Monday, December 6, 2010

Headless Rokko

I've been thinking about what it takes to really kill a cartoon. Most people still think that only Dip, the toxic substance from the 1990 Roger Rabbit movie, is the only thing that can kill them. But I believe that depending on the type of cartoon you are, the type of injuries you substance will effect you differently. These "powers" are given to the toon by their creator. Superman can only be killed by kyrptonite, so would he still dissolve when dumped in Dip? Pokemon and Digimon don't die, but could you splash some paint thinner on them and they'd disappear forever? Plus there are plenty of times where a character is put in mortal danger and while we might assume that somehow they'll make it out alive, we hold our breaths when the character is hanging from the cliff at the end of episode. A toon needs to have a level of mortality cause if they didn't, then why should we be worried about their safe return next week?

The fallowing story is a play on that idea as well a cartoons ability to remove it's head. Rokko is a character constantly struggling to deal with his mortality; when ever he wants to die, he can't. When ever he needs to stay alive, he's in jeopardy of dieing. Warning! the blog is quite violent, dark, and contains mature subject matter.
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Rokko is being chased by a bunch of human thugs. We're not told what he did or why but they shoot guns off each other and run into a warehouse. One guy tackles Rokko to the ground and they roll around until Rokko is on top of the man. Rokko pushes the man's head into the ground trying to crush it but hesitates cause he doesn't want to kill him. The man brings up his gun to Rokko's head but he grabs the man's arm just before he shoots. The bullet ricochets off the walls behind him, into the back of Rokko's skull and doesn't pass all the way through. Rokko blacks out and falls over. The other men catch up to where Rokko lays and kick him around a bit. One guy takes out a huge knife and slices a huge cut around Rokko's neck and pulls his head off. They take the head and shove it in the box and laugh about the fight. Suddenly, the body gets up and starts flailing it's arms around and hitting a few of the thugs like rockets through the walls. They freak out and run away leaving the body to fall and trip over it's self.

After a few hours, Rokko's body is left in the warehouse bleeding black ink all over the floor. Crikkit then scuttles up from the darkness and pushes Rokko around to see if he's still alive. The bug lifts the body up and it starts to move on it's own, punching the wind and falling over without balance. It stands up completely and then takes off running strait into the wall and falls over, spewing out stomach acid and more ink. Crikkit then grabs it's arm to take it back to Rokko's apartment. His pants fall off as the two of them run and along the way, the body fights Crikkit's pulling, thinking it's an enemy.

Back with the human thugs, they talk about how they should try to get more money for the head. If the man who paid for them to axe it off wanted it so bad, then it's possible that other people wanted it twice as bad. One man opens the box in the back of the car and the head has filled the box with ink and it spills onto the floor. They pull over to find a place to hose it off.

Crikkit finally gets Rokko back to the apartment where Rokko's two roommates are. They freak out over the headless body, not sure it's even worth keeping him around. Crikkit just starts to make a meal while they drill the bug about the people who did this to Rokko. Crikkit doesn't respond much other then to ask for salt, pepper and for a table to be set. The Coyote pokes the body a few times and it punches the wall next to it. He laughs, glad it missed. The Capybara thinks about a few times he saw other toons loose their head. It's different each time he's seen it and that the longest time he's seen a toon without it's head was 3 hours...but then notes that Rokko is not normal. The Coyote says that he's actually nicer without his head, they should leave him that way (as the body starts to shake the Coyote's hand and pat his head).

Crikkit tells them last he remembers was there was a man stalking Rokko earlier in the week. He remembers the face and draws it on the table in steak sauce. The man only confronted Rokko once telling him how interesting he was, asking about touching his skin and flashed a 100$ bill. Rokko said "fuck off" and kicked the car over. Both the Coyote and Capybara don't remember seeing a man like that on their own time, and they get up to start making calls to other toons about a man in a black car wanting to touch them. Crikkit starts to feed Rokko by shoving food down the open hole in his neck.
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The human thugs arrive at the house of the mysterious man. He looks surprisingly at the box, and they take it out showing him the head. He yells at the thugs saying that they should've brought the body with them. They yell back saying that he didn't mention a thing about the body and that he should've paid more cause the fight with this creature was not worth what they were promised. The mystery man tells them to go back to hunt down the body and they'll get twice what they were promised. They inform him about how the body still fought back but the man tells them to go back anyway. Two of the thugs head back to the warehouse while two stay with the head back at the mansion to make sure they still have head in their possession. Rokko's head moves and opens it's eyes slightly to see what's going on, but doesn't make a sound.
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By late that night the Capybara had found out about the mystery man's plan to pick up old cartoons to turn into hunting trophies. With no clear direction about where to find this man, Crikkit says they should let the body hunt down the head like a blood hound, it might know where it's head is. The body falls over and squirms like a caterpillar across the floor. Shaking their head with disbelief the Coyote and Capybara pick up the body and put it in the car.

For most of the night the thugs and the toons cross passes upset that neither can find the missing body part they're looking for. Rokko's body leads the toons into the oddest places like bike shops, gyms, pharmacies, and the sides of busy streets where it throws stuff at passing cars. When the thugs find out that the body is gone, they set the warehouse on fire in frustration, which catches the attention of the toons and they fallow the trail back to the toon hunter's house.
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In the house the hunter shows the two other thugs his collection. He doesn't hunt for sport or just to have something rare, but things that feel good. Often times he's shot something that he thought would feel nice but it turned out coarse and rough. When he met his 1st toon he shook it's hand and the feeling that came over him was cold but warming. Not that the toon wasn't warm-blooded but being around it was so uplifting. His last wife left him cause of his past hunting habbits, so he slowly has been getting rid of his real animal pelts and replacing them with toon pelts, that being around them would be more uplifting. No more depression.

All the while the hunter is talking Rokko's head is sniffing the air and moving it's lips. The eyes open and close at irregular intervals, and it opens it's mouth is slowly and clamps down hard on the air.

The man continues in saying that he stalked this toon (Rokko) a while back cause at a store they bumped into each other and the skin didn't feel like fur but he looked furry. If all other old cartoons felt this way he could start a new type of fur clothing line. Gilt free furs; the toons he took them from can't die and it wasn't real fur. The thugs look at the head on the table and pet it, and they mention how it feels like wet hair, being covered in ink.

The hunter looks in confusions and goes over the pick up the head. He too notices that it's hairy and starts to think they played a trick on him. They demand for the head back but he pulls out a gun on them and they drop theirs in a panic. He yells at them to get out, and once the other thugs bring back the body none of them will get a dime. The Thugs back into a corner swearing this is the real head but the hunter grabs it anyway saying that they brought a fake head without the body to fool him.
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Outside the thugs talk about going into the mansion guns a blazing and take what ever they can fine but are stopped at gun point by the Coyote. The thug who nearly had his head crushed by Rokko, runs out of the car screaming in terror (fearing that another toon would be just as strong) and runs right into Rokko's body who grabs onto the thugs head again and smashes it like a melon. The Thug in the driver's seat pushes the door open to knock over the Coyote, and shoots.

The Capybara takes cover back in their car with Rokko's body, while Crikkit rushes into the Thugs car and starts the engine. Crikkit steps on the gas making the Driver Thug fall out of the car while it takes off and falls to the side of the road. The Coyote and the thug have a wrestle match on the ground, he takes a sharp bite out of the thugs arm and the thug shoots the coyote through the nose. The Capybara lets Rokko's body go, telling him to kick the soccer ball, and he rushes over to the Thug who's about to shoot again. Rokko's leg rears back and kicks the thug's head clean off so it lands through the window of the hunter's house right next to his feet.

All of the people inside stare at the new head on the floor in fear. The hunter looks up and grins and shoots the two thugs anyway. He looks out the window to see the toons coming up through the front door. He's happy to see he's got three new pelts, and mentions how he might be making some human leather hand bags as well (yeah he's a sick fuck, sorry). With Rokko's head under his arms he goes to his hunting closet where he picks out a shot gun and loads it. Crikkit is the 1st one to enter the room but stays hidden watching the man load the gun. He notices Rokko's eyes are open looking around like wild spirals but the hunter does not.

With the head still under his arm the hunter sets up to shoot anything that's going to come in. Trying to stay hidden, Crikkit waves to Rokko to get his attention but he can hear the foot steps of the toons coming up the stares. Ready and waiting the hunter grins big but the head drops to the floor. He sees Crikkit pulling at the nose but the hunter steps on Rokko's ear with his foot. The head starts to chomp up and down (soundless except for gashing) and Crikkit freaks out and runs away. The hunter picks up the head by the ear but the head finds a way to grab onto his arm and chomp it off.

The Toons stopped at the mid way point up the stares when they hear the hunter screaming. The head then slithers out of the door and down the stares not aware it passed it's body. The Coyote grabs for it and picks it up. It starts gashing at the air again. He shakes it like a piggy bank and the bullet that was stuck in his head falls out of the mouth. The Capybara stops the Coyote from putting the head and the body back together saying that Rokko might be even angrier if he had his head on strait. This allows the Capybara to go up and do clean up work on all the humans. The two thugs that were shot by the hunter weren't injured bad but they tell the Capybara that they'll deal with the Hunter in a legal way ("No more of this mobster shit for me. I thought it'd be hookers and free cocaine.")
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Back at the home stead, Rokko sits on the sofa with his head back on wrapped in bandages. He laughs and thanks the other guys for helping him out and tells the story about how his middle child could do the most amazing things with his detached head. He isn't sure if it's a family trait but that boy didn't need his head to get things done.
Rokko thinks about the men his body killed without his conscious mind to hold his self back. Figures he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders after all.

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