rustedtusks.com

perhcance to dream? Aye, there's the rub. For in that sleep what dreams may come?

He got what he wanted-- and for as long as he's unconscious, he's at peace.

I wonder if his "ladyfriend" survived. And what bad things might have happened to her while Mulefoot was having his fun.

The demons sleep for now. Too bad they'll probably wake when Mulefoot does.

Maybe he just needed those few decent minutes with the girl so he'd have a spark of something decent fresh in his mind for the ride home.

I'll probably have to process for awhile and swallow the lump in my throat before I'll have much to say other than I'm gonna miss him.

Miss him?

Um, no, he isn't dead. There's still a lot of unresolved issues that the author has stated must be revealed before the end of the series.

He's really fucked up, but he isn't dead yet.

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

Maybe the rest of the series will be his adventures in the afterlife. *wry grin*
Or something like Jacob's Ladder.
Maybe the rest of the stories are all flashbacks/prequel in origin.
*rubs his hands together*

Awww, You cant kill him just yet!! This is getting too good for it to end now.

I think that things might go back to what passes for normal for the old boar for a bit... but eventually he will return it his old ways.. he'll go back to his own little version of cleaning up.

I think once the beating begain, Mulefoot wanted to let it happen.... The pain on the outside releives that on the inside....for a while. (much like people under lots of stress will somtimes hurt themselves as an outlet)

I do wonder what happens to the coyiana (sp?) girl.. does she go out to help the boar? or does she get beaten up or raped by the guys in the bar for being caught with a pig? If she's hurt by the other barflies...... it would make a great opportunity for some later revenge on Mulefoots part..... but i get the feeling that she wouldnt get revenged....

I'm going to have to do a lot more thinking on this.. mabey read the series again.

But its a great peice, Mulefoot! Keep up the great work! I love it.

...revenge for Mulefoot...

People like it when the mean ol' boar kills people that sorta deserve it. Wonder what my readers will do if I make them come to love and adore his next victim. Will they cheer him on the same?

Ohhh.. sounds exciting! Go for it!

I'd wager dollars to donuts that the hippie-chick is fine. She was specifically kept out of that fight; if she was a target for anything she'd have been let in to receive some of the punishment with Tony. Remember that the canids didn't stand up until after Cucuy was beaten down. The mob that beat Tony was looking for revenge as opposed to showcasing their machismo. Least anyone forget, this situation is under the ultimate authority of the shotgun weilding bartender and he's not going to let something like that happen in his establishment if he wants to remain in business.

Speaking of a legitimate establishment and the lengths its proprieter (plus its customers) will go to avoid entanglements with the police, Tony is alive. If the boar were dead, we'd have a scene like the pikers arguing with each other in "Snatch" when Gorgeous George went down with a broken skull. A dead body with multiple wounds wouldn't be thrown into the alley behind the bar. A dead body must disappear. In such a case then I would say the girl would be in jeopardy. But Tony was tossed out back and a beaten drunk sleeping it off in a back alley would get an indifferent shrug from the authorities.

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"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." - JET

Oh Marian..
What did you do to our pig?
He had tried to change... Be a good pig.
He didn't even kill Takamo.
And then that damnable DVD.
Talking to Heather didn't help... Hell he didn't even shag her.
Throwing himself into work didn't help either.
Drowning his mind in booze to make it stop wasn't really working neither.
Was the girl important, or just an excuse to go to the bar across the street and continue drinking?
The booze wasn't working... So maybe these fine upstanding drunks could do what drinking failed to do.
Quiet his mind...
Maybe for the night...
Maybe forever...
Mulefoot fell into an abyss of his own making.
Who knows how far he would have fallen if the alley hadn't gotten in the way.

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Four legs good, two legs bad. (G. Orwell)

Mulefoot has probably not just wanted to get beat when the first dirty coyano chomped down on his forearm. It was planned from the start. A drastic measure to break his cycle for once, and he had to arrange it all. That's this issue's sarcasm: you can always rely on the worst in a furson within the Slopiverse. You can trigger instincts and know the outcome from the start, and use the badness for yourself, because everybody else is too wrapped up in their own little red world to mete out proper justice...

And this would all be very bleak, if not for Muley's tagalong girl with her unexpected (?) gesture of kindness, stopping the assailants.

Bleaker still if you draw a parallel to this forum, with Muley the artist for once refusing to feed the gory expectations of the forumites, who nevertheless howl for blood. Any blood any which way. Kill the girl, kill the bartender, revenge, violence, death, keep the Slopiverse about The Ways That Bodies Messily Stop Working. Just don't kill our killer, or the killing might stop.

That's why I start to prefer to lurk, before Slop turns from Mulefoot's soul stripping to just another Stabbie site having to cater to unreflecting gorehounds.

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A lone figure sits still by a pool - he's been stamped human bacon by some butchering tool - he is you...
Social Security took care of this lad - we watch in reverence - as Narcissus is turned to a flower

I sometimes resemble that remark, but a wiser person than I said that all stories are about conflict. Mulefoot's a monster, but he's our monster, a friend gone bad. Mulefoot might have other views .....

I don't think Mr. Mandibles is a Coyano, just another dog breed.

As for planning it from the start, again I don't think it went that way. Tony didn't initially want that fight with Cucuy as he tried to avoid it until he heard the bear's name/nickname. Unless the vepr was unconciously setting himself up for this he made no decisions prior to each waypoint of action before the conclusion of this story. Goading the ursine, continuing the fight after it was over, submitting to the bartender, and then taking the beatdown; too complicated a series of events to say it went like planned dominoes. What if the bartender didn't have a shotgun? What if the crowd to take action was thinned by other life events to be no more than one or two, hardly enough to take on the boar after Cucuy's beating? What if Cucuy had gone somewhere else for the night? There were too many variables for this to have been premeditated. At best Tony knew the danger involved in his actions but the outcome would be beyond his ability to predict.

I just have to say two things regarding Halbherz's statement about the bleakness and death, as well as that strange swipe at Mulefoot and all of the forumites. Why do you associate with people you so obviously disdain? Why do you follow a story that deals directly with things you find repulsive?

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"Y'know, if nothing else, living here has incredibly sharpened my 'Hey, there's someone coming for my dick!' defense skills." - JET

I've known Mulefoot since before Slop, and have had the honor of digitally conversing with him, and what I said concerning Slop arose from those conversations and, admittedly, a lot of surmising on my part.

And while there's a share of Stabbies out here, whose Freddy Krueger Wannabe posturing I despise, there are still diamonds to be found in the swamp, of intelligent people who really have been to the edge, and don't have to pretend to depth in their shallow lives (like, incidentally, I do). Whoever thinks I unfairly categorize him or her as a Stabbie instead of a Survivor, probably deserves such. Those who know don't talk; those who talk don't know.

Sometimes, logic just isn't the right tool to analyze a person's motives. I'm here because, like Mulefoot the character in a carnivore bar, I choose to be in a wrong place. The reasons for that are mine alone, and even if you, Andrick, don't see the benefit I could possible glean, I do.

Besides, a few playtime psychos here might need a little squeamish opposition from time to time. Builds character.

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A lone figure sits still by a pool - he's been stamped human bacon by some butchering tool - he is you...
Social Security took care of this lad - we watch in reverence - as Narcissus is turned to a flower

You did an awful lot of talking. Maybe not as much as you had to, to say what you said.

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

I'm not concerned by what Halbherz has said, once I allowed it to soak in,..and looked closely at what was left "on top of the sponge", so-to-speak... He merely has indicated that he hopes that SLOP doesn't devolve into gore-mongering,..and is glad to see that our dear artist doesn't alway choose to give into that temptation. It's a mixed bag,..both of situations, and of those, such as us Forum-goers, who enjoy and participate vicariously in them. I took from his comments that Halbherz likes it that way,..even in the "darker" renderings of our collective minds,..and the offerings of Mulefoot.

Lurk if you wish, Halbherz... I'll still smile when I see your face.

As far as this Forum is concerned, I myself see it as a communal pot of stew, with as many varied ingredients as the chef and all the forum-goers want to toss in... It won't always taste good to everybody,..but it will generally remain edible (that's part of the administator's task). Every one who sticks around to taste it is allowed to comment on it,..that's part of the fun,...as long as it doesn't get too personal or rude.. After all,..a forum like this IS sort of a group project, in a social way. Even better still, beyond merely, hanging around to taste the stew,...actively adding to it from time to time will make it more to that person's liking. It's all about everyone's personal spice.

Halbherz likes to lurk,....I just hope he also participates enough to help change the flavor of it from time to time,....for him,....and for us...

Variety is the spice of life....

Jadúgara ^_^

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"A man slips more with his tongue than with his feet..."

Aren't contradictions fun?

But yes, to summarize: I'm here for two reasons, Mulefoot's welcome and my free will. And i promise to keep shut the next time a post pops up like "Oooh, he could kill the bartender too!"

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A lone figure sits still by a pool - he's been stamped human bacon by some butchering tool - he is you...
Social Security took care of this lad - we watch in reverence - as Narcissus is turned to a flower

As for Mulefoot's motives for the story...
Take into account the title of the story.
And take it in context of who he is and maybe who he was at age 18.

Halbherz: In reading each story from start to finish and lurking the forums, I haven't seen Mulefoot cater to anyone but Mulefoot. How much forum conversation influences him, I couldn't say, but I don't get the impression that it could ever be enough to make him compromise himself as a writer.

Abraxus: Dead or not, I'll miss him for the duration of his absence

See how intense we're getting here?

Our host has taken our emotions, fed them gunpowder, and released them in the octagon with each other. I'm not sure what his motive is, but it's a good thing because it will end like most fights do: involved parties bruised, out of breath, exhausted, and left with a great deal more awareness and understanding of each other, acknowledging that the world is one big gray area from which none of us will escape alive. And stuff.

Mulefoot is behind the wheel. It's his vehicle. We're just along for the ride.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

Amen to that! We can try to understand and explain all we like, but in the end, we wont know 'what' until he shows us, and we wont know 'why' unless he tells us.

I could tell you and sometimes I do.
However, its quite rewarding for me to read the speculation and theories...even when it goes way off in left field. Its a decent cue that the story was effective.

I draw for myself in the end. I have to. However, its fan response that lets me feel like I did something good.

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.â€Â

In light of the way the story has been progressing lately, I thought that sharing this with everybody would be very appropriate.

"I'm at a crossroads now. - And unsure where to go... - What to do. - Or how to keep going. - I feel like I'm dying... - Like everything that I do has no meaning... Or will mean nothing. - And it's just a matter of time before my mind can't keep going... - Or keep fighting."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXLfrcqb54A

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

Self Inflicted Wounds is a different breed of a story. No matter where you hail from and what you are looking for, it can grab you by the throat, eyes at the screen, one arm around your scruff and one in tight rubber and hold you firm until it cleanses you inside out. Until you are left nothing but a shell empty of emotions, with a room enough for questions to sprout, the most nagging of them, "Would have I done the same, even if once in my life?" I don't know how many of you got a question for yourself, it's not one given lightly. Would have I cleansed myself of all sins through the acts of others. History and religion are full of examples of people who did in the same of ideals, but isn't life an ideal on its own - we all strive towards something and then when we fail completely and see the failure in ourselves, there's only one thing right to do - to punish ourselves.

"To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

The Life and Death of Julies Caesar
Act 1, Scene 2

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Four legs good, two legs bad. (G. Orwell)

Damn pig finally got what he deserved. A good nap!

Hope this ain't the end of the pig. I'm was just getting to like him.

Wow, you like him? I don't know if I'd go quite that far. An interesting character, to be sure, but he's a serial killer. A sadistic one at that, and though he doesn't seem to be in control of his impulses, it's still him doing the killing.

I suppose he may have some likeable personality traits when he's able to keep the monsters locked away. I guess he does TRY to be a better person in those time.

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

I see Mulefoot as being a bit of a "back-country Hannibal Lecter".....He's the hero, despite his evil character. He murders, but aren't the deaths justified?

In killing, he's exacting revenge on an enemy from long ago.. and enemy he was helpless against. The blood of his victims eases his mind.... allows him to get through his daily routene. But each victim is only a surogate... a substitue for that wich hurt him so badly in the past.

And that's just not nice of the pig...taken it out on harmless folk. *grins*

Please remove this posting.

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Gas burns fast. Liquor burns quicker.

Oh well. Put this way, I'm sure the victims would actually volunteer to help with this little therapy of Muley's. It IS for the greater good, after all, and they all deserve to die anyway, so why not as a surrogate to a conflict they never played a part in.

Everyone deserves to die. I don't know what sins I'd have to stoop to if innocence was indeed rewarded with eternal existence, robbing oneself of death.

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A lone figure sits still by a pool - he's been stamped human bacon by some butchering tool - he is you...
Social Security took care of this lad - we watch in reverence - as Narcissus is turned to a flower