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mykatsudon · 2 years

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My thoughts on Yuri On Ice and where it went

So I’ve been wanting to properly articulate what I feel is off about the Iceado production and how abnormal it is, what I think could be happening and my reasoning. So far I’ve only posted about these feelings on asks, replies and discord but I want to expand on them in writing. This is kinda long so I apologize in advance. Feel free to send me asks or reply to this post with your opinion.

First of all. Anime is a product and a property, and as such, it is usually milked until it no longer produces enough money to be profitable for the studio.

Yuri on ice was a total best seller, It trended #1 every Wednesday on both Tumblr and twitter. Episode 7 crashed Tumblr. They have a huge international audience, which is something that is so valuable.

The first 2 years after YOI ended we had had all sorts of events. Collaborations, pop ups, the live stage, all sorts of merchandise etc..

Please. just read this bit on the popularity and success of YOI ( X )

with that in mind,

what in the hell happened?

Here’s the two train of thoughts I see a lot in asks/replies:

It’s a “focusing on other bigger projects” kind of issue

It’s an LGBTQ censoring issue

Here’s why I think it’s neither of those two:

focusing on other bigger projects is the most popular theory and the one that honestly makes more sense. yoi being put on pause to produce the money cows JJK, AOT, CSM, and Vinland saga. It makes sense except for the fact that they still found the time to animate 12 episodes of a relatively obscure Ballet manga, Dance Dance Danseur. which already finished airing and despite being a MAPPA property, it wasn’t very popular online. Why take the chance to order 12 episodes from DDD and not Yuri on ice? which if you read the link I placed earlier had impressive statistics. This exact fact leads me to believe it's not a time or focus issue.

If LGBTQ censoring was the issue, we wouldn't have BL animes coming out every year, and since Yuri on ice came out we’ve had quite a bit of BL animes and movies, for example: Given, the clouds gather, Given the movie, Sasaki to miyano, Umibe no étranger, Yes Ka No Hanbun Ka, sankaku mado, and a bunch more including live actions.

and you might say “but yoi is not tagged BL so it could be censored” well, just a year after Yuri on ice aired Banana fish, a Mappa property, had a full on screen kiss between the main two characters. and that wasn’t tagged BL either. Y*richin B*tch cl*b got an anime adaptation and it doesn’t get more explicit than that so no. While I’m not claiming censoring doesn’t exist in anime, the laws aren’t a strict regime as some people make it seem. Implying the whole project got scrapped because of the main gay relationship is beyond unlikely. I don't think anyone could possibly deny that Yuri and Victor’s relationship was by far the biggest selling point of yuri on ice; the audience knows it, the creators know it, the producers know it.

So what is it?

I present my leading theory... simple yet I find it quite likely...

Creative differences and doubts about where to take the story.

what do Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on titan, Chainsaw man, Dance Dance Danseur, Vinland saga, and hell’s paradise have in common?

they’re all manga adaptations.

Yuri on ice is an original story through and through. Thought up by the wonderful minds of Kubo Mitsuro and Sayo Yamamoto. Yuri on ice has been both the last anime they’ve worked on so far since 2016.

The thing about Yuri on ice is that the story, by virtue of being so original in it’s plot and setting, deviated heavily from the usual money-making structure of your average sports anime.

The characters were not teenagers in high school

A major plot point is that both of the main characters are nearing the end of their careers.

the story wraps and by the 12 episode mark you’ve already been to a bunch of competitions that in other sports anime would’ve taken seasons. EX: Kuroko no basket, haikyuu, slam dunk

Most important character arcs are resolved.

Main conflict in the series is resolved. Victor and Yuri get together.

The truth is, Yuri on ice is a series that really wraps up neatly. where can you go from there? go through competitions all over again until Yuri wins gold? when we’ve already stablished that Victor loves Yuri for who he is and will stay no matter what? what would be the point of that? Have Viktor keep being a playboy celebrity when already his search for live & love was resolved?

There is a danger of falling into the same story beats and a season 2 would have to be carefully constructed. Where do you take this franchise?

I used to not understand why they opted for a prequel movie instead of a season 2. Now that I look at this decision from a different perspective and while I do not personally agree with it, I can totally understand it.

Going forward with this original series is difficult, and I can tell the writers Sayo & Kubo care a great deal for their creation. The way YOI is so carefully structured shows that so much thought and care went into it. seriously, have you ever thought about how much detail, narrative, interaction, and character arcs YOI manages to have in just 12 episodes? it’s quite impressive. this is a project that they had no idea would get green lit for a second season and they knew the studio was taking a chance on them with this original series so they were incredibly concise as to have it end as neatly as possible.

but that “see you next level” was a promise to an eager fandom.

Back to why I think creative differences and testing the waters as to where to take the story is what’s happening:

In January 2019 an Ice Adolescence teaser was shown in Japan only, in complete exclusiveness. the people who saw it weren’t allowed to record it so they talked about it in great detail on twitter. For more than a year, this very same teaser was kept from the international audience until it dropped on YouTube on November 2020. According to the people who saw it in the exclusive screening nothing had been changed or added, it was the very same. So why the long wait? It’s like there is an uncertainty as to where to take the project and if it should continue in the same direction. “Let’s give it a year and see if we’re still on track with the current story”

To be honest, there have been many times where I’ve genuinely believed the project has been dropped. I know there are franchises that take longer to produce, look at Evangelion’s last movie, it took like 9 years to be made. As I was reading on the story of EVA 3.0 + 1.0 and why it took so long to be made when Eva is a well stablished money making franchise, I learned that Hideaki Anno, the creator, developed severe burnout and had to take a break, he was undecided on where to take the story and other people who worked with him in the project left the studio.

Since I am a yoi blog, and I’m always scanning the tag, replies, twitter, reddit, I see that a lot of discussion surrounding Iceado always seems to point to the fact that people believe this is studio meddling. What happened to Hideki and EVA could’ve happened to yoi. That even a huge property like EVA took 10 years because the creator was not comfortable, and did not want to continue just yet points to the weight the creator holds. I believe that if it were up to mappa, given how much money yoi made them, we would've had yuri on ice season 3 by now. But no, this is ultimately Sayo and Kubo’s child and I strongly believe that if we do not have something by now, it’s because something is taking place between these two, perhaps burn out, perhaps creative differences, or perhaps they seriously just need lots of time to think this one through. Even though it’s hard sometimes because I love this franchise, I want to trust Kubo and Sayo as I did before. I want to trust they’ll deliver a product that is good, and campy, and fun, and deep and sometimes heartbreaking. I will wait until I can see this through

#sorry for the wait!#I actually cut a big chunk of this post and might have to put it in a part two... whoops #I get carried away when I write :(#Yuri on ice #yoi #iceado #ice adolescence

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angelapleasant · 2 months

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Hi! 11, 12, and 16 for the storytelling asks :)

ty for asking!!

11. why have you decided to tell this story? are there any messages or meanings within it?

i initially created a bunch of little backstories for the premades for my shadyside bacc 1000 years ago, and then when i couldn’t take ts3 anymore and scrapped it i created some for some more premades to do a new one in ts4, but ts4 couldn’t support what i wanted to do with how their hoods are, so i scrapped that, but i still wanted to use the backstories, so i ended up creating a big canon for my ts2 stuff and making this story out of it :D originally i was just going to do a story about the cordials but instead reworked it some to make it part of a bigger story.

for messages/ meanings, not really! or at least i’m not trying to send any kind of big message with it. i’m just writing what i want to read/ themes i like or find interesting (etc. “resurrection gone wrong,” dark fairy lore, Weird Stuff Happening In Strangetown, etc). it’s just to entertain :D

12. do you actually play the game or do you just use it as a storytelling medium?

the only kind of gameplay that i’ve ever been able to stick with has been a BACC, which i haven’t done in like 519 years. i want to start one when i feel like i can fit it in, but for now, it’s only for storytelling and making stuff.

16. what about the process do you enjoy?

my favorite parts are editing the written draft/ planning out the screenshots i’m going to take, and then putting it all together at the end for the final edits (mostly just fixing a handful of mistakes that slipped through). also posting it (lol). but i honestly enjoy all of it even if it’s like pulling teeth to get me to sit down and Start writing/ taking pics sometimes.

#non sims #*sw #**

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ikoarts · 3 months

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October 2023 Art

for some reason i wrote a novel under the cut, for those of u actually reading, thank u for being so patient x

vvv dates + info under the cut vvv

1 - 03/10/2023 : another of my faves of last year, was trying to get better at drawing trainz, so just Edward and Toby hanging out, displaying the duality of old men x

2 - 04/10/2023 : got a new puter! one of the first things i set to doing after getting set up was to draw a Ru, of course, it was also just me trying to get used to the new MS paint..... it feels very odd

3, 4, 5 - 06/10/2023 : part 1 of redrawing random pics i have of Edward on my phone with my human version of him, this was really fun tbh, and the third here is one of my fave drawings of the year probs.. like sir.. those look heavy... what big uhh.. Glasses.. you have

6, 7, 8 - 07/10/2023 : part 2! i think i just like drawing his face... dare i say this train is cunty or will that get me exiled

9 - 08/10/2023 : something stupid i thought of and couldn't get out of my head for days so had to draw it..... little johnny from oingo boingo's only a lad, doing what he does best, fantasising about radios he wants oh so bad and running people down with a boyish craving for blood.. based on that 1 meme of the guy driving and thinking of a thing then making that insane face

10 - 09/10/2023 : based on that 1 silly vargskelethor song (that could not be less specific), had Shed 17 on the brain and was reminded of the milk song where the skeleton comes out.. thomarse dank 2 much milk and died..

11, 12 - 10/10/2023 : chooshada again :333 first a little doodle on my phone bc i was wondering about her livery, i do think she'd have originally been NER apple green but then painted NWR colours, butttt with a twist... coz i can do whatever i like... the twist is just that she's painted dark blue rather than a sky blue, coz its more her colour x

ALSO MS paint shada, wanted to draw her more uh, idk, detailed ig, idk i love this one, it also served as more train practice

13 - 13/10/2023 : previous one, but with COLOUR!! not much 2 say other than that shes very cute

14 - 18/10/2023 : saw a tweet abt old photos of engine crews posing with their crashed locos and how the NWR crews would do that, made me think of how, if Toni was (choo)shada's driver, she'd do that.. probably x .. very like her to slay in the midst of a terrible accident

15 - 22/10/2023 : predictably, i have some playlists for the ttte engines, one for Diesel which is notable here, so uhh, i have the scrapped song from the lorax "biggering" in there, bc i see it as like a Duck vs Diesel song, ik im surpassing several layers of cringe here but hear me out ok... i drew this at 2am coz i couldn't stop thinking of Duck lecturing Diesel

16, 17, 18 - 25/10/2023 : speaking of playlists, think i was listening to my Robin one here, and felt like drawing him, i have "the land of make believe" in there, which ive always found to be an oddly haunting song, so this is semi based on that, though that wouldn't be apparent if i hadn't just told u x .. this looks like vent art but tis not i was just having fun

also tiny chooshada, i was in the middle of writing something which i have literally Just remembered now and i was writing a scene where Ru is stuck between some characters who shes not looking forward to working with bc they're about to bicker the whole fuckin time and one of them thinks shes a dick, so i drew her being sad that shes forced to work with morons..... and speak of the devil, 3rd drawing is here with 2 of the aforementioned morons :D i think D+D take a liking to her, they're just a little obnoxious (love them for that)

19 - 27/10/2023 : a quick(ish) digital thing of Chooshada again that i did on the side of another project, more engine drawing practice he he, she'll be out of proportion and lacking detail but really it was just to not be too hard on myself about that, it did help i think to understand how to draw her more, plus just look at her lil face... also she has a number here, doesn't mean much other than 8 being her lucky number, other than 11, like those are just her numbers, suppose i could have it be 1188 to ref her bday, idfk x

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limmastyles · 2 years

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Wow, she really can be even more desperate and pathetic than she really is... I also hope that this is a mistake, but if not, then…What the hell?! Are you Cockburn really so envious and insecure that you will shove your name into all the spaces so that people will talk about you more? What about Flo?! Shouldn't she be the main actress, or at least her name should come first?! After all, she has the main role, which helps your shitty movie to exist. You should be grateful that such an actress as Florence agreed to be a part of this circus🤡💀

I’ve said it since I heard the rumours about her in Florence and I’ll say it again. She is jealous and intimidated of her. Florence is 12 years younger than Olivia but has accomplished more in her short career than Olivia has in her 20+ years in the industry. She was upset that Florence got the role after the studios denied Olivia getting the lead role. For those who don’t know Olivia one of the role of Alice but turn down by WB. They wanted someone younger and a bigger name. Also she wanted to play Harry’s romantic love interest and he turned down the tile because of his tour before Covid. So they casted Florence and no I don’t think anything happened between Harry and Florence seeing as she was Will Zack at the time but I do think they had great chemistry and Olivia saw that and got jealous and ruined it. She was jealous that Florence was and is a successful actress and who is becoming a big name in Hollywood and she is a washed up actress turn director because she could never get any toled because she wasn’t a good enough actor. The only way for Olivia to be seen as an actress and to be taken seriously is for her to direct a film and write herself into the movie. Must be remember her role was originally supposed to be for Gemma Chan in the original script but she wrote a different character for Gemma and wrote herself into Gemma’s original character. She is for sure not the main character of this film but she wrote her self into it to be much more of a presence and she’s putting herself first because she’s a narcissist and she can’t handle the fact that she wasn’t good enough to get the role of hours because the studios didn’t want her to and she is resentful and jealous of Florence. Imagine being Olivia and not having anything impressive on your résumé as an actress and having to become a director for people to begin to take you seriously. I imagine you wanting to be the main character in the studios telling you that you are not talented enough and too old so they force you to hire a actor who is over a decade younger than you and much better and more successful than you have ever been in your career. She was insecure and upset and she did what she could to make Florences role and time on this film as difficult as possible. Not to mention she saw the natural chemistry that Florence and Harry have and was upset by it because that should have been her but she wasn’t good enough to get it. She couldn’t even get Harry to agree to be with her romantically she had to hire him to do a stunt just so she could be as close to him as possible. We all know that if the stunt wasn’t a thing Harry wouldn’t have looked twice in her direction. This is her time to be the main character because in her entire pathetic career and existence she has never been the main character of anything. She wasn’t talented enough to make it as an actress seriously she had to steal roles and use her ex fiancé’s connections to get any scraps as a director and has to pay a man to pretend to be with her. Her life is really sad and she’s so pathetic that she had to resort to all of this shit just so people would pay attention to her And that she would get things as an actress and a Director. She wasn’t good enough to get the lead role of a movie that she is directing so she had to write her self into the movie just so people were talk about her. She’s a sad sad pathetic human being so we shouldn’t be surprised at all the shit that she’s pulling.

I LOVE YOU!

#fauxlivia #holivia #holivia is fake #holivia stunt #pr relationships #pr stunt #olivia wilde #publicitystunt #holivia pr stunt #publicity stunt

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doubleddenden · 2 months

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I posted my absolute worst Pokemon day prediction

Now I wanna do the exact opposite that's a for sure chance of never happening, but is almost comedic in how unlikely this is. And again, I know this won't happen, but GOD I wish it would.

Opener is a group of business men on their hands and knees apologizing for the state of the games since gen 8, refunds everyone $300-$600 for the unnecessary drama they've caused by releasing unfinished and unpolished games or just straight up stealing ideas from and lying to fans.

Ohmori is demoted to coffee guy for all of his cut corners. New main directors are Morimoto and Iwao. Address steps they'll take to fix things including cycling games out between GF, ILCA, BAMCO, a Nintendo internal studio, and Genius Sonority with their own crew back. Devs include alumni from Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tales of, etc. Each game will have a minimum of 5 to 6 years dev time going forward (with ones today being developed quietly in the background) with no crunch time, promises to improve employee morale and tenure, and promises to polish both their games and put their new pokemon designs through more passes, including a bigger and more robust design team with fresh blood from the best side of the fakemon community.

Also, going forward, fan games are welcomed, encouraged, legal, and no longer subject to legal interference. Anyone who was subject to any Cease and Desist order will be financially compensated. Talents from some of their favorite fan games have been hired.

They're announcing "indie" game spotlights in addition. Going forward, certain fan game devs will be given the opportunity to create their own 2d eshop games and fakemon (now official), and are essentially given the Sonic Mania treatment. Basically everything fun about the fan game scene, but now they have financial backing, and additional help with coding, music, and artwork.

Unova remake, but it's in a hybrid style between SwSh DLC, ORAS, and Legends Arceus, and they've been given more than a year and a half to make it (unlike bdsp) and have free reign to do fun new stuff. It's a combo of B1+2 and W1+2, with a bonus "episode 3." Includes new Pokémon forms, evolutions, paradoxes, convergents, and variants, a robust character customization system with original outfits and new bits, and Challenge mode available right out of the gate. Looks incredibly polished, a firm art style that's reminiscent of og BW 1 and 2 with Battle Revolution's and New Snap's semi realism, and runs well on Switch. Also voice acting.

Legends Unova is revealed- its a Unova far in the future that's been abandoned and reclaimed by nature. More new Pokémon and forms, including more natural looking takes/fixes to certain pokemon like Delphox or Inteleon. A promise to finally meet the original dragon is made, we meet descendants of characters, etc. Also incredibly polished. Everything good about Legends Arceus but better. Releases in 2025.

Ports of Gen 1, 2, and 3 games to eshop- if you already purchased any on the 3ds, you just have it for free again. All ports include events or Japan exclusive things that occurred, including a way to activate exclusive E-Reader battles and events and with working Union Cave encounters (and a way to add new e-reader events made by fans, as has been done recently). FRLG includes more scrapped islands to travel to for fun.

A special hd remaster to Colosseum and GoD is made in tandem. A tweak is made so that you can access pokemon from gen 3 port boxes and Home, and another to speed up Shadow purification to ease tedium. Releases summer 2024.

Builds to Colosseum 3/other title that will release summer 2025, made by the guys that made the originals and given permission to do all the WEIRD shit they wanted to do. Features the first new Eeveelutions in 12 years (as of 2025) as your starters, and is more of the amazing double battle strategy game I loved, and has graphics that would make an average pokemon bootlicker shit themselves with amazement.

Anime project teased is an anime adaptation of the Adventures manga, given the JoJo treatment basically. High quality animation by studio Toho, uncensored, includes the cool fucked up bits like Charmeleon bisecting an Arbok.

Anime movie teased that's basically a new adventure for an older Ash and Pikachu, including a team of new Pokémon. Has him giving guidance to a new kid as they have to deal with... let's say the Ruinous Quartet. Actual battles happen that's not just a bunch of disaster shots, Ash actually has a character and reason for being there and shows growth. New kid goes through growth as well and sees Ash like a big brother. Mythical actually has a reason to be there, and so do Team Rocket. Essentially the Black Clover movie treatment that's just (non sexual) fan service and beautiful anime fights all around.

Any new Pokémon shown today will be added to SV and the Unova remakes for competition purposes once they are available.

Pokemon music album by indie artists that have actually played the games. Not just a gen 1 fest or popular artists. Includes remixes that will appear in the games.

Clothing merch is basically just a bunch of real life versions of clothes worn by player characters, rivals, and certain characters like Brock or Mallow with larger size availability. So you could feasibly dress like Hilbert and Hilda in one case. Brendan's wig hat is included.

They end the stream by signing a contract on. Stream. Swearing to finish and polish their products going forward at any expense, or face contractual consequences. They open a time capsule scheduled to open next year- you see a bar of gold and silver inside, as well as what looks to be an opal and a boomerang, and they seal it. Some items in the capsule will not be expanded upon until next year or later.

Go, Unite, Masters, CafeMix, or any other mobile game is not mentioned because they suck

That is the purposely impossible high bar set, and a reminder that I'll never get what I fully want because the pokemon company sucks and have no remorse for how they've treated us these last few years.

Tomorrow I'll give the "reasonable" expectation.

#pokemon #pokemon day

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florasearle · 1 year

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David Wilson

Wilson is an art director

Inspired by Sugar Water music video-I’ve seen this!

Studied illustration at Brighton originally

Project for uni was an astronaut mockumentary where he made the costume - Life As An Independent Astronaut

Used one of Metronomy songs for his final piece - this video gave him his first commission after uni. Knew one of bands girlfriends. Now intertwined in each others lives. The animation was drawn individually on paper and cut out on photoshop. Just worked with what he could do.

Blink and Partisan- were cool companies

Doogle Wilson director

YCN- an illustrative version of D&AD. Brief was to create a response under 4 minutes. Zoetrope - sat with a record player and drew 16 drawings around record. Won him best budget music video award

Life is like a rollercoaster-it’s more like a line at a theme park. He just is showing us the rollercoaster parts. Most of it is leaning into and pushing.

It’s all in the preparation for these types of project

Artic Monkeys-wanted visuals for their track Do I Wanna Know? Wanted animation similar to their album cover. First went to directors of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared but they were too busy. He drew the storyboards and had a team of animators to create the animation.

youtube

Arcade Fire music video, featured Andrew Garfield

Did commercial works in-between, such as Rowse Honey

Royal Blood music video

Retro Futurist Daddies-played with AI over his break. What the world be like with masculine gay men who are seen as an important part of society. Gay imagery is shown as cinematic and not underground

Still does scrap drawings and uses his illustration degree

Pulls references from music videos he likes

Also showed us the Mastoor video without the visual effects

Deep Clean music video

When starting music videos they pitched endlessly for years to get their ideas accepted (talking of creators of everything everywhere all at once whose ideas all got rejected). Made music video for Sleigh Bells band.

Created advert for Facebook. Based around the idea of small business and the tool to personalise ideas

Artists Way- 12 week course where it recovers artistic burnout. Recommend doing it as a group or with a friend to help motivate.

Important to be real in this profession. Everyone should be communicating their bad days to each other.

Shooting animatics like in Mastoor really helps

Encourage other creatives to advance ideas

Fuck the system

What are the thought processes to taking risks?:

Usually pushing against something - subversive to the brief (makes it exciting to him)

Breaking things is a brand he has made for himself

Bigger risks of the Deep Clean-seeing what was happening to the appropriation of queer culture. Anything overtly sexual within this community is often rejected-leather culture, cabaret culture. This got him riled up and passionate about the project. In his he’s making peace with the world, not taking risks

Narratives aren’t chronologically based, how does he storyboard these ideas, such as in Artic Monkeys music video

Going back to his foundation course and and an excise he was taught. Taking lots of A4 sheets of paper and folding them up 3/4 times so you get a row of 8 set a timer and draw in each of these frames. They had a brief of drag racing and sexy girls but it was a stream of consciousness.

Be your own AI machine.

How does he merge a visual together?

Directors Daniel Wolf will shoot shoot shoot with various cameras and figure it out in the edit

Wilson was taught how to structure his work through being with Doogle Wilson who would meticulously storyboard everything

Every second on set is money and so time is a pressure, storyboards help but it’s also important for some leeway to help actors/dancers etc

Eliminates the unknown before he spends money

Uses anyone around to help visualise camera sequences

Networking is the most powerful tool you can have

Did music video for The Maccabees

Being a creative doesn’t get easier

Don’t imitate other people

This talk was really inspiring as a person whose only skills reside in illustration, often feeling constricted in my abilities to expand beyond what I want to do and feeling limited by what I am able to do. I have always felt to be a person with ideas but without the means of execution. Wilson talked of how his ideas are given to people with the technical knowledge to execute them and this has reassured me in my future career. Though I may not be able to pursue this as a career, due to my lack of technical knowledge, it was inspiring to see how someone could use their visions as a career.

#unit3 #conceptsofvisuallanguage #Youtube

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thecontemporarycurator · 2 years

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A Conversation With The Contemporary Curator: Episode 3 | Tim Thompson

how would you describe your practice?

It's worth pointing out it's only part time, as I'm a self-employed artist and designer as well outside of the gallery practice... it was my art practice that got me involved in curating - I met the gallery's director Kay at an art fair we were both doing, and at the time she was organising art markets and she invited me to take part. Then an opportunity came up for her in an empty unit and she took it on as a gallery and shop, and knowing I'd curated exhibitions and organised art shows etc in the past she roped me in to help with the gallery wall curation while she focused on the shop part. Then a bigger more permanent space in the same building came up and she took it on as an art gallery, employing me as the curation manager. As it's within a building that's open 12 hours a day with full security and a big footfall - of residents and employees in the building but also the public - we don't need to be there every day, so I'm essentially there part time, mostly when there's an exhibition to organise and then curate, and also for meetings and when we have events on. The gallery shop is open whenever one or both of us are in, and Kay opens the shop on a Friday and Saturday to also do work in while she's there. This is perfect for me, allowing me to be a part time dad as well as continuing with my art practice outside of the gallery. When we have an artist wanting an exhibition, we ideally like to work with them for a few months to try and push them beyond their comfort zones, to create something unique for the gallery, and I'm heavily involved right from the start, potentially exploring with them new mediums, visiting scrap places or DIY shops, seeing where they can take their art - assuming they aren't just wanting to carry on with their usual practice, say creating large landscapes or something - but there's usually an excitement in creating something new and different. Anyway, I'm on call for the artist to help in any way I can, right up to the final point of installing the work. Having trained as a graphic designer I am usually commissioned to create branding and advertising for the exhibitions, as well as creating all the print work etc needed for the artists and also in-house stuff. Neither Kay nor I have ever had to advertise for artists to exhibit or take part in our events, as we both have quite a large contacts list already and everything so far has all been via word of mouth and word getting out there naturally via social media etc. Had it not been for covid, back in 2019 the gallery was fully booked right up to now - so a few have had to pull out and some shows have been moved and some extended to fill gaps due to the pandemic, but it's now taking off again and this year has now been filled again with fresh talent. We have a bigger vision which will start to take shape around the summer, with themed events and bigger more extravagant shows, making the gallery not just a walk-in place or a space where people get invited to private views etc, but actually an event destination that'll become very well known in the region and further afield. One perk of working there is I get the opportunity to have my own exhibition once in a while, so I get to really involve my own art practice within the space, not just selling prints in the shop... :)

Is there one artist you can pinpoint that you really enjoyed exploring the creative process with?

There are many! There are two that stand out though, Imogen Morris (@Imogenembroideryart), who is our resident artist and uses a studio we have behind the shop, who was creating very lovely but 'standard practice' embroidery pieces. She was one of the first artists that me and Kay took under our wing to explore possibilities with in regards to pushing her out of her comfort zone, and explored several avenues, finally settling on the use of nails and wood and creating three dimensional pieces that were quite different to her original embroidery - including a huge piece that took six of us to install. The most memorable though was a guy who calls himself JowyB, who created small cartoons based on manga and British comics. I worked closely with him to expand his ideas, but we kept things simple and within the themes of his work, enlarging the scale of his drawings to huge hanging painted blinds, in a very oriental kind of way fitting with the manga/anime style of his work. Each piece was inspired by a song or piece of music, and to explore this further he painted on CDs and had them in cases featuring his artwork and the titles of the works, as well as QR codes that when scanned took you to the appropriate music video. It was his very first exhibition, and was finding it very overwhelming, so it was quite challenging but very rewarding when complete and on display, and I've never seen anyone so pleased with their own show before.

How would you say you view the position of a gallery space within modern day society?

I think it's incredibly important, nothing compares to seeing art 'in the flesh'. I've spoken to a few people about it and everyone agrees - seeing art in a book or on a digital format doesn't do the art justice. There is the physical side of things, like holding a book or an album cover, where you experience the texture and the smell, not just holding it in your hands but possessing a physical object. But whereas a book or music you CAN get away with reading a Kindle or listening to an MP3 and still enjoying it fully, you cannot get the full enjoyment from art unless it's a physical piece of art on a wall. Even photography or digital art, it looks very different as a small image in a book or online compared to a high-quality full-size print. This is where galleries are so important - humans still need a place they can go and see art, especially if it's emotive in some way - somewhere they can meditate on it - especially when art itself is often expensive and beyond the financial reach of most people... A good example is a piece I saw in Birmingham museum when I first moved here, of a large canvas over six-foot-long, an abstract piece in black and red, that I'd seen and passed by in books before, but seeing it in the flesh was almost like a religious experience, and it had an effect on me I'd have never got anywhere else but in that gallery. In the same building there is a large collection of Pre-Raphaelite pieces, which are quite stunning compared to the prints you see everywhere, and I also saw an Warhol show there a few years ago, and the very first thing you saw as you entered was one of his original screen prints that I must have seen hundreds of times - the world is saturated by Warhol (and Warhol-inspired) to the point of them being quite boring - but you could see the edge of the ink and the vibrancy, and you could still smell the ink, and it was wonderful to see in real life!

Would you say that exhibition at BMAG was one of the best you’ve seen? If not, what was? How has it (if at all) influenced the way you work?

Hmmmm, that abstract piece certainly had the most profound effect on me that I'd never had before seeing art on a big scale like that. I've been to a lot of shows all-round the country, including the infamous 'Apocalypse' and 'Sensation' in London, which were impressive and featured some great work, but that abstract piece in Brum stayed with me more. I believe it's stored in their archives and brought out when it fits in with a temporary display, so not sure about any accompanying pieces as to my knowledge it's hasn't been part of a big exhibition there, it's just one they've acquired. But yes, it has influenced the way I work in my own personal practice but also as a curator, as an example of how powerful art can be if done right and displayed correctly. Up until the last year or so I've focused on a particular way of working that has led up to my next upcoming show, which is very different to anything I've done before - throughout my current work I've kept that big piece in my mind and hopefully I've created some pieces that -although not on the same large scale as that piece - might create similarly strong emotions in others. It's all been heavily influenced by the colours and techniques of that large BMAG piece, and some of my work bears a similar darkness that I felt staring at that original work

So speaking more of your curatorial practice- are there any techniques that you use to try and make the space engaging and inviting to people? Any ways you might make people want to be within the space?

Thankfully it has a large entrance, with big glass doors so you can still see inside even when they're closed. There are also large wicker seats and a couch, and one wall is shared with a cafe who have tables and chairs by their doors in the gallery, as well as big glass windows so people inside the cafe can see the space and see it's an open inviting gallery. Although it's not the main entrance to the building, people still use our doors to access the other parts of the building - there's things like a VR gaming place, a photography studio, meeting spaces and a few other shops in the building that people walk through the gallery to get to and always stop on the way or come back to - so there is already a few elements already there that attract people in, which is why we were so excited to take the space on. The only problem with it being open like it is, means that we cannot have exhibitions that feature risqué or potentially 'adult' elements as we cannot control who enters the space, unless we lock it down in the evenings for special events. Aside from the natural elements, when we are there we have a speaker that we face toward the open doors and have music playing to get people to look round and see we are there, and it makes it more inviting as an 'experience' rather than a cold gallery (a lot of people walk about with blinkers on or staring at their phones, not looking at their surroundings, and miss a lot of things, but if something breaks their attention away from their personal bubble and they see something interesting... When we have events on - sometimes we have markets in the space featuring the artists on the walls in our self-curated group shows we call 'ShowVend' - and we often have live art and other things going on - and for these we erect a gazebo that sticks out in to the pavement and enables us to extend the opening space and have things going on in the street that attracts people along. When there's a show on, on a 'normal' day when

the space is quiet, we often get people coming to sit in there and chill and socialise, or we'll have people using it like a large office, bringing their laptops out, and it does attract other creatives who'll sit there with headphones in, knitting etc. I believe that work in an exhibition should not be too cramped together, each piece needs to breathe and be in a decent space to be able to be appreciated, and I think the large amount of white wall space around the work helps to create a nice atmosphere. We are also lucky to have a large geodesic glass dome in the middle of the ceiling, and there's a tree growing below it, which really helps make it stand out from other spaces. It's big and white, but it's homely - it's not an intimidating snooty elite gallery, it's a communal space where people can relax and use the space as their own, instead of feeling intimidated by often large paintings from someone elses soul that cost a fortune to own - they can enjoy and feel inspired by the work instead of it being beyond their reach in so many ways

how frequently, if ever, do you let the work itself influence its curation?

There are times when certain elements of the work or the way it's been produced dictates the way it's displayed. We had a landscape artist who was doing a retrospective of the last ten years of her practice, and it was inline with a book exploring the same theme, so it had to go in chronological order and had to be at the ideal average viewing height, so it was just a matter of measurements of the work and which walls they'd go on - everything was decided for us. Due to covid it never got put up, and then the artist had some further ideas which again never came to fruition due to covid and then personal reasons... There's only one other I can think of where the work prescribed the way they'd be shown, which would have been a straightforward hanging but with particular lighting involved. Otherwise, like I said earlier, as we try to push artists beyond their usual limits, the curatorial process is more complicated and becomes part of the journey with the work. Due to it being used by the public everything has to be secured down well, and of course fitting in with health and safety, especially as we're not there managing it all the time, so although we are limited in a way it means we have to be extra creative with the space - although it does also shape the curatorial process; the gallery is almost like a tamed creature that's hosting us, hosting the work. Things do however often change last minute, when the work is in ready to install, something usually springs to mind that makes the show more interesting or better in some way, even if it's just as simple as moving the work around or doing something surprising with it we hadn't thought of before. So I'd say the process is fairly fluid and is a very creative thing - it's often like the work is our media and the walls are the canvas, and we have to create a unique painting with it...

What, would you say, is the most challenging part of your job?

The artists! :D

There often comes a certain amount of ego with many artists - it is their work after all, their babies that they've created, so it's understandable - so they are very protective of their own ideas and their work, it's precious to them. But some take it a little too far and give an impression that they know it all and they know best, and it takes a fair amount of hard work and emotional energy to break past those kind of barriers and make them realise we're here as their helpers, here to guide and advise but also step back when needed to, but also be trusted that we know what we're doing and we know what's usually best for our gallery... Many artists exist in their own world - it's a very solitary occupation creating art - and with creative people there often comes strong personalities. It's often hard to get in to their mindset and find out what they really want to get out of showing their work or working with us. Not all artists are like this of course and perhaps the ones that are the minority but they overshadow the artists who are more fluid and open. It can however be quite a buzz when you push a certain way and they're reluctant, but when the show is up and they see how right you were (because it's our gallery, our pet, we know it best), and they have a big thankful grin on their face... :)

Finally then, what is the best part of your job?

Too many best parts to mention! I love working with Kay - we are polar opposites in almost every way and shouldn't logically work as a team, but we do, there's a strange dynamic that somehow works! I love meeting new artists and creatives and hearing new ideas about art, seeing things done I've never seen before. As an introvert I often struggle talking to people face to face, but in creative people I can see a similar passion in them that I have for art, and there's a connection there like no other. However the main thing I think is getting the work on the wall, seeing it slowly come together over the days it takes to install, and then when all the drills and tape and spirit levels etc are all out the way and you can stand back and see the work looking better than you imagined now it's up and ready to be seen, that's a great feeling - especially when you see the artist also so happy and excited for their exhibition to open and show off their hard work!!

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cfr749 · 2 years

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Want You to Stay - Collab Dirty Laundry and Deleted Scenes vol 2

Spoilers for Want You to Stay below (read it on AO3)

So here’s more of @poppypickle Jill and I being up our own asses (Jill’s words, but accurate 😂) by sharing random tidbits (and long ass essays) about our collaborative writing experiment!

This one got looong, so let us know if it’s super boring.. LOL

And so it began...

The One Where We Decided on a Title

Chapter One

The One Where Lana Had Strong Feelings About the Eggs

Jill had some amazing fix-it ideas for the conversation in Chapter One, one of which was around the egg freezing and giving Tim a chance to be a little more supportive than he was in canon. It wasn’t necessarily a topic that I was super excited to revisit, and thus I realized that fix-it is maybe not my forte...

Original Draft...

“I guess they don’t,” his voice is different somehow, huskier, and Lucy follows his gaze to their intertwined hands, warmth rushing into her cheeks as she realizes just how intimate the moment has become.

Tim clears his throat, abruptly pulling his hand out from under hers and running it back through his hair as he leans back in his chair, eyes returning to the shadowy view, “So what did you decide about that egg freezing thing?”

Ultimately, Jill helped me fix my fix-it (or so we hope! 😂)

The One That Started the Great Sergeant’s Aide Debate of 2021

In Jill’s words, this one could also be called “Should Lucy still be Tim’s aide, and other things that felt super emotionally fraught at the time and now feel chill in retrospect” --- A new story by Lana Pickle

(also Lana insisted on spelling aide as aid and Jill had to correct it 15 million times)

Jill on 12/20 - this feels off ... Lana changes one word ...

Jill on 12/21 - this is maybe too harsh ... Lana changes half a word and disagrees....

Jill on 12/22 - I'm just gonna fix this in Ch 2 when I’m primary 😂

So this was a fun one - it was our first major disconnect...

Lana’s POV: But it was also super enlightening for us both because, in my mind, Tim immediately addressing the aide thing was just something that had to happen; it wasn’t a line I thought about at all, so seeing that Jill had a fairly strong response to it forced us into one of our first conversations about how we saw the characters and their motivations differently.

And the back and forth on this definitely continued into Chapter Two and how the Escape Room conflict ultimately unfolded. It took quite a bit of convincing, I think, for me to even believe Lucy would want to stay on as his aide, and it probably wasn’t until we landed on framing it as both about her career and her emotional state around not wanting things to change that I got on board — not sure that Jill is even aware of this now, but I think this was one of the early decisions that helped me get my arms around where Lucy was emotionally and what was going through her head in the aftermath of sleeping with Tim.

Jill’s POV: The aide topic is so interesting to look back on, because even at that time in the season it seemed like maybe the show would do more with the decision to keep them riding together. And then it just....didn't. Until the recent dance episode, it really wasn't a thing. So in addition to us both having valid, but different, perspectives on what it would mean for Lucy to not be Tim's aide anymore, for me it felt like a bigger deal, storyline-wise, than it actually was on the show until very recently.

See where we ended up at the bottom of this (absurdly long) post...

The Ones Where Lucy Had Too Many Feelings Too Soon

Some of these early back and forth exchanges were super foundational in terms of how the story ultimately unfolded… two original cuts on how Lucy felt after learning that Tim was, in fact, seeing someone and that someone was was Ashley. These ultimately got scrapped as we tried to zero in on where she we wanted her to be emotionally in Chapter One…

Jill’s POV: I sound really chill in the chat about Lucy comparing herself to Ashley, but I felt really strongly about not having Lucy as a non-size 0 woman of color compare herself negatively to Ashley, a thin, conventionally attractive white woman. That would have been our second big fight of 2022 if you hadn't been so open to the edit. 😂

Lana’s POV: I love hearing Jill’s perspective on this now because it wasn’t something we discussed a ton when it came up. I think this was an instance of us looking at something through the different lenses of our experiences and backgrounds (and, per Jill, a reminder that we don’t actually know each other in the real world).

As a non-size 0 WOC myself, for me, comparing myself to Western standards of beauty was [unfortunately] just a reality of growing up in Texas / the states at a time where media and culture wasn’t particularly concerned with representation and the self-image issues they were propagating. And, though, as an adult, I rationally see it differently now, it’s still something that is emotionally ingrained in me. So from that perspective, Lucy having that thought in a high intensity emotional moment didn’t feel unrealistic to me. But ultimately, I didn’t feel like canon had really developed Lucy’s characterization on this front enough to defend it, and I wanted to be cognizant of what I might be projecting onto the character.

Ultimately, I do think it was the right call for the story (and Lucy), and I’m glad that Jill provided the feedback.

This one got a little weighty! 😂

See where we ended up at the bottom of this post...

Where we ended up...

“I’m fine,” she finally manages, biting her lip as she tries to get her arms around the magnitude of what they’ve done — all of the lines they’ve crossed. And then there’s that nagging concern that is suddenly back front and center in her mind. “Tim…what you said to Genny the other day — are you really seeing someone?”

He lifts his eyebrows in surprise, like it’s not what he expected her to say at all. “I — yeah. Ashley, Jerry’s daughter.” His jaw tightens as he says it. “I asked her out a little over a month ago. After the treasure hunt.”

Lucy’s face falls, and for a second she feels like she might be sick. It’s not like any affirmative answer to the question could have been good, but the idea that he’s seeing someone she actually knows twists her gut with guilt. “I-I don’t… Shit, Tim, I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, Lucy.”

She lets out a sound that is halfway between a scoff and a strangled sigh. She tries to find something to say and ends up landing on a feeble, “She seemed really nice when I met her.”

Now it’s Tim who looks like he might be sick. “She is,” he says quietly.

They stare at each other for a few moments, the weight of everything that has happened over the last 24 hours heavy in the air. Tim’s expression is stoic and unreadable, a sharp contrast to the way he looked at her last night with such open, raw vulnerability. He clears his throat to speak, but suddenly Lucy feels like she needs to be the one to say it.

“Look, last night was a mistake, Tim. It shouldn’t have happened. We were drinking and we were both upset.” Lucy takes a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady. “And I would never want to do anything to jeopardize your relationship. Or to mess up our working relationship. I’m your aide and —”

Tim is nodding slowly, brow crinkled in concern, “I could put in a request for a new aide —”

“NO. No. I don’t want that. I think — this was just a one-time thing. Neither of us was thinking straight. We don’t have to make it into more than it was. Can we just put it behind us?”

Lucy’s gaze is pleading. Tim looks briefly conflicted — he opens his mouth, then closes it again. Finally, he simply says, “If that’s what you want.”

She nods slowly, hoping her expression isn’t as deeply sad and disappointed as she suddenly feels, unable to process the wave of incongruous emotion she is feeling about every single bit of this. This is for the best, she reassures herself.

“Lucy…” Tim is stepping toward her, reaching for her, and she stumbles back out of his reach.

She chokes back the emotion rising in her throat. “I should go,” she tosses over her shoulder as she whirls on her heel, not trusting herself to be here, with him, in his space for even a minute longer.

Bonus (Spoiler: We didn’t actually disagree on this one!):

#want you to stay collab #collaborative writing #writing process #jillana #lana pickle #chenford fanfic #lana and jill indulgently overshare

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Last of the Clan McDuck! Review “It Was Worth THE Dime”

This is one of my faviorite comic book stories of all time. Given i’m a massive comics nerd, for both books and strips, that is the highest praise I can give this wonderful, epic, beautifully drawn and deeply emotoinal story. I first discovered it in the local library that had the second volume, and found the rest online at a now long dead fan site. And while it took me longer than I care to admit to really dig into Duck Comics, and even now i’ve only scratched the surface, I can say without a doubt this story is the reason I’m so deeply attached to Scrooge as a character, and that I was excited as I was for Ducktales 2017. This comic showed me just what Scrooge McDuck should be at his core as a character, and showed me what a wonderful character that is. So with all that glowing praise as you can guess i’ve been wanting to cover this for years, and even considered though back when I was more primarily a comic book reviewer last year. Any time i’ve reviewed stuff before now, i’ve considered it, and with Scrooge’s Sisters Hortense and Matilda presumably and definitely debuting on Ducktales soon, and it’s about damn time, the timing could not be better or clearer to dig into this utter triumph. But before we can take a look at the story itself we naturally have to take a look at the man behind it: Writer and Artist Don Rosa. Don Rosa is easily one of the best Duck Comics writer out there, seen by many as only second to his own faviorite duck comics writer and God of Ducks, Carl Barks. For those 1 of you who do not know, Barks was the man who created pretty much everything in the duck universe comics wise and a bit in animation too: He created Daisy, Scrooge, Gladstone, Magica, The Beagle Boys, The Junior Woodchucks, Gyro, Little Bulb, Glomgold, Rockerduck, and the list goes on. While he didn’t make EVERY duck, he made so many that it’d be impossible to imagine either version of Ducktales being possible without him. So of course Rosa was a fan and while he took up the family buisness, he was also an artist and duck comics fanboy on the side. So when, even if it meant a paycut, the opportunity to actually write and draw them came up, he lept at it and thus became one of their publishers go to guys, even if said publisher published the stories overseas where the Duck Comics are far more popular and still going to this day, and ironically where most duck comics printed nowadays get their stories from. Rosa was known for his meticous historical research and gorgeous art that he took his time drawing to get just perfect and showed on the page. The man has easily some of hte best and most detailed duck art around and I still haven’t found a duck artist that can match him.. and if you have or found one close i’d genuinely love to see that. He is a genuinely talented, spirited guy who was sadly mistreated by disney and that, coupled with tragically failing eyesight, eventually ended his career. He’s still around and I genuinely hope to meet him some day as he still does conventions. The man is not without fault: I don’t get his hatred of superhero comics, as while I get them overshadowing funnybooks and that around the time of his career they were in decline, but it’s just as unfair to write off Superhero comics as mindless. garbage as it is for people to write off the Duck Comics as “only for kids” and I genuinely wish he’d see that and see how the medium has evolved so much since then. I also grumble a bit as his refusal to allow anything besides barks into his bubble, and having to be forced to include fethry on the family tree, but that’s more personal preference. I like using as much material as you got. IT’s why i’ve wanted to, and hopefully will eventually get around to, write a sonic fanfic using bits of all the various universes that for legal, ken penders being an absolute waste of a human being, and sega being stupid reasons can’t be used anymore. I like taking everything in a franchise and putting it in a blender and it’s why I love the reboot. But there’s nothing wrong with taking things as is, not stepping on toes canon wise, but still being awesome. We’re just diffrent people and that’s okay. And a lot of his fanboy showing actually lead to REALLY good things: Goldie O’Gilt was a one off character, and while used ocasoinally overseas, didn’t really pick up as a character again until a combination of Ducktales 87 and Rosa’s work with her, as he always loved the character, and fleshing her out lead to her being used more, and gaining a sizeable fandom. He also gained the Cablleros an even bigger fandom by giving them two stories of their own, and fleshing them out a bit more. And this very comic is the peak of that, taking EVERY mention of scrooge’s past from various backstories to set up adventures, every tiny scrap, and to his credit going to both Barks Himself and various other Barks Experts Rosa was friends with to check his work, especially difficult given he likey had to find these stories in issue or pullt hem from disney archives, and complied it into one long epic that not only uses all this info effortlessly, but spins a compelling story that gives us a clear vision of what Scrooge should be, how he became the man he is, and how he lost himself only to find himself again with the help of three precocious boys and a cynical 30 something duck. So taint all bad is what i’m saying. As for how this got started, thankfully rosa himself provided the origin story for this project in the back of the volume of his works that contained the first 7 chapters of life and times, as well as detailed notes for every chapter. At the time Rosa was working for Egmont, the big european publisher who handles Disney’s much larger european comics market, hence why most of his stories appeared years earlier in Europe before debuting here. The american publisher at the time , and an old friend of his, called Rosa with an idea: A 12 issue Maxi-Series focusing on Scrooge’s history, since at the time they were all the rage.. and really even today mini series are still a viable market and many indie titles just have several minis instead of an ongoing. So it wasn’t a bad idea, Rosa just simply offered a tweak: He’d tell his publisher at Egmont about the idea, and let her get a crack team of writers and artists to do this proper, and thus Disney could publish it for free once it was done and for no extra cost. Rosa gave his publisher a fax detaling both the idea and the fact that it needed to be done right, given to the best person possible, and done with the greatest care. She agreed.. and naturally handed it to him, as he admits he hoped. She made the right call, a legend was born and here we are. One last bit before the read more and before I get to the first story itself at last: Since barks wrote a lot of side stories that fit into the canon, I COULD slot them in between chapters, but have instead chosen to review the original 12 part story as was, and do the various side stories and two epilogues, the utterly fantastic “Dream of a Life Time”, easiliy one of my faviorite comics ever, and the also really great “Letter From Home”, which will likely on some level be the basis for the upcoming at the time of this review “Battle for Castle McDuck!”, after completing the story. In other words i’m probably going to be at this for years. so join me under the read more won’t you as I begin the journey of a thousand miles with a single step as we look at the humble start of a legend.

We begin, after a fun short teaser with present Day scrooge saying his past is no one’s buisness only to get hit with an oh yeah?, with a scrap book title for the issue, something I want to bring up since while I got that’s what it was what I never got, and must’ve glanced over when I first read rosa’s notes when I got this copy, was that it isn’t SCROOGE’S scrap book, but his sister Matilda’s who dutifully and happily catologued her brother’s adventures. It’s a really sweet moment.. and something that will hit VERY hard when we reach Chapter 11. If you haven’t read this story or heard of it.. .that’s this story’s equilvent of “Last Crash of the Sunchaser” and clearly Frank and Matt drew from that story a bit for it, but we can get more into the parallels when we get there. A smaller but fun note is that Rosa had specific coin drawing templates, for different indentions and what not he used, and used them for the coins in these intro bits. Yes he admitted he has a problem and yes that’s damn impressive anyway.

It’s Scrooge’s 10th birthday, and his father Fergus has taken him up to see the family land, Dismal Downs to tell him of the mighty Clan McDuck and show him the ancestral lands, graveyards and Castle. He admits to having taken this long because the Clan McDuck currently lives in Glasgow so it’s kind of a long trip just to show your son “Hey look at the decay and rot that’s our ancestral homeland”. The Clan is on hard times, as a bad shipping deal, the backbone of a rather good barks story and I wont’ be interjecting for every barks reference as it’d get rather tiring though for what it’s worth Rosa provided tons of detailed footnotes in the back of each Fantagraphics collection, so good on him. Speaking of which though they do include 10 pages of Mc Duck family history that was supposed to open this story.. until Rosa’s editor wisely pointed out the story isn’t about them but scrooge and having read his roug draft, yeah.. there’s a good gag here and there, as well as “Dirty” Dingus McDuck, scrooge’s Grandpa and the reason Dewey is cursed with that middle name. Why anyone thought Dingus was a good name is beyond me, nor why Donald thought that was a good middle name back in 2009 is again, beyond me. Good on Don though for getting that past the censors. But yeah with no money they can’t buy the land back and they were scared off it years ago by a mystical ghost dog, the hound of the whiskervilles. There is treasure in the castle, Sir Quackly’s gold, but he accidently sealed himself into a wall while sealing his treasure in there. Their interrupted by the town assholes, the Whiskervilles who have been grazing sheep on the land and are naturally behind the hound, using the sound of it to scare off Fergus once they realize he’s a McDuck. Because apparently you can keep a Scooby Doo style hoax up for Centuries if you don’t have meddling kids around. Who knew. Back in Glasgow, we meet the rest of Scrooge’s family: His Uncle Jake, his sisters Matilda and Hortense, and his mother Downy. Jake hasn’t really been mentioned at all in Ducktales and I know next to nothing about him, which given I share a name with the guy you’d THINK I would. I mean I know a decent amount about this Jake.

But nothing about who the hell Jake McDuck is or why he lives with his brother and his family. Here, you guys watch the dancing Jake, i’m going to probably do that for hours after this review is done, i’m going to go sort this out. Okay one google and finding the Scrooge Mcduck wiki page on him, Jake shows up here likely because he was referenced in the story “A Christmas For Shacktown” and apparently borrowed from Scrooge and never paid it back. Otherwise.. there’s not a lot about him and unlike the rest of Scrooge’s family he really dosen’t do much that I can remember. Except like 2017 Scrooge, he apparently has become extremely long lived, as Scrooge and Donald STILL think he’s alive in the 1950′s.. and likely is STILL alive in some form in the Don Rosa stories, given his take place after Barks and thus in the 40′s and 50′s where Barks stories were set. Hence why unlike the Reboot, Scrooge isn’t inexpecilbly over 210. But Jake McDuck sure as heck is. Maybe this highlander is a highlander.. you know the movie and tv show type. Maybe someone cut off his head. That’s what i’m going with.

This does bring me to another point about this story: While Barks gave all of scrooge’s family their names, it’s where Rosa got them after all, it’s Rosa who really made them into characters. Fergus as a loving father ashamed his family legacy has fallen and wanting his son to do better than him, Downy as an equally loving wife and mother, Matilda as his sweet and caring sister and later her brother’s moral center, and Hortense.. well here she’s just a babbling baby but her character will become clear and glorious as we go. She is adorable here though and we do get some great bits with her. Getting back to the plot now i’ve made my points, Jake is riled up wanting to understandably kick the Whiskerville’s asses with Scrooge, who even as a sweet innocent ten year old still has the family temper already, agreeing.. but Downy gently shoots them out pointing that two middle aged-ish men and a 10-year old just aren’t enough to fight an army of them and while she doesn’t mention it the fight would just tire them out for work and accomplish nothing as while it is the McDuck’s land the combination of the hound and the lack of money to move back means it’s pointless. She also mentions their younger brother Pothole, who went to America. This will be important later.

Scrooge storms off and Fergus laments, in a scene that’s more painful the more I think about it, how his clan has fallen, with he and his brother lamenting their chances at glory are long gone.. but Fergus has hope his son can do better, and for his son’s birthday makes him a shoeshine kit in the hopes of inspiring him to greatness. This scene still resonates since many of us are poor, struggling and not doing so good money wise. I’m sure many parents have doubts and regrets about not being able to do more for their kid.

Not only that but the story carefully avoids the trap of Fergus accidently being abusive by you know, pinning his family’s future on one 10 year old. While yes he is asking a lot of Scrooge, to restore their family name.. it’s very clear he mostly just wants his son to do better than him. Even if Scrooge was just slightly more successful, Fergus would likely be happy with that. He’s not using the legacy as a “This what you must be” like say the Gems in steven universe did for Steven with Rose’s Legacy, the kind where it sort of suffocates you till youc an make it your own. He’s just saying “this is what you can be” He believes his child can be great and simply once him to reach his full potetial and is simply giving him a means to hopefully do so, a simple home made shoe shine kit. While Jake scoffs, the narration notes the idea isn’t worth a dime.. it’s worth THE dime. The dime that would set Scrooge’s destiny in motion.

The next morning, Fergus goes to check up on his son and his new buisness but Scroogey’s having no luck and about ready to just quit, the poor child. Also Matilda is dragging her baby sister around like a doll and it’s entirely precious as it is funny.

But as for those Dorty Boots, Matilda wonders why her dad dosen’t just tell Scrooge that Burt the Ditch Digger is coming. Fergus tells her to quite and then explains his plan: he’s sending Burt to scrooge, with an American dime Fergus and Matilda found, to teach his son a lesson: By giving him a hard days work, he’ll teach him what hard work truly means.. and by having Burt “cheat” him with the American dime, it’ll give him the motivation to keep going and to nto be as wide eyed and trusting. It’s a well meaning if harsh lesson, and the kind you’d expect from 1900′s parenting and fits the origin well: Scrooge still earned his first money square, as he still did work.. but his getting cheated being a lesson dosen’t diminish what it taught scrooge, and helps flesh out what I talked about above, Fergus knowing his son has great potential he just needs inspiration to reach it. And instead of just telling him that he does a con job but it’s the 1900′s. This orign, and Fergus’ part in it would be entirely untouched in Ducktales 2017, the first scrooge based adaptation since this comic came out, and I bless them for it. Frank even said this comic was used as a bible by the writers and while theirs clear deviations, and we’ll get to that, they were mainly done for good reason, and it’s very clear that while scrooge’s history is very VERY diffrent in the reboot, the core of his past is still there.

So the plan is on and young scrooge spends half an hour killing himself to get Burt’s shoes clean before getting his dime.. and realizing he’s been had, makes this proud decleration that will be the bedrock of his entire life and character.

Scrooge being naturally stubborn as you can see takes his cheats a leson: There will always be hard honest work, and he will be there to do it and he’ll be tougher and sharper than anyone trying to cheat him out of his pay. Fergus’ plan has the intended effect, and Scrooge having learned a hard lesson now has the drive and determination we know him for. As for why it gives it to him.. I had to think on it a bit but it makes sense: For some a setback like this would make them quit.. for Scrooge it’s just proof he CAN find customers, he CAN do this job, or any at his hardest and instead takes this as a lesson to be prepared ot out think and outfight anyone who dares cheat him again, and to not earn his money by being the kind of guy who cheats a kid out of an honest days pay, but as a good honest duck like his father and his father before him. =He will make his money square so he can be the kind of person this seeming stranger SHOULD have been. Granted we’ll see Scrooge doesn’t end up as the best person at times but .. we’ll get there. So with the fire inside turned from a spark into the flame Scrooge soon got to work, and by the next panel we see he’s eventually worked his stand up from a small box given to him by his dad, to a three seater shoeshining bench, who he wipes all at once by stretching one of his mother’s girldes over a light pole, a detail I didn’t get the first time around but now love. Naturally being a good kind boy much like his Nephews, Scrooge always gave his proud father a portion of his earnings, if with a full receipt for tax purposes. Because he’s still scrooge after all. His dad wonders he did too good a job while Hortense glxbit’s in agreement.

As the years go on, a now tween Scrooge is eventually able to save up for a horse cart, and starts selling Fire Wood up in the city. He eventually realizes Peat, an earthy subtance found in bogs I only know about because I had to look it up for this review, is more profitable and with some snappy marketing moves into selling Peat for the rich instead, also showing the young lad already has a grasp of how to sell to obnoxious rich people.

But while his business is booming, our young hero can’t resist visiting his family’s ancestral home and longing for it, hoping one day to have it for himself and in a nice show of how despite his temper and tenacity forged over the last few years he’s still at hear the kind, sweet optimistic lad he was just a few pages ago, he decides to tidy up the Clan’s Cemetary while he’s here.

Unfortunately as proof that Donald and Della’s terrible luck comes from both sides of the family the Whiskervilles are sub-glomgold levels of human beings.. or Dogfaces in this case, and are digging up the McDuck Clan’s graves to hunt for treasure. Scrooge tries to simply do the smart thing and flee, but the asshole brigade catch sight of him and mistkaing him for a peat burgalar chase after him.. and spend WAY too much time and energy chasing a teenage boy over some fucking bog grass you clearly aren’t selling yourselves. I mean spare a thought for how dumb this is: They could easily sell of of that peat to put up a fence or chop down some trees to get the material if their really that concerned about someone getting in the bog. Then again this isn the 1800 and 1900′s where the child death toll was simply “Yes”, so they likely thought whose gonna notice one more dead child on our property?

Scrooge heads toward the castle and is gestured in by a friendly mystery duck who gladly shows him around and can tell he’s a McDuck just by look, showing the castle is still in glorious condition as the whiskervilles are too spooked to go in, hence why they didn’t chase Scrooge inside. I’d say being afraid of ghosts but not murdering a child is weird but these are the same guys who thought murdering a child was plan A. We’re not dealing with a brain trust is what i’m saying. So the mystery duck shows Scroogey around, showing off some colorful stories about his ancestors recycled from that scrapped prologue I mentioned. THe mystery man, who brushes off Scrooge thinking he’s a McDuck asks Scrooge what he’s doing to restore the family glory and while Scrooge points out he’s already working on it, Mystery Duck points out he’s still missing something: He has the drive and the dream, but peat and shoeshining, while getting him good money for his family, aren’t the thing you can build a fortune or a future off of. He then points out where Scrooge’s dime comes from: America.. and that gives the boy the idea to head to the states. As for what he could possibly DO there to start, the mystery guy mentions his uncle pothole. So Scrooge has the dream, the drive.. and now a plan: Go to america, work for his uncle on the riverboats, and work his way up from there till he finds his fortune and restores his family name. But while his future is settled, the present is still an issue and Scrooge wants to teach the child murder club a lesson and thus borrows, though MM wisely points out it’s all his property a horse and some armor, and stuffs the armor with peat. As for what his plan is.. welllll

That.. is fucking awesome. And far from the last fucking awesome moment in this thing. It also shows off even as not quite a teen yet, Scrooge is still a badass already, and while he doesn’t have his trademark strength or fighting skills quite yet, his ingenuity is already there.. and that will always trump both. The Whiskervilles run away and into some quicksand and Scrooge vows to return one day as laird and reclaim his family land. But that’s a story for a few chapters down the line. As for who the mystery duck is, he’s naturally Sir Quackely himself, or rather his ghost, who was simply guiding Scrooge and didn’t give him the treasure as simply handing him the money wouldnn’t restore their family’s good name or continue their bloodline now would it?

For now Scrooge returns to work for a bit before finding his way to America: A cattleboat to New Orleans looking for a Cabin Boy. And so Scrooge bids farewell to his family. His Dad, feeling bad he can’t even give his boy shilling, gives him the family pocketwatch with jake pitching in with the family gold dentures. While Scrooge naturally refuses to sell the watch, he does plan to sell the teeth as soon as possible for good reason. We then get some sweet goodbyes with him, his sisters (With hortense uttering her first words to everyone’s astonishment) and loving mother as he wonders just what awaits him in America.

And there he stands on the bow of a ship, heading for a new land, in New Orleans he can be a new man. And we’ll see just what kind of man he becomes as this series continues. For now this is the end of a chapter but the beginning of a lifetime.

Final Thoughts on Last of the Clan McDuck:

This story is excellent. While there are even better chapters to come, this one is still one of the most memorable and most joyous, showing just how Scrooge became what he is, where some of his values come from, others will be instilled along the way , and beginning to flesh out his family. We see Scrooge’s love of wealth comes from starting from the bottom, growing up with a family that barely had anything and badly needed everything, but was loving and instilled fine morals in him. We also see a Scrooge far removed from the bitter old man he is in present day, an optimistic naïve young lad who only wants best for his family. It’s a nice stark contrast to who he’ll become, good and bad, and a nice way to both compare him to Huey Dewey and Louie and break your heart as his own hardens before briefly turning black later on. The art, as is standard for this series and Rosa, is breathtaking, and the story isn’t lacking in good jokes, their just downplayed so the story itself can take center stage. There’s nothing really more to say: it’s an excellent start to an even more excellent tale and stands proud among an already stellar story as one of it’s finest outings.

NEXT RAINBOW: Scrooge goes down to the mighty Missipi to work on the riverboats and meets one of his signature Rogue’s for the first time in their first form, as well as Gyro’s dad.. or grandpa.. or possibly both I don’t know his family tree. Point is, tune in next time for some riverboat hyjinks. Until then if you’d like to comission an episode of any animated show, especially ducktales and the various other duck related disney shows, or another Duck Comics story you really like from Rosa, Barks or whoever you want really, I take commissions for 5 dollars a review, with 5 dollars off your full order when you put in for more than one episode or issue. You can also follow me on patreon.com/popculturebuffet and for just two bucks a month get access to polls (which i’ll start once we have at least three patreons), and my exclusive discord server. And if you liked this review be sure to reblog it to show off. My self promotion done until next time: There’s always another rainbow.

#scrooge mcduck #don rosa #ducktales #the life and times of scrooge mcduck #fergus mcduck #downy mcduck #hortense mcduck #hortense duck #matilda mcduck #jake mcduck #uncle scrooge #duck comics #disney duck comics #carl barks

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kitcat992 · 4 years

Note

I come with questions! — 1) Really enjoyed Identity Crisis so I was wondering how the idea for it came about? Like, was it a small vague idea that grew or was it full grown idea straight from the get go? What things changed as you were writing it? 2) What's your method of writing? Do you plan ahead/outline or just go with the flow and edit as you go/later? I am a mess and so I like knowing stuff like that lol

OMG I absolutely DIE when I get questions like these!!!

If you can’t tell, almost no one ever asks me author related questions so I get super excited when someone does 😆 Your girl is about to rammmmbbllleeeeeeee!

Alright, so! Identity Crisis. How did the idea come about? That’s a good one.

I don’t know.

😅

Next question?

Lol, but for real. I came up with the idea during chapter 12 of Identity Theft. That was the chapter I realized “Oh shit, there is NO WAY in any universe I’ll ever be able to tell this entire narrative in one fanfic. Uhhhh...crap. Okay, so...well...uh....sequel? Eck, no, sequel sounds grabby. A continuation. Yes. We’ll *continue* the story in another installment. Shit. Am I doing a series? Goddamnit. I didn’t sign up for this. This is bullshit.”

Basically, when I was writing Identity Theft, I threw every single idea, concept, piece of dialogue, plot thread - all of it. I threw it into a document and began sorting it out. Things I wanted to write, things I wanted to happen, things I felt needed to happen, ect ect and ect ect. Those oddball moments of daydreaming while driving home from work? I logged it all. No thought was spared from being documented.

I’d say maybe 50% got moved into the Identity Crisis folder because there was only so much I could pack into Identity Theft while still holding true to the original narrative I wanted to tell (that being: Tony realizes just how much Peter means to him, Peter gets himself into a pickle, Tony thinks he’s lost him for good/almost looses him for good, Tony comes to realize he’s #dad and ain’t going back)

Was it always a small vague idea? Yeah, kinda. I always knew I wanted to do Venom. Similar to how Identity Theft’s barebone concept was Tony #dad, the barebone concept for Identity Crisis was Peter having PTSD from Identity Theft, and his emotions being manifested and manipulated into something much more extreme by the symbiote. Now, for a HOT second, I was annoyed with how many Venom fics were popping up thanks to Sony’s Venom movie, and I reallllyyy didn’t want to seem like I was doing the same, so I entertained the idea of using Kraven the Hunter as the antagonist for the fic instead (seeing as he’s Dimitri’s brother) However, it never clicked, it never worked, and I never even got the concept on paper. I absolutely needed the symbiote for Peter’s character arc, and definitely needed it for Norman’s (which also leads into something bigger than this narrative can contain, godeffingdamnit I really did NOT sign up for this!)

The only major change the story has seen since outlining it has been length. It was originally only outlined as...20 chapters, I think? The problem is, the further out you outline, the more vague your layouts become. You outline “May and Tony have a talk” only to actually *write* that talk and realize it was most of the chapter, and you need to start splitting things up to avoid reader fatigue.

So I guess that leads right into question #2! Do I plan ahead/outline? Abas-posta-tivly-loutly. Every scene, every chapter, even pieces of dialogue are all already pre-written and laid out.

Again, some are very simplistic - May and Tony discuss Peter’s behavior over lunch. Others are much more detailed - I have 20% of a conversation between Peter and Tony during Chapter 19 already written out, and I wrote it easily over a year ago. As I think of it, I write it. Most of the time, I make notes in my phone, and then copy that back into my computer documents when I have the free time.

The whole “I’ll remember that later” thing is a trap and no writer should ever fall for it.

I also have all my chapters divided into Acts. All my stories have 5 Acts - that’s always been the number that works for me. Act 1 is the foundation, Act 2 is the build up, Act 3 is Shit Goes Down, Act 4 is the More Shit Goes Down/and the Aftermath, Act 5 is the conclusion. Sometimes I view the Acts as seasons, too. Like a TV show. I dunno, it just helps me plan and keep a solid flow to the story.

Outlining never happens in one day either, by the way. I was outlining Identity Crisis WHILE writing Identity Theft. I’m outlining the final story in this series while writing Identity Crisis. The outline can change a little bit once the story starts - I’ve added a few unplanned scenes in both fics along the way, and deleted a few others too. Doctor Strange helping during Peter’s surgery in Chapter 24 of Identity Theft? Was never originally planned. Thor showing up at the end of Identity Theft? THAT was originally planned, and scrapped. Tony asking Hank Pym for Pym Particulars during Chapter 12 of Identity Crisis? Was never planned. I still go with the flow when writing. I don’t stick strictly to an outline i f it doesn’t work anymore. Now, that always adds to my chapter lengths, word count, stresses me out and gives me anxiety - but hey. That’s writing for ya

#fanfiction #fanfic #writing

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whirlybirdwhat · 4 years

Text

Accidental Family Man Au

remember that one ask where I talked about some projects? This is one of them. Enjoy dad franky!

So it begins with Franky – a back alley repair in the illustrious mechanic city of Water 7 – a miracle engineering city, they call it, with intertwining roads of cars and rivers. Venice, if Venice was made of concrete and had a road system above its water system, twisting above houses and everything.

Franky used to be one of those engineers that created those miracles, but an accident later, and he’s the scourge of the city and half bionic, making his living in back alley repair shops where you either pay with cash or your life.

He never said he was a good guy, did he Ice Burg?

He still has connections though – and these connections lead to Iceburg, and to the Straw Hats.

Iceburg’s the mayor, of course, and while he doesn’t care much for his public image, he knows that if he starts accepting money from shady kids who showed up to his doorstep possibly covered in blood with a woman who he swears he’s seen before beside him, that maybe Water 7’s people will take a hit for harboring criminals.

But hey, He knows a guy already doesn’t he?

So he sends these kids and their broken van down to the Franky House to see if he would fix their beloved, broken, van.

The Straw Hats never reach it, because the woman (Robin) gets kidnapped and a fight breaks out, leading to the separation of the group,

So the story really begins with Franky and the little broken down RV called The Going Merry, previously belonging to the kid who’s standing in front of him, begging him to fix it.

More Hcs Below cut including actual dad Franky stuff lol

That kid is Usopp, and he’s asking because Franky’s the only repair man in the illustrious city of Water 7 that will possibly accept the cash that Usopp has to offer.

He doesn’t.

Instead, he attempts to kick the kid out and gets kidnapped in return.

Oops

So, Franky’s introduced to Ennies Lobby one of the worst places this side of the country – where people go and never come back, and hey, whats this kid doing kicking down the door?

Safe to say, Franky is rescued, and learns a little more of their story.

And Safe to say, Franky sees the woman they are going to save (him, and a bunch of teenagers and some 12 year old brat) and he near damn falls in love with her on sight and definitely does when he actually talks to her.

They save Robin, and start running – of course, Merry the van is just barely struggling to save all their added weight but they make it but also merry’s totaled.

So Franky shows them his pet project, The Thousand Sunny, supposed to be his super get away, home a way from home rv but with a few modifcations… the Straw Hat Gang has a new home. And a new crew member.

Franky learns everyone’s stories and about all the absolutely shady shit they are into. He learns he fits right in.

And then… then the moments start happening.

He helps Usopp fix up the Sunny, and teachers him about cars and such.

He and Chopper start bonding over bionics and medical shit that went into building his body.

Zoro and him geek out over comic heroes (this, at least in zoro’s part, is canon the big nerd.)

He helps Nami out with some headings and listens to her troubles.

Sanji and him go fishing one day and it’s the most surreal experience of Franky’s life because this teen is in a three-piece suit and catching giant fish out on the shore of some lake? What?

Franky gives Luffy advice and pulls him out of fights and shows him cool robot things.

And its two months in when Franky realizes – here is it actually typed out lmao

“In all honesty, Franky doesn’t know how it happens.

Well.

He has a vague idea.

(Can you save her? Please? Merry’s the best.)

But still – tracing the events that led up to him frantically calling Ice-for-brains at one am in the morning at a near abandoned gas station on the west coast was a hard task.

“Hello?”

Finally.

“Ice-for-brains,” He starts using the familiar name.

“Flunky? The hell? What are you calling me now?”

“Iceberg.” The use of his real name quiets him. He knows this is serious. Franky takes a deep breath, and exhales, saying the next words in a single breath. “I accidently became a dad to six crazy teenagers. Help.”

…

“Goddamnit bastard-berg this is no time to laugh!””

AND THEN HE GOES ON TO HAVE MORE DAD ADVENTURES INCLUDING:

Organizing the kids at Sabaody Park

being emotional support for all these kids trauma please world, give them a break

doing his best to say no to allowing luffy to swim with sharks but giving in anyway

being a component (aka fierce menacing bodyguard) in his daughter’s nami’s schemes

breaking up fights

Attempting to ground known criminals who may or may not be stronger than him

Modifying the RV so that they can have Brook and Jimbe on it as well

“MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS! MCDONALDS!”

Overthrowing the government in at least three different countries because his kids wanted to

Doing experiments with illegal fireworks on Usopp’s behest

“Do you want to play catch” “Franky that’s dynamite that we found in the stach what the fuck- “Do you want to play catch” “…Yes.”

Explaining Safe Sex to teenagers who have biggers worries such as the government

Teaching them all how to drive. He thinks hius heart has popped out of his chest.

Snoring loudly on their tiny couch and everyone just dogpiling on him

Also I had this in my notes

So that’s a thing that’s going to happen!

Uh anyway uh PART TWO – THE OTHER FCKING STRAWHATS

Note: Everyone is aged down three years from pre TS ages to enforce the fact that 1) the government is fucking nuts for assigning bounties to these kids in this au 2) give more dad moments as while we all need a dad in our lives at any age it gives me more plausible reason here 3) plot related issues and the fact that this story takes place over several years and 4) the image of a 14 year old taking down the government is hilarious to me.

So.

Moving on.

Luffy – 14 years old and an absolute bastard

Luffy grew up in the port city of Fuusha as a way for Garp to keep an eye on him because of his family connections and make sure nothing bad happened to him - didn’t quite work out.

dads a terrorist, his brothers a world class criminal, his gramps is an abusive piece of shit but also weirdly protective marine officer, his family’s complicated.

he grew up in the seedy underbelly of the city and made friends with a lot of criminals (who helped him get out because hey that five year old who used to steal our food is a brat and maybe we should help him get out before he becomes to chaotic (too late) and becomes our friend (also too late) )

Among these criminals are Shanks, who wanders through once in a while, Buggy, begrudging friend, Jimbe, because he has connections, Crocodile, because this brats a bastard, and Rayleigh, among others.

Annoys them to make him his friend, continues annoying them afterwards.

He just thinks they’re neat.

Luffy leaves two months after Ace, his brother under Dadan’s, the local gang leaders, roof, leaves because Ace can’t tell him to stay behind anymore

but the govt got word now he’s on the run – Coby helps him escape

As such, Luffy grows up with a very very skewed moral compass as in canon but a bit more, and now literally is almost ten times more feral as he should be.

His goal is now to do whatever he wants, without people telling him what to do or that he can’t do that – He’s going to be free, damnit.

Franky understands and learns over time to adjust his Parenting Skills accordingly

Zoro – 16 and illegally owning a motorcycle because he thought the best way to improve his skill was to go out and hunt down people to fight, and of course he needs a motorcycle to do that, doesn’t he?

He was pulled over for speeding then taken in for being underage

He is also caught up in some bad stuff (fight circles, bounty’s, etc. this kids 16 and breaking grown men’s spines.)

Then comes Luffy who was also arrested for dine and dashing and is in the back seat.

Luffy, who after the police car pulls over, punches out the police officer, unlocks Zoros cuffs and tells him “Drive”

So they drive

“Hey, hey Zoro. Join my crew. It’ll be fun.”

“Anything you say captain”

knows Luffy for three seconds and is immediately down to murder with him

Its great

He wants to become the greatest sword fighter still, which is still a thing in my fantasy modern world, so anyway, picture this 16 year old going up to you and tell you to fight but he has a sword in his mouth and in both hands and the most dangerous look in his eye.

He and Luffy immediately rob a sword shop to find him new swords after they meet, it becomes a thing later on where they will steal (horribly, they literally crash in through the window every time because they have no subtly) something small from each city they visit.

Nami - 15 year old pick pocket in the city where luffy and zoro stop, just trying to scrap up some money to pay off her family’s debt.

Bellmere’s still alive damnit.

Nami thought Zoro and Luffy were police originally (because they are driving around in stolen police car) and tried to pull the ‘oh officer help me’ card when the people she stole from chased after her

To her surprise, it was two kids her age in the front seat.

Luffy: “get in”

she gets in

they dont talk about it

The people who were chasing her was Buggy’s gang who Luffy waves at as he goes by

Buggy sends a message to Shanks which is essentially “hey that brat u liked is still alive”

And Shanks is like “oh thank god” not knowing the terror he has unleashed upon the world

A month later Arlong has mysteriously disappeared and the Bell-mere farm is flourishing while the second daughter becomes a world class criminal.

Bell’meres never been prouder and it gives Nojiko a great conversation starter.

Usopp’s 14 and lives in a trailer park called syrup alone

Has a business where he sells odd herbs and such, passing them off as anything that will get him some money – think of it as Toad Oil from Wano but with some popgreens and such mixed in.

His goal is get enough money to stand on his own and leave the park but its slow going. And then…

Luffy punches the heck outta the creep that was creeping on the owner of the park, kaya, and think’s Usopp’s stories are super cool.

Usopp wants to go with them, to explore the world With Luffy.

At this point, the Straw Hats have realized that driving a stolen police car around is a bad idea

so they take the huge van - a gift from Kaya named The Going Merry, and set off, using Nami’s stolen funds to get them by.

Sanji - 16 year old who longs to be a chef with the best food and just wants to feed people who need it

He hates government cause they don’t feed people and has a lot of petty grudges and helps Zeff run a lot of kitchens to help people.

He’s still the Sous chef of the Baratie and still has a penchant for kicking unruly customers around. Baratie has a less then stellar reputation for service but the food? The best in the land.

He feeds Luffy the food.

Luffy likes the food.

Luffy kidnaps Sanji

Zeff worries about it but he can’t do jack since he actually is not Sanjis legal guardian (he kidnapped the kid first on accident after they both were stranded. He still tries to call anyway, and is proud of the change his son is making in the world. He’s currently working to get suspicious government people off his back about his missing Sous chef with the unique curly eyebrow…

Anyway, Sanji becomes the cook for the strawhats and is really happy because everyone likes his food and he can help anyone along the way and send business to the baratie

Its a good deal for him, and with all the places he visits his skill grows as a chef.

Chopper - 12 year old prodigy who really wants to be a doctor but both his legal guardians are out of the way

Hiruluks dead and Kureha, against her will because she’s still beautiful at 100 dammnit, is in a nursing home trying to break out

Chopper has nowhere to go but still tries to pursue his medical career, and this fucking twelve year old does so by patching up people from bar and gang fights.

The Straw Hats pick him up and Usopp hacks into a govt control thing to sign him up for online medical course

Kureha’s proud and gives him a book of pressed cherry blossoms that was Hiruluk’s

He cries

Chopper gets lots of practice for medical stuff with Luffy and Zoro who like to fight in fighting rings just for the heck of it, and for the money that Nami wants.

Robin – 25 year old depressed archeologist (and assassin) they found in a mafia in the next country over (Vivi’s)

Crocodile’s running it, aka Luffy’s criminal uncle number 500

Luffy’s pissed about it and smacks him into the dust because it’s his friends country, and then drags Robin along because she needs to have some adventure, and hey, they are checking out the ruin’s next, wont that be cool?

So robin comes along as the ‘adult super vision’, at least in Nami and Usopp and Chopper’s mind.

She learns that these kids have some how been able to dodge school, and starts teaching them the basics of what they would need to know, and then any thing else they want to know. (Zoro, she finds, is extremely good at math while Sanji enjoys chemistry. Nami and Usopp catch on quick, while Chopper has his own studies already but enjoys talking to her. Luffy dislikes learning, but if the promise of pirates or foods or letters that wont spin in his head is involved, he’ll gladly sit down for a bit. He especially loves the stories however.)

Robin finds herself inching dangerously into mom territory, and accepts it whole heartedly after meeting Franky, who she finds handsomely hilarious.

She has a shady past but is slowly opening up about it, and knows she will watch the world burn for this crew.

Y’all know about Franky already so im gonna move on.

Brook – super fucking Old musician they found on the street looking for his dog Laboon

He used to be a star but lost his fame but doesn’t care – he only wants to make people happy with his music.

Luffy just straight up just drags him into the sunny, its becoming a habit of him kidnapping people, that’s not how you make friends Luffy (or at least it shouldn’t be – he always seems to make it work.)

Everyone just goes with it at this point while Franky sighs and triie sto figure out how to make a giant RV even bigger

The Crew find out his dog is living in luffy’s home town and used to play with Luffy when his friends weren’t around. They vow to go back once everything dies down, but in the mean time Dadan gets a new guard dog in her house hold

Usopp posts one (1) video of Brook (on Halloween in skeleton make up) and he instantly becomes a revived star, thriving on the mytery of the Skeleton Soul King.

He now posts videos from around the world of him singing but its impossible to predict where he will be next, and he’s invisible with out his make up to the internet, so its good for the whole criminal thing.

Jimbe

(best) Criminal uncle 501

No one knows exactly how he knows luffy beyond luffy himself but they are 90% sure its something to do with the underground warlord system that Luffy has connections too

He gives the best hugs, Uncle Iroh but without the well-meaning manipulation.

He’s tired of responsibility that he has in his underground position and kinda wants to fuck off to the Caribbean but then he meets luffy again and is like this is better

He Leaves the fishman gang behind with subordinate in charge and joins strawhats

He becomes stressed - “Why did you choose an archeologist and a man who wears speedos for adult supervision, how are you alive, do you need a hug, do you know basic math, have you even gone to school, oh thank god Robin is here - ”

Two minutes later

“Do you have code names, can I have one,”

He’s a big faker the dummy everyone can see right through you, you’re aren’t on this crew if you have common sense

Between dad moments, essentially its just the Straw hats breaking in and causing havoc where ever they go, building their bounties and being a found family.

That’s it for now, but please ask questions! Sorry this was so long lmao, ill also add something for Vivi later!

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nautilusopus · 3 years

Note

fanfic writer asks: 18. for The Number i: 3, 4, 28

18. Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

Edit as I write always. Can barely even comprehend doing the latter. Like, all the writing advice I get is “just get it down badly first and go back and fix it” but I physically cannot just “get it down badly”. I don’t even know how to describe it. Either it’s there or it’s not.

3. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from The Number I story/chapter?

Yes absolutely, the bit with the earrings in chapter 16 and the more recent bit where Cloud bites the shit out of Zack in chapter 50 were both written all the way back in like August of 2017 and I just sat on them for ages, occasionally tweaking a word or two.

The fist fight in chapter 43 was prepped some time around mid 2018 I think, and aside from expanding the dialogue a little also pretty much just crystalised fully formed and basically exactly how I wanted it.

The Hojo Northern Crater Scene in chapter 37 is probably my other favourite and was not written in advance (and was the cause of another big delay) but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. There is so much shit going on with Hojo in this fic besides just “lol i’m evil” but it’s all background given the viewpoint character is a severely-addled Cloud with his own ideas of what Hojo’s motivations are, and I hope one day someone will needlessly overanalyse this nightmare of a story and discover it all.

4. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of The Number I?

Lots. First the ones that aren’t spoilers.

Jenova was going to speak in fifths originally! I was gonna do something with the number of syllables and the metre and feet of her dialogue (and she was gonna have a lot more dialogue too I think) correspond to certain notes. However, this sucked to even start planning out and no one would’ve noticed it anyway so I scrapped it basically immediately.

The whole conlang aspect was gonna be a lot bigger too. Conlangs also suck to incorporate, and if you’re not the author writing them, they suck to read too. So, you’re welcome for that. Instead I just kinda fudged it with the thing you see now, where their untranslated dialogue is rendered in italics.

Zack was gonna have several siblings, and they were all going to have screentime. Also probably for the best that was cut too.

As some of you may know, originally this was just going to be a pretty straightforward ghost story with Aeris possessing Cloud. Kind of went off the rails a bit with that.

Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

(HEADS UP SOME OF THESE ARE SPOILERS IF YOU AREN’T VERY FAR IN THE FIC YET)

Cloud and Zack were always intended to be melted together and then stuck together as a source of conflict in the story, but in earlier drafts there was gonna be like... some portal? And it would scrape Cloud off of Zack somehow, and that’s how that plot point resolved? It was pretty dumb. I also have some shit in there about “they try pulling them apart”, like fucking how??? How does that work???? How do they know enough about People Melting Together Via Fucked Up Old God Biology that they know how to do that????? I don’t even know how they’d do that. And also it’s a cop out. That actually was retained all the way into publishing, but I think I tossed it out completely some time around chapter 12 or so.

There were originally a few more Hojo flashbacks that would’ve provided more detail as to what his whole deal is, but 1. you can only brutalise Cloud so many times before it loses its impact, and 2. I think it works a lot better as a background element that the readers can pick up on but that Cloud might not. It’s not something that’s terribly important to the plot itself, it’s just a character building thing I did that I’m particularly fond of, so ultimately it took a backseat and I think that’s for the best.

Uhhhhh shit I just realised I have more but they’re related to the ending actually so imma raincheck this one.

28. Is there a part of The Number I you’re surprised no one has picked up on yet?

While Cloud was an intended red herring, I’m pretty surprised people didn’t seem to put together that [SPOILER]Barret was the one that set Vincent on fire, Cloud just enabled it trying to help him[END SPOILER] until it was revealed recently, given Barret outright admitted to it in an earlier chapter.

#asks #spitegarbage #tofucasserole

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insanityclause · 4 years

Link

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 12, 2020, Broadway was hopping, with 31 shows in one stage or another of production. That evening, Six was to have its opening night and Flying Over Sunset was to have its first preview. The evening after, Plaza Suite was to begin previews, along with Caroline, or Change. And then, over the following 42 days leading up to April 23, the eligibility cutoff for the 74th Tony Awards, several other shows — among them American Buffalo, Birthday Candles, Diana, Hangmen, How I Learned to Drive, The Lehman Trilogy, Sing Street, Take Me Out and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — were to show their hands, gambling that a late unveiling would position them optimally for the sort of awards recognition that can make the difference between a show staying open or closing.

As it turned out, every Broadway show closed that evening — at least temporarily — as the Broadway League, the producers and trade organization that presides over the 41 theaters that comprise the Great White Way, shuttered all of them due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Now, two months to the day from when the Tonys ceremony was supposed to take place at Radio City Music Hall, members of the New York theater community — from actors to producers to publicists to the 50 or so members of the Tonys nominating committee itself — have no better idea than they did on March 12 about how Broadway's best work from the 2019-2020 season will be recognized.

"Not a word," says a dismayed member of the nominating committee. "There has been a total lack of communication," adds a frustrated Broadway publicist who has several horses in the race.

Without a doubt, there are far bigger problems these days than what is going on with the Tonys, even within the Broadway community, which usually employs some 87,000 people, according to the Broadway League. Now, virtually everyone is out of work as the League tries to determine if/how Broadway's theaters, with their cramped seats and tiny bathrooms packed with tourists and the elderly, can possibly reopen before a vaccine is widely available.

But, as the Emmys and Oscars proceed with plans for virtual awards ceremonies in the coming months, many who had a stake in the 2019-2020 Broadway season are wondering — in email exchanges and on phone calls with each other, and in off-the-record exchanges with this reporter — if they have been forgotten by the Tonys. After all, almost every other annual awards ceremony that celebrates theatrical achievements in New York has proceeded via a press release or virtual ceremony — the New York Drama Critics Circle (April 16), the Lucille Lortel Awards (May 3), the Outer Circle Critics Awards (May 11), the Drama Desk Awards (May 31), the Drama League Awards (June 18), etc.

So what is going on?

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the Tony Awards Management Committee, which is comprised of representatives of the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing (which established the Tonys and owns the brand), has had a number of Zoom meetings during which various gameplans have been considered and then tabled as the severity of the pandemic became increasingly clear.

Indeed, Broadway theaters were originally to be closed for one month through April 12, then that was extended to at least June, then through Labor Day and now all that is known is that they will not reopen before the end of the year. No Tonys gameplan has been arrived at yet, although there is an expectation that a meeting later this month could bring things to a head.

The Broadway League and American Theater Wing declined to answer questions for this story.

It is understood that there are three primary options under consideration at this time, each of which comes with pros and cons...

1) Ask nom-com members to select nominees from the shows they were able to see before the shutdown and then conduct a virtual Tonys ceremony soon.

Pros

This seems to be the option that would please the greatest number of people associated with the 2019-2020 season, since shows that were seen will still be fresh in the minds of the nom-com and the larger pool of final-round voters.

Indeed, in the minds of a cross-section of the community, there was quite a bit of Tony-worthy work that was widely seen. Among the contenders repeatedly brought up: The Inheritance and Slave Play for best play; Moulin Rouge! for best musical; Betrayal or A Soldier's Play for best play revival; Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge!), a popular vet with six nominations but no wins under his belt (and who recently overcame a brutal battle with COVID-19), for best featured actor in a musical; 33-year-old phenom Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) for best actress in a musical; 89-year-old Lois Smith (The Inheritance), who has worked steadily since her debut in 1952 and has been nominated twice but never won, and 80-year-old Jane Alexander (Grand Horizons), who made her debut in 1969 and won one competitive award 51 years ago, for best featured actress in a play; four-time Tonys bridesmaid Laura Linney (My Name Is Lucy Barton) and 2001 winner Mary Louise Parker (The Sound Inside) for best actress in a play; veterans Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins (The Height of the Storm) for best actor and actress in a play, respectively; Tom Hiddleston and Charlie Cox (Betrayal) for best actor in a play; Elizabeth Stanley (Jagged Little Pill) for best featured actress in a musical; David Alan Grier (A Soldier's Play) for best actor or featured actor in a play, depending on where the nom-com placed him; and Derek McLane (Moulin Rouge!) for best scenic design. David Byrne, meanwhile, would almost certainly receive a special award for American Utopia.

Additionally, announcing Tony noms and winners could be a morale booster. "We're not doing shit that says 'Broadway is still here,'" says a publicist. "TV is still on. Movies are adapting. But our industry is in the toilet. So all goodwill gestures would be very welcome."

Cons

Because so few people ever make it to New York to see one Broadway show a year, let alone many, the Tonys are a tough sell to TV viewers in the best of times. Moreover, because of the abbreviated season, there may not be enough contenders to fill several categories (e.g. best revival of a musical and best original score).

And, setting aside the issue of shows that never even began previews, there is no question that a handful of late-breaking shows would be at a disadvantage, either because they had only recently opened (e.g. West Side Story and Girl from the North Country) or begun previews (e.g. The Minutes, Hangmen, Company, The Lehman Trilogy, Diana, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), meaning not all nom-com voters would have seen them yet.

Perhaps most significantly, some associated with shows that were widely seen and plan to reopen would prefer waiting to hold the Tonys until the ceremony could be of some value to them at the box office.

2) Employ the Tonys ceremony in 2021 (assuming one is possible) to honor the best of both the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, each of which will have been abbreviated due to the pandemic.

Pros

By March 12, 2021, the one-year anniversary of the Broadway shutdown, theaters — and at least some of the shows that were interrupted but managed to survive thanks to business interruption exclusions in their insurance policies — will presumably have reopened, meaning that at least one full Broadway season's worth of work could be recognized at the Tonys, which itself could occur in the traditional manner with on-air performances that could help drive ticket sales.

It is possible that Broadway's top producer, Scott Rudin, now believes that this is the likeliest outcome, since a decision was announced on June 24 to postpone the opening night of his revival of The Music Man from Oct. 15, 2020 all the way to May 20, 2021, which would push it into the 2021-2022 Tonys season and thereby keep it from having to compete for best revival of a musical with another of his shows, West Side Story. (Rudin declined to comment for this piece.)

Cons

Not all shows that were interrupted by the pandemic will reopen — most plays won't, save for perhaps those mounted by nonprofit theaters, like Take Me Out and Birthday Candles, and the musicals which probably will, such as Moulin Rouge!, will be hindered by having opened so long before voting (in that case, in the summer of 2019, nearly two years prior to the would-be new Tonys date). Even those that opened later, like Jagged Little Pill and Tina, would be disadvantaged compared to any new blood in the spring.

Additionally, not all of the people who served on the nominating committee in 2019-2020 would be willing to return to Broadway theaters in 2021, making a small group even smaller. "I would withdraw from being a nominator," one older member of the 2019-2020 nom-com tells THR, citing health concerns.

3) Scrap the 2019-2020 Tonys altogether.

Pros

It would be one less headache for the Broadway League, which is first and foremost interested in reviving Broadway, as opposed to looking back at past glories.

Cons

It would deprive recognition of those who did great work on Broadway during the 2019-2020 season, and mark the first time in the 74-year history of the Tonys that a period of Broadway work was not recognized at all.

#Tony Awards #Betrayal #Tom Hiddleston #Charlie Cox

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ace-oreos · 4 years

Text

Way of the Hunter Ch. 13

A slightly longer chapter than normal because writing... is... fun?

Check out @deltaturtle26‘s corner if you’re looking for chapter 12. :) Feedback is always appreciated, so let us know what you think!

Shereshoy and aay’han.

Parallel concepts, really, but inexplicably linked all the same. Life and... mourning what life once was, I guess, while celebrating what still stands. I don’t really know how to explain it, Wrecker, but I think you would understand.

Making the best of what we had and ensuring you would be there to see the next day - that’s what shereshoy is at its core. The indescribable yearning to grab hold of life and cherish every experience. That’s what you lived for, I think. I suppose some people would argue that you can’t find a reason for existence in those fleeting moments - that it’s not enough - but you found it anyways. You, out of all of us, and only you. You saw the things the rest of us never opened our eyes to.

And that’s why you would understand aay’han, too. You know that for every joyful moment, there is a moment of pain to counter it. It’s a strange balance that we rarely take notice of, yet we rely on this balance to shape our lives at any given moment.

Most beings are lucky enough to go about their lives without ever being fully conscious of that balance. Then there are those of us who are only aware of it because the universe or some other force demanded that we pay attention. We learned that early on, but you were the only one to embrace it. You saw it as a source of strength rather than a target for blame.

A year ago, I would have given anything just to go back to the way things used to be. But now… I don’t know what I would do now.

I shouldn’t ask, but if it’s at all possible… keep looking for those moments that make life worth hanging on to. It’s too easy to lose yourself to the other side of things if you don’t have something to keep you grounded.

K’oyacyi, ner vod.

Wrecker was beginning to have second thoughts about Nar Shaddaa.

It was, as Tech argued, a suitable location for avoiding the Empire and anyone else who might take exceeding interest in their history. Wrecker knew from long experience that Tech was usually right about these things, and while he knew Tech’s intuition greatly surpassed his own - and most of the galaxy, for the matter - he couldn’t shake the feeling that staying on Nar Shaddaa for an extended period of time was asking for trouble.

He tried to comfort himself with the idea that Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant - if Coruscant’s upper levels had been overtaken by Hutt clans that collectively turned a blind eye to the criminal activities that ran rampant in the underbelly of the city. Wrecker couldn’t fathom half of the illicit dealings that surely occurred on a regular basis within the capital; it seemed there was minimal enforcement of whatever laws might have existed in such a place, and the residents didn’t bother to conceal the true nature of their affairs.

It was home to the galaxy’s most ruthless criminals, but even that would be essential to survival: Wrecker was sure that any bounty hunter who would devote energy into chasing a hapless citizen who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time would leap at the chance to deliver three deserters to the Empire. The longer the attention remained on the bigger players and their doings, the better.

Wrecker made an effort to appear inconspicuous as he followed Crosshair and Tech towards the outskirts of the city. The whole place was an odd blend of the Hutts’ lavish, sprawling towers and decrepit structures Tech called skyslums shoved in between. The Hutt clans dominated the entire star system, and they made sure to establish their position wherever they could. The towers served as a reminder that it was ultimately the Hutts who determined wealth and prestige - and who was allowed to live.

Several times Wrecker had the distinct unsettling feeling of being followed, but whenever he glanced back, the streets were deserted except for a few battered droids. Still, he made a point to keep an eye on them. He doubted anything was what it seemed in this lawless city.

A thin, unpleasantly warm drizzle began to fall. Wrecker adjusted the collar of the jacket he’d salvaged after fleeing Dantooine. Beside him, Crosshair secured the cloak over his shoulders with a scowl. It wasn’t much by way of a disguise, but he supposed armor would have attracted the exact sort of attention they were so keen to avoid.

“We should head back to the Marauder for the night,” Tech said quietly, shooting a furtive glance towards the long shadows cast by the skyslums.

“Safer than wandering around out here,” Crosshair agreed.

Wrecker nodded his assent. The Marauder was just a kilometer or so beyond city limits, though he doubted any of Nar Shaddaa’s residents would have any qualms about commandeering a ship that was not within the city itself.

Tech had deliberately chosen that area, explaining that the ship would likely be safe from simple thieves looking for easy pickings. They would be able to defend it, too, if it came to that. The minute one of them discharged a blaster, Tech warned, they would draw the unwanted eyes of the gangs that roved the streets at night. They would only have a few minutes to escape before being set upon by enemies.

No sooner had the thought crossed Wrecker’s mind than the droids that had been following them for blocks suddenly emerged from the growing darkness. A motley collection of mismatched parts and scrap metal that gleamed in the dull light from the city, the blasters trained on Wrecker and his brothers were deadly real.

***

Hunter was jarred from the state of semi-awareness he’d sunk into after entering hyperspace by the incessant chirping of his comlink.

He fumbled for the device, cursing when his head collided painfully with a bulkhead. Eyes watering, he opened the incoming transmission. It was a data file, courtesy of a client who had been thoroughly delighted with the results of Hunter’s previous jobs. Hunter had parted on good terms with him, with the client promising to reward him for his successes.

There was a short message included with the file:

The others passed this one up, but I knew it wouldn’t be too much for you to handle. Once this is over, one of my colleagues has a proposition for you. I can’t disclose too much, but suffice to say it would be more than enough to finance an early retirement.

Intrigued, Hunter made a note to return to that at a later time, then turned his attention to the file. To his surprise, the bounty’s most recent recorded location was Kalevala. Few outsiders passed through the Mandalore system; the bounty was either on an aruetii hoping to lay low in such a desolate stretch of space, or…

Hunter knew several Mandalorian factions preferred to fight as mercenaries rather than align themselves decisively with one side or another. He had little knowledge of Mandalorian history, despite Uruk’s best efforts to educate him on such matters, but he figured nomadic warriors who chose their side based on pay likely made enemies of the ones they betrayed or double crossed.

He read further, and his stomach dropped.

Wanted for involvement with the Death Watch. Possibly responsible for premeditating the bombing that killed New Mandalorian Deputy Minister Jerec.

Hunter knew about the Death Watch, all right. Most had died in exile following their defeat during the Mandalorian Civil War, but the handful of survivors had reformed the sect in secret, then embarked on a reign of terror as they tried to seize control of the Mandalorian government. They were widely regarded as the most hated group to ever occupy Mandalorian territory.

No wonder no one else wanted this job, he thought wryly. Even the most hardened bounty hunter would think twice about taking on a Mandalorian - particularly one associated with such a ruthless organization.

Knowing perfectly well he would likely want nothing to do with this in the future, Hunter sent a transmission to the client confirming that he would take the job.

***

Wrecker knew getting tangled up in difficult situations was simply a fact of life for his squad at by now, but this - being surrounded by a gang of armed droids on a Hutt-controlled planet - was a first.

“When you said gangs, I didn’t think you meant droids,” Crosshair said under his breath.

There was just enough of an accusation in his voice that Tech shot back indignantly, “How was I supposed to know?”

“Funnily enough, I was under the impression that you had some idea of what we were getting into when - ”

“Shoot now, talk later,” Wrecker interrupted urgently as the droids pressed closer. They hadn’t opened fire yet, but he wasn’t going to wait. He was sorry to see that battered as they were, their blasters appeared perfectly functional.

“We could try negotiating,” Tech suggested half-heartedly.

“Do those blasters say negotiation to you, Tech?” Crosshair hissed.

What Tech’s answer was, Wrecker never found out. The first blaster bolt streaked past, missing Crosshair by a wide berth. The second nearly clipped Wrecker’s shoulder. Soon the air was filled with irregular flashes that briefly illuminated the narrow alley.

There was little room to maneuver. The droids were equally hindered by the tight space, but droids weren’t as easily discouraged as organic adversaries. They closed in relentlessly. Well-placed shots to vulnerable joints slowed them down, but unlike most beings, they didn’t retreat to escape further injury.

Wrecker found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Crosshair. The close quarters meant a sniper rifle’s effectiveness would be drastically reduced, so Crosshair was wielding a DC-15 pistol. Even without his rifle, most of his shots found the droids’ optical sensors or other vital areas.

By Wrecker’s estimate, the droids were down maybe a third of their original number. He had taken only grazing hits so far; if they could get out of the alley and into a wider area, taking out the remaining droids wouldn’t be a problem.

Tech seemed to be having similar thoughts. “If we can hold them off long enough, we should be able to make it to the Marauder.” As he spoke, he neatly dodged a shot that otherwise would have hit him center mass.

Holding them off was the problem, Wrecker thought. The droids were doing a pretty good job of laying down fire relentlessly. If they needed an opening in order to escape, they would have to make it themselves. EMPs would do the trick, but he hadn’t been able to replenish his supply before they were shipped off to Dantooine.

Unless…

The bolts flying in every direction made it difficult to focus solely on one thing, but Wrecker raised his voice over the clamor and called,“Tech!”

For a terrible moment there was no response; before Wrecker had time to be properly scared that his brother was lying wounded or dead, Tech answered breathlessly, “Do you have an idea?”

“Got any EMPs?”

Tech drew level with him, frowning as he simultaneously calculated an escape plan and returned fire. “It could work, but it’ll be close.”

“Get on with it, then!” Crosshair barked.

Wrecker planted his feet and fired another burst of bolts at the droids. He heard Crosshair curse as he lost his footing on the ground, the dirt churned into mud by the rain and the furious firefight. Wrecker knew it was dangerous to expose himself to enemy fire, but he turned to help his brother anyways. A few hits wouldn’t -

Tech shouted a warning, and the alley burst into dazzling blue light.

Wrecker didn’t wait to see the results. He hauled Crosshair to his feet and shoved him ahead, towards the Marauder. Then he seized Tech by the arm and took off. He didn’t dare look back; the droids would eventually recover, but the critical seconds it took them to recalibrate were all they needed to break for the ship.

By some miracle, Wrecker ran without slipping on the perilously slick dirt. The Marauder was in view now, his brothers were racing alongside him, and suddenly they were stumbling up the short set of stairs and into the safety of the cockpit.

Tech’s hands flew over the controls. After what felt like impossibly long minutes but couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds, the Marauder was rising into the air. It gained speed, and soon Nar Shaddaa was falling away. The skyslums faded into indistinct patches of darkness on the surface, and soon Wrecker could no longer distinguish between one city and another.

He fell back in his seat, relieved. They were safe - for the time being. He looked at Tech. His brother’s face mirrored his own exhaustion. When Wrecker risked a glance at Crosshair, he saw with some amusement that Crosshair looked as indifferent as ever. Only the tight set of his jaw suggested they had been through anything unusual.

Crosshair idly examined the toothpick between his fingers, then said, “Droids. Wouldn’t you know it’d be droids.”

Wrecker caught Tech’s eye. Tech shrugged, determinedly maintaining a straight face, but the corner of his mouth twitched. His shoulders shook as he fought to hold back his mirth.

Wrecker burst out laughing.

***

Although Mandalorian warriors were hardly an unusual sight on Kalevala, Hunter felt distinctly out of place.

His armor didn’t draw the stares he’d learned to ignore; he was simply one Mando’ad in a system of thousands. The only feature that marked him as different from the other warriors was the keeradak signet. He was wary of openly displaying anything that indicated his connection to the covert - he wasn’t sure how warriors who did not follow the Way would react on the off chance they recognized it as a sign of his allegiances - but wasn’t entirely successful in smothering his pride and defiance. A warrior never concealed his signet out of shame or fear.

To his relief, no one seemed to pay any attention to the symbol. Those he passed simply nodded in greeting and continued on their way. Part of him wanted to enjoy exploring a planet he’d never set foot on before, but he had a mission to complete. After all, it wasn’t all that different from Mandalore.

If that was true, he thought uneasily, then how had someone with ties to the Death Watch been able to reside here for months? Most Mando’ade loathed the Death Watch on principle. Had the bounty simply gone to great lengths to hide his past, or was someone willingly harboring him? Maybe the Death Watch wasn’t completely eradicated after all.

It was a disturbing thought, but Hunter shoved it away. There was no point fretting over things he couldn’t answer for himself.

The sprawling metropolis around him slowly transitioned into the collection of smaller districts that seemed to function as separate communities. This was closer to the areas of Mandalore he was familiar with, and he allowed himself to relax slightly. The city made him nervous; there were too many places to hide, too many variables. If he could corner his target in one of the less populated areas, completing the job would be much simpler.

Hunter came to a halt as nonchalantly as he could manage, studying the small crowd of armor-clad beings intently. Something had caught his eye…

His heart began to pound. Just a few meters away, a man with a strange symbol set on his bes’marbur was making his way through a cluster of Mandalorians ambling along the walkway. Hunter had initially mistaken the image to be a signet like his own, but this symbol was different. Uruk had sketched it for him in the dirt once, months ago when he was familiarizing Hunter with Mandalorian history, but the senior warrior had obliterated it almost immediately.

If any true Mando’ad were to see that, Uruk had said grimly, he would slit your throat, no questions asked.

The crimson jai’galaar symbol of the Death Watch gleamed on the man’s shoulder.

Hunter frowned. If he were watching the man the client had described, the indicator in his HUD would be flashing. But no such icon appeared.

His mind raced. Hunter began walking once more, surreptitiously following the Death Watch warrior. Even if he’s not the target, he could still lead me there, he thought. But why wasn’t anyone reacting to the symbol? The man hadn’t tried to disguise it in any way. How many of them are here?

Hunter gradually became aware that the neatly organized districts were giving way to irregular clusters of buildings. There were still Mando’ade here, but the crowd had thinned significantly. More than once Hunter thought he saw the stylized jai’galaar glaring on other shoulders or breastplates, but whenever he tried to covertly confirm his suspicions, the warriors had disappeared.

The man he was following at a distance abruptly turned a corner and disappeared. Hunter quickened his pace as much as he dared, then followed the same route. Just beyond the corner rose what might have been a warehouse.

Hunter had hardly taken one step towards it when the man appeared in front of him. Suddenly Hunter was falling, slamming into the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs. He rolled over, unsheathing his knife in the same movement, but a sudden weight in the middle of his back kept him pressed into the ground.

“Well done, bounty hunter,” the man rasped. Fighting the panic rising in his chest, Hunter saw three more Mandalorians with the jai’galaar symbol adorning their beskar’gam emerge from the dark building in front of him. “It seems you’re beginning to realize why everyone else refused to take this job.”

#way of the hunter #hunter #sergeant hunter #the bad batch #bad batch #clone force 99 #fanfic #oh look another subplot #wonder how that happened #that whole last section was not planned

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