Information


Double Feature has a minion!

the Crawley




Double Feature


The Common Experiment #4423
Owner: boy

Age: 2 years, 2 weeks, 6 days

Born: March 8th, 2022

Adopted: 2 years, 2 weeks, 6 days ago

Adopted: March 8th, 2022


Pet Spotlight Winner
December 16th, 2022

Statistics


  • Level: 1
     
  • Strength: 10
     
  • Defense: 10
     
  • Speed: 10
     
  • Health: 10
     
  • HP: 10/10
     
  • Intelligence: 0
     
  • Books Read: 0
  • Food Eaten: 0
  • Job: Unemployed


pattern from patterncooler // story by Tribe // profile & graphics by boy
“Come one, come all, Double Feature’s on! You won’t want to miss them; you never know when they’ll do a show next!”

The summer sun shines brightly over the Delphi Beach Pier, the pristine and languid waters twinkling. The carnival is in full swing, the scent of spun sugar and deep fryer oil thick in the air. The bright game stands display their eye-catching prizes for passersby to ogle and, if they’re feeling lucky, take a shot at winning.

But if you catch an earful of a man–who looks comically carnival with a twirled handlebar mustache, sprightly suspendered suit, and worse-for-wear top hat–make a call for Double Feature’s act, you might find yourself a little luckier… at a cost. If your curiosity wins out, he’ll lead you through some alleyway twists and turns to a tent that has very clearly seen better days. A ramshackle sign’s letters have long bled under the beach sun, now faintly reading DO BL FE TUR .

The carnival man takes off his hat, proffers it–upside down–to you. “Mind paying the entry fee? It’s not much I promise–just 20,000 sP. It’s a steal, I promise: well worth your money!”
Each captive visitor sighs, turns out their pockets; none of you can quite recall the way back anyway, might as well take the time to stay entertained, right?

Entry fee paid, you duck into the tent and take a seat on one of the many plastic benches surrounding a small stage. Before long, the performer appears; your guide is quite quick to duck out of the tent once they arrive, leaving you alone with the creature.
They stand quite tall, bedecked in a jauntily draped red-and-white striped circus overcoat with a bow at the neck; along the collar and sleeveless shoulders are black-and-white striped trimmings. Perhaps the most dramatic part of their appearance is Double Feature themselves: a two-headed (one of which is bright red and the other bright green) lizard man with four arms. Each head is capped with an oddly-patchworked top hat and each pair of arms is correspondingly colored to match the colors of the creature’s heads.

You’d better hope you have company with you–the performer is notorious for tossing out spectators if the number of audience members displeases them.
“Even numbers only,” both heads screech as they irritably evict carnival-goers with four accusatory pointing fingers. “because odd numbers are SO VERY ODD!

They seem a bit like an odd fellow, don't they? I suppose it could be a curse of the performer; they can be a bit… diva-ish–or antisocial, if you’re more inclined to put it bluntly. Word on the street is that they’re an experiment who escaped from Euclid’s lab by a stroke of fortune–or perhaps it was misfortune. A lab perhaps is not the most conducive to producing well-adjusted creatures… who knows what goes on behind those pristine facility doors?

The official story from Euclid’s lab is that it was a freak accident: a gas line igniting during routine Zapper maintenance. It was more a PR front than anything, you see; several experiments got loose that night, some more malicious than others.

Those who escaped had nowhere to go apart from the streets. See, even with the good acts of kind passersby, the streets are quite rough and tumble; one doesn’t survive the harsh conditions without learning a few unsavory tricks to get what they need. Guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Double Feature is no stranger from the beg, steal, or barter school of life–they’re even quicker to lie if it means getting their way. A few of their past street friends–many of whom recall getting backstabbed by Double Feature’s silvered tongue–recall their fascination with Maleria and her dark matter mischief… even more so with the idea of being a bad omen.

Given their appearance, it should be even less of a surprise that Double Feature spent a short stint as a freak show attraction–but, tragically, that show’s been long closed down. The gossips were all in a fuss after hearing about a freak fire that completely put them out of business. A terrible event, all around.

The fortune teller who once traveled with that production has made quite a name for himself and, to this day, denies any involvement with Double Feature; in fact, he calls the two-faced lizard man a lightning rod for trouble. But anyone on the inside would tell you that he doted on the creature, positively spoiled him. In spite of his own denial, he may yet be the one with the most clear-eyed look at the situation.

Soften up the fortune teller enough and he’ll start to spill. He’ll jabber about how Double Feature himself is not meant to be bad at heart, but rather a product of their circumstances. He’ll talk of a particularly inauspicious tarot reading: the creature’s own. A pentagram spread, he says, meant to understand the individual in the bigger picture–he’ll claim that he himself feared the portents of this reading.

The Significator, paralleling the querent themselves: The Devil. An attractor of negative energies and evil itself.

The Upper Right, signifying the element Earth and its stagnancy: The Moon. Torn between tides, Double Feature is held back by their inner strife and conflict. How appropriate.

The Lower Right, related to Air with its winds of influence: Ten of Swords. A sign of unwelcome surprises and betrayal, which point to the inspirations of the querent.

The Lower Left tells of Fire, as both an inner spark and the outer destroyer: The Tower. A symbol of disruptive change that shakes at stable foundations.

The Upper Left is fluid as Water itself, bringing meaning to one’s intuition: The Hanged Man. It speaks of the creature being in uncomfortable positions and failing to find the answers they seek; until they learn to find comfort within themselves, they will struggle to find meaningful change.

The final card, Upper Center, relates to the Spirit: Death, the aspect of endings. The culmination of Double Feature’s journeys will always be endings–be it theirs or elsewise.

They will always attract the chaos energies to the endings they put in motion, the fortune teller says, be they novel and grand or smaller–even prize-like in nature, perhaps.

You sit through the production; the little acts and skits–sleight of hand tricks, juggling, a tad bit of singsongy cabaret action, some standup comedy–are periodically broken up by awkward bickering between the two lizard heads.

“You’re bombing, you know that right? You’re ruining it for both of us!” The green head hisses angrily at their conjoined partner.
The red-faced–surprisingly redder than they usually are–head is quick to retort. “Thanks for nothing, lizard brain!”
“You’re just as much of a lizard, you washed-up has-been!” The green head snorts as they derisively respond.
The audience nods along, though some among you exchange side-eyes and tense smiles. The show seems to drag on by with every passing minute.

The acts finally draw to a close and you can palpably feel the entire audience breathe a sigh of relief.

Both of Double Feature’s faces smile pleasantly at the crowd–it’s almost uncannily eerie. “Thank you for coming to the show; you’ve been a lovely crowd. As a memory of our good times together, I will grant each of you a greater chance to win a prize your heart desires–and I’ll spend the last bit of my show demonstrating some tricks to win the most popular carnival games! Anyone got a game to start us off?”

A little boy’s hand shoots into the air.

The green head turns to look at him. “Oh, tell us!”
“The ring toss!” The child pipes up with uncharacteristic enthusiasm.
The smiles on Double Feature’s faces both seem to stretch a little wider. “Of course, let’s start with that, shall we?”
Once they’re finally, finally done, the lizard creature gestures for you all to leave with a wink. “Be sure to follow our good carnival man back to the main attractions–he’ll make sure you get back safe and with the proper party favors.”

You could ask their accomplice how he bears the burden of his work, of the rumored injuries and disappearances after major carnival wins.
“It’s not like anything bad happens. If there is, I guess none of us remember; I’m not one to look for problems that weren’t there before.” The carnival man will say before giving you a nonchalant shrug. “The money’s alright for what the work is, anyway.”
He quickly vanishes into the crowd, perhaps to bring forth a new gaggle of unsuspecting tourists.I suppose it really is quite odd that no one recalls any incidents…

And it is even stranger that you don’t remember going to see this strange act–

Yet… despite this, there are a few carnival game tricks up your sleeve and, more damningly, a small pill packet at the bottom of your pocket—which definitely wasn’t there before.
In the packet… is a small, circular blood-red pill and a small vial of greenish fluid.
Some instructions still ring loud and clear in your ear: take the pill 10 minutes before stepping in line to win the prize you seek, and wash it down with the vial’s contents.

And absolutely no lawsuits if an… incident were to happen.

Pet Treasure


Pet Friends