#i think the later couple units are ones they made up and not based off mythology. because i looked her up and got kung fu panda

[acid-ixx]

You said that every character has a chapter, but does that include more side characters like Steph, duke, Cass, and Babs? I see more of the batboys (-duke) in your content so I was wonderi mr what type of characterization you were hang for them, what comics you’re basing them off of. Plus its said that Steph once rejected readers offer to watch a movie together, would she remember that? Would she trh to overcorrect herself like dick? You also said that reader fears duke with his powers (I'm not too sure when but I think it was somewhere) how would he react to that? Honestly if I was scared of duke I would be terrified of Cass because she's a fucking killing machine

— masterlist !

when i say that every character included in the batfam will have their own chapter, i genuinely mean it. even bruce's cousin, kate, will make an appearance! duke and steph specifically will be focal characters for chapter 6, since that's when i'll finally unravel very pivotal parts of the past you shared with them; especially with that one scene where i vaguely mentioned how duke remembered you doing something for him which potentially saved his life, alongside how some heavy afflicted gried that stephanie felt during her own mourning is spent right beside you.

the only reason why i laid off of writing them for a while is also because i had to read a lot of comics just to fully grasp their concepts. i'll admit that i made plenty of mischaracterizations (especially with coffee addict tim, or overly joyous steph, when she's always been a crash out lmao, which i'll fix sooner or later). so far, i read cass' batgirl runs, i also like babs more as the oracle as someone disabled myself so the comics i read for her are only those where she is oracle, i also read pre-52 stephanie brown runs, and for duke, his was the easiest to read with the we are robin run alongside a lot of tie-ins.

and yes, you are absolutely terrified of the stronger characters like duke and cassandra. yes, the main four brothers are units, too, but you're way more familiar with their antics whilst cass and duke were introduced later on into the batfamily, so imagine the utter terror of having to learn that another killing machine is introduced (cass) into the family and the fear of going through the same, or even worse, treatment you went through with damian, or someone with metahuman powers who could potentially blind you or know your every movement due to his ability to pinpoint someone's location?

though i'd say that fear is more-so always overlayed with jealousy at just how easily they can integrate into the family and how, as always, you never really fit into the puzzle piece unlike them, who's so easily been accepted for who they are, unlike you, who couldn't even get bruce to look you straight into the eye. best believe, when they get their hands on your own journals and discovering how left out you are because of them, their own guilt would just cause them to always need you to be in the picture and open up opportunities for stephanie to 'bond' with you like you once did all those years ago when you accompanied her when she was all alone in the kitchen, close to giving up— and trust me, with duke's light powers, he's more than capable of finding all your hiding spots. couple that with cass' greatness at reading body language, she'll immediately know it when your body prepares you to escape which makes you run out of a lot of opportunities to even fight back.

[theplottdump]

One Night in Al Simhara || Behind the Scenes & Director's Notes

The World:

Al Simhara was built in Strangerville using Nando's incredibly busted Get to Egypt mod. (which i tossed sunblind into as well and pulled a few ugly skyscrapers out of) My friend OakieDokieSims built the layout for me since he's fantastic with sight lines and scale (he also built the shells for Val's Lair and the UNIT office) and I finished off the set dressing for all the things I needed to be able to see in game.

I also added a lightmap to the pyramids from the mod so they would glow at night!

The Red Jacket™

There's a couple running themes/motifs in this story that I included. One of them is this red Suitcoat that we see Dick put on at the beginning.

When we cut to 35 years ago, Dick is in white and blue and Chet is the one with the Red Jacket. Dick is a more complicated character. He's my bisexual James Bond- (including all the negative connotations that come from being a sex pest) and I wanted to show how Chet really shaped him into who he became later on in his career.

When we see Force Ghost Chet at the end, he's not wearing his jacket anymore because it's been (metaphorically) passed onto Dick. He's now the confident older Agent that he admired so much. This was the original ending I had planned for him, but when i put all my sims on a lot together Carmela and Dick were instantly extremely attracted to each other and I was like hold on now I got brain worms.

So when he makes the conscious decision to retire in the epilogue we see him return to the blue and white and as a bonus I tried to have Carmela match the neutral tones we see her in in the flashback as well.

Little Notes and Nods:

You can tell a lot about a person from their shoes.

Poignant lyrical accompaniment to Dick pouring out one for the dead abusive homie who still lives rent free in his head.

@aheathen-conceivably cameo #1

Dick getting berated by the fruit stall lady cause i needed a quick snappy way to get him and chet in a closet together

Snapping a quick Dick Pic™ of some classified documents

I hastily added some papers flying around and have decided I now need a papers flying around object re: Natalia Auditore cloud of crows

Strategic Mirror Placement for Staking out Secret Handoffs and staring at cute girls

The first real shot of Chet's face is his reflection in a mirror.

I purposely didn't show Professor Ego's full face during most of the story cause I didn't want to deal with all the HE LOOKS LIKE DOCTOR FACILIER comments. I asked shooby to make him for me and yes he absolutely was based off him. 😂 I only refer to him in text since he was apprehended by UNIT right before the gen 6 story starts, so I thought it would be fun to pull him in for this

I don't think I've ever used Miguel for anything but during a weakness spiral I built Ale 2 houses and made him a massive extended family, and Miguel is his great uncle and also the reason Alejandro is part of the lawful good secret Society of Brilliance in the first place.

chet cheekily checking out ass in more mirror shots

Aheathen Cameo #2 - the case of the magical teleporting Alexis

I made the pose and placed the sign separately but it was such a happy accident i had to scoot it into the shot

Instead of her Magnum, I thought Queenie should have some nasty looking knives to play with. So I whipped up some Liujiao Dao or chinese deer horn knives for her.

bisexual lighting orgasm face

i created this effect on accident by selecting a sim with TOOL and sticking a relight ball in their face. I like how ghostly it looks but doesn't lose any detail.

reds, blues, and more mirrors. I wonder if that means anything.

Cheeky painting swatch switch so the closeup of the hands wasn't just a solid block of red which is not the color we're looking for right now. The bits of red and blue on white are more in tune with the mosaic analogy at the end as well. (which is a direct echo of dick's speech to chad from chet's funeral)

And we've come in a full Jo Stafford musical circle. Nice!

[rubycruzin4abruzin]

Forbidden Crown - III

Summary: Kit and Airk visit Azarenth to celebrate your fifteenth birthday, but when your mother delivers some earth-shattering news, your relationships with the twins crumble. After an ‘experiment’ gone wrong, you realize some things about yourself that could destroy your life, as well as those of the people around you.

Pairing: kit tanthalos x princess!reader

Contains: angst, boy-kissing, girl-kissing, implied vomiting (not graphic), half-smut, heavy petting, second base, forced marriage, nightmare

Word Count: 3.5k

A/N: it’s getting steamy up in here

The day you turned fifteen was a cause of celebration for all of Azarenth. Your parents held an elaborate banquet in your honor, complete with minstrels and jesters, and invited the entire kingdom to celebrate. All day long, you received birthday wishes and blessings from the townspeople, indulged in your favorite foods, and drowned in a seemingly endless sea of presents. Luxurious garments, precious jewelry, fine craftsmanship; you were gracious for every one, but none compared to the greatest gift of them all.

“Tomorrow morning, the twins from Tir Asleen will be riding in for a visit.” Your mother informed you later that evening, after all the party guests had gone home.

You froze in your tracks, the news leaving you momentarily speechless. “Really? They’re visiting here?”

“Well I’d prefer not to have Kit stay,” your mother scoffed. “But heaven forbid I take one without the other.”

Far too excited to acknowledge your mother’s snide remark, you rushed to wrap your arms around her, expressions of gratitude flying from your lips. She stiffened at your touch, only obliging with a reluctant pat on your back.

Just when you felt like you were on top of the world, everything came crashing down in a matter of seconds.

“I expect you to be on your best behavior while they’re here, please put in the extra effort to make Airk feel comfortable. In five years’ time, you will be his bride.”

You froze again, the last sentence hitting you like a sledgehammer to a stone wall. Slowly, you removed your arms from her torso, stepping back to meet her gaze. “Pardon?”

“Sorsha and I decided it was time to tell you both,” she explained calmly. “We’ve been arranging this marriage to unite our kingdoms since you were young.”

Confusion, anger, betrayal; a plethora of emotions swarmed you as you stood there, stunned. “You’re telling me this now?”

“Darling, you’re fifteen now, a woman. We didn’t want to scare you when you were children but it’s high time you start to think about the future of Azarenth.”

Realization hit you like a pound of bricks. “That’s why you always put so much emphasis on a relationship with Airk? You were preparing us for marriage?”

“Well I see no reason for such commotion! From what you’ve told me, you and Airk get along quite well. I’m sure you’ll make a fine couple.”

She dismissed you with a wave of her hand before retreating to her bedchamber for the night, leaving you standing there in a puddle of conflicting feelings. On one hand, Airk was pleasant company, and he could make a fine ruler one day. On the other hand, your heart didn’t long for him, and just the thought of you two being expected to produce heirs made you feel ill.

In five years, in five short years, you would be Princess Airk Tanthalos. You closed your eyes, testing out the name once on your lips before running outside and dropping to your knees, emptying your stomach's contents into the street.

That night was spent tossing and turning in bed, fighting off images of a marriage to Airk before they overpowered you, transforming into a nightmare as you slipped into slumber.

You were walking through the Tir Asleen gardens with Kit, picking bouquets of flowers and laughing at nothing but your own contagious joy. Just when you were almost done arranging your flowers, she seized your hand without warning, forcing you to drop your bouquet and pulling you away from the garden.

“Kit! Where are we going?” You chuckled, but never received an answer.

Instead, she pulled you into the doors of the castle and led you through every room. Each room seemed to stretch on forever, the exit nothing more than an optical illusion. With every new step, Kit moved faster until you were practically chasing after her, each breath coming in ragged gasps as your feet slapped against the cold stone floor.

Finally, Kit led you back outside, where you seemed to have spent so long in the castle that the sky was now a dark black with no moon in sight. She continued to pull you until you stood in front of the garden once again, where she slowed her pace before pausing at the entrance. This time, instead of the garden being filled with fragrant flowers and low-hanging trees, it was furnished to look like a wedding ceremony, with Airk standing at the end of the aisle. All of the guests turned in their chairs, staring at you with stone-like expressions.

You looked down and found that your everyday clothing had been replaced with an extravagant wedding gown. “Kit,” you whispered, squeezing her hand. “Why have you brought me here?”

Kit turned to look at you, leaving you horrified as her face morphed into that of your mother’s. Her demeanor remained still and frosty as she dropped your hand like a forgotten promise.

“The future is upon us, Princess Airk Tanthalos.”

You shot up in bed, gasping for breath as your heart raced. Pressing a hand to your chest, you inhaled deeply, forcing yourself to calm down. The window facing outside showed the sky still an impenetrable black, clear and streaked with twinkling stars. You groaned, flopping back onto your mattress as you reluctantly prepared for the remainder of a restless night.

You practically sleepwalked through the next morning, the dark circles under your eyes hanging like crescent moons in the night sky. After grunting a barely perceptible greeting to your parents, you took your seat at the breakfast table and started on the meal the chefs had prepared for you. Each bite tasted like gray mush. You chewed mechanically, feeling as if your emotions were so dulled that even your taste buds were affected.

Silence filled the breakfast table as everyone noticed you weren’t your usual chipper self. Even your father noticed something was off and attempted to speak before your mother shot him an icy glare, placing her hand over his as an unspoken warning.

Before you even had time to pass out onto your plate, the familiar clip-clop of a horse-drawn carriage sounded from outside, signaling the twins' arrival. You stood up, trailing behind your parents as you stepped outside to greet your guests.

A creamy white horse stood just outside the castle entrance, attached to a rugged coachman steering a wooden carriage. Airk was the first to step out, shaking out his chestnut curls and smoothing the fabric of his thin tunic. The morning sun reflected off his green eyes, making them look like two polished emeralds.

Although you weren’t attracted to him, you had to admit, he had grown into a handsome lad. You began to wonder if there was a chance that marrying him wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, that maybe you could make it work, and learn to live somewhat content.

But then Kit stepped out of the carriage, and the very thought of marrying her brother became distasteful again. She was pale, and the dark circles under her eyes only accentuated her lack of color. Her clothing was loose, wrinkly, and her barely chin-length tresses were dyed black with an indigo plant.

To anyone else, she appeared as a tired mess, a pathetic excuse for a princess. But when you gazed upon her, all you saw was Kit. Your Kit. The girl you grew up with and simultaneously never saw, the one person who meant more to you than anyone else.

Your mother rushed to meet Airk, presenting a perfect curtsy and gushing over how handsome he’d gotten. To Kit, she offered nothing more than a brief nod and a stiff grin.

“Welcome to Azarenth, you two,” she greeted. “I trust you’ll feel right at home here.”

With that, she turned on her heel, marching back into the castle and leaving you to attend to your guests. You never really liked having your mother around; her chilly demeanor often irritating you to the point of submerging yourself into daydreams where you could run away, free from her parental confines. But now, as she walked away and you watched her figure grow smaller, you wanted nothing more than for her to return. Even if it was to make a snide comment, you would take anything to alleviate the tension that now floated between you and the twins.

Airk took a step towards you, clearing his throat and hiding his hands behind his back. “Happy birthday, Princess.”

You smiled in return, curtsying politely. The two of you stood there, silently staring at each other, the weight of what you both now knew settling between you.

“Yes, happy birthday, Princess.” Kit sneered, stomping over and offering an exaggerated curtsy.

Your smile faltered. “No need to be so formal.”

Kit scowled at you, her blue eyes, once bright oceans now beady cesspools filled with contempt. “Oh forgive me, your highness! I had no intention of offending her majesty, the future ruler of Tir Asleen!”

She scoffed, shaking her head and storming past you into the castle doors. Airk mumbled a quick apology on her behalf before following after her, leaving you outside, alone, caught in a whirlpool of heartache.

The rest of the day remained as tense as how it started. Kit had holed herself up in her designated guest room, so you were stuck with Airk. For the most part, you tried to avoid each other, save for occasionally crossing paths in the hallways and stuttering immediate apologies. When the kitchen maid rang the dinner bell, you reluctantly trudged to the dining room, dragging your feet all the way there to postpone interaction as much as possible.

Your mother eyed you critically as you were the last to take your seat at the table. “How kind of you to grace us with your presence.”

Pursing your lips out of disdain, you glanced over at Airk. He met your gaze, making accidental eye contact for a brief second before looking down and pretending to be transfixed by his supper. Your eyes traveled across the table to a seat left empty, Kit’s noticeable absence leaving a pang in your chest.

Sounds of silverware scratching against ceramic dishes filled the room as the four of you ate in silence. You and Airk kept your heads down, refusing to look up from your plates while your parents exchanged glances from across the table. Once finished, you pushed your plate away and requested to be excused, leaving without waiting for a response.

Grabbing your shawl off a nearby hook, you walked briskly out of the castle. The cold December air pricked against your skin as you hugged your shawl closer to you. Azarenth typically had a warmer climate with very few opportunities for cold weather, but something about this night felt especially frosty, enough for a handful of snowflakes to lazily drift down from the night sky.

You retreated to a small courtyard away from the main thoroughfares, a secluded area complete with a center fountain you often used as a refuge. Taking a seat on the edge of the fountain, you stared at your reflection in the water, your mirrored image looking just as tired and stressed as it had that morning. You groaned, splashing away your likeness before immediately pulling your hand back, shocked by the iciness of the water.

As you sat alone with your thoughts, the sound of footsteps approached. You turned your head to see Airk at the entrance, pausing as soon as you met his gaze. He looked sheepish, his hands hiding behind his back as he nervously shuffled his feet.

“Your father told me I might find you here,” he spoke softly, answering the question you never asked.

You didn’t respond, so he moved towards you, taking a seat beside you on the edge of the fountain. The two of you sat in silence for a moment, staring at your feet while you listened to the gentle roar of the water behind you.

“Your parents informed you of the arrangement, I imagine.” He said in a low voice, addressing the elephant in the room.

You sighed deeply, nodding your head in response. “I feel so betrayed.”

Airk raised his eyebrows.

“Not because you’d make a terrible spouse!” You quickly backtracked. “I just… I feel so…”

“Caught off guard?” Airk interrupted.

You nodded. His assumption was only half-true, but true nonetheless.

Airk puffed out his cheeks, taking a moment to choose his next words carefully. “Well, perhaps we could… test it out? See what it’s like?”

You eyed him with furrowed brows. “What do you mean?”

“Married life,” he clarified. “Perhaps we could… try some of the things married people do? Just to see how it feels?”

Your eyes widened as you leaned back in shock. “I’m not doing that!” You crossed your arms over your chest and drew inward, suddenly feeling very exposed despite being fully dressed.

“No, no! I would never ask you to do that!” Airk sputtered, vigorously shaking his head.

You sighed in relief. Airk laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to calm his nerves.

“No, certainly not. I…” he cleared his throat. “…was truly suggesting we… try a kiss? Surely, married couples kiss. Perhaps we could just see how it feels?”

You glanced at his lips and contemplated his proposal. He had a point. “Yes.”

“Are you certain?” Airk’s eyes widened in surprise.

You nodded. “Well, we’ll be expected to kiss at our wedding anyway. May be convenient to remove the element of surprise.”

Airk positioned himself to face you. “I’ve never kissed anyone before.”

“I haven’t either,” you lied, thinking back to the innocent kisses you shared with Kit as children. Despite her spicy personality, she had always tasted so sweet. You wondered if Airk would taste just as sweet.

Before you knew it, Airk had leaned in and connected his mouth to yours. His lips were wet, soaked with spit, and his coarse stubble scratched at your chin. He didn’t taste sweet; he barely tasted like anything at all. There was no buzzing in your ears, nor bursts of warmth in your chest, just two mouths collided in a dispassionate exchange.

When Airk pulled away, you felt like crying. He stared at you expectantly. “Was that alright?”

You stared back at him, trying to suppress the nauseous feeling in your stomach. As he waited for your response, all you could think about was how different it was from kissing Kit, how you had never longed for him in the same way, and if you were arranged to marry his sister instead of him, would you be as upset?

Your mind raced with memories of Kit: stolen kisses behind trees, late night sneakaways, sharing secrets under covers. You thought back to when Kit introduced you to lewd literature, remembering how those pictures of women made you feel. Realization hit you like a punch in the gut, causing you to clutch your stomach and audibly gag.

Airk frowned. “Was it not?”

Tears welled up in your eyes. “I have to go.”

You stood up and practically fled from the courtyard, leaving Airk to sit alone, his face crumpled with hurt and immersed in a flood of confusion.

Frigid winds whipped your tear-stained face as you dashed through the outskirts of the castle, your footsteps echoing against the pavement. Your mind raced, a mixture of flashbacks and fear swarming this newfound epiphany. When you reached the castle entrance, you burst through the doors, darting past your parents and ignoring the questions they fired at you.

You had to find her. You needed to speak with her.

Rushing up the stairs, you ran through the corridors, past your own bedchamber, and paused in front of another. You doubled over, resting your hands on your knees in an attempt to catch your breath, heart pounding like a stampede of wild horses.

Finally somewhat calm, you stood straight, gazing not at the door, but at the nothingness that stood between you and it. With a deep breath, you disregarded all knowledge of basic etiquette and threw open the door, not bothering to knock.

“Kit!” You cried.

Startled, Kit whipped around to face the door, not expecting visitors. Upon seeing you, her face darkened. “Oh, you again. What have you come here for?”

“Kit, please, I need to talk to you…”

“Why?” Kit interrupted. “Because you need help planning your wedding? Are you here to boast about marrying my brother? How you’re going to live happily-ever-after and have hundreds of children? Would you like name suggestions?”

“You don’t understand…” you tried to swallow the lump growing in your throat. “I can’t marry Airk.”

Kit seemed taken aback by your admittance, but her demeanor quickly hardened again. “I hadn’t realized the Tanthalos blood wasn’t good enough for you.”

“That is not the reason…”

“My apologies, your highness!” Kit exclaimed, each word dripping with venom. “I shouldn’t have assumed you would want to be the future Queen of Tir Asleen! Our lowly kingdom must not meet your impossibly high standards!”

“Would you listen to me?!” You smacked her arm, unable to stop angry tears from streaming down your face. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Kit flinched upon contact, but her hostility remained unyielding. Still, she crossed her arms over her chest and squinted, waiting for your explanation.

You sniffed, choking back a sob. “Airk kissed me.”

Kit’s expression barely shifted, but her eyes momentarily flickered with confusion. “Your fiancé kissed you? How distressing.”

“You don’t understand…” you drew inward as you stared at the floor, avoiding her piercing stare. “I hated it.”

You saw Kit’s arms drop to her sides out of your peripheral vision, body language softening slightly. She took a step towards you, and you squeezed your eyes tight.

“What are you saying?”

“I don’t want to marry Airk,” you repeated, finally looking up at her. “I don’t think I want to marry any prince.”

You took a seat on the edge of her bed and wiped your tear-stricken face. Kit stood stunned for a moment before moving to your side, placing a comforting arm around your shoulders.

“Do you think you might be a…?”

The word you’d both been raised to believe was dirty sat unspoken on her lips: sapphic.

You nodded, ashamed. The idea of a woman being attracted to other women was extremely frowned upon, especially for someone of nobility like yourself. But as you sank into Kit’s touch, societal expectations no longer seemed so scary. She always did make you feel safe.

“What am I going to do?” You wondered out loud, not exactly expecting an answer. Kit pulled you in closer, staring at you with unblinking eyes. You met her gaze.

“Kit, I…”

And suddenly her mouth was on yours, taking you by surprise and making you jump. She pulled back in fear, searching your face for any sign of resistance.

“I… I’m sorry…” she sputtered. “I must have misread something…”

Not wanting her to finish that sentence, you grabbed her face and kissed her ferociously, this time taking her by surprise. She gasped against your mouth, but soon returned the kiss with as much passion as you had given.

Kissing Kit was nothing like kissing Airk. Her lips weren’t wet; they were perfectly moist, and her skin was smooth against yours. That familiar grape-juice taste from when you were kids had aged gracefully along with her, now bursting with the flavors of sweet wine. Neither of you were very experienced kissers, but it wasn’t awkward like it was with Airk; there was no clumsy collision, just two mouths exploring each other in an act of tender intimacy.

Kit picked up her movements, kissing you hungrily with a passion that almost bordered on desperation. She grabbed at your waist, pushing you down on the bed until she hovered over you. You moaned at the unexpected feeling of your head against the soft mattress, and that was all the reassurance Kit needed to keep going. She placed a hand on your stomach and started to untie the laces of your corset, moving at a snail's pace in case you were to oppose. When you didn't, she removed the restrictive garment and inched her fingers up your blouse. You gasped at the feeling of her skin against yours, but when she pulled away to check in, you immediately brought her back to you, not wanting her to stop for anything.

You writhed underneath her as she explored the skin underneath your blouse. Longing coursed through your veins, each brush of her fingertips feeling like the warmth of a thousand suns. When she grazed her thumb across a particularly sensitive area, you moaned into her mouth, lifting your hips and pressing your core into her body. She shivered under the newfound contact, pulling away and looking down at you with apprehension.

“I’ve never really done anything like this before,” she admitted.

“P-pardon?” You sputtered through labored breaths, your body craving her in a way it had never craved anyone before.

“This…” she gestured at both of your bodies. “…is all new to me.”

“Likewise,” you whispered before leaning in to reassure her with a gentle kiss. “We don’t have to do anything more than this tonight. I promise I’m enjoying myself.”

Kit seemed to relax. “Would that be alright?”

“Truly,” you replied, because it was. It was more than alright. It was perfect.

Tag List: @chloepricesgirl @canmargesimpson @yourelliewillms @valenftcrush @camilleee222 @prettygirlfemme @slaytillieswooo @love4lyn @joanvisitsrome @athenalive @mih11 @j-pacifica @everybodyhatesari @vii-ofswords @sophi4v13

[brokenpieces-72]

Split

CoD Hybrid AU | Navigation

You have options for what to do next. Communications are still open, you have contacts that can assist you, and you can reach weapons easily enough. The problem is… the problem. The people who raised you, took care of you, and trained you are now trying to kill you and innocent people. There aren’t too many hybrid units that can be easily reached and it’s selfish but if the program found out about this you would be taken back immediately.

“Right now we need to wait this out.” Ghost admits. The problem is, plenty of people could die. There are evacuation and containment measures for when something like this happens but like any emergency, no one is guaranteed safety. Most of the men were likely out if not holed up somewhere.

“What about a flu shot?” You suggest. Ghost and Rudy both look at you, a little confused.

“A flu shot?” Ghost asks.

“It put me out of commission.” You point out.

“Yes, but it took a couple days.” Rudy reminds you.

“But I couldn’t do anything for a while before that. I even tried to shift, but it just made super tired…having a hard time shifting even now.” You mutter the last part. Ghost and Rudy share a look. It could be difficult, and they’d need to get to the flu shots, but it wasn’t a terrible idea. Certainly worth a try. It is concerning that you can’t shift properly but that’s an issue for later.

“Does Hunter have any vaccines?”

“Got a few extras just in case, there’s enough for every soldier on base.” You say.

“Administering them could be tricky.” Rudy mentions.

“I can hold them down if you can deliver.” Ghost tells him. Rudy nods. Ghost turns to you. “You know where the vaccines are?”

“In the medbay.” You say. Shit. That could get complicated.

“Jet injector might be useful. More force to it.” Ghost thinks aloud.

“Those would be in another part of the base.” Rudy says. It’s risky even leaving the room, but staying in one place is not safe either. Right now you three need to get to work before there’s too much bloodshed. Rudy is low on energy, and cadejos could take a while to recharge. Ghost can’t expend his abilities too much without risk, so hiding in shadows has to be limited. You can’t shift which was a bit of an issue, but you’re a quick runner, and you can duck into anywhere.

“Alright, we’ll try to go at this together, but knowing the odds we’ll get separated. Spirit, find the vaccines, as many of them as you can gather. Rudy, jet injectors. I’ll keep an eye on both of you as much as I can.” Ghost says. You get off the desk and stick close to the men’s sides. Thankfully Rudy still had his side arm, but you and ghost don’t have much.

Ghost looks down at you, and worries for a moment. “Y/N?”

You look up at him. “If we get separated, don’t open the door for anyone. Not unless it’s me or Rudy, and you ask us a question only one of us would know. Got it?”

You hesitate but nod. Ghost knows you’re worried about the team first and foremost. You’re scared for Johnny, as is he. König is one of your only friends. He gives your shoulder a light squeeze and you take a deep breath.

You can feel your heart thumping in your chest as the door is slowly opened. Price’s door lets out a soft squeak, something he refused to get fixed for his own purposes. You can hear some noises in the distance that make you want to go back inside the office. You have to steel yourself though. This is a mission, and you’re entering what is essentially a war zone with highly dangerous targets and bogies. Unfortunately you also know that soft squeak of the hinge is a blip on the radar for plenty of your team with enhanced senses.

Rudy is tense, which makes sense. He’s low on energy, and who knows how long he originally had before all hell broke loose in the infirmary. The cadejos would likely need a minute before he could summon them again.

You hear a howl, all of you do. You look back down the hall. Your brother is somewhere nearby, you know it’s him. It couldn’t be anyone else. There’s an odd pull towards it, but Rudy catches your shoulder.

“Mija, don’t.” You look back at him, knowing what he means. Throughout your time here, Soap had been nothing but supportive, and you feel like you could be letting him down. Another howl rings out and Ghost looks back as well. He knows that howl too. You look up at Ghost, wanting nothing more than to see your brother.

“We need to hurry.” He says, and continues moving. Then you hear your name. Soap knows you can hear it, and only you can hear it. It pulls your attention away from the set course. Rudy gives a soft tug to your shoulder, keeping you from taking off.

“Rudy…” you say softly.

“Not a good idea. We stay on target, yeah?” Rudy says. You nod and continue to follow. You hear some more noises. A few are cries, some are squelching and wet, and you can make out a pounding noise, something banging against walls. You realize you’re moving closer to it and stop.

Ghost takes notice as does Rudy.

“What?” Ghost asks.

“I think I hear Konig.”

“I don’t hear anything.” Rudy says.

“It’s near the medbay. Something trying to break out.” You explain.

“You can hear that?” Rudy asks.

“Yeah.” You say looking between the two men. They’re a little red in the face, exchanging looks. “Why do you think I wear headphones at night? Block out you two with you Soap and Alejandro down the halls.”

“Not the time.” Ghost says, not wanting to lose focus. “Let’s focus on findin-“

“Horangi.” You say seeing a familiar haetae approaching. Shit. His eyes are red, and his mouth is drooling. There’s no chuffing only low growls.

“Spirit… you know what to do.” Ghost instructs focusing on the stalking beast as you three step back. Rudy moves into your line of sight and Horangi. Your vision started to go white, as you realize Horangi is trying to hide himself. Ghost would be fine but Rudy? You have to hope Rudy with be okay. You take off without another thought, taking another route to the medbay. There’s growls both canine and feline but you don’t look back.

You turn the corners trying to focus on whatever smells of carnage you can track down.

Fresh scent, raw and meaty but still fresh. You pause for a moment taking time to locate yourself. You’re out of the fog at least. Frying pan and fire though because you’re exposed. Okay ignore the smells, you’ll smell blood and meat regardless of whichever way you go. The sound of banging though. That had to be Konig surely.

“Little rabbit…” you heard, and the hair on the back of your neck rose. It was soft but close. You took only a second to look up and see what was your worst nightmare.

He stood, half shifted, and covered in gore. He wiped his mouth on his arm, smearing the blood even more, approaching you with a hunger in his eyes.

“Johnny…”

“Run rabbit… run run run…”

Taglist: @yourlovely-moon @kaoyamamegami @h0n3y-l3m0n05 @sans-chara @1mommyrose4ever29 @smitten-haematite-quartz @talia-the-gemini @yuki2129 @whitetiger846 @graystorm444 @chibiduck @reaperxxxxzz @danielle143 @sobbingnshtting @cringeycookies @cryingpages @dcnocap207 @reaper-chan666 @bestbookfriends @thriving-n-jiving @cutiecusp @shikigami-the-paper-spirit

[hummingjay]

JAYYYY IM CURIOUS FUN QUESTION FOR U but who/what are your art muses? Like are there any particular artists whose styles you try to incorporate aspects of into ur own work?? Or a different question too but can u say any of your ocs are inspired by other characters/stories/shows? I think it’s cool seeing the origins of ocs and the ask u sent me got me thinkin abt that

Okay the I can't really give you a very definitive answer on styles (will try though) so I'm gonna answer your second question first since I can actually get into it.

SO Kasuars are based off a number of characteristics. There's a couple themes I try to explore but her origin is this dipshit.

This butthead is my first signalis oc and I've been thinking of her since forever. Never did show her though. Lucky you! I don't want this to risk being a post about her so I'll keep it brief. Very long story short, she's an Ara unit who was stationed as a weapon maintainer on venita and ended up having to defend herself against an imperial raid. Well, she was great at fighting, turns out. She was quickly adopted into the military (though reluctantly, high-ups were skeptical of the Ara operating way out of her role). She was destructive and wholly efficient. The enemy simply could not kill her. She was able to shrug off near-lethal wounds and could deal out tenfold. Thing is, her persona isn't combat capable. She starts dealing with combat fatigue, paranoia, general fear, and obviously PTSD.

There's more on her but I'm going to have to stop there to actually answer your question. Remember that secret santa signalis thing that we had a bit ago? Well, I misread the instructions first time around and thought I had to have an oc. So I took the ara and turned her into Kasuar. (actually, I only finished her halfway by the time I realized ocs weren't mandatory, so I ended up finishing her later.) I chose the cassowary as a bird because when I googled "aggressive bird" it was the first result. I took the Aras brutal efficiency coupled with her near-crippling paranoia and fear and mixed in a few other influences. Beyond her zealotry, I was playing with the idea of an unchosen one, the extras and nobodies. When I made her I was thinking of extras in films. The numerous, countless soldiers that die in the background to add depth to the film. The grunts that the get speared as the hero charges on. They're faceless and nameless and little more than paper wads used to fill the cracks. I think they're authentically more interesting. That's a concept I really want to go for and explore.

They're the nameless, faceless, countless soldiers that fight and die while we focus on the main character. No chosen one, just a person. Not special, not cool, just here and she's going to die and nobody will care. Nobody will notice as another extra takes her place so she can die next. She's not a character, she's a theme, used by the author to express the brutality of the story without actually facing the consequences of killing off a significant character. When the villain is introduced, they kill a couple of grunts to show how powerful they are. Then the hero kills the villain and it's all the more impressive. Well, kasuars are the guys dying in swathes for theme, for the background brutality. She's a nobody and she fills in the blanks.

I actually chose white for Kass for two reasons; because Aras (the original kasuar) had white and white seemed like the color for cheaper, more expendable units. It just felt cheaper. Like how planes are white for fuel and cost efficiency. Kasuars are meant to be expendable. In-lore, they're meant to be support units that distract for and aid larger, more important units like schnäppers. But they were so aggressive and deadly that they were adopted as the main force. ÆON focuses on producing them quickly and cheaply. That's why they die so quick, they're meant to be single-use cannons. They aren't built to live long, just live hard.

Other than that, I'd recently finished checking out Warhammer Darktide (didn't actually get the game) and I was intrigued by the Zealot. Someone religious and absolutely batshit crazy about it. I played with it a bit and that's why kass's gestalt was a cultist. Kass's insane about her religion, ready to die because she doesn't fear the other side any more than she fears going into another room down the hall. She's insane and crazy and she knows she's guided by a goddess who's always watching her under a burning loving gaze. But that doesn't even matter. She's not here for her goddess. That's not the story. She's here to fight for her nation and die for it, her spirituality is another backdrop and that's why I like it. When she swings her blade you know she's blessed it, but you care not for the blessing, just the blade. The religiosity isn't even the main theme, her fighting is.

I spun that around and got Kasuar as we know and loathe (affectionate) her. Her physical characteristics are based of german WW1 soldiers and Helldivers.

I saw the devastator armor a bit ago and liked the idea of a front-only shield. The helm is just a helm that looks rad. She uses an axe cause I like axes and trench raiders use them. Now, (and in signalis) such a heavy weapon would be obsolete but It's a cool concept so I let it be.

And yeah. that's Kass. On to your next (first) question!

Honestly, that's really tough. I can tell you that I go online and look at art and just incorporate what I think looks good. I cannot possibly list just one person. Half my muses I don't even remember their names. I can try a bit, though. I choose things to incorporate if 1-I like it, 2- It goes with my current artstyle, and 3- i'm skilled enough. You're a pretty good example of meeting the first criteria, actually. I would go for the musculature-based painty artstyle you've got but ultimately I'm just not skilled enough to make it work.

I saw an artist use a clothlike skin instead of plating and Thought it looked cool. I incorporated that for a bit, and my fave pieces are Elster, Blauhäher (@/schwarzgeier's oc) and Bussard (@/fischlich's oc). I used that artstyle since I drew @/nixaluminos's Lammergeier (saw them use it first) and it was them that got me to use it. It didn't stick. (something funny- I drew these linked pieces but all the artists I listed are deities compared to me. You should check their own art out cause it's a lot better)

I kept the clothlike skin for the arms and shoulders, actually. The rest went back to plating.

For proportions I go for a semirealistic style. I make the head a bit bigger, and the limbs are longer. My own limbs are proportionately long so that bit's just natural for me. I copy a western style you'll find in many comic books and webcomics- At least for the face. I'm not a fan of the tight spray-on clothes they wear, and I mostly learned how to draw clothes from central-asian mangas and the like. I know this part of the response is kinda lackluster cause I didn't actually list any muses, but I can't really name 'em all. I did use this guide by @schwarzgeier-side. It's a shading guide and I seldom shade (lazy) but I learned to use a chalk brush and base a lot of my art off of hers. Sometimes I take from really old stuff, Like I recently started basing smoke off what we see in old japanese woodcarvings.

AND yeah. That's it. My horrible girls and the artstyle.

[froggybrainz]

Don't mind me. I just felt like posting alil teaser for my fic. Sorry if it's bad, it's my first one.... Just letting yall know that this one isn't a y/n kind of fic but a world building one for my ocs....

The steps gave way to a slight creak as I made my way up to the front door, a soft glow eliminated from the curtains suggest that I might not be the only one up. My keys jingle together as I push the door open as I am now met by my mom still in her robe.

“Oh! Alex….you scared me!...”She jumped.

“...hi mom…”, I yawned, kicking my boots off to the side. A sign of relief was heard as she sat back down in her chair.

“Well don't you just look lively tonight Alex… another long night at work?” she joked before taking another sip of her coffee. I do nothing but smile at her and continue my journey to my room.

She's up earlier than usual, I thought to myself, hmmm…Matter of fact she's up 2 hours early! The kitchen clock read the time, 1:34am normally she doesn't get up for work till a whopping 3:30am! A restless night it seems ....Then again She's always been that way from what I remember, from one doctor's appointment to another just to find out the last pill doesn't work anymore!

“I guess that just leaves me with more time to watch my shows!”, she'll always say. Insomnia oh what a real pain in the ass…

“Oh Alex by the way don't forget that i'll be working later today and make sure you wake your brother up for school, I don't feel like getting another call from the office saying that he's been skipping again…”.

“Hmhmm…”, I mumbled, making my way up the stairs, my feet getting heavier the closer I got to my bed.

The storm had luckily held off long enough for me to make it home before it let loose, the sound of the rain rhythmically tapping my window soothed my mind and helped eased me to sleep.

Finally…

It was a busy day at the dinner, as both familiar and new faces filled the booths with bustling energy. The same old couple ordered their usual early bird special while a group of friends pick and poke at each other about a guy the one has been thinking about. It's been a good day.

Making my rounds through the dinner I stopped by the old couples booth to refill their drinks. With a soft smile and a gesture I began to pour them some more tea when I got a whiff of something rotten… Assaulted by the smell…I gag…

“...sorry I don't mean nothing by it…it's just that…”, I said apologetically, lifting my head.

The pitcher fell to the floor as I stumbled backwards away from the sight. The once lively couple now a sight only a psychiatric patient would imagine. Teeth…so many teeth…. They seemed to be joined at the waist like some monster from the movie The Thing. The smell was horrendous….

Backing away, I seemed to have stepped in something…chunky…slowly my eyes down to what I just put my foot in and in all my life I've never ran faster. The whole dinner seemed to be covered in what used to be the dear customers. Entrails to torn clothing it was EVERYWHERE….

Hyperventilating, I crammed myself under the counter like a child hiding from the boogieman. The sound of hysterical laughter started to cry out from behind the counter as the whole dinner was laughing at me ... .they were mocking me….

“NO …N-NO… STOP THIS!!!” I cried out, my head tucked between my legs. The masses continued their chorus of demonic laughter before uniting into a singular male voice.

“....ALEX….”

My blood froze, I couldn't tell if I wanted to look at it or if it was making me. Taking in what felt like it could have been my last breath, I looked up.

*BEEP!

*BEEP!

*BE-...

It was just another dream….Just another damn dream….

Side note: so imma do arcs for each oc I have, so don't worry, not everyone will be based around Alex. The next one I'll work on after this one is complete is "Hippies and Cowboys" (yes, like the song) for Willie and Frankie. This one is called "Dream Walker," and it's gonna be based around Jack and Alex. Plus, Bernie will be in it, too.

Overall, my au is gonna be called "IT Stalks," so i hope some will like it....

[usafphantom2]

How I Missed the D*mn War – Part 1

Monday, August 5th, 1990, my buddies phone rang and it’s his Aircraft Commander (AC) telling him he is now in crew rest, to pack a bag for 90 days, report to the squadron in 12 hours, and no, he didn’t know where they were going.

Fifteen minutes later, my AC called me. I was needed at the squadron to help load and preflight aircraft that were deploying in 12 hours. We still didn’t know where we were going or how long we’d be there, but the news was hitting the airwaves that the United States was reacting to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

Twenty-four hours later, in KC-135R 58-0059, I was sitting in my cockpit seat, right behind the AC, taking off out of Loring AFB ME headed to Lajes Field in the Azores, a small island in the eastern Atlantic. We had an airplane full of support gear for the 9-hour sortie. I can’t recall for sure if we dragged any fighters on that first flight, but judging on the flight duration, I think we did.

An Air Bridge was being put in place to get Air Force fighters, sometimes referred to as chicks, from the East Coast all the way to Saudia Arabia, or Down Range as it was known to us. Our job flying from the Lajes was to meet up with tankers flying east from the east coast, take their fighters and escort them to the Strait of Gibraltar where other tankers would be waiting to take them through the Mediterranean Sea.

It would be one tanker with anywhere between two and six fighters, depending on the fighter type. A-10s tended to be flights of six aircraft, whereas F-15s usually came in groups of four. For F-4s, the thirstiest of the fighters, there were usually only two. It wasn’t a hard and fast rule, but rather determined by many factors including weather, location and availability of divert airfields, the fighter’s fuel requirements, and the tanker’s available offload.

I always had great respect for the schedulers and planners who put all this together. The amount of coordination needed was enormous. Tankers on the east coast, supported by many bases, tankers in the Atlantic at the Azores, tankers the Mediterranean, all had to be able to meet at their rendezvous points without fail or somebody was going to end up in the drink. Nobody wanted that.

For us, at the Azores, life was good. The weather was absolutely stunning with the sun shining and the temperatures in the 80s. I had never been there before, and wrongly assumed it was like that all the time. Everything we needed (food, beer, pool, gym) was within walking distance except heading to the temporary squadron that was hastily set up. If we were flying, we’d wake up late in the morning and head over to the gym, then off to the chow hall for lunch and then report to the squadron for a sortie. If we weren’t flying, then it would be the pool and the NCO club.

The formations from the East Coast came in waves about an hour apart. That worked well, until one evening mother nature intervened. The diversion for weather caused some serious confusion, and we had tankers stacking up in an orbit waiting for their receivers. One AC who didn’t get the memo decided not to coordinate with the other holding tankers, who were stacking up in altitude, and entered the orbit at the planned altitude, which was already occupied by a tanker that had taken off a couple of hours earlier. Both aircraft circled around the orbit for a while until eventually, they crossed paths and almost collided. One of the pilots said they he was able to see the map light in the cockpit of the offending aircraft and reported that they were easily within fifty feet of each other. TCAS, or Traffic Collision Avoidance System, did not exist in those days, so there was no safety net. The funny part, not that it was that funny, was that the offending pilot was actually the head of Stan/Eval or Standards and Evaluations, the people who gave Check Rides and made sure everybody was doing things correctly.

At the Strait of Gibraltar, we’d often meet up with a KC-10. They could carry more fuel for offloading and could be refueled themselves providing even more flexibility. If we had extra gas when we met up with the KC-10, we’d refuel them, giving them the extra so they’d have it if needed.

After sorties or on days we weren’t flying, the NCO club was the place to go. C-141s were landing everyday to refuel, there were no tankers available for direct flights, and they often spent the night. There airplanes were filled with ground pounders making their way down range.

One evening, we ran into some KC-130 enlisted Marines crew dogs who were bragging about how they were the “tip of the sword.” One of our older, more experienced, and more inebriated booms started yelling at them, “Tip of the Sword my ass, we’ve been here for two effing weeks.” Fortunately, we managed to avoid getting our asses handed to us by buying them all a round of drinks and doing carrier landings on a table.

By the way, we drank the base dry. They literally ran out of beer. For a few days you couldn’t find a six pack of beer anywhere on base, but eventually we were resupplied, and all was well again.

And then, all of the sudden, that little piece of heaven melted away like a chocolate bar in the sun. Aircraft and crews started moving around again. Some of our guys went Down Range, some went home. The Down Range guys went to France, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Doha, and Deigo Garcia.

I was on a crew that was sent back home, back to good old SAC Alert watching the continuing buildup on Headline News wanting to get back to. A few weeks later, I returned to the Azores and the difference was startling. The weather had gotten cold and rainy, all the tankers were gone, the C-141s landing was reduced to a trickle, the NCO club was empty, and there were no missions to fly. All the fighters that needed to be moved had been moved.

My crew was headed down range…

(stay tuned for How I Missed the D*mn War – Part 2)

Photos: Lajes Field runway, the parking ramp, my AC and copilot, an A-10 receiver during one of the missions

@tcamp202 via X

[chitoseyo]

Me: it would be so hot if shouhei wrapped his big heavy chains around his knuckles to beat the shit out of somebody omg… i should make a barebones little fic just so I can write this scene with some paper thin plot

Me still mapping out that silly little fic a couple months later: and what if it explores the socioeconomic implications of japan being able to bounce back immediately after the war and dominate global economics and how that would impact America and how the Cold War would play out differently based on America being in a more desperate place and the way the world would change if the axis powers came out of the war mostly scot-free thanks to the slate? what if it did more with the cheeky little suggestions the show made to unit 731? and what if it played more with how the cia or nkvd would react to weissman’s experiements with the slate? and what if it leaned further into S4 being a corrupt organization that violates the human rights of defendants in their custody as opposed to just using that as a throw-away joke every once in a while, while shying away from actually making them morally complicated? and what if homra maintained that same brutal seedy gang vibe that they gave off in that one scene where yata burns that guy’s forehead with his own gun instead of writing them as friendly neighborhood watchmen bishonen softies? and what if it explored the way america’s crass cultural influence still seeped into Japan and how that would ruffle up or titillate the collectivist nationalistic countrymen and we looked into how these characters would react to cultural osmosis bringing America’s festivities like Halloween mischief night or big boisterous calendar new year parties into the more cosmopolitan Tokyo? and what if homra were written more clearly as the heroes of the story or at least were made more sympathetic if each of the gang members were outcasted by society for being unable to (or bravely refusing to) follow oppressive societal norms or expectations? and what if kagutsu was maybe a radical protester who had some motivations that made sense and part of mikoto’s descent into despair and cynicism was based on him starting to empathize with his predecessor and he was afraid to acknowledge that he thought kagutsu made some points so he just shut down emotionally to avoid thinking about it? and what if it showed a little more of the writers’ declaration that maybe totsuka was not a great person? and what if it explored how civilians are propagandized into rooting for S4 or believing it to be a noble organization? and what if it dove into the headspace of the servicemen who may feel disillusionment or doubts but have to conform out of fear or out of genuine belief that it is what’s best for the country? and what if characters like aya or saya or the shopkeeper or the unnamed girl from shohei’s intro chapter were fleshed out characters with human emotions and personalities instead of existing to just be plot devices? and what if I accidentally made Pinterest boards and rebooted character profiles and intricate timeline outlines for this whole story

[coolcattime]

8.) [Shifting Scale], 14, 20

Thank you for the ask!!

What part of Shifting Scales is your favourite?

It is, of the bits that I've written, exploring the kind of broken relationships between all the Ianitees. Like this is the big real change I've made from the original version of this fic, and it's something that I don't ever explore all that meant as my fics are mostly complete AUs.

Like, this is going to get much clearer through the rest of the fic, as the character relationships is something I really want to focus on. But even within the three chapters slotting in details of Capsize’s exasperation at Jordan (very typical for my fics), but also her struggling with Redbeard because of how duty bound she’s been and that isn’t acting in the way that she thinks is best for the mission.

And the same with Jordan and being completely frustrated with Capsize while still thinking they’re dating. He doesn’t realise that Capsize has a title and sees his own as a signal that he means more to Ianite than her but is still manipulated by Dianite to doubt his own convictions because of how little he’s really connected with Capsize and his own goddess.

Like, I just really like exploring how the season one Team Ianite is in no way a united front and how Capsize being left in charge of the mission rather than Jordan/Red makes that a lot clearer.

(For a like actual moment, it’s currently Tom saying that he’ll help on the mission and Capsize reaffirming that she wants his help. Though, I think this’ll get superseded by a later moment I have planned, I just really like Capsize and Tom friendship).

Is there anything outside of your normal content that you want to write?

Yes, very much yes.

Primarily, I want to write more OC stuff. Like I’m currently desperately working on the prologue of my OC The Quarry AU (It’s on A4 side 39, it’s going to take so goddamn long to type up and edit, I’m crying 😭). Which isn’t the furthest off my regular stuff as all the couples are w/w, but obviously it’s not Mianite and I’m always acutely aware that OC stuff takes me far more effort to get far less interaction.

Obviously, interaction isn’t everything, I wouldn’t be writing w/w in the Mianite fandom if I was exclusively looking for interaction, but I will admit, it is always a massive bummer. Especially for OC AUs.

(Please when it comes out, please read my OC The Quarry AU. It will make me so happy, and you will get to see my OC lesbians).

Secondly, and this is content that I literally haven’t done before, I genuinely have a fic in my head for a hyper specific post-game The Quarry AU based on the ending where Laura is locked in the Hacket basement and Max is alive. This would be almost fully from Max’s POV as he attempts to prove his innocence (alongside the other alive counsellors he’s literally never met before) and figure out what the hell happened to his girlfriend.

Because I goddamn love Max Brinly. He’s in the game for the shortest amount of any character, he’s literally playable once (and only if you kill Chris), and he’s the best goddamn boyfriend to ever be in a Supermassive game. I want to write a fic about this boy. I just don’t even know where I would start.

Answer any one of the other questions you want to! Tell us about a wip/idea that you're excited about!

You have no goddamn idea how excited I am for Yuri Week! Like it’s barely a week away, I have written 18,000 words and I’m so excited to share!!

I have written an extremely toxic yuri slasher AU. I have written another post-timeline piece, this time exploring Sonja’s fear of water. I have written the beginning of my “Untitled Fantasy AU”. I have written a goddamn Mysticsize piece!!

I have so so so excited!!!

[padraicratigan]

Excerpts from On Animation: The Director’s Perspective – John Musker, Ron Clements and Rob Minkoff

On Animation: The Director’s Perspective is a two volume collection of interviews with animated film directors. Included are interviews with John Musker, Ron Clements, two of the directors for The Great Mouse Detective, and Rob Minkoff, the supervising animator for Olivia.

John Musker

Bill: With all that animosity in the studio, how did you move on to direct Basil of Baker Street, or I should say The Great Mouse Detective?

John: At this point, Ron Clements had shown the book Basil of Baker Street, about a mouse Sherlock Holmes, to Joe Hale, and he liked it as a possible feature. It was decided that the malcontents on Black Cauldron should leave Black Cauldron to the other directors and form a small unit to work on Basil. Thus, Ron Clements, who was unhappy over the way the story of Cauldron was being adapted, was assigned to Basil along with me as director and veterans Pete Young, Vance Gerry, and writer Steve Hulett. And Ron Miller himself was going to personally produce it. This was Ron’s way of mentoring us I think. As I tried to shape the tone of the movie, I wanted to do more than put a mouse in a deerstalker cap. My tastes in British comedy at the time were heavily influenced by Monty Python and also The Goon Show (British absurdist radio satire with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan that the Pythons themselves had grown up on). And that was part of what colored my initial version of Basil. Basil was very “John Cleese.” He was manic (and depressive), abrupt, smart, and lacked social graces. Instead of the violin, he played the tuba, a mouse-sized tuba. The homely Dr. Dawson was kind of an unwitting ladies’ man. The opening of the film was a Citizen Kane parody where the story was told in flashback by a wheelchair-bound Dawson, now residing in a home for shell-shocked veterans of the Afghan war. It was boarded by the great Joe Ranft, who gave it many of his idiosyncratically funny and heartfelt touches. After about six months, we finally showed it to Ron Miller. We had sequences on storyboards, nothing on reels. Ron absolutely hated it! He thought it was too “out there.”

Bill: So you made the wrong choice?

John: Yeah, once again. He basically said, “Start over.” For me, that was difficult. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted out. But I backed off and let it move in a more traditional Disney direction. Vance Gerry did wonderful work bringing more charm and warmth to the story, the look, and the characters. That was Ron Miller’s ultimate criticism of my version: “This is Disney! Where’s the warmth?” He had a point. My version lacked that. Joe Ranft did a classic drawing based on Ron Miller’s reaction where Ron looks sort of like Frankenstein and roars, “WHERE’S THE GODDAMN WARMTH?” I still have that drawing, 30 years later, pinned up in my room. It’s a good reminder. In the final film of Basil, I was able to still inject some of the edge that I thought was in Doyle’s own writing of Holmes, some of the Cleesian persona I thought amusing, but the film was tempered by the warmth Vance added. At this same time, Brad Bird, who had a falling out of his own a few years before and had exited the studio, was developing with Jerry Rees an animated feature based on Will Eisner’s classic noir detective strip, The Spirit. I loved The Spirit, had envisioned making a version of it myself one day. In my spare time, I helped Brad get the project going, as did Glen Keane and others. I did animation, storyboarded a couple of long sequences, and was ready to jump ship and relocate to northern California with Brad and Jerry if it got funding. Word of this got back to management. Burny Mattinson was elevated to codirector partly because of my lack of firm commitment to seeing Basil through.

Bill: Then the sudden appearance of Eisner …

John: Sudden is right. But first, there were the threats of a takeover of Disney. Ron Miller was ousted and Michael Eisner and Frank Wells were brought in. And Roy Disney, who had earlier left Disney unhappy with Ron Miller’s direction of the studio, orchestrated Michael’s hire and returned to Disney himself. But we wondered, does anybody realize Ron Miller was actually producing Basil and now we are producer-less? We were like kids in a classroom who were the only ones that knew the teacher was never coming back. It was strange. For a moment, there was no supervision, no leader to look to. We were all in limbo. Shortly thereafter, we learned that we actually had to pitch the movie to Michael Eisner. Although we had been working on it for three years, it was very possible that it might get shelved in the wink of an eye.

Bill: Three years?

John: Three years in boards … I think we had a few reels. Ron was very distracted by the takeover attempts, and we were moving in slow motion. So we pitched Basil on beat boards to Michael Eisner, and he says, “OK, I see you got the comedy and the adventure. But what’s going to make us cry? You need something to make us cry.” He starts talking in a way that I never heard Ron Miller talk. He then calls in Jeffrey Katzenberg, and we show him everything that we have. This is our first meeting with him. Jeffrey looks at our bar room sequence, one where a plaintive woman mouse sings a Victorian ditty that gets a bit bawdy. Jeffrey’s response: “Why can’t we have Michael Jackson do a song for it?” We were totally thrown. Michael Jackson? Victorian England? It was then we realized that we were not in Kansas anymore.

Bill: Thinking outside the box.

John: There was no box. In hindsight, Jeffrey’s thought was not so wacky. It was risky in a kind of cool way (although hiring the biggest pop star on the planet to do a song isn’t entirely daring), but it was another universe than the Disney we had been working for. So they greenlit the movie, but cut the budget in half and gave us half the time. We had to knock a year off production and do the movie for ten million dollars, which was a tight squeeze budget-wise even then. Our roles also got shuffled around. Burny Mattinson was now producing the film, and Ron and Dave Michener became codirectors. I wasn’t the sole director anymore. I answered to Burny now. It wasn’t necessarily an ideal situation for me. Fortunately, Burny was very supportive, collaborative, and generous all in all. He was open to ideas, and had some fun ideas of his own that sent the movie off in a better direction. And in the meantime, Brad never did get The Spirit off the ground.

Bill: Is this when you and Ron began to work together as a team?

John: I think our teamwork was forged on Black Cauldron, as it were, ironically enough. We discovered we shared much of the same tastes in storytelling and writing. This was further amplified as we collaborated on Basil. I had always known Ron as an animator. He was a low-key guy with a good head on his shoulders. During the Bluth days, as much as Don tried to entice him, or anyone else for that matter, he was the guy that said, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” No matter what, he would question something if it didn’t look or feel right. And on Black Cauldron, we learned that we had similar ideas about how to adapt a book into a film and how to take a character from the page to the big screen.

Bill: But you ended up finishing The Great Mouse Detective.

John: We did. To us, though, it was always Basil of Baker Street. That’s what we called it.

Bill: And it did OK at the box office, right?

John: Well … it got really good reviews. The studio was excited. But both Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner were disappointed with how much money it made. People liked it. It was Glen Keane’s first chance to really design and develop a character, which he did with the villain Ratigan. It was a step in the right direction, especially after Black Cauldron.

Bill: And it set you on track to helm The Little Mermaid.

John: It did. Ron was the one that pitched The Little Mermaid. He found the original Anderson story in a book of fairy tales he read in a bookstore in North Hollywood, the Paperback Shack. He was in search of ideas for features to pitch at a “Gong Show,” a meeting with Jeffrey and Michael designed to unearth new ideas for films, a vehicle they had used at Paramount. Upon reading Mermaid, Ron loved the story’s visual qualities. In terms of animation, it had great potential, and he wondered, “Why has this never been made into a film?” Then he got to the tragic ending, and said, “Now I know.” Ron wrote a two-page outline of his version. After some delay, Michael and Jeffrey liked it enough to put it into development as a feature. It ultimately languished, waiting for Michael Cristofer, a fine actor and writer of Witches of Eastwick and writer-director of Gia, and a person whose tastes ran toward the dark side, to write Little Mermaid. He never quite got going on it, so Ron asked me if I would be interested in writing it with him, the two of us having collaborated amicably on Basil and Cauldron, if he could get Peter Schneider, who really ran feature animation for Jeffrey and Roy, to agree. Ron’s pitch to Peter was we’re here, we’re cheap, we’re rarin’ to go, whaddya got to lose? Peter said OK.

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Bill: With all this consistent collaboration, what would be an example of something that’s all yours?

John: Well, the caricatures I draw reflect a point of view that’s all mine. I also made this three-minute film piece for Joe Ranft’s funeral, a tribute to a great friend and an exceptional talent and human being who died too young. I drew and edited the whole piece. I was encouraged to post it on YouTube on Joe’s subsequent birthday, which I did. People can track that down to maybe get a little feeling for what Joe was like, and what he meant to me and the people around him. It pleased me that the people who knew and loved Joe could see him in that little film. In general, it pleases me when something you labor over seems to resonate with an audience. They see themselves in it and connect to the emotions.

Bill: I think you’ve succeeded. Mermaid, for example, was such a success. The audience just kept coming back to see it.

John: Yeah. I don’t think Michael Eisner initially saw animation as something that could be financially successful. Black Cauldron, which was their intro to Disney features, had cost a lot of money and not done well. I think Michael was quoted in one of the early press pieces as saying Disney needed to continue making animated films because of Disney’s legacy, but they weren’t expected to make money. When someone remarked how expensive an animated film was to produce, I think he was actually quoted as saying, “These are expensive to make, but we have to do it. It’s sort of our thing. It’s our obligation almost.” I don’t think Eisner initially saw animation as a big source of revenue. He just wanted it to break even. Jeffrey, who had not grown up around animation at all, saw it, I think, as a challenge to make it financially successful. Although Basil wasn’t particularly successful financially (so much so that a disappointed Jeffrey told us he thought the ticket prices for animated films might have to be raised to make them profitable), Spielberg and Don Bluth produced An American Tail, and it did better at the box office. It was very much made for a family audience. Even I went to see it on opening night, but it was sold out! I couldn’t believe it. Ultimately, its success helped us convince Jeffrey to put more production value into The Little Mermaid. Mermaid was definitely a surprise, even for Jeffrey. It expanded the traditional audience for animated films. It even became a kind of date movie for teens and adults. Of course, there was Roger Rabbit too, which came out before Mermaid. But Howard and Alan’s music for Mermaid was so infectious, smart, and fun that animation became kind of cool. And that gave us momentum. It moved the production of new animated films forward. Obviously, not everything hinged upon the success of Mermaid. But Rescuers Down Under and Beauty and the Beast were in development in various stages, and the success of our movie gave momentum to them and other upcoming projects (as well as increasing expectations for them, both creatively and financially). As Mermaid was winding down, but before it was released, the studio actually wanted Ron and I to take over Beauty and the Beast from the original director, Dick Purdum. He was a talented British-based animator who had been saddled with an early draft of the script that Jeffrey loved. He was told not to change a word. When Jeffrey disliked the reels that emerged from the “perfect” script, there was an emergency confab in Florida during the Mermaid press junket. It was there that Howard pitched his version of the story, which handled the characters and the tone (as well as plot elements) considerably differently. He pitched the villain Gaston being a hunter rather than a fop, and his Belle was an imaginative, independent lover of books out of step with her provincial neighbors. He thought the mute, enchanted household objects, which had once been human servants, should not only speak, but should sing and dance. And new directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousedale and their great story team of Roger Allers, Brenda Chapman, Chris Sanders, et al., brought their own ideas to the project and brought it all to spectacular life (and we had nothing to do with it!).

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Bill: What was one of the toughest moments in making Aladdin?

John: We had a screening for Aladdin, the famous Black Friday screening. Ninety minutes of story reels, our first pass. On Basil, Jeffrey had shut the reels off after ten minutes when he wasn’t engaged and refused to watch the rest until we had a more compelling opening. These reels of Aladdin he watched in their entirety. At the end, his only comment was, “That’s a lotta movie,” and off he went. Ron and I lunched at El Torito, a little uncertain what to make of Jeffrey’s reaction, but cautiously thinking the screening seemed to go OK. After lunch we went to see Don Ernst who was our producer. “Any further word from Jeffrey?” we asked. “He hated it!” Don replied. What!? When we asked Jeffrey later why he hadn’t shut off the projector as he had on Basil, he said, “I got too much respect for you guys to do that. But I gotta tell ya, I was so bored I spent the entire screening working on the guest list for my wife’s surprise party!” So on Good Friday, even though the studio was closed, we came in to meet with Jeffrey. He said, “Listen guys, Steven Spielberg just made Empire of the Sun. The script, however, didn’t work. He went out, he shot it, edited it together. And guess what? It still didn’t work! But had anybody told him the script didn’t work? No! Because he is Steven Spielberg. Guys, I’m here to tell you, and I think of you as the Steven Spielbergs of animation, you just made Empire of the Sun.”

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Bill: The Genie gets so much attention, but the animation for the magic carpet was even more amazing.

John: Randy Cartwright animated the carpet. It was the first time, I think, that we used texture mapping. Neither Ron nor I is particularly technologically adept, but we were trying to stretch the boundaries, just like we did on Great Mouse Detective. If someone had an idea how to use technology in a cool way, we were open to trying. On Great Mouse, it was Mike Peraza and Phil Nibbelink who kept saying, “Wouldn’t it be cool if …,” which led to the interior of Big Ben being done on the computer. On Mermaid, Tina Price pushed us to make Eric’s ship a CG [computer graphics] model (which it is only in that first scene coming out of the fog). Tina was also involved in “roto-ing” Randy’s hand-drawn animation of the carpet and warping the intricately patterned carpet texture to fit the acting and movements that Randy created. Still, we had to sell this to Jeffrey. We loved getting this intricate pattern on the carpet, but according to the accountants, it was going to cost a lot of money to do this. Jeffrey was incredulous: “I’m paying all that dough for a bunch of squiggles?” He didn’t get it. But we fought for it and he gave in. I was very happy about that victory. Randy really “was” the carpet, or vice versa. I remember Randy acting out the scene as the carpet sadly slumps away after Aladdin dismisses it in the cave. I still see Randy doing it when I watch the carpet do that in the movie.

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Bill: If you could go back in time what advice you give yourself about directing your first feature?

John: If I could go back in time to Great Mouse Detective, the first feature I directed on really (I don’t think I can count Black Cauldron …) and advise myself about it, I’d caution myself to remember that the audience has a lot of material to absorb about characters, their problems, the world they live in, and the rules by which that world operates, in a very short amount of time. So extra care must be spent to make sure all that information gets communicated clearly and entertainingly. At times, the younger “me” might try, like younger animators sometimes do, to put too much into too little time, thus making it harder for the audience to jump aboard. I’d also remind myself to leave breathing room so there is a variety of pace, let some things should play out more slowly to give contrast in the film, which helps keep the audience engaged. And I’d remind myself how lucky I am to be doing this.

Ron Clements

Bill: Pastels, right? After all, no Photoshop back then!

Ron: Pastels, magic markers … and a hot press. I learned how to work a hot press. I shot a lot of slides. For every piece of artwork you did, you had to shoot a slide. And it would all end up on camera. I was still very interested in animation, though. I even brought in my Super 8 films and suggested we could do some commercials. In those days, everyone thought animation was a very expensive business, that without a bunch of fantastic equipment you couldn’t do it. My little Super 8 films proved otherwise, so I convinced them. Soon I was making little animated commercials. They even built an animation stand for me, which they let me use on my own after hours. When I was 18, I made a 15-minute animated short called Shades of Sherlock Holmes. It was in color. I did all the animation, cels, backgrounds, voices, and soundtrack.

Bill: Did you have pegs?

Ron: I had pegs … just two pegs. I did it with a two-peg system. They were just little wooden dowels. I punched the paper and cels with a regular paper puncher.

Bill: You made it yourself?

Ron: I made the cells. I painted them. I did everything.

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Bill: Do you remember your first tests?

Ron: My first test did not go that well. Eric Larson suggested that I do something with Sherlock Holmes, since my film featured that character. But my design was not at all a Disney-type design. I was frozen for three weeks. I was actually working on a walk cycle for three weeks. In the fourth week, I added a Watson character, who was a little King Hubbert–ish. I had more fun with him. But it was close. They saw a little spark with what I did in that last week, so I got to stay. That was enough for me to relax and start to feel more comfortable. Then I did much better on my second test, a test with the rabbit character from Winnie the Pooh. They liked that test. Before I knew it, eight weeks had passed. If you could make it through that, they hired you. That was the official start of my Disney career. I was an in-betweener at Disney working on Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, a featurette at that time. And even though I was officially employed at Disney, I still did personal tests in my spare time. I had a fairly ambitious idea to do one with Cruella De Vil. It went over really well. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston came into my room after they saw it and sort of bowed to me. That was probably the biggest thrill of my entire career. Suddenly, everyone at the studio knew who I was. It was definitely a transformative moment. At the same time, I was still scared. That test went over so well. But honestly, I still didn’t really know what I was doing. Frank asked me to work with him. He wanted to be my mentor. I had originally thought about working under Milt Kahl. But I soon learned that Milt didn’t really mentor anybody. You dealt only with his assistant, Stan Green. Working with Frank was a fantastic opportunity. He was a brilliant animator, actor, entertainer … just an incredibly smart, talented guy. I learned a lot from Frank as I became an animator on the Rescuers. Back then, there were only a few books on the animation process, such as the Preston Blair book, and Frank and Ollie wrote an amazing book after they retired. But animation is something you learn best from working with someone. You can get the ideas and concepts from a book. But in the end, you need a mentor, someone who can teach you how to do it, how to become an actor with a pencil. For me, that was Frank.

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Bill: When did you begin to work with John Musker?

Ron: Despite being one of the young rebellious CalArts guys, the studio made John a director on Black Cauldron. It was the idea of Tom Wilhite, a young executive who was open to new ideas. The older directors didn’t like that at all. After Frank and Ollie left, Don Bluth was running the show. But he clashed with the CalArts guys. They had different ideas and were not afraid to express them. Brad Bird was particularly outspoken. A schism developed quickly. Finally, Don Bluth and his people quit. The studio was then left with a bunch of talented, but unruly young talent, which could be quite scary for a fairly conservative company. Ron Miller, Walt’s son-in-law, who was now running things, thought the answer was to bring us all together on Black Cauldron under a group of older guys just promoted to director. But I don’t think that was a great experience for many of us. There was now a new schism between the younger and older guys. So John was pushed into the role of director and was also working on the story. That’s when we started to work together. I was also assigned to work on the story. That was my first time working with storyboards, and John and I had very strong ideas about the overall momentum of the narrative. But I think the older directors just wanted us to board the sequences and let them worry about the overall story.

Bill: Is this when you and John bonded?

Ron: Pretty much. We had similar ideas. Unfortunately, most of those ideas were not shared by the other directors. Eventually they put us in a room to work on stuff that was never going to be used in the movie. It was “additional story,” that is, story never intended to be used. That was a bad experience for both of us, but we discovered we did have a lot in common. We were almost the same age. We were both raised Catholic, and we were both from the Midwest. We both were even cartoonists for our school papers. John was also an incredible caricaturist. And caricature was what helped to eventually land me at Hanna-Barbera and then Disney. It was easy to be friends. Anyway, we were both put on probation on Black Cauldron.

Bill: They took you off the picture?

Ron: No, we were on the picture. But we wouldn’t be for long, if we didn’t change our attitude. It was that kind of probation. But it didn’t matter in the end. Joe Hale was the producer on Black Cauldron. He was very sympathetic to our group, but ultimately he had to choose between us and them. He chose the older guys. I guess it was a good thing, because there was no project slated for development after Black Cauldron. Since I’ve always been a big Sherlock Holmes fan, I had come across this book called Basil of Baker Street, which was about a mouse Sherlock Holmes. I thought it was perfect for a movie adaptation. But I was working on the Rescuers at the time and didn’t pursue it. Well, now seemed like the perfect time to pitch the idea. I brought it to Joe first, and he brought it to Ron Miller. Ron not only wanted to make the movie, but he also saw an opportunity to put all these young disgruntled people to work on an alternative project to Cauldron. So John became the director and I worked on the story. Later, Burny Mattinson was brought on to keep us from going too radical. Basil developed slowly over the next year and a half. Then everything changed overnight. Saul Steinberg, who was a corporate raider, was trying to take over Disney. Evidently, if he succeeded, he was going to dismantle the company and make a huge profit. All of us working on Basil had no idea what was going to happen. It was a precarious time. Finally, Roy Disney and the Brass brothers came in and saved the company at the last minute. And Ron Miller left. Bill: So, Eisner and Katzenberg came in.

Ron: Sweeping changes. For a time, they didn’t even know we existed. We were such a small group, and Ron Miller had been our producer. We used to joke about whether we should tell anybody we existed. A lot of stuff happened at this time. There are a lot of stories.

Bill: We should stay focused on your personal experiences.

Ron: We had to pitch Basil all over again to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. It was weird. We had worked on this film for a long time. Suddenly, we had to pitch it as if it were a new idea. Well, they liked it. It was greenlit. But Michael reduced the budget and gave us a strict time frame. We had ten million to spend, and we had to finish in about a year. So, we did.

Bill: You did Basil in a year?

Ron: We did. But we had previously worked on the film for over two years, so we had lots of boards, reels, and the cast. We jumped straight into production.

Bill: Basil himself is a manic-depressive. How different was he on the screen from what you guys originally envisioned? Didn’t they ask you to tone it down a little?

Ron: We had to tone it down. That’s why Burny Mattinson was put on the picture. Basil was indeed manic and eccentric. And we pushed that even more early on. Burny carefully pulled us back, allowing for some eccentricity and quirkiness, but nothing too extreme. The film was done very fast. Fortunately, it was animals wearing clothes, which is probably the easiest kind of animation to do. Everything turned out for the best, I think. Black Cauldron was costly and took four years to make. We finished Basil in a year, it was cheap, and it did better at the box office.

Bill: Don’t forget to mention the name.

Ron: Well, we did hate the title change. To us, it was always Basil of Baker Street. But there was a marketing issue. Eisner and Katzenberg had come to Disney from Paramount, which soon released Young Sherlock Holmes. Big names were associated with that film: Steven Spielberg, Chris Columbus, Barry Levinson. I think Basil was greenlit because they were still riding high on that movie. When it finally came out and didn’t do that well, Eisner and Katzenberg were worried about any association with Sherlock Holmes. So the title was changed to The Great Mouse Detective. We hated that name.

Bill: What about the secret memo?

Ron: I don’t think it’s a secret now that Ed Gombert wrote that memo. He was a very talented story guy at the time. Peter Schneider was newly installed as the head of production, and the fake memo was attributed to him. It basically said, “Not only are we going to change the title of Basil of Baker Street to The Great Mouse Detective, but we have also decided to go back and change the titles of all previous Disney films. From this point on, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be Seven Little Men Help a Girl; Pinocchio will be The Little Wooden Boy Who Became Real; Cinderella will be The Girl with the See-Through Shoes.” I think he changed all the titles except the Aristocats. Peter was incensed! They wanted to fire whoever wrote that memo. Eventually, it died down and nobody got fired. But that memo has a life of its own. It was eventually the basis for a Jeopardy! question, and the LA Times wrote an article about it.

Bill: Were you and John the sole codirectors of Great Mouse?

Ron: No. Burny and Dave Michener were also directors. John and I were sequence directors. And as for me becoming a director, I should backtrack and say that it was due to Ron Miller leaving. He was the original producer. When he left, Burny became the producer. But he didn’t feel he had time to both produce and direct, so they were looking for another director. I asked Burny to consider me, and he went with that. I guess that was my big break.

Bill: Did you and John do sequences together?

Ron: No, and we still work that way. We split a movie into sequences and then divide them up. We don’t actually work on the same sequences. That’s always been part of our process. There was also no screenplay on that movie. Most of the Disney movies didn’t have one at that time. We did our own writing for the sequences that we boarded. Somehow, we were able to maintain consistency. We both did a lot of writing on Basil. And that reminds me of the “Gong Show,” which was something Eisner brought with him from Paramount. Occasionally, they would gather a lot of the creative people at Paramount to generate new material by simply pitching ideas freely. This was called the Gong Show because the response required a simple gut reaction, yes or no. So we had to do this too. A bunch of us had two weeks to each come up with five ideas to pitch. As I was looking around for ideas, I found this book of fairy tales that included The Little Mermaid. I’d heard of it, but never read it. It didn’t take long to discover that Hans Christian Anderson’s writing was very visual, almost cinematic. It leapt off the page. There was so much potential, I was curious why it hadn’t been made into a movie yet. But as I read further, I could see why. It’s a story that starts out sad, and then it gets sadder and sadder. Then she dies in the end. Depressing, but it intrigued me. A few days later, I had an idea. I thought of making the witch a villain and putting this sort of ticking clock in the story. I wanted this ironic twist where the prince falls in love with her voice, but she gives up the voice. And I had a way to give it a happy ending. I got so excited that I couldn’t sleep. I wrote up two page treatments on five different ideas, but I thought Mermaid was the best. Two weeks later, when we gathered, Michael asked us to pitch our best idea, not all five. When I said The Little Mermaid, they immediately said, “No. That’s too close to Splash.” Nevertheless, they said they would read all the two page treatments. I was very disappointed. Then, two days later, Jeffrey Katzenberg said that he and Michael saw potential in The Little Mermaid. They wanted to put it into development. And for a while I was sort of in charge of that.

Bill: Was John involved with it?

Ron: John was not involved at this point. They were focused on finding a writer. Initially, they wanted Michael Christopher, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer on the Witches of Eastwick. He was interested, but then backed off because he felt his take would be too dark. That’s when I went to John and suggested that we collaborate on the screenplay. We pitched the idea to Peter Schneider and he agreed. The Great Mouse Detective was also coming to an end, so both of us were looking for a new project. At the same time Jeffrey Katzenberg, prompted by David Geffen, was trying to lure Howard Ashman to Disney. They showed Howard a number of things in development, both live action and animation, and he was most interested in writing the songs for Mermaid. We met him in New York with a 12-page treatment and, for two days, we went over it, figuring out how and what songs could be worked into the story. And Howard a great idea. Howard went on to direct the musical “Smile” in New York while John and I returned to California and wrote the script.

Rob Minkoff

Bill: How long did you stay at CalArts?

Rob: I was there for three years. At the end of my second year at CalArts something kind of devastating happened. Disney didn’t hire anyone. That was a huge blow to the students. In my first year they hired nine people! That got us excited about our future prospects—then, suddenly, nothing. Worse still, rumor had it Disney didn’t like our films. Apparently, they were too dark.

Bill: Your sophomore film?

Rob: Yeah. It was kind of a Hansel and Gretel story. This devious candymaker invites two kids into his store in order to turn them into candy. He literally is going to pick them up and toss them into the candy-making machine. Well, I suppose it was a little dark. But we can probably thank Tim Burton for that! In our first year they showed Tim’s pencil test, and it was amazing. This little film essentially displayed every major concept that Tim is now known for. It was called Stalk of the Celery Monster. That film had a profound effect on us.

Bill: Did that influence your third-year film?

Rob: Well, before that, and after Disney chose not to hire anyone, Dan Jeup came in and announced that three people had been selected to do an internship. I was one of them. We got to do a summer internship with Eric Larson in the summer of 1982. This happened to coincide with the animation strike. No one was in the building because they were all out on the street picketing. That made the experience very strange. We actually had to cross a picket line to get inside the building. We weren’t scabs because we weren’t employed per se. We were just interns. But the nice thing was that we had Eric all to ourselves. He literally had nothing to do but teach us. At this time I also met Don Hahn, Ron Rocha, and Burny Mattinson, who wasn’t picketing because he was a director. Mostly the place was empty, and that gave us an opportunity to do something we couldn’t have done otherwise. We went into everybody’s office and looked at their stuff. We looked at Ed Gombert’s boards, Vance Gerry’s boards for The Great Mouse Detective, which at the time was called Basil of Baker Street. We saw boards hat Tim Burton had done for The Black Cauldron. One day we got very bold. We decided to march upstairs and meet Ron Miller. He had Walt Disney’s old office, and we just wanted to step into that room. So we went up to Lucille … Lucille was Ron’s assistant, right?

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Bill: Was this the very early stages of Roger Rabbit?

Rob: Yeah, before Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis were involved. Daryl Van Citters, Chris Buck, and Mike Giaimo had been working on it. They even shot a live-action test with Mike Gabriel as the detective. I was basically hanging out with these guys in the beginning. Joe Ranft had introduced me to them. I’d met Joe my first year at CalArts. He’d come back from Disney to give advice and critique the animation tests for some of the students. It was totally informal. Just something Joe wanted to do. We became very close after that. What an amazing talent and all-around human being he was. It was such a tragedy to lose him so young. I still think of him quite often. Anyway, I’d finally gotten a job at Disney and my first assignment was inbetweening on The Black Cauldron under Phil Nibbelink. It was a pretty tough job, except that Phil had all the cute girls working as his inbetweeners.

Bill: How long did that go on?

Rob: For about six months. To keep my sanity, I would take drawing breaks. I would stop inbetweening, pull out a fresh piece of paper, and draw something for fun. Then I would go back to inbetweening. After a while, I acquired a large stack of drawings, which sort of helped me later. There was a small group working on Basil of Baker Street—The Great Mouse Detective, that is. They were thinking about bringing in a new face for some character design work. Brian McEntee recommended me to John Musker. Eventually, John called and asked me to come to his office. He also told me to bring drawings. I reached into my desk, grabbed the stack, and walked upstairs to his office. About a week later Ed Hansen, who was running the animation department, called and said they wanted me as a character designer on the film.

Bill: So John saved you, huh?

Rob: Yes, he did. But it was only supposed to be for a limited time. Ed made it clear that as soon as I was finished it was back to inbetweening! They didn’t want me to get too comfortable! I didn’t care. I was just happy to get out for a while. But then the good thing was I never went back to inbetweening. Somehow I managed to stay on the movie.

Bill: What was it like, working on your first big production as a designer?

Rob: Basil had quite a history by the time I arrived. John and Ron had been developing the movie. It was edgy, adult, and very smart. Heavily influenced by Monty Python’s absurdist humor, which I loved! This was the vision I saw when I peeked at the boards during my internship. When they pitched it to Ron Miller, he basically made them start all over again. Joe Ranft had the funniest drawing of Ron Miller at the time. It didn’t look anything like him, but it was Ron as a giant blue man with blood vessels popping out of his head. The caption read, “WHERE IS THE GODDAMN WARMTH?!” So, Burny was brought in as producer, and Dave Michener also came on board as a director. We had three directors. The entire tone and feel of the movie changed. Ron Miller wanted it to be more “Disney.” But if you look back at Walt’s films, there was some incredibly interesting, dynamic, and scary stuff in those movies. Needless to say, everyone was frustrated. But that didn’t stop me from appreciating the opportunity I had. I got to be a character designer. This was my chance to move forward. Eventually, they assigned me to work on some animation, which pushed me into the role of animator. Then someone said, “You should be an animation supervisor.” I replied, “Sure. That sounds great!”

Bill: This was all on The Great Mouse Detective?

Rob: Yeah, it didn’t take the ten years that Bob McCray and Jack Hanna said it would. But any kind of sudden advancement was met with skepticism by the senior staff. That’s not an easy position for anyone to be in, but Disney was changing. There was a new generation of people that wanted something else, something better. And the frustration was often visible. I remember hearing a story about Brad Bird kicking a Sparkletts bottle down the hallway. But that’s how everybody felt.

Bill: But Brad had already left Disney before you’d got there.

Rob: Yes. But soon after starting, I began hearing that Brad Bird and Jerry Rees were going to make an animated movie, based on Will Eisner’s The Spirit, in Northern California. Brett Newton came to me and said, “Have you heard about this thing that Jerry and Brad are doing? It’s gonna cause a huge revolution in animation! They’re gonna hire everybody who’s any good out of Disney who wants to leave and go work on a movie that’s gonna break all the rules and be the salvation of animation.” Of course I thought it sounded fantastic. He put me in touch with Brad and Jerry, and I soon arranged a meeting up in Northern California. Unfortunately, things weren’t as bustling as Brett had claimed. It was very quiet there. It was just Brad and Jerry. They showed me the test, which I think John Musker and possibly Glen Keane had worked on. It was amazing stuff. But I didn’t get the feeling that production was going to take off anytime soon. And it never did. Eventually, I did end up working for both of them, Brad on Family Dog and Jerry on The Brave Little Toaster. I was still technically an animator at Disney, but I indulged in a little creative freelance work for them. I guess it helped with the frustration I felt at the time.

Bill: Didn’t you briefly leave Disney to work with Jerry Rees?

Rob: I did. I went to see Don Hahn, who was then kind of managing the animation department at Disney. I said, “I’ve got this opportunity to do designs on this Jerry Rees project.” Don was very gracious and understanding. I was very nervous about leaving. I had wanted to work at Disney for so long, and they took me in. But it wasn’t quite the place the literature promised. Don said, “If you want to go, go. It’s okay. You can come back anytime.” So I took a deep breath and left Disney even though there was no guarantee I would be taken back. The door could have been closed forever.

Bill: Did you go to Taiwan?

Rob: No, I didn’t. I spent about five weeks with Jerry up in Hollywood but going to Taiwan just didn’t feel right. So I went back to Don, who said, “If you want to come back, it’s totally fine.” I immediately jumped at my chance to go back.

Bill: Is this when the takeover occurred?

Rob: It was around that time. I remember when I first heard Ron Miller was leaving. I was in John Musker’s sweatbox watching some animation tests with him and Ron Clements. Steve Hulett walked in with the press release that Ron Miller had resigned. I remember being somewhat excited about the possibilities, but Ron Clements had a dour expression and said quite gravely, “It can always get worse!” And soon after, I was there when John and Ron had to pitch The Great Mouse Detective to the new head of Disney, Michael Eisner. I had no idea what was going to happen. They had the opportunity to kill it, if they wanted. In fact, I’d heard that they’d considered shutting down animation entirely but Roy Disney wouldn’t let them.

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

>Be modern black Hollywood

>Have the ability to showcase our history more with slightly less racist executives to deal with

>More access to our history than ever before

>Blackwash and try to pop feminism girl boss Cleopatra to where Assassins Creed Origins did her better (yeah I’m going back to that later in the ip)

>Lionize the Dahomey despite THEY are the major reason our cultural roots are destroyed and why majority of African Americans can never truly feel a connection to our ancestors birthplace

>Allow Tyler Perry to writer and direct a movie of the Black WAC unit of WW2.

>Perry had a tantrum towards the boondocks creator for making fun of him and made the episode about it be banned on tv for a couple of years (here the clip of that episode, I think 99.9% of black people on here or anyone who watch a Medea movie get the joke https://youtu.be/hJtYVpLAZmI?si=oSFcNG6GFUcTC87u)

>Make the historical black characters and figures more condensing then they were

>Refuse to acknowledge the struggles the MAJORITY of the population was suffering during those times hence why it took the marginalized to get their rights

>Don’t acknowledge how other groups like feminism deny black men proper voting rights and treated black women like shit until they conveniently used them to promote their hedonistic agenda during the 60’s

>Go overboard with their importance and not in the saving private Ryan and Braveheart

>Casually forget that even though there was fuck up status quos like they are today. Not everyone of the majority support it

>Seemly make race racial worsen

I know a lot of people can say Assassin Creed doing this with Yasuke. I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate as historians can have a tantrum to how much stuff that don’t fit with the 972-77 CE time stamp of AC Valhalla base story.

Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore….I mean most of AC lore about Japan is from a long erased mobile AC game. From what I seen they are retooling something but fleshly out more stuff

Ot won’t be the first ac game to retcon shit *Vietnam flashbacks to certain controversies*

Now let me talk about the other MC Naoe, when the devs described her. They mentioned she is hot headed, where her heart on her shoulder….soooo a shounen female mc who is driven by vengeance where Yasuke and the other assassins try to make sure she won’t be consume by it?

Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Than there was a Entertainment Weekly issue (yes they do games now) that dive into the Naoe backstory and they show off this character

https://x.com/ac_landmarks/status/1869806301238439992?s=46

What nice picture-fuck I heard Baal, Azreal, and the Shinto god Raiden arguing who will devour the boy’s soul when he killed off for story reasons

But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

I mean for the black WAC unit, they could have down where like in AC black flag you saw the Maroons or in AC mirage you saw the Nestorian Christians in 9th century Baghdad was they were in their respective timeline. So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Hope others get it, never seen one of his movies.

The WAC thing is a good story to tell, not sure it's worth a full movie but maybe, theatrical release would depend on if it was something they could make enough money off of.

>I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate

I like that phrasing there.

>Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

I enjoyed the show, what I saw of it at least, dropped out when it started getting a bit too fantastical in places.

>Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Found family can be good if it serves a legitimate narrative purpose

And since I know you want the full quote

If nothing else this is gonna do a whole thing with getting him into the brotherhood and the two of them someone to lean on here and there. Some learning as well since Japan is still gonna be new to him.

They both have things to learn

>Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore......

They have to do that sometimes, so long as they're not trying to rewrite actual history

I still don't get the opposition to Yasuke, he's a real guy that had the title of samurai and they used him for a game so they could make a historical samurai game but make it different than every other historical samurai game.

>.......Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

So far it looks like that may be the case, hope things stay that way I'm tired of mary sue's.

>(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Nice

>But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

I hope so

>Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

They're all tagged with your tag they can filter them out if they like

>........So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

WAC's are so poorly known as a group from WWII that would actually be good anyway, the recruitment mantra of "Free a man up to fight" From the ladies doing the mail room (like in the upcoming thingy) to the clerical workers and everything else in between (like the ones that flew the planes from one coast to the other for delivery) they made a huge contribution, and should be recognized.

So long as we don't get "Red Ball Express" level revisionism, which would be difficult since they get the race of the people right in this film, but they can still get all kinds of other things wrong.

>Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Think they've gotten a movie or two, had a moment with them in the first Karate Kid movie, where we find out Mr Miyagi earned the Medal of Honor as a member of the 442nd Infantry Regiment

while his wife and child were back home in the US, in one of Roosevelt's internment camps, where they died while he was fighting with honor for the country that had put them in there.

If you've never seen the 1984 Karate Kid, it's not all corny wax on wax off stuff, or sweep the leg, or what's it's become since 1984, even as a kid that scene hurt to watch.

There's a few for the "Codetalkers" too, which as codes go, nobody was ever going to break that one.

>Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Inflating the contributions instead of just stating what they were and why they were so important seems to be the method now, while yes sorting mail seems like a silly thing to make a big deal out of, it really was important to the war effort.

Letter from home can make all the difference in the world, anyone that's been deployed can probably confirm.

[dark-twist-fairytales]

I was just thinking about Stardust Rhapsody, and figured out a way for it to be part of Misadventures. I think I'm about to run with it. Details underneath, if you want a sneaky peaky (and for later reference myself). I'm not sure if I want this fully canon or not, leaning more for 'yes', but here's a rough idea of the crew thus far.

~~~

The Rhapsody is well known in the solar spaces, not so much on planets outside of the solar walls they dwell. However, it doesn't mean they're not monitored.

The Rhapsody, the crew of it, work underneath one person, as their own unit: The Prismatic Pathway. Run by the one and only Leo Kahn.

Things shift and change from canon around the time Pyke wants to flee from the Pathway, instead of a fall out between him and Leo, there's a whole underside that only Kahn runs. The Pathway runs on a mutual understanding with enforcers, laws depicted by whatever higher-up ruling is run, Kahn has an underground of... Well, hitmen would be the easiest term to call them.

They chase the galaxy for folks, dead and/or alive, and seek vigilante justice for them. Sometimes, whole groups of people. They take in runaways from the government, but all under the rouse of bounty hunting. They're well known for it, thankfully having help from an old friend of Rett's, Killovax, everything gets sorted and looks legit and legal (despite how, very much, not legal this is in the eyes of the Empire).

However, an unknown force takes away one of the Rhapsody's crew members: Rex Maxim. Yeah, you're hearing that right, folks: Rex is part of the Rhapsody. And for good reason, him and Pyke weren't raised as rivals (do they still have rival tendencies? Yes they do), nor were they pitted against each other. Leo saw potential in the two of them, thus starting a bridge of trust and understanding.

Now, he didn't keep them from leaving the Pathway, but asked that they come back. Some days, they wouldn't leave and would train their skills up. Other times, they would fly off into space to see the different stars.

During one of those times, Pyke ran into the one and only Rhapsody parked on a planet. Now, by this point, Pyke and Rex would be part of Kahn's underground group, and would claim themselves as bounty hunters, so Pyke had an alibi, and this guy was worth a barrel of credits.

A little bit of elbow grease, solar power, and swift tying, Pyke gets the guy down and Rett brings him back to the Pathway and Kahn. Thusly, this starts a domino effect.

Rett is on the run, allowing leverage for Kahn, being backed by Pyke and Rex, for a safe place and a steady income of jobs and money, as well as supplies and time to fix up his ship.

Now, with a much larger ship like this, they can get farther safely, go out and collect different 'bounties', and come back for a nice payday. It worked! Sometimes, Kahn would even tag along, a slot for his ship being made by Rett for those times.

Rett becomes the leader of their crew, Kahn trusts that he would keep Pyke and Rett safe while he keeps things wrapped at the Pathway. Then comes Dandy...

The trio find her, and she boards the Rhapsody, further discussing with Kahn once back to the Pathway. Since Dandy basically imprints on Rett, he allows her on the crew of the ship and crafts her a platform. She and Hank are likely to pilot the Rhapsody as Rett, Rex, and Pyke (and occasionally Kahn) go out on 'bounties'.

Then it's Kavir and Leboosh. While on a bounty, it's Rex and Kahn that saves them from an attack on the Empire, originally thinking that they were an Empire ship, until Rex (having taken a couple of lessons from Rett about hacking) manages to touch base and communicate, thusly saving them and making himself a mark for the Empire.

(The Empire couldn't recognize Kahn, as he wasn't in his normal ship and stayed invisible (thanks to Rett's tinkering) as to not get caught).

They return back and join the Rhapsody, informing of their findings, and Kahn offering a deal, just as he's done before. Thus, Kavir and Leboosh join the Rhapsody.

How the fuck did Chuckles get there? No one truly knows or remembers, but he's here and won't leave, like a stray cat hiding in a shed. However, he does come in handy with the FTL Travel: Honkweave, but also with the knowledge he has on some matters at hand. However, he is different from Chuckles in canon, as he has more memories of his past, often talking about a world called "Avantris", saying that he's from there, grew up in somewhere called Galtica but moved to Breeg?

None of the crew knows what he's talking about. Another day of Chuckles related rambling.

[montiree]

hello voidlings.

i feel like shit today so we're gonna skip right to the presidential yapping

james madison was the fourth president of the united states, and thats about all i care to know about him. you can google his wikipedia article if you care, i'd only be summarizing it here, so to give you some information about this image (and perhaps the previous ones too) that are not nearly as accessible, I am going to reveal why these images came to be.

It all started at lunch one day in freshman year of highschool, when i was showing off some cursed elon musk thing i had photoshoped (sadly i believe it to be deleted although if it is recovered a post will be made) when my friend dared me to one up myself and create something worse. I had no ideas off the dome at the time and so i asked him for inspiration and he simply replied with a "i dont fucking know like a catboy president or something," which i thought was a fantastic idea and so i ran with it. a couple minutes later geowoge uwushington was born much to the horror of everyone i knew (i labored on him and perfected him over the next couple weeks, implementing changes based off of the horror displayed in the reactions leading to the one that exists in that other post i made).

now i know what you're thinking: why, if you were only dared to make one, have there been 4 presidents thusfar? to which i would say i got bored in sophomore year sitting in apush with @mukimokai and our teacher was yapping about john adams so i just kinda made that one for the hell of it. then after having made two, i had a basic formula and so whenever i had an excess of free time i had no idea how to use i would make another. it got to the point where it was no longer a great use of time, as i had gotten able to consistently pop one out of decent quality in about 15 minutes, hence why i stopped making them for the most part. these posts might inspire me to make more at some point, but i feel like ive made more interesting things to view and yap about, so next post might have a different focus than the presidents (although i still have some stockpiled for later use :3)

thats all for today folks catch y'all round

[totesnothere04]

Deviant With a Big Defect Pt.6

The Bad Batch x Sister!Reader, Obi-Wan x F!Clone!Reader

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fanart, screenshots, or gifs.

Sidenote: If you know if the person who made this fanart is here on Tumblr plz lmk! Look at how good this is!!

Warnings: None IMO, but if you find something that rubs you wrong let me know. 😁

Part 5

New Occurences

It was only two rotations after you got your tattoo, and you were resting after a small battle. You were laid on your stomach on your bunk. Only in your sports bra and the bottom half of your blacks as you worked on an enhancement for Tech. You heard a knock on your door and you turned your cheek toward the door.

"Come in!" You call out and the door opens a second later. Obi-Wan walks into the room and his eyes skim over your back.

"That's the tattoo? Do you mind if I look at it closer?" He asks and you shake your head. He moves closer and gently touches the edges of the tree. "I assume all of these symbols stand for one of your brothers?"

"Yeah. 99 for our unit and 99 for the first defective clone. The skull for Hunter, because 99 made him a bandana with a skull on it... He never takes it off. The goggles are for my twin, Tech because his eyesight isn't the best and they serve many different functions. The grenade is Wrecker because- Well I think it's pretty self-explanatory based on his name. The crosshair is for Crosshair because he's the best sharpshooter in the GAR." You tell him and he seems to drink in all of the information.

"You must love your brothers very much." Obi-Wan says.

"We are all each other has. Most of the regs don't like us, because we're different." You tell him.

"And what about this omega symbol on the back of your neck?" Obi-Wan asks.

"One of the only other female clones is named Omega. I was raised in the lab with her." You tell him and he seems to be saddened by that.

"You weren't raised with your twin?" He asks.

"No. They separated Tech and me before they got put into the general population." You tell him.

"It must've been lonely." Obi-Wan says and you shrug.

"It would've been had Omega not been there." You tell him. You sit up so you can face him as you talk, but no words leave either of your mouths. You both continue to stare at each other until you finally clear your throat.

"I came to see if you were hungry. You came back here after the battle." Obi-Wan says and you nod.

"I am a little hungry." You say and get up to put the top half of your blacks back on. You blinked and suddenly he was directly in front of you. You blinked rapidly as you looked slightly down at him. "Obi-Wan?" You asked in a whisper.

"You are gorgeous. Has anyone ever told you that?" He asked as he looked into your eyes.

"No. The Kaminoans don't compliment you, Omega is a child, and my brothers are- Well they're my brothers." You tell him and he once again frowns. You both continue to lean in closer until your lips meet. His arms snake around your waist and yours go around his neck. Your flesh hand runs through his hair for a moment until reality hit you. You pulled away and backed up a couple of steps.

"I'm so sorry, General." You said and he took your hands in his.

"We both leaned into it (Y/n). It's one of the best kisses I've ever had in my life." He says in full sincerity and you quirk a brow in question.

"I thought Jedi weren't allowed romantic entanglements?" You ask and he looks away bashfully.

"My Master believed differently." Obi-Wan said and took a seat in the chair at your desk while you sat back down on your bunk. "He believed in order for the Jedi to truly be involved with the populace we needed to be open and accepting of emotions. He saw the order as flawed and emotionless. He was a supporter of my relationship then, and had she asked me to stay with her... I would've."

"You would've given up everything you knew for the woman you loved?" You asked curiously.

"Yes. She is one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, both inside and out. Much like you. That day that you fought Dooku you didn't even think you just jumped into action." Obi-Wan said and you chuckled and shook your head.

"Oh no. I did think... About how stupid what I was about to do was." You said and he laughed.

"Regardless you saved two lives that day. Anakin might not have met you yet, but I'm glad I did. I only wish that I could keep you in the 212th." Obi-Wan says honestly.

"Clone Force 99's commanding officer is Cody. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of eachother in the future." You say and he smiles lightly at your words.

"Kyra and Jut are going to Kamino tomorrow." He tells you.

"Good, because Hunter and Crosshair want tattoos. I know the moment I get back they'll be showing them off to me." You tell him.

"Anyways I came in here talking of food. Shall we?" He asks and you nod.

"Yes because now I'm very hungry." You say with a chuckle. You put on your armor and make your way to the mess in comfortable silence with Obi-Wan. You sat down at a corner table with your trays and you looked at Obi-Wan curiously.

"So how do the Jedi rankings work?" You ask him.

"When a child is brought to the Temple they are younglings. Younglings are typically between the ages of 3 to 15. When old enough younglings are moved to padawan learners when they reach a certain age and are tested. They're then assigned to Masters who prepare them for the trials. When they pass the trials they become Jedi Knights. They will then be given the opportunity to teach a padawan, and when their padawan successfully passes the trials they become Masters." He says and takes a bite of his food.

"That's it?" You ask and he chuckles.

"You didn't let me finish. There are four governing councils within the order, and I am a part of the most important one. Jedi Masters who can make a name for themselves can become a part of one of these councils. The Council of First Knowledge, the Council of Reconciliation, the Council of Reassignment, and the Jedi High Council. Which I am a part of. There is still higher rankings when you move through the High Council. That is the Master of the Order and the person who leads the High Council. Then you have the Grand Master of the entire Jedi Order." He finishes speaking and continues eating. You wait for a moment to see if he'll continue but he doesn't.

"That's alot to go through in one normal lifetime." You say and he waves it off.

"Being a Jedi isn't easy. It is oftentimes too difficult for Knights to become Masters." He says and you become confused by this.

"Why? If their padawans pass properly it shouldn't be an issue." You say.

"It's more along the lines that Knights don't particularly want to teach the next generation. Or padawans decide to part with the order for one reason or another." Obi-Wan says and you push a piece of chicken around in your soup.

"It must be difficult for those padawans. Walking away from the only life they've ever known like that." You say and he nods. His com starts blinking and he answers it.

"Obi-Wan." He says as the image of a younger male took shape.

"Obi-Wan sorry we were held up, but the 501st and I will be on Christophsis by tomorrow." He says.

"Very good, but be mindful of the shifting Separatist air patrols Anakin." Obi-Wan says.

"Have I ever given you reason to worry Master?" Anakin asks.

"Don't make me answer that question Anakin." Obi-Wan says. You try to hold in your laugh, but it turns into a snorting sound. It catches Anakins attention and he smirks at Obi-Wan.

"Who's that Obi-Wan?" Anakin asks. Obi-Wan looks at you and then sets his com on the table so that he can see you.

"This is Captain (Y/n) of the 212th, temporarily." Obi-Wan informs Anakin who looks at you as though he was studying you.

"I'm sure I'll have time to meet everyone tomorrow Obi-Wan. Until then try not to die." Anakin says. Obi-Wan rolls his eyes.

"May the Force be with you." Obi-Wan says then ends the call. "Sorry about him. He can be rather inappropriate at times."

"Hmm but is it inappropriate when it holds some truth?" You say with a smirk. You finish your food and then turn your tray in and leave back to your barracks.

~The Next Day~

You made your way to the command center and find Obi-Wan and Cody staring at the holotable.

"Does it owe you credits or something?" You asked and they both looked at you then at eachother.

"(Y/n) I think you'll want to sit down." Cody says seriously and you continue to look inbetween the two men. You finally take a seat and wait for one of them to tell you what's wrong. "I just received word that the entire battalion of the 75th was killed in action." You felt your lungs constrict as you realized you wouldn't beable to see Commander Garrett or any of his men again. You stand abruptly and shove your helmet on over your head.

"If you'll excuse me sirs I have something I need to go take care of." You say trying to keep your voice from wavering too much. You exit the command center and make your way to the med bay. When you arrive you find Kyra and Jut finishing a tattoo on one of the 212th. When he leaves you finally make your way to them.

"Hey (Y/n). How's everything?" Jut asks and you remove your helmet. She automatically pulls you into a hug. "What happened?"

"I just found out that one of my friends and his entire battalion were killed in action." You tell her and she frowns.

"Then why did you come here?" She asks.

"I wanted to get one more tattoo for them." You said and she nodded.

"Where do you want it and what is it?" She asks.

"I just want it to say 75th behind my right ear." You tell her and she nods again.

"Yeah I can do that, but then Kyra and I will have to leave right after." She says and it was you turn to nod.

"I know. I'll escort you to your shuttle." You tell her and she preps the area then sets to work. Kyra finished packing her stuff up and sat next to you. She took your hand in hers and smiled at you with reassurance. When Jut finishes Kyra pulls you to her station so she can clean the area and cover it. While she does this Jut packs up her stuff. When they're ready to go you put your helmet back on and escort them as promised.

"Two of my brothers will most likely come in to get tattoos. Their names are Hunter and Crosshair. If you see one of them can you give them this to give to Tech?" You ask Jut and she looks at it in question.

"What is it?" She asks.

"Oh its just a holorecording. I want to let them know I'm okay." You tell her and she nods.

"Yeah, I can do that for you." Jut says then they board the transport and leave. You start back to go inside when the sound of approaching gunships catches your attention. You make your way to the first gunship that lands and the door opens. A clone captain sporting the color blue was one of the first people you saw. Then shortly after Anakin steps out behind him.

"General Skywalker I presume?" You ask and he nods.

"Yes, this is my Captain, Rex." He says and the clone takes off his helmet to show the rare blond birth defect. You remove your helmet as well and Rex seems to shift uncomfortably under your gaze. "I'm Captain (Y/n). Last I saw General Kenobi and Commander Cody they were in the command center. I'll take you there." You say and turn to lead the way. When you arrive you allow the General and his Captain to go in first.

"Anakin, how nice of you to finally join us." Obi-Wan says and notices you walk in behind them. "I see you've already met (Y/n)."

"Yes, she greeted us when we exited the gunship." Skywalker says. Rex looks you up and down as he tries to figure you out.

"There a problem Captain?" You ask slightly irritated that he was just staring at you.

"No problem. Just trying to figure out why you're here." Rex says and you roll your eyes at him and join Cody's side.

"She's temporarily a part of my battalion." Cody tells Rex.

"I know that, but as a civilian, she could be doing anything she wants instead of fighting in this war." Rex says.

"She's not a civilian. She's a clone." Cody tells Rex.

"Can we get on with the mission briefing? We've been waiting a week for your battalion." You say and plug into the holotable to bring up the plans for the next mission.

"For this plan to work efficiently, we will need to split into two teams. Anakin you and Rex will lead the team in the north tower, while Cody, (Y/n), and I lead the team in the south tower." Obi-Wan starts but stops when he notices Skywalker and Rex both staring at your arm. "Your eyes need to be up here on the plans, and not on her arm gentlemen. Besides it's not nice to stare at the woman who saved your life Anakin." Skywalker looked at you slightly surprised. Obi-Wan continued with the mission briefing and you did your job by pulling up the necessary visual aids. When the briefing was over Skywalker made his way over to you and stuck out his hand for you to shake.

"It's nice to finally meet you. I heard you had it alot worse than Obi-Wan or me with Dooku." Skywalker says.

"War has casualties, General. What matters at the end of the day is the success of the mission." You tell him and he frowns.

"The lives lost matter Captain." He says and you shake your head.

"You misunderstand General. The lives lost do matter, but it will have been in vain if the mission was unsuccessful. There's a reason we clones are so driven because we're taught to honor our fallen brothers. Even if our reg brothers don't like or want us." You say as you cast a glance toward Rex in an apprehensive manner.

"Reg brothers?" Skywalker asks.

"Regular clones." You say and he frowned. "They've hated me since I was little. Well most of them have. I learned earlier that the battalion that named me was killed in action." You tell him then show him the tattoo behind your ear.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Skywalker says.

"What is it General Kenobi said a few days ago? The Force will take whoever it wants when it's ready? I think, but don't quote me." You say and turn to leave the command center. Skywalker catches up to you as you walk down the hall.

"Have you ever thought about learning about the Force?" He asks and you shake your head.

"I didn't know it existed until I got assigned to General Kenobi." You said.

"Well, Obi-Wan and I could tell you about it." He says and Obi-Wan appears out of thin air at your side.

"Tell her about what?" Obi-Wan asks.

"She quoted you about the Force a few minutes ago, and I thought we could teach her about the Force." Skywalker says and Obi-Wan raises his eyebrows.

"Do you want to learn about the Force?" Obi-Wan asks you and you think about it for a moment.

"Yeah. I think I do." You tell him and the two of them smile at you. Whatever it is they're planning to teach you about excites them.

2744 Words

Taglist: @projectdreamwalker

[blueikeproductions]

So the original pitch bible for Transformers Prime was revealed, its prototypical stage was called Robots in Disguise funnily enough, and I’m mixed on what I’ve seen.

Let’s be clear, Prime is ok, but I’ve always found it bland. Flash over substance, best remembered for being gritty and violent with little to say outside of that becoming a forced amalgam of what came before, while its true saving grace being it got Peter Cullen and Frank Welker back on TV in their best known roles. It never knew what it wanted to be, and it’s why I preferred RiD15 since, while far more “kiddy”, I respect a show that at least knows what it is sincere about it.

With that in mind, the concept art oddly feels more cohesive than Prime. The general gist was pretty unabashedly Bayformers: The Animated Series and to a degree I’m surprised they didn’t just do that with NEST, Sam & Mikayla instead of trying to make douchebag hacker Spike a thing.

Indeed, Spike was originally meant as the lead human, described as a rebellious hacker seeking the truth, and one day discovers a Transformer. While there’s no design drawn, reference photos use what looks like stereotypical teens from the 2000’s, ranging from a skateboarder to a grungy emo teen that reminds me of douchebag SM3 Peter with the symbiote. Going by the description and visuals, Spike was evidently split apart into Jack, Raf and Miko, which might explain why they never worked… at least to me. They became a fragment of Spike’s original personality and never fully grew beyond that, when keeping them a single character might’ve been far more interesting.

It appears NEST inspired TASK, no idea what it stands for, but they were similarly a military unit aligned with the Autobots. A female love interest was sketched out, though frankly with how masculine the sketch looks, I keep thinking it’s a guy. Sort of the reverse TF Zone Akira (looks like a girl, is actually a dude). Frankly I say keep the military person a love interest and make ’em a dude: let’s get Akira and Cain up in here with it lol. (I know they weren’t officially a couple, but I still think it’s funny. Plus a version of Spike with a boyfriend could be fun as something different.)

Anyhow, a big emphasis was humanity joining the fight, as well as how they’d react to the TF’s Great War. This didn’t really make it into the final product beyond Prime and RiD’s over fixation on hiding the robots (when in both cases it was becoming increasingly hard to believe people didn’t see anything or just shrugged it off. Though RiD at least had some funny bits poking fun at this I liked.) TASK was basically NEST, and in some cases was just one letter away from just becoming MASK. …Which leads into the toy aspect.

I think had they played their cards right with this early pitch, they could’ve had Autobots, Decepticons, and TASK/MASK transforming vehicles. A huge emphasis was placed on Optimus having specialized trailers, all seemingly based on the Armada and Prime Force drones from Energon to some extent. There was the base trailer that unfolded into a military platform for Autobots and humans to use, a drill trailer for Energon mining, a submarine trailer for water missions, I think I saw a jet trailer, and a tank trailer. It appears they could all Transform to some extent, even becoming armor for other characters to combine with. They evoke the later Cyberverse Spark Armor vehicle combinations with a dash of ROTF Jet Optimus, so the concept made it out just not in Proto-Prime lol.

There was also a proposed Energon Weapon gimmick that strongly resembles the RB style Energon Tools gimmick, so presumably it too got repurposed.

Curiously there’s a LOT of concept art of the Autobots in underwater missions, wearing armor that resembles the submarine armor TFA Bumblebee toy. One concept art drawing features a giant robot manta-fish guy, who I’m assuming was a Seacon or a Sharkticon of some sort. The later TFP prequel stuff that did get made involves an adventure on Aquatron, with Megatron becoming a liberator of the Sharkticons, so I guess that’s where that came from? Megatron even got a Sharkticon inspired toy to boot. I suppose it’s ironic we have all this water business but no one thought to include guys like Sea Spray (and NOT kill him off screen). The robot designs were all over the place. A lot of art mostly uses stylized G1 designs, but the proposed designs were a stronger hybrid of the movies and G1, as opposed to what we got which was purely movie inspired with a dash of Animated. It’s funny to me that after years of praise for Prime’s art style, upon seeing the concept art, it’s now ok to absolutely dunk on Prime. Megatron is the stand out for many, being a hybrid of his WFC, body, his Cybertron Mode Animated body and his Revenge of the Fallen bodies. His vehicle mode was a tank, instead of the first Bayformer space jet thing. He also had what I think might have been a battle axe on his back. It’s definitely cooler than what we got, and I get a strong sense it might crop up as a toy in a future Concept Art Studio Series release. The other designs I think got repurposed though. Bee’s design looks to be what eventually became RiD15, CV and ES Bee, Starscream became RiD15 Screamer, Soundwave’s Earth Mode became RiD15 and CV Soundwave. I genuinely believe RiD15 was where some of these designs were saved lol. Optimus was pry the more G1 looking, with the look possibly influencing his CV and RBA bodies. Soundwave had an alternate design that was his ROTF design, but with Fixit’s wheel feet. I personally hate this look, buts pretty clear ROTF Soundwave was still a huge influence for what became the final and genuinely popular TFP Soundwave design. Ironhide was one of the main Autobots along with Ratchet, both being heavily influenced by their Movie selves, like what would’ve happened with TFA Ironhide and TFA Ratchet. I suppose the funny thing is the Ironhide design made it through, becoming Kup in the American release but staying Ironhide in the Japanese release. Still, the designs were very rough, and as much as people seem to be more for them, they’re too busy and are still clearly finding a balance in what they wanted. I think had they refined it a bit more we could’ve had the perfect Godzilla: The Animated Series equivalent to the original Bayformers. Alas we got Prime, while well intentioned was a show that coasted hard on being dark and gritty, shackled to continued unpopular modern ideas that’s only held TF down than uplift it. I think at the very least EarthSpark is a better version of Prime’s ideas even if I don’t agree with its execution.

[returnofismasm]

Some speculation regarding the UNIT spinoff, given what we've seen of UNIT in the anniversary specials:

I think it's fairly safe to assume that Shirley and Mel and the Vlekth are all going to have roles in the show. A lot of time was spent establishing them.

Donna seems a fairly likely addition, given that she has a salary negotiation with Kate in the episode

As far as the Doctor's (either Fourteen or Fifteen) involvement, we might be able to guess based on the spinoffs from RTD's prior tenure:

Torchwood starred Captain Jack and had Martha guest for a couple of episodes, but the Doctor never directly appeared and the Torchwood cast didn't crossover with the parent show until the end of Doctor Who's fourth season.

The Sarah Jane Adventures starred Sarah Jane Smith (go figure) and Ten and Eleven were in a handful of episodes between the two of them across the show's five seasons. It also featured the Brigadier and Jo Grant in a couple of episodes.

So RTD's prior spinoffs have treated a crossover with the Doctor as a Thing, not to be squandered. Granted, Donna has a Doctor living in her yard, so he's more immediately available than is usual for the Doctor, but it's not like it takes that much more effort to justify a traveling Doctor showing up. And the real-life circumstances, like filming schedules, that made it difficult for the actor playing the Doctor to crossover are still a thing. Ncuti's obviously busy with Doctor Who itself, and will presumably take other roles during DW's filming breaks. David's a busy a guy who will hopefully be filming Good Omens 3 sooner rather than later.

So--and this is assuming Donna is even part of the cast--I think it's very likely we'll see a tension between Donna and the rest of UNIT.

UNIT doesn't know where he's gone off to. They know that Donna knows (at least where Fourteen is). Donna herself told her own daughter not to bug the Doctor about going places, she's definitely not going to let UNIT drag him into things. And it doesn't seem like Fifteen left any way to contact him. They may or may not also be aware that Mel knows where he is (but they'll probably suspect she does regardless). This saves the appearance of the Doctor for Big Events, like a season finale.

This serves a few purposes. One, it lets the UNIT show stand on its own feet without needing to be propped up by the parent show, which is always important in crossovers. Second, internal to the narrative, it lets the cast prove their capabilities without needing the Doctor around, which might be extra important in UNIT's case because we so frequently see them either asking the Doctor for help or being THEIR backup (if the Doctor isn't outright suspicious of them). Finally, it gives enough space from one of THE most popular actors to play the character so that Ncuti Gatwa can be in the role without people going "Well what's going on with Fourteen."