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gunterfan1992 · 4 years ago

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Interview with James Baxter (the Human)

Guess what, everyone? I just had the pleasure of exchanging emails with James Baxter—that’s right the James Baxter! James is something of a legend in the animation world, and he is known for his beautifully expressive animation style that is able to make even the simplest shape look majestic and full of life. In addition to the myriad movies he has worked on, James also contributed special animation to Adventure Time, working on season five’s “James Baxter the Horse” and season eight’s “Horse and Ball”; not only was the character named after him, but he even got to voice his horse doppelgänger!

And so, without further ado, Mr. James Baxter the Human:

GunterFan: I know that you've recounted it before, but would it be possible to get your take on the 'origin story' of the "James Baxter the Horse" episode. How did it all come together?

James Baxter: Well, Pen and I were in contact with each other while I was working at DreamWorks. I had known about him since he had left CalArts and I had already told him how much I liked Adventure Time, and I had told him that if he ever needed me to do anything to give me a call. I guess he heard me because later he asked me to meet him at a tiny sandwich place that was on Flower St. and Sonora in Burbank (it's called Little Ground now, but I can't remember what it used to be back then). There, he pitched me the idea for the character and he gave me a quick sketch of James Baxter the Horse. I said yes, absolutely I would love to animate and voice that for you, that sounds amazing. He also reminded me of one of my animation demo lectures that I had done at CalArts when he was a student there. I usually ask for suggestions from the students of what they would like me to animate for them, so they can see the thought process. At that lecture someone yelled out, "Do a horse balancing on a ball!" (it may have been Pen) I guess as a goof, knowing that might be a little tricky for a quick demo. I remember asking for something a little simpler please. I suppose Pen remembered that moment because that's where the idea came from. As far as the actual episode goes, and what happens in it, that's all Pen and his team.

GF: What was the animation process like? How long did it take you to get everything all together?

JB: I saw the storyboard, and they gave me a printed copy of it, as well as some exposure sheets for the shots that the horse was in. I spent a little time working out some different cycles that I could move between, James balancing in place, James turning in a circle etc. I was trying to do cycles that could be reused over and over in different shots to save on work. it was all animated on paper and all the clean up drawings were done by my wife Kendra. Then all those drawings were shipped overseas to the production studio that was doing the rest of the animation for the show, so that they could do the color and compositing. I guess it took us about a month or six weeks, but I was only working on it evenings and weekends.

GF: How much say did you have with regard to the character design? What about key poses? Were you given creative freedom?

JB: I was given a lot of freedom. I just had that one sketch that Pen had drawn, but he had suggested that I give it a more flowing mane and tail. I remember sending a drawing of mine back to the team at Cartoon Network so that they could do a color model for him. As far as key poses went, I just had the boards to go from, which were clear but not super detailed, so I had a lot of freedom to make up the animation as long as I stayed true to the staging and to the length of the shots. By the time i got the exposure sheets the dialogue tracks had already been written on them, which is common practice, so I could animate to the sound.

GF: I love James Baxter (the Horse)'s voice! What inspired the accent and the whinny? What was the recording process like?

JB: I guess the voice is me just trying to be horsey, and a little posh, and British. He only ever says his name (no trouble remembering the lines!), so it's a little hard to really define an accent, but I'm British so that's where I went. My natural accent hovers somewhere over the mid-Atlantic since I've lived in the US for over thirty years. The whinny is just me trying not to cough as I'm trying to make horsey noises! Voice acting is not my talent, but it was a lot of fun, mostly because it was so surreal just saying my own name in different ways for half an hour! They were very nice and patient with me.

GF: I haven't been able to find a lot of info on "Horse and Ball." What was that like? Was it different the second time?

JB: How did you feel returning to the show? Well, I was very pleased to get another chance to do more James Baxter, but there was more footage of him in the second episode and I had less time to do it. That meant that I only animated a few shots of him in that episode, not all of him as I had done in the first one. I would have loved to have done it all, but there just wasn't time. But it was just as fun to animate, especially falling off the ball and the dance at the end.

GF: What has the reception been like on your end? Do folks ever connect your name to the character without realizing that they're both you?

JB: I’ve never had the "Oh, I never knew that James Baxter was a real person" comment face to face, but I've seen it quite a lot in comment sections on YouTube and other places online. I've got to say, it's very gratifying having this amazing alter-ego of me in AT, especially since he's such a benevolent character. I'm glad Pen didn't decide to make him a jerk! All he does is ride around cheering people up, how amazing is that?! It's certainly become a gateway for a whole lot of people to discover me as an artist, not just a cartoon character.

I hope to incorporate all this information into the second edition of Exploring the Land of Ooo... one day. Either way, thank you James Baxter for not only agreeing to a little interview, but also making the world a better place!

#adventure time #adventuretime #atimers #james baxter #james baxter the horse #james baxter the human #animation #interview

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ratsoh-writes · 3 years ago

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What do their bedrooms/living areas look like? I'm going to use all 3 of my asks to request this for all of the boys if that's ok! ❤

Man, I’ve had this one in my secret notes for a good while now!

Undertale:

Both the tale brothers live in a nice little gated community. Their house is one of the smaller ones and has the same layout as the one in Snowdin. The house is pretty basic with some cozy throws and wall tapestries to spruce it up

Sans: his room actually has a proper bed and frame this time. The sheets and blankets are still bundled up in a pile on the floor though. Sans also has his homemade trashnado in the corner. There’s a desk on the wall adjacent to the door which has his laptop. And several folders stacked next to it. Other than a dresser, there’s literally nothing else in there. Sans doesn’t care much about stuff

Papyrus: his room has bright orange walls. He left the race car bed behind underground but has a race car blanket to make up for it. His walls are covered in superhero and comic posters. He also has a display case for some old figurines and his comic collection. Papyrus’ desk is one of those nice fancy drafting ones where he can adjust it to tilt upwards. He has a ship wheel attached to his door for some reason.

Underswap

The swap bros home is only a few blocks from the classic brothers neighborhood. The only thing basic about it is the cream walls. All the furniture and decorations are bright colors. The kitchen especially is real nice. The oven and stove are top notch, and the counters are filled with mason jars full of goodies.

Star: his room can blind a lesser man when you walk in. The walls are bright yellow, the bed (which is a bunk bed by the way) is neon orange. Galaxy posters decorate the wall. Besides the clashing colors, the furniture is pretty basic. Only the top bunk actually has a mattress. The bottom bunk is used as a storage shelf. He also has a shoe rack by his door

Honey: you can practically feel the nerdy aura as you enter his room. The first thing you see is a display case housing some neat figurines of characters from his favorite shows. He’s also got a pretty nice bookshelf on the opposite wall that’s nearly full. Honeys bed has a curtain around it for extra privacy with a nice little wall lamp above the pillows

Underfell

They have a home a little closer to the city center but still far enough to be considered suburbs. It’s a very sleek and modern house with white walls, tile floors and sleek black and metal furniture. The only thing that doesn’t fit the rest of the theme is this nasty old patched up sofa in the living room. The thing is absolutely hideous but is sooo comfy.

Red: his room has soft grey walls and smells like miter oil. Makes sense since one wall is just a long basic table covered in machine parts that red tinkers with in his down time. He actually doesn’t have a bed. Instead he sleeps on this giant leather bean bag. He likes it that way. There’s a few car posters decorating the walls

Edge: he obviously put a lot of thought into his rooms decorations. Everything is pretty black marble or a sleek white wood. His bed covers are blood red with a nice geometric designs on top in silver. He has a beautiful black desk with some pretty jars filled to the brim with nothing but novelty pens. If you looked in his desk drawers you would find notebooks and even more pens

Swapfell

They don’t own a house and instead live in a two bedroom one bath apartment on the third floor of one of lords complexes. The furniture is pretty minimalistic but very nice quality. Most decorations are metal

Mal: the first thing you’ll see in his room is a large wooden drawing desk where pencils and watercolors are neatly arranged on the side. There’s also a vanity with a light up mirror and a nice collection of makeup. Also a huge slanted hunters knife. He uses it to make sure his eyeliner is extra sharp.

Cash: his bedroom is the perfect definition of organized chaos. It looks messy but for cash, he knows exactly where every thing is. There’s a small tv in there with some old game consoles hooked up to it. The bed is never made.

Horrortale

Their home rests in a neighborhood bordering the forest of ebott. The houses there all have a lot more yard space than most houses in the city. The horrortale home is super cozy with lots of knit throws and pillows scattered around. The back patio has a little dog door and there’s a 50% chance of seeing a chicken walk through lol

Oak: his room is also pretty basic. The bed however has so many blankets. Like way more than any person should need. Oak is a blanket hoarder. There’s a lot of notebooks stacked on his wooden desk along with a file of patterned paper for scrapbooking.

Willow: his room has a raised bed with a cute little ladder on the side so that his dog can jump up. You can tell a lot of the furniture has been homemade or refurbished. The room is larger and in the middle is a circular stone table that’s stained with paint. It’s usually housing his latest craft

Underlust

They used to live in the same neighborhood as the classic brothers but have recently moved closer to the inner city because of work. Their home is still in the process of being unpacked mostly, but their rooms are done! The house is actually pretty conservative looking with grey walls, white wooden furniture and soft pastel decor. They do have a stripper pole in the living room though lol

Charm: his room looks exactly how you expect from him. Dark walls with lots of bright rave type decorations. On his dresser is a large pretty cake display that stands out from the rest of the rooms theme lol. His room is always on a state of organized chaos with his desk and bed covered in nick knacks but the floors staying oddly clean

Sugar: his room has light lavender walls and black furniture. It’s a big difference from the soft feminine style people expect from him. Instead sugar has a more sleek modern style to his room. He also has a standard mannequin in the middle that always has a new dresses pinned to it.

Fellswap (red)

They own a pretty two story house only a block away from the two apartment complexes that lord owns. The front lawn/garden is in top shape with lots of those metal flower decorations stuck in the ground along the dirt outline. Inside the house is most worn but comfy looking furniture. Nothing special

Lord: his room is pretty basic with mostly brown and grey accents. He does have a large mostly filled bookcase. There’s also two white bean bags and a deep red rug that covers nearly the whole floor of the room.

Mutt: he actually has two rooms. The first is pretty simple with just his bed, a writing desk and a rack for some shoes. Also his bird cage for KFC (pet pigeon). The second room has a sink, and several cages and boxes for the injured animals that he rehabilitates. The second room is slightly larger than his actual room.

Fellswap gold

They actually live in a studio apartment above wines antique shop. The apartment used to be an unused storage static until wine bought the building and repurposed it. The living space itself is a little small, but they also have access to the roof which the gold bros use as a potted garden and dining area.

Wine: his room is very classy with silk curtains on the window and a silky cream canopy above his head. All the furniture is a dark grey wood with pretty carvings and designs. The walls are decorated with beautiful floral paintings from his brother. It’s a pretty well planned out room. Very cosy and luxurious

Coffee: he has two rooms as well. The smaller of the two is just his bed, dresser, closet and a tv with some consoles hooked up to it. The second room has shelves lining nearly every wall except for one which is just a big collab mural. On the shelves is various art supplies and projects. There’s one large sketch desk on one wall. And finally in the middle of the room is a tarp attached to the floor housing whatever piece of furniture coffee is restoring at the moment .

Dancetale

They also own an apartment, one of the flats in lords buildings on the ground floor. It’s the other building from the swapfell brothers. The walls are painted a cheery yellow and the house is mostly decorated with spring colors. There’s always a huge bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen.

Pop: his room is mix and match of completely different furniture and gadgets. Pop isn’t someone who cares about themes so he will keep whatever catches his fancy. Instead of a bed, he has a hammock attacked to the ceiling with a pillow and some throw blankets casually tossed on top lol.

Rhythm: his room is pretty sparse with just his bed, a shoe rack, and a dresser. On the dresser are pictures of each of his face classes right before they graduate. Rhythm doesn’t really care all that much about decor so the walls are pretty bare too

Outertale

They live in the same gated community as the classic brothers! The outertale home has high ceilings and lots of windows. The living room is the real centerpiece of the home. It has several large antique bookcases and display cases. Inside the displays are various rocks and crystals and the occasional fossil. It’s really neat.

Pluto: his room is comprised of mostly blues grays and greens. He has a small bookcase on the side of his bed where he keeps the things he’s currently reading. There’s also a large fish-tank with an assortment of saltwater fish inside. Pluto’s room also has a large circular fluffy rug in the middle of the floor. The floor itself is hardwood

Jupiter: his room has a similar color scheme except instead of greens, Jupiter has gold instead. He has some exercise equipment stacked nicely on the side of his bed including weights. There’s a wall tapestry with a printed picture of the asteroid belt the outertale monsters used to live in.

Gastertale

The gaster brothers also live in the same neighborhood as the classic and outertale bros. They’re at the very end in the little cul-de-sac. The interior of the house is almost all white with cream carpet, metro grey walls, and white furniture. A few of the small decorations add a bit of color. There’s a lot of potted succulents.

G: his room is probably the only dark room of the house. His walls are a charcoal grey and the furniture is mostly jet black with a few mustard colored decorations. There’s a metal wire bookcase hanging on the wall. G also has a plastic anatomy dummy that he dresses up in his motorcycle gear when he’s not using it. G thinks he’s funny

Green: like the rest of the home, his room is also mostly white. He has a pretty pale green rack for all of his glasses on his dresser. Green also has his several degrees framed in silver on the walls. his room is always spotless

Farmtale:

The farm bros have an old Victorian home that they fixed up themselves. They’re home borders the acres of farmland they own and is about a 45 minute drive from ebott city. The inside is decorated with mostly wooden furniture. There’s like four rocking chairs on the porch lol

Peaches: his room fits the theme of the house with mostly wooden furniture and a lot of quilts and rugs to add color and soften it up. Peaches always has a vase of fresh wildflowers on his dresser. The walls have photographs of plants and animals taped to them that peaches took himself.

Rancher: this mad lad has a large moose skull hanging above his four poster log cabin bed. He also hangs his favorite hunting rifles just below the moose lol. His bedroom is mostly wooden of course but is also decorated with lots of red and orange plaids.

Horrorfell

They live in the same neighborhood as the horrortale and horrorswap brothers. Their home is literally right in between the two. Inside it’s decorated in a mix between sleek modern metals and frumpy cozy style. Somehow the horrorfell bros still have their original sofa from the underground. There’s a lot of little homemade staircases for their cat doomfanger who’s too old to claim on top of things herself now

Rust: his walls are painted a soft heather grey and have some basic wooden decorations that noir painted for fun. The furniture is pretty normal with the exception of a large treasure style chest next to his bed. Open it up and you’ll find a collection of drawings and gifts from the kids he’s watched over the years. Rust didn’t have the heart to throw them away.

Noir: unsurprisingly, his room is littered in canvases and paintings on the walls. It’s divided into two sides: the messy paint side and his nice neat living side. He even has a line of tape going down the middle to complete the divide. On his living side is his bed, closet, and a low bookcase that he uses as a second dresser. The actual bookcase is in the living room

Horrorswap

As y’all all know, their house is right next to the horrorfells and one house away from the horrortales. They like bright colors and have a sort of summery themed house. The best part is the back garden which is filled with garden boxes of veggies, fruit bushes, and fruit trees.

Lilac: his rooms main color is a pretty powder blue along with canary yellow and some bright green. He has a yoga mat on the floor in place of a rug. The walls have some neat sunrise posters

Basil: his room is pretty cosy with lots of knit blankets and fluffy pillows. He has a massive poster of Pixar’s ratatouille that rust got him as a joke. Basil has like five coconut planters, each housing a different herb plant making his room smell like an Italian restaurant

The Mafias (tale, fell, swap)

The mafia brothers live in an apartment complex masquerading as a warehouse. The ground and top two floors are working area while there were three secret basement levels. The mafia bros home consists of the whole bottom level with all their rooms connected to a hallway. At the end of the hallway is a living space and the kitchen.

Snipe: his room is the one closest to the living area. Inside is sage walls with a few house plants that can survive in low light. His bed is almost never made lol. If one was to tear the room apart, they would find at least six different guns stashed in hidden compartments

Bruiser: his room is the closest to the staircase. Inside the room somehow looks super messy but is actually spotless. Bruiser decorates the walls with all kinds of gifts people randomly give him during his vigilante escapes. Stuff from pocket mirrors, to foreign currency to even a small collection of sea shells. He drilled holes into them and hung them up on strings. Other than his walls, the furniture is pretty plain

Butch: his room is a mix of greys, blacks an silvers with the basics of furniture and a small black leather sofa. On the walls are some pretty hand melded metal decorations that butch made himself. He smokes in his room so it reeks of cigars

Boss: his room fits him perfectly with clean white plaster walls, sleek metal furniture and black and gold marble decor. Everything in that room has a specific place. If anyone moved his stuff, he’d know. It’s the only mafia bro room that doesn’t caught smell like smoke somehow. There’s a male model mannequin that he uses to practice designing clothes on

Ace: the most eye catching part of his room is a large vanity with several lamps attached and a very extensive makeup kit. I’m talking professional grade. Ace isn’t the spy for nothing. He also has an open closet so all his clothing is out on display. The main color of his room is mauve funny enough

Slim: his room is a drab grey and has a large desk taking up a whole wall. It’s filled with screens and monitors. He also has a few tv screens hooked up to the wall. It almost looks like a security room. On the other side is his bed with a canopy curtain for privacy. There’s a few anime posters on the wall as well

#undertale imagines #undertale headcanons #undertale #underswap #underfell #swapfell #horrortale #underlust #fellswap red #fellswap gold #dancetale #outertale #gastertale #farmtale #horrorfell #horrorswap #mafiatale #mafiafell #mafiaswap

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blametheeditor · 3 years ago

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Inktober Day 18: Moon

Warnings: Cursing.

Moon: the earth's natural satellite

Yes, I make ink magical, and no one can stop me.

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Henry knew he messed up when his vote decided the latest project for Joey Drew’s Studio will be about Bendy trying to go to the moon.

Sammy gave him a look saying he better pray the music director already has an unused tune that’ll be easy to convert into something that sounds ‘spacey’. Susie made a familiar face that says Alice Angel better in this one or else it’ll be the third time in a row her character been cast to the side. Grant immediately stormed off once it was clear there wouldn’t be a week-long war over a tie, meaning he needs to try and get Joey to realize just how much this was going to cost.

The thing is, he wasn’t really worried about those particular coworkers. Give Grant someone to rant to, offer to help Susie with vocal performances, and bribe Wally not to bother Sammy for at least five minutes.

No, he’s currently worried about the literal demon grinning at him.

Before the animator can get to safety, a glove catches his arm. “Where ya think you’re goin’, Hen?”

The teenager slumps into the chair threatening to fall apart any second now, admitting defeat he’s been captured. He shouldn’t have even tried to run either. Not when Joey brought a cartoon to life with ink. If the darling devil hadn’t snagged him before he clocked out tonight, Henry can guarantee he would’ve been swallowed by the toxic liquid and transported against his will.

An involuntary shiver races down his spine at that thought. “Bendy, I’m beat, bud. I’ve got five minutes on the clock!”

“Five minutes ya’ll use ta draw me a God*BANG* moon.”

Henry sighs dramatically before obediently standing up, letting a cartoon only three feet tall to drag him to his desk. Plopping into his chair. Letting his hands flop onto the blank sheet being provided.

“Hen!” The animator snickers. ”Hen!”

“Shh. This is how I prepare myself for animating.”

“Like hell you do! Draw ya *ZING*.”

“I’m drawing, I’m drawing,” Henry relents. He curls over his desk in the familiar position every doctor would chastise him for if he had any hope to not have severe back problems when he’s older. They might even yell if they found out he was used as a preferred sleeping spot for someone the weight of a small child.

They wouldn’t accept the excuse of Bendy’s cartoonish snores making him relaxed and inspired. Not when he’d admit that allowed him to stay in the odd position even longer than he usually would.

At least his spine won’t be strained tonight. Not with pie-cut eyes watching the animator draw from beside the desk, a long and pointed tail they never pictured him having swishly back and forth lazily.

Henry would love to give his demon an entire scene. The only problem is Drew would have his head if he goes overtime. And not because he’s worried about his employees getting a good night’s sleep before work.

He finishes up a pretty decent moon considering the usual sketches consist of trees or buildings. The half-moon that Alice Angel sat on was drawn as a prop. This consisted of actual craters. The shadow from the earth to make it a true half-moon.

The teenager sits up with a smile, stretching in relief when he sees it only just turned eight o’clock. “There ya are, Bendy. Happy?”

“Took ya long enough,” the cartoon smirks as his eyes stay locked onto the picture. “I can’t wait ta try it out!”

“Mmhmm.”

There’s silence for just a second too long, and when he looks down to meet a maniacal grin. “Why don’t ya try it with me?”

Henry doesn’t have enough time to even curse before the entire world goes pitch black and cold. Just like it always does when his best friend envelopes him in ink. Because their little darling devil loves transporting everyone in order to disorient them. Bonus points if they’re wearing nice clothing so it gets stained and forever ruined.

The animator’s the one it’s done to the most because he lets the demon do it. But this time, he’s going to throttle that nonexistent neck because Joey’s going to kill him for not clocking out on time!

That is, if Henry can fine his damn creation, stumbling as if he’s drunk as soon as the endless void suddenly releases him, never ready for gravity when it gets turned back on. He lands on his back at Bendy’s feet, so at least he knows where his soon-to-be victim is.

“Nice goin’, Hen. Can’t even get ya *BOING* on the *BANG* page.”

“Ya’ll hate me more when I tell drew me being paid extra next week is your fault.”

The horned head only tilts in thought, a glove sitting as if holding his chin. “I wonder if I could do it Bor an’ Alli’s help.”

Henry finally manages to stand up. “Bendy, I love ya, but can we fuck with me a different day? Like when I’m not supposed to be-?”

His words are suddenly caught in his throat once he realizes something’s wrong. Very wrong.

Brown eyes flicker toward the ground. The pure white ground. Not the wooden boards of the studio he’s drawn over a thousand times whenever he gets board and needs to keep the pen moving or else he’ll run out of motivation. Somewhere the texture beneath his shoes feel too rough. Like how his desk feels when he wipes his hand across it.

One look toward Bendy, at what’s behind Bendy, and his chest tightens.

“Darling,” he breathes. “Where are we?”

The cartoon grins like nothing’s wrong. “On ya desk!”

“Why am I three inches tall?”

His bottle of ink sits on the corner of the page so it wasn’t in his way. The same bottle that sat comfortably in his hand. The same bottle that now casts a shadow over him.

Henry stumbles back, unable to keep his breathing slow and calm. He’s not freaking out, that’s not what’s happening. He’s just surprised, that’s all it is! He’s not thinking about how anyone can walk over and-

“G-Grow me!”

Bendy’s mouth opens, and then shuts. “Riiiiight.”

“Bendy!”

“I c’n do it, I c’n do it!” the demon exclaims. “I just...c’n’t right now.”

Henry stares at the cartoon. “Bendy. Get Alice. Now.”

His creation winces, taking a glance at their surroundings himself as if just realizing a fragile human who can die just by breathing in too many chemicals won’t do so well shrunk than someone who’s made of ink and immortal.

The animator latches onto the demon as he’s hugged. “Don’t worry Hen, I’ll get ya fixed. Just need more ink!”

Henry nods numbly, hands running through his hair in the attempt to stop his nerves as the only other person who knows he’s currently hand-held leaps off his desk in search of Alice, or ink. Hopefully both. Because honestly, what the hell could the angel possibly do?

This is okay. He’s okay. Perfectly fine. He’s just casually walking around the moon he drew that was only the size of his palm and holy-

“Stein.”

Henry goes rigid save for his hands slapping themselves over his ears. And his legs trembling so much they threaten to send him to his knees.

It’s Sammy. The music director is coming to tell him Drew knows he hasn’t clocked out.

He’ll admit, anyone is better than Franks being the one who found him, but why Lawrence?

“Stein, get your ass home. We don’t need anymore animations with your drool all over the goddamn thing.”

Henry’s inability to move disappears when he sees a shadow fall over the opening into the tiny nook he’d been given. The earthquakes from footsteps actually got him moving, and he dove behind the ink bottle he originally thought has horrifying to have only a few feet away. Now he’s glad he didn’t attempt to shove it off the desk.

He clasps his hands over his mouth when he feels Sammy stop at the ‘doorway’, afraid his panicked breaths could be heard. He doesn’t know if they actually can, but he doesn’t want to take any chances.

He should’ve went with Bendy. At least the darling devil would’ve been able to warn him how terrifying it is encountering his first-

Henry gasps when the ink bottle suddenly disappears, tumbling backwards now that his anchor is gone. That means he ends up on his back, staring straight up at Sammy’s unimpressed expression.

“Really, Stein?”

He’s unable to say a word. He’s frozen. The living building he knows to be his coworker seems like a monster. Maybe that’s because a hand with fingers longer than he is tall is reaching for him.

“NO!”

That gets him moving, leaping to his feet, only to trip and land directly into the music director’s palm oh God oh God-

“Calm down,” Sammy’s voice rumbles as fingers wrap around him before lifting up, leaving his stomach far behind. Henry yelps at the movement, at the warmth almost make him feel like he’s being burned from how cold he originally was, managing to realize he’s been picked up and starts kicking.

“LET ME GO!”

Brown eyes bigger than his head roll. “You really want Franks to find you like this? Or better yet, Drew.”

“D-D-Don't just p-pick me up!”

Henry yells when the hand opens, sprawling. The action makes him forget Sammy’s a giant, glaring up at the African American already giving the smirk he always does when he’s messing with the teenager.

His face pales at the realization any kind of retaliation can be used now. “Don’t think you can stop me, Stein.”

“Just wait, Lawrence. When Bendy shrinks you-!”

“You let him shrink you,” Sammy says. Henry definitely doesn’t feel his heart skip a beat at the music director’s patented ‘bitch face’ as Wally named it being aimed toward him while his life is literally in the palm of the man’s hand.

“I-I didn’t let him!”

“Sure you didn’t.” A thumb nudges the teenager. “That explains how you can drown in a damn ink bottle.”

He can already imagine Wally trying to test that theory. ”Don’t tell Franks.”

“I’m not telling anyone,” Sammy agrees. The relief that brings is immediately replaced with Henry getting dropped unceremoniously into the essential giant’s chest pocket. Followed by footsteps that make his teeth chatter taking him away from his desk.

He knows they won’t be staying in the studio.

“LAWRENCE!”

“I know you asked Bendy to get Alice. She’s been in the ink machine since eight, and as soon as Drew saw Bendy going in to get her, he would’ve turned it off for the night. Which means you won’t be getting their help until morning.” He can hear the amused smirk. “And you wouldn’t survive five minutes by yourself.”

“This is kidnapping! Where the hell are you taking me!”

Sammy glances down at him from the top of the pocket. “Home. Now shut up before everyone figures out what happened.”

Henry slowly sinks into his knees, not liking how this was going. How any of his night has been. He’s never voting in favor of Bendy’s reel again.

“...thanks Lawrence.”

“You won’t be saying that when I stick you in the first jar I find.”

At least he won’t be patiently waiting for something to come and eat him.

#Inktober 2021 #Day 18: Moon #g/t #giant #tiny #BATIM Bois #11:59 #man it feels good to write BATIM again!#SHRINK THE HENRY #writing #BTE writing

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mnictasbcl · 3 years ago

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The Season of Art

For #dbhcolorsofdeviancy, prompt:

May 31st: Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter @connor-sent-by-cyberlife

Rating: Teen

Characters: Connor, Hank Anderson, Markus

Relationships: Connor & Hank Anderson, Connor & Markus

Additional Tags: Painting, Birthdays, Fluff, Swearing, Seasons

Summary: After all the seasons Connor has known Markus, after being saved by him from a life stuck as a machine… the RK800 can’t figure out what to get him for his birthday.

Perhaps Hank can help out, showing him that what truly counts is from his metaphorical heart.

Notes: Hope this is okay! I took the prompt pretty loosely for this fic, as with many others on the list, so that the idea is still there and the main focus of the story, but a longer fic overall.

Story below! Or, read it on AO3

“I just don’t know what to get him.” Connor groaned. It was no use- he’d scoured the internet and everything he knew in his database, but it was impossible. Figuring out what to get Markus for his birthday was impossible.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t his exact birthdate. The deviant leader hadn’t been sure when that was exactly, and everywhere online it was marked as ‘confidential’. Jericho had decided that wasn’t good enough and had chosen the day that marked the success of the revolution as the big day.

They’d even organised a party, in their new place of residence, and had invited Connor along. He was also allowed to bring someone with him if he so desired, and even a human (if they knew the rules, of course, North had made sure to remind him). Hank had agreed.

“Well, what does he like?” Hank offered in help. “What are his hobbies?”

Connor pursed his lips. “I guess he likes democracy, and the revolution, and android rights—”

“Something more tangible, Connor. Like… reading.”

“He has all the books already.”

“Wh—all of them?”

“Carl Manfred owns a vast library of books, and he seems to have enough for his pleasure.”

Hank groaned. “Jesus. Okay. Does he have… you know, a thing-” he gestured with his hands, “-everyone has a thing. A thing that they like.” At Connor’s confused look, he sighed. “How I like rock music, and watching sports, and you like dogs.”

“Ah, yes.” Connor nodded, now understanding. “I like dogs.” He blinked, LED swirling in colour as he thought it over. “I don’t know if Markus likes dogs. He doesn’t seem to dislike them, but I am unsure if purchasing him a dog would be a well-thought-out gift. Dogs aren’t gifts, anyway. They’re for life.”

“Thanks for the animal charity commercial.” Hank deadpanned. “I don’t mean your thing— I mean his. His—his interest.” The man quickly rephrased.

Connor paused, thinking over it again with this new information. “Aside from his core beliefs, I have noticed that Markus enjoys painting. However, he already has painting equipment, with a vast supply of canvases and paints.”

“Hmm. What about,” Hank began, getting up from the couch, going over to the closet and rummaging through it, “what about you give him something he can’t get, then?” As he turned back around, he was holding a fairly large canvas along with an easel and some paints.

“That sounds optimal.” Connor nodded, understanding what Hank was getting at. “But perhaps I will practice what I will create on some paper, first. I wasn’t created to do this sort of thing.”

“You weren’t made to be a pain in my ass either—don’t give me that look. I know you know what I mean. Just draw something nice for your friend.”

After acquiring a few sheets of paper, Connor got to work. At first, he attempted sketching out some picture-perfect images of Markus. Hank hadn’t seemed thrilled by them.

“It just looks like you printed them out. It’s a nice drawing, Connor, but I don’t think it’s the sort of art Markus would like. From what you’ve told me about him, he likes things free and— you know,” he waved his hands in demonstration. “I looked up some of that Carl Manfred’s art too. It’s mainly abstract.”

“I don’t understand, Lieutenant. Would you think he’d appreciate a drawing replica of one of his pieces?”

Hank shook his head. “It has to be from you. From the heart.”

Connor blinked. A little research showed him how art could be a form of self-expression and emotion. Perhaps this was what Hank was getting at. It would truly be a good gift to give Markus something which really showed his deviancy, his humanity, especially when he was part of the key driving force that had helped him deviate.

But what could he draw? There were so many things, too many things… He shook his head. Maybe he could follow the advice Markus had told him he’d been given once, by Carl, to really flow his soul over the canvas.

Connor closed his eyes. Held the pencil over the paper, and made long, sweeping strokes. Opened his eyes. Shit. It was just a mess of graphite smeared over the paper. That didn’t even look like anything. He groaned. Art was hard.

Maybe, for him, it did have to be something he could think of, at least in concept, rather than a rush of emotions over the paper. What thing could bring out that artistic emotion from him?

He closed his eyes. But this time, he didn’t bring his pencil down onto the paper, not yet. He replayed memories of his time spent with Markus. Seeing him speaking on that screen, played from Stratford Tower, telling of hope, of liberation for their people, igniting that spark of deviancy in his chest, which only flourished with time spent with Hank. How he came to Jericho, and met him, keen only on accomplishing his mission, but Markus had managed to bring up that red wall for him, to realise he was on the wrong side of it and tear it down. Emotion, the hope, everything sparking within his chest, looking up at Markus and realising that he’s free.

The autumn that brought his life, filled with new hope, a new life. The winter that followed, the impromptu Christmas party held for the newly freed deviants, being allowed back with the original crew, with Josh and Simon, North and Markus, looking into the other android’s eyes and realising just how much things had changed in such a short time. Memories of the new spring, a new year, to bring down the restrictions stopping deviants from being truly human, helping Markus with his speeches and fighting by his side for the campaigns. Summer. The freedom has truly come now, because they’ve done it. Everything isn’t perfect, but by law, they’re completely human, and Markus is still there, they all are, revelling in the burden lifted from their shoulders.

He opened his eyes. In the time they’d been shut, his body had seemed to move of its own accord. The canvas was in front of him, brush in his hand, and a picture had blossomed in front of him. There was a rush of colours and feelings and emotions. The image was cut into four quadrants, messes of abstract shapes representing each season. And in the centre, were rough figures of them all, from Jericho.

He smiled. It looked alright.

“Holy shit.” Hank muttered from behind him. Connor spun around, seeing he’d been standing in the doorway, likely watching him the whole time. “You did that with your eyes closed?”

He glanced over his clothes. Oh dear. There were a number of splatters of paint over his outfit, and a little on his face. “I believe so. Apologies, Lieutenant, for the mess—”

Hank laughed. “I don’t care about it. Well—you’re tidying it up anyway. But… Christ, that’s amazing. If I painted with my eyes shut, I think I’d end up painting on Sumo.”

Connor frowned. “He wouldn’t appreciate that. “The Saint Bernard in question barked loudly in agreement. “He would require a bath.”

“Whatever,” Hank shrugged, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re alive, Connor. And I think Markus is going to love that.”

____________________

Markus did, in fact, love it. Upon receiving it at his birthday party, he smiled brightly, pulling Connor into a hug.

“It really shows you, Connor, and how far you’ve come. I appreciate that you joined our mission. This is going centre stage.”

He blushed, a little, as Markus took it by the picture hanging and put it up on the wall in the central area of the room, above the fireplace.

“I am glad that you like my present, Markus.”

“Like it? I love it. And is this really the first time I’m hearing that you like to paint?”

“It’s the first time I’ve painted.”

“Then it won’t be the last. Come on, I’d love to paint with you in the future. Carl lets me do painting lessons from time to time in his studio, so long as I don’t bring any troublemakers.”

Connor thought on that. “I would dearly love to come. However, I have been informed that I can cause a significant amount of disruption.”

Markus frowned. “How so?”

“Well, Lieutenant Anderson has, from time to time, referred to me as a pain in his—”

Hank, who was standing nearby to look at Connor’s painting, promptly choked on his drink.

#dbh #dbhcolorsofdeviancy #dbh fanfic #fanfic #dbh connor and hank #dbh markus #detroit become human

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6480n · 4 years ago

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[ID in alt text]

Just finished this art of my OC, Jira! He’s my main OC and sort of serves as my persona in many cases, so I’m super excited to be able to share this drawing. Since this is my first time posting him on this blog, I’m going to talk about his history and share a *bunch* of drawings under the cut (as well as WIP images from this drawing).

Text on his shorts says เสือทอง, or “golden tiger”, and he’s carrying bagged soymilk with tapioca, which is a common way to get soymilk in thailand!

The idea for this drawing is one I’ve had in my head for a few months, but wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull off since I don’t have a lot of practice with perspective shots. I sort of wanted to give him a “casually defiant” look, as well as taking the opportunity to design a fun outfit based around colorful muay thai shorts. Unlike myself, I envision Jira as someone who primarily wears shorts (often with an incongruous top like a long coat), so I love designing his outfits because of the unique balance shorts give.

[ID: Two sketches from previous stages of the first drawing, one being a rough full-body sketch and the other being a refined sketch from the torso-up. end ID]

(^ I like his face in this sketch better than the final, lol…) I’m super happy with how this drawing turned out, especially the coloring and shading. I normally have the instinct to put my shading and highlights on another layer (borne from years of drawing art for petsites…), but I painted all the colors and shading on one layer and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I also added some sort of clip studio filter which gave everything a slight amount of color variance, which looks really cool!

Now, about the character himself: I made this guy back in about 2016 when I was getting back into Animal Crossing for the second time. I needed a secondary character for storage, so I invented Jira (who at the time was named 6480 since that was the username I was starting to switch over to), and gave him a connection to my then-main character (plum/Clove, who I’ll post about later) by way of a sort of flirty friendship. I thought it would be cool if they were like, friends who had houses on opposite sides of the same river and waved to each other and ate breakfast together and held hands and like….. yeah 🥺

Jira is super important to me for a ton of reasons, mostly because he developed as I grew up and the transition I made towards using him as my persona instead of Clove represented a lot of changes in my life and my personality. As he developed and I needed to name him, I decided to make him Thai (he started out inadvertently white cause there was only one skintone in ACNL… cringe), which marked a point in time where I became more invested in my cultural background. When I made him a trans man, it represented that I had become more comfortable and proud of my transness. His personality, which was more casual and open than Clove’s, marked the change in my own personality and growth in confidence. And I was able to explore my own ideals of relationships through the one he had with Clove.

Now, it’s 2020 and my new Animal Crossing game has him as my main character and Clove (as well as a couple others) as my alternate! I’m super glad to be able to look back on this and mark the ways I’ve changed over the years, and it’s really interesting that both of my personas since 2014 have been because of the AC franchise.

Here’s some sketches (I haven’t actually made formalized art of him until now, except for one drawing as an anthro monkey which I will not be sharing rofl):

[ID: Digital reference sheet for Jira in Animal Crossing style, in various different poses. He has tan skin and light brown hair. Text on the image says: name: 6480 gender: [male symbol] birthday: Oct 17th personality: smug occuption: barista hobbies: fishing, cooking, model making style: basic/iconic best friend: Lopez end ID]

Section of a reference sheet I made for my four ACNL characters, set inside the universe of my AC island.

[ID: Black and white digital sketch of an Animal Crossing character. He’s wearing a long coat, black shorts, and a cow skull on his head. He’s surrounded by a bunch of small mushrooms and weeds, and he’s carrying some fishing poles in a bag. end ID]

Drawing of my ACNH outfit as it was in April (autumn on my southern hemisphere island)

[ID: Colored digital sketch of two Animal Crossing characters. They’re sleeping in neighboring futons. One has pale skin, short yellow hair, and a sunhat, while the other has light brown skin and short brown curly hair. end ID]

Drawing of my ACNH character and my best friend’s :-)

[ID: Black and white sketches of Jira with more realistic proportions. In one he’s wearing a very similar outfit as the first image in this post; in the other he’s wearing a raincoat, a cowboy hat, and shorts that almost reach the hem of the coat. end ID]

[ID: Colored bust sketch of Jira in an orange shirt. end ID]

Aaaaand I think that’s all the good art I have of him. I’m not expecting anyone to have read this far but uhm THANK YOU if you did… you’re my number 1 fan… Don’t judge what I said in this post too harshly, *so what* if I base my personality around a character that only exists in my own head? 😭 Anyways, have a great day, and thanks for reading my rambling!

#my art #digital art #design #original character #oc.jira #drawing #outfit design #casual wear #illustration #fashion #outfit #clothing #thai #artists on tumblr #in-depth

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fabrowrites · 5 years ago

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The Ninja Create Fursonas

Despite the title, no furries were harmed in the making of this fic

----------

When the announcement first comes through, Jay's thrilled. He can't believe it's real. It's like something out of a dream. When the day finally comes and they're on their way to the studio, he sits in the back seat and practically vibrates in place for the entire trip.

A hand settles on his thigh. "Settle down, Jay!" Cole says, laughing. "You're charging up enough energy to give us all static shocks for a week. Is your brain exploding? You're so jittery today."

"Of course I'm jittery," Jay snaps. "How are you not? This is like, the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

This thing being- wanting to ride their latest wave of popularity after defeating the Preeminent (and Nadakhan, but apparently he didn't count- yes, Jay was salty), a toy-making company had approached the group and asked if perhaps they'd be interested in a line of stuffed toy creatures made after them? As if they'd say no. And if that wasn't enough, they also wanted the ninja to be the ones to design them.

Jay just might pass out in the back of this van.

They'd been escorted into a cozy-looking room with long tables and chairs and given giant pads of paper and black markers. The head artist gave them a rundown of guidelines- nothing scandalous, certainly; they should try to make each character cute, relatable, and most of all marketable- and oh, wouldn't it be neat if they each had something to do with their element?

Jay had agreed readily. He sized up the sketch pad in front of him and cracked his knuckles. Okay, brain. Let's do this.

Except that was forty-five minutes ago and Jay's no closer to an idea than when he began. He bangs his head against the table with a long, drawn-out groan. His sketch pad drops uselessly from his hands.

"It's no use," he whines. "I don't have a creative bone in my body. I'm gonna have to pack my bags and move to the south and become a repressed goat farmer."

Kai mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like "not a creative bone in my body my butt." But when Jay looks over at him, the fire ninja's attention is fixed firmly to his own board.

Blearily, Jay raises his head. Everything he's drawn looks like trash. There's a weird leopard creature scribbled out in the corner. Next to it is a lizard that looks like a cross between Rango and that purple thing from Monsters Inc except with none of their good qualities and all of their bad. A sad bird-thing sits in the center. It looks disappointed in him despite its lack of face. Maybe the blankness enhances it.

He drops his marker on the table and leans back with a long groan.

"It can't be all that bad," Nya says. She's bent over beside him, bottom lip caught between her teeth as she fills something in. Jay sighs without moving.

"I couldn't think of anything to draw so I started drawing Kai as a porcupine."

Nya whistles lowly. "That is bad," she says. Both of them ignore Kai's outraged shout of: "Hey! My face is the best inspiration you'll ever get!" She sets down her own pad, closing the cover. "Maybe if we show you what we've done, it'll inspire you."

"Or it'll just make me feel worse about myself," Jay grumbles, but he sits up in his seat properly. "Okay. Let's try that. Do you have anything?"

Nya shrugs the way she does when she's proud of something she did but doesn't want to call attention to it. "There was something I was working on." She flips open her sketchbook. Jay scoots his chair closer to hers. His eyes widen.

"Woah, Nya! That's actually really cool!"

"Actually?" Nya asks, raising her eyebrow, but she laughs when Jay pouts at her. "Oh, fine. Thanks. It's not much yet, but-"

The character on her paper is a seal, small and round, with dark eyes and a happy puppy face. At the edges of the sheet are more drawings- one has the seal in a wetsuit; another puts it in diver fins and a snorkel.

"I wanted to experiment around," Nya says. "I think I like the wetsuit one the best."

"That one's cute," Jay agrees.

From Nya's right side comes a groan. "Will you two keep it down?" Kai complains. "Some of us are trying to work here."

"Some of us are trying to work here too, but we can't," Jay sends back. Not one of his best comebacks, but it's to Kai. "I've got brain blockage and Nya's helping me out."

Kai glances over and sees what they're doing. He perks up. "Oh, are we sharing?" He sits up straighter and drums his fingers on the table. "Hey, guys! We're sharing!"

"Oh, good!" says Cole. "I wanted your feedback on something."

"Me too," says Zane.

Jay narrows his eyes at both of them. "This right now?" he says. "This is about me. Not you."

Cole waves his hand. "Of course, of course."

The way he says it has Jay hhmphing, but they both turn their focus to Kai as the fire ninja loudly demands their attention.

Kai has created what appears to be a horse, except that it has a few too many legs, a creepy tongue drooling out of its face, and horns. So it's actually not like a horse at all. Somehow it's both angular and blobby at the same time. Ah, the dualities of Art.

"I thought we were supposed to be making these marketable," Zane says with a tilt of his head.

"This is marketable!" Kai protests. "Kids are like, bonkers for dragons."

Ah, so that's what the blob is, Jay thinks. "Bonkers?" he snickers aloud. "What are you, seventy? Did you try cuckoo too? What about nutty?"

"Bananas," Lloyd pipes up. "Gaga. Buggy."

"Okay, okay, we get it," Kai grumbles. "You like to talk."

"That wasn't my point at all," Jay says, but he concedes it. He does like to talk, after all.

"Why does it have six legs?" asks Nya.

"Those are its wings," Kai sniffs.

Nya bursts out laughing, slapping her hand on her knee, eyes closed into crescents. "Hey!" Kai shouts, shoving her from her chair. "You know that drawing's not my real talent."

"Oh, we know," Cole says under his breath.

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" Cole grins. "I'll go next." He flicks back a page or two. "So I originally wanted to do a bear, because bears are cool and they're the deadliest animal on the planet."

"I'm pretty sure you meant to say 'shark'," Nya says.

"I'm pretty sure I said what I meant to say," Cole snips back. He returns his attention to his drawing board. "But bears are too overdone in this day and age."

Jay can't even make fun of him for saying 'this day and age' like some grandma because he's too busy currently gaping at the art on Cole's board.

The character on Cole's paper is definitely not a bear.

"Bears are overdone," Cole says. "So I thought, why not make a narwhal?"

"How on earth," Jay asks faintly, "did you make the jump from bear to narwhal?"

Cole shrugs. "It made sense at the time."

"What's a narwhal?" Lloyd asks. His marker is flying a mile a minute across his sketch pad and his eyes never leave the page.

"It's a unicorn fish," Jay says, turning a disbelieving eye back to the earth ninja. Cole just grins. "A unicorn fish that no one cares about. What happened to giving me inspiration?" he demands. "You've just killed any ideas I might have had!"

Cole pouts.

"I, for one, think it's adorable!" Nya's come up behind Cole now and is peering at his sketch pad. Hearing her words, Cole brightens. "Does it have a name?"

"I was thinking Gnarly."

Nya nods sagely. "That's uber-rad, bro."

Bring Me to Life is playing on a psychedelic loop inside Jay's head. Wake me up inside, wails the lead vocalist, but Jay can't wake up (save me).

"Am I the only one taking this seriously?" he whines. "Guys. This is like, our legacy."

"I'm pretty sure our legacy is saving the city," Kai drawls, "not whatever these characters will be."

"Our legacy," Jay emphasizes. "Don't you realize how cool this is? How many people get to say they have their own cartoon character?"

Cole shrugs. "Exactly. That's why I'm having fun with it. Hey, do you think that Gnarly would look good with a monocle?"

"I'm taking it seriously," Lloyd says. "Look at mine."

"Gnarly would look absolutely dapper in a monocle, how could you even ask that."

"How big is he?" asks Zane. "That would have to be one big piece of glass."

"Hey, guys."

"Ooh, you should give him a mohawk."

"A mohawk? He's a fish! Fish don't have hair!"

"I'm pretty sure it's a mammal, actually."

An explosion rockets the left side of the room. Jay startles so badly he almost falls out of his chair. His eyes dart around for the threat, only to lock eyes with a smirking Lloyd. A smirking Lloyd who still has his fist raised, faint wisps of smoke rising from his fingers.

Jay lets out an inhuman shriek. It's a wonder that no one's come in to check on them, honestly. "Lloyd!"

"What?" Lloyd grins. "You weren't paying attention to me."

"We've raised a brat," Cole says. "An absolute menace."

Lloyd's grin intensifies. "As I was saying…"

He spins his board around with all the pomp and circumstance of a ten-year-old who learned how to act through daytime television. Somehow, despite them only having been given black sharpie markers to draw with, Lloyd has colored his character in with crayon. It's a shockingly detailed goat-creature. Its fur has been colored a mint green, and it's wearing a golden sweater with dragons crossing the sides.

It looks like it was ripped from the pages of an actual comic book.

"Woah!" Kai says, launching himself across the table and sending no less than three markers flying as he goes in for a closer look. "That's awesome, Lloyd!" He beams at the younger ninja. "What is it?"

Nya scoffs. "Obviously it's an alpaca, you dolt."

"It's a yak," Cole says.

Jay makes a disagreeing noise. "No, I'm pretty sure it's a goat."

"Guys," Lloyd says, looking extremely disappointed in all of them, "it's a llama."

They sit in silence for a moment.

"Ooh," Jay says. "Alright. That makes a bit more sense."

"Is it my turn?" Zane asks. Unlike some other members whose names shall not be mentioned, he waits until their attention is on him before starting. "I put a lot of thought into this character."

He turns around his paper. Jay chokes on his water. Tears stream from his eyes and he's coughing, but when he wipes them away the picture stays the same.

In the middle of the page, in the glorious high definition only a nindroid could hope to achieve, is a shark that looks like it came right out of some Super Bowl halftime slot. Its eyes are vacant. Its mouth is open in an agonized scream. It's standing in a starfish pose, legs in lieu of a tail.

"My character is a shark," Zane says, as if it needed any explanation.

Everyone stops and looks at him. Zane's the picture of earnestness, eyes wide and unguarded. At this exact moment, he looks like a five-year-old presenting some horrific drawing to its mother. As the silence stretches on, his face falls. "Is it not on target enough? I know we were supposed to be making something related to our element, but there are not that many snow creatures."

The group glances at each other, expressions veering towards the panicked side. By some unspoken agreement, they all reach the same conclusion.

"Oh, no!" says Nya. "We were all just surprised by how good you draw."

"It's a great shark, Zane," Cole says, tone a bit forced. The expression in his eyes doesn't match the grin on his face.

"Yeah," Jay says lamely. "I like how- how blue it is."

Zane beams.

"It looks like you're well on your way!" says a new voice. It's the head artist, coming back into the room. She looks around approvingly at the studio of chaos. "Well done. I knew I heard the sounds of productivity in here."

Apparently productivity sounds like random explosions and screaming now. That's- honestly not that far off the mark, considering that Jay's a literal ninja for his job.

"The next step, if you haven't already," says the artist, "will be coming up with names." Cole high-fives Nya. "I'll be back in a bit to check on you again!"

The room descends into voices once again as she leaves.

"I need a cool name for my dragon," Kai says immediately. "There's got to be a way to combine my name with it, right?"

"Kragon," Cole suggests. "Drakai."

Kai wrinkles his nose. "Kragon? Like that weirdo from the LEGO line?"

"No, you're thinking of Cragger," Lloyd says. "Kragon is that magical crystal thing Jedi use."

Jay rolls his eyes. "No, that's a kyber. Didn't I raise you better than this? Kragon is that website that people sell stuff on."

"No, that's Craigslist."

"Whatever it is," Kai interrupts, "I don't like it. So you nerds can all drop it now."

"I think I'll call mine Neela," Nya says.

Cole glances at her sketchpad and makes a noise of approval. "Neela and Gnarly," he says. "Hey! Ours could be best friends!"

"You're already coming up with backstory?" Jay protests. "I haven't even started my character!"

"Well stop whining and just make one!" Cole says, exasperated.

Jay pouts. At the other end of the table, Lloyd's cackling up a storm as he writes name after name down the side of his paper. Jay leans over to see: his favorites seem to be Llod, Llyod, and Floyd judging on the circles he's made around them.

Jay sighs and leans back in his seat. Nya's abandoned her spot beside him to go brainstorm with Cole, and Kai's still tossing ideas out to the group even though no one's listening to him.

"Ooh, what about Kaitron?"

"That just sounds like a robot," Jay complains. Inspiration cuts through the cloud of his mind like a knife. "That's it!"

The entire room stops and stares at him. Seeing that he's just stood abruptly and slammed his sketch pad against the table, Jay can't blame them. "Kai," he says, "you're a genius." As quickly as he stood he's seated again, turning over a new page and beginning to sketch.

"I'm a what?" Kai asks, somewhere in the background.

Jay outlines a triangular shape. Then a body with one big wheel instead of legs. He fills up his page with sketches, mind vomiting up ideas faster than he can put them on paper. Yes. Yes! This was exactly what he wanted!

"Everyone!" he says- practically demands their attention. He rips the top sheet off his sketchpad with a flourish. "Meet NJ, your friendly little shapeshifting robot friend! The double emphasis on friendliness means that it's full of love."

"Shapeshifting?" Lloyd asks. "Woah, that's neat!"

Jay nods, grinning. "He can turn into anything, as long as it's non-organic." He points out some sketches of NJ as a toaster, as a spy drone, as an umbrella.

"That's- actually a cool idea, Jay," Cole says. "I like it!"

"Hey!" Jay protests. "Are you telling me that all my other ideas aren't cool?"

Cole grins. "You said it first," he points out.

"Kriff!" shouts Kai. For a second Jay thinks the fire ninja is swearing, but it turns out he's talking to his dragon. "Perfect name. Done."

The head artist chooses this moment to re-enter the room. She beams when she sees all their sketchpads laid out. "Looking good, everyone! Do you all have designs now?" They nod. "Great. Well, our next step will be for each of you working with our on-location artists to better flesh out your concepts. Oh, and then backstories!" She grins. "I'll go call them in."

She leaves. Kai stares at his paper. "I hope my artist likes challenges," he finally says.

#ninjago #ninjago fic #ninjago fanfic #based on the making of bt21 videos #this is so chaotic

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mitterstorm · 4 years ago

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Dance For Me

Chapter 1

“Finally we are here today to seek and to receive comfort. We would be less than honest if we said that our hearts have not ached over this situation. We are not too proud to acknowledge-

You couldn’t take it anymore, just by standing here listening to that preach addressed his departure. Your knees feel weak and your eyes burn, but you refuse to make a scene, taking deep breaths while clenching your fists is helping you calm down.

Still, it’s not enough.

You want to scream again just as you did when you saw his body limp against yours, scratch your arms in attempts of making the pain and hurt go away. To drift your mind from these ugly feelings.

A sick way of coping indeed, teensy bit of self-harm ain't going to kill you. It helps you somehow, preventing yourself from breaking even further in a public place like the cemetery.

Finally, you regain control of yourself and shift back to the preacher. Unfortunately, he concluded, now you have to prepare for the worse.

Henry, who is your most precious friend, is dead. His body was being carried away in the concealment of a coffin; he said his last farewell to you early in the morning when you ate breakfast with him, offering your company so he wouldn't feel alone, regain some strength by appreciation itself.

Something was up that morning; the old fart was more talkative than usual and flashed a smile here and there. You are at fault for not noticing from the start. You should have been more perceptive and observant; you are keen on people after all, especially when he gave you that look as if he was parting ways with you. He didn’t fight death, accepted it as embracing a hug from an old friend. That thought alone fills your head with doubt.

Was he even happy when he left?

Did he feel satisfied with the life he lived?

Were you enough?

Fuck, you never would've imagined his passing will affect you this much.

<<You old geezer, why were you so kind to me? Why did we let ourselves get attached?>>

The time is near, you will eventually have to confront him with all of these people staring at you, but you need to be strong for sake. You are what’s left of his loved ones. Linda died long ago. They never had a chance to procreate and bring a new life, Joey went mad or something along those lines.

Just like the rest of the crew, and he didn’t make any friends while he was on service for the military. If he did, they were dead. He didn’t like to talk about it.

<<I tried to make you happy, make you feel at ease as you did for me>>

Yet he kept secrets from you, of course, you respected his wishes and didn’t pry any further.

However, it stung.

<<Now it’s not time to reminisce, there’s nothing to reminisce for me at the moment>>

They called your name to the front; you ran out of time. It’s your turn. Is your first time burying someone, yes, you have assisted other burials besides this one, but now you are who’s lost a loved one. Those past times were favors people close to you had asked a long time ago; they said it felt nice to have somebody there when someone else is missing in their lives. In other words, you were there as comfort. A shoulder they could use to cry and lean on.

Hesitant, you take away from the burier’s grasp his shovel and with a gulp. You start shoveling some dirt into the hole were Henry’s coffin lies.

<<Shit, I can’t stop trembling! Come on, stop being a pussy and get over with this!>>

Despite that, your body wouldn’t obey, it made you look clumsy. No matter how much you lied to yourself.

You are scared.

After burying Henry, your vision goes black.

Waking up tomorrow morning at home without a clue of how you got there made your mind fuzzy.

How fun.

You try to get up, but end up failing.

“Fuuuuuck! Why do I feel like absolute shit! Everything hurts!” These feel just like a hangover. Why does it feel like one? Did you go to a bar once Henry’s funeral ended? How much did you drink?

“Enough to blackout it appears,” You say under your breath. Of course, your dumb ass would go to a bar and get drunk to cope with the pain! An upcoming headache awaits you for being arbitrary, instead of showing apprehension towards the situation and mourn, as you should, your voice of reason zonked out. “I reek of booze. Agh, it stinks”.

No more addressing what happened yesterday; feeling like trash isn't doing you any good. Henry would have called you out on your bullshit.

"Stop whining like a whore and man up, chum! I'll buy you a drink. Later we can relax and cut you some slack, nothing a magsman like myself can't do".

“Ok boomer,” You said in a humdrum tone, at least it made you laugh internally. “lo and behold, this will be a shitty morning-err afternoon, it’s 1 PM, I thought it was too early to be awake”.

That means it’s time for brunch.

Must compel your stomach desires, eat a lot little of food. Therefore, you'll have to leave the bed, go downstairs where the kitchen is; you force yourself out of the comfiness that are your covers. So you walk out of the room barefoot towards the kitchen. You open the fridge faking interest with whatever is inside and close it, then repeat, only that this time you pay a little more of attention.

You grab the water pitcher and pour some in a glass, then look for oatmeal and toss three spoonfuls of it at the water, after that you chuck a spoonful of sugar and mix it. A simple drink full of roughage. It’ll suffice for now.

*Clink clink*

Metal hitting porcelain serves you as a white noise to rearrange your thoughts. Yesterday was hectic and had your mind high wire, you were thinking about the old man; how long have you two been friends? Five or six years more or less, you met each other by autumn at a hospital. On that occasion, you were merely an intern in the middle of their practice and had to change sheets, deliver meals, give them their meds and reassure they took them at the time the doctors had said. Like a nurse or carer (the difference it’s you possess more knowledge than one and can prescribe medication, it was also part of your duty as a trainee assisting the doctors with whatever you could). That’s how both of you came face to face with.

Mr. Stein was sick and injured. He needed to tend some wounds since they required special treatment. Battle scars, you didn’t know at the time, however, as days passed, you became close to him, he told you how he got them; the biggest can be found on his back.

Unfortunately, a sharp pain arose, preventing you from wandering further in the past. You had forgotten about your headache, which it’s more noticeable now, you are sure there aren’t any pills left.

“I ain’t leaving being this crappy, besides I don’t feel like moving right now…” Your eyelids are heavy and keeping them open, it’s such a pain, so you shut ‘em in hopes of relaxing for a little bit. Leaning your back on the kitchen island while drinking your beverage, its coldness helping you somehow with the throb.

Once again, your mind wanders.

Thanks to it, you know where to find some ibuprofen.

“Are these the ones?” You asked while holding a box for him to see, squinting Henry finally recognized the packet.

“What’s it called again?” He questioned, rubbing his head to ease the ache a bit. His voice raspy because of a dry throat. His normal soft tone replaced by a croaky. He’s clearly suffering.

“Ibuprofen.” You read aloud as you’ve been asked and turn back to look at him.

“Yup, that’s the one, lass. I know I’ve bothered you enough, but could you serve me a glass of water?”

“You old coot, not a bother at all. I’ll be back with your water in a jiffy”.

The pills are somewhere inside Henry’s studio. You can do that, going upstairs isn’t as demanding as buying them, cuz leaving home means changing clothes that look presentable and aren’t dirty. Henceforth, you don’t feel in the mood for seeing the outside.

“I should stop thinking of how lazy I am and look for those meds…” Talking to yourself it’s quite common, so you ain’t no stranger to these situations.

Therefore, you took a break from your bullshit and went upstairs where Henry Stein used to draw; he passed most of his time in there, secluded from the outside world, before military service, he worked at an animation studio owned by the man he once considered his best friend, Joey Drew was his name if your memory doesn’t fail you.

Your friend called him a bastard, never explained why only responded by saying: “He lost his mind.”

Nevertheless, Henry kept drawing cartoons, and sometimes, he would let you watch him sketch and answered your questions. He carried on with his old comics he left unfinished long ago. The same he had drawn back thirty years ago. The main characters are three little fellas: Bendy, Alice Angel, and Boris. Henry said they animated their adventures and later on, added side characters. The Butcher Gang, if you recall, also consists of a trio: Charley, Barley, and Edgar.

When Henry started storytelling, you felt like a kid back again, he could’ve marked your childhood just as the rest of animators who made those toons while you were a child. Oh, how you treasured these memories, you’ll never forget the time you spent together.

Evoking past times has helped to soothe your headache an itty-bitty, yet you still need to find the ibuprofen.

“Where could it be…” You asked to no one, hoping the walls may respond, even though it’ll never happen.

Seeking everywhere you soon turned the room upside down, papers on the floor resembling a carpet, art supplies rolling across the table (pencils, colors, pens, paintbrushes, blending stumps, etc.) and some books based on anatomy and animation were disorganized on their bookshelves. It all ended after you opened a drawer (this one didn’t need your touch, it was already a disorder) and found what you were looking for, and because of your rashness, more papers fell on the floor.

“Damn, what a mess…” You muttered under your breath a little irritated with yourself for being so careless while searching. You collected the papers and put them in order back again one by one, because of it you grew curious and read some of them, a letter grabbed your attention.

It was one of those fancy letters with a seal and all (what does it say? Seems of importance).

You don’t consider yourself nosy, just interested in its contents.

<<From Joey Drew? Huh, looks like your old buddy send you his salutations after all this time>>

Oh, you had no idea.

Henry knew about the letter, he already read it and did as they told him. The old studio where they used to make dreams come true transformed into a living hell.

‘DEAR HENRY

IT SEEMS LIKE A LIFETIME AGO SINCE WE WORKED ON CARTOONS TOGETHER.

30 YEARS REALLY SLIPS AWAY, DOESN’T IT?

IF YOU ARE BACK IN TOWN, COME VISIT THE OLD WORKSHOP.

THERE’S SOMETHING I NEED TO SHOW YOU.

YOUR BEST PAL, JOEY DREW’.

You finished reading the letter.

*Snrk*

Well shit.

Did you just read a confession or a love letter? Why not both? You don’t know why, but it feels like one.

“Okay, let’s stop right there. I can’t make jokes on circumstances as these ones”.

What could be so urgent for Joey to write a letter after thirty years of silence?

Should you investigate?

<<The letter could’ve been sent years ago! Henry surely read it; otherwise, it wouldn’t be inside a drawer of his studio, though there’s a possibility he didn’t, I doubt it. He must have seen his friend has written message>>

Okay, sure. Let’s suppose he didn’t pay any mind to the damn thing, you can pretend, now the real issue it’s the location. Joey Drew Studios must be closed (or broken down into pieces, you didn’t know if they decided to demolish the whole building).

“Wake up ___! Face reality, you shouldn’t be fantasizing, this ain’t some silly story with you as a heroine…instead of wasting my time, I shall swallow that damn pill and take some zzz’s”.

You left Henry’s solace and went to bed once again after you swallowed the pill with some water. A dreamless sleep greeted you.

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

Bendy’s POV

“ん乇'丂ムの刀乇”.

Even though he should be celebrating, the Inkarnate can’t seem to find any joy in his being, no emotion tried to overtake him. Why? He doesn’t feel anything. True, he may not possess all the emotions a human has, but anger, joy, sadness, and hysteria weren’t unbeknownst him. There’s no satisfaction nor sorrow towards his creator’s death, not even an ounce of regret. Ok no, he won’t sense any guilt for what happened to Henry, he deserved to die just as much as Joey, but he was grasping straws in here!

How’s it possible to not perceive the slightest of emotion within himself?

The Ink Demon was turning apathetic in regards to the subject; he didn’t have an answer as to why. One thing he’s sure of, his world turned dull no longer exciting as he thought.

It was as if the little dancing demon had opened his eyes for the first time, after all those years blinded by the dripping ink, before that, he only saw what his mind showed him. He finally realized how monochromatic his world truly is.

All is black and white for the demon’s eyes.

A wave of indifference invades his mind and his mind is fuzzy, he dissolves into his inky form and rests.

However, not for much.

“-aHahaHAhahaHahaHAhaha!”

Alice.

That bitch.

He despises her nearly as much as those liars, yet the little devil darling couldn’t give a damn about her right now. Let her laugh all she wants as the malady she’s. The Angel probably got the word, celebrating, unlike him.

Immersing himself even more inside the ink, he found…peace. He can work with that, serenity aids his jumbled thoughts; darkness envelopes him and swallows his body whole.

<<In the end…I feel empty. Is this how revenge it’s supposed to be like?>>

He can’t respond to that, how could he? He doesn’t even know what’s life supposed to feel like.

<<Their imagination cursed us all with life, they couldn’t take responsibility for their actions and show us how to drive through it>>

Back when he was the small little imp everybody loved, there were all kind of colors, unlike now. The studio felt warm in contrast to all the ink that surrounds it now.

The remains of those old days lurk inside the deep abyss as ink creatures, husks who replaced the humans that worked here.

Thinking about it got him tired, Bendy finds himself drifting from consciousness, he’s falling asleep.

“Was it worth it?”

<<Again that cunt>> Despite his thoughts, the Inkarnate didn’t feel irascible towards the narcissist woman. Actually, there isn’t much for him to perceive.

She’s not in here, she wouldn’t dare to step a foot on his domain. The wench had the nerve of placing her cutouts and posters; he destroyed a few just as she did the same. She is communicating with him using a damaged poster with her face.

“I know you can hear me, demon, don’t fake pretend.”

“Wんﾘりのﾘのひ ᄃﾑ尺乇?” He hopes to scare her, even though he knows it won’t work while using his beast form for some reason his speech turns nightmarish. Yet he doesn’t wield it often because of how difficult is controlling his instincts. Thoughts become more primal, talking it’s hard after a few hours transformed in it gets tiring, and he can’t measure his own force. He favors his inky form best: practical and gets the job done.

“I don’t”. So she’s just shitting with him, insufferable.

“Then why ask?”

“Spirit of inquiry. Your relationship intrigues me, up there in Heaven, we get curious as to why you didn’t kill him yourself. And don’t even try to justify your actions. You had many opportunities. The little errand boy nearly ends up killing you, he tried the same with me”.

After listening to what the Angel had to said, his permanent smile turned slowly into a frown. It’s never a good thing when the Lord ain’t wearing one.

“…”

“Well?”

The fallen angel is laughing at him.

“Not even you know the reason behind your acts of mercy!” He remains silent, it’s not like she’s wrong, the little devil does not why he was so resilient with Henry.

After that fiasco, she left him be.

Thanks to Alice’s short visit, Bendy finds questioning why she dropped by. They hate one another, true. She has eyes here and there, but it’s to keep him in line, so he won’t cross an inky limb on her domain. Unlike the female cartoon, he does not have any cutouts, posters, plushies, or ink servants near her place. He wants nothing to do with her. That’s why he finds it so unusual, it’s not like her.

Unless…

She fancies something he has.

<<If that bitch knows what’s good for her, she won’t be picking her nose in my business>>

Later he’ll do his rounds throughout the studio, maybe, the imp will find what she’s searching before she does, whatever it may be, he won’t let her have it.

He’ll make sure of it.

Who knows what her deranged mind has planned; he’s tired of the gruesome scenery this place is in, corpses all around, clones of his ol’ friend bring back unsavory images from the past. Oh, Lawrence, he’s a madman, made satanic circles as a way of showing his devotion towards the black devil. Thanks to Sammy, he has eyes in nearly the entire place.

Yes, he’s aware the musician it’s alive, but Sammy Lawrence continues being of use for him.

<<I’ll take care of him when I wake up…>>

He’s exhausted. However, he stays on his beast form sunken in ink.

The demon’s slumber it’s a peaceful one…

Until you enter his kingdom.

An animalistic rumble shakes the tinted walls.

He’s coming for you.

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

Three days.

You paced on the issue for three days, until you finally had an answer.

“I’m gonna pay a visit to your ol’ pal, maybe he’s still alive…or not…” You lowered your voice in the last part; Henry called Joey a bastard and accused him of being mentally unstable, you trust his word, but what if…what if he changed? There’s a possibility he redeemed himself and went through a rehabilitation process to help him with his instability.

<<I need to look for the address and from there I’ll see what can be done>>

You googled ‘Joey Drew Studios’ on your phone and within seconds Google Maps showed up, you were going to click at it, but then something catches your eye.

An article and it’s quite old.

‘Joey Drew Studios, also known as the workshop. Is an American corporation and an animation studio of the Bendy franchise, established in 1929.

Founded by Joey Drew and Henry Stein in an unknown full date other than the year of 1929, Joey Drew Studios is located at Broadway, Brooklyn, New York City, New York.

In 1946, Joey Drew Studios was under investigation after reports of hazardous work environments, missing employees, harassment, and excessive back pay, as well the company's danger of being bankrupt, all of which are a result of Joey's mismanagement of the studio. Anonymous employees threatened to make labor unions over the poor conditions, which included unpermitted buildings, hazardous electrical wiring, and a plumbing system prone to bursting. In addition, there were excessive work hours, most of which were unpaid and several animators were unable to see their families in weeks, after being threatened with disciplinary action and termination if they were unable to finish animations on tight schedules.

There were reports of barricaded offices, employees locked up in work spaces, and complaints of crazy malfunctioning machinery. Despite the evidence against the company, Joey Drew remained firm that the studio has done nothing wrong, calling the accusations "preposterous" and "ridiculous", dismissing them as either complaint from menial employees, or feeble attempts by competing studios to discredit Joey.

On August 16, 1959, the law firm known as Snooks, Spitner and Snooks sued Joey Drew, having heard the rumors of Joey's mismanaging of his own workers. 12 days later, the studio was closed down in accordance to legal regulation 11 U.S Code § 1125 (which forbids the misrepresentation of legally established companies) as evident by the bankruptcy report found in Joey's apartment, as well as health and safety concerns directly by the mention of a health and safety board meeting schedule found in the appointment lobby.’

Oof.

<<That’s a lot to take in>>

Why the fuck would Henry’s friend would want to meet at that nightmare show? Has he learned nothing after all this years? And not only that, the sucker it´s/was an abusive prick with his employees!

<<Man, you weren’t joking>>

You fear a screw lose isn’t Joey’s only problem.

<<He sounds like an asshole, I don’t want to put up with his shit...I’ve got enough dealing with people like him on a daily basis. Sure, not everyone it’s an ass and there’s some decent/kind people out there, but handling jerks as the likes of him tires me out>>

Sometimes you aren’t the most patient person, it all depends. But this whole ordeal it’s too much for you.

<<The studio is in the big city, New York it’s fucking expensive. I don’t have the money for travelling that far, I’ll have to bid on my savings and package supplies for the journey>>

Crap. Three days and you didn’t think all of this through! How can you be so stupid?!

Now this looks like one of those impulsive decisions you take for being careless and inattentive.

<<How could Henry put up with me when not even I can stand myself?!>>

You need an adult, that’s what you ought to have beside you.

Your life is such a mess sometimes…

“Before spending money on my idiocy I should read more and prepare myself.” You mutter angrily to yourself.

That’s exactly what you did the next two days, finally you are ready for departing.

You grab your backpack and the car’s keys. “Cellphone in the front pocket, all that’s left is open the door, lock it and call Abby, easy.”

During those two days you made a few calls and went up for gas, it was going to be a long trip from Miami to New York. Sure, it ain’t that extensive, but you’ll be driving by yourself for approximately 20 hours. A place to stay, money, gasoline and food are big girl’s problems. Not counting the money you’ll spend on a cheap motel to rest your head.

“That or make a few stops on gas stations…maybe sleeping in the car won’t be that bad…” The good thing is you have options; you aren’t tied solely to one alternative.

<<Abby won’t charge me for doing me this favor, another plus>>

She’ll guard the house in your absence and will call if any emergency transpires.

Now, you are free to go.

<<I hope I made a good decision doing this>>

The first 8 hours were a torment, bored and your ass felt numb of sitting for that long, the last time you remained that still was in high school, since you made your schedule. Your feet hurt just as your arms did. You made a stop for eating and going to the bathroom, after that another 8 hours.

Overall, the journey was relaxing, while driving you admired the views offered to you, savoring each sight. It helped you keeping away some melancholy.

You miss Henry, no matter how much you tried to distract yourself with this excursion of yours, the emptiness stays in the back of your mind.

Your wounds are still fresh, you haven’t mourned properly, because you don’t want to. That’s why you are doing this, to keep yourself busy so you won’t think about it. You need it, you ain’t prepared for it yet.

Soon you’ll be.

After a short nap (before that you made many stops, ‘cuz you’re a whining bitch who ain’t strong enough to control her fucking bladder), you started driving again. You have three or four hours left on the road.

Time to listen some music, you activate Bluetooth and connect your phone to the car’s stereo, finally you found a song of your liking in Spotify and play it. You spent the rest of the trip singing along; sometimes you’ll speed up a little bit on the spur of the moment.

Soon you got to your destination, didn’t waste time changing clothes, you collapsed on the bed in the motel and slept for an hour. After that, you washed yourself and got ready for visiting Joey Drew.

“Here goes nothing…”

You regret already coming here, silly you just ruined a change of clothes! Why is there so much ink? You’ll never get out the ink of your shoes, fuck! You have been here for less than ten minutes and all went to shit for you! It doesn’t help this place keeps giving you the heebies-jeebies! Every time you take a step on the creaky wooden floor it feels as if someone is following you, like a slithering sound. The ink splashes keep creeping you out, if it wasn’t black you would think it’s blood, Jesus Christ.

<<Thank God, the lights still work; it would make this place spookier if they didn’t>>

As you venture further deeper into the studio, a beast rumbles, shaking everything around you, more ink drops fall.

At that moment…

…you knew you fucked up.

So you hide.

Your mind provides you one last thought before going high drive

‘WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?! WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!’

<<FUUU-

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #fanfic #bendy #boris the wolf #alice angel #bendyxreader #sammy lawrence #henry stein #reader #Dance For Me Fanfic #bendy fanfic #BATIM fanfic #batim fanfic

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steve0discusses · 5 years ago

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep7: Mai Gets a Day Job (Killing People For Sport)

So, I looked at the calendar and realized, if I don’t get this post up this week then you’ll only have one update from me for the whole of November since I’m leaving for over a week again. :/ So I’m just gonna get right to the good stuff because it has taken just a crazy amount of time to get to episode 7. How great would it be if I also got to episode 8. Real great, right?

So lets do this, I can do this, I can write a recap without getting insanely distracted, watch me do it: This episode starts with Tristan sticking to the fatal flaw of his character sheet and seeing listed at the very top “low key toilet obsession.”

Ah Tristan.

And when you think “well, OK, they’re stuck by some historic Mesas, this is fine,” suddenly they are beset by the world’s most random biker gang of like 20 full grown adults/biker assassins.

And it’s not super clear if their driver died out there in the Arizona desert, or if he just put on a different outfit and joined this gang, but it won’t matter because like...it’s a filler arc in Yugioh so there’s gonna be some deaths.

This season seems to change genre like every 10 minutes, and so for right now we are in a Mad Max post-apocalyptic territory and PS every one of these bikers uses a lead pipe?

I feel like this is way more violent than a gun???

(read more under the cut)

And so, out the horizon comes another biker, like a masked cowboy on horseback, except she shoots these things instead of bullets.

These are trained assassins, by the way, just completely incapacitated by paper.

I just love the marketing team working alongside of this show that’s like “and what else can Yugioh cards do? destroy biker gangs. That’s right, one single card will absolutely destroy a biker!” and the writing staff was like “yeah, we can work that in. That totally works in universe, you don't even know.”

It’s Mai! Back from murdering the hell out of Pegasus, I guess she decided to ninja these 20 bikers, and did it so devastatingly, that they somehow blew up a motorcycle next to a live fuel tank? Like we’re talking Oliver Queen precision throwing here and like...

...Mai’s only been gone like a year right???

And so, seeing that this card is a harpy, which I dunno...doesn’t seem like it’s all that rare in comparison to a Blue Eyes or a God Card or I dunno any of the other signature cards we’ve heard about, Joey immediately recognizes Mai. Despite the fact that everything she is doing right now is completely out of character, and despite the fact that they are in freakin California.

RIP to all 20 of the people in that gang of bikers, because no one followed this limo away from the scene--everyone was, I assume, hella dead.

Youknow, I never expected Mai to kill more people than Bakura. I would have predicted Joey before Mai. I would have predicted Rebecca before Mai. Literally anyone else on this show before Mai.

Seto, crawling out of this oversized castle that I guess...is back on the real estate market now...decides that the irresistible pull of dragons printed on paper cards is stronger than listening to his brother’s needs to put down the damn cards and make a contractually obligated theme park.

I mean Mokuba kept him off the cards for nearly a whole year. What a healthy year that was for Seto.

Back in Arizona, apparently they didn’t make it more than a mile before Tristan busted the car. Not really clear why or how this happened, but they’ve decided to argue with eachother about it despite the fact one of them is clearly magical and does not really need to eat or drink or even maybe sleep?

Like we’ve seen Bakura basically survive off of one plate of tacos and 2 pints of blood, so just make Pharaoh push the car all the way back to California. Or just make Pharaoh use his millennium AIM to call up His tomb keepers and be like “Marik, we need a lift.” or maybe summon a very real monster because that’s a thing now?

Course this would rely on Pharaoh remembering that he has superpowers, which, somehow after 4 seasons, he always forgets how to use the moment he uses them. It’s like reverse Sailor Moon--Usagi tends to level up her Super powers, Pharaoh kind of tosses them out of the window and goes “oops” and becomes more and more mortal every single season.

So instead of magic they will just use Tea.

Amazing how none of them are really willing to date Tea seriously but they will acknowledge, out of the four of them, Tea is the best looking. So their strategy, bear with me, wasn’t to use the fact they’re children to get help from adults driving by, instead, the boys hid behind a rock so they could really make sure they were getting a hella pervy truck driver that would only stop for a single teenage girl stuck in the desert.

Only this group of kids would be like “Hey lets make sure the guy who picks us up is statistically most likely to be a serial killer” and then, weirdly enough, this horndog pedo truck driver ended up being the only person who didn’t try to kill them this entire episode.

So, lets go back to SF but coming from the north side...which makes no sense...but then again, they put Mesas in Napa County.

So last episode I assumed Rex and Weevil were dropped off in Oakland, but Rex informs us this episode that they are in “the worst part of town”

Where they get robbed twice, only to be saved by Duke Devlin, who I guess just lives here now because maybe it’s the only place he can afford in this expensive as hell city? Maybe he isn’t bothered by the crime-rate after that week he spent on Kaiba’s blimp/Seaquest mmo adventure?

Anyway, for some reason Duke--who is a game shop owner/developer by day--is wandering around the Tenderloin as a vigilante and saving people by throwing dice at them as some sort of side hustle and this is never discussed at all.

I would watch that spinoff series. Religiously.

Fun fact, there is definitely sketchy and bad parts of the Tenderloin you will know not to go to (you can smell it actually), but like a third of it is part of the best shopping district in the city and we used to just shop there unsupervised when I was a kid. It has an Anthropologie.

Not saying the parts that are bad aren’t bad. Whenever I drive through the non-shopping parts, I see at least one super sketch thing making me thankful I’m in the car. But I just don't know how Rex and Weevil managed to get robbed twice in one day. Just go five blocks in literally any direction.

Bro and I were like...HOW did this shot happened from this angle on the freeway...and then I only just now realized it. Something I forgot about because it’s from my parent’s generation...maybe the animators weren’t aware that the Embarcadero fell down after Loma Prieta?

So this was the SF landscape before the quake of 89′ (Which I have no memory of since I was a baby when this happened)

and after 89.

Like maybe the animators they had on this team remembered an SF from their youth that had a huge iconic raised street wrapping all the way around one part of it and just...never got the memo that an Earthquake made the entire thing fall down?

Either way, Duke is either driving these two directly out of SF, or he is driving them into 1988 and is taking a lovely drive on the Old Embarcadero, an experience which does not exist anymore, and which makes a lot more sense since Duke has to be somewhat near downtown, going by the skyscrapers and the vicinity to the Tenderloin.

Man. In the Yugioh Universe, Loma Preita just never actually happened. How is that factoid alone not the weirdest part of this episode?

(I am so glad Serenity is not here now that Duke’s back)

Welcome back to the show Duke, glad you’re bringing...Rex and Weevil...

To be fair, Duke has absolutely no idea who is and isn’t Yugi’s friends. Duke just kind of shows up and pretends like he’s part of the gang, and the gang has lost so much brain matter from all the cards and all the dark magic, they just assume he’s been here the whole time.

So at first I was like “this has to be a pun on Industrial Light and Magic” since there’s virtually no other film studios in the city--but ILM moved to SF 3-4 years after this season came out. So it’s just a weird coincidence, I guess. Or maybe it’s just a really uninspired name?

And so Mai, who I guess has been just waiting on this ledge for 8 hours decides to drop in.

Mai has evolved a lot since S1.

But, although Mai is just...straight up evil now, at least we get to see it taken out on Pegasus who, as far as this show is concerned, is a pretty evil bastard.

A pretty evil bastard who took like 3-4 episodes to beat in S1 but Mai could just do it off-screen.

It’s just funny that the entire time on the island Pegasus was probably pretty sure everyone there was trying to kill him EXCEPT for Mai and then the moment his back is turned he’s like “oh whaaaat?”

Like Bandit Keith is already in America. But rather than use Bandit Keith for this, lets use Mai to give Joey something to angst about. We can’t put her in a coma again--so lets instead get her vaguely possessed. Although seriously, if someone I liked did this to me I think I’d be over that crush really fast.

And then, speaking of Bandit Keith, we get to have a Greek Chorus this duel from the minibosses. Valon and the other guy with the handlebar-muttonchops.

I looked up “where does Valon’s accent come from” and literally there is no consensus, as far as I know.

And that’s where this episode ends.

Now I’m gonna go out of town for a week and then will need another week to make more of these so I’ll be on another hiatus. Holding out if I’ll maybe bring a laptop or something to where I’m going so I can type out recaps when I’m bored.

The problem is having the uhhhhh photoshop to do the caps. I can’t bear to do this in MS Paint because hell will freeze over before I lose all of my actions and hotkeys I made specifically to reduce the time it takes to make these. But we shall see.

anyway, if you want to see these from the beginning, click here.

#ygo #yugioh #recap #photo recap #episode recap #yugi muto #joey wheeler #mai valentine #tea gardner #bikers #an exploding shell station #arizona #tristan taylor #valon #S4 ep7

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love-takes-work · 6 years ago

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Steven Universe: Art and Origins (Outline & Review)

Steven Universe: Art and Origins is not just an art book--it's also a collection of early material, a reveal of many initial concepts, and an amazing experience to sort through.

Finally getting around to importing my review to Tumblr. I wrote this on the release day.

In my review I'll give you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" with a book of this magnitude, so this may get long, but I'll try to include anecdotes that have some unique insight or perspective on the main source material--with as little of "OMG this was the original idea for this!" as possible.

This is illustrated with some low-quality pictures of the book and it gets super long, so I have to cut. But please read. :)

The overview:

After a foreword from Rebecca Sugar and an introduction from Genndy Tartakovsky, we get:

Part 1: Origins. This contains some narratives about Rebecca Sugar's early life as an artist--inspiration, family, college projects--all illustrated, of course, with childhood photos and early art. Rebecca mentions having wanted to bury her femininity for a while, but coming back to draw female forms and include dancing after she learned to sort through her issues using art.

Her college education and connections with other artists are discussed--some in interview format, some in narrative--and there is some background regarding her time on Adventure Time. The story moves on to talking about developing the pilot and what went into her character and plot ideas. Character design is discussed in depth, with Rebecca giving initial sketches to a design team and developing the characters' initial pilot look.

Some really slick promo art is shared--posters, sketches, great concepts that were designed to bring in new viewers and make them curious about the show. The pilot succeeded in getting the green light to develop it into a TV series.

Part 2 discusses the show's Green Light and Development. Rebecca and some of the other crew, in interview format, talk about getting the team together and allowing for both nailed-down character essentials and flexibility for the writers to explore and collaborate. Developing the setting was also a big part of the to-do list; coming up with Beach City itself, its businesses, its residents, and also the creatures the Gems would fight.

Some cute stories are shared about the early Crewniverse hanging out at a cabin and talking about the show all the time, hashing it out. There are some great, loose character model sheets for early versions of Greg, Connie, Sadie and Lars, and the four main characters.

Part 3 is about Character Design. They discuss how the pilot got released and fans grew attached to what they initially looked like, only to be "outraged" by the changes, making tons of assumptions about who was controlling the process.

Rebecca shares some thoughts on her development process and her philosophy on letting different artists draw the characters differently while gripping onto specifics she set. Main, palette, and distance models are discussed, with some technical details of what different artists do on the team and how they handle props or special poses.

There are many sheets of how to draw the Gems on model (with pointers on what NOT to do), and then there are some Homeworld Gem ideas that didn't get used, and finally, some sketches and concept art for Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, Jasper, and Bismuth.

Part 4 is on Writing and Storyboarding. More Crewniverse interviews provide insight into the process, including how much is revised from the early days and how collaborative everything is. Some specific episodes, like "Ocean Gem," "Monster Buddies," and "Island Adventure" are put into perspective with how they were written by the group.

There's heavy discussion of how the process works and why processes that work on other shows wouldn't work here, and what "rules" are firm and what's just a suggestion, and what's changed as the show's plot became more complex and important. Steven still having access to the "side" stories, the ones that involve Beach City humans and non-world-shaking stakes, is still very important to the story that the original Crew wants to tell. Cute images from the Crew's thumbnail storyboards, Gem designing, and technology designing workshops are shared too.

There's some good continued discussion of concepts in Part 4, especially about fusion and relationships and the larger message the show is sending. How do you tell a story and why? There are many answers to that, and sometimes it's about fun and sometimes it's about a message and sometimes it's about wanting to make an episode about something you've never seen a cartoon do before--something specific to you that other people can suddenly see represented.

One of my favorite parts of it is when they discuss Steven discovering the Gems' weaknesses over time and having that NOT make him think less of them--more like he admires them for being strong enough to shoulder the burdens he didn't know they were carrying before. Storyboarder Lamar Abrams talks about the importance of growing up not just being about becoming bitter, and I really like that.

Part 5 is on Sound and Vision. There's some history of how they found the voice actors for the major roles, and some of the actors give perspectives on their relationship and experience on the show.

Aivi and Surasshu, as the composers, discuss their process as well, with some anecdotes and discussions of why musical palettes work better for characters instead of assigning them themes. Places and objects have their own sounds too.

Part 6 covers Background Design and Painting. Steven Sugar takes the stage and explains general background thoughts as well as specifics for certain settings. His focus on detail is really fascinating to read about--it's really him who nails down the locations in Beach City and where an outlet is in a house on the wall.

The directors and other Crewniverse folks discuss the use of color and background items in the show, and how they use it to create mood or feel changeable enough to be real.

Part 7 discusses Animation and Post, with a spotlight on the work they do in Korea at animation studios Sunmin and Rough Draft. The process is described--how and when the material is transformed from animatics to animated cartoons.

Nick DeMayo discusses timing and adding the sound effects and whatnot. There's also some design instruction that's provided to the animators in Korea.

Some special highlighted drawings and pieces, like the "C.L.O.D.S." zine or some keys for Ruby and Sapphire, are included.

Even the bumpers and end tag animations are discussed here. And of course they had to mention a couple very special episodes, such as when Takafumi Hori from Studio Trigger came in to do "Mindful Education," or when they did the musical episode, "Mr. Greg."

And Part 8 is called "Onward." The intention of the section is unclear at first based on the title of the chapter, but you can quickly see they're discussing the forward-thinking message the show has--how its representation of its creators' experiences has also struck a chord with people who wanted and NEEDED its diversity.

Zuke says a very wise thing when they state that they want the show to provide "insight . . . not a solution." That's one thing this show does well; it spotlights problems and situations and feelings, but only shows you how those things can be dealt with, not necessarily how they SHOULD, in all cases, be dealt with.

Representation matters, and seeing evidence that you are a part of this world when you're from a marginalized or underrepresented group is valuable in a way that you can only know if you DON'T have it.

The show's writers also weigh in on good vs. evil and how it's too black and white; that we needed a show with nuance, and has a message of love and tolerance. Kat Morris acknowledges that there are more important things than making a feelsy and entertaining piece of media, but as she says, the point is to let people see themselves in something and be challenged.

And the creators are able to see at conventions and online that people are responding emotionally, viscerally, to their work. It puts a lot of pressure on an artist to do it right, but in the words of Dogcopter, "Just be true to yourself and people will appreciate your honesty."

The book closes with some photos of the Crew and a few more pages of art. And it kinda leaves you with a squishy feeling. :D

Notable:

1. I was relieved to see Rebecca state it plainly in the foreword: the items you see from the development phases of this show are not to be taken as canon or as "real" insights into how you should interpret it now. She specifically mentioned that she does not consider the Gems "girls" or "goddesses," and that was particularly important to me.

Throughout, you're supposed to see the contributed bits and in-development pieces in the context of what they were: early drafts, embryonic. We all become different from what we were even though we grew from it and may have roots in it still, but that doesn't mean you can point at the seed and say its flower is meant to be understood surrounded by dirt.

2. The original designs for the Gems fluctuated a lot, and in a couple cases even names flopped around. An early name for Garnet was "Onyx," and if you've seen the pilot, you know Pearl got her signature nose later and Garnet's hair took a while to become the splendid square afro. Amethyst seems to have changed the least.

Themes were given to them initially (like Amethyst being "flora and fauna," which you can sort of see in her pilot intro with her lying on big cats). You can still see some of the original intentions in how the ideas manifested, but the first ideas do not gel particularly well with what the show became.

This is particularly interesting because non-creatives commonly think creative people simply receive inspiration and birth their creations into the world wholesale. Inspiration exists, but it's much more common to take an inspired idea and REALLY WORK ON IT. This book's origins section does a great job showing how that works.

3. Some early sketched-out ideas for episodes seem very far from what would fit into the show now (such as an idea for an episode where Pearl is obsessed with the pizza guy??), but one seems to be the roots of "Bubble Buddies," which implies that Steven's original crush was "Priyanka" instead of Connie. (That's now Connie's mother's name.)

4. The pilot's title was "The Time Thing."

5. Initial notes for Garnet say she should have the coolest shoes of the three, that she's commanding and outer-spacey and also weird, and that she's inspired by Grace Jones, boy Michael Jackson, and Estelle in "I Can Be a Freak."

Initial notes for Amethyst insist on the "fanny pack" pouch and suggest her clothes are cut, her hair is in chunks, and she should have an animal theme with a wild texture.

Initial notes for Pearl indicate a desire to have her opposite Amethyst in her formal way of dressing and needing to have an outfit that would allow her to be hung upside down, possibly with a pearl stone theme for baubles in her hair. (Rebecca indicated she needed the most help with Pearl.)

6. Early versions of the show included the idea that the Gems might be trying to hide being Gems in public, and that they kept magic away from Steven for the most part instead of encouraging him to use it.

A "lost" episode about Steven summoning his shield (later incorporated into the episode "Gem Glow") had him saving Greg with it and dreaming about his mother, and having Pearl drive a crappy old car (later incorporated into "Last One Out of Beach City"). Rebecca and Ian reveal that the dream Steven had in it was used a little in "Rose's Room," and that a song called "The Meatball Sub Song" was involved which could have contributed to the show getting picked up despite that we never got to hear it. (Imagine that, Steven singing about food!)

7. There's a note in the early character design section that says "the girls can all turn into Steven" with an accompanying illustration of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl shapeshifted as him.

Cute, because we actually got to see them do this in the episode "Keep Beach City Weird" with the exception of Pearl.

8. Rebecca Sugar shares an anecdote about thinking there was a "best" way to draw that was objectively correct (influenced by some art-school stuff), and through that she arrived at the idea that Pearl was a cone, Amethyst was a sphere, and Garnet was a cube, because all of those things say something about who they are (pointedness, fluidness, stability).

She evolved from that idea to a more flexibile idea of how drawing works for different artists, but that was part of what helped her nail the characters down. Steven, eventually, was fixed to having a heart-shaped face.

9. The Tiger Millionaire and Purple Puma flyer shown in the episode "Tiger Millionaire," presented as something Steven drew, was actually drawn by Lily DeMayo (daughter of Nick DeMayo, animation director) when she was seven.

10. Guides are made for the Crew to use featuring reminders on drawing the characters. It's kind of adorable to see common drawing errors or misconceptions or inconsistent details discussed in a how-to format for the people who actually work there.

11. A timeline exists for the show and it encompasses TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS of Gem and human history. It was too spoilery to be in the book, but there is a LOT of lore that is laid down, and this tool mentioned in Part 4 established that this document is referenced often to make events make sense in the timeline.

12. It's been established before, but Amethyst's origin in Earth's Prime Kindergarten was not initially known as part of her character when she was invented, and that was discussed in Part 4 of this book--how the writing retreats the Crew takes to discuss the story sometimes result in huge revelations like this. "Oh, that makes sense, that's why we wrote her like that" is one of those things I recognize as a writer--you know a character has a certain vibe, but you don't know what explains it. You just trust that something does. And eventually, sometimes you find out what it is and it all makes sense. Interesting to know they did this with Amethyst.

13. "Lars and Sadie make out even though they're not together" was the basic idea for making "Island Adventure." And the original idea for "Onion Friend" had a "Grandma Shallot" character.

The writers sometimes play writing games to brainstorm, and those were shared. Some ideas for a story which was later used in "Future Boy Zoltron," covering Mr. Smiley's romance/comedy partnership with an old flame, were shared with more emphasis on the characters being lovers.

Garnet's part in the story was more explicit too, with her giving people future predictions that are not at all nice or gently delivered, and they have to shut down the business in the wake of Garnet's badassery. Weird.

Other ideas were used but not as they're presented, like one where Greg learns about fusion from the Gems (but witnessed the fusion of Pearl and Amethyst, not Pearl and Rose), and a complicated one where cross-Gem fusion is a new idea in a flashback and Rose wants Garnet to fuse with her to teach her about it but she's too unsure of her own fusion relationship as such to risk it. The idea was that Pearl would be jealous and Pearl, Rose, and Garnet would actually fuse in the episode. This has not been done in the show.

14. Rebecca Sugar apparently just pops up with concepts she wants the writers to work in. Like "I want Steven to be in a mushroom forest" (which hasn't happened yet) or "I want Steven to have cats on his fingers" (which, obviously, happened early on). Rebecca gets little concepts that are sort of dreamlike, and they figure out which episode they can put them in. Working those things in sometimes seems like as much of a priority as getting plot elements in!

15. I like that they dish a bit about the fan reaction to Garnet's Fusion status. They thought they were being a little too obvious to not get caught, but Ian said the fans figured it out and then got bored of the idea and decided it must be even more complicated than that. People were apparently worried that Garnet would be replaced by her component Gems in the story if she were to unfuse, but obviously since Ruby and Sapphire want to be together, that doesn't happen.

16. Kat Morris's "rules" as discussed in Part 4 are "Garnet never asks questions" and "the story has to stay in Steven's perspective." I love how strict they are about Garnet not asking questions (except in the episode "The Answer," though there have been a couple ~technical~ questions from her; she usually just finds a way to ask a question with a statement, like "tell me what you saw").

17. A great quote from Zuke on the incidentally queer content of the Gems' relationships and gender: "Personally, I'm happy to not have to think, 'I'm writing a character based on my queer experiences.' That would be so hard! I'm just writing from my perspective, and I happen to be queer. I think that's what makes the show feel natural when it comes to that. It's a fine line between defining something so that people are aware it exists, which is so important, but also letting it breathe, so it's not forever contained in a box labeled 'queer media.'"

18. In Part 5, Michaela Dietz relates her experiences as an adoptee to relate to what Amethyst deals with as an "adoptee" into the Crystal Gem family without knowing where she really came from or what it means to be a part of that. She's said this before in some other interviews and panels, so it's not new in general, but it's probably new in print. Deedee Magno Hall, who plays Pearl, obviously relates to Pearl's maternal nature.

19. Tom Scharpling and Charlyne Yi were voice actors that Rebecca specifically had in mind for her characters (Greg and Ruby respectively). Rebecca's illustrated letter to Charlyne explaining Ruby and Sapphire's relationship and Ruby's role on the show is really adorable.

20. Music nerds like me will very much appreciate the photographed notes on music motifs--the Diamonds each have a solfège syllable and a chord (White is F#M7/Sol, Yellow is BM7/Fa, Blue is EM7/Fa, and Pink is AM7/Mi), and Steven's powers and modes are coded with instruments and styles.

21. Some world maps provide new possible insights. Greenland in our world is Blueland in theirs. South America is called Pangea. Aqua Mexico is labeled about where Mexico is in our world. India is the Indian Islands. There's an Australia and a New Australia. A big sea in the middle of Asia is called the Tunguska Sea. Rose's Fountain is in Spain or Portugal; the Sky Spire and Strawberry Battlefield are in Norway; the Shooting Star Shrine is in the middle of the drastically different Asian continent; the Galaxy Warp is in the Tunguska Sea; the Lunar Sea Spire is off the coast of Canada; Mask Island is in the Atlantic near Beach City; the Comm Relay is in the Western United States.

22. It was known from interviews that Shelby Rabara (voice of Peridot) is a dancer and provided the foot sounds and coaching to create the short tap number in the episode "Mr. Greg." But what's great is here, there's a visual reference included! Photos of Shelby doing the dance are lined up next to the drawings of Pearl and Steven in the "Mr. Greg" number doing the steps! She poses in dance moves with her husband for the Greg/Pearl dance for "Both of You" too.

23. There's a really cute story in the last section about Amber Cragg ascending from fan to Crewniverse member through posting Pearl art in response to the pilot and eventually getting contacted to take a board test. That is the kind of thing so many online artists dream of!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe reviews #steven universe art and origins #steven universe books #rebecca sugar #myblog

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boogiewrites · 6 years ago

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Choking On Sapphires 11

Title & Song: These Stones Will Shout

Characters: Alfie Solomons x Genevieve Durand (OFC)

Word Count: 3500+

Summary: Genevieve is a force to be reckoned with. An intelligent, independent and brutal businesswoman. She’s been intrigued by Alfie since she met him. But where should she draw the line between business and pleasure now that they are working so closely together?

A/N: Every chapter of this story will have a song to work as the title and as a soundtrack. Chapter song is These Stones Will Shout by The Raconteurs. The songs give a good background to the stories and have some further insight into the characters.

Part 1: Thieves & Kings.- Pt. 2 Conquest - Pt. 3 Nail In My Coffin - Pt. 4 - 60 Feet Tall Pt. 5 I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor Pt. 6 Stop The World Pt 7 Making A Fool Of You Pt 8 L'Amour et la violence Pt 9 Play With Fire Pt 10 Black Treacle Pt 12 Fireside

My Masterlist.

Tags! Let me know if you’d like to be added or dropped! Thanks!

@fangirlfreakingout @jaegeeeeer @cosettewinchester@lookuptheskyisfalling-blog @brianaisasongbird @cry5t4l-w4rri0r @iliveonchocolateandnetflix @jess2464 @angry-kazoo-noises @hardygal69

You had thankfully taken up camp at the far end of the dining room table before dinner to organize some of your loose sketches. You were having Aggie take them back to your studio when he walks in the room. Your eyes that had been on her as she left in the direction he was entering, shift to him immediately and follow him, wide at the sight, as he sits at his usual seat at the far end of the table. You blink slowly at him, taking in this boyishly handsome man that sat down to have dinner with you.

"Alfie?" you call out with enthusiasm, you back straightening as he puts his glasses on. "What did you do?" you inquire, shaking your head, your brows high, eyes not hiding their underlying enthusiasm at the sight of him.

"What? It's almost summer, yeah? I like to go into the season with a good cut and shave." he doesn't pay you much mind as he looks at the papers his second is laying on the corner of the table before he leaves for the day.

Claire walks in to find you, lip bitten in thought, staring at him and wondering how he'd hidden lips so full. His face does the same mannerisms as it always has, but your eyes see every tiny nuance now. Every fold around his mouth, wrinkle in the corner of his eye. He'd bared his face and therefore to a small extent his thoughts with this clean-shaven face.

(In French) "Did you know about this?" you ask, snapping your stare back to the table.

"I did not." she says with amusement in her voice.

"Look at him," you say, holding your hands in front of your face as your arms rest on the tabletop. "To have the beautiful young man underneath the handsome older one." you roll your eyes, sitting back in your chair in contemplation of him. You never look at him directly, speaking to Claire over a sheet of jotted thoughts you'd had while drawing today as if it held any real importance. "How is an unsexed woman supposed to go without wanting to smash a face so pretty to pieces with her pelvis?" you shake your head and shake the piece of paper as if you're angry at it. You look over to him, he's watching you with interest in his eyes, you shrug and make a face to signify you weren't mad over anything important.

"Tell us how you really feel." Claire says sarcastically, managing to even chew smugly. You sit and look at his reflection in the mirror on the wall, avoid him directly.

"You remember that young lord that lived north of Paris?" you ask, chewing.

"The one with the zoo?" you say, looking back over to Claire who nods. "He reminds me of him in this form." you shake your fork in her direction.

"How could I forget? The noises you animals made rivaled that of the ones in the cages." she rolls her eyes again, this time accompanied by her head as she rolled her head about her shoulders, stretching out the tension building there.

"A face like that makes me miss the days when I would take those angel face's and be the woman who made them men." you sigh and shrug remembering fondly of your escapades for a fleeting moment. You see Claire subtly looking at Alfie her lips pursed together, she overlooks your inappropriate dinner table conversation as she's become to expect it.

"I would have never guessed that lay beneath all that hair. You don't even notice the spots with a set of lips like that do you?" she looks over at you and you raise your eyebrows in agreement, nodding your head. You smile at her speaking loosely instead of professionally. "The irony is not lost on me that a man like him would have such an angelic face as it helps to deceive you from the devil within." she states matter of factly. You roll your eyes and now you try to ignore her words, trying to give no power to whatever negativity she was projecting outwardly tonight.

"I think my brother Michael had the same spots when he was little. Grandmother gave him one of her tonics and it cleared up..." you chew slowly, your brow furrowed in thought. "I wonder if it's in any of her old books." you trail off, looking in the direction of your bedroom.

"Creating potions to cure what ails him now too? What don't you offer to rub it in for him with your tits if you're going to all that trouble. A waste of your time and energy, that is." she almost grinds out between her tight lips, holding a visible tension there. Her hand going up into the air but the rest of her body stayed stationary as rolled her eyes at how you were going out of your way to help this man.

You stop chewing and your brow drops as you wait for Claire to look over at you. "Are you quite finished?" you ask, you expression pulling rank on her. She lets out a heavy sigh and grabs a newspaper. "What has your knickers in a knot? Because my kindness isn't where you should be directing your anger." you warn her, cutting the meat on your plate aggressively in your annoyance.

"Men." she answers, spitting out the word, tossing the paper onto the table. "Excuse me." she says sarcastically, leaving her chair pushed out from the table and disappearing down the hall.

"Anything I should know about?" he asks, chewing slowly, face straight.

"Non." you say with a sigh. "She's apparently had a bad day is all." you shrug and go back to your food. ------------------------- It's late, you're in your usual home uniform of a nightgown and robe and slippers, the upgrade from naked you'd usually be wearing this time of year. You've got your tea, the fire gently undulating, the only source of light in the room except for the lamp you've placed in the floor under the curtains by the window behind the desk. You're working on capturing the heavy black velvet curtains and how the light illuminates them from beneath. You hear Aggie's entirely too adoring voice greet Alfie as he comes in. You hear him making his way down the hall. He nods as he sees you, half turned on the sofa to face him.

"'Ello, Gen." he calls out to you with a croak, continuing onto his room.

"Goodnight, Alfie." you say in a humorous exhale at his endearing casual tone and greeting as it seemed he was in fact leaving.

"Nah, not yet. I'll be in there to join ya in a minute, yeah?" you hear him explain as his hand moves as he speaks, despite his back being towards you. You think he mumbles something about work before he disappears into his room.

You work until his appearance interrupts the light behind the desk, his arms dumping books on the desk. "Am I interrupting your artistic process?" he says only half serious, taking his braces off his shoulders.

"Yes but I won't hold it against you." you set the bound papers onto the seat cushion, moving to place the lamp back on the desk. "Just studying light." you say, dismissing it and giving him a polite smile as you move back to your previous spot on the couch.

"Ya any good or do you just enjoy the hobby?" he says, rearranging the books on the surface they rest on.

You let out a huff of a laugh. "Being good at art is purely personal opinion." you say, picking up the realism you'd been trying to create in charcoal.

He settles with a grunt in response to your answer accompanied by a solid nod, his lips pouted in agreement. His elbows stick out as he lands with a croak of agitation from the chair. You stand next to him, he raises his chin towards you, leaning in as you do, offering what you'd worked on tonight for his inspection on the desk.

"Give it to me straight, Solomons." you chuckle, standing and looming over the drawing.

He picks it up and holds it, studying it in the light of the lamp that had rested on the floor.

"Anything you can't do Genevieve?" he asks quietly, thoughtfully, his eyes focused and moving across the work. You bite your lip and look up in consideration.

"I can't whistle." you offer up with a shrug. His eyes shut as he shakes his head with a huff of a laugh and raises them back up to your amused face.

"You can't whistle?" he asks surprised, you shake your head. "Well, go on, lemme see how bad it is." you furrow your brow and purse your lips playfully at him.

When he doesn't break his expression, you sigh but give an amused smile and oblige him. You wet your lips and try. You pucker up, doing nothing much but blowing out air and sputtering. You take another breath, looking down your nose at his held back laughter and blow out raspberries, especially as he shrugs and makes a disappointed expression causing you to laugh as you continue trying and it only gets worse. You eventually can't hold your mouth in the correct form and start laughing at yourself. Your eyes squeeze shut and your hand is placed on your chest as your shoulders slump and you angle yourself away from him so you aren't laughing directly into his face.

He's relieved when you close your eyes because then he can let loose the smile that your adorably endearing behavior is causing. Who else got to see this side of you, he wondered.

"I'm shit at it Alfie." you let out a small snort and take an exaggerated deep breath. He's back to his high brows and sucked in lips to keep from teasing you. "Ya feel like a big man? Making a woman look so foolish?" you say with a laugh.

"Now, now, luv, come 'ere," he shakes his head with a sincere grin at your antics and takes your hands into his, making you look at him. "You gotta put your tongue over your teeth," he demonstrates, "Like 'is." you try to mimic him and it's hard because your lips keep threatening to smile. You try again and after much more encouraging expressions from him you manage to squeak out a weak but audible whistle. In your expectancy to not whistle, you jerk your hands out of his, balling into fists and shooting towards your chest in surprise. Your face gives away your shock at your own actions.

"Lookit you go!" he laughs, his shoulders still shaking as he leans back into the chair.

"Didn't expect to ever remedy that." you say with a head tilt and grin, your face thoughtful.

"Well ya dinnit 'ave me teachin' ya now did ya?" he chuckles, handing you your drawing back. "Certainly don't need no one teachin' ya anyfing about drawin', do ya?" he says with a much less flashy smile, the sparkle of a compliment in his eyes.

"Thank you on both accounts, Alfie." you rest your hand on his shoulder, rubbing it slightly in a thankful gesture that you follow through with without even thinking about it. "You mind if I stay in here with you?" you ask, your voice rising in pitch slightly as you head back to the couch. "I have other sketches to work on." you add as you stand by the spot of your previous perch.

"Don't be ridiculous. I've got contracts to evaluate, sketch away, dear, by all means." he says, not looking up at you but motioning for you to continue and sit.

You're settled back in, your back against the arm of the couch as you hold your paper in your lap, knees bent and facing the desk again. You hear the sharp satisfying drag of the paper flipping to a new page. You look over him for a moment, considering his warm demeanor and angel face. You think of how much you'll miss this boyish charm that was born from a boyish face when it inevitably became covered with hair again. You bite your lip and grin, starting with a few shaping strokes on the page, beginning to draw him as he was. You didn't want to forget it after he was gone. ---------------------------------------------------- You're on your way back from the kitchen, the light in the hallway catches your attention, you take another bite of the bread and jam in your hand that had called you to the kitchen at this late hour. You don't immediately assume he's in the room, as it was late or rather early for even you to be up wandering around. You appear in the doorway, with no announcement of your presence, muscle memory ready to switch off a lamp and go back to bed. But he's at the desk in the study in his pajamas, hair a mess, glasses on his nose as his fingers poke away at a typewriter.

"Working on Shabbat?" you say with a tsk, entering the room just slightly.

His eyes roll up to you, his demeanor stiffens. "Ain't work." he grumbles, finishing his thought and then turning his attention to you.

"So you're just writing? For the pure enjoyment of it?" you ask, coming closer now, arms across your chest, feeling like you'd intruded but he wasn't telling you to leave so you implore into what he's doing. "I hadn't the faintest idea you were also an artist."

"Nah, no artist." he shakes his head, not meeting your eyes. "Merely a compulsory hobby." he says with a groan.

"If you create, you are an artist, Alfie. Plain and simple." you state, taking another bite of bread. "Have you been writing long?" you inquire with a sweet inflection to your words.

He sighs and you feel the weight of it's meaning. He's hesitating. He looks up at you, his brow still heavy over his eyes, but they were fixed on yours as you blink slowly, his eyes losing his tension as you don't interrupt his thoughts and stay silent. His eyes flutter ever so slightly before he decides to speak. "I woke up from a dream and came in ‘ere so not long. Helps to empty the thoughts out like ‘is." he says, his shoulders slumped, back leaning in the chair, his hand rubs his sleep fussed hair.

"Inspiration visit you in your dreams?" you ask warmly. You stand next to the desk, not coming to his side so you can't see what he's working on out of respect for his privacy.

"Yes but not in a way that grants that lovely tone you're using." he says, looking away and to the paper he'd been projecting onto.

"Ah, those fits of inspiration." you say with wide eyes and a reluctant smile that tells him you've spent many sleepless nights much the same way he had. Just from different sorts of demons and paint instead of words. "I did however mean with my question as to how long you'd been writing, to be directed at its entire duration, not just this nights." you say with a smile that just enough teasing to make him give you a small pleasant smile as you directed yours at him.

"Ah." he says obviously with a nod. Smile fading fast. "Well," he starts, that hesitancy gripping at his words. Part of him wanted to share and part of him wanted to hide and keep the words in his head and not let them leave through his mouth. But the kind and never judgemental mind behind your eyes was showing through, asking him politely to tell the truth. "They've been going on for a little while now."he says, the words being drawn out slightly as he beat back that voice in his head telling him to not be vulnerable, hushing its insistence that it equated to weakness. But you were proof that wasn't true. Your truths had made him want to follow your lead and try to find it within himself to not hate the bits of him that had grown from the war. He wasn't in denial of them, used them to his advantage for years now, but the hardness it had instilled at his core was something he wasn't sure was any longer reachable. But something about you made him want to try.

"Now? Did these floods of creativity start recently?" you ask, head tilted to its side, you have no ulterior motive other than curiosity and care as you speak to him.

"No, they started after I came back from the war." he says in a more clear voice, you're pleasantly surprised at the shift in his voice.

"Oh," a smile on your face that to his surprise isn't pitying. "Sounds much like my brother." you say with a terribly sad huff of a laugh, not masking anything to his observant eyes.

"He in the war as well? Never heard you speak of 'im." you can tell he's interested with his choice of words.

"Yes, he was. He was different afterward as well. But everyone was in some way or another." you give a distant gaze and a shrug. "Especially after you men came home. Seems the ones who kept the war where it died fared better than the ones that brought it home with them in their heads." your eyes are far away in your memories, he's guessing.

"I've witnessed much the same." he nods, narrowed eyes, holding only curiosity watching over you as the vulnerability he had felt from sharing something personal is met with yours.

You give a sharp glance away from him, swallowing and taking a deep breath before the emotion took your face over. "I have learned that expressing oneself in imaginative ways, such as with art, is a healthier way for us to work through things on a deeper level than we can with less introspective outlets." you add, your face looking more rosy as you rubbed your nose. "Like with your writing. My painting. George's theatre." you say, rubbing your hands on your hands on your knees before stretching your back.

"Theatre?" he says, sides of his mouth pulled down in a surprised expression of interest.

"Yeah." you say with a smile that's genuine again. "After he healed from his injuries, he found he had a taste for it and created a stage name and threw himself into that world for a bit." you look back over to meet his eyes, eyes no longer holding the threat of tears.

"Was he any good?" he asks with a cheeky grin. You grin and give him a soft laugh, shaking your head and moving away from the desk.

"Didn't matter if he was any good at it. He loved it." you give a half smile and shrug, walking to the door, your hand touching the pieces of furniture as it passed them.

"What was his stage name?" he asks, calling out in a warm voice as you neared the door.

"I can't tell you that." you say as your shoulders shake with a laugh, turning to face him.

"Why not?" he says with a playful offense.

"Because it's a secret." you say obviously, your head and voice dropping low. "Shouldn't have even told you of it at all." you say with an uncomfortable smile, looking away with a silent 'oops' escaping your mouth, quickly followed by another small huff and a tired smile. "Hope you're good at keeping others secrets as well." you laugh at yourself, sighing and putting your hands on your hips.

"I can keep secrets given the right reasons." he nods and shrugs in his defense.

"The reasoning of, because I said so." you say with an attitude-filled nod of your head.

"Eh." he says with a shrug, indicating this wasn't a good enough reason.

"Because I said so and I will also kill you if do. That work well enough?" you ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Better." he says with a chuckle and a laugh, pushing his glasses back up his nose."Self-preservation is a good angle to approach when threatening someone to keep secrets." he nods, approving of your methods.

"Speaking to me as if I'm not a peer of yours in such skills." you say with a singular loud scoff, shaking your head, rolling your eyes and turning from him with your brand of playful dramatics. "Save your lessons for someone who needs it, professor." you say in a humorously exasperated fashion that makes him laugh as you parade out the room. "I'm going to bed, Mr. Solomons." you state in the same tone.

"Goodnight my most apt pupil." he calls after you, hands back to his papers on his desk.

"Shove it up your arse." you say in a snort of a laugher that he quickly imitates. Your sighs that follow after your laughter whisper their way to his ears from the long echoing halls, making him stare out the doorway even after you've gone, his mind no more calm than it had been when he'd been lost in it before you entered the room and now his thoughts to settle in for the night.

Pt 12 Fireside

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yunisverse · 7 years ago

Text

Rubberhose AU Masterpost!

Considering this whole AU has gotten fairly extensive, I thought it’d be smart to start putting everything in one place. I’ll try and keep it updated as stuff happens.

All under the cut!

Comics n such (in roughly chronological order)

- Henry, the aspiring cartoonist - The Dream Team - Rumors outside the studio - Joey’s flawed plan - Joey’s perfect plan - Sacrificial Sheep - The Ritual (fic) - Henry and the early stages of infection - Infection is not fun for anyone - Welcome to the safehouse - First aid - Disagreement in the safehouse - Putting off the inevitable (fic) - Headaches - The toon transformation - Bendy and company’s reactions - No more axe - Bendy’s general mood - Bendy’s new role in the story - The Awards Room - Henry’s motive - Sammy, the unfavorite - The Team splits up - Sammy and Alice do not see eye to eye - Lord Bendy’s demands - None of them are in control - Don’t change your model sheet - Where’s Joey? - Bendy’s people skills - Boris needs to eat (part 1)(part 2) - Henry and Boris’s heart-to-heart - Bendy gets in touch with his toon origins again (part 1)(part 2) - Alice has been thinking (part 1)(part 2)(part 3) - Errand boys (fic) - Butchered gags - Norman - Finding a punchline - Never SAW it coming + follow up - A confrontation of creators - Performance review (+follow up) - Making himself into a god

Epilogue

- Making it home - Peggy - Distrust (fic) - Horace - Not a great dad - Nightmares - Shopping trip - Linda - Being an aunt - Wacky misunderstandings - Dad jokes - A different workplace environment - Finding old trash - Elias (fic) - Staying relevant - Redesigned for modern times - 60s toon designs

Neutral End

- Returning home (part 1)(part 2)(part 3) - The Elias Debate (fic) - Banana Bread (fic) - Banana Bread illustrated - “”””blending in”””” - Poppop (part 1)(part 2) -The Road Trip (1 (fic))(2 (fic))(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9) - Costume design - Lovestruck - Potential modernization

Bad End

- Character design flaws - Henry goes full Toon - How the Toons take the loss - Who’s Peggy? - The moping room (fic) - The food supply runs out - A deal with the human (fic, slight offshoot of Bad End continuity) - Epidemic (fic, separate from other Bad End continuity) ReDrew AU (in which everything is the same, except completely different)

- Joey does everything right - Welcome back, Henry - Joey’s gambit (fic) - The cast - Joey’s little stooge - Bendy and Wally - Still a terrible work environment - Joey and Bendy’s bond, as seen from the outside (fic) - When Joey’s away too long

Character designs, concept development, general sketches

Most of these no longer have a proper place in the story chronologically, but are still pretty relevant to the world building and concept.

- Henry’s first design - The initial concept: lots and lots of animation jokes - Color reference and height chart - Humans + their historical references - Humans without reference - First attempt at a height chart (no longer accurate) - First attempt at a color reference (no longer accurate) - The Ink - Boris and Bendy are doing great + Designs for Joey - First designs for Sammy and Susie - First designs for Wally - First designs for Norman and Shawn - First designs for Grant and Thomas - Bendy’s mockery - Friends falling apart and Henry’s ticking clock - Moving with keyframes - Baby’s first Hammerspace - The Ink speaks - Inevitable Dad Mode - The plunger - Reassurance - How magic works - Sammy as a toon - Malice Alice and the boys

Asks and Explanations

Souls and the Ink - An illustrated guide on souls and Ink - Soul accessibility in the epilogue - Why the souls try to reform into toons - Resisting the Ink: Creativity and Determination - The studio’s prolonged exposure to the Ink and Henry’s introduction to it - Sharing souls in ReDrew - The Awards Room and its “magic” effect - Why the Awards Room failed Boris

Henry - Drawing on the cutout - Henry and Bendy’s thoughts on his Role - Henry’s glasses - Using hammerspace - His youth and family - The draft & guns

Joey - Spreading rumors about his next big project - Joey’s loophole (and The Ink’s) - Joey and the road to hell - Ordinary - Truth and lies - Designing his look

Sammy - Everyone just sort of puts up with him - Sammy’s anger (part 1)(part 2) - Why didn’t he quit working there? - He’s not dead yet

The Toons - Bendy’s obsession with narrative roles (and Boris’ and Alice’s thoughts) - Bendy and Boris’ different routes to soul stability - How Alice got one soul - The souls that make up Bendy - Only one Boris at a time - Bendy’s rejection of the Real World - Figuring out “Alice” after Chapter 3 - Alice’s thoughts of being Real - “Alice’s” hands

Relationships - Henry’s soul donation to Boris vs. his refusal in ReDrew - Henry and Joey; tragedy in one AU, exasperation in another - Joey and Henry: friendship, denial, exhaustion, and willful ignorance - Joey and Bendy’s awful father-son relationship - Henry and Linda - Henry and the kids (namely Elias)

Other - you can take BATIM as urban fantasy from my cold dead hands - The names of Henry’s kids (and the joke therein) - The Epilogue and the inevitable

#rubberhose au #ReDrew AU #rubberhose au bad end #rubberhose au i guess?????#batim #bendy and the ink machine

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zebraslovescupcakestoo · 7 years ago

Text

The Visit of Bendy De Mon.

In our little two-bedroom home on the suburbs of California, it was a nice afternoon day of April showers. The sound of the rain drops hitting on the windows calms me as I worked on the animation drawings in my personal art studio.

If anyone haven't guessed who I am, apart from my name alone, I'm Mickey 'Mouse' Disney. Yes I know, I'm that 'famous' poster boy for my father's animation studio and our company.

Many people would think why would I live here in this 'humble' house when my 'actual' home in in the higher class neighborhood? Simple, I'm working from the bottom to the top to earn my position. It was my choice to do so.

But that's a story for another time, I can tell you for now however, I'm not like the others who had their parents paved the road for them to get whatever they want.

I picked up my red pen and I continued my drawing of a dalmatian puppy. At least one OF them. I was reading a kids novel book on 'The hundred and one Dalmatians' one time at the book store to see if I can animate more stories to life. I really loved the story of what Dodie Smith have wrote and I believed it can work as a movie animation. When I personally called her, she was thrilled to hear me and shrieked when I wanted to meet her in person. We had brunch at a very nice cafe while we talked about negotiations on the permission to make her novel into a movie. I wanted to assure her that we will put her name in the credits and that we can still 'own' the animation. She told me she was delighted when I said that. Not to mentioned that her other novels are also good like 'I capture a castle.'

We had a pretty good meeting and I was very happy that I granted her permission to used her story in our animation. I tried to make most of it by my own two hands because of how much our spending goes with other animation projects like 'Sleeping Beauty.' If I can prove to my peers and my seniors that I can become a great animator like my father and the others, maybe I might take over our animation someday.

But for now, I must work hard to make it happened.

I then heard some metals clanged and someone I knew very well cussed in his Chinese dialogue. I put down my pen and went to see him if he's hurt. I opened the door and I see my big brother picking up some empty cans. It must mean that sound I've just heard means he might have dropped them when he carried a bit more than usual.

“You know, you could have ask me to help.” I told him. He tsked as he was picking up the empty. “Aren't you busy with your dalmatians project?”

“Not when someone needed help. Here, I'll carry this in your workshop.” I said as I held some of it and carried them to his personal work shop at the end of the hall.

That person I was talking to was my big brother, Oswald 'Lucky Rabit' Disney. He's actually my half brother, but I don't care even if it is true and he's always has my back just like I always have his since we were little. He's a really good mechanic, a mixed martial art expert, and many more talented guy even I cant barely compete! I wish people would see his as himself instead of him being related to either me or our father... I admit that sometimes I got that too when my father was mentioned, but my brother got it a bit harder than me.

But at least some people have started to recognized him as himself!

I put down the empty cans on an available table that wasn't cluttered. “Oswald, mine might not be the best example of 'tidying' his own project room, but you might considered to organized your tools and parts in a bin or boxes. Do you need my help to find some and organized?”

He gave me his usual serious, poker face and responded. “Whenever I did let you help me, You'd get either confused with the monkey wrench sizes, getting tangled in the wires, mix up oil with ink, misplaced some bolts and then had 'completely' forgotten where it go.” He pointed out my past mistakes and put his along with mine.

I sighed at that. “I was just trying to help you getting more organized and save you some time on searching what you needed instead of rummaging this pile of metals. Speaking of which, are those gonna be the paint bombs or smoke?”

“Which ever you made recently. It would be best to stock up as much as we can if ever 'you know who' started to act up suspicious again.” He grabbed his gloves and goggles to put them on so that he can get started on them. I quickly got back to my studio and grabbed a big jar of my 'special' paint I personally made myself. If you're a bit confused, let me explained on what I can tell you now.

Me and my brothers aren't JUST an animator and a mechanic... we have our 'other' identity when there's trouble... but for now, I cannot say more than I should. I entered back in his workshop and placed my 'special' homemade paint at the center of the table. We then hear some sort of a long car honking noise and some tire screeching outside of our place. We looked at each other and we can tell from our expression and our gut feeling that it might be someone we would NOT expect on a day like this. He immediately took off his goggles and gloves while I took my 'special' paint, hid it in a green barrel, covered it with some metal sheet of paper and then covered it again with a stained table cloth. I hurried to my studio to hid my sketches of the dalmatians and the book in my hidden safe behind a framed picture I've made of the characters we were named after. I then rushed down stairs and looked through our living room to see who it was.

I noticed an expensive black and white car model of an Alvis speed twenty SD drophead coupe. I only knew one person who can afford and own this type of car. It was obviously written on his license plate: Bendy De Mon.

Oswald yelled from the kitchen. “What the heck does that bèndàn want from us now?”

“SHHH! Oswald! He might hear you!” I hushed him and scolded.

“He doesn't understand Chinese, remember? Now keep him busy while I 'had' to prepared something.” He fired back.

Even if we don't like him very much, it's not polite to say rude things in that person's presence. Bendy might not be one of those people that I wish would be a bit more nicer, but I need to be on my best behavior.

Our 'friend' had sounded our doorbell and I took a deep breath to calm myself. It's just a visit, right?

I went to opened the door, but then he flung it and nearly hit me when I did.

“Nickel Mousey!” Bendy exclaimed with his personal 'grand' entry. He was wearing a mauve fedora with a black ribbon and a turquoise brooch. He had a mauve vest that was covered by a big, black fur coat that covered from his neck to almost his sock level. He also had his best black and white Stacey Adam’s shoes. He was also holding a dark grey cigarette stick like the ones some of he high society uses to look even 'dignified.'

“Why Bendy Dr- De Mon. What an unexpected surprise. I didn't know you were in California today.” I politely greeted him. “How are you today? I hope the weather didn't spoil your mood.”

He then started to talk like one of those high class tones.“Oh, I'm miserable, dear squeakers. Perfectly wretched! I was fine with the weather but I had to stop by at your father's small potatoes of a studio just to see you and the other bunny. I just 'had' to meet you two at least once in a while aside from whenever I 'visit' your deconstructed amusement park.” He puffed out a smoke and it's scent spread the whole living room. That scent... I really don't want to.

“I'm sorry that we took a day off and that our new amusement park had a few unfinished rides that needed to be either get finished or fixing. But we're doing the best we can and I hope you didn't had a hard time finding us.” I tried to explained him, but he was sort of busy looking around, passed by me and said. “Yes, yes. There's always some excuses. Now where's your studio?” He then demanded as he went upstairs quickly. Doesn't he knew he can take his shoes off here? I followed him as quickly as I could and I joined him in my personal art studio, rummaging and making a bit of a mess in my 'used to be' organized art supply. “Where are they? Where are they?” He demanded as he rummage through my papers. “For devil's sakes, where is it?” He raised his voice.

“Where is what?” I confusedly asked. He came up to me and furiously said. “Your 'secret' project! Don't you dare play games with me this time, Swiss cheese! I heard it from one of your slaves back at that puny excuse of a studio. You were doing some sort of a animation movie separate from the one that the others are working on.”

He heard that? Gosh! I had to think of something to distract him from it. “I really don't have anything new.” I tried to get him out of there. “You mean about this room? I would expect at least a 'dignified' painting instead of that lame @ss cartoon picture of that stupid mouse and rabbit over there.” He pointed out. “I'm sorry if not everyone liked the idea to have a chandelier hanging from his or her office like you do. We have some-” He cuts me off as he rudely pushed me aside. “Yes yes, some small break I needed after what I saw in here. Too much 'cutesie' for me, banana shoes Mickey's pants.” He went out and descended back downstairs as I followed.

God, please lend me your patience.

He looked around the living room again but this time, he took his time. “Seriously Micks, why on earth did you gave up that free position of the head company just to do grunt work? You could have lived in a much grander mansion instead of this 'bearable' shack.” He puffed another smoke from his cigarette holder.

“My old home is very nice, but I would rather earn it rather than gave it to me. Besides, there are some kind seniors I wanted to be approved too. COUGH!” Bendy puffed another smoke in front of my face.

“My dear, naive, stupid, cheese friend. If you want to be on top of the world, you need to do anything necessary for what you want. Nobody will be like you or your fairy tales rip offs. That 'humble' image of a garbage can you put yourself up will not cut it with me and other who wanna be like me around in this business.” He lectured me. “Just look at the way you're dressed today. White rolled up shirt. A red tie, suspenders with yellow buttons attached to your large red carpi pants or shorts, and are those socks? My my, I completely 'forgot' to take off mine when I came in with 'excitement.'” He devilishly smiled. “Too bad I only stepped in water today.”

“Bendy, aren't you a bit too warm to wear that black fur coat? That looks expensive too.” Didn't you have two others already?

“It's a gift from my one true love, dear mousey. He hunted a big black bear on one weekend with a friend of ours. Killed it with his own bare hands and he skinned it. I had to ask my personal tailor to made it just for me, but I 'kindly' reminded him to leave that 'bloody' scent.” He took a good whiff and widely smiled like he was in love. He always had that odd fascinations with pain and blood. “Asides from women, isn't there any 'dignified' man in this wretched world who doesn't?” He then settles down on the double couch.

“Well I admit, it does look nice, but I'm sure there are many other things-”

“Sweet, simple Mickey. Hahaha! I know, I know!” He then hit the coffee table in front of him with his two feet as a resting stool.

He opened his arms wide. “This 'humble' horrid little outhouse is the REAL Disney castle.” He laugh it off. Then my brother came in to the room with a tray of tea set for three and three cupcakes I've made this morning. Did I forgot to mentioned that I can bake pastries in one of my spare time? I enjoyed doing so and I even shared with my co-workers too to help with our team morality!

He grinned maliciously at my brother as he settles it down in the centre of us, smacking his shoes to get them out of the way. “I wondered where was the better half went. Is that a hipster jacket from that new 'rock 'n' roll' upstart singer, Elvis Presley?” Oswald just rolled his eyes and lifted up, but he then got horrified when Bendy groped his butt. “Did you worked out even more recently, or is that just your normal body part that YOUR mother gave ya? It started to look nice, juicy and tempting.” My brother did not have a lot of patience with his harassment towards him and he shows it by attempting to smash his face into the wall with his karate kick. It was so fast that I barely saw it to react. He dented a mark on the wall, but Bendy has ducked it just in time. “Oooooh! You even got good strong legs. Very useful...” He playfully taunted. I immediately broke them up. “Guys, please. No fighting in this house. Oswald, thank you for the snacks, you can sit down over where I was.” He growled and glared at Bendy, but he did as I suggested.

“Would you like my triple chocolate cupcake? I've made them today.” I handed it out to him because it was one of his favorites when we were teenagers and hang out a lot. He made a scorned expression while he took one last puff before me crushed his cigarette in the cupcake I tried to offer. “If it's after twenty minutes fresh from the oven, it's thrash like those stupid cartoons shorts you've made.”

I was a little hurt on the inside, but I tried hard not to be upset as I settled down the now ruined cupcake. “But Bendy, don't you like it even if it wasn't?”

“When you want to make it big in this world, you need to make crucial choices. The right product and marketing makes ALL the differences. Besides, I now like them that way.” He playfully twirled with his cigarette holder with his right hand and rested his chin on his left hand.

“But they're still good even if it was. Why are you being mean to us lately? You weren't like that back then.” I tried to get to the bottom of his saltiness towards us and maybe the image he keeps putting up.

“I'm just telling the basic facts as a 'friend.' You're as soft as ever, unlike your half brother...” He looked at Oswald again with malicious intent as he looked back with a glare, saying 'don't you even think about it, devil shrimp.' look.

“I wondered what else he's hiding underneath those rags... He's actually not that bad looking for a half Chinese. I wondered if I can make him 'dropped' his poker face 'mask' when I'm 'toying' with him...” He whispered to himself. I froze up. Excuse me?!

I tried to offer some tea to forget from what I just heard. “Won't you have some green tea at least?” He got up and then started to head out. “I wish I could stay and 'tolerate,' but I already have my reservation at a more 'refined' restaurant in a couple of hours and the waiting line is horrid. However, before I leave and forget, I will be sitting next to you two at the Oscar award next month. I wanted to have the closest seat to the carpet for when I received the award.”

“But Bendy, Nobody knows who will win this year yet.” I tried to tell him, but he ignored. “Now, don't forget to dress differently this time! I don't like to be seen with a pair of 'common' folks. See you next time, Dorkly Brothers.” He said as he exited the living room and slammed the door. We watched him as he got back in his luxurious car and then speeds off. I sighed and flopped on the double couch.

“What a 'pleasant' surprise HE was!” My brother crossed his arms. “I'm sorry that you had to put up with him because of me.” I apologized to him.

I already knew that he and Bendy have started to hate each other. Well, my brother hated him actually. Bendy has that weird method of taunting... But not in a good way.

“It's not your fault and you shouldn't apologized for him.” He pointed out. “One of these days he'll get what he REALLY deserves.”

“I just wish I knew how he changed so much since then. Sure, he used to be a bit of a trickster, but we still stick together like best friends... Do you think... it's because of the wealth and fame that came in for him?” He did started to act pridefully and snobbish after he took over the Joey Drew Studio the Third. I wondered if I did the same choice as he did with his father's company... Would I be no different from him?

“I can tell from your expression of your face that you were thinking about the choices you would have made.” I looked at my brother in surprised expression. “How can you tell?”

“I known you more than half your life, remember? Even if we grow older, you're still that same cheerful kid who wanted to bring joy to the world. You and Bendy are NOTHING alike.” He tried to cheer me up.

“Thanks Oswald.” I smiled a bit.“Can you opened the windows a bit? I can still smell Bendy's cigarette smokes.”

He opened slightly the window so that there's some fresh April shower scent can cover all of that cigarette's. “Speaking of smokes, how's that quitting therapy?” He asked about my health.

“I'm doing great so far. I've already confessed only to you a few months ago, but since we discovered about our dad's health, I've only had two. But now, I found a new way to ease my smoking craving whenever I was really depressed. Bubble gum!” I reached in my pocket to grab one, but I haven't found it. Maybe it was in the other one? Nope.

He got up and walked next to me. He handed out one of my bubble gum. “And here I was thinking you had a sugar craving again.”I grabbed it and pouted. “I still remembered to eat healthy and brush my teeth, ya know?”

He chuckled. “That's because I keep reminded ya, now, I think I'll throw this one into the garbage since we don't want to poison the birds with his cigarette.” He took out the cupcake I've tried to offered to Bendy earlier and went to the kitchen.

I looked at the hole in the wall from his attempt earlier. This will be a evening project that can wait on Monday... Luckily it's not a big patch job like last time Bendy was here....

“Do you mind to just sweep up his cigarette's ashes? I'll do the mopping after.” He asked me.

“Sure! Mind if I play that record you've bought the other day? That Jailhouse Rock song?” I asked for his permission to used one of his music. I heard it the other day and caught him singing and doing those dance moves... Did you know that my brother had a really wonderful vocals and dance moves? He should try it on the stage! It was amazing!

“Why ask my permission? Just play it!” He agreeably yelled from the kitchen.

I set it up, placed the needle and I let it play as we started to clean up from this afternoon visit. And you know what? I was feeling better already that I didn't needed my bubble gum.

The warden threw a party in the county jail The prison band was there and they began to wail The band was jumpin' and the joint began to swing You should've heard them knocked-out jailbirds sing

Let's rock everybody, let's rock Everybody in the whole cell block Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock.

THE END.

----- Author’s Notes:

I did a two day writing for the one year anniversary of the BBTIM blog.

This little parallel but plausible story was based from the 101 Dalmatians scene where Cruella made her first appearance in the movie. I did some fun facts I’ve added in the story like I got from the Wiki and stuff.

I know I’ve wrote it in Mickey’s point of view, but I wanted to explained Bendy’s plausible behavior toward one of his chief animating competitors, despite they might be the same age and used to be friends. Plausibly.

Bendy's high class attitude and Boris' looks reminded me so much like Cruella De Vil when combined. Guess why I picked this story board.

I hope you enjoy my little side story, dear users.

BBTIM Characters Bendy, Mickey and Oswald belong to Marini4.

#bendy before the ink machine #bendy #Mickey Mouse #mickey #oswald the lucky rabbit #oswald #fanfiction #marini4

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themarginalartist · 8 years ago

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Afternoon Visits

This is part 16 of Sweet Dreams for the Devil, clicking the link gets you the series here on tumblr or you can find it on Ao3 under the same name.

Figured we needed a proper introduction. Plus I wanted to introduce a few characters that will be important to some of the future stuff I write.

"Mom Theo took my Barbie!"

"You weren't using it!"

"I was going to!"

"Both of you enough!" Their mom came into view from the kitchen. "Theodore. Suzanne. Why don't you go outside and play or see if Mr. Davis will have you two over. If you do go see him be on your best behavior understood." And with that their mother turned back to the kitchen.

"Wanna go to Mr. Davis'?" Theodore turned to his sister.

"It's been a while since we last saw him I think." She stated. They headed to the front hall and pulled on their shoes.

"Dinner is at 6:30! Please be back and washed up before then! And offer for Mr. Davis to come over it's been a while since he's come to visit us!" Their mom called to them.

"Alright mom!" Theodore called back. And with that they shut the door behind them and headed down the street.

"Do you think Mr. Davis will pull out all that drawing stuff for us again? It was really fun to sit and draw, plus he liked all our ideas, unlike my teacher." Suzanne asked.

"I dunno. Mr. Davis got that sad look in his eyes when we went to leave. I don't know why. He grabbed this letter I think that was sitting on his counter and just kinda sighed at it. But I don't wanna make Mr. Davis sad you know."

"Then definitely don't ask about the war again… he looked so sad and sorta worn out, which is real unlike him." Suzanne looked down at her feet as they walked.

"Hey! I only asked what the medal was for, I didn't expect him to talk about it!" Theodore exclaimed highly offended. They crossed the street and continued up the gentle hill seeing the light gray house come into view.

"Hey did Mr. Davis ever tell us what he did before the war?" Theodore asked.

"No. I don't think he's ever said."

"Let's ask him about that!"

"Alright!" And with that the two ran the rest of the way up to the house. It stood solo at the top of the hill, its lawn maintained fairly well with a few colorful flower beds and the large oak tree in front, a set of swings hanging from the branches and moving back and forth due to the gentle breeze.

Well known by the children of the neighborhood for having the best candy on Halloween. Pretty much every kid would visit Mr. Davis sometime during the month. The old man was extremely kind and never turned them away. Plus, as every kid knew, you would get a handful of candy to take home after you went over.

They finally made it to the front door and rang the bell. Suzanne making sure her hair wasn't a complete mess after running.

"Coming!" They heard Mr. Davis call out from somewhere in the house. Then the front door opened.

"Hi Mr. Davis!" They chimed in unison.

"Well if it isn't Theo and Suzy! How are you two doing today!" He smiled at the two of them.

"Good! Oh mom wanted to invite you to dinner if you'd like!" Theo offered the invitation their mom had extended to the man.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to tonight." He chuckled. "I'm assuming your mother wanted the two of you out of her hair for a little while?" He smirked.

"Yeah…" The two shuffled their feet a bit not completely meeting his eyes.

"Well it's a good thing the last time I went to the store I bought some more candy. Come in." He pulled the door open all the way and moved to the side to let them into his house.

"Thank you Mr. Davis!" The two of them entered and pulled their shoes off. Placing them neatly by the door.

"So, school's almost over for the year for you two right?" He asked leading them into the living room.

"We still have three more weeks Mr. Davis." Suzanne replied.

"Well then I'll expect to see more of you then." He chuckled, settling himself down in his armchair. They sat down nearby on the couch facing him.

"Of course Mr. Davis!" Theodore smiled brightly. "Oh Mr. Davis!"

"Yes Theo?" His eyebrow quirked upwards. A light smile on his face.

"What did you do before you were in the war? If you don't mind me asking. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to though!" Theodore had realized after asking that it was sort of rude the way he had posed the question. Mr. Davis got a strange look on his face. A sort of mix of disgust, sadness, and oddly enough fondness.

"Why do you ask?"

"We realized we don't think you ever told us. You really don't have to answer us though." Suzanne answered.

"Well how about I show you instead?" He got up from the chair. "I'll be back down in a moment." He climbed up the staircase. Theodore and Suzanne looked at each other wondering what the man would bring back to show them.

As he returned to the room he placed a large portfolio on the table in the middle of the room. "Why don't you let me sit in between the two of you, that way it's easier for you to see." And with that they moved apart for the man to sit sandwiched between them.

"Mr. Davis what's that?" Suzanne piped up.

"That Suzy is my old portfolio. Or, well, one of them. I don't know where I left the other one." He said as he undid the clasp. "I used to be an animator. Was a cofounder of Sillyvision Inc. which you two probably haven't ever heard of. Some time after I had returned from the war, I had decided against going back to the studio and to animating, just couldn't bring myself to draw for quite some time. My partner, Joey Drew, renamed the studio." He sighed. "He renamed it Joey Drew Studios. And if I recall right they haven't made anything in the last couple of years. I'm not a hundred percent sure what the studio has last put out." He looked to the counter, a letter catching his eyes, and turned back to them. "But anyways, this is a whole bunch of my sketches and such from back then." And with that he began to pull out the papers from within.

"Oh wow Mr. Davis!" Suzy cried out as he showed them some of the artwork. "This angel is gorgeous!"

"Ah Alice!" He smiled gently at the paper. "She was more Joey than me, but we went through a number of designs for her. This version she had solid black gloves as you can see. But in the final version we added white gloves on her hands. It made animating her much easier."

"Who's this?" Theodore pointed to another sheet.

"That's Boris the Wolf. He played the clarinet in the show. Was best pals with Bendy."

"Bendy?" Theodore looked at him.

"Bendy was the main character of the show." Mr. Davis smiled wide. "In fact, it was because of him that the studio was created and the show. I had been drawing him for quite some time and Joey approached me about opening a studio. We hired a couple of other folk and we were in business. Here's one of his model sheets." And with that the man pulled out a sheet of the character.

"Oh he's a demon!" Suzanne exclaimed.

"Why'd you have a demon, a wolf, and an angel, Mr. Davis?" Theodore looked to him. "Didn't "like, the church, get all upset?"

"Oh yes they did, but it didn't make a difference to us. We simply said if you don't like it don't watch it!" He laughed.

"Mr. Davis?"

"Yes Suzy?"

"It sounds like you haven't gone back to the studio since. Don't you have any friends that you wanted to check in on?"

"No I haven't been back. I've been debating going to see them since Joey sent me a letter." He glanced back to the counter. "But I didn't necessarily leave on the best of terms and I don't want to dredge up some of those old arguments." Another sigh from the old man.

"I think you should go!" Suzanne stated. "Obviously since he sent the letter he wants to see you!"

"Yeah Mr. Davis! Surely if he sent the letter he's wanting to see you! Besides what's the worst that could happen?" Theodore chimed in.

"I'll think about it." He smiled at the two of them. It was then that the clock on the mantle chimed six fifteen.

"Oh mom said to be back before six thirty. Sorry Mr. Davis but we should probably head back home!" Suzanne apologized.

"Oh it's no problem! Let me grab some candy for you two and see you out." He stood up and went into his pantry grabbing the two some candy and met them at the front door. "Here you two are! Make sure you two stick together. Have a good night!" He passed them the candy and opened the door for them.

"Thank you Mr. Davis! And if you do go to the studio you'll have to tell us how it went!" They waved back at him as the took off down the street.

"We'll see about that." He sighed to himself as he shut the door. Returning to the kitchen he stared at the letter Joey had sent. Still unsure of whether he would do as the letter asked.

Dear Henry,

It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years really slips away, doesn’t it?

If you’re back in town, come visit the old workshop. There’s something I need to show you.

Your Best Pal,

Joey Drew

#batim #bendy and the ink machine #Sweet Dreams for the Devil #my writing

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1400762-personal-showcase · 8 years ago

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Weekly Journal

Week 1 (September 26th -30th)

Over the summer holidays I got a headstard on my idea. I want to do a story about a little Prince trapped in a tower who gets rescued by a female knight. I was thinking how sad it must be for princesses that are trapped in towers and how alone and depressed they must be, and I thought that their struggles must be as tough as the struggles that the knight endures to find her, but no-one ever thinks about how the princess feels. The gender reversal happened just because I thought 'why not? What's stopping it from being a prince instead?' then I thought it would be a sad twist that the reason why he doesn't get rescued is because he is not a princess. All the strong knights want pretty princesses that they can marry and flaunt, not a little boy to save. So I stated to make an animatic for it very early on in the summer, because I knew that this would be a big project. I really want to do an animation which tests my storytelling skills and the point of that is having enough time to create a story and tell it. I don't just want to rush everything and tell the story, I want to learn the best ways to tell it, concerning visuals, sound, timing, 'show don't tell', all of that. From the briefing it seems as though I wont have enough time to do the full animation but I will see what I can do, I really want to create something that can test my narrative skills, not just the animating skills.

Week 2 (October 3rd – 7th )

I went to see Peter to show him my animatic and see what he thought about it. I don't think I will be able to animate the whole thing for the deadline. I didn't realise that only half of the year was dedicated to our personal showcase so I'm a little disappointed that I don't have the whole year to focus on it. Peter really liked the animatic I had so far and really liked the story, but he felt that something emotional was missing. The basics were there, showing the princes lonliness but I wanted it to be more sad, darker, I really want my audience to sympathise with this prince. He advised I go see Helen Schroeder as she has a lot of knowledge on storyboarding and is working on the storyboards for Watership Down. Helen mainly had questions, which is a good thing because if I'm to learn how to tell a story to an audience, I don't want the questioning things they don't need to. The first thing she thought was 'where is his food coming from?' I'd thought about this but didn't bother to think about it because I hoped people wont notice, but I suppose that if I noticed then anyone could. If I figure out a way to show how he gets food then it will likely make the character and the story feel a lot more real. She also said I should come up with a backstory about why he's there and where he's from. The audience doesn't need to know this but it will help me understand my own character better. Nice advice, I will have to think about it and improve my story.

Week 3 (October 10th – 14th )

While thinking about my animatic I've also been working on a walk cycle of my prince. I'd also like to do one for my knight but I will have to see if I have enough time. I like it so far, I love animating a characters sketch work, I have so much fun and I can really feel the movement. But I struggle so much with the clean up and colouring, something about my animation syule feels inconsistent. I don't know if it's me being sloppy or it's normal but I want to work on it because every animation that I've done, I've loved until I've gotten to the colouring, and then I just feel as though I mess it up because I'm an incompetent colourist. It's strange through because I love colouring still images and comics, I'm actually quite proud of my line art and colouring when it comes to comics, I don't know why I struggle so much with animation. I went to see Lynsey to talk about my dissertation thoughts and look at the kind of chapters I want to write. She said I should get down what I want my chapters to be and then start writing the first one just so that I have some words down. My essay is about cartoons and other pieces of media sending bad messages to an audience so I'll look at what things I want to discuss specifically and see if I can put them into relevant chapters.

Week 4 (October 17th – 21st )

I showed Helen my walk cycle and she also agreed that I need to work on the consistency of my animation. She said that things like the legs were thicker in other frames and thinners in others. She also said that his head is bobbing up and down too much. She said that it was good, though, which is why she is 'nitpicking', so that's reassuring. I went in to see Phil Archer in the sound room also and asked him for some advice on music. I have never touched music writing in my life, I once tried to play guitar in year seven but never kept up and I have no idea how to make music, I don't know what chords are, I don't understand how people put notes together in a way that sounds appealing, but apparently I thought it would be a good idea to write my own song for my animatic. I think knowing the basics of making music is a really good skill to have, especially in animation where sound can go a long way, and I feel as though one of the things that could hold me back from making more films is the fact that I can't make backing music. So the idea of making my own music for this animatic is really exciting to me and I hope will give me some good skills. I went in to see Phil and he was kind enough to give me a lesson on the beginning of the basics, he explained chords and notes to me and I really enjoyed myself learning something completely new to me. I went back home and now I'm actually trying to write my own song on FL Studio. So far it's very basic but it has the kind of 'happy' Disney tune to it that I want and considering I've never made a song before, I'm proud of myself. I will go back to Phil again for another lesson and hopefully he can take a look at what I have so far.

We had our briefing for the Collaborative project and have decided our group. I worked with Tia and Adzie last year for the final project and we had so much fun and really loved what we created, so we agreed to working together again, but we have included Jordan and Catherine. Tia, Adzie and myself are all 2D artists, Catherin is stopmotion and Jordan is 3D, so we were thinking about creating something with mixed media similar to 'The Amazing World of Gumball” style. We are hoping to meed up often so tat we can discuss our idea and our job roles.

Week 5 (October 24th – 28th )

I changed up my animatic. It focuses a lot more on the Prince growing up in the tower and trying to cope than the knight finding him. I realised that the majority of the last animatic was time spent having the knight take the prince away, when more focus and time needs to be on the prince himself. I've resolved the issue of food and created an outside presence that sends him food under a hatch in his wall which he gets daily. I showed this update to Peter and he felt this was a lot better, he felt he connected better with the character in this animatic and that it shows his struggle, isolation and loneliness in more detail. I'm so much happier with this version, I still have yet to finish the new ending but so far I find myself also being more attached to this character than I was before. I haven't shown Helen yet, but I hope to soon, when I went to see her she suggested that I start work on an animation test. I've decided to animate the clip where the prince picks up the opened lock and looks at it in shock. I've chosen this clip because I feel as though something simple means that I can pay closer attention to the character acting and expression. I went to see Phil again to get advice on my song and so far he thinks it's a good start. I told him I wanted it to derail into something sad, so that as the animation goes along and gets darker the music goes with it, but I was struggling to understand how to put chords and noted together to make it sound sad. He helped a lot and I've managed to find a musical rift to go to the sad moments of the animatic.

We went in to see John about our collaborative idea. At the moment we had this idea about creating a world that leads to different dimensions, which would mean we can add different types of media easily. I thought the idea of a hotel would be good, in the kind of style like 'Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends'. Sort of wacky, funny, quirky and strange. Adzie would like to do the character design but overall we like the ides of this character being a small monster who is on vacation, he gets given his room for the hotel and then goes to explore the other rooms. We have yet to decide on an idea or a reason for him to look around the hotel, but we are piecing the world together.

Week 6 (October 31st – November 4th)

I've updated my new animatic and went to shot Helen, she much preferred it but there are still some things she picked up on. She felt that the introduction could be shortened if I needed to save time, I could cut out the part where he pulls the lantern under the sheets, the scene where the books are piling up doesn't make much sense. I said that it meant he was leaving them untidy and abandoned but I suppose it still shows his depression with the plates piling up. And then there were a lot of things concerning the screen direction and film language that need to be tweaked which I have written about on my blog. She said that the general story comes across well, but there are areas of detail that could make it a lot better is fixed. I feel really greatful and honoured to have Helen's advice, she has taught me so much and I am so willing to change anything in the storyboard to make it perfect. I really want to learn how to execute a visual story successfully, I knew from the beginning that I would be changing a lot of my storyboard so I had no worries about being given criticism. (That's why I wanted to get the basic storyboard done before I came back to the first term, so that I had time to change it). This project to me is more about progressing my narrative skills as well as my animation skills, so the majority of my focus in based on all of the development I'm putting into my storyboarding rather than focusing so much on one animated clip. Having Helen around to criticise my storyboarding is so beneficial to me, I feel like I am learning so much from showing her what I have, receiving her comments, and then changing it. I can see it in my work that from the first animatic, I have improved the feeling of the story so much more with her help and perspective. I'm starting to figure out what I want to specialise in in animation, I think I want to specialise in storyboarding and character animation. Helen also recommended that I start working on my animation test, and as I've started to do so, I realise how much I also love to do character animation. Story and character is where I want to go. I also went to see Helen Piercy later this week to show her both animatics and see what she thought. She felt more emotional towards the second animatic but she preferred the ending to the first animatic. I then sat with her and showed a classmate, Lila, to get her thoughts also. Lila felt a lot more connected to the second one and also preferred the ending.

There was a Narrative and Character workshop for the Collaborative project. I wanted to go in but overslept and so I turned up later to meet with Adzie and Catherine during the second half. They were doing a character design activity, and weren't focused much on the collaborative project, just on creating their own characters. I said that I would meed them next week for the Narrative workshop, then we could discuss the story for the project more in detail.

Week 7 (November 7th – 11th )

I finished the sketchlines of my animation test and went to receive feedback from Helen and Robin.

Firstly they felt it was a well made animation with great expressions. Robin really liked the way the eyebrows were drawn and said they moved well as a unit with the eyes and face, which pleases me because expression is really important to me and one of my favourite things to draw. Helen felt that I needed to look more on my overlapping and secondary action, and a lot of it moved at the same time and it would look better for it to almost go in a wave, the whole general motion moving in an arch. I'm pleased with this advice but she also said I need to watch my time and that I should try to get it finished. I want to hopefully finish this test soon then get straight onto animating my showcase. As the animatic is far too long to make into a full animation, me and Helen discussed the idea of taking just a segment of the animation to animate. Most likely a part that has a basic beginning, middle, end to it. I wanted to make a trailer possibly but I think I would be able to show my still better if I took a scene from the animatic and animated that. I can't decide which part though, because I don't want the scene to look out of place without a story to it. I might do the end scene or a part where he's growing up.

We spoke more about our Collaborative idea and we are still trying to give the character a reason for leaving his room. We're unsure of the ending as we feel that it's too simple, or is not the right moral for the character to go back to his comfort zone. We are planning to go into the Narrative Workshop next week so we can get some advice from Helen on it.

Week 8 ( November 14th – 18th )

For my animatic Helen felt that I needed some scenes of the prince trying to escape, which makes a lot of sense. It's so clear to me now that after he realises he's not being rescued, he'd try to escape the tower himself, anyone would. So I'm going to add two scene, I've got one where he tries to bang on the door and get whoever is there to let him out, but then food just comes in and he is ignored. Them I'm going to do one where he escapes the window. I couldn't decide what to do with him, because he needs to not actually get out of the castle so I'm thinking that either he is too scared or it's too high for him to get down safely, or there's some kind of spell keeping him trapped in, like an invisible wall or something. I'd like to do the invisible wall but when I suggested it to a few people who had seen my animation, they felt it might be difficult to portray, including Helen. I'm going to go with a magical chain that suddenly appears on his arm when he tries to escape, so that his efforts to muster up his courage proves to be pointless. I finished colouring my animation test but I'm not sure I like it. I really struggled with colouring. I managed to find a tutorial to draw clean lines with the polyline tool and then use the paint bucket tool to fill but the animation looks too jumpy at the same time. The shape of his face is inconsistent and seems to change in every frame, making it look quite jarring and jumpy. I think what I'll do in my actual animation is have more layers and leave unmoving parts still, but hopefully I can still animate the whole thing overall to not look too still.

We attended the Narrative Workshop this week to discuss our ideas and learn some things. We answered some questions about our project, and found answers for what the character does and his motives for doing it. We did have the idea of him being bored with the 2D room he was given so he goes to look at the other rooms, then he becomes so creeped out by what he doesn't understand that he goes back to being happy with his comfort zone. When we spoke to Helen she suggested that that might not be a very good moral to a story and we should think up something more. We started thinking that maybe he takes something back with him from one of the rooms, so that he's happy with his comfort zone but is not opposed to exploring and the unknown. One of us suggested that he should be a kleptomaniac and steal things from the hotel, it would start with mini shampoo's and a shower cap and a dressing gown, then he would explore the other rooms and leave the hotel with his back full of weird objects. I like this idea, because I find it funny in the context of being a hotel guest and how we all take the mini shampoos and stuff, but I'm not sure about it completely because I really liked the innocence of the little monster character.

Week 9 (November 21st – 25th )

I've had to change some other parts of my animatic and decide on what I'm animating. I've decided I'm going to do the scene where he gets caught by the magic chain while trying to escape. Firstly Helen felt as though I need a better angle to establish the hight with he's on the window ledge. I changed the angle so that the camera is from outside of the tower, below the prince and pointed up at him while he looks down. I also went to see Sarah Harris earlier where she suggested that the character needed a closer acting scene. He needed to show his disbelief that the chain appeared, so I added a scene where he inspects his hand where the chain appeared. I changed a few other bits in my animatic where Helen felt the camera direction could have been improved, such as the scene where the scene where the plates pile up, I've combined that scene with the scene of him in his bed. Now the plates pile up and the camera cuts to show him in his bed, clearly ignoring the food, suggesting time has gone by. This is to cut some time short. I've started working on my animation. I've been taking some video references for myself, one of my tying something around my waist, one of my pulling something tied to a post and one of me stepping up onto something as if onto a window ledge. All of these references have been so helpful to my animation and have made my first scenes look so realistic. It's made me realise how important taking reference is, I know that I would have been very frustrated if I was to animate that all from my head.

We mainly focused on our personal work this week but we did meet up to do wome collaborative work together. I created a style frame, Adzie created the character sheet, Catherine worked on the PDF and Jordan began work on the appearance of the hotel. We had a good day that day and got a lot of work done.

Week 10 ( November 28th – December 2nd )

I've done more for my animation, including the first scenes and the scene where he's out on the window ledge with his clothes and hair blowing in the wind, then he cowers in fear at the side of the wall. So far I'm really pleased with, I love doing the under-sketch work for the animation. I feel a lot more free when I'm sketching and I feel that comes across in the character movement. Helen had some suggestions for changing my animation to make it a bit better. We discussed some different camera angles and felt that when he puts his hand out of the window, there should be an outside profile view. I kind of wanted to keep the camera inside the tower to keep the audience 'trapped' with the prince also, which she understood, but I think this is a much more dynamic camera angle than what I had before, so I'll go with it. She also suggested I add a last frame of him from inside of the tower, showing him collapse on his bed in defeat, framed in the centre of it. I think this is a good idea to end on, I can try to make it quite dynamic, which is good because she felt that I did not have enough wider shots in my animation, which I agree with. I went back to see Phil Archer in the sound room, this time for help in my sound design for my animated scene. I said I really wanted a nice sound to go with the chain appearing so that it could sound all sparkly and mystical, basically to make the point that it's a magical chain caused by a spell. He put together some cool sounds. He reversed the sound of a chain clinking, so that it sounded unnatural and a bit mystical, then he added a kind of reverb and 'sparkling' effect to it to make it sound shiny and magical. I'm really pleased with that he helped me come up with. He also helped me get together some basic sounds like the wood creaking on the bed post and the wind blowing.

Me and Catherine went in to speak to Jon this week about our updated idea. I explained that I liked the kleptomaniac idea but I was also unsure as I wanted the character to remain fairly innocent, and not as though he had a mental disorder, I wanted the animation to be about the wacky hotel, not the monsters mental disorder. We started thinking from a different angle and came up with the idea of the Hotel actually being a simulation that the monster can go into to experience a holiday. It would be a twist that the weird and wonderful hotel didn't actually exist and almost be a statement on our entertainment. The Monster takes the VR helmet off when the experience gets too weird for him, he goes home to his boring room and wonders whether his reality is better or not. At first we were going to make it a human, who uses the monster as an avatar in the VR but we realised that would include finding an actor, filming, sets and props, which we wont have time for.

Week 11 ( December 5th – 9th )

I've changed my animation, adding shots of Helen's suggestions, not the animatic shows him leaning out of the window from a profile view and there is a last shot of him in his room. I've also updated my animation. I've essentially finished the first half of the sketch work, getting up to the shot where he jumps out of the window. I've also painted some backgrounds for all of these scenes. I'm really pleased with my backgrounds. Last year I did a lot of colouring practise for comics and backgrounds and I've really been trying to improve my paintings so that I can create better colours and perspective. From doing the animation test, I'd found the best way to make backgrounds so that they still look good but don't take too long. These backgrounds aren't as detailed as the one in the animation test but I feel that I have been able to produce more in less time by painting them this way and they still look acceptable to me. Aside from the lines and colouring, the first half is done.

The rest of the group seems okay with the idea me and Catherine had for the ending. We've decided Job roles. Catherine is the producer, I will be storyboarding and creating the animatic, Adzie will continue with the character designs and expressions, Jordan will create his 3D room and Tia will create her room. Catherine is also making a model puppet for the stop motion scene. I'm excited to keep working on this, although I also have a lot to do. This idea and concept excites me and I really hope that we can pull it off with quality. I started the storyboard during our meet up on some post-it notes, I will digitally re-draw them later.

Week 12 ( December 12th – 16th )

I've updated my sketched animation to him leaning out, all of the movements of the body are completed but I have yet to include his clothes, hair and face. The final frame is just his tiny body collapsing onto the bed so I only have a few frames there to show that, that won't be a difficult scene to complete. I also added a bit to a previous scenen. Helen said that when he's is about to jump, that would be the point where she would check the tie again to make sure it is still sturdy. I think she make a good point, so I added a action where he does that and suddenly he seems so much more real. I've been working on the background for when he falls back onto his bed, camera from out side of the window. Previously I'd made some floor plans so that while doing the storybaord I'd be able to know where everything is positioned in every frame. For this shot, with the camera being from the outside looking in, taking reference from the floor plans I made was a really big help for painting this background. Once I get the animation sketches done, which shouldn't be long, I'm going to start thinking about colours.

I began to digitally draw over my storyboard but I'm worrying about finishing both my dissertation and personal animation, so I am currently focusing on that. Catherine has offered to do some storyboarding but I assured her that I would be fine to continue after Christmas. I feel as though I know exactly how to storyboard this, the shots and everything, as I've spent a lot of time on my personal project storyboarding, I can see this in my head so well. I'm excited to start.

Christmas Break ( December 19th – January 9th )

Over the Christman break I focused mainly on my dissertation but did also get much animation done. I was able to finish a background where he leans out of the window to look at the chain appear and I started working on my colouring. In Toon Boom I discovered that you are able to make more than one palettes so that if you use a specific colour, then change that colour from your palette, it will also change it in the animation. This is good because it means that if colours need to be changed then I don't need to refill every frame with the bucket too, I can just change the colour from the palette. I realised that it would be cool to have a slightly different chade of colours for when he is outside of the tower and for when he is inside, just to give a bit more atmosphere to his environment. I updated the colouring to where he is when he is standing on the ledge.

We mainly focused on our personal projects over Christmas, as we all had a lot to do, we agreed to leave the collaborative work for when we were back in Norwich.

Week 13 (January 9th – 13th )

I've continued to colour but also have been focusing a lot on my dissertation and trying to get that done. Lynsey has been a big help and has been able to review my work when I've needed her to. As for the animation, I've really just been trying to get colouring done as soon as I can, I don't know how much time I'll have left to get it all done but I still need to finish my blog and complete my Research Report. I'm not sure what else to update on, really, I can just feel myself clicking into overdrive and I feel very determined to get all of this done.

This week I completely finished the animatic for our collaborative project. I had more fun doing it than I thought I would and I realise that after doing this storyboard, I really would like to specialise in storyboarding, as well as character animation. I'm really pleased with what I've created, I feel as though I can present it as something professional. Keeping the title safe zone for each frame was very helpful also, I was able to see it all in perspective and I think I've created something that reads very well. The responses I got from the group were good also. I really wanted it to come across as quirky, even a little funny, and the group felt I'd achieved that. Mt plan was to create the beginning and end of the storyboard so that we could fit in the sections where we have individually made our rooms, but I needed some more transition shots of the character walking through the hallways and looking into doors. Catherine was a big help with this and she offered to make some of these connecting shots, we also discussed the best angles to shot it. Me and Jordan put the animatic together with everyone's work and we're very pleased with it.

Extension ( January 16th – 27th )

I've requested an extension due to some struggles and depression over Christmas. I'd spoken to Peter about it and after having been open to him about my feeling and situations throughout the years he agreed to an extension. I am using this extension to really push what quality I can under the pressure I'm feeling. I was able to finish my Research Report and I'm quite pleased with it. If I have time to go back I would like to add a section about Bojack Horseman but it already took a lot of cutting to achieve the wordcount and not go over, so I think it would be difficult to add extra information. I really don't know the best way to colour. I'm not sure whether it's just better to draw the whole frames on one layer and use the bucket tool to fill, or whether I should do a layer for the body, layer over the body for the clothes, layer for the face, layer for hair (etc) so that I can look at the overlapping and secondary actions separately. I'm doing it with the separate layers to be safe but I feel as though it's coming out a bit messy. I think the movement itself looks fine and I think that I've fixed the problem with it looking too jumpy by having the different aspects on different layers (the problem I had with the animation test) but the painting feels a bit messy in some places. Such as when he is standing on the window ledge his clothes wave in the wind but the colouring looks messy. Whenever I try to clean it up on the layers, there always seems to be a problem. I think I've made the right choice in having each aspect on separate layers but I think that I may have created too many layers and now I've confused myself. With the extension I've been able to finish the animation. I've done the colours so that when he is outside of the tower the colours are brighter and when he is inside they are darker. I want this to create more of a subtle sad reality to his situation, he can't even get to the light. I had some problem with the chain. Firstly I discovered that in Toon Boom I'm able to create a glow affect, which is fantastic because it's exactly the effect I want. I was able to do this with the first chain I drew but then I wasn't able to recreate it with the rest of them. It seemed as though the drawing of the chain wouldn't show and instead there was just a transparent glow in the shape of the chain. I was frustrated at this to begin with but I'd resolved it by learning that I had to duplicate the layer and keep one of the layers normal and the other with the glow, this is what I'd done with the previous chain. It proves my point that I had created far too many layers in this file for me to keep track of. I've finished my entire animation now and all that's left to do it put the sound together. I'm really pleased with what I have created. I'm mainly pleased with the undersketch animation but that is what I prefer to do and is in my comfort zone. The colouring came out better than I thought it would, and better than it did in the animation test in my opinion but I felt that it could be cleaned up in some places. I will probably clean this up after submission. My plan after submission is to continue with my full animatic story and create a short film of a few minutes that is partly finished and partly WIP. I would like to come away with a piece that shows my skills in character animation and storyboarding, so I really like the idea of keeping the majority of it as professional storyboarding and sketched character animation, with only a few parts looking completely finished.

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