(as the title is shown "An Ominous Stroll" plays)
Cuphead and Mugman burst into the cottage and locked the door behind them. They were covered in little scratches and rip's in their clothes.
"Where the hell'd those dogs even come from!" Cuphead complained, "they just jumped out of nowhere and started attacking us!"
"I'm just glad we got out'a there alive," Mugman said, flopping onto the couch.
"I wish we had more power," Cuphead said, "like super strength or something, so we fight back against all of the things constantly trying to kill us."
knock*knock*knock*
"AAAAAAAG" Mugman and Cuphead screamed, hugging each other in fear, "it's the dogs!"
"Relax, ding dongs, it's me," Chalice said peeking through the keyhole, "now lemme in, i've got something to show you boys."
Cuphead walked up to the door, unlocked it and Chalice stepped inside.
"How'd you get rid of the dogs?" Mugman asked
"I didn't," Chalice said, pointing to outside, where there were three large dogs and the goat-from-the-front-yard, happily playing and chewing on a massive bone
Chalice walked over to a table and dropped a book loudly onto the table. She then flipped through the pages until she found the one she wanted.
On the page was the title "the clan of the living cups" and below it was the coat of arms that looked like this
Mugman began to read the text written in the book
"The living cups were an ancient clan of anthropomorphic tableware. They were a powerful race known to possess many treasures. The greatest of which is the holy grail."
"Anthropomorphic tableware," Chuphead said, "that means us, right?"
"Well, I hope so," Chalice Answed, "would you look at this!"
Chalice pointed to some more text and Mugman read it.
"The holy grail is known to possess great power and strength. It can be found in the sacred catacombs of the living cups that can be found in the Inkwell isles"
"Power and strength!" Cuphead exclaimed excitedly, "Mugman, do you know what this means! If we have great power and strength, then nothing can hurt us. We could beat the devil once and for all. This is great!"
"Looks like those baking lessons were for nothing," Mugman said, "let's go
The three cups were wandering through the woods. Mugman was reading a map that was in the book and was following the directions to the catacombs.
"It should be right here," MUgman announced.
"I don't see anything," Cuphead said.
Then Cuphead stepped on a small stone tile, hidden in the floor and something clicked.
Suddenly an enormous, stone entrance way, rose from the ground.
"Heck that's cool," Chalice said, "let's head on in."
Chalice walked up to the door and tried to open it but it was locked.
Suddenly a face appeared on the door.
"AAAH" CHalice screamed jumping backwards, "What's that!?"
The face opened its eyes and began to speak
"Hello young cups," the door said, "i am the guardian of the tomb of the Calix Animi, you must speak the password to enter.
"What password?" Mugman asked
"The password," the face replied, "we're not about to let just anyone into our sacred burial place full of treasures
The three cups got in a huddle and seated a plan.
"You two dingdongs know of any password?" Chalice asked.
"Nuh uh," the brothers replied.
"Has Elder kettle maybe hinted at anything?" Chalice asked again.
"Nuh uh," the brothers said again
"Well then time for plan B" CHalice said, smiling, "you two handle the music, i'm gonna charm this sucker."
She broke off from the huddle and gestured to Cuphead and Mugman to make some music. Mugman walked over some marsh grass, pulled one of the leaves so that it became stretched tight like a guitar string and then plucked an out of tune note.
"Allow me," Cuphead said, walking over to the patch of marsh grass that Mugman found. He grabbed a dead flowering stem of a large reed and broke it off. He then broke off the reed flower from the other end of it and poked a few holes in the side to make a flute.
Cuphead then proceeded to play a version of "Dance Across a Rainbow" using the reed as a double bass and his homemade flute which Chalice scared and tap-danced. Cuphead played the flute using one hand, held the reed taught with his other hand and plucked it with his foot. The face started to nod to the tune and once Chalice deemed it sufficiently charmed she Kicked the door open
(I actually made this remix, you can listen to it here /user/62755333/scores/10674286 . I know it's not a link but can't figure out how to link stuff in the story. it's also an external link which you can click at the bottom of the page)
"Easy as pie!" Chalice said, striding through the door
As the three cups descended into the dark stone corridors, Chalice pulled three torches out her pocket and tossed them to Cuphead and Mugman.
"Keep your eyes peeled boys," she said, "that holy grail Could be anywhere."
The trio continued down the hall until something caught Mugman's eye.
"Would you look at that," Mugman said, pointing at what he had seen.
The tunnel had opened up into a grand room. Along the walls were burnt out torches secured to the wall with a metal frame. High up on the wall in front of them the cups saw the Coat of arms of the Calic Animi. Below it, carved into the wall where what seemed to be names, there was no particular order to it, just names carved all the way down the wall, each looking like it had been done by an individual. Most of the names had been worn away by time but the lower down ones were visible.
"Wow," Cuphead exclaimed, his voice echoing around the chamber, "a wall of names. Let's go see who's on it!"
The trio walked up to the wall and Mugman began to read all of the legible names he could see.
"Platepal, Silverworth, Timmy-Tumbler, Mrs Goblet, Sir Cleaver , Harry Pot, Great Uncle Flask, Elder Kettle, Glassgirl... ELDER KETTLE!"
"I told you he had some big secret," Cuphead said smugly, "now pay up."
Mugman begrudgingly gave Cuphead a $1 bill and he stuffed it in his pocket
"Look, Bowlboy's on here too!" Mugman said pointing as a beautiful carved name that read 'Bowlboy' with loopy letters and cursive and everything
"These names are cool and all but i think we should get going, something seems off about this place," Chalice said, "smells like dead people."
The three cups looked around the room and saw that it split off into three passageways
"Looks like we're going to have to split up,"Cuphead said
"SPLIT UP!" Mugman cried,"but what about ghosts!"
"Well, it's either that or we spend three times longer down here," Cuphead said, "besides, Chalice has some fancy new tech to help with that."
Chalice pulled out three walkie-talkies and handed them out.
"I got these from a shady guy in an alleyway who said he had invented time travel. He said that these were futuristic communications devices and that they weren't for sale so I just took them when he wasn't looking. Try them out!"
As Chalice explained to the brothers how to use the walkie-talkies, the camera angle tilted up to reveal lots of ghosts looking down at the cups. All of the ghosts were various pieces of cups and cutlery. Soon a living plate floated through a wall an joined the crowd of ghosts
"What's going on," the plate asked
"Zip it Platepal, " said a living goblet pointing down at the cups
"Ok Mrs Goblet," Platepal chimed, "jeez, you sound like my mother."
"That's because i am," Mrs Goblet said, "now just be quiet
"Using these babies we can find that holy grail, three times as fast!" Chalice said
"Are these ruffians trying to steal our most prized treasure ?!" a living fork said, "unexceptable!"
"Silverworth is right, " said a living glass, "we better teach these idiots a lesson."
"Glassgirl's also right," Mrs Goblet said, "we'll start will the blue one with the big nose."
"Right!" Glassgirl said, "let's move."
"Why did we have to split up," Mugman muttered to himself, "this place is spooky,"
"Scaredy-cat, Loose-cannon, come in Scaredy-cat and Loose-Cannon, over"Chalice's voice spoke from the microphone. Mugman picked up the Walkie-talkie and began to speak.
"This is Scaredy-cat,I hear you loud and clear Clod-hopper. over." Mugman said into the Walkie-talkie
"This is Loose-cannon,"Cuphead's voice spoke from the walkie-talkie, "Also, why do we have to use these code names? over."
"Just roll with it,"Chalice said, "if you find anything or encounter trouble, make sure to tell us over."
Mugman held the walkie talkie in his hand and continued cautiously down the passageway. Mugman noticed that there were coffins placed in alcoves all along the hall and above them were the names of the deceased and a small carving of them in life. He tried not to think about all of the corpses that surrounded him, he didn't need all of these people in his conscience. (i also don't feel like making more cutlery based puns because the quality of them is decreasing by the word)
As Mugman walked down the passageway, the ghosts slowly accumulated behind him.
"Target acquired," Mrs Goblet said, " Silverworth are you still able to mimic voices like you."
"You bet your sweet striped straws!" said Silverworth in a perfect mimic of Chalice's voice.
"What about that red kid with the small nose," said Platepal
"Eh, i ain't too worried about him," Silverworth said in a perfect mimicking of Cuphead's voice.
"Well then," Mrs Goblet said, "over to you."
Silverworth floated up behind Mugman, reached over and snapped the receiving antennae for the Walkie-talkie, rendering it useless. He then shrunk himself down and floated inside the walkie-talkie and began to wreak havoc.
Mugman heard Cuphead's voice speak from his walkie-talkie.
"Mugman, what's big green scaly and trying to kill me?"
"I don't know Cuphead," MUgman replied, "these walkie talkies aren't meant for jokes. It's equipment from the future, we don't know if it runs on space dust or something."
"NO SERIOUSLY THERE'S A BIG GREEN SCALY THING CHASING ME, HELP!"
"Where are you Cuphead!" Mugman cried into the Walkie Talkie, "I'm Coming to help."
"NOOOO, it's too late!"Cuphead screamed, "AAAAAAHG!"
Inside the Walkie talkie, Silverworth pulled some ghostly dry spaghetti from his pocket and slowly broke it in half so it sounded like crunching, while trying not to laugh.
"NOOO, Cuphead NOOO," Mugman screamed, shaking the walkie-talkie, as if trying to wake his brother.
"Uh oh, MUgman, the monster's coming for me!"Chalice cried through the walkie talkie
"No Chalice, just run! I'm coming to find you!" Mugman shouted.
"AAAAAAHggg"Chalice screamed with more Spaghetti crunching in the background.
"NOOOOO!" Mugman screamed, collapsing to the floor sobbing. He wasn't able to save them.
"no~"
Then he saw it. A monstrous shadow looming at the end of the hallway. Reminiscent of a dragon it slowly got bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
"AAAAAAAHG," Mugman Screamed, dropped the Walkie Talkie and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
"Nice job" Mrs Goblet said, reappearing as her ghostly form, "brilliant voice acting Silverworth." (Chalice could turn invisible so i'll assume that these ghosts can too.)
"Thanks," Silverworth said, floating out of Mugman's dropped Walkie Talkie,"Good job with the shadow puppets Glassgirl."
"It is my art form," Said Glassgirl, showing off her hand, which she had transformed to look like a dragon. " (Chalice could transform her face into a hideous monster so i'm making it that the ghosts can transform themselves into anything )
"Ok," Mrs Goblet said, "next up: that yellow girl with the fancy shoes."
Chalice strolled through the empty catacombs, tapping her feet to the tune of the song she was humming.
"Ok there's our target," Mrs Goblet said, "Platepal, Glassgirl, you have your transformations ready."
On cue, Platepal changed himself to look like Cuphead and Glassgirl turned herself to look like Mugman."
"Silverworth, since Plate and glass can't voice mimic, you'll have to stay invisible behind them and say their lines while Platepal and Glassgirl try and lip-sync," Mrs Goblet said, "understand?"
"Yup" the three ghosts said and proceeded into their positions.
"Hi," Cuphead said, making Chalice Jump.
"Yikes!" Chalice said, "oh, hi CUphead."
"Hello," Said Mugman on the other side of Chalice.
"Jeez, where are you ding dongs coming from," Chalice said as she looked up and down the long corridor; there were no entrances or exits anywhere in it, "also, you dingdongs look more blue than usual."
In fact bothe Cuphead and Mugman were pale blue in colour and slightly transparent.
"Oh don't worry about that," Cuphead said, "the most important thing is which way will we go?"
"What do you mean 'which way will we go' there's no junctions...," But then the group rounded a corner and there was a fork in the road, "... how did you know this would be here."
"I don't know," Mugman said, "I just had a feeling."
Chalice eyed the brothers up suspiciously but didn't think much of it.
"Ok, right it is." Chalice said, leading the trio down the right passageway.
The group slowly walked down the passageway when the passageway slowly started to vibrate.
"What's that noise ?" Chalice asked as the Rumbling slowly got louder.
Suddenly a massive round, ghostly blue boulder (like the one from Indiana Jones except it's blue) barreled around the corner and began to roll at the trio.
"RUN!" Chalice yelled as she turned and sprinted away from the boulder. She looked over her shoulder to see where Cuphead and Mugman had gone but to her horror they were struggling to outrun the rock
Cuphead fell first, crushed under the boulder, making a sound that sounded suspiciously like breaking Dry Spaghetti. Mugman fell soon after with the same pasta-esc sound. Chalice had no time to grieve as the boulder was picking up speed and she had to keep running. Her head ringing with the thoughts 'this is my fault, i lead them this way' .
Platepal and Glassgirl got up and turned themselves back into their regular forms while Silverworth made himself visible again
"Nice work team," Mrs Goblet said, transforming out of her boulder form and back into a goblet, "time to mess up that red one with the bent straw."
Cuphead Tried to act brave but wasn't very good at it
"There's nothing scary down here," he said to himself, "it's just a hallway, nothing scary about that!"
At that moment Cuphead kicked a pebble and hearing it bounce froze and looked around him and then gingerly continued.
"This should be easy," Platepal said, "he looks ready to break already,"
"Ok," Mrs Goblet said, "same drill as before, Glass and Plate will transform into the other two cups and Silverworth will do the voices."
"Got it," the others said
"Good, now let's move."
Cuphead was a bit of a klutz. As he walked he kept knocking over little statuettes on pedestals or knocking off the little stone name tags.
"BOO!"
Cuphead jumped out his socks and spun around to see Mugman standing right behind him.
"N-n-nice try Mugsy," Cuphead said, stifling his fear, "but you can't scare me that easily,"
Cuphead leaned against a pedestal, trying to look nonchalant when the pedestal started to wobble. It fell backwards hitting the wall. A crack slowly began to creep up the wall from the impact point. It travelled up the wall and then across the room eventually stopping directly above Mugman's head.
Suddenly a massive section of the roof caved in burying Mugman!
"Mugsy!" Cuphead yelled, Running over to the place his brother once stood.
He tried to clear the rubble but the pieces were to big for him to carry so it was all in vain.
"No no no no no," Cuphead said stumbling backward, "no no no this can't be happening."
As he was staggering backwards he bumped into something. He spun around to see Chalice who had been standing by a large pit, pinwheeling her arms trying to stay balanced after being knocked off balance by Cuphead.
"Woaaaw wOOOAAAW" Chalice said as she slowly fell into the abyss
Cuphead tried to grab her arm but his hand seemed to go directly through it, as if she was made of smoke.
"Chalice!" Cuphead yelled down the hole but his only reply was an echo
Cuphead got back to his feet and backed away from the hole, turned and ran. His mind churned with the thoughts 'it's all your fault', 'you did this' .
"Oh boy, that was the easiest one yet," Platepal said, floating up out of the hole.
"Yup," Glassgirl agreed, floating out of the rubble, "all i had to do was mouth one word."
" That felt good," Silverworth said, becoming visible again, "it's been too long science i've done a good old fashioned haunting. I can't wait to see the aftermath."
"Agreed," Mrs Goblet said, "let's go."
And with that the four ghosts floated up, disappearing into the ceiling.
(in this section there is a split screen showing the perspective of Cuphead Mugman and Chalice.)
The three cups ran as fast as they could away from the tragedy that had happened behind them. As they ran down the halls the passages slowly began to converge, all connecting into one giant hall. The three cuphead all entered the room simultaneously and because they weren't looking where they were going they all ran directly into each other and toppled to the floor.
The cups all sat on the floor dazed for a few seconds before coming to their senses and looking at their friends.
"Cuphead?" Mugman and Chalice said.
"Mugman," Chalice and Cuphead said.
"Chalice?" Cuphead and Mugman said.
The three came together for a group hug and then discussed what had happened.
"Thank goodness you're ok," Cuphead said, "I thought I saw you die not two minutes ago."
"Same here," Chalice replied, "something fishy is going on here."
"Look!" Mugman exclaimed pointing to an engraving in the wall that said 'Holy grail this way' with an arrow.
"Quick, follow that sign!" Cuphead yelled and the trio followed the sign
"Jeez Cuphead, we don't have to rush everywhere," Mugman said, "it's not like the holy grail can run away."
The three cups ran down the corridor and found themselves in a circular room with a massive pedestal in the middle of the it.
"Bingo!" Chalice said, climbing up the steps to reach the pedestal.
"Finally the holy... grail?" Chalice's face fell as she stared at the empty pedestal before her, "where'd it go, it should be here!"
Cuphead and Mugman walked up the steps behind her and the trio stared at the empty stand.
Then, the cups heard some stifled laughter.
"Is the air laughing at us?!" Cuphead exclaimed.
At that moment the room around the cups erupted in disembodied laughter
"Fellas," Chalice said, "I think we have been tricked, backstabbed and quite thoroughly bamboozled."
"W-w-what do you mean!" Mugman said.
"All right you lot," Chalice shouted at thin air, "the gig's up, now show yourself."
Before the cup's eyes four ghosts materialised, a plate, a fork, a goblet and a glass.
"Hey!" Cuphead yelled at the ghosts, "What's the big idea?"
"It's nothing personal," Glassgirl said, "it's really boring down here. When there's finally people to haunt, we've got to make the best of it."
"You were also trying to steal our most valuable treasure," Mrs Goblet said, "were not about to let that go unpunished."
"Speaking of your most valuable treasure," Chalice said, "where is it?"
"Platepal, would you care to inform these young cups on what happened to our most valuable treasure?"
Platepal sighed and began to tell the story
(this little flashback will be shown in the style of a late 1910s black, white and very glitchy animation. Platepal's narration will be initalicsand besides the narration it will be a silent film with "Tutorial" playing in the background. If something is inboldthen it is white text writen on the black screens like in those silent films.)
It was about 13 to 14 years ago and I was experimenting with the forces of life and death.
Platepal, this time with big spikey mad-scientist-hair but still a ghost, tinkering around with a machine with intricate pipework.
I was trying to bring inanimate objects to life and maybe one day, me. Since there isn't much down here I used the holy grail as my test subject. Partly because no one told me how important it was.
Platepal then connected some wires with crocodile clips to the holy grail and then pulled a leaver, completing the circuit. Then ,silhouetted by the electricity, Platepal inaudibly, manically laughed.
Hahahahah
I had succeeded, but I had no idea what I was in for.i had created life, but had no need for it.
Platepal looked down at the holy grail that had now been transformed into a writhing baby.
What am i supposed to do with a baby
Then Mrs goblet floated into the room and looked disapprovingly at the baby cup.
Platepal! Did you just turn our most valuable treasure into a baby
Platepal looked at the floor guiltily
Maybe
Mrs Goblet picked up the baby and looked at it with curiosity.
Platepal, what do you plan to do with this baby?
Platepal Shrugged
I'm not sure
Mrs goblet thought for a while and then got an idea
I heard that there's an orphanage up in Inkwell city. We'll drop the baby off there
It then cuts to Platepal and Mrs Goblet sneaking up to the orphanage under the cover of night, placing the swaddled baby on the doorstep, ringing the bell and then descending down into the ground. The door was promptly opened by one of the slightly younger, penguin orphan "care"givers opened the door, looked down at the baby then up and down the road before shrugging, picking up the baby and stepping back inside.
(end of flashback, good job if you were able to understand that. I get that it's difficult to comprehend but you get the idea.)
"So you see," Platepal, "we do not, in fact, have the holy grail."
"Aww nuts,"Cuphead said ,"who are you anyway."
"We are the ghosts of the calix animi," they all said simultaneously
"Well not all of them," Glassgirl said, "the others are either sleeping, lost somewhere in the tunnels or imprisoned by the spectre syndicate. Damn their eyes!"
"How come you're not in heaven or hell," Mugman asked
"Honestly, no clue, " Silverworth admitted ,"it's just a trait of the clan. So when you die you'll most likely end up as a ghost. Unless the devil is hell bent on getting your soul or if some other forces are in play of course, but I doubt you kids have to worry about that."
"Yea," Cuphead said, scratching the back of his head, "about that..."
"Ok thing is, the devil is hell bent on getting our souls, and we need that grail to protect ourselves from him," Chalice explained.
"So your telling me, that you have managed to anger the devil to the point of him constantly seeking you out to take your soul," Mrs Goblet said," And you're, what, like, 10 years old"
"First of all, not ten years old," Mugman said, "second of all, yes."
"Sheesh," Mrs Goblet said, "kids these days."
"Look, we need your help!," Mugman said, " Are there any other lesser weapons you could offer us."
The ghosts got into a huddle and bickered about the situation.
"I feel bad for these kids," Glassgirl said, "we should really help them out."
"But we can't just be handing out ancient artefacts like party favours!"
"Despite them being ill mannered little brats, i do think we could help them," Silverworth said ,"we can't just leave them at the hands of the devil."
"I think we should first see if they have anything to give us first," Platepal said, "so we can maybe get something in return."
"Ok," Mrs Golet said, "we'll do that
The ghost broke out of the huddle and faced the cups.
"Ok, we have decided to grant you a magical artefact but we want something in return. What do you have to offer?"
Chalice began to rummage around in her pocket and eventually found what she was looking for.
"Pocket lint?" She offered holding up a large wad of pocket lint.
"Do you seriously think that I'd trade a priceless magical weapon for a piece of pocket lint?"
"No," Chalice said, "it was worth a shot though."
Then Mugman had an idea, he reached into Cuphead's pocket, Much to his brother's surprise, and brought out the infinite jar of cookies. (i know this seems planned but it literally had this idea as i was typing this bit)
"Heeeeyyy!" Cuphead complained ,"don't you dare trade my snacks."
"I think a few snacks is a small price to pay for your soul," Mugman said to his brother before turning to the ghosts, "i present to you an infinite jar of cookies. It..."
"It's a deal!" all of the ghosts cut in.
Mugman looked up to see that they were all salivating
"We haven't eaten in decades," Platepal said
"Food!" Glassgirl said, clapping her hands ,"gimme food!"
"Ok then, here you go," Mugman said tossing the jar to the four ghosts who immediately began devouring cookies
"Ehem," Chalice said, "time for you're end of the deal!"
"Oh yea," Mrs Goblet said, her mouth full of then tossed a small effervescent tablet to the trio, which Cuphead caught.
"Just put the pill in your head and a massive blast of energy will come out the top of it, Understood?"
"Yup," the three cups said ,"bye!"
"Bye," the ghosts yelled back, their voices muffled by cookies.
"Well that was an eventful day," Chalice said
"You said it," Chuphead agreed
"Next time we go into a creepy place that smells of dead people, let's not split up." Mugman said
"Agreed," Cuphead said
The trio soon reached the first room they encountered and stared up at the wall of names.
"Feels nice to be a part of something big ya know," Cuphead said
"You said it," Chalice agreed
"Hey, look at this," Mugman said, picking up a hammer and chisel from the floor. He placed the chisel against the wall and started to whack the end of it with the hammer. After a few seconds he stepped back and looked at his newly engraved name in the wall.
"Oh oh , let me try," Cuphead said, snatching the chisel out of Mugman's hand and then carving his own name into the wall.
"I take it you boys have never heard the term 'ladies first'" Chalice said, as she snatched the chisel out of CUphead's hand and carved her name into the wall.
The trio stepped back and looked at their names on the wall.
"Let's go back to the cottage," Cuphead said, "i'm starving!"
"Me too," Chalice said, "let's go,"
"Agreed," MUgman said, "any idea what could have happened to the holy grail."
"Nope," Chalice said, "but' we've probably seen it at some point. There's only so many people in the inkwell isles."
"I think we'd know if we saw them," Cuphead said.
"Probably," Mugman agreed
Then the screen does an iris out, focusing in on the three cups walking down the exit corridor.
(the season 4 finale is up next. I do plan to do a season 5 and probably a season 6 too but that'll take a while. With these episodes I do try to keep stuff in the 1930's time period but I'm not about to google every single word I use to see if it's accurate so there are many, many errors. There are also errors in the show though, like the phrases double down and ghosted which both were not used in the 1930s according to the top result on google.)
(this episode was inspired by The Mausoleums, Ghosts Ain't Real, Monty python and the holy grail, Indiana Jones pop culture and all of the Calix Animi lore. you did not need this information yet here it is.)
