)

I sort of thought of the above as Nigel doesn't just possess the women but pulls them into another room. I wondered why he would bother unless it was to switch the women for a Fetch under his control. Which kind of works outside of the exorcism transferral towards the end of 2. (I don't think Fetches work like that. Its POSSIBLE both Katie and Mom were Fetches. Which means they are pretty much stuck in Arcadia for an eternity. But its doubtful. Why kill the Mom Fetch even if she has been purged of Nigel's direct control? Maybe in his state he HAS to possess.)

Thus we have the above highly dorky missive of me No Prizing 2 movies that have made tens of millions of dollars.

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 2

I have been lax on these! Now I have two game sessions worth to report on. Unlike last time, bold is ST stuff, and Italics is out of game bits, and normal text is in character text. Cuz I felt like doing it this way!

OCTOBER
Teaser: "Join the Loyalist Army! Turn your friends in today! All traitors
will be spared!"
This is what greeted the Lost of Willimantic when they entered the Thread
City Cafe last month. Letters were delivered to the Lost, secret notes were
left, all pointing fingers at others saying they were a loyalist. Who can
you trust? The traditional Summer King, Sid, was killed in August and the
new King, Rufus, is still new and untried. The Spring Queen, April, has
been kidnapped and is being being tortured by a new force in town called the
Scorpion. As Autumn approaches, will the traditional Queen, Maude, be up to
the task of setting things to right in the city or will she meet with a
similar fate as the other two monarchs?

It has been a troubling time for us in the Lost. The Loyalists are trying to confuse us and throw us into disarray.

Its working well.

We had some folks from Virginia here to help us, a rather strange trio who seemed to have a thing for "efficiency". Between them and the regulars getting this group organized is proving to be a difficult task!

We came up with a plan to rescue April from Scorpion's bar hideout. One of us was sent to get April ready by morphing herself into a coin that our mirror visaged friend David dropped into the room after he transformed himself into a ganger type. I believe the coinformer was named Nothing. As I said, the Virginia folks were a little... odd.

As we needed an Autumn king I nominated David to run things at least in the short term, and the other local members of the Lost agreed enough and it was done.

This is sort of coming back to bite me though. We do not exactly see eye to eye even though we have similar objectives and ideas on how to take care of things.

We split up into two teams, one of which went to confront Scorpion who was within the Hedge, and I backed up our blacksmith as we sent Scorpion's den of evil into the dust, albeit with a few dead gang members along the way besides the ones now buried under rubble. No matter. Criminal scum like that shouldn't be left alive anyhow.

The other team confronted Scorpion and killed him, rescuing April. He thought we were the loyalists alongside April! But what kind of sick monster would do the things he did to her regardless of her actual allegiance and actions?

Nobody who deserves to live.

NOVEMBER
Last month the Lost formed a plan to go rescue the Spring Queen April from
the clutches of a sinister figure known as the Scorpion. Dog sized scorpions
and a building falling down on top of them were not enough to stop them and
April was brought to safety.
The long reigning Autumn Queen Maude is nowhere to be found. Her shop is
boarded up and abandoned. Has she left the Lost to deal with the loyalist on
their own or has something else happened to her? In her absence the Lost
elected the Mirrorskin David as the new Autumn King.
What was the connection between the Scorpion and the loyalist? Were they
allies or enemies? Why did the Scorpion kidnap April in the first place?
While Autumn is still the reigning season, Winter is just around the corner.
Why has the Winter King not made an appearance yet? Is he responsible for
what is going on in the city or has he also suffered some dire fate?

Some new people showed up this time while friends from the previous months were nowhere to be seen. An annoying duo named Vicks and Wedge accused myself and David as being Loyalists. They would believe nothing we said, even refusing a handgun I handed them. David tried to be a bit more political than myself in dealing with them as I was ready and willing to throw them out a window.

He eventually took an oath to fight against the loyalists lest he be striked down, and a little spirit frog appeared on his shoulder to make sure he kept that oath.

We are given a map, and find out information about Maude's hut within the Hedge. A few of us go to ask for some spirit frogs resting within some stone frog statues for help, but none of us having any real way to contact them meet with no success. I actually talk and inform these stone frogs of what is going on, which mostly just has people looking at us funny. Oh well, it was worth a shot, right?

And more bad news. After all the work we went to rescue April, a woman named Mia who was tasked with getting her to the hospital reported she was taken. AGAIN. This is not good, not at all, especially with the Winter king missing.

Given our lack of cohesiveness I came up with a list of objectives, based roughly on the seasons we seem to follow.

Summer would be the objective of investigating the Goblin patrols within the Hedge, and battling them off when needed.

Autumn would be finding out where our missing monarchs went off to.

Winter would be the fortifying of our stronghold.

Spring would be a catchall, going where needed.

It took me some time to explain using the seasons was largely symbolic and a little bit of yelling and force to get things going, but as I explained, all the Lost are my brothers and sisters and we have to work together. We have been constantly arguing and doubting each other. I have to nip this in the bud. I do not care what season king is in session. As far as I am concerned I am the main person in charge of this Freehold and the men and women within it. They are always my concern and always my responsibility. And I will fight for them to my last breath! I will lead by example and prepare others for command as well. David and I are butting heads a bit, but we will work it out, and a fellow from "Across the Pond" as they like to say who was there for the Sid incident is my tentative nominee for Winter king.

As repeated by Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

This is how I must live and lead. It will be done. Perhaps I will be loved. Maybe hated. Maybe I will die, but I WILL fight for my brothers and sisters with everything I have to give!

We are given a parchment mentioning a contract made between a loyalist known as Red Johnny, Maude, and Sid. The very contract used to sacrifice one of us to go back. Proof has been found of their evil.

I send out an investigative team with our prospective Winter king. They return with 2 loyalists, one living, one dead. The area they were guarding was none other than Maude's hut within the Hedge! She was known to them as "The Evil Queen".

David organizes a strikeforce to investigate, and yet again leaves me at the Freehold. I have a chat with the living loyalist who lets us know he was told we were loyalists ourselves. He has no name, only called by Red Johnny as "325". I rename him "Doug" until we can find his original name. He tries walking out, but we stop him.

I now wait for my brothers and sisters to return...

At game's end I find out that Maude is within her hut, and that David has apparently defected to the Loyalist side, though it may be to keep himself alive.

Overall I am really enjoying the LARP games and am even getting sorta used to the lack of sleep one Saturday a month. I need to work on my outfit a bit more though. Right now a Navy ballcap and a pair of faux spiked leather fingerless gloves form my total outfit, excepting my normal clothes of course! Some folks really have kickass costumes! Of course I head off to work afterwards so I can't exactly go too out there to begin with, but it is making me want to step up my game. And both times I was invited to stay on for Vampire, but again, work. Yay.

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal

(Bold is Storyteller stuff, Italic is Rufus' journal entries, normal text is me out of game stuff.)

Last month the news of the Summer King's death hit the Lost of the area pretty hard. The Summer Court went out seeking vengeance for their monarch's murder. A trail of blood was left in their wake. In the void left by Sid's passing, another stepped forward to take the reins of leadership. Meanwhile, a newcomer to the city claims he was lured back into the Hedge by none other than the Spring Queen. He found his way back out again but says that something was chasing him in there. While the Lost sit stunned at the accusation, a self-proclaimed loyalist arrives asking where this year's tithe is. He claimed that a Lost was suppose to be left in the Hedge for him to take back and this deal is what kept the city safe. If someone didn't come with him, then there would be war. Refusing to sacrifice one of their own, the local Lost banded together in defiance of their former masters' henchman. War would be preferable to cowardly submission.



For so long I was a traveller, running on my own, or amongst people who were not escapees like myself. This summer I met others of my kind and together we fought against our former captors. I was honored with becoming the Summer King for my efforts, I was given the burden of command.

Luckily the regular LARP takes place during the day and not during worktime on the second Saturday of the month so I can attend, provided I don't mind missing some sleep! MagicDrew was gonna be able to make this one as well, and since it was only about a 20 minute trip and a 10 mile drive I figured I might as well give an actual game a go!

Upon reaching the meeting place in Willimantic for us, the Lost, I met one of the locals who wasn't at the August incident. She asked me if I was a local or a visitor, being a wanderer, I replied justly, having been searching the region for evidence of our foes. I was given a letter. This letter basically threatened those of us who fought so hard against our captors and the sacrifices they demanded. They said we were going to be attacked by the armies of the Fae and anyone supporting us would be harmed as in the crossfire. Others soon showed up, including two more women, and two men, one of which I had met before. A mirror visaged man who was eloquent in speech. While I don't exactly trust him, his council has been sound and wise so far. Damn politicians!

The Mirror visaged fellow was another guy at the Connecticon LARP. One of the female players was an NPC there, and the other two were both brand new folks to me. Apparently it was a pretty decent turn out. Hmm, maybe if I and MagicDrew help promote it a bit, we can get more folks to play? MagicDrew is utterly FEARLESS when it comes to actively promoting things. I tend to take the passive route. Because I am a wuss. And a pessimist.

We continued investigating the events and aftermath of the incident, trying to find out more about the previous Summer King, Sid, and the missing Spring Queen, April, who sent a good man into the hedge. Very little help from the Autumn Queen Maude was given, which made us suspect she is a part of this sacrifice for safety deal, or at the best, she could care less about us. Not that I exactly made myself friendly to her.

I sort of sent an EXTREMELY powerful NPC a cellphone message telling her to "DIE BITCH". That might not have been such a good idea...

With some investigating we found out that April was married and her husband has been worried for her. When heading back to our Freehold, I decided to walk back, just in case we were being followed. We did attract Enemy attention, but it was at the Freehold itself. The gateway to Hell, the Hedge opened up, surrounding the building. I ran towards the siege, hoping to break it off, or sacrifice myself dearly to the monstrous dogs that had been trying to get in. One came towards me and I fought it off, with great injury to myself, while quick thinking on the rest of the team's part kept them from any harm, and Maude surprisingly arrived for a moment and used some incredible magic power to eliminate or drive off the rest. As I said, she might not actually be our enemy. But no matter what I do not like her, and I doubt she would be fond of me. Helping your friends and defending the innocent on the front lines is more important than any power she seems obsessed with preparing for, leaving us to fight and die on our own! She says she isn't concerned till its her season to rule.

Rule? We of the court should not rule, we are officers, commanders, figureheads. The first to battle, and the last to leave.

While I am sort of posting a few things out of order above (we actually investigated someone else as well, but it was a dead end and this sounds more interesting!) its basically how things went. I dumbly split off from the group to check on a lead, but after a point gave up on it. I also was hoping that being on my own would draw our adversaries out in the open. Rufus is a lone wolf sort. He will command and do his best at it, but he prefers to lead by example as opposed to by command. Plus our Mirrorvisage is way better at the political and organization bits. Rufus is better on the front line. Which meant I don't think I was particularly good as a Summer King, unless being a massive meatshield counts as Kingly.

Plus my first time gaming with a new group, and with a game system and style I am not very familiar with. I didn't want to be a glory hog. I've always hated those players who try to make the whole damned game about them. Thus I felt more comfortable in being quiet more often (because I naturally have trouble being quiet anyhow.. I DO NOT SHUT UP EVER) and hopefully not making an ass of myself. If MagicDrew wasn't there I probably would have barely talked at all.

It also helped everyone was roleplaying really well (better than me really) and everyone had some great ideas. Sometimes I just sat and listened, and took some notes.

We went back to the scene of Sid's death looking for more answers which due to the Mirror's ghost speaking we found, and another teammate put her life at risk to set up a meeting with the criminal scum in the area. Sadly, when the Mirror morphed into a cop, the locals were.. not too pleased. Our car was damaged, but I fought off as many enemies as I could while they started up the car and pulled my heavily injured self along with them.

I would rather take the injury than the people under me. That's what the good guys do.

I'm seriously truncating what happened and not detailing what everyone did, but as in the game I am trying to avoid metagaming here. There were some cool things that happened that I wasn't a part of at all and quite a bit of time was spent just making decisions and figuring out what to do next. LARPs tend to involve more actual roleplay than your average sit down game which has combat and lots of game mechanics in there.

I was dumped off at the ER for some R&R while everyone else continued to find out what they could about the new criminal kingpin, The Scorpion. According to what they told me afterwards, he may be one of us, and he may have April locked up, doing horrible things to her on a regular basis! Even if she is a part of the plot to sacrifice us to the Enemy, nobody deserves that sort of torture and abuse! As soon as I am able we will mount an assault on this Scorpion.

Justice will be done, and we will be a united front against those who took us from our loved ones and our homes. I do not fear our enemies or my fate. Optimus Prime wouldn't back down from Megatron when he attacked Autobot City, and neither will I! Mine are the claws that slash through the darkness.

Even if the light shines for but a moment before I am silenced, I will do what is right.

Overall it was a pretty damn good game, even if we sort of went the kick ass route most of the time. Half the party being combat types, or at least having combat oriented personalities tends to cause havoc, even if much of our rage might be misplaced at the wrong people. As mentioned, I feel I didn't roleplay my best or do as well in my command position as I should have. Next session should be in the Autumn Court so I won't be in command anyhow and Rufus can kick ass for justice as he is wont to do.

Hopefully I didn't suck too bad, and hopefully I will get to know everyone and start remembering their names too. I'm thinking of the usual nicknames for the blog updates, but right now all I have is Snarkrabbit, Vodkasmash, Platformiz, Storymiz, and MirrorCauldron for them. I dunno. Its not grabbing me as of yet.

I guess I wasn't too awful as I was invited to stick around for the Vampire game happening later with MirrorCauldron running it, but being rather hungry, a bit tired, and the basic fact I wouldn't be able to do Vampire much at all in the long run, I declined. Plus not being all that familiar with that area of Norwich I wanted to follow MagicDrew out. If any of the LARP crew are reading I hope y'all had fun with the fangs and the vampirey nighty stuff!

Everyone seemed like a nice group of people and made my second LARP experience a pleasant one as well. Now I just need to join up in the Camarilla to be "Official" and whatnot before next game. And probably type up Rufus' backstory besides just leaving it in my head.

Thanks again for the great game Midnight Rose!