#Bonus material

[waterymoss]

A look at the “Making Mel” featurette

[rachelillustrates]

Mage (Orctober 2024)

Day two!! 💚⚔

AND, with it being Wednesday, time for another world building post, dear "Tock the Gnome" readers!!

This week, we are looking at what Orcs believe about themselves and magic, and what their magic was truly like before they lost it.

Full notes here ✨🩸🍃🩸✨

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[starlightswitch]

Bad People at Security

@flashfictionfridayofficial Side characters from a WIP I think I am going to call Keeping Warm. I wrote it at least two and a half years ago and have been calling it "snowbound"-- which is not an accurate title-- since then, so it's nice to finally have something better!

“I’m bored!” Logan whined.

Before Sam could say anything, Mandy said, “Ssh!” She had a finger to her lips and everything. Sometime in the past year she’d turned into the classic big sister.

Logan ignored her. “I’m bored!” he announced again.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Micah. He always tried acting unruffled as his first tactic.

“I want to go home!”

Sam closed her eyes. They’d explained to the kids that they’d probably be moving, that they were on this trip because it was the place they were hoping to move to—the place Sam was going to rank first if she liked the program all right—and Logan had seemed like he understood. He might just mean that he wanted to not be at the airport, not that he particularly liked where they lived now. She hoped that was the case.

“We’re not going home,” said Micah, calm and unruffled. “We’re getting on the plane just as soon as we get through here. We’ll go through, we’ll find the gate where we get on the plane, and then we’ll get on the plane.”

“I won’t get on the plane!”

“You will,” Micah said, serenely, as if he was playing an oracle in a movie.

Logan jumped up and down so his backpack flopped noisily. “I won’t I won’t I won’t!”

“Logan, quit being bad,” said Mandy.

“You’re being bad! You’re all bad!”

“That’s it.” Micah grabbed Logan and swung him up. Glaring at him nose-to-nose he said, “We do not call people bad while going through security.”

Logan was startled enough to just stare back.

Micah returned him to the floor and crouched down to continue talking to him at a volume just loud enough for Sam to hear. “Security is to catch bad people. If they think you’re bad, they take you away from everyone and make you go a different way and go through a whole bunch of other stuff. Which we do not have time for. And would be much more annoying than standing in line. So we stand in line, we follow directions, we do not yell, and we do not have tantrums. Do we understand each other?”

Sam always forgot to borrow that closing line. It was such a solid one.

Logan crossed his arms and stared at the floor.

“All right,” said Micah, getting to his feet with a sigh and a look at Sam.

The line moved. Sam nudged Carly and Mandy forward and looked for Logan. Logan clomped along with his arms folded and his eyes on the floor and nearly got run over by a frazzled-looking man in a polo with a laptop bag.

Carly grabbed her brother by the arm and dragged him along. “Let’s go. Stop being bad.”

Mandy screeched to a stop. “Don’t say that!” she ordered with showy dismay. “Do you want to have to go through the tantrum entrance?”

Sam did not look at Micah. If she looked at Micah she was going to laugh.

“I don’t!” Mandy declared, hands on her hips.

Without entirely looking at him, Sam could see Micah pulling out his phone. A moment later, hers dinged. She knew without checking that it was a text from Micah, and she knew what that text said.

the tantrum entrance

She did not look at her phone. She was not going to laugh. Not right now.

[fredbensonenthusiast]

The real chit-chat club - high on caffeine and snuff...

Our Family Affairs, EF Benson, 1920

[zamppera]

Red Dwarf out of context is one thing, but what about bonus materials out of context-

[baggebythesea]

Queens of the Horde - Tumblr exclusive curtain call

"Aaaaaaaand scene," Double Trouble said and bowed deeply. The audience applauded politely. Double Trouble did a little wave, and the curtain opened behind them, showing the rest of the cast smiling and waving at the audience.

"That concludes the final act of our show 'Queens of the Horde'," Double Trouble said to the audience. "Please, give a hand for our lead actresses, Glimmer and Catra!"

Beaming, the two queens stepped forward with Adora in tow and bowed deeply.

"Tell me," Double Trouble said. "What was it like carrying the narrative."

"Too much like work," Catra said. "But at least Sparkles was cute when she was mopey."

"I got to play the bad girl AND the hero," Glimmer said with a smug smirk. "It was great."

"And how about you, Adora," Double Trouble leered. "What do you think of the ending?"

"Can't hear you over the sound of me hugging Catra and Glimmer for a MONTH!" Adora said, burying her face in Catra's fur.

"And let's here it for our breakout characters," Double Trouble went on. "Jack and Frosta, also known as 'Jack Frost' or 'Snowbunny'. Thank you!"

An enthusiastic Frosta dragged a blushing Jack with her to the middle of the stage. Jack attempted a bow, but before they knew it Frosta had scooped them up in a big kiss, to the 'Oooh's and 'Aaaw's of the rest of the cast.

"How does it feel, knowing that the readers think you're the cutest thing of the entire fic?" Double Trouble asked.

"Darn tooting we are," Frosta grinned while Jack looked at the floor without being able to answer.

"What will you do now?" Double Trouble pressed on.

"We're off to a well earned vacation," Frosta said. "Did you know that Jack has never seen a hot spring? I'm taking them to Mystacor."

"You don't have to tell them that..." Jack mumbled, not looking at the audience.

"Sorry, you're just so adorable when you're flustered," Frosta teased as they stepped to the side of the stage.

"And a big hand for our lovely support characters," Double Trouble cried. "Bow, Scorpia, Entrapta, Lonnie, Netossa, Spinnerella, Perfuma, Mermista, Sea Hawk, all the rest of you, let's give them a big hand... don't set fire to the set, Hot Stuff."

The stage filled up with people as everyone tired to fit in - or in the case of Kyle, tried to hide behind the rest.

"I for one am very proud of everyone," Bow said. "This has been a great show."

"Go us," Mermista said with dry voice and snuffed out a torch Sea Hawk was secretly trying to light.

"DID SOMEONE SAY SWIFT WIND?" the flying horse said has he landed with a crash on the stage, forcing people to flee.

"And let's not forget our Villains," Double Trouble went on as Swift Wind was ushered off the stage. "Can't have proper drama without a good antagonist." Stiffly and without acknowledging each other's presence, Hordak and Shadow Weaver walked up on stage. They glared at the audience for a moment without bowing.

"Now when the fic is over, what's your thoughts?" Double Trouble asked.

"My part was mercifully short," Hordak grumbled.

"Exactly the flat melodrama one could expect from a story staring Catra," Shadow Weaver sniffed. "I am however deeply disappointed in Micah's daughter who wastes her potential on this kind of drivel."

"It's called romance," Glimmer leered, holding Catra and Adora tighter.

"I know what I said," Shadow Weaver said and left the stage with a harrumph.

"The author wishes to thank all of us for doing a great job," Bow said, entering the stage and reading from a letter. "With a special shot-out to Jack for being a really considerate Original Character (the author has been kinda shy about writing those before so thanks for easing them into it) and a special fuck-you to Catra for being emotionally complex and making the fic ten chapters longer than it would otherwise have been."

"Can't let that fucker have it too easy," Catra smirked, while Frosta and Glimmer high fived the flustered Jack.

"The author also wishes to thank the audience," Bow went on. "Every like, reblog, kudos, read, comment, piece of art, spotify-list, tv-trope entry, theory, 'damn you'... It has been an incredible journey, and your engagement has made it all worth it. Thank you so much."

"They are just fishing for more comments, aren't they?" Lonnie sighed.

"Never deny an artist their curtain call," Double Trouble smirked.

"There sadly won't be a sequel," Bow went on, reading from the letter, "but if it were, it would have been about taking down Horde Prime with cunning and teamwork, and the author doesn't feel up to another multiple chapter story of that magnitude."

"Go read 'Queen Glimmer - Supreme ruler of the universe' for that kind of story," Glimmer quickly piped in.

"Then what will be the author's next project?" Double Trouble asked.

"Well, obviously they need another big Glitra project," Catra immediately said. "I know they had an s1 story planned awhile back..."

"...or maybe some Glimmadora?" Adora blushed. "A sequel to Glimmer's hero?"

"Or perhaps another entry in the 'Baker and the Biker' series?" Bow hopefully said.

"All excellent options," Glimmer grinned. "And of course 'Glimmer dates everyone' is still woefully incomplete."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Catra said with an eyeroll. "The author has a type."

"So do you," Glimmer said with a sweet smile, causing Catra to turn away her face to hide a blush.

"And 'You even taste like Glitter' will keep update monthly," Bow explained. "Apparently something big is planned for two or three chapters from now."

"Will Catra finally pop the question?" Glimmer teased.

"Shut up, Sparkles," Catra muttered.

"I heard they are taking a stab at original fiction," Double Trouble helpfully said. "A short story about creepy princesses, and then something with mermaids?"

"What?" Glimmer said in indignation. "Why would they want to write about a dumb mermaid instead of me?"

"Because mermaids are, like, awesome," Mermista said with a little smug smile.

"Right you are, my oceanic blossom!" Sea Hawk rumbled and put his arms around her shoulders. She rolled her eyes and moved a bit closer to him.

"Yeah, whatever," Catra said with an eyeroll of her own. "We all know they'll write about a pink princess named 'Flimmer' in half a year or so anyway."

"That's trademark violation!" Glimmer gasped.

"Hate to break it to you, Glimmer," Bow said with a gentle smile, "but you are not the first pink princess in history."

"No, but I'm the best," Glimmer countered.

"You'll find the author's original fiction at Writer's Café and Royal Road, pen name Bagge," Double Trouble quickly interjected. "However, they promise that they won't give up on fanfic either. There will be more Glimmer stories to come."

"There'd better be," Glimmer sniffed.

"Anyway," Double Trouble said, while the cast took another deep bow. "Thank you everyone - cast and readers alike - for sharing this journey. Tons of fun were had, and there will be more where that came from. Keep making fandom great and have a grand ol' time."

They looked straight at the audience.

"And scene."

[reservoirreputation]

'Dimples' Extras, Part One

Just some bonus material for my Reservoir Dogs fic Dimples. For fellow writers/nerds/curious folks.

Spoilers for the whole fic, obviously. Not that far down in my blog, go read it if you haven't, yet.

*The original summary for my outline, to help guide me, give me an idea for how I wanted the story to look*

Summary: Canon compliant what if some people survived. Orange, White and Pink. Pink was a diplomat for once, Freddy was only shot in the mouth, and White in the shoulder, any closer would’ve hit Freddy. Even with two crooks, White’s still the bigger, and only, known name. They try desperately to get him fixed up, should Freddy die from his wounds. Prison break during the transfer during White and Pink’s retiral, headed by Freddy, who’s ready to burn all the bridges. He even steals the diamonds that were in evidence from the job that went wrong. All to give it to White and and Pink, with some for himself to run off with.

Freddy gives nothing on White or Pink, blames it all on Blonde. He’s too attached to White, and Pink’s cooperation is needed, and if he thinks he’s covered, vouched for, he’ll keep his mouth shut.

Freddy’s fixed up, with a world class plastic surgeon brought in. Thanks to his baby-face cheeks, Freddy’s scars are reduced to mismatched dimples. A few of his molars were shattered, and dental caps provided.

There’s the feeling from his fellow officers that Freddy may be suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Between defending the perp who shot him, and wanting to quit the force, it’s shaping up to be he was in the field for too long. Then he lets them know about how he got his first gunshot wound. He fesses up to killing a civilian, and the force does everything to ignore it, handwave it, but Freddy insists. The forensics don’t help, and it would look worse if LAPD were letting their undercovers go native like this. A deal is made; White and Pink would be cleared of suspicion of killing any cops, and a retired officer with accolades won’t be trotted out to make the whole institution look bad. Freddy loses a lot of favor from that, but not all.

Pink and White get shockingly low sentences. Freddy’s never mentioned or credited, but both know he’s the only one who could’ve campaigned this hard. White’s surprised, Pink isn’t. When they’re sent to the same prison for violent offenders, as much is said. White was so convinced that Freddy was dead, he didn’t believe it until the little bastard showed up at his, and subsequently Pink’s, trial. And on the side of the aisle sitting behind the defense. He didn’t have to say shit, and it implied everything and nothing at the same time. Pink wasn’t surprised at all. White was responsible for saving the kid’s life on a number of occasions, when it would’ve been easier to mercy kill him, and vouched for the little shit even harder. Pink says it don’t need to make sense, and dryly delivers that there’s no need to look a gift horse in the mouth.

White wasn’t going to say shit, wasn’t gonna turn anyone over. He wouldn’t have even mentioned the woman Orange had killed. News of Newandyke lawyering up, and opening up communication with White and Pink’s respective attorneys, was all news to him. That’s where the defense strategy was introduced; Freddy would minimize their involvement, and the other two just needed to keep quiet. At White’s petty request, which he didn’t think would be taken seriously, he said he didn’t want to see hide nor hair of the guy responsible for the defense strat. It was oddly to White, unsurprising to literally everyone else, that it was honored. Pink thought White was mad to even tempt fate like that, and now it sounded like Pink had picked up the torch of defending Freddy’s integrity.

White had been in love, and then betrayed. It hurt his head to know he was still in love, even as he pulled the trigger. He didn’t know what disturbed him more, now; that he was still down bad for the former Mr. Orange, or that Freddy didn’t let being shot in the face stop him from paying back a debt. Because, surely, that’s what all of this is? Pink had laid it out in a way that made so much sense, that Freddy was merely making up for all the times Larry had defended him. After their sentences were secured, surely Freddy would accept a promotion and the salary raise that came with it, and leave their lives for good. Pink thought Larry was being obtuse; this love was a two-way street. It was obvious the moment Larry had admitted to telling Orange his name, long before the job.

Rumor mills work the same no matter where they take place. There was some heat on the inside because Larry and Pink were in on some deal with the cop that set them up. The dirty looks only went so far because Larry still commanded a certain amount of respect. The Cabot line was dead, their allies few, and their enemies willing to look the other way. Word of Newandyke’s resignation spread like wildfire, and soon the speculation in the prison and the LAPD headquarters began to sync up; White and Orange must’ve been an item. The attitude was either that Larry had a magical dick that even a cop couldn’t say no to, or that Freddy had lost his goddamned mind on a little something called love. Both had the same result, really. Inmates would routinely quip that if they knew it was that easy, they would’ve blown the DA years ago. Cops would say with newfound certainty that they always knew that Officer Newandyke was strange, in that vintage sense.

Any chances of Freddy changing his mind, returning to the force, went out the window when he got word of the latest hot gossip. It was overheard, out in the open. Freddy knew that if he heard his soon-to-be-former coworkers talk like this on accident, that means they were saying mad shit behind closed doors, probably hundreds of times by now. The whole twisting of his superior’s arm, threatening to make the force look bad, wasn’t making people want to give Freddy the benefit of the doubt. He now sensed a campaign had been launched against him, to make him look biased as hell, and call into question every single last one of his statements. Worst part was, it was all true. Except for any fucking, he was absolutely doing this because he was saving Larry’s skin. He was saving a cop killer from being charged as such because he loved him. The more people that learned about what crimes Freddy was trying to hide, the more the officers of the LAPD hated his guts. He was a traitor.

When Freddy got wind of a retrial, which involved new evidence and discrediting of previous testimony, he knew which way the wind was blowing. The rest of the guys at the station wanted the cop killers charged, even if it meant ruining the reputation of one of their own. Likely, this would never end; not for Freddy, not Larry, not Pink. One, if not all three, may have an ‘accident’ in the near future. And Freddy could either lie there and take it, or go on the offense.

The first thing is to get a little insurance. He steals the diamonds from evidence. Not all, but some, along with other precious materials in the back. Other cops did it all the time, mooching off of leftover product. But he couldn’t go all in on the original diamonds, because they would be packed up once more as part of the prosecution. The other cops wouldn’t be double checking it’s weight, because if it didn’t match up, it could’ve honestly been any one of them who’d gotten sticky fingers.

He next makes a production about moving out of his smaller, shittier apartment, and is in contact with his Mom upstate about moving back in, just while he’s changing careers. Plenty of phone calls and a paper trail. He also lets it slip to one of the local newspapers that he won’t be attending the retrial. Obvious why he wouldn’t, for those in the know. It’ll be disheartening when word gets back to Larry and Pink, but it’ll set everyone’s expectations. On trial day, Freddy Newandyke will be four hours away moving back in with Mommy.

The transfer van had left early in the morning, with the two inmates on board. From Larry and Pink’s perspectives, they can’t see shit, and were never well-versed enough with the area to even make a guess. They hear a commotion outside. The back of the van’s windowless, so they can only guess that maybe someone had a wreck. The car comes to a stop, one of the front doors opens. There’s two guards up front, and they suppose it won’t be the driver getting out. Another door opens, there’s yelling, a gunshot.

The van begins to move.

Pink starts to sweat, thinking maybe that Cabot’s friends are finally getting revenge. Or that the LAPD wasn’t gonna let them make it to trial. He’s practically hysterical, thinking this out loud, and Larry tries to get him to shut up. As that’s like telling a fish not to swim, Larry switches to reasoning; they didn’t need the big production, involving a gun, to achieve that. He’s not actually thinking it through, himself, he just wants Pink to shut the fuck up. Pink counters that now the cops have the cover story that they were carjacked, can blame it on Cabot loyalists. Larry doesn’t want to admit how much that freaks him out.

There’s no way to tell how much time has passed, but it feels like a good twenty minutes. Could’ve been five, could easily have been an hour. The van eventually stops. Pink and Larry look at each other. They whisper about going on three, running separate directions, so at least one of them can bail. Both also realize that, still being cuffed, wouldn’t matter how far they get. It feels like it’s the end of the line.

The front door opens. Shuts. Footsteps on gravel. The sound stops. Three knocks on the van door.

“Don’t freak out on me, alright?”

Pink says, “Motherfuckin’ Orange.”

Light pours in, and there stands Freddy Newandyke.

Freddy has the keys, and without so much as a hello, he undoes the cuffs. He steps back out, waiting for the other two to join. 

Larry is feeling petty. He’s feeling relieved. One or the other will make it to the finish line, first.

“You a cop killer now, Newandyke?”

Freddy stares back at him. “No, I’d knocked him out.” he’s wearing a plaid shirt, opens the flap. There’s a bullet hole embedded in body armor. “If you assholes ever work again, tell your future bosses that suits look dope as shit, but are fuck all against bullets.”

Pinks laughs, throwing his head back. Larry could practically kiss Freddy, right here and now.

“Only took you a few more years, kid,” Pink starts, “I think you’re finally in, now.”

[lizzisgeek]

we're all positive that crowley had something to do with this particular section of the book, right? i bet it was him who drew the picture too

[ineffablekink]

Friendly reminder that this post was by me (with a different username back then) and I'm still proud that this is my greatest fandom discovery :)

Ineffable (the website)

I was searching for the poster from Good Omens’ Hell (to print and hang around in my office…) and I stumbled into this little gem of a website. It looks like no one has mentioned it yet here on Tumblr, so if you, like me, have missed it, I suggest you go visit right now.

http://www.silvascreen.com/ineffable/

It’s a simple click and browse website but it’s very fun to visit! And it’s clearly been made with lots of love for the book and the tv series.

It was made by the same company that published the soundtrack to Good Omens, Silva Screen ( @silvascreenrecords​ ) and if you click around you can find some bonus material from the show and the CD.

I was able to download the digital booklet from the soundtrack, with introduction by Neil Gaiman. I also visited Heaven, Hell, Eden and Aziraphale’s bookshop. 

And at the end I was rewarded with a lot of cool wallpapers!

Keep reading

[autemtoday]

Fairytale.Live

[gobbogoo]

I think Laios's father represents a version of Laios who never found people who supported him and his interests; someone who was hurt one too many times by his inability to communicate or read social cues, and has fully retracted into himself as a result.

Very similar to Laios, he's grown to prefer the company of beasts over men, and hunts for food as a means of escapism. The only difference is Laios has people to share these interests with, while his father had only his hounds. His description here especially makes him seem not particularly uncaring, just sad and lonely.

Do you think at one point he was as cheerful as Laios?

[freindsssssss]

He does not dislike fun park

[rachelillustrates]

Promo - "Tock the Gnome" World Building Wednesday 282

Time for another world building post, dear readers!!

This week, we are taking a quick, lighthearted, whimsical look at one more creature of the Lowlands.

Full notes here 🍃

~

Bonus art and stories ~ Prints, comics and more!

[starlightswitch]

How Many Days

@flashfictionfridayofficial I also like to figure things out and like having a good reason for things (and sometimes the "good" reason is just math).

“Did you know some cultures give a gift when you’ve been together 100 days?”

“Together?” said Sonya, looking up from her computer.

“Like a couple. When you’ve been in a relationship for 100 days.”

Well, that seemed obvious now. But the comment had come out of nowhere just after the dorm room door had shut behind her roommate. “Where’d you learn that?” she said. From what she knew so far she didn’t think Rebecca was into random facts.

Rebecca put her hands on the bed and hopped backward onto it. “A guy in one of my classes asked me for advice on what to get his girlfriend,” she said. “He’s Korean I think? He said it was for their hundred days so it must be a thing.” She laughed. “I wonder what Luke would have gotten me for our hundred days? He probably would have been asking for tips too.”

Of course Rebecca had a boyfriend she’d started dating in high school. Sonya could have gotten a roommate who didn’t have a boyfriend and didn’t want one, or one who didn’t have one and did want one, or one who’d also broken up with someone at the end of senior year and knew she should move on but didn’t know if she was ready to—and instead her random roommate had a boyfriend and was happy with him and Sonya had to hear her talk about him.

Well, she didn’t have to. She could have told Rebecca about the breakup and asked her not to talk about her boyfriend. But that didn’t seem very friendly, and she didn’t really want to talk about the breakup. It was sort of tragically comforting that no one she talked to in this city knew about the relationship at all.

“How many days have you and Luke been together?” she asked, sitting up a little. Her lower back was starting to hurt from being curled against the wall.

“I don’t know,” said Rebecca, not uninterested but not going on to do the math.

“Over 365, right? More than a year?”

“Yeah, March of junior year. The 31st.”

Sonya opened a new Excel page on her computer and started typing in numbers of days: 30 for April, 31 for May, 30 for June. She remembered quickly that she could have just typed in the dates and had Excel subtract them, but counting seemed more fun—it built the suspense. “Yeah, 100 would be last July,” she said. “200 was last October. 500 was last month. You’re almost at 550.”

“That’s a lot of days,” Rebecca said contentedly. “How many is 1000 days?” She grinned. “I should tell Luke I want something fantastic for 1000 days. Start planning now. We could go on a trip. That would be like senior year, right?”

Sonya typed in the equation. “Two and three quarters. This spring is one year, next spring is two, so it’s like winter break next year. Tell him you want a fantastic trip over break.” It was weird she’d sounded so casual, she realized after she said it. She’d felt so casual. She’d actually forgotten for a minute to be jealous of Rebecca having a boyfriend to plan a trip with.

But now that she was thinking about it again, she wondered how many days she and Brandon had been together. More than 100. Less than 300. The easiest way to stop thinking about it would be to answer the question, so she deleted up to September from her list of months and worked from there. A little over 200 days. Which made her wonder…

She added more months, and found when she would have been broken up with Brandon longer than they’d been together. November.

She could be ready to move on by then, she thought. "You've been broken up longer than you were together" felt like a good reason to be ready to move on.

[stozkpile]

NPC Tulpar crew

+ Pre-crash Curly under the cut

[rainintheevening]

Two things it should be illegal to make DVDs without: Bloopers and Deleted Scenes.