Haze: Worse & Nightmares: Alive

For those of you who read news would know, the haze is getting worse here in both Malaysia and Singapore till the point that my place here has become Silent Hill. In case none of you know where or what Silent Hill is, it's a survival horror video game as well as a fictional town created by the Japanese company, Konami where all your nightmares and guilt manifest as terrifying creatures that you alone must overcome to get out of the town. When the town is not in its hellish self, it is always veiled in this thick haze as a result of a major combustion.

Taking this opportunity with the haze, I have created these little critters. I purposefully blurred them out because that's what you would experience if you were in thick haze while creatures were lurking around you. So, a little intro. On your right, you have the ever famous Nurses. These Nurses are overly sexualized in a grotesque way and they are the manifestations of various game characters' desire, whether there's sexual intention or not (it varies between games). They are usually depicted in tight nurse outfit with mini-skirt while a face mask melt onto their face, illustrating little to no facial expression. With regards to mobility, their gait is similar to that of a zombie whereby they shuffle and fumble from time to time. For their weapon of choice, think of all the scary surgical tool you can find in an operation room. The one I used here is a syringe. Don't underestimate the pain inflicted from a needle. Personally, the Nurses to me are like Zombies to Resident Evil. They are so attached to the Silent Hill genre that you can't think about them when the name of the game is mentioned.

Moving on to the left, you have another famous nightmare from the franchise, the Pyramid Head. Ok, I know the guy doesn't exactly reflect a real Pyramid Head but that's the only somewhat triangular head I could come up with. Also, I don't have a huge knife LEGO piece so I utilized something from the Bionicles series. Coming back, Pyramid Head are depicted with a triangular-like torture device on their head which comprises of thorns inside, constantly poking the being. It's a manifestation of your guilt and it attacks with its great knife while isn't so great here (so, google it). Unlike the Nurses, it doesn't appear as much as them but it was the prime creature in Silent Hill (the movie).

Lastly, in the middle, it's just something that I randomly created with my gory imagination. I used the head of the Dementor from the Harry Potter series along with a squid's jaw for legs from the Atlantis series. The game is very fond of creating mismatched creatures which doesn't make sense sometimes anatomically. Try looking up for a creature called Asphyxia. Of course, your nightmares and guilt are never pretty to begin with.

With the resentment towards the haze and the group of people who caused the fire (directly and indirectly), it wouldn't be surprising if our hatred turned into nightmares that haunt the street at night.

Before I sign off, here another picture of the condition of haze here at my place.

Now you know why I did the Silent Hill reference.

A Survivor in All of Us

"There is a survivor in all of us", quoted Tomb Raider (2013).

Yes, I'm a huge Tomb Raider fan and in anticipation of the new Tomb Raider game, release on 5th March, this post would be dedicated to my all time favourite female game character - Lara Croft. For those of you who do not know her (which I highly doubt), shame on you. Nevertheless, I am more than elated to brief you through her background and history. But first:

This is my attempt to construct her but sadly, it's not as well-done as the rest who tried too.

I know, her iconic dual pistols are not here (I can't find the other one in my Lego pile D= ). Anyway, the Tomb Raider franchise first commenced in 1996 with the original Tomb Raider game released worldwide. The game became popular as Lara was one of the first female protagonist character in the gaming world. However, the developers initially designed Lara as a man but due to the similarities between her and Indiana Jones (another fav. of mine), they scrapped the idea and came out with her instead. Nevertheless, the game earned a decent income which spawned more Tomb Raider games. The latest one is a reboot (they had rebooted twice so far) which details a younger Lara shipwrecked in the Dragon's Triangle and she must survive the dangers of the island to become a real survivor.

Now, who exactly is she anyway? Well, throughout all the reboots, Lara Croft is always depicted as a British Lady with incredulous amount of wealth, inherited from her family. She resides in Croft's Manor in England and in this homely tomb of hers, ancient artifacts and treasures line up every inch and corner of the house (she can afford it). Thankfully, she has her butler, Winston Smith to assist her like how Alfred assists Batman.

So, this lass has a knack for artifacts and relics almost to the point of obsession. Hence, she has extensive knowledge of the ancient world and civilizations of all walks of life (which I find a big far-fetched but still...). From time to time, she would visit never-before-discovered tombs by herself in her famous blue-tanked-top and dual pistols. Her acrobatic skills are proven useful when she encounters booby-trap en route to her treasure. Based on the games, some of the items she had recovered were Thor's hammer, Mjolnir and Excalibur, King Arthur's sword. Of course, in her line of work, she has many enemies, foes and rivals, all whom are eager to retrieve the treasures before she does but usually, they all couldn't have succeeded without her help. 

In the latest revamp, Lara is depicted as a 21-year-old fresh grad university girl travelling on a ship called Endurance to Asia to pinpoint the location of the ancient Yamatai-koku. It's an ancient Japanese civilization that has been forgotten as time passed. Along her journey, she was shipwrecked and ta-da, she found her lost civilization in a remote island that's not even on the map. In order to survive on her own, she must learn the skills of a true survivor but the island has more secrets than it seems.

So, being a huge Tomb Raider fan, I have built a mini tomb for Lara to excavate.

Front view

Aerial view

I even came up with a small backstory. Here goes. Lara Croft has been traversing the treacherous Peruvian jungle in search of the ancient artifact known as the Global Map. It's a map that depicts the ancient world before the colossal Earth crust displacement that forms the continents today. Even though she has found what she comes for, all is not safe for there is something lurking, hunting her (not shown).

I will leave the rest to your imagination. Now, I think I have written too much for a single post and I shall end here. Before I leave, there's one last photo I need to show you.

Ok so it's far from alike but you can't blame a fan for trying his best. To everyone out there, there is a survivor in all of us. So don't give up on yourself =D