October 17 - Cymbal Monkey

MAN
The shopkeeper couldn't tell me where it came from.
It didn't have a price and no one remembered putting it there.
But something told me I had to have it.
Now I'm not so sure.
I'm almost certain I left the key beside it and not in its back ... 

MONKEY
I can't warn them unless they turn the key.
I've tried to show them.
I don't think they understand.
I'm afraid they'll be next.

Poor little monkey.  Designed to raise the alarm, but they won't let him.

I guess that's a cymbal of what's to come!

Mwahahahahahahaha! *snort*

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 16 - Mr. Dippel

I asked Dave Brenn for help making a zombie.

He showed me a technique he'd learned years ago from the caretaker of an old cemetery on the outskirts of Darmstadt.  He wouldn't say much about what happened there, but he gave me two rules.

Never give it a name.  And whatever happens, make sure it's popped before sundown.

Honestly, it all seems a little bit overly dramatic.

Besides, Mr. Dippel came out great.

At 8pm, there were three soft knocks on my door.

Almost courteous.

Then they jiggled the handle ...

 

Tonight's tale puts a new twist on name-calling,
Arose by any other name, but still smells as rotten!

Mwahahahahahaa! *snort*

(view other David Brenn inspired balloons!)

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 15 - Nozzlehead

You solved the puzzle.

You summoned us from beyond the boundaries of your world, beyond the fragile limits of flesh and reason.

We have such exquisite suffering to share.

I am Nozzlehead, Keeper of the Lamentation Sphere.  You have opened a doorway between our worlds, and I have come to collect what is owed.  One final breath.  Such a small price, wouldn't you agree?

And to think, you had so many left.

It seems our little puzzler is embarkering on a hell-raising adventure!
Nozzlehead has promised a ... breathtaking experience!

Mwahahahahahaa! *snort*

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 14 - Charon

Do you have any idea how long we've tried to raise that fare?  It's just that ancient pacts are notoriously difficult to renegotiate.

Then in 2025, a handful of wealthy men who hadn't touched a penny in decades decided to stop making them.   They convinced an entire nation that minting its own pennies had simply become too expensive.

A remarkable achievement, really - there wasn't even a vote. Fifty-six million dollars freed up for some sort of big, beautiful budget.  

And just like that, the ancient pact was broken.

My fare rose to a nickel.

I've already put a deposit on a luxury 26-foot pontoon with a 200-horsepower Mercury and reclining captain's chair. I'm calling her The Trickle Down.

Ahhh, fiscal responsibility!
Saving pennies for the living while nickel-and-diming the dead!
It's enough to make you want to roll over in your grave
... to look for loose change!

Mwahahahahahaa! *snort*

(view other David Brenn inspired balloons!)

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 13 - Balloodoo

October 13th.

My experiments have thus far failed to substantiate any of the natives' more extravagant claims.

They insist that the figure must never be inflated by its maker, but this is plainly another of their silly superstitions. Mine has remained beside my bed for three nights without incident.

In the meanwhile, though - I have developed a rather stubborn sinus infection.  The pressure is quite extraordinary, but I expect the antibiotics will take effect shortly.  I trust my next report will find me in better health.

Ah, Balloodoo! A little-known branch of voodoo.
It's positively breathtaking!

Mwaheheeheheheee! *snort*

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 12 - Zombody

Nobody ever asks what it's like to be dead.

The movies have certainly done us no favors.

People see me coming and start screaming and reaching for blunt objects. Honestly, it's like they already had a plan.

I've been shot, stabbed, clubbed and someone even took my hand off with a shovel.

And all that nonsense about eating brains. I mean .. yuck!

But ... your hand ...

Let's give our leading man a hand, shall we, kiddies?
Seriously, before he takes one of mine!

Mwahahahahahaa! *snort*

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty:

October 11 - The Twist of Madness

It was some days ago when I first encountered what I would come to know as the Twist of Madness.

I had seen the spiral before, of course.  For years I had studied its impossibly tight coils, and even when shown the technique firsthand, some essential truth of its construction had remained beyond my understanding.

Then I found that Facebook video so casually labelled, "Pip's Twirl & Curl Balloon Twisting Technique".

Disturbingly simple. Distressingly addictive.  Diabolically hard to perfect.  A twisting geometry that could only be described as non-Euclidean.

Suddenly I understood what no human mind was ever meant to comprehend.

I made another.  And another. 

My fingers are raw.  I think they've begun to change.  I haven't slept in days.  There are spirals everywhere.  I know now that I shall never be free of them.

May the gods forgive me, I have started another...

Sure seems like our resident twister ... Loves craftin', 
Round and round he goes, where the madness stops, nobody knows!

Mwahahahahahaa! *snort*

(view other Pippity-Pop inspired balloons!)

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Tales from the Other Other Side of the Sty: