Eerie Indiana 30 Days of the Jackalope

[froodle]

April is here and the shops are full of cut-price chocolate eggs. Traditionally a time for bunnies, in Eerie they probably have the Easter Jackalope bringing their chocolate eggs. To celebrate, I'll be posting a different Jackalope-themed bit of merch every day in April.

Here's a ghostly 'lope from NineLives:

Eerie Indiana Musical Mondays

[froodle]

It's Monday, the start of the working week. To counter-act the post-weekend blues, cheer yourself up with Radio Weird: Songs of Eerie. Whether you're checking out some of eviinsanemonkey's amazing filks, or taking up deifire's awesome recommendations for Eerie-centric listening, or creating a musical fanwork of your very own, share your thoughts, and your favourites, in the comments!

( Stabbity Steve: a Murder Ballad by Eviinsanemonkey )

( After Wolf Mountain: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Pay Attention: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Krampus: an Eerie Christmas Poem by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Moo! A World o' Stuff advertising jingle by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Bigfoot Stole My Mail: a Musical by Owen Neil )

( Eerie, Indiana fanvids by Roseveare )

( Weird Science (Don't Leave My Arms): an Eerie, Indiana Melanie/Devon/Marshall fanvid by Current Joys )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: No Way Out

[froodle]

"Here's your problem," said the engineer, pointing one bony finger at a section of track. Like everyone who worked on the Ghost Train, he was a skeleton wearing a Casey Jones hat and nothing else. He did carry a wrench, though, which Devon supposed was something.

He peered at the spot where the engineer had pointed and tried to look knowledgeable. It couldn't have been very convincing, as the engineer went on to explain:

"The lines are crossed. Right here in the centre, the trains in and out have merged into one big infinity loop. There's no leaving this place."


Ongoing Verse: The Children

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Interactive Learning

[froodle]

"Toy company sent us the latest samples for approval," said Harley, setting the large cardboard box down on a section of cleared floor and burying both hands into piles of packing peanuts.

Sara Sue wiped her own hands on one of the various paint-streaked rags scattered across her long worktable.

"Which characters?" she said. "I'll dig out some of the concept art for comparison."

Harley groped blindly for a few seconds, then brightened.

"Feels round!" he said. "Batteus Baby the Baby Bat, or Stanley Binkerman the... what was he, again?"

"Oblate spheroid," said Sara Sue. "Makes learning shape-names fun, apparently."

Ongoing Verse: Pay Attention

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Mark for Change

[froodle]

Batteus Baby was round, jet black and softly furred, with tiny jagged-edged wings, long floppy ears and huge red eyes.

Sara Sue rolled the little plush ball in one hand, the other turning the pages of a glossy, hardcover first edition of "Batteus Bat and Batteus Baby Go on An Adventure," a tale told in verse by one H. S. Holmes, with illustrations by S. Haverstock.

"Looks good," she said. "Nice heft. I like the little concentration-frown he gets with the eyebrows, that's very in-character..."

She paused, then turned the doll around.

"Why the hell does he have Mothman glutes?!"

Ongoing Verse: Pay Attention

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: The Year is Up

[froodle]

The King of the Wild Hunt smelled of wet forests and swift rivers, of branches broken by panicked flight and furious pursuit, fear sweat and adrenaline and blood to spill and lose and taste and choke upon.

"Why," asked Marshall, white-knuckled and clammy and fighting the urge to find a deep, dark cave to hide in and never come out, "Is a nature spirit with antlers and a pack of enchanted hounds sitting down our barbeque?"

Simon tapped a neatly-folded yellow dog vest with one finger.

"He's come to get his dog," he said. "And it's rude not to offer."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Lunchroom

[froodle]

The Michaels had clustered together at one small table near the emergency exit in one corner of Things Incorporated's employee lunch room. Marshall had half-feared the possibility that his Dad would show up and ask him to eat lunch together, but a quick scan of the room told him he was in the clear.

"Hey guys," he said, approaching his classmates. "Mind if I join you?"

"Saved you a seat," said once-small-now-tall-Michael.

Micheal-with-Glasses was eating a sandwich stuffed with small printed paper strips.

"Christmas cracker jokes," he explained, seeing Marshall's raised eyebrow. "After the whole Nurse Nancy thing..."

Marshall nodded.

Ongoing Verse: The Children

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Teller Family History

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Sales Opportunity

[froodle]

The grease traps 'round the back of the World o' Stuff had been torn away, and in the spilled layer of yellow-white goo was a single, perfect Bigfoot print.

"Wow," said Marshall.

Radford nodded.

"I thought you'd appreciate it," he said. "I need to get this cleaned up before nightfall or it'll draw those mutated racoons up out of the sewers. But I figured that gives you enough time to take a few photos, maybe take a plaster cast?"

"That would be awesome," said Marshall. "Thanks, Mister Radford. Really."

He looked about.

"Do you have any-"

"Plaster-of-Paris?" asked Radford, grinning.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Literary Criticism

[froodle]

The space under the library counter was coated with a thick layer of dust, a soft grey ocean floor from which dropped highlighters and forgotten date stamps jutted like the hulls of wrecked ships.

"I saw it go in there," Marshall insisted. "It had the study guide to Catcher in the Rye in it's mouth, and it rolled it's eyes at me."

His parents exchanged a look.

"Son," said Edgar, at the same time as Marilyn said, "Sweetheart-"

Syndi gave a long, put-upon sigh.

"Mars," she said. "I hated Salinger too, but that paper's half your grade and due tomorrow."


Ongoing Verse: Teller Family History

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Natural Reaction

[froodle]

"Ice-cream and hot chocolate," said Janet, setting the steaming mug down a safe distance from the long glass dish. "The best thing to say fuck you to weather that just ruined your plans."

Tod McNulty picked up a long-handled spoon and began mixing one syrup-sticky mountain of whipped cream with another, slightly different one.

"It's not ruined, exactly," he said. "I wouldn't say ruined..."

Janet put her hand over his free one.

"Tod," she said. "A tornado just carried off the vegetable patch you worked on all summer. It's natural to feel a bit murdery right now."

"...maybe a bit."

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Weather

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Conflict of Interest

[froodle]

The 666H club had built a Wicker Man in the middle of the football field.

Local vegetation already grew thick around it, giddy with anticipation for the blood and fire yet to come. Some sixth graders swore they'd seen Were-Lettuce on school grounds in the last week, and staff and students were missing.

"I'm conflicted," said Tod, staring up into the hollow eye sockets of the towering effigy. "On the one hand, maybe if my old man had burned a few people, we'd still have our farm. On the other, I'm still on the football team, you know?"

Janet nodded.

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Harvest

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Teething Problems

[froodle]

Something had chewed a hole in the old lathe-and-plaster wall connecting Simon's room to Harley's. Simon figured he'd had either had the Ratking do it, or, more worryingly, he'd done it himself.

He shoved the broken and bowing wardrobe over the hole on his side, then went into the garden to speak to his brother.

Harley was laying in the centre of a fairy ring, poisonous toadstools charring to inert lumps of carbon around him, the grass blackened and dead where he lay.

"Hey buddy," said Simon, stepping over the smouldering portal. "Guess you need a new teething ring, huh?"


Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Retrieval Specialists

[froodle]

The roar of a dozen Harley Davidson engines jolted Simon out of a shallow, unsatisfying sleep. He pushed back the covers and crept to the window, watching shadows gather beside the rusted mailbox on his parent's driveway.

The Unkind Ones were here.

The dirty carpet of the upstairs hallway sucked unpleasantly at his bare feet as he ran, but this was not the time for socks or slippers. There was only the low rumble from outside, and the hope that made his chest tight.

"Think you lost this," said Billy Millions, as soon as opened the door.

Tweedle-Tweep twittered merrily.


Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )