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MsVindii t1_is9h4ec wrote

What the hell happened to Steve, Grandad?!

That’d be the end of our hangouts until I got an answer. Fuck that.

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The5Virtues t1_is9ngc7 wrote

Based on that mimicry I think Robert the First made a terrible sacrifice when he was young.

Once when they were young and foolhardy Robert the first and his friend Steve went out hunting in that same area of the deep woods.

They became the hunted. Tracked, followed, mimicked, taunted until one of them cracked. Robert ran—without Steve. He didn’t have to outrun them, he just had to outrun Steve.

Steve got left behind, and one of those things closed in. Those were probably Steve’s last words, as he heard something approaching him through the deep woods:

“Did you come back for me, Robert? You wouldn’t leave me behind again… would you?”

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MsVindii t1_is9nj2u wrote

Alright, I’m willing to go with it.

Explain the deer.

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The5Virtues t1_isabqz4 wrote

My personal bet is the original two deer that ran from them and then ran back toward them were genuine. We never saw them again after they ran like hell.

They fled humans then realized they were running toward something far worse and went “nope, fuck that!” and doubled back right passed Roberts 1 and 2.

The deer had been seen by the shifter so now it had something to use to approach the Roberts in a form they would be familiar with. From that moment onward the Robs never saw a real deer again, just the shifter messing with them in the form of a deer.

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ADerbywithscurvy t1_iue09h7 wrote

Dangit, tried to edit the comment to amend my theory and managed to delete it instead. :/ Edited version was meant to read:

I got the impression the Barely Breathing Deer was a real deer, but empty. It "caught" the BBD, “ate” its soul or conciseness or whatever, and was waiting to use it as a lure to ambush the humans.

That’s why it was just off the Human Game Trail, that’s why it was pulled so close up against a tree it had a hoof on the trunk, and that’s why when Grandad tried to startle it with a clap, water fell off the leaves and branches directly over its head in perfect time with the head turning.

Whatever the fuck is hunting them, I don’t think it’s shapeshifting. I think it’s using the empty bodies of the other things it’s caught like decoys, and turning the deers head required some kind of movement on its part, like controlling a large marionette. But they didn’t go up to the deer, they went wide around it - so it couldn’t Death From Above them.

Wonder if it uses the deer as lures for other things beyond humans, like bears or mountain lions.

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MrEket t1_is9s45f wrote

maybe the entity is sort of like controlling the woods? so that would encompass the deer and maybe use them for like spying or something? just a thought.

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MsVindii t1_is9s7ud wrote

Fuck that forest and those deer

And fuck Steve too.

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RUFrayd t1_is9su9y wrote

"there's something wrong with the deer" The something is never something to mess with. Best leave the deer alone.

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MsVindii t1_is9swen wrote

I just see that video, with the deers head completely turned around and still running.

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adiosfelicia2 t1_isrowfl wrote

I agree. Though if the mimic can only repeat phrases it's heard prior, the question to Robert Sr seems off.

"You wouldn't leave me behind again, would you?"

That felt like a fresh question.

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The5Virtues t1_isrsbrm wrote

See, I think it’s that Steve got hurt, likely by one of the shifters, and probably fell. He cries out to Robert the first for help, but Robert kept running.

The shifter closes in, likely mimicking Robert’s voice, and so Steve cries out to him, pleading for Robert not to leave him behind again, unaware that the thing he was crying out to wasn’t really Robert.

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Rhekinos t1_isvk9ic wrote

Holy shit this is an amazing interpretation.

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