# spot of supernatural redecorating
time for bit of an change says researcher henry's pal 'working ron'
they buy all the necessary gear from ir local ruin-it -ourself chain; paintbrush wallpaper paste bucket and ladder
ron starts stripping down the walls of ir bedroom - first thing they see underneath the wallpaper on bare brick is the corner of a liquid black triangle
what's that says ron and starts to peel off the rest
ten seconds later they're on the old 'dog and bone' to ir friend swanson
ron: oi swanson get around here now mate you gotta see this
henry always ready for low stakes repo-intense suburban action adventure: we're already on our way pal it's half an hour away we'll be there in fifteen minutes
ron twelve minutes and seventeen seconds later: you were quick come in
henry: mate get that smelly psychotic mutt away from us
ron: come here ricky baby
ricky replies: woof
henry: yeah lovely to see you too you psychotic hairball
ron goes into the kitchen to make a mug of tar-black instacoffee: look in our bedroom
henry: why what's there
ron: just have a butchers will you and be careful
henry slowly opens the bedroom door: unholy cyber-balls what's that
ron: that's what we said
on ron's wall there's a distinct techno-tenticular symbol and henry thinks it's awesome
while well drawn and thankfully free of broody smears it does look like it was designed for ssu serious symbolic usage
working ron however who has been living with this thing under the wallpaper for years feels it's definitely less than 'ok'
ron: what do you usually do about this kind of crazy weird-cool stuff
swanson laughs: why not frame it
ron: seriously just look at that thing
ron's having bit of freak out and swanson remembers why they're worrying so much and immediately stops smiling
swanson: oh right the previous tenants
couple of months back ron had told henry the previous tenant was in the back garden one night stinking drunk and got permanently entangled in a spinning metal clothes line in the middle of the lawn
ron's family only found out about this tiny fact months later from one of the neighbours
something the local council had obviously forgotten to mention while busy flogging them the property
the day after they heard ron's mum threw out all ir washing
ron also heard from the neighbor about the day they moved in
they were unpacking all ir stuff in the bedroom - there was a noise behind them and they turned to see a stranger standing in the hallway
they say hello and ask them ir name but they turn back running down the hallway laughing
feeling curious the researcher walks into corridor to follow them but there's nobody there
weeks pass and they too hear what happened years ago on ir property and promptly move out
now ron as well as henry are also busy making tcc 'the creepy connection' if there is one
swanson: cool digital tentacled head-thing though
ron: there's no way we're sleeping with that on wall staring down at and through us
swanson: what do you went to do then
ron: we'll get rid of it
swanson: just scrape it off the wall fool
ron: no we mean make sure it's been gotten rid of - you know biopsychically
symbolically neutralize the elemental geometrics
swanson: oh er right
they aren't sure what ron means but understands they occasionally like pretending to play 'big science' and play it well
ron and henry decide to travel to a local taoist temple to fetch water from the low stone basin inside
they wave to the local visiting priest mr shen who waves back smiling slowly shaking ir head at whatever cheeky teenage shenanigans and low-key suburban misadventures these wacky 'big scientists' are no doubt up to
back at the house ron wears ir black smart impact plastic mini laughing swordsman around ir neck and throws a cup full of blessed water over the wall
swanson: mate this is all bit much isn't it
ron: you can never be too careful with this kinda weird-cool stuff
swanson: hey look it's sizzling
ron panics: what where - oh very funny
henry makes a slithering noise: heh be awesome if it did though and a giant scaly techno tentacle started to ooze dimensionally through the wall
ron: mate don't be telling us things like that right now the dpaint4 sun's setting
do you believe in ghosts and stuff like that then henry asks ron
swanson: dunno we guess so like that old run down mansion place by the woods - wouldn't go in there at night alone would you
ron: no way that place gives you the serious heebies
swanson: some places exude this slow darkstrange vibe
loads of places exist like that in endland something to do with the entire miserable backwater island being so old and crumbly
ron: please look let's not talk about this kinda stuff right now
next they take several heavy black iron nin's and hammer them into the corners of the diagram in order to secure it somehow
they then proceed to scrape the entire wall bare with ron's dad's industrial sander
after that they pry the nails out and throw them down drain of a nearby house
ron and henry then wait 48 hours but unfortunately naff all happens; no visitations from other unseen dimensional sides
no broody inverted tentacle heavy mutant tentacle headed cultists with glow in the dark eyeballs appearing at night at a nearby open window holding long serrated lasers
neither of them get cursed possessed turned inside out andor eaten by sduf 'strange dark unseen forces' - nada
kind of a shame as both of these big scientists were now biopsychically hardened and ready for anything repo-intense; both admirers of the classic unrewound vhs 'a chinese ghost story' when it was first out
henry had also seen 'big trouble in little china' and told ron a magic tai chi sword with seven mystic star jewels inlaid in the handle would be handy if anything you know vo 'violently-odd' were to occur
summer eventually came slowly spinning around again the friends cut ir thumbs in the local wood and become blood brothers
maintaining that vital organic connection in time of intense uk based suburban alienation and fear / panics *sudden helmet 'chuck' noise* and life is good
travelling back and forth through this temporal teleportal of imagination was a small incident but a great time for a few weeks at least
endless summer holidays in endland are made bearable by such exciting micro adventures
swanson soon forgot about the whole thing yet few days later while alone in the house at night when aggressively retro holo-tv program called tales of the oh so expected came on
title sequence shows a researcher sensually dancing in flame while freakish off-key carousel music plays
while do doubt amazingly kitsch the overall effect this late in the evening when one is alone in the house is butt clenching
feeling the heavy 'heebies' swanson immediately jumps straight into bed under the covers after jamming a chair against ir room-cube door
only then do they (/imagine they) hear a horrible low moan from the far side of the room
// republic of bob