#doctor strange scary rumors

[tymime]

Public Domain cartoon characters from the Golden Age of Animation (and beyond)

Revised and expanded version of this post: https://tymime.tumblr.com/post/648495121557585920/instead-of-whining-about-mickey-mouse-not-falling

While Mickey entering the public domain is exciting and all, I do think a lot of people are overlooking the many other animated characters that are available to use in their creative works. This list isn't entirely exhaustive, but it does highlight some of the most interesting and/or appealing characters, as well as ones that have the potential to be so.

Koko the Clown

One of the oldest cartoon stars from the Fleischer studio, almost all of Koko's silent-era cartoons are PD, and have been for quite some time. A handful of his appearances alongside Betty Boop are also PD.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald's PD status has been greatly overshadowed by his fellow Disney star Mickey, but I believe that he deserves more recognition. All of the shorts produced by the Disney studio are PD as of this year, and let's face it, those are the only ones most people care about. Pegleg Pete's bear design is also PD.

Keep in mind that the blue shorts that Oswald wears in Epic Mickey and elsewhere are likely copyrighted, so I recommend steering clear of that.

I'm also not entirely sure you can use the name "Ortensia" for his cat girlfriend, since that name first appeared in Epic Mickey also. She was called "Kitty" back in the day, among other things.

All of Van Beuren Studio's cartoons

The Van Beuren Studio was active during the rubberhose era, and their cartoons, especially the earlier ones, are like a cruder, possibly even more bizarre cousin to Fleischer and Disney. They went bust in the late 1930s, and no one renewed the copyright later on, so the entirety of their output is PD.

Their most notable characters include Tom and Jerry, a pair of average Joes who always get into strange adventures. They shouldn't be confused with MGM's Tom and Jerry, and in fact they were called Dick and Larry when their shorts were rereleased for the home-movie market in the 1940s.

Also notable is Waffles and Don, who are basically just animal versions of Tom and Jerry. You might consider these two as a better alternative, just to avoid confusion.

There's also Cubby Bear, a pretty blatant Mickey Mouse clone, but unique enough that I don't think anybody’s going to confuse the two nowadays.

In the previous post, I mentioned a rumor that Disney threatened legal action over the character, but I can't find the source for that now. I may have been thinking of Milton Mouse, who was so extremely similar to Mickey that they actually did sue the studo for copyright infringement. So maybe don't try selling any Milton merchandise...

Finally, there's Molly Moo-Cow, who appeared in several Rainbow Parade cartoons in the mid-to-late 1930s. Molly is arguably not the most interesting character, but I have a fondness for her since we grew up with one of her shorts on a VHS tape.

Toby the Pup

Another very obscure character, about half of his cartoons are lost media. The little that does survive is hard to find online, but I think his design has appeal.

Dr. XXX

Disney's The Mad Doctor was never renewed for reasons unknown, though some speculate that the studio thought that the cartoon was too scary and decided to let it go. Fortunately for us, that means that this iconic character is now in the people's hands.

Goopy Geer

Goopy appeared in the three Merrie Melodies cartoons alongside his unnamed girlfriend. Despite his name and appearance being similar to Disney's Goofy, he actually made his debut about a month before (Goofy was named Dippy Dawg at the time anyway, so it was undoubtedly a coincidence).

Claude Hopper

Claude appeared in a single Looney Tunes cartoon in 1943 called Hop and Go, alongside a pair of Scottish rabbits who antagonize him. The cartoon ends with a very unfortunate depiction of Tokyo being blown up (World War II was still going on at the time), so it's no surprise that Warner Bros. decided not to renew this one. Despite that, he has a very appealing design (imo), so I think he has potential. (Also, he's voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy!)

Private Snafu and Mr. Hook

Snafu and Hook were created for the US government, so according to the law are automatically public domain. The shorts were made to be shown to members of the US army and navy respectively, in order to teach them valuable lessons for fighting in WWII, but are nevertheless hilarious cartoons- animated by the Looney Tunes team with scripts by Ted Geisel- aka Dr. Seuss!

The Dover Boys

Also of note are the ComiColor cartoons from the Iwerks studio, Rainbow Parade from Van Beuren, and most of the Color Classics by Fleischer. These don't have any especially memorable characters in them, but I thought I ought to mention them.

Yes, Tom, Dick and Larry, Dora Standpipe and the villainous Dan Backslide are all public domain. A bunch of YouTube Poops were created after this fact was discovered by the internet a few years ago.

How Warner Bros. could ever let this one get away I'll never know. Their loss is our gain, I suppose.

Caveats and other concerns

Krazy Kat

Felix the Cat

All of the strips up to 1928 are definitely fair game. According to the Public Domain Superheroes wiki however, the entirety of the strip's run is PD. I'm not sure if it that's true, but the Fantagraphics collections don't credit any newspaper syndicate, so it seems likely. (Apparently the copyright status of newspaper comics are a whole can of worms on its own...)

At any rate, the strip's cast was pretty well set in stone by 1928, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. A large number of animated shorts starring Krazy are also PD, but those were pretty much in name only.

Flip the Frog

Felix was pretty much the first cartoon superstar, and almost all of his Golden Age appearances are PD now. Keep in mind that this does not include elements from the 1950s cartoon like his magic bag, or from The Twisted Tales of Felix, as amazing as that series is.

The character's name and appeance are still trademarked by NBC Universal however, so you might be able to use him in a minor role, but not much else.

I'm uncertain about this one. According to most sources Flip is PD, but according to the Thunderbean Blu-ray collection he's copyrighted by the Film Preservation Archives, whatever that means. Additionally, Flip himself is supposedly trademarked by Leslie Iwerks, Ub Iwerks’ granddaughter, though no one seems to be able to confirm that. I don't know how the trademark hasn't lapsed yet, considering that Flip hasn't appeared on any official merchandise or anything in decades.

Bosko and Honey

I believe there's nothing stopping anyone from using Bosko's classic design (later appearances at MGM and in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted), but the character himself is a bit problematic, considering that it's all but stated outright that he's a blackface caricature. Use with caution.

Foxy and Roxy

Noveltoons

Like Goopy Geer, Foxy appeared in three Merrie Melodies cartoons. Roxy's name originates from an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures however, so keep that in mind. Though I'm not sure what else you would call her (or if Warner Bros. would even care). Supposedly her original name was "Fluffy", but I can't find a source for this.

Like Bosko and Honey, later appearances in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted.

Noveltoons was a series produced by Famous Studios, the successor to the Fleischer studio. The characters include Baby Huey, Herman the mouse, Blackie the sheep, Little Audrey, and of course, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Only a small handful of the shorts are PD though, and Casper is trademarked, so one's options are limited.

Ginger Nutt (and rest of the Animaland cast)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

This one I'm not entirely sure about either, but Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus has long been a staple of grey-market tapes and DVDs, so I'm just going to assume all of the Animaland cartoons are also PD. Considering that the series wasn't very sucessful, and is very obscure nowadays, it seems pretty likely.

If anyone has any insight on this, let me know.

Calvin and the Colonel

Now here's an interesting case. An all-time classic Christmas special, and yet large parts of it are PD because they accidentally put the wrong date on the copyright notice. Instead of the Roman numerals MCMLXIV (1964), it reads MCLXIV (1164), and according to the law at the time, that meant that the film immediately went into public domain.

Of course, Rudolph himself is still copyrighted, and will be until 2035 when the original book falls into the public domain. Even then he's likely to still be trademarked. Not to mention the songs featured in the '64 film will be copyrighted for a long time afterward.

Still, this means that anyone is free to use all the other characters, including Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, King Moonracer, Clarice, and all the Misfit Toys. It's a wonder no one seems to have taken advantage of this. And of course Santa and his reindeer have been PD for ages, especially Santa since he comes from folklore- and you can't copyright folklore.

This cartoon is based on and stars a lot of the same voice cast as the old-time radio show Amos and Andy, which, while not overtly racist, featured white actors pretending to be black. The cartoon obviously has animals instead, but still, tread carefully. Someone is bound to point out the characters' history.

Hoppity Hooper

Another one I'm not sure about. The Public Domain Superheroes wiki has characters from this show among its articles, but I wasn't able to confirm if it really was PD. It was created by Jay Ward, the same studio who made Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle, but was also a huge flop for some reason, so that may be the reason why they let the copyright expire. Again, I'm not sure, but no one seems to care that the entire series is on YouTube, so who knows?

...Well, there you have it. Lots of obscure and forgotten toons waiting to be rediscovered and reused! If anyone has any more info or corrections, leave me a comment. I'd love some clarification on some of these.

#public domain #mickey mouse #steamboat willie #oswald the lucky rabbit #koko the clown #van beuren #fleischer #disney #the mad doctor #looney tunes #merrie melodies #private snafu #the dover boys #krazy kat #felix the cat #rudolph the red nosed reindeer #rankin-bass #jay ward #toon #cartoon #animation #racism #tw racism

[re-reclass]

Broke: Doctor Strange 2 was bad because it wasn’t a huge inter-continuity crossover like Spider-Man: No Way Home was.

Woke: Doctor Strange 2 was good because it had a lot of creative and/or scary sequences, plus the main conflict of Strange vs Wanda was really well done and fans only have themselves to blame for hyping themselves up on unrealistic rumors.

Bespoke: Doctor Strange 2 was disappointing because despite having fantastic direction and performances, Wanda’s arc, which is key to to movie, was unsatisfying on a broader narrative level because it undermines the beautiful message of WandaVision. It was disappointing for that reason and NOT because Tom Cruise didn’t cameo as a Tony Stark variant.

#Doctor Strange #multiverse of madness #multiverse of madness spoilers #Wandavision #mcu #reclass.txt #I honestly do enjoy the movie as its own thing but it’s not great as a part of the MCU #I have to separate them to enjoy both like I do with Thor Ragnarok and Infinity War / Endgame

[auideas]

Hello, I recently watched the movies ‘Grave Encounters’ and ‘Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum’ and was wondering if you guys had any ideas related to a group exploring a haunted mental asylum or a hospital or smthg of the sort where they showcase it live? Like, kinda similar to those two? Thank you!

Great prompt (and amazing movies!). Let’s get right into it:

(P.S. Here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: A. Admin Kasi’s first post! Show her some love below~)

Character A is always trying to please others. They fall for societal pressure way too easily, so when the popular kids dare Character A and their friends to go into the local abandoned hospital there’s no way they can turn it down. Armed with nothing but a camera and huge dreams, Character A and their friends make their way into the hospital.

Everyone had heard about the abandoned mental hospital in Character A’s town; the place was practically the stuff of legends. Older kids used it to scare the younger ones, with stories exaggerated with terrifying figures seen from windows, mysterious disappearances, and strange noises heard from the building at night. Ready to find out if it’s really just a myth, a not-so-well-known local ghost hunting team makes it their mission to prove that the rumors just might be true.

A group of friends go camping, the last trip of their summer vacation before they go to college. Unfortunately for this group, they happen to stumble upon an opening for an abandoned bunker. With only an old video camera brought along for memories, the group makes their way into the bunker to find that everything is not what it seems.

For this rag-tag group of ghost hunters, nothing it too scary. Well… mostly because they haven’t found any ACTUAL evidence of ghosts yet. Determined to gather views for their channel, the group goes to, what is supposed to be, the most haunted building in the country. Unsurprisingly, it’s chock full of ghosts, demons and all kinds of grumpy entities. Now the group must safely escape with the evidence… and their lives!!!  

Everyone knows of the “One Night Stand” The game show that challenges its contestants to stay in a haunted asylum as long as possible. In order to escape with your lives, the morbid show requires each player to continuously videotape their time in the asylum. All the pranks and scary things to happen are staged, but in the new episode’s location, the pranks become out of control. Things start happening, ghosts start showing up and contestants start dying. Now a harmless game show becomes a fight for survival. The biggest question is: Who will win?

Ghost hunting group hears about a mysterious stranger offering a great reward to make it through the night in their haunted castle. The challenge was said to be unbeatable, as comments online expressed the horror in their experiences. Now, ready to try it for themselves, the ghost hunting group accepts the challenge and spend the night in the castle; only to be tormented by the undead.

Here’s some additional ideas from Admin M as well (it’s just too good a prompt!):

As an adopted Character A comes of age, they decide it’s time to track their biological lineage. They didn’t have many issues in the beginning, but Character A encounters roadblock after roadblock when attempting to catalogue information about their long lost uncle who worked as a doctor in the northeast. The only scrap of evidence Character A comes across states their uncle had a residency at Murdock Hospital (a since defunct asylum for the criminally insane). They vow to take a trip to the hospital in an attempt to retrieve any further evidence of their lineage; however, they discover far more than they expected.

The abandoned hospital on the hill was off-limits to the entire town; “go there, and you’ll die a slow and painful death.” No one really believed the rumors until the young people of the town began disappearing one by one after they undertook the “Nightlock Bet,” wherein you had to spend 12 hours in the hospital from 8AM to 8PM. This seemed like the start of a particularly run-of-the-mill horror film, but members of the community slowly begin to uncover the nature of this facility, revealing that this abandoned hospital once experimented with radiation to cure sicknesses of the mind. People weren’t going in and disappearing without a trace: they were actually enduring radically-accelerated radioactive decomposition, rendering them dead within 4 hours and dust in 10.

“We just wanted to chill out in peace, okay? Signing a lease on an apartment and then living for another 70 years without ageing isn’t really conducive to maintaining a consistent public image, okay? So, myself and the other local immortals decided to purchase one of the oldest properties in the area (the abandoned mental hospital) so we could spruce it up in a few spare rooms, leaving the rest untouched so it would act as a deterrent for the locals. The thing is, kids don’t really care about that stuff, so little bastards have been trying to document the interior of our house for months now. It goes without saying that we’re well-within our rights to scare them off -- granted we aren’t seen, of course.” AU

At first, they all thought it was the ecstasy making the young adults at the rave hallucinate, but they couldn’t deny what they saw that night. The body tumbled down the massive stairwell at the abandoned mental hospital on the night of their first illegal rave in the space, but when they all watched the body hit the bottom, it passed straight through the floor. If they listened closely enough, they’d realize the body kept falling down non-existent stairs, far below their feet.

Large buildings are difficult to come by in towns as small as theirs, so it made sense that a new elementary school would use the skeleton of the old abandoned hospital to start their project. All that was left was to bring in some assessors to deem if the building was safe enough to add to: contractors, designers, OSHA certifiers, and those psychics, of course. What? You know this is hallowed ground, right? We can’t have the ghosts interacting with the kids.

#auideas relaunch #a admin kasi #au friday #haunted au #haunting au #ghost au #curse au #cursed au #horror au #spooky au #scary au #asylum au #hospital au #abandoned au #group au #friend au #friends au #coworker au #coworkers au #admin m #people pleaser au #bully au #summer au #vacation au #game show au #ghost hunter au #ghost hunting au #adopted au #radiation au #experiment au

[wjforever]

Shatter me again. Chapter 53

Adam.

Adam Kent.

I will never forget how my parents informed me that because of my worthlessness we had to move again. They shouted at me, and blamed me, and poured out hatred in torrents. I didn't cry, outwardly. I was sobbing incessant tears inside. These two years I did my best to be very careful, to stay very quiet, to be cooperative, because I desperately didn't want to move away again. I didn’t want to leave the school with the one friendly face I’d ever known. I didn't want to leave those kind, compassionate eyes. Desperate to understand. But it was all useless. The past caught up with me, as it always had.

And yet, the time I spent with Adam changed me. His attitude towards me made me believe that maybe I'm not so bad. Maybe. He never asked questions. He never pushed me to say a word. He just made sure he was close enough to scare away everyone else. That was enough for me. I thought he saw something in me. That maybe I'm not as horrible as everyone says I am. And although my efforts weren't enough in the war against rumors and speculation of society, and I was nevertheless taken away from him, I lived with this little hope in my heart for many years, not touching anyone for years. Not daring to approach people. Until one day I did it and ruined everything.

What happened in that grocery store will haunt me forever. I killed a little boy just trying to help him get back on his feet. At first I didn't understand why he was screaming. I thought he was crying because of his mother. And then I didn't care anymore. And it's scary as hell that you can't control yourself at the moment like this.

Even though I don't remember myself well as a child, I have the memory about the first time this happened to me. Sometimes it seems to me that this is my first memory of myself at all. As if my whole life before was erased, unimportant. Only at the moment when I cut my fangs first, dug them into the flesh of my first victim, when I showed my monster face, only then did I truly become myself.

My first victim was my father. I don't remember what happened before. I don't know how it happened. But I believe I cried. I'm not even sure if he touched me or if I touched him. All I remember clearly and distinctly are his wild eyes full of fear and my mother's desperate scream of terror. She dragged her little child away from her own husband with difficulty.

They took me to the doctors and tried to understand what had happened. No one could help, and I was just told never to touch anyone. I was little, I didn't understand everything, and sometimes, unknown to my parents while they didn't see, playing with other childs  I touched them. Not on purpose, of course. My parents had to stop me. They pulled me away as soon as I remembered I wasn't supposed to be touching anyone. As soon as I heard the first scream escape someone's lips. God, how my parents hated me back then. At first, people started avoiding us, and then, after moving for the first time, we began avoiding people. I was forced to wear clothes that covered my arms and legs. I was hot, I was capricious, but rudeness quickly teaches you to obey when you are weak and defenseless. Later, I just got used to it. To heat, loneliness, and a sense of worthlessness.

I believe I could live like this. But in that store, the situation got out of control. I felt a terrible sudden outburst of anger at the mother of this unfortunate baby. She didn't pay attention to him. Her lack of compassion as a parent devastated me and it reminded me too much of my own mother. I knew that pain all too well. I just wanted to help him. I wanted him to know that someone else was listening, that someone else cared. 

I wanted to help.

I didn't even remember that I had taken off my gloves. And when my touch felt so strange and exhilarating, I didn't feel a sense of fear or guilt. I believed I was doing something worthy. I didn't realize I was draining his life. A rush of power and a pleased feeling whispered to me that I was doing everything right, as I should have. That I'm acting according to my conscience, that I'm saving an innocent. Thoughts quickly left my head, leaving room only for sensations. Until he went limp in my arms. 

I thought I was helping.

I spent the next three years of my life in hospitals, law offices, juvenile detention centers and suffered through pills and electroshock therapy. This time the better specialists worked with me. They really tried to understand something, to do something. Although it seemed to me that they were just torturing me or conducting experiments. And yet, I understood that they could give me a chance. They didn't accuse me, they wanted to cure me. Unlike my parents, they treated this as a disease. Something that didn't depend on me. But despite all their efforts, nothing worked out. So they said they would lock me up in an institution, that this was the only solution. And I was told I was lucky, that such dangerous people should be killed.

I couldn't complain about my fate. I should have been grateful. I hated myself all these years.

And then he came into my cell. 

I hadn’t seen Adam Kent in eight years.

It was a completely different person. An adult male. He's muscle, mature, quiet and quick. Life has changed him a lot. It looks like he can't afford to be soft, slow or relaxed. He can't afford to be anything but muscle, nothing but strength and efficiency. The lines of his face are smooth, precise, carved into shape by years of hard living and training and trying to survive.

I can't even imagine what he had to endure over these long years. How he coped with his father's bullying, how he experienced the collapse of our familiar world. 

But Adam's not afraid. He's not a little boy anymore. He's in the army.

And he's not that different, either.

He's still the boy I dreamed of, the one I used to imagine. He's still the boy I've been in love with for years. Every time I read the book, I imagined him as the main character. A noble and mysterious defender, a selfless valiant knight. It seemed to me that he was perfect for the role of any made-up protagonist. Growing up, I imagined how Adam had matured, how his face, his figure had changed. He was my prince of charming. With his dark hair and blue eyes full of warmth.

Those eyes. Although Adam's face is a little different from what I imagined it would be. He still has the most unusually blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Dark and deep and drenched in passion. I always wondered what it’d be like to see the world through such a beautiful lens. I wondered if your eye color meant you saw the world differently. If the world saw you differently as a result.

I should have known it was him when he showed up in my cell.

Because I could never forget those eyes. Never in my life. But it was almost impossible to believe that Adam had come for me to help me again, just like before. To keep my offenders at a distance. I just refused to believe that it was possible. That the fantasy suddenly take a breath, stir and wake up from sleep. A part of me didn't want to remember. A part of me was too scared to hope. A part of me didn't know if it would make any difference to know it was him, after all. I was afraid to be disappointed in the little that kept me afloat all this time.

I would never have thought that Adam would be able to recognize me. I was sure he didn't remember. So many years have passed. And he met a pathetic shadow of a person I was before. I haven't seen my reflection in three years. I can't imagine how he could have recognized me.

But he did. He remembers, he still cares, despite all the obstacles that are put in our way. He's still my hero.

Adam makes me forget the horror I'm capable of.

His lips are at my ear and he doesn't say anything at all, but I melt in his arms. I allow myself to become nothing, to dissolve in him and in this moment.

I don't want to let Adam go ever. I want to feel him with my skin every second. The view outside the window, my situation, all this reality depresses me. I let my eyes close from the truth. Just for a while.

Adam takes a deep breath and pulls me even closer. I'm still waiting for him to explain something to me, but he finds a better option. He presses his cheek against my head, and we are talking without words, just with our bodies, our touches. I'm molded to the shape of his silhouette and I like it.

"You feel incredible."

These words make the air stick in my throat, and I swallow back tears. "I never thought I'd ever hear those words," I barely whisper to him. 

Adam pulls away from me a little, and I'm lost. I don't want to lose this connection with him. I want him to be closer. And it's like he's reading my mind. As if our desires are the same. He's staring at my face like he's seeing me for the first time. And I'm burning. A million flames are licking my face. And I'm glad his eyes are the color of water, because they don't let me burn to the ground. And then Adam leans towards me until his forehead rests against mine. Our lips are so close, but still not enough.

"How are you?" He asks me very quietly. There is more care in those three words than in anything I have ever known and I want to kiss every beautiful beat of his heart. 

"I want to get out of here." That's all I can think of. Suddenly it becomes the most important thing for me. The only thing that matters. 

Adam holds me to his chest, tight but not hurting me. 

"Juliette. I know, I know."

I lean back to see his face.

"I'm serious. I really want to get out of here."

He's looking at me a little embarrassed. As if everything we said before about this didn't matter. As if only now we are talking about something real, and not about disembodied fantasies.

"You know it's unrealistic." Adam's face is focused, frowning, serious.

"But you promised. You said we'd run away, you said about the hut…"

He's breathing so hard. I can see him struggling desperately within himself. How he want it. How determination is born in him.

"Are you seriously going to leave?" He asks me, but I don't know if he's trying to understand my position or form his own. His fingers touch my cheek. He tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Do you understand the risks?"

I don't need time to think about the answer. I know that the only real risk is death. And I'm willing to take this risk.   "Yes." I say firmly.

Adam nods.

"You're right, Juliette," he whispers in my ear. "We need to get the hell out of here."

He's silent for a long time, and I don't think he'll speak again, but he does.

"The troops are mobilizing for some kind of attack. There have been a lot of protests from groups who were silent before, and our job is to obliterate the resistance. I think they want this attack to be their last one," he adds quietly. "There's something huge going on, and I'm not sure what, not yet. But whatever it is, we have to be ready to go when they are."

I freeze. "What do you mean?"

"When the troops are ready to deploy, you and I should be ready to run. It's the only way out that will give us time to disappear. Everyone will be too focused on the attack — it'll buy us some time before they notice we're missing or can get enough people together to search for us."

Adam's words almost scare me because I never wanted to endanger anyone but myself.

"But… but, you can't come with me. It's too dangerous, you might get hurt."

Adam has a soft smile on his face, and he can barely contain his laughter. It confuses me because I don't think I said something funny. Still, his reaction calms my nerves. 

"There's very little I wouldn't do for you."

His hands are on my waist, he doesn't stop touching me, and I want to touch him. My fingers stroke the bird hidden under his T-shirt. And I ask a question, any answer to which scares me. It's been bothering me all this time. Since childhood. "Why?"

Adam tilts his head, still smiling at me gently.

"Why what?"

"Why do you care? Why do you want to help me? Why are you helping me? I don't understand… I don't understand why you're even willing to risk your life…"

My body is pressed against his again as he pulls me by the waist. But I'm still looking into his bottomless eyes. I want to read the answer before it forms into words, but I fail. My thoughts are too disjointed. 

"You don't?"

I don't understand his question, I don't understand anything at all. Because it seems to me that something important is happening right now. So my consciousness again escapes into the closet of unreality, quiet and safe. It's like this is not real. I'm just reading a book about two persons. I forgot how to speak, how to blink.

"You've always been so good. Do you remember when Dana's parents almost got divorced? She came to school every day without her lunch. And you offered her yours. He pauses. "As soon as things got better, she went back to pretending you didn’t exist. Or Shelly Morrison. She got caught cheating off your math test. She was afraid that her parents would scold her and you told the teacher that you were the one cheating off of her test. You got a zero on the exam and detention for a week. After that, you had bruises on your arms for at least a month…"

My heart is beating too fast. Dangerously fast. I clench my fingers to keep them from shaking. Adam remembers so much. So many details. About me. Some insignificant fragments from my life. Our life. I'm shocked and puzzled at the same time. I do not know how to behave. All I can do is wipe away the traces of emotions streaming down my face.

"This is who you are. You've always wanted to help others. But you never said a word unless it was forced out of you." He laughs some hard, heavy sort of laugh this time. His eyes are unfocused. And I understand that he's a prisoner of his own memories. "You never asked for anything from anyone. But no one ever gave you a chance."

Hearing all this, remembering all this is harder than I might think. I thought I didn't care. But this is not the true. It still hurts me. I try to look away, but Adam catches my face, forcing me to look at him.

"I think about you all the time, Juliette. I've dreamed of you so many times, so many times I've dreamed of being so close to you." His hand rises to touch my hair again, but he changes his mind at the last moment. His eyes caress my face. "Juliette, I would follow you anywhere. You're the only good thing left in this world."

I wonder how many tears there are in a person. And is it possible to cry yourself out completely. I think I'm going to check it out because I can't seem to control my tears. 

Adam's words break me apart and glue me back together. It's too much. But this is an excess in which you are ready to drown gladly. I can barely meet Adam's eyes again. 

He helps me. His fingers find my chin. Tip me up.

"We have three weeks at the most," he says. "I don’t think they can control the mobs for much longer."

I nod. I blink. I press my face against his chest and pretend I'm not crying anymore.

Three weeks.

Read my notes and more chapters here AO3

Aesthetics, sneak peeks, information about publications and so on Buy me a coffee

#shatter me again #aaron warner #juliette ferrars #shatter me #shatter me series #warnette #ella sommers #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction

[quicontent]

How Multiverse Of Madness Will Change Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as the title suggests, will see Doctor Strange traveling through multiple realities as he deals with the ramifications of his decision to meddle in Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) personal troubles. The events of the sequel will teach the sorcerer to let go a little bit, according to Raimi.

#doctor strange 2 #doctor strange #stephen strange #steven strange #doctor stephen strange #wong #dr strange #sam raimi #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #doctor strange scary rumors #doctor strange trailer #doctor strange sorcerer supreme #doctor strange smut #doctor strange 2 trailer #doctor strange villain #marvel movies #marvel mcu #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #quicontent

[milqueandsugar]

🏵 A Bountiful Harvest PT 2 🏵

Warning(s): robbery, cannibalism, violence, mugging, mild sexism, mentions of injury/violence, physical assualt

Character(s): Crops

The thunderous voice of the man behind the bar caught you off gaurd, a quiet gasp escaping your throat. Cursing yourself for forgetting your manners you forced a nervous smile to your lips. "Hello" you greet, you waited a few moments for him to continue conversation. But it seemed his initial greeting was an act of manners and not interest in you or your business. Which was fair, you'd say with your dishevelled hair and clothes you wouldn't want to spark conversation with you either.

After a few painfully awkward moments you cracked and found yourself wandering towards the rather grimy looking chairs. Your arms still ached from unpacking all the shipments of soil a couple days ago, and you swore you did something to your back. With your lates injury as well you really began to wish this town had a proper doctor.

Taking a seat closest to the cell, it was the cleanest one, you wait patiently for the sherrif. As patiently as you could for a woman who's had the worst two days of her life. Feeling lingering eyes on yourself you turn your attention back to the man in the cell. "Is it usually so empty around here?" You humm, biting back the more foul words that came to mind when describing the place.

From sat in the corner he visibly perked up a bit, letting out a slight hum. "Its never empty" he stated matter of factly. Playing with what looked to be beef jerky in his hands. The man piqued your interest to say the least. Everyone in this town seemed like they had an opinion, or something to say. But he didn't, he spoke when spoken too. Admittedly it was a nice break.

Your interest however didn't make the statement any less startling. You guessed the town must be filled with ruffians if the Jailhouse never empty. As much as you'd rather be banging on the walls for some sort of attention you didn't want to get into a fit with the Sherrif already. So you bit your tongue, and you waited.

"I don't believe I ever caught your name, sir?" You lead on, figuring you might be here for a while it might do you some good to make friends. Or at least a friend.

The man shifts on the barrel he was sitting on, turning his attention close to you as a slight rumble escaped his throat. The man had a strange aura, like the feeling you get when told scary stories, what was it called again..?

"Crops"

Oh right, creepy. That's the word to describe everything about this man. From his steely blue eyes and unnaturally sharp incisors, even the name was eerily unfitting.

Crops.

Like the cannibal you had been told ghost stories about. The man rumored to be let out of the jail to deal with certain citizens. The man that supposedly cleared this town. You thought it was a joke at first. But now you were talking to him, goose bumps ran up your skin as he inched closer to you.

"And yours, Mrs?"

"Y/N, it's nice to meet you Crops" you know better then to anger a man who could easily have your life in his hands in a day or two. So swallowing your fear, and blinking away the premature tears in your eyes you gave him a friendly smile.

"How'd you get hurt?" He inquired his eyes seeming fixated on yours. How did he... how did he know? Your confusion must have been clear on your face as he spoke up. "You smell of blood".

Oh god he could smell your blood, nervously you finally tore your eyes from his, choosing instead to stare at the floor boards under foot. Counting the grains in a pathetic attempt to calm your nerves. "I uh, I was mugged the other day. I got stabbed in the process" you explain as vaguely as possible. Seeing as the man was in the same room the Sherrif would be speaking to you in it's easy to assume he would soon get all the details. But for now he didn't need to know everything . He didn't need to know anything about you.

Slowly he nodded, it didn't seem like new news for him and thata what startled you the most. "It's best to stay out of their way" he spoke nonchalantly. Like they were just some immature drivers or some drunkards. Like this was normal. "Everyone's been saying that but it's a bit harder when they come to your front door" you sigh. The people here were friendly, strange but mostly friendly. However they seemed to hold either cowardice or were extremely condescending. You hoped it was because you were new to town, not that you were a woman.

The man- er, Crops however seemed to lack these qualities. Any qualities really, he spoke like he was simply pointing something out, or repeating information told to him. Everything about him was so alien and unnerving. The way he seemed so fixated on your abdomen, the way the occasional growl erupted from his throat when something seemed to upset him. You were beginning to sound like a broken record at this point.

"I think you need to redo your stitches" He observed, gesturing loosely to yourself. With furrowed brows you glanced down, the tiniest droplets of red beginning to seep through your new dress. Had you been so frightened by the man you hadn't realized you had popped a stitch? Your grip on the hem of your skirt tightened as you noticed Crops stepping ever closer to you, pressing against the bars.

Before either of you could say anything you were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Turning you felt relief run over your mind as you spotted the sheriff. However that relief was quickly snuffed out as you got a better look at the man.

He was drunk.

Not tipsy, not hungover, drunk. By the looks of it plastered as well. You practically felt your face drop.

"Could I help you miss? You know I'm not the physician, correct?" The taller spoke in a way that indicated tiredness. He slurred his words and rolled his r's in a peculiar way that seemed native to this town. Everything about both the man and the town was peculiar, guess it would be a shocker to see him anywhere outside of this shit hole.

His clothes were even more so disheveled then yours, his hat seated crooked on his strawberry blonde locks and stubble grew in patches lining his chin. Even a cigar hung from his lips to complete the ensemble.

"No, I know, I'm here to report a crime? Not to see the doctor" you reason getting to tour feet to greet the man, though he merely rolled his eyes at your extended hand. "Report a crime you say? What happened Hun?" He slurred. Nervously glancing back at Crops, who now seemed much more interest in his nails, you lowered your voice as you spoke. "Should we be talking in front of a prisoner-".

The sheriff's almost mocking laughter rang out around the room, catching you a but off guard. "Oh Crops? Anything you can tell me you can tell Crops, he knows everything about everyone in this town, dont you?" Thompson assured. But no confirmation came from the black haired man stood behind the decrepit looking bars. "Not much of a talker" Thompson dismissed with a wave of his hand.

Passing a glance Crops' way you couldn't help but hum along. He seemed pretty talkative with you? Maybe that wasn't the right word, but he would at least acknowledge your existence. To be fair, if you had to be with Thompson for more then an hour you'd probably be just about the same way.

"Now sugar, tell me what happened ".

#dsmp x reader #mcyt x y/n #dsmp #dsmp imagine #mcyt x reader #mcyt x you #mcyt imagine #crops tftsmp #crops x reader #corpse x you #corpse x reader #corpse x fem reader #corpse husband x reader #tftsmp #tales from the smp

[wonlouvre]

pairing: doctor!wonwoo x lawyer!female oc genre: modern royalty, arranged marriage, fluff and future angst word count: 1,787 warnings: mentions of food, skipping a meal, fainting

author’s note: part 2 is here and i am excited! i received the support that some of you have given by liking and reblogging and i appreciate it so much! please do share some of your thoughts. i’d love to hear from you. for some reference on what our Prince Wonwoo wore on this chapter during the first few bits: here. 

two: what could have been | masterlist

“What?”

One of these days you’re going to start blaming Wonwoo for the unusual accidents that happen whenever he is around or whenever his name is brought up. It’s a relief that you didn’t trip, again, because you were more than sure that making an abrupt stop while wearing heels can lead to several painful possibilities. 

“You okay?” Jeongyeon was quick to hold on to your arm, helping you find your balance again. She’s definitely not risking anymore injuries especially now that there’s no Doctor Jeon around. 

“What did you just say?” You repeat as you try to compose yourself and start walking across the hallway like how you were supposed to in the first place. 

Jeongyeon blinks at you for a few seconds before gasping, “Oh, right! According to my sources, apparently the long term girlfriend was actually the one for Prince Wonwoo,” she says casually as if she’s just dropping the weather report for the day. “He had plans to propose.”

Propose?

“By sources you mean?” You ask. The lawyer in you is making sure that this is nothing but a baseless rumor and also the rational person in you is making sure your head doesn't get clouded by jealousy.

Me? Jealous? Your left eye twitches at the thought.

“Dr. Kwon also known as Hoshi,” she answers like they have been friends for ten years. “He’s the Prince’s friend from primary school up to medical school.”

“How do you even know this Dr. Kwon?” You ask while narrowing your eyes at her. You are nowhere near done verifying her sources.

Jeongyeon sheepishly smiles before giggling nervously. “Well…”

You sigh. Jeongyeon can be brilliant but she could go overboard at times. “Don’t tell me he works at the same hospital as Wonwoo and you yourself went there?”

“I had to!” She defends, stomping her feet. “You told me to go look up some info and I did. I just wanted to do a good job while I was at it.”

You close your eyes in defeat before pulling her close to whisper a reminder to her ear, “Next time, let’s tone down the enthusiasm, alright?”

She just grins. “No promises.”

Were you threatened by the recent information your assistant just shared to you?

No, of course not.

Were you bothered?

Yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent. 

You’re bothered because you can’t help but think about what could have been.

What could have been for Wonwoo and this mystery girl. You suddenly feel terrible. All this time you were okay with this arrangement. In fact, you were beyond okay already. But, how about Wonwoo? Sure, maybe you thought he could be against this marriage. But, it didn’t cross your mind what he could have left behind back home. What he had to give up and what he had to let go.

“Hey.”

All your thoughts and worries flushed down the drain in an instant at the sound of the voice you’re starting to grow fond of.

Wonwoo arrived like a breath of fresh air with his light blue button down and jeans. The glasses are a bonus that you are lucky to see for the first time. You weren’t aware that he wore them. In fact, you have never seen him wear casual clothes until today. If you were frowning earlier, you are blushing now because of how good he looks. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he sincerely apologizes as he walks towards you. “I’m not gonna lie. I overslept.”

Come to think of it, you have been standing outside this terrace for quite a while now. Thinking too much can be a good distraction to the point that you won’t even notice that you have been waiting.

You cleared the rest of the afternoon to sneak in some wedding planning. Meanwhile, Wonwoo decided to take the night shift yesterday and take today off to join you. 

You shake your head and give him a small smile in understanding. “It’s okay. I just arrived too.”

That was a lie, but it doesn’t matter. Especially now, in spite of getting the right amount of sleep, you can tell that he is still tired and sleepy. And, adorable. But you would never let him know that.

“It didn’t look like it though,” he counters, making your brows raise. “You looked like you were already here for a while. A penny for your thoughts?”

Your eyes roll at his teasing tone while he just smirks. 

But then, you figured since he already asked, this could be the right time. “Can I ask you something?”

Wonwoo crosses his arms, pretending to contemplate your request. “It depends. Am I in trouble?”

“No,” you deadpan. “You don’t have to answer though. That’s what I can guarantee.”

“Fine by me.” He relaxes his arms to his sides and stands close to the railing you were leaning your body weight against. 

Well, okay.  Your palms suddenly started to sweat. Maybe it’s a bad idea to pry about his past. What’s the point of bringing it up? What do you need out of this anyway? Why the bother? 

Yeah, let’s just not, you decided to drop it but Wonwoo already beat you to it.

“Let me guess,” the Prince noticed your silence and decided to take the matters in his hands. “Is it about my ex-girlfriend?”

Heat immediately rose to your cheeks, embarrassed by how could you let it get this far. “I’m sorry. Nevermind. Let’s just go inside. They’re probably ready for us.” 

You were fast to lift your feet from the ground and honestly,  if you could, you’d run away and never return. But, Wonwoo was faster. He was faster to grasp your hand and make you stop from taking another step in a heartbeat. 

You’re not one to let your head hang low and avoid eye contact, but here you are doing everything in your power to not meet Wonwoo’s eyes. You’re also not one to grow flustered easily. You always know what and how to make the last say.

But again, here you are tight-lipped and wishing to be buried underground. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” he promises while tilting his head to the side, searching for your eyes. “I’m not making fun of you and I understand that it’s inevitable for this to be not brought up.”

You relent by nodding and finally turning your body to face him. “Okay.”

Wonwoo smiles and caresses the top of your head. “This is not something you should be worrying about.”

His brazen touch made you feel small yet comforted. 

“Do you really want to marry me Wonwoo?” You whisper between the two of you. 

He blinks then furrows his brows. “What kind of question is that?”

You frown, you’re supposed to give me an answer. “I just thought that maybe it’s better to call it off already before we regret anything in the future.”

“Y/N,” he calls for your name for the first time. “My past relationship is already in the past. I am not dwelling from what happened and what could have been. I am here now and that’s all that matters.”

“Don’t play smart with me,” you scoff and pull yourself away from him.

But Wonwoo just laughs and tightens his hold. He now holds both of your hands and strangely enough, having his hands entwined with yours is nice.

“Why? Does the princess don’t want to marry me?” 

“I don’t actually have much of a choice, do I?” 

Now it’s Wonwoo’s turn to scoff. “Who’s playing smart now?”

You burst into a fit of giggles and Wonwoo does the same. 

It’s kind of scary to feel this way. Feeling so reassured and secured with your relationship with Wonwoo like it was the two of you from the get go. It seems so easy. You are at ease and it terrifies you. 

It’s time for work, you slap yourself back to reality. You can’t continue thinking about Wonwoo especially now when you have matters to take care of and clients to satisfy. You sigh and pick up your coffee mug to sip some only to see that it’s already empty.

You quickly reach for your telephone to request for a refill.

“Coffee? Again?” Jeongyeon reprimands before you could even speak. “Your Highness, this is your third cup and it’s only nine o’clock in the morning.”

You ignore her exasperated tone. “I know.”

“How about some bread instead? You’ve had enough caffeine to last the week.”

“Please just bring me one more,” you plead while resting your palm on your forehead, feeling a headache coming up that could actually last the week. “I promise that would be my last cup.”

You can hear Jeongyeon sigh in defeat before muttering a soft okay.

You should have chosen the bread instead of the third cup of coffee because not less than 15 minutes after drinking it, your stomach feels like it’s burning inside by how painful it is. You thought a glass of water can help minimize or dwindle down the pain but it’s of no help.

What’s worse is you suddenly feel hot in spite of the air condition inside your office being on full blast. Your hand brushes against your face and it is wet. Why am I sweating? You quietly groan as another pang of pain hits you. You think you might vomit. 

Maybe you should go to the restroom or whatever. For now, you just want to move in the hopes that this uncomfortable and sickening feeling would go away. You push yourself up from your chair with a lot of effort because your body doesn’t seem to have any more intention to cooperate with your mind.

You decided you’d rest at your apartment for a while and just go back in the afternoon on the assumption that you’d be fine by then.

Slowly and painfully, you walk to the huge doors of your office and with every step you take, you’re catching your breath. You reach the door and clutch the knob tightly, desperate to grab some painkillers and just sleep this off. 

However, before you could twist the knob and take further steps, you were falling to the ground. Your body doesn’t want to act on your decisions anymore and the pain on your stomach is just way too unbearable, you can’t even stand straight. 

And just on time, Jeongyeon opens your door and enters, chirpy as usual, “Your Highness, you have a visi--- Your Highness!”

You were not sure if your eyes could still register what you saw before you blacked out. But, you were positive that you saw the one and only Prince Wonwoo, one moment smiling and the next rushing towards your limp body on the cold tiled floor.

#seventeen scenarios #wonwoo scenarios #seventeen scenario #wonwoo scenario #seventeen fluff #wonwoo fluff #seventeen #wonwoo #fic: ifliys

[teatitty]

*rolls up sleeves* As you wish! This is a long one though, so buckle up! ☆

So, in Lostbelt 6 we finally got Beryl's backstory. And it was every bit as awful as a lot of people had been surmising, if not worse. He did horrible things to Mash, and the worst part of all is it was justified in his mind through his "love" for her. But the crowning jewel of it all was it being confirmed that when Roman booted Beryl from Mash's room during the infamous "sneaking in incident" itself, he didn't do it kindly. It was also implied pretty strongly that not only was he not calm about throwing Beryl out, but that it was a miracle that Beryl walked away from the experience at all. This fits nicely with the "Romani is super protective of the people he cares about, almost to a fault, and can be absolutely vicious about it if pushed hard enough" vibe, which is cool. Very validating to see the doc getting to be more three-dimensional as a character. But we also know Roman is suuuper hard on himself, and tends to earnestly gather the opinions of others to assess who he is as a person. So I'd imagine he'd be a little out of sorts following such a huge event, especially since there's part of him that knows if he still had his clairvoyance, he could have prevented the entire thing from happening at all. But he's still a bit green as a normal human, and so not very good at hiding his emotions, and the turbulence he's feeling towards Beryl and himself and everything else is written aaalll over his face. And between the blaze in his eyes and the rumors spreading around Chaldea like wildfire, a lot of people start to... steer clear of him. Cautionary whispers start to circulate that it's best not to anger the Director's favorite doctor, that he's secretly a loose canon just waiting to unload on the next unfortunate soul to give him a chance. No one could be that sincere anyway, they reason, so it makes sense that Roman's bubbly facade was hiding something nasty beneath it. And Roman's seen this behavior before. The whispering, the distance, all of it. Being the King of Mages illicited similar reactions, after all, and he was no stranger to being, well, a stranger. So he settles in to the notion of a second life of isolation, and draws back from the people around him. It was only a matter of time before the jig was up anyway.

At least, that's what he was thinking before he was startled halfway back to the Throne by the resounding clink of a coffee cup being set down beside him. The clang was loud enough that the whole cafeteria came to a halt, the spotlight suddenly placed securely on the secluded little corner Romani had been brooding in, and truthfully he was half-afraid to look for fear that the empty cup of his own he'd been ignoring had shattered on its own. That was honestly the last thing he needed right now, more evidence that he was frothing at the mouth, right? But then a laugh like bells reached his ears, and he turned to see Leo standing there with the warmest, softest look he'd ever seen her wear. She looked angelic, absolutely ethereal, and the slight crease at her eyes seemed to say "it's all going to be okay now." Naturally, he blinked and it was gone, and with perfect timing Leonardo had slid into one of the seats opposed to him with a flourish, loudly proclaiming to the shock of the onlookers that it was near criminal to mope in the presence of a genius, especially one who'd brought coffee to share. Beside himself, Romani could only gawk, blinking owlishly at the Heroic Spirit who, up until this point, seemed to only regard him with frustration and mild annoyance at best. But if Da Vinci recollected such experiences, she didn't show it, her gaze instead regarding him as if they were the oldest of friends before sweeping around challengingly across her audience, daring them to speak against her judgement. And though it was a bit awkward at first, it was... nice to have someone to talk to, Roman thought. (Even someone who liked coffee with not nearly enough sugar in it).

Of course, that was hardly the end of it. And when the rumors spread to Leo, hissed in secret by concerned staff, suddenly people find that green wasn't quite so scary a color as blue. She listens to the stir with a smile sharp as the talons drumming idly on the table in front of her, and the look in her dazzling doe eyes threatens them to give her every last detail they know. The picture of poise, her champagne tone is so thick with murder you could paint with it, and yet crafted so artfully it leaves the gossipers wondering if they've hallucinated the malicious aura around them or not. But a genius knows the value of patience when weaving a trap, and so she waits, and she waits, and she waits. She provides polite insight, little nods that she was paying attention, and little else, little more. Just a friendly conversation.... until the gossipers have so thoroughly locked themselves in with lies it's almost too easy to obliterate them in their tracks.

You see, what nobody knew was that Leo was there when Roman through Beryl out, her instincts as a high ranking Heroic Spirit tipping her off to the sudden tidal wave of of mana coming from Mash's quarters in the medbay. She saw it all, from start to bloody finish, her presence missed among the commotion, and where others had found something to fear, Leo had felt the stir of an emotion far more ginger. How many times in her natural life had she wished for someone to protect her from the evils of the world like that? How many times had she wished in her cell for someone to sweep in and decimate the people who'd wronged her like that? Broader still, how many times had she borne witness to someone shaking their head sadly, or lamenting because yet another little girl had fallen prey to a predator who wielded too much power to ever be stopped? And yet here was this strange little pushover of a man, completely obliterating one of the Director's prized A-Team members to protect a little girl many had considered a pet project at most. She couldn't be sure about a lot of what she saw— mainly the mana where there should be none, or the strange, golden glint to Roman's eyes. But she knew she had witnessed something done in pure altruism, and that there was one less innocent who went undefended because of it. Leo was also quite used to being ostracized to various degrees herself, not that she took it personally of course! (aha...) Being such an eccentric, beautiful, charismatic, talented genius was a tough existence, after all! Not many could keep up with her, and insecure people get so mean sometimes. (Not to mention that it was even tougher when she was still back in Italy, and often twice as lonely.) So, seeing as she is also so very compassionate and wise, she simply could not allow the same fate to happen to Roman! Especially not over something like this! It was only right to rescue him from infinite exile. Anyone with a conscience would have done the same!

(But oh, if only she'd known how he'd rescue her too, and how preciously love could bloom, even in the arctic, even at the end of the world.)

GRIPS YOU TIGHTLY

ANON WE ARE ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH WITH THESE TWO, YOU UNDERSTAND WHY ME AND LYRE WERE ROMAVINCI STANS THE FIRST TIME WE SAW THEM TOGETHER, THEY ARE M A R R I E D BUT EVEN OUTSIDE OF THAT YES YES YES TO ALL OF THIS BEAUTIFUL META ON THEIR CHARACTERS AND HOW THEY INTERACT WITH PEOPLE AND ALSO FUCK BERYL LIVES ACTUALLY LMAOOO

#fgo spoilers #long post #romavinci nerd #romavinci #added the tag u suggested too since u wanted it uwu #amen to asks having longer word limits now btw #I wish i had better words to share #but i am instead flailing and squealing with delight #Anonymous #asks

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Patient 0″

I finally had a day where I was motivated to write something! :) yay, hopefully I am getting back into my stride. I hope you all enjoy!

Dr. Kell examined the brown soil before him, and the little red plants that sprouted up around it. There was definitely something important here, something that the others definitely didn’t know about. The thought made him almost giddy with anticipation as he took samples and began to bag them in little clear tubes with bright labels on the side.

He had been teaching for as long as he could remember, a geologist in the fourth city of the Vrul inner ring, and in all that time he had neer once received a commendation for his work. The thought made him bitter as he plunged the little digging tool into the soil for another sample. Years and years of hard work and not once had it ever been acknowledged. That was because the Vrul didn’t value teachers like they should. They only valued those people who made important discoveries. 

When he had originally approached the head of their college in an effort to remind him what kind of important work he did, sure that they had just forgotten, though the reaction he had received was one of derision and even derisive laughter.

You’re a teacher not a researcher. They don’t make medals for mediocrity.

The thought made his antenna tremor in absolute rage.

The nerve.

He was not mediocre.

Ok granted, everyone on this planet had a doctoral level knowledge of their specific field, but that didn’t mean that his contributions weren’t important! He had even heard rumors that he was being considered for termination! The thought scared him, and so he had gone out to do something no Vrul had ever done before.

He had walked out of the city wall and taken a transport out into the surrounding countryside.

It seemed strange, the wall was very thick, and the ground around it was shored up with concrete and a very thick foundation. 

 The outside of the wall was very smooth.

He knew that they kept the wall there to keep the wildlife out or something…. But as a geologist he knew that a wall twenty feet deep was a little bit overkill, and forty feet high? No known animal species on their planet was dangerous over about ten feet.

But he just rattled his antenna and kept going.

Bitter about his situation.

Not everyone could be some great genius about a subject, not everyone would have opportunities to do stupid irrational things. Not everyone was like the “legendary Dr. Krill” and his stupid and useless papers about humans. 

He huffed, yeah dr. Krill, some doctor. Mister SO important that the council had a termination order out for him, and not for the same reason there was a termination order out for Kell. Apparently the population wasn’t ready for what Dr. Krill was spouting off, apparently it was TOO revolutionary, and threatened to change the social fabric of the Vrul nation.

Yeah right.

Like some paper on a two legged snot nosed carnivore was nearly as important as the study of the very earth beneath them.

It was ridiculous.

Outrageous.

He was the one who deserved some real recognition, and not that Dr. Krill.

He had seen the pompous little creature speak once at some sort of medical conference he had been forced to attend during his younger years, and he honestly thought the little creature was a self important, pompous little lecturer.

Yet no one else seemed to have seen it.

Everyone else was fascinated with his work, and though they thought his bravery was strange and overdone, they still admired him!

Yes, “admired” him, a complete and total nutcase braggart with an inflated sense of self importance, and the audacity to refuse his termination order, the nerve of him.

And now here he was standing under the hot sun of mid morning on dirt that no one had stood on in over a thousand years.

The council said that the city walls were for their protection, and no one ever questioned leaving their walls. It wasn’t illegal or anything but most Vrul had a survival instinct so intense it verged on cowardice. Generally he himself would be in that category, but his anger and obsession had driven him to take a step outside the city.

Looking at the ground, and examining the local wildlife, he honestly couldn't see why they had needed to build a city with such intense fortifications. The largest animal he saw was a surprisingly vrul-like creature with eight stumpy legs slowly trundling through the undergrowth.

WHen it made it to a nearby patch of sun, it opened up a large fan on it’s back and hunkered down to sit and soak in the radiation.

Nothing inherently scary.

He wasn’t even sure why the outside of the city had bothered him so much.

His confidence grew as he kept walking.

Maybe he would talk to the council about that at a later date, tell them about his time outside the cities and let them know how safe it was. Maybe then HE would be the one changing things, maybe then HIS name would be something important to be remembered. Imagine that, Dr. Krill, coming home and expecting the cities to be walled off, but instead find spreading metropolises like there were on his precious Earth, and not because KRILL said anything, but in fact, because Dr. Kell had been the only one brave enough to walk outside their own city walls.

Wouldn’t that be the ticket.

He stepped into a thicket of bushes and trees. They weren’t much taller than he was, about six feet in height maybe, but they still provided him with some shade as he worked. THey had large transparent orange orbs on the end of their branches, full to the brim with hydrogen. That was one thing that might be a little bit dangerous out here…. The trees had the potential to explode.

He would have to keep that in mind.

Still, the way the light filtered down through the orange orbs and fell on the ground below him was quite something to behold leaving behind a dazzling array of glowing orange spots to create an ethereal and delicate pattern over the little thicket floor.

Working here would be fine for the moment.

He set down his case of tools in a little clearing in the middle examining the dirt and placing it away in test tubes. The dirt was pretty cracked and rather dry, most of the planet’s water being stored in underground aqueducts which the Vrul had been smart enough to tap into. This was the equator of the planet after all, and their climate tended towards desert, though it wasn’t nearly as extreme as the Rundi home planet. He could see most of that from the dirt that he picked up, dirt that hadn’t seen water in a very long time.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched a few creatures pass outside his little thicket of trees, though they tended to avoid him, skirting around the edge of the trees and not daring to venture in.

He didn’t see himself as much of a threat to them, but he was glad anyway. The last thing he needed was an encounter with some kind of animal.

He moved his case, feeling the vibration over the ground as he did so.

He put a small slide under his travel microscope and found there to be an unusual amount of organic matter in the soil. Not in the way of worms or bugs or some other small creature but…. Animal matter it looked like. He couldn’t really distinguish what kind of creature it had been before it began decomposing but, there was something, strange about it. He took another sample of dirt, his little collection tool piercing through the top soil and sending a wave though the ground.

He looked at another sample.

That all seemed very strange. The ground her was very fertile, and surrounded in these strange trees, but for some reason, no trees were growing here? He couldn’t see why not, the seeds would generally fall here, and there was enough sunlight coming into the clearing  that it would be a perfect location for growing.

Overhead, a flock of kinlits took to the air squalling.

He heard a high pitched chirp, and turned to look as a few passing animals turned on their tails and ran off across the ground.

Dr. kell stared in confusion, not sure what to think.

And then the soil below him began to vibrate.

He looked down in shock and surprise stepping back from his work as the soil below him began to churn.

Fear overtook him, and he turned to go in the other direction, back to his transport, but no…. He needed his equipment.

He hurried forward and began to gather up his things as the ground before him continued to churn. 

And then that churning set off more rumbling and more churning right next to it, until the entire clearing was unstable. 

He tried to step away but as he did, something shot up out of the dirt and grabbed at his leg. He screamed high and shrill, dropping his case again, which thudded softly on the mulched earth.

He dragged his foot away from what looked like a hand!

The hand continued to wave and wille in the air, grasping for him, as it slowly emerged from the soil below.

He staggered back as, all around him, hands began bursting from the soil and into the air.

THe first hand that had appeared had now clawed its way far enough out that kell could see the joint of an elbow. The hand was grey and covered in dirt, and as kell watched, a shoulder broke through, followed by a head.

He was frozen in shock and fear at the tree line as the creature heaved itself from the dirt.

It…. it was a DELTA, or at least it looked like one, with four thick legs and a set of just two arms. The creature was big, almost a foot taller than he was and very heavy around the torso. It lurched forward over the ground it’s feet not used to walking. It lifted it’s head, and its eyes were a strange glassy white. Little yellow bulbs, like pockets of infection under its skin pulsed in the morning light.

It’s head turned and then stopped locked on to Dr. kell.

They stood there staring at each other for a long moment before it jolted forward, rushing towards him at incredible speed. Dr. Kell screamed, turned and ran. He had never ever tried to run a day in his life, and his legs soon got caught up in each other, he pitched to the ground listening to the thudding of scuttling feet behind him on the cracked earth. In a panic he inflated his helium sack, and shot into the air just as the creature reached for him.

He floated upwards but was stopped in the upper branches of the tree, maybe only nine feet into the air his feet dangling only two feet over the clutching fingers of the THING.

It’s grasping fingers clasped at his feet.

Kell continued to scream, though no one could hear him and those fingers still clasped at him. The creature did not speak, and the white overlay of its eyes made it clear the thing couldn't see either, but it knew exactly where he was.

Slowly a few more of its brethren began to filter in from the trees clustering together below Kell as his screamed and screamed, but then when his screaming intensified one of the creatures began trying to climb up the back of another. It’s fingertips brushed the bottom of his feet and he screamed even louder, clawing his way through the branches of the trees and towards the clearing where his communicator was.

If he could get back he could call for help.

Behind him the strange pile of creatures flopped back to the ground and slowly began to follow him through the trees.

He was almost to the clearing when.

Something snagged against his Helium sack.

There was a sharp pinprick of pain, and then.

He slowly began to sink.

Cold hands reached up for him as he flailed and kicked desperately trying to plug the hole that had been torn in his helium sack, but it was too late.

Hands clasped his feet and pulled him downwards. 

***

The Betas stood on the wall staring out at the open plane that ran for distant miles in every direction. Everyday they stood here from morning until night when their shift ended, and every day there was nothing to see. The Alphas thought it was ok to leave them up here in boredom, even despite them having cognitive abilities enough to do more meaningful tasks.

Most of them were bitter about it, but the Alphas were smarter than them, and had turned back every attempt at making some sort of fair arrangement.

So they were mostly negligent in their duties. 

It’s not like anything happened here anyway.

There was a visiting Alpha today, walking the walls with them. They were pretty sure this one was some kind of psychologist, and was likely looking for signs of mental distress in their demeanor. He was alright as far as Alpha’s went, he talked to them like they were intelligent beings and asked how they were, which is more than they expected from most visiting Alphas.

“Anything of note this morning?” The psychologist asked.

They shook their heads, “No, well accept for that professor.”

“Professor?”

Yeah, guy dropped down over the wall and took a transport into the middle of nowhere.”

“You didn’t stop him?”

“Leaving the city is ill advised but not illegal.” They pointed out, and the Alpha just nodded. It was a strange bodily expression, which demonstrated that this particular Vrul had spent some time with humans, how much time that had been was questionable, but they had still managed to rub off on him.

Humans tended to do that.

Looking out into the desert, the Alpha stopped, “hey, isn’t that him?”

The turned to look over the wall.

Well it did seem to be true, though he appeared to be walking rather than using the transport, and the couldnt be sure, but from this distance, it didn’t appear that he was carrying his case either.

How strange.

The alpha moved forward a little bit to watch him as he approached, perplexed and unsure what he was looking at.

Even the alphas could see that something was…. wrong . The way he moved was ungainly almost disjointed, and he stumbled from side to side in a manner of confusion. As he got closer, they noted the clear fluid glistening on his shoulders.

The Vrul equivalent to blood.

Sweet Nebulon the Alpha said, and then inflated his Helium sack, floating over the side of the wall and slowly lowering himself to the ground to intercept the staggering form.

He grabbed the doctor by the shoulders, “Dr. kell, are you alright, Dr. Kell?”

The head jerked up, and Dr. Kell stared at him with glassy and confused eyes. Looking up the psychologist watched as five more forms appeared on the horizon. Something about them seemed very wrong.

“HELP US UP.” He ordered, and a small platform was lowered down to them. He hurried the catatonic Dr. Kell onto the platform and they rose into the air just as the forms solidified themselves on the horizon.

Dark grey, glass white eyes, and the lumbering forms of Deltas.

“What in the hell.” The psychologist muttered not noticing his use of the human language as the creatures clustered at the base of the wall looking up towards them with wide white eyes.

“What the hell are those things.”

“I don’t know.” he said, “But call for a doctor, and an isolation unit.” He stepped back from Dr. Kell who stood wobbly at the center of the platform staring out into space with glassy eyes.

***

“What did I tell you!”

“I know-”

“What did I tell you!”

“I know, I know, but in my defence, it was an underwater plant.”

“It WaS aN UndERwAteR PlaNt.” 

Krill looked up at the Admiral with an expression of derision and scolding, “Have you BEEN to EARTh at any point, sea urchins, coral reefs, poisonous fish, what made you think that touching an UNDERWATER alien plant was going to be any different. You big, stupid idiot! 

The big stupid idiot in question just sighed and gave up on his argument. He wasn’t going to win this one and he knew it. Krill turned back town to the human’s swollen hand, skin stretched glistening and red over joints that had swelled up to twice their normal size. Looked like some sort of contact allergic reaction, and luckily it hadn’t spread to the human’s body while he was underwater.

The sheer stupidity.

Though a  little medicine would do him just fine.

He pulled up the sleeve of the human’s shirt and depressed the plunger on the syringe with great malice.

The human winced, but krill thought it was only fair.

“You moron.” He muttered

Admiral Vir rubbed his arm with his good hand, “Ouch, vicious little creature.”

From where she leaned against the wall, Sunny looking up from examining her knife, “You are kind of an idiot.”

“Thank you Sunny, that is very helpful of you.” he muttered

Krill turned back and was about to finish with his lecture, when there was a sudden pinging on his implant. He had gotten one only a few months ago, and had found it to be relativity more convenient than taking calls in his office.

He held up a hand to the other two as he took the call.

“Dr. Krill here.”

“The council requests your presence urgently.”

Krill frowned, “I do not deal with the council. You know how I feel about my termination order.

“Your termination order has been dissolved. We need our help immediately. Bring the humans.”

“Bring the humans?” He was a bit shocked at that,. The council was not particularly a great fan of humans, but this seemed rather serious, and he knew if anything were to happen to him they would have hell to pay.

And they weren’t that stupid.

He turned to look at the other two who stared at him very curious.

“Admiral, I think the Vrul homeworld is in need of our help.”

The Admiral nodded and stood holding his swollen hand to his chest, “Very well, i will go make the roder.”

Krill nodded and watched him go.

He wondered what this could be all about.

[greatbigbellies]

Born Too Large

This was meant to be kinky, but spiraled out of proportion as I wrote, and the belly only comes in at the end. But I wanted a wholesome relationship so…

Ever since birth, she was an outcast, a freak, a giant. At 10 years old, she was already taller and stronger than all the men in the village, including her father, who bitterly blamed her for her mother’s death in childbirth. None of the other kids wanted to play with her; she was an unfair advantage in team games, and even when she proposed that they all take her on, no one was brave enough. So it was that she resigned herself to duty and chores, routinely doing the work of three men, which only made them more jealous and resentful, until one day a royal knight was passing through and beheld the young giantess, and impressed with her size and strength, offered to take her away from this humdrum backwater and put her gifts to use in the king’s army. With no lost love, she left her home behind and joined the knight’s entourage.

She became his squire, and in time she was taught the ways of war. Fully grown, she stood at eye level with a man on horseback. She needed custom made armor, and her sword was too heavy for anyone else to lift, let alone swing. It needed no edge; the sheer weight of it was enough to crush a man’s breastplate. Her strength became a thing of legend; impossible to miss on the battlefield, the mere sight of her set soldiers on the run, which she was fine with–she never much liked killing; it felt too much like bullying. And although her reputation grew, she still heard the hateful words behind her back, the subtle ridicule and quiet envy, of how she stole all the glory. At this point, her heart is hardened and the words don’t hurt her much anymore, but she’s still no happier, in spite of the accolades and glories she’s won in the king’s service. But it’s not all bad. Her closest friend among the knights is eternally grateful, after she saved his life on the battlefield by lifting the horse that had fallen on him, even when the doctors pronounced he would never walk again. And sometimes, she blushes when the maidens compliment her.

This continues until an enemy kingdom, fearful of her strength, sought to remove her from the picture. She’s lured into a trap in a remote corner of the kingdom, and as she passed over a bridge over a ravine, the bridge supports were destroyed, and she fell a great height, bouncing on the rocks and plunging into the river below. She should have died, but her armor protected her, and she drifted downriver, unconscious.

When she next awoke, she found herself in a cramped bed, dressed in bandages, aching all over. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe. Then a small man (every man was small) appeared in the doorway, and nearly dropped the bowl of soup he was coming to give her. She was awake at last! He explained that he was a fisherman, and that found her washed ashore on the banks; and after getting some help, they carried her to safety, peeled away the armor, and addressed her wounds. It was up in the air whether she’d make it or not; after all, she’d been asleep for a week. She stresses that she must return to the king’s service, but she wasn’t in the shape to go anywhere. The fisherman gently pushes her back down, and for the first time she can remember, she’s not strong enough to resist. She needed to rest and heal, he insisted, or else all their hard work to try and save her would be for naught. A little guilty now, she lays back down, and accepts the spoonful of soup when he puts it against her lips.

Recovery is slow. Aside from her wounds, she needs to go through physical therapy to recover her strength. For so long, she’s been the strongest person in the room, yet now her legs wobble like a newborn colt’s, unable to support her own weight without leaning on the fisherman and his friends, who offer their support unconditionally. It becomes clear to her that they aren’t aware of her reputation; the village is more isolated than most. In her towns and villages, she was recognized (for better and worse). But here, she’s just… a person. A person in need, no less. There’s no judgment, no expectations. In spite of her bruised and broken ribs, she feels she can finally *breathe*.

She starts to adjust to life in the village, helping where she can as part of her rehabilitation, still not at her peak strength. She’s on a more even playing field with the other villagers, yet they value her all the same. In the morning, she often finds gifts at the door, and she treasures these more than any bounty she won in the king’s army. Her previous life seems so distant now, so unimportant. She feels loved; a strange and unfamiliar feeling. And overtime, she realizes her own feelings for the fisherman, who’s been at her side since the beginning. He’s nice and sweet and funny. While she was still on bedrest, he would tell her the most awful jokes, and she would laugh so hard it’d hurt her ribs. She had seen many attractive men in her time as a knight, beautiful and unblemished from a life of privilege or hard-cut and well-muscled from battle. Yet none of them compared to this little man with bushy eyebrows, a wiry beard, and a little gap between his front teeth. Yet his smile outdid the sun, and put a funny warmth in her chest. And eventually, she works up the courage to confess her feelings for him, afraid that he would reject her; she was just so big, and clumsy, and she ate so much, and she wasn’t particularly pretty from first a childhood of farmwork then years of battle. But none of that mattered, because he liked her too. And soon enough, they shared a bed for the night, then every night after. It is awkward at first, as she’s never shared a bed with anyone before or known such intimate touch, but she adjusts to this too.

But the peace does not last. For while she was recovering, the enemy kingdom had invaded, conquering town after town, and now they’ve come her. None of the villagers are warriors. But she is–even though she still aches and is out of practice. The fisherman tries to talk her out of it, they don’t have to fight, *she* doesn’t have to fight anymore, not for some distant king. She tells him, she isn’t doing this for the king, but herself and them. And when it becomes evident that he can’t dissuade her, he gets the boys together, and they work all night to equip her. Dressed in pots, pans, and similarly improvised armor, armed with a lumber axe, she meets the enemy forces at the village outskirts, and after a beat they recognize her: the she-giant wasn’t dead! Uncertainty spreads through the ranks. They had all heard the stories–of how she cleaved a man in two with but a single blow with her monstrous blade, or the time she lifted a castle portcullis with her bare hands, or when she held a bridge by herself against 50 men. They thought she was dead! But the captain bristles. He did not believe in ghosts, and if this wretched country could produce one freak, why not another–this could not be the same woman. So he challenged her to single combat, sure that she was just another country bumplin; his superior skill would prevail against her brute strength. She, in return, extracts a promise from him; that he and his men would leave the village alone if she bested him. The battle is quick and humiliating, but opposite of how the captain expected things to go. Though out of practice and still not at her physical peak (which she might never reach again), she trounces him. Again and again she insists that he stays down, but his pride won’t allow it, until she delivers a blow that turns out to be fatal. The enemy force is aghast; their fears were true. The second in command, now newly promoted, honors the bargain and hurriedly withdraws their forces. That night, she breaks down and sobs in the fisherman’s arms; she didn’t miss killing.

Later, the king manages to turn back the invading army, and following the rumors finds her again. He demands why she hadn’t returned to his service; her disappearance is what emboldened the enemy to finally invade. But he’s willing to forgive her transgression, in light of her outstanding service, provided she returned–but before he can finish, she pulls him from his horse like she’s scolding a child. She’s done with killing, she tells him, she’s done with people using her. She wants to be left in peace, and invokes her outstanding service to lay claim to the land that the village stands on. No taxes, no demanding kids march off to fight strangers’ battles. In exchange, on her promise as a knight, she would never raise a blade again, for him or against him. And soberly aware that she could crush his head between her hands like an overripe melon, he comes to the decision that her demands are totally reasonable, this village wasn’t *that* important anyway, and he actually fulfills his end of the bargain. The king leaves the village in peace and that’s the last of him that she ever sees.

Things settle down again, and there’s no more attacks, no more tax collectors, no more recruiters. For her, it’s a return to form, a distantly familiar life, except this time she is loved. She is accepted. And eventually, she and the fisherman, now her husband, decide to have kids. It’s scary for her. What if they end up like her? What if they’re too small? What if she accidentally hurts them? Forgetting that she’s handled babies before, and helped others through childbirth. But her husband assures her, it’ll be fine. They’ll be fine. She’s the kindest, strongest, gentlest soul he knows; and he’ll be there every step of the way. And a few months later, when the two of them decide to leave the village to go visit her old friend from the knights, her belly is the size of another woman’s at 3 weeks overdue, but for her it’s only the first trimester. Her old friend, seeing her next to her tiny husband, jokingly asks if he needed a ladder to do the deed, but it’s in good fun and they all laugh. She is happy, and eagerly awaits the birth of her children, however many there are, however big or small they turn out to be.

#submission #97thsilentium #I WANNA BE CLEAR THIS GLORIOUS PIECE WASN'T WRITTEN BY ME #this was a submission and a damn good one #like there's not a lot of belly but that's okay i like this sweet giantess girl

[primergon]

How would the TFP!’Cons react to an s/o who always laughs ?

( A/N : wrote this because 1. I always laugh to the point where i had to go to the doctor once because i nearly sprained a muscle in my stomach and 2. i’ve been laughing the whole day today and 3. I hope you guys have a good laugh/smile too today :) )

Megatron: It was already strange enough that Megatron took interest in a human, much more one who couldn’t keep a straight face most of the time. The sight of their leader, grim and stoic, standing next to a human who is doubling over from laughter was more than unusual. Then again, no one would risk saying anything unless they would want a sword down their throats. All throughout the day, he would at least hear his s/o laugh once, the noise echoing down the halls. They would be wheezing and crying in a pile, usually over something insignificant, and as much as he expresses his indifference and sometimes irritation - over the idea that he couldn’t understand what was so funny, he couldn’t deny that he was starting to grow fond of it. He knows Starscream is already spreading rumors about how he’s gone soft, but he couldn’t care less when you’re in his hands grinning ear to ear. When he’s alone and reliving the sight, he would find himself smiling - and it was growing harder every day to ignore the fact that he would someday miss it too.

Soundwave: You can never tell what was going on behind that visor, but you knew whenever you were laughing, he was also enjoying himself - in his own quiet and private way. Knockout once told you how nicely you complimented one another, and that the sight of you guffawing next to the silent mech was the funniest thing to come out of it. Albeit, you would be laughing over little things, such as a random meme on your feed or the sight of Vehicons arguing with one another - it almost made you feel guilty for being so loud and obnoxious. Until you wake up in the middle of the night to hear Soundwave listening to an audio clip of you snorting by his desk, and it made your heart flutter to know that it was his go-to mood booster when things were hectic.

Knockout: Laughing by yourself was already chaotic enough, laughing next to Knockout was borderline dangerous. You would always start first, showing him a picture or telling him a joke and it would escalate to him making a witty quip that has you hunched over the table. You both also love to shove one another and it would sometimes get carried away, considering that when you shove knockout he barely moves but when he does it you’re sent flying off the chair. Whenever Megatron passes by the medbay he would always make it a habit to make sure that the doctor was actually doing work and not fooling around with his ‘pet.’ Thankfully, both of you can stop for several minutes, but one look will be enough to dissolve you into laughter once again.

Breakdown: Your good-natured attitude and humor were one of the things that drew him to you. Your laughter was contagious, and with a guy like Breakdown, you can almost turn anything sour sweet with a couple of quips and jokes. He gets a little impatient from time to time, his temper wearing thin, but you’ll always be there to diffuse his anger - acting like some kind of catalyst unconsciously pacifying his anger with a single smile. You once joked that he only keeps you around because you acted as some kind of stress-ball, but little did you know that your jokes and laughter have the ability to make him forget that there was a war going on. And it was one of the things that nearly made him consider what to truly fight for.

Starscream: When you first showed him that you can’t control your laugh he got irritated pretty quickly, berating you for being so loud. But you can’t help it, and so you kept on laughing - throwing your head back, falling onto your chair, crying as you massage your cheeks. Eventually, you thought Starscream just grew tired and decided to do nothing. Turns out, while you had your eyes shut in laughter, he would be admiring you from the corner of his eyes. He’d be smiling, wishing that he could join in - but he has a reputation to uphold, and he’s still trying to convince himself that he’s not overly attached to you. That’s why he would rather be caught dead than laughing with you because once he does it’ll be a sign that he’s gone soft - for an organic. He can’t ignore the sadness that would follow after every laughter, but it was also one of the few things keeping him sane within the Nemesis. And from time to time it’ll make him consider deserting this war for a life where he could just smile with you. Humans, he thought, how scary is it that you could simply tempt him to give up everything with a single smile?

Shockwave: Whenever you’re around Shockwave, you make it an effort to keep laughing at a minimum. You know he wasn’t one for distractions, and so you’ve tried to act as professional as you can around him. Yet, one time St3v3 had come to deliver some test tubes and ended up falling on the floor. You would have helped him if he didn’t knock over T0m, who knocked over Fr3d, and three other Vehicons. At the sight of the bickering soldiers on the floor, you had squatted on the floor to laugh, howling as you cradled your red face. It took you a while to realize that Shockwave was staring at you, red-eye piercing as they observe your tears and wheezing. He then proceeded to ask you about ‘ the physical reaction in humans consisting of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm’, followed by a dozen of other questions about your biology. The next few days, you had no choice but to participate in one of his side projects regarding humans and ‘laughing’. You thought it had been a serious project until Breakdown dropped by to say how he’s been obsessed with studying your laughter specifically, and that he was starting to think it was more of a personal fascination rather than a scientific inquiry. You didn’t want to believe it until Megatron himself told you this. After that you couldn’t look at him properly, knowing that your laughter affects a mech once believed to be unmovable.

Dreadwing: You were hesitant to laugh around Dreadwing, knowing that the commander was against any form of nonsense and was very straightforward. Yet, you had caught him watching you when you were sharing a laugh with Knockout. Then you caught him again when you were double over in the mess hall, and when you were clapping with ST3V3 in the hallways. You assumed he found it annoying and began to be more careful of where you laugh until you watched as a butterfly landed on the crown of his head once. It’s safe to say that he was smiling at the way you were grinning and that he would have said something earlier if it wasn’t for his fear of growing fond of you. It was a nice change, you thought, to see him so shy and in awe. He does need to relax from time to time, and what better way than to spend it with you - even if your laughter sounded like a dying seal.

Predaking: He was always brooding, always so serious and angry that you had steered clear of him. Yet, he was once awoken from his nap by your laughter down the hall, the sight of you hollering by yourself as you scrolled through your phone nearly concerning if it wasn’t for how happy you looked. After that, he grew interested in you. When you formally met he pretended to hate your laughter, looking annoyed and irritated when it’s actually under the guise that he's jealous. Jealous of the fact that he was never the one to make you laugh. He wanted to be on the receiving end of your smile, and so his frustrations have led to a series of arguments with you, one resolved when he told you to stop laughing and you responded with “ make me.” He took the witty quip as an invitation, which was surprisingly something you had wanted to, and when you were both lying together you had laughed at something he said. That was the first time you’ve seen Predaking smile, and it made you so happy that you made it your responsibility to remind him to laugh from time to time.

ST3V3: Don’t get me started on this. There’s a lot of shoving, table banging, head throwing, and screaming when laughing with ST3V3. He’s an archive of jokes, puns, memes, and even ridiculous screenshots. Sometimes you even purposely avoid him knowing that he’s about to show you something funny when your cheeks have barely recovered from the last joke. There’s not a day where you’d feel sad with ST3V3, but there won’t be a day where you won’t have tears streaming down your face too - and you’re genuinely surprised that you now have abs from all the laughing you’ve done with him.

( A/N : hope you guys liked this !! find me on @/primergonn on instagram <3)

#tfp #transformers #transformers prime #transformers series #transformers headcanon #transformers headcannons #transformers imagines #tfp imagines #tfp imagine #tfp hc #tfp headcannons #tfp headcannon #megatron #soundwave #shockwave #dreadwing #knockout #st3v3 #maccadam #tfp breakdown #starcsream #tfp strascream #tfp megatron #tfp soundwave #decepticons #headcannons #imagines #tf #transformers self insert #self insert

[ailelie]

that time palpatine screwed up (and the galaxy was a better place for it)

Look. I know this idea is shit. I tried to give the idea away. Instead whenever I’m still for more than 30 seconds I start thinking about it. So here.

In another world, when Sheev hears the rumor of a strange pre-Jedi artifact, he doesn’t go to collect it himself. He sends someone who never returns and then decides to handle it later after his Empire plans reach fruition. In this world, however, he goes himself. 

He finds the artifact on a dangerous world just beyond the reach of the Republic. The artifact activates upon touch.

The world grows large and scary around him.

A day or so passes without contact. He’d left his crew behind, not wanting to share what he was doing. One of them contacts the Senate for help. The 501st is closest.

(That was by design once. Another chance to connect with Anakin and pull him further into Darkness).

Anakin and his men search the planet. They do not find Palpatine. Anakin does find a Force-sensitive child whose eyes turn yellow when he cries.

A toddler is using the Dark side. He can’t kill a toddler. He isn’t sure he can give the child to the Jedi either, not if he is accessing the Dark side.

“What’s your name?” / “Zee” / “Zee?” / “NO! Zheeeeeeevuh.” / “Zhiva?” / “No!” / “Okay, Little Z, why don’t we try again after you’ve had a nap?”

Zee ends up sticking as the name everyone uses though as anything else leads to frustration and occasionally tears.

(Sheev knows he isn’t supposed to be 2 or 3 years old. He knows he has big plans. When he dreams, he remembers being big. But when he wakes, the memories waft away. He’s smarter than a toddler should be, but his brain cannot contain his adult mind so it all remains just out of reach. That’s more important than a name.)

Anakin and the 501st continue looking, but Palpatine is nowhere. He’s called back to Coruscant to report and join planning for what to do next. General consensus is that he’s been abducted by Separtists.

The Senate has not yet released that the Chancellor is missing.

Anakin contacts Padme about Zee and explains. “I can’t give him to the Jedi, not if he’s using the Dark side, but I can’t just leave him untrained and I’m not giving him to Dooku, Maul, or Ventress. I can’t.”

Padme has an absolutely terrible idea. She asks what the child looks like. “Blue eyes. Red hair.” Padme nods. “It’d have been better if he had brown hair, but if you wanted, we could say he’s ours.” “How? And won’t everyone know then?” “I have body doubles. We could say we’ve been hiding him. I know a doctor who would lie for me. But you’re right--if we did this, everyone would know about our marriage. How important is it that you keep this child safe and away from the Jedi? How else could we justify having him? If we tried to pass him off as an ordinary orphan, he’d have to go into the system.” Anakin is silent for a long moment. Then he asks, “What about the hair color? You said brown would be better.” “No one knows what your family looks like. Tell them your mother’s hair was red.” “Obi-Wan knows it wasn’t.” “Then we have to tell Obi-Wan.” Anakin breaks. “Angel, I can’t--” “How important is Zee?” Padme asks quietly and Anakin sighs. He can’t leave this strange child alone in the world. “I’ll try to meet with him before we reach Coruscant and explain.”

He does.

Obi-Wan stares at Anakin and feels the pinch of a headache between his eyes. “I honestly don’t know where to begin.” / “I shouldn’t have said--” / “No, I’m glad you told me. I just need a moment. You’re married?”

“This is a terrible plan,” Obi-Wan says flatly as he watches Zee sleep. “Padme came up with it,” Anakin argues. “That doesn’t make it better. I’m just more disappointed.”

In the end, however, he agrees to help by not contradicting Anakin’s claims about his mother’s hair and supporting the story that Padme was pregnant years ago, but complications demanded bed rest.

With the support of her family, handmaidens, a doctor, two Jedi, and a marriage license, the galaxy believes Padme’s claim over the child.

The upside is that everyone who thought they knew the difference between Padme and her body doubles are now uncertain in their ability to tell them apart.

The downside is that the galaxy takes one look at the two Jedi who claimed knowledge of her pregnancy and collectively decides Obi-Wan with his red hair is the more likely father.

Every refutation only makes them more certain. They could conduct a paternity test, but then their lie would be revealed.

The Jedi Council is not pleased with either Anakin for marrying Padme or Obi-Wan for possibly fathering her child. If they let the Council meet Zee, then Obi-Wan could possibly be absolved, but then the Council might discover Zee is Force-sensitive or, worse, that Zee accesses the Dark side.

(Obi-Wan to his growing dismay agrees that Zee does not belong among the Jedi. He trusts them more than Anakin, but agrees that they’d have no idea what to do with a possibly Sith toddler. Obi-Wan himself is entirely unsure what to do.)

Meanwhile, the Chancellor is still missing.

A report arrives that Dooku’s ship passed through the sector where the Chancellor went missing. It is a thin lead, but the only one they have. Consensus unwisely grows: Dooku abducted the Chancellor.

Meanwhile, Padme is getting really tired of all the press about her loose morals and journalists demanding she just admit Obi-Wan is Zee’s father. She smiles gracefully against the barrage, but Zee is exhausting and when he’s upset, her own emotions fall off-kilter (a side-effect of the Dark side, Obi-Wan explained) and one day she just snaps, “Shmi, Anakin’s mother, had red hair. He could be Zee’s father.”

She realizes her mistake as soon as the words pass her lips.

The press takes her statement as confirmation that she is bedding both Anakin and Obi-Wan. Since Anakin and Obi-Wan don’t seem to hate one another, however, a new rumor begins...

Clearly the three are a triad.

The Holonet starts spawning image after image of “proof.” Any smile or casual touch that has ever happened among the three is now evidence of their long-hidden love affair. The false names on the marriage license are explained, by these apparent experts, as a clever way to include all three partners in a Naboo-style wedding.

Meanwhile, Dooku learns from his spies that he has apparently abducted the Chancellor. As he has not, he is concerned.

But! He decides to use the disappearance to create a trap. He’ll pretend to have the Chancellor to lure some Jedi in and then kill or ransom them.

(This is when the rest of the galaxy learns Palpatine is missing.)

Obi-Wan, desperate to get away from the press and disappointing looks of the Council, volunteers to spring the obvious trap. 

(Anakin wants to go. Padme points out that she cannot handle Zee alone. One of them has to stay with her. ....this has not helped the rumors about them being triad).

Obi-Wan gets to Dooku and demands to see the Chancellor. Combat ensues until Obi-Wan wins and Dooku, cuffed, admits he doesn’t have Palpatine. 

He returns to Coruscant with Dooku and brings him before the Jedi Council. Dooku doesn’t reveal anything of import beyond his own lack of knowledge, but his capture does prompt a larger investigation.

While investigating into Palpatine to try and figure out who would have abducted him, a joint taskforce of the Senate and Jedi discover that he’s been orchestrating the entire war and that he’s a Sith.

Meanwhile, back at Padme’s, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme have been caring for Zee. Trying to help Zee control his emotions leads to Anakin figuring out how to better control his own; he sees his own issues more clearly when he finds them in someone else. 

Padme is the one to explain that Zee needs to call her and Anakin “Mama” and “Daddy” or “Papa” for his own safety.

Zee, the little troll that he is, calls Obi-Wan “Papa” in public once when journalists are pressing a bit too close. It is uncertain if he did so because he felt unsafe and was just taking Padme’s earlier explanations to heart or because some deep (adult) part of him dislikes Obi-Wan and enjoys causing him pain.

Naturally, after that, there is nothing Anakin, Padme, or Obi-Wan can say to allay the rumors.

Meanwhile, with Dooku captured and Palpatine’s treachery revealed, the war is quickly brought to a close.

Anakin wants to rage about his former mentor, but is mindful of Zee and instead goes to Obi-Wan and Padme for help handling his sense of betrayal.

Zee has a horrible tantrum when peace is announced, though none of them can understand why. 

Then Padme learns she is pregnant again.

The Council recommends that Anakin and Obi-Wan leave the Order. Anakin’s hurt for himself is lightened by his indignation for Obi-Wan. He apologizes, but Obi-Wan accepts his dismissal with a tired smile. The war is over. Zee is a difficult child to manage and Padme is pregnant. “The Force is guiding me to where I’m needed,” he says.

Anakin is especially grateful he stays when Padme learns she is having twins. (With no reason to hide now, she receives proper medical care).

Padme, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Zee return to Naboo where Padme’s family insists on a proper wedding for the three.

Obi-Wan is surprising sanguine about this. He says that he isn’t going to leave them and isn’t like he has anywhere else to go. A marriage is a promise; it needn’t be a romance. Besides, he has utterly given up on correcting the record.

So they get married all three of them.

When the twins are born, Anakin and Padme rope Obi-Wan into helping. As their husband, he is equally responsible they claim. Obi-Wan argues for the fun of it, but accepts that he will be “Papa” to Anakin’s “Daddy” and Padme’s “Mama.”

By the time the twins are a year old, their marriage is both promise and romance. Shared exhaustion, worry, and joy grows the love among them. The occasional grounding touch turns to comfort turns to desire. This is not the life any of them imagined having, but resistance is both painful and futile. 

Obi-Wan doesn’t mean to fall in love with Anakin and Padme; it is an accident. But once he is in bed with them, Padme pressed against his front, Anakin’s forehead nearly touching hers, his leg hooked over Obi-Wan’s---and he’s watching them breathe as they sleep, he feels deeply at peace, like, after years of wandering and hoping, he has finally found where he belongs.

Years go by. Zee learns to use the Light side, but the Dark calls to him, especially in his dreams. He discovers that he is very, very good at manipulating others.

Maybe his parents instill enough of a moral compass within him that he uses his talents for the good of the galaxy.

Or maybe, as he grows, he discovers the adult he had once been. Maybe he resists, chooses to be Zee instead of Sheev. Or maybe he gives in. Becomes Sith.

Maybe, one day, Zee disappears just as a new, terrible power is rising.

Maybe, one day, while fighting back, Luke learns he is dueling his long-lost, presumed-dead older brother.

Or maybe Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme learn that Zee is actually Sheev with his youth restored. And, maybe Anakin goes out ahead, sacrificing himself in an attempt to get through to his one-time mentor and son.

Good, of course, ultimately wins out, but at what cost?

#star wars #fanfic #not!fic #obianidala #sheev palpatine #deaging #crack!fic

[current-mcr-news]

Behind the Scenes: The Umbrella Academy - Episode 1

BRANDON JENKINS: In 1953, a 25 year old director named Phil Tucker had $16,000 and just four days to make his first sci-fi film. The plot? A creature comes to Earth with a death ray and wipes out all of humanity, except for eight people who are immune to the creature’s weapons. He called the film Robot Monster.

Movie clip: With the swiftness of a deadly cosmic ray, the Earth is inundated by indestructible moon monsters. Their ghastly mission? Death for all humans.

B: The film was so low budget, Tucker couldn’t even afford to get alien costumes, so he had the monster in a gorilla suit with a TV for a head.

Movie clip: What astounding technical developments are being made to protect mankind?

B: The release was a disaster. It was widely panned. Its lasting legacy would’ve been that it was one of the worst movies of all time. But in the early 2000s, a kid from New Jersey with a knack for drawing comics saw a picture of the Robot Monster and it stuck with him.

Gerard Way: I’ve never even actually seen the film, but I saw pictures of this creature over the years, and they’ve got a TV set, kind of circular space looking head, and they have a gorilla body, and I was like, “I want a superhero that’s kind of inspired by this.”

B: The kid’s name was Gerard. He’d been writing comics since he was 15 and was on his way to making it as a professional comic book artist.

WAY: I went to art school and I was an illustration and cartooning major, so comics were kind of like my major, and I was like this perpetual intern. I interned at DC, I pitched a cartoon to Cartoon Network, and then I landed a job as a toy designer at this place called FunHaus in Hoboken. But that’s like right when the band took off.

B: That band, Gerard’s side hustle, would become massive alt-punk sensation, My Chemical Romance. Seemingly overnight, My Chemical Romance and Gerard were making some of the most popular music in the world, getting spins on terrestrial radio, dominating music video countdowns, they were even nominated for a Grammy. But while he traveled across the globe leading a rockstar life, Gerard kept up with his first love - drawing.

WAY: So I really missed comics and we were in Japan and we did a signing at a shop, and one of the fans gave me a little marker set and it was Copic markers. They were like the greatest markers that I’d ever used before, and so I started to create Luther.

B: Luther, a superhero with a gorilla body and space helmet who lives on the moon was the very first character Gerard drew in what would become his hit comic The Umbrella Academy. I’m Branden Jenkins and this is Behind the Scenes: The Umbrella Academy. This season, we’re going backstage and inside the making of season 2. The first season of the show, based on Gerard’s comic of the same name, launched in February of last year and quickly became one of the most beloved series on Netflix. Now it’s back for its second season with bigger effects, bigger characters, and bigger drama. We’re going to catch you up on everything that’s gone down in The Umbrella Academy universe so far, and we’ll spend the next five episodes breaking down how the team shot the multi-million dollar superhero production across two countries, and how in the midst of a global pandemic, they managed to finish it from inside their own homes. But first, we wanted to take a look back and dig into the roots of The Umbrella Academy. So today, I’m catching up with the creators of the comic and the guy tasked with making the TV series. We talk about how the graphic novel was adapted for your screens.

B: Alright, so if you haven’t watched season 1, go back and watch season 1 on Netflix. For those of you who just need a quick recap: At 12pm on October 1, 1989, a supernatural event occurred. Forty-three babies across the planet were born to mothers who were not pregnant just seconds before. The world was confused, intrigued, and one eccentric billionaire wanted to find the babies and adopt them. He ended up with seven. Each baby had a superpower, and what do you do when you’re a billionaire with a group of kids with superpowers? You train them to become a crime fighting family.

Reginald: I give you the inaugural class of The Umbrella Academy!

B: When Gerard Way started creating the members of the Academy, he started with the most fundamental material. 

WAY: I created a list of all the things that interested me. It could be anything from ouija board, fortune teller, spaceman, gorilla body, just a list of stuff.

B: Then he drew from that list and started creating these characters. All in all, he would draw seven. The first, Luther, the half-man half-gorilla, was the team’s defective leader. He was also the child closest with their father. 

Luther: Just at Dad’s favorite spot. Allison: Dad had a favorite spot? Luther: Yeah, you know, under the oak tree. We used to sit out there all the time, none of you ever did that?

B: Next, he created Klaus and Allison, the boy who talks to the dead and the girl who can make people bend to her will with just a few words.

WAY: Klaus, he has some pretty serious addiction and addiction is something that I dealt with in my life. He’s also a little bit spooky and supernatural, and my personality in My Chemical Romance was very similar to that.

Klaus: I can’t just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, “Dad, could you just stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?” Luther: Since when? That’s your thing. Klaus: I’m not in the right frame of mind! Allison: You’re high? Klaus: Yeah yeah! I mean, how are you not listening to this nonsense?

WAY: He was kind of my version of Doctor Strange. I find Allison to be the one that is easiest to write and I put the most of myself into Allison.

B: Her superpower is that she can make you do pretty much anything she tells you with a few magic words.

Allison: I heard a rumor you want to be my friend. I heard a rumor that you like Bradley. I heard a rumor that you left me alone. I heard a rumor that you stop crying.

WAY: There’s a bit of a tragic nature that comes with her power.

B: Allison, out of all of her super powered siblings, is the only one grasping for a normal life - career, husband, children. In a way, she’s the most human. The fourth character Gerard created is Diego, a guy with an uncanny ability to throw knives. He’s also stubborn as hell.

WAY: I knew early on he was gonna be the one that was gonna be really difficult with the leader. I figured that.

Diego: You know, you of all people should be on my side here, Number One. Luther: I am warning you. Diego: After everything he did to you, he had to ship you a million miles away. Luther: Diego, stop talking! Diego: That’s how much he couldn’t stand the sight of you!

B: The fifth character, a kid who can travel through time and space, who simply goes by Five. Despite the other character growing up into adults, he has remained a teenager, sort of.

WAY: He was a time traveler who then got stuck in his young body when he traveled back in time because time travel is complicated. 

Klaus: Where are you going? Five: To get a decent cup of coffee. Allison: Do you even know how to drive? Five: I know how to do everything.

WAY: So then came The Horror.

B: The Horror, aka Ben, aka the dead sibling who only Klaus can see.

WAY: I imagined this character that had all these monsters living under his skin that came from another dimension. And he was very tortured to me. It actually kind of hurts him and it’s scary to him.

Ben: Do I really have to do this? Klaus: Come on, Ben. There’s more guys in the vault. Ben: I didn’t sign up for this.

B: And then finally, Number Seven, Vanya, who seemingly has no powers besides playing the violin.

WAY: I was at this cafe in Manhattan when I was living in Brooklyn, and it was called The Sidewalk Cafe I believe, and on the wall they had a white violin just as decoration. And I remember looking at that and thinking to myself, “That would be a cool superhero.” And Vanya was always kind of designed to be a character who wasn’t special, that was going to transform into that.

Vanya: Look, if I was special I would’ve been in The Umbrella Academy. I’m so sorry you got stuck with the ordinary one.

B: These seven adopted siblings forced together by supernatural events formed The Umbrella Academy. Both the original comic and season 1 of the show start at the funeral for the Academy’s patriarch, the eccentric Sir Reginald Hargreeves. We learn that while the siblings ventured away from home as teenagers, after years of fighting and a toxic upbringing, they’ve returned home, back together for the first time in years, and all their dysfunctions and old conflicts come bubbling to the surface.

Diego: He was a bad person and a worse father. The world’s better off without him. Allison: Diego! Diego: My name is Number Two.

B: When he started writing the comic, Gerard was focused on his own strained relationships. He saw his band as his own dysfunctional family at the time.

WAY: When you’re a baby band, you’re in this van and it’s like a submarine but it’s smaller. It’s like a closet that you're all living in and sometimes you’re going on seventeen hour drives, and you have very strong personalities. This dynamic starts to develop between all of the members and you really do kind of become a dysfunctional family. Like, there’s times where I felt like I was the mom.

GABRIEL BA: They know each other’s weaknesses.

B: Turns out, family dynamics was a theme with everyone who joined the Umbrella team, including the illustrator and Umbrella’s co-creator, a Brazilian artist named Gabriel Ba.

BA: And sometimes they say it to hurt the other intentionally and they do that a lot in Umbrella because they’re all angry at each other all the time. And even though I have a great relationship with my brother, I have that. We have a younger sister as well, so she’s very opinionated and she’s strong. I wouldn’t say we fight a lot, but sometimes we- I just know how to hurt her if I want to say something.

B: Family is present in Gabriel’s life more than for most people. He works every day with his twin brother, fellow comic book artist, Fabio Moon. But his work made him an unconventional choice for Umbrella.

BA: In the mid 90s, we moved away from superheroes. We, my brother and I, we figured the type of story that we liked to tell and wanted to tell was more real life, day by day life relationship, this kind of stuff. 

B: Gabriel grew up in Brazil and now lives in Sao Paulo. His brother had been making experimental comics for well over a decade.

BA: But The Umbrella Academy was a superhero book with this day by day life relationship drama, and that was really interesting for me.

B: What excited Gerard about Gabriel was his style. His characters weren’t macho. They didn’t have big ripped muscles. They’re the kind of comics you could imagine being drawn in the margins of a notebook. There's nothing stereotypically super about them.

BA: It was not a straightforward American superhero artstyle. It was a mix of European and more fluid, but also could handle action and crazy stuff. And also, I can’t deny The Umbrella Academy was my first paid job in the U.S.

B: Wow.

BA: For the first ten years of our career, my brother and I were making comics for free. Just for ourselves, just getting [?], if there were any. So when I got the invitation to get involved with The Umbrella Academy it was this whole package of factors.

WAY: Gabriel climbing on board was a huge thing for us because he’s such a fantastic artist. He brought these characters to life. The interesting thing about Gabriel,  he didn’t have to make Umbrella Academy. He was doing really well on his own and making really experimental artistic comics, but he liked the idea so much that he said, “I’m gonna do superheroes.”

BA: The superhero aspect of The Umbrella Academy is really just a layer in the story. I like the development of these characters, their struggles, their relationships, there’s romance, there’s deception.

Vanya: You are unbelievable, you’re trying to dig up dirt on a guy I like? Who does that? Allison: Look, I’ve had my fair share of stalkers and creeps, I don’t trust him! Vanya: You mean you don’t trust me.

BA: And it had the fun explosions and action scenes. So that’s the good mix.

B: The first book of the comic is called Apocalypse Suite. After their father’s death, The Umbrella Academy gets a warning from their time traveling brother that the world is going to end in 10 days. They don’t know how, they just know that it will. And now, back together for the first time, they’ve got to figure out how to save the planet and learn how to look past their differences. Which sounds dope, right? But when it first published back in 2007, it wasn’t immediately clear that people would dig it.

WAY: So one of the things I was dealing with when Umbrella Academy came out was a lot of people in the press before the comic came out saying things like, “Here’s a musician and he’s writing a comic.” They didn’t really know my background, they didn’t know that I’d written at 15, they didn’t know I went to art school. All they knew was that I was the singer in this rock band that a lot of teenagers liked. So, all I really wanted was a fair shake. I didn’t write The Umbrella Academy to become a TV show or a film. I wrote it to be an amazing comic. But we knew that first issue, and we knew it was good, and we knew that if you didn't get it by the first seven pages you just weren’t gonna like it, and I was totally fine with that. But then it came out and then the response started to happen and then reviewers loved it and people loved it.

B: The comic went on to win an Eisner award, which is like the Oscar of comics, and pretty quickly, Gerard gets an offer to turn the comic into a full length movie.

WAY: I got swept up in the Hollywood thing.

B: But it doesn’t pan out.

WAY: That���s actually one of the reasons why there was such a big gap between comics, is because I was really, you know, I was trying- at the end of the day, I was trying to be helpful. If this was gonna be a movie version of what Gabriel and I had made, I wanted it to be great so I put in a lot of time and it kept me away from the comics.

B: But then Netflix hits you up and is interested in making this into a series.

WAY: Right.

B: I guess I'm curious, as someone who just initially wanted to make just a really good comic, what about turning that project into a television show was interesting?

WAY: Straight up, I want to make a great comic and that’s all I’m really interested in. If I can write great comics, you’ll have great material to make TV shows. So let me focus on that.

B: In other words, Gerard wanted to focus on the comics and let someone else adapt it.

WAY: And that’s when Steve came in and he changed things and he ran with it. 

STEVE BLACKMAN: I’m Steve Blackman, I’m the showrunner and I’m executive producer.

B: Steve is a master at adapting books, comics, and film into television. Before The Umbrella Academy, he’d worked on shows like Fargo, Legion, and Altered Carbon, all of which originated from other sources. So he knew coming in that adaptation can be tricky work.

BLACKMAN: At first, I think Gerard and Gabriel, who co-did this with him, were very protective of the work like parents of their baby. And I think I had to prove to them initially that I would love and protect this child that they had worked on for so many years, so here I am, an outsider coming in and they were very nice to me, but I could see there was like, “Is this guy gonna totally screw up our baby here?”

B: Is it something that you can come to the table with Gerard and be like, “Hey, here’s my arsenal of adaptations, this is why it will work.”

BLACKMAN: Yeah, I worked on the show Fargo for three years. Fargo was obviously based on the Joel and Ethan Coen movie from 1996. I don’t think Gerard had ever seen my shows, I don’t think he watches a lot of television, so for him, it didn’t matter what I’d done before. It’s just what I was gonna do in the here and now on this show. I wasn’t intimidated by the challenge but I really did sort of have a sense of I know which direction I’m going.

B: What was your first initial reaction? Were you sort of like, “Oh, maybe I’ve never done anything like this, or this does feel familiar to other work  that I’ve done.” Or, “I can do this, this is right up my alley.”

BLACKMAN: Well, what I liked about it from the beginning was what I saw in the subject matter and I saw a dysfunctional family. But right away, I was very inspired by Wes Anderson’s work. The Royal Tenenbaums is one of those movies that really was always something I truly loved. So, I saw that in this show.

Five: An entire square block, 42 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but not a single drop of coffee. Vanya: Dad hated caffeine.  Klaus: Well he hated children too and he had plenty of us.

BLACKMAN: It was a family show, it was a very relatable dysfunctional family show that I wanted to tell.

WAY: Steve’s a great collaborator. Steve Blackman, the showrunner, he had a vision. I respected him and his vision. I realized it was gonna be different from the comic, and I let him run with it because he cared deeply about it.

BLACKMAN: My first conversation with Gerard over the phone, I said to him, I told him one of the words was subversive, we wanted to subvert the expectation of what a superhero show could be because there were many other shows, either on the air or coming down the pipe to be next, and we wanted this to stand out. And that was sort of the first hurdle with me, was to say to Gerard that I could do that and I could definitely make this thing feel special. And right away he said, “Okay, yeah. You get it.”

B: You’ve adapted something like Fargo which is a unique adaptation, right? You’re adapting from a different medium, like a feature film. Does that change the way you understand adaptation?

BLACKMAN: At a story point of view, no, I don’t think they’re that different. I think adapting a story, whether it's a graphic novel or the source material comes from a movie, a book, there’s a lot of care into doing it that the tricky thing is, I need to put my creative spin on it. I had Gerard and Gabriel, who lived with this for ten years, and then I have to come in and say, “Look, I’m going to honor you. At the same time, what is the Steve Blackman part of the show? How can I add my spin to it?”

B: For fans of the comic who’ve seen season 1 of the show, you’ll recognize some of that Steve Blackman spin. For example, the group who governs the laws of time in the comics, the Temps Aeternalis, in the TV show they become the Commission, an entire bureaucratic system running and adjusting linear time. Steve made some other changes too. 

WAY: One of the things that I thought was an ingenious idea was making Ben a ghost that Klaus could communicate with. I was most impressed by that change.

Ben: You know what the worst part of being dead is? You’re stuck. Nowhere to go, nowhere to change, that’s the real torture if you gotta know. Watching your brother take for granted everything you lost, and pissing it all away.

B: Perhaps the biggest change from the comic to the show is the diversity of the characters. Diverse in race, diverse in region, diverse in sexual orientation, these characters on screen look a lot more like what the world actually looks like.

WAY: It’s built into it. They’re all from different places, they’re all from different countries, so I think that’s really the biggest improvement on the source material, is how diverse it is.

B: Steve felt the pressure of both fan expectations, and Gerard and Gabriel’s trust in him.

BLACKMAN: There’s nothing worse than having pre-existing source material and having the fans dislike it. You want to make the fans feel honored and respected, at the same time I felt it was incredibly important that Gerard and Gabriel walked out of this thinking, “He did a good job.” If they hated it, I would’ve been crushed. If the fans hated it, I think I’d also be crushed. I knew I couldn’t make everybody happy, but I wasn’t doing a page for page translation. My adaptation wasn’t gonna be that.

B: The adaption worked. Season 1 was a massive success. In the finale of the first season, the Academy thinks they’ve managed to stop the end of the world from happening, but unintentionally, they’ve actually just initiated it. The moon has been destroyed and its remnants are now heading directly for Earth.

Five: We might as well accept our fate because in less than a minute we’re gonna be vaporized.  Diego: What’s your idea then? Five: We use my ability to time travel, but this time I’ll take you with me. Luther: You can do that?

B: The family, latching onto their time traveling brother Five, manage to escape the chaos. But we’re left to wonder where and when they’ll turn up, and that’s where season 2 begins.

Five: We brought the end of the world back here with us. Klaus: Oh my god, again?

BLACKMAN: It’s a pretty crazy journey this year and I think people will be hooked. I hope they binge the hell out of it and love every second of it.

B: Coming up in this season of Behind the Scenes, we’ll be taking you on that crazy journey with the people who make it happen.

“We hired meteorologists, we knew that snow was gonna come, but we had planned it. We went away for a day, we came back, and there was four feet of snow on the ground.”

“It’s 60s Dallas. Okay, so that’s a very different story for Allison. We have to talk about this somehow. Her experience is just different from her siblings.”

EMMY LAMPMAN: And a lot of people would come up to me and apologize for doing their job and I was like, “Please stop apologizing.”

“That was a wishlist fight scene that Steve had always wanted to do.”

“So we actually had our guys throwing plates up in the air and taking photos of them to try to get these UFO imageries.”

“You know, we have a new point in our resume: Can produce and deliver a show during a pandemic.”

B: Behind the Scenes of The Umbrella Academy is a Netflix and Pineapple Street Studios Production. I’m your host, Brandon Jenkins. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. It really does help other people find it. Thank you all for listening. 

#behind the scenes of the umbrella academy #episode 1 #gerard way #gabriel ba #steve blackman #full transcription

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Sacrificial Family - Chapter One

Summary: A child is sacrificed to Dracula by their cultist parents. Completely aghast by this abhorrent behavior displayed by who should be your caretakers, the vampire and his wife decide to adopt them. But welcoming a new addition to the family when you compose of a human doctor, vampire lord, and dhampir child isn't as easy as it seems. [Inspired by this thread: x]

Chapter One: Appearences -

☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆

“See, Lisa, this is exactly the kind of behavior I’m talking about!” Vlad Dracula Tepes yelled, pacing the halls of his Castle. “Vlad, please,” Lisa tried to calm her husband, but to no avail. “Surely, there’s been some sort of misunderstanding.” “Misunderstanding?!” Vlad roared. “They offered up a child as a human sacrifice!” “Maybe it was an accident,” Lisa supplied. “Maybe they were going to offer someone else, and this child just wandered in on purpose.” The Lord of Vampire sighed and rubbed his temples. He loved his wife dearly, but sometimes, she rationalized humanity’s sins too quickly for her own good. 

“They were brought here using a summoning circle, regardless of why they’re the one who’s been delivered here; such an environment is not safe for a child. I would never allow Adrian to be anywhere near any summoning circles or such powerful dark magic at his age.” Lisa narrowed her eyes. “And by ‘such powerful dark magic’, you mean any, right?” Vlad said nothing. “Vlad! He’s still a baby!” “Yes, yes, of course, darling. I meant no dark magic. Adrian’s much too young for any of that now.” Lisa narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, perhaps I did show him a spell or two,” Dracula admitted. “Vlad!” “But he figured out the levitation casting all on his own!” Dracula defended. “I had nothing to do with that. You know how much I despise magical weapons.” It was Lisa’s turn to sigh. “We'll continue this conversation later. Right now the most important thing is keeping this kid safe until we can figure out more.” Lisa was rather glad she was knowledgeable when it came to medicine. The state the poor child was in upon arrival would have absolutely terrified a lesser woman, but the good doctor knew it was simply exhaustion and dehydration: nothing some good rest and warm broth couldn’t fix. “What do you suppose we tell Adrian?” “Just tell him I have a new patient. He’s met some of my other patients before, and this shouldn’t be any different.” “Yes,” Vlad agreed. “But it is the first time you’ve had a magical patient, my dear.” “The child is magic?” Lisa asked, incredulously. “But they look even younger than Adrian!” “I’m not sure yet.” “How is it that you, of all people, are unsure?” “You did usher me out of the room rather quickly, darling,” Vlad teased. “Always so eager to practice your work.” Lisa smiled. “The work that you taught me,” she pulled her husband in for an embrace. “I am forever grateful.” “And I,” Vlad whispered into her ear, “Am grateful to you.” Lisa laughed. “Such a romantic,” Lisa praised. “Whoever would have thought, Vlad the Impaler, could be such a sweet-talker?” “Don’t go spreading rumors, now. I do have a reputation to uphold.” Vlad’s words were serious but his tone was light. Both of them were more than aware of the tightrope their family walked. He was a vampire, a creature of the night, and ruler of demons, commander of armies, and she was a human Doctor a protector and nurturer of life. On paper, they couldn't seem more opposite, but in practice, nothing seemed more right. “And I,” Lisa said, untangling herself from her husband’s limbs, “Have a patient to check on.” “I suspect you wish for me to keep my distance?” Vlad asked his wife. “For the time being,” Lisa confirmed. “Let me inform them of their current situation, first. I’m sure they’ll be frightened enough, waking in a strange environment.” “Yes, yes,” Dracula exhaled. “No big scary vampires around for now.” “Big scary vampires?” Lisa feigned a gasp. “Where?” Her husband chuckled. “Yes, but I am still Count Vlad Dracula,” he reminded. “Yes. You are,” Lisa agreed. “And I love you.” “And I, you.” ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆ When the child woke later that evening, Lisa was right beside her, holding her hand and offering assurances that everything was going to be all right. Much to Lisa’s shock however, the child seemed to be expecting Count Dracula himself. That was… odd. “So where’s Dracula?” The child asked. ‘And rather nonchalantly for that matter,’ Lisa thought. ‘How to go about this…’ “You’re expecting Dracula?” She inquired, hoping to find out more about this child and why they didn’t seem to be afraid in the slightest. “So, you know of him?” “Everybody knows him,” the child replied matter-of-factly. “So then, you were sent here, to meet him?” “No.” The kid shrugged. “I’m here to be eaten.” “You’re here to what?!” Lisa practically shouted the last word. She hadn’t intended to, goodness no. But, this child’s answer caught her by surprise. “I’m a sacrifice.” The kid explained. “It’s okay; you don’t have to feel sorry for me.” And now, they were consoling, her? ‘Get a grip, Doctor,’ Lisa chided herself. ‘Shock is not a good bedside manner.’ Lisa drew in a deep breath. “Alright, let’s start over. My name is Lisa Tepes. What’s your name?” “Eliza Black.” “And your parents' names?” “Mother and Father Black.” “You don’t know their real names?” Lisa tried. “Those are their real names!” Eliza insisted. Lisa put her hands up in surrender. “Okay, if you say so. Now, Eliza,” she started again, “Can you tell me why exactly you were sent here?” “I already told you,” she huffed. “I’m a sacrifice for Dracula.” “Yes, yes,” Lisa repeated, exasperated. “But why were you chosen to be sacrificed to Dracula. You’re just a baby.” “I am not a baby!” Eliza protested. “I’m almost nine years old.” “I see. You’re practically a young lady then,” Lisa pretended. Eliza heaved, indignantly. “You’re not Dracula, and I don’t like you.” Eliza spat. “That’s too bad. Because I’m his wife, and I like you.” Lisa countered the way she used to do with Adrian when he was younger and much more… difficult. Eliza’s eyes shot open at that. “I don’t believe you!” She cried. “You’re lying to me. Just like those other people!” “What other people?” “The Church people! They came and said Dracula wasn’t real, that my parents had lied, but they were wrong! My parents never lied to me! Why did they have to come?” Eliza had begun to sob. “Why did they take us away?” Her little body shook with every wail. ‘Oh, the poor thing!’ Lisa’s heart ached for the little girl. Something horrible had clearly happened to this girl and her family. Moreover, it sounded as if the Church had something to do with it. “The Church took you and your family?” Lisa tried again. “They said our magic was evil. That it was against the will of God! But they don’t understand.” “‘Don’t understand’ what?” “You need both!” the little girl explained the best she could through her tears. “You need a balance of black and white magic in the world, otherwise there will be chaos. It, it has to be even,” she wept, “Otherwise… otherwise,” she trailed off into unintelligible sobs. Lisa, not being able to bear the girl’s suffering any longer, pulled her close, against her body. “There, there,” she cooed. “It’s going to be alright. You’re safe now, and no one, not the Church or anyone is going to harm you. Is that understood?” The girl nodded against the fabric of Lisa’s dress. “Oh, darling,” she whispered and continued to rock the girl back and forth as if she were a colicky infant. Medicine was great and covered many things, but emotional wounds were not something so easily treated. The malaise and hunger would subside, but in their wake, there would reside a hollow ache in this poor little girl’s chest. For the first time in a long time, Lisa Tepes was unsure of what to do. She didn’t like not knowing how to help people; it made her feel weak and useless. She desperately wanted to make everything better for this little girl, this poor, poor child who had been through so much at such a young age, nonetheless! She dreaded the day Adrian suffered any such loss. She knew it was inevitable; such was life, but still, as a mother, and it was her job to delay that day as long as she could. She supposed that was why her mother had always told her parenthood was so hard. Not because of the physical or monetary demands, oh no, but because of the emotional ones. Looking back down at the small girl in her arms, Dr. Tepes was pleased to find she had once again fallen asleep. ‘That’s probably for the best,’ she figured. The girl was bound to be emotional anyway; she didn’t need the sensitivity of sleep deprivation in addition to that. Gently, she laid the girl back down, on the cot in her patient room. Thankfully she was otherwise unoccupied with patients, as the illness and fevers tended to die down in the warmer, summer months. ‘It was such a lovely day too,’ Lisa mused, placing a light blanket over the girl’s small, frail body. ‘And then, this happened.’ She had no idea how the portal, that’s what Vlad called it, had opened up. Or why it chose their front step of all places to appear. She supposed she did have to be grateful to the fact that Adrian wasn’t hurt, or even startled by the portal’s sudden appearance. He was coming up on five human years but had the height and weight of a ten-year-old human. “Dhampir’s age quickly,” Vlad had told her. “Do not worry.” ‘Ha!’ Lisa remembered. ‘Yeah, don't worry,’ he had said. As if she couldn’t tell he was as frightened as she was, if not more about the whole thing. Vlad had never fathered a child before, not even in his human life if she recalled his vague answers correctly; he didn’t exactly enjoy talking about his past lives. It was such a life-changing experience, for both of them. ‘I’m lucky to be able to experience it.’ Lisa grimly recalled. Half-vampire pregnancies were difficult; much more difficult than human ones. She knew her husband was skilled, but even he and his knowledge alone were not enough to keep her together through the carrying and the birth. Vlad had called on other magicians, other creatures: some dark and some light. She wasn’t a huge believer in magic when she had met him. “Magic is just science we don’t understand yet,” she had told him. He laughed at that. Now, she supposed, she could no longer deny magic’s existence, but that didn’t change the fact that she wished to ignore it. She dealt in the factual, the scientific; her entire life’s work was built upon true theories and provable facts. Yes, she loved her husband and every part that made him, him. And so to that extent, she loved magic. Nevertheless, she did not wish to use it, nor did she wish to understand it. Giving birth to Adrian was the closest she had ever come to magic, and for her family's sake, she never wished to come that close to it again. But now, she was dealing with this girl; this girl, whose family clearly practiced magic. This girl, who lived her life in it, most likely, and was now paying the price. Lisa remembered, she had asked Vlad once why he didn’t use as much magic when she started coming around. He explained how most magic is intent, and as long as the user and the user’s intent were strong enough, they would be the master of the magic and not the other way around. The very conversation still haunted her to this day. “But,” he went on to say, “There is a give and take in magic, as there is in all things. In order to create, you must take, but in order to take, you must sacrifice.” “What do you sacrifice?” She had asked in response. “Yourself,” he had said. “You give away pieces of your soul, your peace of mind, your tranquility: your happiness.” He spoke those words the night he had admitted his feelings for her and she likewise. Of course, it took some prying on her part for the stubborn old vampire to open up. “So, you no longer want to use as much magic because?” She asked, trying to get him to just spit out whatever truth he kept dancing around. “Because for the first time in a long time, I believe my happiness has returned,” he said, being so bold to even take her small human hand in his much larger, grey one. “And I do not want to lose it, anytime soon.” Lisa smiled fondly at the memory. ‘He was always so melodramatic, wasn’t he? Even in the beginning.’ She teased him outwardly, but on the inside, they both knew, she wouldn’t have it any other way. The three of them, Vlad, Adrian, and herself were happy. They were settled and well adjusted. Vlad even seemed to become more open to her suggestion of moving their family back to her hometown of Lupu. That way, she could practice medicine more often, and be closer to her patients. Together, the three of them were perfect. ‘So then,’ Lisa wondered, looking down at her sleeping patient. ‘Where does that leave you?’ ☆ ♥ ☆ ♥ ☆

A/N: Remember when I said COVID19 lockdowns would mean more writing time? Yeah, I forgot that it meant my entire family would also be stuck with me. Bye-bye productivity!

This is my first multi-chapter story on this blog, so I’m still kind of testing the waters. Let me know what you think.

(Might become an Alucard x OC fic; might not. Let me know which one you’d prefer.)

#castlevania fanfiction #castlevania imagines #castlevania imagine #vlad dracula tepes #Lisa Tepes #adrian fahrenheit tepes #Castlevania #cs #sacrificial family

[almond-lebkuchen]

Shakespeare Route Summary Chapter 18.

Ahhh I love this chapter so much, it’s very very cute with a smidge of angst. It’s lovely honestly. Spoilers below the line cut

The instant Will sees that the MC is awake, he goes to her and asks her if she’s alright, if her injuries hurt at all. MC reassures him that she’s alright, and her arm doesn’t hurt much. She asks Will if she’s in a hospital. Will confirms, ans says that he brought her to a doctor that he’s acquainted with, and the doctor said that her injury wouldn’t leave a scar. MC smiles at Shakespeare and tells him that then it’s thanks to the doctor that nothing hurts.

Shakespeare sighs, saying “I’m glad, as he wouldn’t know what to do if she didn’t wake up...” MC assures him that since it was only a cut on her arm, something like that wouldn’t happen. As a small silence stretches between them, the MC hesitantly speaks up and asks Will if he’s not hurt himself? Will replies that he wasn’t, and quietly reminisces how the first time they met, MC was surrounded by men as well who had a knife. MC recalls how strong he was in fighting them off. She wonders if maybe she got in the way this time as well, and apologizes to him. Will tells her to stop apologizing, as he should be the one doing that. Then the MC changes the subject, asking him who the woman was, as she recognized her from the bar, shouting about the murder of her fiance. Will says that it was just a woman who bore a grudge against him and decided to turn a blade to him as punishment.

Shakespeare sighs in frustration and questions her as to why she took the blade for him. He says that the MC is supposed to hate him, because he’s trying to do harm to the residents of the mansion that she holds dear. He puts his hands on his knees, squeezing them until his knuckles turn white.

He says that also...“He’s a murderer.”

The MC looks at him, her chest tight. She asks him hesitantly if he really killed that woman’s fiance to feed his love of tragedy and for his creation. Will doesn’t look at her, only saying that is the rumor about him. The MC moves closer to him, saying that while she hates how he manipulates her and wants to harm to mansion, it’s also her desire to want to know him better. She says that she doesn’t believe in the rumor that Will killed someone. After a second, Will laughs at her, saying how she’s really too good of a person. The MC reprimands him, and tells him that he can’t fool her anymore. She says that he’s the kind of person to disregard danger to himself to save a drowning child. She says that since Will was with such a terrible illness once, he knows the value of life more than anyone else. She adds on that if he really had no hesitation about killing people, he would have murdered her long ago. That Will didn’t have to sign a contract with her for her silence, it would have been much simpler and safer just to get rid of her, but instead he let her go live with him. Shakespeare protests at her words, saying that Comte would have found out if he did. The MC shakes her head, and tells him that if he could write such amazing plays with precision, he could have most easily come up with a story to excuse her disappearance.

Will is then silent for a long while. Then he reaches out  and touches her cheek gently. He tells her that he hasn’t said a single truth to her, and yet, she looks straight through him. He asks her why she’s trying so hard to believe in him.

The MC takes a deep breath and tells him the truth. “I’m probably...no, I’m sure that I’m in love with you.”

Will is shocked, and stutters in confusion at her words. The MC tells him that she didn’t think she would fall for him at all since he’s her enemy, but she did, because she saw deep down that he was just this fragile person who had no confidence in himself. She continues to say that she might be a fool, but it was kind of strange that before she knew it, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. And that she’s come to love every one of Will’s faces. Will smiles bitterly at her words and asks her if she thinks the mansion residents can be saved if she messes around with him? He then laughs and comments how women can be scary. MC, annoyed tells him to please listen to her! He tells her that he is, that she could end up writing a better drama story than him. MC thinks to himself how he’s running away at this moment, covering up his emotions.

So she turns to Will and kisses him.

She eventually pulls back, and asks him if he can doubt her feelings now? She tells him that when she first signed a contract with him, she was scared of him, but she knew that she had to stay by Will to protect the mansion residents. TO watch him, and think of ways to stop him in the meantime. She says to him that she finally found a way to do that. Will then asks her what it is? The MC proceeds to say that she’ll do that by continuing to watch over him, to stay by his side forever. She starts to say something else as well, but then all of a sudden, the door bursts open and Comte comes in, shouting their names.

Will asks Comte how he knew they were here? Comte replies that Leonardo told him. He then says that while he knows that Shakespeare wasn’t the one to hurt her, Shakespeare is caught up in a dangerous situation, so he can’t leave the MC with him anymore. 

End of chapter.

THE MC IS SUCH A ROMANTIC I SWEAR. And Comte, I swear, why do you always turn up in the worst moments, honestly...Also Will stuttering, shocked at her declaration of love gave me life.

Next chapter link:

#Ikemen Vampire #Ikevamp #Ikemen vampire shakespeare #Ikevamp Shakespeare #Shakespeare route summary #My translations

[quicontent]

Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness Report Debunks Scary Rumors

The Doctor Strange sequel was the focus of the most recent trailer, released during the Super Bowl, but the original trailer emphasized the darker and scarier mystical elements. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness looks to be the biggest project since the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame, despite all the chaos and surprises that Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered.

#doctor strange 2 #scarlet witch #wanda marvel #doctor strange 2 trailer #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #doctor strange scary rumors #quicontent