#also made the pupil a little bigger as part of his baby version

[luminnara]

She Loves Me, She Loves My Knot | Pro Hero Alpha!Bakugou x Omega!Reader (nsfw, 18+)

hii!! i don’t see many people who write ABO for MHA so I’m glad i found you!!

Can we have a scenario where Bakugou’s omega is generally really tough and seems rather indifferent to everything — however she’s a little afraid of taking Katsuki’s knot for the first time and he tries his best to help her through that process? Sorry if it’s a little obscure but I love the idea of Bakugou being soft and caring but only for his spicy little omega.

Fem reader if you can but if you’d rather opt for gender neutral that’s fine too!! Please keep writing ABO, i love all your things! 🥺🤍

Um hi YES, I really love ABO stuff and I also wanted to see more, so I was like...welp, I guess it’s my time to rise and write my OWN haha! I went with a fem reader for this one, because I feel like that’s what I’m best at writing. If you want a gender neutral version too, let me know and I can post an alternate one!

send in a request here!

Warnings: nsfw, knotting, creampies, some breeding kink

Word count: 2,124

You were a spitfire, and that’s what he loved about you the most. His spicy, fiery little omega, who was better than every other omega to ever walk the earth. From the moment he met you, when he had nearly trampled you in the street in pursuit of an asshole villain and you had threatened to kick in the teeth of the number 4 pro hero, he knew you were something special. Nobody ever stood up to him like that, especially not when he was out on the job, but you? A little omega who smelled so sweet and looked so delicious? You weren’t afraid of him at all. 

He wasn’t embarrassed to admit that he had scented you immediately, his inner alpha getting possessive already. Bakugou didn’t smell any other alphas on you, and he didn’t want to. With his strong, terrifying scent clinging to you, he knew nobody else would try to make any moves, and as you stood there glaring at him, he had given you a smirk, told you to “call my agency sometime, babe,” and then taken off.

Of course, you didn’t call his agency. 

You showed up in person, marching right in and demanding to see him that very evening. Though at first you had seemed angry with him, you quickly told him (with a harsh glare and a snarl that he found absolutely adorable) that he was going to court you, and it was going to start now.

And who was he to deny such a straightforward, cute omega? The two of you were together by the end of the week. 

He almost found it hard to believe that you were an omega sometimes. You were so tough, so unbothered by the world. Whenever you were out and about and you caught an alpha leering at you, you were always quicker than Katsuki when it came to snapping at them to fuck off.

You weren’t the kind of omega who let anybody shove you around, and Bakugou loved that about you. It made him puff his chest up with pride, knowing that he had someone who wouldn’t take any shit. Your scent was strong and your will was even stronger, and he knew that when the time came, you would be the perfect, toughest, best mother to his pups.

You weren’t even mated yet, and he was absolutely sure that you were the one he wanted to spend his life with. You brought out something different in him, some kind of gentle, caring side that he never, ever let anyone else see. You were big and bad, yeah, but he was bigger and badder, and he was always going to protect you, no matter what.

“Babe, I’m home,” he called one night, trudging into your shared apartment. You had moved in together quickly, getting a place in one of the nicest parts of the city.

He heard you coming before he saw you, and before he even had his boots off, you were launching yourself at him. He caught you easily, grinning at the way you peppered his neck and jaw in kisses. It was probably the cutest, least tough thing you ever did, and god, did he love it.

“Miss me or Somethin’?” He teased, kicking his shoes off and carrying you to the bedroom.

“I had the day off and it was boring as shit,” you said bluntly. “I’ve been horny all day without you around to help...”

He paused, taking a whiff. “You’re not in heat. You just like me that much, omega?”

“Don’t be a dick.” You nipped at his jaw sharply and he recoiled.

Some alphas would never let their omega treat them like that, but Bakugou? Oh, he loved it.

He grinned, tossing you down onto the bed before you had a chance to take a chunk out of his face. “So needy...bet you spent all day touchin’ yourself, thinkin’ of me...”

“No I did not,” you huffed indignantly, looking up at him. “You think too highly of yourself.”

He laughed. Your arousal was hanging heavy in the air, betraying your words. The smell of it was like a drug, and as he inhaled, you could see Bakugou’s pupils dilate.

The sight turned you on even more, warmth pooling between your legs as your cheeks flushed. Scarlet eyes, calculating and predatory, pinned you down, holding you in place as your boyfriend grinned, exposing his big alpha fangs.

Fuck, he was hot.

“Sounds like you need to be reminded why I’m your alpha, baby.” He growled, crawling over you.

"Fuck, Katsuki,” you whined as he attacked your neck, biting at your scent glands and grinning at the way you squirmed.

He sucked your skin between his teeth, working at it, determined to leave covered in hickeys for the world to see. You didn’t have a mating mark yet, but oh, did he love making sure that everybody knew exactly whose omega you were.

You bit your lip at the dull pain, back arching up off the bed slightly. “K-Katsuki...”

“Hmm?” He looked up at you. “Look at you, so pretty and flustered for me already...what a good little omega...”

He knew exactly how to tease you. You spent all day sassing Katsuki, showing him how independent you were, but deep down, he knew you needed him just as much as he needed you. In the bedroom, he could make you absolutely melt with only a few words, and it was one of his favorite things to do.

“I can smell how much you want me,” he purred. “So desperate, so needy...”

His fingers slipped up under your shirt, pushing your clothing out of the way as his hands found your tits. He gave them a generous squeeze, grinning when you let out a loud gasp. He could play you like a fiddle, and he reveled in the sweet noises you made for him.

Your hands reached for him, tugging at his pants. He took the hint and stepped back, giving you a heated look that said “clothes off. Now.”

A few moments later, you were both naked, a tangled mess of sweaty limbs. Katsuki’s arms were wrapped around you, holding you close, your nails digging into his back. If he noticed the pain, he didn’t act like it, always allowing you to practically shred him to bits while he pounded into you. Secretly, he loved the marks you left, admiring his back in the mirror whenever he thought you weren’t watching.

You felt the head of his cock nudging at your pussy and moaned eagerly, burying your face in his neck.

“What do you want, baby?” He asked.

“Come on,” you whined.

“Tell me what you want,” he grinned, holding himself still.

“Katsuki!” You bucked your hips, trying to get closer to him.

He held you down. “Use your words.”

You dug your heels into his lower back in an effort to push him in, but he was too strong, resisting your attempts with a smug look on his face.

“I want your cock!” You finally relented, letting out a needy whine that you hoped would sway him.

“Good girl,” he growled, rolling his hips forward.

You shuddered at the feeling of him entering you. No matter how many times he fucked you, you would never be able to get over how big he was. It was part of the reason you hadn’t taken his knot yet, always asking him to pull out before it could swell. As he bottomed out inside of you, you were reminded of just how thick his cock was, and how much thicker that knot had to be.

As tantalizing as it was, it was also terrifying.

“Fuck,” he grunted, holding himself above you with a hand on either side of your head. “God damn, you feel so good...I’m not gonna last long at this rate, fuck...”

You were like putty in his hands when he talked like that. His voice was already so deep and rough, but his sex voice was godlike. You whimpered beneath him, tightening your legs around his waist as he pounded into you, clinging to him for dear life as his thrusts grew harder and harder.

“Katsuki,” you gasped, voice muffled by his neck.

“You like that?” He growled, slamming into you hard enough to scoot you up the bed slightly.

“Yes,” you moaned. “Yes, yes, please...more...”

He moved his head, tongue swiping up the side of your neck before he took your lips in a kiss. You whined and moaned into it, your skin heating up as you felt yourself unraveling, and when you finally did, you were seeing stars. He barely even had to try, and Bakugou gave you the best orgasms of your life.

Your walls squeezed around him as he rode it out, trying to milk his cock. It was good, it was delicious, it was too much for him to stand.

“L-let me knot you,” he moaned low in your ear.

You were coming down from your high, head feeling fuzzy. “Hm?”

“I wanna knot you,” he repeated, more impatient this time. “Please.”

You were beginning to snap back to attention again. “Katsuki...”

“What’s wrong?” He panted, trying to taunt you like usual. “You scared or somethin’?”

When you bit your lip, he slowed his pace, looking at you seriously.

“Really?” He asked.

You nodded hesitantly, cheeks burning with embarrassment.

“You’re afraid of my knot? ...why?”

“You’re just...really big...” you mumbled, looking away to avoid his eyes. “It’ll hurt...”

“Hey,” he said gently, rocking his hips against yours slowly now. “Look at me, babe.”

He took your chin in his hand, turning your head.

“I’m your alpha.” He said roughly. “And I’m gonna take care of you.”

The look in his eyes made your heart flutter. “But...”

“I wanna knot you.” He said again, dipping down to nip at your earlobe. “I wanna fill you up...”

A shiver flew up your spine, that familiar tingle returning to your groin. Fuck, just his voice could make you cum, practically...and honestly, you were aching for him to knot you. You wanted to feel full, to be as close to him as possible.

“Be gentle?” You asked.

“Of course, baby.” He kissed your jaw, his hand slipping down to hold the side of your neck as he quickened his pace again. After only a few moments, he growled, leaning back and pulling out, leaving you feeling painfully empty. “Roll over.”

You obeyed, turning onto your stomach. When you moved too slowly, Katsuki pulled you up by your hips until you were on your hands and knees, ass presented for him.

“Gorgeous,” he growled appreciatively, guiding his cock back into you and moaning when he sank in even deeper.

You moaned loudly, burying your face in the pillows as he began pounding into you again. Your thighs were already quivering, and when you felt his fingers rubbing at your clit, you immediately lost it.

“Fuck!” You cried out, clawing at the bed. “More, please, Katsuki—“

“Fuck, I’m gonna cum,” he moaned, teeth sinking into your shoulder as he pushed into you hard.

You felt his hips stutter before he held you against him in his vice grip, breaths ragged in your ear as he let out the loudest, most delicious, breathy moan you had ever heard. He pumped his seed into you, giving a few sharp thrusts as he emptied himself.

Then, you felt it.

“Easy, baby,” he said lazily, leaning against you as he tried to catch his breath.

His knot was swelling, stretching your pussy in a way you had never felt. You whimpered nervously, swallowing hard as you tried not to freak out. You were waiting for pain, but while it was beginning to feel impossibly tight, it...wasn’t terrible.

“That’s it,” your alpha crooned, smoothing a hand up your spine. “Fuck, you even take my knot so well...”

You started to relax as you calmed down, your body allowing his knot to grow to its full size. It was big, huge, even, but as Katsuki guided you to lay down on your side with him, you were beginning to feel smug. Yeah, you had the best alpha, and he had the best, biggest knot.

“How’s it feel?” He asked, pressing a kiss to your neck.

“Mm. Not bad.” You replied. The post sex haze was beginning to set in, and you were growing tired.

“Good girl.” He nuzzled against your scent glands, inhaling deeply. “Knew you could take it no problem.”

“I wasn’t even really worried.” You lied, trying to sound tough.

He snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right.”

You snuggled back against him. “I like it.”

“Yeah? Good. Because I am never going to stop knotting you now.”

[clive-owen-and-the-knick]

THE KNICK: haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake

Typhoid Mary and the birth of ‘contact tracing’ – as seen in The Knick Want to know why ‘tracing asymptomatic carriers’ works? Then watch Steven Soderbergh's brilliant, gory historical drama

“ But Thack laid on his back was the perfect fade to grey. The Knick had finished as it started: with the haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake. “

New York has been paralysed by a wave of deaths, caused by a fast-acting and unrelenting infection. It strikes indiscriminately, targeting the wealthy as ruthlessly as the downtrodden. Scariest of all, this is a hidden killer. By the time you discover you’re sick, it’s often too late. Survival is a roll of the dice.

Such is life as apprehensively lived in Manhattan today, indeed in the rest of the world. Which may explain why we’re all glued to movies such as Contagion and Outbreak, and Netflix’s documentary Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak. But it was also a key plot point from a little-watched television drama that ran in 2014 and 2015. A storyline that was, in turn, based on the real-life case of a lethal outbreak in New York at the turn of the century.

Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick was the prestige-TV equivalent of one of your five-a-day. And it came just three years after he directed Contagion, about a Covid-19-style outbreak. More importantly, it was about the birth of modern medicine: the painful and gory gestation of practices we take for granted now.

Yet the Knick (now available on demand through Sky) explores advances in brain surgery, anaesthetics, infant mortality rates and, most significantly from a 2020 perspective, the battle against infectious diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis, which we see claim a baby in its cot.

The setting is a baroque New York hospital, The Knickerbocker (based on a real hospital in Harlem which finally closed in 1979). The year was 1900: a time when moustaches were huge, syringes even bigger, and surgery had more to do with lopped-off limbs than hip replacements.

The Knick was a period caper with a very modern pulse. Soderbergh used it as a vehicle to address such eternal themes as addiction, racism and the struggle between head and heart (not to mention the importance of a perfectly maintained ’tache).

It starred Clive Owen, one of the go-to-actors for tortured intensity, as a maverick surgeon with the fantastically old-fashioned name of Dr John “Thack” Thackery. We see him forge ahead in areas such as skin grafting (he grafts skin from a patient’s arm to her nose), placenta previa surgery and hernia repair. He was a pioneer working in a time of unprecedented medical advancement.

As was the real-life surgeon upon whom he was loosely based. William Halsted was the house physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he introduced such innovations as patient charts, and invented the painful-sounding Halsted mosquito forceps – “a ratcheted haemostat to secure and clamp bleeding vessels”. And he married the first nurse ever to wear gloves during an operation. He was, in addition, addicted to cocaine and morphine (then legally available), requiring a minimum cocaine intake of three-grammes daily.

With the cocaine and the clamps and the great facial hair, you can see why he was irresistible to Soderbergh and The Knick’s creators, Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. Their fictional version of Halsted was a classic flawed anti-hero. In a just world, Thack would have joined the ranks of the small screen’s great “difficult men”, alongside Tony Soprano, Walter White and Don Draper.

Thack was portrayed by Owen as charismatic, enigmatic, permanently dishevelled and moderately racist (there are tensions early on over the hiring of African-American doctor Dr. Algernon C. Edwards). He also romped with prostitutes – as was the fashion at the time –  and began the day with enough cocaine to floor a camel.

With coronavirus bringing humanity to a stand-still, Thackery is ideal company for an extended binge-watch. The killer infection plot surfaces midway through the first of its two seasons. It doesn’t directly involve Thack. He is otherwise occupied taking drugs and cavorting with nurse Lucy (Eve Hewson, daughter of Bono).

Investigating the deaths are two second-string characters, Health Inspector Jacob Speight (David Fierro) and Cornelia Robertson (Julia Rylance), society lady and head of The Knick’s social welfare office. They discover all the households struck down with typhoid , a bacterial fever caused by a pernicious strain of salmonella, have one thing in common: a County Tyrone cook named Mary Mallon worked there.

But how could a cook spread typhoid, which cannot survive the high temperatures associated with preparing food? Eventually they work it out: she’s passing on the fever through her signature room-temperature dish of peach melba. This leads to another question: if she’s knowingly spreading typhoid all over the Upper East Side, why doesn’t she herself show symptoms?

The answer lies in a cutting-edge new theory: that some individuals carry and spread infection whilst themselves not developing symptoms. It’s a condition known as “asymptomatic”. Today, we all know what that entails, but at the time it wasn’t universally accepted within the medical profession.

Certainly, the characters in The Knick struggle to get their heads around it. “She must be a filthy thing and as sick as a cesspool,” Speight says to Robertson as they rush to stop Mary – “Typhoid Mary”, they’ve dubbed her – from serving another dose of lethal peaches.

How did they find her? By tracking down all those who fell ill, and then the people with whom they interacted, and overlaying the data points on a map of Manhattan. In other words, by “contact tracing” – a concept which might have sounded dreary a few months ago, but which today is on everyone’s lips.

In the final confrontation, they head her off at the kitchen, and she’s arrested attempting to flee. (Some might say that the American actress, Melissa McMeekin, should also be in the dock for her dreadful Irish accent, which suggests a heavy viral load of Darby O’Gill and the Little People.) Scientific ignorance, alas, wins the day. Just two episodes later, Typhoid Mary is freed, when the judge refuses to believe that someone could transmit a lethal fever while immune to its symptoms.

These are, more or less, the facts of the real-life case of Typhoid Mary, an immigrant from the Old Country estimated to have fatally spread the fever to more than 50 people (via her delicious ice-cream, however, not peach melba). Yet there was no Hollywood ending for her, despite press baron William Randolph Hearst helping fund her defence at trial. She avoided prison, as she does in The Knick, but the Typhoid Mary name followed her around. And, though she found work under a number of aliases, people continued to die in her vicinity.

Mallon was eventually sent back to North Brother Island in New York’s East River – where we she see her incarcerated in The Knick – and lived out the last 23 years of her life in enforced isolation. After her death from a stroke in 1938 at age 69, an autopsy revealed a gall bladder riddled with typhoid bacteria.

The Knick itself would submit to the inevitable after two seasons and just 20 episodes. And yet despite low ratings, it wasn’t necessarily an obvious candidate for cancellation. The critics loved it, and Soderbergh, one of the most instinctive filmmakers since Spielberg, made it quickly and cheaply for HBO offshoot Cinemax. (Incredibly cheaply, in fact, considering the realism with which he brought to life turn-of-the-century New York.)

He shot each 10-part series in just 73 days – roughly one instalment per week. That’s a decent clip when churning out a 20-minute sitcom. But to produce gorgeous prestige TV in that time-frame was remarkable. The Knick, which was shot on location in New York, looked incredible. While clearly set in the past, there’s something grippingly vivid and urgent about it. It’s the very opposite of starched, stagey period telly such as Downton Abbey and HBO’s own Boardwalk Empire.

That’s because Soderbergh filmed in natural light as far as possible. He was able to do so thanks to cutting-edge RED digital cameras, equipped with new “Dragon” sensors designed to work in low levels of light. Even when it was grim and gloomy outside, he could shoot using natural light. “Every once in a while, an actor would walk onto the set and say, “Are you guys bringing any light in?’” Soderbergh told Fast Company in 2014. “And we’d go, 'No, that’s it'.”This produced the occasional strange side-effect. Looking back over footage, for instance, Soderbergh would suddenly sense something amiss. He’d freeze the frame and zoom in. And there it was: because of the fading light, the actors’ pupils were massively dilated. 

Bravura directing was accompanied by powerhouse acting from Owen. As far back as his break-out 1990s hit Croupier, he was always a coiled spring when on screen. All that repressed tension spewed to the surface in his portrayal of Thackery, a brilliant man wrestling perpetually with demons. “It was very, very challenging and very, very demanding, and Steven [is] really fast and very concentrated,” Owen said in a 2014 interview with Indiewire. “We did the 10 hours in just over 70 days, or seven days an episode. There’s some incredibly difficult technical stuff there. All the operation stuff that’s logistically very difficult… Sometimes we’d shoot up to 13 or 14 pages a day."And yet, Soderbergh was supposed to have retired when he made The Knick. In 2012 the director of Out of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven had publicly stepped away from filmmaking. A few months later, he received a pilot script by comedy writers Amiel and Begler. His ambition at the time was to become a painter – a mission he expected to occupy all his free time over the next several years. “I was aware that the 10,000 hours required to become just good would take years of steady, applied focus,” he said. “I was basically ready to do that. I was taking painting lessons from [naturalistic wildlife artist] Walton Ford and having a great time learning things, talking to him and watching him work.”

When he read the screenplay for The Knick, and was riveted from the opening page. “I was the first person to get ahold of the script for The Knick and I just couldn’t let that pass through my fingers. It’s about everything I’m interested in. Everything. I was the first person to see it. And I thought, 'I have to do this'.”

Amiel and Begler had knocked around the industry writing disposable chuckle-fests such as the 2004 Kate Hudson vehicle Raising Helen. The idea for The Knick came when Begler had a turn of poor health. “I was having medical issues. I was researching alternative medicine, and was also frustrated,” he recalled to Indiewire in 2010. “I was thinking: What were my options 100 years ago? I can go online and find out so much different information now. Too much, even.

“But what do you do in 1900? On a whim, Jack and I just bought a couple of medical textbooks from eBay. We opened them and it was just incredible. And yes, it was a horror show. I couldn’t believe the things I was reading: people drinking turpentine to help a perforated intestine.

“My jaw hit the ground. The further we dove into this world, the more crazy s--- we saw. There was too much good stuff here. Once we saw that it was about medicine, then we started to look at what the world of 1900 was like. The world was changing so fast, with so much to play with.”

That “crazy s---” was searingly translated to the screen. The Knick is striking in that it’s set in a world only a few steps removed from ours. Thackery and his colleagues are recognisably modern doctors, not medieval quacks or shamans. Yet their practices also feel like butchery by another name. As antiseptically filmed by Soderbergh, The Knick often has the unflinching quality of an avant-garde horror film.

Thackery injecting cocaine into his genitals (all his other veins having collapsed) and performing a bowel operation using “a revolutionary clamp of his own design” are, for instance, among the highlights of the pilot. Episode four, meanwhile, sees the good doctor trying to save a woman from a botched self-administered abortion. The three-minute sequence contains more gore than all the Saw movies laid end-to-end.

The Knick finished in bravura fashion, too. As season two came to a conclusion, it was unclear if it would be renewed. So Soderbergh gave Thackery a wonderfully ambivalent send off. He recklessly attempts surgery on himself – without an anaesthetic – only for the experiment to go awry. There are a lot of entrails and lots of blood.

“My peripheral vision seems to be going… body temperature has begun to drop,” he says. “This is it… this is all we are.” And then his life flashes before him. Has the most brilliant surgeon of his era expired on his own operating table?

Soderbergh later revealed the plan was to kill off the character and that a third season of The Knick would have time-jumped to the 1940s (he wanted to film it in black-and-white). But Thack laid on his back was the perfect fade to grey. The Knick had finished as it started: with the haunting quality of a fever dream from which you didn’t want to wake.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/typhoid-mary-birth-contact-tracing-seen-knick/

[argentdandelion]

Papyrus’s Baby Pictures

Artists featured here: Zarla-s, Insanelyadd, Deadpool4ever, and C-Puff (thefloatingstone).

Papyrus, as previous posts have noted, has a pretty manly face and pseudo-physique compared to Sans’. Yet, in works where Papyrus and Sans weren’t reanimated skeletons frozen at the age of their resurrection, Papyrus must have been a baby at some point.

What Makes Papyrus Distinct, and How to Avoid Sans Convergence

It's pretty common to draw Sans and Papyrus as little kids. This can be more difficult than it sounds, for two very different reasons.

First, since Papyrus's design is often interpreted in a way that makes it look pretty manly and mature, artists have to figure out how to make an aesthetically-appealing "Little Papyrus" design that's still recognizable as him. Related to this, one has to make a Papyrus design that doesn't look too much like Sans.

The reader might wonder: 'How is that possible? They look so distinct!' Well, in a nutshell, it's because making Papyrus younger means making him cuter, and proportion-wise, modern-day Sans is simply cuter than Papyrus. So, if one strays a lot outside canon proportions in the interest of cuteness, baby Papyrus might end up looking like Sans. (This is especially true if one avoids giving little Papyrus long, gibbon-like arms, as he has in canon)

A few things distinguish Papyrus's design from Sans's. Body-wise, he has different jaws, eyes, teeth, and cheekbones/smile bulges. Sans never opens his mouth in-game; as he lacks distinct jaws, some assume his jaws are fused and his smile is more-or-less stuck in place like the Pokémon Glalie. Papyrus, however, has a distinct jaw with distinct teeth. His eyes are tall, narrow, and asymmetrical. Furthermore, the bulges around Papyrus's eyes are often interpreted as zygomatic bones (cheekbones); as ambiguous as it is, Sans lacks similar structures.

General Trends

(Papyrus looks pretty chubby, but he's not. It's just loose clothing.)

Some trends used when adapting Papyrus to a younger version hold true for character design in general.

One example is the changes of the Pokémon Charmander to Charizard, or Gible to Garchomp. The first in the lines are, overall, rounder, shorter, and chubbier, with proportionately bigger eyes and heads, shorter snouts, and taller foreheads. Later ones in the line are pointier (e.g., Garchomp has lots of spikes) and more complicated (e.g., Garchomp's arm-lines, Charizard's horns and bony wings).

Some trends are specific to Papyrus, however. Since Papyrus is a skeleton, he can't really be chubbier-looking as a baby/kid.[1] For that matter, he can't actually look more muscular when grown. He can, however, be dressed in baggier clothes when little, and in an outfit (i.e., his "battle body") that makes him just look muscular later.

Specific Trends

Eyes

Generally, younger characters are cuter. Intuitively, big eyes are cute, so a younger Papyrus's eyes are sometimes made bigger and cutesier. However, it's kept from copying Sans by making the eyes oval-shaped or just thinner than Sans' sockets.

Samples

Zarla's choice is unusual in the sample. Papyrus's actual sockets never change as he ages; rather, he gets little creases below his eyes over time. Allesia's choice1 is unusual in how she makes Papyrus's eyes so much bigger (in her reference sheet for Papyrus aged 9-10): his sockets aren't simply taller or wider, but a completely different shape from adult Papyrus. In fact, it's a similar shape (if smaller) to that of kid Sans (age 11-12) in the same work: the biggest difference is that Papyrus' eyes lack pupils.

Jaws

In human skulls and faces more generally, from babyhood onward the lower jaw (mandible) gets longer and thicker. This is especially true for adult male skulls, which are also fairly squared-off from a frontal view. It's mainly jaw growth which leads to the trend of Papyrus heads getting taller and narrower over time.

When making a baby Papyrus design, it's common for artists to do some of the following: make Papyrus's mandible wider, shorter (in height), have a smaller bottom of the jaw/chin, with shorter, more rounded jaw cutouts behind the teeth (i.e., Zarla and Insanelyadd).

When it comes to more drastic changes, some artists change the very way his jaws articulate. A baby or toddler Papyrus might have a lower jaw not really distinct from the surrounding bone, or a jaw that doesn't fit beneath the cheekbones and temporal processes (a little bridge of bone next to the cheekbones). Some artists even make little Papyrus's teeth rounder (not a human skull trait), remove a gum-line, and give him fewer teeth, such as through an overbite. In this way, little Papyrus can have a completely different tooth style from modern-day Papyrus.

Samples

Deadpool4ever's little Papyrus has a fitted jaw in both the "First Day of Elementary School" comic and "Sick Little Sans" comic, but in Deadpool4ever's comic excerpt of the famous Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach (by unrestedjade), more-or-less modern Papyrus has non-fitted mandibles.

Cheekbones

Papyrus's cheekbones are often one of his distinctive traits, but it's not really babylike. Some artists give him bigger, pointier cheekbones as he gets older. This is pretty realistic: real human skulls do get bigger zygomatic bones (cheekbones) over time.

Samples

Insanelyadd's newborn-Papyrus, Papyrus at Age 3, and more-or-less modern Papyrus are remarkable in that cheekbone size and position aren't linear. Instead, certain parts of it apparently change at different rates over time.

Deadpool4ever's choices are unusual: in this comic on Papyrus's first day of school, toddler Papyrus's cheekbones are big and fairly round, but in a comic excerpt of the famous Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach (by unrestedjade), his cheekbones, if he has any, or indistinguishable from his mandible.

Bonus: Sans’ Pictures

But how would you make baby pictures for Sans?

The trouble with Sans is that he’s already very neotenous. He has a small nose (or rather, nose-hole), a big, rounded skull, short lower jaws, and big eyes, even without artists exaggerating eye size. Making this more complicated is the fact he’s short for a presumed adult and, somehow, chubby-looking for a skeleton. (Probably just his fashion style)

Some, seeing Sans’ big eyes, make them even bigger, or subtly change the shape to be rounder. Others give him a proportionately bigger, rounder head, with a taller forehead. Some figure the lines underneath Sans’ eyes are like tired eye-bags, and so give baby/kid Sans no eye lines. Some make it a matter of expressions, giving Sans a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

Samples

Zarla takes a unique variant: rather than making baby Sans’s eye-holes any bigger (in absolute or relative terms) she makes the pupils much bigger.

Related Readings

Papyrus is (Maybe) A Manlier Skeleton than Sans

Papyrus is Probably a Better Boyfriend than Sans (especially Part 3)

Tips on Skeleton Design

The author couldn't obtain permission to feature her art in time, but has provided a link to the art used for analysis. ↩︎

[veilingofthesun]

Matilda the Musical at Malmö Opera - review

Our review is finally done. We apologise for any spelling and grammar mistakes. English is not our first language and we wrote it down really fast after seeing the production so we wouldn’t forget anything. This is a very long review because there’s so many things that we wanted to include. Still, we didn’t go deep into detail about everything, because then we would never have finished this review. If you have any questions, need clarifications, want us to go more into detail about something or are wondering about something we didn’t mention, just ask. We’d be more than happy to answer your questions.

The layout of the theatre

Malmö Opera has a big and very deep stage, so without the stage feeling crowded or small, they have the orchestra on stage(on a turntable) on a platform. The back of the platform is covered with black fabric, so you don't know that they're there. This orchestra is bigger, at least twice the size. Since the orchestra is not using the orchestra pit,  there's an 'extra' piece of stage on top of it, There's two curtains, one that is only visible before the performance starts. It's placed in the middle of the stage, has different sized 'boxes' and spells out Matilda. Different book titles are projected on it. When the performance is about to start the curtain turns black and there's light shining through the openings between the boxes. The curtain rises and reveals the second curtain that is further back. There's a frame on stage that consists of books stacked on top of each other. The second curtain fits into the frame, it has book stacks in the same light colour as the frame. The 'boxes' are present in this curtain too, with books in between the boxes.

The auditorium is very open and has four aisles (with stairs), two side aisles and two middle aisles, all of them lead up to the stage and are frequently used by the cast. A long row of spotlights hang from the ceiling, this will be important in The Hammer...

The set

Books are very present in this set. Pop up books are used in a very clever way. When Matilda is sent to her room, a huge book appears on stage. When the door is opened, Matilda's room 'pops' up: a loft bed, a desk with a chair and drawings on the wall (drawings that show excerpts from the acrobat and escapologist stories) The wallpaper is blue and has words written on it. The pop up book has pages that Matilda turns. When she turns the page to a hallway, three doors and a huge plant pops up. The same with the bathroom, a mirror, a sink, shelves with bottles and a toilet pops up. Maybe pops up is not the right way to describe them, you could say that they fold themselves up....

Miss Honey's house is a book that is rolled in, laying down. Matilda and Miss Honey open it up, and a bed, a small wooden box that serves as a table, and a tea pot and tea cups(made out of paper) pops up. Miss Honey's wallpaper is a mild yellow and just like Matilda’s, there are words written on it. There's a small window and on the wall hangs drawings that her pupils have drawn for her. For example, a drawing of Miss Honey in her pink dress,surrounded by children.

In When I grow up, there's climbing frames that look like books standing on their sides. They are also used in The smell of rebellion for the pupils to climb over.

The two long benches that are used as school benches are always on stage, if they're not in the classroom, they're placed on each side of the stage. The classroom has a board with a long bench in front of it. The students sit on long benches that are attached to a table each. The benches has books underneath them. The school gate is pulled all the way down at the beginning of School Song. During the school scenes it usually loams above and in the background of the set pieces.

During the library scenes the curtain is behind them and occasionally opens up to reveal the acrobat and the escapologist. When Matilda tells her stories, her drawings of what happens in the stories are projected onto the curtain. The projections sometimes appear to be moving at a fast speed towards the audience. It's really effectfull and beautiful.

Mrs Phelps book cart is quite big, it has three shelves in it and has a big space on top for Mrs Phelps to sit on. Matilda also stands on top of it sometimes during the stories. Other than books, Mrs Phelps also stores a box of biscuits there. The cart also has words on it, similar to Matilda’s and Miss Honey's wallpapers.

The Wormwoods living room, has a huge screen, facing the audience, a couch and an armchair. When the dance competition starts in Loud, the curtain rises, the turntable rotates and the orchestra is visible for the rest of the number.

The lightning is very harsh, black and dark blue most of the time. The exception is Miss Honeys classroom, it's still dark, but a mild yellow light shines on her and spreads throughout the classroom. Miss Honeys house has the same mild and welcoming colouring.

The library is also yellow, but warmer and brighter. During the stories, the lightning is darker. but is broken up by the projections.

Act 1

Miracle

The overture is not the same as in the original. It's hard to explain, it is a short piece that leads into the quiet theme. It's really good though.

It starts with the 'curtain' rising and the bench, with the kids sitting on top of it, being pushed forward. Two kindergarten teachers, a female dressed as a cupcake, and a male dressed as a bunny, enter from the sides. The cupcake welcomes all the parents to the end of the year concert. The parents enter from the stairs(this theatre has four aisles/stairs) calling out for their kids, waving and taking pictures. The kids stand up on the bench and start playing their instruments, badly. (It's obviously the orchestra playing...it sounds like the start of Miracle, but really out of tune.)The bunny is trying to conduct them, but it doesn't really work. Some of the kids are more interested in waving at their parents and looking over at them. Bruce turns his trumpet upside down, and sticks his face into it and Amanda bangs her cymbals together right in front of one of the other kids face.

The parents are now on stage. Eric jumps off the bench and runs to the front of the stage to sing the first line. The other kids join in and start dancing. The choreography has a similar concept to the original. For this number, some of the kids are siblings and most of them match their parents' style. Among the parents, there are one lesbian couple, one gay couple and a single mom.

The cupcake, the bunny and a magician bring out trays with cotton candy and each of the kids grab one. They are incorporated into the choreography and the kids dance while holding on to them for quite some time. Nigel smashes his into the face of the cupcake.

The kids swarm the bunny and Lavender climbs up on his shoulders. The kids tug at him and he stumbles and falls to his knees, Lavender gets off. In this version, Hortensia is the ballerina. Her mum is holding her leg, trying to make her do an arabesque while her dad is taking a photo.

Hospital scene

There are three screens, some nurses and the doctor. Mrs Wormwood sticks her head out from behind the curtain in the middle screen. When she talks about Rudolpho, she says: “I've got a real ace in my fishnet stockings”

The nurses are overly happy and excited, standing in the background with huge smiles and nodding. The doctor is very enthusiastic in this version too... When Mrs W says: “Am I...am I?” He nods happily and beams from ear to ear. When Mrs Wormwood asks if there's something the doctor can do, she grabs his arm,gets really close and up in his face. Another nurse enters with a wheelchair and gives Mrs Wormwood a mask with laughing gas. She wheels her in behind the screen. The other screens turn and reveal two couples with their newborn babies, looking happy. They start dancing while holding the babies. Mrs Wormwood, still behind the screen, actually pushes the nurse, who stumbles back several feet and looks horrified.

Mrs Wormwood is wheeled out from behind the screen, holding baby Matilda uncomfortably.

Mr Wormwood and Michael enter. Michael is awkwardly walking around in the background, looking at the other two couples babies. Two nurses are taking pictures of the parents and their babies. Michael tries to photobomb one of the couples and the nurse and the parents try to stop him.The nurse hands Michael baby Matilda and he carries her around while Mr Wormwood is talking to the doctor. Michael actually looks proud and happy while holding her. Mr Wormwood approaches one of the couples, trying to hand them money and gestures for them to swap their baby for his. They look scared and hurries off stage.

Mr Wormwood has a lot of different names for penis, about five of them. Instead of saying: “A boy with no thingie” He says: “A little boy without a little man” “I can't find his frank and beans” is “Can't find his package”

Mrs Wormwood sits in her wheelchair with an uncomfortable male nurse sitting next to her. He starts dancing with her, spinning the wheelchair around. They added the “Why do bad things happen to good people...” part from the Stratford production. The doctor tries to hand baby Matilda to the Wormwoods, but no one wants to take her. Eventually Mr Wormwood takes her and the Wormwoods leave the stage.

The 'curtain' opens and all the parents, kids and babies appear. The parents have strollers, except for the single mom, who has her expensive brand purse. The kids are jealous of their new siblings and make faces at them. Hortensia tugs at her sibling's legs and tries to tear the baby away from her parents.They try to get their parents attention, but the parents are occupied. The doctor lifts Lavender and twirls her around, at first she looks happy. The doctor puts her down and smiles his characteristic passionate smile. Lavender makes a face, like she's wondering who this weird man is. Everyone leaves and the Wormwoods enter with their couch and TV. There's no big entrance for Matilda, she enters shortly afterwards, carrying her book clutched to her chest. She sings her part as she enters and stands next to the couch. As she enters, Mrs Wormwood (who enters pushing in the TV) shoves her away roughly. The line: “My daddy says I'm a bore” is translated to “Daddy says I lack a penis” When she has finished singing, she sits down to read.

Family scene 1

They have a huge screen as the TV. Mr Wormwood is on the phone while Mrs Wormwood and Michael are eating take away food. Instead of saying: This is all your fault, Mr Wormwood points at Matilda and says: That is your fault.

Mrs W  is talking with her mouth full and holds out her take away box and points her utensils at Mr Wormwood when she says: Dinners don't microwave themselves. When Mrs Wormwood says that she must be the worlds greatest acrobat, she falls over the back of the couch, spilling her food.

Naughty

A large set piece, looking like a closed book (standing up) comes forward. Mr W opens the book, revealing Matilda’s bedroom. It's kind of like a pop-up book, where the furniture pops out of the pages. The room has a loft bed, a bookshelf and a desk with a chair. There are drawings on the walls, depicting scenes from the acrobat stories.

Mr W takes the book from Matilda, spits in it, and mocks her, saying “bookworm, bookworm...”. Matilda climbs up the ladder to her bed, takes another book from her shelf, and starts singing. During the song, she turns a page in the book set, and steps out into the corridor. She sneaks past some doors, and turns yet another page, and enters the bathroom. This room has a sink (with a mirror and a shelves) and a toilet, which also pops out of the pages. When Matilda has picked up the bottles, Mrs W enters, wearing a nightgown and a sleeping mask. She turns on the lights, and Matilda quickly hides under the sink. Mrs W uses the toilet and then leaves the room and turns the light off, she appears to be almost sleepwalking...... Matilda finishes the song with the Matilda pose, mid stage. She then runs to the edge of the stage, grabs a book, and starts reading. She looks out into the audience, smirks and makes a shushing sign (which she will do now and then during the next scene...)

Mr W and Michael enter the bathroom, wearing matching pyjamas. While Mr W is applying his hair tonic, he suddenly appears to be in pain. (Michael repeats Mr W's words and movements) He says “it's not supposed to sting like this” and yells at Michael to give him a towel. Michael picks up the bottle instead, and repeatedly tries to give it to his father. Mr W eventually gets the towel. Mrs W enters, exclaiming “good morning”, to which Wr W responds by singing “good morning, good morning” (in Swedish). The scene plays out similar to the original. Matilda suggests that her father should pretend he's the Hulk, instead of an elf. Mr W and Michael leave Matilda and Mrs W alone, and the book set piece moves out. Matilda and her mom laugh together about Mr W's hair and Matilda looks so hopeful when asking if she wants to hear a story.

Library 1/Story 1

Matilda stands alone center stage. Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey enter together, pulling a book cart. The are talking amongst themselves, and seem very affectionate. They touch the other persons arm/shoulder while they talk. Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey seem to have a very special and deep relationship. Mrs Phelps calls her Jenny...but stops herself and calls her Miss Honey in front of Matilda. Miss Honey walks off to look for a book, climbing up on the book wagon to reach the books. Mrs Phelps notices Matilda, greets her and they hug before sitting down on one of the benches. Their conversation is slightly longer...Matilda adds: “Like, quality time” after her line. After Mrs Phelps says “Good Luck with Tolstoj” she turns to Matilda, explaining, he's a russian author. When Miss Honey leaves the stage, Matilda gets on her feet and runs over to the side of the stage, looking in the direction she left. After the line: “...my teacher” Mrs Phelps smiles and says: “You look happy” Mrs Phelps encourages Matilda to tell her a story by holding her hands and whispering: “Once upon a time...” Matilda repeats the phrase twice before actually starting to tell the story.

When Matilda starts telling the story, the “curtain” opens slightly, and the circus performers appear. The acrobat is up in her aerial silks, doing tricks. Matilda moves around more while telling the story, standing on top of the benches and climbing up on the book cart. Matilda illustrates the name of the trick with her body, doing gestures like crossing her arms in front of her in a hugging motion, when she says “locked in a cage...”  She does this every time she repeats that line. When Matilda says: “slipping her hand into his...”, she takes Mrs Phelps' hand and squeezes it gently with both her hands.

Projections are used a lot for the stories, at one point the acrobat and the escapologists house is projected on the backdrop, it feels like it’s coming straight at the audience.

School song

The “curtain” rises and the school gate is lowered halfway down. The older kids are standing on stage, looking creepy. They're chewing gum, glaring, smoking and twirling their hair around their fingers.There are two 'leaders' of the gang of older kids, one female and one male. They are usually the ones that terrorizes the kids the most and leads the others. They work together a lot too. (The adult ensemble is larger in this production, there are about 15 big kids.) The small kids enter from the stairs/aisles, looking scared. The scene plays out similar up until “why?!” The kids huddle together in the middle of the stage and Matilda joins them. Some of the older kids bring out big books with letters on them that are used for the spelling part. They toss them to each other and pushes some of the books roughly at a few of the kids.  The choreography in this number is fantastic. We thought it would be really hard to do something that would come close to the original, because it's so clever and creative. It's hard to describe choreography, but it's really advanced and physical and it looks really good with a lot of people.

This must have been a challenge to translate, since the Swedish language has three more letters. Some things had to be adapted and changed to work rhythmically, but it works really well. At one point, the older kids grab the small kids by their backpacks and pull them towards the gate. Towards the end of the song, two long school benches are pushed onto the stage. The kids are pushed down on them and the benches are spun around by some of the big kids. The other big kids are also sitting on the benches.The chalkboard and Miss Honey appears and the older kids leave.

Classroom scene 1

The kids are sitting on two benches, one in front of the other. They're still looking very scared. But Miss Honey is happy and welcoming. She writes her name on the board. The counting sequence isn't that different from the original. Miss Honey writes I can now read words on the board and the kids excitedly raise their hands. Nigel gets up on the bench in front of the board, where miss Honey usually stands. He looks at the board, turns around and looks at his classmates, confused and scared. Then he turns back to the board and gets into position. Nigel can actually read a few letters. (Mostly consonants, for some reason) He starts off with the first letter and Miss Honey nods  and smiles to encourage him. He then jumps to the next consonant and goes back and forth a few times, adding another letter every time, going faster and faster. He moves along the board pointing to each letter he says. It's really hilarious. Miss Honey has to stop him, comfort him and lead him back to his seat. After Lavendel says “Yes!”, Miss Honey repeats what she said and makes a gesture.

Miss Honey looks very touched, as if she is about to cry, when Matilda starts listing all the books she has read. Some of the titles have been changed to Swedish books and books that are more known here. When the bell rings, the kids skip and jump out whilst talking among themselves.

Pathetic

Miss Honey starts out in the front of the stage, when she turns to walk out, she starts walking up the stairs/aisles. She sings the “this little girl” part still standing in the aisle. Then determinately walks back on stage. It's mostly similar to the original.

The hammer

Trunch is pushed in sitting her 'tennis judge' chair, with her hammer in hand. When Trunch says: “Thank you for suggesting it...” she turns in her chair so that her back is facing the audience. Miss Honey starts climbing up the ladder on the chair. Trunch then turns back violently and Miss Honey ducks and quickly climbs back down. Trunch climbs down from her chair and when she says: “So can I” she bangs her hammer on the floor. Miss Honey replies: “Ehh...yes....” patiently, like she is talking to a child. They walk up to the front of the stage and Trunch blows her whistle. The kids come running in. The big kids bring out a prize podium and a shelf with Trunch's trophies and balances it on the heads of some of the small kids. A couple of the small kids polish the trophies, which wobble as if they're about to fall. The kids have to jump and lift each other to reach the shelf. Trunch swings the hammer over her head and everyone follows the motion with their upper bodies to avoid getting hit. Trunch “throws” the hammer out into the audience. While it sails through the air, she says the: “no,no,no...”part. The hammer hits something that hangs from the ceiling and there's a loud crashing noise. Trunch exclaims: “Yes!” before saying a final no. The Trunch gets up on top of the podium and two of the big kids hang gold medals around her neck. One of them drops a medal on the ground and looks so terrified, as does his friend. Trunch glares at them both. After they have put all the medals around her neck they lift her off. When Trunch says: “Sing, children!” all kids run and stand on straight lines, singing the chorus. When Miss Honey joins in, she and the kids start marching on the spot. Trunch climbs up on her chair again, and says: “get out!” Everyone leaves the stage and Miss Honey walks out to one of the aisles and says her line and exits through the stairs.

Family scene 2

Mr W mocks Matilda, again, by repeating her line about the book. When he rips the pages out of the book, he scrunches them into balls and throws them at Matilda. He also puts some in his mouth. He jumps on the book multiple times, jumping on one leg, posing for a while and then starting again. Finally he throws himself on the floor, on top of the book. Mrs W and Michael clap their hands. The three of them leave the stage and Matilda goes to get the superglue from the bookshelf at the back of the stage. While applying the glue, she notices Mr W's cap laying on the floor, and a smirk spreads on her face. Mr W enters, looking for his cap. He turns the cushion in the armchair. When he puts on the cap, you hear a squishing sound. You can actually hear that the cap is full of glue.  

Playground scene

All the kids enter. The big kids are bullying the younger kids, making them carry their jackets and polish their shoes. Lavender approaches Matilda. she lifts Matilda’s hair, like she's checking to see if her brains are coming out of her ears. Nigel enters from the back, screaming. He squeezes himself between Matilda and Lavender, crouching. Instead of saying her knickers stayed stuck to the seat” he says “there was a hole in her underpants”. Two of the big kids walk over. One of the big kids grab Nigel by the hair and pretends to swing him around like a hammer. When the chokey chant starts, Lavender takes Matilda's hand, and they run to the bench, where the other small kids are hiding. Matilda and Lavender huddle close together on the bench. When the chant is over, Matilda runs over to Nigel to comfort him. Only the small kids take off their jackets and cover Nigel, they then stand in a circle around him. Nigel says “please don't tell her I'm here”. The big kids (and Amanda who starts running towards Nigel, but doesn't make it and has to run back) stand further back. Trunch enters, wearing a map wrapped around her waist, holding it with one hand. The small kids get scared and run for cover under the bench. Nigel stands up and bows when he spots Trunch. After the Nigel sequence, Trunch turns around to walk away. Two of the big kids are whispering something and points to Amanda. They push Amanda forward, laughing. Trunch spots her, and yells. She walks over to Amanda, and grabs her. Amanda pushes Trunch, escapes and run for cover behind the big kids. Trunch pulls her back and grabs her by the pigtails (Amanda is now a doll). She spins her around and throws her into the wings. Some of the big kids run up one of the aisles to catch Amanda, and two of the boys carry her back on stage on their shoulders. Everyone chants Amanda! Amanda!. When Trunch turns to leave, you can see her hairy butt through the large hole in her skirt and underpants. Lavender throws her arms around Matilda and they hug as she says her line. All the kids leave the stage laughing.

Phonecall scene

After Mr Wormwoods phonecall with Sergei, the mechanic does a thing where he takes off his cap, twists it and puts it back on. Mr W tries to do the same, but obviously, he can't. After trying multiple times to get the cap off, the mechanic tries to help him. When that doesn't work, the mechanic puts his knee against Mr W's back and Mr W braces himself against him as he tries to get the cap off.

Loud

Miss Honey walks down the aisle and up the stairs and knocks at the Wormwoods door. Mrs W and Rudolpho are on the couch. Mrs W is on top of Rudolpho, stretching his leg. Mrs W calls Miss Honey a couple of different names, including Miss Horny.  After Mrs W says: “You choose books, I choose looks” she adds: “You're sinking, and I'm floating...On top...” Rudolpho says “calculate this!” and does a back handspring into the splits. During Miss Honey's and Mrs Wormwoods conversation, Rudolpho is going all out in the background. Even more than in the original. He has the whole audience laughing out loud at what he is doing.

Mrs W is wearing her nightgown on top of her ballroom dress. The first time she says loud, she dramatically pulls the gown off. She throws the gown at Miss Honey, who stumbles back into the armchair. Mrs W and Rudolpho start dancing with Miss Honey much earlier. Rudolpho also dances alone with Miss Honey, making her very uncomfortable. Her body language and facial expressions here are fantastic. During their dance, Miss Honey repeatedly points towards the direction she came from, as if she's trying to leave.

When the competition part starts, the curtain rises and the orchestra is visible. There are four couples and some judges. Mrs W and Rudolpho dance in the middle, with the other couples surrounding them. Miss Honey lingers in the back. Towards the end, Miss Honey comes forward and claps her hands, showing with her body language that she wants to continue with their conversation. Mrs W and Rudolpho pulls her into the dance again. The four couples leave the stage, dancing. Mrs W and Rudolpho end the number, leaning against the railing in front of the orchestra.

This little girl

Miss Honey doesn't fall to the floor at the end of Loud. Otherwise, it kind of plays out the same way. This little girl is translated to My little girl, which makes it even more touching. That she already thinks of Matilda as hers. During the last part of the song, Matilda enters and stands in the background looking at Miss Honey.

Library 2/Story 2

Mrs Phelps and Matilda share a moment while Miss Honey leaves. When Matilda talks about the acrobats sister, a silhouette of Trunch is seen on the backdrop. When the escapologist speaks, both he and Matilda do the gestures. When she says: “The audience jumped to their feet....” Matilda takes Mrs Phelps' hands and pulls her up and they spin around. She skips around the stage, clapping her hands and Mrs Phelps joins her. At some performances, they got the audience to start clapping too. When Mrs Phelps has said: “So the story does have a happy ending..” , Matilda sits with her head down, looking sad. When she mentions the trick she doesn't do the gestures, instead she backs up. Because it's Trunch that says the line along with her, she looks angrier and tries to mimic Trunch's intimidating posture. When she screams: “Off to prison you both shall go” she half turns and points aggressively to the wings, the same direction as Mrs Phelps is in.

Bruce

Mrs Phelps exits and all the kids run in. The scene doesn't take place in the classroom, it's in the playground. The big kids continue to bully the smaller ones, in the same way as described earlier. Miss Honey enters and approaches Matilda, who's standing on her own, reading. Matilda looks so happy after Miss Honey has talked to her about the books. With a smile on her face, she throws her arms around Miss Honey. Miss Honey looks really happy too and laughs affectionately. When she says: “You're going to hug all the air out of me...” she talks as if she's squeezed so hard that she actually has trouble breathing because of it. They hug each other for a while, smiling, until Trunch enters and yells at Matilda. Matilda says “I'm here...” and Trunch storms towards her. Miss Honey is being very protective of Matilda, and stands in front of her, trying to cover her with her body. When Miss Honey says that Matilda has been here all morning, Trunch mocks her by imitating her tone and voice. Meanwhile, all the kids stand on each side of the stage, in front of  the benches. While Trunch is yelling at Matilda, Bruce is fidgeting and you can see that he is troubled by what's happening. While Bruce says his monologue, Trunch moves so she's standing in between the benches. When the burp has landed on Trunch, she jumps forward and lands on one knee. The kids scream, looking terrified. The cook enters, rolling a cart with the cake on. Trunch goes to sit in her chair, and the cook sits on the steps of the chair.

The kids start out dancing on the benches, but most of the dancing is done on the ground. The big kids are in this routine too (they join in after a while), a couple of them dance on the benches during the majority of the number. When Bruce has finished the cake, all the kids cheer and celebrate. The big kids lift him up and throw him up in the air. Miss Honey bounces and jumps excitedly towards the end, when she sees that Bruce is going to make it. She screams in a really high pitch.Trunch has stepped down from her chair and is now standing near Miss Honey. Miss Honey celebrates and 'boxes' in the air and she 'happens to hit Trunch in the chest. Both of their facial expressions are hilarious. Trunch looks outraged and Miss Honey looks scared, but also kind of proud and amused.

When Trunch mentions the chokey, her chair is wheeled forward and opened at the side. Inside there's a chokey with spikes in the roof. The cook lifts Bruce and puts him in the chokey, while Bruce says: “I ate the whole cake, I did. Didn't I?” He screams and his screams weakens as the chair with the chokey is wheeled off the stage. Matilda climbs up on one of the benches and screams: “That's not right!”

Act 2

Telly

Before Telly, the orchestra plays an instrumental version of Loud. The orchestra is turned towards the audience, they react to what's going on on stage. Mr Wormwood enters and asks the conductor to get the orchestra to stop playing. They eventually stop and he starts his monologue. He picks someone from the audience and actually runs up the stairs to ask for their name. He says: “Say hello to... everybody” and everyone says hello. Then he proceeds to tease the person in question..   He says the line about evolving from unicorns in an Elvis like voice and gets into an Elvis pose. He has to start over about three times, because he is waiting for Michael to bring in the TV. When Michael enters, pushing the TV, Mrs Wormwood follows him. They stand on each side of the TV, bouncing along to the music. Before the ukulele part Mr Wormwood says: “Film this, this is amazing” Michael looks so proud of himself. Some of the authors that Mr W names has been changed to either Scandinavian authors or authors who's names rhymes on Swedish words. Roald Dahl is one of the authors. It's hard to explain the pun in English though.. During the last refrain, Michael and Mrs Wormwood walk along the edge of the stage, motioning for the audience to shout Telly.

During the matinee performance there was a lot of children in the audience. When he told the audience to not read books, the kids started booing so much that he whole audience joined in. They also booed  when he was teasing the audience member and during the line about how telly is more important than books. He laughed and was a bit taken back by that reaction, and forgot some of the words because of that. He had to read the words off the monitor.

Lavenders monologue

Lavender suddenly appears in one of the aisles, shouting: “Hiiii....”  She walks down the stairs towards the stage. She walks across the stage and into another aisle.When she talks about the newt, she takes out a pencil case from her backpack, opens it, and holds up the newt.  At the end, she jumps up and down and runs out. All three girls do the monologue slightly different. For example, Ella mutters: “What's wrong with me today?” under her breath. They are all spunky and very expressive.

When I grow up

Bruce crawls out from underneath one of 'upturned' books, he sings his part. Meanwhile, Tommy joins him, also crawling out. Tommy picks up a bottle of soap bubbles and starts blowing. Bruce looks very sad, but when he sees the bubbles, he starts to smile a little. He reaches with his hand, as if to catch a bubble. Tommy hands the bottle to Bruce, and they smile at each other. Bruce then proceeds to blow bubbles. Some of the other kids (both small and big) run in and climb up the books. Eric and Hortensia sing the second part.

One of the big kids climbs on top of Bruce’s and Tommy’s book and blows bubbles down on them. Bigger bubbles start falling from the ceiling. Some of the kids sit beneath the books, others on top of them and some are standing on the back side, leaning their arms and heads on/over them. Some of the small kids use the books as a slide.

A couple of the small kids run towards two big kids each and balance on their arms, reaching their arms up to grab the bubbles. The other kids reach their arms up after the bubbles, too.

The kids run to the back, but leave a bottle of soap bubbles on the ground. Miss Honey enters, stops to look at it and picks it up. She starts blowing bubbles before singing her part. Matilda enters about the same time, sits down underneath one of the books, and leans against it whilst reading a book and singing her part. Everyone but Matilda leaves...

Library 3/Story 3

Mrs Phelps enters and asks Matilda how she is doing. When Matilda says: “Not a child actually...” It seems like Mrs Phelps suspects something, because she says: “Matilda...what do you mean?” and is about to say something more, but Matilda interrupts and distracts her by asking if she wants to hear the story. Mrs Phelps gets really excited and she and Matilda 'poses' in the same way a couple of times as the intro music is played. As Matilda starts telling the story, the acrobat and the escapologist appear behind her. The acrobat wraps chains around the escapologist. Projections of a cage and flames appear, surrounding them. The acrobat rises up in the air. The scene really plays out before the audiences eyes. Foam from the fire extinguisher is seen near the acrobat. It's really beautiful, it almost looks like an extension of her costume. Their hands touch, and then she falls. Soon after, the acrobat is laying in the escapologists arms. (During this scene it's an ensemble member who plays the acrobat while she's in the air.) The sound effects are really good here, you can hear the sound of chains rattling and the door to the cage being opened. When Matilda says “the meanest, cruelest, horriblest aunt you can possibly imagine” she walks over to Mrs Phelps, who's sitting on her book cart, taking one step on every beat. She screams the last part in Mrs Phelps face, leaning over the edge of the cart. After Matilda has said “It's just a story...” Mrs Phelps says: “Yes, just a story. A story...that's something we need to remember. Both you and me...”

After Matilda finishes her story, Mrs Phelps takes out a box of cookies from her cart and offers one to Matilda. Matilda sits at the cart, eating her cookie.

Family scene 3/Story 4

The Wormwoods enter with their couch. They all sit down on the couch, Michael listens to music and Mrs W is sharpening her nails. Matilda tries to sit down on the couch next to her mother, but she kicks her away. When Mr W says that he wants his whole family gathered, Matilda happily comes forward and tries to sit down in her mothers lap. Mr W says: “Not you, boy...” and Mrs W pushes her away. Instead, Matilda tries to sit on the armrest of the couch, but once again gets pushed off by Mrs W. Matilda sadly stands next to the couch as Mr W talks. He asks “how do you fix the mileage on the cars?” and looks at Mrs W like he is expecting an answer. Mrs W thinks hard about it for a while. Her face looks blank and she looks really confused. Mr W turns to Michael, puts his arm around Michael's shoulder and explains what he did and how it works. When Mr W opens the bag to reveal the money, he starts throwing money into the air and Mrs W joins him, screaming with joy.  

Mrs W and Michael leave the stage as Mr W forcefully drags Matilda to her room, opens the door and throws her in. Matilda climbs up to her bed and wraps her bedspread around herself, then continues telling the story. She throws down her bedspread when she says the “threw her in a cellar “ line. She climbs down from her bed and continues the story. The escapologist enters dressed in his performance costume. He takes her in his arms and the scene plays out similar to the original for a while.  He gives her the scarf and when she continues with the story she's wearing the scarf.The escapologist doesn't carry Matilda to bed though. Instead she goes to get her bedspread, lays down with her head in his lap, and he tucks her in with the bedspread.  The escapologist throws his cape and runs out after saying his last words. At the same time, a huge silhouette of the Trunch, with her arms outstretched as if to grab the escapologist, appears on the curtain. Again, the projection moves, so it's like she's following the escapologist. When Matilda sadly says: “Because he never came home, ever again”, Miss Honey walks in at the back of stage, carrying two books for Matilda.

Phys Ed

Miss Honey hurries towards Matilda, looking happy and excited. Before she has the chance to give Matilda the books, Miss Trunchbull storms in. Miss Honey puts herself in front of Matilda to protect her. One of the older school girl runs in with a shredder around her neck. Trunch rips the books from Miss Honey's hands and shoves one of them into the shredder. Trunch's chair is in the background and one of the older boys lifts Bruce out of the chokey. Bruce walks over to Trunch, looking very broken down. Trunch gives him the other book and makes him put it into the shredder. Matilda grabs Bruce's hand and they run out together. The girl carrying the shredder runs out in the same direction. Miss Honey sits down and starts picking up the pieces of paper that are left after the books were shredded, then she stands up, holding the pieces to her chest. It's a beautiful parallel to when Matilda picks up the pages of the book earlier.

Trunch blows the whistle, and all the kids(both small and big) except for Matilda and Bruce run in. Lavender runs down the stage and down the aisle to get the jug.

The kids stand on straight lines and start off with stretching. Trunch is in the front showing them what to do. They also do some material arts like moves.Trunch then proceeds to walk around among the children, sniffing at the kids. For example, she sniffs Nigel's arm pits. Bruce comes running in, really out of breath, and takes Lavenders spot. He is panting loudly, Trunch yells: “quiet!” and he closes his mouth, trying to hold his breaths in. Trunch takes out her hair ties and shakes out her hair, so it's in a ponytail. She hands the hair ties to an audience member and tells the person to hold them for her. Around this time Miss Honey leaves the stage.

Trunch continues walking around, lifting and flipping some of the small kids around. She also shoulder presses Bruce. Afterwards, the kids practise boxing in pairs of two, usually one big kid and one small kid. Trunch goes to stand on her podium in the middle and the kids move on to different stations. For example, step ups at the benches and climbing over the 'upturned' books (from When I grow up) army training style. It's circle training, so they rotate between the stations. Some of the big kids are lifting two of the small kids up in the air.This is where Matilda enters (she's not wearing phys ed clothes though, she's wearing her school uniform, but without the jacket.) When the slow part starts roman rings are lowered from the ceiling. Trunch grabs the ropes and positions herself in the rings as they rise up. The students are now laying on the floor and leaning over the 'upturned' books, completely exhausted. Trunch starts doing tricks in the rings, including a full split. After Eric has said his line, Trunch (who is now down on the ground) start running after Eric. The students hurry to stand up, straight in the back, when Trunch comes running. The students run into position and continue with martial arts like movies, but even faster this time. By the end, all of the students are shaking really badly. They slowly fall to the ground, one by one.

Miss Honey enters and sees all the kids laying on the floor, completely out of it. She walks around the room, kneels close to the kids, patting them gently and trying to support them and make sure that they are alright. Lavender appears from the aisle with the jug and the newt in her hands. She holds out the newt and dangles it in front of an audience member, saying: “Look, it's the newt. I've got the newt..” She puts the newt in the jug before she hands it to Trunch, who puts it on the podium. Lavender then sneaks past the audience members on the  front row next to where she stands. She stands on the floor, watching everything play out from there.

The small kids tease Trunch more when she's panicking about the newt. They take turns to say things like:  “It's a snake!” “Watch out, headmistress Agatha!” “It bites!“I bet it's poisonous!” Miss Honey worriedly tells the kids to be quiet. When Matilda screams “You big fat bully” , Miss Honey is nearby, trying to protect Matilda. The other kids run and hide underneath the benches.

Quiet

The whole number is performed standing up. During the first part of the song, she is covering her ears the whole time. It's mostly Trunch that moves around in the background. Miss Honey moves around a bit, to check on the kids, who's hiding underneath the benches during the whole number.

There is a nice nod to Pippi Longstocking in the translation. (Pippi Longstocking is a famous character from a book series by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Like Matilda, Pippi is a little girl who takes control of her own destiny.) Pippi always sleeps with her feet on her pillow. So instead of singing: “Like the sound when you lie upside down in your bed.” she sings: ”Laying in bed, like Pippi, with your feet up”

When she sings “people around me” she walks over to the podium and reaches her hand towards the jug of water (as if she is thinking of using it) She walks back to the the spot she came from and finishes the song. The lightning in this number is gorgeous.

She turns towards the podium and focuses on the jug. The kids start to look up and crawl out from underneath the benches when they see that is something is about to happen. The newt lands on Trunch's chest. Trunch runs around, waving her arms and eventually stops next to Miss Honey. Trunch starts pointing and gesturing towards Miss Honey to do something, but she just looks at her, confused. The Trunch runs out and everyone laughs, even Miss Honey. Miss Honey tells everyone that it is best to leave and they run out whilst laughing and mocking Trunch by repeating her words and gestures. Matilda makes the mug tip again. Two of the big kids run past Matilda and Miss Honey, still laughing at Trunch. They take out the podium and jug of water. One of them drops Matilda's jacket on the floor. She picks it up and puts it on before walking away with Miss Honey. In the background, Miss Honeys house is being pushed forward, while Matilda and Miss Honey talk about Matilda's family.

My House

Matilda and Miss Honey open the closed book and it folds up like a pop up book. Matilda and Miss Honey talk and Miss Honey makes tea (not real tea) during their conversation. She then comes back and sits next to Matilda, on the edge of the book. Instead of singing: “On this floor I can stand on my own two feet” she sings: “And a floor, you can stand and dance upon” As she sings dance, she slides back with her legs in front of her, with a smile on her face. Matilda looks at her and a smile appears on her face too. Matilda goes to sit down on the bed while Miss Honey continues to sing. When Miss Honey sings about dreaming, she walks over to the bed and tosses her pillow to Matilda, who holds it against her chest. Miss Honey then sits down on the bed, next to Matilda. The song title is translated to “My own house” and that little extra word has a lot of impact. It's her own house, something that is just hers and that she and only she controls. It's something that the Trunch can't take away from her. The escapologist appears and walks across the stage, behind the opened book. He then stands to the side and never enters the house or approaches Miss Honey. When the Escapologist leaves, he tips his hat towards Miss Honey, as if to say goodbye to her. Matilda finds the scarf (which was hidden under Miss Honey's pillow) in the bed and asks Miss Honey about it. Matilda grabs Miss Honey's hand and drags her out of the house, but Miss Honey pulls away. She turns around, shaking her head, covering her face with her hands.

After Matilda shouts: “Miss Thunchbull!” the book gets pushed out and is replaced by the school benches. While the scene changes, Matilda hands Miss Honey the scarf and they have a sweet moment where Matilda makes sure Miss Honey is ok. Miss Honey puts the scarf around her neck, and she and Matilda join the other small kids, who are now sitting on the benches. Meanwhile, the chalkboard comes forward, with the Trunch standing on the bench in front of it. One of the kids hands Miss Honey a book, and she opens it and start to read to them. The kids all huddle close, pointing and gesturing, and everyone looks happy. It’s a really lovely moment. No one takes notice of Trunch, who's lurking in the back. When she starts talking, all the kids rush to their places, standing with their heads down. When Trunch asks Miss Honey what she's looking at, she replies: “You Agatha”

Spelling test and Revolting Children

Trunch takes out a bunch of papers with the spelling test on, places one bunch on each bench and the kids pass them on. Miss Honey is getting really angry when Trunch accuses Hortensia of cheating. When it's Lavenders turn to spell, Trunch lifts her up and she splashes like a fish. One by one, the kids stand up on the benches and start spelling. They yell: “Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!” in unison. Trunch puts on large earmuffs and takes out a large controller for the chokey. The chokey has a high screeching sound that makes everyone cover their ears. Miss Honey tries to protect the kids and get them to hide. Once they are hidden, she reaches out her hand towards Matilda and beckons for her to join the others. But Matilda doesn't notice what Miss Honey is doing. She stares intently at the board and the chalk start moving. The other kids come out of hiding. They lean over the front bench, reading out loud. Miss Honey stands to the side, she notices quite quickly that it's Matilda who controls the chalk. Emma starts hitting the bench and screams: “Run!” The kids stand up on the benches as they shout “Run!” Miss Honey starts shouting too.

The Bruces have different types of voices. Milton has a really strong voice and belt, Max has more of a souly voice with vibrato, Joel has a more poppy kind of voice.

Bruce tears the test apart when he sings “never again”.  He looks around at the other kids, and gestures for them to join. They tear their tests apart when they sing “never again” . On the last “never again” they crumple the tests to balls and throw them into the audience. Matilda and Miss Honey remain on stage for Revolting Children. Matilda sings and dances with her classmates and Miss Honey remains in the back, looking happy and proud. The big kids start filling in and Miss Honey talks to them and gestures for them to join the smaller kids. They join in, a couple at a time. Some of the big kids pushes the benches to the side. Bruce sings: “She can take her hammer and shove it up her ass” At the end, he covers his mouth with his hand, looking like he can't believe he said that... Miss Honey cheers them on and during R-E-V-O-L-T-I-N-G she claps along. After that she runs to join them and the kids creates a space for her in the middle. She looks so cute and happy when she dances with them. At the end, crumbled spelling tests fall from the ceiling into the midsection of the auditorium.

Ending scene

Mrs Phelps enters and as she starts talking, a letter slowly falls from the ceiling and lands near Miss Honey. She looks surprised as she picks it up and reads it. Matilda sits on a bench and reads. Matilda looks up from her book to say the line: “And a new headmistress took over” After Mrs Phelps has said the line about it being the best school in the entire country, Miss Honey smiles/giggles and waves the compliment away... Miss Honey walks over to Matilda when she says that Matilda can no longer move things with her eyes. She hands her a book and takes the one Matilda was previously reading. It's a nice touch...That Matilda finally gets to read the clever books that Miss Honey wanted to bring her. Miss Honey walks back to he middle of the stage as she talks about Matilda. Mrs Phelps puts her hand on Miss Honeys shoulder as if to comfort her, when she says that perhaps all stories doesn't have happy endings...

The Wormwoods and Rudolpho run in from the side. Mr W is wearing a bast skirt over his suit, Michael has a huge swimming ring (in the shape of a duck) around his waist and wears a sombrero. Mrs W wears a hat and a flamenco inspired dress and Rudolpho is dressed as a matador with a mask. Mr Wormwood grabs Matilda and starts to drag her away. Mrs Phelps cries out: “Matilda!” She sounds really heartbroken about them taking Matilda away. Miss Honey runs after them while saying her line. Matilda lightens up for a moment. The russians appear (there are more of them), entering from the aisles. Sergei has a cane and the others carry different weapons. Some remain in the aisles, glaring at the audience and showing off their weapons. The Wormwoods hide behind the benches and bookcases. Rudolpho slides under the bench, doubled over. Again, Miss Honey is very protective of Matilda. She tries to shield her from the russians and puts her arm protectively around Matilda. When Matilda is talking to Sergei, Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey stand close together, watching Matilda intently. Matilda turns in Mr Wormwoods direction when she says: “ And very, very stupid”. After Sergei says: “backwards”, Michael jumps out from his hiding place shouting: “ backwards dad!” with a huge smile on his face. Mr W gestures for him to go back, and tells him to be quiet. The russians seem to have some extra lines and interact more with each other in this version. Their russian sounds really good, especially Sergei, it sounds so natural. The russians push and shove Mr Wormwood, blow smoke into his face and forcefully grab the bag of money from his hands before leaving.

Mrs W, Rudolpho and Michael run out. Mr W stops and calls: “What are we gonna do with my daughter?” Matilda runs towards Mr W and almost gives him a hug. Mr W looks a bit uncomfortable and Matilda changes her mind and carefully shakes his hand instead. She shakes his hand and kind of squeezes it. It's hard to explain... But when she squeezes his hand, she makes the magic stop. You can tell by the look on Mr W's face that he can feel it. He takes off his cap and puts it on Matildas head before leaving.Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey are now hugging and looking happy. Miss Honey says: “And Matilda leapt into Jenny's arms” Rudolpho runs in, jumps up on the bench, poses, says his line, jumps down in a split jump and runs off again. Mrs Phelps is now standing next to Matilda. Miss Honey says: “Because they had found each other” Mrs Phelps nods and says: “Yes, they had” before Matilda says her line. Both Miss Honey and Mrs Phelps put their arms around Matilda and the three of them walk off together.

Bows:

The big kids run in first, then the acrobat and escapologist in their performance costumes and then the small kids. Rudolpho, Michael and Sergei enter together, Michael remains midstage as the Wormwoods enter. They shove him away before taking their bows. Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey enter, holding hands. All the kids walk in, standing in a V formation. The rest of the cast stand on the sides. The back curtain opens and Trunch enters, carrying her hammer. Matilda enters from the back and takes her bow. Everyone does the end of the Naughty choreography. Trunch walks past and everyone ends in the Matilda pose. The music changes into Revolting Children and the whole ensemble claps and get the audience going. The kids (small and big) do the last chorus of Revolting Children while the other cast members clap along. The back curtain opens all the way, and the orchestra in turned around to face the audience. It ends with all the kids throwing their jackets in the air and the whole ensemble doing a pose of their choice.

Cast list

Matilda:  Anna Heerulff Christiansen, Matilda Gross, Eva Jumatate

Bruce: Milton Felländer, Max Liljedahl, Joel Yebio

Lavender: Thia Skogmar, Ella Strandberg, Tova Toresson

Amanda: Emilia Helm, Alice Jönsson

Nigel: Oliver Palm, Gustav Sonesson

Eric: André Persson Gintner. Melker Wickenberg

Hortensia: Sonja Holm, Molly Johansson

Tommy: Wilmer Franzén, Leon Mentori

Alice: Siri Amundsen, Lisa Birk Pohl

Emma: Miranda Boulton, Wilma Persson

Miss Honey: Linda Olsson

Miss Trunchbull: David Lundqvist

Mrs Phelps: Marianne Mörck

Mrs Wormwood: Åsa Fång

Mr Wormwood: Michael Jansson

Michael Wormwood: Jeff Schjerlund

Rudolpho: Oscar Pierrou Lindén

Escapologist/Entertainer: Denny Lekström

Acrobat: Hanna Carlbrand

Doctor/Sergei: Jonas Schlyter

Adult ensemble: Davio Di, Emmie Asplund, Henric Flodin,Karin Mårtensson, Kitty Chan,Leila Jung, Marcus Elander, Tommy Englund, Emma Kumlien, Kerstin Hilldén, Lotte Ohlander, Nikola Stankovic, Oskar Kongshöj, Sara Lehmann.

Portrayals:

Matilda: The biggest difference between the Swedish Matildas and the RSC Matildas is that they are allowed to smile. Most of the time, they are serious, reserved and and doesn't smile, especially in the family scenes. But, when they spend time with Mrs Phelps, they smile and come out of their shell. Their movements are bigger and they seem more free. It's like the Matilda we see with Mrs Phelps is the person Matilda is deep down inside, and who she could be if she had loving, supporting parents. That makes it even sadder, in a way.  Matilda smiles at Miss Honey during the biggest hug in the world, and also occasionally during My House. When Miss Honey looks happy, Matilda smiles. Matilda seems happy when she is with Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey, you can really tell how much she loves them and that they mean a lot to her.

They're not as loud during the stories as in the RSC production.

All three girls are fantastic Matildas and they each have their own styles and their own portrayals. They're all very different from each other, which made every performance extra exciting to watch, because it was never similar to the previous one. We're not going to go through what each of them did in every scene, because that would be way too long. So this will be more of a summary of their respective portrayals and what kind of Matildas they are.

Anna: Anna is the oldest and the most experienced in acting of the Matildas, which is visible in her performance. Her Matilda is somber and a bit more quiet. Her performance is very nuanced, for example: When she tells the stories she is relaxed and carefree, but as soon as Mrs Phelps asks about her parents, her body language changes. She curls up, hunches forward and her voice gets sadder and lower. That being said, her more cheeky moments are fantastic, too. She has great facials during Naughty. Her facial expression when she shushes and smirks at the audience during the bathroom scene is amazing. Anna uses her hands a lot when she is acting, for example when she's talking to Miss Honey about Trunch and all the cruel things she did, she hits her fist against her hand for every thing she says. She is also very articulate, one reason for that is probably because she is Danish and she wants to make sure that everyone understands what she's saying. She speaks Swedish really well, but with quite a heavy accent. She is a strong and confident singer and it feels like the songs really suits her voice. You can hardly hear her accent when she is singing.

Eva: Eva is an really expressive Matilda, down to her fingertips. She uses her whole body in her performance, especially during the stories. Speaking of stories, hers are really intense. It seems like she enjoys getting strong reactions out of Mrs Phelps. Her Matilda seems like she loves having someone notice her and give her their full attention. She emphasises certain words throughout her performance, which has a lot of impact. She also does that while singing. Eva's voice has a very wide range, it's especially noticeable in Quiet. She starts off very low and uses her full range throughout the song.

Eva's Matilda isn't as scared by her parents and Miss Trunchbull as the others are. She mostly seem to think her parents are stupid, she's rolling her eyes at them and she talks to them very slowly. Eva also smirks when she thinks they're particularly stupid. She is the most angry of the Matildas too... The performance we saw was only Eva's second performance, so her portrayal might have changed a bit since then...

Matilda: Matilda is really perky and feisty and the one who smiles the most. She is the youngest of the Matildas and her Matilda appears younger than the others. There is an air of innocence around her... She seems like she doesn't understand that it's unusual that she reads. It comes as a surprise to her that it's not something that everyone her age does. When she realises that Miss Honey is in awe of her, she looks and sounds proud. She is louder in the stories than the other two girls, and her gestures are bigger. Her expression during the stories is huge, you can't take your eyes off of her.  She is tiny, but she strides forward with big steps and a look of determination on her face. Matilda has a higher pitch than the others and she sort of sings in a staccato manner.

All the girls are really strong dancers too. In this production, Matilda dances much more than in RSC's production. You can tell that the girls really enjoy being a part of that and dancing with all the others. All three of them are really good at speaking russian, it flows really well and sounds natural when they're speaking.

Matilda wears a grey linen dress with a white collar and folds at the front, grey socks and brown shoes. Her hair is let out and slightly curly.

Miss Honey: We may be slightly biased here, because Linda Olsson has been our dream Miss Honey for a couple of years now. She was even better than we had imagined. She has this light about her. Even though she is broken down and, she still finds little things to smile and laugh about. She is not less broken down, but she hides it more from her students. Also, she seems content and happy in her classroom with her beloved students and in the library with Mrs Phelps. It's similar to Matilda, she blossoms when she is doing what she loves, with the people that she loves. She is also trying to be strong for her students. As the story progresses, she slowly gets braver, and tries to stand up to the Trunch and protect them more and more. She often puts herself in between Trunch and the children, to shield them with her body. She has a very big and kind heart and you can really tell when she loves someone, she glows.. She is so supportive, patient and caring when it comes to all of her students. Somehow, despite what she has been through, she still tries to see the good in everyone. Perhaps she is a bit naive... sometimes, when talking to Trunch and Mrs W,  she laughs because she thinks they're not being serious. She is kind of funny too...

Her body language and facial expressions says so much. We haven't talked a lot about Pathethic and This little girl, because they're quite short and it's hard to describe all the little things that's going on. It's much easier describing the 'bigger' scenes... But she conveys everything Miss Honey feels so well in those numbers. It's the way she uses the tone of her voice, clenching of fists, dropping her shoulders... But also determinately straightening up...

A small little rebellious streak that she has from the beginning is that she never calls Trunch Headmistress, she calls her miss. And by the end, when Trunch asks: “What are you looking at?”, she simply says: “You, Agatha” That is really powerful, it's like she's feeling that Miss Trunchbull doesn't own her or control her anymore.

Her voice is so beautiful and so heartfelt.

Miss Honey wears an old pink linen dress with a collar and buttons down to her waist. The dress has slightly puffy shoulders and a fold in the front. She wears a pair of low, darkly coloured full heels.  Her hair is pulled back from her face by a hair clip on one side of her face.

Mrs Phelps: Mrs Phelps is just lovely. She is like a grandmother/fairy godmother. Her and Matilda have a very sweet and special relationship. She seem to be so fond of Matilda and she's very affectionate. Mrs Phelps hugs Matilda and puts her arm around her quite a lot. Phelps is very attentive to Matilda’s mood and the things she says. You can tell that she's a very intuitive person and that she senses that Matilda is troubled. This Mrs Phelps is more quiet and she doesn't react as loudly to the stories. Marianne Mörck is perfect for this Mrs Phelps, it feels like they have shaped the character around her. Her acting is really natural, she never says her lines exactly the same.

Her costume has different shades of beige and yellow and is made of linen and wool. Mrs Phelps is the epitomy of what us Swedes call a kulturtant (cultured lady). It's a lady, usually aged 60 and over, who consumes a lot of culture. She often has a membership to her local theatre or opera house, goes to art exhibitions, visits the library and advocates for culture to be available for everyone. They often dress like Mrs Phelps, in bright and earthy colours, and their clothes are made of linen and wool.

The child ensemble: All the kids are fantastic and they each bring something special to the performance. Their hard work at the Matilda school (they've been practising three days a week for about a year) has really payed off. Both teams are so tight, synched and with great chemistry between all of them. Their singing, dancing and acting is amazing and they have so much joy and energy. Their facials and reactions are fantastic. We can't praise them enough, we're in awe of them all. They have their own little quirks and things they do. They're all really good at staying in character and acting when they're not in focus. We never saw anyone lose focus, even if something unexpected happened.

In this production they don’t really follow the RSC model for the child characters. First of all, they have added another child character, called Emma. (We don’t really know why...probably because they wanted even numbers for the kids)Eric is not played by the smallest boys (so Eric doesn’t crawl around, hide with Bruce and all those things...) The Bruces aren’t always the oldest and tallest boys just as the Amandas aren’t the smallest girls (they are small, but not the smallest..) Some lines (both spoken and sung) have been switched around and given to other characters.

Some of the kids portraits differ more than the others, but we're not going in to details about that, since this is already so long.... They all make the experience so exciting and special with everything they bring. We wish we could have seen the production so many times so that we could focus on each and everyone.

Miracle outfits: Hortensia is dressed as a ballerina, in a pink outfit similar to Lavender's in the RSC production. Lavender wears a black silky dress and big sunglasses. Amanda wears a long,white, fluffy dress with flowers in different colours. Nigel and Tommy wear suits, Nigel has a white one and Tommy a black one. They also wear matching sunglasses (Nigel and Tommy are siblings in this number) Bruce wears a blue, more traditional suit and a crown. Emma (who is his sister in this number) wears a red dress, white stockings and a red diadem. Alice and Eric are also siblings here, and they are dressed in a traditional scottish/british countryside riding style, with grey/brown tweed jackets. Alice wears a skirt and Eric wears puffy pants and checkered socks. Eric wears a cap and Alice a beret.

Hairstyles: In Miracle both Hortensia and Lavender wear big top buns. Amanda has a lower bun, Alice has a braid, Emma's hair is let out and curly. Most of the boys have water combed hair.

For the rest of the show Hortensia wears pony tails, Lavender and Alice both have braids, Emma's hairstyle is similar to her Miracle style. Amanda has pigtails, of course (not a wig).

The kids wears grey school uniforms with a crunchem hall logo (not the same as in the RSC production) The logo is also incorporated in the school gate. The girls all wear the same type of dress and everyone wears white shirts, black ties, white knee high socks and black shoes.

For Phys Ed they wear black shirts with the logo in white and black knee high sports socks. The girls wear skirts and the boys shorts.

The adult ensemble: The adult ensemble play a bigger part in this production. The big school kids are much more involved in the school scenes and the dance routines. We have already mentioned that the adult ensemble is bigger in this production. Sometimes, they're all on stage together and sometimes not all of them are in certain scenes. For example, the ensemble members who play the russians are not a part of Revolting Children (at least no on stage, they sing along backstage)

There are more females than males in the adult ensemble, which you can hear during the songs. Especially in School Song and Chokey Chant. They're all very strong performers and they make a fantastic ensemble with great harmonies and tight and sharp dancing.They have excellent chemistry and really good at playing creepy (both as school kids and as the russians)

They wear almost the same type of uniforms, but the big girls don't wear dresses, they wear skirts instead. The big boys socks are not knee high. Their phys ed outfits are the same as the small kids.

Miss Trunchbull: This Miss Trunchbull is very similar to the RSC one. David is fantastic in the role, especially in the more comedic scenes. His facial expressions are out of this world. He is also a very physical actor, the way he acts with his body in the newt scene is fantastic. Twitching, bending his body in weird angles and running around in panic...  David's Trunch loves mocking Miss Honey and the students, and she repeats what they're saying in a hilarious way. Especially during the spelling test scene. Malmö Opera is located in the Swedish province Skåne and all the kids speak the accent skånska (some more than others) Skånska is a really famous accent here, everyone recognises it and pretty much everyone can speak a bit of fake skånska. One of the Hortensia's has a very strong accent, and after she says: “You can't put us all in chokey” Trunch mocks her by imitating her accent perfectly. (David speaks with another accent as Trunch) This Trunch is also very patronising. When she talks to people or say their names, she talks as if they are really far beneath her and are not worthy of her time at all.

When David speaks he sounds a bit similar to Bertie Carvel.... His singing voice is stunning, so strong and clear. Occasionally, he lets the notes go on for a bit longer. Especially at: “Don't let them take them away” in The smell of rebellion.

Trunch's costumes are very similar to the RSC Trunch in style and colour, but the socks are more of the athletic kind. She does not wear a hoodie for phys ed, but she wears a long sleeved shirt instead of her jacket. The year on the shirt is 1971 instead of 1969 (it has been changed because 1971 fits better with the rhythm of the song) and she wears a belt with medal on it. She has changed out of her heels for phys ed and wears black trainers instead. She also wears a different skirt that isn't as tight. Underneath her skirt she wears big, white underwear with flowers on.

Mr Wormwood: Mr Wormwood is also quite similar to the RSC one. Michael is equally fantastic... It's hard to talk more about Michael's portrayal, because we have mostly focused on the difference from the RSC production... It's not that his portrayal isn't memorable, because it definitely is. He is amazing in this role. We could easily see him play Mr Wormwood in the West End. Just like David, he is also very physical, but in a different way.... When he yells at Matilda, he often comes really close to her and screams in her face. When he mocks Matilda, his voice goes up and sounds squeaky, like he is impersonating her.

Mr Wormwood's outfits is more casual in this production, He wears a light green suit, blue skirt, blue socks and blueish grey loafers with gold chains. Instead of a hat, he has a white cap with “Wormwood's luxury cars” printed on it. He also wears some jewellery, like a necklace and a bracelet.

Mrs Wormwood: Mrs Wormwood  is still mean in this production, but more stupid than mean. She  is quite daft and out of it. She often has a confused look on her face. It seems like Åsa's portrayal is inspired by the participants of housewives reality shows.. She plays her part amazingly and portrays a lot of different moods in the same scene: Confusion, anger, hurt, annoyance, disappointment...to name a few. She doesn't yell/speak as loudly as the RSC's Mrs W. She drawls while speaking, when she is upset her voice is more squeaky. She also seems to dislike her husband even more. She sounds genuinely hurt by some of the things he says to her. She also laughs at and mocks her husband occasionally.

She seems very distant and cold towards Matilda, both mentally and physically. When Matilda tries to come close to her, she shoves her away and there always seem to be quite a lot of space between the two of them. She doesn't seem very fond of Mr Wormwood or Michael either, actually. The only person she seems to like is Rudolpho.

Mrs Wormwood has a lot of different outfits throughout the show. She starts out with a bodysuit with a pink fur jacket on top. During the first family scene she wears a light green dress. For Naughty she puts on a nightgown on top of her dress. The nightgown is used for the beginning of Loud, underneath it she wears a light pink dress with neon green and neon yellow details. For Telly she wears a longer fluffier dress. Later she wears fishnet stockings, a top, panties and her fur jacket on top of it. In this scene she has her hair rolled up under a hair net. She finishes off with a flamenco style dress.

Michael: This Michael is very different from the West End/Broadway Michael. He is more present in this version. Michael sits up in the couch, listens to his parents and interacts with them.

He is mostly in his own little world though, so he might not really understand what's going on. He seems content and kind of happy with that, smiling proudly every time he is acknowledged. Michael  usually has his headphones on and wanders around without direction.

Michaels costumes are based on Mr Wormwoods, he wears the same colour scheme as his dad. Michael wears a polo, shorts with suspenders, a Wormwoods luxury cars cap, (backwards) high socks and loafers.

Rudolpho: Oscar is a fabulous dancer and he can bend and twist his body in so many ways. He is also an amazing performer, his stage presence is something else... He and Åsa have an amazing connection, their chemistry is so good. Oscars Rudolpho is hilarious and a real drama queen... Sure, Rudolpho is very dramatic, but this one is extra dramatic. Everything about him is big, his gestures, movements...

Rudolpo has shorter black hair in this production. He wears a black, tight ballroom costume. For the last scene, he wears black, tight pants and an unzipped matador jacket without a shirt underneath it.

Sergei: There's something very likeable about this Sergei. It's hard to explain exactly what it is though... But we connected much more with this productions Sergei than we've done with the RSC ones. He seems really genuine and you can really see his depth.

Jonas really makes Sergei his own and it's great to see. It's great to watch him with the Matildas and how they interact with him. Sergei is dressed almost completely in black. Black shoes, pants, a mostly black coat (it shimmers a bit in dark blue/grey).  Black sunglasses and a black fur hat. He also carries a black fancy cane. He occasionally uses his cane to emphasize certain words and getting his gang to listen, by banging the cane on the floor.

The biggest difference between the productions is that Malmö opera's version have more moments where the characters are happy, or at least are able to smile and show a happier and more relaxed side of them selves. This gives the show a slightly different feel, but we like it. It makes the transitions between the lighter and darker scenes (and even the moments) even more poignant. This direction lead to a deeper relationship between some of the characters, we especially loved the added moments between Mrs Phelps and Miss Honey. Marianne and Linda have such a wonderful chemistry, you could tell how much they love working together. As we have already mentioned, Mrs Phelps and Matilda have a deeper relationship too. It’s so lovely to see Mrs Phelps together with the Matildas. It’s really clear how much she loves and cares for Matilda, and Matilda loves her back just as much. Seeing them happy together and smiling is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Because when the scene and the mood changes, you just feel so bad for Matilda.

It’s lovely to see all three of them together, interacting and being happy in the ending scene. They’re all so sweet together and you can really feel the love and happiness between the three of them, they really are like a family.

In conclusion, we really loved this production and thought it did justice to the original. Thanks for reading all of this. Again, if you have any questions or want to know more about something, just post your question here or send either of us an ask  @veilingofthesun @askyfullofcomets 

[justaramblingromantic]

sun and moon

Characters/Pairing: Kobayashi Rindou, Tsukasa Eishi, Tsukasa Hi’en (OC), Tsukasa Chouko (OC)/EiRin

Type: Fantasy/Medieval!AU, Dragon Heart!verse, Freestyle

Word Count: 2911

A/N: Dragon writing practice, of sorts. 

Chouko was about two when the Change came over her for the very first time.

It was very abrupt. One moment, the little toddler was happily tottering around the nursery with her mother watching her exploratory antics with amusement, and the next, she tripped, fell on her rump hard enough to scare herself, and then she promptly poofed.

One moment, the white haired little one was a cute, precocious baby, and the next, she was…a cute, precocious baby…of an entirely different species.

In place of where an inquisitive human child had been earlier was now a hound-sized…winged lizard.

To be more precise, a dragon. A baby dragon.

True to her dragonic heritage, she looked like a miniaturized version of her mother and older brother in their Other forms, only that the kit’s scales were moonshine white, taking after her Knight father’s fair coloring, and they rippled beautifully with every shivering movement she made. She glowed like a little moon. Her extended wings; soft, leathery skin stretched taut over delicate, talon-tipped bones that were still far from fully developed, flopped clumsily on the ground – she still did not know how to fold them in neatly against her back yet. Her tiny claws, untried but razor sharp and hard as diamonds, dug into the carpeted floor, slicing through the thick woven fibers like they were made of butter, leaving deep gouges on the stone slabs beneath in the wake of her rising distress.

Still in shock over her own bewildering transformation, her mouth opened to cry for her mama but instead of words, only a shrill, screechy wail came out. The unexpected loud, sharp sound that emerged out of her own throat had scared her too, and she abruptly snapped her narrow, elongated jaws shut, hunching like a beaten dog, pale, slit pupiled lavender eyes quivering piteously, not understanding what was going on at all.

The tiny, newly awakened Queen swiveled her slender, triangular head and lifted it with some difficulty- suddenly, it felt heavier than she was used to, and she had to exert more strength just to hold it upright to seek out her mother. Everything was overwhelming – there was so much noise everywhere crammed into her pounding head and her nose stung with a myriad of new and strange smells. Her eyes watered. She whimpered, cowering back low on the ground and frantically trying to bury her trembling snout beneath her paws, her long, prehensile tail whipping about everywhere in panic, toppling nearby stacks of toy blocks and tossing aside ragdolls with each powerful, haphazard sweep, crying the entire way.

“Oh…baby,” Rindou breathed in surprise as she hurried over to console her terrified butterfly child. She…had not expected this. They had all assumed that Chouko was more human than dragon – she had never showed any signs of Change before…until now. Unlike her older brother, who had popped into his dragonic form suddenly too…at barely six months of age. Hi’en had been very, very young when his dragon blood roared awoke and he started switching fluidly between two forms, hence he had adapted faster and taken to the Change easier, to the point where the young boy seemed to be more dragon than human at times, much to the dismay of his aristocratic (human) relatives.

Chouko was just also going to have to learn to live with this side of her inheritance, now that it too had chosen to rear its head. It would be a bit more difficult for the sensitive, shy child but she would be fine…because she was not alone.

The redhead deftly avoided her kit’s volatilely lashing tail, swiftly crouching down by the distressed child’s side. Her hands reached out, nimble fingers running over the little dragon’s back and flanks and wings, swiftly checking to see if she was hurt. She seemed physically unharmed, but was still making little miserable growling sounds and trying her hardest to claw at her ear flaps-

Ah, Rindou was quickly beginning to figure out what was ailing her daughter. The castle, with its sprawling complexes densely filled with many people and sounds and smells, must have been overwhelming for the child who had yet to learn how to control and filter her senses. Rindou could sympathize, and there was only one way to deal with this problem, and that was to physically remove her from it.

“Mama’s gonna help you feel better-”

She released her control over her human form- there was a throb of unearthly power as it surged and rippled over her, and she Changed fluidly. She landed lightly on all fours beside her kit, glittering red gold scales and large, unfurling wings that she quickly tucked tight against her back, long, powerful tail curled around herself. Unlike her young child, her Other form was at least fifteen times larger, which was why she did not like to transform indoors and often tried to avoid it if she could.

Today was an emergency, so the servants were just going to have to forgive her for making a mess.

The crimson Queen stretched down her long neck and nosed her daughter, trying to nudge the young kit into movement. Chouko was still all hunkered down, head lowered, butt planted firmly on the ground, completely reluctant to move. Rindou pushed her snout harder, this time directly against her daughter’s unwilling rear end. When the little white dragon lifted her head briefly to see the source of disturbance, it was not with recognition as her eyes landed on the large dragon hovering over her, but shock.

Chouko had never seen her mother in this form before.

The infant squawked and leapt back clumsily, nearly tripping over its own ungainly paws as it hurried to retreat from the potential threat. Her baby neck frills bristled straight out in alarm and she crouched down against the floor on sheer instinct, ear flaps pressed flat against her skull. A scratchy, defensive growl escaped her, lips nervously peeled back, revealing rows of sharp little baby teeth.

Her mother was unimpressed by her show of false bravado, huffing softly instead.

Chouko paused in her display, her nose twitching frantically as she struggled to separate and identify the various scents. This familiar, beloved smell…

…Mama?

The red female was careful as she parted her jaws and then closed them gently over her child’s nape. She lifted the kit effortlessly, and while the baby cried out in fright at first, she did not struggle, instinctively curling up into a ball instead, her tail swinging beneath her. Slit lavender eyes studied the foreign extension with distracted surprise, a quiet, querying chirp escaping her – what was this fat, white thing coming out of her bottom…?

Rindou turned and started towards the balcony. The equine-sized dragoness glided forward with soundless, predatory grace, yet the ground tremored lightly with every step she made. They were on the fourth story, but the dragoness did not hesitate for even a single second as her hind legs bunched briefly and she vaulted right over the balustrade, launching them both into the air. There was a brief sensation of free fall as gravity immediately pulled them down…but then those large, wings spread wide open and started to work, powerful muscles displacing huge gusts of air with effortless ease, keeping them aloft.

There was a brief furor and muted exclamations of surprise as the inhabitants of the castle witnessed their flight, but that eventually died down soon enough. It was well known that the lord of the land had defied tradition and married a rare and beautiful dragoness; even the heir apparent was dragon – so such sightings were no longer as rare as it once used to be. It was still astonishing to have something so big suddenly appear in the sky, though.

Rindou made a mental note to apologize to the household for startling them later, but for now, she had an upset child to soothe. Chouko, surprisingly enough, was not crying with fear and panic anymore. Dangling safely from her mother’s mouth, the dragonling was staring at her surroundings with stunned wonder and childlike delight.

She screeched happily, batting her paws at the colorful scenery spread before her, trying to catch it. Her tail wiggled with joy at this new game that mama was playing with her. Fun!!! She screamed gleefully again, even louder, her earlier hysterical episode forgotten.

Her mother was very amused by the kit’s reaction. Now that they were out in the open, the baby was no longer overwhelmed by sensory overload and was happily enjoying her world again, which had suddenly become a lot bigger. Just to entertain the little one, the dragoness made a few more circuits around the castle grounds, dipping and weaving lazily across the skies, sometimes diving low, other times pulling up high enough that the livestock that lived in the surrounding pastures and fields were but mere dots spread across the land.

And through it all, her young daughter shrieked and chortled merrily, fearless, elatedly, embracing her dragonic roots.

It was a while later when the redhead decided to land, though she did not stop too far from home. A nearby hill situated a short ride away from the Tsukasa castle, just far enough that her Other form would not alarm or hinder those working on the grounds, but still nearby that the guards would not panic because their lord’s lady and daughter had gone missing.

Rindou touched down gracefully amongst the grass, her huge wings folding behind her. She gently lowered her precious cargo on the ground. The little white dragon toddled her first few steps unsteadily, not used to moving about on four limbs yet. Her mother left her to figure it out, and went to seek a nearby patch of nice, warm grass to stretch out in. It was a cloudy afternoon, but the sun was up and it was a good day to be sunning outside. The red Queen circled the ground a couple of times before finally sinking down happily on her chosen spot, resting her narrow, angular head on her forepaws, her gold slit eyes watchful of her youngest.

Chouko was nosing the grass curiously, and then batting at a dandelion. The sunny yellow stalk of flora rebounded back and tapped her on the muzzle, and a funny look crossed her expression…before she sneezed, the loose pollen tickling her sensitive nose something fierce. A tiny tongue of flame fizzled out weakly between her parted jaws, briefly disconcerting her…but then she was swift to dismiss it because it was gone as quickly as it had appeared.

She had more important things to pay attention to…such as the tail that had suddenly reappeared in her vision, audaciously bold and fat, taunting her with its presence.

Rindou rumbled with silent laughter as she watched her daughter chase her own tail, so determined to catch the devious snake-like appendage that she was practically spinning in circles.

The dragonling entertained herself thusly for quite some time…at least until a commotion overhead distracted her from her happy game.

Rindou had already heard the approach a while back, and therefore was hardly alarmed as the sounds grew louder and louder.

It wasn’t very long before her puppy-like offspring skidded over clumsily, eyes wide, her wings dragging behind her in flustered dishevelment, instinctively trying to flap them to fly yet still not quite old and strong enough to manage the feat, bawling with panic as she quickly scrambled into the safety of her mama’s embrace, wriggling into her side and trying to seek shelter beneath one of her parent’s much, much larger wingspan, both currently spread out on the grass to take advantage of the sun and soak in as much of the warm rays as possible.

A flash of red burst into the clearing short moments later, half bounding up the hill, half gliding through the air, wings fully spread. Hi’en was still not old enough to achieve full flight yet, but he could stay airborne for very brief periods of time and traverse short distances now if he picked up enough speed on the ground and took advantage of a good tailwind. The heir of the Tsukasa House was about the size of an adult ram in his Other form, and it wouldn’t be long before he overtook his own mother in size and weight class; the males of their species were always significantly larger than the females.

Her son sauntered over once he crested the hilltop, his leathery, crimson wings folding behind him, inquisitive gold eyes meeting his dame. He had taken after her coloring in every way, with the same sleek red, gold scales and streamlined, aerodynamic form. The young boy crooned softly at his mother in greeting, and then his gaze centered on the white little behind poking out from beneath her wing. Rindou’s tail waved slowly with faint amusement. Hi’en treaded his way towards her, and then he sat down between her front paws, rubbing his head against hers. Though a full two years older than his sister, he was also her baby. Even when he eventually grew to adulthood and became bigger than the family castle in the future, he would still be her baby.

He emitted a series of enquiring little chirps, directed towards his infant sister. He had never seen Chouko like this before, but he could easily identify her by scent all the same. He warbled cajolingly, trying to entice his baby sibling out to play.

It didn’t take long before there was a reaction. Timid movements could be heard rustling from beneath their mother’s spread wing, and then…a pale white snout slowly poked out from beneath the shadows, twitching as she learned to use her nose too…

Is…nii...-chan…?

The rest of the little Queen followed soon enough, slinking out shyly to greet her brother. Once she had really ascertained for herself that it was indeed nii-chan, she squawked excitedly and quickly bounced out the rest of the way. It wasn’t long before the two kits were tumbling and roughhousing together – two tails were better to chase than one, after all, and Hi’en taught his imouto how to be a proper dragonling through play and games.

Rindou presided over her children’s antics serenely, and was not the least surprised when the last member of their family calmly approached, too.

Since Hi’en was here, then that meant his father would not be far behind. Besides, he could sense whenever she Changed – the intricate bond they shared as mates ensured so and drew him to her unfailingly, just to check that she was not in any danger. It was a persistent habit left behind from the recent past, back when civil war still ravaged the kingdom of Tootsuki and every Change meant that she had plunged into battle to fight their foes.

These days, Changing held a different, more peaceful, idyllic implication. It was a very welcome adjustment. They had fought hard to protect and bring forth this precious peace to the present, after all. Their children would not know blind hatred and prejudice the way their parents had in the past. They would be free to be whatever they wanted to be, to love whoever they wanted to love.

Her human heart quietly came up and sat beside her. She swiveled her long neck and rested her head on his lap, heaving a deep, contented sigh even as he leaned into her side, entirely comfortable even surrounded by the large, powerful fire breathing lizards. His scarred, callused fingers stroked her smooth, delicate scales shimmering beneath the ridge of her temple, blunt nails gently, affectionately, scratching that hard-to-reach spot just behind her ear flap. Having a human hand to give her ear rubs when she was full dragon was the best, she could not help but think blissfully.

Her mate had accepted her in all the forms she possessed, and in turn she had fallen for him all over again and promised to spend the rest of her life with him.

She raised her head eventually, and he watched wordlessly as she shifted.

Her fireproof, armored exterior blended and gave away into soft, creamy skin, the blood red of her glimmering scales condensing to sheer vibrant hue in the form of her long silken hair. Her wings and tail retracted and disappeared altogether, reptilian features melted away, replaced by a breathtakingly beautiful face; full red lips, high cheekbones, a graceful nose, mesmerizing eyes. Her dragonic form shrunk until she was slightly smaller than him; willowy and supple, all long, slender limbs and womanly curves.

The magic of the Change protected her material possessions during the transformation and kept her clothes undamaged, something which she was always grateful for; being vulnerably naked in the aftermath of switching from dragon to human would have been very annoying all the time. Her lord and husband reached out and took her hand. They sat side by side on the grassy hilltop, watching their children frolic and scamper about.

“She’s beautiful.” Was the first thing he said, quiet, his soft gaze resting thoughtfully on the little white dragon that was his daughter. The delighted toddler was enjoying her newfound freedom and trying to dogpile her amused brother, who was letting her scramble up his back as he flopped on the ground and took a brief rest from their playful antics.

“She is, isn’t she?” Rindou could not help but grin happily. 

“We made her, after all.”  

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Due to the graphics and game features, some games are more popular than others. If you are an android user, you would check the ratings of the gaming app before downloading it. Personally, we're bigger fans of the web browser based creation system, which lets you work from the comfort of your computer to make your story. That can be done by visiting the website, and clicking on the "create a story" option in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Once that's done, you'll need to login with facebook or google. Once you have logged in, the creation system will launch, and you can get started making your very own stories in episode - choose your story. Participating in the community of the game is also an effective way to know which stories are popular. Your story may be read by thousands of other players. Therefore, you can create a truly fascinating story your way. You should remember that the lines in the story need to be short, with enough content, as well as no grammatical errors. Current, episode - choose your story only uses english. So, you need to know a little bit about english to be able to create interesting stories. ~ episode is a really great game. It has many stories in it that you could really enjoy reading, i've read about romance, adventures, and many more.. and honestly it's not just a game that you could read stories, and find out the endings, main ideas, or whatsoever. It also helps you to refresh your mind, and learn lots of new things in most of the stories. Thank you episode! ❤️ keep up all the good work. Its been so many years that i've grown with this game. They can pretty much write their story and put it out to the world immediately." That's a huge incentive to get people started and see what they can come up with. "they start because they love writing and they want to get their stories out there," she says, much like the rise of fanfiction. But author-designers are not simply motivated by a desire for fame and feedback--there's money to be made from successful stories on episode. Phillipps cited a number of examples of success stories. She regularly works on how best to improve the scripting tools, how she and episode can help the community write better, as well as liaising with the player experience teams. "[at launch] we wanted to make sure our tools would be turned on for our community [at the same time]," she notes. "having a platform for a community of writers has always been our vision. We think so many writers and creators in general are out there." The thinking was to be able to give them a place to tell their story. If stories contain objectionable or offensive content, we may not be able to feature or promote them. We are on the lookout for stories that are appropriate for readers ages 13 or older. Promotes or depicts excessive violence or assault, including but not limited to sexual assault, murder, and torture against humans or animals; any hate speech or content that promotes hatred or discrimination against individuals or groups, on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, religion, marital status, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation; portrays adult themes, including pornographic content, nudity, or prostitution; slanders or libels a person or third party; advertises for outside products or services, including but not limited to website links, reviews, and promotional language; excessive promotion of the use of firearms, explosives, and ammunition; and excessive promotion of a political agenda. A fascinating aspect of Episode Choose Your Story mod is, each story comes with multiple endings! During the conversations with other characters, the player needs to choose between 2 different replies, where each reply steers the story in a different direction. One can play the story all over, choosing alternate replies to discover all of the intriguing endings! There are thousands of amazing narratives to choose from. If you are someone with a creative bent of mind, well, you can create your own story too! Working in a vegas casino & you meet a handsome stranger. When you find out he has some shady connections, you get pulled into the drama of a lifetime! New episodes of college-ish! To get your crush to notice you, you enroll in college... while you're still in high school. What will happen next?! And new story coming soon from community author, sophie alice! Why me? You move in with the most popular boy from school, will it be a disaster or will you fall for the badboy? Is there any way to have them pick their own name or is that just wih the episode team as well? Creating your own character is possible but only for the ink style. Go to the chapter you are writing on and select "scripts" on the right side. There should be something like "ink female avatar" or "ink male avatar". Click on that and it will appear in the story. The code to putting in the story is in the guides. Due to the graphics and game features, some games are more popular than others. If you are an android user, you would check the ratings of the gaming app before downloading it. You would also read the reviews of other users and see how well the developers have responded to the criticism. Episode Choose Your Story mod for android and ios is an interactive game that lives up to its name. Read further to know more about the game. Get unlimited Gems and unlimited Passes on your game account.