#Some were from what Goose and Michael on what they said. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

blueberrypancakesworld · 1 year ago

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The first rythm

Warning : little emotional , fluff, nightmare, comfort

Summary : A shocking and deadly realization overtakes them. A diagnosis she would rather not have seen and a moral gray zone that entails consequences. Finally, a dream but not from Michael?

Masterlist, next part

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The sound of the closing door echoed down the empty and only lightly lit hallway. Her gaze went down and she could feel the approaching headache. What she had just experienced had only strengthened her affection. Her feelings, however, also and whether this was beneficial or a problem remained to be seen. What was that just now she heard her own voice and shook her head ignorantly.

Yes that was a good question what had just happened. Better yet, what happened to Michael that he forgot to give himself his blood. The thing that kept him alive. She could still feel her heart beating fast. Her symphony was driven by fear. The fear of losing him, the fear of losing him in her arms. She looked down at her hands and realized that the trembling that had gripped her body was gone. Michael acted like a conductor on her body.

A gentle touch followed by sweet words was enough for her heart. What made her move, however, was the little voice that reminded her that she needed new blood samples and a coffee for Michael. Even though she doubted he would actually drink it.

Heading for the elevator, she looked at her phone. But besides the much too late or rather too early time, she let it slide back into her pocket. She didn't get one from Katrin either, but she didn't take it from her friend. They both had busy jobs and Katrin also had a child. It was normal that they had not communicated with each other for several weeks because of their jobs.

After getting into the elevator, she sighed but smiled briefly as she looked at the band-aid on her finger. Michael had been caring and gentle with her. He had taken care of her and even though it was just a band-aid, she was grateful.

Arriving at the upper floor, she listened. She heard no alarming noise and no Martine talking. Which would either mean she was off duty or somewhere else on the station.

So Y/n set off, hoping not to bump into Martine, while from the outside she was still walking around with the blood samples. She walked down the hall before turning the corner and arriving moments later in front of the refrigerated room with the blood samples.

She gained access and felt goose bumps forming on her body. Ignoring them, she searched through the various reagents and labels. Before she found the department for Michael Morbius. She took them out and checked again if they were the right ones before she went out.

She locked the door behind her and was about to turn around when she heard a voice that made her shrink. ,, Haven't you been to Michael's yet?" asked Martine, who also seemed to need a sample. Is everyone here trained in hardcore sneaking? she asked herself, and decided to ask herself how long it would take to show up so quietly.

,, Yes, I did, but he wanted to do some more tests and rehearsals," she lied, but to her confusion she saw the worried angry expression in the dark eyes. ,, Are you alright?" asked Y/n, afraid that Martine was not alright. ,,Yes, no, I- do you know which test?" she asked quickly, seeming to be already at Michael's side. But Y/n just shook her head and got a bad feeling about the whole thing. ,, Thanks anyway," she said hastily before turning around and disappearing.

This is not going to end well she heard her own conscience and knew that her lie would probably cause trouble not only for her but also for Michael. So she hurried with the samples towards the nurse's office where she made the coffee as Michael wanted.

Nervous and fidgety, she stood in front of the machine, her fingers drumming on the tray. When the hot drink was ready, she hurried as fast as she could towards the elevator, inwardly praying that Martine hadn't gone to see Michael yet. In the elevator, she rearranged herself so that the coffee was on her right and the samples on her left. With the familiar pling, she hurried out into the hallway.

She opened the door to Michael Labor and was relieved that the lights were still on. What made her less happy was the guilty expression on Michael's face when he looked at her. ,, I have the samples and your coffee," Y/n announced and walked towards Michael. But when she saw Martine coming out from behind the large closed column in the middle, she stopped. ,,Did you take advantage of your position and let her get the blood for the last time?" Martine demanded, and Y/n didn't quite know what to say.

Which is why she quickly put the coffee in front of Morbius, who gave her a thankful look and took the blood samples. She stopped between the two and was unsure about the situation. ,, I like to tell you again. I haven't done any more tests and if only alone," Michael assured her and Y/n didn't quite understand why Martine was so angry.

Was it something bigger than just a simple cure? ,, Is that true?" Martine now turned to Y/n who was torn out of her thoughts. ,, I don't even know what the test is about," she protested and looked at Martine with an annoyed look. But her two colleagues and friends remained silent.

As if they were hiding a secret. It was Michael who sighed before looking at Martine. She, however, avoided his gaze and nodded briefly as a sign. ,, Did you read the file I gave you?" he asked, hope in his eyes.

Hope that she had not done it. Y/n shook her head and Michael did not seem relieved. ,, Show her," Martine demanded, and Michael began typing something on the keyboard.

On the screens on the walls appeared several medical reports and pictures. ,, What do you see?" asked Michael and in his voice the doctor briefly resonated. Her eyes looked attentively at every detail and she skimmed the report.

What was shockingly burned into her mind was the realization that whatever treatment was given would be as good as too late. One would die early or later or the body itself would give way. With an uncertain look she looked from Martine to Michael. ,, The patient will die sooner or later," she said into the silent room before quietly adding, afraid of the answer, ,,Whose is this?"

,, It's mine," Michael answered her question and his blue eyes found hers. It hit her completely unprepared like a slap in the face. She leaned against the table and her hands clutched at her white doctor's coat.

She could not think clearly. The symphony was in full swing and without derigents. ,, What?" was the only thing she said and it sounded so broken. ,, Since when?" was the next question and Y/n didn't really want to hear.

Michael's gaze searched hers but her eyes were directed to the ground. ,, My whole life, actually, but so seriously for a few months now," he admitted, and Martine still seemed to be struggling with the diagnosis.

She still did not realize how quickly the ground was pulled out from under her feet. ,,Here," Michael said reassuringly, and he pushed the now cool coffee over to her. His fingers lingered briefly on her hand and she was grateful for the support.

The symphony had at least returned to its rhythm, but the chaos continued. She took a big sip and ignored the cool bitter nauseating taste. ,, But then why the blood samples?" asked Y/n after she had calmed down a bit. ,, They are not only mine. They're theirs, too," Michael said before rolling his chair over to the locked column, at least that's what she assumed, and entering a code on the lock.

The protection was removed and in Y/n eyes was curiosity and something like fascination. ,, Bats? " came a questioning but interested from her lips and she stepped next to Michael. ,, I made a small trip in the Amazonas a few months ago and brought new friends with me. They helped me with my research based on their skills and my illness" he explained as roughly as possible and Y/n slowly understood what was going on.

,,Did you...succeed?" she asked cautiously and she hoped so much that there was a cure for Michael. She did not want to lose him, not now. ,, We're still trying, we have to keep changing formulas here and there, we're well over forty tests in, but so far nothing," Martine replied and Michael looked at his nocturnal animals for a moment before rolling over to his equipment.

There he took various samples and tools before taking out a dictaphone. ,, Can I help in any way?" she blurted out, wanting to help Michael in some way. ,, What do you say?" he asked Martine.

Martine sighed and looked at Y/n before she said, ,, You can't tell anyone about this, we are in a moral gray area. Not to mention what happens when our dear little guinea pig tries it out on himself," she paused for a moment. ,, Well, three doctors are always better than two, aren't they?" she said with a small smile and Y/n thanked them.

She watched spellbound as Michael took samples from a chilled bat before placing it in the centrifuge and letting the machine do its work. He took the cap off a cage and revealed a small white mouse.

Her gaze, however, remained on the bats flying excitedly in their new home. While Morbius began to date and report on his recording device. After taking the sample out of the device, he began to inject it into the mouse. The animal made a frightened noise before it began to squirm.

The three of them looked at the animal, hoping that the experiment would succeed. After a struggle of several seconds, the small rapid symphony in the animal died and it seemed dead. Y/n noticed Michael cursing and Martine lowering her head in disappointment but expectation. Y/n went to the computer and looked at the internal values of the mouse. It seemed to be due to the connection, it should have succeeded.

,,Guys, look!" she said quickly when she saw the new values on the screen and left them out. ,, My God, it worked," Martine said happily and with relief, and it seemed like an eternity since she had smiled like that. ,, Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing?" Martine interrupted the process of Michael who had filled a new blood sample into a syringe and was about to inject it. ,, In case you missed it, I just found a cure.

So unless you want to use Anna as a guinea pig, I'll take it," he protested, and Y/n understood Martine's concern. ,, If anything, you'll have to inject it into your spinal cord for any effect, I thought you were a doctor," Martine grumbled.

,, Sorry, but isn't this all highly unpleasant in general, the whole process? " she interrupted them and Morbius smiled knowingly. ,, Of course it is, but I know someone who can help us," he murmured and Y/n raised an eyebrow. ,, Let's pull some strings, I suggest we do it the next day" Martine suggested looking at the clock in the lab and sighing. ,,Y/n our shift ends soon we should finish slowly...that goes for you too Michael" she admonished her colleague and he raised his hands placatingly. ,, I get it, Mom," he said and went back to his equipment.

Martine walked out of the lab with Y/n and they both sighed at the same time before smiling. ,, And is this what you were hoping for after your acceptance here?" she asked, still smiling. Once upstairs on the floor, the two of them went to the nurses' station where they began to change after a final check on the patients.

They said hello and goodbye to their replacements and were glad that their shift was over. By the time Y/n had taken Michael's file and picked up her bag, Martine had already disappeared in the direction of the parking lot. As she had mumbled something about how important sleep was.

So Y/n finally went to the parking lot herself before she got into her car. She looked at the file for a moment before turning her gaze to the road. Her engine howled and she set her car in motion.

It was morning when she arrived at her apartment and the sun was shining through her windows. But she also went to bed and was glad that she could rest after her shift. With one last look at her cell phone, which showed no messages, she closed her eyes and hoped to find restful sleep.

Darkness overcame her again and formed her friend. In her dream, however, it seemed different. There was no castle, no corridor, not even the sea of blood. Only darkness surrounded her and seemed to love her.

Only when she gained control over her body did she open her eyes in the dream. The darkness made room for her and gave way to some light that seemed to break through the dark mass.

She was expecting Michael, at least her last dreams had included him. Even though the bat monster still made her feel uneasy. Of course she knew when she woke up that she had nothing to fear, but in her dream it was hell.

But she heard no flapping of wings and no hissing, only silence. She stepped further out and thought it was true as a cage formed out of the darkness. It was the mouse. It was an oppressive feeling to be trapped, she shook the dark cage bars but the black mass seemed to solidify again and again.

She paused only when she heard footsteps. ,, Michael?" she asked and her voice echoed in the cage. A click was heard in response before a whirring sound came from the darkness.

But she didn't react fast enough and before she even realized what was flying towards her, a wooden pellet bored into her chest and shattered her heart. She wanted to say something, but instead she just gurgled and blood poured from the wound as well as from her mouth.

Her legs gave way and she went down. Her fingers felt heavy and cold as she tried to somehow pull the stake out of her chest. Her attempt to pull the stake out of her chest was unsuccessful, and her gaze went to the direction from which the shots were coming. She heard footsteps approaching her position.

What confused her was that it was not Michael standing there but the strange man from the supermarket. ,, I will not allow it," she dully perceived his voice before renewed darkness overcame her. With a rapid heartbeat driven by fear, she awoke and had clawed herself into her blanket.

She perceived at the edge of her ringing alarm clock that probably also wanted to wake her up. She went to her chest but neither the flesh there was penetrated nor was her heart not shattered. What made her pause, however, was the message that was displayed on her phone. It was from Michael.

#michael morbius #michael morbius x reader #morbius the living vampire #morbius #little emotional #fluff #nightmare #comfort

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theghostpinesmusic · 11 months ago

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youtube

Goose put on a hell of a show for the two-night stand at Hampton Coliseum that was this year's Goosemas. I'll admit, though, that I struggled a bit to appreciate the second, third, and fourth sets as much as they probably deserved because the first set was, in my opinion, basically perfect. I had a similar "problem" with this year's US fall tour: I saw six (!) shows in a row in person, but my first show was Montana, which is a serious contender for the best show of the year. I thought four of the next five shows were also great (Spokane didn't click with me, but I loved the venue and having a show in my adopted PNW "hometown"), but nothing entirely stacked up to the first night, and it took awhile to adjust my expectations.

So, yes, while Goosemas was great overall, it was a weird run to watch from the couch because it felt like it peaked at the start. That said, what a peak! This mirror-themed set is five songs: a theme-appropriate, well-played "Earthling Or Alien?"; a "mirror" mashup of both arrangements of "All I Need?" with an amazing bliss jam, the "mirrored" "Tumble" I covered in my last post, a great cover of Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror"...and a twenty-plus-minute-long jam of Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors."

Yeah, you read that right.

Unlike most of my Goose jam posts, I'm not going to start by introducing the song here: it's a JT song, it's a billion times popular than any Goose song you probably know it already, and I don't know much about JT's music that a cursory Google search couldn't also tell you anyway. So let's just jump into it.

Before we get to the jam proper, the first thing I love about this cover is that the band (in my opinion) absolutely nails the song itself. I mean, I'm sure anyone who is totally in love with JT's music and has never heard of Goose is going to find it lacking, but within their own particular sound, I think the band does a great job with it.

Watching live, it took me until the second chorus to realize where I'd heard the song before, then I started laughing like a maniac. I love that busting out a bunch of (mostly) surprising covers like this one is what the band chose to do for their biggest two shows of the year/their careers so far.

Then, after Rick's anthemic outro solo that starts at 4:45, the band moves into a synth-y jam space at 5:55. Watching live, I started laughing even harder: like, they're not only going to cover JT, they're going to jam out the song?!

Yes. Yes, they are.

The initial space here is slow, deliberate, and a little murky due to the background synth. Peter moves pretty quickly over to the Vibe, which makes things a bit more melodic, and Rick adds some growl to his tone in response. The interplay here between them and Trevor is fantastic, if sparse. Rick is playing more notes here, but the super-heavy reverb'd tone from Peter really dominates the feel of the jamming.

Pete lays back a bit starting at 10:15 and Rick takes a bit more of an assertive role. The Sinister Factor gets dialed up a bit more. One neat detail of this section is the riff that Rick starts playing repeatedly at 11:20, which you can hear Trevor pick up at 11:45 when Rick moves on to the next idea.

As usual, maybe my dumb ears deceive me, but I hear a key change (or at least a scale change from Rick) at 12:16. This moves us out of sinister territory (mostly), and causes Peter to throw out a few siren sounds. I feel like you know we're officially way out there when Peter starts breaking out the siren.

At 13:45, Rick mixes things up again, and Ben follows along with him. This is a neat move that speeds things up and really brings the percussion forward in the jam for the first time. Peter also switches over to what I think of as his xylophone patch, which always makes my day. Synth loops and xylophone patches? Yes, please. There's something particularly fun and unique about the juxtaposition of Pete's "xylophone" and Rick's grungy, bluesy tone here.

It sounds like Rick teases something briefly at 16:37, but I can't tell what. It might just sound a little like "What's the Use?" to me. Shortly after this maybe-tease, the band goes full speed ahead and Rick goes nuts for a bit as Peter switches to organ washes. We crash into a really peaky section starting at 18:28.

Normally, this would be the culmination of a big jam like this one, but instead the band takes off into another space after the peaks, slowing things down again at 19:50. Pete lays down some bluesy piano that Rick chops away under. Though the spotlight is visually on Peter here, I feel like this is actually the most locked-in the whole band is during the jam. I love what Trevor is playing, and the (relatively) minimal drums add to the jam rather than subtracting to it.

My only complaint about this entire performance is that the last minute of the jam (with Peter's bass piano riff and the tempo slowdown) is so badass that I'm sad they only stuck with it for a minute. The quick ending is neat, though.

And that's the story of how Goose jammed a Justin Timberlake song!

#goose #goose the band #music #live music #jams #jam bands #videos #tour journal #writing #Youtube #justin timberlake #covers

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365elephantsoap · 2 years ago

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THE BIRDS

In the late afternoon on Saturday, Michael drove me an hour and half north to see hundreds of thousands of birds. And it was spectacular. I did not see a single Canadian goose for once. Instead, we saw swans, little ducks that I think were surf scooters, eagles and so many snow geese. There was a grass fire and hundreds of thousands of snow geese flying around which made for some dramatic shots. I took a lot of pictures, standing outside, hanging out the truck window, standing in the sunroof. We also passed a number of other photographers, often set up on tripods in various places on the driving loop.

This is when I realized that I am not a wildlife photographer. First of all, I don’t have the gear for it. I could easily spot the photographers who specialize in wildlife photography by the size of their lenses and how they were camped out with plans to be there for a while. I saw one guy remove a lens from the back of his SUV that was the size of a bazooka gun. I was not envious. I was just as happy taking a picture of a lone dead tree in a mostly empty marsh as I was taking pictures of birds. I also really lack the patience for it. I’m not one for camping out for hours to get the “perfect” shot. I’m not mad about any of the pictures I took, but I am not delusional enough send anything off to National Geographic.

And I am perfectly at ease with this knowledge.

I didn’t plan this excursion solely on photography. I wanted to see a million birds in one place, which we did. Every time Michael stopped the truck and we got out so I could take pictures, the thing that hit me was the sound. The honking and chatter of geese was the only sound to be heard, but there was so much more. You would be standing there, mesmerized by a white sea of geese, all noisy and then suddenly the sound would stop. The honking would be replaced with a ‘whoosh’ as all of the birds would lift up out of the water and take flight. There would be almost an absence of sound as they all flapped their wings. It was if they were pulling the sound up and away with them. They would swirl around in the air for a minute or two before they would all land and settle in, sound returning to honks and chatter. It was a complete sensory experience. We left the wildlife refuge and stopped in St. Joseph for dinner at Cajun restaurant, where went in with low expectation. I mean…St. Joseph is a little too far north for southern cuisine. We were seated at one of the best tables and served fired oysters that were breaded and fried like how my mom would make them at Christmas. They didn’t have an extensive list of daiquiris or Abita beer on the menu, but we were happily surprised by the authenticity of their dishes. We left with happy full bellies and then we were home in time for SNL reruns.

When we finally made it back home, Michael asked me if I had a good time. I responded with ‘yes’, but then flipped the question back on him. He said that he had really had a nice time and then he said “More of this, please.” I wrote something in my book club journal yesterday when I was trying to write down responses to “I’d ask _ for a _.” We were supposed to be asking men we knew for something and like many of the women in my book group, I was struggling to think of the men I know/knew and what I’d want from any of them. I finally gave up and started writing my thoughts.

Michael will do anything I ask him to do. He may not do it without grumbling first or with an open heart, but he will do it. I just have to ask.

I asked to see a million birds in one space and he took me to see a million birds in one space.

#birds #wants #photography

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springvaletales · 2 years ago

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((Session 41 is wrapped!))

Lex’s player was unable to attend tonight so we’re pushing her class-changing quest off to next session.

I have no big plans for tonight I plan to just drop a few prominent NPCs in the party’s way and let them do all the steering tonight.

Me, about a Player’s character from a paused campaign: “I miss Honk…” Bagelby/Honk’s Player: “Honk misses you too.”

Geese can only cry tears of rage or pride.

Bagelby’s Player: “Alright everybody…what’s the ultimate flavor of goose?” Sir Carl Jaeger’s Player: “Teriyaki.” Me: “Canadian.” Thiori’s Player: “Cool Ranch.”

“Would you still love someone if they turned into a worm?”

Bagelby’s Player actually has a very wholesome contingency plan for if his fiancee was turned into a worm that include building her a lovely little terrarium, hunting down the dark wizard that cursed her, forcing them to turn her back into a human, and then learning dark magic from said wizard to usurp their position.

Thiori’s Player: “If I turn into a worm, please give me to a bird.”

The party’s first stop was back to town, where they collected the twins Wayne and Zayne, who were…more than a little concerned to see them rock up covered in dirt, blood, and bruises, and lacking both several articles of clothing/extraneous body parts and an entire party member.

Thiori’s Player: “Okay, so…we can’t DISPROVE that we had a cannibal orgy…”

Cue a five minute distraction to discuss hot tubs with corn boilers and if the party could eat Thiori’s crab arms if necessary.

Me: “I want you guys to narrate your travel to and crossing of the Salancian/Kendaran border as if it’s an anime recap episode.”

Ena is drawing lines on her arms to track how far the purple is spreading up her limbs.

Bagelby, flashing back: “…and that time we started a coup…and that other time we started a coup…and that time we participated in a coup-“

Bagelby: “What were you guys’ favorite parts of our journey so far?” Thiori, having war flashbacks to fighting and killing his mutant ‘siblings’: “….I liked finding Erlenmyer.” *pats his horse* Bagelby: “My favorite parts were when I stole things! Like Maritza! And Lord Wiggles’ identity!”

Bagelby, breaking through the fourth wall: “There’s a robot-pirate island?!”

The party met Captain Asteroth at the checkpoint of the Salancian/Kendaran border, and he was not very happy to see Bagelby again, after our lovable rogue filled his office with eggs after their last meeting.

Realizing at the last second that Wayne and Zayne were basically shanghai-ed out of Blackstone City’s ruins and have no passports, Sir Carl Jaeger gave each of them one of his signet rings to get them through the checkpoint.

Bagelby’s Player: “Did you just adopt them?” Sir Carl Jaeger’s Player: “In a legal sense, yes.”

“One day your plot armor will not save you.”

“It takes a country to raise a bagel!” “Actually it takes some light boiling and some salt.”

The party re-entered Kendara in the Aubergine forest, and Ena immediately began foraging for the hallucinogenic Feywild slugs.

The only thing keeping the party moving with Ena and Bagelby high on slug slime is the horses’ instinct to follow the leader.

Thiori is making bear stew for dinner. No-one knows where he got the bear.

Ena failed her perception roll, so she didn’t notice Michael coming out of the woods to sit next to her for a good minute or two. Asahi watched it happen and said nothing.

Vashael and co. are camped out about a dozen feet away on the map, having been in the area to hunt down some of the cultists who had kidnapped them.

“Can you boil water if you’re casting Shape Water to hold it in the shape of a knife?”

“Use it against someone who doesn’t go to wizard school and you’ll cause some psychological damage.”

Both parties camped out together for the night, since they were so close already.

Bagelby made small talk with Naoka by telling her all about how they met her hero, Sebastian Winderwisp. Haaruma got jealous.

Michael asked Ena if she’d gotten his letter. Ena accused Velenna of deserving it for not telling the party all the details. Michael snapped back that he went out of his way to make sure people don’t learn exactly what the party had to drag out of his mother.

Bagelby and Michael did some good bonding over the fact that they both have and love their respective adoptive moms. Ena ate more slugs to cope.

Whenever Michael talks about his missing memories, his friends all pause to watch him.

Ena ate too many slugs and cried on Michael’s shoulder for a few hours before crying on Asahi and falling asleep.

“Horses are terrifying, and I’m thankful every day that they’re not real.” “I’ve got some bad news for you, buddy.”

The next morning, Thiori caught Vashael sparking u the fire again with his fire breath.

“He’s more useful as a lighter than as an adventurer.”

Both parties are heading back to Springvale, so they all saddled up and set out together - Bashur’s horse had extra space, so Sir Carl Jaeger, Wayne, and Zayne hitched a ride.

“You are over the maximum occupancy for this horse, but it’s okay because you’re only going a short distance.”

Springvale is getting ready for the New Moon Festival, and the market squares and surrounding streets are already lined with empty stalls and tables setting up for the party.

Some of the stalls are already active and are selling costumes and masks; Thiori bought a giant hat with a wide brim, and Bagelby stole an entire roguish outfit.

Thiori was given 20 sweetcoins (bread) with his purchase.

The party split up at the main square - Bagelby, Vashael, and Michael headed to Velenna’s house, Bashur went off to do his own errands, and Ena, Asahi, Thiori, and Sir Carl Jaeger & co. went to Bethany’s Tavern to secure lodging.

As soon as they entered the tavern, Bethany spotted Ena, and yanked them all into a vip booth with an enchanted soundproof curtain.

Lore drop: Ena is turning purple because her dragon ancestry has been activated by a sudden exposure to a great source of magic. The Taker would have been powerful enough, but he’s always careful with how much magic he exposes his children to, and when. A night with a dragon princess, however…~

Bethany confirmed that exposure to dragons can extend a mortal’s life, whether the dragon intends it to or not. It’s how she’s made it a thousand years in her prime without looking a day over 60.

Bethany told the group that the color change usually reflects the color of the dragon who donated the genetics (though mutations can occur) and sent them - to Ena’s horror - to the only other purple dragon she knew of….Velenna.

Thiori stayed behind in the tavern while Ena and Asahi trekked off to Velenna’s home, and tried to open the mysterious chained box he’d found in Skaadi’s temple.

The box is a very hungry and very frightened mimic, which Thiori tamed right there on the tavern floor with raw meet and scratches.

The chain around the box is enchanted to tighten when he box opens too far, and snaps it shut until it stops struggling.

Thiori took out his glaive and used it to break the chain around the box…while still on the tavern floor. He nearly hit several patrons and knocked a chandelier swinging.

Thiori was forcibly removed from the tavern.

He still has his reservation, but he must leave his glaive in the stables when he comes back.

Thiori now has a little mimic friend of his own. He has not named them yet.

Ena and Asahi found Bagelby outside Velenna’s house with Vashael’s horse Onward, working up the courage to go inside and ask Velenna to mentor him.

Ena told him what she had to tell Velenna, and told him to get his over with first before everything exploded.

Bagelby went inside, and found Michael making tea in the kitchen - Michael sent him out to the back garden for his mother, who was working on her tomatoes with Vashael’s help.

He asked Velenna to take him on as an apprentice, and she said yes, much to his surprise (he thought he would have to sell it harder).

With that out of the way so quickly, Bagelby then took out and showed Velenna the Heart of YAW, and told her about how Sebastian Winderwisp told them it was important.

He did not tell her about the ill-fated trip into Skaadi’s lost temple (yet).

Lore drop: The Heart of YAW is a power source for a Warforged doorman, built by a Warforged demigod, Pax Achilles, who was in turn built by Machine, mechanical daughter of Skaadi, and goddess of deceit, secrets, and innovation.

The Heart is a sort of GPS that lets the doorman keep track of the mystical traveling door to Pax Achilles legendary library, and without it, the doorman is stuck endlessly chasing the door, always one stop behind.

Returning the heart might grant the party access to this mystical library, and the knowledge therein.

Michael brought them a whole tray of tea instead of just a few cups, because he can see Ena still waiting outside with Asahi, Sir Carl Jaeger, and the twins.

When Velenna came to the door to see what all the hubbub was, Ena panicked, and cast Spirit Shroud.

She summoned seven spirits - four fire genasi (three related to her), and eyeless elf, a one-armed minotaur, and an Aasimar woman.

The Aasimar is someone from Michael’s past that he was close too, and even though he can’t remember her, he’s now reliving the trauma of her death.

Michael dropped the tea tray when the spirits were summoned, and all the cups shattered. Velenna’s tea set just can’t catch a break.

Velenna knows exactly what is going on with Ena.

#OOC #Quarantine D&D

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awkwardtickleetoo · 3 years ago

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The Case of the Missing Hoodies

ollie-is-badass said: hi I have a prompt that I would like to share with you :] Ler!ranboo ler!tubbo and lee!tommy. tommy keeps stealing stuff from ranboo's and tubbo's mansion so they decide to tickle him until he admits he stole stuff

lee!tommy, ler!ranboo, ler!tubbo, 2.7k words

enjoy <33

"Tubbo?" Ranboo called through the mansion, hands on his hips and head tilted in confusion.

"Yeah?" He heard Tubbo's distant response from the room a few away from where he was, followed by the sound of footsteps getting closer.

"Have you seen my crown?" He asked, turning around and seeing Tubbo walk through the open door. "I just had it the other day, I thought I left it here but now I can't find it."

"No, I haven't seen it, sorry. I'll keep an eye out for it, though," Tubbo responded, patting his platonic husband on the shoulder and squeezing gently. Ranboo looked down at him and offered him a gentle smile, returning the gesture by patting Tubbo's head and ruffling his hair a bit. Tubbo giggled up at him, letting Ranboo finish his playful actions before pulling away and leaving the room to return to his previous activities. Ranboo checked the time, sighing as he realized he had to get going if he wanted to finish his other plans for the day. He supposed he could survive one day without his crown.

The next day, however, he noticed his hoodie— the black and white one Niki had given him to match Tubbo's green one and Michael's much smaller pink one for more casual days spent around the cold environment of Snowchester— had also gone missing. This time he was sure it was Tubbo, seeing as he had stolen his clothes multiple times in the past. He claimed they were better because of how much larger they were rhan his own, and "the extra fabric means extra warmth, duh!", but all it meant for Ranboo was he had to go on a wild goose chase for his own clothes almost weekly. He assumed today was no different, until he walked into Michael's bedroom to ask Tubbo about it.

"Hey, Tubbo, I-"

"Ranboo!" Tubbo cut him off. whipping around to face him. "My bandana's missing, and Michael's toy sword! Did you, like, maybe put them somewhere or something?" Tubbo rambled, rustling through the toys in Michael's toy box to see if it had just been pushed to the bottom.

"No, I haven't touched either of them! I was actually coming in here to ask you if you'd seen my hoodie that Niki gave me, that's missing now too!"

"What, really? That's, like, 4 things that have gone missing in the past 48 hours, what the hell?" The pair looked at each other in confusion for a moment, unsure of where to go next.

"We must just be misplacing things, we've been moving a lot of things from place to place, I'm sure there's some logical explanation, right?" Ranboo explained, nodding his head as if to convince himself he was right. Tubbo nodded with him.

"Right! Right, yeah, that makes sense. We'll find them."

"We'll find them."

And days later, they did. But… not in the way they thought they were going to.

Tommy was on his way over to the mansion for a movie night with his best friends.

Ranboo was standing upstairs with Michael sitting on top of his shoulders looking through one of the large windows in the front of the building. Michael had run to him faster than Ranboo thought his little legs could carry him, tugging on the bottom of his suit jacket and rambling about how he saw a bunny hopping across the ground in front of the mansion. Ranboo immediately followed, excited to indulge the small piglin even if the bunny was long gone, or never there in the first place, thus getting them to the spot they were in now.

It was there that he watched Tommy make towards the entrance of the mansion.

Tommy, walking towards the mansion, wearing Ranboo's missing hoodie. His hoodie that he had been missing for about a week.

Ranboo's eyes widened at the sight, letting out a small gasp that was barely picked up by the piglin boy on his shoulders (not that he would've cared anyway, his little fingers too busy messing with the two toned strands of hair on his father's head). He watched as Tommy paused and looked down, seemingly realizing what clothing item he was wearing, and he took it off and placed it in his backpack before continuing forward.

He softly lifted Michael off his shoulders, encouraging him to "go look for the bunny downstairs, I'm sure he'll be much easier to see on the first floor, right?" and sending him on his way with a soft pat to his head and a shared smile. He quickly went down the stairs, acting as nonchalant as possible as he watched Tommy walk through the doorway.

"Hello?" Tommy called out, slightly louder than his normal speaking voice, waiting for a response from either of the mansion's residents.

"Hey, Tommy!" Ranboo responded, almost too quickly to not sound like he wasn't anticipating his arrival, but Tommy didn't seem to notice.

"What's up, big man?" Tommy asked, reaching up to pat Ranboo on the shoulder once he got close enough. Ranboo smiled at his friend, keeping his calm demeanor for the moment.

"Not too much, honestly, pretty much just hangin' with Michael and trying to settle stuff between houses." Ranboo paused, suddenly getting a devious idea of how to bring up the stolen items to his friend, and an even more devious idea of how to go about putting his plan into action. "Actually, since you're here, Tubbo and I were actually planning to have a movie night tonight, you're more than welcome to join us if you want?"

"Oh, fuck yeah, man, that sounds awesome, thanks!" Tommy responded genuinely, a wide smile on his face, and Ranboo smiled back before leading him to the room Tubbo was setting up with blankets, snacks, soft lighting, and a massive selection of movies for then to choose from.

Ranboo knew his plan would go along smoothly.

Several hours and almost 2 movies later, the three boys were as relaxed and content as they could be. Ranboo was laying with his legs crossed and his ankles resting on the coffee table in front of him, his arm resting on the top of the couch and his hand gently scratching at Tubbo's hair where his head rested on his shoulder. The boy in question sat cross-legged on the couch with his cheek against Ranboo's shoulder, practically falling asleep due to the fingers in his hair, holding one of Tommy's hands in his and messing with his fingers absent-mindedly. Tommy, on the other hand, was laying horizontally on top of Ranboo and Tubbo's laps, his legs on Ranboo's and his torso on Tubbo's, multiple soft pillows supporting his head where it wasn't near either of his friends.

The credits of the second movie began to roll, and Tommy sighed as he rubbed at his heavy eyelids with his free hand that wasn't still being held by Tubbo. They stayed in content silence as the credits song played, until Ranboo spoke up.

"Hey, Tommy, wanna hear a weird thing that Tubbo and I have been dealing with the past couple days?" Tommy hummed in response, nodding his head as he made eye contact with his tall friend across the couch, making it clear he was listening to him. "So, a few days ago I noticed my crown was missing, which was super weird because I always make sure to keep good track of it so I don't lose it," He began, noticing as Tommy's eyebrows raised and he tensed slightly at the mention of the missing item. "But I didn't think much of it, I mean, people misplace stuff all the time, y'know? I figured it would just turn up eventually when I least expected it. But then, the next day, Tubbo even noticed some stuff missing, like his bandana, and Michael's toy diamond sword," Tubbo nodded against Ranboo's shoulder in confirmation, glancing up at him before snuggling back into his shoulder. "But that's not all. I also noticed one of my hoodies was missing as well, the nice one that Niki made me, you know that one, the one that matches you and Tubbo?" Tommy nodded again, no longer making eye contact with Ranboo and instead staring intently at Tubbo's fingers as they fidgeted with his own, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Yeah, so, that's been pretty weird. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that… would you?" Ranboo asked, smiling mischievously as Tommy glanced up to meet his eyes for a split second before looking away again.

"Who, me? No, no, of course not, why- why would I know about that?" Tubbo seemed to perk up at Tommy's stuttering, looking back and forth between his two friends in confusion.

"No?" Ranboo asked, earning a head shake from Tommy. As he continued talking, he pushed himself to sit up straighter and look down at his friend, who pulled his hands away from Tubbo and held onto the couch on either side of him, looking ready to push himself off it if he needed. Ranboo rested his hands on Tommy's knees as a warning, trying to hint at what was coming, and smiling even more deviously as he felt his friend tense and knock his knees together on instinct. "Well… that's actually really interesting because earlier today I was looking out the window upstairs and I saw you walking towards the mansion, but I think I saw you put something in your bag that looked an awful lot like my missing hoodie. Still don't know anything about that?"

"I- uh… well, I…" Tommy stammered before quickly jumping up off the couch and going to make a run for it. He didn't get too far, however, before Tubbo leapt up after him and grabbed him around the waist, pulling him back to the couch again. He yelped in shock, already laughing as he suddenly had his back against Tubbo's chest, Tubbo's arms hooked underneath his and pinned out to the sides as a result. His legs curled up towards his chest in response, but Ranboo didn't seem to pay them any mind as he leaned right up against them, sitting criss-cross in front of his now practically helpless friend. "Uh, guys- haha- guys, you don't… I-I can explain."

"Explain what?" Tubbo interjected, smiling when Tommy tilted his head completely upwards to look at him. "I thought you didn't know anything about that." Tommy seemed to steel himself at that, squeezing his hands into fists and furrowed his eyebrows.

"I don't!"

"Hm," Ranboo hummed out loud, resting his hands on Tommy's sides right above his hips. "Guess we'll just have to tickle it out of you, then."

"Wait, wait, no nonono Ra-HAHANBOHOO! NOHOHO!" Tommy practically screamed at the sudden squeezing at his sides, shaking his head and trying to kick his legs out, but he was blocked by Ranboo's body and only ended up kicking him. There was a gasp above him, and it was hard for him to listen to the words that followed through his own squirming and laughter.

"He just kicked you, Boo!" Tubbo shouted, gripping Tommy's arms tighter to attempt to stop his squirming.

"I know, Bo, I noticed! He's gotta be more careful or we're gonna tickle him even more!"

"Ihihi didn't mehehehe- mean tohoho Ihihi- I'm sohorry-" Tommy sounded genuine, even through his laughter, and Ranboo slowed the tickling to show he wasn't actually upset.

"Are you ready to confess yet?" Ranboo asked, fingers kneading into Tommy's boney ribs and receiving high, breathy giggles in response.

"Nohoho! Fuhuck yohohou, bihitch!" Tommy said defensively, his squirming calming down a bit but still attempting to curl his arms in to block Ranboo's tickly fingers.

"Alright, suit yourself," he offered before he shot his hands up to poke and prod at Tommy's underarms, him and Tubbo both giggling at the screech their friend let out at the motion.

"RAHAHANBOO!" Tommy yelled through his laughter, his squirming returning tenfold. "STOHOP LAHAUGHIHIHING! BOHOTH OF YOHOHOU!"

"We're sorry, your reactions are just too funny!" Tubbo explained, earning a laugh from Ranboo and a very annoyed look from Tommy— well, as annoyed as someone could look while getting the snot tickled out of them.

"OHOHO FUHUCK YOHOU!"

"Hey!" Tubbo responded, reaching around his captive's arms and wiggling his fingers over either side of his neck. Tommy's head shook dramatically at that before falling back against Tubbo's chest, pushed as far back as possible, his laughter raising in both pitch and volume when combined with the still-present tickles under his arms. It certainly didn't help that he couldn't press his arms down or use his own hands to stop any of the sensations. "That was rude!"

"Yeah, you'd think it would be common sense to have manners during interrogation sequences," He and Tubbo laughed at that before turning their attention back to the squirming boy between them. Tubbo pulled his hands away, going back to simply holding his arms back, and Ranboo moved from his armpits to swirling his fingers lightly in circles over his upper ribs. "Any updates? Feel like sharing anything there, Giggles?"

"Shuhuhut the fuck uhuhuhup," Tommy giggled, blushing a bit at the nickname. It was a well known fact that Tommy hated tickly nicknames, he said they always made him so flustered and everything tickled more. Ranboo couldn't think of a better time to exploit that fact than in that moment. "Plehehehease-"

"Don't even try that!" Tubbo interrupted him again, dropping his hands down to quickly taser his bottom ribs before grabbing his arms again. Tommy let out a strangled squeal, squeezing his eyes shut and arching his back. "You know exactly what you have to do to get us to stop."

"Exactly! Which is why I think it's time to pull out the big guns."

"Noho, Ihi-I don't want yohou toho pull out anythihing around me- hehehe- especiallyhy nohohot yohohour fucking guns." Tommy stuttered out, somehow still able to joke around like his normal, dumb, lovable self despite his current situation. Ranboo and Tubbo couldn't help but laugh.

"Thahat- that's not what I meant and you know it," Ranboo said with a smile, looking up at Tubbo when he spoke next.

"No, fuck you, dude, big guns are out right this second, just for that," Tommy went to protest but before he could even think, Ranboo's hands were under his shirt, one thumb digging into the sweet spot right above his hip bone and the other hand using its nails to claw at his tummy and ribs. Tommy immediately burst into loud and bright laughter, pulling harder at his arms in an attempt to wrench them from Tubbo's grip, but despite Tubbo's small stature, he was so, so much stronger than he looked, so that was almost impossible.

"NAHAHA SHIHIHIT- FUHUHUCK!" Tommy swore, relentless wriggling doing almost nothing to dull the ticklish sparks that were shooting through his veins. "OHOKAHAHAY! OKAY I GIHIHIVE! STOHOP!" Ranboo immediately pulled his hands back and simply rested his hands on Tommy's sides (he couldn't let the threat of tickles be completely gone, just in case Tommy decided to pull something, he's not stupid) as he let Tommy catch his breath. Tubbo dropped his arms completely, letting the younger pull them close to his chest and wrap around his torso in protection. "Ihihi- I do have all that stuff, it's in my bag. I was gonna put it back! I didn't think you'd both be here and notice I was here before I could do that. I'm sorry I took stuff," Tommy said and looked away almost like a hurt puppy, glancing between his friends after a few moments of silence.

"It's alright, Toms," Ranboo said softly, carding his fingers through blonde hair. "No hard feelings. But, honestly if you ever wanna borrow anything, all you have to do is ask. Especially if it's something dumb like clothes you can wear out clothes whenever you want."

"Yeah!" Tubbo agreed happily, patting Tommy's upper arm where it lays limp on his leg from where he dropped them. "Especially Ranboo's. It's kinda sweet when you wear stuff that's oversized, it's adorable." Tommy couldn't stop the heat from rising to his cheeks again.

"It is not 'adorable', Tubs, nothing I do it adorable, I'm a big man, fuck off."

Ranboo and Tubbo shared a knowing look, and soon the mansion was once again filled with the bouncy laughter of their friend. They fell asleep a while later, their third movie started and forgotten half way through as they sat wrapped in blankets and in each other's arms— and, maybe, someone's oversized hoodies.

#this ask hit me right in the benchtrio section of my heart #benchtrio my beloveds <33 #ler!ranboo #ler!tubbo #lee!tommy #cals writing

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trashyswitch · 3 years ago

Text

Golden Freddy's Tickly Torment

Cassidy (Golden Freddy) remembers something from her childhood that proves super useful on William. She also finds out some body & Ghost connections and some bodily functions that William now lacks.

This fanfic has implied torture. But, there is a secret that makes the torture a little easier for the reader to handle.

This fanfic prompt was suggested by @trashylever on Tumblr. Link

I hope you enjoy!

Golden Freddy was sitting with William in the closet that he had been locked in for a decade now. Throughout all those years...William suffered at the hands of Golden Freddy. The Golden bear counterpart of Springtrap had been possessed by one of the victims of William’s kill streak: Cassidy. And Cassidy was determined to make William suffer for as many years as she can, so William regrets every second he took killing those innocent kids. While Charlie was looking after all the ghosts and protecting them from the hands of William, Cassidy was busy driving William insane in as many ways as she could…

Right now, Cassidy was doing what she normally did: taking his ear off, and talking some more into the separated ear. She kept on rambling and rambling and rambling...There was never a second of quiet. The only time Cassidy would take a break was to allow William the chance to not drown her out. By the time she stopped talking, William had turned the rambling into mumbling.

But then...it went silent…

Too silent…

...waaaay too-

“Oh yeah! I remember one time I was going to my friend’s house for a play date-”

Aaaaand there it was again. And again...and a-fucking-gain.

“And she wanted me to give her the game boy! But I didn’t wanna stop playing the game! So she decided to tickle me until I let go of it. I managed to last 10 minutes straight before I finally let go! Isn’t that amazing?!” She told him.

“Ugh…” He mumbled.

“I’ll take that as a big, fat, definite yes.” She started poking his arm.

William was about to smack her across the face. That would easily shut her up. It certainly did the trick when-

“Saaay, speaking of tickle-tickle-tickling, were you tickled as a kid?” She asked.

……….Wait what?

“No. Why would I be?” William lied.

“Everyone gets tickled at least once, William. How often were you ever tickled? How ticklish even are you? Did your Mom tickle you? Or your Dad? Or did both of your parent’s tickle you? Did you have an older brother or sister? DId they tickle you? Were you able to fight back? Or did you just take it like a strong boy?” Cassidy kept asking question after question.

William began to grow uncomfortable with what they were talking about now. Everytime she said the word...It gave him butterflies in his stomach. It made him wanna cower. It made him wanna...smile from pure embarrassment.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost...OH! WAIT!” Cassidy joked. “But seriously, you looked scared…” Cassidy admitted. “Are you scared of how long you’ll have to endure this evil, insanity test? Or are you scared the tiiiiickle monster’s gonna getcha?” Cassidy teased.

Oh no...Not that word again...and don’t bring the tickle monster into this…

“Do you know that a tickle monster creeps in this very room?” Cassidy teased, possessing Freddy to move herself onto the Golden animatronic’s kneecaps. Then, Cassidy’s ghost zoomed out of Golden Freddy’s mouth with a big smile on her face. “Did you know this tickle monster is waiting? Waiting for the peeeerrrfect time to strike~! Watching...Observing your every move...Waiting for the day it can slip out of the hiding spot and tickle you until you’re a tomato red blob of giggles!” Cassidy teased.

William was mentally dying at this point. The teasing was killing him suuuper slowly. He knew the tickle monster wasn’t really a thing. He knew the tickle monster was really Cassidy. He knew that really well. And yet...The fact that we was sitting with one of the most vengeful ghosts on the face of the earth, legitimately scared him. With how much she’s been doing already, it’ll be impossible to predict just where she was going with this...

But then William realized something: he can’t actually be tickled! He’s no longer connected to his human body, and animatronics don’t have nerves! So it should make sense!

...Right?

“IIIII wonder...where are the sources of this evil killer’s ticklish spots?” She asked casually. “You gonna tell me? Or do I have to tickle you myself to find out?” She asked evilly.

Wiliam sighed. “You can’t tickle me.” William told her.

“Oh I can’t? Well:” Cassidy possessed Golden Freddy again and flopped the Freddy Fazbear body right onto Springtrap’s.

“AAH! CASSIDY!” William shouted.

She ignored him and started scratching at his ribs with the golden animatronic’s fat, shiny fingers. William’s eyes just about bulged out of his skull as the butterflies in his stomach increased ten fold. “C-CASS-”

“Yeeeeeessss?” Cassidy moved the Golden Freddy thumbs into the pockets of the springlock suit and dug deeply into the hips.

OH NO! SHE COULD ACTUALLY TICKLE HIM! TALK ABOUT UNLUCKY! NOW SHE WAS GONNA USE IT AGAINST HIM! NOOOOO!

William wiggled around as much as he could from under Golden Freddy. He tried to prevent himself from laughing by holding his breath. He even unpossessed the springtrap suit to try and prevent the ticklishness from getting to him. But it still tickled like a son of a gun! Only now, William was wiggling around in ghost form and holding his hip while doubling over.

“Ooooooh! Interesting!” She reacted as she moved veeeery slowly up the ribs.

William desperately tried to tell her to not go there, due to just how ticklish it was when he was alive. But Cassidy ignored his begging words and moved closer and closer to his special little breaking point.

But as Cassidy was reaching a bad spot, William realized something horrific:

With William not possessing the springlock’s limbs, CASSIDY WAS ABLE TO MOVE THEM AROUND AS SHE PLEASED! WITH NO RESISTANCE WHATSOEVER!

“NO! NOOO! CASSY PLEASE!” William pleaded and reached his ghost arms out. “Sorry Mr. Afton…” She smirked with the look of pure devilish evil in her eyes… “But I’m not Cassidy anymore…”

It was then that Cassidy’s hand grabbed William’s hand and lifted the arm out of the way of the vulnerable spot.

“LEHEHET MEHEHEHE GOHOHOHO!” William shrieked as he anticipated ticklish fingers in his terrible armpits.

But...nothing.

Just...Nothing.

William was scared to open his eyes…

He accidentally let out a little chuckle. “C-Cass...what-”

[Let’s see how much pain you can stand.] The Golden Freddy’s voice declared…

then, Cassidy touched down on both armpits and dug deep into them. Every crevasse, every wire, every steel bit in the armpit...was touched and tickled for at least 5 minutes each.

“NOOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! EEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” William finally let out his true, strongest belly laugh he had ever mustered. And it did NOT sound like that fake little fluffy laugh William used while with Cassidy.

This laugh was HEAVY. This laugh was DEEP. This laugh was ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL. It sounded slightly like pathological laughter! It even sounded slightly joker-ish at certain points! It was all over the place too! It was like he had 10 different laughs he was switching to every 8 seconds or so! It was surprising and strangely satisfying.

“STAHAHAHAHAHAP STAHAHAP IHIHIHI’M GOHOHOHONNA DIHIHIHIHIE!” William begged.

Cassidy giggled. “Oh you silly goose! You’re already dead!” Cassidy joked.

All of the memories of people tickling him and reacting to his laugh and ticklish spots came flooding back into his head all at once. From Henry tickling him many times to get his glasses back, to his wife tickling him during her playful moods, to even Michael tickling him as a 9 year old! Would you believe that Henry’s wife even had a chance to tickle the poor guy? Yyyyup! She did, and she never did stop reminding him of it.

Cassidy moved her hands down to the middle to lower ribs to lessen his crazy laughter. William’s laughter turned calmer, and surprisingly adorable rather than concerning. “There! Now you sound a little less insane.” Cassidy told him.

William ignored her and only thanked the lord above for giving him a break.

But the break only lasted a few seconds before Cassidy explored down to his stomach and belly button.

William squeaked and really quickly possessed the animatronic body to move Cassidy off him. But with the tickling weakening him dramatically, he couldn’t do nearly as much as he thought he would be able to do. Cassidy settled for a compromise by laying partly on the springtrap’s side, and partly on the floor. With this decided, Cassidy decided to still attack his tummy.

This caused squeaks and squeals to leave William’s mouth. Then, wouldn’t you believe, giggle-filled laughter quickly filled the closet room. “Ooooooh! A whole new set of laughter! I wonder which one’s your real laughter…” Cassidy poked into the equivalent of William’s belly button…

William screeched and covered up the springtrap mouth. “MM MM! NOWAY!” He warned.

“No way? More like no way you’re getting out of this! So you minus well accept your fate.” Cassidy told him.

William whined as he wiggled around and kicked the empty air.

“Ooooh! Should I be going for those kicking feet of yours?” She asked.

OH NO…

He shook his head.

“Or perhaps I should go for your neck~” She asked.

William looked down and whimpered. His feet were way too ticklish, but his neck was the most embarrassing ticklish spot out of all of them! It made him all blushy, made him giggle and snort, and if he were a cat, he would most definitely purr. Even as a human, it made him dissolve into a puddle of giggles and titters.

Cassidy brought her hands towards the neck and wiggled them eagerly. “Kitchy kitchy kooo~” She teased.

William quickly decided to unpossess the animatronic suit. As much as he appreciated the feeling of moving the physical limbs around, William knew he’d need to move around and wiggle more the moment his neck was tickled even the slightest. So, he did just that and covered his ghost mouth.

“Oooooh! I see the murderer decided to finally come out of his shell! What a nice surprise!” Cassidy teased. It was then that she finally touched down onto his neck.

William squealed and rolled left and right as he floated in the air. His ghost had curled into the fetal position and his laughter was another octave higher. It sounded more like squeaky giggles rather than actual laughter. William definitely had a large variety of laughter that came with the man. No wonder everyone wanted to tickle him! They wanted to slightly gamble their trust away to see what type of laughter they could get out of William that day!

It didn’t take long for William to start snorting and covering up his mouth. Even Cassidy had to admit: He was kinda cute like this. Not love kinda cute, but definitely toddler kinda cute. He had that sort of vibe to him when he was tickled.

Cass actually had to remind herself for a second that William was a child killer and a manipulator. It was the strangest thing.

William’s laughter had begun to sound tiring. He sounded too mentally tired to really keep laughing, even though his body was forcing him to.

So, Cass enjoyed it for a few minutes. She found it interesting that William could be left in such a weak state through such a silly strategy. But, it worked and that’s all that mattered to Cassidy.

The animatronic slowed its fingers down and removed them from William’s neck. William breathed heavily and deeply to try and calm down. Though, Cassidy found this strange. His lungs should be a different scenario thanks to his ghost form and possessed state. William being able to be tickled and touched made sense. But lung capacity as a ghost? That didn’t make sense at all.

Was William faking it?

Cassidy decided to try something out to answer her question. She moved her fingers to William’s armpits and smirked. If he was really this tired, his laughter will be breathy, whiny, and weak.

Cassidy touched down-

“OHOHOHOHOHO NOHOHOHOHOHO! CAHAHAHAHASS COHOHOHOME OHOHOHOHON!” William screamed.

There’s your answer! He was definitely faking!

“Such a liar. You weren’t really getting tired...You were just trying to get me to sympathize with you and stop!” Cass called him out. “Now quit being a lying baby and act like a man!” Cassidy dug her fingers deeper into William’s armpit.

William SCREAMED and completely lost all his composure at this point. He couldn’t hide anything with his tickles being this strong! It was like trying to hide a huge, bright flamingo in the middle of a bedroom. EVERYONE’S EYES WILL GRAVITATE TOWARDS IT!

“There we go! Look at you being so brave and strong! Doesn’t it feel good?” Cassidy asked.

William shook his head.

“Is this really too much for you to handle? Would you like me to stop?” She asked.

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE! STAHAHAHAHAHA!” William’s laughter was all over the place and not even close to going silent.

It was this observation that fully confirmed Cassidy’s suspicions:

William has no lung capacity anymore.

“Hmmm…” Cassidy thought for a moment and stopped her fingers. William’s laughter lessened dramatically as he breathed...rather calmly for being tickled for potentially hours. Being in the closet meant that they both had no clue what time it was or how far along the years had gone.

William, with his newfound strength, pushed Cassidy off him. He was angry that Cassidy had brought him down to such a ‘weak’ state. How dared she make him laugh like that! How dare she figure out his tricks! And how dare she tickle him beyond the average human limits! It was a good thing he didn’t really have much lung capacity anymore! Or else he would be passed out cold from all the loss of oxygen.

Cassidy smiled and sat in silence for a few minutes as she processed the ticklish laughter. Then, she clicked a button on the Golden Freddy suit and giggled as recordings of William’s laughter and giggles filled the room.

Oh no she didn’t…

She recorded ALL OF IT?!

William growled and tackled his golden counterpart to the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU-” William yelped and lowered his face as his belly button was poked and tickled.

“Nice try, Mr. Will…but you should know something very important:” Cassidy’s voice changed to the animatronic’s voice...and the animatronic’s eyes glowed as she began to say the words:

[I always get the last laugh…]

The last thing William heard was a deep chuckle...

Does this fact about William (No lung capacity = no need for breaks) make the torment a little easier to handle? Let me know! I'm trying to find ways to not really go down the road of tickle torture unless it's fully justified.

#mental torment #william afton stuck #william afton is crazy #cassidy's revenge #punishment #post-fnaf 2 #pre-fnaf 3 #locked in a closet #ticklefic #ler!cassidy #ler!goldenfreddy #lee!william #lee!springtrap #tickle torment

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newtonsheffield · 3 years ago

Note

Sorry it was the Met and it’s currently London Fashion Week and all I can see is Supportive boyfriend Goose winning the hearts of High Fashion twitter by being their for Eddie. like holding the train of her dress on the steps or smth . Can you imagine the adorableness? Just Kate, Anthony and Goose sat in the front row while Ed walks down.

Ohhhh Supportive Boyfriend Goose is his natural form tbh.

And I feel like London Fashion week would be Edwina's big event of the year, and the world kind of knows that Edwina Sheffield is dating a normalo but he's never appeared at any of her public events really and what no one knows is Matthew Goose Bagwell, put a ring on it a few days before the biggest week of Edwina's year!

"You really, really don't have to come with me." Edwina had said gently, her fingers pushing his hair back from his eyes as they lay in bed together, the New York skyline stretched out through the window behind him.

"Mmmm Yes, I do." He hummed, his heart hammering away just like it always did in her presence. "Because if I don't who, pray tell, is going to make sure you can move around in that dress."

Edwina rolled her eyes, though her smile was still so beautiful it made his chest ache, "It's actually kind of my job to move around in ridiculous outfits would you believe?"

Matthew let out a faux gasp, "It never is!" He could feel the cool metal of her engagement ring on the side of his face, still a little odd after only a few days, still a little odd to imagine this woman would have said yes in the first place. Would have let him place the sapphire ring on her hand at all.

"I have to start getting ready." Edwina groaned, rolling away from him, slipping into the robe. "My entire team will be here soon."

"What can I get for you?"

She rolled her eyes again, "You don't have to do that, I hate to say it, because it sounds like some rich white nonsense but I have people for that."

"I want to take care of you." He couldn't stop staring at her, in the late morning sunlight, streaming through the window, and she always looked so beautiful, everyone knew that, but right here, in these moments, with her hair tangled, and no make up on she's really at her most beautiful. And she was his to look after, to care for. His father running off with another woman had taught him one thing: A real man looked after his family and Edwina Sheffield was his family now.

So he spent all day, giving her sips of water while her make up team fussed around her, then the hair stylist, who also saw fit to attack his hair with a round brush at the very last second as Edwina kissed his cheek.

"I definitely have the most handsome date tonight." Edwina hummed as he buttoned himself into the oddest tux he'd ever worn in his life, the armour plates stiff on his shoulders.

He scoffed, "Well, I doubt that, Michael and Frankie are here."

"Oh, but then in your opinion I won't even be the prettiest girl here." She hummed amusedly as a team of women buttoned her into her gown.

"I don't have a crush on Francesca Bridgerton!" Matt felt his cheeks flush as the team of women chuckle. "I just respect her acting!"

And then the women stopped back from his fiancée and really, as if he could ever think about anyone else when she looked like that. The gold armour of her dress was glinting in the light, the long train swept behind her, shining in silver, her dramatic make up making her look so different from the woman he'd fallen in love with, but it was still her. Just a different part of her, and for the rest of his life he'd love them all.

He was sweating by the time their car was at the front of the queue, anxiety rolling in his stomach as their car rolled slowly forward, Edwina's hand squeezing his reassuringly.

"Just smile. That's all you have to do, you'll finally see how easy my job is." And then the door was opened.

Matthew forced his feet forward, racing around the car ignoring the flashing cameras, waving off the people who had stepped forward to help Edwina from the car, leaning into her lips as she kissed his cheek, unable to help the smile that came to his face.

"There's that smile." She took his arm as they walked the short distance, pausing for pictures, and then she started ascending the steps and Matt couldn't help himself. He, a little reluctantly released her arm, waving her forward as she frowned, stooping to catch the train of her dress, laying it out perfectly as the cameras flashed all around him, and all he could do was stare in wonder at this beautiful woman, who for some unknown reason had picked him to spend the rest of her life with.

"Matt, come here." Her hand was held out towards him, beckoning him forward, and he couldn't help but stumble just a little in his hurry to get to her, the assembled media chuckling a little.

"You'll have to excuse him, he's a little new at this." Edwina called out, another chuckle as she wrapped her arm around his waist and then in front of everyone, she tugged him down until their lips met, and goddamn it, he was the luckiest bastard alive.

Apparently, everyone else agreed with him, if the tweets and headlines he snuck a peek at the next morning were anything to go by.

I'm sorry who is this handsome little nerd Edwina Sheffield has brought with her?!

He's helping her out of the car, oh that's sweet.

As Always Edwina Sheffield is BOG

Oh he's holding her dress for her!!!!!! Edwina Sheffield's boyfriend is the SWEETEST I can't I actually can't

Why are they so fucking CUTE?! ENOUGH!

WAIT IS THAT A RING ON HER HAND?! MA'AM!

Buzzfeed: Edwina Sheffield's boyfriend has a name and no, it's not just Daddy.

*Previous versions of this article referred to Matthew Bagwell as Sheffield's Boyfriend, However it has been confirmed through her publicist and an announcement made in the paper by Sheffield's mother and Sister, that he is in fact engaged to the model as of last week.

For fuck's sake! I just learned of Matthew Bagwell's existence and he's already off the market!

#bridgerton and sons au #edwina x bagwell #edwina x goose #edwina x matthew #edwina sheffield #edwina sharma #matthew goose bagwell #molly's asks and answers

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the-hunchback-of-notre-dame · 3 years ago

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‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ at 25: An Oral History of Disney’s Darkest Animated Classic

Posted on Slashfilm on Monday, June 21st, 2021 by Josh Spiegel

“This Is Going to Change Your Life”

The future directors of The Hunchback of Notre Dame were riding high from the success of Beauty and the Beast. Or, at least, they were happy to be finished.

Gary Trousdale, director: After Beauty and the Beast, I was exhausted. Plus, Kirk and I were not entirely trusted at first, because we were novices. I was looking forward to going back to drawing.

Kirk Wise, director: It was this crazy, wonderful roller-coaster ride. I had all this vacation time and I took a couple months off.

Gary Trousdale: A little later, it was suggested: “If you want to get back into directing, start looking for a project. You can’t sit around doing nothing.”

Kirk Wise: [Songwriters] Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty had a pitch called Song of the Sea, a loose retelling of the Orpheus myth with humpback whales. I thought it was very strong.

Gary Trousdale: We were a few months in, and there was artwork and a rough draft. There were a couple tentative songs, and we were getting a head of steam.

Kirk Wise: The phone rang. It was Jeffrey [Katzenberg, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios], saying, “Drop everything. I got your next picture: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Gary Trousdale: “I’ve already got Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. You’re going to do this.” It wasn’t like we were given a choice. It was, “Here’s the project. You’re on.”

Kirk Wise: I was pleased that [Jeffrey] was so excited about it. I think the success of Beauty and the Beast had a lot to do with him pushing it our way. It would’ve been crazy to say no.

Gary Trousdale: What [Kirk and I] didn’t know is that Alan and Stephen were being used as bait for us. And Jeffrey was playing us as bait for Alan and Stephen.

Alan Menken, composer: Jeffrey made reference to it being Michael Eisner’s passion project, which implied he was less enthused about it as a story source for an animated picture.

Stephen Schwartz, lyricist: They had two ideas. One was an adaptation of Hunchback and the other was about whales. We chose Hunchback. I’d seen the [Charles Laughton] movie. Then I read the novel and really liked it.

Peter Schneider, president of Disney Feature Animation (1985-99): I think what attracted Stephen was the darkness. One’s lust for something and one’s power and vengeance, and this poor, helpless fellow, Quasimodo.

Roy Conli, co-producer: I was working at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, doing new play development. I was asked if I’d thought about producing animation. I said, “Yeah, sure.”

Don Hahn, producer: The goose had laid lots of golden eggs. The studio was trying to create two units so they could have multiple films come out. Roy was tasked with something hard, to build a crew out of whole cloth.

Kirk Wise: The idea appealed to me because [of] the setting and main character. I worked with an elder story man, Joe Grant, [who] goes back to Snow White. He said, “Some of the best animation ideas are about a little guy with a big problem.” Hunchback fit that bill.

Gary Trousdale: It’s a story I always liked. When Jeffrey said, “This is going to change your life,” Kirk and I said, “Cool.” When I was a kid, I [had an] Aurora Monster Model of Quasimodo lashed to the wheel. I thought, “He’s not a monster.”

Don Hahn: It’s a great piece of literature and it had a lot of elements I liked. The underdog hero. [He] was not a handsome prince. I loved the potential.

Gary Trousdale: We thought, “What are we going to do to make this dark piece of literature into a Disney cartoon without screwing it up?”

Peter Schneider: The subject matter is very difficult. The conflict was how far to go with it or not go with it. This is basically [about] a pederast who says “Fuck me or you’ll die.” Right?

“We Were Able to Take More Chances”

Wise and Trousdale recruited a group of disparate artists from the States and beyond to bring the story of Quasimodo the bell-ringer to animated life.

Paul Brizzi, sequence director: We were freshly arrived from Paris.

Gaëtan Brizzi, sequence director: [The filmmakers] were looking for a great dramatic prologue, and they couldn’t figure [it] out. Paul and I spent the better part of the night conceiving this prologue. They said, “You have to storyboard it. We love it.”

Roy Conli: We had two amazing artists in Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi who became spiritual leaders in the production. They were so incredible.

Gaëtan Brizzi: [“The Bells of Notre Dame”] was not supposed to be a song first.

Paul Brizzi: The prologue was traditional in the Disney way. Gaëtan and I were thinking of German expressionism to emphasize the drama. I’m not sure we could do that today.

Paul Kandel, voice of Clopin: They were toying with Clopin being the narrator. So they wrote “The Bells of Notre Dame” to open the movie.

Stephen Schwartz: [Alan and I] got called into a presentation, and on all these boards [was] laid out “The Bells of Notre Dame.” We musicalized the story they put up there. We used the pieces of dialogue they invented for Frollo and the other characters. I wrote lyrics that described the narrative. It was very exciting. I had never written a song like that.

Kirk Wise: Early on, we [took] a research trip with the core creative team to Paris. We spent two weeks all over Notre Dame. They gave us unrestricted access, going down into the catacombs. That was a huge inspiration.

Don Hahn: To crawl up in the bell towers and imagine Quasimodo there, to see the bells and the timbers, the scale of it all is unbelievable.

Kirk Wise: One morning, I was listening to this pipe organ in this shadowy cathedral, with light filtering through the stained-glass windows. The sound was so powerful, I could feel it thudding in my chest. I thought, “This is what the movie needs to feel like.”

Brenda Chapman, story: It was fun to sit in a room and draw and think up stuff. I liked the idea of this lonely character up in a bell tower and how we could portray his imagination.

Kathy Zielinski, supervising animator, Frollo: It was the earliest I’ve ever started on a production. I was doing character designs for months. I did a lot of design work for the gargoyles, as a springboard for the other supervisors.

James Baxter, supervising animator, Quasimodo: Kirk and Gary said, “We’d like you to do Quasimodo.” [I thought] that would be such a cool, amazing thing to do. They wanted this innocent vibe to him. Part of the design process was getting that part of his character to read.

Will Finn, head of story/supervising animator, Laverne: Kirk and Gary wanted me on the project. Kirk, Gary, and Don Hahn gave me opportunities no one else would have, and I am forever grateful.

Kathy Zielinski: I spent several months doing 50 or 60 designs [for Frollo]. I looked at villainous actors. Actually, one was Peter Schneider. [laughing] Not to say he’s a villain, but a lot of the mannerisms and poses. “Oh, that looks a little like Peter.”

James Baxter: I was doing design work on the characters with Tony Fucile, the animator on Esmerelda. I think Kirk and Gary felt Beauty and the Beast had been disparate and the characters weren’t as unified as they wanted.

Kathy Zielinski: Frollo stemmed from Hans Conried [the voice of Disney’s Captain Hook]. He had a longish nose and a very stern-looking face. Frollo was modeled a little bit after him.

Will Finn: The team they put together was a powerhouse group – Brenda Chapman, Kevin Harkey, Ed Gombert, and veterans like Burny Mattinson and Vance Gerry. I felt funny being their “supervisor.”

Kathy Zielinski: Half my crew was in France, eight hours ahead. We were able to do phone calls. But because of the time difference, our end of the day was their beginning of the morning. I was working a lot of late hours, because [Frollo] was challenging to draw.

Kirk Wise: Our secret weapon was James Baxter, who animated the ballroom sequence [in Beauty and the Beast] on his own. He had a unique gift of rotating characters in three-dimensional space perfectly.

Gary Trousdale: James Baxter is, to my mind, one of the greatest living animators in the world.

James Baxter: I’ve always enjoyed doing things that were quite elaborate in terms of camera movement and three-dimensional space. I’m a glutton for punishment, because those shots are very hard to do.

Gary Trousdale: In the scene with Quasimodo carrying Esmeralda over his shoulder, climbing up the cathedral, he looks back under his arms, snarling at the crowd below. James called that his King Kong moment.

As production continued, Roy Conli’s position shifted, as Don Hahn joined the project, and Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney in heated fashion in 1994.

Roy Conli: Jeffrey was going to create his own animation studio. Peter Schneider was interested in maintaining a relationship with Don Hahn. We were into animation, ahead of schedule. They asked Don if he would produce and if I would run the studio in Paris.

Don Hahn: Roy hadn’t done an animated film before. I was able to be a more senior presence. I’d worked with Kirk and Gary before, which I enjoy. They’re unsung heroes of these movies.

Kirk Wise: The [production] pace was more leisurely. As leisurely as these things can be. We had more breathing room to develop the storyboards and the script and the songs.

Gary Trousdale: Jeffrey never liked characters to have facial hair. No beards, no mustaches, nothing. There’s original designs of Gaston [with] a little Errol Flynn mustache. Jeffrey hated it. “I don’t want any facial hair.” Once he left, we were like, “We could give [Phoebus] a beard now.”

Kirk Wise: The ballroom sequence [in Beauty] gave us confidence to incorporate more computer graphics into Hunchback. We [had] to create the illusion of a throng of thousands of cheering people. To do it by hand would have been prohibitive, and look cheap.

Stephen Schwartz: Michael Eisner started being more hands-on. Michael was annoyed at me for a while, because when Jeffrey left, I accepted the job of doing the score for Prince of Egypt. I got fired from Mulan because of it. But once he fired me, Michael couldn’t have been a more supportive, positive colleague on Hunchback.

Kirk Wise: [The executives] were distracted. We were able to take more chances than we would have under the circumstances that we made Beauty and the Beast.

Don Hahn: Hunchback was in a league of its own, feeling like we [could] step out and take some creative risks. We could have done princess movies forever, and been reasonably successful. Our long-term survival relied on trying those risks.

One sticking point revolved around Notre Dame’s gargoyles, three of whom interact with Quasimodo, but feel more lighthearted than the rest of the dark story.

Gary Trousdale: In the book and several of the movies, Quasimodo talks to the gargoyles. We thought, “This is Disney, we’re doing a cartoon. The gargoyles can talk back.” One thing led to another and we’ve got “A Guy Like You.”

Kirk Wise: “A Guy Like You” was literally created so we could lighten the mood so the audience wasn’t sitting in this trough of despair for so long.

Stephen Schwartz: Out of context, the number is pretty good. I think I wrote some funny lyrics. But ultimately it was a step too far tonally for the movie and it has been dropped from the stage version.

Gary Trousdale: People have been asking for a long time: are they real? Are they part of Quasimodo’s personality? There were discussions that maybe Quasimodo is schizophrenic. We never definitively answered it, and can argue convincingly both ways.

Jason Alexander, voice of Hugo: I wouldn’t dream of interfering with anyone’s choice on that. It’s ambiguous for a reason and part of that reason is the viewers’ participation in the answer. Whatever you believe about it, I’m going to say you’re right.

Brenda Chapman: I left before they landed on how [to play] the gargoyles. My concern was, what are the rules? Are they real? Are they in his imagination? What can they do? Can they do stuff or is it all Quasi? I looked at it a little askance in the finished film. I wasn’t sure if I liked how it ended up…[Laverne] with the boa on the piano.

Kirk Wise: There was a component of the audience that felt the gargoyles were incompatible with Hunchback. But all of Disney’s movies, including the darkest ones, have comic-relief characters. And Disney was the last person to treat the written word as gospel.

“A Fantastic Opportunity”

After a successful collaboration on Pocahontas, Menken and Schwartz worked on turning Victor Hugo’s tragic story into a musical.

Alan Menken: The world of the story was very appealing, and it had so much social relevance and cultural nuance.

Stephen Schwartz: The story lent itself quite well to musicalization because of the extremity of the characters and the emotions. There was a lot to sing about. There was a great milieu.

Alan Menken: To embed the liturgy of the Catholic Church into a piece of music that’s operatic and also classical and pop-oriented enriches it in a very original way. Stephen was amazing. He would take the theme from the story and specifically set it in Latin to that music.

Stephen Schwartz: The fact that we were doing a piece set in a church allowed us to use all those elements of the Catholic mass, and for Alan to do all that wonderful choral music.

Alan Menken: The first creative impulse was “Out There.” I’m a craftsman. I’m working towards a specific assignment, but that was a rare instance where that piece of music existed.

Stephen Schwartz: I would come in with a title, maybe a couple of lines for Alan to be inspired by. We would talk about the whole unit, its job from a storytelling point of view. He would write some music. I could say, “I liked that. Let’s follow that.” He’d push a button and there would be a sloppy printout, enough that I could play it as I was starting the lyrics.

Roy Conli: Stephen’s lyrics are absolutely phenomenal. With that as a guiding light, we were in really good shape.

Stephen Schwartz: Alan played [the “Out There” theme] for me, and I really liked it. I asked for one change in the original chorus. Other than that, the music was exactly as he gave it to me.

Gary Trousdale: Talking with these guys about music is always intimidating. There was one [lyric] Don and I both questioned in “Out There,” when Frollo is singing, “Why invite their calumny and consternation?” Don and I went, “Calumny?” Kirk said, “Nope, it’s OK, I saw it in an X-Men comic book.” I went, “All right! It’s in a comic book! It’s good.”

Stephen Schwartz: Disney made it possible for me to get into Notre Dame before it opened to the public. I’d climb up the steps to the bell tower. I’d sit there with my yellow pad and pencil. I’d have the tune for “Out There” in my head, and I would look out at Paris, and be Quasimodo. By the time we left Paris, the song was written.

Kirk Wise: Stephen’s lyrics are really smart and literate. I don’t think the comical stuff was necessarily [his] strongest area. But this movie was a perfect fit, because the power of the emotions were so strong. Stephen just has a natural ability to connect with that.

Will Finn: The directors wanted a funny song for the gargoyles and Stephen was not eager to write it. He came to me and Irene Mecchi and asked us to help him think of comedy ideas for “A Guy Like You,” and we pitched a bunch of gags.

Jason Alexander: Singing with an orchestra the likes of which Alan and Stephen and Disney can assemble is nirvana. It’s electrifying and gives you the boost to sing over and over. Fortunately, everyone was open to discovery. I love nuance and intention in interpretation. I was given wonderful freedom to find both.

Stephen Schwartz: “Topsy Turvy,” it’s one of those numbers of musical theater where you can accomplish an enormous amount of storytelling. If you didn’t have that, you’d feel you were drowning in exposition. When you put it in the context of the celebration of the Feast of Fools, you could get a lot of work done.

Paul Kandel: The first time I sang [“Topsy Turvy”] through, I got a little applause from the orchestra. That was a very nice thing to happen and calm me down a little bit.

Brenda Chapman: Poor Kevin Harkey must’ve worked on “Topsy Turvy” for over a year. Just hearing [singing] “Topsy turvy!” I thought, “I would shoot myself.” It’s a fun song, but to listen to that, that many times. I don’t know if he ever got to work on anything else.

Paul Kandel: There were places where I thought the music was squarer than it needed to be. I wanted to round it out because Clopin is unpredictable. Is he good? Is he bad? That’s what I was trying to edge in there.

Kirk Wise: “God Help the Outcasts” made Jeffrey restless. I think he wanted “Memory” from Cats. Alan and Stephen wrote “Someday.” Jeffrey said, “This is good, but it needs to be bigger!” Alan was sitting at his piano bench, and Jeffrey was next to him. Jeffrey said, “When I want it bigger, I’ll nudge you.” Alan started playing and Jeffrey was jabbing him in the ribs. “Bigger, bigger!”

Don Hahn: In terms of what told the story better, one song was poetic, but the other was specific. “Outcasts” was very specific about Quasimodo. “Someday” was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Kirk Wise: When Don watched the movie, he said, “It’s working pretty well. But ‘Someday,’ I don’t know. It feels like she’s yelling at God.” We played “God Help the Outcasts” for him and Don said, “Oh, this is perfect.” That song is the signature of the entire movie.

Don Hahn: “Someday” was lovely. But I had come off of working with Howard Ashman, and I felt, “This doesn’t move the plot forward much, does it?” We ended up with “Someday” as an end-credits song, which was fortunate. ‘Cause they’re both good songs.

Kirk Wise: It was all about what conveys the emotion of the scene and the central theme of the movie best. “God Help the Outcasts” did that.

Everyone agrees on one point.

Stephen Schwartz: Hunchback is Alan’s best score. And that’s saying a lot, because he’s written a whole bunch of really good ones.

Gary Trousdale: With Hunchback, there were a couple of people that said, “This is why I chose music as a career.” Alan and Stephen’s songs are so amazing, so that’s really something.

Paul Kandel: It has a beautiful score.

Jason Alexander: It has the singularly most sophisticated score of most of the animated films of that era.

Roy Conli: The score of Hunchback is one of the greatest we’ve done.

Don Hahn: This is Alan’s most brilliant score. The amount of gravitas Alan put in the score is amazing.

Alan Menken: It’s the most ambitious score I’ve ever written. It has emotional depth. It’s a different assignment. And it was the project where awards stopped happening. It’s almost like, “OK, now you’ve gone too far.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s astonishing that Alan has won about 173 Academy Awards, and the one score he did not win for is his best score.

The film featured marquee performers singing covers of “God Help the Outcasts” and “Someday”. But one of the most famous performers ever nearly brought those songs to life.

Alan Menken: I met Michael Jackson when we were looking for someone to sing “A Whole New World” for Aladdin. Michael wanted to co-write the song. I could get a sense of who Michael was. He was a very unique, interesting individual…in his own world.

I get a call out of nowhere from Michael’s assistant, when Michael was at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York. He had to [deal with] allegations about inappropriate behavior with underage kids, and the breakup with Lisa Marie Presley. He’s looking to change the subject. And he obviously loves Disney so much. So I mentioned Hunchback. He said he’d love to come to my studio, watch the movie and talk about it. So we got in touch with Disney Animation. They said, “Meet with him! If he likes it…well, see what he says.” [laughing]

There’s three songs. One was “Out There,” one was “God Help the Outcasts,” one was “Someday.” Michael said, “I would like to produce the songs and record some of them.” Wow. Okay. What do we do now? Michael left. We got in touch with Disney. It was like somebody dropped a hot poker into a fragile bowl with explosives. “Uh, we’ll get back to you about that.”

Finally, predictably, the word came back, “Disney doesn’t want to do this with Michael Jackson.” I go, “OK, could someone tell him this?” You can hear a pin drop, no response, and nobody did [tell him]. It fell to my late manager, Scott Shukat, to tell Michael or Michael’s attorney.

In retrospect, it was the right decision. [But] Quasimodo is a character…if you look at his relationships with his family and his father, I would think there’s a lot of identification there.

“They’re Never Going to Do This Kind of Character Again”

The film is known for the way it grapples with the hypocrisy and lust typified by the villainous Judge Frollo, whose terrifying song “Hellfire” remains a high point of Disney animation.

Gary Trousdale: Somebody asked me recently: “How the hell did you get ‘Hellfire’ past Disney?” It’s a good question.

Alan Menken: When Stephen and I wrote “Hellfire,” I was so excited by what we accomplished. It really raised the bar for Disney animation. It raised the bar for Stephen’s and my collaboration.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought the would never let me get away with [“Hellfire”]. And they never asked for a single change.

Alan Menken: Lust and religious conflict. Now more than ever, these are very thorny issues to put in front of the Disney audience. We wanted to go at it as truthfully as possible.

Stephen Schwartz: When Alan and I tackled “Hellfire,” I did what I usually did: write what I thought it should be and assume that [Disney would] tell me what I couldn’t get away with. But they accepted exactly what we wrote.

Don Hahn: Every good song score needs a villain’s moment. Stephen and Alan approached it with “Hellfire.”

Alan Menken: It was very clear, we’d thrown the gauntlet pretty far. It was also clear within our creative team that everybody was excited about going there.

Don Hahn: You use all the tools in your toolkit, and one of the most powerful ones was Alan and Stephen. Stephen can be dark, but he’s also very funny. He’s brilliant.

Gary Trousdale: The [MPAA] said, “When Frollo says ‘This burning desire is turning me to sin,’ we don’t like the word ‘sin.’” We can’t change the lyrics now. It’s all recorded. Kinda tough. “What if we just dip the volume of the word ‘sin’ and increase the sound effects?” They said, “Good.”

Stephen Schwartz: It’s one of the most admirable things [laughs] I have ever seen Disney Animation do. It was very supportive and adventurous, which is a spirit that…let’s just say, I don’t think [the company would] make this movie today.

Don Hahn: It’s funny. Violence is far more accepted than sex in a family movie. You can go see a Star Wars movie and the body count’s pretty huge, but there’s rarely any sexual innuendo.

Kathy Zielinski: I got to watch [Tony Jay] record “Hellfire” with another actor. I was sweating watching him record, because it was unbelievably intense. Afterwards, he asked me, “Did you learn anything from my performance?” I said, “Yeah, I never want to be a singer.” [laughing]

Paul Kandel: Tony Jay knocked that out of the park. He [was] an incredible guy. Very sweet. He was terrified to record “Hellfire.” He was at a couple of my sessions. He went, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen when it’s my turn? I don’t sing. I’m not a singer. I never pretended to be a singer.” I said, “Look, I’m not a singer. I’m an actor who figured out that they could hold a tune.”

Kathy Zielinski: I listened to Tony sing “Hellfire” tons. I knew I had gone too far when, one morning, we were sitting at the breakfast table and my daughter, who was two or three at the time, started singing the song and doing the mannerisms. [laughs]

Don Hahn: We didn’t literally want to show [Frollo’s lust]. It turns into a Fantasia sequence, almost. A lot of the imagery is something you could see coming out of Frollo’s imagination. It’s very impressionistic. It does stretch the boundaries of what had been done before at Disney.

Kirk Wise: We stylized it like “Night on Bald Mountain.” The best of Walt’s films balanced very dark and light elements. Instead of making it explicit, we tried to make it more visual and use symbolic imagery.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We were totally free. We could show symbolically how sick Frollo is between his hate and his carnal desire.

Kathy Zielinski: The storyboards had a tremendous influence. Everybody was incredibly admiring of the work that [Paul and Gaëtan] had done.

Don Hahn: They brought the storyboarded sequence to life in a way that is exactly what the movie looks like. The strength of it is that we didn’t have to show anything as much as we did suggest things to the audience. Give the audience credit for filling in the blanks.

Gary Trousdale: It was absolutely gorgeous. Their draftsmanship and their cinematography. They are the top. They pitched it with a cassette recording of Stephen singing “Hellfire”, and we were all in the story room watching it, going “Oh shit!”

Paul Brizzi: When Frollo is at the fireplace with Esmeralda’s scarf, his face is hypnotized. From the smoke, there’s the silhouette of Esmeralda coming to him. She’s naked in our drawings.

Gary Trousdale: We joked, maybe because they’re French, Esmeralda was in the nude when she was in the fire. Roy Disney put his foot down and said, “That’s not going to happen.” Chris Jenkins, the head of effects, and I went over every drawing to make sure she was appropriately attired. That was the one concession we made to the studio.

Gaëtan Brizzi: It’s the role of storyboard artists to go far, and then you scale it down. Her body was meant to be suggestive. It was more poetic than provocative.

Brenda Chapman: I thought what the Brizzis did with “Hellfire” was just stunning.

Roy Conli: We make films for people from four to 104, and we’re trying to ensure that the thematic material engages adults and engages children. We had a lot of conversations on “Hellfire,” [which] was groundbreaking. You saw the torment, but you didn’t necessarily, if you were a kid, read it as sexual. And if you were an adult, you picked it up pretty well.

Will Finn: “Hellfire” was uncomfortable to watch with a family audience. I’m not a prude, but what are small kids to make of such a scene?

Kathy Zielinski: When I was working on “Hellfire,” I thought, “Wow. They’re never going to do this kind of character again.” And I’m pretty much right.

“Straight for the Heart”

“Hellfire” may be the apex of the maturity of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but the entire film is the most complex and adult Disney animated feature of the modern era.

Gary Trousdale: We went straight for the heart and then pulled back.

Kirk Wise: I was comfortable with moments of broad comedy contrasted with moments that were dark or scary or violent. All of the Disney movies did that, particularly in Walt’s time.

Don Hahn: A lot of it is gut level, where [the story group would] sit around and talk to ourselves and pitch it to executives. But Walt Disney’s original animated films were really dark. We wanted to create something that had the impact of what animation can do.

Will Finn: Eisner insisted we follow the book to the letter, but he said the villain could not be a priest, and we had to have a happy ending. The book is an epic tragedy – everybody dies!

Kathy Zielinski: It’s a little scary that I felt comfortable with [Frollo]. [laughing] I don’t know what that means. Maybe I need to go to therapy. I’ve always had a desire to do villains. I just love evil.

Don Hahn: Kathy Zielinski is brilliant. She works on The Simpsons now, which is hilarious. She’s very intense, very aware of what [Frollo] had to do.

One specific choice in the relationship between Frollo and Esmeralda caused problems.

Stephen Schwartz: I remember there was great controversy over Frollo sniffing Esmeralda’s hair.

Kirk Wise: The scene that caused the most consternation was in the cathedral where Frollo grabs Esmeralda, whispers in her ear and sniffs her hair. The sniffing made people ask, “Is this too far?” We got a lot of support from Peter Schneider, Tom Schumacher, and Michael Eisner.

Kathy Zielinski: Brenda Chapman came up with that idea and the storyboard. I animated it. It’s interesting, because two females were responsible for that. That scene was problematic, so they had to cut it down. It used to be a lot longer.

Brenda Chapman: I know I’m probably pushing it too far, but let’s give it a go, you know?

Kirk Wise: We agreed it was going to be a matter of execution and our collective gut would tell us whether we were crossing the line. We learned that the difference between a G and PG is the loudness of a sniff. Ultimately, that’s what it came down to.

Brenda Chapman: I never knew that! [laughing]

Don Hahn: Is it rated G? That’s surprising.

Gary Trousdale: I’m sure there was backroom bargaining done that Kirk and I didn’t know about.

Don Hahn: It’s negotiation. The same was true of The Lion King. We had intensity notes on the fight at the end. You either say, we’re going to live with that and it’s PG, or we’re not and it’s G.

Brenda Chapman: I heard stories of little kids going, “Ewww, he’s rubbing his boogers in her hair!” [laughing] If that’s what they want to think, that’s fine. But there are plenty of adults that went, “Whoa!”

Don Hahn: You make the movies for yourselves, [but] we all have families, and you try to make something that’s appropriate for that audience. So we made some changes. Frollo isn’t a member of the clergy to take out any politicizing.

Gaëtan Brizzi: We developed the idea of Frollo’s racism against the gypsies. To feel that he desires Esmeralda and he wants to kill her. It was ambiguity that was interesting to develop. In the storyboards, Paul made [Frollo] handsome with a big jaw, a guy with class. They said he was too handsome. We had to break that formula.

Stephen Schwartz: I [and others] said, “It doesn’t make any sense for him to not be the Archdeacon, because what’s he doing with Quasimodo? What possible relationship could they have?” Which is what led to the backstory that became “The Bells of Notre Dame.”

Don Hahn: The things Frollo represents are alive and well in the world. Bigotry and prejudice are human traits and always have been. One of his traits was lust. How do you portray that in a Disney movie? We tried to portray that in a way that might be over kids’ heads and may not give them nightmares necessarily, but it’s not going to pull its punches. So it was a fine line.

Stephen Schwartz: Hugo’s novel is not critical of the church the way a lot of French literature is. It creates this character of Frollo, who’s a deeply hypocritical person and tormented by his hypocrisy.

Peter Schneider: I am going to be controversial. I think it failed. The fundamental basis is problematic, if you’re going to try and do a Disney movie. In [light of] the #MeToo movement, you couldn’t still do the movie and try what we tried to do. As much as we tried to soften it, you couldn’t get away from the fundamental darkness.

Don Hahn: Yeah, that sounds like Peter. He’s always the contrarian.

Peter Schneider: I’m not sure we should have made the movie, in retrospect. I mean, it did well, Kirk and Gary did a beautiful job. The voices are beautiful. The songs are lovely, but I’m not sure we should have made the movie.

Gaëtan Brizzi: The hardest part was to stick to the commercial side of the movie…to make sure we were still addressing kids.

Kirk Wise: We knew it was going to be a challenge to honor the source material while delivering a movie that would fit comfortably on the shelf with the other Disney musicals. We embraced it.

Roy Conli: I don’t think it was too mature. I do find it at times slightly provocative, but not in a judgmental or negative way. I stand by the film 100 percent in sending a message of hope.

Peter Schneider: It never settled its tone. If you look at the gargoyles and bringing in Jason Alexander to try and give comedy to this rather bleak story of a judge keeping a deformed young man in the tower…there’s so many icky factors for a Disney movie.

Jason Alexander: Some children might be frightened by Quasi’s look or not be able to understand the complexity. But what we see is an honest, innocent and capable underdog confront his obstacles and naysayers and emerge triumphant, seen and accepted. I think young people rally to those stories. They can handle the fearsome and celebrate the good.

Brenda Chapman: There was a scene where Frollo was locking Quasimodo in the tower, and Quasi was quite upset. I had to pull back from how cruel Frollo was in that moment, if I’m remembering correctly. I wanted to make him a very human monster, which can be scarier than a real monster.

Roy Conli: We walked such a tight line and we were on the edge and the fact that Disney allowed us to be on the edge was a huge tribute to them.

“Hear the Voice”

The story was set, the songs were ready. All that was left was getting a cast together to bring the characters’ voices to life.

Jason Alexander: Disney, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Victor Hugo – you had me at hello.

Paul Kandel: I was in Tommy, on Broadway. I was also a Tony nominee. So I had those prerequisites. Then I got a call from my agent that Jeffrey Katzenberg decided he wanted a star. I was out of a job I already had. I said, “I want to go back in and audition again.” I wanted to let them choose between me and whoever had a name that would help sell the film. So that series of auditions went on and I got the job back.

Kirk Wise: Everybody auditioned, with the exception of Kevin Kline and Demi Moore. We went to them with an offer. But we had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Meat Loaf.

Will Finn: Katzenberg saw Meat Loaf and Cher playing Quasimodo and Esmeralda – more of a rock opera. He also wanted Leno, Letterman, and Arsenio as the gargoyles at one point.

Kirk Wise: Meat Loaf sat with Alan and rehearsed the song. It was very different than what we ended up with, because Meat Loaf has a very distinct sound. Ultimately, I think his record company and Disney couldn’t play nice together, and the deal fell apart.

Gary Trousdale: We all had the drawings of the characters we were currently casting for in front of us. Instead of watching the actor, we’d be looking down at the piece of paper, trying to hear that voice come out of the drawing. And it was, we learned, a little disconcerting for some of the actors and actresses, who would put on hair and makeup and clothes and they’ve got their body language and expressions. We just want to hear the voice.

Kirk Wise: We cast Cyndi Lauper as one of the gargoyles. We thought she was hilarious and sweet. The little fat obnoxious gargoyle had a different name, and was going to be played by Sam McMurray. We had Cyndi and Sam record, and Roy Disney hated it. The quality of Cyndi’s voice and Sam’s voice were extremely grating to his ear. This is no disrespect to them – Cyndi Lauper is amazing. And Sam McMurray is very funny. But it was not working for the people in the room on that day.

Jason Alexander: The authors cast you for a reason – they think they’ve heard a voice in you that fits their character. I always try to look at the image of the character – his shape, his size, his energy and start to allow sounds, pitches, vocal tics to emerge. Then everyone kicks that around, nudging here, tweaking there and within a few minutes you have the approach to the vocalization. It’s not usually a long process, but it is fun.

Kirk Wise: We decided to reconceive the gargoyles. We always knew we wanted three of them. We wanted a Laurel and Hardy pair. The third gargoyle, the female gargoyle, was up in the air. I think it was Will Finn who said, “Why don’t we make her older?” As the wisdom-keeper. That led us to Mary Wickes, who was absolutely terrific. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Mary, and 98% of the dialogue is her. But she sadly passed away before we were finished.

Will Finn: We brought in a ton of voice-over actresses and none sounded like Mary. One night, I woke up thinking about Jane Withers, who had been a character actress in the golden age of Hollywood. She had a similar twang in her voice, and very luckily, she was alive and well.

Kirk Wise: Our first session with Kevin Kline went OK, but something was missing. It just didn’t feel like there was enough of a twinkle in his voice. Roy Conli said, “Guys, he’s an actor. Give him a prop.” For the next session, the supervising animator for Phoebus brought in a medieval broadsword. Before the session started, we said “Kevin, we’ve got a present for you.” We brought out this sword, and he lit up like a kid at Christmas. He would gesture with it and lean on it. Roy found the key there.

Gary Trousdale: Kevin Kline is naturally funny, so we may have [written] some funnier lines for him. When he’s sparring with Esmeralda in the cathedral and he gets hit by the goat. “I didn’t know you had a kid,” which is the worst line ever. But he pulls it off. He had good comic timing.

Kirk Wise: Tom Hulce had a terrific body of work, including Amadeus. But the performance that stuck with me was in Dominic and Eugene. There was a sensitivity and emotional reality to that performance that made us lean in and think he might make a good Quasimodo.

Gary Trousdale: [His voice] had a nice mix of youthful and adult. He had a maturity, but he had an innocence as well. We’re picturing Quasimodo as a guy who’s basically an innocent. It was a quality of his voice that we could hear.

Don Hahn: He’s one of those actors who could perform and act while he sang. Solo songs, especially for Quasimodo, are monologues set to music. So you’re looking for someone who can portray all the emotion of the scene. It’s about performance and storytelling, and creating a character while you’re singing. That’s why Tom rose to the top.

Stephen Schwartz: I thought Tom did great. I had known Tom a little bit beforehand, as an actor in New York. I’d seen him do Equus and I was sort of surprised. I just knew him as an actor in straight plays. I didn’t know that he sang at all, and then it turned out that he really sang.

Paul Kandel: [Tom] didn’t think of himself as a singer. He’s an actor who can sing. “Out There,” his big number – whether he’s going to admit it to you or not – that was scary for him. But a beautiful job.

Brenda Chapman: Quasimodo was the key to make it family-friendly. Tom Hulce did such a great job making him appealing.

Kirk Wise: Gary came back with the audiotape of Tom’s first session. And his first appearance with the little bird, where he asks if the bird is ready to fly…that whole scene was his rehearsal tape. His instincts were so good. He just nailed it. I think he was surprised that we went with that take. It was the least overworked and the most spontaneous, and felt emotionally real to us.

Kathy Zielinski: Early on, they wanted Anthony Hopkins to do the voice [of Frollo]. [We] did an animation test with a line of his from Silence of the Lambs.

Kirk Wise: We were thinking of Hannibal Lecter in the earliest iterations of Frollo. They made an offer, but Hopkins passed. We came full circle to Tony, because it had been such a good experience working with him on Beauty and the Beast. It was the combination of the quality of his voice, the familiarity of working with him, and knowing how professional and sharp he was.

Though the role of Quasimodo went to Tom Hulce (who did not respond to multiple requests for comment), there was one audition those involved haven’t forgotten.

Kirk Wise: We had a few people come in for Quasimodo, including Mandy Patinkin.

Stephen Schwartz: That was a difficult day. [laughing]

Kirk Wise: Mandy informed Alan and Stephen that he brought his own accompanist, which was unexpected because we had one in the room. He had taken a few liberties with [“Out There”]. He had done a little rearranging. You could see Alan’s and Stephen’s spines stiffen. It was not the feel that Alan and Stephen were going for. Stephen pretty much said so in the room. I think his words were a little sharper and more pointed than mine.

Stephen Schwartz: I’ve never worked with Mandy Patinkin. But I admired Evita and Sunday in the Park with George. He came in to audition for Quasimodo. When I came in, Ben Vereen was sitting in the hallway. Ben is a friend of mine and kind of a giant star. I felt we should be polite in terms of bringing him in relatively close to the time for which he was called.

Mandy took a long time with his audition, and asked to do it over and over again. If you’re Mandy Patinkin, you should have enough time scheduled to feel you were able to show what you wanted to show. However, that amount of time was not scheduled. At a certain point, I became a bit agitated because I knew Ben was sitting there, cooling his heels. I remember asking [to] move along or something. That created a huge contretemps.

Kirk Wise: Gary and I stepped outside to work on a dialogue scene with Mandy. As we were explaining the scene and our take on the character, Mandy threw up his hands and said, “Guys, I’m really sorry. I can’t do this.” He turned on his heel and went into the rehearsal hall and shut the door. We started hearing an intense argument. He basically went in and read Alan and Stephen the riot act. The door opens, smoke issuing from the crater that he left inside. Mandy storms out, and he’s gone. We step back in the room, asking, “What the hell happened?”

Gary Trousdale: I did a drawing of it afterwards. The Patinkin Incident.

Stephen Schwartz: Battleship Patinkin!

“Join the Party”

The darkness in the film made it difficult to market. Even some involved acknowledged the issue. In the run-up to release, Jason Alexander said to Entertainment Weekly, “Disney would have us believe this movie’s like the Ringling Bros., for children of all ages. But I won’t be taking my 4-year old. I wouldn’t expose him to it, not for another year.”

Alan Menken: There was all the outrage about Jason Alexander referring to it as a dark story that’s not for kids. Probably Disney wasn’t happy he said that.

Jason Alexander: Most Disney animated films are entertaining and engaging for any child with an attention span. All of them have elements that are frightening. But people are abused in Hunchback. These are people, not cute animals. Some children could be overwhelmed by some of it at a very young age. My son at the time could not tolerate any sense of dread in movies so it would have been hard for him. However, that is certainly not all children.

Don Hahn: I don’t think Jason was wrong. People have to decide for themselves. It probably wasn’t a movie for four-year olds. You as a parent know your kid better than I do.

If everyone agrees the score is excellent, they also agree on something that was not.

Alan Menken: God knows we couldn’t control how Disney marketing dealt with the movie, which was a parade with Quasimodo on everybody’s shoulders going, “Join the party.” [laughing]

Roy Conli: I always thought “Animation comes of age” would be a great [tagline]. I think the marketing ended up, “Join the party.”

Brenda Chapman: Marketing had it as this big party. And then you get into the story and there’s all this darkness. I think audiences were not expecting that, if they didn’t know the original story.

Kathy Zielinski: It was a hard movie for Disney to merchandise and sell to the public.

Gaëtan Brizzi: People must have been totally surprised by the dramatic sequences. The advertising was not reflecting what the movie was about.

Stephen Schwartz: To this day, they just don’t know how to market “Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.” I understand what their quandary is. They have developed a brand that says, “If you see the word Disney on something, it means you can take your 6-year old.” You probably shouldn’t even take your 8-year old, unless he or she is very mature, to Hunchback.

Alan Menken: We [Disney] had such a run of successful projects. It was inevitable there was going to be a time where people said, “I’ve seen all those, but what else is out there?” I had that experience sitting at a diner with my family, overhearing a family talk about Hunchback and say, “Oh yeah, we saw Beauty and Aladdin, but this one…let’s see something else.”

Stephen Schwartz: I did have a sense that some in the critical community didn’t know how to reconcile animation and an adult approach. They have the same attitude some critics have about musicals. “It’s fine if it’s tap-dancing and about silly subjects. But if it’s something that has intellectual import, you can’t do that.” Obviously we have Hamilton and Sweeney Todd and Wicked. Over the years, that’s changed to some extent, but not for everybody.

Roy Conli: Every film is not a Lion King. [But] if that story has legs and will touch people, then you’ve succeeded.

Kirk Wise: We were a little disappointed in its initial weekend. It didn’t do as well as we hoped. We were also disappointed in the critical reaction. It was well-reviewed, but more mixed. Roger Ebert loved us. The New York Times hated us! I felt whipsawed. It was the same critic [Janet Maslin] who praised Beauty and the Beast to the high heavens. She utterly shat on Hunchback.

Don Hahn: We had really good previews, but we also knew it was out of the box creatively. We were also worried about the French and we were worried about the handicapped community and those were the two communities that supported the movie the most.

Will Finn: I knew we were in trouble when the first trailers played and audiences laughed at Quasimodo singing “Out There” on the roof.

Kirk Wise: All of us were proud of the movie on an artistic level. In terms of animation and backgrounds and music and the use of the camera and the performances. It’s the entire studio operating at its peak level of performance, as far as I’m concerned.

Gary Trousdale: I didn’t think people were going to have such a negative reaction to the gargoyles. They’re a little silly. And they do undercut the gravity. But speaking with friends who were kids at the time, they have nothing but fond memories. There were adults, high school age and older when they saw it, they were turned off. We thought it was going to do really great. We thought, “We’re topping ourselves.” It’s a sophisticated story and the music is amazing.

Kirk Wise: The 2D animated movies used to be released before Christmas [or] Thanksgiving. The Lion King changed that. Now everything was a summer release. I always questioned the wisdom of releasing Hunchback in the summertime, in competition with other blockbusters.

Paul Kandel: It made $300 million and it cost $80 million to make. So they were not hurting as far as profits were concerned. But I thought it was groundbreaking in so many ways that I was surprised at the mixed reviews.

Kirk Wise: By most measures, it was a hit. I think The Lion King spoiled everybody, because [it] was such a phenomenon, a bolt from the blue, not-to-be-repeated kind of event.

Gary Trousdale: We were getting mixed reviews. Some of them were really good. “This is a stunning masterpiece.” And other people were saying, “This is a travesty.” And the box office was coming in, not as well as hoped.

Don Hahn: I was in Argentina doing South American press. I got a call from Peter Schneider, who said, “It’s performing OK, but it’s probably going to hit 100 million.” Which, for any other moviemaker, would be a goldmine. But we’d been used to huge successes. I was disappointed.

Peter Schneider: I think it was a hit, right? It just wasn’t the same. As they say in the theater, you don’t set out to make a failure.

Don Hahn: If you’re the New York Yankees, and you’ve had a winning season where you could not lose, and then people hit standup singles instead of home runs…that’s OK. But it has this aura of disappointment. That’s the feeling that’s awful to have, because it’s selfish. Animation is an art, and the arts are meant to be without a price tag hanging off of them all the time.

Paul Brizzi: We are still grateful to Kirk and Gary and Don. We worked on [Hunchback] for maybe a year or a year and a half. Every sequence, we did with passion.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Our work on Hunchback was a triumph of our career.

Kathy Zielinski: There are certainly a whole crowd of people who wish we had not [done] the comedy, because that wasn’t faithful. That’s the main complaint I heard – we should’ve gone for this total dramatic piece and not worried about the kiddies.

Gaetan Brizzi: The only concern we had was the lack of homogeneity. The drama was really strong, and the [comedy] was sometimes a little bit goofy. It was a paradox. When you go from “Hellfire” to a big joke, the transition was not working well. Otherwise, we were very proud.

James Baxter: We were happy with what we did, but we understood it was going to be a slightly harder sell. The Hunchback of Notre Dame usually doesn’t engender connotations like, “Oh, that’s going to be a Disney classic.” I was very happy that it did as well as it did.

Jason Alexander: I thought it was even more mature and emotional on screen. It was an exciting maturation of what a Disney animated feature could be. I was impressed and touched.

“An Undersung Hero”

25 years later, The Hunchback of Notre Dame endures. The animated film inspired an even darker stage show that played both domestically and overseas, and in recent years, there have been rumors that Josh Gad would star as Quasimodo in a live-action remake.

Alan Menken: I think it’s a project that with every passing year will more and more become recognized as a really important part of my career.

Stephen Schwartz: This will be immodest, but I think it’s a really fine adaptation. I think it’s the best musical adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel, and there have been a lot. I think the music is just unbelievably good. I think, as a lyricist, I was working at pretty much the top of my form. I have so many people telling me it’s their favorite Disney film.

Alan Menken: During the pandemic, there was this hundred-piece choir doing “The Bells of Notre Dame.” People are picking up on it. It’s the combination of the storytelling and how well the score is constructed that gets it to longevity. If something is good enough, it gets found.

Paul Kandel: I think people were more sensitive. There was an expectation that a new Disney animated film would not push boundaries at all, which it did. For critics, it pushed a little too hard and I don’t think they would think that now. It’s a work of art.

Gaëtan Brizzi: Hunchback is poetic, because of its dark romanticism. We have tons of animated movies, but I think they all look alike because of the computer technique. This movie is very important in making people understand that hate has no place in our society, between a culture or people or a country. That’s the message of the movie, and of Victor Hugo himself.

Jason Alexander: I think it’s an undersung hero. It’s one of the most beautiful and moving animated films. But it is not the title that lives on everyone’s tongue. I think more people haven’t seen this one than any of the others. I adore it.

Peter Schneider: What Disney did around this period [is] we stopped making musicals. I think that was probably a mistake on some level, but the animators were bored with it.

Don Hahn: You know people reacted to Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King. They were successful movies in their day. You don’t know the reaction to anything else. So when [I] go to Comic-Con or do press on other movies, people started talking about Hunchback. “My favorite Alan Menken score is Hunchback.” It’s always surprising and delightful.

Kirk Wise: I’ve had so many people come up to me and say, “This is my absolute favorite movie. I adored this movie as a kid. I wore out my VHS.” That makes all the difference in the world.

Paul Kandel: Sitting on my desk right now are four long letters and requests for autographs. I get 20 of those a week. People are still seeing that film and being moved by it.

Alan Menken: Now there’s a discussion about a live-action film with Hunchback. And that’s [sighs] exciting and problematic. We have to, once again, wade into the troubled waters of “What is Disney’s movie version of Hunchback?” Especially now.

Jason Alexander: Live action could work because the vast majority of characters are human. The story of an actual human who is in some ways less abled and who is defined by how he looks, rather than his heart and character, is timely and important, to say the least.

Kirk Wise: I imagine if there were a live-action adaptation, it would skew more towards the stage version. That’s just my guess.

Stephen Schwartz: I think it would lend itself extremely well to a live-action movie, particularly if they use the stage show as the basis. I think the stage show is fantastic.

Kirk Wise: It’s gratifying to be involved in movies like Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback that have created so much affection. But animation is as legitimate a form of storytelling as live-action is. It might be different, but I don’t think it’s better. I feel like [saying], “Just put on the old one. It’s still good!”

Gary Trousdale: There were enough versions before. Somebody wants to make another version? Okay. Most people can tell the difference between the animated version and a live-action reboot. Mostly I’m not a fan of those. But if that’s what Disney wants to do, great.

Don Hahn: It’s very visual. It’s got huge potential because of its setting and the drama, and the music. It’s pretty powerful, so it makes sense to remake that movie. I think we will someday.

Brenda Chapman: It’s a history lesson. Now that Notre Dame is in such dire straits, after having burned so badly, hopefully [this] will increase interest in all that history.

James Baxter: It meant two children. I met my wife on that movie. [laughs] In a wider sense, the legacy is another step of broadening the scope of what Disney feature animation could be.

Kirk Wise: Hunchback is the movie where the final product turned out closest to the original vision. There was such terrific passion by the crew that carried throughout the process.

Roy Conli: It’s one of the most beautiful films we’ve made. 25 years later, I’d say “Join the party.” [laughs]

#long post behind read more #the hunchback of notre dame #hunchback of notre dame #notre dame de paris #victor hugo #interviews #disney #alan menken #stephen schwartz #quasimodo #esmeralda #frollo #phoebus #movies #movie history

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canyouhearthelight · 3 years ago

Text

The Miys, Ch. 151

This chapter has been one that I have been dying to write for a while. I was worried that @baelpenrose would resist the idea, but he very much thought it was hilarious. As always, his input and riffing on this chapter has very much made it better and better.

However, it also made the chapter longer, lol. But there is just no way to trim it down without losing something that makes it all work, so this week is nearly double my normal length... break everyone’s heart, right? ;)

“I don’t like these numbers,” Parvati grumbled - as much as she was capable of grumbling - as she scrolled through the final counts of approval ratings on her and Hannah’s inaugural Food Festival.

The statistics had been dropped into our inboxes that morning, in the static of about a thousand other notifications now that Derek had finished the stress-test. Also included were the results of the last three invasion-prep drills, which I was in the process of scanning over.

“How bad are they?” I asked, half listening for a number. The drills were trending better, which was a good sign that the moves were effective.

Dismissing her display with a gesture of disgust, she sighed. “Seventy-four percent approval rating.”

I arched a brow and glanced over. “Did you adjust for those who did not attend?”

The glare she sent me wasn’t seen so much as felt. “Of course I did. First thing I ran…”

“Are you filtering by the day the comments came in?”

“I -” Bingo. She huffed. “No! These are intended to be ratings for the entirety of the event!”

I started scrolling through my own statistics. “Chart them out by the date the ratings came in, filtering out everyone who didn’t actually attend.”

A pause. “Oh… Oh! It’s showing ninety-three-point-four now!”

“Et voila,” I murmured. Louder, I clarified, “People like to weigh in early, and those who object in general tend to speak first.”

“I see that… how’s it going over there?” she asked, smoothing her braid over her shoulder as she turned to look at me directly.

“We are improving with every drill, marked upticks since the relocations. Arthur should be here in about - “ I glanced at a clock, “Seven minutes to go over next steps.”

Alistair breezed over to swap my empty bulb of cold coffee for a fresh one of water. “The appointment is in fifteen minutes.”

Parvati beat me to the punch. “He is also compulsively early, meaning…. Six minutes now.”

He rolled his eyes hard enough that I wanted to giggle. “He doesn’t even have the decency to be fashionably late. Appalling.”

Surely enough, Arthur paged at the entrance - out of some sort of manners I accidentally instilled in him - exactly five minutes prior to our scheduled appointment. As he breezed into my office, he managed a half-assed glare at Alistair for abruptly turning away and focusing on my schedule rather than his usual tendency to get a beverage for any newcomers. “Okay, updated data on drills isn’t what I want it to be.”

I laughed. “You’re joking, right? Your team and Michael’s haven’t gotten past deck four by more than three percent in the last seven exercises.”

“Any percent above zero is unacceptable,” he grumbled. I chalked it up to the indignity of being forced to get his own tea from the console.

Almost as though to spite Arthur, Alistair made a point to set a refreshed water bulb in front of everyone except the professor. “There are guards on the other levels for a reason,” he suggested drily.

“And I would rather those guards be idle, thank you,” Arthur threw back in a near-venomous tone.

“Us guards would rather be prepared for any eventuality, which you may do well to plan for in your petty drills.”

I didn’t even try to intervene. Clearly there was some blatantly disagreement between my admin and my friend, and I was exhausted from trying to make them cooperate.

“If I’m doing my job, you should be so grateful as to be idle,” Arthur drawled.

Alistair scoffed. “As if being left to rest and get fatter than a Christmas goose is a blessing…”

“You’ll live longer!”

“And get lax in my duties, which I will not stand for!”

“Get fat! Get lazy! LIVE! I don’t care! I’m not going to be lax in my duties to allow you the opportunity of getting practice at fighting.” Standing, Arthur buried both hands in his hair, but it looked less like he was running his fingers through it than pulling on it. “Are we really discussing this when we are training to fight in living body condoms?”

“I need to defend the Archives!”

“And Michael and I need to defend everyone! Us doing our job means you don’t need to do yours.”

My neck snapped back at the vehemence in his tone. This wasn’t their normal sparring… they may have never truly gotten along, but even in the beginning it was never so vicious.

To my further alarm, Alistair took a long stride forward and stared down his nose at Arthur. “We both know that she - “ his hand flung out to point at me “is either the luckiest or unluckiest person in existence. You can’t really believe that, in an actual assault on this ship, that she won’t be in danger. Which will place Tyche, the Archives, Derek Okafor, and Samuel Richardson in equal danger. You aren’t an idiot, you know this.” The hand pointing toward me turned, and time seemed to slow down as he stabbed Arthur in the sternum with it, punctuating each of his next words. “Stop lying to yourself.”

“Poke me again, and the finger comes off.”

“I would dearly love to see you try.”

Hannah and Parvati had jumped to their feet when Alistair approached Arthur, but were now slowly moving around to my position, safely behind my desk. Hannah hissed at me through clenched teeth, “You had to tell them to fight it out.”

“I thought they would use a gym, not the damned office,” I hissed back.

Before she could respond, Alistair spoke again. “You aren’t the only one on the Ark who wants to protect everyone. You need to trust us to do our bloody jobs.”

“The last time I trusted anyone else to protect people, I lost fourteen students,” came the ground out response. “I’m not backing down on this.”

“You will, or I will sedate you and strap you to a medical berth for the next four months.” Alistair stepped back and crossed his arms with finality.

A trickle of nerves ran down my spine as I watched Arthur clench his fists and release them. “You think the solution to everything is to tie it up, I swear.”

“Stop changing the topic. I am deadly serious, Farro.”

Arthur turned away from him, waving him off. “Try something else, you would never just sedate me for months on end.” Before we could stop anything, Alistair leapt forward and put Arthur in a headlock, only to be immediately flipped over the other man’s shoulder and onto the table. “Tch. Sloppy. I know you can do better.”

“I thought you wanted me to get fat and lazy,” Alistair grunted as he sucker-punched Arthur in the stomach and rolled for the other side. Once on his feet, he eyed Arthur carefully as he circled the table. “You stubborn ass, you know I am right. You are putting everyone in the lower levels at risk by not running preparedness drills with them, because you don’t want to factor in the fact that one of the offensive teams could fail.”

“We don’t have the luxury of failing, so no. If we do our jobs correctly, everyone who matters will be safe at the other end of the Ark.”

They didn’t seem to be at each other’s throats anymore, but the arguing wasn’t getting anywhere. “Guys - “ I tried.

Both men turned and practically screamed at me with their glares to stop talking. Oookay. I held up my hands in surrender and decided to let them sort it out their way.

Damned if the console wasn’t on the other side of them, though. I couldn’t even get popcorn and a drink.

Alistair blew a harsh breath through his nose. “If you won’t include the lower decks in your drills, I will start sparring with Jokul.”

“He would kill you,” Arthur barked in the most miserable laugh I’ve ever heard.

“God forbid,” Alistair mocked. “If I were gone, who would make your tea in the morning.”

“The same person who picks up the socks that magically appear all over my quarters every day, obviously. Worthington, I’m serious, he could really hurt you. He has really hurt me. And Charly.”

That last part was dismissed with a wave. “Madam Charles the First put the fear of herself into him.”

“And you haven’t. He could kill you by accident, and he’d never forgive himself.”

“Maybe that wouldn’t be the case if you would let me train more!”

Arthur groaned and ran a hand down his face. “You are an adult, we’ve talked about this. Train all you want, with whoever you want - Charly, Sophia, Tyche… hell, train with Evan or Michael, I don’t care. Just, not Jokul.”

When did they talk about this? I wondered. It had to be during a sparring session or something, because it definitely wasn’t in my office during one of our meetings. A glance at Hannah showed she was watching everything unfold like it was the most riveting show she had ever seen, and Parvati’s squint of consideration wasn’t much better.

“As you said, I’m an adult. Perhaps I should take your advice, and train with Charly - “

“See - “

“- and Jokul. She will make sure I don’t get hurt.”

Arthur flung his hands up in frustration. “You are so stubborn, I swear!” Growling, he paced in a circle. “Fine! Train with Charly and Jokul. IN the bivouac suit, though! And I don’t want to hear a word when you end up confined in a med bay yourself.”

Alistair’s smug grin showed just how much he seemed to care. “At least I would be spared of picking up the trail of dishes that seem to follow you around.”

“For the love of - they are my quarters! Mine! And I don’t want to hear about it when your bloody socks are constantly getting lost behind my sofa!”

Oh. Oh no. Nonononononono.

“My socks can go wherever they fucking want to, when I am constantly cleaning your disgusting whiskers out of the sink!”

“You know what would fix you having to clean whiskers out of the sink? I could just stop shaving altogether. How about...that…” Arthur trailed off and very slowly turned toward the three of us behind my desk with a look of dawning horror.

And I tried. I really, really tried not to laugh. I could feel my face reddening, my chest aching with the effort of holding it in.

Hannah’s snort was my undoing. As soon as that tiny noise escaped her, all three of us erupted into hysterical, stomach-cramping, tearful laughter. I felt stabbing in my arm as Parvati dug her nails in, trying desperately not to fall. Unfortunately for her, Hannah grabbed me at the same time and all three of us toppled to the floor. The sight of Arthur rolling his eyes and crossing his arms only made me escalate from laughing to shrieking in hysterics and relief.

I couldn’t speak for the other two ladies, but I thought the two men were going to end up killing each other… At no point did I think they took the other option when I told them to either fight it out or….

I gasped for breath, trying to get myself under control. Wobbling to my feet with the help of my trusty desk and a couple yanks to free my shirt from Parvati’s desperate clutching, I pointed between them. “This… how long? Can’t believe… didn’t figure it out.”

“Not everyone is as… public… as you, Conor, and Maverick are,” Arthur snarked at me. “You know, private lives should be private and all that?”

“Must be for you,” I confided in Alistair’s direction, where he had turned his back to our fit. “He’s never not told me when he was dating someone. Or thinking of dating someone. Or potentially interested in seeing if he was interested in dating someone… Best friend privileges and all that.” While I waited for Alistair to respond, my mind whirled through all the things I had brushed off before but were very obvious in retrospect.

Glancing at Arthur for a hint yielded nothing but a flat stare that all but declared in flashing lights You Aren’t Stupid.

I tilted my head at that, and kept thinking. There had been genuine animosity on Alistair’s side in the beginning, and not a small amount of needling on Arthur’s. So I knew it wasn’t something that had always been going on. My mind came to a screeching halt, however, when I remembered something - the day Alistair, Tyche, and I decided that, when I vacated my position on the Council, they would vacate roles as well to leave behind a ‘clean slate’. “Four years, holy shit,” I gasped. “Four years!?”

Finally, Alistair moved. His back was still to us, but his arms went limp by his sides, and his head dropped down toward the floor. “It would be unseemly to have the new Councilor of Education in a relationship with the attache to the Councilor for Resources and Engagement. Or formerly in a relationship, should things not end well.”

“And since he won’t be taking his position until we are on Von,” I put together, “You are okay to serve out the rest of my term, just not Hannah’s or Parvati’s.”

“Correct.”

“Huh. That makes sense,” I admitted before hopping up to sit on my desk, the chair being a lost cause on the other side of two women who were still sniffling and giggling on the floor. “I learned a lot today.”

“Uh huh,” Arthur confirmed drily. “And it had better stay in this office.”

“What?” I managed a pretty convincing confused face before pretending to realize what he meant. “Oh! The relationship thing. Yeah, cool, whatever. That’s not what I was talking about, but you’re good.”

“Dare I even ask what you meant?” Alistair ventured, finally turning around so that he could give me a warning look.

“Uh, isn’t it obvious?” I asked, shaking my head and spreading my hands, palms up. When they both just stared at me, I finally broke and grinned. “Dude. You two are freaking slobs.”

The squeaking noises coming from the vicinity of my feet told me that no further work would be getting done for the rest of the day.

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