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gravitycavity · 11 months ago

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Sunshine (Pomni x Ragatha) Chapter 1 - Put On a Happy Face

[Click here to read from the beginning on AO3!]

Cover art by @blukiar

“You’re supposed to $%#&ing smile, Pomni!” Zooble's hoarse scream reverberated throughout the big top. “Are you stupid?! We can’t finish the new intro if you aren’t @#$%ing smiling!”

“Leave. Me. Alone!” Pomni, denied the catharsis of slinging her sailor’s mouth, expressed her disdain with her middle fingers instead. She only ended up seething harder, however, when a pair of other-dimensional censor bars appeared to obscure the rude gestures.

“Oh! So that’s how you want to play it, Puffball?” Zooble narrowed her eyes, limping toward the jester with as much aggression as their awkwardly-constructed body would allow — which, for the record, wasn’t very much.

Ragatha had seen enough. “Relax!” She raised her voice, swooping vigilantly between the bickering belligerents. “Both of you!”

Gangle, moping off to the side, sniveled pitifully. In all the commotion, her comedy mask had been shattered. For the second time. This morning. “Guys…! Please, just stop fighting…”

Jax crossed his legs, reclining smartly against Kinger’s impenetrable pillow fort. “Can it, crybaby. This is the best entertainment we’ve had in years!” He flicked a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it in his mouth. Meanwhile, a vibrating Kinger poked his eyes out from between two pillows, saying nothing and everything at the same time.

Ragatha’s good-natured attempts to keep the peace were all for naught. She flinched out of the way of Zooble’s punch — but before the strike could connect, a floating boxing bell materialized out of nowhere, piercing the air with a shrill shriek.

“Now, now! There’s no need for that!” Caine’s wagging finger appeared beside the bell, followed shortly after by the rest of the entity. He lifted his tophat, and a cheesing Bubble gingerly drifted out.

“Naughty, naughty~” Bubble chomped his teeth.

Caine snapped his fingers, and an unseen force pushed Pomni and Zooble apart. “The Amazing Digital Circus — copyright 1996 C&A Incorporated, all rights reserved — is a magical, marvelous CD-Romp for all ages! Zany shenanigans and cartoon mischief I can abide, but outright violence? Strictly out of the question!”

With a grunt, Zooble spiked their arm against the floor. “What are we supposed to do, then!? We’re on take fifty-seven of your dumb@%$ theme song because poor little Pomni thinks she’s the main character of the universe!”

Pomni responded to that, but whatever she said, it was profane enough to be scrubbed out entirely.

“Yes, well…” Caine crossed his arms, steeped in careful thought. The last hour-and-a-half of unusable footage played back through his mismatched eyeballs in a matter of seconds. “It’s nothing we can’t fix in post.”

Zooble swiped their discarded arm off the ground and crammed it back into its empty socket. “Great. Then you can edit me in, too.” They stormed off, reciprocating Pomni’s earlier gesture. “Eat $@#%, sad sack.”

Jax sighed. “Aw, shucks. Right when things were getting good…”

“Uh…!” Caine skipped a beat. He swiveled toward the five circus members still gathered beneath the big top. “Well, then!” he elbowed his soap bubble companion, “Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us, Bubble! As for the rest of you, consider yourselves off the hook for the rest of the day — my treat! Take some personal time, get some sleep, and try your darndest not to dwell on the soul-crushing scale of eternity!”

“I have no soul!” Bubble turned upside-down. “So I don’t mind it one bit!”

“You and me both, old pal!” Caine’s laugh sounded forced and unnatural.

There was a pause. Gangle glanced around, then meekly raised her ribbony hand. “But what about—”

“Go on, now! I won’t take no for an answer!” the ringmaster stabbed the air with his cane, “I want you all in tip-top condition for tomorrow’s wacky adventure!”

🎪 🎪 🎪

It wasn’t long before everyone had gone their separate ways. Jax had slinked off to the digital carnival to terrorize the NPCs, Gangle had left a trail of teardrops all the way to the digital lake, and Kinger, as per usual, had just disappeared without anyone really noticing.

At last, Pomni was alone again. She curled her tear-stained face inward and filled her chest with three shaky breaths. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. Hands tightened into trembling fists, she threw her head toward the sky and let loose a long, ear-shattering shriek.

Why was this happening to her? What did she ever do to deserve this!? She was a person — a human being, for God’s sake — not some stupid, one-dimensional children’s character. How dare anyone expect her to just grin and bear it? She didn’t owe anything to anyone — not even one second of feigned emotion. As far as she was concerned, the moment she forced that goofy smile onto her face would be the moment she surrendered, and she would never, ever, in a million years—

“I’m always here if you need to talk. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

Pomni flinched, wrenching away from the sudden voice. After the emotional hell she’d gone through during her first day, unexpected noises didn’t exactly put her at ease — nor did anything else in this deranged digital purgatory, for that matter.

“Ah! Sorry!” Ragatha covered her mouth. “I didn’t spook you too bad, did I?”

“You did, actually! Wh-What’s wrong with you?” Pomni gathered herself quickly. She didn’t dare to even look in the direction of the person who had just watched her childish tantrum. The moment she found her footing again, she stormed off like her very life depended on it. “Don’t just sneak up on people like that!”

Silently relenting, Ragatha stepped aside to let Pomni pass. She watched the pouting jester jingle and jangle with every step, stomping with boundless confidence in the completely wrong direction.

“Uh…” Ragatha tilted her head. “Pomni? Do you remember the way to your room?”

“Ugh! What do you care?” Pomni doubled her pace. “Mind your own business!”

Ragatha smirked. “Alright, I guess I’ll just head back to my room, then. Which, for the record…” She pointed behind herself, “…is that way.”

Pomni stared vacantly as Ragatha sauntered off. The doll had read her like a book. Locking herself in her room for days on end meant she still had no clue how to get around the tent — if she wanted to get back to her regularly-scheduled self-pity anytime soon, she would have to swallow whatever was left of her pride.

Pomni grumbled under her breath, fast-walking to catch up. “Hey! W-Wait!”

🎪 🎪 🎪

There was no ambient noise to dampen the tension; the dormitory hall’s plush carpet absorbed the sound of Pomni and Ragatha’s footsteps. Ragatha led, hands tucked politely below her waist, while Pomni trailed behind.

The complete, unbroken silence wasn’t exactly the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was preferable to whatever inane smalltalk would have filled it. That’s how Pomni saw things, at least.

In the time it had taken to walk here, she had managed to cool off a bit — and the unwavering quiet gave her plenty of mental space to reflect on the last few minutes.

She wasn’t sorry. Pomni didn’t care if Zooble hated her — she could hate them right back. Breaking bread with Jax was pointless; that creep preferred to provoke. Gangle was friendly, but to interact with her was to walk on eggshells, and Pomni lacked the patience. And Kinger? Was Kinger.

Arms crossed, Pomni looked up from her big, dumb clown shoes. Her gaze settled on the doll in front of her. Pomni despised everything about this place — but now that she was going through her laundry list of grievances, she had to admit: she had nothing on the redhead.

…What was her name? Ragatha…? She was by far the most mature of the circus’s captives. She was kind. Predictable. An island of calm in a stormy sea.

Pomni’s harsh features softened. Ragatha was the only character who had shown her the slightest shred of compassion since she’d arrived here. The realization weighed down her stomach with more than a few pangs of guilt. Ragatha, of all people, certainly wasn’t a deserving outlet for her angst.

Oh, no — nice going, you idiot. Ragatha was the one thing about this place keeping you anywhere close to sanity, and you’ve already repelled her by acting like a petulant child. She probably hates you now. You know that, right? Actually, it’s not ‘probably’. It’s ‘definitely’. That’s why she isn’t talking. That’s why this is so awkward. That’s why —

“So…what’s under your cap?”

Pomni stumbled. Had the wall not been there to grab onto, she absolutely would have fallen flat on her face.

Stabilizing herself, Pomni gawked up at Ragatha as if the doll had just beamed down from another planet. What’s under her cap? Did she hear that right? It was such an odd, out-of-the-blue question — but at least it had yanked her out of her head.

“I’m sorry?”

Ragatha bent down to Pomni’s eye level. “Your cap.” She said gently, resisting the urge to prod one of the little bells dangling from either end. “It comes off, doesn’t it?”

Pomni blinked. She hadn’t really given it any thought. In fact, until Ragatha had brought it up, she had forgotten that her ridiculous new form came with a hat at all. Doing nothing but hiding under the covers and sobbing for days on end had that effect.

With much bigger problems weighing on her mind, Pomni didn’t really care to check — but something about Ragatha’s expectant gaze possessed her anyway. Very carefully, she hooked her fingers beneath the golden rim. She felt a small amount of resistance as she pushed up, almost as if the headpiece were attached to her body through some kind of magnetic force.

With a just a little effort, though, it popped right off.

“…Huh.” Pomni held the striped cap in her hands. “Look at that.”

“Oh, goodness!” Ragatha tried and failed to suppress a squeal. She paid no mind to her question’s answer, too distracted by the worst hat hair anyone had ever seen. It was certainly a look; a chaotic mess of tangles, knots, and flyaways did as it pleased atop the jester’s capless crown.

“Hey! What gives?!” Pomni ducked her cap back onto her head. A few extra clumps of hair stuck out from underneath. “Why are you laughing?”

“I’m so sorry! Your hair is just…” Ragatha giggled. “Well, it’s a bit messy at the moment. But I like it!”

Pomni leered. “…Liar.”

“I’m not making fun of you! Honest!” Ragatha crossed her hands over her heart. “I love your hair, Pomni. It’s…”

“It’s what?!”

“It’s so cute!”

Pomni’s eyes grew two sizes. That was…not the answer she expected to hear. She didn’t know what to say — just that her face felt a lot warmer than before.

“Obviously, you could use a comb…or three. But who cares about that?” Ragatha’s hand drifted through her own thick, yarn-like locks. “You really lucked out, you know. I’d trade your hair for mine in a heartbeat.”

Despite everything, the smallest of half-smiles lit Pomni’s face.

“I, um…” Pomni took a deep breath. And then two more. Her whole body slumped closer to the floor. Try as she might to keep her personal pity party alive, Ragatha’s radiant energy made her forget her troubles, if only for a moment.

“…Why are you being so nice? And to me, of all people?”

Ragatha just shrugged. “Do I have a reason not to be?”

Pomni gripped her other arm, gaze flicking down the corridor. Her smile faded in the silence.

“Well, um, anyway…” Ragatha glanced at the door behind her — Pomni’s awkwardness was infectious. “You have your room key, right?”

Pomni’s heart skipped at the thought of having lost it, but eased at the feeling of cold metal in her pocket. She nodded.

Gently, Ragatha took the cartoonish key from Pomni’s hand. With a turn and a click, the way to the jester’s room was open.

Ragatha held the door, smiling warmly. “You look like you could use some space. Go enjoy some quality alone time, okay, new stuff?”

“O-Okay.” Pomni didn’t hesitate to do just that — until she did. “Um…” She peeked behind a door half-open. After the longest pause, a simple, stammered “thanks” was all she could manage to get out.

Her door clicked shut. And audibly locked.

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[Next Chapter]

#pomni x ragatha #pomnitha #ragapom #jesterdoll #buttonblossom #ragatha x pomni #pomatha #tadc #tadc pomni #ragatha #the amazing digital circus #tadc sunshine #tadc fanfiction #sapphic #lesbian

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marcmyworks · 7 years ago

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Ranking the Scream franchise.

In the aftermath of Scream franchise director Wes Craven’s death, the scandal surrounding producer Harvey Weinstein and the unpopularity of the Scream TV show, I fear we will never see a Scream 5. In this event I would like to say this is a groundbreaking film series that truly deserves to be watched, despite some of the horror sequel setbacks.

Now, for your enjoyment, here is the ranking of all four Scream films.

**SPOILERS**

4. Scream 3 (2000)

Scream 3 was disappointing in comparison to its early installments. The studio was under pressure to kill the film as the previous year slasher films had been the inspiration for several school shootings. Because of this Wes Craven had to cut down on the violence and gore. On top of this writer Kevin Williamson, who helmed the first two, was suddenly a hot ticket item in Hollywood, and as his time was limited he only could produce a rough draft script for the film. Dimension Films felt Williamson’s vision of setting the film back in the original small town of the original was too small and discarded his notes and hired newly famous writer, Erhen Kruger to take over the duties. Kruger set the film in Hollywood, during the production of a film called “Stab 3″, the fictitious sequel to the events of the first two Scream films.

Unfortunately due to the time constraints, the studio interference and the schedule of each of the actors, the script would sometimes be written the night before, with rewrites happening on set. Kruger’s initial script had two killers, one of which was main character, Sidney Prescott’s brother and the other an actress obsessed with being Sidney, both with making their own real life version of the original film only to kill each other in the final scene. The studio changed this ending for whatever reason and decided to have a multitude of red herrings leading the audience to believe there were multiple killers. The big reveal was mundane when there turned out to be only be one.

Without focusing on the scares, gore or character development, Scream 3 was not as successful critically or financially as the previous two installments. I now wonder, how it would have fared had they stuck to Williamson’s original notes.

Scream 3 = 5.5 = D

3. Scream 4 (2011)

A common theme in the Scream universe is the studio interference with the films, Scream 4 is no exception. Both the return of Craven and Williamson was a stroke of genius, but soon after production started the Weinstein’s demanded massive changes to the script, this lead to Williamson quitting during the start of production and bringing back Kruger as a (excuse the pun) ghost writer. Several actors quit during principle filming due to their roles being reduced and had to be quickly replaced. This included Ashley Greene dropping out of the role of Jill, Sidney’s cousin and Lauren Graham dropping out of the role of Jill’s Mother.

The plot of Scream 4 revolves around Sidney coming back to Woodsboro 15 years after the original Scream took place, she is promoting a book about her survival and is a media darling. The ideas are mostly developed; how youth culture is now not about pop culture but about being pop culture and how horror films are so saturated with gore and characters that audiences have become bored and complacent. Unfortunately the film becomes what it is criticizing, being too saturated with characters, gore and less about plot and tension, it becomes complacent.

On the positive side, the intro is a work of meta-horror art and the killer’s motivation is the most original of any modern slasher flick, it’s just the rest of the film that needed quite a bit of tweaking.

Scream 4 = 6.25 = C-

2. Scream 2 (1997)

Scream 2 is an almost perfect sequel and somehow, like the first, is funny and terrifying at the same time. I remember being 15 and seeing this in almost empty theater on my own and being too scared to use a bathroom stall (see the opening scene). Sequels generally suffer from either a convoluted plot, recycled ideas, far too many characters or all of the above, this film has none of these problems and does not fall into the typical horror movie tropes. Set two years after the original film, Sidney, a sophomore in college, and her friends are being stalked by a copycat killer.

Williamson wrote a treatment for Scream 2 while he wrote the first film and it was to his benefit. Though he initially envisioned the franchise to be a trilogy his first draft, called Scream Again had Sidney and suspect/ex-con Cotton Weary stabbing each other to death at the end of the film, with the intention of leaving the audience in utter horror that no one survived.

Again, the film had many rewrites. This was due to the original script leaking online, there being too many killers (in the original script there were four) and worrying about the MPAA rating the film an NC-17, which in North America equals box office suicide. Again some scenes were being written and improvised on set but somehow the final product was a masterpiece and managed to have even more critical praise than the original.

Scream 2 = 8.5 = A

1. Scream (1996)

In my humble opinion the original is best film in the series. The genius behind this film was taking a chance by killing off the film’s biggest star, Drew Barrymore, at the beginning of the film. The idea was actually the actresses. She was hired to play Sidney, but she had concerns about being type cast in horror/sci-fi films, as she was when she a child-star. Her career was also starting to flourish again which caused her schedule to become quite busy. She instead opted for a smaller part using her stature to attract other actors and even director Wes Craven to sign on. Horror films were a gamble in the mid-90s and to see a star of her caliber join made others intrigued.

It was popular at the time to cast actors in their 20s as high schoolers, and each character perfectly portrayed intuitive and analytical teens. The level of humour, intelligence and tension was perfectly written and executed and Scream became an overnight sleeper hit.

The only actor who chose not to be credited in the film was Henry Winkler who excellently played Principal Himbry. At the time he did not want his name attached to the film as he felt it would take away interest from the films young stars. Himbry’s death scene wasn’t in the original script and was added during filming. There were for two reasons for this; first to break up the almost 45 minutes in which no deaths had occurred and secondly to be the main reason most of the kids left the party at the end of the film, leaving Sidney and her friends to be hunted down by the killer.

Overall the main reason this movie is so iconic is because it influenced a new influx of horror movie, none of which could match Scream’s success, but still tried damn hard.

Scream = 9 = A+

And there you have it, the Scream films in a nutshell. I would like to say to the Weinstein’s or whoever is taking ownership over these films. please make a Scream 5, and make it more gutsy, edgy and brutal than any of the originals. Perhaps it’s finally Dewey’s time to meet the reaper. (Update: Scream 5 will be released January 2022, and will be added to this list)

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