A Marvelous Adventure At The Movies

 Corey and Oats in

A Marvelous Adventure At The Movies

NOTE: This is part of the Campbell’s Bay mini-series.

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Everyone’s favorite group of friends lead by Corey and Oats had many adventures together including mini series of adventures and sometimes these adventures would take them to brand new places,  and sometimes these adventures could be scary but only because they were different and sometimes when you try something different for the first time it can be a little bit frightening.

And Mel certainly knew about that, she knew that once you get used to something, the less difficult it becomes,  the first day of the Campbell’s Bay series of adventures was definitely one that gave her a case of the nerves but it went well pretty quickly. And she even had found fun at an arcade with the gang and even at Belmont, which surprised Piff. Piff knew for a fact that Mel had a disliking of Belmont but Mel had explained the only reason that her opinion on that place had soured was because well when she was there the past few months (in late May to be exact) she very much had driven herself to boredom after foolish forgetting Hyacinth’s lifeforce recharger and a coloring book and it had made her feel tired when she came home that day and she outright refused to write a story about it, so she very much asked Piff to narrate a story instead.   

She felt alone in that scenario, she could have asked someone to go and get the lifeforce recharger for her but she felt that they’d be too busy so she said nothing, she tried to get out in the garden and tried to go for a walk but Louisa thought she got lost,  she felt like Belmont was the prison that the staff at Nile Road who sometimes had to work there  - often described it as being, yes it did not have anything to do with her but she had heard them very much describe it like it was a place where nothing happens,  and the way they described it sometimes made her sound like they were describing a funeral home.   But Mel did not hate the place or its residents, she just never talked to them, she saw them sometimes and said hello, but most of the time didn’t feel like being near them.

The Christmas party last year was not successful for her or Piff,  what was meant to be Piff’s big debut as a video maker and actor got completely thwarted by low attendance of the guests, it was clear the guests didn’t want Piff or rather Piff felt that they didn’t want to see him, and they only came just to hear the same generic top 100  Christmas songs over and over on repeat, Mel never liked that kind of playlist anyway since a lot of the songs were just a million covers of basic public domain Christmas carols (I mean who really asked for a million versions of Away In A Manger?),  and practically any Christmas song that got overplayed on the  radio.  Mel’s opinion on Christmas was, well she did not actually hate it, she just found it jarring that radio stations would start playing holiday songs as early as late October and when stores would stop putting up their holiday stuff as early as August or September.  I mean you would probably feel the same way too if you were going in Spotlight or Look Sharp for a Freddy Krueger costume and you found some cheap looking Santa outfits (that you’d find any mall santa wearing) and a section that looked like it was how Melania Trump decorated the White House for the holidays.

To put it in her own words…’Nobody watches A Christmas Story in May, nobody watches It’s A Wonderful Life in July.  Those are exclusively Christmas movies and should be exclusively just for December. Buddy the Elf is a Christmas character, he does not belong with horror characters like Jason Voorhees, Ghostface and Elvira. When I am looking for Elvira merch, I am looking for Elvira, not Rudolph or Frosty, not Santa,  I can give the Grinch some lee-way because he technically does have both have a halloween and a Christmas special,  but Christmas characters do not belong with halloween characters - unless it’s Tim Burton of course.’   And well she had a point, as much as she appreciated Mariah Carey, she thought that the only Mariah song that gets a lot of airplay was ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ was just stupid considering Mariah had multiple OTHER songs and even songs that WEREN’T tied to the holidays, but somehow radio stations just found ways to weaponize how Mariah Carey is the supposed embodiment of Christmas to torture people working in retail around the holidays.  But this time the tale was sure to be something different, something special.

It was Thursday the 3rd of September 2026, and while that may not be any extra special day to most people, to Mel it was definitely special.  That morning after she had several strange Terminator related dreams, mosly of either being chased by the t1000 or turning into him,  she awoke with the gang and headed to the bathroom.  She took advantage of having a shower all to herself and embraced it.

She explained to the gang that she had acquired a ‘Robert Patrick’ hyperfixation, she explained that it all started during the time in which she didn’t have Hyacinth for a brief period and it was frustrating for her, to be without a computer companion to her was akin to someone without a phone not being able to use the phone,  it may not be serious to most people but Mel was not ‘most people’ so to speak, with her able to speak to the spirits of the deceased,  her transformation related powers, her magic and such, she was no normal koala-girl by any means.

Mentioning that during that very specific period she and the gang were having a Youtube session to have a stress-free break and it started with watching Piff on TV followed by going through Mel’s favorite channels like Back To The Past (a UK Youtube channel that Mel connected with a lot due to having lived in the UK herself before moving to New Zealand and seeing the videos about ‘Argos’ catalogues, Disney’s Big Time, and especially the Sky TV videos, really inspired her to share her nostalgic memories with the gang),  Minty’s Comedic Arts (an Australian Youtuber that Mel had been a huge fan of since 2014) and even Adam Martyn,  to even looking at fish content.

Of course she had tried Netflix before but she knew that NZ Netflix was kind of bad in terms of film selections (she had tried to find Caddyshack on there once, but she couldn’t find it), she had tried Tubi in hopes of finding the Cartoon Network shows she remembered watching on television like Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, etc ony to find that New Zealand was not one of the countries recieving the Cartoon Network shows on Tubi, and she had already watched a couple of David Attenborough documentaries with Piff (Piff loved Attenborough’s nature documentaries and he knew they were always so very soothing and helpful to unwind, so that was one of hi favorite go-to-ways to help Mel relax).

She had found the channel Marvelous Videos which had ‘lore’ videos on movie monsters and she had found one about all the different Terminator models in the Terminator franchise, but it really kicked off when she saw gameplay footage of Mortal Kombat 1, featuring interactions with characters like Shang Tsung and Scorpion, with this lean 6’0 humanoid cyborg wearing a police officer uniform, she was amazed by what this character could do,  he could turn parts of his body into weapons like his arms, he could become anyone he came into contact with,  he was extremely agile, and he had an eerie yet calm presence,  he was the t1000.  

And thus a new villain had been added to the list of ‘comfort characters’ that day,  now having villains as comfort characters may seem odd but it’s not uncommon in fandoms for someone to like or appreciate characters who are not the hero,  like Nathan and the Hessian Horseman. The Hessian of course was the ‘Headless Horseman’ the villain from Tim Burton’s movie ‘Sleepy Hollow’ which was based on the Washington Irving story ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’,  the horseman in the movie was a ‘badass’ undead warrior who with his head off was played by Ray Park and with his head on he was played by Christopher Walken who was a favorite actor of Nathan’s and Mel’s.

Mel couldn’t help it…before she knew it, she was getting pictures of the t1000 as Pinterest reccomendations and was starting to like Robert Patrick a lot, not to the same level as Christopher Walken or Danny Trejo or Dan Aykroyd but very close, and she tried fighting it or hiding it but to no avail, there was no way around it by this point, the t1000 had slinked into her world like the liquid metal snake that he was and weaved his charms on her.

Since then she had multiple dreams of him, which she had with other villains too, like for example Jerry Dandrige from Fright Night, she often would dream of Jerry using his vampire powers to put her under his spell and converting her into a vampire,  or the Tall-Man from Phantasm.  In those dreams, she was often in a place like a graveyard with other horror characters and she saw her late father James, she spotted the Tall-Man and initially she thought the Tall-Man was going to take her father away to the spirit world, but in a moment that was uncharacteristically human,  he spoke to Mel.  ‘Do not fear Mel, I have not come to take your father from you.’ ‘What do you mean? Don’t you usually go after people and shrink their dead bodies to turn them into your minions?’  ‘In the movies i’m from, yes.  But in your dream world here, I am not as evil as I look.’    ‘So what are you here for?’  ‘I am here to say that I have seen how much you love your dad and I know that when he passed away in the waking world it was a very sad for you and for Jill.’

‘Wait, you know all about my  dad?’  ‘Why yes I do, I know you cared about him very much.  I may be a supernatural being with heavy connections to death and the afterlife but I feel sympathy for anyone who has lost a loved one.’  The Tall-Man had explained to her in the dream.  And now the t1000 was doing something similar in her dreams.

The first time she had dreamed of becoming him it was very strange, watching this liquid metal substance emerge from the shower and reacting to it warping her body into his,  she remembered in the dream looking in the mirror of the bathroom in the Nile Road house and seeing the t1000 staring back at her, since then, she had those dreams of becoming him and didn’t understand why she had them so much, why did she dream of this villain yet alone of being him, why did she somehow like being him, she didn’t know how or why but somehow it just happened.

After sharing the stories of her Terminator hyperfixation with the gang and after they all had gotten dressed, they all had some snacks and some lunch before they got ready,  why did they get ready, why they got ready because it was another outing day and this time it was just the gang, Mel and Louisa that were going out.  And it was for a very special occassion, that occassion being it was the anniversary of Terminator 2: Judgement Day and the gang were going to see the movie at the cinema.

The gang all got ready and headed in the car with Louisa, they buckled up as the floating car took off and took them all the way to Takapuna,  upon arriving in Takapuna they all headed to the Beachside Cinema but not before Louisa had a quick bite to eat, they entered the cinema and bought tickets along with popcorn and a drink.

Once they all walked into the theater showing Terminator 2 they all sat down and Piff and Tangie and Hangyodon sat in the same row,  after the trailers there was a special behind the scenes making of feature before the movie,  and thus the gang witnessed movie magic when the movie played and moments from the movie came to life on screen right before their eyes.  Mel could not believe it, she was seeing the t1000 on the big screen and she was very enthralled by his presence as well as ‘Uncle Bob’ who was a favorite.

Even Louis enjoyed it and when the movie was over they left the theater all with a smile on their faces, as they headed back in the floating car and the car took them all the way to Belmont, and when they arrived at Belmont,  Mel found herself actually warming up to them,  she had already warmed up to them in the past but she found that everyone had their own quirks and personalities and she didn’t need to interact with them to get to know them,  she found it was not so boring after all.

Aftewards they all headed back to the floating car and the van took them all the way back to their temporary home in Campbell’s Bay where they relaxed before they all were surprised with pizza for dinner which made them super happy.  They all played games afterwards, and Piff and Hangydon and Tangie went fishing and caught a lot of fish.

After the fishing trip there was a music section and some relaxation activities like ASMR sessions, bathbomb sniffing, imagination sessions, and ‘Guess the Bathbomb Scent’ before Corey put on his bat pajamas and Oats put on his princess night-gown as they all brushed their teeth in the bathroom.

Piff activated the closedown sequence featuring the animated fish couple and Hangyodon going into a movie theater to watch a cozy bedtime movie presentation called ‘Sleep Time For Little Peanut’ which was about Peanut going to sleep and having cozy dreams as the background shifted from day to night, as the goodnight message appeared on screen.

Piff floated into bed and kissed Tangie and hugged Hangyodon before giving the goodnight speech which was: ‘We had a masterpiece of a cinematic adventure today because we saw Terminator 2 and it was awesome, I even got to sit next to Tangie and Hangyodon and share popcorn, that was so much fun, and now i’m going to have more fun in Dreamland, goodnight.’

He floated out of bed and with the help of his friends, turned off the light and then floated back into bed as they all drifted off to sleep and had sweet dreams,  Mel drifted off soon after and dreamed of her friends and even a bit about her villain comfort characters,  in her dream Freddy Krueger was actually being a good friend and not going after her or her friends and other villains were there too including the t1000. ‘You always manage to turn up don’t ya?’  ‘Of course, it was how I was programmed, you  cannot get rid of me that easily.’   ‘Now why would I want to get rid of you? You’re permanently stuck here now, in my dream world, in my head,  I might as well get used to having a shapeshifting killing machine here.’  ‘I knew you’d come around.’  ‘Well yeah that and trying to outrun you is pointless.’

The t1000 laughed as he reached out to Mel in the dream, she was hesitant at first but she let him reach out for her, finding him not to be not as scary as he was to her at first, she smiled and sighed in her sleep as she had this dream.  Meanwhile back at the Nile Road home, Anglo knew that it was time to turn out the light and he still felt a little bit odd about doing it without the gang, but he did it with the help of the remaining friends that had stayed behind and they all drifted off to sleep, having sweet dreams.

And thus the gang’s adventure for the day had come to an end but more adventures are coming up, so please stay tuned.