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‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at 25: An Oral History of Disney’s Darkest Animated Classic

Posted on Slashfilm on Monday, June 21st, 2021 by Josh Spiegel

“This Is Going to Change Your Life”

The future directors of The Hunchback of Notre Dame were riding high from the success of Beauty and the Beast. Or, at least, they were happy to be finished.

Gary Trousdale, director: After Beauty and the Beast, I was exhausted. Plus, Kirk and I were not entirely trusted at first, because we were novices. I was looking forward to going back to drawing.

Kirk Wise, director: It was this crazy, wonderful roller-coaster ride. I had all this vacation time and I took a couple months off.

Gary Trousdale: A little later, it was suggested: “If you want to get back into directing, start looking for a project. You can’t sit around doing nothing.”

Kirk Wise: [Songwriters] Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty had a pitch called Song of the Sea, a loose retelling of the Orpheus myth with humpback whales. I thought it was very strong.

Gary Trousdale: We were a few months in, and there was artwork and a rough draft. There were a couple tentative songs, and we were getting a head of steam.

Kirk Wise: The phone rang. It was Jeffrey [Katzenberg, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios], saying, “Drop everything. I got your next picture: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Gary Trousdale: “I’ve already got Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. You’re going to do this.” It wasn’t like we were given a choice. It was, “Here’s the project. You’re on.”

Kirk Wise: I was pleased that [Jeffrey] was so excited about it. I think the success of Beauty and the Beast had a lot to do with him pushing it our way. It would’ve been crazy to say no.

Gary Trousdale: What [Kirk and I] didn’t know is that Alan and Stephen were being used as bait for us. And Jeffrey was playing us as bait for Alan and Stephen.

Alan Menken, composer: Jeffrey made reference to it being Michael Eisner’s passion project, which implied he was less enthused about it as a story source for an animated picture.

Stephen Schwartz, lyricist: They had two ideas. One was an adaptation of Hunchback and the other was about whales. We chose Hunchback. I’d seen the [Charles Laughton] movie. Then I read the novel and really liked it.

Peter Schneider, president of Disney Feature Animation (1985-99): I think what attracted Stephen was the darkness. One’s lust for something and one’s power and vengeance, and this poor, helpless fellow, Quasimodo.

Roy Conli, co-producer: I was working at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, doing new play development. I was asked if I’d thought about producing animation. I said, “Yeah, sure.”

Don Hahn, producer: The goose had laid lots of golden eggs. The studio was trying to create two units so they could have multiple films come out. Roy was tasked with something hard, to build a crew out of whole cloth.

Kirk Wise: The idea appealed to me because [of] the setting and main character. I worked with an elder story man, Joe Grant, [who] goes back to Snow White. He said, “Some of the best animation ideas are about a little guy with a big problem.” Hunchback fit that bill.

Gary Trousdale: It’s a story I always liked. When Jeffrey said, “This is going to change your life,” Kirk and I said, “Cool.” When I was a kid, I [had an] Aurora Monster Model of Quasimodo lashed to the wheel. I thought, “He’s not a monster.”

Don Hahn: It’s a great piece of literature and it had a lot of elements I liked. The underdog hero. [He] was not a handsome prince. I loved the potential.

Gary Trousdale: We thought, “What are we going to do to make this dark piece of literature into a Disney cartoon without screwing it up?”

Peter Schneider: The subject matter is very difficult. The conflict was how far to go with it or not go with it. This is basically [about] a pederast who says “Fuck me or you’ll die.” Right?

“We Were Able to Take More Chances”

Wise and Trousdale recruited a group of disparate artists from the States and beyond to bring the story of Quasimodo the bell-ringer to animated life.

Paul Brizzi, sequence director: We were freshly arrived from Paris.

Gaëtan Brizzi, sequence director: [The filmmakers] were looking for a great dramatic prologue, and they couldn’t figure [it] out. Paul and I spent the better part of the night conceiving this prologue. They said, “You have to storyboard it. We love it.”

Roy Conli: We had two amazing artists in Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi who became spiritual leaders in the production. They were so incredible.

Gaëtan Brizzi: [“The Bells of Notre Dame”] was not supposed to be a song first.

Paul Brizzi: The prologue was traditional in the Disney way. Gaëtan and I were thinking of German expressionism to emphasize the drama. I’m not sure we could do that today.

Paul Kandel, voice of Clopin: They were toying with Clopin being the narrator. So they wrote “The Bells of Notre Dame” to open the movie.

Stephen Schwartz: [Alan and I] got called into a presentation, and on all these boards [was] laid out “The Bells of Notre Dame.” We musicalized the story they put up there. We used the pieces of dialogue they invented for Frollo and the other characters. I wrote lyrics that described the narrative. It was very exciting. I had never written a song like that.

Kirk Wise: Early on, we [took] a research trip with the core creative team to Paris. We spent two weeks all over Notre Dame. They gave us unrestricted access, going down into the catacombs. That was a huge inspiration.

Don Hahn: To crawl up in the bell towers and imagine Quasimodo there, to see the bells and the timbers, the scale of it all is unbelievable.

Kirk Wise: One morning, I was listening to this pipe organ in this shadowy cathedral, with light filtering through the stained-glass windows. The sound was so powerful, I could feel it thudding in my chest. I thought, “This is what the movie needs to feel like.”

Brenda Chapman, story: It was fun to sit in a room and draw and think up stuff. I liked the idea of this lonely character up in a bell tower and how we could portray his imagination.

Kathy Zielinski, supervising animator, Frollo: It was the earliest I’ve ever started on a production. I was doing character designs for months. I did a lot of design work for the gargoyles, as a springboard for the other supervisors.

James Baxter, supervising animator, Quasimodo: Kirk and Gary said, “We’d like you to do Quasimodo.” [I thought] that would be such a cool, amazing thing to do. They wanted this innocent vibe to him. Part of the design process was getting that part of his character to read.

Will Finn, head of story/supervising animator, Laverne: Kirk and Gary wanted me on the project. Kirk, Gary, and Don Hahn gave me opportunities no one else would have, and I am forever grateful.

Kathy Zielinski: I spent several months doing 50 or 60 designs [for Frollo]. I looked at villainous actors. Actually, one was Peter Schneider. [laughing] Not to say he’s a villain, but a lot of the mannerisms and poses. “Oh, that looks a little like Peter.”

James Baxter: I was doing design work on the characters with Tony Fucile, the animator on Esmerelda. I think Kirk and Gary felt Beauty and the Beast had been disparate and the characters weren’t as unified as they wanted.

Kathy Zielinski: Frollo stemmed from Hans Conried [the voice of Disney’s Captain Hook]. He had a longish nose and a very stern-looking face. Frollo was modeled a little bit after him.

Will Finn: The team they put together was a powerhouse group – Brenda Chapman, Kevin Harkey, Ed Gombert, and veterans like Burny Mattinson and Vance Gerry. I felt funny being their “supervisor.”

Kathy Zielinski: Half my crew was in France, eight hours ahead. We were able to do phone calls. But because of the time difference, our end of the day was their beginning of the morning. I was working a lot of late hours, because [Frollo] was challenging to draw.

Kirk Wise: Our secret weapon was James Baxter, who animated the ballroom sequence [in Beauty and the Beast] on his own. He had a unique gift of rotating characters in three-dimensional space perfectly.

Gary Trousdale: James Baxter is, to my mind, one of the greatest living animators in the world.

James Baxter: I’ve always enjoyed doing things that were quite elaborate in terms of camera movement and three-dimensional space. I’m a glutton for punishment, because those shots are very hard to do.

Gary Trousdale: In the scene with Quasimodo carrying Esmeralda over his shoulder, climbing up the cathedral, he looks back under his arms, snarling at the crowd below. James called that his King Kong moment.

As production continued, Roy Conli’s position shifted, as Don Hahn joined the project, and Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney in heated fashion in 1994.

Roy Conli: Jeffrey was going to create his own animation studio. Peter Schneider was interested in maintaining a relationship with Don Hahn. We were into animation, ahead of schedule. They asked Don if he would produce and if I would run the studio in Paris.

Don Hahn: Roy hadn’t done an animated film before. I was able to be a more senior presence. I’d worked with Kirk and Gary before, which I enjoy. They’re unsung heroes of these movies.

Kirk Wise: The [production] pace was more leisurely. As leisurely as these things can be. We had more breathing room to develop the storyboards and the script and the songs.

Gary Trousdale: Jeffrey never liked characters to have facial hair. No beards, no mustaches, nothing. There’s original designs of Gaston [with] a little Errol Flynn mustache. Jeffrey hated it. “I don’t want any facial hair.” Once he left, we were like, “We could give [Phoebus] a beard now.”

Kirk Wise: The ballroom sequence [in Beauty] gave us confidence to incorporate more computer graphics into Hunchback. We [had] to create the illusion of a throng of thousands of cheering people. To do it by hand would have been prohibitive, and look cheap.

Stephen Schwartz: Michael Eisner started being more hands-on. Michael was annoyed at me for a while, because when Jeffrey left, I accepted the job of doing the score for Prince of Egypt. I got fired from Mulan because of it. But once he fired me, Michael couldn’t have been a more supportive, positive colleague on Hunchback.

Kirk Wise: [The executives] were distracted. We were able to take more chances than we would have under the circumstances that we made Beauty and the Beast.

Don Hahn: Hunchback was in a league of its own, feeling like we [could] step out and take some creative risks. We could have done princess movies forever, and been reasonably successful. Our long-term survival relied on trying those risks.

One sticking point revolved around Notre Dame’s gargoyles, three of whom interact with Quasimodo, but feel more lighthearted than the rest of the dark story.

Gary Trousdale: In the book and several of the movies, Quasimodo talks to the gargoyles. We thought, “This is Disney, we’re doing a cartoon. The gargoyles can talk back.” One thing led to another and we’ve got “A Guy Like You.”

Kirk Wise: “A Guy Like You” was literally created so we could lighten the mood so the audience wasn’t sitting in this trough of despair for so long.

Stephen Schwartz: Out of context, the number is pretty good. I think I wrote some funny lyrics. But ultimately it was a step too far tonally for the movie and it has been dropped from the stage version.

Gary Trousdale: People have been asking for a long time: are they real? Are they part of Quasimodo’s personality? There were discussions that maybe Quasimodo is schizophrenic. We never definitively answered it, and can argue convincingly both ways.

Jason Alexander, voice of Hugo: I wouldn’t dream of interfering with anyone’s choice on that. It’s ambiguous for a reason and part of that reason is the viewers’ participation in the answer. Whatever you believe about it, I’m going to say you’re right.

Brenda Chapman: I left before they landed on how [to play] the gargoyles. My concern was, what are the rules? Are they real? Are they in his imagination? What can they do? Can they do stuff or is it all Quasi? I looked at it a little askance in the finished film. I wasn’t sure if I liked how it ended up…[Laverne] with the boa on the piano.

Kirk Wise: There was a component of the audience that felt the gargoyles were incompatible with Hunchback. But all of Disney’s movies, including the darkest ones, have comic-relief characters. And Disney was the last person to treat the written word as gospel.

“A Fantastic Opportunity”

After a successful collaboration on Pocahontas, Menken and Schwartz worked on turning Victor Hugo’s tragic story into a musical.

Alan Menken: The world of the story was very appealing, and it had so much social relevance and cultural nuance.

Stephen Schwartz: The story lent itself quite well to musicalization because of the extremity of the characters and the emotions. There was a lot to sing about. There was a great milieu.

Alan Menken: To embed the liturgy of the Catholic Church into a piece of music that’s operatic and also classical and pop-oriented enriches it in a very original way. Stephen was amazing. He would take the theme from the story and specifically set it in Latin to that music.

Stephen Schwartz: The fact that we were doing a piece set in a church allowed us to use all those elements of the Catholic mass, and for Alan to do all that wonderful choral music.

Alan Menken: The first creative impulse was “Out There.” I’m a craftsman. I’m working towards a specific assignment, but that was a rare instance where that piece of music existed.

Stephen Schwartz: I would come in with a title, maybe a couple of lines for Alan to be inspired by. We would talk about the whole unit, its job from a storytelling point of view. He would write some music. I could say, “I liked that. Let’s follow that.” He’d push a button and there would be a sloppy printout, enough that I could play it as I was starting the lyrics.

Roy Conli: Stephen’s lyrics are absolutely phenomenal. With that as a guiding light, we were in really good shape.

Stephen Schwartz: Alan played [the “Out There” theme] for me, and I really liked it. I asked for one change in the original chorus. Other than that, the music was exactly as he gave it to me.

Gary Trousdale: Talking with these guys about music is always intimidating. There was one [lyric] Don and I both questioned in “Out There,” when Frollo is singing, “Why invite their calumny and consternation?” Don and I went, “Calumny?” Kirk said, “Nope, it’s OK, I saw it in an X-Men comic book.” I went, “All right! It’s in a comic book! It’s good.”

Stephen Schwartz: Disney made it possible for me to get into Notre Dame before it opened to the public. I’d climb up the steps to the bell tower. I’d sit there with my yellow pad and pencil. I’d have the tune for “Out There” in my head, and I would look out at Paris, and be Quasimodo. By the time we left Paris, the song was written.

Kirk Wise: Stephen’s lyrics are really smart and literate. I don’t think the comical stuff was necessarily [his] strongest area. But this movie was a perfect fit, because the power of the emotions were so strong. Stephen just has a natural ability to connect with that.

Will Finn: The directors wanted a funny song for the gargoyles and Stephen was not eager to write it. He came to me and Irene Mecchi and asked us to help him think of comedy ideas for “A Guy Like You,” and we pitched a bunch of gags.

Jason Alexander: Singing with an orchestra the likes of which Alan and Stephen and Disney can assemble is nirvana. It’s electrifying and gives you the boost to sing over and over. Fortunately, everyone was open to discovery. I love nuance and intention in interpretation. I was given wonderful freedom to find both.

Stephen Schwartz: “Topsy Turvy,” it’s one of those numbers of musical theater where you can accomplish an enormous amount of storytelling. If you didn’t have that, you’d feel you were drowning in exposition. When you put it in the context of the celebration of the Feast of Fools, you could get a lot of work done.

Paul Kandel: The first time I sang [“Topsy Turvy”] through, I got a little applause from the orchestra. That was a very nice thing to happen and calm me down a little bit.

Brenda Chapman: Poor Kevin Harkey must’ve worked on “Topsy Turvy” for over a year. Just hearing [singing] “Topsy turvy!” I thought, “I would shoot myself.” It’s a fun song, but to listen to that, that many times. I don’t know if he ever got to work on anything else.

Paul Kandel: There were places where I thought the music was squarer than it needed to be. I wanted to round it out because Clopin is unpredictable. Is he good? Is he bad? That’s what I was trying to edge in there.

Kirk Wise: “God Help the Outcasts” made Jeffrey restless. I think he wanted “Memory” from Cats. Alan and Stephen wrote “Someday.” Jeffrey said, “This is good, but it needs to be bigger!” Alan was sitting at his piano bench, and Jeffrey was next to him. Jeffrey said, “When I want it bigger, I’ll nudge you.” Alan started playing and Jeffrey was jabbing him in the ribs. “Bigger, bigger!”

Don Hahn: In terms of what told the story better, one song was poetic, but the other was specific. “Outcasts” was very specific about Quasimodo. “Someday” was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Kirk Wise: When Don watched the movie, he said, “It’s working pretty well. But ‘Someday,’ I don’t know. It feels like she’s yelling at God.” We played “God Help the Outcasts” for him and Don said, “Oh, this is perfect.” That song is the signature of the entire movie.

Don Hahn: “Someday” was lovely. But I had come off of working with Howard Ashman, and I felt, “This doesn’t move the plot forward much, does it?” We ended up with “Someday” as an end-credits song, which was fortunate. ‘Cause they’re both good songs.

Kirk Wise: It was all about what conveys the emotion of the scene and the central theme of the movie best. “God Help the Outcasts” did that.

Everyone agrees on one point.

Stephen Schwartz: Hunchback is Alan’s best score. And that’s saying a lot, because he’s written a whole bunch of really good ones.

Gary Trousdale: With Hunchback, there were a couple of people that said, “This is why I chose music as a career.” Alan and Stephen’s songs are so amazing, so that’s really something.

Paul Kandel: It has a beautiful score.

Jason Alexander: It has the singularly most sophisticated score of most of the animated films of that era.

Roy Conli: The score of Hunchback is one of the greatest we’ve done.

Don Hahn: This is Alan’s most brilliant score. The amount of gravitas Alan put in the score is amazing.

Alan Menken: It’s the most ambitious score I’ve ever written. It has emotional depth. It’s a different assignment. And it was the project where awards stopped happening. It’s almost like, “OK, now you’ve gone too far.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s astonishing that Alan has won about 173 Academy Awards, and the one score he did not win for is his best score.

The film featured marquee performers singing covers of “God Help the Outcasts” and “Someday”. But one of the most famous performers ever nearly brought those songs to life.

Alan Menken: I met Michael Jackson when we were looking for someone to sing “A Whole New World” for Aladdin. Michael wanted to co-write the song. I could get a sense of who Michael was. He was a very unique, interesting individual…in his own world.

I get a call out of nowhere from Michael’s assistant, when Michael was at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York. He had to [deal with] allegations about inappropriate behavior with underage kids, and the breakup with Lisa Marie Presley. He’s looking to change the subject. And he obviously loves Disney so much. So I mentioned Hunchback. He said he’d love to come to my studio, watch the movie and talk about it. So we got in touch with Disney Animation. They said, “Meet with him! If he likes it…well, see what he says.” [laughing]

There’s three songs. One was “Out There,” one was “God Help the Outcasts,” one was “Someday.” Michael said, “I would like to produce the songs and record some of them.” Wow. Okay. What do we do now? Michael left. We got in touch with Disney. It was like somebody dropped a hot poker into a fragile bowl with explosives. “Uh, we’ll get back to you about that.”

Finally, predictably, the word came back, “Disney doesn’t want to do this with Michael Jackson.” I go, “OK, could someone tell him this?” You can hear a pin drop, no response, and nobody did [tell him]. It fell to my late manager, Scott Shukat, to tell Michael or Michael’s attorney.

In retrospect, it was the right decision. [But] Quasimodo is a character…if you look at his relationships with his family and his father, I would think there’s a lot of identification there.

“They’re Never Going to Do This Kind of Character Again”

The film is known for the way it grapples with the hypocrisy and lust typified by the villainous Judge Frollo, whose terrifying song “Hellfire” remains a high point of Disney animation.

Gary Trousdale: Somebody asked me recently: “How the hell did you get ‘Hellfire’ past Disney?” It’s a good question.

Alan Menken: When Stephen and I wrote “Hellfire,” I was so excited by what we accomplished. It really raised the bar for Disney animation. It raised the bar for Stephen’s and my collaboration.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought the would never let me get away with [“Hellfire”]. And they never asked for a single change.

Alan Menken: Lust and religious conflict. Now more than ever, these are very thorny issues to put in front of the Disney audience. We wanted to go at it as truthfully as possible.

Stephen Schwartz: When Alan and I tackled “Hellfire,” I did what I usually did: write what I thought it should be and assume that [Disney would] tell me what I couldn’t get away with. But they accepted exactly what we wrote.

Don Hahn: Every good song score needs a villain’s moment. Stephen and Alan approached it with “Hellfire.”

Alan Menken: It was very clear, we’d thrown the gauntlet pretty far. It was also clear within our creative team that everybody was excited about going there.

Don Hahn: You use all the tools in your toolkit, and one of the most powerful ones was Alan and Stephen. Stephen can be dark, but he’s also very funny. He’s brilliant.

Gary Trousdale: The [MPAA] said, “When Frollo says ‘This burning desire is turning me to sin,’ we don’t like the word ‘sin.’” We can’t change the lyrics now. It’s all recorded. Kinda tough. “What if we just dip the volume of the word ‘sin’ and increase the sound effects?” They said, “Good.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s one of the most admirable things [laughs] I have ever seen Disney Animation do. It was very supportive and adventurous, which is a spirit that…let’s just say, I don’t think [the company would] make this movie today.

Don Hahn: It’s funny. Violence is far more accepted than sex in a family movie. You can go see a Star Wars movie and the body count’s pretty huge, but there’s rarely any sexual innuendo.

Kathy Zielinski: I got to watch [Tony Jay] record “Hellfire” with another actor. I was sweating watching him record, because it was unbelievably intense. Afterwards, he asked me, “Did you learn anything from my performance?” I said, “Yeah, I never want to be a singer.” [laughing]

Paul Kandel: Tony Jay knocked that out of the park. He [was] an incredible guy. Very sweet. He was terrified to record “Hellfire.” He was at a couple of my sessions. He went, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen when it’s my turn? I don’t sing. I’m not a singer. I never pretended to be a singer.” I said, “Look, I’m not a singer. I’m an actor who figured out that they could hold a tune.”

Kathy Zielinski: I listened to Tony sing “Hellfire” tons. I knew I had gone too far when, one morning, we were sitting at the breakfast table and my daughter, who was two or three at the time, started singing the song and doing the mannerisms. [laughs]

Don Hahn: We didn’t literally want to show [Frollo’s lust]. It turns into a Fantasia sequence, almost. A lot of the imagery is something you could see coming out of Frollo’s imagination. It’s very impressionistic. It does stretch the boundaries of what had been done before at Disney.

Kirk Wise: We stylized it like “Night on Bald Mountain.” The best of Walt’s films balanced very dark and light elements. Instead of making it explicit, we tried to make it more visual and use symbolic imagery.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We were totally free. We could show symbolically how sick Frollo is between his hate and his carnal desire.

Kathy Zielinski: The storyboards had a tremendous influence. Everybody was incredibly admiring of the work that [Paul and Gaëtan] had done.

Don Hahn: They brought the storyboarded sequence to life in a way that is exactly what the movie looks like. The strength of it is that we didn’t have to show anything as much as we did suggest things to the audience. Give the audience credit for filling in the blanks.

Gary Trousdale: It was absolutely gorgeous. Their draftsmanship and their cinematography. They are the top. They pitched it with a cassette recording of Stephen singing “Hellfire”, and we were all in the story room watching it, going “Oh shit!”

Paul Brizzi: When Frollo is at the fireplace with Esmeralda’s scarf, his face is hypnotized. From the smoke, there’s the silhouette of Esmeralda coming to him. She’s naked in our drawings.

Gary Trousdale: We joked, maybe because they’re French, Esmeralda was in the nude when she was in the fire. Roy Disney put his foot down and said, “That’s not going to happen.” Chris Jenkins, the head of effects, and I went over every drawing to make sure she was appropriately attired. That was the one concession we made to the studio.

Gaëtan Brizzi: It’s the role of storyboard artists to go far, and then you scale it down. Her body was meant to be suggestive. It was more poetic than provocative.

Brenda Chapman: I thought what the Brizzis did with “Hellfire” was just stunning.

Roy Conli: We make films for people from four to 104, and we’re trying to ensure that the thematic material engages adults and engages children. We had a lot of conversations on “Hellfire,” [which] was groundbreaking. You saw the torment, but you didn’t necessarily, if you were a kid, read it as sexual. And if you were an adult, you picked it up pretty well.

Will Finn: “Hellfire” was uncomfortable to watch with a family audience. I’m not a prude, but what are small kids to make of such a scene?

Kathy Zielinski: When I was working on “Hellfire,” I thought, “Wow. They’re never going to do this kind of character again.” And I’m pretty much right.

“Straight for the Heart”

“Hellfire” may be the apex of the maturity of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but the entire film is the most complex and adult Disney animated feature of the modern era.

Gary Trousdale: We went straight for the heart and then pulled back.

Kirk Wise: I was comfortable with moments of broad comedy contrasted with moments that were dark or scary or violent. All of the Disney movies did that, particularly in Walt’s time.

Don Hahn: A lot of it is gut level, where [the story group would] sit around and talk to ourselves and pitch it to executives. But Walt Disney’s original animated films were really dark. We wanted to create something that had the impact of what animation can do.

Will Finn: Eisner insisted we follow the book to the letter, but he said the villain could not be a priest, and we had to have a happy ending. The book is an epic tragedy – everybody dies!

Kathy Zielinski: It’s a little scary that I felt comfortable with [Frollo]. [laughing] I don’t know what that means. Maybe I need to go to therapy. I’ve always had a desire to do villains. I just love evil.

Don Hahn: Kathy Zielinski is brilliant. She works on The Simpsons now, which is hilarious. She’s very intense, very aware of what [Frollo] had to do.

One specific choice in the relationship between Frollo and Esmeralda caused problems.

Stephen Schwartz: I remember there was great controversy over Frollo sniffing Esmeralda’s hair.

Kirk Wise: The scene that caused the most consternation was in the cathedral where Frollo grabs Esmeralda, whispers in her ear and sniffs her hair. The sniffing made people ask, “Is this too far?” We got a lot of support from Peter Schneider, Tom Schumacher, and Michael Eisner.

Kathy Zielinski: Brenda Chapman came up with that idea and the storyboard. I animated it. It’s interesting, because two females were responsible for that. That scene was problematic, so they had to cut it down. It used to be a lot longer.

Brenda Chapman: I know I’m probably pushing it too far, but let’s give it a go, you know?

Kirk Wise: We agreed it was going to be a matter of execution and our collective gut would tell us whether we were crossing the line. We learned that the difference between a G and PG is the loudness of a sniff. Ultimately, that’s what it came down to.

Brenda Chapman: I never knew that! [laughing]

Don Hahn: Is it rated G? That’s surprising.

Gary Trousdale: I’m sure there was backroom bargaining done that Kirk and I didn’t know about.

Don Hahn: It’s negotiation. The same was true of The Lion King. We had intensity notes on the fight at the end. You either say, we’re going to live with that and it’s PG, or we’re not and it’s G.

Brenda Chapman: I heard stories of little kids going, “Ewww, he’s rubbing his boogers in her hair!” [laughing] If that’s what they want to think, that’s fine. But there are plenty of adults that went, “Whoa!”

Don Hahn: You make the movies for yourselves, [but] we all have families, and you try to make something that’s appropriate for that audience. So we made some changes. Frollo isn’t a member of the clergy to take out any politicizing.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We developed the idea of Frollo’s racism against the gypsies. To feel that he desires Esmeralda and he wants to kill her. It was ambiguity that was interesting to develop. In the storyboards, Paul made [Frollo] handsome with a big jaw, a guy with class. They said he was too handsome. We had to break that formula.

Stephen Schwartz: I [and others] said, “It doesn’t make any sense for him to not be the Archdeacon, because what’s he doing with Quasimodo? What possible relationship could they have?” Which is what led to the backstory that became “The Bells of Notre Dame.”

Don Hahn: The things Frollo represents are alive and well in the world. Bigotry and prejudice are human traits and always have been. One of his traits was lust. How do you portray that in a Disney movie? We tried to portray that in a way that might be over kids’ heads and may not give them nightmares necessarily, but it’s not going to pull its punches. So it was a fine line.

Stephen Schwartz: Hugo’s novel is not critical of the church the way a lot of French literature is. It creates this character of Frollo, who’s a deeply hypocritical person and tormented by his hypocrisy.

Peter Schneider: I am going to be controversial. I think it failed. The fundamental basis is problematic, if you’re going to try and do a Disney movie. In [light of] the #MeToo movement, you couldn’t still do the movie and try what we tried to do. As much as we tried to soften it, you couldn’t get away from the fundamental darkness.

Don Hahn: Yeah, that sounds like Peter. He’s always the contrarian.

Peter Schneider: I’m not sure we should have made the movie, in retrospect. I mean, it did well, Kirk and Gary did a beautiful job. The voices are beautiful. The songs are lovely, but I’m not sure we should have made the movie.

Gaëtan Brizzi: The hardest part was to stick to the commercial side of the movie…to make sure we were still addressing kids.

Kirk Wise: We knew it was going to be a challenge to honor the source material while delivering a movie that would fit comfortably on the shelf with the other Disney musicals. We embraced it.

Roy Conli: I don’t think it was too mature. I do find it at times slightly provocative, but not in a judgmental or negative way. I stand by the film 100 percent in sending a message of hope.

Peter Schneider: It never settled its tone. If you look at the gargoyles and bringing in Jason Alexander to try and give comedy to this rather bleak story of a judge keeping a deformed young man in the tower…there’s so many icky factors for a Disney movie.

Jason Alexander: Some children might be frightened by Quasi’s look or not be able to understand the complexity. But what we see is an honest, innocent and capable underdog confront his obstacles and naysayers and emerge triumphant, seen and accepted. I think young people rally to those stories. They can handle the fearsome and celebrate the good.

Brenda Chapman: There was a scene where Frollo was locking Quasimodo in the tower, and Quasi was quite upset. I had to pull back from how cruel Frollo was in that moment, if I’m remembering correctly. I wanted to make him a very human monster, which can be scarier than a real monster.

Roy Conli: We walked such a tight line and we were on the edge and the fact that Disney allowed us to be on the edge was a huge tribute to them.

“Hear the Voice”

The story was set, the songs were ready. All that was left was getting a cast together to bring the characters’ voices to life.

Jason Alexander: Disney, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Victor Hugo – you had me at hello.

Paul Kandel: I was in Tommy, on Broadway. I was also a Tony nominee. So I had those prerequisites. Then I got a call from my agent that Jeffrey Katzenberg decided he wanted a star. I was out of a job I already had. I said, “I want to go back in and audition again.” I wanted to let them choose between me and whoever had a name that would help sell the film. So that series of auditions went on and I got the job back.

Kirk Wise: Everybody auditioned, with the exception of Kevin Kline and Demi Moore. We went to them with an offer. But we had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Meat Loaf.

Will Finn: Katzenberg saw Meat Loaf and Cher playing Quasimodo and Esmeralda – more of a rock opera. He also wanted Leno, Letterman, and Arsenio as the gargoyles at one point.

Kirk Wise: Meat Loaf sat with Alan and rehearsed the song. It was very different than what we ended up with, because Meat Loaf has a very distinct sound. Ultimately, I think his record company and Disney couldn’t play nice together, and the deal fell apart.

Gary Trousdale: We all had the drawings of the characters we were currently casting for in front of us. Instead of watching the actor, we’d be looking down at the piece of paper, trying to hear that voice come out of the drawing. And it was, we learned, a little disconcerting for some of the actors and actresses, who would put on hair and makeup and clothes and they’ve got their body language and expressions. We just want to hear the voice.

Kirk Wise: We cast Cyndi Lauper as one of the gargoyles. We thought she was hilarious and sweet. The little fat obnoxious gargoyle had a different name, and was going to be played by Sam McMurray. We had Cyndi and Sam record, and Roy Disney hated it. The quality of Cyndi’s voice and Sam’s voice were extremely grating to his ear. This is no disrespect to them – Cyndi Lauper is amazing. And Sam McMurray is very funny. But it was not working for the people in the room on that day.

Jason Alexander: The authors cast you for a reason – they think they’ve heard a voice in you that fits their character. I always try to look at the image of the character – his shape, his size, his energy and start to allow sounds, pitches, vocal tics to emerge. Then everyone kicks that around, nudging here, tweaking there and within a few minutes you have the approach to the vocalization. It’s not usually a long process, but it is fun.

Kirk Wise: We decided to reconceive the gargoyles. We always knew we wanted three of them. We wanted a Laurel and Hardy pair. The third gargoyle, the female gargoyle, was up in the air. I think it was Will Finn who said, “Why don’t we make her older?” As the wisdom-keeper. That led us to Mary Wickes, who was absolutely terrific. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Mary, and 98% of the dialogue is her. But she sadly passed away before we were finished.

Will Finn: We brought in a ton of voice-over actresses and none sounded like Mary. One night, I woke up thinking about Jane Withers, who had been a character actress in the golden age of Hollywood. She had a similar twang in her voice, and very luckily, she was alive and well.

Kirk Wise: Our first session with Kevin Kline went OK, but something was missing. It just didn’t feel like there was enough of a twinkle in his voice. Roy Conli said, “Guys, he’s an actor. Give him a prop.” For the next session, the supervising animator for Phoebus brought in a medieval broadsword. Before the session started, we said “Kevin, we’ve got a present for you.” We brought out this sword, and he lit up like a kid at Christmas. He would gesture with it and lean on it. Roy found the key there.

Gary Trousdale: Kevin Kline is naturally funny, so we may have [written] some funnier lines for him. When he’s sparring with Esmeralda in the cathedral and he gets hit by the goat. “I didn’t know you had a kid,” which is the worst line ever. But he pulls it off. He had good comic timing.

Kirk Wise: Tom Hulce had a terrific body of work, including Amadeus. But the performance that stuck with me was in Dominic and Eugene. There was a sensitivity and emotional reality to that performance that made us lean in and think he might make a good Quasimodo.

Gary Trousdale: [His voice] had a nice mix of youthful and adult. He had a maturity, but he had an innocence as well. We’re picturing Quasimodo as a guy who’s basically an innocent. It was a quality of his voice that we could hear.

Don Hahn: He’s one of those actors who could perform and act while he sang. Solo songs, especially for Quasimodo, are monologues set to music. So you’re looking for someone who can portray all the emotion of the scene. It’s about performance and storytelling, and creating a character while you’re singing. That’s why Tom rose to the top.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought Tom did great. I had known Tom a little bit beforehand, as an actor in New York. I’d seen him do Equus and I was sort of surprised. I just knew him as an actor in straight plays. I didn’t know that he sang at all, and then it turned out that he really sang.

Paul Kandel: [Tom] didn’t think of himself as a singer. He’s an actor who can sing. “Out There,” his big number – whether he’s going to admit it to you or not – that was scary for him. But a beautiful job.

Brenda Chapman: Quasimodo was the key to make it family-friendly. Tom Hulce did such a great job making him appealing.

Kirk Wise: Gary came back with the audiotape of Tom’s first session. And his first appearance with the little bird, where he asks if the bird is ready to fly…that whole scene was his rehearsal tape. His instincts were so good. He just nailed it. I think he was surprised that we went with that take. It was the least overworked and the most spontaneous, and felt emotionally real to us.

Kathy Zielinski: Early on, they wanted Anthony Hopkins to do the voice [of Frollo]. [We] did an animation test with a line of his from Silence of the Lambs.

Kirk Wise: We were thinking of Hannibal Lecter in the earliest iterations of Frollo. They made an offer, but Hopkins passed. We came full circle to Tony, because it had been such a good experience working with him on Beauty and the Beast. It was the combination of the quality of his voice, the familiarity of working with him, and knowing how professional and sharp he was.

Though the role of Quasimodo went to Tom Hulce (who did not respond to multiple requests for comment), there was one audition those involved haven’t forgotten.

Kirk Wise: We had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Mandy Patinkin.

Stephen Schwartz: That was a difficult day. [laughing]

Kirk Wise: Mandy informed Alan and Stephen that he brought his own accompanist, which was unexpected because we had one in the room. He had taken a few liberties with [“Out There”]. He had done a little rearranging. You could see Alan’s and Stephen’s spines stiffen. It was not the feel that Alan and Stephen were going for. Stephen pretty much said so in the room. I think his words were a little sharper and more pointed than mine.

Stephen Schwartz: I’ve never worked with Mandy Patinkin. But I admired Evita and Sunday in the Park with George. He came in to audition for Quasimodo. When I came in, Ben Vereen was sitting in the hallway. Ben is a friend of mine and kind of a giant star. I felt we should be polite in terms of bringing him in relatively close to the time for which he was called.

Mandy took a long time with his audition, and asked to do it over and over again. If you’re Mandy Patinkin, you should have enough time scheduled to feel you were able to show what you wanted to show. However, that amount of time was not scheduled. At a certain point, I became a bit agitated because I knew Ben was sitting there, cooling his heels. I remember asking [to] move along or something. That created a huge contretemps.

Kirk Wise: Gary and I stepped outside to work on a dialogue scene with Mandy. As we were explaining the scene and our take on the character, Mandy threw up his hands and said, “Guys, I’m really sorry. I can’t do this.” He turned on his heel and went into the rehearsal hall and shut the door. We started hearing an intense argument. He basically went in and read Alan and Stephen the riot act. The door opens, smoke issuing from the crater that he left inside. Mandy storms out, and he’s gone. We step back in the room, asking, “What the hell happened?”

Gary Trousdale: I did a drawing of it afterwards. The Patinkin Incident.

Stephen Schwartz: Battleship Patinkin!

“Join the Party”

The darkness in the film made it difficult to market. Even some involved acknowledged the issue. In the run-up to release, Jason Alexander said to Entertainment Weekly, “Disney would have us believe this movie’s like the Ringling Bros., for children of all ages. But I won’t be taking my 4-year old. I wouldn’t expose him to it, not for another year.”

Alan Menken: There was all the outrage about Jason Alexander referring to it as a dark story that’s not for kids. Probably Disney wasn’t happy he said that.

Jason Alexander: Most Disney animated films are entertaining and engaging for any child with an attention span. All of them have elements that are frightening. But people are abused in Hunchback. These are people, not cute animals. Some children could be overwhelmed by some of it at a very young age. My son at the time could not tolerate any sense of dread in movies so it would have been hard for him. However, that is certainly not all children.

Don Hahn: I don’t think Jason was wrong. People have to decide for themselves. It probably wasn’t a movie for four-year olds. You as a parent know your kid better than I do.

If everyone agrees the score is excellent, they also agree on something that was not.

Alan Menken: God knows we couldn’t control how Disney marketing dealt with the movie, which was a parade with Quasimodo on everybody’s shoulders going, “Join the party.” [laughing]

Roy Conli: I always thought “Animation comes of age” would be a great [tagline]. I think the marketing ended up, “Join the party.”

Brenda Chapman: Marketing had it as this big party. And then you get into the story and there’s all this darkness. I think audiences were not expecting that, if they didn’t know the original story.

Kathy Zielinski: It was a hard movie for Disney to merchandise and sell to the public.

Gaëtan Brizzi: People must have been totally surprised by the dramatic sequences. The advertising was not reflecting what the movie was about.

Stephen Schwartz: To this day, they just don’t know how to market “Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.” I understand what their quandary is. They have developed a brand that says, “If you see the word Disney on something, it means you can take your 6-year old.” You probably shouldn’t even take your 8-year old, unless he or she is very mature, to Hunchback.

Alan Menken: We [Disney] had such a run of successful projects. It was inevitable there was going to be a time where people said, “I’ve seen all those, but what else is out there?” I had that experience sitting at a diner with my family, overhearing a family talk about Hunchback and say, “Oh yeah, we saw Beauty and Aladdin, but this one…let’s see something else.”

Stephen Schwartz: I did have a sense that some in the critical community didn’t know how to reconcile animation and an adult approach. They have the same attitude some critics have about musicals. “It’s fine if it’s tap-dancing and about silly subjects. But if it’s something that has intellectual import, you can’t do that.” Obviously we have Hamilton and Sweeney Todd and Wicked. Over the years, that’s changed to some extent, but not for everybody.

Roy Conli: Every film is not a Lion King. [But] if that story has legs and will touch people, then you’ve succeeded.

Kirk Wise: We were a little disappointed in its initial weekend. It didn’t do as well as we hoped. We were also disappointed in the critical reaction. It was well-reviewed, but more mixed. Roger Ebert loved us. The New York Times hated us! I felt whipsawed. It was the same critic [Janet Maslin] who praised Beauty and the Beast to the high heavens. She utterly shat on Hunchback.

Don Hahn: We had really good previews, but we also knew it was out of the box creatively. We were also worried about the French and we were worried about the handicapped community and those were the two communities that supported the movie the most.

Will Finn: I knew we were in trouble when the first trailers played and audiences laughed at Quasimodo singing “Out There” on the roof.

Kirk Wise: All of us were proud of the movie on an artistic level. In terms of animation and backgrounds and music and the use of the camera and the performances. It’s the entire studio operating at its peak level of performance, as far as I’m concerned.

Gary Trousdale: I didn’t think people were going to have such a negative reaction to the gargoyles. They’re a little silly. And they do undercut the gravity. But speaking with friends who were kids at the time, they have nothing but fond memories. There were adults, high school age and older when they saw it, they were turned off. We thought it was going to do really great. We thought, “We’re topping ourselves.” It’s a sophisticated story and the music is amazing.

Kirk Wise: The 2D animated movies used to be released before Christmas [or] Thanksgiving. The Lion King changed that. Now everything was a summer release. I always questioned the wisdom of releasing Hunchback in the summertime, in competition with other blockbusters.

Paul Kandel: It made $300 million and it cost $80 million to make. So they were not hurting as far as profits were concerned. But I thought it was groundbreaking in so many ways that I was surprised at the mixed reviews.

Kirk Wise: By most measures, it was a hit. I think The Lion King spoiled everybody, because [it] was such a phenomenon, a bolt from the blue, not-to-be-repeated kind of event.

Gary Trousdale: We were getting mixed reviews. Some of them were really good. “This is a stunning masterpiece.” And other people were saying, “This is a travesty.” And the box office was coming in, not as well as hoped.

Don Hahn: I was in Argentina doing South American press. I got a call from Peter Schneider, who said, “It’s performing OK, but it’s probably going to hit 100 million.” Which, for any other moviemaker, would be a goldmine. But we’d been used to huge successes. I was disappointed.

Peter Schneider: I think it was a hit, right? It just wasn’t the same. As they say in the theater, you don’t set out to make a failure.

Don Hahn: If you’re the New York Yankees, and you’ve had a winning season where you could not lose, and then people hit standup singles instead of home runs…that’s OK. But it has this aura of disappointment. That’s the feeling that’s awful to have, because it’s selfish. Animation is an art, and the arts are meant to be without a price tag hanging off of them all the time.

Paul Brizzi: We are still grateful to Kirk and Gary and Don. We worked on [Hunchback] for maybe a year or a year and a half. Every sequence, we did with passion.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Our work on Hunchback was a triumph of our career.

Kathy Zielinski: There are certainly a whole crowd of people who wish we had not [done] the comedy, because that wasn’t faithful. That’s the main complaint I heard – we should’ve gone for this total dramatic piece and not worried about the kiddies.

Gaetan Brizzi: The only concern we had was the lack of homogeneity. The drama was really strong, and the [comedy] was sometimes a little bit goofy. It was a paradox. When you go from “Hellfire” to a big joke, the transition was not working well. Otherwise, we were very proud.

James Baxter: We were happy with what we did, but we understood it was going to be a slightly harder sell. The Hunchback of Notre Dame usually doesn’t engender connotations like, “Oh, that’s going to be a Disney classic.” I was very happy that it did as well as it did.

Jason Alexander: I thought it was even more mature and emotional on screen. It was an exciting maturation of what a Disney animated feature could be. I was impressed and touched.

“An Undersung Hero”

25 years later, The Hunchback of Notre Dame endures. The animated film inspired an even darker stage show that played both domestically and overseas, and in recent years, there have been rumors that Josh Gad would star as Quasimodo in a live-action remake.

Alan Menken: I think it’s a project that with every passing year will more and more become recognized as a really important part of my career.

Stephen Schwartz: This will be immodest, but I think it’s a really fine adaptation. I think it’s the best musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, and there have been a lot. I think the music is just unbelievably good. I think, as a lyricist, I was working at pretty much the top of my form. I have so many people telling me it’s their favorite Disney film.

Alan Menken: During the pandemic, there was this hundred-piece choir doing “The Bells of Notre Dame.” People are picking up on it. It’s the combination of the storytelling and how well the score is constructed that gets it to longevity. If something is good enough, it gets found.

Paul Kandel: I think people were more sensitive. There was an expectation that a new Disney animated film would not push boundaries at all, which it did. For critics, it pushed a little too hard and I don’t think they would think that now. It’s a work of art.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Hunchback is poetic, because of its dark romanticism. We have tons of animated movies, but I think they all look alike because of the computer technique. This movie is very important in making people understand that hate has no place in our society, between a culture or people or a country. That’s the message of the movie, and of Victor Hugo himself.

Jason Alexander: I think it’s an undersung hero. It’s one of the most beautiful and moving animated films. But it is not the title that lives on everyone’s tongue. I think more people haven’t seen this one than any of the others. I adore it.

Peter Schneider: What Disney did around this period [is] we stopped making musicals. I think that was probably a mistake on some level, but the animators were bored with it.

Don Hahn: You know people reacted to Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. They were successful movies in their day. You don’t know the reaction to anything else. So when [I] go to Comic-Con or do press on other movies, people started talking about Hunchback. “My favorite Alan Menken score is Hunchback.” It’s always surprising and delightful.

Kirk Wise: I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, “This is my absolute favorite movie. I adored this movie as a kid. I wore out my VHS.” That makes all the difference in the world.

Paul Kandel: Sitting on my desk right now are four long letters and requests for autographs. I get 20 of those a week. People are still seeing that film and being moved by it.

Alan Menken: Now there’s a discussion about a live-action film with Hunchback. And that’s [sighs] exciting and problematic. We have to, once again, wade into the troubled waters of “What is Disney’s movie version of Hunchback?” Especially now.

Jason Alexander: Live action could work because the vast majority of characters are human. The story of an actual human who is in some ways less abled and who is defined by how he looks, rather than his heart and character, is timely and important, to say the least.

Kirk Wise: I imagine if there were a live-action adaptation, it would skew more towards the stage version. That’s just my guess.

Stephen Schwartz: I think it would lend itself extremely well to a live-action movie, particularly if they use the stage show as the basis. I think the stage show is fantastic.

Kirk Wise: It’s gratifying to be involved in movies like Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback that have created so much affection. But animation is as legitimate a form of storytelling as live-action is. It might be different, but I don’t think it’s better. I feel like [saying], “Just put on the old one. It’s still good!”

Gary Trousdale: There were enough versions before. Somebody wants to make another version? Okay. Most people can tell the difference between the animated version and a live-action reboot. Mostly I’m not a fan of those. But if that’s what Disney wants to do, great.

Don Hahn: It’s very visual. It’s got huge potential because of its setting and the drama, and the music. It’s pretty powerful, so it makes sense to remake that movie. I think we will someday.

Brenda Chapman: It’s a history lesson. Now that Notre Dame is in such dire straits, after having burned so badly, hopefully [this] will increase interest in all that history.

James Baxter: It meant two children. I met my wife on that movie. [laughs] In a wider sense, the legacy is another step of broadening the scope of what Disney feature animation could be.

Kirk Wise: Hunchback is the movie where the final product turned out closest to the original vision. There was such terrific passion by the crew that carried throughout the process.

Roy Conli: It’s one of the most beautiful films we’ve made. 25 years later, I’d say “Join the party.” [laughs]

#long post behind read more #the hunchback of notre dame #hunchback of notre dame #notre dame de paris #victor hugo #interviews #disney #alan menken #stephen schwartz #quasimodo #esmeralda #frollo #phoebus #movies #movie history

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corpsentry · 4 years

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behind the taylor swift gundam was in fact another, smaller gundam: a brief inquiry into the events of june 2020

so back in june this year june and i got together and we made this motherfucker of a story with this motherfucker of a thread to keep track of it all. but you already know that! and i’ve already got one foot and three elbows in my grave, so i’ll spare you the long-winded stuff. you wanna know how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks? i’ll tell you how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks-

-by linking you guys to copies of my planning documents because i feel like those words speak louder than any words i can offer in the present day. these are long documents. but they are also historical artifacts. very interesting. very weird. very, uh, full of cussing. so anyway, here’s

BIG DADDY: THE ORIGINAL PLANNING DOCUMENT

for those, like me, who have no motivation left in life to do anything and rely on summaries from others to acquire new knowledge, it all started with a single line.

prince of a fallen kingdom atsumu tries to kill hinata but falls in love with him instead

june, april something, 2020

with that in mind i tested the concept out with a few paragraphs of text, which you can find at the bottom of the Big Daddy document in the graveyard segment, accidentally sold my soul to the image of hinata with epaulettes, and then worked backwards, structuring an entire plot around two images:

a) hinata getting the shit beat out of him, with snark b) hinata and atsumu dancing in an empty ballroom under the stars

if you want a betrayal, you have to have something worth losing. if you want to fall in love with someone you don’t know, you have to meet them. if you have to meet them, there has to be a reason for that meeting, and so somewhere in between atsumu became a sword instructor and hinata the prince with daddy issues. june and i used this method of glancing anxiously over your shoulder to see what you’d missed to fill out the blanks in the story, after which i tacked up a bunch of post-its, typed out the plot, consulted june, typed out the plot again, and then broke the characters down into a bunch of questions, like ‘what do they want?’ and ‘what do they have?’ and ‘what are they afraid of?’

with the plot more or less ironed out, i decided it was time to start writing, and then i decided that i was actually too scared to start writing after all, so instead i set a couple of timers using classroomtimers.com (15-20 minutes long) and i sat down and i wrote about the world that hinata and atsumu inhabited.

each warm-up was 300-500 words long, and for the first few days, i’d write one before getting into writing the story proper. later these evolved into simply picking a scene from the story and launching straight into it, which became useful for opening those scenes later when i got to them organically.

then i got lazy! so i stopped. but these shitty little exercises were really useful for me because, unfettered by plot, convention, or any kind of tradition hovering over my shoulder, i was able to fuck around loosely enough to realize what i wanted this story to be. it was a very contrived kind of trial-and-error, an exploration of the characters, the story, but most importantly, the tone.

RESEARCH, PLANNING, AND VICTORIAN BOUGIE FASHION

this is a loose map of the castle and Important Locations within it, which i drew up at the start so i could keep track of where everything was and how i could get my characters from point A to point B. i wanted the story to have Some kind of internal logic, you know, even if that logic amounted to ‘a compass would function normally in this world whereas kageyama tobio would not’.

99% of my planning and organizing within those five weeks took place in this lovely dotted cat journal which my sister gave me for my birthday and i repurposed into a metaphorical Diary of Suffering while working on juno. i used it for everything from keeping track of narrative threads to clothing consistency checks, but the main purpose was this: each day at about 10 pm i’d crack open the cat book to a fresh page, stamp the date and the day of suffering at the top, and then write down a list of things i wanted to write, address, or fix today. then i’d sit at my laptop and write like a madman until about 7 in the morning. with breaks, of course, for sitting in the bathroom and staring at the wall and sitting in the kitchen and staring at the wall, but mostly i was writing. and complaining about writing. you were there, you probably remember that.

anyway, here are some pages from the cat book.

aside from the fact that my handwriting is complete shit, you can see that i made zero effort for any of this to be presentable. it was mainly a way for me to keep track of my thoughts because i have the attention span of an ikea wardrobe and tend to forget things as soon as i think of them. the lack of structure also mirrored the way that i went about writing juno. while i did proceed, for the most part, in chronological order, i had a lot of weird and useless revelations during lunch, which by this point was happening around 2 am, and in the 5 minutes before the exhaustion finally hit and carried me down to hell. i changed A Lot. again, to understand exactly how much the story evolved from day one onwards, please consult the big daddy document.

in the meantime, here’s something else.

once june sent over hinata and atsumu’s character designs i sat down like the fucking fool i am and spent 2 hours poring over a document about victorian and other fashion movements of the past so i could assign a noun, adjective, and verb to each element of their outfits. i don’t know why i did this. i certainly could have not, but i attempted to make sense of their ‘fits from a logistical perspective and that went into the cat book too. everything went into the cat book. the cat book is a relic of the past now, stuffed with artifacts such as the birth of oikawa tooru, and also his demise.

MEDIUM DADDY: EDITING, PROOFREADING, AND CREEPY MURDER CATS

i finished writing on june 26th, 2020, approximately a month after i’d first started planning, somewhere around may 27th or 28th. at that point i had about 90,000 words’ worth of story and no sanity left whatsoever, so i took a day-long break to stare at a wall and listen to taylor swift’s enchanted on loop.

and then i made a new document, which you can look at using the link above, and i laid out everything i had to do. i’d discovered a fuck ton of plot inconsistencies and general errors while writing and lying awake in bed at 9 a.m., sleepless in seattle, and now that i was free of the demon egging me towards the first finish line, it was time to Deal with them. i speed-scrolled through the draft, which was 200+ pages compressed into one google doc, because i like to tempt god’s wrath, and fixed up all the plot issues over the course of a few days. this was the fun part.

the actual, hard editing was the extremely un-fun part. i reread the entire thing, paragraph by paragraph, line by damn line, from start to finish, paying especially close attention to awkward phrasing, incomplete dialogue, and moments which had fallen flat in my haste to get on to the next one. this was really fucking terrible. i spent more time lying facedown on the floor than actually editing anything, but after a long time (about a week), that, too was done.

SMALL DADDY: TITLES, SUMMARIES, AND GOOD FUCKING BYES

i spent a good eighty days thinking about the title, though hilariously enough we ended up with something that was a blend of our names. june + elmo = juno, which is, all things considered, pretty perfect, but the process of picking the title was Hell, and i Did Not Come Up With The Title until about 2 hours before posting. you can take a look at the haphazard clusterfuck of my title-selecting process in small daddy, which is linked above.

so the title was a last-minute choice. so was the summary. and the chapter divisions. and actually all the songs in the playlist for juno. the day we dropped juno onto planet earth like a newborn baby pitched out of the sky, i spent an hour hunched over my laptop, cutting my 213 page google doc into chapters based on nothing more than a Vibe. two days before that, i also attempted to voice-act the entirety of juno, an affair which ended at the 20,000 word mark with a sore throat and the kind of exhaustion one typically wants to sleep in a coffin for 23 years to get rid of. so in all honesty, i did very little editing, which is why there are definitely minor typos and/or mistakes hanging out somewhere on that chunky ao3 webpage. but whatever.

my attitude by july 5th (was it july 5th? or 4th? somewhere around there) was basically whatever. anything so i could get finish this damn thing, chuck it out of the window, and never see another google doc until the next century. i’ve been asked a few times how exactly i wrote at a rate of roughly 2000-3000 words per day for four weeks straight, and my answer has always been this: i died. what died, you ask? my soul. my spirit. my Will To Live. i’m a creature of fixations, and juno was my fixation for june. will i ever be able to do this again? would i recommend this experience to anyone? is god real? the answer to all of the above is probably no. juno was a fever dream, and so is my cat book. and so are all the lattes i had. and so was my 9 am to 4 pm sleep schedule.

but what we made is real. the research, oikawa tooru, the 4 am conversations in which i was like ‘how the fuck do i end this’ and june was like ‘jade proposal’ (the proposal was her idea. all rise for twitter user atsuhinas. she is the mastermind behind all of the Inch Resting moments in this story; i just flapped a korok leaf in her direction and made sure the air circulation was working properly) are real as fuck, and looking back, there’s a lot i’d change, but i’m lazy. and college is starting. and anyway, i did write 93,035 words in just under five weeks, four if you don’t count the week of Editing Hell, so i think that’s pretty cool.

thank you for reading this to the end, and for following us on our journey through the enigmatic taylor swift gundam fic which quite literally consumed my entire twitter account for the five weeks i spent working on it. retrospectively speaking i really was butt-obsessed so i am frankly incredibly impressed with everyone around me for putting up with a Husk of a Man for a month. thank you for doing that. thank you for indulging my vague tweeting, and our butterfly dns, and for reading 93 thousand words of gay fanfiction set in a high fantasy world with epaulettes and galettes. on behalf of june, once again, we are incredibly grateful for all your support.

if you have any questions about specific aspects of the writing process, or anything you’d like to know in general with reference to JUNO, feel free to drop me an ask through my tumblr inbox, or through my curiouscat over here. i’m aware i didn’t cover everything, but there’s frankly too much to put in a tumblr post without passing away somewhere around the 56% mark, so let me know what’s on your mind, and i’ll try to answer that to the best of my abilities. but anyway, before i go, here are some

TAKEAWAYS

one: don’t try to write 93,000 words in five weeks. seriously don’t fucking do it you will end up jittery and sleep-deprived and you will leave all your friends on read for a month. pace yourself. set realistic goals. you wrote 2k this week? that’s fantastic. you wrote 4k in a day? you absolute motherfucker. i hope you’re taking a long fucking break tomorrow. your story will not run away from you, but if you run too fast, you will get tired, and then you will pass away.

two: you don’t have to know everything about your story before you start writing. in fact if you have a single camera shot of two characters holding hands under a rose garden awning, i think that’s fucking wonderful. if you look at big daddy, you’ll realize that my initial plot draft, and all the ones following that, are not perfectly aligned with the final version of juno. i improvised over half of the scenes in this motherfucker, and to be completely honest, some of the improvised scenes were the best. fucking oikawa tooru was improvised out of nowhere. he only got written in way later, around chapter 8 or something, because i realized i needed a plot device and a source of information to keep the playing table from toppling over. i Sat Down one day and was like ‘okay, it’s time to write oikawa into the introduction. because he matters now. he didn’t matter last week but now he does, and soon he’s going to be the fulcrum of the entire story, because it’s like that with oikawa tooru’. it’s okay to change your mind halfway. it’s okay to go back and rewrite entire scenes or segments. it’s okay to highlight 4 pages of fresh, sentimental writing, and hit delete. writing is a fluid process, and you Will make discoveries as you progress through your story alongside your characters. be understanding of that iterative process. be kind to yourself.

three: You Are That Motherfucker. you, me, your dog, your dog’s friend, your dog’s enemy, all of us are that motherfucker. i never thought i’d be able to write anything longer than the great big map, which was a much simpler, linear story in which the other main character did not appear in the current timeline until like the eighth chapter. juno was different. juno was the motherfucker, and i was scared shitless of it, and to cope with that fear joked constantly while writing that it’d never see the light of day.

but it did. it was a rocky process, and i was awake for 48 hours after posting it because of the sheer adrenalin stuck in my skull, but i got through it. and i wouldn’t have been able to do it without june, who stepped in when i flopped over facedown on the floor and dragged me to my feet like the badass friend she is, and without everyone else in my life, who put up with me talking about The Thing that i couldn’t really talk about, but juno’s up there now. forever, or until the internet collapses and civilization goes extinct. and if the nineteen year old clown with the attention span of an ikea armchair and an a level certificate from hell wrote the 93,000 word long thing, so can you. i mean this completely unironically and with every ounce of genuine emotion i can summon from the cracked asshole of my heart.

writing is hard. writing is scary. writing is an investigation of the world around you and therefore, by extension, yourself, and that kind of honesty is freaky. it’s like going skinny-dipping next to the president’s mansion. who’s going to see you? what if they take a photo? what if you lose your spot at university?

but don’t think about that. our world is overrun with stories the way cereal bowls are full of cereal, but it’s those stories that keep us all sane in the disgusting day-to-day muck of reality, so think about your story. what’s haunting you today? what message do you want to leave printed in font size 666 comic sans across the southern hemisphere of the planet? what will you be tomorrow?

a writer. you’re going to be a motherfucking writer.

#my stuff

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secondhandnewsradio · 3 years

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SHN INTERVIEW: Gatlin

by Claire Silverman

Singer/songwriter Gatlin, based in Nashville, released her debut EP Sugarcoated in August 2020. Her captivating and heartfelt songs have been featured during every Second Hand News live show of 2021, and SHN host Claire sat down with Gatlin over zoom to dive deeper into her music, and what's coming next.

CS: Hi Gatlin, thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.

G: Yeah, of course!

CS: What got you started in music?

G: I’ve always loved performing, and I was in choirs and show choirs and theater growing up, and my parents always encouraged me to write my own music. They got me a guitar when I was twelve and they were like “Write songs! Write songs! You have to be set apart!” So then, I just started writing songs.

CS: What inspires you in your music?

G: I really like old music. I think I really started falling in love with songwriting when I listened to old folk music like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, but then also bands, I really loved that aspect and that writing, like The Mamas & the Papas, Fleetwood Mac, and The Birds, and The Beach Boys got me really into the pop element of songs. So I would say, the older type music really is like where my foundation comes from.

CS: Do you have a specific album that you would say has influenced you the most?

G: I feel like it’s pretty typical to say, but Rumors by Fleetwood Mac. Just like every track— its so cohesive but so different and the songwriting is just...so perfect.

CS: My show is named after “Second Hand News” by Fleetwood Mac, so I totally get it.

[Laughter]

CS: I want to talk a bit about your debut EP, Sugarcoated. I’ve been loving playing songs from Sugarcoated on my show. Your music is very “sad girl” but in “Talking to Myself” and especially in “Grown,” there’s also a joyous quality underneath, something hopeful. Can you tell me a bit about those songs?

G: Yeah, so, before “Talking to Myself,” it was all the “sad girl” stuff, but when I perform, when I play live, I really love high energy stuff and jumping around on stage, dancing, and the music that I was writing kind of wasn’t allowing me to do that live. So, with “Talking to Myself,” it was a sad subject, a breakup, but I wanted it to be hidden behind a really happy feeling, so you feel happy but when you dig in, it’s a little more sad. I would say, my personality, I’m not super duper sad, so I was like, I just want it to feel good. “Grown” is just like the feeling of growing up, it’s bittersweet. It’s not happy or sad, it’s just what it is.

CS: “Being Alone” feels a bit like an anthem for this last year, what with the pandemic keeping us all far apart from each other. Can you talk a bit about that song?

G: I wrote that with my friend Bobbie Allen, her artist project is called Yung Summer, she’s awesome, and a producer called Konrad Snyder. We were in the room and Konrad had that guitar line already made and I was talking about how I really didn’t want to be in a relationship but I’m really bad at being by myself. I feel very lonely and very sad and I’m always wanting to be in a relationship but when I’m in a relationship I’m miserable. We were just talking about how singleness is such a powerful thing and I wish I was better at being by myself.

CS: What’s it been like, writing and releasing your first EP during this pandemic when concerts and events aren’t happening?

G: That has been so hard. I love playing shows and being on stage, staying out late and meeting tons of people from different places, and so writing, I like it, but it’s a way to get to performing. It was very hard to feel motivated to finish anything because I was feeling very drained and shows would normally fill me up and I would be like “oh, I want to write this song about this…” and so I had a lot of people around me saying “it’s ok, it will be over soon, you have to push through!” It was really hard for me.

CS: What’s the meaning behind the name of the EP?

G: I’ve always been told to sugarcoat my emotions. I’m an enneagram 4 and I feel like I talk a lot about my mental health but I have clinical depression and anxiety and I’ve always felt in my life that I’ve had to suppress that and not show people all of my emotions because my range is just all over the place. It can feel very not okay to talk about, even with my closest friends, and I felt that a lot of times in my music, I would want to talk about these really deep things but then in the back of my head was like very scared people would be like “oh that’s too much, she’s too much, that’s too much emotion.” A lot of the writing process over the year of me writing that EP, it was teaching me to let go of that. SOme of the songs, like “Talking to Myself” is pretty like “I’m just scratching the surface of what’s going on” and tracks like “Grown” and “I Think About You All the Time” are really about learning to let go of that. Especially by the time I put out the EP, everything I was writing was really raw, and I wasn’t sugarcoating anything. I felt like, okay, I don’t have to do this anymore, I’m going to call this EP this because that’s what I was doing but I’m not going to do it anymore.

CS: You’re also part of a band called Sadie Hawkins. How did that project come together?

G: So, Sadie Hawkins is me, Tristan Bushman, and Daniel Ethridge, and I’ve known those boys for like, four years. It’s funny because we all met each other separately. I have so many songs just with Daniel and just with Tristan, and some with the three of us. We had so many [songs] and none of them fit with our individual artist projects, but we loved the songs so we were like, let’s just have our friend Mitch produce them and put them out and we can play shows every once in a while. It’s a thing we don’t take super seriously and don’t have to worry about, it’s fun and it’s a really good outlet, I think, for all of us. .

CS: I want to know, what’s the story behind the name? How did you pick that?

G: We went back and forth between a bunch of names, and I hated all of them. At one point, Daniel and Tristan were gung-ho on The Great American Spirits and I was like, guys, our abbreviation would be GAS, we can’t do that. [Laughter] So my guitar player, whose also my best friend, his name is Sean, he plays bass for Sadie Hawkins, and he has an ongoing notes list of “band names” and I was like “Sean give me your list” and he had Sadie Hawkins on there and I was like cool, I’m taking this.

CS: You guys just released “Take Me Home,” can you tell us a bit about that song?

G: Daniel and Tristan wrote that maybe two years ago, and back when shows were happening, we would always play that one live and it was really very fun. I think the thing that’s really special about Sadie Hawkins is that our voices harmonize really well together, and I think specifically in that song it’s very rock ‘n’ roll. We just put it out and I love that song.

CS: What have been your favorite songs at the moment?

G: Let’s see, Dayglow, I’ve been diving into, I love Dayglow. I’ve really started to get into Dominic Fike, like, all of his music. I had never really listened to him until I moved here and my roommate loves Dominic Fike so “Phone Numbers” has been on repeat. I love this indie/rock band called Attaboy, they have an EP out that I absolutely love. And then Del Water Gap, Adam Melchor, Samia

CS: Do you have any new music coming in the future that you can tell us about?

G: Yeah! I have a single coming out April 9th that I’m really excited about. I wrote that with the same gal that I wrote “Talking to Myself” so it feels like a good follow-up from that song. And then, I have another EP coming out in June that I’m really stoked about. It feels like a good sophomore project

CS: I’m very excited to hear it! I’ve had “Talking to Myself” stuck in my head for the last month, so very excited for your new music. Thank you so much for sitting down for this interview.

G: No, thank you, thank you for playing my songs and for supporting indie artists!

WHERE TO FOLLOW GATLIN:

INSTAGRAM: @gatlin

TWITTER: @gatlin

YOUTUBE: Gatlin

SPOTIFY: Gatlin

INSTAGRAM:@sadiehawkinsband

SPOTIFY: Sadie Hawkins

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tinyshe · 3 years

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Thinking about ditching all social media? I am. This includes things like youtube and other items that you “log in”... “feeding the machine” -- food for thought...

Story at-a-glance

The whole justification for the War on Terror was to target “precrime”, or terror acts before they happen; the legislation was meant to target foreign governments and individuals, but bills are pending that would make the legislation applicable to Americans in the U.S.

Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald stated that the end goal of the newly emerging war on domestic terrorism is to "essentially criminalize any oppositional ideology to the ruling class," adding, "There is literally nothing that could be more dangerous”

Journalist Whitney Webb is concerned about fusion centers, at which the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, NGOs and others in the private sector collaborate to decide who’s a terrorist and who’s not

Fusion centers have been around for a while, but as the war on domestic terror progresses, Webb believes that fusion centers will take on the same role as the CIA-run Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War, which were designed to collate names of dissidents and people with extremist sympathies to databases so they could be pursued by the relevant authorities

Silicon Valley and the national security state are now fused; deleting your social media accounts is one of the best ways to stop feeding the domestic terror machine

In June 2021, the U.S. National Security Council released a new “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”1 While it’s being largely framed as a tool to fight White supremacy and political extremism, the definition of what constitutes a “domestic terrorist” is incredibly vague and based on ideologies.

In a podcast with one of my favorite independent journalists, Whitney Webb,2 Media Roots Radio host Robbie Martin notes how this creates a dangerous slippery slope, one that’s connected to the attempts to have increased surveillance and tracking of Americans’ data after 9/11.3

The “War on Terror,” launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Martin says, “was merely a prelude to a larger domestic crackdown on political dissidents.”4 Webb agreed, stating that we’re “near the bottom part of the slippery slope” already, and it’s not a stretch that one day anyone who disagrees with the government could be labeled a domestic terrorist and charged with a crime.

Criminalizing Oppositional Ideology to the Ruling Class

The whole justification for the War on Terror was to target “precrime”, or terror acts before they happen. Initially, the legislation was meant to target foreign governments and individuals, but bills are pending that would make the legislation applicable to Americans in the U.S.5

This isn’t a partisan issue, but something that’s been in the works for decades. Greenwald stated that viewing Washington as Democrat versus Republican, with one side being “your team” and the other being “your enemy” is a flawed belief, as an elite ruling class is truly in power:7

"There is a ruling class elite that is extremely comfortable with the establishment wings of both parties ... who they fund equally because those are the people who serve their agenda. Then there's a whole other group of people at whose expense they rule in. Some consider them on the left, some on the right," but "it's time to break down those barriers."

It’s important to understand that the U.S. already has aggressive criminal laws in place, such that more people are imprisoned in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.8 Do we need further laws to criminalize people put in place? A concerning pivot has occurred as well, shifting in focus to the FBI targeting this new model of terrorism while the terms like “incitement to violence” have been radically expanded in meaning.

“It is accompanied by viral-on-social-media pleas that one work with the FBI to turn in one’s fellow citizens (“See Something, Say Something!”) and demands for a new system of domestic surveillance,” Greenwald wrote.9

People Who Spread ‘Disinformation’ Classified as Extremists

You don’t have to be violent to be declared a terrorist. You may simply have what the government deems to be “extremist views” or could be accused of spreading disinformation — although there’s no clear definition of what “disinformation” is. According to Webb:10

“There is talk in the domestic terror strategy that people who spread disinformation can also be classified as extremists and a threat to national security and, of course, we’ve seen over the past several years, how this disinformation label can be applied to independent media as a way to promote censorship of voices that are critical of U.S. empire, among other things, or that just don’t fit a particular government narrative.”

As taken directly from the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism:11

“Domestic terrorists have — particularly in recent years — often been lone actors or small groups of informally aligned individuals who mobilize to violence with little or no clear organizational structure or direction. These individuals often consume material deliberately disseminated to recruit individuals to causes that attempt to provide a sense of belonging and fulfillment, however false that sense might be.

Their ideologies can be fluid, evolving, and overlapping. And they can, in some instances, connect and intersect with conspiracy theories and other forms of disinformation and misinformation …

These elements combine to form a complex and shifting domestic terrorism threat landscape and create significant challenges for law enforcement. Especially on Internet-based communications platforms such as social media, file-upload sites, and end-to-end encrypted platforms, all of these elements can combine and amplify threats to public safety.

… These efforts speak to a broader priority: enhancing faith in government and addressing the extreme polarization, fueled by a crisis of disinformation and misinformation often channeled through social media platforms, which can tear Americans apart and lead some to violence.”

Fusion Centers Are Ready and Waiting

Webb is concerned about fusion centers, at which the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, NGOs and others in the private sector collaborate to decide who’s a terrorist and who’s not.

Fusion centers have been around for a while, but as the war on domestic terror progresses, Webb believes that fusion centers will take on the same role as the CIA-run Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War, which was designed to collate names of dissidents and people with extremist sympathies to databases so they could be pursued by the relevant authorities — many ended up being kidnapped, tortured and killed.

Fusion centers are waiting to take on a more active role in the newly declared war on domestic terrorism, but in order for them to gain widespread acceptance, Webb believes that an outrageous event needs to take place — one that goes further than the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, such as something that targets civilians and sparks outrage among the U.S. public that something must be done.

“This is why I worry that some other event may take place in order to push this strategy further. They’re setting up an infrastructure here that they plan to use, right? And I think given the current climate in the U.S. it would be hard for them to justify taking that where the strategy clearly shows they want to go,” Webb says.12

She also draws parallels between the present day and the U.S.-backed Operation Condor, which targeted leftists, suspected leftists and their sympathizers, resulting in the murders of an estimated 60,000 people, about half of which occurred in Argentina. Another 500,000 were politically imprisoned.13

“There was no investigation into whether the claims against these people were even true,” Webb explained. “There were no trials … it was a dragnet to create reorganized society using a climate of fear to encourage acquiescence to authority and complete obedience to the state.”14 It’s history that often gives the greatest clues about where society is headed, and Webb also details a bill President Biden introduced in 1995 in response to the Oklahoma City bombing.

It was initiated by the FBI as a charter to investigate political groups and included the following disturbing points. Fortunately, the bill wasn’t passed in this version — a lot was taken out and watered down — but if allowed to pass unrevised, it would have:15

Allowed the FBI, military and other groups to investigate political groups at their will, without any higher-up approval

Allowed a 10-year prison sentence for the crime of supporting the lawful activities of an organization if the president deemed the organization a terrorist entity

Made it so that the president alone decides who is a terrorist, and the decision could not be appealed

Loosened rules for wire taps

Reversed the presumption of innocent until proven guilty

Allowed the military to be used in domestic law enforcement activities and potentially made it legal for soldiers to invade people’s homes and take possessions without probable cause

Allowed secret trials for immigrants not charged with a crime, and allowed the use of illegally obtained evidence in those trials

Silicon Valley Is Fused With the National Security State

Silicon Valley and the national security state are now fused, Webb says. The decadeslong wars against domestic dissidence have always involved technology like databases, and now the link is inseparable.

Webb wrote about “tech tyranny” at the start of the pandemic, revealing that a document from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) — acquired through a FOIA request — said changes were needed to keep a technological advantage over China:16

“This document suggests that the U.S. follow China’s lead and even surpass them in many aspects related to AI-driven technologies, particularly their use of mass surveillance.

This perspective clearly clashes with the public rhetoric of prominent U.S. government officials and politicians on China, who have labeled the Chinese government’s technology investments and export of its surveillance systems and other technologies as a major ‘threat’ to Americans’ ‘way of life.’”

Many of the steps to implement the program are being promoted as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. NSCAI is not only a key part of the Great Reset’s fourth industrial revolution, but also promotes mass surveillance, online-only shopping and the end of cash while noting that “having streets carpeted with cameras is good infrastructure.”

NSCAI’s chairman is Eric Schmidt, the former head of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Other notable Silicon Valley NSCAI members include:17

Eric Horvitz, director of Microsoft Research Labs

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services (CIA contractor)

Andrew Moore, head of Google Cloud AI

Meanwhile, Greenwald highlighted a statement by Alex Stamos, a former Facebook security official, who recommends social media companies collaborate with law enforcement to crack down on extremist influencers online, especially those with large audiences in order to “get us all back in the same consensual reality.”18

Social Media Plays a Huge Role in the War

If you’re reading this and are concerned, I urge you to listen to the Media Roots Radio podcast with Whitney Webb in full.19 It’s just under 2.5 hours, but time well spent to understand the historical events that have led us to where we are today. For those who want to take action, a mass exodus from social media platforms is a good start.

Many suspect Facebook is the public-friendly version of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Lifelog, a database project aimed at tracking the minutiae of people’s entire existence for national security surveillance purposes.20

The Pentagon pulled the plug on Lifelog February 4, 2004, in response to backlash over privacy concerns.21 Yet that same day, Facebook was launched.22

Lifelog — and likely its successor Facebook — was meant to complement Total Information Awareness (TIA), a program that sprang up after the 9/11 attacks that was seeking to collect Americans’ medical records, fingerprints and other biometric data, along with DNA and records relating to personal finances, travel and media consumption.23

Now Facebook is asking users to report “extremist” content and misinformation. Fortunately, there’s a way to passively disentangle yourself from the data mining and legacy social media that is intertwined with the war on domestic terror. Webb says: “Delete your Facebook and your Instagram and your Twitter, because you are feeding the domestic terror machine.”24

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birdyisanightingale · 3 years

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THT S4 Predictions: Brazil Trailer

Back by popular demand, I’m going to be doing a comprehensive set of predictions based on the Brazilian S4 trailer which has additional footage to the main one. If you want to watch it, here’s the link: https://www.handmaidsbrasil.com/2020/12/exclusivo-assista-ao-novo-teaser-legendado-da-quarta-temporada-de-tht.html

SPOILER ALERT!! Please be aware that if you keep reading there will be major S3 spoilers and potentially some S4 ones too!!

First up, we appear to have some sort of scene where June has been captured by eyes (or someone posing as the eyes - I’ll come back to this) . I think this must be at least an episode or so in because she seems to be walking fine and she doesn’t have any obvious injuries (she was basically dead at the end of S3). Another good sign is that she appears to be alone, so if she has indeed been taken by the eyes, they haven’t managed to capture all of the ‘magnificent seven’ (this is the new term being given to the fugitive handmaids from the end of the S3 Finale).

However, considering the remote location, it looks likely that this scene may be an attempted execution of June. I know what you’re thinking, this is Gilead - if they want to kill you they won’t bother making it private, they’ll make an example out of you and leave you hanging on a wall until you rot. But think about it - at this point, killing June will not be an example, the resistance in all its different forms has gotten too big for that. If they kill June now, they will only be creating a martyr, and the only way to avoid that is to kill her secretly and get rid of all the evidence so no one knows if she’s dead or missing or maybe even escaped to Canada without telling anyone - a great way to crack a resistance is to take away the element of trust! Anyway that’s why they’d make her execution a quiet affair.

But here’s why I think it was only made to look like the yes have taken her. Judging from the location and costumes (although admittedly costume variety is particularly limited in this show), while this is later in the trailer, it looks like a continuation of the same scene. It looks almost like Nick knew that June was in a situation where either he intervened or she was captured (or worse) for real. He obviously still has to make it look somewhat legit because he’s a commander now and he needs to keep good standing to be able to help June and Mayday (not to mention, staying off the wall).

I think this element of Nick being an asset to Mayday will be explored quite a lot this season, and beyond. Nick’s character development is particularly interesting because we’ve almost had a different Nick every season, but the writers are still finding new ways to surprise us with new dimensions to his character. In S1 we had ‘Nick the Eye’ who was battling this sense of duty and obligation that he had never bothered to question whether he agreed with his orders or not, with finally finding a reason to question those orders - June. Then in S2 when he’d finally gotten to a point where he’d chosen June over duty, we saw ‘Nick the husband’. We know from his flashbacks that he had a religious background before Gilead so he’s had ‘the sanctity of marriage’ instilled in him from a young age. So he’s somehow trying to reconcile his new role as a husband with his love for another woman who’s carrying his baby. And then we get the (admittedly infrequent) S3 ‘Nick the Soldier’ who we know absolutely nothing about, and how dominate that side of him is. Not dominant enough and Nick won’t have enough influence to be useful to Mayday, too dominant and he could potentially betray Mayday... we’ll have to wait and see...

“You can’t save her; some women don’t want to be saved.” Oof, literal chills. I’m really looking forward to this character dynamic. Both are commanders, both helped to create Gilead and regret it, and both have a connection to June. I know this is scene is talking about Nick wanting to save June and probably get her to Canada, but I can’t help thinking that the writers specifically wrote this line to have an underlying tone about Eleanor as her death will still be very fresh for Lawrence.

This isn’t a prediction so much as a musing but I really hope there gets to be some sort of interaction between June and Lawrence about the circumstances of her suicide. Every time I watch the funeral scene where June and Lawrence just look at each other, I get more and more sure that Lawrence knows that something else happened that she’s not saying - he’s a smart man, after all.

Maybe this scene is a continuation of the ‘secluded forest/potential eyes’ scene. He could have asked her to stop “playing handmaid commander” (I believe this was a direct quote from S2, tell me if I’m wrong) and go with him to Canada and she refuses, hence why he goes to see Lawrence. That would fit the potential timeline as Lawrence would have to have been released from the interrogation scenes we saw in the main trailer, and we’ve established that the forest seven must be at least a few episodes in.

Speaking of rebel handmaid shenanigans, this looks fun! June is heard saying “Where we’re going isn’t safe.” and Mrs. Keyes (Mckenna Grace) replies “It’s not safe anywhere!”. I mean, straight off the bat, it looks like we’re going to get one hell of a performance from Mckenna Grace who seems insanely talented for 14! We’ve had it teased to us by different producers and show runners that Mrs. Keyes will be the confident teenage wife of a commander, who helps to facilitate the resistance. And, I mean being a child bride is horrifying so I can understand why she’s willing to help!

As where they’re actually going, I’m thinking that it’s got to be another ‘attack’ by Mayday. What that will look like is hard to say - another Lillie Fuller style bomb seems unlikely since the bomb-maker was moved and it doesn’t really seem like June’s style anyway (she’d rather go for the targeted kill without Handmaid/Martha casualties), and all remaining kids in Gilead will be under heavy security after the S3 Finale. My money would be on a plan to get out Handmaids/Marthas - in the originally trailer we hear June saying “These women deserve to be helped” which supports that theory. I think her efforts will particularly focus on handmaids since a lot of the kids they got out were kids of handmaids before Gilead so she’ll want them to be reunited where it’s safe to do so.

Right - my guess is that this scene must be following whatever Mayday attempted (successful or not...). Remember in S2 when June was looking at all the Marthas who had been hanged and she said that they had been hanged for being heretics and not for being part of resistance because officially there was no resistance because there was nothing to resist? I think what we’re seeing is June has been caught and she’s being given one of the hanging bags with the symbols on to say why they were hung, pre-execution (which I assume June will somehow survive - my guess would be Nick gets her out before the execution). June’s bag has a cross because she’ll be hung for being a heretic, because officially there is no resistance - although this seems like a bit of a stretch of a story even for Gilead considering what Mayday just pulled off. It’ll be interesting to see the story that Gilead do use to explain what happened.

Another thing I just want to quickly touch on is the costume - mustard yellow with a red strip. It’s a bit out there but I’m putting my money on ‘death row uniform’ - here’s why: the colours of the uniforms all have biblical connotations e.g. the wives where blue because it symbolises the purity of the Virgin Mary, handmaids wear read to symbolise Mary Magdalene who is a redeemed sinner etc. In Revelation (final book of the bible that talks of the end of the world and second coming etc.) the four horsemen (bringers of the end of the world) are described as being yellow as sulphur and red as fire. So the colours yellow and red would symbolise ‘the end’ i.e. a salvaging/execution. This is purely speculation so make sure to comment your thoughts!

Now the opinion you’re probably all here for - Hannah. In the shots shown in the trailer, she can be seen in some sort of glass prison with a doll, and she draws an eye in the dust. There’s been a lot of speculation about the context of this scene with the overriding theory being that this scene is a dream. In some ways this makes sense: June is in the yellow costume but she doesn’t have the same injuries shown in the other footage where she’s wearing this costume (although this could just be that this scene is slightly before that scene), the idea of a glass prison doesn’t really make sense in relation to what all the other cells look like that we’ve seen, the eye that Hannah draws is just way too precise for a drawing done with dust let alone a drawing done by a child, the idea of Hannah drawing an eye is also a strange drawing for a child whereas June would dream that because of the connotations to Gilead spies and ‘under his eye’. Not to mention it makes sense that June would be dreaming about Hannah being trapped as she’s been spending time with Mrs. Keyes who is a child bride close to Hannah’s age.

In all honesty, I don’t really know what I believe. I think that placing Hannah in a glass prison and allowing June to see her and be centimetres away but not be able to get to her is a very Gilead style power trip. Gilead officials know that the only reason that she’s still in Gilead is because of Hannah so it makes sense for them to hold her in a place that is blatantly obvious to June so she can be used as leverage in stopping an on-coming attack. Gilead pretend to be all about protecting children but we all know they’re not above cutting off a limb or two - as long as she still has a working uterus. So if this isn’t a dream and Hannah is being used as leverage, this puts a spanner in the works on my death row theory because you only keep leverage on someone if you need them for something and they won’t kill her if they still need her for something. There’s a number of things that could be - stopping an on-coming attack, intel on Mayday and the Martha network, maybe they’re blackmailing her to tell Luke to stand down on trying to get Fred and Serena convicted?

Anyway.... that was A LOT. Please reply to this post with any ideas you have or to prove me wrong - this is all we have till S4 drops!

Blessed be the fruit loops, bitches x

#thtedit #thehandmaidstaleedit #the handmaids tale spoilers #the handmaid's tale #hannah tht #moira tht #janine tht #June Osborne #nick x june #nick blaine #june tht #predictions #spoiler #thehandmaidstaleonhulu #blessed be the squad #blessed be the fruit loops #under his eye #nolite te bastardes carborundorum #mckenna grace

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spaceorphan18 · 4 years

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Kurt Duets Ranked

Part 2 of my Kurt Performances series, we move onto duets -- which will probably the least exciting of conversations, because this isn’t going to be much different than my Klaine Duets rankings. I didn’t go check that, however, so we’ll see how I feel about them now that more time has passed.

Meanwhile, the thing about the duets section is that while there are a ton of great songs in this one, it feels limited. Glee didn’t like to stray from what it knew worked, and therefore, we get Kurt having only a handful of duet partners, and only two of them make up a majority of the songs. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get more Kurt and Mercedes duets, but even more unfortunate that Kurt didn’t sing with a larger variety of people. I mean, could you imagine a season 4 Kurt/Santana duet? Or something season 1 or 2 with Kurt/Quinn? Lots of possibilities, little room for experimentation.

That said - I do enjoy a vast majority of these songs, and like the solos, most of them complement Kurt’s story nicely.

Kurt Duets Ranked:

27. Candles (Original Song, 2x16)

You guys can’t seriously be surprised by this, right? As with all of these numbers, I went back to listen to see if I’ve changed my mind. Nope. And here’s the funny part - I actually do like this song. But the arrangement, production, and context of this number is terrible. My theory is that Original Song had so many songs in it that they were rushed to get this one done. Coupled with the fact that that the arrangement was redone (by Darren? - idk, Darren’s usually better than this.) and probably rushed means that it was just sloppy by the time they got to production.

From a music point of view, the arrangement is not complementary to either of their voices, and both of them clash on harmonies and go out of tune multiple times throughout the song. On top of that, the emotion of the song is completely off. It’s a break up song -- purposely more tailored for the Finchel story line at the time -- but doesn’t mesh well with Klaine’s getting together story. It feels awkward and out of place, and one of those times where I think who ever picked this song made a bad choice.

I know there are those out there who like it -- and that’s great! Don’t let me slow you down. But it will remain a weak link in an otherwise solid discography.

26. Get Back (Tina in the Sky with Diamonds, 5x02)

While this is way, way better than Candles, I do think it’s a weaker number for Kurt, and Kurt/Rachel, seeing that you’ll see they have some fantastic numbers coming up on this list. Not a favorite Beatles song of mine in the first place, not helping is the fact that this song should have a grittier and harsher sound than either of these relatively more classically trained vocalists can give it.

There is some fun with the choreography (weird NYADA piano tuning thing aside - that’s not how you tune pianos...), and Kurt and Rachel’s voices mesh just fine, but the rest of songs on the list just offer a bit more.

25. Memory (Old Dogs, New Tricks, 5x19)

This one is... rough. And it makes me sad to say that about a song picked specifically by Chris Colfer. For Kurt’s part, it’s a perfectly adequate rendition of Memory, though I think it lacks any of the deeper emotion that Kurt normally brings to his solos. But marring it further is the addition of June Squibb (who doesn’t have the same caliber of voice) and the fact that the scene itself is a bit of forced sentimentality. I get what Chris was going for in the script, but we’ve barely met these people, and they’re not memorable enough for us to get a tug on the heartstrings that this song wants us to have. The scene just kinda falls flat. (I’m sorry Chris!)

24. Lucky Star (Old Dogs, New Tricks, 5x19)

I promise, I’m not picking on Chris, even if the two songs he specifically wrote for himself are down here at the bottom. At least this one has more entertainment value even if I think it’s not a great performance. Kurt flying around as Peter Pan is super cute, and the song choice works relatively well with the scene. Once again, though, June Squibb’s Maggie is not a vocalist (And that’s fine - she’s a super cute old person), as well as this is bogged down in that weird sentimentality Memory was going for. It’s not really good, but at least it’s entertaining.

23. Story of My Life (The Back Up Plan, 5x18)

On a list featuring the what works and doesn’t for Kurt’s performances, this one just... oy. First of all, technically, the boys sound fine. Their voices mesh just fine, as usual, though Blaine’s voice is better suited for these slightly melodramatic boy band numbers. It’s a fine song to listen to in the car. Watching the performance, though, is rough. It’s done that way intentionally, to fit the context of the story -- and while it’s supposed to be comedic, to me it comes off as awkward and cringeworthy. Kurt has some odd performance choices, but normally a good performer, and this makes him kind of a bumbling idiot for the sake of the story, to the point where I rarely ever watch this one. I get what they were going for, and enjoy the song as just a song, but am not really a fan of the actual performance.

22. It’s Too Late (Jagged Little Tapestry, 6x03)

This one I definitely have some mixed feelings about. The song is fine, albeit a little on the pop-y side, though that’s intentional for the theme of the episode. And it’s the first time one of these songs directly commentating on the story that’s actually going on with Kurt. On the one hand, the angst of the scene is played well, and these boys pining for each other works for this part of the story. On the other, the vocals are a tad on the generic side (though these boys always sound great each other), and I’m still not sure I understand what was going on with the fantasy element during the middle of the song. Still, it accomplish the feel the story needed, which is why it gets bumped up here.

21. I Am Changing (New Directions, 5x13)

We only get two Kurtcedes duets on this show, which is a damn travesty. But what makes it harder is this one is, well, a little one sided. Mercedes freakin’ brings the house down with her half of the song -- clearly Amber Riley deserves all the credit she got for doing Dream Girls. Kurt, on the other hand, sounds a little rough here. I’m not sure if it’s because Chris’s voice changed during the show, and it actually got deeper, or if it’s due to the weird production values of season 5, but Kurt’s solo verse is a bit harsh and unrefined, and not in a good way. Mercedes saves it and steals the show, and when the two come together they sound fantastic, but this one gets dropped a little further down because it’s just not a strong one for Kurt. Add to that the fact that they’re trying to make Rachel and Santana be friends again, and the song is unfortunately a weaker one.

20. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Frenemies, 5x09)

Look, I love Elliott, and I love that Adam Lambert came onto the show. He and Chris had some great chemistry, which actually does show through this performance. It’s fun and crazy and a bit out of Kurt’s normal repertoire, but that’s okay, because Kurt lets loose a little, and it’s really fun to watch. No - Kurt can’t match Elliott when it comes to the heavier rock material -- this is much better suited for Lambert than it is for Colfer, and there are times when Kurt kind of gets overshadowed and out performed, but that’s fine. We get to see Kurt pole dance - I think that’s justification enough to have it where it is on the list.

19. White Christmas (Glee, Actually, 4x10)

Believe it or not, out of the three Christmas duets Kurt and Blaine have, this is my favorite to listen to. I love this song, and I love this arrangement. They sound gorgeous on it as it highlights the strengths of their voices when singing together. My biggest issue is, really, with the scene overall. Look - it’s not easy choreographing people who aren’t used to doing routines on ice skates, and I get that. But due to that fact, the performance ends up being a lot of shots of people who aren’t Kurt and Blaine, and that’s a shame. The other two Christmas duets are much more in sync than this one, and this one is really being held back by the technical difficulty. Still - I like the song, and the context that it’s in, which is why it’s as high as it is.

18. Let it Snow (Extraordinary Merry Christmas, 3x09)

While lower than it perhaps deserves, upon watching it again, I know I’m placing it higher on the list of Klaine duets. It’s an incredibly hard number to do with all the dance steps and vocal runs, and the two of them nail it while being in character as their characters and as the Christmas special characters. I’m kind of in awe at the technical ability of this one, and it’s a shame the writers didn’t always play to Kurt and Blaine’s (and Chris and Darren’s) strengths. It’s not a personal favorite of mine, nor does the song hold much weight with their story, but it’s an incredible embodiment of what makes Klaine - Klaine, and showcases how well they can work together when given really good material.

17. You Make Me Feel So Young (New, New York, 5x14)

This is one of those songs that I go back and forth on, and really could write a dissertation on it, because I think there are a lot of elements both internal and external going on, which makes the onscreen performance... weird. But I feel like that would get way too long for the likes of this already too long post. So, I’ll say this. Vocally, they sound fantastic together, which is why I think it deserves to be up there on the list. It’s also one of the few times that we get to see genuine domestic Klaine being themselves with each other, which is also very cool. My issues with the acting and directing of the scene are very nitpicky, and it all lines up with my growing consensus that one of the weaker elements of season 5 were the musical numbers, but if y’all want more, I’ll do another post on just this song specifically. For now, I’ll just say that I enjoy the good things about the song, even if some of it leaves an awkward taste in my mouth.

16. Animal (Sexy, 2x15)

Animal is one of the few truly comedic performances Kurt gets to do. Between the silly sexy faces, euphemistic foam, and overkill addition of plastic balls, it’s hard to take this one very seriously, but that is the point. Both boys sound great on it, and it’s a lot of fun to watch -- being cringy in a good way. I really don’t have any criticisms of it besides I just prefer the others on the list just a bit more. But we’re getting into that territory where I think all of these songs are solidly good, and on any given day, I could rearrange the whole list.

15. 4 Minutes (The Power of Madonna, 1x15)

The second, and original, of the Kurtcedes duets, this is the first time in the show that Kurt gets to turn his sexy on, and it’s really awesome that they give him the chance to shine in such a way. Despite the fact that Kurt is doing the occasional weird hand gesture and choreography in this one, he and Mercedes play off each other incredibly well, and it’s a shame they never let these two really get to do anything once the juggernaut of Hummelberry came along. No, the song isn’t the best for Kurt’s voice, but sometimes it’s the spectacle of what’s going on during the number rather than how it sounds.

14. Love is a Battlefield (Tested, 5x16)

Showing that not all Season 5′s numbers were, well, not up to par as everything else, we’ve got this Klaine duet, which might be one of my favorite pieces of choreography and showmanship on the show. I really don’t like the song, at all, which I know goes against the grain of a lot of you, but it’s a testament to how powerful this number is visually that I’ve ranked it so high. (It’s about anger sex guys, and more sexual than the scarcely few sexy time-ish scenes we actually got.) The boys sound great on it, and the layered acting in it is pitch perfect. I love this duet, even if I’m not a fan of the song.

13. Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead (The Purple Piano Project, 3x01)

Well, there is a reason Hummelberry was what it became, and this showcases that to perfection. The song isn’t worth much story wise, but it does show just how wonderfully these two play against each other, as well as sounding great together. This song is playful and light and the perfect showcase for what real talents they both are. I have my issues with Hummelberry (really, I do) but I can’t deny that they’re standout performers together, and everything about this number comes together to show that off.

12. Perfect (I Kissed a Girl, 3x07)

Look, this list is subjective. Yes, there are a few that stand over the rest and a few that are really not that great, but most of Kurt’s duets, like his solos, are really all solid performances. And I just happen to really love this song. I’m not going to defend Blaine’s questionable rapping or the context this song is performed in the episode. But what I will say is that I love what the lyrics have to say about Klaine’s relationship at the time, and the fact that they both (but especially Kurt) sound so great here. Plus, I enjoy jamming out to this one in my car.

11. Daydream Believer (Dreams Come True, 6x13)

This just happens to be one of my favorite songs ever, and I’m so glad this got to be the last Klaine duet. I have no issues about how well they sound together. As cute as they are dancing with the kids, I do wish the context would have been totally different -- I wish that they were singing this to each other -- or their own child. But I still think it’s a pretty meaningful song, and I love it, so here we are.

10. Just Can’t Get Enough (I Do, 4x14)

I unabashedly love this song. Sure the song is rather repetitive and is going on during other people’s plot lines, but every time I hear this one, I just want to get up and dance along with it. The boys sound great on it, and they get to be rather flirty in the moments that the camera is actually on them. If only the had more screen time, I probably put this one higher near the top.

9. Somebody Loves You (Transitioning, 6x07)

A lot like Just Can’t Get Enough, this duet is flirty and adorable and I love everything about it. They sound great together and, as usual, play off each other well. On top of that, the song itself plays nicely into the Klaine story of the moment, which I appreciate. It’s not a perfect performance, but an incredibly enjoyable one, and that’s what matters.

8. American Boy (The Untitled Rachel Berry Project, 5x20)

Are either Kurt or Blaine suite for Rap and R&B? No, not really, but do I care? No. As you’ve probably noticed, I love these flirty duets, this is one of the best ones. Sure, they don’t really capture the style or tone of the original very well. But they’re having a lot of fun out there and being adorable while doing it. And Kurt simulates having sex. I mean, do I really need to say more? But really - I actually enjoy this song a lot, so there we go.

7. Popular (2009, 6x12)

This is easily the best performance of Kurt’s limited performances in season 6. Kurt and Rachel haven’t head a duet together since Season Five’s Get Back (interesting right?) but they’re able to turn right back on the magic that was going on in the earlier seasons. This song is near perfection -- the acting is solid, the performance is layered -- being both comedic and a commentary about the both of them, and they sound wonderful together. This is truly a treat for the end of the series, and I’m a little sad the rest of the season didn’t put as much effort into its musical numbers.

6. Come What May (Girls and Boys on Film, 4x15)

The thing about Come What May, for me, is that it’s deeply a romantic song - and shot (intentionally) in a very movie-like way. I love so much about this, from the staging, to the bit of flashbacks setting the tone at the beginning, to the misdirect and reveal that it’s really Kurt’s fantasy and not Blaine’s. Vocally, there are a few weaker spots towards the beginning, but that can be overlooked when visually and lyrically there is so much wonderful things going on here. I love when a performance can have layers to it -- and this one say so much about Kurt as a character and the head space that he’s in, while being deeply romantic without being vulgar, that it firmly takes a spot near the top of the list.

5. Got to Get You Into My Life (Love, Love, Love, 5x01)

The thing that’s so great about good Klaine duets is their push and pull of each other. This duet has a ton of that -- each of them playing against each other in such a flirty way. They sound great, they look great, the number has a ton of energy, and the bright tone is a nice change from all the somberness that came along with season 4. It’s a visual treat as well as a aural one, and nearly flawless in execution, which is why it’s ranked so high on the list.

4. Rockstar (New, New York, 5x14)

Is this really one of Kurt’s best duets? Technically, probably not. I don’t really care - I. Love. This. Song. Really, I listen to it all the time, and it’s just a song I never tire of. It’s really Adam Lambert’s show, and Kurt is kind of dancing around like the littler brother of the rockstar that is Elliot ‘Starchild’ Gilbert. And I do think Kurt and Elliot’s voices mesh rather well -- even if Kurt’s overshadowed a bit here. But that’s all fine - because this song makes me happy for no other reason that it does, and that’s a fine reason to be near the top of the list.

3. Baby, It’s Cold Outside (A Very Glee Christmas, 2x10)

I keep trying to think of reasons not to put this as the number one Klaine duets. I keep looking at the list thinking that something else about one of the other duets will stand out more, and I just can’t. This scene and this performance is damn near flawless. I’ve already talked about this scene at length, and I really don’t have anything new to add, but here’s the thing -- this song sounds wonderful, the game of cat and mouse they play with each other is one of the best scenes on the entire show, and I can’t say enough at how brilliant and layered and amazing this scene is. Hands down, best Klaine duet, and one of the best overall duets on the show.

2. Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy (Duets, 2x04)

The thing is, about this duet, is that it’s iconic. Just hands down iconic. Not only were they able to take an old school mash-up done by Babs and Judy and make it their own, but they gave it the same amount of power and emotion the original had as well. I don’t think it’s easy to sit on a stool and make any kind of song engaging but these two are able to do it. They sound flawless on a technically difficult song. There’s subtly and nuance in the performance. There’s balance and give and take. And contextually, it fits in nicely with where each of the characters are at. On top of that, it’s a really great arrangement of these two songs in the first place. I have nothing but good things to say about one of my favorite songs and favorite performances on the show. And while Hummelberry has so, so many issues as a friendship -- their ability to make amazing performances together was not one of them.

1. For Good (New York, 2x22)

I went back and forth on what the order of the top three would be -- they could easily be interchangeable they’re all so good. But here’s the thing about this one. I feel like this one just takes an extra step up in, well, everything -- the performance level, the context, the layers of emotion woven through this song, it just hangs itself up a little higher than the rest of them. Yes, Kurt and Rachel sound as good as they ever do -- playing off each other and meshing with each other brilliantly. But this song is a grand musical theater piece that they pull off masterfully.

But on top of that... The weight this song has is given is higher than pretty much any other song on this list. it’s a perfect fitting song that punctuates their paralleling journey throughout the season. This song is a final statement and thesis of everything that became before it, and because of that, I’m ranking it as the best of Kurt’s duets.

#finding kh #kurt hummel #non link no photos version #because tumblr is the worst and has a million restrictions

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daggerzine · 4 years

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You Gotta Lose? Hell, Some Of Us Ain’t Dead Yet by Mary Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fz3FVBlOE

NRBQ has done so many amazing songs. I never thought much about “Roll Call,” from Tiddlywinks - for one thing, it has a lighter, almost Billy Joel sound that’s more about latter day Terry Adams style than what I think of as the classic Q. Yet just as Adams’ work has grown on me, this track has made its way into my consciousness. The lyrics speak to me more in 2020 than they did when Tiddlywinks was released in 1980, before the D.C.-area music scene had lost Robert Goldstein (Urban Verbs), Kevin MacDonald (brilliant visual artist and scene stalwart who helped me design and layout [The] Infiltrator), Danny Gatton disciple/guitar maverick Evan Johns, bassist Michael Maye from the original H-Bombs, Rick Dreyfuss (Half Japanese/Chumps/Shakemore), Libby Hatch and Michael Mariotte (Tru Fax and the Insaniacs), Sally Be/Berg - REM/Egoslavia/SHE/Robert Palmer), Nurses member Marc Halpern (heroin, 1982), Lorenzo (Pee- Wee) Jones (Tiny Desk Unit) and hybrid rocker Jim Altman (HIV, 1990s). Goldstein, Dreyfuss, Maye and MacDonald succumbed to cancer, while Evan Johns’ deterioration followed years of touring, hard drinking and pushing himself past the limit.

(Top to bottom: Tommy Keene, Kevin MacDonald, Susan Mumford)

Those named above have been joined by Tommy Keene (the Rage/the Razz/solo/Paul Westerberg/Matthew Sweet - cardiac arrest at the age of 59; 2017), TDU’s Susan Mumford (cancer, 2018), David Byers (Psychotics/H.R./Bad Brains), and Skip Groff (Yesterday and Today/ Limp Records/Dischord - seizure, 2019). This is just an imperfect/incomplete naming of D.C.-area losses - I’m sure journalists from other cities could make lists. A horde of New Wave and early alternative musicians have died within the past few years. Whether through the stress of hard living/poverty, substance abuse, cancer or Covid-19, we’re seeing artists pass much earlier than I, anyway, expected them to.

(Top to bottom: Fred "Freak” Smith, Michael Maye with Evan Johns, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs)

We’re already past the loss of all the original Ramones. All the Cramps less Poison Ivy. Joe Strummer. Robert Quine. Hilly Kristal. Lou Reed. As of July, 2020, since 2018 we’ve also lost Andy Gill, Ivan Kral, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Schlesinger, Danny Mihm, Ric Ocasek, Daniel Johnston, Kim Shattuck, Lorna Doom, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Ranking Roger, Mark E. Smith, Glenn Branca, Randy Rampage, Hardy Fox, Pete Shelley, Matthew Seligman, Bill Rieflin, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider, Ian Dury, Benjamin Orr, Kirsty McColl and David Roback.

(Top to bottom: Sally Be/Berg, Ranking Roger, Danny Mihm)

Talking about the deaths of talented, gifted creatives is a helluva way to start a column. But here we are. Older performers don’t always get the attention afforded newer, so the rest of this piece shares and celebrates artists from the original New Wave/punk scenes who are still around and active. Many are from the D.C.-area cornucopia I know best, while others have just come to my attention, or seem especially noteworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED9_XK_JVQ

The Zeros’ Javier Escovedo has been steadily emitting tasty Americana-ish rock while occasionally dropping some Zeros sturm-’n’-drang - most recently with Munster Records single “In The Spotlight” and a track on Burger Records’ Quarantunes compilation. Quarantunes is a seven-album affair featuring 140 alternative/punk performers old and new, all of whom wrote songs between March-April 2020. A cursory listen to Volume 2 reveals the recorded version of a good night at a very wild bar, with Zeros still handily kicking ass of all ages.

https://velvetmonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/legacy-of-success?fbclid=IwAR0lJyS0YDE4e3o7LJiITEtw1lhBWMkUX47Vuag1Lf9fs2QozJJKD1lwkes

Velvet Monkeys/B.A.L.L. player and Sonic Youth/Teenage Fanclub producer Don Fleming reports, “We’ve put out new tracks ‘Theories of Rummanetics’ and ‘Legacy of Success.’ Jay has written a few ‘modules’ and Malcolm and I are having fun doing the music,” adding, “I play some electric six string on the new Rob Moss album - it’s fun to be on, with lots of guitar slingers from the DC daze.”

Yup, Rob Moss of Skin-Tight Skin has solicited contributions from Fleming and from Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys), along with a pile of talent including Stuart Casson (Psychotics/Dove/Meatmen), Franz Stahl (Foo Fighters/Scream), Billy Loosigian (Nervous Eaters, the Boom-Boom Band), Nels Cline (Wilco) and Saul Koll (the guy who made guitars for Henry Kaiser and Lee Ranaldo). The set is called We’ve Come Back To Rock ‘n’ Roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIB8a_0Q4c

Chumps/Workdogs/Jam Messengers player Rob Kennedy apparently has too much energy to throw in the towel - he’s kept recording, performing and making various sorts of lo-fi, DIY mischief that never loses that fresh, ‘70s feeling. Jam Messengers released Night And Day on vinyl in 2017. One of my fave Kennedy tracks, “A Low Down Dirty Shame” speaks to this moment as well as any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CRBEGVLE4

Former Tiny Desk Unit/Fuji’s Navy/Rhoda & the Bad Seeds members Bob Boilen, Kevin Lay, Michael Barron and Bob Harvey have released a new Danger Painters joint, Thank Speak Love This Record. Lay joked, “I have a voice made for Morse Code” before revealing his recent work with Rhoda and the Bad Seeds material, released June 30 as Live at Nightclub 9:30. Boilen continues to introduce artists both vital and obscure via Tiny Desk Concerts and All Songs Considered/NPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ1GajwfB0

I’ve seen David Arnson play recently and can attest to his proclivity for unfettered growth via Insect Surfers, the instrumental group that originally had some trouble establishing cred. with younger D.C. punks. The Surfers’ most recent release was Living Fossils (2019). Arnson celebrated the band’s 40 years of existence with a European tour in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkIuWIZVkM

Jad Fair says, “Half Japanese will have a new album released in November on Fire Records.” Jad’s art was recently featured at the Hiromart Gallery/Tokyo, while David has created a Facebook page where fans can pick up his colorful images for, well, mere bags o’ shells, as far as we can see - https://www.facebook.com/David-Fair-Painting-107055447700859/

Despite health issues for several members, Bad Brains has collaborated with Element to make BB themed skate wear https://www.elementbrand.com/mens-collection-bad-brains/ and added some killer live tracks to its YouTube channel.

Former WGTB programmers John Paige and Steve Lorber have been presenting Rock Continuum on WOWD-LP FM 94.3 since 2017.

Mike Stax continues to give excellent motivation for hunting down a pair of Beatle boots - Munster released the Loons’ 7” EP, A Dream In Jade Green, last year. The latest issue of Ugly Things, said by Stax to be heavily focused on the Pretty Things’ Phil May, was reported in early July to be nearing publication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jSc7gEAv0

Razz (the) Documentary will tell the story of how an uncommonly combustible rock band - especially with the Bill Craig/Abaad Behram line-up - helped spread the Flamin’ Groovies gospel while throwing down oddly compelling originals and taking the two-guitar thing up several notches - the producers are purportedly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether anyone can ever recreate the experience of being in an altered state via obsessive, sometimes conversational repetition of certain chords, anchored by Ted Nicely rethinking just what can be done with a bass guitar, given girth by Doug Tull’s intuitive drumming; with Mike Reidy the heat-seeking missile somewhere near the center... well, I doubt it. ‘Cause at this point you’re feeling no pain and it’s not about drinking; there is no room for anything but water - the beer will be knocked over when you’re this busy matching David Arnson’s other-side-of-the-front-line’s leaps into joydum while PCP’d out yahoos from the sticks learn the hard way that hugging Marshall amps can lead to lifelong repercussions. There (in case nothing I want to say about [the] Razz makes it into the film) - I’ve said it.

Discussions among old friends have confirmed that I’m not alone in being happily surprised at this development - we never expected our actions - which led to the hardcore explosion that’s received a lot more attention... would ever make it into any history book. Yet coverage of many of the D.C.-area musicians featured in this piece also comes with Punk The Capitol, A History of D.C. Punk and Hardcore, 1976-1983. Spring 2021 is the projected date for streaming/DVD release.

Ivan Julian came back from a scary 2015 bout with cancer to do a show in New York in 2016. The cancer has returned. Friends have organized a GoFundMe to raise money for surgery and basic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDB_3by-xkI

The Shakemore fest also refuses to fade, promising “eight hours of streaming steaming video” on August 1. Sounds will be provided by R. Stevie Moore, Velvet Monkeys, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Half Japanese, Johnny Spampinato, Weird Paul and the Chumps, among many, many others.

Despite having played at CBGB and other alternative venues in 1979, at the height of the New Wave, Gary Wilson’s work is so distinctive, he’s rarely been included with any musical genre other than the oft-vague “experimental” category. Folks were too unmoored by his visceral performances to get behind him. Wilson’s 14th album, Tormented, was released by Cleopatra in February.

Paul Collins recently published a book that he wrote with Chuck Nolan; I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (Hozac Books).

As “Heath,” Michael Layne Heath, a journalist who contributed to (the) Infiltrator and many other ‘zines, published My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed in May (Hat & Beard Press).

In April, X released its first album in 35 years; Alphabetland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1I-laItPI

As exciting for me as any of the above is Richard Hell with the Heartbreakers’ 2019 release of Yonkers Demo 1976. Hell’s “You Gotta Lose” is one of my picks for best punk/new wave singles of all time. The Heartbreakers version is, predictably, messier than the Robert Quine guitar-spiked classic. Its more excessive charms are growing on me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QnsysCN_A

This piece could go on and on - compiling it has been exhausting. The best part has been the response to my social media call for any info I didn’t have re: the D.C.-centric scene I left for New York in 1983. Musicians anxious to keep their compadres’ names alive have hammered that post with 138 comments to date. Urban Verbs percussionist Danny Frankel, who’s played with a colorful spread of artists including Beck, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, John Cale and k.d. Lang, made a point of being sure I knew about the passing of Marc Halpern, a source of obvious pain. People were worried I wouldn’t mention John Stabb (Government Issue - 2016), rockabilly player Billy Hancock (2018), Fred “Freak” Smith (Strange Boutique/Beefeater - murdered in Los Angeles, 2017), John Hansen (Slickee Boys - 2010), record store owner/Wasp Records starter/music supporter Bill Asp, Jimmy Barnett of The Killer Bees, and David Byers.

One of the hardest for me to write about is Chris Morse, whose 1984 passing from a drug overdose wrenched so many - I managed to get an obituary into, I think, The New York Rocker (that physical trek was part of a long-ago blur; a very hot day of traipsing over steaming concrete in a narrow-skirted dress to deliver the copy). Chris popped up in my dreams for years - one “visitation” pushed me to write a poem about it in the ‘90s. Morse, who played in Rhoda & The Bad Seeds and worked as a doorman at The Pyramid after moving to NYC in the early ‘80s, was on one of the Urban Verbs’ early flyers. I’m on another.

(Top to bottom: Me in an early Verbs flyer/photo shot at the Atlantis; Chris Morse on another Verbs flyer)

I ended up getting so burnt out on the responsibility of populating this sad roll call, I’ve started a memorial page for them all on Facebook. The nature of truly alternative music is such that many of its lights still fail to fill the pages of major publications. Many of these lights gave a great deal of their lives, if not everything, for the art they believed in. It’s good to remember them, and those heady early days. It’s good to enjoy what we still can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA3IfK76mmI

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yeonchi · 4 years

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Kisekae Insights #4: Series Overview (Next Gen and Moushouden Series)

I decided to split this into two instalments otherwise it would have been too long for me. From this point on, I started to have full control over my stories in the series – I would end up writing whole series instead of a few episodes, which eventually started to have a detrimental effect and became one of the reasons why I wanted to end my personal project as soon as possible.

The rationale behind making these two series originated from the latter half of my high school years; many people, including my teachers and parents, were saying how those final years would be important to my future, which meant that I would have to put my writing on hiatus for the time being. However, had I known better, I would have just kept on going.

The Next Gen Series

Originally, the plan was that Block 9 of the 50th Anniversary Series would have been my last series. However, towards the end of 2013, I got ideas for more stories and also realised that I would have played the Fifth Doctor for only two years whereas those actors who played the Doctor on the BBC series did around three or four years. I created this series (under the name “Project Next Gen”) with the intent of playing the Doctor for another year before finishing my final year after the hiatus. All episodes were broadcast in 2014.

I wanted to make this a “budget series” with the tagline “A New Doctor Who For A New Era”, but things happened and I ended up making it bigger than I originally wanted it to be.

2013-14 Specials: While the Next Gen Series officially started in 2014, The Day of the Doctor and A Christmas Carol (the actual 2013 Christmas Special) are also considered part of these series. Along with a five-episode miniseries broadcast around the New Year period, three specials were broadcast during Chinese New Year, with one of them being an adaptation of Princess Twilight Sparkle and another being an original pony adventure featuring Storm Dasher. All three specials featured Hiroki and Akari as companions.

Series 8: A light-hearted series that turned sour. Basically, some stuff happened IRL and Akari had to go back to being a villain with Girl Power and her cousins, who become the main villains of the Next Gen Series. Angelina Mouseling replaced Akari as companion from the sixth episode. I also adapted three BBC Fifth Doctor stories for this, namely The King’s Demons, Warriors of the Deep and Frontios respectively. The Awakening was another idea that came to mind, but I decided against it. The series finale started with some scenes from Resurrection of the Daleks, then I adapted some scenes from both ends of the 2013 TVB drama Brother’s Keeper (巨輪). It involves Hiroki kidnapping Akari and the son of a man who owned a Chinese restaurant in my local area. This is the bit where Hiroki’s sanity starts to slip as a result of his wife’s betrayal. (tbh I could have also adapted a rape scene if I wanted to but then it wouldn’t be a family series anymore) The subsequent Christmas in July Special followed on from the Series 8 finale and featured the Master as a villain alongside Girl Power and the Daleks in an invasion of Equestria. To finish off the drama adaptation, Hiroki fights the Master and is about to shoot him when he gets shot by Shining Armor. The Master is captured and dispersed throughout time and space (ala Arc of Infinity). Megan Williams makes her debut and three new companions join the Doctor, Hiroki and Angelina from this episode, namely Satoyuki Saitō, Storm Dasher and Rainbow Dash.

Series 9: If you were to read the stories of this series, you’d think I was a creep or misogynist of some sort. This series is now entirely focused on Hiroki’s fight against Girl Power and his worsening mental health that somehow barely gets mentioned. It starts off with Hiroki rejecting his old name, the name he was originally given at birth, then ends with him beating his wife and destroying the world. The Ice King is the subject of the series opener and Twilight’s Kingdom is also adapted, but with Storm Dasher and a seventh Element of Harmony, namely time. All the stories are connected with four double-parters throughout. The prototype to the Superhero Project begins here as in the second half of the series, the Doctor and his companions fight Girl Power as the Samurai Rangers. The series finale is mostly set in Hiroki’s point of view, but it does feature a pared-down adaption of The Time of the Doctor, which involves Trenzalore being an area on Earth and him only being there for like a few days or weeks or something. The Earth gets destroyed, then everything is suddenly back to normal.

The Final Specials: Three specials were made for this block. The first two are collectively known as the “5115 Specials” because they celebrate the 51st anniversary of BBC Doctor Who and the 15th anniversary of this Doctor Who. Following the format of 24, the two specials follow on from the Series 9 finale and features the Earth being raptured, then restored after the Doctor and Hiroki fix a time distortion in Heaven. Following that, they go back to Earth and fight Girl Power and their allies. Their army is so strong that it took the second coming of Jesus in order to defeat it. Hiroki and Akari reconcile after this. The final episode, the 2014 Christmas Special, features a remnant of Hiroki’s first incarnation attempting to take over his current self until Akari and her friends prevent this.

Jee Gun’s Spinoff: Magical Tachibana

The Tachibana Mysteries is a series of crime dramas centred around detectives who are part of the legendary Tachibana family, whose ancestors have worked in the police force. Magical Tachibana is one of those series; a detective from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Yūki Tachibana, is transferred to Minato-Sugaru Island, home of the Equestria Girls. It’s basically Equestria Girls meets Death in Paradise. In addition to this, I decided to reintroduce Jee Gun’s character, with his real self ending up on Minato-Sugaru Island following his regeneration into Storm Dasher.

I wrote two pilots for the series and nothing more. The first pilot isn’t remotely connected to this series and it probably makes even less sense as you read it. Basically, it’s an adaptation of the first Equestria Girls movie where Jee Gun is sent to the human world to help Twilight, but he forgets what he is supposed to do and things just go wrong. The second pilot is the actual pilot of the series, which adapts Deep Breath and is kind of an alternate or side story to Rainbow Rocks. Basically, the Dazzlings find a time ship that crashed years earlier and they attempt to harvest organs to repair it. It ends with what looks like Adagio being impaled on top of a tower, but it’s not what it looks like.

I think only one or two series were made before it got cancelled. I’ll talk more about Jee Gun when we get to his instalment.

Director’s cuts

During the two-year hiatus, I did do some rewrites, or rather, “director’s cuts” of some episodes, which mostly involved removing or rewriting some storylines that I didn’t like. For the most part, the director’s cuts take precedence in canon over the original episodes, with the exception of the first set, the Series 9 Shinkenger arc, as it is an alternative retelling altogether.

Here are the episodes that were made into director’s cuts:

Series 9 Shinkenger arc (most of the second half and the 5115 Specials)

Block 9 (with an edited cut of The Time of the Doctor from the Series 9 finale as the de facto 2015 Christmas Special)

Series 4 Kikuchi arc (from the two dramas)

Series 7 Part 1 (the Salacian Time War specials)

Blocks 2 and 4 (the highlights of the 50th Anniversary Series before Block 6)

Series 5 finale (as the de facto 2016 Christmas Special, also includes the episode before it)

The Moushouden Series

The full name of the series is Doctor Who Xtreme Legends Moushouden (named after the Koei Warriors spinoff games), but in recent years, I’ve started to call it the Moushouden Series or Project for short. I started making plans for this towards the end of the Next Gen Series in 2014 and they have been continually changing. If I told myself in 2014 what the Moushouden Series would look like by the end, I probably wouldn’t believe myself.

The Moushouden Series started in 2017 and was meant to end at the end of 2020, but the coronavirus lockdown has forced me to push it back by another year to 2021. The Fifth Doctor would undergo a big character change to be more similar to the BBC Twelfth Doctor for the adapted episodes and Gokaiger’s Captain Marvelous for everything else. The objective of this project was to “retell the past and forge the future”. I also tried my best to answer any questions and loose ends left over from previous series. There are also numerous spinoffs that are heavily linked, so they will be listed under this section as well.

Doctor Who: This is the main component of this series that eventually got overshadowed by the other spinoffs. Because each of the original series was 12 episodes long, I decided to write an additional episode for each series to make them 13 episodes long.

Series 10: Broadcast April-June 2017 and based on BBC Series 8. I also rewrote the series opener along with the original episode. The original episodes of this and the next series are broadcast as part of the preludes to the Superhero Project and Kamen Rider Project. Some of Deep Breath was also used in the series opener, including the Paternoster Gang, the Clockwork Droids and the Half-Face Man. Clara Oswald returned as companion for this series and the next. Last Christmas acted as the Christmas in July Special.

Series 11: Broadcast September-November 2017 and based on BBC Series 9. Some modifications were made to this series to fit my project’s canon. In the opening two-parter, Davros was replaced with Antoni and in The Girl Who Died, the circumstances as to how the Doctor got his face are slightly modified. Clara Oswald departed in the series finale. My interpretation of the Hybrid is different than whatever Steven Moffat meant it to be, which I will explain when I get to it. The 2017 Christmas Special marked the debut of the Gokaigers, with the Doctor being the leader of that team as well.

Series 12: Broadcast September-December 2018 and based on BBC Series 10. In a throwback to Series 1 and 2, there are 16 episodes in this series, including the original episode, The Husbands of River Song, The Return of Doctor Mysterio and Twice Upon a Time, which featured the First Doctor’s first actor. This series is also nicknamed “the Nardole saga”. Bill Potts is also a companion in this series. Like Series 11, modifications were made to this series, such as the Monks not affecting Australia due to the influence of the Power Rangers, Kamen Riders, Ultramen and Space Sheriffs. Due to some circumstances that happened in Gokaiger, the Doctor regenerates into himself at the end and appears in the 2018 Christmas Special.

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger/Kamen Rider Decade: Broadcast back-to-back January-June 2018 with an additional movie trilogy released July-September 2018. This is the culmination of the Superhero Project and Kamen Rider Project. There are 13 episodes in this series along with a crossover special, TV movie and extended episodes for the series premiere and finale. The amount of episodes equated to 28 half-hour episodes that could be adapted from their respective counterparts. I will be making separate instalments on this in the future.

Gokaiger: Aside from adapting episodes from Gokaiger, some storylines from Boukenger, Ninninger and Zyuohger were adapted as well. I remember using ideas from the 199 Hero Great Battle movie in four episodes for some reason. Not all Sentai teams were adapted into the Superhero Project – I only adapted Zyuranger, Kakuranger, Ohranger, Hurricanger, then Dekaranger to Zyuohger. In the movie, I also adapted Goranger, JAKQ and Dairanger as the “ancient Rangers”, mostly because they were also used in the finale and I already had a limited pool of powers as it was. The movie trilogy, titled Space Squad, involves the Gokaigers fighting alongside Ultramen Ginga, Victory and X along with Space Sheriffs Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider under the banner of the Shadow Proclamation.

Decade: Consider this my attempt at making a better version of Decade than the one we eventually got under Shoji Yonemura. This version focuses on Hiroki redeeming himself for his past sins as he is sent back a month in the past in order to gain the cooperation of the Riders and save the world from destruction. Like the original, there are two arcs in this series, namely the Nine Riders Arc and the New Riders Arc. The Nine Riders Arc features a counterpart of Narutaki as the main villain, while the New Riders Arc features a quartet of villains working under Foundation X to resurrect Dai-Shocker, the villain group of the TV movie. Originally, I wanted to feature original Riders, but in the end, I only kept three (later two) original Riders as I adapted every Rider from Kuuga to Drive. The “Nine Riders” are different in this series than the original. The movie trilogy, titled Age of Riders, is derived from the Heisei Generations movies. Kamen Rider Ghost was also adapted for this as well.

Three Kingdoms: A four-series drama recounting the backstories of Hiroki’s past self and Parker. The series is inspired from the Dynasty Warriors-esque battle dramas, but with schools and armies of children fighting each other. It covers the events of the Last Great Time War on Earth from 2003 to 2011, which is kind of related to the Hybrid. Other events after that are covered in other parts of the project. This is a weeknightly drama with 60 episodes in each series. Some specials were also broadcast between Series 3 and 4. In addition to this, a side spinoff Three Corners was made, with 26 episodes broadcast weekly in the second half of 2017.

Series 1: Broadcast January-March 2017 and covers events from 2003 to 2007. Highlights include their time at kindergarten and the first years of primary school.

Series 2: Broadcast April-June 2017 and covers events from 2007 to 2010. Highlights include Hiroki and Parker’s rise to power and their rivalry with a group of young strategists.

Series 3: Broadcast October-December 2017 and covers events from 2010 to 2011. Highlights include the Salacian Rebellion and their chaotic transition to secondary school.

Series 4: Broadcast January-April 2020 and covers events from 2011 to 2012. Highlights include Parker’s death and resurrection and Hiroki’s departure to become a ronin, bridging into his Doctor Who appearances.

Soulbound: A four-series drama focused on the adventures of Shinbu Serizawa, Mogoro Kuwabara and their friends in another universe. I got the idea to make this series from my memories of playing a Doctor Who-based adventure with my friends in primary school. The TV series Parallax and other works played large roles in influencing the series lore. The first two series was contained in its universe while the last two series crossed into the main universe, where the other works are set (though with a ten year time difference). Like Three Kingdoms, this is a weeknightly drama with 60 episodes in each series. A Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (celebrating the anniversary for this version of Doctor Who) was broadcast as an extra episode in Series 3.

Series 1: Broadcast April-June 2019 and features adaptions of the Ape Escape games and Sonichu fancomic. The final arc of this series revolves around the Dimensional Merge, where Soulbound’s universe is merged with the main universe, explaining the appearance of anime and cartoon characters throughout the project.

Series 2: Broadcast July-September 2019 and features an adaptation of Kingdom of Paradise. The Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors are featured in dedicated two-parters near the end of the series. The final arc involves the construction of a dimensional bridge connecting the two dimensions, allowing travel between them, and the characters becoming part of their universe’s Shadow Proclamation.

Series 3: Broadcast September-December 2019. The entire series is an Ultraman-based arc centred around Ultraman Ginga and his nemesis, Ultraman Venokatto. It’s a really long story. The Kamen Riders are also featured, but out of the Rangers, only the Gokaigers are featured (with the exception of some Samurai Rangers during a two-parter). But between you and me, it’s also a big finger to the writers of the MLP:FiM finale. More on that when I get to it.

Series 4: To be broadcast October-December 2020. Work for this series is in progress.

The Equestria Chronicles: A two-pronged series focused on Doctor Who and Ultraman respectively. The Doctor Who portion is a clip show broadcast in the second half of 2019 and it features Storm Dasher as a guest teacher at the School of Friendship telling the students about his adventures in Doctor Who. The Ultraman portion is a six-arc drama broadcast in the second half of 2020 and it features the backstories of Ginga, Victory and X, adapted from their respective Japanese series.

The Zhuge Family Chronicles: Another clip show with different members of the Zhuge family to be featured in each episode. To be broadcast in the first half of 2021.

The Final Kamen Rider Chronicle: In lieu of a fifth series for Three Kingdoms and Soulbound, it was decided that adaptations of Ex-Aid, Build and Zi-O would be made instead. The entire series will premiere in the second half of 2021 and I will be writing the Zi-O portion of it. What I can tell you now is that my version of Zi-O will take place in an alternate 2018-19 of the project, but the Legend Riders will come from the end of their respective stories, that is, their histories will not be changed.

So that’s my personal project in a nutshell. From the next instalment, I’ll be going into the specifics of certain aspects in the project.

#kisekae insights #dynasty warriors #doctor who #super sentai #kamen rider #ultraman #space sheriff #my little pony #friendship is magic #equestria girls

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kiraziwrites · 5 years

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Author interview

Tagged by: @slipsthrufingers

Name: Not telling (but it starts with E).

Fandoms: Game of Thrones (JxB) is the only one I’ve really written for seriously so far, but I regularly read and have toyed with writing (to the point of having some dusty fragments that never made it to story status on an old laptop) in a bunch of others: Vorkosiverse (all kinds of pairings and stories), Queen’s Thief (ditto), Wimsey (mostly Harriet/Peter), Rivers of London (anything that gets the canon tone and voices right, but I’ve got a soft spot for Peter/Nightingale or Beverley/Peter/Nightingale as a v-shaped OT3), and Broadchurch (Hardy/Miller, both as OTP and BroTP). I’ve also read a fair amount of Yuri!!! on Ice and Veronica Mars and random other things, but I’ve never felt the impulse to write for those.

Where you post: AO3 and here. I did put a piece of Babylon 5 fic on a listserv sometime in the 90s and I hope internet entropy has erased any trace of its existence (I was very young and it was almost certainly terrible).

Most popular oneshot: Going by kudos, Rescued Again, my first proper fic. Going by comments, its sequel Adequate Vocabulary.

Most popular multi-chapter story: Ring Them Bells, which doesn’t surprise me, because it’s the longest, it contains several plot elements that are popular in the fandom (i.e. J&B go to Tarth, meet Selwyn, etc) and it was written at what was probably the peak of appetite for S8 fix-its (not that that’s stopped me from continuing to write more of them....)

Favorite story you wrote: Ring them Bells is still dear to me, but A Great Fountain has mostly displaced it from the no. 1 spot in my heart—both because it feels more real to me (my head has been stuck in that continuity since late June, between writing it and the companion story) and also because I think I put more of myself in it. I wrote RTB for the fandom (and for myself, as a member of it), whereas AGF was for myself first, if that makes sense.

Story you were nervous to post: I feel like I ought to have been nervous before posting Rescued Again, but I’d been up all night writing and I think I was too high on the glee of it to feel nervous. Maybe a little bit about A Satisfactory Maneuver because it was my first time posting porn? TBH it’s probably Winter Should Have Meaning because this one has been much harder to write than the others and I’m both less sure of what I’m trying to do, and whether it’s working.

How you choose your titles: It depends! The first three were all references to lines within the story; Ring Them Bells was after a Dylan song because I was thinking about bells and 8x05 as the turning point and a cover version got stuck in my head and many lines suddenly seemed to fit the story beats I wanted (which is why it’s the only one with chapter titles). As previously noted, AGF/WSHM are both titled after lines from one of my favorite books of poetry, Louise Glück’s The Wild Iris. If I continue to be on my bullshit, I forecast a high probability of either lyrics from The Mountain Goats, or more poetry (likely candidates: Seamus Heaney, Richard Siken, Agha Shahid Ali, Adrienne Rich....)

Do you outline: Not at the start; everything begins with vibes and feels and scattered clumps of text emerging from the depths and cohering into a scene or two. And then when I get stuck, or need to try to make sense of the larger picture, I outline. Sort of. It’s more like a jumble of incoherent notes-to-self with lots of ????? and idk, maybe X, and [something goes here] and ugh fml than anything as organized as the word “outline” would imply.

Complete: 5 stories so far. All about our favorite dumbass knights in love.

In-progress: Just the one! Well, maybe two, if we count the fragments of porn-in-Winterfell that might turn into something someday. I wrote a version of their first time for the Winterfell Sequence, but there’s a different, 8x04-compliant version of it (and the second, third, etc times) in my head that would be a sort of background/prequel to the fix-its.

Coming soon/not yet started: See above, re: porn-in-Winterfell.

Do you accept prompts: Sure, why not? I can’t promise I’ll fill them, since I’m having trouble keeping pace with one story at a time right now, but it might be fun to play around with some short and different stuff, especially since Winter is hard going at present (I expect it will get easier once I can go back to writing all the post-reconciliation softness, but I have banned myself from writing any more of the soft parts until I get through the middle section of the story). Anyway, the ask box is open; fire away.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: Any of them, but I think I might sign up for Yuletide this year to push myself to try writing in another fandom, probably Queen’s Thief or Broadchurch.

Tagging @agirlnamedkeith, if she hasn’t been tagged yet, and anyone else who wants to jump in.

#author interview meme

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doomedandstoned · 4 years

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Devilish Acid Doomers LáGoon Reveal The “Father of Death”

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

Review by Billy Goate, with Stephanie Savenkoff

Some days you just need a good swift kick in the pants to get the week going. Portland acid doomers LAGOON got you covered with 'Father of Death' (2020). It's the band's second album so far this year, marking an especially prolific period for the Portland band. Hell, we just got through reviewing and debuting 'Maa Kali Trip' (2020) back in March. Indeed, the band reminds us, "There aren’t rules to this shit, despite what anyone may tell you. We figure, release the music as you make it. Two full lengths in 3 months, why not?" You won't hear any objections coming from this end, fellas.

The new spin also witnesses LáGoon’s core transformation from duo to trio, something which has obvious ramifications for their sound. Featured on this effort is bassest Ignacio De Tommaso of Luciferica, and Argentinian band we heaved profuse praise upon during a recent episode of The Doomed & Stoned Show. "Same skate rat doom sound," LaGoon assures fans, "just in louder form."

The bass is the first thing that hits us with a wallop straight away in the title track. When I learned that Doomed & Stoned's tireless Portland photographer Stephanie Savenkoff was likewise immersing herself in the new LáGoon album, I asked if I could share her notes. "Great fuzzy beginning," she observes. "Repetitive and trancey." The song appears to be about a godlike figure who holds the power of death in his long, boney hands. Singer Anthony Gaglia personifies him with appropriate dramatics. "Love that sneer!" Stephanie adds "Reminds me of Billy Corgan."

"Resuscitation" by contrast is "stripped down" with a "peaceful opening. Simple but moving." Were I to match the music with a narrative, it would be of someone awakening from a near-death experience -- or simply from blacking out, as I once did in a local grocery store (took down a whole shelf of Gatorade with me, too). Waking up from that otherwise peaceful step out of consciousness was a blurry, surreal ordeal. Soon, the unreality of it all came flooding back and I struggled to make sense of the events leading up to it. I imagine this is doubly so in the case of an NDE. Thus, we move from the serene to the stormy as the patient is resuscitated. Stephanie notes its "surfy center, energizing," and hints at Spanish rhythms with one final word: "Bandito!"

A "simple, mellow riff" begins "Bloodied Mouth," then "builds and intensifies," Stephanie suggests, offering us a "cool spark at the end." I can't help loving that Brady Maurer rhythm. His drumming makes this fundamental rock 'n' roll, the kind you wanna really twist to -- LaGoon's trademark menacing twist, that is.

Speaking of all things sinister, "Broken Oath," is "creepy and funereal" Stephanie says, an atmosphere conjured in no small part by guest keyboardist Adam Scott of Thunderbird Divine, who makes effective use of the Mellotron. We also hear, I believe, two sets of vocals, which I'm fairly certain is Ignacio De Tommaso's or one of his compadres.

"Soft, sweet, gentle, intense, beautiful, dark." Those were the words that converged with Stephanie's stream of consciousness for "Stab & Cut." Lyrically, it feels full of alienation and the need to protect oneself from the many enemies of happiness, some of which are more insistent than others in taking away our roadmap. Thankfully, there's still that trusty van to get us over the winds and dips of the road ahead.

As we might expect from an album conceived in quarantine, parts were recorded separately by various members of the band during lockdown, then mixed and mastered by Anthony himself. I'd say he did a damn fine job of it, with the usual low-fi ethic in play.

And now, Doomed & Stoned is pleased to bring you the title track from Father of Death, which emerges June 19th and can be pre-ordered here.

Give ear...

An Interview with LáGoon Frontman Anthony Gaglia

By Billy Goate

LáGoon is now, what, four, five years old?

Just approaching 4 years!

Hellll yeah.

It’s been a good run!

What was the last show you played before the Great Lockdown of 2020?

Took me a second to remember it’s been so long! Our last gig was March 6th alongside fellow PNWers Grim Earth, Sorcia, and Ravine!

Right on. I think Stephanie Savenkoff may have been there to snap some pics that night.

She was, indeed; always great to see her at our shows!

You've got some big things happening this month, right?

We do! Our last album, MAA KALI TRIP, has finally made its way out of the record plant (pusher back due to Covid) so this Friday it will be available for purchase, and then the Friday after that we’ll be releasing our new album Father of Death!

Listening to that opening track on ‘Father of Death’ (2020) you can tell something is different. The bass just jumps out at you with bold ferocity! You’ve got a new member? Please introduce us.

Hell yeah! The man behind that thunderous tone on the record is Ignacio De Tommaso of the band Luciferica. Ignacio and I have been collaborating on some music for the past few months, so when it came time to lay down bass on the record he was the perfect man for the job!

What was it like to jam with a third person after being a duo for so long?

Refreshing! At first being in a two piece was great because I had just left a 5 piece band, and that was a headache. But after being the two of us for a while, it feels great to have someone else on board so I can play some solos and overall broaden what I can get away with playing!

Do you feel any urgency to expand your number in real life when the bars and concert halls open up again along the West Coast?

Definitely. I want to start playing these new songs in their entirety as soon as things open up. I really feel like this album is the new sound of LáGoon, and I’d hate to step backwards for live shows.

How would you describe LaGoon’s core sound and approach to heavy music?

It’s hard for me to describe, but I think the most important piece of LáGoon’s sound is that we’re really not concerned with fitting under one particular label. We all listen to a variety of music, and I think that comes through in the music. Our biggest concern is keeping things fun and fresh for us, and we’ve just been blessed that some people seem to really dig it!

What styles of music would you say you draw the most inspiration from?

Those are constantly changing, but going into this album I was listening to a lot of 90s bands like Sonic Youth, The Pixies, The Melvins, and The Butthole Surfers. Which are bands I come back to time and time again. There’s something about the music that was made in the late '80s to early '90s that has a ‘I don’t give a fuck’ rawness to it. Anything that sounds like it was labored over isn’t the vibe for me.

Is it just me or do I feel a kind of chill surfer vibe thing going on, too? It's probably just me.

You’re not wrong! I think that comes from the type of people we are, or the amount of weed I consume haha. It’s pretty hard to get any of us upset, and so I think that there’s definitely elements of that in our music.

Right on. How have the last 3-4 months of shutdown and lockdown affected you and the people around you?

It was pretty hectic at first. I haven’t been working since the shutdown, so financially it’s definitely been a struggle. My mom and sister are both nurses as well so it’s been pretty scary to hear about all the madness in their hospitals. Overall, I’m happy to be living in the city and state I’m living in. Everyone I know has taken it seriously and that’s refreshing!

That's awesome to hear. Well, on a positive note, maybe take a few moments to tell us about the new album and walk us through all five tracks?

Would love to! This album largely came about because of all the free time I’ve had over the quarantine. As we mentioned before this is our first album as a three piece. I made that decision going into the album, so most of the tracks feature guitar solos and other elements we couldn’t pull off as a two piece.

FATHER OF DEATH

"Father of Death" is the first track on the record and the title track for the album. It sets the pace for the album with a driving tempo and the introduction of the bass as part of our sound. The song is about the grim reaper, a character that regularly surfaced in LáGoon songs.

RESUSCITATION

"Resuscitation" is the song that is just that for this band. It’s the first song of ours that couldn’t be played without the bass, and brings a new life and sound to the band. It’s also one of our longest songs and has multiple tempo changes.

BROKEN OATH

"Broken Oath" features another friend and label mate of ours Adam Scott of the band Thunderbird Divine on keys and melotron. This is one of the heavier songs on the album, and tells the story of a man cheating on his wife with a prostitute.

BLOODIED MOUTH

"Bloodied Mouth" is the most danceable of the album. This song was written at the beginning of the COVID crisis when everything first shut down. I felt a little beat down, and this song is what came out.

STAB & CUT

"Stab & Cut" is probably the furthest from any of the other songs we’ve written. I wrote it as an acoustic guitar song years ago and had forgotten about it. For some reason I played it on my electric guitar one day while I was recording other songs for the album and it brought new life to it.

That’s all of 'em!

Cool, thanks for sharing that! What instruments and gear are you working with these days?

I’ve had the same Orange CR120 head and Marshall 4x12 since the formation of the band! For a short period I was playing split through that and a bass amp, but now that we’re a three piece I’m back down to the Orange through the 4x12 and I have one distortion pedal that I more or less just use as boost. We’re lucky enough to have a deal with Baxter guitars so that’s all I play and we’re hoping to get a Baxter bass on stage soon!

First Coronavirus, then Lockdown, Recession, and Social Unrest. Any predictions on what the second half of 2020 holds in store?

I have no idea, but what I hope for is serious social reform at the federal level, a new fuckin’ president, and the return of live music. I may be asking for too much though. (laughs)

Sounds like you're just itching to get back on stage again and belt out these new tunes for a real live audience!

Absolutely! My wife is getting sick of hearing me play by myself! (laughs)

Right on, man. Well we hope to see you soon, so we'll keep our fingers crossed for a bright close to the year. Thanks so much for chatting with Doomed & Stoned!

Hell yeah, man! We appreciate your continued support. See ya out there. Stay healthy, and stay heavy!

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The bad guys rewrite

Notes: For original accounts anniversary (June 14) I decided to rewrite The bad guys series into one -yes one- long story. Also, thank you to @toynako (Not sure if you want me to tag you here) for the first ever person to like my crappy writing :3

warnings: too many to put, but it’s really long (7,150 to be exact)

Boredom. How long had he felt it? Had it been Decades or Centries? What could he do?

He only had so many AUs to play with to soothe his indifference, it’s not like he’d ever owned any friends, and even then, if he did, would he be in the place he is in now?

The self-proclaimed King sat in his throne, feeling small compared to the size of the room. He sat laying across the seat and its two arms, looking like a child forced to this role due to his height and him swinging his legs. However, this man was far from a child, he was in his hundreds and was about to reach his 217th birthday- marking 200 years reigning as King.

He glanced over at one of his tendrils, a mass of solidified goop that ran like a waterfall but forever stayed in its own shape, defying all laws of Matter it could. The color was a dark green, almost black-but still held elements of blue- creating a new color of its own, it even matched the color scheme of him himself and by extension the palette for most of his decor.

The goop that covered that tendril wasn’t just there either, it covered his whole body- from his skull to his skeletal toes, that was the only color you could see. Although, the color fit his self-proclaimed title as the “King of Darkness” perfectly.

The goop itself could become a burden, however, the only reason he even had the goop was because of the Dark apples. It could even fall off sometimes- he had to learn that the hard way- but it only stuck to him and to nothing or anyone else, at least he didn’t have to clean it off.

He laid there a while longer, searching his mind for anything to do. After searching through the mental files of memories, he remembered something he specifically put away in his private library, an area where he stored spirals of Notes on Aus, Journals, and much much more. He teleported to the spot, not caring to walk the distance to the room.

The object in question was a medium sized and handcrafted spiral that a close childhood… companion had given to him as a Birthday gift when he was 14, the memories came surging back to him as he picked it up. He remembered how the other insisted that they stayed away from the village nearby that day because it was their day, and no one was to interrupt it. They spent that whole day together reading his favorite books, then later had a well-made meal followed by a delicious dark chocolate cake that was just the right amount of bitter and sweet.

This meaning there was almost no sweetness to it, strong dark chocolate as the King called it (70-80% cocoa for you readers). He could tell his companion didn’t care for the cake all that much, and remembering the face he made when he had the first bite- probably didn’t like it at all, but his companion still ate on. He hid his distaste for the food and just wanted the other to be happy, which, surprisingly, worked at the time.

The King often missed the past, he smiled at the memories- but then his smile turned flat as he turned through the pages, looking for any notes that stood out. The past was the past and he now had to look forward and forget what made him the victim, and instead remember what made him the feared guardian and dark King of today.

The spiral held notes he had taken from hearing the villages conversations about other AUs and outcodes, at the time he didn’t understand most of it, but after the years he slowly pieced everything together and could talk about almost any AU you asked about. He set up timelines of events, specific details on AUs, and even what made the AU special or terrible- helping him to avoid them then and take Negativity from them now.

He finally found what he was looking for, it was towards the middle of the spiral and written bigger than everything else- meant for him to remember it. A learning strategy if he remembered correctly, he purposefully did this so he could remember that peculiarity of these two specific individuals.

The first one was Error, a destroyer of worlds, he wrote for him possible motivation and wrote as much on his backstory as he heard. He put a few possible timelines together, he became an Error and already hated the world, he already was an Error and something drove him to destroy, or he was simply insane or psychotic. Fitting enough for how he acted.

The second was the helper of creators, Ink, he -as his title suggested- helps creators and gives them motivation. He had written similar things for him with a few side details that included his bad memory -aside from traumatizing events- as well as his lack of emotion and a soul, Ink was an empty husk that lived because of the AUs creation.

He remembered Ink well enough, he was a colorful skeleton with an expressive pair of eyes, they had a run in once after the King started his rule- ever since Ink had avoided him. Ink may be emotionless, but even those who can’t feel emotions fear death. What he wrote as possible motivation was almost exactly the same as Error’s except he kept the concept of Ink being part of the void from the start.

Another thing came to mind as he thought about the peculiar pair, a handful of pacifistic AUs that had gone off from the path as of late. Gaining strong amounts of negativity, made he could help them so they didn’t end up like hi- ...so they didn’t end up insane.

Not a second later and he was outside the ruin doors of a pacifist -or soon to be pacifist- Undertale Snowdin, trees were all around aside from in front and behind him.

Dust circled around him and in the air. The King brought his turtle neck up to his mouth and nose, covering them so he wouldn’t have to breathe it in. He was far too late. It didn’t seem to help that the more he walked around the underground world, the more evidence he had to support his theory, there wasn’t anyone left alive or spared. Even temmie village was quiet.

The uneasiness of the surrounding area sent small chills and shivers up the King’s spine, the quiet deafening, the only sound other than his breathing being his subtle footsteps as he walked along. The ruins, snowdin, waterfall, Hotland, core, and the surrounding area of New home were all empty, that is if you didn’t account for the dust. Even the true lab was empty.

Sighing, the King went to the only place left to look, the judgment hall. The one place he had left alone.

The gold hall shimmered before turning dark from his presence, startling the skeleton idly sitting at its exit. The skeleton turned, shocked. Clearly not expecting it as it was obvious everyone was dead in this timeline.

The sans’ eyes were blank, streams of tears drying underneath his eyes and turning black along his skull, his soul misshapen and red by the sheer amount of determination and LOVE running through him. Other than those few unique details, he was -or at least looked- as normal as any other sans.

“I thought I killed everyone...” The sans deadpanned, looking annoyed and astounded someone got out of his merciless grasp. His eye’s slanted in grimace, slowly pulling out a knife as he stood up and mentally prepared himself for battle.

“Friend, you don’t want to do that.” The king announced, chuckling. The sans’ stance tensed but relaxed too, unsure whether he should listen to this dark being’s advice. “I’m certain we can come to a compromise rather than fight- besides, I sincerely doubt you’d make it far.”

The murderous sans moved forward anyway, only to be picked up and stopped by one of the King’s black tendrils, his arms restrained and held down against his body by the same tendrill.

The knife clinked as it fell to the floor from the sans’ surprise. His look turned from annoyance and surprise to hatred and distaste.

“Fine,” He growled out, “...What compromise do you have in mind? And- can I question who and what the hell are you?” His eye’s changed from slanted and angry to raised, suspicious and confused; Seemingly willing to listen.

“I, young one, am Nightmare, a skeleton much like you. I am also a guardian and King of sorts, of negativity- and you, friend, just happen to radiate such; Allowing me to find you.” Nightmare summed up, “Now, the compromise I had in mind, it’s up on the table whether you decide to take the offer now or even down the timeline- heh.

“The compromise itself is simply you join me and what will eventually become a team of people to help spread negativity- killing, destroying, ruining lives, etc.- and leave this empty world for the large multiverse beyond it. All I ask in return is for you to trust and join me, let me take care of you as you work for me. Are you willing to take it?” Nightmare concluded his speech, dropping the sans and holding out his hand as he did so.

The sans hesitated, seemingly fighting between sticking solo and possibly joining this Nightmare down the line or joining this skeleton and allowing Nightmare to take care of him as he worked under him.

Eventually, he nodded; grabbing onto Nightmare’s extended hand to pull himself up and shake it, sealing their deal.

“Good choice,” Nightmare concluded, as he made a portal back to his mansion, “Now before we head back, what can I call you? You will come to find that there are many sans’ in the multiverse, even I am a variation of one.” Nightmare asked

“Um… would Killer work?” Killer answered, unsure of himself.

“Of course, now, head through this portal. It’ll take you to the hideout, feel free to explore while I look for the other team members I have in mind.” Killer followed these orders and jumped through the portal, supposedly ending up at Nightmare’s mansion.

One down, five to go.

His two next targets were easy to find, this was because if you found one, you found the other. There was little time spent apart for these two, a constant battle that was set to never end. Each time they were hurt more and more, each time to go to their homes to only heal, sleep, and possibly eat and then return to the battlefield.

Error didn’t stop destroying nor stop fighting Ink, Ink wouldn’t stop helping Creators nor fighting Error. The two created a balance of peace, without destruction you have a scrambled mess, without creation, you wouldn’t have anything in the first place. The circle of life, the circle of balance, Yin has their Yang, Yang has their Yin. The good side will only be balanced with elements of bad, and bad will only be balanced with elements of good.

However, in this situation Error was the pillar to finding Ink, and it was difficult to do it the other way around.

The protector of worlds was a soulless being, his intentions as soulless as his body. He didn’t care if the AUs were starving or celebrating, as long as they were alive. Being soulless did benefit him in one way, however, he didn’t mourn over the lost and destroyed AUs, allowing him to continue fighting against Error for their survival.

His targets were in a mind-wrecking place, the AntiVoid, fighting as if everything was on the line. To Nightmare’s somewhat joy and displeasure, Error’s back was facing him, letting Ink see him first.

Ink’s white eyes diverted from Error seeing a black blob in his peripheral. The pearly ovals glanced at Nightmare and then quickly changed to small lines, like daggers, in his eyes. Wanting to kill but prevented by his morals, it was only a little emotion, but it was the most he could convey without his paints.

This action also showed a glimpse of something else, fear.

Ink, deciding it better to save his skeletal hide than stick around, then left without a word, angering his opponent whom he was battling a few seconds ago.

“Hey, you asshole! I was fighting you! Where are you going?!!” The air was thick with the monster's anger, clearly pissed with his foe leaving mid-battle.

Nightmare smirked, if he did this right, he could make the great destroyer of worlds one of his friend- ...team members. If he gives Error a compelling argument, he could have him as at least an Allie.

“Ugh… that asshole is such a scatterbrain, probably forgot we were fighting in the first place...” Error mumbled to himself, almost like he was answering someone. Nightmare laughed behind him, that’d be something to deal with.

Although It’d be something for Nightmare himself to deal with if he managed to gain Ink as a teammate, and if he got both of them… he wondered how long the Mansion would stay standing with the two of them in it.

Error turned towards Nightmare, not even aware of his cold presence despite being a few feet away from the King. His expression showing his eyes wide in a shocked surprise, before slanting down, as if needing glasses to make out the details of who was standing in front of him; but not carrying them on him.

“I’d say it’s because he doesn’t want to be hurt by my hands,” Nightmare humored, “... again.” Error cringed at Nightmare’s sadistic aura. It reeked of darkness.

The more Nightmare stood there, and the longer he stayed, the more the darkness spread around his feet. Slowly, the blank white canvas of the AntiVoid was painted by the darkness that Nightmare was covered in. If he walked slow enough- he could probably leave dark footprints.

“What- and who- the hell are you?!” Error half questioned-half stated, unsure if he really wanted an answer to his question.

“I’m Nightmare, a guardian and King of negativity,” He answered, calmly speaking despite Error being in a battle stance and killing with his eyes. “-and you just so happen to give off so much anger that I can feel you emotional presence from across the multiverse.” He concluded, smiling at the shocked and further confused expression on the glitch’s face.

“...Okay, your weird-ass ability aside- you said you hurt Ink?” Error’s look turned from its previous confusion to question, and then murderous hope “Did you beat him!?”

Nightmare eyeballed Error for a second, as if looking at a child that didn’t know its place. Error’s look of hope and smile dropped, realizing he was hoping that someone he didn’t know had severely hurt his life long enemy in the past. His expression dropped and let go of his victorious look, exchanging it for an embarrassed and flustered.

Nightmare stood in silence, letting the embarrassment Error had truly take him over, it was funny to watch the mighty Destroyer as his face turned to an overripe blueberry. Minutes passed and eventually, Nightmare nodded his head, smirking.

“I thought that was clear,” Nightmare started, pausing to let the information sink in. Error had gone the extra mile to think aloud his quite murderous thought when it was implied that a painful interaction had happened, it was just a silly waste of time. Before the destroyer could speak anymore, Night continued “I do hope you enjoyed embarrassing yourself by the way.”

Error grumbled and pulled his hood up and covered his face with it, saying something along the lines of shut up but with a lot of swearing and insults, some of which were hypocritical but the King figured Error already knew that.

“So, now that’s over with, would you like to hear a proposal-? It may do you some good.” The lord of darkness coaxed, letting his new acquaintance take his time to answer the question. Error pushed his hood back, letting his face be shown, but skull still covered.

“Depends; what does the all mighty King of negativity and darkness want from a destroyer of worlds? Wouldn’t I cause less AUs and less negativity to feed off of?” Nightmare stilled, damn his old companion’s rumors.

He slowly sighed, this might not be worth it after all.

“Believe it or not, you are of much use to me, as I am may be of much benefit to you- and no, I don’t feed of negativity, I live off its existence. Without it, I wouldn’t be here and alive, I eat normal food like anyone else. Rumor may say otherwise, but truth prevails.” Nightmare explained, letting Error’s expression turn from reserved and doubtful to understanding and willing.

“Fine, you’ve convinced me to listen. What’s your proposal?”

“You join me, I own a mansion and have plenty of room for a companion, I’m sure it’d be a better living situation than sleeping on the floor of the AntiVoid. All I ask of you in return- if you join me- is that you be there when I ask of you. You work for me, I take care of you. If not, we could at least stay allies and you can have a residence with me.” The King offered, holding out his hand

Error shook in reply, pulling his body and hand away from the potential physical contact, cringing at it, clearly not wanting either to touch Nightmare’s goopy hand or not wanting to touch in anyway way. Nightmare raised an eyebrow, not fully getting what was wrong.

“Would a yes work…? I’m… not a big fan of touching.” Error explained, voice dropping at having to explain his ‘weakness’. Nightmare nodded, finally understanding.

“Before I let you go to my manor, there is one thing I wish to do. Come along,” Nightmare stated, opening a portal. Error quickly ran through it after him, following his new ally into AU after AU, not seeing what Nightmare was trying to do.

It was quiet as they did this, seemingly going through every AU in the multiverse, but only going through about 10. However, soon enough they reached a stop. They were on the surface of an underswap AU, stopped at a clearing in a forest. A forest where up high in one of the tall redwoods sat Ink, looking out at the sunset of the protected and safe AU.

Error bumped into Nightmare when they stopped, and started rebooting straight after, not expecting the contact. Nightmare whipped around after hearing the loud beeping noise, and so did another figure.

Ink jumped down from the tree he was sitting on, seemingly not as scared of Nightmare as he was minutes ago. His eyes shifted between bright yellow joy, orange confusion, and an occasional uncertain red-orange. Nightmare quickly picked up the artist with a tendril while he was distracted, making Ink make an alerted sound in reply.

Ink pouted at Nightmare, crossing his arms. His body language asking if this precaution was necessary. Nightmare grinned, finding Ink’s childish attitude amusing. Another loud beep took their attention once again.

Error sat blinking, seemingly trying to get his vision to clear of the error signs that covered it. He looked up to Nightmare and Ink, seeing them staring at him.

“...Um, what happened? Did I reboot again?” Error asked, scratching his skull as he shakily stood up, seemingly not remembering what happened between him falling and now.

“It would seem so, however, your reboot caught Ink’s attention and took him off guard. So I thank your predicament. Now, however, is the time to talk about you, Ink.” Nightmare turned his attention to Ink, and so did Error.

“What about me, octopus?” Ink challenged, now starting to glare at the skeleton holding him. Clearly not wanting to hear what this ‘bad guy’ had to say. While error kneeled over laughing at the nickname, Nightmare gave the artist an annoyed look.

“I wish to talk, that is all. I wish of no harm done to you, and I won’t let you harm anyone else- meaning, I don’t want you attacking Error nor him attacking you while I’m talking with you both, I also wish for you both to wait until I’m finished before arguing.” Ink nodded, looking like he was willing to cooperate for the time being, “Thank you, It’s nice to know even with the spread of rumors people are willing to listen.” Nightmare started before taking a seat on the forest floor, Error following soon after with Ink still suspended slightly in the air by a tendril.

Nightmare sighed, he was going to have to explain a lot to get both of them to cooperate and join.

“I wish for both of you to be part of my team of sorts, it’s more or less me giving you a residence, care food and more in return for you working with or for me. However, there are a few complications. Ink, I’m aware you somewhat in alliance with Dream, an old, old ex-friend of mine. He’s spread lies about me for years and I just wish to stop that and continue to keep the balance of the multiverse in peace.

“Another issue is your relationship with Error and vise versa. To begin with, there’s nothing there whatsoever, you both are enemies and that’s how you’ve always lived. If you were to come to compromise this could work, I don’t want to keep you across the manor from each other just because you don’t get along. It might help with your decision to know that I know close to all of your information, aside for your pasts which not even you yourselves know so… that’s something to keep in mind.” The king finished, happy with how his speech came out, for something off the top of his head it was good.

The enemies blinked, looking like they were struggling to take in all the information. A safe place to call home with food and care, false rumors spread by the ‘good guy’, keeping balance, compromising with their life long enemy to get care and a safe home, Nightmare knowing almost everything about them. It was a lot when you break it down.

“Hold up, how much exactly do you know about us?” Ink asked, confusion clear in his multicolor and forever changing eyes. The King sighed in response, of course, there was going to be some questions.

He went to his hoodie pocket and took out a small spiral, quickly flipping and scanning the pages until he reached about halfway through.

“Here it is, ‘Ink the protector of worlds is secretive, but I have close to all his information pieced out, the same applies to the destroyer of worlds Error. Both have phobias, both different, and Ink seems to own PTSD for the AntiVoid and gained chromophobia- fear of white- from it, he may also be somewhat psychotic. Speaking to voices in his head and owning no emotions of his own; all his emotions being prompted by the vials he drinks.’ Does that sound about right, Ink?” Nightmare questioned, before picking up where he left off, “‘he could also possibly be touch starved because of his time alone, even if he may not show it, he could own haphephobia- fear of touch- as well but it’s hard to tell with his secrecy.

“‘Error seems to show similar symptoms to Ink, except he still owns emotion. He talks to voices in his head much like Ink but he does also possess a large kill count and seemingly relentless murder streak. Error may own haphephobia but that information could be false, he doesn’t seem to own chromophobia since he most likely lives in the AntiVoid, not having anywhere else to go considering the AUs hate him for his murdering tendencies.’” Nightmare concluded, closing the journal and putting it back in his pocket, now waiting for his potential allies answers.

The silence bore into the King as he waited, his eye socket dark and emotionless, showing his exhaustion catching up to him.

“I’m in, and willing.” Error finally spoke, looking to Ink to silently signal the other to answer.

“I’m not- I don’t care if Dream is right or wrong, I don’t need help from the likes of you- either of you. Now, let me go. I need to get back to work. This was only supposed to be a short break.” Nightmare gave a slow nod, releasing him from the tendril’s grasp and letting him fall the few inches left to the ground.

After that, the artist ran off, probably to make a portal and get out of reach of them so he couldn’t be tracked as easily. However, Error ran after him. By the time he realized Error had ran after Ink, his new companion was long gone.

Damn him.

Nightmare got up, swaying as he was exhausted from using so much of his magic and general energy that day. Teleporting multiple times in a day, going to at least 12 AUs, and holding skeletons in the air with his tendrils -which were sustained by his magic- had taken a lot out of him.

Slowly he followed the destroyer, going along the broken path of branches and moved branches. It didn’t take long to catch up, however, so he was able to hear Error started what seemed to be a rant at Ink.

“What the hell was that?!” Error called after Ink when he got to where the artist stopped. The protector raised a skeletal eyebrow at him, not knowing what the destroyer was so angry at. “You don’t want help from ‘the likes of us’ the fuck is that about?! I knew you were an asshole but really? That was so uncalled for! You don’t even know what it’s like being on this side, you ass, you have no right to call us that!”

“Hypocrite.” Ink responded, monotone and seemingly just wanting this to be over with.

“What am I being hypocritical about?! Sure I’m an asshole too, but only because the entire multiverse hates me for removing the copies and clutter- for every copy I destroy there are two more made! But no- you don’t do anything even bother! Without me, you wouldn’t even be able to get around the multiverse like you can! You wouldn’t be able to find one timeline or even AU out of the trillions that would be around without me- what do you have to say about that huh?!” Error growled out, clearly pissed off and angry

“Error. Quit it. He’s not worth it. He’s soulless and doesn’t feel remorse for anything, and from what I can tell, he doesn’t keep a guilt vial on him. Let’s just get you back so I can move on to the others that need my help.” Nightmare spoke, coming out from the shadows of the trees.

Error started a ramble on why he shouldn’t stop but was shortly cut off by him being poked, which took him off guard and made him jump back, eyes covered in error signs but not rebooting. Nightmare looked back over to Ink, giving a silent ‘go on’ with his eyes.

-----

After securing Error back at the mansion with Killer watching over him and keeping him company-to ensure he didn’t try and go after Ink again- Nightmare moved on, heading off to another AU that had gone astray from positivity.

He landed in a quiet snowdin, bloody snow and occasional Dust around, no wonder it started to grow in negativity. Just as quickly as he got there, he moved into the shadows of the trees, not wanting to be spotted by anyone just in case this AU wasn’t deserted like Killer’s- which it seemed like it wasn’t.

True, walking through the trees was harder, but he couldn’t be spotted in the tall shadows that the forest was consumed by, so it was a win in his book.

However, not long after he started walking, he came upon the person he was looking for, the resident sans of this seemingly murderous AU. Like any other, this one wore a blue hoodie and black shorts, however, he also wore a shabby and pail shirt with it all, giving him an almost hobo-like look.

The sans sat asleep in his shack of a watch post hoodie over his skull and face. A foul and dead smell came from the hut the closer Nightmare grew closer to the sans, as well as the strong smell of dust and blood which the skeleton and shack were also covered in. Nightmare wrinkled his nose in distaste, he should’ve gone here first.

Hesitantly, he nudged the sleeping skeleton awake, to which the sans raised an axe above his head and jumped back in reply, clearly not expecting to be woken up. This action made his hood fall off as well, showing off the large hole in the side of his skull and his singular red pupil. Neither being healthy or normal for skeletons.

“Calm down,” Nightmare tried, to which the skeleton did none of the sort, only glaring at him in response. The king sighed, “I’m here to help you if you’ll believe that.” He tried again, hoping that he wouldn’t be losing his head today.

The sans nodded hesitantly but didn’t let go of his axe, instead deciding to keep it in his grip but lower it to in front of his body. Nightmare nodded back, accepting the silent language this sans used. The sans simple nod meaning ok, I’m willing to listen, while Nightmare’s said thank you.

“I can give you a home, care, and help if you join me, I wish to help you from the situation your in so you can help me. I’m Nightmare, a guardian of negativity, and you can help me spread and keep its balance with positivity. If I help you, I can help other AUs and sans’ that are having tough times, so they can be happy too.

“I’m just here to keep balance, I promise not to hurt you. I have already helped two others, and they are waiting back at my mansion, where I have plenty of space. Will you join me?” Nightmare asked, almost repeating the speil that he had given Killer, Error, and Ink earlier that day.

“Only if I can bring my brother. If you’re going to help me, you have to help him too. He deserves it more than me anyway.” The skeleton’s gruff voice responded, almost like he was dehydrated. That totally wasn't worrying.

“Alright, can you grab him or bring him here? Also, you will come to find that you’re not the only sans in this world, do you have a name I could call you?”

“I’ll call him, and I guess… Horror? I’m not good with comin’ up with names.” Horror responded as he called up his brother, to which a papyrus rushed towards them.

This Papyrus didn’t look too healthy either, his teeth were chipped and a few were even missing, his eyes were small and seemed like they struggled to see- squinting at any point of light. He stood hunched over, struggled to even walk and limping. His clothes were like any other Papyrus, but they were heavily worn and slightly stained with blood, his scarf tattered like it had taken a literal beating.

Nightmare should’ve definitely come here first.

“Brother!” The Papyrus’ screechy and also seemingly parched throat called out as he stumbled over, stopping next to Horror, his back hunched over so much that he was barely a foot taller than his brother- when he should’ve been several feet taller. “Nyeh? Who’s this sans?”

“He’s here to help us,” Horror started, then turned back towards Nightmare, “You can call my bro here Scream if you want, or just Paps, but- we’re ready to go when you are. We don’t have much down here.”

Nightmare nodded, opening a portal for his new companions' Scream and Horror, he hoped deep inside that he could give them all the help they need- they probably had a lot of issues. It seemed like Scream needs glasses as well as some help with his back, and both of them were malnourished.

Three down, One extra, One lost, Two to go.

Another portal, a deserted land, checking everywhere, the judgment hall left, everything seemed to be repeating. The shimmering hall went dark again as he walked into it, a Sans at the end of the hall, this one different.

He was exactly like any other sans, in every way, expect in both eye lights gleamed red, with one having an extra ring of purple. His hood was pulled up, and he sat talking to himself, not even noticing Nightmare.

“You see someone? That’s a funny joke, bro.” The sans continued to talk- seemingly to himself, “There’s actually someone behind me?” The skeleton turned around, finally noticing Nightmare.

“Hello, young one.” Nightmare started but was cut off as he felt a knife go through his arm.

Dust had thrown a knife at him and it went right through the goop that covered his arm. It stung a bit, but he only looked at it and his now torn sleeve, before letting the goop cover his arm again, repairing the wound in seconds.

“Well, that’s one way to say hello. Now, do you want to hear what I have to say or not? You can’t effectively hurt me enough to kill me, and if I get bored of you constantly throwing knives at me- I can always go to the others that need my help.” Nightmare explained, not fazed at all by the wound he had seconds ago.

“What help?” The sans snapped, seemingly not able to control himself or being controlled by something else.

“You are on the brink of insanity my friend, and if you kill another monster, you will most likely become an amalgamate because of you unbalanced DT. There is a lot of help I can offer you. I can help you get rid of your insanity, I can help your excessive amounts of DT, and I can help you escape this place and underground. But, only if you help me.

“I’m Nightmare, a guardian of Negative emotions, and you just so happen to be part of that negativity I have been sworn to protect. I can give you a home, help, and care if you join me. I have helped four others and have plenty of room for another at my mansion.” The king offered, holding out his hand for the sans, to which the sans took it.

“What now-” The sans stopped himself, and then scowled, “No I won’t-... sorry nightmare. Paps is just being overprotective.” The sans explained; like he knew no one else could see his Papyrus- who was probably haunting him.

“It’s quite alright. Now, I’ll bring you back home- after I get a name, of course. Just keep in mind, sans won’t really work, you are one of the many out there. Even I am I version of sans.” Nightmare told the sans as he opened a portal to his mansion.

“... how about Dust?” Dust hesitantly asked after a long pause, seemingly saying a suggestion his papyrus had.

“That’ll work, now, go through the portal. You will meet four other’s that will be taking residence with you. Three of them are Sans’ as well, and another is a version of Papyrus. Tell them I’ll be joining you all soon.” Nightmare asked as he let Dust go to the portal.

Dust nodded in return, walking through the portal, content to be getting out of the underground and going somewhere new.

Nightmare sighed; Four down, One extra, One lost, One to go.

Going through one of his last portals of the day, he appeared in his second to last destination. He landed in a land of white, almost like the AntiVoid, but in reality, just a destroyer and barren Au- expect for one person.

An occasionally sniffling and hiccuping skeleton sat a block or so away from him, turned away from his direction, easily seen because of how empty the area was.

The skeleton looked overdressed, even from the back. From the back, you could see an overly fluffy hood, a long black and white scarf, and what looked to be X’s across his clothes and design. His body didn’t look mangled or hurt and was a healthy pearly white, that meant he was crying for a different reason than pain.

Or maybe… it wasn’t physical pain.

“Hey kid,” Nightmare called out, making the quiet hiccup the sans had sound loud and surprised rather than lonely and depressed. The skeleton turned around, showing his full design, X’s covering his black and white clothes like Nightmare predicted, but his eyes were a different story.

The sans’ eyesockets held one red pupil and another had a white one, a red almost lightning bolt scar underneath the red one. He was glitching as well, occasionally showing a young monochrome chara instead of the sans.

The skeleton quickly wiped away the tears he had and stood up, summoning a large knife like sword supposedly with magic, battle stance ready but tense; something that could easily be knocked down with a swipe at his leg.

“There’s no need for that, I’m not here to hurt you.” Nightmare said, stepping forward hesitantly, but after noticing the sans wasn’t advancing for an attack, started to walk instead. “Let’s sit down and talk, okay? You look like you need a friend; or a family.”

“Fine.” The sans spat, clearly trying to cover his previous crying with a cold indifferent facade.

“You don’t need to cover up emotions, feel free to let out whatever is building up, I should know better than anyone it helps to talk about it rather than let it build up.” Nightmare coaxed, but sighed when the sans let go of his facade, but then went for an emotionless attitude instead.

“Why should I care what you have to say you-”

“-Becuase it may help you in the long run.” The King cut off, not speaking anymore after that, waiting to see if the skeleton would try and speak again. Although, when the sans didn’t try to speak, he continued, “If you’re willing to join me, I can give you a home, care, help, and a family. I’m Nightmare and I’m the guardian of Negative emotions, although, as of late, I’ve been helping sans’ instead.

“I have helped five other’s today. The first went insane from resets, the second went insane from being left alone and hated, the third and fourth were stuck in an AU were everyone was starving, and the fifth was driven mad by their frisk’s constant path of genocide. They are all waiting back at my mansion, and I’m sure -If you let them- they would be happy to call you friend or family. Will you join-”

“-C! get away from him!” Ink interrupted, bolting over to where the two were sitting, ready to start attacking Nightmare, but was picked up by a tendril once again.

C stayed sitting and Nightmare got up and walked over to where he was holding Ink in place, glaring at the artist for interrupting his conversation.

Ink could’ve helped Killer with his insanity, could’ve talked through things with Error long ago, could’ve helped Horror or Scream with food, could’ve helped Dust so he wasn’t on the brink of melting with DT, could’ve made it so this C person next to him wasn’t alone and clearly broken. Ink could’ve literally done anything, but he didn’t help with any of the AUs and wouldn’t even accept help for himself, now it’s Nightmare’s turn to do something.

“I beg your pardon, Ink.” Nightmare menaced, voice gurgly and threatening, “I”m here to help this person you call ‘C’ and take him out of this insanity of a place so he can be happy- something that you’re clearly not helping with. You didn’t help the others- you won’t help yourself, so let me help them.” Nightmare finished, flicking Ink across the void when he finished. C wasn’t even concerned.

Nightmare took a deep breath to calm himself from the anger and then turned back to the still sitting skeleton he had been talking to. C didn’t seem fazed by the violent act that just happened in front of his eyes. Nightmare sat down with him again and took one of his hands.

“I’m terribly sorry I had to harm Ink in front of you, I’m not sure of it, but it seems he sees you as a friend.” Nightmare started, looking into C’s eyes, “Even though it may be pointless now, will you still join me and my… family?” Nightmare asked, expecting a no, but smiled when he got a nod instead; “Alright, follow me, C. We can head through this portal home.”

“It’s Cross,” Cross spoke softly as he got up with the now happy Nightmare, although, he didn’t know why he was happy. Ink had told him Nightmare was an emotionless and harmful being, that killed anything in his path. Ink must’ve lied about a lot of things.

Nightmare nodded to this new information, pulling Cross with him into the portal.

The truth was, he was happy because he saw himself in Cross. A young broken monster, let alone, most likely used and abandoned. Nightmare helped Cross because no one had ever helped him. He wouldn’t let the cycle repeat on another innocent monster.

“Nightmare, you’re back!” Killer smiled, along with everyone else in the room.

Everyone sat around in the large living he owned. Error was laying in a hammock he made attached to the ceiling, Killer sat in an armchair, Scream had fallen fast asleep on the couch with his head in Horror’s lap- who was petting scream’s head as he slept, Dust was in the armchair opposite of Killer- seemingly talking with him before Nightmare had arrived.

“Yes, I’m back, and I brought a friend along.” Cross shyly stepped to the side, clearly not ready to be meeting so many people at once, but he wasn’t alone.

Soon enough they were all getting along and learning about each other, Nightmare beamed, he had made this happen. He had helped them and now they wouldn’t be alone. Even the bad guys have to stick together.

-TOLD YOU IT WAS LONG-

Dream and Nightmare belong to @jokublog

Killer belongs to @rahafwabas

Error belongs to @loverofpiggies

Ink belongs to @comyet

Horrortale belongs to @sour-apple-studios

Dusttale belongs to @ask-dusttale

Xtale and Cross belong to @jakei95

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sincewereahoe · 5 years

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Hello friends.

I’ve decided to rework these and post them with OC. I still really love some of the stuff I previously wrote and would love to work on them. Feedback and comments always helped moved me along with that, so it would be great to have that again. If not it’s gucci. If you still like this stuff please support. Yanno the drill, as do I which means I probably won’t get any but yolo.

Also, all the people who get heated over this story...

eat cake bitch.

To Sam a black tie affair was more like a strangulation. He hated ties, and hated this bowtie even more, but that was the required protocol for such an event. However, there was something Sam hated more than bowties, and that was being disrespectful. So he wore the black bow tie and tugged at it every few minutes.

“Mr. O’Bray you are seated here.”

Sam took his place at the large circle table that was decorated with crystal and picked up his name card. Placing it down he check those seated next to him, wondering if he knew any of their names.

There was someone named Christopher, who he had never heard of before. Then he checked to his right.

Theadora Rose Simpson.

He’d never heard of her either.

Getting comfortable in his seat he played with his cufflinks when the guy who was Christopher sat down, and told Sam to call him Chris. He was a middle aged fellow, blonde hair that was slightly over gelled, but even Sam felt inferior with how good looking he was. Sam quickly found out he was with a congressman from a state he’d already forgotten but all Sam cared about was that it was a blue state.

They chatted for a bit making small talk as the room and tabled filled up when suddenly he felt someone on his right. Looking up his heart shattered.

Dressed in all black, she was sleek and elegant. Her hair smoothed and pinned on one side the other free, her lips draped with a strong red colour. To Sam she was pinnacle of classic dark American beauty.

“Yes, Michael. We will have to do dinner soon.” She smiled politely as she gave a wave to the person she was saying goodbye to.

Snapping his mouth shut, Sam turned down and looked at his glass of liquor, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he reached for it. As he continued to keep his eyes away he still could see out of the corner of his eye as she sat down, smoothing out her slim fitting dress and placing her little bag to the side.

“Hello,” she said to everyone at the table that was within speaking distance.

The person on her right quickly engaged in conversation and Sam was thankful because that meant he might have some time to prep himself for the impending interaction.

Wrong.

“Hello,” she smiled, extending her hand while exposing perfectly white teeth behind the matte lip. Quickly he took it and gave a nod as if she was royalty and returned a version of a greeting.

“I’m Theadora.”

“Sam O’Bray.”

When he said his name he felt so average. Internally he cursed his mother for not giving him a more impressive name.

“Ah Christopher,” she smiled as her eyes drifted. “So good to see you again.”

Both of them exchanged a few words but then there was a chime at the front of large chandelier hung room, and everyone turned. Sam was turning over his chair to look when Theadora leaned in closely, speaking low because the room was already quite.

“I think they are punishing you by putting you in that chair.”

“Huh?” Sam said regretfully, because she was so perfect and all he could do was make grunts in reply. She smiled.

“Your neck. Be careful not to look over too much, you’ll be stiff tomorrow if you do.”

“Oh,” he breathed before she smiled and then turned to look with everyone else. He knew he was supposed to turn right away too but he just couldn’t help himself. He just had to take her in a little longer before he did, his eyes sparkling at her with caution and a juvenile amount of interest.

The next hour was filled with long speeches by people that Sam really didn’t know, but the one thing he knew was that they all were far more important than him. Not to mention, Theadora looked so absorbed and entertained by what was going on up front that he couldn’t help but want to be interested too. As if somehow that would make him more, interesting? Intelligent? Desirable?

He hadn’t had thoughts like this in so long. He knew that paying attention wouldn’t be how she would grow interested him.

Occasionally she would make a joke and Christopher would laugh and Sam gave his fake laugh that he’d perfected over the years. He didn’t understand the context of anything she said so he had to seem like he got the inside joke too even though he didn’t at all.

Sam couldn’t help but notice, however, when they all stood for most prominent man in the room to enter that Theadora turned and glanced at Christopher. The look wasn’t an obvious look, because Sam was still trying to figure if she hated him too.

Finally all the long speeches followed by hollow clapping ended and everyone turned to their dinner plate as waiters came and placed their food. Everyone ate and drank at the table and Sam felt very out of his element.

“Oh boy,” suddenly Theadora said leaning to him, “we’ve alienated you from the conversation.”

She turned up to Christopher, whom Sam had slowly caught on had a very good relationship with Theadora, and looked for support. Christopher smiled and jumped in.

“We tend to do that.”

“Well,” Theadora said patting her lap before reaching for her tumbler, “what do you do Sam? You aren’t newly elected are you? I feel I should have kissed your ass more if you were?”

Sam laughed uncomfortably. Wishing he could have said he was newly elected to make himself seem more important.

“Ah, no I’m just a reporter at T.I.M.E.”

“Oh,” she breathed, reaching for her wine, “I really should have been kissing ass then.”

Her and Chris laughed.

‘I’m not that kind of reporter,” Shawn quickly clarified. “I do more photography than anything. I’m pretty new to the gig too. So I don’t have much important to throw around.”

“How did you get a job there?”

“Ah well, I was free lancing at TIME magazine. I wasn’t really doing much but I always was trying to get in and do something worthy. Just waiting for my little break. I managed to be at the right place and right time, with my camera of course.”

She was listening deeply with her hand under her chin, but softly smiled to let him know she was listening before he turned away again to the group to speak.

“I managed to be inside the protest last June. I got some pretty cool shots, and showed them to my manager and he knew right away someone should see them. It happened pretty fast but the following issue a couple of my pictures were in the article.”

There was a couple hums of impressment around the table, and Sam waved his hands.

“It really wasn’t much and I was on a temporary contract at first, but it was my small little break, and since then they’ve had me out doing a lot more. Slowly falling into political stuff? So I guess that’s how I ended up here.”

Someone across the table then jumped in speaking to Sam. At first Sam was careful, listening and trying to absorb everything he was saying but then no question came and he realized his limelight within the conversation had been hijacked towards someone else.

When the attention had no longer been on Sam for quite some time he felt Theadora lean in, making sure not to be rude.

“So you’re still at TIME then?” Her eyes were twinkling again but the look on her face was amused, as she conveyed she didn’t care for the person rudely taking over Sam’s moment and boasting about themselves at the other end of the table. She instigated their own little secret conversation on their side of the table.

“Ah, yes. They gave me a position. Nothing big, but it was really nice to be offically hired.”

“That really amazing Sam. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll have to get a copy of that issue. I’d love to see what you did.”

Sam perked up, way too overeager. Not because of his print issue, but because she wanted it. “Would you like one? I can get you one. I swear I have probably twenty copies sitting in my apartment. I got really excited every time I saw it on a stand and I just had to pick one up every time I saw one on the street. Which is a lot in New York, like a lot.”

She laughed. “I would love to have one.”

Suddenly someone at the front of the room took a microphone and the conversation was forced to be over, but Sam looked over to say one last thing.

“I’ll send you one.”

Giving a soft smile as their eyes connected she mouth the words ‘thank you’ before turning to the speaker.

Once dinner was over the official dance began and soft jazz began to play from the band on stage. Sam continued to remain at his table to talk as did Christopher, but most importantly Theadora too.

Throughout the night, through the last few speeches, Sam had been catching her eyes on him. The first few times she looked away quickly and smiled, trying to pass it off as just a glance and not stare, but after the fourth time she stopped.

Instead she just softly smiled before looking down and nervously fiddling with something. Sometimes it was her dress, other times the jewelry on her wrist, or her hair, but every time she did Sam felt himself drawing to her. The low elegant candlelight romanized the room

Or maybe he was just crazy? The idea she would be looking at him in any capacity other than the person sitting next to her at dinner seemed one fabricated from his own desire, rather than reality.

As conversations at the table kept going he cared less and less if he was wrong.

They were in the middle of another one of Christopher's wild stories when someone approached from the back. The voice was deep.

“Theadora.”

For whatever reason Sam felt as if he has watched Theadora tense up. “Todd.”

“Would you like to dance?”

She looked up and smiled. “I’d love to.”

Sam couldn’t help admire how pretty she was, even as he felt a pang of jealousy that he hadn’t thought of asking her to dance first.

Trailing off she linked arms with the man to the dance floor. Sam watched on for a few moments.

“Not going to ask anyone to dance?” Christopher asked.

Sam shrugged. “I wouldn’t even know who? What about you?”

Christopher shrugged too. “I don’t really feel the need anymore? You do this long enough and you realize every single one of those dances are nothing more than a negotiation.”

“Oh?”

Christopher tipped his glass to Theadora as she turned like grace around the room. “I bet you more than anything Todd is talking her ear off about the CTRA Bill we will be voting on next week. Trying to swing her vote, or confirm it. I never know with her.”

“Oh?” Sam said again, wishing he’d at least brushed up on something before coming tonight. Christopher caught on.

“This is all gibberish to you isn’t it.”

Sam gave an uncomfortable laugh. “Pretty much, yeah. I wish I knew more. I feel really out of place.”

Christopher gave a warm and understanding smile. “Ah don’t worry. You’re been the best company we’ve had in a long while. Problem is we don’t even know how to have conversations outside of work. That’s our fault.”

Sam smiled.

“Well don’t worry if you don’t understand. You’ll see by the end of the night.”

They exchanged a look and smile before he looked back to Theadora only allowing himself to watch her chatting and smiling as she looked up at Todd before it became too weird.

Sam then realized he still didn’t know exactly what Theadora did. It was obvious she was political member, but a young one so what could she possibly be voting on? He wanted to find out but without looking like an idiot. He knew he could probably pull out his phone but he worried about someone seeing over his shoulder. He said if he didn’t figure it out within the hour he would sneak off to the bathroom.

Chris and Sam eventually joined another conversation at the table before the dance was over and she returned.

“What are you three jabbering on about?” Theadora suddenly said as she pulled up a chair and sitting down so close she was almost on Sam’s shoulder with the angle.

“Phones” Sam said softly as Chris and someone else he’d already forgotten.

“Phones?” She laughed. “Of course. They finally let us use something other than Blackberry. Who is team who?”

“Well Chris is team iPhone and he is an android.”

“Ah, of course Android.”

“So I take it you’re iPhone.” Shawn asked and immediately she scoffed.

“Oh no. I can’t handle that little SE they allowed. S6 is far superior. Bigger screen too.”

Sam peered down. “Bigger screen? Can you even hold it in those tiny hands?”

She laughed as she held them out and examined them. They too were flawless.

“And what does your big hands use then?”

Sam chuckled as he held up his large iPhone, latest model. She shook her head at him in a playful before the argument between the two across from them picked up. Her eyes went large at how silly they were being by yelling over something so trivial.

“Only grown men with nothing better to do would fight over this.”

Sam was about to make a comment but he noticed a new figure creating a shadow over her shoulder. He looked up which caused her to do the same.

“Theadora.”

“Anderson.”

And then with a few more words she was standing up for another dance, and that’s what happened for the rest of the night.

It became musical chairs for her. She would come back after the dance and would sit down only for a few moments before another white man, way too cocky, or way too old was asking her to dance.

It reached the point Sam would watch her being approached on her way back to the table, unable to even make back and sit down. By that point Sam knew it was useless to even bother.

“Wow that Bill C3C or whatever must be really pressing tonight.” Sam commented as him and Chris sat again alone at the table. Chris laughed

“Ahh, well as much as it is pressing, that’s not the reason they surround her like vultures?”

Sam laughed. “Chris you gotta know I don’t understand your vague observations anymore.”

Chris gave threw his head back and nodded. “Okay, okay, fair enough. Okay, well not to be crass, but… look at her.” Chris turned and as did Sam, even if he didn’t need to. He knew how stunning she was.

“Now, add that with being the youngest woman in congress.”

Sam nodded slowly finally getting his answer on what she did. It shocked him because congress was huge, and rare - extremely rare with how young she looked. He got it now.

“Smart, beautiful, successful, in power- ”

“Single.” Chris added.

“Single?”

“Oh yeah,” he laughed almost with a tone of mocking. “ Why do you think they circle her like vultures? I hate to say it because she’s so much more than it, but they only look at her as a cute thing they can flirt with. She plays the game well, but trust me she knows they would use and toss her, the married ones in particular for obvious reasons. She knows, and that’s why she plays the game the best because they think she’s the same sorority girl from college they played with.” He paused firmly. “She’s not.”

“She’s serious about this. The most serious person in this entire room, and that includes that disgrace of a man up front.”

Sam turned to watch as Chris admired her from afar. His words flowing absentmindedly from an honest daze, almost as if Chris had forgotten he was speaking out loud.

“All those stupid men, passing her off like she’s nothing but a hot piece of ass. Fucking fools dancing with Lady Lazarus. What did Sylvia say? Eat men like air. She will that’s for sure, she was bred for it.” He paused for a few moments, still lost in his own thoughts. “She’s already something, but one day she’s really going to be something.”

Sam listened intensely before Chris turned and looked him dead in the eye.

“That woman is going to be president one day.”

Sam didn’t answer and he didn’t have to as Chris turned away to look again. “And I think it’s going to be sooner than anyone thinks.”

Sam waited to answer, the topic so intense that there wasn’t any doubt even though the light daze of alcohol he was skimming along. “You think?”

“Oh yes.”

“I don’t doubt you, but why do you think?”

Chris smiled before reaching for his drink. “Because even I would want to vote for her.”

Sam’s brow furrowed together, confused. “Would? Why wouldn’t you?”

There was a small pause and for some reason, the tension in the air was suddenly thick. A rush of anxiety, for no logical reason it came through Sam’s whole body. He felt whatever was about to be said wasn’t something he wasn’t ready for, and the smirk on Chris’s lips only added to the feeling.

“Because she’s a fucking Republican, Sam.”

5 notes · View notes