Comic:Actus Reus

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Actus Reus
Artist:
Writer: Richard Coleman
Characters: Ethan Matthews, Chris Haye, Cheryl Windsor
Updates: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Began: April 25, 2007
Ended:
Art style: Photocomic
Rating: Web-14
Website Actus Reus Website

Ethan is like most other college-enrolled 18-year-olds... Or so he'd like to think. There lurks an evil presence within him that threatens to destroy not only those around him, but millions of other lives. The plot that was laid thousands of years ago is beginning to unfold...

Contents

Plot

Ethan Matthews has awoken on his eighteenth birthday from a series of horrific nightmares that left him trembling, sweaty... and bleeding. Meanwhile, two unknown entities are watching a series of replays from Ethan's experiences, as stranger and stranger events continue to happen around Ethan, closing in on him at an alarming rate.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW

Act One: "Hell Rising"

Ethan has a disturbing dream and awakes to find he has a bloody nose. Page 1 - Page 2

Chapters

  • Prologue: "Enigmata"

Enigma White and Enigma Blue meet for the first time and begin watching the Archive. Page 3 - Page 4

  • Chapter One: "Eighteen"

This particular day is Ethan's eighteenth birthday. Chris Haye makes his first appearance, and Ethan has apparently quite forgotten about his hot date with Cheryl Windsor. While walking at school, Ethan trips and breaks his arm. However, when he looks at it later, his arm is fine! Ethan visits the doctor's office to double-check that everything's okay, then proceeds on his date with Cheryl as planned. Back at his apartment and watching a movie, Ethan begins to have deeply disturbing thoughts. Fearing for Cheryl's safety, he walks her home. Halfway there, a man with a gun demands Cheryl's purse and Ethan's wallet. Cheryl complies and runs back to her apartment, but Ethan's hand won't move! Just as the armed man is about to shoot Ethan, something happens... And Ethan becomes something even more evil than the mugger. This evil persona takes the man's gun and Cheryl's purse and stabs the unknown man, killing him before leaving... Ethan awakens in his own room to find the mugger's gun, Cheryl's purse, and a note addressed to him, which states, "Be seeing you, Ethan," all in his possession. Not remembering what happened, Ethan quickly disposes of the gun and returns Cheryl's purse, but is unable to explain to her how he got it back. Meanwhile, an unknown figure in black has retrieved the gun and apparently, the mugger's body. Ethan gets a scare when Chris pounds on his door and announces himself as the police, but is actually on the "Booze Patrol." Ethan takes the vodka Chris offers and promptly drinks himself to sleep. Page 5 - Page 17

  • Chapter Two: "Change"

Ethan gets evicted from his college apartment for having alcohol on the premises, so he and Chris move out and take up residence in Chris' parents' unoccupied vacation house, which is further from campus, but rent-free. An unknown face appears, quite literally, out of nowhere, inside their new house. With some work, they determine that his name is Dirk McKinley, and that he has no memories from 2003 to the present (assumedly 2006). The dark voice which is constantly prodding Ethan to commit vile acts is getting stronger every day, and it's all Ethan can do to keep his sanity. Chris and Ethan happen upon a camera watching them from a table, and upon closer inspection, find many more bugs planted all throughout the house. Meanwhile, outside, a van monitoring them with two unknown people inside decide that Chris poses a threat to their operation and speeds off. Chris, Ethan, and Dirk all pretend to fall asleep and sneak out of the house to go talk in private, at which point Chris reveals that the government monitoring him due to his intelligence level is a common occurrance, but also that somebody else may be watching them for unknown reasons. Ethan discovers that he can talk to his alter-ego by merely thinking the words he'd normally speak. However, they both get paranoid and leave the parking garage hastily with Chris and Dirk in tow. Ethan has yet another disturbing dream, but this one takes place in the dark with Chris and Ethan shouting at each other over a booming, evil voice. Ethan jolts awake to discover that Dirk had touched him, at which point he passed out and got carried home. When Chris asks Ethan if anything's wrong, Ethan snubs him and returns to sleep. Page 18 - Page 31

  • Chapter Three: "Psych"

Ethan awakes the next day to the neverending voice, realizing that the voice was absent during the time he was awake after the dream the night before... He starts to question what triggered the voice in his head, and his alter-ego promptly begins taking over him. Ethan prevails, however, and keeps control of himself. Chris comes to investigate, armed with a slew of high-tech equipment, but there's nothing to be found wrong. Ethan approaches Dirk to find out what caused the voice to disappear, even if only temporarily. Dirk explains that he's "Clairsentient," and that he gets psychic images by touching things. Ethan asks him to prove it, and Dirk gets an unpleasant surprise in Ethan's sandwich. Ethan wants Dirk to stop the voice permanently, and Dirk agrees. Ethan falls and lands in some vast, deserted landscape. His necklace fell off during the process, and an unknown hand gives it to him. Ethan turns to see who it is... and ends up confronting himself. Eventually, the evil Ethan explains that he's not really a different side of Ethan, just a demon named Mateneus who possessed him. Mateneus also explains that Ethan is literally in his own subconscious (which is normally dark), and his conscious mind gave his subconscious mind temporary physical status. Mateneus then tells Ethan that if he dies while in this state, his physical body will die, too. Ethan asks if, since the environment is dream-like, he could fly. Mateneus pulls a shotgun out of nowhere, cocks it, and points it right at Ethan, who is dumbfounded. Enigma Blue pauses the Archive for a moment to explain how a couple of Chris' inventions work. Page 32 - Page 45

Characters

Major characters

Character Age Appearance Actor Description
Ethan Matthews 18 Medium-long light hair, blue eyes, very tall Richard Coleman Ethan can run low on common intelligence, but he makes up for it with a kind heart and a great deal of bravery. He's an unrepentant alcoholic, stemming from an experience when he was beaten senseless at age 15 by his alcoholic father because he had gotten into his dad's booze supply. Sometimes, when he gets a burst of adrenaline, Ethan could swear that his reflexes are way faster than normal... But that could also be his imagination. Recently, he's started wearing an old, worn-out bone-shaped dog tag. It has the name Rex engraved on it, but Ethan refuses to tell why he wears it constantly now, or why he wears it at all.
Mateneus  ??? Defaults to Ethan's physical characteristics Richard Coleman Mateneus is Ethan's alter-ego. He claims to be a demon that is posessing Ethan (thus, he is identical to Ethan in looks), but he's already proven himself untrustworthy, so the truth remains unknown. He resides in Ethan's subconscious, and has the ability to invade Ethan's thoughts and even take over Ethan's body.
Chris Haye 19 Short red hair, blue eyes, medium height Kevin Wessman Chris may well be the smartest guy in the entire country. As such, he has access to a veritable encylopedia in his head. While he technically "goes" to college, he really just shows up to class at random and aces the course, though he is only pursuing a General Studies degree. He can invent, modify, and disassemble gadgets with the best the world's got to offer, which keeps the government tapped in on him at all times. He could be a multi-billionaire with ease... If he cared enough. His fondest childhood memory is when he was twelve years old. His parents left the country for two weeks and left him home alone. He did absolutely nothing for those two weeks... And loved every second of it.
Cheryl Windsor 19 Long brown hair, brown eyes, average height Melissa Damewood Cheryl has all the guys lining up outside her apartment door just for a shot at a date. She's flirtatious with everyone, which causes her more problems than she knows. She's currently attending the nearby college for an Associate's Degree in Dance Education, claiming it to be her life's passion even though she stopped dancing herself two years ago for unexplained reasons. She's at odds with her parents for throwing her brother, Tyler, out on the street when they discovered that he's bisexual. Tyler and Cheryl remain good friends, however, and Cheryl would do anything for her younger brother.
Dirk McKinley 21 Medium brown hair, blue eyes, average height Jason Cox When he was 18, Dirk was driving off to his first year at NYU when a bright white light flashed in front of him and he ended up in Chris and Ethan's house... three years later. He has no idea what happened that day or in the three years following it, but it doesn't seem to bug him all that much. Before this whole fiasco, he graduated with honors from his high school and had a full scholarship to NYU with plans to obtain his Bachelor's Degree in Communications. While never a big hit in high school with the ladies (due to the fact that most of his affection lies with food), he can be quite the romantic. He has stated that he is "clairsentient," which means that he gets psychic images when he touches people or things. His parents still assume he is at school.

Minor characters

Character Age Appearance Actor Description
Enigma Blue  ??? Blue orb N/A Not much is known about Blue. It appears to be the keeper of some sort of archive that it and Blue are watching, about the experiences of young Ethan Matthews.
Enigma White  ??? White orb N/A Still less is known about White. It has taken a quick interest in the archive about Ethan Matthews, and was, at one point, very close to Ethan. Or so it says...
Mugger ~20 Tall Ryan Bowler This particular mugger has the misfortune of attempting to mug Ethan and Cheryl.

END OF SPOILERS

Background

  • The comic originally started out as an experiment with Photoshop for Kevin's photography class. After some messing around with filters, Rich got an idea for a comic about Urban Exploration, and, being a criminal justice major, decided to call the comic "Actus Reus." The urban exploration idea was scrapped in exchange for a story that felt more significant.
  • "Actus Reus" literally means "the guilty act" in Latin. In order to prove that a crime has occurred, the "actus reus" must have been committed, and the "mens rea," or "the guilty mind," must be present. In short, a person must have consciously committed a crime for the person to be legally liable. The comic, "Actus Reus," will have a great deal to do with this Latin pairing.
  • A sister comic, "Mens Rea," could possibly be in the works. If developed, it would be about the author's take on life in general, his writings, etc. It would actually have very little to do with Actus Reus, and would not be canon to it.

Links

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