#Animating Wipples

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

He has fur! Sort of!

I have hit my first serious barrier with Jar Full of Cosmos, and that is the fact that my little laptop just doesn't have enough compute power. Unfortunately it's too laggy to effectively experiment with materials and do a better job grooming--not to mention animation tests. Thankfully, I have new PC components on the way. In other good news, the fur system obscures pretty much all my bad mesh deformations. It also obscures his facial movements, but I planned for that and intend to do most of his emoting with ear and eye movements. Next time I make an animal, I think I'll use shapekeys instead of bones for facial animation.

The groom holds up from afar (and with lower resolutions) but up close it needs a lot more work. It's also worth noting that I am using the old particle system because the geometry nodes still feel too confusing, and apparently they can't be animated.

[bansheeoftheforest]

Can we get some rambles about some Moreau's Revenge AU? Like more in deoth about how everyone reacts and feels? Maybe some Emma reaction? Jacob? The public? Does feral!Jekyll ever hurt anyone badly? Do he and Zosi play alot? Is Hyde still there, just trapped in the subconscious of Henry's mind? When he's back to himself, does he still maintain some of his feral behaviours? Does he slip into his feral state as a defense mechanism?

Ok i just gotta mention I love it when people come up with aus, thrust them onto me, and then tell me to come up with ideas/the canon for the aus, I'm not even sarcastic, I just love that everyone has collectively decided that I'm an au hoarder and therefore, I should have all the aus and I should also be the one making the content for them. I love my job and I love all my little kitties bringing me dead mice all the time <3

Also! I'm just going to ramble every single fact that my brain comes up with, and this is specifically going to be about the Feral!Branch of the au <3

Henry got kidnapped after walking home from a dinner with a few of his close friends. Moreau stalked him until Henry was alone, to which he knocked him out and dragged him off to his funky hideout.

It takes a whole month before people find Moreau's hideout. By that time Henry has already been severely beaten, his bones are broken and his body is bloody, yet that doesn't stop him from prowling his tiny cage. Much like an abused dog, he completely ignored his wounds or just made them worse by biting on them, or by trying to stand on his legs when the rescuers found him. Instead of cheering and being relieved, he snarled and growled and tried to swat at them with his claws.

The first four that got into the hideout were Brokenshire, the Commissioner, Jenkins, and Wipple. The four of them were already friends with Jekyll and they were the most worried. While the other police arrested Moreau, they took it upon themselves to find Henry.

They found Henry in a small labspace, laying on the floor while whimpering. The moment he saw them he became aggressive. The only indication that he really was not human anymore was his eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and pointier ears. Subtle changes that were enough to tell them that there was no awareness behind those large eyes.

The sound of pain and anger that Henry made when they had to muzzle him is a sound that will forever haunt every single police officer from that day forward. They had to cuff his arms and practically drag him to the police vehicle, despite the muzzle he managed to make his displeasure and pain quite clear.

They brought Henry to the Society immediately, and made sure that no one else saw him. They but a sheet over the cage they kept him in and told anyone who asked that it was a runaway monster that they were going to dump with the Lodgers. They made the Lodgers gather in the foyer before the revealed who actually was in the cage.

The Lodgers were, to say the least, shocked and horrified. Not only was Henry so badly beaten that he could barely stand by himself, but the way he snarled and swatted after them invoked such a... Uncanny feeling within them. It wasn't really until then they realized how serious all of this was, the whole situation with Moreau.

All Lodgers were absolutely disgusted with what Moreau had done to Henry, but Ito, Maijabi, Jasper (plus Rachel and Robert, of course) were the most affected. The police had to physically restrain them from rushing up to the cage because if Henry got close enough he would not hesitate to hurt them. Brokenshire and the Commissioner (God I swear to god I'm THIS close to oc-fying him oh my god) both have scratch marks from trying to get close and calm Jekyll.

The police helped the Lodgers move Henry to an empty lab room where he could be alone. They still kept him in a cage for quite a while, yet the moment that they had gotten him into the room, Robert completely burst out crying. He really could not believe that happened to his best friend, he is unsure if they even can save him, yet he swears to himself that he will make sure that Henry is safe. He was this close to decking an officer who, during a meeting that he attended at the police station with those present during the day of Henry's rescue, suggested that they put Henry in Bethlam.

Robert did not allow anyone to get into Henry's room, mostly for their own safety, and because he wanted to monitor Henry's recovery himself. No one really listened to that. Sometimes a Lodger (or a whole group) would sneak in just to have a look at him, or give him some treats or some kind of toy. Henry often found himself too exhausted and too wounded to try to chase them away, instead panting on the floor of his cage for most of the time while his visitors observed him with pure sorrow.

Ito, Maijabi, Jasper, and Rachel were the ones that visited Henry the most. Ito and Maijabi would often just sit a bit away from the cage and observe him for a bit, maybe try to talk to him, occasionally they would help steal food from the kitchen to give to Henry. Rachel and Jasper were put in charge of feeding him most of the time, and it was only when Rachel and Jasper threw in chicken in his cage that he let himself be distracted from them and stop snarling just so he could eat. All of them left with tears in their eyes most of the time.

All the Lodgers would be worried, all Lodgers would try to visit Henry, but out of them Ito and Maijabi had it worst. Maijabi felt like he was losing his son, Ito-- so often cold and honest-- had never cried so much in her life when seeing her mentor in such a state. They often comfort each other, and do their best to always be available to help Robert with whatever he needs.

Emma route: I imagine that Henry and Emma are already married at that point. She has been worried sick for Henry the entire time, the police stop by her and Henry's house immediately after dropping Henry off at the Society. She rushes to the Society and the Lodgers all seem so... Sad, horrified, she gets more and more scared and suddenly she sees Robert and Rachel and Jasper, all three looking pale and ill. She begs them to tell her where Henry is... Robert can't even get any words out of him. He simply shows her to the room where they are going to keep Henry and shows her Henry's cage. Poor man is still laying bloody on the floor, still in a muzzle, but he barely has any visible sclera from his dilated irises and his hair is wild. He lays like a beaten dog, he doesn't even react as Emma kneels on the floor outside his cage. Emma turns around and demands and explanation from Robert, Robert sits down on the floor next to her and quietly explains everything the police told him, what Moreau did to Henry. Robert hugs Emma as she just starts crying, but both leave quickly to not... Well, bother Henry, who grows impatient and starts rattling against the cage. Not only has she been incredibly scared and worried for her husband the entire month he was gone, now Henry seems so close and yet so far away and he doesn't even recognize her, he is beaten like a dog and thinks he is some sort of animal and it just... It all becomes so much for her. She leaves the Society and the Lodgers don't see her much after that, although she does come and visit almost every day (and whether or not people know that she does it, is an entirely different question) just to see her husband. Sometimes she will bring food (Henry always loved her cooking) or a toy for him, and she ends up being the first person that he actually allows to touch him voluntarily, despite Robert forcing himself on him so he can patch him up.

Jacob route: Jacob would find out because Abberline and or Brokenshire would tell him about the state they found Henry in. Jacob would probably hear the news that Moreau’s lab got busted and immediately make his way to the Scotland Yard and demand that the police tell him where Henry is. They would tell him as much as they are allowed to about the case, then tell him to go and talk to Robert Lanyon in the Society. Of course Jacob doesn’t do that, he just immediately breaks in and searches everywhere for Henry. Eventually Robert spots him parkouring over the rafters and chases him down until Jacob manages to find the room where they keep Henry. Jacob opens the door and immediately finds Henry tearing through an entire turkey leg, although he immediately abandons the food snarl and bark (or, well, the aggressive equivalent of a bark) at him and Robert, reaching his hand out of the cage in an attempt of tearing them to shreds. No recognition at all in his eyes, Jacob can only stare for a while. Henry looks the same yet so inhumane. Robert does his best to explain everything, Jacob can only watch in pure horror as he hears what became of his lover, seeing it right in front of him. He doesn’t even let Robert finish his sentence before he has already stormed out. He does not care what the police planned to do with Moreau, he goes straight to whatever cell they keep him in and murders him in cold blood. He doesn’t go back to the Society afterwards, no, he goes to the train hideout and hastily tells Evie and Green what happened to Henry, he spends the rest of the night drinking. Unlike the Lodgers and Emma, he stays away for quite a bit. He doesn’t return until a few days later when he has managed to pick himself up. He makes sure that the news and/or rumors of what happened to Henry dies down quicker than they can rise, sometimes he actually has the courage to visit him but only every few days. He gets to see first hand how Henry recovers-- physically, at least, and slowly and surely he starts warming up to having people near him. After only a few weeks, Henry allows Jacob to touch him. Something about him (and Emma in her route, of course) feels familiar, calm and protective. Henry puts his head in Jacob’s hand and Jacob quietly swears that he will always protect him, no matter how long this goes on for.

The public (even including the Lanyons and the Carews, and most parts of the Scotland yard) never get to know what actually happened to Henry, as the rescuers made a good job at making sure no news or rumors spread or that anyone saw Henry in the state he was in. As far as they are aware, Henry is currently in a coma, and slowly Robert feeds into the news, updating people around them about Henry’s condition. “He is stable”, he will say, “but I’m afraid it’s hard to know when he will wake up... If he ever will”. It’s safer to make it seem like he is unconscious rather than conscious because Robert knows that people (journalists, Lanyon Sr, Sir. Carew, etc) will demand to visit him. Once Henry is unferal, they let him decide when he wants the news of his “awakening” to be spread.

The worst Henry has hurt someone was either fighting back to Moreau (which didn’t happen often, as he was too scared of him), but I’d also like to imagine that besides scratching the officers, he bit and hurt Robert quite badly, either Robert or one of the Lodgers, because he got overwhelmed and stressed. Robert really does not blame him no matter how badly it hurt or how serious the wound got, he shouldn’t have overwhelmed him but in his defense, cat body language is hard to read on a human. A positive from that was that Henry clearly felt guilty afterwards when he calmed down, which might have been the first ever sign that Henry was “savable”, as he clearly felt bad over what he did rather than trying to finish the job. It was the first time he actually walked up to Robert and touched him-- headbutted him, even, because he felt so bad for what he did because Robert has only been nice to him. Robert was wrapping a bandage around his arm when Henry came up to him, gently chirping and headbutting him, and Robert straight up bawled his eyes out.

Zosi was literally the only living being that Henry allowed close to him for many, many days. Zosi was both undead and also an animal, which was the two things that Henry associated with safety after having found comfort with Moreau’s monstrosities. Zosi was quickly in charge of being the one to give Henry food and medicine since Henry would allow no one else to get close to his cage, and Zosi was in sole charge of keeping Henry entertained and happy and calm while Robert tried to figure out how to proceed with the treatment. Zosi was just happy to have Henry back, and Henry was happy to have a friend.

When Henry got tortured and lost his sense of awareness, Hyde faded away, but only temporarily. He is, as said, trapped in the mindscape for the time being and until Henry gets his awareness back. It’s quite a nightmare for Hyde because he is watching in real time, while also processing the trauma from Moreau, as Henry’s mind crumbles. Gone are the mind people, instead they are replaced by vague primal instincts and animal behaviors. It’s definitely not as serious as Hyde feels it is, as it’s a slow but sure recovery from a steady dip to awareness as soon as Henry is removed from the lab, but it’s still incredibly scary for him. Henry can’t see or hear him anymore, and even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to react or process him.

It takes almost about 1-3 months before Henry has warmed up to everyone, physically healed, and was able to get the therapy he needed to even become aware, yet he never got rid of the feralness in him. Whenever he is stressed, scared, or overwhelmed, he might jump back into pure feralness or get a few of the key characteristics; subtle physical and behavioral appearance, etc. Sometimes it’s hard for him to get out of it, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes all he has to do is calm down and relax, sometimes he has to sleep it off. Regardless, the Lodgers and his friends/love interests all do their best to keep Henry calmed and relaxed, and make sure he never has to endure as much stress as he did before and after what happened with Moreau. 

(Basically, he goes from full feral to what the Feral Au is rn)

The public never really gets to know about Henry’s... Ahem, condition, however, most seem to accept the excuse that Henry has terrible anxiety after his torture, ergo making it easy for his friends or lover/s to help Henry out of a room or a situation when he starts feeling overwhelmed and like he is about to turn feral. They are all calm and patient and loving and protective with him, every single one, and Henry is forever grateful for the patient they bring him.

Some random rambles btw:

Out of everyone that isn’t his lover for the branch, Henry’s favorite persons are Maijabi and Ito. Maijabi because he feels like his dad, Ito because the feral state in Henry sees her as his cub or pup, in some weird way. When Henry is docile, both Maijabi and Ito quickly learn that Henry very much loves attention and grooming his favorite persons.

I got the idea while writing the Emma route that maybe she was already pregnant by the time that Henry got kidnapped and turned feral, although it was early on in the pregnancy. I just love the angst of Emma wondering if she will lose her husband and if Henry will ever get to meet their child, and the thought of feral Henry freely being allowed to get close to Emma (they were all very worried about that) and immediately sniffing and headbutting her belly is just <3 (Also the thought of Henry almost immediately panicking when the kid is born and Emma wants him to hold him, suddenly his eyes dilate and his hair puffs up but it’s like a cat staring at something absolutely wonderful)

Surprisingly, Frankenstein was one of those who often would sneak into Henry’s room just to see him. In this crossover au, I’d imagine she’d be much more sympathetic for him. Maybe she would talk to him and apologize for bringing him into this at all, maybe she would even apologize for what she said and did to him personally.

I refuse to acknowledge a bad au branch for this one where Henry turns permanently feral and they either have to kill him or let him loose in the wild <3

[quilna]

This is Above my Pay Grade

It’s a busy night for Brokenshire. With the raid on Blackfog, it’s left to him to deal with the paperwork overnight alone at the station.

Something made all the worse when none other than Dr Jekyll shows up in clothes several sizes too small for him, soaked in sewer water, and fleeing from three very questionable ladies.

Warning for some Moreau related gore and animal abuse, threats of violence/death, and alcohol mentions. If there’s anything missing from my warnings, feel free to tell me and I’ll add them.

-----------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t often that Brokenshire was in a good mood because he had to work overtime. There were only a few reasons why he would be happy about such a thing.

For example, if all the officers were having a pizza party to celebrate something. Or if constable Wipple and Jenkins were working overtime with him and they all just ended up shirking off work to mess around (Admittedly the more perfectionist side of him screamed every time this happened but he would be lying if he said he didn’t come away feeling a lot better than he had before.)

This was not one of those times.

It was late in the night, he was alone, and it was looking to be another full sleepless night hunched over his desk filling out box after box while the newest prisoners yelled muffled threats in the background.

Those caught from the raid on Blackfog had been trickling in for what seemed like hours and, although some of the other officers looked as smug as cats, Brokenshire couldn’t help counting every person that came in and lamenting the paperwork he was about to have to handle.

It was great for them, most of them just had to catch the criminals. The boring work was his to handle.

At least the public would be happy with the results. It was just at the cost of another sleepless night for him. Maybe even a couple of sleepless nights considering the damned parade

After the last of the arrested finished coming in and the few remaining officers left, patting each other on the back, Brokenshire was left alone in silence.

It was still pitch black outside, the lantern by his desk the only light as he filled out box after box.

The only sound was the scribble of pen against paper and the maddening tick, tick, tick of the clock.

He pinched his nose, feeling the onset of a headache, and checked the clock.

Still hours until morning and still piles of work to be done.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Brokenshire threw down the pen and groaned aloud, pressing his face into his hands in despair.

If this was another constable bringing back yet another criminal, he would probably scream.

Sharply, he shoved himself up from his desk and did his best to straighten himself out. Once he felt like he was vaguely presentable, Brokenshire headed for the door and opened it.

And froze.

The smell hit him first before anything else. The reek of sewage, alcohol, and tobacco smoke. It was like a physical wall and he nearly slammed the door shut in the visitor’s face right there and then.

It was only after he had recovered from this that he began to take in their appearance.

Greenish water dripped from sopping clothes, several sizes too small for the body, the hair clung wetly to the scalp and dripped down into the person’s eyes and off their chin. There was the staining of some green glowing liquid at the corner of their mouth and oozing from the nose. Overall, they looked rather sad and bedraggled, like a puppy that had fallen into a water tank.

A visual completely at ends with Dr Jekyll’s usual demeanour.

Brokenshire couldn’t process what he was staring at. Instead, he just stared bug-eyed.

“...Can I come in?” Jekyll croaked, limply pushing hair from his face.

“Uh… I… Um…” He attempted to recover himself. To do something, ask a question, say something smart. In the end, the only thing that came out was, “...Sure.”

Brokenshire stepped out of the way and watched as Dr Jekyll trudged in, too out of it to even make an attempt at looking proper. A trail of nasty looking water was left in his wake.

Slowly, in a daze, Brokenshire closed the door behind him and trailed after, eyeing up Jekyll in disbelief.

Sure, for the longest time, he had suspected Jekyll of something nefarious but he thought it would be difficult to prove. Jekyll covered his tracks so well that it would be impossible to catch him before it was too late.

He was like Dr Moreau had been back in the day. Calm, collected, manipulative.

When Dr Moreau had shown up in London, he had seemed like a completely upstanding member of the community. He had been a soft spoken man with every layer of charm that Jekyll showed. He had also claimed that his version of science was harmless, he had also been pleasant and kind and just a little bit cunning.

It had been a long time before he had managed to come to terms with the fact that Moreau wasn’t the person Brokenshire thought he was. Moreau had hid it well and Brokenshire knew that Jekyll would be just as subtle about it. He had known from the start that, if he was to prove that Jekyll was up to something, it would be a long uphill struggle.

So, it was safe to say he hadn’t expected Jekyll to literally show up on his doorstep covered in evidence.

“I’m sorry, is there a shower here?” Jekyll asked, startling Brokenshire out of his musings.

“Ah, just… Around the corner. That way, keep going straight and you’ll find them.”

Ask. He internally demanded to himself. Ask what’s going on. It doesn’t matter how pitiable he looks, this could be dangerous.

“Thank you.” Jekyll said, looking undeniably relieved.

Considering the smell, Brokenshire couldn’t help but be relieved as well.

“Uh… Dr Jekyll?”

“Mm?”

Ask. Ask, ask, ask. Pressure him. Make him confess.

“...Why are you here?” He asked instead.

Brokenshire could have facepalmed.

He could ask anything. Why was Jekyll soaking wet? Why did he smell like a sewer? What was that glowing green liquid? Why did he just happen to be there in that state on the exact night that Blackfog had been broken up?

Instead, he had asked why Dr Jekyll had shown up for help there of all places. At the police station. Where they would certainly be able to put together enough pieces to know that he had been up to no good on that night and arrest him.

Actually, maybe it wasn’t so bad of a starting question after all.

“It’s closer than the society and I don’t have to worry about any of the lodgers seeing me this way.”

“Right but you are aware that, whatever you did to get into that state, I could arrest you right here right now?” Brokenshire pointed out bluntly.

“Arrest me? For what charge, Sergeant Brokenshire? Falling into the sewer?” Despite his weariness, Jekyll spoke with the air of complete and utter innocence. “I’m sure the public would eat that up.”

When Brokenshire looked at him, he saw the glint of something cunning in Jekyll’s eye, like the blade of a knife. He was reminded of why he was usually so afraid of Dr Jekyll.

Nervously, he averted his eyes.

It seemed that whatever he had been through that night still hadn’t completely dulled Jekyll’s silver tongue.

“You’re worried about the lodgers seeing you this way but not me?” Brokenshire shot back, crossing his arms. “What if there had been others here? What if one of your patrons had visited here tonight and seen you like this? The station isn’t a private space and- Hey, can you pay attention for five bloody minutes?!”

To his annoyance, Jekyll didn’t seem to be paying attention to the question. Instead, he was peering out of the window blinds, eyes narrowing.

Brokenshire opened his mouth to demand to know what Jekyll was looking for when, startling him, he heard an angry cry out the window, only vaguely muffled by the station wall.

“Where did that little snake go?!” A young female voice snarled, making Brokenshire jump. It sounded like a child but it was so utterly furious and bloodthirsty that he was left worryingly uncertain. “When I get my hands on him, I’ll tear his bloody legs from his bloody body, mark my words!”

“Don’t worry.” Came a calmer voice. “I still have his scent. He won’t get far.”

For a long and awkward few seconds, Brokenshire just stared at Jekyll and Jekyll stared back guilty.

“...You’re running from someone.” Brokenshire stated bluntly, everything falling into place at last. “You had to come here.”

“You can’t prove that. Circumstantial evidence.”

“Dammit!” Came a shriek out the window, “Why did we let Lucy talk us into giving him a five minute head start?! We should have just killed him right there and then!”

They continued to stare at each other, each waiting for the other to break and look away. Brokenshire cocked an eyebrow dubiously.

After another few seconds of this silent staring, Brokenshire finally relented first, sighing long and hard.

This was getting them nowhere.

“Then I’m sure I can invite-” He looked out the window to see who was stalking Jekyll, “-Those three lovely ladies in here for a chat.”

“Go ahead then.”

Rather than backing down, Jekyll just stared him straight in the eye.

Hesitantly, Brokenshire glanced back out the window.

They didn’t seem like the friendliest trio. One of them was cloaked head to toe so he couldn’t see even a glimpse of their face, another was smacking a cane threateningly against her hand like a baton with an audible smack, smack sound, and the third appeared to be mildly hovering. In the air.

He… Wasn’t entirely sure he wanted the three of them in there.

“They’re not chasing after me specifically.” Jekyll confessed at last. “But I have a feeling that they won’t be so pleased to see me anyway.” He glanced out the blinds once more. “Or smell me, rather. Speaking of which…”

“Yeah, the shower. Go ahead.”

Jekyll trudged out the room and Brokenshire was left to watch the women out there as they stalked about, hunting.

“So you said you can smell him?” Snarled the shorter one. “Then where is he?”

The hovering one in red peered around a second, then her eyes alighted on the window and met Brokenshire’s eyes directly. Quickly, he darted out of the way of the window, pressing his back to the wall.

There was a silence.

Then came the dreaded words he had been futilely hoping not to hear.

“In there.”

He swallowed.

For the moment, he was alone in the station but when the rest of the officers finished sweeping the remains of Blackfog, they would be sure to come there. However, that might not be for hours. Not to mention, he was sure some of them would be going off and getting drunk to celebrate.

There was no certainty that anyone would show up to help in time.

He forced his back harder against the wall and held his breath, internally cursing Jekyll in every way he could think of.

His eyes screwed shut and he waited.

“You’re kidding me. The police station?! Your sniffer has got to be broken!”

“My nose doesn’t ‘break.’ He’s in there and thanks to all that sewage, he’s not exactly difficult to miss. Really, I know you’re human but I’m surprised that you still can’t smell him.” A pause. “Honestly, lucky.”

“So what? Did he get arrested?”

“How should I know? He seemed to be the impulsive type, perhaps he ran into there to get away from us.”

A loud groan.

“So he’s been arrested either way?!”

“Well, it’s unfortunate, I have to confess but I suppose he wouldn’t have tasted so good after being doused in all that sewer water. Besides, being carted off to Bethlam is probably even worse than anything we could have done to him.”

“Doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I wanted to have at him.”

“And,” Came a third voice who hadn’t said anything up to this point. “Any blood sacrifice is a good one – dirtied or not. Nyarlathotep accepts all.”

“Good news. He probably wouldn’t have been a virgin sacrifice.” Came the voice from the lady in red again. “Well that’s over with, for better or for worse. Since our business for the night is finished, I don’t suppose you want to play cards? There are too many police out tonight to do much of anything else.”

“So long as nameless over there takes off those face coverings. I don’t see how we could ever play poker if we can’t see her face.”

“They won’t be coming off.” Came the third voice again.

“Drat.”

“Oh, Alice. Don’t tell me you don’t think you can win?” The lady in red sang tauntingly. “Are you chickening out?”

“Hey! I never said that! I could win with a blindfold of my own and both hands tied behind my back!”

“That would make a card game… Difficult.”

“Yeah? Well you’ll see. Let’s go!”

There was the sound of fading footsteps and Brokenshire peered through the blinds once more to see the trio leaving.

“Hey, you guys aren’t going to do any sort of mind reading malarkey, are you?” The girl - Alice supposedly - asked nervously.

“What does it matter?” Came the teasing reply. “I thought you could do it with both hands tied?”

Finally, Brokenshire shut the blinds and stepped back into the room.

What on Earth was Dr Jekyll wrapped up in? There he was thinking his night had been busy while Jekyll was apparently making enemies with patrons of Blackfog.

Technically, this might be enough evidence to detain him. Perhaps not a proper arrest just yet but he was sure they would find evidence of Jekyll’s misdeeds at Blackfog if they looked.

He could hear the shower pouring away down the hall and he thought back to Moreau once more.

Back then, Brokenshire hadn’t known any better. When Moreau said his science was harmless, that he wasn’t like Frankenstein and there was nothing to fear, Brokenshire had trusted him.

Moreau was a gentleman - he was pleasant and kind and not at all like those mad scientist types that he usually had to suffer through. Heck, Brokenshire had dinner with him at least a few times, had conversations with him. He had seemed as normal as could be.

However, everyone in London now knew where that story ended.

He still saw it in his dreams - Moreau’s lab. Night after night, it still haunted him.

The dissected animal, unidentifiable, sprawled out on the operating table and leaking blood onto the floor. The scalpels, the sawblades, jars of internal organs. A slaughter house, so at ends with the man he had known, had chatted with, had eaten lunch with on multiple occasions.

Then, there had been the look on Moreau’s face.

Even then, he hadn’t wanted to believe it. He wanted to look at Moreau, to ask and to see Moreau frantically tell him that it wasn’t true, to explain that some kind of mistake had been made, he had been framed, or forced to do it by someone else.

Brokenshire got no such comfort.

Moreau had fled straight out the door, his creatures keeping them distracted, escaping out of London, free of consequence. In that last moment, that last glimpse of Moreau, it wasn’t fear he had seen on Moreau’s face.

It was hatred, a burning, seething hatred that seemed so at ends with the man he had known.

Despite all of it, despite all he had seen, despite the evidence before his very eyes, it had still taken years for him to finally reconcile with the facts.

He had never known Moreau.

There was no mistake, no innocent man blamed for crimes he didn’t commit, Brokenshire had simply been tricked.

So when Jekyll had shown up, unflappable and preaching that same mad science that Moreau had once been so fond of, Brokenshire had instantly known that something was wrong.

Now here he was, in the most suspicious manner possible, reeking of sewage and foul play.

However, it wasn’t like how it had been with Moreau.

Jekyll didn’t look furious. He didn’t have a scalpel in hand, he wasn’t threatening Brokenshire into silence, or covered in blood. There were no monsters at his back, following his every command, no corpses or dead-eyed horrors.

He just seemed tired.

For God’s sake, he had looked relieved at the idea of a shower.

Yet, he couldn’t make that mistake again. He couldn’t give Jekyll the benefit of the doubt or what was it all for?

His life couldn’t be an endless loop of the same mistake.

Brokenshire groaned, rubbing his eyes hard enough to see black spots prickle there. He couldn’t believe he was even considering this.

This had to be the worst night of his life.

--

“Why would you go TO THE POLICE?!” Hyde shrieked.

In the background, the shower poured away, no longer in use. Jekyll had decided to leave it on to drown out the sound of him speaking to Hyde, in case Brokenshire tried to listen in to figure out what Jekyll had been up to.

Lacking a spare change of clothes, Jekyll had showered in Hyde’s undersized ones instead, rubbing as much soap into it and his body as possible. As it was, he was now newly sopping wet once more, heavy with water and dripping a whole river onto the floor. Soap bubbles still clung to parts of the fabric.

It was honestly rather disgusting to walk about in soaking clothes but, he thought, he wasn’t letting Hyde out again after that night. It wasn’t like Hyde’s clothes would ever be used again. He could just burn them and be done with it.

Not that he didn’t still feel a little bad at potentially ruining clothes. Gentleman rules and all.

Even over the overuse of soap, there was still the faint scent of something foul clinging to him that he felt he wouldn’t truly be rid of until he got to the society, changed clothes, and used some proper soap and not the cheap stuff they had there.

“It was that or have those three find out who I am and probably torture me.” He dabbed the towel against his shirt. “I’m certainly not leading them to the society.”

“What are you going to tell Brokenshire?”

“I’m not sure. I guess... I was out looking for Lanyon. We went our separate ways and I realized that I forgot to ask him about that important thing he tried to bring up at the party. You know?” Jekyll snapped his fingers thoughtfully, “The one he said he would mention after the party but then didn’t? I do wonder what that was about...”

“You’re putting far too much thought into this.”

“Brokenshire doesn’t trust me. He might ask Lanyon to back up my story and, since he was apparently at Blackfog,” A sigh and a small muttering of, “Lanyon, why would you do that to yourself?” before he continued, “He can confirm that he wasn’t at any of the expected places. How he chooses to lie himself out of the situation is up to him but I don’t think he would put me under fire.”

“You sure about that?” Hyde taunted. “If it’s to save himself, Lanyon would probably do anything.”

“He’s a better liar than that. He’ll have backups.”

“He probably had better ideas than blaming me for the fire too. He didn’t deign to share any of those with you.”

“I can’t emphasise enough that you declared that you were behind the fire out loud in front of the police.” Jekyll replied sharply, “Nobody can magic you out of that. You were going to be blamed for at least some of it. If I put all of the blame on you, I could at least get the rest of the lodgers out of it.”

“You’re just trying to ease your guilty conscience for blaming me.”

Jekyll rolled his eyes and began to dry off his hair.

“We’re getting off track. So, while I was looking for Lanyon, I ended up bumping into some of the patrons of Blackfog fleeing the police. Not that I knew they were from Blackfog, of course, I just knew I had encountered some… Less than savoury individuals. They mistook me for someone else and I was forced to run from them, escaping into the sewer.”

“...And the clothes..?”

Jekyll paused and looked down.

“...I have... No idea.”

“Good. Great to know that you’ve done all this to me just to get us both caught by the police anyway. Fantastic work, doctor.”

“Better the police than being sacrificed to some blood God. I can’t be arrested for wearing the wrong clothes.” He clicked his fingers. “New plan. I found that you left some clothes at the society and I was taking them to the police station when I met some unsavoury individuals, had to go into the sewers to escape and… Changed clothes and ditched my old ones in the hopes that they wouldn’t smell me.”

“...Mhm…”

He could see Hyde reflected in the growing puddle of water beneath him, lying on the floor. Eyebrow cocked, Hyde stared directly up at him in the most dubious expression he had ever seen Hyde make.

“There are… So many holes in that.”

“Hyde, I’m still kind of drunk and this is a ridiculously complicated situation to just explain away. If you have any suggestions so that we don’t both get thrown in Bethlam, that would be great.”

“Oh it means nothing to me either way.” Hyde made a show of yawning in an exaggerated manner. “After all, you’re never letting me out again. Why should it matter to me if you get locked up or not?”

“Well you wouldn’t be much good anyway. I just need some way to explain the clothes and I-”

Just at that moment, there was a knock at the door and Jekyll froze.

“Dr Jekyll?” Brokenshire’s voice broke through. “I wanted to check if you were still in there.”

Jekyll took a breath, psyching himself up, and turned off the shower.

“I am. Why? Did you think I would run?”

A silence.

Then, “Well you are seemingly being pursued by a group of women from Blackfog. If you panicked, you might have tried to get away… While we’re on the subject, I was wondering if you wanted to give in a report about it. Your input might help catch them.”

“Who does he think we are? An idiot? He’s trying to figure out what we did so he can arrest us!”

Ignoring that Hyde, Jekyll shook his head in response before remembering that Brokenshire couldn’t see him.

“I really don’t know much about them at all.” He claimed with as much naivety as he could muster, “It was simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Apparently they have a grudge against Hyde though. Is that helpful?”

“...Did they say why?”

“I didn’t stick around to ask.”

“Of course.”

More silence.

Jekyll hated that he couldn’t see Brokenshire’s face, couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all but it would be suspicious if he came out too quickly after turning off the shower.

Brokenshire might be able to figure out that the shower had been on for far longer than he had actually been in it.

“...Jekyll.” Brokenshire said at last. “...How much trouble are you in?”

Jekyll drew back from the door, taking a moment to look for exits.

There were, unfortunately, none.

It was a shower at a police station, it was possible that this was how they washed the prisoners. Obviously there weren’t going to be exits for anyone to sneak out of.

“None, I promise. It was just the misunderstanding between me and those three ladies out there, that’s all.”

“I’ve never seen you like this before.”

“It’s not like I have much experience fleeing from people who want to murder me. I might be a little shaken up. My apologies if I’ve been a little more brash than usual. Adrenaline, you know?”

“I… Understand. I…”

Jekyll frowned, hearing the odd tone of voice that Brokenshire had picked up.

Curiously, he pressed his ear to the door, hoping to hear better, hoping he could pick out exactly what Brokenshire was thinking.

“Jekyll,” Brokenshire finally continued quietly. “I don’t want you to go down the same path that Moreau did.”

“He’s a little too late for that.” Hyde snickered.

“I don’t ever want to see something like that again, you understand? So if there’s anything going on with you, if you just tell me I can help.”

“What he means is ‘I can arrest you before you get to that point.’ He doesn’t actually care.”

“Thank you Brokenshire but your worry is unfounded.”

Jekyll finally opened the door, startling Brokenshire much to Hyde’s glee. The sergeant took a surprised step back.

Absolutely bewildered looking, Brokenshire stared at the dripping clothes. Jekyll glanced down at them.

“I didn’t have a change of clothes.” Jekyll explained simply, too tired to explain properly. “I suppose you’ll want to question me, then?”

“Uh…”

Brokenshire eyed up the puddle Jekyll had left behind on the floor. Then, his eyes drifted up to Jekyll’s face and narrowed, scrutinizing him.

Jekyll just stared back, exhausted and waiting for the dreaded verdict.

“...You know what? I won’t say anything about this if you don’t.”

That wasn’t the dreaded verdict at all.

Jekyll did a double take, trying to figure out how badly he must have heard Brokenshire’s words to have heard that of all things. This wasn’t a hallucination, was it?

“...Excuse me?” He said at last, dumbly.

“I’m not stupid. I know you’ve been up to something tonight and you’ve been spending that time in the shower trying to think up a cover story,” Jekyll opened his mouth to protest but Brokenshire raised a hand to silence him, “Frankly I already have a mountain of paperwork to work through and I. Can’t. Be. Bothered. You seem more like a threat to yourself than anyone else.” Another attempt to protest from Jekyll, once more cut off. “So I’m going to pretend I never saw you here tonight and you keep out of trouble in future, alright?”

“Oh.”

Jekyll just stared wide-eyed for a moment, unsure if he had heard any of this correctly.

“You’re not worried that I’m-” He choked back bile, unsure if it was from the alcohol, the smell, or thinking of Moreau, “That I’m making some sort of monster or dissecting animals or something?”

Brokenshire eyed him up and down.

“No. I don’t think I’m worried about that at all.”

A pause.

“But don’t get any ideas, ok?” Brokenshire added quickly with a hard look. “I’m giving you this break once but if you make a habit of this, I’ll have you handcuffed and thrown in a cell before you can blink. I’m not putting up with this.”

“...Of course.” Jekyll couldn’t help a small smile. “Thanks, Sergeant. And don’t you worry, I’ll never do this again, I promise.”

And that statement, in Jekyll’s mind, was perfectly genuine.

Brokenshire pointed Jekyll to a back route he could take back to the society without being spotted and Jekyll was sent on his way.

As he left, the roads finally peaceful and the dark clouds above starting to disappear, Jekyll felt just a little better.

---

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---

I’m not so sure where to put notes on a Tumblr post so I guess I’ll just put them here.

Admittedly, as I was writing this, I became more interested in the idea of the three ladies from Blackfog playing cards together but the priestess and Carmilla can both read minds and keep using it to cheat as Alice becomes more and more annoyed.

Unfortunately, I’m not really sure how to go with that because it feels like it would just be me trying to describe a card game with occasional dialogue in between and, as someone who once tried to play Poker before, I can say that I still don’t really understand the rules.

Anyway, I’m on the bench about this fic because not a lot happens here but if I don’t post it before the next chapter comes out, it’ll become redundant, so I guess I’m posting it.

(Although... There is a picture on Sabrina’s twitter that seems to be Jekyll passed out somewhere. There are no blankets so I don’t think he’s in bed and I’m guessing in advance that he’s passed out in the sewer after changing back. I’m probably wrong but I like to make guesses.)

I just was in the mood for the trope of “Character has to go to their enemy for help.”

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Alright. I need more of your precious headcanons. However, I want some of Tom, Sonic, Maddie, and Ozzie. Your last one made me feel happy

More headcanons?

😋Alright, challenge Accepted!😋

Tom and Sonic love to go to Burger Princess for two reasons: they make awesome chicken nuggets and fried pickles and they both get the Kid’s Meals because it comes with a crown. They both sit in the restaurant and eat with the paper crowns on their heads.

Sonic draws pictures a lot. He makes lots of drawings for Tom and Maddie. Maddie hangs them in the kitchen and in her office. Tom has a picture frame that has all three of them, and Ozzie, in it that he has on his desk.

Tom calls Sonic “Munchkin Lad” in reference to him being called “Donut Lord.” Sonic, used to to being called “Space Hog,” is taken back at first, but grows to love it instantly.

Maddie straight-up calls Sonic her “son.” She’s just awesome like that.

Since she is called “Pretzel Lady” by her son, she calls him “Little Pretzel Bite” to reference some soft cinnamon pretzel bites that the two shared at the mall in Springvalley.

Sonic calls Ozzie “Dough-Ball” in reference to all of the baked goods starting out as dough.

Together they are The Aveng—Nope! Sorry—they’re The Baked Goods Squad.

Anytime an eight wheeler or a sixteen wheeler semi-truck is on the road, Sonic freaks out and thinks of Dr. Robotnik. It sends Sonic into a panic attack, which leads Tom and Maddie to spend the rest of the day calming him down.

It also scares Sonic to be near any other scientist, he doesn’t know if they’re evil or not.

They’re watching the Wachowskis, the Wipples, and the whole town. They’re always watching them.

Sonic and Maddie are obsessed with buying shoes. They spend all day trying on shoes, buying shoes, and purposely go to places around town and in Springvalley to strut off their new kicks.

Sonic has a uniform that he wears when he goes to work with Tom. It’s a Greenhills vest with a badge and with “Munchkin Lad” on it. He also wears Tom’s hat and a pair of shades. Tom gets a huge kick out of it.

Sonic has nightmares of the events that have happened to him in the past. He doesn’t talk about them much, but he seeks comfort in Tom and Maddie by curling up next to them to sleep when he’s scared. Lots of blue fur on the comforter and on the pillows.

The three camp a lot in the forest. Sonic loves it because they stay in his cave that he’s tidied up for his parents friends to stay in, he’s very happy to have them stay in his home-away-from-home. Maddie loves to camp because she gets to meet the forest animals that Sonic has befriended, and can do yoga with them. Tom loves it because he has great childhood memories with the forest that he hopes to share with Sonic.

Sonic is friends with Bigfoot! No one believed him, not even Crazy Carl! Sonic and Bigfoot became friends when they fought over a bag of Doritos.

Tom and Maddie have fully accepted Sonic as their son. They don’t care what the USA government says, they accept him as their son 100%.

Sonic does swear, but it’s in his native tongue. Maddie and Tom think it’s cute because it sounds like hedgehog squeaks.

Sonic will squeak, chirp, and purr like Earth Hedgehogs do. Maddie has tried to learn some hedgehog squeaks and chirps and she’ll use it to speak to Sonic on occasion. Pretzel Bite gets a huge kick out of it and pick on Tom in their own secret language.

Sonic and Tom have sweat jars. Tom fills it up the most.

Ben Schwartz is an actual person in this AU. He is an actor and a comedian. Tom and Sonic watch Ben’s comedy specials on TV and they go on Ben’s tours around the country.

Ben Schwartz happens to be a big fan of Sonic and met Sonic and Tom at at one of his shows. Tom about passed out with excitement.

Sonic does not truly know his age, but he really wants a birthday party. To celebrate for Sonic, Tom and Maddie throw an anniversary party for him I’m the amount of years becoming a Wachowski.

The car bed was originally Tom’s. He kept it from his childhood to give to his own kid one day... which is why Sonic has it.

Tom is highly protective of Sonic, very. Maddie is as well, but she gets a kick out of how protective Tom is to him.

Sonic, Tom, and Maddie will work out together, even going on family jogs. Tom, however, cannot rum very far and passes out after running five miles. Maddie can run far, but she mostly drags Tom home. Sonic makes fun of Tom the whole time.

Tom coaches Sonic’s Little League game. They play against Springvalley all the time. The kids from Springvalley pick on Sonoc for being different, but Sonic’s team members are quick to kick Springvalley out of town.

Tom tried to get Sonic to join the Ultimate Frisbee League in Greenhills, but Sonic hated it because he tried to catch the frisbee like a dog would.

Maddie and Sonic treat themselves frequently at a spa. They both love to get massages, mud baths, and get their nails done. Sonic draws the line at getting them painted, he gets his claws cleaned instead.

Tom tucks Sonic into bed. Every night. He’s done it for a year now. It’s a thing that he does.

Maddie comes in to check up on Sonic, she often finds Tom sleeping in the beanbag chair near Sonic’s bed just to make sure that Sonic doesn’t have nightmares.

Sonic only allows Tom and Maddie to give him ear rubs and brush his fur. He imagines that this is what parental figures do for their own kids, even if they are human.

Sonic can purr like a kitten. It scared Tom and Maddie first, but now they get a huge kick out of it.

Just recapping, Sonic has ADHD and PTSD.

There is a reason why Sonic was saved by Longclaw when he was a baby. It is one of his earliest childhood memories and he hates talking about it.

Sonic’s instincts from living in the wild do kick in sometimes. Sonic will catch bugs around the house and eat them. Sonic will also randomly chase things. Tom and Maddie refer to this as his “Gremlin Moments”

Sonic is encouraged to have some downtime and/or get some rest in the afternoon by Tom and Maddie. He will only sleep if he gets to be in the middle of the couch between his two favorite people so he can lean on them.

Sonic and Maddie try to garden, but Sonic ends up digging holes the whole time and he begs Maddie to play Hide-and-Seek with him.

Tom tells Dad Jokes. All the time. He has a book that he keeps on his desk at work that he’ll read to Sonic to get him to stop misbehaving at work.

Sonic does not understand metaphors. He’s very literal. This is because he’s lived in isolation for years and lacks social interaction.

And that’s all that I can think of on the top of my head! I’m glad that I was asked to make more! I didn’t know that you were interested! Thank you, and I’m happy that you’ve liked the first round!❤️

[authorloremipsum]

Profoundly Unprofessional

A “The Glass Scientists” fanfiction

Words - 3478

Characters - Sergeant Brokenshire, Dr. Jekyll, Mrs. Cantilupe, Ms. Lavender, mothman

Summary - Sergeant Brokenshire realizes that he and his men have encountered something, curious, and goes to the one place where he knows they might get some help. In the process, he glimpses a side of Doctor Jekyll he didn’t know existed.

Inspired by and written for @zolotaya-orda

    Sergeant Brokenshire saw a lot of strange things in his time working in London, monsters rampaging in the streets, houses destroyed by extraordinary circumstances, and murders more horrific than anything that could be dreamed up in the minds of men. Thank goodness all those kinds of events were few and far between, otherwise one would probably lose their mind. However, the fact of the matter was that these things did happen and that made every day a luck of the draw as to what mad event was going to happen.

    This week had started with the discovery of a thieves’ den near the outskirts of Soho, and after months of looking for these  burglars, they’d finally been lead right to the source. It went well though, plenty of arrests and only a few of the suspects getting away, but there had to be a catch. When they moved to enter the basement, something was waiting, and it scratched a sleeve of of poor Wipple’s coat!

    The man was fine of course, if a bit spooked, but the officers assembled had a unanimous agreement. Whatever was down there was not something they could deal with, and it didn’t help that they’d released it into the rest of the house running from the cellar. They’d need someone to catch it.

    And, unfortunately, Brokenshire knew precisely where to find such a person.

    In truth he had no qualms with the Society of Arcane Sciences, mostly a high level of suspicion for most of their “activities” and a few of their Lodgers. The Sinnett fellow, as shy and polite as he seemed, had caused quite a bit of trouble in the past, same for that man Luckett and his stupid hat. But that didn’t make them bad people necessarily, just incredibly odd.

    Of course it started raining as he climbed the few steps to the front door, knocking politely but firmly. When a moment passed and no one answered, he rung the doorbell, impatiently folding his arms against the cold, glad the overhang shielded him from the cold drizzle. There was the sound of a lock sliding and one of the doors was pulled open, revealing a young woman with ash, was it ash? All over her face.

    Brokenshire frowned, “Madam, I’m looking-”

    “For Doctor Jekyll,” they said, frowning a little. “What’s happened?”

    “I, seek his assistance,” the sergeant said, well, admitted really. The woman nodded slowly and pulled open the door, “You’re probably freezing out there, it’s warmer inside.” He stared at them a moment, only then realizing he was being invited inside.

    With a bit of apprehension, he stepped through the door and it shut behind him with a click. It smelled a bit like smoke in here, but also like cinnamon and peppermint, and odd combination that wasn’t actually pleasant to smell. Brokenshire fought the urge to wrinkle his nose at it as the woman passed by, hurrying towards a room he could see with the door wide open. A familiar ginger-haired man with only one hand was on the landing outside, fanning his face and coughing.

    As the woman neared he called down: “Maybe we should start with a simpler base?”

    “I think so!” they answered, climbing the stairs. The man glanced up towards Brokenshire, went pale, and darted back into the smoke-filled room, clearly intimidated by the presence of an officer.

    And so Brokenshire had been left there in the lobby, lit with the grey light drifting through the skylights overhead, dripping cold water, only the slightest bit nervous about the strange things that took up the lobby. Ahead, the large double doors were pushed open and the exact scientist Brokenshire had come to find stepped out with a book in hand, reading.

    He caught sight of the guest, closed the book, and hurried over. “Why, Sergeant Brokenshire! What brings you to our humble Society? I do hope nothing has happened.”

    “Nothing’s wrong,” he answered, shaking with Jekyll upon his approach. “In fact I, and I don’t want to impose, but we found something curious in a thieves’ den that seemed to er, fit some of your Lodgers’... Expertise.”

    Jekyll frowned a little, folding his arms and tilting his head curiously, “Your tone implies it is some sort of animal, I do hope no one was injured.”

    “Constable Wipple was scratched, but it’s nothing serious, we were lucky no one else got hurt.”

    “And it’s entirely possible that scratch could be far worse than we know, some creatures are known to spread diseases in such a manner, it was wise of you to come for our help,” Jekyll said, putting a gloved hand to his chin in thought, the other tucked behind his back. He gasped, “Oh! You must be frozen to the bone! Can I take your coat?”

    “As much as I appreciate it, I think we have more pressing matters than my coat,” Brokenshire deadpanned. Jekyll nodded, “Of course, please follow me, I know precisely who can help with your situation.”

    “Thank you doctor.” Brokenshire took a moment to shake his cloak free of any clinging raindrops before following Jekyll into the Society. He’d seen the lobby many times before, but never the interior corridors which seemed to branch in many impossible directions as they walked. If he wasn’t with the doctor, he certainly would’ve been lost in no time!

    After a minute or so of peaceful walking, Jekyll began to speak again. “We’ve two zoologists on our roster. Mrs. Cantilupe, senior extremofaunic zoologist, and Ms. Lavender, her pupil.”

    “Extremofaunic, implying monsters,” the sergeant said, watching Jekyll with a small frown. “You aren’t keeping a lab full of monsters are you Jekyll?”

    The doctor chuckled, “Certainly not! And even if we were, I have the utmost trust in those two to keep it under control. They’ve tamed some very ferocious creatures, and I have no doubt you will be at least somewhat impressed by the creatures they’ve got.”

    “Then you admit they are out of the ordinary?”

    “Of course! What about the Society would you call ordinary Sergeant?” He chuckled again and Brokenshire couldn’t help but frown, furrowing his brow a little bit. Eventually they came to a heavy looking door that Jekyll had to use his whole weight to open and keep open. The sounds of animal cries, which had been quiet before, rose to a crescendo and Brokenshire was hesitant to walk in.

    Not that he’d let that show on his face, especially in front of Jekyll who was someone he definitely needed to keep intimidated. If this doctor who clearly knew more than he let on about thought he had an upper hand on the police, he might try to do something more drastic than taking criminals and monsters under his wing. So Brokenshire shelved his anxieties and strode into the lab.

    Only for there to be a shriek like a banshee to his left that caused him to nearly jump out of his skin.

    “Mrs. Cantilupe?” called Jekyll as he shut the door and walked into the lab, sounding only the slightest bit unnerved. Oh, oh he was good, how many other things could he hide behind that porcelain facade? “Ms. Lavender? Are you in? Sergeant Brokenshire is in need of your help with a pest in, oh where did you say you found it?”

    “Soho, in a house where a number of Jewel thieves had been hiding,” he answered, suddenly distracted by a snake watching him from a cross hatched cage nearby. Its scales seemed to change colors and he squinted, stepping closer to get a better look. Canvas suddenly dropped over the cage, obscuring his view, and he looked up to see a young woman with dark hair and glasses grinning at him while leaning over the stack of cages and crates.

    “Careful Sergeant, Chroma here normally hypnotizes prey with that little trick you just saw,” she said, patting the cage and giggling at the resulting hiss from inside. She climbed down and walked around to meet them, “Soho you said?”

    “And you are Mrs. Cantilupe I presume?” Brokenshire asked, gesturing to her. The woman blinked and laughed, “Oh no! I’m Lavender, her student, Mrs. C should be around here somewhere.”

    “GANGWAY!!” shouts a voice, accompanied by a rumbling sound. They all looked down the alley of cages to see a very fat lizard with a colorful frill charge around the corner, scrambling towards the door behind them. (thankfully shut)

    It didn’t seem to care there were people in the way and ran at them, claws scratching on the wood floor as it barreled past, massive tail swishing side to side and knocking into things as it ran. An older woman skid around the corner barely a second after it, a rope with a loop on the end in hand. She let out a war cry and gave chase, practically shoving Brokenshire aside as she lunged for this massive lizard.

    The loop went around its neck and the woman pulled, watching it slip behind the frills and go tight, catching the creature in its tracks. She placed a foot on its back and held it in place, “You hang on now, I’ve business to attend to!” With a firm nod, she looked up at the guests and pulled down her goggles, replacing them with a pair of respectable spectacles. “Now, Doctor I see you’ve brought our good friend the sergeant and I heard something about a creature in Soho? Do tell, did it have teeth?”

    “Many,” Brokenshire answered, thinking back to it. “Though, more like a beak. And it had wings and these odd things sticking up from its head. It was covered in fur and feathers, with bright red eyes. Was perfectly silent till we came down the stairs, and then it lunged at Wipple.”

    “Did it bite him? Scratch him? Or did it go for the throat?” Cantilupe asked, casually tying the lizard up like a cowboy tying up a calf. Brokenshire blinked, surprised by this, before answering: “It bit him, cut right through his sleeve the poor bloke. But it ran before anyone could catch it, after chasing us out of course. Ferocious little bugger.”

    “It’s not that big then?” asked Lavender, walking to help her mentor pick up the wiggling and irritated lizard. It was only then that Brokenshire realized just how bloody long that animal’s tail was.

    “It was about the size of a small child, and just as angry,” he explained, earning a polite chuckle from Jekyll. Cantilupe and Lavender shared a look before the senior zoologist said: “Go get our net traps and that unfortunate mouse from a week ago.”

    “For bait Missus?”

    “Indeed. We’ll also need a rope and a medium cage. Oh! And make sure you grab our defensive jackets.”

    “Yes ma’am.”

    “Defensive jacket?” Brokenshire asked, eyes going wide. Cantilupe chuckled and easily picked up the trussed up lizard, “Of course! Can’t have everyone getting injured now can we?” He stared as she strolled off, waving to them. “Do wait for us dearies, we won’t be ten minutes I promise.”

    A beat passed and Brokenshire slowly turned to look at Jekyll, who smiled pleasantly after Mrs. C. When he noticed the Sergeant’s stare he said: “Yes? What’s that look for?”

    “You expect them to catch this thing?” he demanded, gesturing with his hands. “They’re-”

    “They best suited for this job,” Jekyll interrupted before his friends could be insulted. “Sergeant, would I lie to you? Honestly?”

    Brokenshire squinted suspiciously, and did not answer, watching as Jekyll turned with a nod and strolled towards the door. He hesitated to follow, only hurrying after when something barked in a cage nearby and made him jump.

~

    They arrived at the house in Soho a little less than half an hour later, and it was still raining. Though, doctor Jekyll was so kindly sharing an umbrella with the Sergeant as he silently opened the door to the house, allowing the Rogue Scientists entry. He’d already warned them that the creature was loose in the house, and upon arrival they received confirmation that it was still contained within the house. Every so often a horrifying shriek would come from within when one of the officers spotted it through a window and it darted away before they could get close.

    Lavender and Cantilupe singlehandedly carried their gear in, and even as Brokenshire insist Doctor Jekyll wait outside, he insisted with equal confidence that it was of utmost importance he was a part of it, to act as a sort of overseer. Lavender whispered behind his back that he was just as eager to see this strange creature as she and Cantilupe were! Brokenshire had to marvel, you wouldn’t have even been able to tell!

    In any case, the house was very quiet as Cantilupe and Lavender surveyed the first rooms, setting up a few traps and going to do a search of the house. Their footsteps could be heard along the floor as Jekyll and Brokenshire waited patiently in the meagerly furnished parlor. It smelled of pipe smoke and something else foul, the silence set everything on edge, and it  clearly unsettled Brokenshire, for he kept a hand on his nightstick and couldn’t manage to stand still.

    Jekyll, on the other hand, appeared wholly calm, writing in a small notebook without a word as he listened to the room around them.

    There was a small scratching noise and he shut his book. Brokenshire visibly stiffened at the sound, grip becoming tigher on his weapon as he slowly looked towards a dark hall, the source of the sound. Out of the corner he saw Jekyll stand, placing his tophat aside and unclasping his cloak, holding it out before him like a blanket. Was he going to catch this thing as one tries to catch a stray cat?

    Did he not see the wound on Constable Wipple?

    The scratching sound came again and Brokenshire watched as Jekyll approached the hallway, silent as the creature he was watching for. If he was afraid, it was impossible to tell.

    Well, until a creature lunged from the darkness in a black blur with red eyes and sent him stumbling back with a shout. Brokenshire stepped back in shock, watching it slam first into Jekyll’s cloak and then into the doctor himself, sending them both falling back. Though he tried to wrap it in the blanket and contain it, sharp taloned feet tore through the fancy dark fabric as it flailed and screeched.

    The Sergeant stood frozen unsure what to do as it suddenly leaped from Jekyll and darted behind a sofa. The doctor rolled over onto his knees, looking a bit startled with a nasty looking scratch across his cheek, and a tiny grin tugged at his mouth. He pulled off his gloves and coat, throwing them both aside and picking up what remained of his cloak before approaching the sofa.

    “Sergeant, the other side, if you would,” he asked politely, voice as charming and polite as ever, as if they weren’t after a creature that had just attacked him. Brokenshire nodded firmly, not quite sure why he was following orders, and stepped around the couch. Whatever it was hissed at him and backed away, its glowing red eyes narrowed, the strange antennae on its head bent back in anger.

    Brokenshire knelt, staring at this black, feathered creature with curiosity, not noticing as Jekyll reached behind the sofa and grabbed it. With a sharp pull, he pulled it out by the leg with a horrific shriek, only managing to hold it for a second before a clearly powerful wing smacked him in the face and caused him to drop the creature in surprise.

    It scrambled to its stubby, turkey-like legs and ran at Brokenshire, he gasped and raised the nightstick in defense.

    Only to lower it in surprise when this small, black, fluffy thing didn’t lunge, instead darting at his feet and trying to hide behind him. It seemed to be cowering like a child behind his rain cloak, still wet from before.

    Jekyll sat up and spit a single black, fluffy feather from his mouth. His clothes were covered in dust, normally neat fringe a fluffy mess, and he had multiple scratches on his arms and face. Despite this, he wore a wide grin like nothing Brokenshire had seen before, eyes sparkling. “It’s a chick!”

    “This thing is a chick?” the sergeant asked, utterly dumfounded at how the child-sized animal at his feet could possible be a chick. Jekyll stood, dusting himself off, eyes wide with awe, “Look at the feathers, they’re all fluffy and only a few primaries have grown in! The beak is still soft, but sharp enough to-” he paused, as if listening to something, before chuckling and standing up a bit straighter.

    And suddenly the mask was back on, or so Brokenshire noticed as Jekyll began to dust off his clothing. He had just had a glimpse of the real Henry Jekyll, and had nearly missed it in his fear of the animal that was very clearly afraid and cowering behind his legs.

    “It’s, just scared, is all I meant to say,” Jekyll said coolly, smiling and gesturing slowly with his hand. “Kneel slowly, keep your hands open, and put the nightstick away.”

    “I’ve dealt with frightened animals before Doctor Jekyll, I can handle it,” Brokenshire said, lifting his cloak a little and slowly kneeling to be on an equal level with this strange creature. It seemed startled, and shied away from his touch at first, but it didn’t bite or claw when he tried to smooth down its fear-fluffed feathers. In fact, after a few pets, it let out an oddly human sounding chirp noise, head tilting to the side.

    It was, bloody adorable.

    Of course the sergeant would never admit this, not in front of his men and especially not in front of Jekyll, who was now able to pick up the creature.

The women zoologists came running moments after the sounds of scuffle had died, and Mrs. Cantilupe let out a delighted sound upon seeing the creature in Jekyll’s arms. She and Lavender acquainted themselves with the creature, who seemed much more comfortable now that it wasn’t being chased and knew these strangers weren’t going to attack it. Its bright red eyes looked to Brokenshire though, as if it were curious

    It took some coaxing, but eventually Lavender could get it into the cage they’d brought. Her mentor remarked that its feathers seemed similar to some american birds, perhaps it had been smuggled. The whole exchange had Brokenshire staring at her and at the mussed up Jekyll with a look of confusion and subtle fear.

    They weren’t afraid of this thing or the prospect that strange American creatures were being smuggled into London, in fact, they seemed thrilled to meet the little devil. (What else could it be?)

    Before long though, they’d loaded the boxes into a carriage, gathered their supplies, and the zoologists certified that there was nothing stranger in the house than some large mice. Brokenshire kept silent when his men asked him where the creature was being taken, because he didn’t quite know. He’d overheard the older woman, Cantilupe, remarking how she was going to send a letter to an associate in the states about him coming to take the, oh what had she called it, Noctuidae sapien?

    He was going to call it a crow-child.

    Jekyll sent his Lodgers on their way, watching with intrigue as the police investigation picked up where it had left off, and only after a few minutes did Brokenshire realize he wanted to speak.

    His hair was still mussed from the scuffle, but the cut on his face had stopped bleeding. “Sergeant, thank you for coming to me with this, I do imagine you’ve just assisted my friends in their science quite a bit. Not every day you find a creature from the States in London after all.”

    “Yes well, I didn’t want anyone getting hurt unnecessarily,” Brokenshire answered, folding his arms behind him, giving Jekyll a meaningful look. The gentleman laughed, “You mock me for my impulsivity, but I was merely following my, better judgement. Better I put myself in harm’s way than someone getting hurt on accident.”

    “You knew you risked injury then?”

    “Of course! No action is without risk Sergeant, it merely takes a bit of, prodding, to take that risk,” Jekyll said, nodding. And again, the mask slipped from Jekyll’s face. His smile was a little wide, his eyes held a dangerous twinkle that dared to ask: What if? And just like before, it was only for a second that he could be seen.

He donned his hat, opened his umbrella, and set off into the rain. “Good afternoon Brokenshire, perhaps I will see you again soon under better circumstances yes?”

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

Wipples Pose Testing

He moves!! Holy wow, this was a LOT of work. I've been attempting things that I am 80% capable of doing; familiar enough that I'm not struggling the whole time, but with a good amount of challenge along the way. I'd say I had a solid handle on maybe 30% of what it took to pull this off. I haven't used Rigify much on account of the complexity, but that complexity is exactly what's needed to ease some of the manual effort of animating. Further, I have not once set up a face rig. Not only did I have to get into the mechanics of Rigify (those airplane ears? Those are a custom setup), but I had to learn how to use it too.

It is with great misfortune that I realized my mesh doesn't have the right topology for good deformations. Here I was all worried about the face when it was those quadruped shoulder and hip joints where my topology falls short. I have two options: press ahead with corrective shape keys and counter-animation, or take 8 steps backward and retopologize. Honestly, I will probably animate a few sequences and see how the model moves--especially with a fur particle system to cover some flaws.

By the way, check out this rig! It come with so many neat features like IK/FK switching on the limbs and a full bendy-bone network on the face. I added dilating eyes and retractable claws

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

Character sheet for Wipples the cat from Jar Full of Cosmos. For someone who has focused mainly on characters for the majority of my artistic efforts, I really struggle with expressions. Also, I have no clue how I'm going to rig his extremely bendy, amorphous form. Some process work below the cut!

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

More test renders! I fixed up Wipple's fur a little bit, plus I got the magical jar started.

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

Wipples Character Model, Round 1

Here's Wipples! Or at least, the first version of Wipples. I haven't done facial animation before, so I may need to modify that face mesh depending on how well it deforms. As you can see, it's quite dense! Additionally, the whole model may be too bulky and shapeless once I add fur particles, so he may get slimmed down and sculpted some more.

As usual, process below the cut!

I think I retopologized him four times total? But that was mostly because I'm trying to get the hang of Retopoflow. I know it's going to save HOURS in terms of pushing and pulling verts, but I found myself missing some of the basic functionality of vanilla blender retopology. Thankfully with the latest version you can jump between Retopoflow and edit mode, so I know this will save me a lot of pain in the long run. Onto pose testing!

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

First peek at Pearl and Wipples

I started this project about a month ago, and finally Pearl and Wipples are together. There are definitely some issues to fix with the character models; Pearl's clothing does not follow the rig through space, so I had to manually put her dress back on. Wipples' whiskers are clipping through his face and his fur is nearly pitch black in spite of setting the material color to grey. The kitchen environment is a work in progress with further adjustments needed for color, composition, and scale. The lighting is very temporary as well.

Regardless, it feels like a huge accomplishment to have made it this far. This is the most complex thing I have ever created in Blender and I have learned so much. Given the complexity of this single frame, I have a sinking feeling that animating the full short may be beyond my capabilities. I'll still go as far as I can, but wrangling those Rigify rigs just to get a static pose was quite challenging. At minimum, I intend to get a previz animation as well as a couple gorgeous renders.

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

Pearl WIP

I took a couple days off to assemble the new PC (henceforth known as BEEFMASTER). I needed to order some extra parts, so in the meantime I progressed with Pearl as much as I reasonably can on the laptop. As with Wipples, there was an incredible amount of new stuff in this. Her skin is a mixture of procedural and hand-painted textures, and I baked her normals from a multiresolution sculpt. Her clothes are multiple cloth simulations that all interact with one another (and hopefully the rig ; ;). She has a rigify rig, but her facial deformations aren't quite what I was hoping for. I'll have to noodle with that and see if I can get something workable, otherwise I will resort to shapekeys. The blocky hair will get replaced with particles once I get BEEFMASTER up and running. I definitely underestimated how long a character model like this would take, lol.

I did try to get some mocap data on her, but that's a whole separate skill I need to learn. HOWEVER, I am strongly considering animating Pearl with mocap (either through VR capture or Rokoko) to save myself some time.

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

A few minor setbacks with Jar Full of Cosmos

I'm almost done modeling Pearl. Much like Wipples, I'm hitting a real barrier with the hair particles. Blender is surprisingly stable, but unfortunately I just can't get work done when the display is running at 2 fps. Thankfully, my final PC component arrived yesterday so I'll be taking a short break from 3D modeling to assemble a new workstation. I've never done this before, so hopefully there aren't too many curve balls :')

Second, I'm running into some knowledge barriers. I haven't animated in a few years, and even then it was short/cyclical movements for game assets. I have access to some online training, and part of me feels like I will have a much better outcome if I put a pause on JoC and grind some animation coursework. Of course, the whole goal of this project is to see what I can do and always keep moving. I don't want to fall in the trap of overthinking, but 120 seconds of animation is a lot of animation for my nearly non-existent (and certainly rusty) experience level. Decisions decisions...

[here-be-dragons-and-whatnot]

New Animation Project Let's Go

The shrimp music video has me in the mood to animate something whimsical and cute, so I came up with a short animation I want to try making. I have a life-long history of biting off waaaaaaay more than I can chew and burning myself out with overly-ambitious projects. Honestly, a two minute animation is probably way over my skill level but I'm going to start and see how far I get. At minimum, I will have enough assets for a couple great renders plus a better understanding of what I need to work on (hint: it's going to be everything OTL).

The short will be called Jar Full of Cosmos and will feature a witch and her curious, troublesome cat Wipples. I'll use the Jar Full of Cosmos tag to document my progress. Let's go!

[bansheeoftheforest]

Moreau's Revenge but it directly leads to a permanently feral Jekyll. They find him in a cage in Moreau's lab, pacing back and forth on all fours like a tiger. He pulls his lips up and snarls at them and there is no recognition in his eyes, just fear and hatred. Anyone who was there the day of the rescue saw Moreau being led out in cuffs, and the good Dr. Jekyll carried out with restraints and a muzzle, snarling and shrieking and trying to fight against his rescuers.

The Society is deemed the safest place to keep him (Robert almost jumped over a desk to attack the first person who suggested Bethlam as an option), so the Lodgers now have to deal with the world's most skittish and aggressive human wild cat and the pain of having Henry right there byt so far away.

Maybe Robert would be his primary doctor? He doesn't trust anyone else not to hurt Henry further, so he takes over the role of therapy and trying to help his friend regain his sense. It's slow-going, but Henry finally let him touch him withiut growling, so that's something. The first time he headbutted Robert for attention he started crying.

Ooh, what if Moreau also tried to use him to experiment figuring out Frankenstein's method? Henry is covered in scars from being experimented on and sewn back up, he kind of matches Creature now.

On a more bittersweet positive note, maybe he really likes Jasper and Creature? Maybe he bonded with Moreau's unfortunate animal specimens and now associates the smell of animals with safety, so he spends alot of time in Jasper's room. He also associates dead-but-living with safety and follows Creature around like a stray kitten, climbing on him when he gets comfortable enough and knows he won't hurt him.

The Lodgers become fiercely protective of Henry, if any rich fuck or nosy reporter tries to see Henry to see if the rumours are true, they will be physically thrown from the Society by a bunch of angry scientists. Jekyll being loved and protected as he is slowly recovering from his trauma my beloved.

TRAUMA AND AU CROSSOVERS MY BELOVED <3

Man... I just love that thought, especially if people that Jekyll knows (Like Brokenshire, the Commissioner, + Wipple n Jenkins) are there during the rescue or even led it. They find Henry and they are all so relieved but to their horror, Henry is snarling at them, he is throwing himself against the bars of his cage trying to claw them, his eyes and pupils are so much bigger than should be humanely possible, he doesn't seem to be able to even stand on two legs. His hair is shaggy and sweaty and probably has dried blood in it, it just makes him look more and more mad when it falls over his face as they force on a muzzle and restrain him. It pains them all so much because this is their friend and he has been withstanding god knows what and know he doesn't even know that he is human. They have to knock him out with sleeping meds to even manage to get him into a police carriage so they can get him out of the lab, maybe Moreau would see it and laugh and tell them that they'll never get their Henry Jekyll bad, the fucker is gone for ever now, now he has to suffer in Bethlam like him.

(Which, of course, only makes the four of them want to help Henry and make sure he can recover even more)

Robert would feel like he is trying to tame a scared stray cat, at first he can't even let Henry out of the cage/restraints without him trying to escape and or hurt him or others, so he starts by giving him food (Rachel's chicken seems to be a favorite, it seems) and reaching into the cage with a thick glove so he can touch him. Any wrong move and Henry becomes skittish and aggressive and tries to bite him, and it just pains Robert so much to see his best friend like this. But slowly and surely Henry warms up, soon he allows Robert to pet him without trying to hurt him, soon he actually relaxes when Robert is in the same room as him, soon Robert can sit with him in the cage and Henry will put his head on his lap. All those small steps brings Robert to tears and yet it's not until Henry happily thrills when Robert enters the room, or tries to headbutt him, or even tries to groom him that Robert actually cries. Henry warms up to Robert so much that he can have an entire room for himself, soon he slowly warms up to the Lodgers too... <3

Aw man... Imagine Brokenshire and the Commissioner (Man, I really mention him a lot, huh? We literally have him mentioned to be Henry's friend once but ahaha i almost want to OC-fy him at this point) visiting Henry from time to time bc they are worried for their friend and they are almost the only ones outside of the Society that knows what's going on. At first Henry is skeptical but, despite the feral part of him associating them with pain bc they restrained him and he hasn't seen them since, something in him recognizes them, and maybe that would be the first time they would get proof that Henry actually is saveable <3

Oohoohohohoh Henry with scars... Imagine the first time Henry would actually become aware (maybe it would be reverse Feral AU where he gets aware for short periods of time in the beginning?) and seeing his face and body and all the scars... Angst <3

Jasper and Creature having a soft spot for Henry my beloved, Henry immediately feeling safe with them my double beloved <3<3<3<3 Henry being allowed to roam the Society for the first time and yet clinging to Jasper immediately. Jasper, obviously, smells like a werewolf and like other animals and it makes Henry feel safe so he clings to him for a lot of the time, Jasper's creatures accept him as one of their own immediately. Henry being so intrigued by Creature and yet needing a little bit to warm up to him, mostly because he is so big and easily could hurt him, but Creature is patient and has so much sympathy and sorrow for him and soon Henry is just... Laying on his shoulders like some sort of human scarf while snoozing and shfjshjsdfhsd ;-;

Man... Henry starting to feel so safe and loved by the Lodgers and they all protect him and take care of him, they want to see him happy and recovering, even Frankenstein would be protective off him bc she knows what kind of a madman Moreau is and no one should have had to live through what Henry had to, Henry slowly but surely healing and becoming unferal and the Lodgers cheering him on and not thinking any less of him skfsjdfhsjdfJHjjsdfhjJAHJASd