New Screenshots for a discarded "The Great Mouse Detective" sequel have been found /j
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I wanted to give out a try to these fake screenshot arts, since they are very fun to do! I just wish I could have done a little better with the retro effects though.
ANYWAY this is based on a scene from Sherlock Hound! Moriarty is so silly and this scene with Mrs. Hudson reminded me way too much of Ratigan and Irene, so I had to draw it;;
I have a couple of silly AUs laying around that I don't think I will get too far into given how I still have to finish sharing the plot amd lore of the main TGMD universe- But here's what I like to call the Frienemies AU! Basil and Ratigan leave their differences aside in their University days and they become friends, leading to both working together as detectives.
The events of the movie are more or less the same except that Flaversham is more of an inventor instead of a toymaker and Irene takes the villain slot as a pirate captain who is more known as the "Black Witch" and wants the kingdom's territory and riches instead of straight up becoming a queen.
IRENE STORYTIME BECAUSE IT WAS ABOUT TIME I am deeply sorry this will be a little long;;
Irene Relda, also known as "Mademoiselle Ratler" (based on a headcanon by Frankilew on DA in which the mice society changes the last names of those who are of different species, for example Ratigan instead of Flanigan) or "The Witch of Geinburg Street" is a female rodent born as a cross between a rat and a mouse, who lives apart from society due to discrimination and therefore is tired of everyone and everything(?
She is usually quiet and reserved, not showing emotions too often... But she's a gentle sweetheart deep down. And despite having quite the character and strenght, she is always willing to lend a helping hand to those who are not hostile towards her.
VOICE HEADCANON: Miss Spider (Voiced by Susan Sarandon in "James and the Giant Peach")
Irene´s mother was a rat of French origin who worked as a maid after moving to Mousedom, where she hoped to have a good life that unfortunately, she did not find. The father on the other hand was a well-to-do man, a prestigious professor or investigator at Scotland Yard…. But obviously, he could not accept the fact that the world knew that he had had a daughter with a maid who was, on top of that, a rat, so he fired the mother immediately and she took their child with her.
Irene didn't have the best childhood, but she was happy as long as she could be with her mother despite the difficulties she had to face (being a rat in a mouse society, single woman with a daughter who is a crossbreed, etc.). Sadly, there was a point when Irene's mother passed away and the girl had to raise herself from then on.
As she grew up, Irene acquired skills such as cleaning, sewing, and generally doing other household chores. She also knew a lot about herbs since, due to not having many resources, she could not afford to get sick often, so she could resort to the use of plants and natural healing methods.
Thanks to her skills she was able to follow in her mother's footsteps and worked as a maid, offering a good service regardless of the salary, but for various circumstances she was mostly dismissed: either because of her condition, because she was accused of acts she had not committed or simply because the ladies of the household did not like her (or were envious of her for a reason she could not understand).
She worked for a duchess at some point, who was actually a covert criminal who went by the name "Dolleyes" (huge shoutout to @rexmk0153universe-blog for suggesting her name and for helping me come up for so many ideas for this sequel au!!): her plans were based on getting in touch with or marrying rich men and then murdering them in order to keep their posessions.
One unfortunate day Irene witnessed one of the Duchess' crimes, so in exchange of her silence, she was fired (although she took revenge later… Let's say she offered Dolleyes an apology cake that had a dirty surprise and that hurt the noblewoman's ego while the queen of Mousedom witnessed everything (?) basically that cake scene from "The Help".)
From that humiliation, a lot of rumors about Irene began to spread. They said things of the sorts that she was a witch who stole valuables, tricked and seduced husbands, kidnapped children and ate them, or poisoned and even cursed those who upset her.
From the moment the rumors began, Irene had more difficulty getting a job because no one wanted to hire her, so she lived hand to mouth, and (perhaps do clothing comissions from time to time). The only hope she had was to be able to save enough money to go to France, which was her mother's homeland and where they wanted to return years ago before she died.
What Irene did not know though, is that shortly after she was going to help a very injured person one rainy night without knowing that it was a criminal mastermind. And from then on her life changed and she went from living alone having to endure the antics of a villain 24/7.
Irene's relationship with Ratigan fluctuates. They generally argued and disagreed in nearly everything- But there was a point when she realized the subtle detail that he never called her "rat" or something negative in relation to that aspect of her being, which she found strange considering he seemed to detest rats and he flatly denied being one himself… But out of respect, Irene didn't call him that any longer (although there were many times when she made him angry on purpose because knowing that he couldn't do anything to her in his current state amused her and one time she even used his old bell to tease him, which she took from Basil's house).
Regarding Ratigan's bell, the detective planned to search for it himself, but just then Olivia arrived with a reformed Fidget and volunteered. The bat, however, told her not to do it since he was paranoid that the professor was alive, even though he had been presumed dead after his fall from Big Ben… But Olivia's curiosity was greater and she prepared to investigate on her own. In fact, upon hearing the rumors of the witch she felt more convinced to continue (in some Disney Adventure comics, she and Fidget investigated paranormal events, so I imagine she likes that stuff).
In the end she arrived at Irene's house, but the woman tried to intimidate her and throw her out without Ratigan finding out that the girl was there. To her surprise, Olivia returned a few days later and repeatedly.
Ratigan eventually found out that Irene was talking to Olivia, but suddenly offered the lady a deal… If she approached Basil through Olivia and managed to get the detective to lower his guard in order to take him down, Ratigan would leave her home as soon as he recovered, never to return, and would give her the money she needed to travel to France.
Irene, in order to get the professor off her back, accepted, and technically the scheme worked through the means of seduction (to Ratigan's confused displeasure because he had mixed feelings about Irene as the plan went by) but Basil snapped out of it soon enough and Ratigan lost again and fleed… He didn't give Irene the money however-
She and Basil talked things out later though, apologizing for trying to trick him. Despite how the two would clash at times, Irene and the detective got along rather well, and from that point she helped him and Dawson with some of their cases, one of them which involved Dolleyes, who intended on marrying Ratigan only to kill him and pull out a Corpse Bride kind of plan after...
She also grew close to Olivia and Fidget, specially the latter since he ended up becoming like an adopted son of hers. So in their own ways, slowly, they heal together from the loneliness and mistreatment they had recieved on their lives.
(Also yes the "caling people by any last names but their actual one" thing will be a running gag hehoo)
Some of these doodles are a liiiitle old, but I keep forgetting to mention how Ratigan became Dadigan at some point-
So yeah he and Irene ended up having five kiddies! I have only posted one of them along with Minerva so far as he had been the only one I designed around that time. Respectively, their names are:
- Lorcan: born as an albino, he is the second youngest member of the family. He is the most comprehensive and intuitive out of all of the kids and is always willing to lend a hand or two. He is the most mixed between the two parents personality-wise. You can find him reading or building things quite often.
-Odette: daddy's little princess, the youngest of the siblings. She is kind of shy, but opens up with ease and can be a ray of sunshine. This little girl adores ballet (and cats, as she carries her stuffed friend almost everywhere with her), and she definitely got the dancing skills (and tomato blush) from Ratigan.
-Felicity: she is the oldest of the kids, aka the one who was born first, and she is some sort of reincarnation of Felicia... Or at least, so thinks Ratigan at times. Irene just didn't want to name her child after a pet. She is kind of a brat and pretty bossy, but she can be nice and persuasive whenever she wants to be.
- James: being the second oldest, he is identical to his father and even adquired most of his mischeavous nature. He is not evil, but definitely a chaos potato who is looking for new stuff to do... Be careful though, he bites-
-William: he is what you would say, the middle child, but that doesn't hold him back! This boy has a lot of charisma and will always try to look his best, gotta give a good impression after all!
Side notes (??):
- The girls' fur color comes from their grandmothers, Odette's from Ratigan's mom who I will introduce in another post once I pick colors for her and Felicity's from Irene's mother, who I might name Brigette.
- James and Felicity lean more towards Ratigan as to likeness, and Odette & Lorcan towards their mother... William is the most neutral.
- Odette was named after the main character of "The Swan Princess", Felicity is just an alteration of Felicia and James is taken from James Moriarty, the name of Sherlock Holmes' nemesis. (William was supossed to be too but apparently I got some info mistaken so- Let's just poke fun and say it was based on William James, the psychologist).
+ A little doodle of Ratigan and Irene because they make me soft /j
Me: Okay I need to draw something about how Ratigan and Irene met, show how their relationship developed instead of just posting out of context scenes that may come off as cringe or out of character.
My brain: Haha future ballroom scene in which Ratigan is actually a nervous wreck goes brrr /j
Anyway HEADCANON TIME just as Ratigan's face became red as a tomato in the movie due to his anger, that applies to the blush too, thanks for coming to my TED Talk(?
I know that I will have to post context and lore about these two eventually but while I make the final touches have a random doodle that I ended up liking enough to color it and everything xD
Irene sometimes finds small moments of peace when farming, despite doing it as a form of self-sustenance as she does not have many resources.
At some point when Ratigan was healing on her home, she asked (forced) him to help her when he began recovering... Much to Ratigan's displeasure and misfortune since he is not a big fan of getting his paws dirty.
While I was doing the Ratigan doodles, I suddenly thought "HMM you know I accidentally made Irene have a similar body type and energy to Jessica Rabbit's... What if I drew her in her dress, just this once?" And what started out as a single drawing developed into a buch of them-
↓ The guy in question (platonically)
Plot Twist: They ended up filming their own version of the movie, Basil and Ratigan nearly started a fight just to see who got to wear the dress and Dawson is just happy to be there (?