#Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

maxineswritingcenter · 5 years ago

Text

Beauty and the Beast AU - Demon!Dean Winchester

We'll see how this goes! I'm using she/her pronouns for this fic, just to keep it like the original story.

Characters (As they appear): Fem!reader, reader’s father, Gabriel, Metatron, Michael, Zachariah, Demon!Dean

Summary: You are seen as the oddball around town, you're into books and other nerdy things that the small town you were raised in just don't get. You dream of going on the road and having adventures, but it's unlikely you can because you don't have a lot of money. Your father runs a house renovating business and goes to a job in the spooky abandoned house in the woods. You see where I'm going from here.

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

Legend tells of of a town, just like one you may know. There was a hero known through out the land for his selflessness and his righteousness. But in times of great peril he sought help from a dark force to go against a greater evil, Cain. With the help of an unlikely accomplice, the hero took the Mark of Cain. The Mark turned our hero into a dangerous foe, scaring family and friends with his unpredictability. But our hero lost the fight against the evil Metatron and died. In a turn of events our hero rose from the grave, but he was not the same person. His eyes black as night and powers beyond anything anyone had ever seen. He began to burn and pillage anything he could find in the name of destruction. His friends and family chased him down into an abandoned house in the woods. With the help of divine intervention everyone in the house was trapped. As our hero lives with the Mark he will fall deeper and deeper into the darkness, farther from his humanity. His brother has a cure, but fears what our hero is capable of. Our hero hides alone in the house, isolating himself from those he cared for most. Only true love could tame him and bring back his humanity. But who could ever love a beast?

Did I think I was still going to be in this tiny town after I graduated college? No. But here I was. In the same tiny room, in the same tiny house, in the same tiny town. I suppose it would have to do until I found a job I didn't despise and made enough money doing side jobs so I could leave this place. My father and I shared this tiny house. One bedroom, one bathroom, one basement. I was given the office space in the house for my room. It was small and crowded, but I had to say it had its perks. Well, more singular: perk. One entire wall was bookshelves to house my many, many books. Majority fiction. If I couldn't have adventures on my own, I would join other characters on theirs.

I had woken up, fifteen minutes before my alarm, as usual. My dad said it was from stress, but I wasn't really stressed too much. Not really. The only thing that stressed me out was the fact that I was going into town for the farmer’s market and I wanted to avoid two certain individuals. I got dressed, I had been going for a more boho vibe lately, so today it was a long, floral skirt, black T-shirt, and some slip on sneakers. It was still warm out so I wanted to take advantage of it. Late September weather was unpredictable. The local weather station was talking about snow in the coming weeks and I really wasn't prepared for that to start.

I grabbed my large flannel bag and made my way too the kitchen. Dad was leaning against the counter, reading the local paper.

"Morning, pops." I called, "Any spicy gossip?" Small towns meant gossip was put into the newspaper, which I couldn't decide was terrible or not considering everyone knew about it anyway.

"Oh you bet, there's two sections worth of business about the monkshood going missing all over town. Which... I don't see how that's relevant." He said, taking a gulp from his coffee.

"Sounds like the resident werewolf was having none of it." I joked. Then something caught my eye, cupcakes on the counter.

"Oh did someone get a special delivery?" I winked, bumping hips with him. His face went red, he started scratching his beard to distract himself.

"Uh na- oh yeah. Mrs. Barber dropped them off this morning. Said she had some left over from the bake sale at the high school." He lied.

"It's Ms. Barber, dad. And she definitely has a thing for you. Why don't you give her a wink every once in a while?" I said, leaning over and taking one from the tray.

"Oh I don't know..." He said. Ever since mom left us, he's been nervous about getting back into the dating scene.

"Just sayin'." I shrugged and made my way out the door.

"What's the cupcake for? It's 10am?" He called as I shut the door. The cupcake was for our mail man. The man had an incredible sweet tooth. He was a huge patron of the bakery. And right on time, here came the mail truck. The only mail truck at our post office.

"Hey Gabe!" I smiled as he parked. He got out, smoothing back his brown hair. He had a smile that was contagious.

"Hey there, (Y/N). Is that for me?" He pointed to the cupcake in my hand.

"Of course, anything for my favorite messenger." He chuckled, taking it and replacing my empty hand with our mail.

"You spoil me." He smiled and took a bite. "So uh, where ya off too?" He leaned against the front end.

"Farmer's market and the library."

"So veggies and the same book you always get?" He said, licking his fingers of frosting.

"I don't need your judgement." I rolled my eyes, starting to make my way towards town.

"Thanks again!" He said, getting into his truck and continuing on his route.

I waved back, making my way past the neighboring houses and into the heart of town. The whole town was out and about. Everyone I passed seemed to look and whisper, it was the reality we lived in. I was the girl whose mom left without a trace. I was the girl who lived in her own little world of books and fantasies. I was different and odd compared to everyone else. But that was okay... Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

The main Street was blocked off for the market. I crossed the street and pushed open the door to the library. It was a small shop, there were a few shelves and a register. In the back corner was a reading nook with a soft recliner chair that I knew very well and probably had my butt print in it. After I set my last read in the return box, I made my way towards the section I was looking for. The book had no title and no author, just a single rose on the front. I think that's what drew me to it. It was a story about a guy and girl who meet and she doesn't realize that he is her true love. I could quote this book, it was my favorite. Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise. I held it close to me and moved towards the front where the librarian sat. He was an older man, a little odd looking but didn't seem like he could do any harm. He had told me his name was Met. A little strange but who was I to judge. He was hunched over on the desk, looking down through the glasses at the end of his nose. Met said he had read every book in the library more that 5 times which is why I think we got along.

"Good morning, Met." I greeted him, setting the book and my library card on the counter.

"That book again?" He said, not even looking up from his book.

"I can't help it. It's my favorite." I grinned, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it again.

"You know what? Just keep it. No charge." He said, looking up at me with a knowing look in his eyes.

"What? No, I couldnt-" I started. I hated that I was refusing but I just couldn't take it.

"I insist. You've read that book more than I have, which is saying something. I know you'll give it a good home." He smiled. I took the book and hugged it close.

"Thank you, thank you so much." I gushed, carefully sliding the book in my bag, "I'll see you around!" He waved as I left the shop, a new spring in my step.

There were the usual crowd in the market. The baker, the various farmers and Crafters. I made my way, stall to stall, chatting and picking up a few things. I preferred shopping this way, I could help out the community and get fresh produce, win win. The only issue was I accidentally made eye contact with the town pretty boy, Michael and his goon Zach.

Michael was the town hero. He was a good hunter and all around charmer. He was tall, dark, and handsome. Meaning every girl in town was in love with him. Except me, considering that I think getting by on your looks and being macho wouldn't be a great match for me, who finds more attraction in personality and, well, a brain. He and his goon Zach were odd friends, considering Zach looked like he was old enough to be Michael's father. Michael had this odd obsession with the fact that I wasn't obsessed with him. I had heard from the rumor mill that he had a crush on me and no thank you.

I quickly darted through the crowd, hoping he couldn't follow. I circled back towards my house. But as soon as I made it to the drive way:

"Hello, (Y/N)." Michael said, he was laying on the charm early this time. He was also, right behind me. I turned, holding onto my bag.

"Hello, Michael." I smiled stiffly. If I kept things short, maybe he would go away.

"Listen, I was thinking that we should go back to my place and talk. I havea few things I would like to dicuss." I clicked my tongue, stepping away from him.

"Maybe another time. I have to help my dad with a few things."

"Heh, that guy needs all the help he can get!" Zach laughed.

"Hey! Don't talk about my father like that!" I shouted, rolling up my sleeves to punch this dick a new one when Michael stepped forward and punched Zach in the shoulder, "Yeah, don't talk about her father that way!" He turned back to me, "Now, I know how you feel about me."

I raised an eyebrow, "You could not possibly have a clue." I continued, "Listen, I gotta go, nice talking to you, bye!" I hurried inside, making sure to lock the door behind me. I set my bag on the counter, carefully placing items in their places when I spotted a note on the counter.

Gone to the old house in the woods. Be home for dinner.

Love Dad.

Dad renovated old houses and made them new. He was just the run of the mill Property Brother, without the twin and real estate practice. The house he was referring to was this huge mansion that was in the woods. It used to be the home of this really rich guy back in colonial times, like pre-America. The guy never had any kids so it was just left to be abandoned and rot. Some people said it was haunted, but who would want to haunt that place? It was falling apart.

I shrugged and went about my day as usual. I made a snack from the delicious apples I got, read a little, tidied up around the house, and made dinner. But... Dad was late. Sure, he had been home late before but never this late. A hour turned into hours. I tried his cell phone but it just went to voice mail each time. So there I was anxiously sitting at the table, my foot about to wear a hole in the carpet from how much it was shaking. I just kept refreshing my messages, hoping that he would text me saying he was late or stuck somewhere.

"That's it." I stood up and gathered my things. I shoved the first aid kit, my phone, and a few other things in my bag before making my way to the garage. It was a two car garage, one spot for dad's work truck and another for my 1999 Thunderbird, a car that definitely did not live up to its name. I started the car, opened the garage and left, almost not pausing to close it.

It was just getting to be dusk, the sky was just beginning to fade to night when I got to the house. When I pulled up the long, winding driveway, far off the road, I saw dad's truck. I opened my door and looked around the car. Maybe he could have slipped and knocked himself out.

"Dad?" I called, looking around. His took box wasn't in the passenger seat, meaning he was probably inside. Holding my bag tightly by the strap I got closer. In the time it had taken to get here, it had chilled significantly. I really should have grabbed a jacket. The house was... Menacing to say the least. The white faded paint was chipping off, the columns on the front porch were near collapse. The wooden stairs creaked as I made my way up to the ajar door.

"Hello?" I called, peaking me head inside. I used my phone flashlight to look around. There was graffiti on the walls from kids who really should take an art class. Their pentagrams could use some work. There was stuff strewn all over. Lots of papers and other things.

"Dad?" I called again but cursed myself when I heard creaking. I am literally that girl in every horror movie. Let's go to the haunted house and call out to someone and then get straight up murdered. I am literally so stupid. I silently crept closer to the stairs, they probably led down to the basement.

"(Y/N)?" I heard dad's voice echo from below.

"Dad!" I called back, rushing down the stairs. As I got lower, the atmosphere seemed to change from a old house to almost a bunker. Metal lined the stair case as I went down further and further.

When I made it to the bottom I looked around in shock. This place was practically brand new. Hardwood floors, nick knacks lining the shelves. There was a kitchenette in the corner with a white marble island.

"(Y/N)!" Dad called again, the sound coming from a narrow hall that led to a bookshelf. I could hear my dad calling from behind it.

"Grab a book!" He shouted.

"A book? What does that-" I started grabbing books, pushing them away to see a door but instead, when I grabbed a copy of Arabian Nights there was a low groan from the wall. I took a step back as the wall swung back to reveal a secret room. It was a circular concrete room and as soon as I walked in goosebumps rose on my arms. Dad was tied to a chair in the middle of the room.

"Dad..." I ran up to him, "Oh thank God you're alright! What happened? Who did this?" I said, moving around him to get at the ropes.

"We gotta get out of here, kid, this guy isn't human. He'll kill us both." He whispered. What kind of an asshole takes a nice guy like my dad and locks him up? A psycho, that's who. My dad coughed, it was wet and loud and too much for my liking.

"God, it's freezing in here, you're going to get sick." I said, finally starting to loosen the ropes.

"Well, well...." I froze at the new voice. It was deep and cocky sounding, "Look what the cat dragged in." I stood up to face this guy. He was just Out of view of the light, all I could see were his nose and the smirk on his face. He was wearing a red button down, dark jeans and boots.

"Look, I don't know who you are or what you want but we don't have anything to give. Please, he's getting sick, you can't keep him here." I pleaded, holding my dad's shoulder to keep up this confidence I was trying to portray.

"What he deserves, breaking into my place, snooping around." The stranger said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"He was just doing his job, this house is abandoned!" I shouted, taking a step forward.

"Baby, please..." Dad whispered urgently, "Just go, it's me he wants, don't let yourself get wrapped up in this."

"I can't leave you here, I won't." I said, crouching down and holding his hands. They were so cold and I could feel him shaking. Dad's eyes were so dull, his teeth were chattering.

Rage built up in my chest as I stood to meet the stranger again.

"Who do you think you are, keeping him here like this?" I spat, "Come into the light, coward."

"(Y/N)!" My dad shouted in a warning voice. The stranger only chuckled and shook his head. He stood up from where he was leaning on the door frame and took a step forward. My jaw tightened and my eyes widened. The only thing I could focus on was his eyes. They were pitch black. No pupil, no Iris, just black. I quickly recovered my glare and stood my ground, even as he came close to me. He smelled off, like rotten eggs. On his arm there was a strange mark that seemed to glow red. In his hand he held a odd weapon. It was the jaw bone of some type of animal attached to a handle. There were even teeth still attached.

"And what do you intend to do with that? Club me until it breaks?" I smirked, again that confidence I was trying to portray. But was intimidation the right choice in this situation? I didn't care. He seemed like another smug asshole that could get whatever he wanted from his looks whoever or whatever he was.

He hummed under his breath, lifting the weapon to his open palm. He dragged it down, and I watched it slice open his palm. But as soon as blood appeared from the cut, it disappeared as if it healed itself.

And confidence gone.

"Look, sweetheart, this isn't about you. But you're doing a number on my patience. So get the hell out." He motioned to the door.

I looked at the door, then back to my father. I couldn't leave him here. No matter how much this guy scared me. I had no other choice.

"Let my dad go, I'll take his place." I said quickly, "Do whatever you want, just let him go."

"No! I won't let you do this." Dad said, leaning forward to struggle.

"I won't let you rot down here. Let me do this." I couldn't look at him in the eye.

The stranger took my chin in his hand, making me meet his eyes, the black void of nothingness. It made me think of death and despair.

"You sure about this?" He asked, he lowered his voice, "You sure you want to take his place?"

I nodded, "Please, let him go." I whispered, my voice was on the verge of shaking. The stranger grinned and let go of my face. He went around my dad with the weapon, in a quick slice, the ropes fell away. He grabbed my dad by the shirt, lifting him from the seat and pulling him to the door.

"Don't hurt him!" I shouted.

"I'll come back for you, (Y/N), I'll get help!" Dad called, his voice fading as the hidden door shut behind them.

Oh God...

I slowly sat on the chair, the dread setting in.

"What have I done?"

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

NEW SERIES - You will never guess how it ends.

Reblog if you liked it, likes work too.

Read part 2 here!

Requests are open and the fandoms I write for are listen in the bio.

Taglist: (shoot me an ask if you want to be tagged)

@happy-little-marvel

@hobby27

@somebodyto-love

@beanie-beebo

#dean winchester x reader #dean winchester #dean x reader #dean winchester imagine #supernatural #supernatural imagine #supernatural reader insert #supernatural creatures

79 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

Game of Thrones at 10: The Series That Changed TV Forever

https://ift.tt/3dn9imD

During the Game of Thrones series finale, there’s an exchange between Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister that is as much about the series’ legacy as it is the characters’ inner turmoil. Only a handful of scenes earlier, these same two men conspired to murder the woman they called their queen, Daenerys Targaryen. Now living with the consequences of that heavy deed—with Jon again banished to the white hell Beyond the Wall and Tyrion conscripted to a lifetime of public service—a tormented Jon asks his friend was it right what they did?

“Ask me again in 10 years,” Tyrion says tersely. After all these years, the craftiest of Lannisters finally has learned he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know—and who really knows how the decisions in the here and now will appear to posterity? It’s easy to speculate that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt the same way about their controversial ending to Game of Thrones. And like Tyrion and Jon, they probably could not anticipate the entire fallout that was to come.

It’s been two years since the contentious farewell to the series that defined its pop culture decade. But define it, it did. Running from 2011 to 2019, the show’s rise and fall traces eerily close to the rhythms of its era, perhaps more so than any series ever produced. It launched as the biggest gamble in premium cable history, and it ended as the most popular televised phenomenon of the 2010s. Some have argued Game of Thrones was the last of the “watercooler shows.” Even the divisiveness of its finale was monumental, shaping the next era of TV in still unseen ways. Pop culture really does live on in the realm forged by HBO’s fire and blood.

So while it hasn’t been a full 10 years since Tyrion dodged Jon’s question, a decade has passed from the moment three riders in black emerged from an icy gate, and Game of Thrones premiered on HBO. That’s more than enough time to ask what did Game of Thrones mean to us and the television landscape it shaped?

The Coming of Winter

Television was a different universe in April 2011. Netflix was still that mail rental/streaming company which didn’t produce its own content, storytelling was full of cynicism, and cable television remained king. But within that fiefdom, HBO was facing a problem: the once undisputed ruler of premium cable drama was now seeing challengers for its throne.

“HBO was still coming out of The Sopranos, The Wire, and Deadwood,” Michael Lombardo, then-HBO programming president, told James Hibberd for Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, an oral history on the making of the series. “We were getting questions like, ‘Why did you not get Mad Men? How come you didn’t pick up Breaking Bad?’ We had been the place for all things quality drama and were looking to regain our footing. But Game of Thrones didn’t seem to fall into our category.”

In retrospect, it obviously should have. Based on George R.R. Martin’s sprawling A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the show was pitched (somewhat inaccurately) as The Sopranos meets Lord of the Rings. Martin may have written his novels to be unfilmable, but at HBO, Benioff and Weiss would create an impressive facsimile of his Westeros on a budget.

Very much a product of its time, Game of Thrones came out at the tail-end of the “antihero” era of television, the period where HBO led the way in populating TV with flawed if not outright repugnant protagonists. A reaction to television being defined by network censorship for all the decades before the 21st century, the sliding spectrum of lapsed morality between Don Draper (Mad Men) and Tony Soprano was exhilarating in its time. But unlike all those series, Game of Thrones was offering a vast tapestry of protagonists in its ensemble, which provided an even greater range of moral complexity than most popular American shows at that time.

There were fantasy stalwart heroes like Lord Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) and his oldest sons, but also enigmas such as Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), antiheroes who were introduced as full-on villains (read: most of the Lannisters), and young heroines whose nigh transcendentalist adventures belied darker traumas, such as Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). It was both of its moment and a far cry from the cynicism of other popular shows, not to mention the popular image of fantasy, which on the small screen was closer to Xena: Warrior Princess than Lord of the Rings.

“There were a fair number of reasons not to do it,” Carolyn Strauss told Hibberd about the show’s early days at HBO. As the former HBO programming president who first greenlit the Game of Thrones pilot, and then became executive producer on the series, Strauss can recall the apprehension she felt toward the idea of making a fantasy series for adults. “There are many ways a fantasy series can go south. Any show that relies on a mythology that isn’t thought out in enormous detail can go off the rails. You’re maybe good for a season or two, and then after that you start running into brick walls.”

Yet it was Thrones’ moral complexity in such a dense, heightened world that caught Strauss off-guard. “The way [Benioff and Weiss] told the story in the meeting made it sound much more involved and character-driven than I usually feel from fantasy stories. It was not good vs. evil, but characters who had elements of both things.”

That level of nuance was shocking when Game of Thrones premiered in 2011. Nowadays the series is often reduced by TV critics as being simply the show that introduced convincing blockbuster spectacle to the small screen. But in its early seasons that really wasn’t the case. While Benioff and Weiss were quietly aware of how massive in scope Martin’s novels eventually became, they sold the series to HBO as a “chamber piece,” not a symphony. It’s about intimate family drama—at least in the first season/novel—not magic and battles.

In that first episode, there was hardly an unsullied viewer who didn’t gasp when sweet 10-year-old Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) was pushed out a window by Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The thrill wasn’t seeing dragons lay waste to armies; the excitement was found in character moments or decisions with drastic repercussions on every other scene that followed. At its heart, it was a fantasy series drenched in human psychology and human history (particularly that of the English War of the Roses), and those hooks made the eventual ice and fire spectacle that much more extraordinary five years down the line.

Game of Thrones didn’t come out of the gate as a culture defining event—its series premiere netted just 2.2 million viewers, about 1.6 million less than HBO’s similarly epic and ill-fated Rome—but like the armies of one silver haired queen from the east, it’s rise seemed blessed to gradually, and unwaveringly, build until the bloody end.

A Golden Crown

The moment that personally got me wholeheartedly invested into Game of Thrones, however, wasn’t Bran’s fall from a Winterfell tower, nor was it Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion verbally humiliating his demon seed nephew. The scene where the show fully clicked was in the sixth episode, “A Golden Crown.” Up until that moment, the series was dense on world-building and lore, but the narrative was so finely tuned, and hidden in such a tightly wound coil, that it could feel impenetrable at first blush. It also seemed to be built on a certain set of fantasy archetypes, such as the noble hero Ned Stark and the old fat king, Robert (Mark Addy).

Another seeming archetype was Viserys Targaryen, a malicious blonde-haired misanthrope played so ably by Harry Lloyd that one would recoil when he was on screen. Technically, he’s a lonely exiled prince whose family lost its dynasty. But as seen through the eyes of Clarke’s put-upon and abused Daenerys, Viserys’ younger sister whom he mercilessly abused, Viserys was really just an ugly bully. The kind you might imagine Harry Potter’s Draco Malfoy growing into, except with the creepy addition of a leering, incestuous gaze. Also like Draco, I feared Dany would have to endure his pestering for the rest of the series.

Then “A Golden Crown” occurs, and Viserys is plucked from the series like leaden dead weight. Moments before his death, Viserys has realized that no matter how much he calls himself king, no one will follow him. Meanwhile Dany has won the hearts of the Dothraki, a nomadic warrior culture. She now rules as their Khaleesi (queen) alongside Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), the husband Viserys sold her to. Viserys expected Drogo to become his mercenary, but by episode 6, that obviously is never going to happen. So his simmering resentment seemed to suggest Viserys would undermine Dany’s fledgling power and character growth at every future opportunity. But at the end of “The Golden Crown,” the self-styled king threatens Daenerys before the whole Dothraki court, and perhaps more chillingly in Dany’s eyes, threatens to cut out the baby growing inside her womb if he does not get his way.

Drogo ultimately gives Viserys what he wants: a crown. Only it’s made from the molten hot liquid gold he’s melted down to pour on the wretch’s head. Daenerys watches the gold slowly boil before the deed is done, and she sees her brother begging for his life. But the moment he raised her hand against her unborn child, the man was already dead to her. After Viserys’ head is crushed by the burning gold running through his skull, she doesn’t even blink. Rather Clarke says with maximum disaffection, “He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon.”

Tamzin Merchant Brings Back Mystery of Unaired Game of Thrones Pilot and Daenerys

By David Crow

Who are the New Characters in Game of Thrones Prequel, House of the Dragon?

By David Crow

This hard left turn in the plotting was so sudden and shocking that it signaled what the series would become: a narrative where every character’s action and decision (at least pre-season 7) had potent consequences. Narrative conventions could be cut short in an instance. In this case, it was one that left viewers thrilled, but a few episodes later the same creative instinct would shatter them when the series’ main lead, poor Ned, lost his head. Such twists led me to buy all of Martin’s books and read them within a few months.

However, there was something more unsettling about the sequence. Daenerys Targaryen, our ostensible hero in her own storyline, did not flinch or bat an eye at her brother’s demise. He was rotten to the core, but Dany was no more affected by his death than she would be at the sight of hundreds of strangers crucified along a road on her order (an event which would occur later in the series).

The ambiguity of some of these characters, including Dany who in the early seasons was initially presented as an impending threat to the Starks and Lannisters a world away in Westeros, is what gave the drama so much life. There were reasons to root for nearly every faction and reasons to have pause with each character. You knew, eventually, your favorites would be in mortal conflict. While featuring a greater array of heroes than any of the other popular cable shows of the early 2010s, Game of Thrones also wallowed in moral relativity and bleakness. In 2011, it was like a high; in 2021, that kind of televised storytelling has largely fallen out of popularity.

Thrones also had a hand in that shift.

“Tits and Dragons”

For all of Game of Thrones’ good qualities, they cannot be extracted from its sins. Ten years ago, premium cable networks indulged in heavy use of obligatory nudity (mostly of young women) to keep viewers watching. Game of Thrones didn’t invent this, but it pushed it to its limit in the early seasons, even leading to the new term of “sexposition,” which describes when a show cynically includes images of naked women, usually portrayed as prostitutes in Thrones’ case, in the background during dry exposition.

Even before Thrones ended, these elements had aged badly, and were notably toned down in the later seasons. But they still occurred, even as gags, up to and including the final year. Neil Marshall, who directed two battle episodes on the series, even recalled in 2012 a disquieting note he received from an executive on the episode “Blackwater.”

“This particular exec took me to one side and said, ‘Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience okay?’” Marshall said. “‘Everybody else is the serious drama side, [but] I represent the perv side of the audience, and I’m saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.’”

This cavalier attitude about using (some might say exploiting) young actresses who are anxious for a job on a popular series in such a gratuitous way contributed to the creation of a new profession in Hollywood: the intimacy coordinator. The actual HBO series which finally triggered this was The Deuce, not Game of Thrones. Still, Thrones most famously contributed to that sensationalism on television. So much so one of its most lauded guest stars, Ian McShane, deadpanned the show was only about “tits and dragons.” It became the figurehead for a media culture so problematic that there needed to be a reckoning at all networks and streamers in the post-#MeToo era.

That those elements on Game of Thrones were so often used in association with rape or sexual violence has led to a long overdue reevaluation of how stories with women are told in popular media—particularly from writers’ rooms dominated by men.

In truth, Game of Thrones has a litany of fascinating and complex female characters, many of whom end up in positions of power during the final seasons despite the grueling restraints of a medieval patriarchal society. Stars like Sophie Turner, whose Sansa Stark concludes the series as Queen in the North, has argued the series is actually quite feminist in its depiction of a wide range of nuanced female leads navigating medieval misogyny. And Clarke has said the show has taught her to “embrace her feminism.”

Yet both actors’ characters were forced to endure scenes of rape and sexual assault on the series, quite graphically in Clarke’s case during the first season. Even 10 years ago, viewers were rightfully disturbed by that. Clarke’s own thoughts on the use of nudity in the first season have also evolved. These elements, which only seem more glaring to the modern eye, have inspired a shift in how all “adult” stories are told, as well as how fantasy stories and historical dramas are received by audiences increasingly critical of one-sided titillation.

Those scenes likely contributed to the fan backlash when Clarke’s Daenerys, who suffered so much early on only to remake herself as a godlike savior, was revealed to be painfully mortal… turning into the villain of her own story.

A Legacy of Conflict

Game of Thrones began as a gamble for HBO, but even in its first year the bet was paying off when the fantasy show with dragons and ice zombies was nominated for Best Drama Series at the Emmys. Dinklage would go on to win his first of four Emmys for playing Tyrion that year, and even as the show lost the top prize then, it would eventually win Best Drama Series in four subsequent years.

It’s also worth noting that Dany’s dragons were barely present in the first season. Before the 2011 finale, they were creatures of a bygone age that, we’re told repeatedly, have long gone extinct. But in the final minutes of season 1, her ancient dragon eggs hatch, and a scene of biblical import plays out when she emerges from ashes as the Mother of Dragons. With each following year, Dany’s children grew larger in size, as did the pyrotechnics they unleashed. They were not much bigger than cats when they burned down a city of slavers in season 3. By the show’s end, they were the size of 747 jets while laying waste to Lannister armies.

As the creatures grew, so did Game of Thrones’ budget and, just as importantly, its audience. No other series in the modern era grew bigger with each season, from the cradle to its grave. In an age where Netflix invented the term “binge watching,” Game of Thrones remained the rare holdout of old school appointment television, with most audiences simultaneously watching live when the episode premiered on Sunday nights. Entire cottage industries based on fan speculation were born, and reading Martin’s books like they were sacred texts with hidden meanings that only the most learned scholar could translate became a pastime.

The first season premiered with 2.2 million people watching; the final season debuted with an audience of 17.4 million viewers. The finale brought in 19.3 million viewers. By comparison, the most popular scripted drama series on network television in 2019, This is Us, was averaging around 7-8 million viewers.

Yet as its popularity grew with its dragons, so did a vocal sense of dissatisfaction. There was a confluence of factors involved, many of them having to do with showrunners Benioff and Weiss running out of Martin novels to adapt. While they had a rough outline of how the series would end, the final two seasons of Game of Thrones arguably felt at points like just that: an outline the series was hitting by bullet point in each episode, often without the intricate plotting that made the early seasons and novels so addictive.

Yet it was really only during the series’ final two episodes, as a long built-up dragon fulfilled his destiny, that the rift between audience expectation and artistic intent erupted into a social media outrage. After watching Dany’s power build and build, and spending the final seasons with her pivoting from a threat to the Starks and King’s Landing to their ally against the Army of the Dead, Dany did what the series had long been famous for: she took a hard left turn.

In the final few hours of the series, Daenerys burns down the Westerosi capital, kills tens of thousands of people, and takes the Iron Throne in fire and blood, just like her ancestors. It was not the ending audiences, including myself, wanted for Dany, and it was an ending that disappointed even Clarke. Especially Clarke.

Game of Thrones Season 8: This Was Always the Ending

By David Crow

Game of Thrones: George R. R. Martin on How Hodor’s Origin Story Was Changed for TV

By Louisa Mellor

In many ways, it is one of the most Martin-esque elements of the series’ final years. You were promised high fantasy excitement and then got the cold, harsh reality of death and suffering. The fairy tales and fables which inspired modern fantasy are often derived from uglier histories and troubling sides of human nature. This is what conquest looks like, be it by dragon or sword.

Unfortunately, the execution of the ending left something to be desired. And there are plenty of write-ups out there to unpack the problems with the final season. Nonetheless, it is fair to wonder if for the first time in the series’ whole run, the show was finally out of step with the zeitgeist, and the subversion that was celebrated a decade earlier was no longer of the moment? When the show premiered, it was a realpolitik fantasy about the corrupting influence of power and how it can be wielded. When the series ended, corrupt abusers of power were on the rise around the world. Even Martin noted it was like King Joffrey had come to the White House.

The series not only denied viewers their favorite theories for the series’ end, but also a sense of escape from a world that was feeling uncomfortably closer to Westeros than it had eight years earlier.

In its own realm though, Game of Thrones was a series that shaped the modern television landscape. Spectacle on a scale comparable to Hollywood blockbusters is now deemed as attainable by content creators with deep enough pockets. Amazon paid $1 billion for the television rights of Lord of the Rings alone. But the industry has also reacted to Thrones and the antihero era it came from with a growing sense of wariness, too.

One of Game of Thrones’ contemporaries from its heyday was The Walking Dead. As another gritty, violent, and at times nihilistic genre show that became a mainstream hit, The Walking Dead started in the same TV season as Thrones. And one of its most pivotal writers from those earlier glory days, former showrunner Glen Mazzara, recently tweeted about the change in the industry’s tenor.

“TV development today is all about optimism,” Mazzara wrote. “Buyers don’t want anything dark or bleak.” While he then went on to add that he’s nonetheless writing the “darkest [and] scariest” thing of his career, the point remains that what was once the most popular thing on television, first as austere dramas and then as gory spectacles in shows like Thrones and The Walking Dead, is out of step in a modern TV landscape that has reacted to those shows.

Ironically, genre is more popular than ever, but the moral ambiguity and relativity that attracted HBO to Benioff and Weiss’ pitch is not. Rather than antiheroes, television is increasingly dominated by good natured and heroic individuals (Marvel Studios is even making the most popular shows). Characters, meanwhile, are proactively trying to solve social problems, not reveling in how broken things are. Creative spaces are also thankfully becoming more inclusive, giving a platform to a wider range of voices, including writers’ rooms where someone might be able to say the equivalent of, “You know, maybe Sansa shouldn’t be raped by Ramsay Bolton?”

This environment is a reaction to the popularity and then backlash endured by Game of Thrones. Which means our relationship to the series is far from over, even as the show’s run becomes an increasingly distant memory.

And yet, there’s (clearly) much to be said about what Game of Thrones accomplished in its time, right down to ending the way it did. It’s hard to imagine a show becoming that popular again and existing with such artistic freedom, and for its creators to be allowed to end it where they would like. Even in the 2010s it was rare, hence The Walking Dead lumbering onto an eleventh season this fall as a pale shadow of its former self. When that series ends, it also really won’t be the end, with more spinoffs, movies, and other forms of content planned.

Under new management, HBO has signaled they’ve developed a similar temperament, even with Game of Thrones. Benioff, Weiss, and apparently Martin saw their story end exactly the way they wanted to (even if few agreed with them). But the network has announced five live-action spinoff series in various stages of development, plus an animated one on HBO Max. In the age of endless streaming content, it’s easy to imagine that every corner of Westerosi history will be explored if WarnerMedia thinks there is an appetite.

Our feelings toward the legacy of Game of Thrones have evolved over the last 10 years, and will likely continue to do so for another 10. But it was a show that hit the right beats at the right time, and changed the culture while doing so. It burned brightly and then snuffed out its candle on its own terms. You don’t have to wait a decade to appreciate how rare, and unforgettable, that really is.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Game of Thrones at 10: The Series That Changed TV Forever appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Qb13RI

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

archoneddzs15 · 5 months ago

Text

Sega Mega CD - Poppuru Mail (Popful Mail - Magical Fantasy Adventure)

Title: Poppuru Mail / ぽっぷるメイル

Developer/Publisher: Sega / Nihon Falcom

Release date: 1 April 1994

Catalogue No.: G-6029

Genre: Platform Action Adventure

Enter the world of fantasy hardheaded female warriors with a sense of humor with Poppuru Mail. This was originally only a PC-8801 and PC-9801 game by Falcom until Sega reprogrammed it for the Mega CD. This is the sort of game that the Mega CD needed much more of. Poppuru Mail also got a port to the PC Engine as a dual-compatible Super CD/Arcade Card CD title; as well as to the Super Famicom. It's probably best to describe this as a platform RPG in a way. The main game is a pretty challenging platform adventure where our heroin Mail has to fight her way through the fantasy-based world. Along her journey, she'll meet all manner of situations and people. This is where the RPG element comes in. You see, these situations result in Mail having to go off on a side quest to progress further into the game.

All over Poppuru Mail is a very nice product. Graphics are nice as is the audio. The only problem is that I found it a little easy. (The US version by Working Designs is way too difficult.) Still, saying that I think I'd play it again if the opportunity arose.

Fun fact: Sega of America originally intended to localize the game as Sister Sonic but abandoned this plan after receiving negative feedback through angry letters to both Sega America and Falcom. In the original Sister Sonic pitch, all of the characters would be replaced with Sonic characters and Mail herself would have become Sonic's red-haired sister.

youtube

#sega cd #popful mail #nihon falcom #Youtube

2 notes · View notes

ilive2daction · 7 years ago

Photo

Title: Magical Popful Mail Fantasy Adventure

Year: 1994/1995

Developer: Sega Falcom, Working Designs [US]

Platform (s) Originally Released: Sega Mega CD [This Version]

Notes: I’m spotlighting the “best” version of this game. ; )

#1994 #1995 #sega cd #mega cd #sega falcom #working designs

3 notes · View notes

rpgmgames · 8 years ago

Photo

July’s Featured Game: SLARPG

DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying.

Introduce yourself! Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.

I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.

At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed

As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.

How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting

Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.

What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.

I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.

Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.

Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.

We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month!

- Mods Gold & Platinum

#rpg maker #rpgmaker #rpg #game dev #rpg maker games #game feature #games #gotm #game of the month #interview #dev interview #slarpg #super lesbian animal rpg #pixel games #pixel art

2K notes · View notes

redhatmeg · 7 years ago

Text

RedHatMeg’s Guide on Gyro Gearloose Part 2 - Uncle Scrooge comics

And our adventure through stories with our favorite inventor continues with Uncle Scrooge comics.

Brace yourselfs, these are products of their time so they’re sometimes a bit racist. So I apologize in adance.

Now there is a lot of Gyro Gearloose comics that are featured also in previously covered by me Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. I’m including them here, because these might be first editions of said comics. And so we have:

- The Seven Cities of Cibola

- The Cat Box (first appearance of Little Helper.)

- Forcasting Follies

- Fishing Mystery

- The Sure-Fire Gold Finder

- Roscoe the Robot

- Gyro Goes for a Dip

- The Wishing Well

- Krankenstein Gyro

- Invetors’ Contest

- Oodles of Oomph

- Fishy Warden

- You Can’t Win

- Fast away Castaway

- Duckburg’s Day of Peril

- The Great Pop Up

- Finny Fan

- Posthasty Postman

- Snow Duster

- A Helper’s Helping Hand

- Man versus Machine

- The Know-It-All Machine

- The Hopeless Helper

- Mighty but Miserable

Now onto the stories I didn’t covered. We start with Uncle Scrooge series that start in 1953 and ended in 2011. Just like in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories Gyro is both starring in his own stories and in stories of other characters.

- Gyro Builds a Better House (Gyro is tasked to build a house with soft walls.)

- Getting Thor (Crows aren’t scared of Gyro’s scarecrow so he decides to invent a better one.)

- The House on Cyclone Hill (A small cyclone attacks Gyro while he’s doing rsearch on cyclones.)

- The Firefly Tracker (Gyro has to create a special invention to present on Inventors’ Congress. Fireflies in his yard give him an idea.)

- War Paint (A movie director asks Gyro to make as realistic war paint as possible. Gyro uses actual ingrediens for war paint and soon the cast start to act weird.)

- That Small Feeling (Gyro is visited by a witchdoctor who shrinks him and says he will turn him back to original size when Gyro fixes his magic doll.)

- Wily Rival (While waiting at the patent office, Gyro is intrigued by a fellow inventor and his mysterious invention.)

- Madcap Inventors (Gyro gets a book How to get along with your enemies. He has an opportunity to put it to use, because a rivaling inventor moved in and gets on Gyro’s nerves.)

- Getting His Wires Crossed (Gyro is a terrible dancer so he invents a machine that will help him dance better.)

- Something to Crow About (Grandma Duck has problems with crows eating her berries, so she asks Gyro for help. His solution: a dome over the berries.)

- The Fizzle that Drizzled (Duckburg needs to conserve water. Gyro makes a machnine that creates clouds, but it goes down because the weatherman made a mistake while informing Gyro about atmospheric pressure.)

- Day of Delayed Action (Gyro disables his alarm clock to spend more time on thinking about inventions and wakes up three months later.)

- Jonah Gyro (Angry fishermen make Gyro throw away his fish-baiting toy salmon. It comes back with school of salmons and a whale.)

- Lost and Found (Gyro finds a lost puppy at his doorstep. After bringing it to its mistress, he makes her a special dog whistle that can be heard only by her pappy.)

- Once Upon a Time Machine (Convinced that he can’t invent anything new Gyro goes back to the Stone Age to interest cavemen in his inventions.)

- The Portable Pier (Gyro takes Daisy on picnic on the island and presents his new invention: a portable pier which is part of his boat. Unfortunately other campers use the pier too and tie their boats to it.)

- Homemade Robot (Gyro wishes to have a roommate, but most Duckburgians aren’t on his intellectual level. Therefore he makes a robot that woudl be a perfect conversation partner.)

- The Arty Smarty (Inspried by Duckburg First Annual Outdoor Art Exhibit, Gyro tries his brains in painting.)

- Scientific Sleuth (Gyro becomes a private detective who uses inventions to slove crimes. With his assistent, Gus Goose, he tries to solve a case of missing garden statue.)

- Bubble Trouble (During cold winters Gyro stays in his bubble simulating tropical climate. Soon his neighbors want to get inside the bubble as well.)

- Instant Camping (Gyro tests his instant campinbg set.)

- Mind over Mustard (Gyro tries to solve the problem of squirting out from his hot dog.)

- The Two-Legged Mailbox (To avoid leaving experiments to check the post, Gyro creates Posty, a walking mailbox. Unfortunately, it gets bored easily.)

- The Drippy Diamonds (Gyro invents a fast why to make diamonds. Soon there’s big demand on it among Duckburg elite, but Gyro finds out his jewelery is melting over certain time.)

- The Runaway Walking Stick (Gyro’s newest invention - a literal walking stick - runs away. Gyro needs to chase after it.)

- The Rude Awakening (Tired of his alarm clock, Gyro sets to invent better way to be awakened in the morning. He makes an automatic rooster that runs away.)

- The Evil Inventor (Emil Eagle, the evil invetor, tries to steal Gyro’s blueprints and inventoions... This is the first appearance of Gyro’s archenemy, Emil Eagle.)

- Weather Wizard (Gyro’s newest invention is a weather machine. Lots of Duckburgians order rain in specific places. Unfortunately it spirals out of Gyro’s control.)

- Super Scientist (A lab accident makes Gyro superlight and now he can jumb really high. He uses these powers to become a superhero.)

- The Hypno-Clock (Gyro uses his newest invention, the hypno-clock, to hypnotize himself into being professor Steinbirg, the world’s wisest genius. However, thanks to TV commercial he gets hypnotized into buying Seafoam Bubble Bath soap,)

- Flipping His Trapp (Gyro makes special mosquito-slapping machine. It causes havoc.)

- Ye Olde Hoppin’ Chair (Since he tends to fall asleep on rocking chair, while reading, Gyro makes hopping chair that would keep him awake. Unfortunately he falls asleep again and the chair takes him on the ride.)

- Metal-Meltin’ Mob (Beagle Boys trick Gyro into making a metal melting machine. They plan to use it during another Money Bin robbery attempt.)

- Once Upon a Hammock (Gyro sets his mind it invent a better hammock.)

- Battle of Marathon (To get an ancient Greek coin, Scrooge and Gyro go to the times of Battle of Marathon. It so happens that nephews come with them by accident.)

- Luck in the Lab (Gyro asks Gladstone Gander to be his lab assistant in hopes he wil share the duck’s good luck.)

- The Sculptinker (Emil Eagle sees Gyro delivering big package to the art show. It’s a new sculpture invention, Gyro’s entry on the art contest, and Emil decides to sabotage it.)

- The Instant Raincoat (Gyro create an instant raincoat and goes to raincoat producer in hopes he will interest him in his newest invention. Unfortunately he comes there right in the middle of robbery.)

- Sandwich Automaton (To not waste time on making lunch, Gyro builds a special machine that can make sandwishes.)

- New Planet Planner (Gyro’s friend - an astronomer, Peeka-Boo Pegeon - discovers new planet. He tells Gyro that space lab directors will choose a design for a rocket that will be send on said planet.)

- Operation Implosion (Tires of picking up litter of his yard, Gyro makes implosion bomb - a bomb that draws litter to itself.)

- Roving Rug (Gyro makes a rug that cleans itself. Curious Emil Eagle breaks in to his lab.)

- The Golden Apples (Gyro’s newest invention is Fantasy Finder - a vehicle that can transport people into the land of fairy tales. Scrooge uses it, but doesn’t return so Gyro goes after him.)

- Trouble to Spare (Mad Madam Mim forces Gyro to build a beautifying machine, so she can win beauty contest.)

- Tubby Hero (To make himself more popular amongst his neighbors, who have old and slow car, Gyro decides to turn his old tub into a modernized car.)

- The Upsy-Daisy-Pack (Gyro invents a backpack that elevates him over paddles. In the meantime Emil Eagle makes his own paddle-leaping invention that will help him in his criminal career.)

- Capnapper’s Surprise (Emil Eagle’s latest evil plan is to steal Gyro’s Thinking Cap that helps Gearloose come up with brilliant ideas Emil succeeds)

- Invented Vacation (Gyro tries to balance Daisy, Donald’s nephews and Grandma Duck demends on certain weather conditions. After long day he decides to go on vacation with Little Helper.)

- Brain Waves (It turns out that the hovering car Gyro built for a customer was used in the bank robbery. To see people’s true intentions Gyro invents a cap that makes him hear thoughts of others.)

- Rain, Rain, Go Away! (Gyro tries to invent a rainmaking machine based on the melody and rhythm of rain dance.)

- The Burglar Bagger (Gyro lures Beagle Boys to his house to test his newest anti-burglar invention.)

- The Super Swatter (Gyro makes Scrooge a fly swatter machine. But Scrooge pushes a wrong button and the machine becomes a people swatter.)

- The Cantankerous Mailbox (Gyro’s walking mailbox is malfunctioning, so Gyro gives him a pticher update.)

- The Clean-Up Crew (Gyro modifies toy robots to clean his workshop. But he doesn’t give them a stopping mechanism so they go astray.)

- The Bird Call (There’s Annual Junior Woodchuck Bird Count. Gyro gives Huey, Dewey and Louie a special bird whistle to attract rarer birds. He sets it to wrong frequancy and attracts animals from the zoo.)

- The Hijacked Mail (Feeling sorry for Gyro not getting any new mail, his walking mailbox starts to steal mail from other people.)

- Santa’s Unexpected Visit (Scrooge McDuck can’t finish his letter to Santa, because he doesn’t remember any good deed he did this year. So he asks Grandma Duck, his head doctor and Gyro Gearloose to help him remember anything.)

- Outdoor Thinking (Gyro’s doctor tells him to go outside more fro the sake of the inventor’s mental health. But Gyro soon finds out outdoors can be dangerous.)

- Inventor of Anything (To prevent his neighbor’s goat to coming on his yard, Gyro build a special wall. Unfortunately, it appears that part of it stands on said neighbor’s lot and now Gyro needs to reomve the wall even though he has an invention to make.)

- The Convention (It’s an Annual Beagle Boys Convention time and one of the cousin Inventor-174 has an ingenius plan to get into Scrooge’s Money Bin. Scrooge enlist help of Gyro Gearloose to figure out the workings of said plan and solution for it.)

- The Treasure Trek (An escaping spaceman gives Scrooge a celestial treasure map. Scrooge takes Gyro’s rocket to find it, while his nephews are guarding his empire.)

- Modern Mania (Frustrated with the cost of everything, Scrooge asks Gyro to modernize his life with robotics.)

- The Inner-Earth Adventure (Dreaming of space travel, Scrooge asks Gyro to make a rocket. When they are going to test it, something goes wrong and they end up inside Earth, where Togs tribe is terrorized by Krogs.)

- The Super Marble (An odd ball falls out from Gyro’s Doughnut Shop track and gets into Beagle Brats’ hands.)

- Trapped Lightning (Mickay’s nephews see Gyro trap lightning. Gyro set up a power plant to powet whole Duckburg.)

- The Copycat Caper (On Uncle Scrooge’s demand Gyro makes him his own walking mailbox. However, he warns the rich duck that the mailbox canj copy someone else’s behavior. Beagle Boys use it to their advantage.)

- The Wreck of a Merry Lark (With Gyro’s Sea-Scope Scrooge sets himslef to find the sunken wreck of “Merry Lark”.)

- Marooned in Space (Scrooge and Gyro hear the distress call from Space Van which was bombarded by meteors. The aliens run away, abandoning their cargo and Scrooge decides to go into space and take it.)

- Trip to Tootum-Too (While searching the ruins of ancient city of Tootum-Too, Scrooge and Gyro accidentally turn back in time right in the moment when king of Tootum-Too emerged victorious from battle with Toogs. The stolen idol of Toogs’ god captures Scrooge attention and the duck notices something suspcious.)

- The Magnetic Curse (Scrooge is cursed - his money is running away from him and going to another hands. The only one who seems to have a solution for that problem is Gyro.)

- The Double Diamond (Scrooge finds a double diamond in his mine. It attracts the attention of Magica de Spell.)

- The Space Game (Scrooge transported his Money Bin into space for safety purposes, but misses swimming in his money. So Gyro makes him a special video game that would let him control the position of his space money bin. Unfortunately Beagle Boys hack into it and so the struggle for Money Bin begins.)

- The Atom-Mover (Scrooge is displeased with the amount of money his armored cars. He stumbles upon Gyro who presents him his newest invention - a small box that can instantly transport matter from one place to another.)

- Minute Waltz in Minor Key (A tuba player asks Gyro to find what stuck inside. Gyro uses shrinking ray to find out.)

- A Sticky Situation (Scrooge accidentally falls down his trap doors and he has no key. Gyro gives him his newly invented glue so Scrooge can climb up the trap door vent.)

- The Trouble of Doubles (Scrooge is tires of constantly telling “no” to people coming to him for money. Gyro builds him a lookalike who can do it for him. Unfortunately there is a small problem...)

- Nobody’s Business (To instill business spirit in Donald and Gladstone, Scrooge gives each of them a thousand dollars so they can invest it and make a profit. Donald first tries to interest some fast food chain owner but makes mistake and settles for investing in an invention.)

- Fun? What’s That? (Doctor tells Gyro and Scrooge to relax and have some fun. Pity they both are workoholics.)

- The Riminder Hat (Gyro builds a reminder hat for Scrooge - a hat that receives messages reminding Scrooge about his appointments. Everything is complicates when Donald (inititially talking to triplets) accidently tells his uncle to buy carrots.)

- The Generocity Ray (To protect Scrooge’s Money Bin Gyro instals a ray that makes extremely generous everyone who walks through the billionaire’s threshold. Unfortunately Scrooge is hit by it too.)

- A Tilling Tale (Scrooge has problems with moles. Gyro has a solution.)

- Brainy Days (Donald ruins uncle Scrooge’s meeting with investors and is assigned to keep pegeos off the roof. He goes to Gyro for help and learns that he invented a smart serum lately. Donald takes the serum in hopes it will make him successful.)

- The Buck Sticks Here (Scrooge’s Money Bin is so full the walls are cracking, so he sends for Gyro, who has a special adhesive to fix the cracks. To clear away some cash, Scrooge takes it to the bank and recieves special Million Dollar Bill.)

- The McDuck Foundation (Scrooge builds a foundation and employs his nephews and Gyro to work there.)

- Power Failure (Gyro builds a backpack that stores energy during work that can be used later. Scrooge tests it on Donald.)

- The Only Way To Go (Donlad goes into Gyro’s newest invention - a vehicle that allows to instant travel. He gets lost in South America so Gyro and Scrooge go to find him.)

- Money Ocean (/this is a two-parter about Scrooge deciding to build a new, bigger money bin and how the money suddenly starts to act like an actual ocean.)

- Quiz Fizzle (Gyro puts his new supercomputer to a test.)

- Odd Offspring (Gyro’s jetpack crashes in the mountains.)

- Formula X (Producers of famous Sweetybubbles soda ask Gyro to make a new flavor to compete with Sweetybubbles’ rival, Guzzlepop. By accident Gyro creates a flavor that becomes an instant hit. Unfortunately Emil Eagle works for Guzzlepop.)

- Skate Late (A university in which Gyro is teaching, requires from his faculty to publish at least one paper per term. So Gyro decides to do a research on how skate riding can help save time during rush hours.)

- The Hot Seat (Gyro builds heated benches for park visitors.)

- Who Needs People (Scrooge fires all his staff and asks Gyro to fully automatize his mansion.)

- E.A.T. (It’s a Birthday of Duckburg’s founder, Cornelius Coot, and the tradition says that one of Duckburg’s celebrities has to open their houses for visitors. This year is Scrooge’s turn. In the meantime, Gyro brings a metal-eating alien from his space adventure. Said alien gets kidnapped by Beagle Boys.)

- A short, untitled story about Scrooge breaking his cane and coming to Gyro for help.

- Solar Shenanigans (Beagle Boys see Gyro taking a giant, golden orb to their home and decide to follow him. The orb is meant to serve as a sun in Gyro’s automaitc solar system model but what will happen when Beagles try to steal it?)

- The Moving Money Bin (Uncle Scrooge acts strange lately - he sells his Money Bin and hires new security direct. Donald and nephews decide to investigate.)

- The Bee Or Not To Bee (Donald questions Gyro about his new hoppy: bees.)

- The Case of the Gold Bars (Beagle Boys overhear Gyro talking with president of the bank about the inventor making golden bars, and they decided to steal them. There is only one problem: Gyro’s bars are strangely heavy.)

- Super-Beagles (In need for modern equipment, Beagle Boys go to Gyro Gearloose. They steali his Thinking Cap and become criminal masterminds.)

- After-Thought (Gyro checks his new autmoatic umbrella.)

- The Scary Scarecrow (Gyro spends vacation on Grandma Duck’s farm, when it turns out that the old scarecrow doesn’t serve its purpose. So Gyro makes a special robot to scare the crows.)

- The Plane Truth (Uncle Scrooge presents to his nepews a new flying bus made by Gyro, but once they leave the workshop, they see the bus going off. Suspcious, they go after it and soon learn that the inventor has been kidnapped.)

- Money to Burn (Uncle Scrooge refuses to pay additional fifty cents on his bill, so electricity doesn’t work in his mansion. He thinks that il lumps are as good as electric ones. He also uses Gyro’s invention that generates power from wind. Fire department has some objections.)

- A Sticky Story (Gyro creates a new way of manufacturing jam - just add water to his jam pawder! Donald is tasked to be a lone employee in Scrooge’s jam factory.)

- Cold Duck (Scrooge’s technologically advanced satelite dropped out of orbit and crashed into Antarctica. Now Scrooge, Donald, nephews and Gyro go on the expedition and find a curious surprise.)

Uncle Scrooge #313 is a special issue for our favorite inventor. There is no Gyro there, but it has a reprint of The Fnatastic River Race, which was the first comic with Ratchet Gearloose.

Now let’s go back to Gyro:

- Little Gyro in Quarkland (Tired of living in rude Duckburg, Gyro shrinks himself and Little Helper to explore the world of quarks.)

- Rain-Dance Reversal (It’s raining outside but Gyro needs a sunny day to introduce his invention on The Merry Loafers Annual Picnic and prove his skeptic neighor wrong about uselessness of his inventions. Gyro decides to invent a dry dance.)

- Perilous Pets (Gyro wishes he had a pet and so he builds one.)

- The Big Break-In (The Money Bin can’t be opened and Gyro’s expertise is that door is out of line with the frame due to weight of money pushing on them. Now Scrooge has to remove some of the money to unstuck the door but the Bin’s door is made of special metal that gets harder with age. And so Scrooge lures Beagle Boys to open his Money Bin.)

- Shortcut to Sparklers (Daisy spots a diamond ring she want, but Donald have no money for it. Gyro gives him a diamond-making machine.)

- The Utter Limits (Scrooge, Donald, nephews and Gyro are in space to find an asteroid suitable to be a new Money Bin. They encounter a new alien race.)

- Everything Green (Gyro tossed a failed fertilizer into his trashcan and accidently creates a plant monster. The monster can also make plants grow instantly.)

- The Coin (A chain of events makes one of Scrooge’s coins go from hand to hand throughout the Duckburg. The rich duck wants it back for sentimental values.)

- Junk Funk (Gyro tries to resist the phone solicitor to not subscribe to another magazine.)

Now here’s something very special: Gyro’s First Invention. This is story by Don Rose was written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gyro’s creation and tells an origin of both Gyro Gearloose and Little Helper. Donald and nephews reminescent on how Gyro started his inventing career with helping Scrooge McDuck get his Money Bin from the pit it ended up during the events of A Christmas For Shocktown. And everything began when Donald brought to Gyro’s newly inherited workshop a broken lump and accidentally dropped it on the Thinking Box.

Continuing with short stories:

- Tip-Top Topiary (Gyro’s newest invention is a mechanical hedge trimmer that scans pictures and trims topiary into shapes on the picture. It becomes very successful so Gyro finds he need to make more bushes.)

- The Inventing Invention (Donald has a problem with unscrewing the ketchup bottle so he goes to Gyro for help. It some happens that the inventor has an existencial crisis because of his newest invention.)

- The Missing Millionaire (Gyro talks with Scrooge McDuck about some sensitive matters and purposely makes himself forget about it. The next day he learns the millionaire is missing and the inventor is suspected to kidnap him.)

- The Bedeviled Dime (To protect Old Number One from Magica de Spell, Gyro makes anti-magic magnification ray. But it proves unstable and makes Number One Dime change sizes constantly.)

- The Guniea Pig (Gyro gets into a fight with his long time assistant, Donald and they bet if Donald can make his own inventions.)

- Prophets, Go Home (Gyro stumbles upon fortune-telling machine in the mall and decides to invent his own, more accurate one. He tests it on the mall customers and soon finds out not everyone is happy to know their future.)

- Crazy Inventions (Gyro leaves Donald to guard his workshop. Donald realizes Gyro’s inventions can be wild.)

- The Quest for Kalevala (Scrooge finds out that he’s in possesion of fragment of Kalevala, an epic poem from Finninsh folklore. The poem was talking about a magical grinding mill producing eternal prosperity so Scrooge goes on a trip to find it.)

- The Old, Old Fishing Hole (Gyro rpesents to Donald his newest invention: a belt that transports its weared in time. Looking for luck in fisihing, Donald goes back in time to find out if he will catch better fish in prehistoric times.)

- The Joke Factory (Scrooge hired Gyro into his joke factory to invent better practical jokes.)

- A Day at the Office (To not waste time traveling to the international meetings, Scrooge takes Gyro’s swapping pills that make people who swallow them appear in place they want to be. Unfortunately Beagle Boys want to use them too.)

- Same Old Stuff (Gyro makes a contact with Gizmo Flashpan, inventor from outther space. It turns out that all Gyro’s inventions are common place on Gizmo’s planet, and all Gizmo’s inventions are common on Earth. The two inventors decide to compete on who will invent something completely new to both races.)

- Beagle Brain (During robbing Gyro’s workshop, Beagle Boys accidently activate an evo-ray whixh zaps one of them. The zapped Beagle Boy becomes a criminal mastermind and comes to the inventor for more evo-rays.)

- The Hardware Hardener (Scrooge decides that Launchpad have to provide his own airplanes. The pilot buys the cheapest airplane and crashes it into gyro’s workshop. Gyro gives Launchpad a hardening soldifier.)

- Jumbled Ducks (It turns out the Money Bin is filled to capasity and can’t take any more money. Scrooge goes to gyro for help anf the inventor gives him his matter compact that makes matter smaller.)

- The Customer is Always Wrong (Gyro and Donald get into argument over Donald never lsitening to Gyro’s instructions and they decide to go apart. But soon Gyro realizes he needs Donald to test his more wacky inventions.)

- Gyro 2.0 (Gyro builds himslef a robot double to help him with work.)

- Being Donald Duck (Beagles steal Gyro’s mind-swapping machine to swap minds with Donald Duck and get to the Money Bin.)

- Big Helper (During Duckburg’s Invention Convention Gyro’s rival, Bruce Brainstorm, presents Big Helper - a human-sized version of Little Helper.)

- Lost and Found (Inspired by police dog, Gyro builds machine that can find anything.)

- In the Clouds (Gyro finds a way to live on the cloud. Donald moves in.)

- Green Thumbs Down (Fethry tries to prove to Gyro that he can live off of his organic food.)

- The Scrooge Museum (There is an exhibit in honor of Scrooge McDuck. Unfortunately everyone must pay and Scrooge wants to go for free.)

- The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t (During transport of Christmas tree Little Helper fall off the track and gets lost. Gyro and friends try to find him.)

- The Duckburg Ice Festival (It is a time of Duckburg Ice Festival and Donald wants to win. Gyro provides some technical help.)

- To Supply a Demand (To sell his inventions with “proper marketing”, Gyro signs a contract with Scrooge McDuc. However, contract also says that Gyro has to build whatever is demended by the public. From now on Gyro has no time for himself and for fun inventing.)

- What Goes Around (Something odd is happening to Scrooge. He suddenly remembers that he and Goldie are married, Beagle Boys are owners of Money Bin and Donald lost his house.)

- A Job Too Well Done (The mayor of Duckburg asks Gyro to duct the snow that covered whole town.)

- White Gold (Duckburg is covered heavily by snow. Scrooge has to send large amounts of bottled water so he figures, he will use snow to his advantage. And Gyro just so happens to have an invention for that.)

- The Black Knight Glorps Again (Scrooge displays his trophy collection in the museum. The gentleman thief is also there, preparing for his final heist but he needs his special armor to do so and only Scrooge know where it is.)

- Generous to a Fault (Gyro is outraged by the way Scrooge’s bill collectors operate. He creates the generosity formula, but it turns out to be too strong.)

- Creative Impulse (Gyro suffers from sudden impulses to invent things, So he figures he needs to go out more and take time off. Donald invites the inventor to his place to help him relax more.)

- Space Food Folly (Gyro makes new, improved space food pills that become full-fleshed beef dinner under heat. The invention catches interest of Scrooge McDuck.)

- Comet Get It (Scrooge and Gyro disappeared. Two weeks later Donald and nephews get a mysterious phone call from Scrooge. An airplane with outpilot takes them to secluded, snowy place ,where they learn Magica de Spell asked Scrooge for help with comet on collison course with Earth.)

- Dr. Invento (Gyro becomes a host in children show and have no time to invent.)

- Out of Shape (Daisy goes to Gyro for advice about weight-loss pills. He gives her wieght-loss pills of his own invention.)

- Foul play in Funland (Scrooge bought an amusement park and asks Gyro to fix broken rides before the park will be open. Little do they know, there’s someone else there to and wants the Funland to stay closed.)

- When Posty met Patty (Gyro builds a walking mailbox for Daisy. His own mailbox, Posty, falls in love.)

- A Dime in Time (Scrooge and nephews, following Scrooge’s own instructions form years ago, discover a box that seems to contain Numer One Dime... but Number One Dime is in Money Bin! It turns out time travel is involved.)

- Fleece and Quiet (Scrooge can’t work because of the noise outside the window so Gyro gives him a device that nulliifies the noises around. It so happens that when Scrooge uses it for the first time, Bragle Boys decide to attack.)

- Into The Future (Gyro is visited by his descendant, Chip Gearloose. Chip takes him to the year 3007 in hopes Gyro will help him solve a case of stolen Numer One Dime.)

- A Fowl of the Future (Chip Gearloose comes back... right when Gyro was in one room with Scrooge McDuck. When Scrooge learns his Numer One Dime was stolen in the future, he decides to go on a time travel himself.)

- Guilty as Charged (An accusation from homeless man makes Scrooge catatonic. While walking down the street with him, Donald and nephews stumble upon Gyro’s workshop and the inventor decides to use one of his inventions to get into Scrooge’s mind. It Donald and triplets arrive just in time for trial.)

- Write Thinking (Donalds decides to write a teleplay but is easily distracted and has a writer’s block. So he oges to Gyro who gives him Think-O-Matic that transports ideas into paper.)

- The Other Gyro Gearloose (While Gyro is off on Inventions’ Convention, Donald is left to watch for the workshop. A race of aliens in need mistake him for Gyro and ask for help with their green problem.)

- Brother from Another Earth (Bored Scrooge meets himself from parallel universe who offers to swap places for the excitement. But the new Earth - and people’s attitutde towards Scrooge - is strange to say the least.)

- The Electric Hissyfitter (Gyro builds a machine that drains stress waves from people and releases it in a hissy fit.)

- Projected Poverty (To put his nephews into a trial, Scrooge asks Gyro to make a projection of his Money Bin in ruin, and pretends to be poor.)

- Last Hero of Banania (Tog et an inheritance from his military-oriented ancestor, Scrooge has to become a soldier. He stettles for being a patrol scout on far island Banania.)

- No Need to Know (It’s Valentine’s Day. Gyro builds a machine that analyzes Valentine cards and reveals the authors.)

- Easter Eggs-port (Due to change of regime in Porto Gordo, Scrooge can’t export the gold from his mine. Luckily Porto Gordian’s hens can eat gold and money and later store it in their eggs.)

- Driven to Destruction (Scrooge let’s gyro instal a computer in duck’s car. But although the new invention proves to be useful, it soon catches attention of Beagle Boys.)

- Leonardo da Gearloose (Inspired by the life of Leonardo da Vinci, Gyro decides to take art classes.)

- “I” of the Storm (Gyro and Launchpad are flying through the hurricane to get data for Duckburg’s Weather Center. The circumstances force them constantly to fight for their lives.)

- Gloom of the Unknown Author (Donald asks a question Huey, Dewey and Louie can’t answer with their Junior Woodchucks’ Guidebook: who’s the author of said guidebook? The boys set to solve the mystery.)

- Salt and Gold (A two-parter; Scrooge, Donald, nephews and Gyro go to Cracow because the assistant of Nicolas Copernicus’ who supposedly found a way to make gold out of salt.)

- Around the World in 80 Bucks (A four-parter about Scrooge making a wager with Rockerduck that he will travel the world only with 80 bucks, but Gyro appears only in the third part, where Donald and Scrooge find him in India.)

- A Dolt from the Blue (Gyro constructs for Launchpad an airplane that avoids contacts with hard objects.)

- Big Blimp in Little Trouble (Scrooge tells Gyro to build a new kind of air blimp.)

- The Belt of Time (Thanks to Gyro’s newest invention - a belt that enables time travels - Launchpad is sent through time. Meanwhile Scrooge and Glomgold prepare to go to Andes.)

- The Man Who Drew Ducks (In Uncle Scrooge issue 400 we have a comicbook tribute for Carl Barks and all the characters he created.)

In 2015 IDW started to publish Uncle Scrooge comics by non-American artists, So far Gyro Gearloose appeared in following stories:

- The Inventor’s Picnic (The Annual Picnic of the National Inventors’ Society is coming. Gyro is an official guest host and needs to unveil a very special invention... but his head is empty! Luckily he can count on friends.)

- Heights of Fear (A man who wants to settle a new record comes to Gyro for help. He has a fear of heights.)

- Of Mice and Magic (It’s a tax season and Scrooge is certain Magica is planning something. Little does he know that Magica is already in Duckburg and she has a plan how to get into Money Bin.)

- The Doorman Doormat (Gyro presents a new invention to an investor - a doormat that recognizes the owner and keeps the ujnwanted guests away.)

- Ten Little Millionaires (Scrooge organizes a luxury cruise to the moon for ten millionaires. But somewhere along the way his guests are robbed off their valuables. Scrooge sets himself to solve the mystery.)

- Scrooge’s Last Adventure (A four-parter story about Scrooge’s greatest foes - Beagle Boys, Magica, Rockerduck and Glomgold - taking over his furtune and leaving him misarable.)

- Gyro’s Mananger (Max Buckgrab convinces Gyro to hire him as his mamanger and charge more for inventions.)

- The Miner’s Granddaoughter (A cameo; Goldie O’Glit informs Scrooge that he has a granddaughter.)

- Gum Disease (Gyro presents Donald with the chewing gum that also serves as a toothpaste.)

- Design Flaw (TDuring rainy day in Duckburg Scrooge gets irritated by rain running down the umbrella under his newly-polished feet. He meets Gyro who gives him a umbrella designed to solve this problem.)

- The Droid I’m Looking For? (Gyro builds a robo-gardener to mown his lawn. After few hiccups he adjusts the robot’s intellect.)

- The Terrible Thinking Cap Tassle (Beagle Boys steal Gyro’s thinking cap and use it to make master plans for crimes. The inventor needs to find himself a new thinking cap to stop them from rampage.)

And that’s all when it comes to Uncle Scrooge comics.

Next time - Donald Duck comics.

#RedHatMeg's Guide on Gyro Gearloose #uncle scrooge #gyro gearloose

58 notes · View notes

nandebro · 5 years ago

Photo

Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure

#my post #popful mail #retro gaming #sega cd #old #vintage #90's #anime #anime girl #kawaii #sega #video game #fantasy

116 notes · View notes

coleymari-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Cyber Space is Always Sweeter : Chapter 11

Summary: Lucy is a down to Earth, studious, responsible runaway attending Magnolia College. Natsu is a rambunctious, intelligent, pyrophilic fraternity boy going to the same school.

They don’t exactly run in the same circles and they have one hell of a history. What happens when the names and facades disappear and all that’s left are words blinking on a screen? Modern day, College/Pen Pals AU. I’m sorry I suck at intros. Rated M for Language, Adult Situations, and future sexual situations. Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Sleep now seemed like a foreign concept.

It had been about three weeks since she'd begun chatting with Dragon and Lucy's nights appeared to be growing shorter as time went on. At first, it had caused her issues, making her sluggish in the morning, losing focus in classes (especially Chemistry but that was for its own reasons), and all sorts of repercussions. Even Levy was beginning to notice the bags under the blonde's beautiful deep brown eyes. No amount of make-up was correcting that.

Being a Monday night, Lucy was camped out at the library's help desk as usual, laptop opened to her latest Chemistry assignment. Luckily she'd actually found enough intestinal fortitude to attend Natsu's group tutoring sessions for the past two weeks and was finally starting to understand the material. She'd missed the first one due to not being able to stomach her pride but after failing the first pop quiz, she'd quickly decided to sing another tune. Normally there were three or four students at each session so at least she hadn't been left alone with him. If she had, she definitely wouldn't have been able to focus. Just the thought of the two of them locked in an isolated study room was enough to fluster the poor freshman in more ways than one.

If she was being honest, Lucy hated the fact that she still found Natsu so alluring. She was a College woman now, weren't elementary school crushes a thing of the past? Granted they now came accompanied by racier, more enjoyable thoughts but that didn't change the fact that every time she saw him, she wanted to shove her head in the sand. His kindness and eagerness to help her didn't make matters any better. If anything she felt worse holding onto the wisps of a conflict when he'd clearly been adult enough to let it go.

As if by magic, Lucy's phone chimed alerting her to a new message in 'ChatApp' and sufficiently distracted her from her fantasies. She'd downloaded the online texting application at Dragon's suggestion so they could chat throughout the day without having to use the computer. They had agreed that swapping numbers would have been a bit too personal, so the app helped them stay in more constant contact.

DragonSlayer: Hey Starfire. Got a late class tonight so I probably won't be able to get online. Leave you something nice to wake up to?

Lucy couldn't help but blush wildly. She had to admit that she enjoyed his "slightly more than friendly" attention (as Levy had grown to call it). Not only did it provide her with a much-needed distraction from daydreaming about a certain pink-haired grad student, but it also made her feel wanted. Dragon had yet to really judge her on anything during the few weeks they'd known each other, he was a great listener, and obviously, he didn't want her for what she could do for him. Levy had warned her about the dangers of talking to strangers online, citing that in reality, he could be trying to hack into her computer or something. Given her father's status, anything was possible, but Lucy highly doubted that her cyber acquaintance was just using her as part of a bigger plot. Not like she had much to do with her father lately anyway.

Deciding to attempt to finish her Chemistry homework, Lucy logged into her student portal and was immediately greeted by an e-mail from just the person she was so conflicted about.

From: NDragneel To: LHeartfilia Subj: Extra help?

Had this worksheet laying around and figured it might help you with your formulas. Print it out and bring it this Friday!

Hope you had a good day after class!

-Natsu

Lucy smiled warmly. There was still a part of her that was utterly entranced by the older fraternity star. Regardless of how much of her wanted to run just at the mere sight of him, the blonde still allowed herself indulgences from time to time. The other day, as part of her morning workout, she'd run past Fairy Tail and watched the glistening Adonises play soccer for a split second. Of course, her gaze had immediately found pink-hair and chiseled abs, his V-cut slipping into the athletic shorts that hung dangerously low on his hips. She'd heard a couple of whistles, calls, etc. as she ran past and she'd secretly hoped that one of them was her TA.

Someone clearing their throat dragged her out of her musings but luckily they were nothing more than a lost freshman looking for a specific study room. Looking down at her screen, Lucy sighed when she realized that the library would be closing soon and she didn't get nearly as much done as she had intended. After packing up her things, she figured she had enough time to use the restroom before everything was locked up for the night so she ran around the corner, leaving her backpack beside the door, and tried to finish as quickly as she could.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough. Upon leaving the restroom and arriving at the front door to the hall, Lucy groaned loudly when she realized the heavy oak door was already locked from the outside. How was she supposed to get out? No way was she staying in the library overnight. Figuring she could call campus security, the freshman pulled out her phone to find she had no reception inside the library's foyer.

"You know they lock up at 9pm, right," came a familiar voice from the empty hall. No way was he there. She couldn't possibly be that unlucky.

"You'd think they'd check the bathrooms before closing," Lucy snapped, shifting her heavy backpack from one shoulder to the other. The only good part about Natsu being there? He must know a way out. "I'm assuming you know where an exit is?"

Natsu brought his thumb and forefinger to his face in a pensive manner, stroking his jaw rhythmically as he 'thought' over her request. His eyes glittered in the random overhead lights that remained on overnight before locking his sights on her. "I may…" he drawled, a grin creeping to his lips. "...if you're feeling adventurous."

"Natsu...seriously? Wake up…"

Erza's strong, yet hushed, voice and a few strong jostles were what woke Natsu from his nap. When had he fallen asleep? One minute he'd been studying in the library with Gray, Erza, Gajeel, and a few others and the next he was being assaulted by the red-headed devil-woman herself. Feeling the remnants of dried drool in the corner of his lips was all the proof he needed.

For the past couple of weeks, the grad student's sleep schedule had taken a very hard dive. Between school, teaching, tutoring, fraternity life, and talking to Starfire, he found that he didn't have time for much else. Luckily he hadn't gotten asked to work for a catering event. He couldn't imagine having to work that into his schedule too. He knew he needed to sleep more but there just weren't enough hours in the day. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to sleep if it meant he couldn't talk to his new cyber-friend. Making a very hard decision quickly before he changed his mind, he shot her a message to let her know he wouldn't be able to chat that night, giving her some excuse he knew would work. He hated lying but what was he supposed to say to her? 'Hey, I love talking to you so much I've stopped sleeping right. I need a night to fix my system.' Shaking his head slightly and rubbing his lips, Natsu grinned. "Thanks for the wake-up call," he teased, yawning while stretching in his seat. The glare she gave him was the only answer he needed.

The rest of the gang was already packing up their bags when the TA noticed that it was ten minutes until nine. He still had to stop by his student office to pick-up a textbook he'd accidentally left behind before going back to the house. Luckily for him, his tiny closet was located there in Precht Hall on the bottom floor. Grabbing his own things, he broke away from his friends to hopefully make it out before the guards locked the doors. Obviously, he knew the ways out but still. No one enjoyed being trapped in a borderline ancient, musty, campus library.

Running down the four flights of stairs, Natsu sprinted across the dark tiled halls until he reached his office door. He found his book on the corner of his desk, right where his sleep-deprived ass had left it, and decided to walk casually toward one of the emergency exits near the front door seeing as how it was 9:02pm. Passing by the restrooms, he recognized a certain backpack out of the corner of his eye, sitting on the floor outside the women's room. The dark blue fabric covered in silver stars meant one person, Lucy.

Natsu forced himself to keep walking toward his destination. If he stopped, she'd find him there and Gods only knew what she'd think of him then. First, he broke her heart (accidentally), then he became her TA, and then what? The creepy guy in the dark, desolate library after close? Lucy was smart, she'd find the emergency exit too. He began to doubt himself when he heard her yanking on the wooden door and whining.

"You know they lock up at 9pm, right?" the grad student asked, walking up the hall to meet her in the expansive foyer. Lucy appeared a bit frustrated, but her tone said it all.

"You'd think they'd check the bathrooms before closing," she snapped at him. He noticed her face tense a little when she moved her backpack and switched shoulders. Her body screamed 'exhausted' in its slow, lethargic movements. If he was being honest, without his constant workouts with Gray, he'd probably be a lot worse for wear too. "I'm assuming you know where an exit is?"

Should he take her to the normal exit? He couldn't describe it, but a little voice somewhere in the back of his mind told him 'Hell No'.

Playfully, Natsu brought his fingers to his chin and stroked it as he pondered his options. Couldn't take her out the front door. The emergency exit in the back of the library was equally as boring. That's when the idea struck. "I may…if you're feeling adventurous," he teased. Before she could swat his hand away, the older man had reached over and grabbed her backpack, throwing it over his shoulder with his own bag. He could tell she wasn't happy about it, but she'd be a whole lot unhappier when she figured out what they were about to do.

Leading them both toward the elevator, Lucy looked at him with confusion in her big gorgeous brown eyes. "Is there a basement or something?" she asked, her voice soft but still strong.

Her question made him grin more brightly. She was in for a rough awakening. "Not quite," he replied, leading them into the cramped, brass elevator. Looking her in the eyes, the grad student pressed the button on the top of the row, marked "Roof Access".

#nalu fic #nalu fanfic #ftfanfics #cyber space is always sweeter #;csias

20 notes · View notes