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fibula-rasa · 4 months

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How’d They Do That?

Special Effects & Stunts of Silent Cinema - Part 1

This is the first installment of an open-ended series where I try to highlight and illustrate the work of special effects and stunt artists of silent filmdom. Using articles from contemporary fan and trade magazines, I’ll make gifs or dig up images and/or video clips to accompany the descriptions of how the sequences were executed.

My notations will be bracketed and highlighted in a different color. Hope you all enjoy! Fair warning: this is a long read.

How They Do It!

[from Photoplay, April 1926]

by Cal York

Millions are asking how the motion pictures are accomplishing the marvelous new effects which have been developed in the past few years. It took months of investigation to give you the answer

DO you remember how you thrilled when the Red Sea parted to let Moses and the children of Israel pass through, only to close again and swallow up Pharaoh and his pursuing warriors in C.B. De Mille's stupendous "Ten Commandments" ?

How you gasped as T. Roy Barnes fled from the burning tenement with Claire Windsor in his arms as flames and smoke spurted about them and debris crashed on all sides in "Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model"?

The destruction of Pontius Pilate's palace with the crushing of hundreds underneath the ruins in "Ben Hur"?

The rescue of Doris Kenyon by Ronald Colman in Fitzmaurice's great picture, "A Thief in Paradise," as Miss Kenyon's runaway horse reared and stood poised on his hind legs on the very brink of a precipice?

Conway Tearle's hair-breadth escape from the mountain of rushing water in "The Great Divide"?

The stirring battle scenes in "The Big Parade" in which giant shells burst all around, tearing huge craters and spreading death as our boys marched on and on and on through No Man's Land.

How Blanche Sweet carried Ronald Colman to safety as the blazing roof fell and seemed certain to bury them. This in "His Supreme Moment."

I could go on and remind you of train wrecks which have brought you from your seats, of battles against storm and shipwrecks at sea—of thrills and hairbreadth escapes and terrific disasters.

How many times have you gone home from your motion picture theater and wondered how these things were accomplished, discussed with your family and friends what possible method could have been used to achieve the seemingly impossible?

AFTER months of investigation, I am able to give you an explanation of the thrills in the pictures I have mentioned and to explain to you the general method used in most other similar scenes.

First, I will tell you how they parted the Red Sea. This was done by a process of double printing, worked out by Roy Pomeroy, technical director at Lasky's. But that, marvelous as it seemed, was but a simple thing compared with the miracles now being wrought on celluloid by Frank Williams, the wizard of Hollywood, who has dreamed out and perfected the moving or traveling mat process of printing, which has made possible most of the recent marvels of the screen.

[Roy Pomeroy was head technical wizard for Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount (that is to say, he was their head special-effects engineer). We only know for certain about a handful of films that Pomeroy made specific contributions to, like The Ten Commandments (1923) and Wings (1927). As with many journeymen of the silent/studio era of Hollywood, the amount of films Pomeroy worked on was likely substantial, but many technical roles went uncredited at the time.]

To part the Red Sea, Pomeroy first built, on the Lasky lot, two wooden walls about the height of the ordinary room and backed them at one end with a scenic drop to represent the Red Sea country. These walls he covered with a jelly-like substance made from silicate of soda and sulphuric acid, which shimmered and shook and photographed like water. The floor space between these two walls was made to look like sand. He then photographed this set.

Then, with two cameras set up at the open end, he emptied thousands of gallons of water between the walls from huge water tanks behind them. One of the cameras was cranked backwards, and this showed the parting of the Red Sea. The other camera was cranked forward, and showed the waters joining together. Both were done in slow motion, which will be explained later.

The next step was taken out on the desert.

Wire fences were built a few inches further apart than were the jelly walls built on the stage. First Moses and his followers, with their live stock, were marched between these wire fences, which were just outside the camera lines, and therefore did not show in the picture. What the fences did do, however, was to keep the goats and donkeys from poking their noses outside the camera lines, which would never have done for in the double printing process the camera lines would become the walls of water. And it would never do for a donkey to shove his head through the Red Sea.

After Moses and his Children of Israel had passed through satisfactorily, under the grinding camera, they then photographed Pharaoh and his Egyptians madly pursuing in their chariots through the same fenced lane. And if the horses and chariots smashed out through the light wire fence, it was fine. for you will remember they were seen madly milling about before the walls of water finally obliterated them.

THEN when they put all together, by double printing, here is what they got:

First, a wall of water parted and left a lane of dry land in the Red Sea. (You remember the camera cranking backwards gave them the negative for this.)

Then Moses and his band were printed in passing along the space between the walls of water. After them, came Pharaoh and his warriors in full pursuit.

Right over these they printed the original negative of the waters rushing together, and this completely engulfed The Egyptians.

The only person to get wet in the closing of the Red Sea was Charles de Roche, who played Pharaoh. The blotting out of the King and his war chariot was not done by double printing but by trick photography, as it seemed necessary to the story of give this incident more personal drama.

The method used was this: DeRoche and his horses and chariot were placed on a treadmill. The camera was on a platform facing them. Over DeRoche's head and out of sight of the camera was a huge water tank, with a water chute projecting from it. This chute gave into a tank between DeRoche and the camera, but below the level of the camera line. While DeRoche whipped his horses like a madman on the treadmill and did all the acting necessary to being engulfed by water, the water in the tank was released and poured down in a torrent between him and the grinding camera, giving a perfect illusion. The only reason DeRoche got wet was because the water chute running above his head leaked badly.

Does this seem wonderful to you? It should. It is. And yet I tell you that it is simplicity itself compared with the moving mat.

Remember that in the "Ten Commandments" the double printing put the moving people into a vacancy on the film—the blank space left in the miniature between the walls of water. Also, that the double printing of the moving water over the Egyptians simply obliterated them.

READ ON BELOW the JUMP!

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Photo caption: This great outdoor scene is made up of three parts and was made right in the studios of the Paramount Company at Astoria, L.I. It is composed of three parts: a miniature four feet high, six feet in front of the camera; the top part of the cliff, fifteen feet high, eighty feet in front of the camera; and a painted back drop, a few feet further away. In the long shots, or distant views, you see the whole in convincing reality. The close-up shots are shown in the white frame, the bottom of which indicates where the miniature ends and the larger set begins. This scene is from Gloria Swanson's new picture, "The Untamed Lady"

[The Untamed Lady (1926) is presumed lost, but luckily, a few images of this cliff-top sequence have survived.

from Exhibitors Herald, 20 March 1926]

An amazing revelation of the latest discoveries of pictures which produce miracles before your eyes

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But Frank Williams can put moving actors photographed in Hollywood into a moving background photographed anywhere in the world—put actual life and dramatic action into miniatures, which, during the previous years when they had worked with miniatures, seemed absolutely impossible.

[As you can gather from this article Frank Williams was a pioneer cinematographer and special effects artist. Williams was able to patent his moving matte process (and named it the Williams process) and it was an important effects technique used in film as as varied as Ben-Hur (1925), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1926), The Lost World (1925), and The Invisible Man (1933). All of which are extant and easily accessible!

While it wasn’t in regular use for very long, the process was the basis for significant later developments in special effects photography, like green screening!]

Williams has made possible scenes that could never otherwise have been shot in motion pictures. It is not only that he has reduced the cost so that often he can give the producer scenes that would otherwise have been prohibitive because of building sets, etc. But he can give them scenes that couldn't be physically shot in any other way—such as a huge building crumbling and toppling in an earthquake and actually burying hundreds of people. It isn't only that he can make hairbreadth escapes without endangering the lives of actors and animals, as was sometimes done to get effects in the old days. He can make thrills that only the actual killing of animals and men would render possible—and this without the actor or animal being anywhere near the scene.

He can build a miniature town, put real, living people into it, and have them go through any necessary dramatic action, and then he can make a miniature torrent somewhere else altogether and have it sweep away the town with its laughing, singing, dancing population and make you believe when you see it on the screen that it actually happened.

THESE things he does by the patented process of the moving or traveling mat. It is a matter of printing, remember, more than of photography. Williams himself photographs nothing. The negatives from which he works are all shot for him, under his direction, and the miracles are performed in his laboratory.

It hasn't been easy for Williams to attain his title of the miracle man of films. He has given to the motion picture art one of its greatest discoveries. Like all great inventors, he has been scorned, laughed at, at times almost starved, forced to work under unspeakably difficult circumstances. But, none of these things moved him.

A big, quiet, simple fellow, only thirty-two years old. Shy, rather diffident of speech, he makes everything he does look easy. When he comes on a set, his quiet presence is scarcely noticed, and cameramen and technical experts go on spluttering and arguing, and when he is finally appealed to, he settles the problem so simply that everyone wonders why he didn't think of it himself.

WILLIAMS started as a cameraman at the old Essanay lot the year he was out of high school. He was fifteen years old and knew just enough about a camera to turn a crank. He has spent seventeen years at his work, and it was as far back as 1912 that he started work on the moving mat process.

He had no money and few would listen. He was laughed at—Ford, Edison, Marconi, Fulton, all went through the same experiences.

At one time, not so many years ago, John Considine, who is Joe Schenck's chief lieutenant, could have bought a half interest in Williams' big idea for a couple of thousand dollars. Today it is rumored in Hollywood that Williams has refused a cool half million for the same half interest.

THE way he finally made it was this—he'd work a while as a cameraman and save a few hundred dollars, and then go back to work in his laboratory—usually the bathroom in the place he was living—until his savings were exhausted. Then back to the camera for another stake, and so on.

In 1912 he was cameraman for Mack Sennett when they had the back end of a little grocery store for a studio. During this time Williams made his first attempt to use the moving mat process. It failed, however, due to the inaccuracies of the cameras and printing machines of the time and the crude film in use.

But Williams wouldn’t let go of the idea. He kept right at it, and finally, in 1917, he again tried to perfect his process. working in a laboratory furnished by Adolph Zukor, of Paramount. But again he faced defeat, and for the same reasons—mechanical inaccuracies and improper film.

---

Photo caption: A rolling stage at studios of the Education Film Co. in Hollywood. Upside-down scenes and rolling ship scenes are easy with its use. It is possible to show ship interiors on the stage inside the cylinder which duplicates exactly the movement of a ship in a storm

[The rolling stage was used for lots of imaginative and comedic sequences in shorts and features. In the Lupino Lane short Movieland (1926), there’s a bit that shows the stage in action. Here’s a link to that specific scene, but the whole short is a lot of wacky fun and I recommend watching the full film!

Another illustration of how the rolling stage can be put to use is in When the Clouds Roll By (1919):

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FINALLY, six years ago, his efforts were crowned with success. The Williams moving mat process was used in a Universal picture, "Wild Honey," and acknowledged commercially. Williams received a great deal of help and gives much credit for this to Elmer Sheeley, then a Universal art director, especially in the building of the miniatures.

Through the better grade of film, a motor-cranked camera set on a solid tripod, and through his own printing machine, built according to Williams' own drawings at a cost of $18,000, one whose accuracy is to within one ten-thousandth of an inch, all the obstacles which had frustrated him so long were overcome and Williams' moving mat process came to life, as perhaps the greatest single invention in motion pictures since that of the camera itself.

Once having demonstrated what he could do in "Wild Honey," in which he made a miniature stream appear a rushing torrent over a hundred feet high which pursued Priscilla Dean down a dry stream bed and finally engulfed her, Williams did not have much trouble getting producers to listen. This "Wild Honey" thrill was the forerunner of all big water spectacles, and when shown to C.B. DeMille gave him the idea for the parting of the Red Sea. DeMille admitted that this flood was the greatest spectacle he had ever seen up to that time.

[Unfortunately, Wild Honey (1922) is currently presumed lost and I was unable to find any depiction of Priscilla Dean fleeing from a torrent of water. As noted above however, there are quite a few extant films that also used Williams’ moving matte process.

In case you were wondering, I put $18,000 through an inflation calculator and it is equivalent to more than $315,000 in 2023 money!]

In trick photography miniatures have always been a very important part. It would hardly do to burn a huge building to have a woman carried from the blazing structure, and this the Williams process makes unnecessary.

TAKE the thrilling rescue front the burning tenement in "Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model." A replica of a New York tenement was built in miniature at the studio where the picture was made. We will say for illustration that the scale used in erecting the miniature was one and one-half inches to a foot, or one-ninth the actual size.

In working with miniatures there are two very important things to be considered, and these must be worked out with mathematical precision, if Williams is to be given a perfect negative on which to transpose living actors through his traveling mat. One is to make the miniature look the proper height. This is done by placing the camera the proper distance from the miniature (of course much closer than if it were a real building), and shooting from a lower level. The other is called timing. For example, if a miniature tree is to fall and the camera set-up is close enough and low enough to give the miniature the proper height when it is seen on the screen, then you must be careful of the speed with which it falls.

A little tree falls rapidly—a big tree slowly. And here is where the timing enters. Ultra speed cameras are used. The faster you crank the more pictures you get per second, and the slower the thing seems to move when you see it on the screen. You have all seen slow-motion pictures. These were made with slow-motion cameras, or what are more commonly termed ultra-speed cameras. And it is through this slow motion photography that the little tree is made to fall at the proper speed to be the big tree it represents, or the miniature stream is made to run at the proper speed for a giant river.

And so to get back to the fire which is still threatening "Our Nell." A torch is applied to the miniature tenement. At the proper count little invisible wires tied to window sashes are pulled and burning brands crash to the street below. And all the time the cameras, driven by motors at the proper speed, placed at the right distance from the conflagration and almost flat on the floor, are grinding away and recording this great fire.

[Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model (1924) is extant, with a print located at Gosfilmofond, but the film is not readily accessible. However, a depiction of the burning building sequence appears on an advertisement for the film:

from Film Daily, 28 February 1924]

OVER on some other part of the lot, and at any time which suits the director's convenience, T. Roy Barnes, with Miss Windsor in his arms, dashes through a black velvet door and down a street backed with more black velvet.

Two things must be remembered, however. The actors must come out of the velvet door at the right spot and at the right time or "count." This is necessary so that Williams can match up the fire negative, which is the background with action in it, with the negative of Miss Windsor and Barnes, which becomes the moving mat.

The remainder is simple, and is done by Williams and his printing process over at his laboratory.

On the screen you see Barnes dashing from a burning tenement with Miss Windsor in his arms while, in reality, neither of the actors has been close enough to a fire to singe a single eyelash.

Blanche Sweet's rescue of Colman in "The Supreme Moment" was worked out in the same manner as this, as have been most other burning building thrills in pictures made in the last few years.

[His Supreme Moment (1925) is presumed lost and unfortunately I was unable to locate a depiction of the burning building rescue mentioned here.]

Now for the destruction of Pontius Pilate's palace with the struggling mass crushed beneath, in "Ben Hur." Of course the palace was done in miniature, while the people did their acting out on the lot, where the street was built with a dead white backing. Again the timing had to correspond with that in the falling of the palace.

The throng of people was lined up and rehearsed. Two lines were drawn in the street a fixed distance apart—which represented the space where the ruins of the palace would fall, and the throng was sent dashing wildly down the street. At a fixed signal, all caught between the two marks fell flat on the ground. Those who had not reached the first line halted and registered terror. Those who had passed the second mark fled on, looking back and also registering terror. You see, those caught between the two marks were the people buried under the debris of Pilate's palace—those on either side had escaped.

Then came the trick printing with the two negatives, with considerable painting out of those who had fallen flat between the two lines, and you have the palace falling on the panic-stricken throng in the street. The accompanying drawings will help you to visualize this.

Never Before Told

This set of illustrations graphically explains for the first time the marvelous traveling mat process invented by Mr. Williams, which makes it possible for one cameraman to take a background in Europe, another to take the action of moving persons in Hollywood, and to combine them in one motion picture so that when it appears on the screen the action seems to take place against the background so perfectly that it cannot be detected by the human eye.

Follow this explanation carefully, and the method will be clearly demonstrated to you.

No. 1. This is the negative of the moving figure taken in front of a white background. In the negative, white appears black and black appears white. It is from this negative that the Williams traveling mat, which has revolutionized motion pictures, is made.

No. 2. This is a print made from the No. 1 negative and is printed on film of extreme contrast. In this the white and black values are given their true tones.

No. 3. This is the No. 2 film intensified in a silver nitrate solution so that it becomes a dead black silhouette, while the rest of the film is transparent.

No. 4. This is the background negative which can be taken any place in the world or made from still photographs or from miniatures. This background negative can have put in it any motion required.

No. 5. This shows the most important step in the Williams' moving mat process. In front you see the moving mat or drawing No. 3. In the middle is the background negative, drawing No. 4, and at the back is the unexposed film on which they are to be printed concurrently. By this double printing, you get a print of the background negative, which leaves an unexposed portion in each frame, corresponding exactly to the figure you see in drawing No. 1.

No. 6. The result of the double printing being made in No. 5, which leaves a silhouette blank space of the moving figure, is again double printed and into the blank space is printed the real photographic action taken in the original negative.

Thus you see that one double printing has left a blank silhouette space into which the real action is double printed in every detail.

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The rescue of Doris Kenyon, which is also illustrated by the artist, was accomplished in this manner. One negative was shot of a very real and very steep precipice, the cameramen suspended on a platform far out over the edge to get the proper angle. Another negative was shot of Miss Kenyon's horse racing madly along what looked like a fence—but what was the inevitable white drop. Doris and the horse had to reach a certain mark at a certain count—for over at the precipice there had been rocks and dirt released at a certain count—the horse bad to rear, and Colman had to reach the frenzied beast, starting from outside the camera line, and he, too, must arrive on the right count. There could be no waiting for man or horse. They took it perhaps forty times before everything was exactly right, and then the two negatives (the precipice background and the moving mat) were ready for the printing wizard, and audiences got a great thrill.

[A Thief in Paradise (1925) is almost entirely lost. I profiled the film in my series Lost, but Not Forgotten in 2023.]

Photo caption: These two drawings explain how the runaway horse thrill in George Fitzmaurice's "A Thief in Paradise" was made. The upper drawing shows the cameraman getting his shots of a very steep and very real precipice. It also has the horse with its rider and the rescuer sketched in on the edge of the precipice where it actually appears in the picture.

The lower drawing shows the run that was made before the dead white background, with the horse rearing and Ronald Colman coming to Doris Kenyon's rescue.

The upper drawing was the background negative and the lower drawing the moving mat negative, and by the Williams' process the rearing horse, rider and Colman seemed to be actually placed on the brink of the precipice

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You remember the mountain of water pursuing Conway Tearle in "The Great Divide." Of course they shot the torrent in miniature. Conway and his horse made their hairbreadth dash on a dark night and in an artificial rainstorm with nothing but a director threatening —then, although they did have quite a time making the steed climb a slippery and sloping wooden bridge, which was out on the back lot. Then up in Mr. Williams' laboratory, they finished one of the greatest thrills ever witnessed.

[While The Great Divide (1925) is thankfully extant at Cinemateket-Svenska Filminstitutet, it’s not easily accessible and I was unable to find a depiction of the effect.]

And the marvelous battle scenes in "The Big Parade." There were the big guns tearing huge craters in No Man's Land made on one negative, and the boys marched on and on and on in the other negative, and Mr. Williams brought them together in his printing laboratory. However, it was by no means as easy as it sounds, for this was one of the hardest pieces of moving mat printing ever accomplished.

SO critical is the public that the building, photographing and printing of these miniatures must be of the very highest type of workmanship obtainable. It might be interesting to know that this work in "The Big Parade" alone cost approximately $70,000 for the background negative and the moving mat negative. The miniature battlefield was about one hundred thirty-five feet long and more than seven thousand miniature shells were fired in a period of forty seconds.

On another picture—"The Barrier"—which shows a fierce storm at sea, icebergs, and a ship caught and crushed in an ice floe, more than $85,000 have been spent to create these illusions.

[The Barrier (1926) is unfortunately presumed lost and I wasn’t able to find a depiction of this effect.]

Mr. Waller, technical camera expert of the Famous Players Long Island Studio, had never seen a cyclone; yet he was instructed to produce one for D. W. Griffith's picture, "That Royle Girl." Mr. Waller did extensive research work on the subject, and then made one to experiment with. A scientific knowledge of the working of the law of gravity, by the way, is necessary to create this phenomenon of nature.

[That Royle Girl (1925) is also presumed lost, and without film footage of this sequence there’s not really a way to know how the cyclone looked in the film. However, I do think the image highlighted in the advertisement below is likely from the cyclone sequence.

from Motion Picture News, 21 November 1925]

In the basement of the studio Mr. Waller connected up three vacuum cleaners. With three suctions of air and some dust, he made a tiny cyclone. This was photographed in slow motion so that the camera and technical crew might study the formation and activity of the cone.

From his observations of the film, Mr. Waller was able to prepare the series of wash drawings which, photographed in animated cartoon fashion, represented the action of the cyclone's cone in this sequence of the picture.

Several hundred drawings had to be made, each one depicting gradually the advance of the cone toward the Inn, which it finally demolishes. These were photographed in rotation on motion picture negative, and this negative double exposed on the 180-foot miniature scene containing the houses and trees. Thus we got a very good illusion of the cone of a cyclone advancing over a village and sweeping houses and trees out of its path.

[I wonder if/hope that some of these drawings have survived!]

The animated cartoon idea was also used in "A Kiss for Cinderella," when the pumpkin and mice change into the coach and four. The first few feet of the sequence showed real mice and pumpkin; from then on 256 wash drawings of the gradual transformation were photographed in rotation and gave the impression of being animated.

Double exposures of one actor playing two parts is the oldest and most familiar camera trick to the fans.

Just recently, however, has it been perfected to the point where the actor's two screen shadows can light each other's cigarettes and shake hands.

Tom Meighan, you recall, did this in Irish Luck."

AN invisible line from top to bottom divides each frame of the negative in half. One half at a time is exposed, photographing one half of the set.

Tom appears as Lord Fitzhugh on the left half, and as Tom Donohue on the right half. If you remember. Tom's two shadows are sitting side by side on a divan in the instance of the cigarette lighting. Fitzhugh leans over and gets a light from Donahue's cigarette. The illusion is perfect. But the cigarette from which his lordship really got the light was tacked onto a chair just outside the line, on the half of the set not being photographed at that moment. Only the lighted end of the cigarette projects into Fitzhugh's half of the picture.

[Irish Luck (1925) is extant at Eastman House, but it’s not currently easily accessible. I wasn’t able to find a depiction of this split-screen effect.]

Then when Donahue's half of the scene was being filmed, Tom leans forward and holds his cigarette in exactly the spot where the chair had been, the lighted end being outside his half of the picture. Think of the perfect matching this requires!

It is done this way. As Lord Fitzhugh performs on one side of the set, the director times his actions, counting the seconds out loud. He knows just where his lordship's right arm is, for instance, at the sixteenth second. When Donahue begins to perform on the other side of the set, his arm must be in a corresponding position at the sixteenth second. Tricky.

A thrilling moment in "Aloma of the South Seas," Gilda Grey's new picture, occurs when a shark eats a sailor. If you want this thrill, you naturally have to take it synthetic.

The shark cost $3,000. It was made of flexible rubber, and its insides consisted of a maze of electric wiring. Outside the body were several buttons which the actor could operate in his fight with the shark. It swims, wiggles its tail and bites electrically.

[Aloma of the South Seas (1926) is presumed lost and I wasn’t able to find images of the shark described here. However, as consolation, here is a photo from American Cinematographer of the film’s cinematographer Harry Fishbeck shooting on location in Puerto Rico:

from American Cinematographer, February 1926]

I guess most of the suffering for art is done by the actors who tie themselves into knots to create the illusion of paralysis, amputated legs and so on. John Gilbert is shown in the last reels of "The Big Parade" with an amputated leg. Jack Barrymore in "The Sea Beast," also does it. It is merely a painful process of strapping the foreleg back. In "The Street of Forgotten Men," with Percy Marmont, a very lucid expose of cripple fakes is shown. Marmont had his arm strapped to his back for hours at a stretch during the filming of this picture. It hurts the first fifteen minutes, Percy said. After that the arm becomes numb.

A vigorous massage is necessary to bring it back to life, but it doesn't feel normal for weeks, Percy says.

Lon Chaney has his tricks of deformity down so pat that they are almost painless to him now.

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lulublack90 · 29 days

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Prompt 25 - Criminal AU

@wolfstarmicrofic April 25, word count 857

Sirius, wrapped in his brand-new wool cloak, sauntered down the street, perusing the wears of the local sellers. It was market day, and the locals were out in their droves. Normally, Sirius wouldn’t deem to mix with the riff-raff, but after the stifling morning of lessons and the lecture from his parents about upholding the family name, he’d needed to escape. To lose himself for a while.

Out here amongst the lesser mortals, he could pretend he wasn’t the heir to the most prestigious family in the country. Even the royals couldn’t hold a beacon to the power and respect garnered by the House of Black.

He breathed in the putrid smell of the lower classes and revelled in the freedom. He’d just spotted a shabby-looking pie shop and debated braving the questionable-looking meat when a tall man with a face lashed with scars knocked into his side.

“Sorry, excuse me,” The man mumbled hurriedly before continuing down the street.

Now, Sirius was many things, but a fool he was not. He checked where his coin purse had been secure in his pocket, and of course, it was gone.

“Hey, you! Come back here!” He bellowed down the street, his anger rippling through. The man glanced over his shoulder and took off at a full run, his long legs an advantage over Sirius’s shorter ones, but only for so long.

Sirius had lived his entire life in a saddle, pushing himself and his horses faster and faster for longer and longer. He was built for endurance. His well-muscled thighs were still pumping as the thief began to tire.

The thief clearly knew the streets well, but so did Sirius, having come here many times over the years to escape. He followed the man down every twisting, turning alley until the lanky being took a wrong turn and trapped himself in a dead end, his back up against the wall.

Sirius slowed to a long stride and casually leant against the narrow passageway in front of the exhausted man. He extended his arm and raised his brow. The thief sighed, threw the purse to his waiting hand and slumped to the floor, breathing heavily. It was then that Sirius noticed how skinny he was and how ragged his thin clothes were.

“You do this often, then?” Sirius asked sternly, trying to get a feel for the man. The man looked up, shocked to see Sirius still there watching him. He pulled his thin clothes around him tighter and scowled at the brown puddle against the brickwork.

“No,” He muttered. “You looked like an easy target.” His eyes snapped up to look straight at Sirius. “Clearly not.” He spat onto the ground. “Why are you still here? Get the Bobbys if you want. I’m in no condition to move now.”

Sirius watched his chest heave with each laboured breath and sighed. For some godforsaken reason, he couldn’t leave the half-starved vagrant.

“You got someone waiting for you?” He asked. The thief flinched.

“Yes,” He said, and Sirius knew it for the lie it was. This man had nothing and no one.

“You good with your hands?” He questioned further. Those warm brown eyes dropped and stared beneath Sirius’s cloak. The man began to crawl forward and was reaching towards Sirius when Sirius realised what was happening. “No, no! That’s not what I meant!” He gently pushed the man’s hand away from the buttons on his trousers. “We need a groundsman to tend to the flowerbeds and whatnot. Keep the grass cut, walls intact, that sort of thing. There’s a small hut and a salary with the job. If you want it, of course.” He’d started babbling, so he stopped himself. The brown eyes darkened.

“What’s the catch?” He rasped from the floor in front of Sirius.

“Nothing, no catch. Just don’t tell my parents this is where we met.” Sirius panicked for a second. His parents would have the man killed if they knew where he’d come from.

“You live with your parents?” The man snorted but stopped quickly, catching himself.

“I’m in a different wing,” Sirius explained. He held his hand out to the crouching man. “Sirius Black, heir to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black.” The man gawped. Sirius motioned with his hand for the other man to take it. The man hesitated before slowly accepting it. Sirius helped him haul himself to his feet. “And you are?” He prompted when the man didn’t reciprocate.

“Remus Lupin. I don’t have a fancy title to go with it.” He said blandly. Sirius threw his head back and laughed.

“Well, Remus,” He said, wiping the tears from his eyes. “The first thing we’re going to do is get a hot meal into you, and then we’ll pick out some new clothes, but the main thing you need, my new friend, is a bath, because and I do mean to be rude here, you smell worse than the Thames.” He softened his words with a smile and a wink before he turned on his heel, Remus following close behind him as they reentered the bustling streets of London.

#wolfstar #wolfstar microfic #wolfstar fic #wolfstar au #sirius black #remus lupin #sirius orion black #remus john lupin #the noble and most ancient house of black #thief remus #set in 1800's #sirius x remus #remus x sirius #sirius and remus #remus and sirius #no that's not what I meant!#criminal au

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discorainycomputer · 1 month

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I was bored at uni one day so decided to make hypothetical pokemon teams for the Touden party. Some are based on vibes, some are references to the characters themselves. Explanations below, at some places I go into spoiler territory so read at your own risk. I dont know how to spoilertag so im just gonna paste a lot of "/" so people have to click read more.

Laios: In general a very monster focused team. Initially i considered filling his entire team with dragons, but found that idea pretty boring. Hydreigon is a perfect fit for Laios. It fits both his love of dragons, multiheaded monsters, and it fits one of his titles at the end of the story: Laios of the Three heads. Escavalier is a reference to the living armor, which i think is the coolest monster in the entire series. Thats not enough to have it as a team member though, so the real reason i placed it on Laios' theme is that its Kensuke. Pyroar is The Winged Lion, as Laios is the only person in the story who truly understands it. Nidoking is a monster, but it also has king in its name. Lycanrock (day) is a reference to his childhood dogs. Finally Lickylicky references his endless apetite. I chose Lickylicky over snorlax, because Lickylicky is more niche in its appeal, and Laios is the type of person who likes things other would say "Thats stupid" to.

Marcille: I struggled a bit with this team, but in general i wanted to focus on her Elf identity, which mean some more feminine pokemon. However i also wanted to focus on her ancient magic and magical capabilities. I think Gardevoir is a perfect fit for her. Its a very caring pokemon, and its a very powerful psychic type. I added Cradily because i felt it fit her a lot. Its an ancient pokemon, and its a plant. You could see this as fitting with her staff and such, but all in all i just thought it really fit Marcille a lot. Next is Trevenant, which is a reference to her staff, Ambrosia. Its also a ghost type pokemon and has a darker design than just a tree, so i felt it was a nice tie in to her having darker/ancient magic than she lets on at first. Meowstic is a pokemon i put in simply for the vibes, I feel it fits her a lot. No other reason really. Gothitelle is here to reference her Dungeon Lord outfit, but i also think its a pokemon she would like. At last Spiritomb. This is a reference to her ancient magic, and i feel no other pokemon could represent an old unknown horror quite as well as Spiritomb.

Senshi: I wanted to really include Senshis key characteristics here, but really ended up with a lot of food pokemon. Mudsbray is a reference to Anne, both the horse and the Kelpie. Torterra is a pokemon i think senshi would like. I initially wanted to use Golem or another rock type to reference his farm golems, but i think Torterra just does the idea much better seeing as its basically an ecosystem in itself. Kangaskhan is a reference to his parental role in the party, but also his need to take care of the younger generation. Perrserker is a reference to his dwarf identity, i just think its neat. Appletun is an apple pie, and Farfetch'd seems like a nice pokemon to help you make food.

Chilchuck: With Chilchuck i wanted to both think of his status as the party rogue/trap disarmer and his position as a family man at heart. I wanted to reference his politics, but found it hard to represent with pokemon. First up we have Thievul, which is just a great fit for him. Its a thief fox that steps around silently, i think he would really like this thing. Klefki is his disarming tools. Maushold is him and his family. I think Pyukumuku is actually the best representation of him. Its small, and mostly utility focused, which is really his place in the party. However its also really cool so theres that, i guess. Lastly Galarian Stunfisk represents traps, and Gimmieghoul is his (least) favourite monster The Mimic.

Izutsumi: I wanted to emphazise that shes both a cat and a angsty teenager, but ended up with a very edgy team. I suppose it fits her though. Liepard is a scheming cat pokemon. It also fits because it has a rivalry with Thievul, which is in Chilchucks team. I think it was a nice fit as they basically have a grumpy dad/teenage daughter relationship at times. Sneasel is a mischievous little guy, which is basically a description of Izutsumi. Greninja is a ninja, and Luxio kinda looks like Izutsumi. Zoroark and Umbreon are both pretty edgy pokemon which i loved as a teenager, but i do think they fit her design. This is probably the weakest team on this list, but I still feel it fits her a lot.

Falin: I wanted to represent Falins place in the story, aswell as some of her likes. Dracozolt is a direct reference to her status as a hybrid bird/dragon/human monster. Its a perfect fit really. Hatterene represents her status as a "damsel in distress" that the party need to save. Although i think shes more than that, I felt it fit as Hatterene also has powerful magic. Oranguru i thought was a funny pick, i think it fits her healing mage aesthetic, and they basically have the same design really. Scolipede is a reference to her love of bugs and Reuniclus is both a psychic type and a body. I think it was a nice fit for her. Lastly we have Alolan Marowak, who in design is an exorcist, which is a nice little nod to her and Laios' conversation when they were children. Her potentially becoming a wandering exorcist.

And thats that. I made this just for fun so there are probably better choices for some of the characters. thanks.

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #pokemon

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gu1lty-as-sin · 4 months

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-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈ 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐬

𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐎 ☆ they/them (i dont mind she/her) ☆ minor (xiv) ☆ bisexual ☆ cancer sun, libra moon, sag rising ☆ intp-t ☆ aus ☆ either a celestial god or a pebble ☆ anxious mess ☆ i change my theme way too much ☆ sparkling water > regular water ☆ in love with piercings and wants all of them ☆ professional procrastinator ☆ a humanities/arts/music girl in a science/maths world ☆ wouldnt survive a day without spotify ☆ free palestine!!

͙͘͡★ 𝐢 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 - literature, the arts, queer culture, astronomy + astrology, witchcraft, feminism (no terfs allowed!!!!), fruit flavoured drinks, flared pants, converse, dark red, nail polish, eyeliner, burgundy lipgloss, tank tops, tote bags, brie (always dreaming of cheese), pinterest, spotify, my headphones, the ocean, my grandparents house, spring+winter, very specific shades of pink and green, black <3, fiddling around on the guitar, fantasising about being a famous musician, finding new music, snow, picking silly little outfits, drawing, writing, going to concerts

͙͘͡★ 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 - osemanverse, the hunger games, books by rhiannon wilde, tim te maro's subterranean heartsick blues, all the best liars, books by octavia butler (specifically parable of the sower and parable of the talents), the last true poets of the sea, acotar, the weight of the stars, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, the picture of dorian grey, house of hollow, howls moving castle, harry potter (mainly marauders, FUCK JKR), i kissed shara wheeler, red white and royal blue, song of achilles, wings of fire, the secret history

͙͘͡★ 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬 + 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 - dont look up, little women (2019), scream (i like most of them but 1996 is my fav by far), ladybird, barbie (2023), some of the mcu (thor and guardians of the galaxy <33), spiderverse (itsv is my love), gilmore girls, stranger things, loki, heartstopper, arcane, scott pilgrim takes off + scott pilgrim vs the world, mean girls (i love both hehe), dr who, percy jackson (the show, i um havent read the books), gossip girls, do revenge, my little pony (ignore that i’ve never actually watched it BUT IN THEORY-), the bear, hannibal

͙͘͡★ 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 - boygenius + solos, taylor swift, glaive, brakence, paramore, ricky jamaraz, melanie martinez, lana del rey, ashnikko, girl in red, billie eilish, doja cat, big thief, adrienne lenker, ethel cain, mitski, remi wolf, cigarettes after sex, ericdoa, tv girl, clairo, the neighbourhood, bon iver, deftones, maneskin, courtney barnett, poppy, the smiths, american football, susannah joffe, renee rapp, mcr, the front bottoms, pierce the veil, gracie abrams, feeble little horse, esha tewari, radiohead

͙͘͡★ 𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐮𝐦𝐬 - the record, 1989 tv, around the fur, riot, three cheers for sweet revenge, all we know is falling, hypochondriac, girl with fish, doa, things with wings, punk2, songs, masterpiece, guts, lust for life, dykttatuob, punisher, stranger in the alps, i care so much that i dont care at all, collide with the sky, manic, badlands, folklore, trafoamp, k-12, crybaby, portals, this is why, home video, ttpd + the anthology, hit me hard and soft

͙͘͡★ 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 - asks and dms are open for chatting/venting/whatever, i might take a while to respond ☆ i rarely follow people without an intro post/descriptive bio (with name, age group and pronouns especially) ☆ discord is astraeasparrow ☆ i dont currently have any trigger warnings tagged but just send me an ask/dm if you want me to tag something specific!! ☆ dni: people who are: rude, racist, homophobic, transphobic, zionist, terfs, sexist, ableist, antisemitic

͙͘͡★ 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬:

#juno.txt -> ramblings, original posts

#asks -> asks ive answered

#ask bait -> send me asks!

#tag games -> tag games ive participated in

#beautiful mutuals -> interactions with my beautiful mutuals!

#spotify -> my music obsession

#junocore -> posts that are so incredibly mecore

(im working on a better taglist with my moots tags)

͙͘͡★ 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬: pinterest ☆ spotify ☆ carrd ☆ pronoun page

͙͘͡★ 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐬: @likeasugarcubeinateacup (notes app poetry) -- @slowrotburiedinthepark (web weaving and random art) -- @stabbingstarsthroughmyback (writing) (im not that active on them though)

͙͘͡★ 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬/𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬:

☆ previously astraeasparrow

☆ last updated: may 18th 2024

☆ dividers by @dollywons, @v6que, @plutism

thats all!! stay hydrated and have a wonderful day/night everyone <3

#juno.txt #asks #beautiful mutuals #them tag <33 #tag game #ask bait #tag games #spotify #intro post #<- you can check out my crusty old intro post there #juno's 270 celebration #pinned post #junocore

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kawarikisaki · 10 months

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Been answering a lot of questions lately but haven't been asked one that let me bring up this one specific point I love talking about yet. So this is the post for that.

And it gets its own art too:

And if that doesn't clear up the topic for you....

Well, I'm talking about Kaito and Saguru’s names- but not those ones. No, I’m talking about their family names, Kuroba and Hakuba.

Starting with the kanji. Kuroba reads as 'black feathers', and Hakuba reads as 'white horse'. So even just at the base level they're both asigned a colour and an animal (or in Kaito’s case just the features of one.)

Now of course black and white are often used to symbolize things being opposites. It's a sharp contrast. A clear symbol of them being on different sides.

As for the animals, there are a few things that could be read into that, horses and birds are both used to symbolize a pretty wide variety of things, so there’s a pretty wide range of ways they can be taken even with the colours being specified. But the only one thats really notable for what I want to say here is that a birds wings often represent freedom (and im disregarding the color here because Kaito is associated with both black and white birds).

Anyway, the part i do want to talk about, is the fact that 'Kuroba' can be read as a Japanized 'Clover', which of course paired with the black colour harkens to the clubs suit of playing cards. And in with that in mind Hakuba's 'white horse' can instead be taken as a chess knight.

The two are playing a game together, the game or cat and mouse, cops and robbers- the thief and the detective. But they aren't playing by the same rules, they aren't focused on the same things... they aren't playing the same game, not really.

And both of them know that. Because Kaito knows what his real goal is, and Saguru knows that the police aren't the biggest threat that Kid is facing.

Kaito’s game is a game of bluffs. One where the stakes are high, and he keeps raising them higher by drawing that attention to himself with the intent to force his opponents the people that killed his father to make a mistake. If his poker face cracks, if he slips up he will actually die, and if he doesn’t he could land himself in jail with his freedom stripped from him. Kaito’s game is dangerous.

Saguru's game is a game of calculation. One where moves are carefully crafted and information is carefully controlled to try to reach a desired result... but the game is stretching on longer than he's ever played before, and he's changed his mind about what that 'desired result' even is. But he does know that if he keeps playing his game with the same intentions that he had when he started then he's liable to lose a friend.

But Saguru can't just switch games either, even if he's been able to recognize that Kaito's playing a game with cards, he doesn't actually know what game Kaito's playing.... is it poker? Old maid? Spades? Blackjack? And even if he knew, how is he supposed to play cards if all he has is chess pieces, Kaito's keeping as many of the cards as he can close to his chest... ..... yeah okay so that metaphor started to get messy near the end.

#dcmk #mostly mk really #hakuba saguru #kuroba kaito #rambling #my art #this ones a weird one #but it's something I randomly find myself thinking about sometimes #and at this point I've already subjected a few of my IRL friends to messier versions of this ramble #so now I'm sending it out into the world #am I reading too much into this? Yes #I absolutely am.#I won't even pretend to not be aware that this is far too much thought to be putting into just two character's family names #like I didn't even get into the animals part #and this still ended up a short essay #I think if I was still in school I'd get a C on this.

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mudwerks · 8 months

Photo

(via PEPLUM TV: Behind-the-Scenes)

Steve Reeves riding the winged horse on the blue-screen set of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1961)

#Steve Reeves #film #vintage #pegasus #blue screen #1961 #THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD

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motheatenscarf · 8 months

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So, I have a fun family game of D&D with my brother and my sibling-in-law and a couple pals that my brother DMs. I've talked about it before, Almenor D&D. Well, we just started a new campaign this last Wednesday! This one's gonna be tagged #Mistbound D&D, since it takes place not on the mainland of Almenor, but in the Mistbound Isles of the same world, set 100 years after our last campaign.

We've been promised a spooky fun time and I'm already really digging it, but I don't think I'll be keeping as many updates here about it, mainly because as the party notetaker, I'm in charge of the recap, and I've gotten permission this time around to share the recap document!

I go pretty thoroughly into detail trying to chronicle the session beats for posterity's sake, but we've also got a new player who wasn't in our last campaign, so everything's already being written for a fresh set of eyes where no context from the last huge 3 year campaign will be necessary. My SIL is an artist and also did character portraits for us!

Behold!

Kaash'ka: human (??) warlock, blood patron, just a sweet lil bean trying to get rid of his horrible curse (the ferret is named Pancake)

Talia: human (??????) paladin, oath of vengeance, horse girl first, endless font of wrath with hands second

Nudi Ecrudi, yes that is his name: halfling barbarian, berserker, the tiniest, drunkest, OLDEST, angriest little pirate there ever was

Eddy Shortcake: dwarf rogue, thief, the goodest boy with great manners but poor impulse control and a sweet tooth

So if you want to follow the adventures of these idiots and read my terrible writing to approximate what happens and see all the cool art Ash draws and the sick maps Jake makes for his spooky campaign, HERE YA GO!

#Caitlin Plays D&D #Mistbound D&D

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faorism · 2 years

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BILLOWS BEAT OFF WHISPERED WINGS: A DAEMON AU: i will be posting more of this series here and on ao3! i might change the title, who knows

hardison is an eastern red bat named t'pris (they thought it was spelled teepris until they watched star trek and were like AH designated trekkie by birth name). settled age sixteen. he is a witch that traveled dimensions when he was young, triggered by when he felt particularly lonely. then he got to nanas and he was :(( so he had the look in his eye and Nana was like OH NO YOU DONT and turns out she is a witch too. he does age at a human rate, unlike nana.

parker's is a raccoon named jack, settled age nine. he had taken to rabbits and hares when she was very small, because they loved bunny. she was convinced he would be a jackalope (hence, why she think she gave him the name jack, but they cant remember if that was his given name in the first place). settled when her foster father took Bunny and jack needed lil clever thief hands to steal bunny back. they are stretched but not separated, so that jack can help out with thievery.

eliot has a cecropia moth, which is the biggest n.american moth. her name is hazel (although eventually hazel will use they/them, but im not sure when that will start). settled age fifteen. hazel and eliot are severed by age twenty-four, as is typical with elite soldiers and contractors and such. they do not have a good relationship, because age twenty-eightish, eliot abandoned left hazel with toby because eliot knew he was getting into some bad shit and didn't want her hurt.

MORE HEADCANONS ABOUT THE OT3 (but mostly hazel since the series would be mostly in her pov) IN THIS VERSE BELOW

when hazel realized eliot wasn't coming back for her, she begged toby to bring her to aimee. (partly because his daemon and her didn't mesh, partly because hazel missed aimee, and partly because she didn't want eliot to ever find her if he decided to drag his ass back.)

when the crew does the job for the martins, aimee and her horse daemon hickory tell hazel she has to go back to eliot because (1) he's changed, give him a chance but mostly (2) aimee has to move on. hazel is Not Happy, especially when she learns eliot carries around a prosthetic dormant cicada in a bug case claiming thats his daemon.

hazel ignores eliot but does go to his apartment to grouse, and when they make it to boston she strictly hangs out at nates.

since shes always there, hazel gives comfort to parker when parker comes crying after the psychic job, landing on her knee. parker is like. oh. i can feel how fuzzy your body is, i really like that, you probably feel... and hazel tells parker she can pet her. parker gets a couple strokes in before starting to cry, the last time she touched another person's daemon being her little brother's.

hazel quickly falls into trust/in love with parker, who kinda just is like. okay so i guess hazel is mine now. everyone is like UM THATS NOT HOW THIS WORKS. but hazel, parker, and even eliot are like. hazel is her own daemon and can do what she wants independent of eliot (they are so stupid omg). hazel starts to go out on jobs grifting as parkers daemon, staying in her hair like an elegant headpiece while jack goes and does thievery.

later, hazel tries to get cozy with hardison but alec is like ABSOLUTELY NOT, STOP FLIRTING WITH ME, I AM NOT TOUCHING YOU. and then parker is like, duh, go ahead? we are dating and even though jack isnt ready, hazel is and she is independent. but alec is like, okay that's nice but also eliot is involved in this IM SORRY HAZEL, HE IS. so consent is not obtained.

eliot eventually catches him and is like. hazel came to talk with me, saying you wanted "both coparent's" permission. just.... you have it. and alec is like. .......... internally: goddddddddsd I wanna kiss him so badddddd

when Alec is buried, poor t'pris was left behind, clinging to nate's coywolfs fur. She won't let go, so she ends up in the car with nate and eliot. they go in one direction and she starts freaking out, yelling that it's the wrong direction, they are gonna break them apart. they turn around immediately but t'pris is inconsolable. the coywolf and hazel both are like, come back here now eliot, she needs human warmth. eliot refuses to touch her, so he scoops her into his beanie and cradles her to his chest.

after the ordeal, t'pris absolutely wants to be cuddled by eliot all the time as her and alec are dealing with The Trauma, so eliot gets one of those phone cases that goes on a belt or lanyard, and carries her that way. eliot has no right to laugh at the sling alec uses for jack once he warms up to being held.

the three of them freak leverage international newbies the fuck out who are like.... dear god if we join is there just daemon socialist anarchy???! and the answer is no but also technically kinda yes? everyone thinks hazel is parker's, t'pris is eliots, and jack is alecs.

it takes two years post s5 for the ot3 to get together despite them and their daemons being all over each other. they are awful and so very stupid.

t'pris likes to tease hazel about how eastern red moths' diet mainly consists of moths. hazel just pointedly flaps her wings and says GODDAMN. TRY. ME. t'pris does not try hazel.

eventually hazel and eliot make up, but it's probably telling of me that i am not sure how. eliot in the meantime is extremely deferential to her, and basically this verse is a love story between them two (aka, eliot and his soul) wherein (as @redgoldblue described) "eliot finds himself in his new family (as very explicitly pointed out in the two horse job) but he hasn’t FOUND himself yet it’s a process so his daemon… who also, separately, finds a home in the same family before ever coming back to eliot"

since the two fliers of the group have bodies about three inches long, jack loves using his weird lil hands to double fist his daemon partners' fuzzy lil bodies.

#leverage #eliot spencer #alec hardison #parker leverage #leverage ot3 #thiefsome #faorism fanart #leverage daemon au

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mgrfp · 3 months

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Lesser Known Monster Types Described

An assemblage of simple summaries. Not a replacement for research!

Ahuizotl. Dog-like lake dweller. Has spikes on back. Seizes victim with hand at end of tail.

Aka-Oni. Cousin of Ao-Oni. Cursed former human. Hulking horned rampager. Has red skin.

Alerion. Large razor-winged bird. Drowns self when offspring hatches.

Almiraj. Analogue of unicorn. Rabbit replaces horse. Chaotic. Feared by almost every animal.

Alp. Elf Dwarf hybridization. Vampiric. Can turn invisible. Paralyzes victim. Powers from magic hat.

Alraun♂ and Alraune♀. Plant human hybridization. Fragrant flowering being. Sometimes rooted sometimes roaming. Sometimes vampiric or cannibalistic sometimes feeds like human.

Anthusa or Flower Nymph. Divine blossom guardian. Life-force bound to flowering plant.

Ao-Oni. Cousin of Aka-Oni. Cursed former human. Hulking horned schemer. Has blue skin.

Arachne or Drider. Spider human combination.

Aura or Wind Nymph. Flying offspring of Boreas. Keeps world cool.

Azeman. Inconspicuous parasite of human. Appears human at day bat at night. Vampiric. Feeds from victim's foot.

Bak. Tall water dweller. Shapeshifter. Identity thief. Powers from magic bag.

Bake-Neko. Cousin of Neko-Mata. Elevated former cat. Sizeshifter and shapeshifter. Prefers ordinary cat form. Feeds on lamp oil.

Barometz or Tartarian Lamb. Plant sheep hybridization. Rooted for part of life-cycle.

Behir or Nathair. Cousin of Dragon. Electricity replaces fire. Has no wings but many legs.

Berserker. Voluntary Werecreature. Raging warrior. Transformation from fungus and animal skin.

Bjarndyrakongur. Analogue of unicorn. Polar bear replaces horse. Wise ruler of bear. Glows.

Boggart. Cousin of Brunaidh. Pernicious prankster. Disappears if secret name spoken.

Brollachan or Boneless. Cousin of Vough. Eldritch jelly blob. Psychovampiric. Shapeshifter. Incapable of proper human speech. Loner.

Bugbear. Cousin of Goblin. Large hairy cave dweller. Sometimes harmless prankster sometimes deadly pillager.

Caladrius. Doctor bird. Lives in sun.

Capelobo. Anteater goat human combination. Vampiric. Stuns victim with shriek.

Cecaelia or Octofolk. Analogue of Merfolk. Octopus replaces fish.

Cherufe. Fiery underground being. Shapeshifter. Skin always hot and rocky. Manages geo-phenomena.

Chiruwi. Mysterious being. Like human cut lengthwise. Powerful potioneer.

Culebre. Variety of Dragon. Powerful magic user. Has wings but no legs. Cruel enemy of Xana.

Dingbat. Deer owl combination. Sounds like horse. Harmless prankster.

Draugr or Aptrgangr. Undead former human. Corpse self-reanimated to commit revenge. Eyes always blue. Deanimated when mission accomplished.

Dullahan. Undead former human. Has detachable head.

Efreeti♂ and Efreetah♀. Variety of Genie. Fiery enemy of Djinn. Bound to place instead of item.

Enra-Enra. Smoke being. Frightening but harmless.

Erchitu. Cursed former human. White bull with flaming horns. Brings bad fortune.

Ettin. Cousin of Troll. Giant tormenter of human. Uncivilized. Can have more than one head.

Fext or Matoha. Undead former human. Almost indestructible incorruptible corpse. Sometimes able to resume human-like existence sometimes must regularly return to grave.

Fideal. Green-skinned weed-haired water dweller. Cannibalistic. Drowns victim.

Firbolg. Cousin of Fomorian. Giant forest dweller. Once proud race. Nature guardian.

Fomorian. Cousin of Firbolg. Giant cave dweller. Once proud race. Individually deformed. Can control weather and cause disease.

Garkain. Hideous jungle dweller. Cannibalistic. Glides through air and suffocates victim with skin-flaps.

Garuda. Huge mountable bird. Sometimes partly human.

Glawackus. Bear wildcat hybridization. Sounds like hyena. Stuns victim with gaze.

Gonakadet or Sea Wolf. Elevated former human. Huge wolf with fins. Brings good fortune.

Gorgad. Agile jungle dweller. Male basically human. Female covered with fur. Not to be confused with Gorgon.

Hamadryad or Tree Nymph. Divine forest guardian. Life-force bound to broad-leafed tree.

Hecatoncheir or Centimane. Giant offspring of Uranus. Rock-hurling enemy of Titan. Has 50 heads and 100 arms.

Heliad or Sun Nymph. Radiant offspring of Helios. Cries amber tears.

Hodag. Huge hairy beast. Has assortment of spikes. Produces stench.

Ijiraq. Child stealer. Shapeshifter. Eyes always red.

Iku-Turso. Huge antlered sea serpent.

Jenglot. Animated doll. Spirit summoned by magic user. Vampiric. Gains fleshly essence by feeding.

Jiangshi. Undead former human. Psychovampiric. Has unnatural coloration and stiffness. Moves by hopping.

Jinmenken. Dog human combination. Fast runner. Loner. Frightening but harmless.

Karkadann. Unicorn rhinoceros hybridization. Cries carnelian tears.

Kikimora. Cousin of Brunaidh. Human bird hybridization. Easily offended. Can switch from mild-mannered helper to chaotic occupier.

Kinnara♂ and Kinnari♀. Human bird combination. Has both arms and wings. Male sometimes like female sometimes like Centaur. Magnificent human protector. Inspires art.

Korred or Corrigan. Enchanting forest dweller. Bewitching female appears basically human but sometimes small. Ugly at day beautiful at night. Confuses or steals human with magic dancing. Chaotic male appears as horse or goat.

Lakhe♂ and Lasin♀. Large tusked forest dweller. Has red or blue skin. Cannibalistic.

Lampad or Torch Nymph. Sullen marching worshiper of Hecate.

Leucrotta or Crocotta. Deer lion combination. Wily predator of human. Has wide mouth with bone-strips instead of teeth. Speech mimic.

Maenad or Mad Nymph. Wild dancing worshiper of Dionysus.

Makara. Huge trunked sea serpent.

Marid. Variety of Genie. Chaotic watery being. Not bound to item or place.

Melusine. Dragon human combination. Powerful magic user. Appears human but must regularly resume true form.

Merrow. Cousin of Merfolk. Female visits land as human with webbed hands and webbed feet. Transformation from magic hat. Male avoids land.

Miage-Nyudo. Intimidating predator of human. Appears human but can increase height. Can only feed on fearful victim.

Myrmidon. Ant human hybridization. Disciplined warrior.

Nachzehrer. Undead former human. Corpse self-reanimated to slay former loved-one. Psychovampiric. Sometimes has horns. Deanimated when mission accomplished.

Nack or Nixie. Cousin of Pixie. Water-controlling water dweller. Sometimes harmless prankster sometimes deadly lurer. Female human-like but swampy green. Male horse fox human combination.

Neko-Mata. Cousin of Bake-Neko. Elevated former cat. Has forked tail. Shapeshifter. Cemetery guardian. Fond of dancing.

Nephela or Cloud Nymph. Floating offspring of Oceanus. Manages water-cycle.

Ningen. Huge wide-mouthed sea monster. Runs across ice-sheets.

Nue. Monkey tiger snake combination. Sings sad song. Brings bad fortune.

Obda. Merry forest dweller. Has backwards body. Breathes with holes in armpits. Harasses human with tickling or forced dancing. Spawns from lost blood.

Oread or Mountain Nymph. Divine mountain guardian. Life-force bound to cone-bearing tree.

Papinijuwari. Monoeyed hunter. Vampiric. Sizeshifter.

Patasola. Monopedal jungle dweller. Vampiric. Sometimes partly animal.

Peryton. Deer eagle combination. Wise enemy of human. Bathes in blood. Lived in Atlantis.

Peuchen. Snake bat combination. Feeds on human heart. Stuns victim with whistle.

Pombero. Small hairy forest dweller. Silent enemy of Siren. Has backwards feet. Stuns victim with hand. Steals voice.

Pugot. Large hairy tree dweller. Headless. Has wide mouth on top of torso. Sometimes harmless thief sometimes ferocious cannibal.

Qilin. Dragon deer ox combination. Brings good fortune.

Rokurokubi. Charismatic parasite of human. Appears human but can extend neck. Psychovampiric. Fond of vermin.

Rusalka. Enchanting water dweller. Deadly lurer. Steals or drowns human.

Serket or Girtablilu. Scorpion human combination.

Shachihoko. Dragon carp combination. Has golden scales and sharp spikes. Can control weather.

Shikigami. Animated paper-doll. Spirit summoned by magic user.

Snallygaster. Huge monoeyed bird. Partly metal. Seizes victim with talons or tentacles.

Snawfus. Majestic mountain dweller. White winged deer. Produces mist.

Spriggan. Cousin of Pixie. Sizeshifter. Lives in ancient ruins. Can cause disease. Sometimes guards treasure.

Su or Succarath. Wildcat ape hybridization. Quadrupedal forest dweller. Has wasp-shaped torso and broad tail. Frenzied render of any approaching being. Caring parent.

Sylph. Light-bodied flying being. Embodies element of air.

Tariaksuq. Caribou human combination. Invisible hunter. Shadow visible.

Tarrasque. Variety of Dragon. Extra pair of legs replace wings. Voracious. Has magnificent mane and rugged natural armor.

Troglodyte. Robust cave dweller. Uncivilized. Sometimes basically human sometimes partly reptile.

Tsuchinoko. Broad-bodied leaping snake.

Tsukumogami. Animated inanimate object. Spirit spawns from 100 years of human ownership.

Undine. Cold-blooded swimming being. Embodies element of water.

Urisk. Cousin of Faun. Nature guardian. Loner.

Vaettrar. Tiny helper or prankster. Enters house from drain.

Vibria. Dragon eagle human combination. Has wings but no hind legs. Inspires joy.

Vodyanoi♂ and Vodyanitsa♀. Slimy water dweller. Male human frog hybridization. Female human-like but cold and slippery. Demands gift or sacrifice. Steals or drowns human if not propitiated.

Vough. Cousin of Brollachan. Shadowy lurker. Has webbed hands and webbed feet. Breathes with hole in head. Can transform into jelly blob.

Vrykolakas. Undead former human. Appears basically human but has wolf-like posture. Feeds on human liver.

Vulpangue. Flat fox. Envelopes victim.

Wemic or Leotaur. Analogue of Centaur. Lion replaces horse.

Wittewijven. Secretive wise being. Lives in ancient ruins or pit cave. Appears human but ghostly white. Can transform into mist. Fond of dancing.

Xana. Pleasing water dweller. Capricious. Sometimes gives treasure sometimes steals child. Not to be confused with Zanna.

Yacuruna. Mysterious water dweller. Has green or blue skin. Wise but unpredictable. Sometimes heals human sometimes steals human. Can transform into dolphin.

Yale or Centicore. Horse boar elephant combination. Has swiveling horns.

Yedua or Jidra. Plant human hybridization. Rooted perpetually. Vicious eater of any reachable being. Inspires evil.

Yuxa. Elevated former snake. Has poisonous spikes or sting. Sly. Can appear human or reptile or combination.

Zagh. Bird human combination. Speaks every language.

Zanna. Child protector. Invisible to adult. Not to be confused with Xana.

Zityron or Sea Soldier. Large walking fish. Lives in water but grazes on land. Has natural armor like plate-mail.

So many possibilities!

#bestiary #monster manual #waifu catalogue #monster #monster girl #mgrfp #i wrote this

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the-angriest-author · 3 months

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Find The Word Tag

thanks @indecentpause for tagging me!

I was tasked with finding: fear, faith, fail, and fight!

Here's what I could find...

Fear:

Lord Lyven brought a handkerchief to his sweaty forehead with a shaking hand. His eyes landed everywhere except Red’s face. “Well apologies but I can’t host you and your-” He paused taking in the beautiful woman who stood next to Mildred. His words trailed off. Impatience pulled Red's face into a scowl. “Did you not get my letter?” She said through clenched teeth. Lord Lyven blinked and his focus returned to a Red whose mouth was pinched with anger. He nearly squeaked in fear.

That's all I Have, oop-

Tagging @sunflowermyheart , @pb-dot and @agirlandherquill to find four of the following: winter, thief, wild, tree, tame, horse, wings, yellow, blue, eyes, teeth, wind, smell, worn

I don't have a tag list so lemme know if you don't want me to tag you or you want to be added to a new tag list :)

#writing #tag game

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fibula-rasa · 8 months

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(Mostly) Lost, but Not Forgotten: A Thief in Paradise (1925)

Direction: George Fitzmaurice

Scenario: Frances Marion (learn more at the Women Film Pioneers Project)

Original Novel: Leonard Merrick’s “The Worldlings”

Camera: Arthur C. Miller

Set Design: Anton Grote

Studio: Goldwyn (production) & First National (distribution)

Performers: Doris Kenyon, Ronald Colman, Aileen Pringle, Claude Gillingwater, Alec B. Francis, John Patrick, Charles Youree, Etta Lee, Lon Poff

Polo Players: Nita Cavalier, Virginia Jolly, Martha Wing

Premiere: 25 January 1925 at the Strand, New York

Status: presumed lost, save for a trailer

Length: 7, 231-7,251 feet, or roughly 71 minutes. (8 reels)

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

While pearl diving off the coast of a remote South Seas island, Philip Jardine (Youree) and Maurice Blake (Colman) have a vicious fight underwater over the possession of a valuable pearl. In the struggle, Jardine is cut and subsequently attacked by a shark and killed. Blake manages to escape to shore.

Aileen Pringle & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Rosa Carmino (Pringle), Jardine’s common-law wife, reveals to Blake that Jardine came from a wealthy family back in the United States. A letter and money has arrived to carry Jardine back home to San Francisco to reunite with his long-estranged father (Gillingwater). Carmino convinces Blake to assume Jardine’s identity. Blake Has doubts, but the promise of a fresh start leads him to accept the proposition. Blake and Carmino travel together to California.

The deception is successful and Blake begins running in high society where he meets Helen Saville (Kenyon). Saville is the daughter of a Bishop (Francis), who happens to be the elder Jardine’s best friend. The old men are keen on the relationship, but Blake is held back by guilt over his deception. Additionally, as part of the identity theft scheme, Blake is bankrolling Carmino’s luxurious bohemian lifestyle.

Top: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925 | Bottom: Bathing Beauties in A Thief in Paradise from Screenland, February 1925

On the grounds of the Jardine estate, a bevy of bathing beauties decide to put on a polo match—blondes vs. brunettes. Saville is also spending the day riding, and her horse gets startled and bolts headlong toward a cliff. Blake springs into action and manages to save Saville at the last moment. Overwhelmed by the situation, Blake confesses his love for Saville. The exchange is overheard by Jardine and the Bishop.

Alec Francis, Claude Gillingwater, Doris Kenyon, & Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Jardine throws an extravagant party where he announces the youngsters’ engagement. Unfortunately, Carmino is one of the entertainers hired for the party. Carmino performs a dramatic under-the-sea dance number that creatively retells the story of Blake and Jardine’s underwater battle. As it turns out, Carmino is in love with Blake and she is unpleasantly surprised with the engagement announcement. Carmino threatens to expose Blake. Blake attempts to pay her off.

Under-the-water dance sequence in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

Blake and Saville are married and head off via airplane to Del Monte Beach for their honeymoon. Blake is overwhelmed with guilt and is working up the courage to make a full confession to Saville. Unbeknownst to Blake, Carmino has followed the couple. Carmino goes straight to Saville, but rather than revealing the deception, she claims that she is Blake’s mistress and that he has been keeping her. Carmino uses the pay-off check Blake gave her as evidence. Saville is heartbroken and immediately returns home.

Blake follows Saville back to San Francisco, where he confesses to both the elder Jardine and Saville. The old man’s heart is also broken as he has accepted Blake as his son and loved him as such. Blake is despondent and shoots himself.

Miraculously, Blake survives and Saville has chosen to stand by him and nurse him back to health. Jardine has accepted Blake as his true son, forgiving the deception. Carmino returns home.

Miscellaneous stills from A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture News, 26 December 1925 [L to R: John Patrick, Aileen Pringle, Ronald Colman, Pringle, Pringle, Etta Lee, Colman, Doris Kenyon, Kenyon, Colman, Pringle]

Additional sequences featured in the film (but I’m not sure where they fit in the continuity):

Another dance sequence by Pringle as Carmino staged in her studio apartment

Aileen Pringle in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

The Bishop Saville and Jardine play chess and the Bishops cheats, is caught by Jardine

Claude Gillingwater & Alec Francis in A Thief in Paradise from Motion Picture Magazine, March 1925

Four old men are left to care for a baby and are at a loss

Four old men (Alec B. Francis & Claude Gillingwater to right) in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

A snafu regarding a taxicab losing its wheel, driver is upset

Taxicab snafu in A Thief in Paradise from Exhibitors Trade Review, 10 January 1925

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Points of Interest:

Contemporary blurb that describes the under-the-sea dance sequence in more detail:

“By a combination of photography and set design, gigantic fish swim about among the coral trees and huge sea shells. Even the human participants in the under-sea dance make their entrance as divers swimming down from the surface to the immense shell on the ocean’s floor which serves as the hiding place of the stellar feminine dancer who is clad in a symbolic costume of pearls. “In order to enhance the brilliancy of the picture, the entire set, including coral, shells and floor of the sea, was finished in bright silver and the costumes of the dancers were made entirely of especially constructed luminous silver and gold cloth. Even the natural flicker of light and shadow which characterizes scenes actually filmed under water was reproduced by the technicians. “The marine dance tableau constitutes a play within a play in “A Thief in Paradise.” It is the entertainment provided by the host at a lavish engagement party given in honor of two of the principals and also has an important dramatic value in developing one of the many dramatic moments of the story.” - Moving Picture World, 10 January 1925

Based on some of the stills, I think it’s possible that Aileen Pringle may have had a double for this dance sequence, but no other dancers are credited. There is also no credit I could find for a choreographer.

The amount of pure spectacle packed into a mere seventy-one minutes is astounding to me! Knowing how skilled Frances Marion was as a scenarist, I don’t doubt that A Thief in Paradise managed to deliver plot just as well as it (according to contemporary reviews) delivered the spectacle. Film historians have been working for years to restore Marion’s rightful place as a crucial figure in American film history, so examples of her work being lost sting just that much more.

Despite the fact that A Thief in Paradise was a huge success and a top box-office draw of 1925, comparatively little digitized material exists online. Most notably absent are stills from the South Seas portion of the film.

This Ronald Colman fan website has some screenshots from the extant trailer as well as a digitized copy of a program from ATiP’s German release.

Hawaiian actress Etta Lee also appears in this film as Carmino’s maid. I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about Lee and will probably end up doing a spin-off of this post about her career. You may recognize Lee from her roles in The Untameable (1923), The Toll of the Sea (1922), or The Thief of Baghdad (1924)

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

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Transcribed Sources & Annotations over on the WMM Blog!

#1920s #1925 #Ronald Colman #Aileen Pringle #Doris Kenyon #Etta Lee #george fitzmaurice #silent cinema #silent film #lost film #classic movies #classicfilmblr #american film #Goldwyn #silent movies #film history #history

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