#category: statement

[archive-of-fear]

Name: Dissected

Source: Torchwood

Category: Statement

Entity: The Stranger

Description: Statement of Martha Jones, regarding an autopsy on a corpse brought in by a former colleague

While the title and setting would suggest a more End aligned tale, this story is primarily Stranger-coded. The corpse itself is actually a shapeshifting alien, attempting (and nearly succeeding) to mimic a "normal" human corpse, even subtly changing its appearance based on what those around them have said they expect a corpse to look like (e.g. making its hair and fingernails grow longer in response to Gwen repeating the common myth that they continue to grow after death, and then retracting said features once Martha corrects her). Martha hypothesises this could be a tactic to infiltrate and eventually take over UNIT:

"Okay, let's think: you're an intelligent chameleon arriving on this planet; you know we'll detect your ship - use that. Pretend to be human - pretend to be a dead human - get yourself smuggled into an organisation adept at dealing with aliens. First, you take over the experts, and then the organisation, and then the whole system!"

However, before this revelation, a swab from the corpse's mouth registers two sets of DNA, one of them being Gwen's, making Martha become suspicious of her former colleague being a shapeshifting infiltrator. Gwen mirrors these suspicions back at her and the two of them interrogate each other, trying to prove the other is a fake, but end up realising how little they know about the other and how much they've drifted apart.

[archive-of-fear]

Name: 73 Yards

Source: Doctor Who

Category: Statement

Alignment: The Lonely

Description: Statement of Ruby Sunday, regarding the mysterious old woman who follows her everywhere.

-

Upon accidentally disturbing a fairy circle, Ruby is suddenly alone, the Doctor instantly disappearing from right beside her. She notices a strange old woman in the distance, but every attempt to get nearer is futile, with the distance between them always remaining 73 yards. Any attempt by another person to approach the woman to try and speak to her, causes them to react in horror and disgust at Ruby, fleeing immediately. Even her own foster mother abandons her after doing this, despite her and Ruby having a strong, loving relationship prior.

Eventually, Ruby settles into her new empty, Lonely life, never being able to get close to people due to the mysterious woman driving them away; either directly by talking to them and turning them against Ruby, or indirectly as they feel that Ruby is constantly distracted and unable to fully connect with them, since she is constantly preoccupied with the woman. Even when Ruby thinks she has fulfilled her purpose in this strange timeline - weaponising the strange woman to make a dangerous PM quit shortly after being elected - the woman remains. It's not until Ruby is on her deathbed when the woman finally closes the semperdistans between them. Ruby seemingly dies (alone of course), but then wakes up on a very familiar clifftop in Wales 61 years prior - she had been the mysterious woman following her younger self for all those years. While older Ruby is able to prevent her younger self and the Doctor from disturbing the fairy circle and starting the loop again, there's no telling how many times this cycle happened before it was broken.

[archive-of-fear]

Name: Lockwood & Co.

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Category: Statement(s)

Alignment: The End

Description: A collection of statements by Lucy Carlyle, regarding her time as a psychical investigation agent at A.J. Lockwood & Co. Investigators.

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“There is an epidemic of ghosts in Britain. Their touch brings death, and only children have the power to fight them.”

Death permeates the alternate British society of the Lockwood and Co. series. Beginning five decades before the events of the first book, the existence of ghosts became undeniable as an epidemic of hauntings began. Dubbed “The Problem”, it has only gotten worse with time, with the number, strength and range of the hauntings continuing to escalate, with no end in sight.

Only children are able to detect these dangerous visitors from the other side, with this psychic Talent fading to nothing as they age, leaving adults next to useless when it comes to avoiding the deadly ghost-touch. As adults hide inside during the night curfew, children as young as 8 are forced to act as Night Watch or as Agents who risk their lives to fight off ghosts. Mortality rates are high and those who do survive often go on to become supervisors of younger Agents, forced into the position of sending children into mortal danger and being powerless to help them. This is a society dealing with basically the aftermath of an End Ritual and/or an End Domain, where death and the fear of death is the major driving force for most people. This fixation on death isn’t just only fear for some; there is also a thriving black market for Sources - objects (usually human remains) that a ghost is tied to and allows them passage into the living world from the Other Side.

MASSIVE spoilers for the final book below. Seriously, don’t look if you plan on reading this series (which you absolutely should and also check out the incredibly well done TV adaptation):

---FINAL SPOILER WARNING---

Turns out that the origin of this ghost epidemic was caused by the actions of the supposed “Hero” of The Problem, Marissa Fittes, who was the first one to figure out and codify (and profit from) most defences against ghosts. Her expeditions to the Other Side caused the dead to stir and make their way to the land of the living. She was obsessed with the potential properties of ectoplasm, the substance that ghosts are made of and what makes them so deadly, including immortality. Her frequent incursions into the Other Side to harvest and utilise ectoplasm, continued to greatly escalate The Problem, which only served to increase her wealth and fame as the head of the prestigious Fittes Agency.

Despite these constant trips to the realm of the dead rapidly ageing her, her experiments with ectoplasm allowed her spirit to possess the body of her granddaughter on her so-called deathbed. Now posing as her granddaughter, she continues her quest for immortality, escalating The Problem even further, which only increases her fame, fortune and power, giving her more resources to exploit both the dead and the living for her personal gain.

[archive-of-fear]

Name: House of Puppets

Author: Junji Ito

Entity: The Web (arguably some Stranger in there as well)

Category: Statement

Description: Statement of Haruhiko [No Last Name Given], regarding his family's puppet show business.

Haruhiko's family travel around Japan putting on puppet shows. They never stay anywhere for longer than a month, so Haruhiko has no time to make friends. While staying in one town he becomes friendly with a girl called Kinuko, and takes her to see his family's puppets. She is frightened by "Jean-Pierre", a creepy-looking puppet that belongs to his brother Yukihiko. Shortly after, the family has to leave town, but Kinuko promises that she will see Haruhiko again.

Haruhiko's father gets sick and the family has to move into an apartment. Their father talks about how he loves being a puppeteer because he controls the puppets completely. While alone with Haruhiko, Yukihiko says he's always thought that it was the other way around: their father was doing whatever the puppets wanted. He runs away from home that night. Their father later dies, and Haruhiko and his sister Natsumi go to live with a cousin, eventually getting their own place when Haruhiko is in high school.

Haruhiko meets Kinuko again and she becomes his girlfriend. One day they receive a letter from Yukihiko. He is now living in the same town and invites them to visit him, his wife, and his son. He is extremely rich and owns his own company, but he and his family are suspended from piano wire that is controlled from the ceiling by hired puppeteers. Haruhiko is very disturbed, but Yukihiko says that the puppet is the one in charge of the puppeteer. Yukihiko still has Jean-Pierre, and he owns a set of life-sized ballet dancer puppets designed to entertain people.

Haruhiko doesn't want to visit again, but Natsumi loves Yukihiko's house, and they begin to visit regularly. She wants to become a "puppet" herself and dance like the ballet puppets. She dresses up and is controlled by the puppeteers to dance beautifully like the dolls. Haruhiko is upset that Yukihiko and his family have never taken the strings off in two years, and even more upset when Natsumi refuses to take off her costume and go home. He is forced to let Natsumi live with Yukihiko, but refuses to move in himself. He doesn't want Kinuko to meet Yukihiko and has to make excuses for his visits to Yukihiko's house. 

When Haruhiko visits the house one day, the ballet puppets lead him into a room and try to get him to put on strings. Kinuko has followed him and is watching from the street. She mistakes one of the puppets for a real woman and thinks Haruhiko is cheating on her. Suddenly, Jean-Pierre arrives and lures her into the house. Inside, the puppets have begun to dance wildly, including Yukihiko and his family. Yukihiko screams that Jean-Pierre is out of control, causing Haruhiko to realize that Jean-Pierre has been manipulating Yukihiko's mind the whole time. Haruhiko goes up into the roof and finds that the puppeteers are in a trance-like state and being controlled by Jean-Pierre.

Haruhiko chases after Jean-Pierre and discovers Kinuko, whom Jean-Pierre has violently stabbed to death and suspended from the ceiling. After a brief fight, Haruhiko destroys Jean-Pierre by slamming him to pieces. He rescues Natsumi, but Yukihiko and his family are no longer human; they are marionettes made of wood. Haruhiko thinks that maybe they were always that way, he just didn't notice.

[archive-of-fear]

Name: Heathers: The Musical

Authors: Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy; based on the movie of the same name

Category: Statement

Alignment: Desolation

Description: Statement of Veronica Sawyer, regarding the 1989 suicide epidemic of Westerberg High.

In 1989, Veronica Sawyer despairs at the hellish social hierarchy of Westerberg High, where students like her friend Martha Dunnstock are relentlessly bullied and the clique of Heathers (Chandler, Duke, and McNamara) rule the school. When Veronica’s gets noticed by the Heathers, they elevate her to a position of popularity, then order her to forge a love letter from jock Ram to Martha to mess with her. This causes Veronica to get entangled with JD, who has been constantly moved around by his dad and gives himself brain freeze as a self-harming coping mechanism. Veronica stands up to the Heathers when they cruelly prank Martha; they vow to destroy her reputation, so Veronica decides she’s a “dead girl walking” and sleeps with JD.

The next day, when Veronica goes to apologize to Heather Chandler, JD tricks her into poisoning Chandler with drain cleaner and fake a suicide note. Duke takes up Chandler’s former position and joins Kurt and Ram in slut-shaming Veronica after the jocks fail to rape Veronica. Veronica and JD plan to get payback by shooting the jocks with tranquilizers and faking their gay suicide pact, but Veronica realizes too late that the bullets were real and has a breakdown. Convinced the murders are for the greater good, J.D. urges Veronica to target Heather D. next. She refuses, so he complains about doing nothing in the face of injustice, revealing he witnessed his mother’s own suicide as a young boy, straining his relationship with his father and causing their constant moving around. When Martha tells Veronica she believes JD killed the jocks, citing the forged love letter as proof, Veronica (urged by Chandler’s ghost) confesses to the forgery, breaking Martha’s heart. McNamara publicly admits suicidal thoughts, causing Duke to lead the students in mocking her and almost driving her to kill herself. Veronica breaks up with an increasingly unstable JD, who blackmails Duke into making the students sign a petition.

Martha, heartbroken over Ram, tries to commit suicide. Veronica realizes JD intends to kill her by faking her suicide; even worse, he plans to do the same to the entire school by blowing up the gym during the pep rally and plant the “petition” (actually a suicide note) in the ashes. After faking her hanging, Veronica confronts JD and shoots him. Unable to disarm the detonator, she takes it to the football field, where JD insists on taking it from her and blows himself up.