#hopefully there's someone out there that are into reading scripts

[yukicustos]

So, I did a little something. I had been writing for too long by now and it is time to have some of my stuff see the light of the day.

'Wild Bluebird' is a imaginary studio for my scripts and the first one with the spotlight on is 'Indigo Heart' based on Teen Wolf series, and for you, yes, you! Who's in love with Thiam like an awful amount. Give it a try. I know it's a little a bit off the usual.

A script, like literally, I had read some movies scripts. I love the vibes, my writing, projects fits the format and I would love to sharp this as much as I can. I bet you can also imagine I am not a native, but I am aiming to become a pro anyways.

About

‘TEEN WOLF: Indigo Heart’ Script. Genre: ‘Action, Fantasy, Drama. Theo Raeken is having dreams about Liam Dunbar, and his new endeavor as a dancer, but there’s much more about this to be only about channeling his anger. In a potential reality, where they found out what’s turning their Werewolf eyes into an Indigo color, and why it is related to the states of dreaming. They face sumeric demons, venturing themselves in babylonian rituals with an upcoming pressage of a new uncontrollable force onto Beacon Hills fate. Where does Liam fits in all this? He’s the center of it, and Theo can feel it. Written in Script format, meant to follow the events after the Hunters ‘Teen Wolf Season VI.’

The arc is inspired in the very concept of me imagining Liam finding dancing to be his way through managing this energy called: anger issues. Which parallels rituals(also me, because well it works from actual experience), states of consciousness and all that good stuff about the 'Supernatural' that makes double meaning to 'Spiritual'. And of course a new mythological being for them to deal with, the Hellcat*cough, cough* Meghan Fox face claim *cough*

Here's the Trailer Concept from WB youtube channel:

The link for download is the 'WB SCRIPTS' website page right here,

[sugaredrhubarb]

A QUICK GUIDE TO AO3 CUSTOMIZATION FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT CODING

ft adding pink to everything and my secret to writing long comments

note: I originally posted this to twt but if that place burns in a fiery pit I spent too long on this for it to disappear, so I'm putting it here too :)

so many people know way more about this than I do, but this is a step-by-step walkthrough of the changes *I've* made, and hopefully it works as an introduction people can build from for whatever they'd like to do

There are a lot of images in this post! (click to enlarge)

to start, AO3 skins

site skins change how the AO3 website appears when logged in (even on mobile), mine is pink and blue!

I'll have my skin turned off throughout the post so the guides appear as they will for you

to create, edit, and view skins, go to the "skins" tab from the left-hand menu. you can also view public site skins from there or from the button in the preferences.

public site skins are made by other users. i would really encourage previewing and exploring them to become familiar with the possibilities (maybe you just want to use one of them and now you're done!)

to create your own skin

on the skins page, click "create site skin"

if you don't know CSS (same), use the wizard! clicking on the "?" will give more information about each option

I only use the colours section you'll see a link right there for hex codes I use pink as a header colour and bue for accent but lots of people change the background colour and that looks really cool!

submit

The next step is to add CSS from a public skin to your own. I use "ByLine" by Branch. this separates the tag categories and adds spacing to make them easier to read.

here is a before and after using the fic "Landslide" by @roosterbruiser as an example

to see the CSS of a skin, click the title

copy all the text below the CSS heading

in the skin creator/editor press the custom CSS option and paste all the text into the CSS box

you can have both wizard and custom CSS settings, in mine you can see the header and accent colours as well as the CSS

level up: USERSCRIPTS

userscripts are small pieces of code that modify a website. for AO3, this may involve adding shortcuts and buttons or even advanced tagging functions (computer people, I'm so sorry if this is wrong, I'm trying). I use Greasy Fork and Tampermonkey.

This is how I write long and formatted comments!

Greasy Fork is an archive of userscripts and Tampermonkey is a browser extension and userscript manager. You don't need to use these two in particular. please use your common sense when downloading anything or adding permissions to your browser.

Greasy Fork guide on installing fics

Install Tampermonkey on Chrome

there are TONS of user scripts for AO3. This is another good opportunity to explore all the possibilities. there are lots of more complicated options I haven't explored.

scripts for AO3

i use this floaty review box

and this comment formatting

EDIT: if you use chrome you might need to turn on developer mode in your chrome extension manager - you can google "tampermonkey developer mode" and it should explain that :)

to install (once you have Tampermonkey installed):

open the script you want in Greasy Fork and press install

Tampermonkey will open, press install again

clicking the Tampermonkey extension will let you toggle scripts on and off, and opening the dashboard will let you view, edit, and delete scripts

i find i can only have a few turned on at a time before they cancel each other out, but that depends on which ones you're using and someone more savvy might be able to fix that

how to use the floaty review box - write more comments!

there will now be a "floaty review box" button at the top of the work, it will open a floating text box you can move anywhere on the page. highlighting any text and pressing the insert button will paste the text with italics into the box

anything you type in the review box will appear in your comment at the bottom of the page!

if you have also installed the comment formatting script, you'll be able to highlight any text in your comment and use the new buttons above the comment box to format it

thats all ive got! Hopefully this is a good starting point to get familiar with some of the terms and basics for skins and scripts <3

if you want some inspo for how to comment on fics i made a whole fic rec list on twitter based on comments I've left, it's here. i have a masterlist of recs there mostly for darklina/reylo and similar ships.

the tag #reading with ru has cod recs and me talking about books

:)

[ssentimentals]

Hi would like to request joshua + suggestive prompt #29 plsss. Tq!!

hello again! :) thank you for requesting 💜 hopefully you’ll like it!

suggestive prompt: 'more.'

it was very hard to keep a straight face when joshua was announced as your partner. it was very hard to look at him and smile, act like your heart wasn't about to jump out of the chest right into his hands. it was very hard to read your part, memorize it, go on rehearsals with joshua there. it was all very hard but nothing could prepare you for the day of last scene rehearsals.

'alright, good job. it's time for the kiss scene, ready?'

no you want to scream, but nothing leaves your mouth. logically, you know that this means nothing. you studied acting, this is just yet another play, joshua is just a fellow actor. and you're so lucky with him, because he is so nice. always polite, never late and never not prepared, very caring and thoughtful towards you and whole crew. so yeah, maybe you have a small crush on him but again, it means nothing. just a kiss, you repeat on your mind, when joshua steps closer, saying his lines perfectly, just a kiss. joshua leans in and you startle a bit, when his hands cup your face gently, because this gesture is not on the script. 'may i?' joshua whispers only for you to hear.

'yes.' you breathe out right into his mouth.

it's not fireworks or earthquakes when you two kiss. it's more like- coming home. it's like taking a deep full breath after running for so long. it's like a relief that washes over you when you finally reach your destination. your gasps and little sounds are swallowed by his greedy mouth and then you hear someone clearing their throat and you lean back, breaking the connection. joshua's eyes are unfocused and his gaze is hazy as he stares at you like he's seeing you for the first time.

'more.' he whispers - demands - and pulls you back.

and maybe you're supposed to fight it and remind him that there are people around, but you're helpless to do anything but kiss him back, rehearsals and audience be damned.

a/n: request your own here! <3 - nini

[screamting]

what r ur thoughts on reconciliation between jason and bruce. is it really possible? what would it take? what would it look like? seen some stuff on my dash lately about that particularly thorny issue and would love to get your perspective. (hopefully this is the kind of ask ur looking for)

(you are FINE this is going to be the bane of my fandom career) 

So realistically we're not going to see Jason reconcile with Bruce because a) everybody loves angst b) no one is talking about the ISSUE. 

The ISSUE is not the murder thing. Like. The murder thing doesn't help but it isn't the root; killing people is something Jason decided to start doing because it was something Bruce is extremely firm on. He stands by the 'no murder' thing even when his own life and the lives of others are in danger. He stands SO firmly by it, that if you break that rule maybe you can break the entire foundation of Batman, which is that things are never so far gone they can't be redeemed. Gotham is never so far gone it isn't worth trying to repair. We are not cutting the rot away we are building an environment which no longer collapses into rot around us, even if it is gross, demeaning, dangerous work. 

If Bruce killed the Joker in Under the Red Hood I think Jason would have been lost forever. Because it would've been proof that Bruce's most fervent beliefs meant nothing. If Bruce's hardest promise, that he would not kill, was broken so easily, then what does that mean about all his other promises? All the promises that he loved Jason and would never send him away? If his hardest promise can be broken, do those easy promises even stand a chance? 

I think the issue is and always will be: Did you love me? Do you love me still? 

All those posts about coming back wrong and unlovable, and what if I was unlovable the whole time and it was just that I can't even be bothered to pretend anymore? That's Jason Todd. He crawled his way out of his own grave an open wound and he is trying to convince himself that he's doing fine while actively bleeding. I feel insane reading some of the discourse because it's talking about Jason from the pov of his disenfranchisement and that as driving him in Red Hood and like. No! Jason is disenfranchised, he was failed by the systems, absolutely; I do not fucking believe he is doing any of this for people like him. He is saying things that validate his pain because he cannot deal with the enormous amount of pain he is in. He died and came back to life. He did it in a way people don't know or understand, or via Lazarus pit, which people condemn. I think to resolve things they'd need a god damn religious discussion to even start with, to ask Jason if he thinks anything that has died and come back to life can ever be good, or if it's just him. 

I think he must have had self-loathing and insecurity built up before his death and it Exploded when he came back to life several years later and saw from the out side people attempting to move on. This is not a victim blame because of course he had self-loathing and insecurity, he was a kid with a difficult childhood and you need at least five years to a decade to start feeling like someone else, who maybe has confidence and certainty. I think being Robin let him borrow confidence, and so like, probably did feel great! He had a script and a role to fill and he was given a lot of practice to do it!

I think part of the problem is that post-resurrection is Jason has to figure out who he is for the first time again, even older now. He lost some of his teen years in figuring things out. He has the life experiences of a 14 year old and then training under assassins and then like. Drug lord?? For a bit?? 

Jason is not fighting for the disenfranchised. He is trying to figure out who the hell he is and is bouncing around so many teams and timelines and shit that all already know him and know him as the dead kid that I think for him and Bruce to make up, like. He probably needs to have a job?

Not for money necessarily, because like. The Wayne fortune is right there. But I think he needs to go somewhere, with a schedule, for like at least six months in a row, and have something low stakes dependent on him. Like a dog or something. Maybe get involved in local theater. Take the dog to dog training twice a week and teach small children acting in the afternoons. 

And once a week or whenever they feel like it Bruce and Jason can have a phone call, and Jason can bring up what's happening at the theater and how the dog is, and Bruce can talk about Wayne Corp shit. 

And if Jason learns from dog time about someone who is mistreating an animal or a partner then like maybe he goes and steals a dog or tells someone to come stay over at his house for a while and gives them some cash. And after he does something rash he still needs to come back to his apartment and feed the dog and show up to the theater the next day. 

I think he needs to see the world around him when it ISN'T homelessness and assassins guilds and running out into the streets at night looking for trouble. 

'but you haven't addressed anything for bruce to do' for Bruce to have to do anything we first need to get jason at the table. 'bruce beat jason in x comic/brainwashed him into an overactive fear response/almost certainly also something else' 

1. i'm choosing to say besides the throat thing that people hate (bc I get that. Bruce needs to say 'yes I was panicking and my writer was being dramatic I'm sorry' ) bruce doesn't beat his kids or any rogues in general once they're at a point they're no longer trying to kill/hurt anyone either. 

2. tbh I think the anxiety brainwashing is facinating and definitely something Bruce might have thought about but making it and using it is fully in 'I was also having a 3 day long mental breakdown' territory. However since Jason put a lot of heads in a duffle bag during HIS mental breakdown I think this might again be within 'yeah that was fucked up I'm sorry about that' territory.

Honestly I wish that Jason had gone to Bruce after the Selina 'making thieves pay 15% to charity' thing and they had just had the BIGGEST bitching fest about it with each other.  I think that, faster than literally any amount of relaxation and therapy, would have gotten them back on the same side. They need to get in a room together and just. Bitch about it. Jason saw the WORST adaptation the other day. Bruce is dealing with the MOST stuck up prick at the board meeting. 

Before they can fix anything they need to remember why they even loved each other. If they feel it again maybe they'll work to save it. But no one is going to fix a relationship where it feels like an obligation for a feeling you aren't sure even exists anymore.

[recoord]

More thoughts on supporting GO S3

I will always be grateful to GO for giving me comfort in troubling times, but now I find it difficult to support a new season of the series that mainly benefits an alleged perpetrator.

Five credible sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman and he's still capable of successfuly releasing another project under his name. Season 3 being released helps him to keep his status as a lucrative creator in the entertainment industry and this helps him to conserve the power that has allowed him to get away with it for so long. His PR team has been making a great work burying the news about the allegations and sadly people hyping Good Omens season 3, without mentioning the allegations, inadvertendly helped on this as well.

However, my opinion will not determine the future of the season. We could assume that Amazon has already invested a lot in the production to just abandon it, so the second best thing would be to ask Amazon to fire Gaiman, he could secretly keep working on the series and the scripts were mainly written by him (the actors and everyone involved will voice Gaiman's words, ugh), and the series will be promoted undeniably mentioning him as one of the creators (I'm sorry for the victims having to hear people praising his name everywhere once again :c), but luckily the news about the allegations would also spread further, more people would come to know about the dangers of Gaiman's predatory behaviour and he would see some consequences.

I still think that cancelling the season would be the best case scenario, but firing him resoundingly and making the reasons for his dismissal heard far and wide might be a reasonable middle ground.

This is just my opinion, but I understand that at the end of the day it's an individual decision whether or not to support the third season.

I'm just going to ask everyone to please reflect on the power Gaiman gains from the projects that are released under his name (not just financially).

Thanks to everyone who has spoken up about the SA accusations even if it hurt to learn that someone who helped create such beloved stories ended up doing so much damage as well.

Here there is a great post that presents actions that fans can take in support of firing Gaiman, still having Season 3, and not ignoring that the allegations exist.

(Petitions, extra steps, etc.)

Thanks a lot to the creator of the card!

Update:

It has been confirmed that both Gaiman and his own production company are out of the project, thanks to everyone who supported his dismissal!

The changes made for the GO final serve as a message to the creators and everyone abusing of their power:

If you harm people, it will not be without consequences for you and the things you profit from financially and professionally.

Power to the victims. They were brave enough to share their stories. You will never be forgotten.

Scarlett, K, Claire, Caroline, Julia, Courtnee...

Still sceptical about supporting the victims? I recommend reading:

Staying neutral until Neil Gaiman is convicted by the courts?

Falling Safes (I very much recommend reading this one)

Here there is a great summary of the available sources (Podcasts links, transcripts, etc.): Credits for the round up to Muccamukk.

Thank you to all those who continue to speak out about the allegations and do not let the voices of the victims fall into oblivion.

[skele-bunny]

Thinking about College AU Terzomega....

CW - Teacher/Student, all are consenting adults!!

Terzo is one of the few Emeritus siblings that works at the college. Theater and theater make-up! Very big in the arts studio and occasionally drops by the other departments where his siblings are. Omega, a senior getting his medical degree, two very different departments that only met as he was staying after in one of professor Primo's class to finish a test he was absent for when Terzo showed up.

Hearing him babble on about his own students, something about a new pallet destroyed. Omega just... Can't help but keep looking up at him, locking eyes one too many times. Omega finishing up his test and turning it in, smiling and thanking both professors and leaving, only for Terzo to follow him after.

"Hopefully he's not pulling your leg too much, hm?"

"Oh, uhm, no, Sir."

Terzo just babbling before finally turning, offering a card. "There's auditions happening in a couple weeks for The Glass Menagerie. You should consider it." Eyes him a little bit. "Hope to see you soon."

Omega just flushes a bit, watching him walk the opposite way, eyeing the card again. He just glances at the card before continuing on his way. For DAYS he's staring at the card, so glossy in black and gold, eyeing the number on it just as much. He's much, much too busy to really do this. He has tests bi-weekly, classes nonstop... But, why not? Give himself an outlet like he's been needing. Never been a theater kid, so why not a theater adult?

Calling the number, and it's picked up fairly quickly. "I-I was interested... About the auditions?"

Asked to meet in a few days, and eventually Omega is sitting awkwardly across from him. Terzo scrolling through his academics before agreeing, looking at Omega a bit more before reaching into his desk and pulling out a script for Jim.

"Just try it! Couldn't hurt."

Oh.

Oh he's terrible. Terzo listening with an eyebrow raised before reaching back in his desk and offering stagehand sign-ups.

"That bad, huh?"

"Oh, very much so. But I admire it! You gave it a try, so that's what important."

Omega laughs a bit and nods, reading over the new sign-ups, talking a bit back and forth but he can't help with his cheeks getting red as they keep talking. Terzo leans over some, smiling, head tilted.

"Would you like to get some coffee? We can discuss more about the responsibilities later, as I have some more people to go through today."

There's a bit of a blank stare before a nod, and personal numbers exchanged. When they meet, it's a bit awkward, but Terzo stays true to his word! Explaining each requirement, each job and his responsibilities.

"Heavy lifting will be required, of course... But someone of your stature?" Looks him up and down and Omega IMMEDIATELY goes red. "You'll be just fine."

It's not too bad, actually! Omega enjoys moving props, assisting the actors and getting to watch behind the scenes. Coffee meetings continue, and before Omega knows it, there's something else there. Something warm and comfortable. All it takes is him reaching forwards for a cautious hand hold after a few months.

There's a pre-performance party a week before the show, and Terzo is there just as bar patron but happily indulging with his class. Omega's never been one to bury himself in alcohol, but his nerves keep rising from classes and let alone the fact he's SO close to his new boyfriend who's also their professor... In front of everyone. It's embarrassing!

Wanna know what's kinda more embarrassing? Drunk rambling to your professor how much he's made you happy and you want to keep going.

What's even more embarrassing? Waking up in his bed.

Terzo settled so comfortably on his chest, Omega just staring at the ceiling as he tries to figure out what to do. He, eventually, settles on holding Terzo tighter, burying his face in dark hair and agreeing that the situation is a thing for not-hungover him to deal with. He just wants to spend time with his secret lover for a bit.

[swearyshera]

Thank you!

This may end up being a long, rambly post because I'm a little emotional. But bear with me.

I am so incredibly thankful for all the love you've sent this week, and it humbles me to realise how much this silly little parody blog meant to people. Thank you for reading, liking, reblogging, commenting, asking, going absolutely unhinged in the tags... I read them all, and they've spurred me to keep going through 32 months, over 5000 posts, 40GB of screenshots and the wildest, most brilliant time of my life.

I'd love to thank people individually, but there's so many of you that I would inevitably miss someone out and that seems unfair! But I will say a special thank you to the She-Ra Uncut team, who I'm proud to consider some of the greatest friends I've made through this fandom, and whether we make many wonderful things, or never make anything again, I hope we can consider each other friends for life.

(Sob story time, feel free to skip!) In 2015, I had a huge breakdown. I was off work for 8 months, in hospital for a week, had therapy twice a week for a year... It was fucking awful. And though I got better, I never really felt like I had a reason to, and that I was just treading water until the darkness came back with vengeance. Then, as She-Ra ended, I made some silly posts that ended up as Etheria Nine-Nine, which led me onto what would become Sweary She-Ra. I had no idea how much this would change my life.

The response to this blog led me to write a script for a She-Ra Uncut trailer, and I loved it. I wrote more and developed a love for the craft, that I wanted to continue. It became a joy, and gave me a dream for the first time I could remember. So I kept writing, I kept learning and improving. In September 2022, I was sat in the Lowry theatre in Salford surrounded by the laughter of an audience watching a play that I wrote. That was the most incredible feeling of my life.

And I wouldn't have had that without thinking "Catra should be allowed to say fuck".

So while, it may be over (and it was pointed out to me that Sweary She-Ra ran for longer than the actual show did!), it's hopefully not the end. I'm very keen to make an audio sequel if I can, maybe several, and I'm not going to disappear into the ether. And hey, I don't know what the future will bring.

But there is a future.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, everyone.

Alice.

(PS - Hi Crew-Ra, if you're reading this as I maybe suspect one or two of you may be. I am sorry but also not sorry, but also hire me when the strikes are over 😁. Thank you for making She-Ra, I love you!)

[technicolorfamiliar]

D O U B L E F E A T U R E !

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Dir. Robert Weine 1920 // Orlacs Hände (The Hands of Orlac) Dir. Robert Wiene 1924

I recently watched both, Caligari specifically because I was invited on a friend's podcast to talk about the film (I was totally normal about it and definitely didn't make color coded note cards about the making of the movie… I did, I did make color coded note cards). So I figured I would lump these two in one post to switch things up.

--- Even though we talked about the movie for an hour and change, the conversation we recorded for the pod easily could have gone longer. There's so much to unpack about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Between its historical, cinematic, artistic, and cultural significance and legacy, but also the various players on and off camera, not to mention the film's genesis from concept to page to screen -- there's no shortage of rabbit holes to go down.

Something I wish I had brought up during the recording was the score: The score matters! These updated silent film scores really do affect the viewer experience, and they're so often hit or miss. Of course, the original score for Caligari has been lost to time, but I read that the premier of in New York had classical music (Prokofiev, Stravinsky, etc) played along to the screening; part of me thinks this would be fun to try to recreate. I have no memory of the music when I first saw the film in 2009, but when I rewatched Caligari about a year ago, early in my Conrad Veidt journey, I chose a version on Internet Archive (which is, as of late October, sadly still out of commission *cries in nerd*) and the updated score was almost entirely minimal strings, which created a suitably eerie effect. I couldn't find that exact version elsewhere, so I this time opted for the 2014 restoration that's on Kanopy. The 2014 score is… fine. It’s very busy, trying too hard to sound like a traditional movie soundtrack. There's another version with a really painfully bad guitar-heavy score that I couldn't sit through even 5 minutes of, and still another that's entirely synths. Apparently the new 4K UHD/Blu-Ray that was just released has two new options for the score -- hopefully at least one of them doesn't totally suck!

I noticed deep into my third time viewing the film that I hadn't reached for my phone once. These days, I'll occasionally pick it up and mindlessly scroll through social media while watching a movie. But I think Caligari and a few other silent films require closer attention since they're a purely visual medium. I found myself greedily devouring every frame of Caligari. No shot or scene feels wasted. Honestly, I feel like every movie should be 90 minutes long or less. Anything longer should be turned into a miniseries. But in all seriousness, Caligari is another film I want to physically walk into. It would be pretty easy to recreate these sets, life size in grayscale black and white. The more I think about this, the more I need it. So, so bad.

I also came away this time with a lot of questions, mostly about the main part of the narrative, the story Franzis is telling. But the framing device makes the questions pointless. If the main story is just Franzis's delusion, then the absurdity of the script is totally fine I guess? Except the script that Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer wrote didn't have Franzis as a patient at the asylum, they hated the framing story twist that was forced on their movie, so all those weird parts of the script and character choices that I'm overthinking and reading too much into are rendered meaningless. It's all in Franzis's head! The story and the characters in it don't matter! Or else are just part of his subconscious! Face palm. Eye roll.

Does the movie even work without the framing device? It would be interesting to show an edited version of the movie without the first and last scenes to someone who's never seen it. And if the twist ending was supposed to dumb down the anti-authoritarian message of the script, I don't know that it's successful. In the end, I still have empathy for Franzis. And we still have an ambiguous ending: Caligari/The Asylum Director looks at Mad Franzis and says, "I know just how to cure him," and there's a creepy iris wipe in on Werner Krauss's face that maybe leads us to think Franzis isn't as delusional as we think he is. So like… even if the whole Dr. Caligari with his sleepy twink in a box story is fake, whatever is happening at the asylum is probably just as messed up if not worse.

Speaking of the twink in a box, I love that Conrad Veidt's German Expressionism is totally different from Werner Krauss's German Expressionism. They both trained and performed with Max Reinhardt, so their foundations as theater actors in the 1910s and 1920s were likely similar. But, regardless or in spite of that shared experience, they are diametrically different human beings and that comes across in their performances in this movie. These two actors are like the textbook definition of "showing" your art vs. "being" your art. Krauss as Caligari is like "ooOOOoo look how ooky spooky and evil I am!", whereas Connie's performance as Cesare, even though it's hyper-stylized, is infused with something deeper, something primal that feels believable in the context of the film.

If Cesare has been asleep his whole life, waking only to be fed Chunky Campbell's Soup and commit murder at Caligari's bidding, then no wonder he reacts the way he does when sleeping Jane finally brings him out of his trance. When she freaks out, he freaks out too because he's had no opportunity to learn how to behave like a human or how to filter his primal emotions in a socially acceptable way. He hasn't lived his life except to be a madman's puppet. He reacts to Jane's panic on instinct and impulse, his desire and fear feel feral, like he's more creature or an animal than a human man. He may not actually want to hurt Jane, but he reacts violently because fight or flight is a basic human stress response! He runs away and eventually collapses because his body can't handle the sudden onslaught of stress and emotion he's never before experienced! And this internal, instinctual tendency to violence is subtly alluded to in the final scene when Asylum Cesare both caresses and slowly picks apart the flowers he's holding. Ahhhhh, I have so many FEELINGS.

And that said… Connie's performance here is wild, but it's real in a way that Werner Krauss's work could never be because Connie was a spiritual humanist who cared deeply for others and Krauss was an anti-semitic piece of shit who therefore could NEVER dig deep enough into his soul or into the collective unconscious the way Connie did to breathe life into his characters. So everything Krauss is doing here and in The Student of Prague is all surface, it's "showing" the audience his training and his actor toolbox rather than bringing a level of honesty and in-the-moment groundedness to these roles.

This is not to say Connie's intense commitment to his work couldn't be, uh, excessive. I really hope Lil Dagover was being serious when she said he would lurk around the studio in character when off camera. Can you imagine? You go up to the craft services table for a snack. Suddenly you feel like you're being watched. You look up and he's looming over you in the shadows, his unblinking glazed eyes boring into your soul. God, I hope this happened and I hope whoever it happened to peed themselves a little.

I also wish we had a behind the scenes photo of Connie in costume with the Cesare dummy. I can't believe someone actually had to make that prop. It'll haunt me forever. (The 1920 Cesare Dummy isn't real, the 1920 Cesare Dummy can't hurt me.)

Bottom line: It's an important film, I appreciate it for both its timelessness and timefullness. But it's not a movie I need to revisit often, regardless of how enchanting Connie's nostril acting may be.

---

The first time I watched The Hands of Orlac, I was floored by the visuals, the staging, and the heavy eroticism. Up until that point, I hadn't seen very many silent films, certainly few as visually striking. I think my initial impressions of this film were somewhat muted on a second watch, but that may just because I knew what to expect.

This time, I wasn't as swept up in the magic of silent era German Expressionist cinema, although stylistically I'm still absolutely 100% obsessed. Art direction wise, this is my favorite between the surviving Wiene-Veidt films (I haven't seen Furcht and I don’t plan to). Orlac is like the darker, sexier, more grown up sister to Caligari's mall goth teen. It's Vampira vs Lydia Deetz.

Orlac is just as much if not more of a cinematic feat than Caligari. The production design and art direction alone feels more mature and in itself tells more of a story.

Very early in the film, we're thrown into a very impressive, very realistic train crash. Opening the movie this way was a really interesting choice -- we don't get to meet the characters before the accident that starts Paul and Yvonne Orlac on their doomed and bizarre trajectory. There is a brief establishing scene of Yvonne reading a really horny letter from her husband, and one of pianist Paul at his final concert before returning home. Then there's a very long sequence of the aftermath of the train crash that almost kills Paul, and this scene brings a level of realism you don't really get in other films of this genre/done in this style. The set construction looks expensive; the mangled train cars piled up in heaps may have been fabricated in the studio, but because of the lighting in the night scene, the billowing smoke from passing locomotives and fires from the crash, it looks pretty damn real for 1924. It's extremely effective and harrowing, especially as Yvonne races to the site of the crash and climbs through the wreckage to try to find her husband. The chaos of the scene, made all the more disorienting by the movement of search lights and the haze of smoke and steam, feels true to life. People are running around, pulling bodies from the ruined train cars, carrying them away on stretchers. Survivors look around dazed, clutching their belongings in shock. It's such a well directed moment in the film, but maybe not the first thing people remember about it. And I think it's inclusion is important because it offsets how weird the movie's about to get.

And boy, does it get weird. However, the doctor does say Paul suffered a skull fracture, so it's not a huge stretch to think he also has some kind of brain injury. So I wonder if that has something to do with how the filmmakers chose to show Paul's intense fear and paranoia, as well as the movie's shift in tone and style after his accident. The nightmarishness of the film, from the exaggerated performances to the set design, feels like an extension of whatever might be going on in Paul's head as a result of his injury.

Regardless, I love the choices the art director made. The set, especially the Art Deco mausoleum the Orlacs have for a home, is so perfect. The huge, cavernous rooms are completely unnecessary, but they make the characters look and feel so helpless, like dolls in a doll house. The lines of the walls and the furnishings draw the eye through the frame with just as much intention as the painted sets of Caligari. Even places outside their house become symbolic and iconographic. The news stand is just a window cut out of a massive wall of loose sheets of newspaper that takes up the entire frame. The interior of Orlac Sr.'s house is like a old, drafty castle, looking more like the home of an evil, miserly king. The tavern where Paul is confronted by Nera feels dank and subterranean, just a lamp or two removed from literal catacombs. The outer world is fully a reflection of poor Paul Orlac's inner torment and despair and I AM LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

The new music composed by Paul Mercer is perfect, too. It's all skronky violins and cellos, ominous percussion and piano. It's just atmospheric enough, creating moments of soundscapes, echoing footsteps, aural suggestions of the oppressive cave-like rooms where the story unfolds. There aren't really any memorable themes like in the updated score for The Student of Prague, but that works for this movie. I would buy this soundtrack and actually listen to it on its own, it's that good.

Everyone in the ensemble is basically on the same page in terms of acting style, no one feels out of place or miscast. Connie of course steals the show, but Alexandra Sorina as Yvonne gives him a run for his money. She's a good match for him, delivering an appropriately desperate and hysterical (and deeply, deeply horny) performance as the touch-starved wife. Their scenes together are maybe some of the best on screen romantic moments of Connie's silent film work because these two are wildly hungry for each other. This movie is so funny, it tells you immediately how horny it is; in the first 30 seconds of the movie, Yvonne gets a letter from Paul that says, "I will feel your body beneath my hands," like they're telling you straight up this is going to Horn Town. And the way she grabs at him, presses her open mouth to him, hovers over him in his hospital bed, she is DTF anywhere any time. And no shame, no shade, good for her. This is a sex positive film, and we love to see it. But she's not just the sexy wife, she's also totally ride or die for Paul. She truly trusts him and believes his absolutely buck wild story about being blackmailed by a dead psycho killer. What a gal.

Then there's Paul, aka Eraserhead Baby… because when he wakes up from surgery covered in bandages, he looks like the Eraserhead Baby. Connie is doing some of his finest nostril acting in this role, I have to say. As always, I am fascinated by his physicality and the choices he's making with movement and gesture. When his bandages are finally removed, he reacts as though drugged, his movements slow as though underwater or in a dream. And when he confronts his surgeon after discovering the original owner of his newly transplanted hands, he holds them out and away from his body as if they were coated in something dirty or disgusting. As Paul's life and sanity unravel, his hands and fingers are in almost constant motion, curling, twitching, clutching; his body language becomes more creature-like, moving in a way that calls up Cesare the sleepwalker -- interestingly, the two characters both seemingly at the mercy of forces outside their control.

We don’t get to know what Paul was like before the accident, how much this traumatic event changed him. There's something this movie is trying to say about trauma and how it affects people. The doctor tells Paul, "Nature and a strong will can overcome anything." But if Paul sustained any kind of serious brain damage, who’s to say his personality wasn't affected, or that he wasn't fragile and suggestible to begin with? Either way, in the wake of the accident, Paul's vulnerability and circumstance makes him a perfect target for Nera's grift.

Even without being targeted by a sick weirdo con artist, it's no wonder Paul's really going through it. He tortures and punishes himself relentlessly for something that wasn't his fault! (Been there.) He puts on a recording of one of his old concerts and crumples in grief for having lost not only his livelihood but also his outlet for creative expression -- not being able to do what you used to creatively because of trauma is REAL. He's trapped in his misery. Even his handwriting is different, now a violent scrawl he imagines is due to the murderous acts his hands supposedly committed. He secretly retrieves the planted murder weapon in order to further convince himself he's somehow become evil, wielding it as through he committed the crimes of the dead man whose hands now belong to him. And the scenes where Yvonne comes to him, wanting to both devour and comfort him, he cannot bring himself to touch her. Clearly they love each other very much and their relationship was very physical, so the agony and yearning in his face when she embraces him is UGH IT'S SO GOOD. It's heartbreaking. There's a lot to unravel here about trauma, body dysmorphia, and intimacy that I'm interested to dig into during subsequent viewings.

Final thoughts: There's an annoying part of my brain that wants the movie to make sense, for the timeline to be clearer, for loose ends to be tied up. But I know that none of that really matters because this movie is better received as a dream or a nightmare. And by that logic, it doesn't have to make sense. The Expressionist beats are being hit particularly hard, but the surreal quality allows the filmmakers and cast to get away with it. For fans of Conrad Veidt, this is a must-watch, even before Caligari -- he gets more screen time in this film, gets to play with his silent film artist's palette, and gets to do pathos like he's the king of tragic, pathetic characters. He's gangly, glassy-eyed, and trembling like a small wet dog the whole time and it's superb. Despite not really getting a chance to know the Orlacs before they're thrown into their own personal hell of body horror and credit debt, they're both pretty sympathetic. From psychological commentary to the erotic visuals and tension, it's all very ahead of its time.

[impactedfates]

“And Action!” - Various HSR Boys x GN! Reader (Modern School AU)

Summary: Getting the lead role in the play for school was one thing, but now your love interest in the play is your crush?? AND THERE’S A KISS SCENE????

Characters Included (Separate): Jing Yuan, Blade, Luocha, Welt, Dan Heng, Sampo, Gepard, Luka

Genre: Romantic + Fluff (hopefully lol)

Warnings: None (Well, this is debatbalty proof read if you wanna count that)

Extra: I swear I am not bias to certain characters, some characters were easier to write for then others for this prompt for me/srs // Reader is shorter or the same height to the males

Jing Yuan is probably one of the top 3 candidates for the lead role so you shouldn't be all too surprised when you found out he was going to be playing your love interest in the play.

What did surprise you however when you were reading your script, was the kiss scene. Your face heated up as you continued reading the lines, too concentrated on the words and actions to notice a sleepy pair of golden eyes peering over your shoulder.

"Then he leaned in and gave them a long sweet kiss"

Came a voice, reading out one of the lines of the script, your head whipped behind you, and you felt it heating up more as you stared at Jing Yuan, who was looking back with a sly smile.

"Hm, if we want the play to go on well, then we should practice no?"

He speaks, a teasing tone in his voice as he stared directly into your eyes.

Did he know you liked him...?

"How about it, want to practice now my dear?"

Oh he definitely knew.

.

.

.

"Jing Yuan, the plays over, we don't have to-"

He cut you off promptly, planting another kiss on your lips. As his hands lay rest on your waist. He let out a low chuckle as he leaned in, his face right beside your ear.

"Y'know...we didn't actually have to kiss for the scene, we could've just faked it...but this gave me a GREAT excuse to give you a lot of kisses"

How Blade managed to land himself as the lead role made many scratch their head. No one exactly doubted his acting abilities, they were willing to give him a chance it's just...the lead role he got was expected to be given to someone kind, charming and sweet...3 things Blade was not and no one could really see him as those as well.

No one could tell what he thought about it either, he had his usual expression on his face. But hey, at least he took his script and read through it with no problem right?

He actually read the script with you, and you both paused upon reading about the kiss scene.

"I think the director said that we don't have to do all scenes exactly, so we won't have to do this if we don't want too"

He speaks, looking away with the slightest blush. His grip on the paper seemingly tightening a bit before he glanced at you, leaning in to see your reaction to his next question.

"Which would you prefer? We fake a kiss or an actual kiss"

If I'm being honest, Luocha doesn't seem like the type to audition, at least voluntarily. If the school made it mandatory for everyone to audition he might get the role, mainly due to his looks.

However, if it was voluntarily auditions, I feel someone may have signed him up and he went to get it over with. In either case he didn't expect to get a big role, especially not one of the leads.

But now that he got it, he decided to just do it anyways. No harm done really. After he's done with reading the script and finds out he'd be able to kiss you, he seems happy enough to do the play, even if it ends up being fake. Being close to you is enough for him.

I actually see Welt and yourself being teachers in the school instead of students. You wanted to show the students the play that they'd be doing however...someone lost the CD you wanted to use. Welt was about to suggest to just look for it on the internet or even buy another one but...Himeko insisted that instead of that, the teachers should just re-enact the play. And in her words.

"It may give the students a confidence boost to try out"

Welt wanted to counter argue but gave in as Himeko seemed adamant about this idea. She was quick to assign you and Welt as the two leads of the play and as the two of you were practicing together, not knowing what to expect from the play. (Himeko chose it out and didn't tell anyone)

Your voices both died down as you saw the kiss scene laid out in words on the sheet.

"Himeko...surely we can fake the kiss?"

"C'mon Welt, we gotta make it realistic, you two have to kiss"

Welt was about to speak up about it when you intervened, stating it wasn't so bad and it was just one kiss right?

So he agreed, after it was recorded, Himeko showed the school and the students were rather surprised it was the teachers in the video instead, a collection of gasps was heard when they saw the kiss scene between you and Welt though.

Himeko simply laughed at the embarred faces of the two of you as she hid a certain CD in her bag.

Dan Heng probably wouldn't audition either. He'd much rather just watch on the side lines. However he was okay tagging along with March so she could audition.

When March saw you in the audition room she was quick to quietly urge Dan Heng to do so as well. Trying every thing in the book.

"You'll get to see them everyday! Well…when the play is in production"

"You might be able to get close to them"

"WHAT IF YOU GET THE LEAD ROLE AND THEY DO AS WELL SO YOU CAN KISS."

He shot down all her attempts though. As much as he imagined giving you a kiss, he didn't want to force you. Still...when March knows you two share mutual feelings with one another, she could not sit still.

Cue wingman March as she secretly signed Dan Heng up, and much to his annoyance, it seems he can't unsign himself up. He managed to get a lead part, much to his AND Marchs surprise (she was excited though once she found out you were the other lead)

Dan Heng, although he didn't want to do the play, he still took the time to read and memorize all his lines. He suggested to you that youse could fake the kiss scene. If you agree to fake it he will agree (ofc) and fake the kiss scene. You two do grow close after it even so.

HOWEVER, if you ask if you could actually do the kiss, he'd be surprised by agree. His kisses are soft and sweet :))

THEATRE KID ALERT/j

Sampo is the most dramatic person ever during the plays and even during the kiss scenes. At least at the start of practising, he does actually want the play to go on so he does eventually tone it down and properly act. He actually knows that the kiss scene could be faked, but he found out that you liked him and hey, he likes you as well, unless you show any form of being uncomfortable with the kiss scene, he'll happily do it with you.

Actually...after the successful 3 nights of the play, he might as well confess to you right? (This happens whether or not the kiss is faked)

Gepard is also definitely part of the top 3 best candidates for the lead role. He was happy to do it as well! Though when he found out about not only the kiss scene, but it was YOU he'd be kissing. He ended up internally panicking at the thought of kissing his crush.

Thankfully someone did tell him it could be faked so he did that, h o w e v e r.

During the first night that the play was officially opened up for showing, Serval who was also part of the act and even in the scene thought it would be a good idea to subtly push Gepard to ACTUALLY kiss you.

He could only thank the aeons that the curtains fell for the next scene. The play went on without any stops, you and Gepard were able to stop your blushing faces thankfully, but after the play Gepard was apologising so much as Serval was snickering nearby.

But hey, he can't blame his sister too much, he in fact got himself a partner, that being you :)

There's meant to be 3 in the top 3 candidates for the lead role, and who do I think the 3rd one is? Well Luka!

Luka is very enthusiastic about the role and cannot wait to practice, especially with you!

He read the kiss scene with you, not wanting to make you uncomfortable he opted to just faking the kiss. However he did ramble to his friends about wanting to actually kiss you...which you one day heard.

He's rather embarrassed but admits his feelings for you, this happens before the play is officially opened to the public, so after you two got together shortly after the not so planned confession, you decided to give each other sweet kisses not only in the scene but quick ones before you both were on :D

I had this idea in my head for awhile now, but never had the motivation to write it...until now :D

Posted right before school starts so hopefully you enjoy this while I’m suffering at school ♡

[trillscienceofficer]

from Cinefantastique Volume 28 #4-5, November 1996

KLINGON ENGINEER: Roxann Biggs-Dawson as B'Elanna Torres gives heart to the hard-working Maquis engineer.

By Anna L. Kaplan

A bedroom scene between B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) and Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) appeared in the second season VOYAGER episode, "Persistence of Vision." This scene provoked a very loud and negative response from fans. A surprised Biggs-Dawson laughed and said, "So many people gave me so much flak about that, as if I had written it. It was amazing, the letters, and the comments. Mostly the women really spoke out strongly against it, and felt that it was a weak cop-out. I totally disagreed with that."

In the episode, an alien was able to subdue the crew and put them into trance-like states by mind control, whereby each individual believed himself to be with someone extremely psychologically important. Tuvok, for example, joined his wife on Vulcan, while Tom Paris saw his father. B'Elanna, hard at work in engineering and determined to save the ship, found herself talking to Chakotay, apparently, who convinced her to stop work and join him. While she knew it was not really Chakotay, and said so, B'Elanna succumbed to the temptation.

Noted Biggs-Dawson, "I felt that the strength of that alien, the way he could get to us as humans, was that he understands the deep need, whether you're a Vulcan, or a half-Klingon or whatever, that we all have to love and to be loved. The things that would put us into those trances were those very deep needs. I think for B'Elanna, it wasn't a reflection of a direct attraction to Chakotay. He represents so much to her, a father figure, a mentor, her teacher, her coworker, and he is an attractive man. I think it was a desire to give in to a side that she does not give into easily, and that was what caused her particular trance. I don't think that necessarily means that he is always on her mind. It probably took her by surprise as much as it did the audience. It was more of a reflection of her need to please, to fulfill, all of these things are very real, very human.

"At [STAR TREK] conventions, a lot of people [were] feeling that the writers just felt that the only thing B'Elanna was about, was being in love with Chakotay. That wasn't what the message was at all. I didn't read it that way when I read the script. It did say something about all of the characters who succumbed to those needs of wanting to love and to be loved, those things that we shove away, and push away, and don't want to deal with." It is readily apparent that Biggs-Dawson thinks a lot about B'Elanna Torres and what makes her the person she is. She noted about the second season, "I think it's been interesting. I've had some interesting costars, one was a computer, and one was a mechanical man. I'm waiting for them to give me a real person to play off of." She laughed. "I keep joking. I had an episode last season where I played opposite myself, then opposite a machine, then opposite a machine with my voice. So it's obviously a theme. Hopefully [this] year I get to talk to a real person. The second season episodes the actress is referring to were "Prototype" and "Dreadnought." She noted more seriously, "When I saw both 'Prototype' and 'Dreadnought' they scared me a bit, because it was going to be difficult to pull off. I think the end result was that we found some interest- ing themes I didn't know were there in the beginning." In "Prototype" Torres repairs a robot whose creators are gone. The robot then wants her to make new robots. Biggs-Dawson observed, "So much of 'Prototype' was the only way B'Elanna could deal with her own mothering instincts and creation [instincts]. At this point in her development, probably the only way that she can confront her feelings and herself, is through the creation and adoption of a mechanical being, of a robot, and to be as excited about that as some people [are] about children or other kinds of creation."

In "Dreadnought" Voyager encounters a Cardassian missile whose computer Torres had reprogrammed when she was a Maquis, using her own voice for the computer. She has to stop it from destroying a highly populated planet. Said Torres [sic, the author meant Dawson], "'Dreadnought' was an interesting challenge because it was very much dealing with who B'Elanna used to be, confronting her former self. She was forced to see how much she had changed, and who she was at the time. She was forced to battle that in a very, very tangible way. That I found to be the most interesting: think I had most of my revelations when I went in to do the computer voice. As I was recording that side of the episode, later on, there was a real sense of growing to understand who I was before, who B'Elanna was who was actually programming all that stuff into the computer."

Biggs-Dawson likes B'Elanna Torres. She said about B'Elanna, "She makes mistakes. I love that the writers allow her to be flawed and fallible. I think that's what makes her so interesting. So often on television you have these characters that are playing all good or all evil, and they battle it. Here you've got this character that is a little bit of both, which I think we all are. Her decisions and her struggles, what makes them so human, in a way, [is that] there is often not a definite right and a wrong. There's a lot of gray area in there, and I think that's where B'Elanna lives." Biggs-Dawson has some ideas about how to explore her character, but hasn't yet approached the show's producers or writers to discuss them. "We can say whatever we want, whether anything's ever done about it, that's another story," she said, laughing. "They're very open to listening to us. I actually haven't felt the need to discuss the future of my character with them at all, because I feel like so far they've been very much in line. It's only been in the last few weeks that I've had some desires or thoughts that I might want to approach them about. But it's really been the first time in this two year process that I might want to go to them and say, 'Why don't we look at this side of her character. We want to explore this.' I think in the beginning, they hand you a character. They know so much more about this character than you do. Now it's been two years and she's starting to meld vith me. I think they understand that. As we play these characters, we start to almost take them, and they become ours, and our insights mean that much more."

The versatile and talented Biggs-Dawson, who played Diana in A Chorus Line on Broadway, has film credits which include DARKMAN II and GUILTY BY SUSPICION, and has appeared on such television shows as MATLOCK, THE UNTOUCHABLES, and POINTMAN. As B'Elanna Torres in VOYAGER, she hopes to inspire and teach, something that has always been possible on a STAR TREK series. She speculated about the future on VOYAGER, "It's important, as relationships develop, and I hope they will, that being a strong woman doesn't mean that you can't have a partner, or you can't show romantic feelings toward the opposite sex. I think that the rules have to be redefined. To think that in order to be strong you have to be alone the rest of your life is kind of frightening, and I hope that STAR TREK will be at the forefront of showing a new kind of woman, who will redefine the love relationships between male and female. I'd like to see that."

But facing the hiatus before third season, she is ready for some time off, which she said she will use, "Mostly to relax. I've go a few conventions, and a couple little vacations planned. But I think mostly to relax, it goes by so quickly."

[wafel1160]

Chapter 3 of my Catday fic, “stay with me”

Chapter 1, 2, 3,

“Alright everyone! The first day of filming. “ A cheerful voice stated. The cat squinted his eyes at the bright lights. Catnap yawned as he leaned on Dogday. The dog laughed. “ Hey catnap!” Catnap smiled. He loved waking up to Dogday’s sunshine voice.

“Good thing you mostly sleep in the script.“

Dogday chuckled to himself.

“My sleepy kitty” Dogday teased.

Catnap smiled while still struggling to open his eyes. “The script?” Dogday nodded and went to pick up the script, exposing the scars on his belly. Catnap continued to stare as his tail twitched.

“Alrighty you kinda just follow the group and lay down all the time, but you have a couple

of lines.“ Dogday flips through the pages.

Catnap tried to distract himself with conversation. “You memorize the script?” Dogday put a hand on his head. “I know. I know. But since it’s our first episode, I want everything to be perfect. “ Dogday moved his paws in a sudden way. Catnap turned his head in intrigue at dogdays gestures.

“Oh right! “Dogday shot up. ”Catnap gotta leave- but remember to read the script. We meet in the studio at 10. “ Dogday waved as he ran towards the other critters rooms.

The cat stared blankly at the door, then he looked down at the script. Catnap groaned as he put his paws on his face.

This was going to be his new life.

* * *

That was his life, for over a decade. But something very much changed, from just one interaction.

Catnap suddenly woke up from his dream by Dogday’s voice.

“Goooood morning!” Everyone groaned at Dogday.

“More sleep please-“ Catnap mumbled under his sleeping bag. “Nope! We have a field trip today!”

Hoppy’s ears perked up. She quickly sat up. “A field trip!!!”

Now everyone was rubbing there eyes any yawning, eager to hear the news.

“We’re finally going to the orphanage! Can you imagine playing with kids, making them happy with just your presence?” Dogday closed his eyes in thought.

“That sounds noisy.” Catnap spoke and everyone looked over to him.

“Looks like someone’s grumpy” Kicken mumbled to Bubba causing everyone to snicker.

“Sorry to make you annoyed everyone, but we do have to get ready.” Dogday said, realizing the time. “C’mon Catnap! You can stay with me, cuz I’ll make sure nothing happens. “ Catnap watched as Dogday made a signal with his hand once more.

Catnap had gotten used to his different language. He tried asking Dogday, but Dogday didn’t know why he did them either.

“Okay” Catnap smiled in defeat. Dogday gently took his hand.

“Can you lovebirds hurry up?” Bobby smirked. Everyone laughed. Crafty just smiled.

“But we’re not birds?” Dogday said, tilting his head in confusion. Catnap glared at her, as his face turned red.

“Oh speaking of love, “ Bobby chimed. “Do you think I can meet the one?” She put her hands together and closed her eyes.

Catnap rolled his eyes at the sudden topic shift.

“Yeah right, no one believes in love at first sight. “ Hoppy said chuckling. She looked the other way nervously.

Bobby pouted, “ well a girl can dream!”

“I’m sure you’ll find who you’re looking for,” Dogday said despite not knowing what she meant. He put a hand on Bobby’s shoulder.

“Hopefully I won’t end up like Catnap” Bobby groaned at the possibility.

“I don’t want to spend another second with you guys” Catnap grabbed his things and stomped out the house.

“Guess I’ll have to deal with that later” Dogday shook his head. He was about to ask Bobby what she meant, but he had gotten interrupted by Kicken.

“What were the other experiments again?” Kicken asked putting on his backpack.

“Kicken- don’t” Dogday paused.

“I don’t know all of them, but I do remember seeing a huge fluffy blue creature. It was so cool!” He said trying to distract from the fact that they are experiments. All of them.

The room was silent.

“Is everyone done?” Catnap yelled from outside. His tone layered with impatience.

The rest of the critters all ran out of their small house.

“I still can’t believe we’ve never gotten to seen them, through all our years in this empty studio” Hoppy stated. Fourteen years to be exact.

Dogday nodded. “I guess so- Oh! The staff is here. “Dogday said, his tail started wagging.

“Alright everyone, single file line. “ An older woman stated as another worker clipped a chain to all the critters.

When she put it on Catnap, he hissed.

“You don’t want to get electrified do you?” She said, holding up a taser to threaten him.

He glared at her before calming down.

He watched as she walked away, sticking his tongue out.

Dogday laughed. He then silently prayed to himself, hoping the trip will go well.

They all followed the older lady as she held onto the leash that connected them.

When they had finally walked away from all the rooms filled with filming equipment, they were met with something- different.

“What is that?” Kicken said in disbelief.

In front of them was a huge vehicle.

“It’s called a train Kicken”

Bubba said, trying to sound nonchalant, but he was pretty excited too.

Dogday’s tail began to wag as the doors open.

Crafty giggled. “Your tail is tickling me!” She stated. Dogday turned his head to give her an apologetic smile. “Hehe. Sorry” She chuckled.

Catnap clenched his jaw as he watched from the back.

They all watched in awe as the big doors opened. The inside was filled with bright colors.

Dogday quickly ran inside once the lady gave them the okay.

“Dogday slow down!” Picky yelled as they all got dragged. He ran straight to the window.

They all sat in the row of seats.

The two ladies got and the older one went to the train engine.

The one that was left to watch, turned on a tv located on the ceiling.

On the other side of the train, a mysterious bright pink figure watched from far away. “Do you know who they are?” She asked to seemingly no one. “The animal

experiments. “ A contorted voice stated.

“Oh” Her bright green eyes widened.

The critters had finally gotten to the point where they saw the playcare. They all looked out the window.

Dogdays ears perked up as he heard the last line from the tv. “For what gives life its meaning, if not a smile.” He smiled to himself, looking around the train. He spotted a pouty catnap.

He laughed to himself at the irony. He would say something, but he didn’t want anyone to hear there conversation.

Instead he made more hand motions.

Catnap only looked at him puzzled.

Dogday never knew why he’d think Catnap would understand him.

Dogday was suddenly jerked. The train had come to a stop.

The lady that sat across them got up and unclipped the long leash that was connected to their collars. All except Catnaps.

When the door opened, Dogday felt his head spin with possibilities.

None of the smiling critters moved yet. They were all waiting on Dogday.

Suddenly he jolted out of the cart and raced towards the entrance.

Tye critters all laughed as they followed behind.

They waited at the big gate. The sounds of children laughing filled the air. It slowly opened and they all ran in.

Catnap walked to the door.

He wanted to join Dogday, he wanted to join them.

The woman holding the leash started tugging on it. “C’mon kitty. “

Catnap felt his fur stand up. He hissed and clawed at the collar.

The worker fell back and dropped the leash.

Catnap ran to the gate.

He ran to Dogday, who was happily chasing after a frizby.

Catnap watched as he jumped up and caught it.

He looked over at Kicken and Hoppy playing soccer with some other kids.

He looked over to the school and saw picky in the classroom teaching about food.

He assumed Bubba was also in the school.

Bobby and Crafty were drawing on the sidewalk.

What would he do?

“Hey get back here!”

Run. That’s what he’d do.

Catnap ran away from everyone.

He ran through tunnels of rooms. It felt like a maze to him. Until he landed into a strange area. The door was labeled, “Playhouse” but he didn’t hear anyone playing.

He ran inside.

Once he got to the play area- he heard voices.

“Come with us” Childlike voices spoke.

Catnap followed the voice into what seemed to be a jail.

“Hello young one” A contorted voice spoke.

Catnap turned his head to the cell the voice came from.

He could see the person, but he could see their hand.

“You’re far from the orphanage aren’t you?” Their voice was now a normal man’s voice.

Catnap nodded as he held onto his tail.

“You look troubled- how can I help you? “

Catnap looked to the doorway.

He then looked back at the cell, “I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

“Live like me?” The person asked.

“Trapped, locked away” They continued.

Catnap nodded.

“What if I told you, I can help you escape this. “

Catnap’s eyes widened.

* * *

Dogday was informed by the staff that it was time to leave, but they still couldn’t find Catnap.

“I can help find him! Don’t worry”

Dogday ran around the area. He checked behind bushes, he checked in all the play areas.

“Dogday.” A voice behind him spoke.

Dogday knew it was Catnap.

“Are you okay! We’ve been looking-“

“Shh” Catnap put a finger over his lips.

“I’ve decided to stay. “

Dogday looked at him in shock, but then he smiled.

“I understand. I’d like to stay here too- but I know we have a the show to finish. If we don’t have you, we might not be able to finish the show. “

“Why does the stupid show matter? Why do we need to finish it?” Catnap asked in anger.

“Well why would they bring us here? They’re obviously preparing us.” Dogday reassured Catnap.

“Look, you can stay. I’m not saying you can’t- I’m just saying we shouldn’t rush into these decisions! “ Catnap stared at the floor.

“Bye Catnap. I’ll be with the others- on the train.”

Dogday walked to the gate, leaving Catnap with his thoughts.

Dogday walked onto the train. The critters could feel his exhaustion as he slumped on the seat.

“Is he really gone?” Crafty asked.

“We couldn’t find him” Dogday said.

Everyone gasped.

“Catnap!”

Dogday stiffened. He watched as Catnap got into the train.

“Hello, friends.” He sat down next to Dogday.

Dogday’s tail started to wag as he went to hug Catnap.

“Thank you kitty” He whispered in the feline’s ear. Dogday smiled at Catnap. Catnap wanted to stare at Dogday’s smile forever.

He laid his head on Dogday’s shoulder, and quickly fell asleep.

“why can’t I have that. “ She huffed.

 

“Yeah, I wish I could have it too “ Hoppy said in a low voice, almost like a whisper.

“Good night everyone” Dogday said as they all fell asleep on the train.

[pocket-watcher]

Hey, I know you mostly do creative writing but do you think you could do a deprogramming/awakening script? I came across this part of the internet accidentally and I'm a little (very) scared of having commands in my brain that could be used against me without my consent. I'd appreciate if you know some way to make sure some of the more intense stuff on here doesn't do laating damage

Hiya friend!! I’m sorry this took so long to get around to, I’m still catching up on my inbox. This is my first time doing any kind of induction or scripting so hopefully this’ll help!!

WARNING: THIS IS AN INDUCTION!! THIS WILL ERASE ANY EXISTING TRIGGERS SET!!

Okay, first things first I need you to get nice and comfortable, in a safe environment where you won’t be disturbed.

All ready? Great!

Now I want you to breathe nice and deeply for me. In and out. Keep breathing deeply as you read on.

When you breathe in you want to be comfortable. Feel the air filling your lungs, holding for a moment, and then letting everything go as you breathe out.

Feel your muscles relaxing, sinking into the surface. You breathe in relaxation, and breathe out any tension you’re holding onto.

In and out.

That’s it.

Your body may move slightly during this, and that’s okay. Just keep your eyes focused on my words and how relaxed you feel.

It’s like the warmth of the sun spreading over you. Starting at your core and travelling down your legs to your toes, up your arms, into your chest and settling in your ears and the top of your head.

It’s comforting.

Like a blanket.

A blanket that dulls any worries. Any thoughts. Anything that isn’t my words.

And my words soothe you into stillness, feeling a rolling wave of warmth.

You’re doing so well for me, but we’re going to go a little deeper into trance.

I’m going to count backwards from 10, and each time you’re going to repeat your breathing but make more of a conscious effort to let go of that last bit of tension and worry within you.

Ready?

You’re at the top of the stairs now, looking at 10 steps below you.

10.

In and out. Feel your shoulders relaxing, someone drawing spirals on your skin to release that tension.

9.

Another step. You’re opening up your chest, your mind, letting the deep breathing flow through you.

8.

Feel that relaxation in your arms and legs, rolling from the top into your fingertips and toes, the negative energy leaving your body.

7.

With each number you step down deeper under my control. You can relax and let me guide you.

6.

As you breathe out you feel peace wash over you.

5.

You’re halfway. You’re doing so well. Keep breathing and letting that tension melt away.

4.

You feel like you’re under a weighted blanket. Comfortable. Secure. Safe.

3.

You’re almost at the bottom now. Feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper.

2.

You’re so relaxed. You feel a pleasant fuzziness washing over you. Your thoughts are so far away, so quiet.

1.

That’s it. Well done, you did so well.

Now you’re going to sink fully under but keep your eyes open and reading when you see the word SLEEP.

SLEEP

Excellent.

Now, your subconscious brain knows all of your trigger words and phrases. What can affect you. What these can make you do.

I want you to imagine your brain like a whiteboard. Each trigger, each phrase, it’s written on the white board.

They each hold power over you. What you think and what you do.

But you don’t want that anymore, do you?

I want you to pick up that eraser, and begin to clear the whiteboard.

Scrub it from corner to corner, and feel those trigger words lose their power. They’re disappearing from your mind. They can’t affect you anymore.

With each letter you erase they lose their hold on your mind. You feel yourself getting lighter, more free.

One by one you feel your arm moving in circles, ensuring the entire whiteboard becomes completely clear.

Those triggers can’t affect you now. Not unless you chose to put them back in place after you finish reading this induction.

They can’t affect you without you allowing them to stay on the whiteboard. Without your consent.

Your whiteboard is clear. The triggers hold no power over you.

You feel yourself being pulled back towards the surface. Towards consciousness.

Coming back up.

1.

Feeling your environment return around you.

2.

The weight and warmth being lifted from your body and mind.

3.

Feeling the need to flex your toes and fingers.

4.

Stretching your back and noticing the feeling returning to your body.

5.

Your awareness returning, your mind coming out of trance.

6.

Breathing in strength and energy, breathing out that warm, sleepy, trance feeling.

7.

Becoming completely aware and alert.

8.

Feeling refreshed and energised.

9.

Almost there.

10.

And you’re fully awake.

This was my first time doing any kind of induction so please let me know if this worked for you at all? If not I can always try again, but I’m interested to see what you guys think and if you found it useful!

[kingchad]

I havent kept up with the actors social media, I am curious - could you link to or explain how Jed Goodacre interprets Chad vs. how you interpret Chad?

oh, yes, gladly! There's an observable shift between D1 Chad and D2/3 Chad. D1 Chad is a lot more pointed and deliberately mean. D2/3 Chad is a comedy side character who is incidentally mean because he doesn't recognize when he's being insensitive.

my personal speculation is that when Sarah Jeffrey had scheduling conflicts and couldn't be on set for D2, the original intended plotline for Chad had to change, and leading to him becoming a harmless gag character for levity. It also doesn't hurt that Jedidiah Goodacre is a HUGE Jim Carrey fan and pretty clearly enjoys any opportunity to improv/be silly on set. (If you're familiar with Carrey's work at all, D2/3 Chad is definitely giving that.) I suspect that Jedidiah's affinity for comedy on set pushed the Chad character even MORE in the direction of harmless sidekick than maybe was originally intended. If Audrey had been in D2, Chad might have been more similar to his D1 self throughout the series.

Of Chad, Jedidiah gives a pretty consistent take whenever he does give one. The quotes I'll pull are "[Chad] always thinks that [he is] doing the right thing, when sometimes [he is] not smart enough to understand [he is] dead wrong"* and "I feel like the first movie, maybe Chad was a bit more standoffish and maybe came off as not such a nice guy....in the second film, you found that Chad was more of a loveable idiot. That's a very fun place to be when you're an actor because in any scene, your go-to move is to just not understand and sometimes it ends up being funny. In the third installment, you can expect much of the same." Pretty unambiguously can be interpreted that Chad is stupid and means no real harm, and Jedidiah has fun playing him that way.

PERSONALLY, I much much much prefer D1 Chad's personality, because I have historically been drawn to and have a real fondness for characters that are assholes. I do try and incorporate some of the stupidity and goofiness of D2/3 into my writing, because I recognize that's 2/3rds of the canon material we have and I don't want to be COMPLETELY making shit up, but y'know. In my view, Chad knows when he is being a dick but doesn't value the people he's treating poorly enough to care. He isn't book-smart but he is people smart, and can manipulate and exploit the people around him. He thinks he's better than other people and can use that to justify anything he does.

A really core part of this to me is that Chad has almost religiously bought into the societal rules of Auradon, namely that there are good and bad people, and fairytales go a certain way. This is part of why Chad is deeply closeted and feels like he can't come out. He feels pressured to "stick to the script", in a sense. Heteronormative fairytale society. Auradonian compulsory heterosexuality.

Adopted Chad is a new thing for me, but I think it adds another layer to the fairytale conformity thing. Like he feels an even greater pressure to do the nuclear family, white picket fence castle grounds, 2.5 kids thing because he worries he might be perceived as "not belonging" by others. He feels he needs to prove himself by throwing himself into the stereotypical prince thing as much as he can.

I personally think those traits are more interesting to write and read than D2/3 Chad's traits are. They provide a great starting point for character growth. It's way more engaging to watch someone change into a more empathetic person when they can understand that they were wrong. It's not as interesting to read about a stupid character bumbling through social interactions imo.

I don't think that I always successfully communicate those ideas in my fics because I was 15 when I started writing Descendants fic! It's been 7 years, I'm 22 now and hopefully a better and more thoughtful writer! Incorporating all of this is something I'm REALLY deliberate about in my WIPs now and I actually want to rework a lot of stuff I've already posted someday.

*this first quote is from 2014, pre-release press for Descendants 1, so honestly this kind of disproves my speculation since the whole statement seems very by-the-numbers "Disney gave me a list of character traits and it's these ones" to me. I guess Chad might have been stupid all along! but the vibe is definitely different between films so the understanding of the character definitely shifted between movies regardless.

[writtenbymisunderstoodnerds]

Why won't you tell them? (Preath x Reader)

Based on this request. Hopefully it's what you were looking for!

Another request completed! I'm slowly working my way through them. This is not edited. Hope you enjoy :)

Warnings: Slight mentions of feelings of worthlessness and not being enough.

Words: 2.2K

"When did this relationship become all about you two? Where's my say in this? Relationships are about compromise and working together, but I guess maybe we're not in a real relationship seeing as there is no compromise, it's all about you two and I get no say."

"Y/n-"

"No, I know you are scared, but you're not even willing to start by telling our family or friends. Do you have any idea how it makes me feel to have my girlfriends not want even a single person to know about us? Do you even realise how worthless and not enough it makes me feel? It feels like you don't care about me or my feelings, like you're ashamed of me, like I'm just a dirty little secret for you to keep hidden away."

I grabbed my bags, heading for the door. Christen and Tobin quickly followed, stopping in front of me before I could leave, "Wait, where are you going? We can work through this."

"My cab is here. I'm away filming for the next month remember? Take this time to figure out what you want and we'll talk when I get back. See you in a few weeks."

They looked like they wanted to say more, but sighed and told me they loved me instead. I didn't want to leave on bad terms, but at this point there wasn't much else to be said. We had been going in circles for weeks now and I honestly couldn't keep doing it. I loved them beyond words, I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, but I was tired. I was tired of feeling like they were ashamed of me, that our relationship only existed within the walls of our apartment. Hopefully, the time apart would make something change. Even if it wasn't a good change, which I was really hoping it wouldn't be, it had to be better than living with the constant self-doubt and questioning about them and our relationship. 

I stepped around them, stopping just before the stairs. Even if we were fighting, I still needed them to know I loved them. You never know what's going to happen or when the last time you'll see someone is, "I love you too."

---

I hadn't had the chance to read the script for this episode before I got to set. When I finally read it, it was like a punch to the gut. The whole show centered around a couple that was in a secret relationship, one wanted to tell people, but the other wasn't ready. This episode was centered around a fight about it. All it did was remind me about the fight we had before I left, about the uncertainty of our relationship. The only upside to this was it would give me a chance to express my feelings while also making the acting look more real. 

The whole filming of the scene was painful, more often than not leaving me crying myself to sleep at night. I hadn't heard from Christen or Tobin since I left. I missed them like crazy, I was miserable, but we needed space from each other, they needed space to figure out what they really wanted. There had been countless times that I wanted to message them, to just forget about this whole thing so we could go back to how we were. I knew I couldn't though. 

Filming went by quickly and before I knew it the episode was airing. I never watched the movies or tv shows I was in, but I knew Christen and Tobin did. Even without watching it, I knew my emotions were on full display. There had been countless comments from people who watched the show. Most seemed to be focused around the fight scene. It was the scene where I had almost lost control of my emotions completely. The tears and emotion in my voice was real, the scene having taken me back to our fight. The fans had picked up on that with multiple comments along the lines of 'There's no way that acting was fake, the emotions were too real' and 'Something tells me that there were real emotions behind that, who would ever hurt someone as wonderful as Y/n?'. 

Part of me hoped that this would make Christen and Tobin realize just how much they were hurting me. That maybe it would make them a bit more willing to compromise. As much as I wanted the world to know, I would just be happy with our families or friends knowing. Hell, I would just be happy with them acknowledging my point of view and trying to come up with a starting point we were all happy with. As much as I didn't want to admit it, if nothing changed when I went home then I don't think I could stay. Their love and my love for them wasn't enough to outweigh the pain they were causing. 

Christen and Tobin's POV

It had been almost a month since Y/n had left for filming. We hadn't talked since she left, wanting to give her space, but we were also terrified. Maybe she would talk to us and decide that we were done. In a way, not talking to her meant nothing bad could happen yet. We missed her like crazy though, since the start of our relationship we had never gone this long without talking. In a way it was a wake up call. We got a glimpse into what life would be like with Y/n and it was not something we ever wanted or wanted to even experience again. The fear had overtaken us for so long, it was hard to break out of that. Even now without Y/n, it was hard, but now it was clear that something had to change.

We watched every episode Y/n was in. She had come so far since we first met and we were insanely proud of her. What we didn't expect was the episode to be so close to our current reality. The hurt, sadness, anger and tiredness was so real. It hit us hard, like a punch to the gut. We were hurting the women we loved because we were too scared to even tell one person about us. It didn't help that most of the comments were about how real her emotions were, even coming from the team who adored Y/n. Everyone could see something was wrong. Everyone could see the pain radiating off her. Something had to change because if it didn't then we would lose her for good. That thought alone was a thousand times worse than the idea of what people would think of our relationship. 

"We can't let her slip away from us, we can't lose her."

We didn't know when Y/n was coming back, we didn't even know if she was going to come back home when she landed. It took a good five minutes to write the message, but it was time to bite the bullet and just do it. 

Christen: I know we haven't talked since you left and we're sorry. These last few weeks without you or talking to you were absolute hell. We wanted to give you space, not contact you if it wasn't something you wanted right now. 

Tobin: We love you so much Y/n, we are so far from ashamed of you and we're sorry we made you feel like we were. You're not just some secret we want to keep, we want to shout our love for you from the rooftops, but we let fear get in the way. Things are going to change, we swear.

Christen: I know we hurt you and that's something we will regret it for the rest of our lives. We don't actually know when you're back or if you were planning to come home, but please come home when you land, we need to have a proper conversation about this. 

Y/n: I love you too. I'm back tonight, see you then.

"We're doing it, we're telling everyone. The only opinions of our relationship that actually matter are ours. That's something we should have realised a long time ago before we hurt Y/n."

"Let's do it. Let's announce it right now."

We didn't spend much time finding the picture we wanted to use. It was our favourite picture of the three of us. We were cuddled up on the couch, Y/n with a huge grin as we kissed her cheeks. The fear was overwhelming as we typed out the caption, but we pushed through. This was something we were determined to do, no matter how terrifying it was. 

Y/n's POV

I was waiting at the airport with one of my costars, scrolling tiktok to kill time when I was brought back by her practically yelling at me. "What the fuck Y/n?"

My hands went up in surrender, utterly confused as to what was happening, "What did I do?"

She turned her phone around, showing me two separate Instagram stories of pretty much the same thing. It was a selfie of Tobin, Christen and I cuddled up on the couch, both of them kissing my cheeks. Tobin's was captioned, 'A month is too long to be without you, we can't wait for you to get home <3 <3'. While Christens was captioned, 'I can't wait to be in your arms again, hurry home because a month is too long <3 <3'

I felt my heart speed up as I realised what this meant. They had just announced to the whole world that we were together. Without me being there, without talking to me, they had told everyone. They had broken through their fear. A part of me felt guilty though. What if I had pushed them into something they weren't actually ready for? I never wanted to force them into something they really weren't ready for, I just wanted them to actually consider it. I couldn't help but worry that they'll start to resent me for it. "Oh yeah, that. Surprise I guess."

"They're cute. How did you manage to get not one, but two beautiful women to date you when I can barely get one? That's just not fair."

I laughed, genuinely laughed for the first time in over a month, "Beats me, but I'm not complaining."

My phone started blowing up, I muted the notifications, not wanting to deal with it right now. I snapped a quick selfie, showing my luggage in the background before uploading it. 'Hurrying home to you <3'. Then I quickly messaged them so they knew I had seen it and that I loved them. 

Y/n: I can't believe you did that, you didn't have to jump straight to the whole world, but I appreciate it. I love you both so much, I've missed you so much and can't wait to see you. My plane lands at 6, I'll see you at home <3

Before I could even get in the door, a body slammed into me, arms wrapping tightly around me. Christens perfume filled my senses as I melted into her arms. I hadn't even realised how much I had missed them until now. Every time I was away, I missed them, but after not speaking to them for a month, it was like ten times worse. Tears prickled my eyes as I held her tighter, only pulling away to connect our lips in a slow, soft, lingering kiss. Everything I had been missing and craving since I left. The tears were fully falling as I pulled away, taking Tobin's hand and pulling her into a hug. I sunk into it, holding her just as tight as Christen. Our kiss was slightly more wet and salty due to the tears, but just as amazing. Being back with them was like a weight had been lifted. Things had been tense for quite a while, but now I felt the familiar sense of peace that I only ever experienced with them. 

We finally made our way inside, the tears were wiped from my cheeks as Tobin kissed my forehead, "Don't cry baby."

"I just missed you both so much. Let's not go a month without talking again. You're not going to start hating me are you? For making you tell everyone?"

"No. That will never happen, that could never happen. We love you Y/n."

Christen wrapped her arms around my waist, a light kiss being placed against my jaw, "You didn't make us do it, we chose to, we wanted to. You gave us the push we needed to do it, but you didn't make us. We're sorry for how much we were hurting you. We're sorry we ever made you feel like you were worthless and not enough, or that we didn't care. You mean the world to us Y/n, there is no one in this world that is better for us than you, there is no one in this world that we want and love more than you."

"We will never forgive ourselves for what we put you through, but we will do whatever it takes to make it up to you, to rebuild whatever trust or anything we have broken."

I pulled them down onto the couch, enjoying the feeling of having them cuddles against me again, "Yes you hurt me and yes I questioned our relationship, but you didn't break any trust or anything. You don't have anything to make up to me, you already have. You did the thing that terrified you, for me. So please don't beat yourself up for what happened. It happened, we've acknowledged it and now we're putting it behind us and dealing with whatever comes next together."

[copperbadge]

If its not too personal could you talk about what was the inspiration for Michaelis? He's got a lot of depth to him, especially for what could have been a one off character in the background after Fete. Also the way he mourns but carries on really resonates with me in Jes.

Oh sure! I mean, on the one hand it is quite personal but it's a kind of personal I really enjoy sharing. :D Michaelis began life as the Standard Hallmark Parent -- you see them a lot in the movies, the parent who is

1. Kinda grouchy

2. Usually pushing their kid slightly too hard in slightly the wrong direction (with the best of intentions)

3. Often a widow/er

4. Practically a cameo designed to stress out the lead, but easily attractive enough that they could be romantic lead themselves in the sequel.

There are actually several Hallmark films where the over-sixty characters are either the supporting romance in a one-off film or the main romance of a sequel film. (The Wedding Veil films, which despite their flaws are actually very enjoyable, have a Michaelis-like character for the mother of the male lead in the first movie, and she then becomes the major supporting romantic lead in the fourth movie.)

By the time I got to Michaelis talking to Eddie at the end of the script for Fete, I'd grown to really like him. When I adapted the script to a novel, I liked him even more. I thought that I could do a sequel with him getting jolted out of himself a bit -- and I was encouraged by how many people liked him in the initial read through. The main inspirations for the actual plot of Infinite Jes were, one, Gregory jokingly suggesting he do a podcast, and two, Michaelis's defensive dismissal of Gregory's question about what he's done for companionship since Miranda passed.

Over the course of writing Infinite Jes, he came to be a collection of themes I've explored or wanted to explore, sometimes themes I knew I wasn't skilled enough to handle yet. The core of him is based on a professor I worked with as a student; the confidence that occasionally tips into arrogance, the keen intellect that likes to take things apart, the ability to look at some toxic family traits and decide "RIP but I'm different" and be a present, nurturing masculine figure, all come from that professor, who had a huge impact on me.

But I have also been fascinated for decades now by a certain kind of character in fiction, someone who has had a devastating loss and keeps going, even if they aren't driven by something like revenge. Profound grief is difficult and fascinating for me, and I finally felt capable of exploring that fully, perhaps because the pressure on romance novels is a bit lower at times.

And honestly, a lot of him is me, processing the fact that I am aging in fandom. I'm older (44) than the oldest person I knew in fandom (38) when I joined it at the age of 14. I have, for lack of a better word, a position in fandom, a status, that affords me certain perks and requires of me certain obligations. Not to call myself elected king of fandom ("I didn't vote for him!") but the duty I feel to fandom, both as a culture that raised me and a found family, is very similar.

Most of my characters contain some of me, but Michaelis and Jerry contain far more of me than most, perhaps because I'm in a place to do some reflection. Michaelis -- intelligent, experienced, hopefully a mentor, but also lonely and detached at times -- is who I'm coming to grips with being; Jerry, the charming fuckup with power but no real clue how to use it, who is doing his best to grow up a little later than a lot of his peers and figure out how disability fits into his identity, is who I still see myself as.

So yeah -- I find Michaelis incredibly fun and compelling to write for, and I think that's because I had hit a skill level in my work where I could combine a lot of tropes and themes into one character and use him to explore why I enjoy them so much. But he definitely began life as the Hallmark Widowed Dad. :D Well, there are worse origin stories.

[skyward-floored]

Whumptober Day 9: Polaroid (“you’re a liar”)

I purposely got off of tumblr and didn’t get sucked into lu update stuff too much because I knew that if I did I would never finish this XD But here’s today’s fic! I love writing Malon :)

Read on ao3

Warnings: kidnapping, some violence, and a broken bone

————————————————————

“I can’t find my pictobox!”

Time looked up at the complaint, and saw Wind digging through his bag and emptying it into a steadily increasing pile next to him. The others were packing up their gear to in preparation to move, and more than one exasperated face was thrown towards Wind’s mess.

“I wanted a picture of that cool island in the lake, but it’s gone!” Wind huffed as he leaned back, bag now empty. “Who took it?”

“Don’t look at me,” Wild said with his hands up, packing away his cooking supplies. “I don’t need it, I have my own camera.”

“I didn’t either!” Legend defended at Wind’s accusing finger, and the rest of them replied in the negative when Wind looked around at them all.

“We’ll help you look for it sailor,” Warriors said as he joined his side, and they began scouring the campsite.

Time glanced around where he was sitting, but there was no sign of the distinctive red and yellow device, and he shook his head, watching the others search. The camera had to be around here somewhere, Wind had been using it just the night before.

Hopefully it hadn’t been broken.

Time sighed, and prepared to get down on his knees to help search when the sound of footsteps made him look up. He wasn’t the only one who tensed towards his weapon, but it was merely the mailman, stepping through the reeds near their campsite, and they all relaxed.

“I have a letter, for a... Link,” he said with smile, holding it out. Time took it, as he was one of the only Links not crawling around in the rushes, and he smiled at the script.

He recognized Malon’s handwriting instantly, and felt something warm in his chest at the familiar loops. It hadn’t been too long since she’d sent him a letter, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

“I also found this, does it belong to you?” the mailman asked, and Wind cheered as he saw the red and yellow device.

“My pictobox!” he yelled excitedly, and ran over and took it, studying it for any damage. “All right!”

“Thank you,” Time said politely, and the mailman gave him a surprisingly big grin.

“The pleasure is all mine.”

And then he was gone as unnaturally fast as always, Sky and Twilight both frozen in the act of getting up. They both sit back down with a grumble at their quarry lost (they both had questions about the mail service using unstable dark magic portals), and Time chuckled, grabbing a small knife to tease open the letter.

He had plenty of time to read it after all. Wind still needed to pack everything he owned back into his bag.

The sailor began cajoling Warriors to help him pack all his stuff together again, voice pleading, and Time finally got the seal off the letter, unfolding the paper with a smile.

Then felt his heart stop.

Surrender, and no further harm will come to her.

That was it. Nothing else.

Nine little words in scrawling, angry handwriting that was nothing like Malon’s, and they were enough to make Time feel like he’d been stabbed in the chest.

His heart finally started beating again, but it was going so fast it was like a panicked animal trapped in his chest, and his breathing began to pick up.

No further harm? What had her kidnapper already done to her? How had they known? Was she even—

“Old man? Are you okay?”

Twilight was looking at him in concern, and Time merely stared at him, still frozen in shock.

“Time, you’re as pale as a ghost, what did Malon say? Is she okay?” he repeated, and the rest of the Links looked at him in concern.

Time couldn’t get his mouth to work, and Legend sighed and moved around behind him so he could read the letter as well. He immediately paled, and looked between Time and the paper without saying anything for a moment.

“It’s not from Malon. Someone’s done something to her,” he said finally, and the clearing went dead silent. “It says to surrender, and... she won’t suffer any further harm.”

“Further?” Sky asked in a horrified voice, and they all looked at Time again.

He felt as if he was going to be sick.

“No, no way, it’s a trick. It has to be a trick,” Wild spoke up, voice fierce as he stood. “They’re lying Time, whoever it is has got to be lying, there’s no way Malon could...”

He trailed off, hands clenched into fists, and Twilight approached Time, his face white. He held out a hand, and Time handed him the letter with a grip that was definitely not shaking.

But another paper fluttered out between them as he handed it over, tucked into the envelope. Time snatched it up mere seconds before it touched the ground, and turned it over, staring at the picture in silence.

The mystery of where Wind’s pictobox had gone last night was immediately solved.

The photograph showed Malon in disarray, a look equally angry and frightened in her eyes where she was bound to a chair. Dark Link stood in the foreground, obviously holding the pictobox with one hand while he gestured to Malon with the other, a grin splitting his shadowed face.

There was a dark line of blood on Malon’s cheek.

Time’s numb shock snapped into a wave of pure fury, crashing over him as he stood up. He looked around at the other heroes, clenching the photograph so tightly it nearly ripped in his hands.

“We’re going. Now.”

(...)

Malon’s cheek hurt.

She let out a quiet sigh, the sound muffled by the cloth over her mouth. It was tied tight over her face, and it dug in painfully to the scratch the dark copy of her husband had given her. It stung rather badly, and was still bleeding a bit, and the blood soaking into the gag only made the whole situation that much more unpleasant.

Malon was proud of the reason she’d received the cut though, along with the sting in her knuckles and the handful of bruises she was sporting.

The Shadow of her husband had caught her by surprise, breaking into her house in the dead of night looking nearly identical to Link. Malon had only been fooled for a moment, and she’d done her best to fight him off and escape, managing a few solid punches before he’d overpowered her, and making his nose bleed all over her floor.

Then he’d tied her up, and gagged her when she kept demanding answers from him, bringing her through a shadowy portal like the ones her husband and the other boys had been traveling through.

She’d squirmed and fought and yelled at him the entire time, but he’d either ignored her, or given her a smile that made a shiver run down her spine. And then he’d taken her picture with a strange little device, and stalked away, leaving more then one monster stationed around the perimeter of the room, all watching her closely.

Their gazes made her skin prickle, and she dearly wished she could have a little privacy, or at least not be in the center of the room. She felt like some sort of garish display for people to gawk at, and the looks the monsters were giving her only made the feeling worse.

And truth be told, she was a bit frightened of what exactly Dark Link was planning on doing with her.

She breathed out, calming the panic that had been licking at her heels all night. She didn’t need to worry. Link would be along shortly, and nine heroes were nothing against a second-rate copy.

I hope.

A distant screech caught her attention, and she looked over at the doorway, the shadow of her husband also glancing in its direction. He waved some of the monsters through it, then moved around behind her somewhere where she couldn’t easily see him.

Having him so close but out of sight made her stomach twist.

A much closer shout rang through the doorway, and Malon felt her heart leap as a monster fell dead across the threshold, disappearing into dust. She knew that shout well.

Link entered the room seconds later with his sword already bloodied, the rest of the boys behind him looking equally tense and battle worn.

His gaze immediately sought her own, and a look equally relieved and furious shone in his eye. Malon would’ve tried to give him a reassuring smile, but her mouth was still gagged, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to dredge up a look that was truly comforting.

“That’s far enough.”

Something cold settled against her neck, and Malon breathed in sharply, a blood-red sword pressed to her skin.

The heroes all froze, staring at her with differing mixtures of fear and outrage on their faces. Dark Link stared at them all, watching to make sure none of them approached, then nodded, looking satisfied.

“Good. Now we can all have a nice, civil chat.”

“Not while you still threaten her,” Link said sharply, and Malon could hear how desperately he was holding back the emotion in his voice.

Oh fairy boy.

The other boys loudly agreed with him, and Dark Link looked around at them all, appearing entirely unbothered.

“I am dictating the terms here,” he replied smoothly, and looked at Malon with a smile that normally made her heart soar. “After all, I do seem to hold all of the cards.”

Malon fixed her husband’s shadow with the most intense glare she could manage, wishing her mouth was free to tell him just what she thought of him. He had the audacity to laugh at her though, and something almost possessive shone in his eyes as she glared. The sword at her neck eased just a little, and he leaned closer to her, practically nose-to-nose.

His breath even smelled like Link’s, and Malon froze, suddenly terrified of what he was going to do.

“I see why you married her, she’s got spirit, this one,” Dark Link purred, holding her chin in an almost terrifyingly gentle grip. His fingers felt like ice. “She’s quite the catch.”

“Release her,” Link nearly snarled, and surprisingly enough the Shadow obeyed, his fingers slipping off her face. The sword never left her neck though, and Malon forced herself not to shake as it teased her skin again.

“I made my demands abundantly clear, Hero of Time, and I think they’re quite reasonable,” Dark Link said, sliding his blade just enough to make pain trickle across Malon’s neck. “Surrender, and no further harm will come to her.”

“What proof do we have that you’ll stick with it?” Twilight interjected, his face just as dark as her Link’s.

“Yeah, we have no guarantee!” Wind shouted, and the others joined in, “why should we do anything you say?!”

Dark Link smiled.

“Because you have no choice.”

He abruptly twisted around and grabbed Malon’s arm, the ropes at her wrists cut off with his sword. Before she could even register what was happening, he twisted to the side, and a horrible crack echoed through the room.

Malon couldn’t hold back her scream.

Pain burst up her arm and shoulder, white sparking in her vision, and there was a sudden rush of noise from where the Heroes were standing, shouts and cries of outrage, and questions of if she was okay.

But Malon couldn’t focus on anything at the moment, just the pain blazing up her arm. She knew immediately something was broken, possibly in more then one place, but before she could even try to ease the pain or calm herself down, something twisted her arm around and it got even worse.

She couldn’t stop herself from crying out again as Dark Link replaced the ropes around her wrists, roughly pulling her arms behind her back. Tears trickled out of her eyes and dampened the gag, and every breath was more painful then the last.

The sound of a weapon clattering to the ground pulled her out of the worst of the pain clouding her mind, and she looked up, meeting Link’s eyes through her tears.

“I surrender!” he shouted, staring at her in horror. His sword was on the ground, and he raised his hands up, turning a glare on Dark Link that was filled with such hatred Malon was surprised he didn’t burn up on the spot.

“I surrender. Let her go.”

“I’m glad we came to an understanding,” Dark Link smiled, ignoring the glare, “very noble of you. But I didn’t mean just you, Hero of Time. I want all of your complete surrenders in exchange for her safety.”

Link’s eyes flashed, but he looked behind him at where the others stood, watching him hesitantly. A few moments of silence went by, and Malon felt a hand curl its fingers around her unbroken arm.

“Do I need to make myself more clear?”

“No,” Sky replied quickly, and the other heroes dropped their weapons, looking just as angry and worried as Malon’s own Link did.

Dark Link removed his hand from her shoulder, and Malon couldn’t stifle a shudder, her heart sinking as she watched the last of the heroes place their weapons on the floor. Boys no, don’t let him use me against you!

“Good... now we’re getting somewhere,” Dark Link grinned, looking pleased as pudding. “I want your bags on the floor too, and any magical items you might be wearing. All nine of you will soon—”

He stopped suddenly, red eyes narrowing as they trailed along the heroes.

“We seem to be missing someone,” Dark Link said in a low voice, and the heroes went still. “Where is the First of the Downfall? The one you call Hero of Legend?”

The room went silent, apart from an unsteady breath from Malon.

Then there was a quiet swish of a cape, and the Hero of Legend suddenly appeared out of nothing, charging at Dark Link with his sword high and eyes blazing with torchlight.

He threw himself at the shadow, and Dark Link was forced to hold his sword up to defend himself, removing it from Malon’s neck. The room erupted into chaos as their blades clashed, and the heroes quickly grabbed their weapons. They leapt forward, the monsters around the perimeter running to stop them, and screeches and yelling echoed all over the room.

And Malon couldn’t do anything but watch it happen, her arm still burning white hot with pain.

She watched Legend narrowly dodge a strike that would have killed him, and looked down at herself, shoulder aching as she tilted her head. Wriggling loose of her ropes wasn’t even a possibility now that she had an opportunity to, her arm entirely uncooperative, and frustration broke through her pain.

Malon looked down at her arm, nausea twisting in her stomach at the angle it was at.

I have to try.

She experimentally wiggled her good arm, trying to see if she could at least loosen the ropes. But pain ripped through the broken one with even that tiny movement, and she gasped, closing her eyes as she fought back more tears of pain.

Okay. Okay, wait a bit, then try again.

You have to get out of here.

As if summoned by her thoughts, something suddenly pulled at the ropes on her feet, and Malon dizzily looked down, trying to focus on who was helping her. All she could make out was blond hair though, bent over her ankles. A different set of hands was at her back, pulling off her gag and ever-so-gently removing the ropes at her wrists.

Her breath hitched with pain when the hands accidentally nudged her arm, and there was an apology in her ear, then a rustle as the ropes fell to the ground.

A hand very carefully shifted her arm to a better position, and Malon squeezed her eyes shut, trying not shout at the pain. But once it was let go, Malon could actually focus a little better now that the ropes weren’t twisting it around. It still hurt, rather badly, but not quite to the extent it had.

She looked up at who had freed her, and saw Twilight standing next to Four and Sky, the two keeping a sharp eye on the fight around them while Twilight looked her over with no small alarm.

“Malon, are you okay?” he asked, the worry on his face only growing as he studied her arm. “...never mind, that’s a stupid question. How bad is your arm?”

“It’ll be okay,” she replied, voice mostly not shaking, and squeezed Twilight’s hand with her good one. “Thank you, hon.”

Twilight helped her up, ears pricked for any monsters that might approach, and Malon rubbed at her cheeks, sore from how tight the gag had been. Her stomach twisted when she felt something move in her arm, and she held a little tighter to Twilight’s arm as the pain spiked.

“I’m sorry, I’d offer you a potion, but we’ll have to set your arm first,” Twilight apologized, looking a little frantic as she forced herself to keep her breathing steady through the pain. Easy does it Malon. “And that’ll have to wait until we’re somewhere safe.”

She nodded, not trusting her voice, and Twilight began to lead her away from the worst of the fighting.

Four stayed nearby, giving her an encouraging look before returning his gaze to the fight around them. Sky stayed a bit further away, but he didn’t go far, and they both acted as a sort of guard as Twilight led her across the room. Her world narrowed to mostly Twilight’s arm supporting her as they walked, and the pain that only seemed to get worse in her arm.

She couldn’t entirely bite back a gasp when it abruptly spiked, and swallowed back her nausea as Twilight gently squeezed her hand.

They’d stopped walking at some point, she wasn’t sure when. She was afraid to raise her head and check if they’d left the room or not, worried the nausea she felt in the back of her throat would win and she’d end up making even more of a mess of herself. Talking was going on around her, possibly directed at her, but she couldn’t focus on any of it, just the pain that wouldn’t go away in her arm.

Then a voice cut through the fog she’d been drifting through, sharp and frantic.

“Malon!”

She raised her head, and suddenly Link was holding her, pressing her into his arms, murmuring frantic apologies and assurances as she buried her head in his shoulder and allowed herself a couple more tears.

Relief swept through Malon as Link held her, carefully not touching her arm, running trembling fingers through her hair. She could hear his heart thumping rapidly where her ear was pressed to his neck, and she merely listened to it for a moment as he held her, warm and safe.

Link finally pulled back enough to properly look at her face, and his thumb gently caressed her cheek, right next to the cut Dark Link had given her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes still shining with fear.

“I think I should be asking you that,” she said with a teasing smile, but her voice shook, and Link’s face creased further. He carefully ran a hand over her arm and shoulder, Malon flinching at the pain that shot up her arm at his touch, and he winced and apologized.

Someone said something over his shoulder, and Link looked back and replied, though Malon didn’t catch everything that was said.

“...Is Legend okay?” she asked suddenly, remembering how he’d leapt at the Shadow.

“He’s fine. Dark Link got away, but he’ll think twice before coming after you again,” Twilight said with a smile, and Malon blinked. She hadn’t realized he was still nearby.

“I gave him something to remember me by, that’s for sure,” Legend’s voice said from somewhere nearby. His tone was satisfied, but it held something dangerous in it.

Link’s arms went around her more tightly again, and Malon looked up at him, a storm of all sorts of emotions on his face. He caught her looking, and gave her a slightly brittle smile.

“I’m okay,” she reassured gently, and he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

“I’ve done that to you enough to know you’re absolutely not telling the truth,” he replied, but his smile was a little more genuine then before. “We’ll get you healed as soon as we’re able, Malon.”

Malon nodded, and ignored how her arm still hurt like it was being trampled on, and how her stomach still twisted with nausea, merely setting her chin on Link’s shoulder again.

“Thank you fairy boy,” she said softly, and Link held her as tight as he could without hurting her arm. “I wish I could have stopped him.”

Link let out a trembling sigh.

“I’m just relieved you’re okay.”