Cryptid

768: Wendigo

Always shifting in form, but craving the same thing…

Requested by: reckling-turtle, bitterrwolff, sutterkeely, greasyhyena, prototony

These are the two that immediately come to mind.

>>>Sandra Mansi Photo

-This photo was taken in 1977 at Lake Champlain and is considered one of, if not the best lake monster photo ever taken. 

>>>The Jacobs Photo(s)

- This photo was taken in 2007 by a trail cam in Pennsylvania. Some tried to dismiss it as a bear, however the anatomy of the creature could not be replicated by any bear species.

This is the Ozenkadnook Tiger photo which was taken in 1964 by Rilla Martin in southern Austalia. People think it could be a surviving marsupial lion or a thylacine, but no one is sure what it is. 

Arguably the most famous cryptid photo ever, the Surgeon’s Photo is actually a hoax that was done by attaching a “head” to the top of a toy submarine. It was a revenge plan by Marmaduke Wetherell against the Daily Mail.

This photo is of Raystown Ray that is said to live in Raystown Lake in PA. It was taken by an unnamed tourist in 2007.

These images are of Mogawr and were taken by Mary F. They were captured in 1976.

This is the Myakka Skunk Ape photo (which I’m surprised @thecryptocreep didn’t mention). It was taken by an anonymous woman in 2000 and was sent to a local police station along with a letter claiming the person thought it was an orangutan that escaped. 

Seeing as he insisted on covering his face with that ridiculous bandana, Kohana decided that looking at her sewing would be more interesting, and so, even as she continued talking, her attentions seemed to be more focussed on her needlework, as if he was only an afterthought. He really was crude and unpleasant to be around, but she had to confess there was something mildly entertaining about him. He was like an aggressive puppy, yapping a lot and generally being an annoyance, but no more than that.

“Oh, it’s nothing to me, really. I was just interested in finding out what constitutes a win. You are, after all, still stuck here like the rest of us, the Fool seems to be quite well, and overall you’ve achieved absolutely nothing as far as I can see.” 

Her tone was nothing but polite, of course. There wasn’t even a hint of sarcasm. It was perhaps a bit flippant, as if she was casually discussing the weather, but even that was not to excess. Sure, nothing was genuine, but that couldn’t be helped.

“Would you care for a sandwich, Mr Omen? I’m afraid I may have made too much. They’re cucumber.”

Omen already wasn’t appreciating her attitude of half-ignoring him -- it felt like she thought he was beneath her. Fuck that. What she had to say only served to intensen that initial distaste.

“A win means I proved they don’t have any info on me. They ain’t got shit to leak. Then they ran off after my first hit ‘cause they were scared of me.” The irritation was strong in his voice. “I’ve achieved a hell of a lot more than you, you fucking hag.” 

The hint of flippancy, the dismissal, the fake politeness... 

Lying and hiding things? Magnus stayed quiet for a few moments, his goggles glaring down at the cryptozoologist. It seemed almost if was deep in thought. Of course, he didn’t want to think about the announcement from earlier. Nor did he want to believe the fool was really that terrible to expose someone as innocent as Rosa. The chemist got a sort of worried vibe from Omen and the conversation. Of course, with what happened last time there was a motive, two people ended up dying. So, Magnus can’t blame him for being paranoid if he was. He swallows, and then finally continues to speak.   “Well, the only thing I’m hiding is my face, and that’s for religious reasons! So, I mean, I guess you could say that that’s well hidden, because nobody except for me, myself, and I have seen the face under this mask!” He reassures. But the chemist couldn’t help but worry that the fool had access to anything else in Magnus’s life. He definitely didn’t try to hide everything, since he had no way of guessing he would be kidnapped and forced into a killing game. He didn’t hide every single thing about his past, so it was rather scary to think that that… that thing could actually ever find out anything about his past at all. But, certainly, the self proclaimed alchemist was confident. He could be gullible, sure, but he knew better with what he had learned from Newton. He couldn’t see himself trying to kill someone in the future over something minute in his past. The chemist turns, opens the door to the bathroom and closes it. It was a rather thin door, so it was easy to speak right through it as Magnus got ready for bed. “If you don’t think the fool has anything for certain people here, I think we’ll be fine, yeah?”

“.... Uh huh.” Omen really didn’t sound convinced. “Just your face. So your birth certificate says ‘Magnus’ on it, and jack shit else?” He rolled his eyes, then laid back down. 

“You’re fucking hopeless.” He almost laughed at Magnus’ next question. “I know I’ll be fine. I’ve covered my tracks. If you’re really such a dumbass that you ain’t tried to hide anything, then hell if I know. Y’always struck me as one wanting to hide shit.”

Back at home, it was Kohana’s custom to have afternoon tea on most days. Especially on stressful days, or days when she had several deadlines looming, she found that there was little that cupcakes and Earl Grey could not fix. And so, with the tension in Cliffside building, it seemed only appropriate to seek refuge in her regular routine.

That was how she ended up having a one-woman picnic under the fairy tree. It was not quite like home. The tea was in a thermos flask, she’d had to make cucumber sandwiches herself, there were no macaroons or cupcakes, and she’d been forced to use her cottage’s tablecloth as a picnic blanket, but it was at least some semblance of what she would have had at home.

The tranquillity was calming, at least. Happily sewing away, she found all the concerns of the past few days slowly drifting away on the gentle breeze. As interesting as it was to socialise with the other denizens of Cliffside, there was something soothing about being sat on her own with nothing but the trees for company. Just Kohana and her thoughts, and perfect silence.

At least, until a purple monstrosity came stomping into her peripheral vision.

Omen was someone who Kohana, as a general rule, would do her best to avoid. He was rude, he was unpleasant and he was needlessly spiteful. Even if he had such feelings of contempt towards anything and everything, was it really necessary to voice them? The gracious thing to do would be to quietly continue sewing until he had left - chances were he was just passing by. But on this occasion, being gracious was just too difficult.

Looking up from her needlework, Kohana flashed the cryptozoologist a smile. “Good afternoon, Mr Omen. I heard through the grapevine that you had something of a tiff with the Fool. How did that work out for you?”

In this case, ‘through the grapevine’ could be substituted with ‘you were swearing so loudly that I could have probably heard you from the afterlife’, but to say the latter would have been inappropriate.

Omen had, in fact, been just passing by. He had no intentions of talking to anyone, no intentions of stopping anywhere; he just wanted to get out for a bit and take some time alone, maybe poke around in the graveyard. 

Unfortunately, fate had other things in mind.

“... Are you shitting me.” He stopped abruptly when he heard someone address him. This was the second time he was just passing through here and was harassed by someone at that stupid tree. Maybe he should start going through the woods instead of on the path along this area...

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he turned to look at the girl. Kohana, the old hag who for some reason decided to come. “How’d it work out? I won.” That wasn’t exactly true, but it was how he was choosing to interpret events.

“What, you expect their scrawny ass to do anything? They were at least not stupid enough to retaliate.” He shrugged. “Maybe they killed that dumbass Chambers, but I’m on a different level than her.”

“That’d be pretty rude of them, I think!” Magnus responds, lowering himself down to untie his boots. He didn’t want to think of the fool doing something like that, but with the way their words counteracted each other, he decided it wouldn’t be such a surprise. All he wanted, though, was some peace and quiet. No more motives. Especially when they exposed his friends, like Rosa, who didn’t really deserve said exposition.   The chemist places a boot down next to the door, and begins to work on the next one. Despite how much he really did want to into a full speech about specifying which tree he obviously meant, but he really wasn’t in the mood to get his grumpy room mate more angry than he already seemed. Instead he quickly said “The tree with all the lights!” before quickly continuing the conversation.  He placed the second boot down and stood up, a bit confused with the last bit of words that left Omen’s mouth. “Eh? Covering my tracks? I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand what you mean.” Magnus thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t think of an explanation of what he meant. Never had he tried covering up his footprint tracks in his shoes, nor has he ever been so careful about anything like that. “Can you explain? Or not, if you’re not up to it. Doesn’t really matter to me!” He shrugs, stepping close to the bathroom so that he can wash up soon after.

Omen exhaled heavily. “Then just fuckin’ say that from the start. I’ve already spent far more effort into this than I had any interest.” 

He sat up finally, turning so that his feet were on the floor, and leaned his elbows on his knees. He kept his eyes on Magnus, though, examining his roommate incredulously. “You know. Lying and hiding things and shit.”

Ah, there you go then!

Omen was a grumpy person, she’d figured that much out, and so Shin was just pleased as punch to have pegged his taste in gifts right.Her grin widened, and grew in smugness as well. Not even the insult to Natsume really registered as such. She was, after all, a pushover. She knew this well. She was the one who had arguably profited most from it- after all, who else would have let her friend drag her into a dancing career she didn’t even particularly want?

“Yup, that’s me. Though ya can call me Shin. Everyone does. Ya know, Fukui, so formal and all that.”

She put her hand on her hip. She was just exuding confidence and smug joy, and over such a small thing as him not literally running away from her.

“And that’s Natsume. The pushover. My dancin partner.”

She did have to put a slightly lecturing tone in her voice now, though it was obviously fake. Had to make sure she at least nominally fought for her best friend’s honor.

“And she’s perfect thank ya very much. Pushover or no.”

“I can call you whatever the hell I want.” Omen frowned at her, picking up the smug aura. He wasn’t a fan of that aura on anyone but himself.

He grunted.  “‘Perfect.’ Whatever, I didn’t say that. I’ve met her before, she seemed so fucking bland that I almost forgot.” He took a drag on his cigarette, then exhaled just to the right of Shin’s face. “You ever think about how she’s holdin’ you back? She is, isn’t she? ‘S why I don’t team up with people.” 

“Or, is she just following you and riding your coattails?” He literally just got a gift from her and now he’s trying to provoke her. 

The chemist was walking back to his cottage. This was the second time that the chemist was out a bit later than usual. This was mainly because of the giant, beautiful tree out in the wilderness and the small lanterns scattered around its branches. Out of all the things Magnus has seen here in the village to date, he felt like going there was probably the most relaxing and most reminiscent of home. Of course, if there weren’t any lanterns in it, he’d probably just be visiting it during the day and going to bed when he usually did. But something about the tree at night, with all those pretty lanterns inside, kept him awake just to see it once more. Perhaps it was because of how much it reminded him of home, or how much it reminded him of Natsume and the smile on her face when he first showed her the tree.  And, of course, with what was spoken about just earlier, he really did need the reminder. So, despite the news, he was much more calm and collected than usual. He creaked open the door, trying his best not to wake his grumpy room mate. Little did the poor chemist know that doing so was useless, as he was already quite awake. He jumps slightly before he shuts the door. The greeting was rather straight forward and odd, but knowing the cryptozoologist, Magnus has learned to understand that something like that was normal. The only thing he really could complain about was that Omen reminded him of what the fool had said earlier. A sigh escapes him before he finally answers.   “You say that like I don’t already know. Uh, I wish they understood that wanting safety and no… death… here and then throwing motives like that at us is not helpful.” The word ‘death’ stuck in his throat for a while. It left quite a bad, lingering taste.    “A-anyways, I wasn’t lost, no! I needed to calm down so I took a walk to the tree is all.” It seemed to Magnus that Omen actually almost cared where he was, which was pleasant to think about.

“They’re too stupid, probably.” Omen frowned. “Or maybe they’re just fucking lying about all their intentions and shit and want to watch us murder all over the place. There’re enough dumbasses here to fall for it.” 

He then gave Magnus a look. “Oh wow, really? The tree? That’s so fuckin’ specific, it’s not like there’s an entire goddamned forest right there,” he said with biting sarcasm. He actually had 1) noticed Magnus was out at odd hours and 2) cared enough to mention it, despite the effort he was going to to show otherwise. Omen interlaced his fingers behind his head, looking straight up again. “Not that I care. Don’t specify. I really don’t give a fuck.”