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tinymoonrider · 1 year

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Out of Time

Summary: You are a barista at a local coffee shop just trying to get by. Hopefully things get better for you soon. Warnings: Blood, graphic depictions of death, yandere, creepy, break in, weird notes/letters, obsession, toxic love, unrealistic love The main character is gender neutral. A/N: I recommend listening to Private Eyes by Daryl Hall and John Oates while reading this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aQKmbtp6Pc

I'm finally home. I toss my apron on the bed and get ready for a shower. A text notification alerts me just as I'm about to play some music to de-stress.

Lynn: "Hey! You off work yet? Have a fav. to ask of you!"

Me: "Yeah, I just got off. What's up?" As I wait for her reply, I go to the kitchen looking for something to eat for dinner.

"So you know that cute guy from my comp-sci class??"

I don't need to finish reading her message to know who she's talking about. In Lynn's Computer Science class, a guy named Jayce switched into her class. From what I heard, a couple of days after he switched in, they had to do a group project together. Lynn was pretty excited as she mentioned that they, in her eyes, had really hit it off.

"Of course, what's up?"

"Well, we're going out!" I smile.

"I'm very happy for you Lynn!" I head back to my room, plopping on my bed.

"Thanks! :) I'm so excited. Our first date is going to be tomorrow!" After a couple of back and forth messages, Lynn says goodnight, allowing me to go back to my original objective.

My speaker fights the hiss of the water against the tiled floors. I sigh, warm water massaged and dragged away the grime of the day. I stand under the water for a couple minutes longer, wanting to enjoy the stillness of the moment.

The song I'm listening to as I finish up my shower, cuts out just as it gets to my favorite part. At first I thought it was just my speaker dying on me. I turn off the water, the cool air nipping at my wet skin, I go to inspect my speaker. Tapping it against my palm, the music starts to play again. I smile and start to change into something more comfortable. Swaying my hips to the beat of the song, I mouth along the lyrics as I get changed. Just as the chorus was about to start, I prepared to belt it out, only for it to cut to static.

What the–

A loud crash comes from downstairs. I jump, grabbing my phone, I immediately dial the police. After ringing a couple of times, I'm only met with the harsh dial tone and the automated voice message telling me to try again. I tried a couple more times before I gave up and decided to head into my room. Quickly, locking the door, I look for my pepper spray in my bag and the knife beside my bed.

Preparing myself mentally, I head downstairs to make a run for the police station. I tip toe out of my room, navigating my way towards the living room and in the direction of the front door. In the kitchen I noticed that the lights were on, the curtains blowing gently against the wind. I thought I was more than sure that the window was closed. None the less, I opt for continuing with my original plan.

I head towards my front door and turn off the security alarm. Taking a deep breath I get ready for a sprint. Just as I open the door, taking a step outside, my speaker blares loudly from the bathroom. I scream.

Crap!

I whip out my weapons and brace for an impact. The pepper spray canister shields my face while my knife is held firmly between my fingers. The black blade, point side down, ready to stab and slash at my attacker. I hear another loud crash from the kitchen, I scream again, my knife waving frantically through the air. I press down on the button on the top of my pepper spray but nothing happens. After what feels like years, I calm down and open my eyes. I search the area around me. No signs of an intruder. Making sure to unlock the tab on my pepper spray, I ready myself to go into the kitchen.

Quietly, I charged into the kitchen, blood coursing through my veins. I felt like I was ready for anything. Upon walking in, I don't see anyone. I stand alone in my kitchen, frantic and clammy, feeling stupid. On the floor, however, two rocks sit in front of me, glass like confetti on the floor. I take a deep breath, desperate to compose myself before continuing on to search the rest of the house. Once safe, I take a picture of the mess and clean up the glass and rocks. It’s only then, that I notice the lyrics to the song, the song that looped on my speaker since it came back to life. Echoing throughout the house,

“‘Private eyes

They’re watching you

They see your every move’”

I ran upstairs to turn off the unsettling music.

“‘They’re watching you watching

You watching you watching you.’”

I do another round through the house and head back to my room. Locking my door, I look for my phone and try to take deep breaths. Once found, I text Lynn about what happened.

Inevitably, because of course, the messages don’t go through. An error notification in its place. I curse.

What do I do now?

Sitting on my bed I take a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Leaning back, I hear a small crinkle of paper being crushed under my weight. Confused I got up and looked underneath where I had sat. There was a slightly crushed envelope with my name scrawled in black ink. A poor imitation of crude cursive, barely making it legible to read.

I take my knife and slide the blade under the top flap, carefully running it along the fold, I take the note inside and read it.

“Hello Doll,

I hope you’re having a great day. You looked especially ravishing today. I know customers can be particularly frustrating… to say the least. But, you made it and I am so, so very proud of you, Doll. Now, try to get some rest.

Love,J”

I crumple up the note and throw it out, unsure of what to make of it and how it got into the house in the first place. I lay down on the bed, my back facing my closet. I close my eyes, trying to get some rest for the challenging day ahead of me.

At work, I search my locker for a spare apron.

I can’t believe I lost another one!

After five minutes of searching in vain, I go into the back and grab one of the extras, as well as a new name tag. Grabbing a marker I neatly print my name and pin it to my chest.

At work, I fight to survive the lull and rush of the day until my hour break. While dealing with customers, I try not to yell, fight, or maim any of them from my side of the counter. I wait for my coworker, Elijah, to come back from his lunch break. Speaking of, he walks in, taking his time to get back behind the counter and to clock back in.

“Hey, sorry. You can go now.” The stench of smoke wafts to me, the smell of smoke clings to his clothes. I can’t stop myself from cringing. I mumble out a thanks and head over to a computer. “Say… I was wondering if you wanted to… I don’t know… Go out sometime? Grab some dinner… maybe catch a show?” He flashes me a grin as he leans against the counter. His crooked yellow teeth clash against… well… everything about him. Politely, I decline.

“Whatever, you’re ugly anyway.” Elijah turns away from me, messing around with some of the cups.

I peak at the time on my phone. About two more minutes until I have to go back inside.

Fucking kill me.

Groaning, I get my things together and ready myself to go back inside. Just as my alarm goes off I walk towards the back entrance. A man sprints out from the back doors, knocking me over on his way out. Shocked, I called out for him.

“Hey! What the

hell?”

He doesn’t stop. I watched as he crossed the street, effectively disappearing from my sight. Getting up, I brush myself off and look for Elijah.

“Hey Elijah? Who was that?” Upon walking in, I see him sprawled out on the floor. His legs bent backward and twisted. Feet forced into an unnatural position. His arms were twisted and cuffed behind him. His face was bloodied and bruised. Eyes leaking blood, lips covered in cuts and gagged, blood pooling around his body.

I scream and run out to the front. I scream for someone to call an ambulance while I grab a first aid kit only to find the place completely evacuated. I rush back to my coworker and I call the ambulance while I do my best to patch him up.

While the ambulance takes him to the hospital I talk to the police. They give me a report of his condition: Forty stab wounds, three minor cuts. There were no in person witnesses and the only one who could account for any suspects was me. The security footage was cut a couple of minutes after I had left and went back online as soon as the suspect had left the building. It only caught the backside of his all black outfit.

Elijah died on the way to the hospital.

I was allowed three days off, after a bit of negotiation, to collect myself. That day I got home from the police station, I curled up into a ball and didn’t move until I was forced to go back to work. I couldn’t stop thinking about that day. What had happened. Had I not gone on my break when I did, I would’ve been dead. Lying in my own blood, fighting for another breath. Fighting to stay away from the light.

Would I have been able to fight against it? Would I have been able to stop the inevitable?

After my break was over, I forced myself back to work. I was told by the police to try and act as though everything was normal and to not talk about what had happened.

At work, I was distracted. During my shift I was overworked and tired as others had to fill in his spot until we got another hire. I wasn’t allowed to disclose what had happened to anyone. Word still got out though. I would conduct interviews with different applicants, many of whom would ask about what happened that day. I could never bring myself to describe what I had seen, even if I really wanted to. After a moment of silence, they’d leave unsatisfied. Thinking about that day makes my heart race. I'd break out into a cold sweat and from what others had said, I'd apparently go pale, all color draining from my face.

My manager, Abigail or Abi for short, asks me to start hiring everyone who comes to the interview. Even if they aren’t all that qualified, the cafe needs more workers. “They can be trained. What’s important is that we get someone to cover the shift while we find someone better and

willing

.”

Interview after interview, it seemed as though we wouldn’t get anyone. Those who came in ended up not showing up ever again. A couple of times many of us had hope. The new hire would show up for work that day, only to disappear without a trace during their break sometimes, if they made it through their first day, they wouldn't come back the following one.

Luckily, Lynn’s boyfriend, Jayce, came in, our help wanted a sign one hand, he held it out for me to take. “I’ll take the job.” Before long, he was hired. It was weird having him around working with me. I had only seen him once from a sneaky picture Lynn had taken of him during her class. Sun-kissed skin, short black hair, with warm honey eyes. Even I had to admit, he looked good.

After showing him the basics, he was an official employee of the cafe. Working with him slowly made things easier for me. The different stressors of life were lifted slightly with him at work. He’d do his best to make me smile or laugh. Helping me whenever he could and generally making sure that I was okay throughout the day. He knew just how stressed I was just by looking at me. I really appreciated that about him.

Lynn, who was usually busy with her classes, would come to visit us at least once a week. She was ecstatic that we were working together. “My two favorite people in one place!” She said, the first time she came to visit. “My boyfriend,” she grabbed his arm from over the counter, “and my best friend! What more could I ask for?”

It had been a couple of months after Jayce was hired, things had been quite normal around the cafe. Lynn and Jayce’s relationship, however, was anything but.

About six months into their relationship, Lynn seemed off around him. She would soon visit us less and less. When she did visit us, she would be distant with Jayce sometimes out right ignoring him. It was like this until she didn’t talk to him at all.

I wasn’t really sure of what went wrong between the both of them. One day when she came in, she was very noticeably angry with Jayce. Making sure to only ask me questions, having me take her order and hand it to her. He would just glare from across the counter, ignoring her jabs at him. She sat down at the other side of the room on one of the singular sofa chairs. “Can you grab more milk from the back… We’re running low.” I nod and head into the back. Grabbing a couple of cartons of milk, I walked back to the front of the store, where they were having a full blown fight.

I should give them some privacy.

Leaving the milk on the counter near Jayce, I go to the employee locker area and go on my phone. Doing my best to tune out their conversation, I decided to look for my headphones.

After about ten minutes, their heated conversation was still going strong. I take a deep breath and look for something else to do. Going into my locker, I find a note taped to the inside of the door. Something that was somehow both sticky, crusty, and slimy smeared all over the page. Smearing some of the words on the note. The substance had even turned yellow in some parts.

“October 10th

Darling,

I find myself in a situation most unpleasant. From the last time we talked, I realized I made a mistake. I know I have lost my temper and I apologize greatly for it. I know seeing your coworker in pain, must've taken a lot out of you, but just know that I did it for you. Your love. Your devotion... But alas, I knew that because of what I did, I didn’t deserve you.

Although it may have seemed like I left you alone, I can assure you, that I’ve always stayed close by. I am your guardian angel after all!

I digress... I know you must be wondering,

‘what do you mean by ‘unpleasant situation?'' ‘How can I help my wonderful guardian?’

Well, my wonderful little angel, you can help me by getting me out of my predicament. You see, after trying to ward off a man, clearly worth no one’s time— especially not

yours

, I had to find myself a cover to blend into society more. To lessen the heat that had been put upon me due to what I had done.

Anyway, continue going to work as usual and I’ll see you

soon

, my Love.

Your’s truly,

Your Guardian Angel”

I crumpled the note into a little ball.

I need to find a new job.

Standing up, I see Jayce standing there in front of me. His eyes fixated on my hands. “Jayce? Everything alright?” His eyes snap to mine, his body uncomfortably still. An unnatural look adorning his features.

“Oh yeah… Yeah, I’m good— um… Lynn and I are going to take a break. Like an indefinite break. I-I guess we just…” He lets out a sigh, “We just weren’t meant to be.” His shoulder drops along with his head.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Jayce. Is everything going to be okay?” He nods. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day-off to cool down from what happened. Abi, will be here soon anyway. It’s no problem.”

He shakes his head, “I can stick around for the rest of my shift. I might want to take a day off tomorrow though. If that’s alright?”

I nod, “I can talk to Abi.” He gives me a small smile and heads back to the front.

Today was my day off for the week. Jayce and Lynn haven’t talked since that day. A couple of months have gone by since then, since I’ve been able to see Lynn. She hasn’t been answering her calls or texts. I figured she needed some time for herself and that maybe her classes have been hitting her harder than usual lately. Possibly needing some time to just focus. I wonder how she’s doing…

As I put on my favorite show and relax, I get a text message from Lynn. She asks for me to come over as quickly as possible. I got ready, grabbed my things and rushed over to her apartment. Once there, I'm out of breath and weakly lifting my hand, I knock on her door only for her to swing it open and drag me inside. Slamming it shut, she locks us in and collapses in her small kitchen. Her eyes darted from left to right, body shivering despite her thick hoodie on. Putting an arm around her, she swatted me away in a panic.

“Hon, you need to calm down. What is going on?” Her eyes were outlined with thick dark circles, her skin a pale white. Her lips, chapped, cemented into a fearful frown. Stuttering to get a couple of words out, she eventually gives up, hobbling to her bedroom. I follow her and help her to sit on her bed. Lynn’s cheeks are sunken in slightly, her cheekbones seem more accentuated than usual. She handed me a couple of envelopes. Many of them were torn into, others, while not many, were still intact.

I read through the letters. Each one was progressively getting worse. It started off as mildly concerning. It described that the sender was more than done with her. That they were upset with the things that she had told the police and threatened to take action against her unless she were to retract her statements. They were upset at something she had done. But, as the letters continued, they went into more and more detail of what they’d do when they “got their hands on her”. I felt sick to my stomach the more I read. At some point I couldn't continue reading. The graphic details describe how this twisted person wanted to kill Lynn. How they wanted to torture her. Make her suffer just as much as Elijah did that day.

Trying my best to stay calm, I gather up the letters, “I’m going to call the police, don’t worry. Just stay put, I’ll check the doors too.” Lynn was too tired to answer. She groaned as she fell back into her bed, eyes closing with a sigh of relief.

I went into the living room and made sure to lock the door. On the call with police, I described what had been happening to Lynn. I described the letters she's been receiving as well as the possibility of needing medical attention. After giving them the address, I thank them and hang up. "They’ll be here in ten minutes! I’ll cook you some soup while we wait.” Prepping the ingredients I got started on the soup.

As I let the ingredients cook, I went back to Lynn’s room to check up on her. My blood shot to my head. My mouth opened but no sound would come out.

“Such a shame really. She knew too much.” Jayce’s arms wrapped around me and pulled me closer, “Don’t worry, Baby.

I’ll take good care of you.”

#yandere #yandere x reader #male yandere #tw obsession #tw death #tw blood #tw fear #tmrwrites

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mslangermann-a · 2 years

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hit the “random trope” button and write an excerpt based on that trope

trope: zip me up

Lynn whirled around the cramped apartment like the last, powerful dredges of a storm, darting this way and that while she readied herself. Makeup was haphazardly applied to her face and her third outfit of that morning was hastily pulled over her body, careful not to misplace the ponytail atop her head.

Blake watched, amused. While he knew laughing would not be in his best interest in this moment, he couldn’t help but smile at the sheer chaos of their bedroom. Clothes littered the floor, hung over a chair and on the bathroom sink. Various coffee mugs found their way to their bedside that morning, each with only mere sips taken from them. The sheets were shoved into one corner where Lynn’s bag and oversized laptop were propped, ready to be packed. This wasn’t the first time their poor bedroom had received such a treatment the morning of a job interview and Blake worried it wouldn’t be the last.

Employment from local newspapers were few and far between and those who were hiring wanted nothing more than fluff columnists, someone to report on a high school’s homecoming game or an elderly woman’s cat who could say mama. Lynn’s ambition rose too high above stories like that. She needed more. So when newspaper known state-wide advertised an opening for a broadcast journalist, she submitted an application that day. To her pleasure. and to Blake’s relief, the paper reached out two weeks later and invited her in to interview. The morning had come and the apartment had suffered for it, but Blake couldn’t be happier. This was it. A real chance for Lynn to live out a life-long dream.

“How do I look?”

Lynn’s question interjected Blake’s drifting thoughts, snapping him back to reality. There was a brief pause as he took in the cinched dress, clinging perfectly to her figure with little effort.

“Beautiful. Camera-ready.” Blake stood and crossed the room to where his wife had already begun shoving her laptop into its bag. “But, uh... One second.”

He was behind her then, fingers on her zipper and Lynn muttered an absent-minded shit, shaking her head. A laugh slipped from Blake then as he pulled the zipper of her dress up.

“It’s okay. That’s what I’m here for. Unofficial zipper inspector. There. You’re good.” He placed a soft kiss on her shoulder before she turned and returned with a kiss of her own, long and deep. He would’ve held her like this for the rest of the day if time wasn’t working against them. Lynn pulled back, hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and gave her husband one last peck on the cheek before darting to the door.

“Love you. I’ll call you when it’s over.” And she was gone. Blake sat back on the edge of the bed, sighing.

Please let this be it, he thought, before his own work beckoned him to the computer.

#HEADCANON.#some random little thing for y'all #feel free to do this yourself #it's fun #VERSE ; PARADISIO

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jess-unkommentiert · 2 years

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I. Welcome to the Avengers Compound

→ "I didn't have a choice!" - Masterlist → The story on Wattpad

Beginning of March 2024 – Brooklyn, New York The sun was about to set as Lynn was finally done with her 24-hour-shift at the hospital. On a regular day she would have been out of the hospital three hours ago, but she was stuck in a complicated surgery that included the amputation of a leg above the knee. The poor man was hit by a car this morning and his shin, fibula and ankle bones were fractured so complicated, that they didn't have a choice but amputate the leg. And when you're in the middle of a surgery you don't just walk away because your shift was over. You finish that surgery and end your shift afterwards.

Lynn decided to check on the man first thing when she would start her next shift after lunch tomorrow. She was always curious how her patients turn out after they had treated and examined them in the ER or in surgery. After becoming a doctor a few years ago she did further training to specialize as a trauma surgeon because she wanted to be able to help people after accidents and other traumatizing situations. Ever since her aunt died in a car accident when she was a kid she wanted to specialize in that topic.

After a lot of hard work and years of studying with excellent grades she started working in the Emergency Room (ER) of the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. Unfortunately a few months after her start, Thanos made his famous snap – dusting half of the planet. Lynn was one of the remaining people but they lost a lot of staff and all remaining doctors and nurses had to work even harder and more than before.

Lynn accepted the challenge and soon became the leading doctor in the ER. She was responsible for all kind of major injuries like polytraumas, gunshot and stabbing wounds or multiple organ failures. When there was heavy stuff going on in the ER you could find her around the patient to save its life. She won numerous awards for the re-organization of "her" ER which had led to a significant higher life-saving rate for the hospital. She had written her doctor thesis about improving the "Triage"-system and implemented the better version at the hospital in 2020.

Instead of doing the simple Triage (S.T.A.R.T. model) as the hospital did before they implemented an advanced version. In the simple version you use the colors green, yellow and red in order to sort patients into those who need critical attention and those with less serious injuries. The system was created during The Napoleonic War in France in the beginning of the 1800s as millions of soldiers were hurt and there weren't enough beds in the hospital to treat them all:

Green = Not urgent, can wait up to 180 minutes for medical attention Yellow = Less serious injury, can wait up to 60 minutes for medical attention Red = Needs immediate medical attention, Life in acute danger

Lynn had improved the system and included the colors Orange (in between yellow and red, medical attention needed within the next 15 minutes) and Blue (= not really an emergency, can wait up to four hours) to the Triage system. She had also implemented the system in their daily work instead of just using it after mass car crashes or other accidents that involve a huge number of patients at the same time. One doctor in the ER was in charge for sorting the patients into the five categories right after their arrival. So every patient's file in the computer was matched with the right color and all doctors and nurses knew exactly about the seriousness of the patients' injuries.

The re-organization of the ER did not just increase their life-savings rate it also got Lynn her first big award and she was able to gave a few presentations on hospitals around New York to help them implement the new system as well. It was a huge success for her and she was very proud that she made the hospital a bit better and could save even more people than before.

Her second big award was the "Ambitious Young Doctor Award" that she got in 2021 – half a year after she became head of the ER team. With only 29 years at that time, she was very young to have so much responsibility but because of the Snap every doctor – no matter what age – was needed badly. And Lynn was a brilliant doctor.

After the return of the second half of the world with the Blip in October 2023 things changed in the hospital. Lynn was still the head of ER, but her predecessor Dr. Miller was not happy with that and didn't understand why he didn't get his job back. For all the dusted people these five years were just a few seconds. But for the remaining people it was fucking five years where they worked their asses off and tried to live with the new situation.

And it wasn't easy! Almost everybody had lost at least one of their loved ones and they didn't have time to grieve as they needed to work and keep the world alive in the best possible way. And Lynn worked well under all that pressure, although she had lost both of her parents to the Snap.

Around one week after The Blip and the return of billions of people even Dr. Miller respected Lynn and her work and finally was okay with her being in charge. What maybe these superheroes haven't thought about while fighting against Thanos was the fact that within a second Lynn and her team had double the patients. The re-appeared within the hospital building – some of them needed immediate medical intention.

Thanks to her Triage system the chaos was handled well but it was the hardest week of Lynn's professional life so far. For one whole week she had not more than 8 hours of sleep cumulated. Her body was broken and a wreck afterwards but they managed to save as much people as possible. After Dr. Miller had seen how professional and amazing Lynn handled the situation he was okay with being her deputy and representative in case of PTO or illness.

Lynn still loved her job and loved the hospital she was working at, but after The Blip a lot of the processes and improvements she had implemented were abandoned. Just by the fact that the returning doctors were used to the old processes and didn't want to change anything. That was very frustrating for her and made her sad and angry at the same time.

But this evening – after her 24 hours shift – she was happy because she was sure that the man with the car accident would survive. And that was a miracle because of all the injuries he had. That's why she loved her job – because she were able to help people who couldn't help themselves and give them second chances in their lives.

Lynn's apartment was in walking distance to the hospital as it was a special apartment for employees of the Kings County Hospital. The hospital rented a lot of apartments nearby to give them to doctors and nurses for a good prize. She was thankful for that – although her apartment was only around 400 square feet / 38 square meters. It had a little kitchen area and enough space for two bookshelves full of medical books as well as a big queen size bed. She didn't have a couch but watching TV while laying in bed was even better than sitting on a couch. There wasn't enough space for a big dinner table, but she had a small one with two chairs around it.

She watched the sun set between the houses on her street before entering her apartment complex. It has been a long shift and she didn't have motivation or patients to cook so she got herself a pizza on her way home. Thankfully there was a Pizza Hut on Nostrand Ave where she had left way too much money in the last six years. She always wanted to cook for herself but after those hard 24 hours shifts she wasn't in the mood to do it. One of her colleagues and friends Toby was her role-model as he did a lot of meal prep on his days off and was even able to go to the gym four times a week. She took a mental note to ask him for advices to start with a healthier lifestyle.

But tonight she had an amazing Pizza and enjoyed every bite of it while sitting on her bed and watching "Grey's Anatomy" on Disney+.

As she wanted to start with the last slice she could feel her phone buzz next to her thigh and she quickly pulled it out of the pocket of her sweatpants.

Unknown Caller

She wondered for a second and wasn't sure if she should answer the call but then curiosity won over fear so she answered it.

"Hello, this is Lynn speaking."

"Hello Mrs. Summers. My name is Maria Hill." came a friendly female voice from the other side of her phone.

"Actually it's Miss Summers, as I am not married. But that's okay. What can I do for you, Mrs. Hill?"

"Well, actually it's also Miss Hill." Maria chuckled and made Lynn laugh, too. She didn't know why but Lynn felt like she had an immediate connection to Maria.

"I am calling, because I want to offer a job to you." Maria added.

"A Job? What does that mean?" Lynn asked confused. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she tried to find the connection in her brain where the hell she had heard the name "Maria Hill" before.

"Have you ever heard about the Avengers, Miss Summers?" Maria asked calmly.

In that moment Lynn finally got the connection in her head and her eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Maria Hill was the new leader of the Avengers after Nick Fury was killed a few years ago. As Lynn was a civilian she obviously didn't know that Nick Fury survived the assassination by the Winter Soldier in 2014. She just read about his death in the newspapers after it happened. After that the Avengers seemed to be under their own lead but a few months ago she read an article about the re-building of the Avengers Compound outside of New York and that Maria Hill was now the organizational leader.

"Of course I have. I mean, who hasn't, right? They saved our entire planet from being destroyed." Lynn chuckled nervously as she wasn't sure why THE Maria Hill called her.

"Yeah, after putting it in danger for several times before, they saved it in the end. That's right." Maria answered. There was a weird silence between the two women afterwards and Lynn wasn't sure if this was her cue to say something. But before she could open her mouth Maria Hill cleared her throat and continued:

"I am sorry. It was a tough and long day. I am calling because the new Avengers Compound still needs a doctor. We had on-call-doctors but realized that this is not gonna work for us. We need someone to be around 24/7. I've read about your awards and all the amazing work you did after the snap. That's why I would love to have you around and offer you the job as leading doctor in our med bay. You will have 350k as salary, a room next to the med bay and free food and drinks. How does that sound for you?"

Lynn was shocked. The salary was huge and as she didn't need to pay for rent or food she would have a lot of money to spend it on vacations or other stuff.

"I am sorry in advance for asking that, but what are the disadvantages of that job?" she asked nervously.

"I don't understand that question, Miss Summers." Maria answered confused.

"Well... it's... it's a huge salary and an amazing job opportunity. Job like that are normally not as easy as they appeare on the first look. There are always disadvantages. Obvious ones and hidden ones." she stumbled.

She could hear Maria laugh before she answered:

"You are indeed very smart, Miss Summers. The job implies that you stay at the Avengers Compound 24/7, that means you are not as free as you're used to. We're on missions all the time and accidents and injuries can happen in the middle of the night. They mostly happen when we don't plan it. That's why you are on-call all the time. So you won't have regular working hours and a lot of PTO. These are the disadvantages."

"Understood. You said leading doctor. What would the team look like?"

"Your team would also contain an assistant doctor, but we haven't found someone yet. If you have someone you want to bring with you, please let me know and I will check if it's possible. There are also six nurses around that would be under your lead. Two of the six nurses are on the Compound 24/7 like you are. The others as well as the assisting doctor are only on-call in cases of emergency."

"To be honest, this sounds pretty good, Miss Hill. But I need to think about it for a night, if that's okay?" Lynn answered.

"For sure! I'll send you a text with a number that you can call to give me your answer. Take your time until the end of the week. But if you agree to work with us I need you to start on Sunday. We will organize everything with your current employer and help you move your stuff to the compound. So the only thing you need to focus on is having an eye on the Avengers."

"I'll call you tomorrow, I promise! Also I need to call someone that I think of as assistant doctor. He would be perfect for the job."

"Sounds amazing. Then I'll talk to you tomorrow, Miss Summers. Have a wonderful evening." Maria Hill said and without waiting for Lynn's response she hung up.

Lynn sat on her bed with her jaw on the floor and her eyes widened in shock. She could be the leading doctor of the Avengers? She could be a passive part of saving the world over and over again? It was like her dream job. And she didn't mind to move to the compound. When you work as a doctor you don't have time to maintain friendships in a way you want to. That's why her only friend at the moment was Toby.

Speaking of Toby. She regained the ability to control her body and called him immediately to ask him if he wanted to be her assistant doctor at the Avengers Compound. Toby was hyped but not sure how that would work. If he would be working in his normal job full-time but be on-call in case of an emergency or if he would be a doctor at the compound as well. Maria Hill said on-call-doctor but that could be in any possible way:

Full-time normal job + on-call for the Avengers Half-time normal job + half-time sitting around and wait for a call in case he was needed No normal job allowed, just sitting around and waiting for a potential call and so on...

Lynn couldn't answer his questions and they decided to call Maria Hill together tomorrow.

And they did.

Maria answered all their questions and Lynn and Toby got to know that Toby would work in his normal job full-time but got a special phone where we needed to answer any call and immediately make his way to the Compound if necessary. There was a spare room for him in the Compound as well (just in case he needed it) but he would continue living in Brooklyn. Maria would take care of creating a contract between the hospital and the Avengers so that Toby didn't have any disadvantages when he left to help Lynn.

He was not allowed to turn off the special phone and even if he was in the middle of an open-heart surgery he needed to answer the phone and rush to the Avengers as soon as possible. Toby was concerned that this would bring him disadvantages in his normal job but Maria made sure that the contract between the Avengers and his employer would help with that. The only thing she couldn't prevent was the fact that maybe his co-workers would be pissed or annoyed that he needed to left without any warning and without being able to tell them any details.

It all sounded too good to be true but Lynn and Toby decided to give the job a chance as it was interesting and exciting. They celebrated their new jobs with two shots of Tequila and Sushi Take-Away.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

On Saturday Lynn packed almost all her clothes and other stuff in boxes that someone brought her on Friday evening. After she had quit her current job on Wednesday her boss didn't want her to come around anymore, so she had a few days to pack her stuff. She knew that the moving team would come on Sunday morning 7:00 am and that they would take care of everything else. She just needed to pack he stuff in boxes and label them correctly. The team would also take care of her keys and give them back to the hospital. She really didn't need to do anything - like Maria Hill had told her in their first call.

She was expected to be at the Compound on Sunday Morning 8:30 am to start her first day in the infirmary.

As she was freaking excited for her new job she wasn't really able to sleep in the night from Saturday to Sunday and so she took her MacBook and researched the Avengers. Of course she knew a few things about them because a lot of their stuff were in the news, but she tried to find more personal things about them to prepare with who she would work in the future. But she couldn't find a lot other than the common know things.

"Well, so I have to go into the new job unprepared. Let them surprise me. Don't know if I like that..." she mumbled to herself when the sun started to rise again - coloring the world outside of her window in a mixture of rosé and orange. It was beautiful and she would really enjoy the view, but she was tired as hell and excited and frightened and angry and a lot of other emotions at the same time. Her body was overwhelmed and she felt nauseous which was weird because she was never like that - not even before her final exams in Med School.

But it wasn't like everyday when you start to work with famous superheroes.

She took a shower and packed her suitcase with the most important things that she wanted to bring to the Compound on her own. Then she sprinted to the nearby coffee shop to buy a tray full of coffees for her and the moving team, that arrived a few minutes after she was back in her apartment.

Time for a last Goodbye after she had instructed the workers and made her way to her car to drive to her new home: The Avengers Compound.

It was located outside the city in the Nyack region and she would need 75 minutes with her car to be there with the current traffic situation. So she didn't want to waste time and be late on her first day so she had grabbed her suitcase as well as a backpack with other important stuff and went to her rental car that was parked outside of the building. As she had everything in walking distance and no parking slot or parking garage to her apartment she didn't own a car.

Around 70 minutes later she arrived in front of a big gate with guards next to it. She lowered her front window and one guard came to her car.

"Good Morning. How can I help you?" he asked with a serious but somehow friendly face.

"My name is Lynn Summers and I have am supposed to meet Maria Hill at 8:30 am. I am the new doctor for the Compound." she answered with nervousness in her voice.

The man in his late 40s looked at the iPad in his hand with furrowed eyebrows. A few seconds later - that felt like an eternity for Lynn - he relaxes his face expression and looked her in the eyes.

"Then you must be Lynn Summers, correct? Please show me your ID and afterwards I will check your car with the x-ray. Then you can enter the area." he answered.

Lynn showed him his ID and he nodded before walking around the car with some sort of device in his hands. After two minutes he went back to the still open window and said:

"All clear. You can come in. Follow the street and turn right at the first crossing. Then continue your ride until you arrive at the main entrance. Just park your car in front, someone will take care of returning it to the rental company. Welcome to the Avengers Compound, Miss Summers." he smiled at her as the gate was slowly opening.

This was it. The first day of her new life started today.

⍟ ⍟ ⍟

AN: The Avengers Compound is originally located in "Upstate New York" which would be an 4 hours drive from Brooklyn. As this is not realistic for the story I decided to move it to Nyack.

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khushiipaul · 10 months

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Hugo James Wantzel, Personal Life

The grandson of former US President Jimmy Carter was born on 29 July 1999 in the United States of America. His name is Hugo James Wentzel. He is the son of James Gregory Wentzel and Amy Lynn Carter. Hugo's mother is an American activist. His father is a computer consultant.

Hugo is the only child of James and Amy Wentzel. Despite the fact that he is an American citizen and of Caucasian descent. He attended the Ponce de Leon Avenue School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Relationship Status

Hugo James is currently content with his single status. He and his family are still leading a simple life. Eventually, she will meet someone who will truly love her. He may be thinking about getting hitched sooner rather than later.

Family life

When James Wentzel and Amy Carter first met at Tulane University. In 1996, they got married at their home. Amy states that she does not belong to anyone and has adopted the Wentzel surname.

She gave birth to their only child, Hugo James Wentzel, on July 29, 1999. As soon as possible, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where they focused on raising Hugo.

In order to give Hugo her full attention as a single mother, Amy reduced her participation in her former activities, including political rallies and open marches. He has a position on the Carter Center's Board of Advisors. It is a group that favors human rights and diplomatic relations.

How long has it been since the divorce of James Wentzel and Amy Carter. Fortunately, they were able to revive their relationship. He got married once again.

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remembertheplunge · 1 year

Text

5/5/2005

Ruth Ann looks weak. She said the shunt to the lungs was the worst experience yet, medical wise (She has 4th stage ovarian cancer). She told Peg "I don't want to die alone." and "pick out some of my clothes to take". We debate "Should we tell her (death is close?") No. she has a good attitude. doctors say she has a few months or less. The Doctors told John that Ruth Ann will become paranoid in the end.. Shes on oxycotton and some other drug.

Lisa gave me a computer tour last night. Interesting, but, frustrating. (My first time seeing You tube, or, having someone google my name. I did not come up on google.)

Peg had to help Ruth pull her legs up into bed. Tim, Craig, Donna, Bob, Lynn, Miranda and Blake and 3 other old friends stopped by. Ruth was with it, but, at one point, hit the sleep of death.

She told Jim, Donna and Peg she wants to be made up and dressed for people to come and see her (after she dies). Then, have a party at the house and later, spread her ashes at Refugio beach.

Tim will buy a palm to plant there for Ruth Ann.( at Refugio) It will be planted next to Carrie's tree ( Carrie was Ruth Ann and John's daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver in 1982. Carrie was probably in her 20's at the time).

To be continued in tomorrow's blog

Notes: Lisa was Ruth Ann's daughter in law. She was married to Jeff, Ruth Ann's son. Tim, Craig and Donna were friends' of Ruth Anne and John. John Was Ruth Anne's husband. Bob, was Ruth Ann and Johns other son. He was married to Lynn. They had two young children , Miranda and Blake, a girl and boy. Peg was Ruth Anne's cousin from Tennessee who had come to stay with John and Ruth Ann to help take care of Ruth Ann until her death.

Refugio Beach, north of Santa Barbara California, was a favorite get away for Ruth Anne and her family.

#ovarian cancer #5/5/2005 #Refugio Beach #journal #early computer life

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renatedagmarmilada · 1 year

Text

EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

By St Barths Human Research-

Extreming – total destruction therapy. –

‘You claim Therapy or you will get nothing back!’

Paid for by USA 62 mill

Brussels 7 mill.

After lab St Barths Human Research set off security alarms at Santa Monica beaming our lives to their sister lab New York- of our lives without our knowledge- looped and was picked up all over the world, Buck Palace, Eton, Military receivers, Sky REUTER etc

They owed high compensation so decided to ‘’phase out ‘’ of life.. unbeknown to us-

Hence decided to make their own film, Studio - labarynths of BBC with a second porn starlet and supplant my head. Had to use BBC as their voice throwers go through Emley Moor-

AS IT ALL GOES THROUGH EMLEY MOOR, THE BBC,-Horowitz- FOREIGN COUNTRIES- Spain Valenia, South Africa, Austria, Germany Berlin and Ehrfurt, China Beijing and more- There is no denying – as it can be taken to the U.N.

‘We needed someone very strong (you are survivor of a bad refugee past) to prove all the highly dangerous and criminal tasks set to our operatives on remote- but vulnerable so their complaints would not be heard..we thought you would sink without a trace..but we will return all we take from you.. later’. AS YOU ARE A FORMER REAL REFUGEE YOU ARE USED TO ABUSE AND HORROR-

Lynne op. EVERYTHING CAN BE TRACED. I took about £500

Steven boss, came in each day saying- how many atrocities today?

Began harassment in 1983- in family home in Scunthorpe Lincolnshire —GP made lewd suggestion about my constant headaches and gave our name to lab when I refused to come to Surgery anymore (this same GP had caused me many problems at the birth of my first child- Dr Leech Frodingham Rd Surgery, Scunthorpe- I sent letters once I realised and tried to get through by phone, without success)

Harassment so bad in Sheffield, I moved to London thinking it some local group of lunatics- leaving my sons here, as I thought in safety, even at Sheff. Poly, Sheff Uni Writers group, they never stopped, I was getting panic attacks.

I was wrong, it was a London group, beaming from Jessops Hospital.

They had orders to destroy everything I did- I left Sheffield BE’d for RGN training, my doctor (Abdulah) sent them a list of illnesses, including HEP B from my childhood in refugee camps- I got consistent 90-97% I was sacked after four months – because of my Blood – Newham Hospitals. I wouldn’t like to describe what went on there!

Later they put m/s, they were trying to confuse me, get me into a hospital and intended to walk around my bed talking –

BBC TV was used- ie microsound BBC5 explained on a Saturday morning- breaking up sound and replacing it with sound from the lab.

TWO LOTS OF DEATH THREATS OVER TV.. from the lab.

Their satellite over the whole country.

They contact one member of each establishment and tell them they will ‘experiment’ not what they do, then do as they please..

Foreign Countries paid to send research workers to London to use us- Berlin/ Hungary/ South Africa/ France, Canada etc watch us at home and everywhere 24 hours a day-

Ie Werner – I tied your computer to lab computer.. so they remove from with your folders at will..

All crimes called ISSUES:

m/s- We cause friction, do not allow you to sort it out and see what happens-

Each operative who came into the lab had to punish me for crimes on file then add another crime. (we will put all our own crimes on and punish you for them- turn the whole thing round- their spin doctors- Myer Edgeware Rd London. John and Lauren (she filled in the so called voluntary forms) of Redbridge (same street as Milliband), Simon and wife Jean Beaumond who uses all my work painted and written for her ‘’new career’’ oper Simon told her it was his first wife’s work

ie first crime- child molesting as members of gov use children for sex.. and so on….

Automatic pass if using this secret diabolic program

Last decade- eleven Pakistanis ops..particularly sadistic..

Lords permit to close all loopholes—

DEGREE-EDUCATION

CREATIVE- we send her images out and guarantee sale to those who use them- all lab and families have used them../Over played Sheff Art College-

INSURANCES

PRIVACY

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE DAILY

GUIDED THEFTS AND INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS

FAMILY

HOUSE

each operative is trained how to remote open locked doors, how to tune to thieve, how to roll money out of bank accounts for themselves—

Lab calls it ‘tuning people- and cyber men’ fed into their brain to break in and steal and what they have to steal, careful directed by lab.

Theft from homes constant: doors opened by laser by lab, this week Pakistani operative -- THIS VERY WEEK 23rd Feb- two poetry books one by my computer about my trip to Russian and Germany, waiting to be typed out, one from my bedroom above the wardrobe, have been stolen- they say white girl a few doors up the road.. ‘’just come through—you will miss quite a few things now, I stole a lot of things, I am repeating the past thefts..’’ m/s – carol three doors up to you- we are supposed to cover the old west Indian mental problems guy they used to rob you with white girls to make it look better. I have thrown better things away than what you have got.’

ADAM KAHN Hinde House Lane broke in- box under my computer – nine text books full of family stories, letters to my ex, poems, plus Art College diary- all taken.

Two girls a couple of doors up come in and steal when they want, lab says: one sketch book, one study in black and clothes.. TUNED By Lab Operative KAUSER…. The last lot of robberies were for ALYSON who used a lot of your work

This lot of robberies is for GEMMA who was sent a load of your work to use with guarantees..

WENSLEY MAN- from mental health so they use him for most of stealing

African Zulu statue brought by my ex husband thirty years ago, present- Psalter lane art literature exam work, (Picasso) painting of African mask by me forty yrs ago and many more paintings and poetry books

FENCE from Firth Park, small chubby blonde…

Certs from China, Roman Catholic gold plates from China

EARL MARSHAL ROAD thief, entered many times, family photos, Russian wooden boxes fifty years old, packed to send to grandchildren, Russian cards from boxes

PHONE

Always tapped, sometimes they speak over-

BANKING

All banks had amounts rolled off- to where ever I switched them.

Operatives take money for themselves

Leave lab monitor on constantly- so know all bank numbers, use them as they wish-

Op. Kauser £150 from Barclays. And many of my goods Home Studio Sold my goods on E-Bay Artists paints etc give my things to their children to play with-

All banking transactions tricks tried, tell one director closing gaps- on our account

AIRPORT

Going to Beijing for year to teach, suitcase taken off tarmac- to lab.

20 silk and satin shirts, life time collecting, teaching books, paints (£400) brushes, CD’s etc

Left in Beijing with only the clothes I stood up in for one month till first pay- often had to go to classroom in wet clothes.

The operatives take my stuff home: Annabell, Amina, Kauser and others-

PENSION

POST

A friend of lab on government didn’t get his post so all MY post taken constantly

Very latest: this week, letters to Russian friends, book to grandsons . not sent only one, from which operative took out some of the contents. They put things over the television programms constantly-

I only get bills---

They have: sent to wrong addresses, shredded, taken home, taken letters out of envelopes, used for their writers- etc

All friendships destroyed except America—even there box of photocopies of some of my poetry taken

LUGGAGE SENT ACROSS COUNTRIES

Stopped at Bristol three weeks for no reason, several boxes ‘taken’- Luggage to China by courier, always take something-

They got some sort of order to steal my things, teaching books etc

BILLS swapped about and lied about-

Ie. I was in Germany, but received a massive Gas bill- lab says they send my tiny one to an English couple and I got theirs, central heating- My house did/does not have central heating..

Electricity, I paid before going abroad, on return demand el. Cut off if I don’t apy instantly £75 (I never get into debt)

Sons bills boosted up, two ops admit to this, to get them into serious debt- as they were used by lab as small boys -

COLLEGES

FABRIC OF LIFE

COMPUTER

Werner of Germany tied my computer to lab computer so they can deselect as they wish Watch constantly, so know all log ins- take out poems and other such for their friends to use BETA POETS and POETRY. COM

De-select emails going out and coming in, especially for jobs, to family etc

At the moment Shaun Kenny, eldest son Australia and his family totally blocked.

BOOKS

Wayne threw about 80 of my books into a disused Warehouse in London.

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dark-arts-and-crafts-universe · 2 years

Text

A Dying Art (Chapter 12)

A Dying Art

Lorcan Verdigris is a time wizard, a misanthrope, and a single father to a household of magically-sentient furniture.

Lorcan Verdigris is not a necromancer. Anymore. But when the leader of the local necro coven comes to him with a request he really, really can’t refuse, past collides with present and he finds himself back in a world he’d tried to leave behind. Someone is trying to steal a powerful magical artifact, one whose destruction could unleash chaos upon the city. Or save it from an even greater danger. Or do nothing at all. Who knows. See, this is exactly why Lorcan stopped messing with the stuff.

Unfortunately, one way or another, Lorcan’s the one stuck dealing with it. He’d like to say this is a challenge that will take all his magic and his ingenuity to overcome, but let’s be real, stopping this threat will take something even more dire: actual effort. At least he’s getting paid this time…

Previous | Table of Contents | Next

Chapter 12: With Enemies Like These

Word count: 3,462

Content warnings: murder threats mostly

Lorcan had never gotten a parking ticket before. This wasn’t a difficult feat considering he didn’t have a car, but he imagined that the way non-magic, car-driving individuals felt about parking tickets was the same way he felt when he got back to the apartment and found a death threat on his door.

The note was stuck into the wood by one of those metal dart things that got associated with ninja. Lorcan was sure he could remember what they were called if he wasn’t dead on his feet but for now all he could think was he’d definitely seen an anime character posing with these fuckers.

The note was…a little confused, Lorcan thought. First in deliberate, if somewhat amateur, block letters, it read:

KEEP SERVING THE CROWN,

AND YOUR BONES WILL BE MEAL

FOR THE BUZZARDS!!

(Did it mean his bones would be a meal for buzzards, he wondered, or like. Ground into bonemeal? Because those were two different threats.)

But underneath, in regular black pen and a hasty scrawl that asked:

Holy shit dude are you okay? Like, I was gonna threaten you and all but there’s a bloody handprint? On your door? Do you need me to call somebody??

So. There was no way a hardened necromancer wrote this. Even a newb would know the difference between red ink and blood in this lighting.

Vulk was able to confirm with a tap against the door, Lorcan’s magical wards were untouched. Nobody had even tried to crack them. If the person behind the note wasn’t a necromancer, could it be possible they were an entirely un-magical accomplice?

Lorcan wasn’t going to underestimate Gravelord, his last real suspect left. He might drink too much for Lorcan’s comfort, but he was cleverer than his so-called friends gave him credit for. He didn’t write this note. But he could have pushed someone else to.

He walked back inside, and had Operator call Osiris’s home number (they shouldn’t be home yet if the situation really had them this worried).

“Hey, Jennifer Lynn?” he asked. “I may have a lead.”

Whatever computer person over at Uber who was responsible for tracking Lorcan’s location data was going to be confused as all get-out today. Generally speaking, rideshare services didn’t like it when you told them you didn’t know where the hell your destination was, so Lorcan’s efforts to follow his target had consisted of a lot of wild guesses, readjustments, and small hops with different drivers to triangulate on where the enchantment was leading him.

He was absolutely going to charge Osiris for expenses.

Osiris’s would-be usurper had slipped up, letting a non-mage write him a threatening letter. If you knew a magical postal worker (which he did, thanks to Jennifer Lynn putting him in touch with Osiris’s mail-bodies-to-Switzerland guy), you could get an enchantment that would return that letter back to its original sender. And for only sixty cents postage, too.

He’d finally gotten the enchantment, which showed him where to go using subtle tugs from the envelope in his pocket, to center on a specific bearing. It wasn’t any of the addresses listed in the dossier he’d gotten for Gravelord. It wasn’t Belial’s tattoo place or Eva’s garage.

It was the mall. The same mall where the Crown Osiris worked.

“You’re sure Osiris hasn’t been casting magic here?” Lorcan asked Vulk. He hadn’t brought the cardboard box disguise. Hadn’t thought he would need to.

“Uh huh,” Vulk said. “It’s way clean.”

“Hm.” Lorcan shifted on his feet for a minute–the Uber driver drove off while he was debating with himself–then started walking in.

Osiris wasn’t behind this. That wouldn’t make sense. Making up a threat against themselves? He could see that, maybe, for some weird necromancer politics thing.

But there’d be no reason to make up a threat and then bring Lorcan into it. That would mean…that would mean Osiris had some interest in him, personally. A big one, to risk looking weak in front of their underlings. And Lorcan was a necromantic nobody. That couldn’t be it.

When he entered the mall, things were…well, still dead, but it was a Friday so slightly more crowded than last time. A few groups walking around, and some noise, like the voices of college-age kids calling for someone’s attention.

It wasn’t until one of those voices yelled “Eyeliner guy!” that Lorcan even considered they were talking to him.

He turned, finding himself at the open maw of the out-of-season Spirit Halloween store and two familiar scene kids. They were wearing store aprons, probably in the middle of their workday, and had a few other friends who also appeared to be wearing ‘scene’ underneath their uniforms. They were putting up a big banner proclaiming a sale (this early?), the stepladder placed awkwardly between a large cut-out of a spooky tree and a fog machine.

“Um,” Lorcan said stupidly. “Me?”

“Yeah, man,” one of the two he’d met at the CVS replied, halfway up the ladder. “We thought it was you! What’s up?”

“Not much. Making a return.”

“That’s going to be hard without the original packaging,” another one said, nodding at Vulk as she loaded the fog machine with fluid.

Lorcan grabbed hold of Vulk’s cord, which had started to wiggle. “No, it’s a different thing actually. I’m holding this for unrelated reasons.”

“I often carry around large electronics for no reason, too,” she confided, a wry smirk on her face.

“Excellent,” he sniped back, “We’ve established how unremarkable my behavior is. Let’s stop remarking on it. Did you…want something?”

“Just to say hi. It’s wild seeing you again. Small world, right?” The guy hit him with a wide smile, resting a foot on the next rung up. For a briefest moment, the brand name splashed across the tongue came into view. He pressed on, “Did you like the eyeliner?”

Lorcan was so caught up in the case he was seeing things. His mind was filling in Osiris’s name in places where it didn’t belong. He pulled his gaze away from the shoes.

“Ten out of ten,” he said (and ignored the memory of Eva saying that mouthing off would bite him later). He, of course, had not touched the stuff since he bought it. “My world was in black and white and now I see in blinding technicolor.”

The kid laughed at that, out loud. Well okay, Lorcan thought. Sure, he was trying to be funny there, but it was strange to see his quips actually taken as jokes.

“You know, those were great wingtips you had that night,” he told Lorcan, waving a hand at the store’s interior in invitation. “You have time to show me how you did them?”

“Aren’t you busy? Or–supposed to be, anyways?” If the mall was dead, a Halloween store in the summer was even deader. He couldn’t see anybody but the kids inside.

“The boss lets us do whatever we want.” Somebody let out a snicker. Some kind of private joke? “He won’t mind.”

Lorcan glanced deeper inside the store, then back at the group. “Watch a makeup tutorial or something, I’m not going in there.”

“What,” the kid asked, “are you too cool to hang in a Spirit Halloween out of season?”

“Yes,” he said, walking off before anyone could protest. Well, he was, but that wasn’t the whole story either.

Lorcan hoped it was abundantly clear at this point that he was a time wizard. He could sense the flow of time as easily as he read words or heard music. But the thing about time was it wasn’t as set in stone as people assumed. Not just a law of physics, it was a thing that stretched and warped based on human understanding, and Lorcan could feel that. Intimately. Painfully. Daylight Savings’ was enough to lay him out all day, for crying out loud, and that was only from an hour changing on either end. He rarely traveled between time zones if he could help it.

And for all that Lorcan loved the Halloween holiday, he hated going to Spirit Halloween. Because in a Spirit Halloween, the time was always nearly the end of October. That’s just how it worked.

“You could still talk to them,” Vulk spoke up, once they were far enough away not to be overheard. “They’re working up front, you could stay outside the store.”

“I’m on the clock,” he answered smoothly, checking the letter to see that his target was still ahead of him. “Can’t give this person time to run.”

“Saying hi to someone for five minutes would do that?”

“It might.” Lorcan bristled. “Besides, there were like five of them plus their boss. I’m not going anywhere I’m that outnumbered, thank you.”

“Okay,” Vulcan said, “but if that’s true doesn’t that mean you’d be always outnumbered all the time everywhere?”

Lorcan didn’t even need to touch that one.

“Ugggggggh,” Vulk let out a long groan. “Why. Are. You. Like this.” He punctuated each word with a flick of his cord against Lorcan’s arm. “Alright alright, look. You say you’re lonely but then you do things like this. That guy didn’t want makeup tips, he wanted to hang out with you.”

“It’s a bad idea,” he said. “I can’t hang out with people who don’t know about magic.”

“But why not?” Vulk asked. “You freak out when magic people don’t like necromancy. Then when you talk to necromancers you freak out when they do. If you want to stop being lonely you’re gonna have to talk to someone who won’t do either.”

Lorcan paused. He did actually have a point there. “I’ll think about it.”

“You’ll think about it like with the Switch or like, actually think about it?”

He sighed. “Actually think about it.”

“Because I did work out how to use it I just need a lot of coils.” Oh great, Lorcan thought. His restless and energetic oldest son figured out how to constrict.

That concerning image fled his mind the second the enchantment started tugging the other direction. He’d passed the sender. Lorcan turned around to see…the GameStop?

That mistrustful voice started up again. No, Lorcan told himself. They didn’t have a motive. Besides, Jennifer Lynn had told him Osiris was going to be at their house for most of the day, to try and lure out the mastermind and also something about balancing store budgets. It had to be someone else.

Lorcan’s eyes widened as it hit him. Shit. Shit.

He set Vulk outside the shop–“Scream if you need me.”--and rushed inside.

It didn’t take long to spot the employee, who flinched the moment he saw Lorcan. “Look, guy,” the kid said, “Opal’s not scheduled in for–”

“Another two hours, I know. Good thing because this time, Kyle, I don’t need to talk to the manager.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the dart that had been pinned to his apartment door. “Care to explain this for me?”

He didn’t know much about this Kyle person. He didn’t seem to enjoy retail work–but then, who did? For all Lorcan knew, he could be malicious or a schemer or just some idiot who didn’t deserve to be caught up in Osiris’s orbit.

Kyle looked at the dart, eyes wide. Looked back at him. Then: “That could be anybody's sick-ass kunai.”

“Oh my god.” This kid was worse at lying than Lorcan. He was so dead.

“You’re not, like, a cop or something?” Kyle asked. “You have to tell me if you’re a cop, that’s the law.” So fucking dead.

“Shut up.” First things first. Lorcan needed answers. “You left the note on my door.” It wasn’t a question; the enchantment in his pocket was practically about to take flight. The kid nodded anyway. “You were surprised to see a bloody hand on it.”

“Are you okay?” he asked again, a disbelieving note in his voice.

“Unimportant,” Lorcan said. So whoever got him to do it really hadn’t briefed him on anything else. “You know Opal’s home address. Because of this job?”

“Opal keeps a lot of forms in her office. She gave me a key when she promoted me.”

A key to the office, which wasn’t warded against nefarious intent, because Osiris didn’t like magic at their day job. Fuck. “And somebody asked you to get them that information?”

Another nod.

He took a deep breath. “Listen the fuck to me, Kyle. The person who wants to mess with your boss is playing a dangerous game, and you? Are their fall guy.” That, or this mastermind really thought Lorcan would be scared off by a threat so weak. Either way, he was being underestimated. “They do not give a shit if you get murdered or worse, so if you want to survive this clusterfuck you put yourself in, you are going to have to sell out and sell out hard.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Kyle said, but his face was pale. “Opal’s…fine. She almost complimented me in a performance review once!”

“Kid, when ‘Opal’ is through with you, a performance review will be the least of your problems. Your boss tries very hard not to be dangerous here–you don’t know the shit they can do. They’re like a bear that was sleeping. Until you poked it. And now it wants to eat you.”

“Metaphorically?”

“Maybe. Now, who asked you to do this?”

“Um–see. Well. It’s a funny thing about that…” Kyle scratched the back of his head. “I don’t actually remember?”

“You what.”

“Yeah.” He laughed. The sound held only fear. “I thought it was weird too and all, especially when I knew I had to threaten you, for some reason, but whenever I think about who asked me it’s just…fog?”

Oh, goddammit. The mind-whammying curse. Lorcan steadied himself against a shelf, mind racing.

The only way he could even think to begin parlaying for this kid’s survival was if he had information. Lying would be the ideal–Osiris couldn’t decide to murder their employee when they never knew he was involved. But there were too many what-ifs with that plan. What if can’t-lie-for-shit Kyle gave himself away? What if Osiris pressed on where Lorcan got the info?

If they found out, but Kyle still had something to give them, then maybe he could convince Osiris not to go full vengeance mode. Maybe. He’d never quite been able to rein Dexter in back in the day. He probably couldn’t do anything to convince Osiris, who was a hell of a lot worse.

Still. He might not be able to do anything. But Lorcan was the only one who could do something.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay, that’s fine. We’ll retrace your steps, figure out where your memory starts to cut out. From there we can start listing suspects who might have been responsible for it.” Maybe if Vulk could sniff something out…?

“Oh, that’s a good idea!”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Lorcan told him. “But there’s only so many people who would want to hurt Osiris–uh, Opal–and who you’re likely to run into. We’ll narrow down our options, I can tell the Crown I tracked them down myself, you’re probably going to have to find a new job before you can say something you shouldn’t–”

“We must say–” And a chill set in his bones. “--This was not the scene we were expecting to return to.”

He whirled around. The Crown Osiris was in the shop. Lorcan’s eyes slid past them in a panic. Vulk’s lamp body was still visible past the edge of the shop, and as he watched, the familiar wiggled his plug. It was a guilty, apologetic movement. But a sign of life nonetheless.

“I had heard you wouldn’t be here for a few more hours,” he said, slowly.

The other necromancer met his gaze evenly. “Do not be so foolhardy to assume you have our full counsel,” they told him. “We shall deceive you if and when we perceive it to be necessary.” Their eyes narrowed. “And so it appears to be now.”

Lorcan tried to ask Vulk with his eyes how long ago Osiris got here. He wasn’t sure the meaning totally got across, but Vulk made a few gestures from behind Osiris’s line-of-sight which he took to mean: long enough for him to thoroughly screw himself. “I was just doing what you hired me to do. I didn’t think you’d try so hard to micromanage your ‘agents’.”

“Not under ordinary circumstances. But we now suspect you might have hidden information from us about a traitor in our midst, had you the chance.” They took a step towards Kyle. “What did the usurper promise you? Money? Power?”

“They said you’d stick around the shop more!” Kyle blurted out and–what?

“What?” Osiris echoed his thoughts.

“The person had a plan to go after your house and they said if they did that you’d spend more time at the store–”

“You–”

“--and that sounded great because I really need your help more, it’s hard being the only one running things!”

The Crown’s face, which had been stuck in a look of pure confusion, changed to something offended. “Our location runs efficiently enough that it requires no surplus labor to succeed, Kyle!”

“You keep saying that!” Kyle shouted back, “But it gets busy, and the customers are angry and when you’re not around I can’t handle it and I needed you here!”

…He poked the bear for this?

“Well,” Osiris said. “You shall not need to worry about running the store alone for much longer, we promise you that.”

“Um.” Lorcan moved between them. It was a dangerous position to be in when they spoke with that tone. “This kid’s obviously an idiot. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“And yet he did inestimable damage to our livelihood,” they informed him. “Do you realize how the budget has been affected by your actions, Kyle? The overtime pay we require–dozens of hours since this has begun–threatens the delicate fiscal balance of the store. This location teeters on the edge of debt. A single day of low sales could plunge us over. And then where would we be?”

“Yeah, that sucks,” Lorcan cut in. “It’s just–”

“This no longer concerns you, Verdigris,” they said through gritted teeth. “You have done your duty as my agent.” Then, in a voice hard, cold, and final, “You may leave.”

He paused. “I don’t…”

Osiris lifted a hand into the air, and snapped their fingers. A figure shimmered into opalescent being next to them. “Jennifer Lynn,” they instructed. “Remove Mr. Verdigris from my store. He is no longer welcome. And ensure my employee does not escape.”

Jennifer Lynn didn’t acknowledge Lorcan. He knew why she couldn’t. It was fine. She wrote something on a clipboard, and a ringing noise like an alarm sung inside Lorcan’s head. The sheer might of Osiris’s will pushed at him like a wind. The store was theirs, he was trespassing, and he found his legs taking him outside the store without his active participation.

Vulk whispered, once he was out, “They threatened me not to warn you.” His power cord was bent oddly. Like someone had stepped on it.

“I figured.”

He turned back to see the Crown Osiris lower the store’s metal gate, marking the bars in Sharpie with what Lorcan knew would be a powerful ward.

“So you’re using magic here again?” he asked, weakly gripping one of the bars.

“We no longer appear to have much choice. Perhaps it is true that sooner or later, all boundaries break.” They tilted their head in his direction. “Very much like our patience.”

“But–” Lorcan couldn’t direct a plea to Jennifer Lynn. She didn’t owe him anything, and showing any familiarity could put her in danger. “He can’t do any more damage like this,” he addressed the Crown instead. “You have nothing to gain from killing him.”

“Verdigris,” Osiris said, staring him down through the bars of the gate. “You left your familiar on the eaves of my store. Made from a scrap of your soul. Such a simple thing to undo. Turn around and leave, without another word, or we will undo it.”

Lorcan’s fingers flexed tight. He couldn’t chance that it was an idle bluff. The Crown Osiris was merciless; they could, and would, murder Vulk to prove a point. It’d be easier than killing Kyle, even–who would care, or even notice, if a lava lamp stopped moving? Lorcan couldn’t risk it. He was on the outside looking in this time, he thought. This time he was the one being threatened.

Tearing his eyes away from the terrified kid, Lorcan picked Vulk up and hurried away. Just like his own neighbor, he was too afraid of the monster in the cage.

#original fiction #writing #fantasy #mystery #dark arts and crafts #lorcan #lorcan's family #a dying art

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advantagemains · 2 years

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Sunrider mask of arcadius mission guide

The turn 10 wave has six bombers and missile frigates you really don't want to still be dawdling about when it arrives.As Captain Kayto Shields, embark on a galactic voyage of heroism and survival. Blow the closest turn 8 reinforcements out of the way with the Vanguard Cannon if you have to. Don't get bogged down in the trickling reinforcements a major wave appears on turn 8, and another on turn 10. Once the battleships are dealt with, move the Sunrider quickly to the right edge of the map, though not to the point of breaking shield coverage. Make sure each unit has at least one shield covering it at all times. The Black Jack and Phoenix can handle the lighter units, while the Seraphim either helps pound the battleships or picks off frigates and bombers as appropriate. Their rockets can be very dangerous using the Liberty to disable one while closing to kinetic range is recommended. The first order of business is to take out the two PACT Battleships preventing the Sunrider's escape. The fall of Ryuvia Prime to PACT galvanized public opinion in the Alliance, and an emergency session of the Solar Congress led to a declaration of war on PACT. Fortunately, the Sunrider reached Alliance space safely, and moved to Far Port. The Legion turned out to be waiting on the other side, and nearly destroyed the Sunrider with its main gun before it could warp out. The Sunrider and its ryders ( Black Jack included) fought their way through the PACT forces in orbit around Ryuvia Prime, and looped around one of the planet's moons to slingshot out of the system. Sola vi Ryuvia sniped Arcadius, but he turned out to be a hologram, having never been present in person. Kayto grabbed Asaga and spirited her back to the ship. Shortly after, the Sunrider arrived and the assault began, with Kayto leading the boarding team against Ava Crescentia's objections. Kayto's plan was to drop the Sunrider just outside the Star Palace (bypassing the PACT armada defending the system), smash and grab Asaga using a security team supported by combat drones, then flee Ryuvia Prime's gravity well and warp out.Īt the wedding itself, Arcadius betrayed King Jaylor, reneging on his deal to preserve Ryuvia's independence and shooting the king dead. Using data from the Seraphim's navigational computer, Chigara modified the Sunrider's navigation system to enable ultra-accurate jumps. Nevertheless, Kayto refused to let Asaga go, and directed preparations for Operation Wedding Crash. Chigara gave Kayto a recording left by Asaga, in which she pleads with Kayto not to come get her, saying that she must fulfill her duty as a princess of Ryuvia. Kayto confronted Asaga's friend Chigara Lynn Ashada, who confessed to knowing of Asaga's true identity. The Sunrider depleted its stocks of repair drones to recover from Cullen's attack. The marriage was arranged by Asaga's father King Jaylor XII, who sought to stave off destruction of Ryuvia at the hands of PACT, while Arcadius desired Ryuvia's legacy and ancient treasures. The Veniczar then took Asaga into custody and transported her to Ryuvia Prime for her wedding to Veniczar S. Before the Sunrider's destruction, Asaga admitted to being the princess of Ryuvia and demanded that Cullen stop his assault. Regardless of whether Kayto Shields surrendered the talbur or not, however, Cullen ordered his ships to open fire the Sunrider, perhaps at the behest of Cosette Cosmos. Cullen cornered the Sunrider with a large fleet and demanded the talbur. Arcadius in the Star Palace above Ryuvia Prime.Īfter the incident at the Nomodorn Corridor, Veniczar B. Operation Wedding Crash was the rescue of Asaga Oakrun from her forced marriage to Veniczar S.

#Sunrider mask of arcadius mission guide

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proxylynn · 2 years

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Can you do Alan and Friend with Lynn who pulled her hip muscle running

This just happened to me, I was running across a road during my break where people like to run red lights. Knowing this I was running to make sure I didn’t get hit, I over extended my leg and was really tense so I pulled my hip muscle. Manger had to send me home because I could barely even walk. Basically I’m limping and trying not to scream every time I have to walk. Think you could write that?

*it had been an exhausting day. she had been running errands the moment she got up. be it mundane things on the computer, or leaving the house and running around to different shops to get everything needed. normally one or two of the guys would be with her to help or hinder, but she had snuck out to get the most things done within the 5 or 6 hours she gave herself to work with. of course her phone was blowing up with insane calls. but outside of giving a mass "everything is fine, I'll be home soon" text, she didn't answer either of these. she knew she was pressing her luck. but she was pressing her body more. she had gotten too used to them trying to do everything for her. by the time she was on her way back home, her body ached, muscles sore and tender. she arrives home and the moment she attempts to bring in the first armful of bags...*

*roars*

*the sudden sharp pain in her side has her crashing to the ground. the sounds of beastly distress draw the others out of the home and they rush to her. they try to get her to stand but the weight of her body makes her crumble to her knees. half scold her for pushing herself while the other half help her inside and get the goods she was bringing. she's brought to her room and laid down on the bed, her whimpering is very kicked puppy-like.*

Alan: Easy, doe-eyes. Don't move. I'm going to touch you and you tell me where it hurts.

*his hands skim her sides and get a loud yelp when he reaches her hip*

Friend: Shhhh shhhhh...It's okay, sweetheart. *to Alan* Don't make it worse, idiot!

Alan: *ignoring Friend* Yep...It's torn. You pushed yourself too much today.

Friend: Don't pretend like I'm not here!

Alan: You're not leaving this bed for any reason other than the bathroom. Understood?

*she nods weakly and Friend pets her head*

Friend: Don't you worry. We'll make sure you get better. You won't have to lift a finger.

Lynn: N-No...

*she winced as she turned on her good side*

Lynn: You guys do too much. I've gotten weak. I need to help out more.

Friend: Is that why you were gone on your own?

Alan: Silly, doe-eyes. You could've just said something.

Lynn: Would you really listen?

Friend: She makes a point.

Alan: Okay...We'll talk to the others about this. But you have to promise us you won't hinder your healing by doing random shit. Okay?

Lynn: ...Okay. I promise.

Alan: Good girl.

Friend: Now be a dear and don't move. I'll be right back with an ice pack.

*Friend leaves*

Alan: You hungry?

*her stomach growling answers for her*

Alan: You didn't eat either? Bad girl. This is why we do things for you.

Lynn: Sorry.

Alan: *sighs* I'll be right back. Be careful sitting up.

Lynn: Okay.

*Alan leaves her room and his met with the other looking at him*

Alan: What?

Jack: How bad is it?

Peter: Is she going to be fine?

Tate: Can we still have fun with her?

*glares are shot his way*

Tate: Like none of you fuckers weren't thinking it.

Alan: She's torn a muscle around her hip. She's going to need a lot of recovery time, considering this isn't her first ripped muscle. And no...She won't be fuckable in this state.

*a mix of concern and annoyed groans fill the room...it's gonna be a long recovery month*

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you-guys--are-losers · 4 years

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okay, so I’m doing a chronological watch-through of the mcu as I write, and could someone PLEASE TELL ME HOW I HAVE MANAGED TO SLEEP ON AGENT CARTER FOR THIS LONG

#please #what the HELL this show is so good #hayley atwell #the feminist overtones #the psychological element #i just can't even with this #temporary #who gave lynn a computer

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fiction-is-life · 2 years

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Work-Study...and Love?

Topper x Fem Reader, College AU

Summary: Y/N has to train a new student worker at her job at the university library.

Warnings: Frat guys…need I say more?

"Hey, Lynn, how are you today?" (Y/N) greeted as she walked through the doors of the library and to the front desk to clock in for her shift. She had been working at the university's library for a year and a half now, since she started school. She loved it there. The full time staff were all friendly and let her do her homework while working the front desk. She often worked alone, too, which gave her extra time to do her homework as somebody had to be at the front help desk at all times, so she was often stationed there to help patrons instead of being tasked with shelving books or other work that kept her more busy. It was perfect for her since her major had an incredibly heavy workload.

The aging woman at the front desk greeted her enthusiastically and filled her in on what the plan was for her shift. "I'm going to be going on my lunch break soon, but you won't be alone for once!" (Y/N) scrunched her eyebrows in confusion; she usually was the only student worker on this shift. Lynn continued, oblivious, "You'll be training a new student worker." (Y/N)'s face drooped into a frown as Lynn turned to motion to a boy she hadn't noticed before in the office area behind the desk. "His name is Tyler?" Lynn had the worst memory, especially for names - it took her all of last year to stop calling (Y/N) the name of a girl who looked kind of like her. So when she heard the question in Lynn’s voice, (Y/N) knew to ask the boy for his name directly. "Tyler, this is (Y/N). She's a superstar, so listen to what she says. I'm going to go eat my lunch, but I'll just be in my office, so get me if you need me."

(Y/N) smiled fondly at the woman as she promised that she would get her if needed. Then, she turned her attention to the guy in front of her and she waved. "Hi, I'm (Y/N)," she reintroduced herself. "What's your name again?"

He looked at her with a bored expression on his face, "Topper Thornton." (Y/N)'s mouth worked to prevent her from laughing out loud at the ridiculous name. Topper? No wonder Lynn didn't get it right, she thought. Once she was sure that she could talk without laughing, (Y/N) got down to business and explained to Topper what they would be doing for the next hour.

"Basically, we will just be sitting here at the computers, and we'll help any patrons that need it. We may have to check in or check out books or help people find what they need, but all you really need to do today is watch and learn. I'll talk through everything I do."

As she gave her little speech, Topper quickly grew disinterested, choosing to ogle some girls who had just walked in with their Starbucks. (Y/N) rolled her eyes. She should have known by the quality of his clothes that he was like most of the people at this school - too rich for their own good. She had his type figured out. He would do the bare minimum to keep the job, fulfilling any requirement his parents likely made of him for the semester in order to keep his allowance, but he would do nothing more than that. (Y/N) herself was at the school on an academic and need-based scholarship, so she worked at the library to cover any other expenses that popped up. In short, (Y/N) needed this job and Topper did not. It wasn’t worth getting riled up about, so she simply huffed and repeated herself to him, at last garnering a nod from an expressionless face.

The first half hour had a lot of patrons come to the front desk that needed assistance, so (Y/N) walked Topper through every process while answering all patron questions herself. Topper only had to listen. He could barely do that. He was constantly on his phone, and once the stream of patrons died down, he continued to play on it, totally disregarding (Y/N)'s hint that he should put it down in favor of doing schoolwork, even as she cracked open her book to write down notes for her class the next day. She tried to make small talk with him, but after the third time that she was ignored in favor of his all-important phone, she gave up, resigned to the fact that she would most likely dread this shift every week for the rest of the semester.

As it turned out, (Y/N) didn't have to wait a week before working with Topper again. It seemed fate was determined to be cruel to her as she put (Y/N) and Topper together for a six-hour shift on Sundays. The worst part was (Y/N) had already trained a wonderful freshman to mind the front desk, leaving (Y/N) to train Topper on a special project - just the two of them. Lovely.

"Okay, so, we are basically moving each shelf of books to a new shelf to make room for our new collection," (Y/N) explained as she put books on a cart, making sure that they stayed in order. Topper looked no less bored than he had the last time, but at least he had left his phone in his pocket.

She turned around to pick up another handful of books from the bottom shelf, unknowing that Topper’s eyes followed her movement - particularly how her jeans stretched around a certain area. When she straightened to her full height again and turned around, Topper had picked a book up from the cart and was intently examining it; when he felt her eyes on him, he quickly put the book back - in the wrong place. (Y/N) internally sighed.

“Be careful when you are reshelving books. You have to put them in order so that they don’t get lost. On each spine there is a call number, and you’ll learn how to read them, but when in doubt just ask me. It’s better to ask then mess something up.”

For some reason this made his face go all red, making (Y/N) narrow her eyes at him. He cleared his throat, refusing to look her in the eye, “Got it, will do.” (Y/N) was even more confused by his stammered reply, especially as it seemed to be uttered in a deeper tone than his usual one, but she just shook her head and continued to show him the ropes.

After she filled an entire cart with books, she wheeled it to the new section and put one handful of books on the shelf where the previous worker had left off. “Alright, now you try,” she said. “Ideally, one of us can load books on a cart while the other puts them on the new shelf, but I want to make sure you are doing it right.” She crossed her arms over her chest, slightly skeptical that he had actually been paying attention. She raised her eyebrows in astonishment when he correctly placed every book on the new shelves, but she kept her voice level, “Cool, I’ll go load up another cart while you unload the rest of this one.”

When (Y/N) returned to where he was shelving books, she looked up from the squeaky cart she was pushing, and her jaw nearly fell to the floor. Topper was shelving the last handful of books, showing off his muscles in the tight-fitting shirt. They were heavy books, too, probably encyclopedias. How did I not notice how fit he is? He’s like a freaking Hemsworth brother, (Y/N) thought. She was positive her eyes were as wide as saucers, and a fly could probably fly into her mouth with all of its friends tagging along because the hinge on her jaw seemed to be broken, too.

What she didn’t know was that Topper had been waiting to move that last handful of books for when he heard her return, hoping to impress her. At the moment, he was holding back a smirk, glad he could render the smart, independent girl speechless. He turned around then, and his smirk slowly grew at the astonished look on (Y/N)’s face. “What?” He widened his eyes and looked around, somewhat dramatically, playing dumb. “Did I do it wrong?”

She quickly raised her eyes from where they rested on his broad chestt, “No, you’re perfect! I mean - it’s perfect. Good job.” Nice one, (Y/N/N), she thought, real smooth. She bit down on her bottom lip in order to stop her mouth from betraying her any more than it already had done in the past minute.

“Well if I did so well, can I have a kiss?” (Y/N) blushed hard at his bold words, but she found the wherewithal to roll her eyes as if she were truly annoyed at him. Topper just smirked even wider as she grabbed the newly empty cart and wheeled it away.

The semester moved on and it appeared that Topper’s GPA was dependent on annoying (Y/N). After he completed every task she asked him to do, he would repeat his previous question, only varying it slightly depending on the situation or who was around them. One time all he did was point someone to the bathroom, afterwards looking at her expectantly; she rolled her eyes before the flirtation even formed on his tongue, but he was fairly certain he saw a small smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

(Y/N) couldn’t deny that she was flattered, at least to herself. But who wouldn’t be? Not only was he indescribably handsome, she found that he was also really smart and had a caring heart. She also deduced that his mother put undue pressure on him (which was why he was so absorbed with his phone the day she met him). That lady always wanted more and more, even though he got straight A’s and was involved in a variety of different student organizations. He was also an incredibly hard worker, and he quickly became comfortable doing any job at the library. However, as flattered as she was, she was fairly certain he was only joking, so she didn’t get her hopes up that Topper would actually see her in any real romantic way. That was until Finals Week.

Topper and (Y/N)’s job that entire week was to make sure the quiet floors of the library stayed quiet, which was pretty tough since everybody was highly caffeinated and on edge. The pair were just sitting at the front desk, helping each other study when they got a noise complaint. They went together to see what was happening on the floor below them.

When they got there, they saw a group of guys blowing off some steam by throwing around a football. Really, come on, people, (Y/N) rolled her eyes. “Hey, guys,” she called, “could you maybe take the game outside. People are trying to study in here.” The guys did stop their game, only for the one that had just caught it to throw the ball at her, shouting “catch” after the ball left his hand. (Y/N) instinctually froze up and closed her eyes as the ball hurtled towards her face.

But she waited in vain as the ball never hit her. She opened her eyes, immediately looking around in confusion. “You can have this back when you leave the library,” Topper waved the football at the group of boys and led her away from them, muttering about what he would have done if those guys had hurt (Y/N). He leaned toward her once the elevator doors closed behind them, “I think I really do deserve that -” (Y/N) cut him off by throwing her arms around his neck and crashing her lips to his in a long overdue kiss.

The kiss was even better than she had dreamt. She seemed to lift off of her feet, and were bells going off? No, wait, that’s just the dinging of the elevator. She mentally shook herself of the ludicrous thoughts, focusing back on the boy who had gotten over his shock and was kissing her in return. By the time she gently pulled away, Topper’s arms had found their way around her waist, pulling her closer. His lips curved into a genuine smile, “That was so worth the wait.”

My Masterlist

#topper thornton x reader #topper x reader #topper thornton #obx #topper+thornton+x+reader #topper obx #topper thornton one shot #topper thornton obx #topper thornton x y/n #topper x y/n #topper x you #austin north #college au

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rustbeltjessie · 2 years

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I Am a Poseur and I Don’t Care

I was riding my bike and crying for the dumbest reason. I’d been chatting with a friend on ICQ, and told her how some anonymous jerk had posted in my webpage guestbook and said I was a poser. “I know it’s silly, I said, “but it bummed me out a little.” Rather than commiserating with me, she said: “Actually, I agree with him.”

She gave me a list of my poser-y sins, which included: 1. I put poetry in my zines, 2. I listened to more pop punk than crust or hardcore, and 3. I lived mostly at home, not on the streets, and was therefore a “safety punk.” Really? Fuck her, I didn’t feel safe anywhere. (Nevermind that she sent me that message from…her house.) She said all this shit and I started crying and I knew it was dumb but I couldn’t stop and I needed to get the fuck out of my house.

I shut down the computer, hopped on my bike, and rode down to Lake Michigan. I had a brief flash of a death wish; pictured myself abandoning my bike and walking out into the lake with my pockets full of stones, sinking sinking down into the cold gray water. Not really because of being called a poser, just because it seemed like I was always feeling shitty and that even the people who were supposed to be on my side turned out to be assholes. But I pedaled on, headed north toward downtown, and there I was, riding my bike, still crying. I was dressed all in black, black Chucks black pants black hoodie, tears smearing my black eyeliner and snot dripping down my nose and cheeks pink from the March wind. I had X-Ray Spex on my Walkman and I was screaming along and I’m sure people were looking at me, the weird girl, dressed in black, crying and scream-singing as she rode her blue bicycle, but I didn’t care. If I was gonna be labeled a poser anyway, I figured I’d better live up to the epithet, and learn to like making people stare.

—Jessie Lynn McMains, c. 2016 (outtake from What We Talk About When We Talk About Punk)

#jessie lynn mcmains #creative nonfiction #prose #unpublished work #what we talk about when we talk about punk #2016 #2000 #suicidal ideation mention #i am a poseur and i don't care #i like to make people stare #the punk rocks

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the-hunchback-of-notre-dame · 3 years

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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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