File #90 (S3-10) - "Body Builder"

[Oneiros]

OR: "Sculpting outcomes"

Although, for all its creepiness, I can't help having In Just Seven Days... from The Rocky Horror Picture Show running through my head at this one 

But it looks like our old friend Mr. Hopworth shows himself again, this time with a number of crafted horrors. Is this his end goal? Or does he have something more perfectly sinister in mind... and body? And just what would someone want with sheep femurs? A hearty soup perhaps...

And what of poor Tim... Seems Malaysia just didn't agree with him, maybe tropical climes just aren't his thing, huh?

[hyoscyamus]

Neat episode! Everything can become an addiction, sport of any kind is no exception, especially when it's combined with strange beauty ideals like they exist in the bodybuilder scene. A lot of bodybuilders do freaky things to their bodies. A few years back I saw a documentary in which one female bodybuilder said that to win in the shows she not only had to have muscles but needed to look feminine enough on top of it. A few days before a show she would fast, drink very little while taking water pills so her figure would be slim looking and at the same time show the muscles more. Also constantly going under the tanning bed. Awful enough what such things do to a body even without any steroids. And with them...
I'm more wondering what they do with the excess body-parts that are deemed imperfect? Are they just reshaped or is this what ends in the soup?

And I'm still not quite sure where the body/bone formers belong to. Flesh seems most likely for me.

And that was a dangerous experiment from Tim. Too bad he doesn't know the guy he tries to get fired by would do so via gun.

[Bartleby]

Jan 25, 2018 9:23:22 GMT hyoscyamus said:

Neat episode! Everything can become an addiction, sport of any kind is no exception, especially when it's combined with strange beauty ideals like they exist in the bodybuilder scene. A lot of bodybuilders do freaky things to their bodies. A few years back I saw a documentary in which one female bodybuilder said that to win in the shows she not only had to have muscles but needed to look feminine enough on top of it. A few days before a show she would fast, drink very little while taking water pills so her figure would be slim looking and at the same time show the muscles more. Also constantly going under the tanning bed. Awful enough what such things do to a body even without any steroids. And with them...
I'm more wondering what they do with the excess body-parts that are deemed imperfect? Are they just reshaped or is this what ends in the soup?

And I'm still not quite sure where the body/bone formers belong to. Flesh seems most likely for me.

And that was a dangerous experiment from Tim. Too bad he doesn't know the guy he tries to get fired by would do so via gun.

The description of the things found in the gym at night call to mind the creatures that Yuri saw at The Circus of the Other in MAG44 - Tightrope.

For comparison:

MAG44:
"What I saw inside is one of the main reasons that I'm so sure that my experience deserves to be in your library. It's the reason I went to Moscow to study medicine. For the people, such they can be called that I saw in there, were of such grotesque proportion and bodily forms that I became obsessed with learning how it was they might still live.
"It was only when I was many years into my medical training that I finally accepted that, scientifically, such things were not possible. A mouth cannot function if it's located anywhere other than the face. Limbs cannot bend like rubber. A man cannot walk and talk and stare without a head."

MAG90:
"It was not Marie, swinging round and about on the bars. Marie only had two arms. Marie had legs. And Marie had a head. The thing that spun, and flipped, and twirled around the bars was nothing like Marie, though its flesh looked human enough. It did have a smile though, stitched right in the centre of it's torso.
[...]
"...I tried to remember some of them in detail, the confusion of limbs and joints and muscles, but all I can remember is the happy, joyful way they called to me."

Also worth noting is that the statement givers get a similar reaction when they first discover the horrors. Yuri is told the Tiger "wasn't finished" when he notices how wrong it was, while Ross hears Jared say "Too soon" as he flees the sight of the gym members.

[hyoscyamus]

Jan 25, 2018 10:17:45 GMT Bartleby said:

The description of the things found in the gym at night call to mind the creatures that Yuri saw at The Circus of the Other in MAG44 - Tightrope.

Oooh, you're right, good catch! By now the Circus is almost certainly attributed to the Stranger, that means the Boneturner(s) would be too. From the things Hopworth did with his victim in the Butcher shop I was still more thinking of Flesh, but I forgot about this bit.

[Bartleby]

hyoscyamus

Well, in fairness I think you could still be right. I need to go back and give Jared's other appearances a relisten in case there are more explicit links to be found there. Along with any episodes featuring the book that he learned Bone-Turning from too, come to think of it.

I think I was primed to think of the circus before anything else though because of the calliope music that John has started hearing, but time will tell if anything comes of that. 

Off the top of my head, a point against Bone-Turning being unique to The Stranger would be that Michael does it (or something very like it) when he removed a silver worm from Sasha. In that case he wasn't removing or interacting with bones, but the idea of reaching into a person without breaking the skin is the same.

[cannonlongshot]

Jan 25, 2018 11:00:16 GMT Bartleby said:

Off the top of my head, a point against Bone-Turning being unique to The Stranger would be that Michael does it (or something very like it) when he removed a silver worm from Sasha. In that case he wasn't removing or interacting with bones, but the idea of reaching into a person without breaking the skin is the same.

Something similar happens in the Knifepoint Horror episode "bells"* - it's just a really freaking creepy idea, I think.

* 2nd Trilogy of Horror episode!

[hyoscyamus]

Jan 25, 2018 11:00:16 GMT Bartleby said:

Off the top of my head, a point against Bone-Turning being unique to The Stranger would be that Michael does it (or something very like it) when he removed a silver worm from Sasha. In that case he wasn't removing or interacting with bones, but the idea of reaching into a person without breaking the skin is the same.

Ah, I think he cut the worm out with his sharp fingers. She was injured afterwards.

Now that I think of it, in The Uncanny Valley one of the mannequins was also rearranged in a scrambled way. And the mannequin that took the store managers skin belonged to the Stranger. So there's another point for the two things fitting together.

Since some of the powers work together sometimes it could be that some body-formed victims were left in the circus as a gift for the shows. But after your reminder I'm more inclined to think they belong to the Stranger more than to another power.

[urchin]

The Jared character would fit well with Jared Hopworth from The Boneturner's Tale, but the post-script of that one asserts that Jared Hopworth died in 2006. Could it still be the same Jared? Warped bodies and the same name seems like a awfully large coincidence.

[Mister Donkey]

I wasn't Jared that died in 2006, it was the librarian. Probably killed by Jared.

[Bartleby]

Jan 25, 2018 16:02:08 GMT hyoscyamus said:

Ah, I think he cut the worm out with his sharp fingers. She was injured afterwards.

Now that I think of it, in The Uncanny Valley one of the mannequins was also rearranged in a scrambled way. And the mannequin that took the store managers skin belonged to the Stranger. So there's another point for the two things fitting together.

Since some of the powers work together sometimes it could be that some body-formed victims were left in the circus as a gift for the shows. But after your reminder I'm more inclined to think they belong to the Stranger more than to another power.

Ah, is that how it happened? My mistake. I think what complicates things is how Leitner describes the Powers in MAG80.

MAG80 - The Librarian
"You're thinking too literally, examining the physical categorisation but ignoring the meaning of the thing. What are the bones? In The Distortion - your Michael - the structure of the skeleton, an established reality in your mind, is twisted and warped into an impossible form. But in other cases? Are they a symbol of Slaughter and Butchery? Are they The Familiar Made Wrong? Or are they simply part of the messy physicality of Flesh?"

(I've added some capitalisation based on what I assume are Lietner's classifications of the Powers, the official transcripts might differ.)

So rather than Bone-Turning or Jared himself belonging to any single power, it might be more likely that, depending on how it's used, it can be made to serve any of them, with Jared acting as a bit of a rogue element/mercenary figure. Maybe these activities are his "auditions", so to speak.

I find the idea of The Circus as a collaborative effort really interesting, but I wonder if it's not projecting a little too much "humanness" onto these godlike beings. I know its been confirmed to happen, but it's still something I think about.

If it is the case, I wonder what the implications of certain members leaving it would be. Gertrude comments that the Circus became much less dangerous after Denikin left in the 70's - did one power withdraw support?

Interesting to think about, in any case.

[urchin]

Jan 25, 2018 17:00:48 GMT Mister Donkey said:

I wasn't Jared that died in 2006, it was the librarian. Probably killed by Jared.

You're totally right, thank you for the correction. This is 100% Jared Hopworth, then.

[Bartleby]

Jan 25, 2018 14:59:47 GMT cannonlongshot said:

Something similar happens in the Knifepoint Horror episode "bells"* - it's just a really freaking creepy idea, I think.

* 2nd Trilogy of Horror episode!

100% correct. It's like the opposite of gore - something being fundamentally damaged / changed and yet leaving no trace of how besides how wrong it just is. It's like an invasiveness / intrusion of a whole other level.

And I think it works well with how it's used here too. If the gym had been a bloodier spectacle, I think the impression we would have gotten was that Jared had inflicted this fate on these people. But the fact that the emphasis is on body horror instead, and not gore, to me reinforces the element of these people having chosen this, or been driven to this by the unhealthy standards they held themselves to. They sounded happy. A part of the narrator wanted to join them.

That's a real creepy thought.

I'll have to check out Knifepoint Horror, sounds like good stuff.

[LaCelestina]

With this one, I was quietly sewing away, knowing well what I was getting into. But it was such a calm day I didnt pay attention to it anyway, and then stuff started heading south and I had to stop and listen. I will admit I was thinking more of the mannequin statement than the boneturner's when it reached the end.

I feel bad for Tim, and surprised that he hasn't tried to punch his 'employer' yet. He's had some pretty strong outbursts before, but his weakness shows when he starts realizing how helpless he is... just like when he was arguing with Jon and was asked to quit but couldn't, then sort of walked away defeated when he realized that wouldn't/couldn't happen. Martin seems to be holding up alright though. I still stifle a laugh every time I think about Martin being alright and Jon's quiet voice asking if he was a spirit bound to the institute.

[danae149]

Great to see the return of Jared Hopworth! His episodes are always nicely creepy. I especially liked his "too soon" line about the statement giver--I like how so many of the victims in these stories are either drawn to the supernatural or are sought out by it because of their potential to fall to their sway or align themselves with them.

Poor Tim. Given the choice between being slowly drained of my life force by a supernatural entity and engaging in some mindless filing, I might choose the first.