#liz pennykettle

[ragnars-tooth]

I got distracted and then didn’t finish the other ones but here are my brainworms for your viewing pleasure

[neibolt-werewolf]

im apologizing in advanced for what i'm about to do to the TLDC characters (I am drawing them as furries)

[ultrakeencollectionbreadfan]

The Last Dragon Chronicles--Season 1 Structure

When I was younger, I read a book series called The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris D'lacey. Recently, I started thinking about how it could be adapted into a movie or a TV Series. Now, I think that a TV series would probably be the best medium for an adaptation. It would give the series lots of exposure, and maybe even get more people interested in the books. With that out of the way, here's how I would do season 1.

Season 1 would be based on the first book, The Fire Within. Unlike the book, the viewers would be made aware that the clay dragons can come to life almost right off the bat, a la Once Upon a Time. I'm picturing a reveal at the end of the first episode, where Elizabeth or Lucy Pennykettle--or both--enter a room filled with clay dragons and talks to them, and they come forward and answer.

The first season would essentially have three interweaving stories contained in it, as well as one big overarching story about rescuing a squirrel. One plot would be about David Rain and his hosts, Liz and Lucy. Another plot would be about the Pennykettle dragons themselves, and how they try to help the squirrels in their own unique way. The third plot would not be introduced until about halfway through the season, and would be the story-within-a-story that David writes, called Snigger and the Nutbeast, which, like in the book, would have a connection to real events.

David's Plot

David's plot would, much like in The Fire Within, be about his journey to finding inspiration and believing in dragons, all while trying to help a bunch of squirrels. Of course, since the audience knows by the end of the first episode that the clay dragons come to life, the suspense will be in getting David to believe in it, as well as figuring out just how and why this happens. David, much like Emma Swan before him, initially is quite skeptical about dragons, but unlike Emma, he is at least willing to play along. Lucy would act as his Henry, constantly talking about dragons and trying to get him to believe in them. Liz, on the other hand, would initially treat David like any other person and try to discourage Lucy from giving away too much. She'd warm up over time, however, especially after David breaks his special dragon, Gadzooks.

The Dragons' Plot

The second plot that would happen throughout the narrative is that of the Pennykettle dragons. As mentioned earlier, this would mainly be about their own efforts to help the squirrels. It would be more comedic than David's plot, and there'd be quite a few mishaps and close calls. We may even see a few scenes that homage classic silent-movie comedy. In the end, however, the dragons would ultimately achieve their goal. Of course, we would have to make sure that this sort of plot doesn't get too grating on the viewers. I personally would like someone such as Howie Mandel to provide the voices for the Pennykettle dragons.

Snigger and the Nutbeast

The third plot of the season, as previously mentioned, would not appear until about halfway through the season. It would be, essentially, the story-within-a-story that David ends up writing about the squirrels. This would not be irrelevant to the plot, however, as the passages would be connected to true events. Of course, David's special dragon, Gadzooks, would be a huge help in that regard. Personally, I would like this segment to be animated by someone such as Cartoon Saloon.

Changes

As mentioned earlier, there will be some changes between The Fire Within and this hypothetical first season. For example, the character of Sophie would be removed entirely. Instead, Zanna Martindale, who in the book series doesn't show up until the second one, Icefire, would take her place. In this one, she'd be more of an "eco-goth" and would have picked up Sophie's trait of caring for animals because of it. Also, the concept of dragontongue would come up in the first season, though it may not be called as such yet, because we would obviously need some way for the Pennykettles and the dragons to clearly communicate with one another.

So, I've just written a sort of structural outline for the first season of a hypothetical Last Dragon Chronicles series. I hope all you fans of the series enjoy it.

[gentlemanjester]

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before, but here’s another rant. Similar to my one on the Cirque du Freak movie, this one is a bit better but about a book series called The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d’Lacey.

So, when I was a kid, I read a book called The Fire Within. It was a really fun and cute book. A guy called David moves in with Liz Pennykettle and her 11 year old daughter, Lucy. The Pennykettles make clay dragons for a living, and it turns out some of them are special dragons who are kind of alive. They give David his own dragon, who he names Gadzooks, and his skepticism basically kills Gadzooks and he emotionally restores him back to life. There’s also a plot about David writing a story about a squirrel in the garden for Lucy’s birthday, it’s really cute, and that writing leads to him meeting a wildlife rescuer who becomes his girlfriend and... i honestly can’t remember her name, she was super generic, your standard nice girl.

But that story’s good. It’s a great standalone novel, has a (mostly) happy ending, fun adventures, it’s good. Then a sequel came. And in this sequel, David’s girlfriend has gone to Africa for a few months because of work, and David’s got a... weird professor at college who’s obsessed with inuits and offers a prize of a research trip to the Arctic for whoever can write the best essay. Two things are off here: firstly, professors teach at universities rather than colleges in the UK, where this is set, and secondly, a research trip to the damned Arctic? In college? That’s a postgraduate trip, at least.

So, we’re also introduced to big tiddy goth gf called Zanna, who is horny as fuck for David. Like she’s basically saying “put a baby in me you mousey dragon boy” in the most kid-friendly way she can. Because this is a kid’s book, without a shadow of a doubt. Keep that in mind for the future: a child is supposed to follow this storyline.

So, we’re also introduced to a villain: Gwilanna. Who, I think... tries to get Liz to... fertilise a dragon egg? Oh, I forgot to mention, the Pennykettles are descended from... uh... I think it’s a lady in ancient times who was tasked with a witch to trick a dragon, but instead sided with the dragon, and the dragon gave her part of his soul? Which is why they’re able to make special dragons that are kinda-sorta alive? I think that’s the gist of it.

So, Gwilanna turns out to be that ancient witch and David uses the power of polar bears (because polar bears are connected with dragons, somehow) to toss her out. He and Zanna make out in the kitchen and just as they pull away, David’s girlfriend comes in and Zanna leaves. Girlfriend then basically says “hey, so I’m gonna be in Africa for several years, so you go ahead and date whoever you want.” OH, that reminds me, David was absolutely a player during this book. Not only was there Zanna, but he also went to a publishing house to publish the story he wrote for Lucy in the first book, and the office is staffed basically only by young women, and David’s eyes are wandering everywhere.

So, David learns that for some reason, Zanna is mad at him for having a girlfriend... even though I am fairly certain he’d already told her, or else he’s even more of a dick, but it all ends with him winning the Arctic trip, Zanna picks him up and is all “we gon fuck in the cold loverboy” because her dad’s rich and everything.

So... okay, an alright sequel, it starts to set things up for the future, but it’s starting to get a bit... iffy. Well, book three is where the normalcy ends.

So, David and Zanna are having a good time at the North Pole, banging, hanging out with the Inuits, David’s writing his story on polar bears. Except he’s... kinda telling the future? Sort of? Like some of the chapters in this book are from the perspective of the polar bears, and David’s writing the story about those specific polar bears. It’s a magic power he has, he used it in the first book while writing Lucy’s story as well. But for some reason, he and Zanna get in an argument and he decides to go back down to England to hang out with Liz and Lucy.

Speaking of Lucy, she’s been kidnapped by Gwilanna and taken to some cave which I think it up against the last dragon? Maybe? Gwilanna’s planning to use Lucy for... something... I’m not entirely sure what. But the polar bears are kinda guardians of the dragon or something? Oh, and David’s professor has an invisible dragon he just keeps around and sends on missions. I think it transforms into an Inuit artefact? That might be something else. I don’t quite remember.

So, the climax sees David saving Lucy, but he gets injured, and he dies in Zanna’s arms. He gives her the invisible dragon, somehow, and the polar bears drag him off.

Okay... a pretty definitive ending there. Sad, but it does the job.

Except it doesn’t end there.

AND THE CRAZINESS RAMPS UP.

5 years have passed. David’s stories have been wildly successful, and Zanna has opened up her own little goth shop which offers massages. She gave birth to David’s daughter so the author could add in the creepy lines of the kid saying shit like “daddy misses us” and wotnot. Lucy is 16 now, and she is an absolute caricature of a teenage girl. On her phone all the time, blowing bubblegum while working as Zanna’s cashier part-time, arguing with her mum... oof.

Journalist guy called Tam comes in for a massage from Zanna, she minorly magically tortures him to get him to admit that he was sent by the paper to get dirt on David. Lucy ends up infatuated with this guy, who’s literally twice her age, she goes on to stalk him to his place of work and tries to sell the family secrets to get close to him.

So, the big reveal: David isn’t actually dead.

Kinda.

Well, he comes back. Zanna is pissed because David is kind of a weird demigod thing? Like he talks about himself needing to save the world, he kinda... imbues the power of two polar bears into Tam? Oh, and Zanna is a witch like Gwilanna. Obviously. Because she’s the big tiddy goth gf, she’s gotta be a witch as well.

Book five gives some backstory to Lucy’s dad. Turns out he was a scientist dude, he and Liz were in love, he then disappeared one day (I think because of Gwilanna?) and he’s spent all this time in self-exile in a monastery as a monk. And while at this monastery, he found a dragon claw which dripped ichor, and anything he wrote with this ichor came true. Kinda like David’s power from a few books ago. Remember that? I barely do.

So, we come to the other massive reveal: David never existed. He was written into existence by Liz’s boyfriend whose name is not even listed on the wiki page, holy fuck. I’ll just call him Bob for easiness. Anyways, Bob wrote David into existence for some reason. They find this out by going to the address listed on David’s letter of application for the Pennykettle lodging waaaayyy back in book 1, and they can’t find the place. Then Lucy gets teleported away and kidnapped again. Oh, and before this, she and Tam went on a road trip to some white horse in the English countryside, they stayed at a B&B and ended up being attacked by their hosts, I think.

OH, YEAH.

THE ALIEN SPACE FAIRIES.

So, there are these alien space fairies that exist. They... worship dragons? Or are dragons? They have something to do with dragons. Anyways, there are the good ones and the bad ones. The bad ones are able to take over people’s minds and make them into slaves. Oh yeah, the evil alien space fairies made the monks of Bob’s monastery attack anyone that came near because Gwilanna wanted to do some ritual. I think.

Oh yeah, and there’s this young dragon called Grockle who... uh... I wanna say Liz gave birth to him? Or maybe Zanna? Or maybe he was hatched from the egg that Gwilanna tried to get Liz to fertilise back in book two? I can’t quite remember. But he’s there.

So, it turns out the good alien space fairies and the evil alien space fairies have been at war for a while, and they need the dragons for... something...

And that, I think, is as far as I ever read. I think there’s maybe two and a half books in the series I haven’t read, because... I just can’t. It’s too much. The story is so convoluted and so far removed from what it started as. The first book was extremely charming. Cutesy clay dragons, an ancient legend which explained why they could kind of come to life, it was a fun read. The sequel was... alright. A bit more complicated, but it managed. The threequel was... eh...

But the rest of it. My God.

Oh, and the weirdest part? There’s this overarching theme of global warming and climate change, except it’s... minorly shoehorned in? Like it’ll be mentioned in passing as background noise on the television, or David will say something like “this is why X is happening, because the ice caps are melting,” but... nothing will come of it. It’s just sort of mentioned. There is literally no payoff to the mentioning of global warming. I get it, it’s a very real and major problem, but it’s just... so out of place in this story (which is saying a lot, considering what I’ve just written) and so obviously shoehorned in.

Oh, also, David’s girlfriend dies in one of the books. Pretty sure it’s book 5. Also, David can teleport. Or fly. Or both? I dunno, he’s a God that didn’t exist until a few years prior. Immaculate conception ftw.

This book series, The Last Dragon Chronicles, is a perfect example of when an author tries to mash together multiple different stories into a single series and, in my opinion, it fails miserably. The alien space fairies. The guy not existing until he was written into existence. The polar bears being guardians of a dragon. Those could have very easily been plot points for an entire different series. There wasn’t really much need to expand on The Fire Within, let along expand it beyond that first trilogy.

The first book is a charming read. I certainly recommend it. The next two... read if you want, but don’t expect the same charm. The rest... stay far away from.

[my-ceiling-is-scuffed]

Okay, this was technically early middle school, but I was one of those little freak reader book nerds and i forgot how to read in high school on account of the trauma and stress.

My answer is Chris d'Lacey's Last Dragon chronicles. Here's the first sentence(s) of each books summary on wikipedia.

In The Fire Within, David Rain is a tenant of Elizabeth (Liz) Pennykettle (a potter who makes clay dragons) and her daughter, Lucy

In Icefire, Lucy creates a new dragon named G'reth. He is a wishing dragon that can grant wishes that would benefit dragon kind.

In Fire Star, Gwilanna, the evil sibyl that first starred in Icefire, returns. She plans to reincarnate the last dragon, Gawain, and use him to open a portal to the dragon dimension Ki:mera.

In The Fire Eternal it has been five years since David, now a cult author, mysteriously disappeared in the Arctic

In Dark Fire David is ordered by the elder dragons of Ki:mera to seek out and destroy a spark of dark fire, even though doing so will mean sacrificing the beloved housework dragon, Gwillan. Also, David's first girlfriend, Sophie, died in Africa while David was there trying to stop a mutation called a darkling from destroying the entire facility (sorry, Dark Fire gets two big fucken sentences bc holy shit what)

In Fire World, a 12-year-old boy named David lives in Co:pern:ica. He and his friend Rosanna spend their days in the librarium, a museum for books, with the curator, Mr. Henry, and the mysterious firebirds that roam the upper levels. (don't mind the unexplained smash cut to a Different Fucking Dimension?)

The entire series is resolved with a seventh novel named The Fire Ascending. The novel reveals that the entire universe is made up of the word and symbol Oomara, meaning sometimes.

Okay, now go back to the first bullet point and read it again.

This is the tip of the Last Dragon iceberg. It gets So Much More. I'm still not convinced I didn't hallucinate the entire thing, despite the fact that all the paperbacks on my bookshelf in my field of view as I'm typing this.

what's a book you read as a teenager that was so magical and personally profound to you it literally changed your life, doesnt matter if the book was actually well written or not. mine's probably the catcher in the rye

[gayandvibin]

So like *twirls hair around my finger* there’s this old book series...

Still on my re-read and I cannot describe how unhinged the end of book 4 made me so naturally I drew scenes instead. Just picture me gesturing wildly and gasping and you’ve got it.

this file is aptly titled ‘before you ruin it with snow’

and hey, you can actually see that the bear is translucent now 💀💀

[the-poppy-outie-effect]

Back on my Last Dragon Chronicles bullshit, everyone needs to listen to my David Rain playlist right the hell now

I have no explanation for most of this monstrosity but the vibes work (mostly) so *gestures vaguely at the playlist* yeah

[manuscript-or]

yes!!! THAT last dragon chronicles!!! check it out i have a zookie made by the lady who inspired liz pennykettle :D

YOU HAVE A ZOOKIE?!?!?! AN OFFICIAL ZOOKIE?!

bestie i made my own cuz i couldn't afford one lemme get a picture, his name is Gallagher and he's a wish dragon :0

lemme get a picture of him

[ookaookaooka]

life goal: to own a house that is a combination of liz pennykettle's house in the fire within and meggie and mo's house in inkheart. full of books and dragons

[allycattiny]

THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOK SERIES!

THE LAST DRAGON CHRONICLES BY CHRIS D'LACEY!

Also know as the Penny kettle dragons!

(Also if I remember rightly it was the lady (her name was Liz Pennykettle if i remember right) that was magic not the kiln because she was teaching her daughter the magic art of dragon building and they were the last dragon makers on earth and they rented out a room in their house to this author who was confused and completly done 100000% of the time)

can’t find the name of an old book? reblog w/ a description to ask tumblr for help

[ragnars-tooth]

i wanna go back and render the fuck out of these later but i'm Already procrastinating the rest of the video and should probably work on one thing at a time for once in my life.

anyway, haha mothers am i right or am i right? (sobbing)

[outerspace-iiinnerspace]

and another thing is how the author was a bonkers beatles fan and there were references absolutely everywhere. the reason david’s last name is rain is because he’s an author and the author owned a record with “rain” on one side and “paperback writer” on the other. liz’s address is four thoushall road because of that line in “a day in the life” about four thousand holes. pennykettle derives from “penny lane”. etc.

[kathydavie]

Book Review: Chris d’Lacey's Grabber

Book Review: Chris d’Lacey’s Grabber

Fourth in The Dragons of Wayward Crescent paranormal fantasy series for middle-grade readers and revolving around Liz Pennykettle and her knack for special dragons.

My Take

As ever, Grabberis as cute as the previous three stories — a good, cozy, and funny story about a dragon and how he lives up to the name he’s given, lol — with D’Lacey using third-person objective point-of-view, which allows us…

[ciarmay]

I want to become the next liz pennykettle but I don’t have access to a kiln or oven until summer and I am very very afraid of the oven

[marcvscicero]

I am sobbing into my pillow. Goodbye happiness

"I'm sorry, David. I know how much you loved her. We all did, fella. But the chances of us finding her alive are-"

   "No!" David cried from a place deep within, a place he had hardly ever dared reach into. "She's not gone. She's not gone. She can't be gone." He felt Liz's warm arms closing around him and fell sideways into them, dropping the phone.

   "Shush," she whispered, singing sweet dragonsong into his ear.

   Russ's disembodied voice spoke out near the floor.

   "I want her back," David wailed to Liz.

   "I know," she said, and muted the phone. "Listen," she whispered. "Listen to me now." And she sang him a lullaby that could have calmed a dragon.

   And long before she was finished, he was still.

- Chris d'Lacey  - Fire Star 

[ragnars-tooth]

Medieval/fantasy au be upon ye: the gang reconvenes and discusses their next steps

Oh god, so this one requires me to get into what the hell this au is about and uhhhh I don’t… know?? Yet???

I’ve got some broad sweeps down but the details are for the most part hazy rn

(That got long fast whoopsie!!)

SO:

- The Pennykettles are the royal family, Lucy is the heir. David is not strictly related to Liz or Lucy, but he was raised in proximity to the crown and later made the equivalent to a prince in title (basically, he’s not really royalty, he can’t take the crown, and he doesn’t do anything important, but he is the court’s funny little guy and you will apologise to him rn for hurting his feelings!! He acts as a figurehead in the Pennykettles’ place for some festivals, and is generally well liked by the public despite being dumb as rocks.)

- More on David: he was raised by the monks of Avalon (pushing my Arthur & Bernard agenda on this fine evening), one of which Liz eventually married (take a wild guess).

- The royal line carries down the women, Arthur is basically arm candy. He and Liz are very queer-platonic to me. Their role is to act as ‘ambassadors’ between dragons and humankind. It’s mostly symbolic at this point, as dragons are very respected and mostly left to their own devices. Their perches are treated as holy places where offerings are left, and they don’t bother themselves with humans as long as things continue to roll smoothly.

- (To be clear, Arthur is not Lucy’s father. I may well go with canon’s egg shit because it works maddeningly well here. It is also important to me that you know Arthur is still blind. I will hold this man in my disabled arms mwah you are safe here)

- THE PENNYKETTLE DRAGONS? They’re still here baybey, but REAL ALL OF THE TIME. They’re a small species of living dragons – I haven’t worked out the exact origin story here yet, whether Liz still breathed life into them from something non-living, or if they’re just juveniles that will eventually become as big as Gawaine. We shall see, I suppose. I imagine that they act like very needy cats that attach themselves to their human and follow them about. God I wish I had a little dragon guy.

- The royal library is run by Henry Bacon (HE LIVES. FUCK YOU.) and his apprentice, Zanna Martindale. David also used to apprentice here before being adopted by the crown. It took Zanna a while to get over the boy she used to throw books at and make daisy chains for becoming effectively a prince. They are in love <3 (no Alexa yet, sorry (unless…. Hm, I will get back to you on this…) bc I see David and Zanna being Firestar ages, and Lucy being older than usual at around 16/17)

- Zanna has a vaguely middle-class upbringing (as far as the concept exists), with a doctor/dentist father and an older sister.  (Ngl. Forgot zanna had a real dentist dad and just made henry her father originally. And now to fix it I’m considering marrying them. It would be funny literally only to me. But it Would be funny. Local doctor and librarian have a weird unacknowledged little gay thing going on. Good for them <3)

- I don’t know how but Melanie Cartwright is in there somewhere and she and Lucy are dating. I am right. You will understand the kettlewright agenda by the time im through with you.  

- Lucy is in her teenage angst era but at least this time it’s just sort of silly instead of a result of horrific trauma. She’s just smothered by loving parents and thinks she could totally make it as an independent adult with no survival skills. She is wrong!

- (Lucy voice: God I hate my parents, they keep saying they love me every twelve seconds 🙄 I just want to do normal things like commit property damage and travel cross-country with nothing but a bag of cheese and scare old man Bacon. Instead all I can do is count my stacks of money and play fetch with my fire-breathing cat. This fucking blows!! They never let me do anything fun :/)

- Tam is a wannabe poet who becomes a knight. On his first day after a big promotion he promptly loses the crown’s only princess and decides that the best course of action is to fake his death and live in the forest. I can’t say I blame him.

- During Tam’s self-imposed exile he comes across is stalked by Bella (the catgirl). He finds her very annoying and is not at all her father now. He also hates cats and would never ever pet one and let it fall asleep in his lap. He is a man of principles and sticks to his finely tuned moral compass. By lying. And running away.

- Regarding Lucy’s disappearance – it was her way of getting away for a bit for fun only child shenanigans, but ultimately ends in her (crown princess, very recognisable, her face is on like. Everything.) getting kidnapped for real.

- Unbeknownst to Tam, David had also disappeared during official business, and Zanna is nowhere to be found. The crown is left in a precarious place, and it soon appears to be under real threat.

- Spoilers: Voss is about, and there is a lot he’s willing to take.

- On lighter notes: Gwilanna and the Chamberlain boys are absolutely still in this because I am so fucking predictable. Tootega come here I can treat you so much better mwah mwah. Well… maybe Gwilanna isn’t a lighter note. But she is there! This will have no consequences on anyone or anything, I’m sure! :3

PLEASE DEAR GOD ASK ME QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE THEM. I swing violently between wanting to give every single plot detail rn and wanting to go write the actual fic so things can be revealed ✨mysteriously✨