#like susie has No half tones at all

[pa-pa-patato]

Papa, me want more movie /ref

(Talking bout ink cult au)

(I apologize in advance.English isn’t my first language so this will be pretty bad)

Everyone settled in the living room,the demon-bendy is quietly sitting on one the chairs ,after Cuphead convinced them that he didn’t care if it got stained with ink. Even though it was obvious that Boris wanted to do nothing more then run to his brothers and hug him till the end of time. He didn’t so no one touched him out fear of what might happen dem-bendy didn’t mind that in fact he looked great full for that.

Holly wanted answers she *needed* them but it was obvious that it will be a tricky subject to ask she needed to ask carefully “So how did you become a demon? I mean you used to be human right?” So naturally cup interrupted her. As she got ready to slap him upside the head bendy answered. “ oh! Well actually i don’t know there is a chance that I was never human to begin with or it could just be that I was more connected to ink then most” they didn’t seem to mind, in fact they looked happy to answer which relieved her but bendy’s face turned scared matching the other half of the her friends that are still sacred “I’m sorry- i didn’t mean to frighten you. I’ve-….I’ve been alone for so *so* many years. I guess I forgotten how to speak to people…human people.” Now Holly understood why they were happy to answer , she was a bit tempted to use that so they would answer all her questions , but she held herself back it would be rude …plus Boris would deck her

“So we’re the first ‘human’ people you talked with?” Cala asked now slightly less afraid, Holly remembered how she’s more in tune with the supernatural so she’s probably scared the most. “No you are not “ bendy shook his head “ Susie and Sammy regularly try to summon me through it never worked-“Boris cut him off with his yelling “WHAT!? HOW!? ARE THEY NOT IN JAIL!?” Fear crossed everyone’s face. Boris barely talked about the cult it was an obvious sore subject but when he did speak about it was absolute hatred for Sammy, Susie and most importantly Joey drew that behind the bars for the rest of his life . I guess the other two got pretty great lawyers. Bendy spoke in a gentle voice like sibling comforting his siblings- oh that literally what their doing. “They might not be in jail but they are asylum. I think that also pretty secure place right?” They turn to us in question. Holly nodded which brought a smile to their face “ see? You don’t have to worry darling”

Boris reluctantly agreed before looking at bendy sadly . Holly was worried along with everyone else. No one knew how to comfort Boris, not even his dad It difficult since they can never figure out what exactly bugging him , well they at least thought no one could. But bendy didn’t have that problem it seems,as he spoke in an even gentler tone “I am not angry at you for never trying this-hell I’m happy you didn’t. You needed time to heal you, you still do! So don’t worry, I never thought I’d be able to see you, let alone talk to you. But hare we are so please forgive yourself, for me?” Boris couldn’t fight the smile that was creeping on his face if he tried

Holly has oh so many questions and by the looks of it so those everyone else. But they leave, so the two brothers can talk and enjoy themselves in years of not being able to. Holly smiled one last time as she looked behind her and closed the living room door. “…..not to be the barer of bad news but don’t we have a test tomorrow?” Mugman asked awkwardly Well …shit

[sionisjaune]

for the prompt meme! bwocedes + 30 :3c

30. recalling better times

It’s a huge rock—fifteen carats in a rare violet hue—but Lewis wears diamonds all the time. The studs in his nose and ears together with his necklace are probably worth more. He’s become hyper-aware of the weight on his finger and the glimmer in the corner of his eye anyway.

People point it out, too, stopping him to goggle at the stone and clink champagne flutes. Susie loves it. Bono chuckled and thumped Lewis on the back when he saw. 

Everyone Lewis used to know at Mercedes—now Mercedes-AMG Audi, according to Toto’s big speech and the banner behind the podium—is very happy for him. Everyone except for Nico, who has been lurking by the bar sans Vivian since the party began. 

Lewis wouldn’t say that Nico is unhappy for him. He wouldn’t deign to interpret any of Nico’s moods, actually, but usually Nico tries to chat him up for a minute or two, until Lewis injects enough fuck off into his tone that Nico gets the message.

Lewis spends another half an hour making the rounds and dazzling sponsors on Mercedes’s behalf before he can take a minute for himself. Toto finds him and pulls him over to the bar, flagging down the bartender to pour Lewis something stronger than champagne. 

“Finally I can have the two of you in the same room,” says Toto. “What a headache for the events staff.” Toto gestures at Nico on the other end of the bar, drinking with his head down.

“Who?” says Lewis, sipping on the drink the bartender slides in front of him.

Toto gives a deep, dark chuckle. Age has only made him more terrifying. 

“So that’s how it is,” says Toto. “Better than how it was. Although the results spoke for themselves.” He pauses to taste his own drink and seems to find it satisfactory. “Between you and I, I would kill for another top driver. George is reliable, but the fool that Audi is bringing in…” Toto frowns, irritated. 

“Age is obviously fucking with your memory, if you think that’s what you want,” says Lewis. “But you never know.” Lewis glances down at the ring. It’s the kind of gaudy thing he likes, and it came from his wonderful footballer boyfriend which makes it even more special. Two things he’d never thought he’d have. Even still, he allows himself to imagine a world where things had happened differently. He turns the vague, hopeful shape of it over in his mind before the idea thins and dissipates. “Things change.”

[agentravensong]

it's the day before christmas... you know what that means?

it's dess deltarune day!!!

presenting, at long last, the dess holiday that lives in my head:

more drawings plus detailed design notes below the cut!! please click on the images for better quality viewing (they also all have alt text)

dess design notes:

- her fur and hair colors are picked from rudy's sprite, though i toned her fur color down slightly (and then even more so for her ??? form).

- her freckles, like how i draw noelle's, form triangles as a not-so-subtle reference to the delta rune. that being said, i draw noelle's freckles as oriented the other way, one of a few small ways in which i have their designs mirror but differ from each other (the others being: both having bangs but swept in opposite directions; and dess having buck teeth like noelle but rectangular instead of rounded)

- i didn't give dess antlers because of that line from sans in ut where he refers to "the antlered girl and her big sis" rather than "the antlered girls/sisters". instead, i gave her those hair tufts that are meant to look like horns, as both a parallel to kris's horn headband that they wear to try and fit in with their family, and as a bit of devil symbolism to contrast noelle's whole angel thing.

- i messed around with dess's light world outfit color pallet for a while. for example, i had her jacket be green for a bit so that between that and the skirt we'd get the main christmas colors. i eventually went with having her jacket be red too to make the design as a whole more cohesive. i wanted her to be wearing mainly warm, firey colors cause that feels like it matches her personality from what little we know about her so far.

- the jacket was conceptualized as a hand-me-down from rudy, but in the coloring process i had the idea that it would be neat if azzy had a matching green one (recycling that discarded element of dess's design). perhaps his could be a hand-me-down from asgore?

- the jacket turns that dark purple color in her ??? form because... look, there's a few things i could say, like how it would probably make more sense gonerfication-wise for it to have turned pure black but then that wouldn't stand out as much in dark environments, or how purple is red+blue with the blue coming from water/ocean theory (don't ask (or do)), or how the general use of purple is a callback to the ??? dark world... but in truth, it's because i like purple and i thought it looked cool. the main intended meaning is that she's in a cold, dark place now, so the warmth has, mostly, left her pallet. oh, also, because susie's purple, and it def feels like there are gonna be parallels between dess and susie. jevil too, by extension.

- i gave dess's shirt five stripes, even though by the age she is here she's probably outgrown striped shirts (not that that's stopped kris), as a visual reference to a music staff! cause, ya know, she seems to be a musician. the reference is a lot more obvious in her ??? form with the black and white shirt, as that's where it originated.

- i gave her the skirt with the shorts underneath them because i already had in mind that in her ??? form she'd wear that half-skirt half-shorts piece. the idea is that when she falls into the code or whatever, that element of her design gets mistranslated and the two clothing items are scrambled together. i also already knew from an older version of her design that i wanted it to have a chessboard-like pattern cause of chess's potential as a motif in dr - and also cause black white and grey as a color scheme is associated with gaster and the goners - so having the light world version of it be flannel/plaid just, fit.

- on a similar note, the darker and grey patches in dess's fur in her ??? form are meant to both contribute to a somewhat glitchy aesthetic and hint towards her ongoing gonerfication. i then had the idea as i was messing around with them that there should be grey specifically around her facial features to mimic skull face paint!

- the whites of her eyes going dark in this form ties into the idea that "only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way", as well as referencing jevil specifically, and her pupils are shaped like save points because they're the light that breaks through the dark. it unintentionally works pretty well as a metaphor for where dess is at: being trapped in the dark for so long has caused her to lose a lot of her hope and fire, but there's still a speck of light that she holds on to. eyes really are the window to the soul ;)

- back to dess's outfit(s), cause i skipped over the scarf. in my older version of her design, i had her wearing an unraveled bowtie or ribbon around her neck, a clothing item that had been part of her mom-approved formal attire. i switched it out with the scarf because a) winter vibes, and, b) more importantly, because i could have it do this in her ??? form:

that's right, wings! only under Certain Conditions, but, wings! cause, uh, angel stuff, and, i mean, come on. wings!!!

the split diamond pattern is again, though less obviously, derived from the triangles featured in the delta rune. the added dots in her ??? form are meant to make the diamonds look like eyes, especially if you turn them on their side. just to add another touch of spookiness. and the scarf is purple in both her designs mostly as an extra justification for where the purple in her ??? form comes from, like it's the one color she got to keep, and to strengthen the continuity between the two versions of her.

- while we're here, it took me a while to figure out what symbol should go on the back of dess's jacket. what i eventually decided on is a slightly modified version of the black symbol to the right in that drawing, which is apparently used in sheet music for piano to denote when the player should release the sustain pedal. i chose it less for its specific meaning and more so just because it's a music thing that kind of looks like a snowflake (or, perhaps, a star).

- then there's the other major addition with dess's ??? form: the halo! it's meant to be another music staff reference, with constantly changing notes traveling along it, but contorted into a guitar-like shape. i'm not 100% set on the colors i used for it tbh, i might change those in future drawings of her. here's the fun part: when dess wants to make music, she's learned how to take her halo and temporarily turn it into, essentially, a hologram version of her guitar that she can actually play songs on! good thing she has a couple of picks in her coat pockets. i wonder what else is in there...?

lastly, for comparison's sake, i drew dess with kris and noelle, back when they were all together... and where they're at now.

(reminder that kris uses they/them pronouns!)

that should be everything covered! if you enjoyed my dess thoughts, may i also take this opportunity to recommend: my playlist for her! it's a little shy of four hours long, featuring 69 songs in a long-deliberated order meant to go through the story of her life - including how i hope her story resolves.

happy dess day everyone! no matter what holiday you celebrate :)

[wolfiemcwolferson]

I’m in love w quiet but DYING for George POVs! What does he think is happening throughout!

Hi friend!

I contemplated writing dual POV for this story, but I decided that it was a little...more heartbreaking if we only got one side of the entire situation. I really wanted to lean into the unreliable narrator bit in the beginning and then I was like...I'm writing this from only Alex's POV.

(We will be getting a whole chapter of George POV in the epilogue fic though, so.)

.

But, here's a bit of a drabble from George's POV with Susie:

The thing about George's family is that everyone assumes they're hands off. House cleaners and drivers and personal shoppers and George was probably raised by a slew of nannies, but that's not quite right.

His mother taught him how to make a bed and expected him to do it every single morning from the time he was four. "You cannot ask someone else to do what you are unwilling or unable to do yourself. Your messes are never someone else's problem."

His father taught him how to do laundry for the same reason.

Sure, George had nannies, but his parents didn't send him away to school. His mother took him to school everyday until he turned 12 and asked her to stop. But the point is, they raised them.

Toto and Susie have never been afraid of rolling up their sleeves when needed - which is why it doesn't shock George when Susie kicks off her flats and starts to help George scoot Alex's dresser out of the bedroom.

“George,” she says, halfway through the scoot, “you know I try not to overstep, but if we can do anything for Alex, you will let us know?”

George feels raw and exposed, and gives perhaps too much of a shove on the dresser, huffing. “Sure, mom. Yeah.”

Susie’s voice goes glacial when she asks, “Is everything ok?”

George is terrified of that tone of voice. People always assume it’s Toto that would be the terrifying one - tall and severe looking, but he has never scared George half as much as Susie does. 

“What is it?”

George stands up straight. “We’re just...things are a bit -” he shrugs. “We’re...it’s hard. Right now.”

Susie crosses the room and sits on the arm of Alex’s terrible couch. It’s far too small for him and they talk about getting him a new one all the time, but they never do.

“Why is that?” Susie tilts her head.

“I don’t know, mom. He’s here and I’m there and it’s hard to talk sometimes and I just feel so disconnected from him.” God, it feels good to say this. “But, I love him. And I thought love was enough, you know? I thought, oh I love him and everyone can see how much I love him, and it’s that simple. Mom and dad love each other and they’ve spent tons of time apart, so why should we be any different?”

“Right.” Susie crosses one leg over the other and leans down, one elbow on her knee, propping her chin up.”So. Let me tell you something, George William Russell-Wolff. Love is not at all what keeps a marriage going.”

She pauses long enough that George realizes he’s meant to be asking a question. “What -”

“Do you know that every single night your father isn’t home, he calls me before I go to sleep? Or if I’m the one gone, he calls me.” She’s smiling. “It doesn’t matter where he is - if it’s the middle of the day or the middle of the night. He calls. Without fail. He’s missed one call in all of the years we have been been together.”

George hadn’t known that. 

“So, love does not make a marriage. Devotion makes a marriage. Friendship makes a marriage.” She breathes deeply and looks at George like she’s seeing him - really seeing him. “Alex loves you. and I know that you love him, but are you showing him that?”

George...knows he hasn’t. He’s been in a constant state of feeling sick since he got the phone call, but he feels doubly sick now. He knows they have a lot of shit to work through to fix it, but he also was feeling a bit like Alex was the first one to pull away from him. All the way back when they were still in California.

“I want to remind you that he is not like you. He did not watch two parents be in love with each other. He did not have a home where he knew all of his needs and wants would be met without question. Love is not a safe concept for him. Love is not a thing that is guaranteed for him the way that it is for you.”

George feels like there’s not enough air in the room, like he breathes nothing in. “I can’t fix this.” He looks at his mom, begging her to understand that he’s made irrevocable mistakes somehow. He can’t fix this. 

Instead of understanding, she goes back to that glacial tone of voice. “That’s not the son I raised at all. And you had best find him. Because you’ve made a commitment to him. To see him through this. Perhaps you’ll find some of that devotion you’re having a hard time with.”

She stands and George can still barely breathe. “Mom.”

“I’m going to call Lance. Arrange for someone to come pick up the couch. They can move the dresser. We still have to go and get his things from his office.” 

She doesn’t look at him as she steps into her flats and pats her hair back in place. 

She doesn’t speak to him as he follows her out the door and down the stairs. 

George deserves it. He deserves it.

[dorminchu]

Manipulated Living: Chapter 2

The knob burns frigid under Susie's claw. Her own breath rises in a plume.

Noelle is sprawled on top of the bed without bothering to cover herself. A half-hearted attempt to roll into a bed burrito. 

"Noelle?"

No answer. Susie considers the door behind her. Maybe Ralsei will know what to do.

"Susie?"

Noelle is sitting up. With her hair cascading over her face it's impossible to get a read on her expression. Her voice is softer than usual. Like she's taken cough medicine, fighting to stay awake. Susie doesn't hesitate about walking over to her.

"Yeah. It's me. Did Queen put you in one of her cages?"

"I came here myself." There's an odd edge to Noelle's tone, like Susie should know better than to ask. 

Susie nods along. "Pretty sweet room."

"I'm very tired... I'll feel better once I get some rest."

Doesn't make sense. No matter how long Susie's been in the Dark World, she never has to sleep. Hurt, sure. Hell, she's never seen Ralsei or anyone else sleep down here, besides the Pacify spell. Maybe it's different for Darkners.

"Shit. What happened to your hand?" Noelle turns her head in the direction of Susie's voice. An ashy trail spills out from her sleeve. "Hey. I can heal you. I've been practicing."

Noelle pushes her hand under the covers. "It's fine. Really, I-I don't think you should worry."

"C'mon, don't be stupid."

A blast of air pushes Susie back a couple steps, but that's not what almost trips over her own tail. It's Noelle. Her doe-eyes flash opaque. Her delicate muzzle forms the words but struggles to maintain the intonation. "I said, it's fine. I know--what's best for myself."

In nine circumstances out of ten Susie would reach for her axe and make some smart ass remark about just who's gonna get schooled but somehow, this doesn't seem like the time. Forcing a chuckle, Susie puts up her hands and says, "Hey, all right. I'm not gonna argue."

Noelle blinks. For a second, glancing around the room, then Susie's face. Her shoulders slump. "Susie... I didn't mean to snap like that. I'm just... tired." She lies back down.

"Are you cold?"

Noelle doesn't answer.

"I can uh, put the blankets over you. Would that help?"

Noelle's eyes flutter. "Fine."

"I gotta pick you up first."

Noelle doesn't respond.

Frowning, Susie picks her up. She's so tiny, Susie can cradle her in the crook of one arm. Her hair smells like those scented candles that go on sale every winter. Susie used to pass by Noelle's locker just to catch a hint of that artificial cinnamon-vanilla, because she's totally well-adjusted and not a weirdo stalker. Not that Noelle would look her way in this lifetime, so it really doesn't matter what she thinks. She's never gonna find out.

Now Susie pushes down the lurch in her stomach. She pulls the sheets off the bed and drapes them over Noelle clumsily after propping her head up on the pillow. She's never been too great about presentation. Noelle's eyes flutter. "Did you find Kris?"

"Yeah. Kris and I, uh--we tried to get into to the computer lab. You know, for the project? But there was another portal to the Dark World." Susie swallows a lump in her throat. Mushy shit like this, it's usually enough to activate her fight or flight response. Should ask how Noelle and Berdly got here too, but first... "Actually, uh, Ralsei and Kris are out there. Did you want--"

"No!" Noelle grips Susie's claw harder than you'd expect for someone so weak. Susie loosens her grip because she's so tiny hurting her would be too easy, but it doesn't make a difference. "I-I mean, I... was just... worried." Noelle won't look her in the eyes, but her hackles raise. 

Susie gives her hand a squeeze. "Listen, Noelle. There's nothing to be scared of, okay? We'll figure out a way to get home. We'll kick Queen's ass, and you'll wake up, just like Kris and Berdley and me."

There's a flicker of emotion in her face. Like she's been pinned against her locker and she's flashing through her life. "Promise?"

The only thing worse than quiet people is telling a white lie to someone who already has the answer.

"Yeah. I promise."

[the-meme-monarch]

i really appreciate the “what do you mean this looks nice” comments on this post (link) bc looking at it againi do think it looks pretty nice actually! the composition was never the issue to me, i liked that part, i think i just didn’t like how many half tones i used. like all the lines for different things for one character tended to look like too much. like with Cap’n and K_K especially, it was too many half tones in too many places that were too close together

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

Rambling About 1998 Casting

Having seen a ton old, Broadway-based productions, and a ton of newer, London-based productions, so I now have a general idea of what the differences between the two are, I’ve noticed just how much adding Broadway cast members to a mostly London-based show affected the VHS version.

Three Broadway actors were cast in 1998, one from the original cast, and two who were performing at the time.

Ken Page was the original Broadway Old Deuteronomy. Old Deuteronomy’s role is pretty much the same in London and Broadway versions, so there’s not much to comment on with him. But, Munkustrap and Mistoffelees are characters with tons of little differences between versions, so Michael Gruber and Jacob Brent changed more.

But, Michael Gruber’s casting actually didn’t change much. The biggest difference between London Munkustrap and Broadway Munkustrap is the Macavity Fight. Broadway Munk is taken out of the action much earlier. Someone cast as Munk in London would have to learn more fight choreography than someone cast on Broadway. But, the London version of the Macavity Fight was used in 1998. Michael Gruber learned the new choreography for the filmed version.

Mistoffelees is different. Virtually every time the choreography and staging of the character differs between London and Broadway, 1998 uses the Broadway version. Misto’s opening line is Broadway. A large portion of Jellicle Ball choreography (Fugue, Girls, Mungo Entrance, Boys Jump, Tours) is Broadway. Mistoffelees is absent during Skimble’s number, because Broadway had a longer break for Misto actors to change costumes for Misto’s number than London did. The pacing of Misto’s number comes from the Broadway variant where Misto sings the second verse, even though he doesn’t sing it in this version.

There are a lot more changes between London and Broadway with Misto’s stuff than with Munk’s stuff. Munk’s changes were one fight scene. I’m guessing there was too much London choreography for Jacob Brent to learn during rehearsals, so they switched it to what he was already familiar with. 

When Misto was given his Broadway role, if his London role was still needed, it was given to Tumblebrutus. This put Tumblebrutus in many places where I’ve never seen him appear onstage. In Broadway-based productions, “have you been an alumnus of heaven and hell?” is Plato’s opening line. In Broadway-based productions, Munkustrap holds the light at the front of Skimble’s train. In London-based productions, those are both Mistoffelees. Instead of just imitating Broadway and putting Plato and Munk in those places, which would’ve been very easy to do in Munk’s case, they swapped in Tumblebrutus.

Tumblebrutus was played by Fergus Logan, who played Mistoffelees in London at the time, so he was more familiar with these bits, though it must’ve been weird doing them as a different character. He also had to learn the rest of Tumble’s track, but only parts that didn’t overlap with Misto’s track, or with Pouncival’s track when those were swapped out.

Then there’s that reworking of the Jellicle Ball. In every version of the ball, we start out with the entire cast together, but eventually the crowd disperses. 

In London-based productions, Carbucketty/Pouncival has a ballet solo. He crosses the stage and one of the girls, usually Jemima/Sillabub, runs past him. They briefly acknowledge each other. Carbucketty/Pouncival reaches the other side of the stage and Mistoffelees runs out. Weirdly, this step is called “Mungo’s Entrance”, even though I’ve never seen Mungojerrie be the one who enters here. Anyway, Carbucketty/Pouncival and Misto jump around a bit and the Jerrie tumbles out (maybe this should’ve been called Mungo’s entrance), followed by Cassandra. Jerrie tries to hit on Cassandra and gets rejected. This is when Bomba’s section starts up.

In Broadway-based productions, the bit where Jemima/Sillabub runs by (literally named Girls) is cut and replaced with Alonzo. Mistoffelees gets the ballet solo, crosses the stage towards Alonzo, and they seem to dance the idea of making polite conversation. Pouncival runs out for the Mungo Entrance and the Boys Jump features three cats, instead of two. Tumblebrutus tumbles out and we have a bit that I’ve dubbed the Antagonistic Waggle, where Tumble gets in a bit of a fit with the other boys. The fight breaks up when Cassandra comes out and then Bomba starts up her section.

If you took a Carbucketty, cast them as Pouncival and gave them the Broadway choreography, it’d be easy. They don’t get their ballet solo, but once they get onstage for the Boys Jump, it’d all be pretty familiar. However, London Alonzo isn’t in this section at all, so this would be new stuff to learn. The 1998 version added a moment where Alonzo hits on Bomba and gets rejected, possibly to match the Jerrie/Cassandra bit that would have in London, and when Cassandra comes out, Alonzo is far more successful with her than Jerrie is, because Casslonzo is basically canon in London-based productions.

So, there was a lot of rearranging to mix some Broadway into the 1998 film, even though the Broadway cast members were outnumbered. 

This is all interesting, but I sometimes wonder why they made this decision. I’m not at all complaining, because it turned out great, but it wasn’t the most convenient decision. Since the filming was based out of London, you’d think they would’ve just gathered the London cast, reworked some of the choreography for film, and left it at that. Most filmed recordings of plays don’t mix and match their casts. I think they wanted the show they filmed to sort of represent all shows up to that point. But how did they pick which characters to use the current London cast for vs. the ones to get someone else for? And why cast several roles with actors who’d never played them before?

I honestly don’t know, but I have a few observations.

So, if they went to represent all of Cats, getting someone from the original London cast was vital. Since Grizabella is the character with the iconic song, the song that made the show a hit outside of theatre circles, casting the first person to sing that song in an official production makes perfect sense. Thus, Elaine Paige as Grizabella. Also, Grizabella is an older character, so casting someone in 1997 who first played the role in 1981 would mean casting an older actress. That works perfectly here.

In fact, most of the older characters were cast with older actors. Ken Page first played Old D in 1982. For Gus, instead of a casting an actor who’d played him before, they actually cast an old actor, someone who could represent a human version of Gus. This completely changed the tone of the number, but in a way that people liked. When watching bootlegs, I tend to skip over Gus, but it’s one of my favorite numbers in 1998.

The other characters on the older side of the cast are Bustopher, Asparagus, Skimble, Jellylorum, and Jennyanydots. James Barron (Bustopher) and Susie McKenna (Jenny) were playing the roles in London at the time. Tony Timberlake (Asparagus), played the Gustopher (Gus/Asparagus/Bustopher) role in London directly before Barron did. Geoffrey Garratt (Skimble) first played his role in the 1989 UK tour. Susan Jane Tanner (Jelly) was from the original London cast. So, there’s a mix of old and new.

I don’t actually know the ages of most of these actors, so I can’t give exact numbers of how old they were when they first played their roles vs. when recording for the VHS. Also, Garratt is not the only actor who came from the 1989 tour. Rosemarie Ford (Bombalurina) spent most of her Cats career playing Grizabella, but she began as Bomba in 1989. Aeva May (Demeter) started even earlier, being cast as Demeter in London in 1986. Both played adult, but younger adult characters for the VHS at 35. 1989 was still less than a decade before the VHS and 1986 only slightly before.

So, Grizabella, Old Deuteronomy, and Jellylorum were the three older characters cast with actors who’d played their roles a long time before the VHS, meaning that their actors were a bit closer to the age of their characters. I’m not sure why Jellylorum in particular got this emphasis, other than that it just works. It just does. But, this does cause this weird effect with my brain when actors played Jelly too young. I also get annoyed when Jenny’s played too young because she’s the OLD Gumbie Cat. It’s the title of the song. How could you miss that? But, neither Skimble nor Jelly have their ages made nearly as clear, so it should be understandable when 30 year-old actors don’t know how old they’re supposed to be and just play them at 30. This is easy to accept with Skimble, but not with Jelly, entirely because I can recognize from 1998 that she both aligns herself with older characters and is played by an older actress. She doesn’t look 30. If a 30 year-old is cast as Jelly, and has seen the 1998 version, they should probably know that. If Jellylorum was meant to be younger, they wouldn’t have cast the role the way they did.

Now, back to Misto. I called this “rambling” for a reason. I’m writing off the top of my head here.

Mistoffelees is a really weird case. They cast the Broadway actor, but still brought in the London actor to play a different character, one he’d never played before. Fergus Logan wasn’t the only actor playing a role he hadn’t played before. Rebecca Parker (Cassandra) began as a swing and then played Bomba. Frank Thompson (George) started off as Admetus/Macavity and then became a swing. As swings, they could’ve played their filmed roles before, but I have no proof of that. (As a side note, I wonder if Thompson being an Admetus has something to do with his George being credited as Admetus).

But, Parker and Thompson seemed pretty comfortable as Cassandra and George, while Logan struggled a bit with Tumblebrutus. I think this is because, half the time, 1998 Tumblebrutus isn’t even Tumblebrutus. He’s a stand-in for London Mistoffelees. Having to be a stand-in, and having more experience in his stand-in role, I don’t think Logan was given a whole lot of room to develop his Tumblebrutus, so the role felt reduced and inconsistent. Parker just had to play Cassandra, so she developed her Cassandra. Thompson just had to play George, so he developed his George. 1998 basically tried to have a Broadway and a London Misto at the same time and sort of lost Tumblebrutus as a character along the way.

Tumblebrutus isn’t a major character, especially in London-based productions, so this isn’t a major problem. Some tours and smaller productions actually cut Tumblebrutus in favor of Electra. Pouncival is never cut. He seems to be the preferred tom kitten in general. But, the reduced role of Tumblebrutus is the result of casting a Broadway Mistoffelees when it seems like they wanted a London one. But, they cast a Broadway Munkustrap and had him play a London Munkustrap with no one cast as a stand-in, while they made changes to Misto’s role to match the Broadway version. They wanted both versions so badly that they basically refused to choose just one.

With the casting of Michael Gruber, from what I can tell, Gillian Lynne just really liked him in the role.

(Interview tidbit is from Michael Gruber’s page on the Cats Wiki)

This might’ve been the case with Jacob Brent as Mistoffelees as well, but I think there was more to it than that. Technically, Brent and Logan were both great in the role. Seeing Misto and Tumble in the Boys Ballet, which Brent said Logan had the timing for better than he did, Logan might’ve actually been better at dancing the role. 

But, I think what decided Brent’s casting was his acting of the role.

The role of Mistoffelees evolved a lot over time and London and Broadway evolved in different directions. By the time Brent was cast, Broadway Mistoffelees was a mix of the very dramatic, theatrical character Broadway started with and the younger, more awkward version that Lindsay Chambers brought to Broadway from Zurich. Brent was Chambers’ understudy and their versions of the character are similar. There are no full recordings of Chambers as Misto on Broadway, but there is a bootleg from Zurich, so the two portrayals can be compared.

Zurich was Vienna-based. The 1983 Vienna production was mostly based off of Broadway, but with a few changes. One of these changes is that Mistoffelees, who had a large singing role on Broadway, became completely mute. Mute Misto soon spread to Amsterdam and Paris. In Paris, the character was aged down and given more of a character arc where magically recovering Old Deuteronomy becomes a coming-of-age moment. Zurich took this characterization and ran with it. Both Paris and Zurich opened with Tibor Kovats as Misto, but the bootleg was filmed after Lindsay Chambers took over. The younger, coming-of-age aspects of the character were doubled down on. On top of that, Chambers’ Misto is an outcast, often scolded by the older cats in the tribe for what appear to be misunderstandings. Munkustrap is particularly harsh with him, and after he brings Old D back, Munkustrap dances with him and leads him to the tire for Tugger’s “ladies and gentlemen” finale. Munkustrap took the lead in honoring Misto at the end. Gaining Munk’s respect in particular is Zurich Misto’s arc.

Jacob Brent also plays Misto as younger and prone to awkward mistakes, but the tone is different. His Misto is more Broadway theatrical, with a small singing role. This makes him seem a bit more confident, and he at times appears to have a bit of an ego. Most of the older cats seem to like him. Munkustrap, the complete opposite to his Zurich counterpart, is very patient with Misto and seems to understand him a bit better than some of the other cats. Instead, Misto doesn’t really seem to fit in with cats closer to his own age and it’s the entire tribe he has to impress, without focus on a specific character.

All in all, the storyline with Zurich Misto is a bit more obvious. But, Brent’s Misto is more energetic, more dynamic. He makes facial expressions that make for great close ups. The combination of the clear story arc, which can be made even clearer on film, and that energy and expressiveness, make for a character that works really well on film. He’s the ideal Misto for a recorded production.

So, it was less Jacob Brent as a dancer, and more Mistoffelees, the character as played by Jacob Brent, that they were looking for.

I’ve run out of things to ramble about for now. I’ll just add on at the end that all of these people are awesome.

[inkabelledesigns]

10-31-2021 Alice Angel: Development History you Never Knew!

There are many benefits to being someone that's interested in voice acting, and while I'm not the biggest social media person, I do follow a variety of voice actors whose work I like. It should come as no surprise that as a massive Bendy fan, I love every single VA in this series, they all put on a wonderful performance, and I do follow a majority of them. 

Lauren Synger has always been pretty actively involved with us as a fambase, and this year for Halloween, she teamed up with her friend thecanadianbard on Twitch, as he livestreamed himself playing Bendy and the Ink Machine for the first time, blind. I was there for a majority of the stream with like eleven other people in the chat, and it was a great time. I'll link you to the recap (though it may not be there forever), but I wanted to take a moment to share some of the things Lauren revealed, both about BATIM's development process (mostly about Alice and Lonely Angel) and a few small tidbits for BATDR. Warning, these highlights are gonna get long. The stream clocks in at about seven hours and forty-five minutes, and even though I was there for most of it, I did miss two and a half hours due to dinner and passing out candy, so I had to go back and re-watch what I missed to make sure I got everything. X’’D I’m glad I did, Bard and Lauren are hilarious together. Though I will say, take this with a grain of salt.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1192262969 

(Quick note, every time I say Alice, I’m referring to Twisted Alice, our primary angel for Chapter 3. Lauren refers to her as just Alice throughout the entire stream, so for the sake of consistency, we’re gonna do the same. Though I do find it interesting that she did it that way. It’s like only the handbook ever calls her Twisted Alice. X’’’D Literally no one else does but me.)

(Second note: part of this stream was used to promote a compilation video from Lauren’s “Dance with the Angel” challenge, where visual artists (illustrators, animators, cosplayers, make-up artists, etc) were encouraged to created some Alice Angel artwork to the tune of the song Lonely Angel. I’m gonna link it here because this is such a cool fan project, everyone did a great job and I want their great work to get acknowledged too!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MqcJ9AR4A8 

BATIM:

-Lonely Angel as a song was originally developed as early as Chapter 3, but the scene it belonged to was cut. It sounds like it was a pretty exciting ordeal though, her tone sounded really hyped talking about it.

-The original context of Lonely Angel as a song was a song from Susie to the demonic presence that was slowly taking her over. Lauren described the “angel voice” as being Susie and the “devil voice” as the demonic entity that takes her over by the end of Chapter 3. The song was meant to express how Susie was so glad to not be alone anymore now that this thing was with her. 

-Apparently it’s harder to scream in the “angel voice” than it is in the “devil voice,” which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

-Lauren lost her voice for three days after recording for Alice. It was her idea that the character should have a double-voice, since she’s half angel half devil, and as such she had to record every line as both voices so they could stitch together what made the most sense. She doesn’t regret it because the character sounds like she’s at her best. 

-One of the most heart-wrenching things Lauren discussed was that not long before Bendy, she was let go from a part that she had been doing for years because a company had decided to change directions and only work with union actors (something she wasn’t at the time). She was heartbroken over it. When her nephew Liam showed her Build Our Machine, and she started researching the game, she drafted an e-mail to the Meatly to see about joining the project, since it inspired her. She almost didn’t go through with it. Her husband convinced her to send it, saying that she had to give it a chance, and give the Meatly a chance to decide for himself if she was a good fit, rather than sabotaging herself before she even started. Lauren shared her story with the Meatly, and he was both sympathetic and inspired, asking if they could use what happened to her to inform the backstory for Susie’s character. The way she tells this story is amazing and full of character, I’m not doing it justice here. 

-Lauren is very big on making sure voice actors get proper credit, and there was a lot of confusion for who voiced Alice and who voiced Susie early on. She wanted Alanna Linayre to get acknowledged for her great work just as much as she wanted to be acknowledged, and that’s pretty admirable to me. Voice actors gotta stick together, ya know? 

-Lauren had a pretty big hand in helping bring Alice to life. It wasn’t just reading lines on a page, she helped develop the character through to the end. She recalled several stories of how the Meatly was so giddy but trying to play it cool whenever she had something new to share, one of those things was writing a song for Alice. 

-We’ve heard this story before, but we got it in more detail here. When Lauren had written Lonely Angel, she sent an audio recording over to the Meatly and didn’t hear back from him for a couple of weeks (apparently this is very common with him, he gets very deep in his work). When they got on a call, she asked if he had heard it, and he hadn’t. So unexpectedly in that moment, he got on some headphones and listened to it right then and there. Lauren had to mute herself because she was freaking out, but they both came out of it with the feeling that the song was amazing and they needed to include it. 

-When Lauren first got interested in Alice, it was because of the poster we all saw in Chapter 2 with her cartoon design. Apparently after she’d booked the role, the Meatly slid over and was like, ‘so, you wanna see what Alice REALLY looks like?’ And BAM, there was her concept art, which happens to be the picture of her in the apron that we see in the Archives chapter. Lauren was shocked to learn this character was one of the villains, but given she has a strong love for playing villain roles, I think it’s safe to say that this worked out. 

-Lauren has actually played through BATIM! Listen I know that’s a weird thing to call out, but I know of several people who don’t ever engage with the media they’re featured in, so I find it cool she’s played it. She had several comments about things she liked and didn’t like in regards to gameplay, including that Alice was a total jerk with the weapons she saddled you with (she laughed a lot while talking about this, it was sweet). She had a very strong reaction the first time she played Chapter 3 and didn’t get the Tommy gun. She also coached Bard through the Brute Boris boss fight, and commented that the lip of the stage was difficult to deal with. 

-It became a thing for the chat to repeat Wally’s “I’m outta here!” every time his tapes were played. Lauren encouraged this and giggled so much every time it happened. It was sweet! 

-The voice for Wally Franks was inspired by real people the Meatly knew, namely people who worked at his high school, a science teacher and a janitor.

-Originally the Meatly voiced all three Butcher Gang members, not just Charley.

-When asked about her favorite characters in the series, she pointed to a lot of the toons as her favorites, with Alice being pretty high up there. When asked who her favorite Butcher Gang member was, she was quick to say Edgar. 

-Lauren was very cheeky in referring to Bertrum Piedmont as “Bertie,” like you can hear the glee in her voice as she says it, and that just made me laugh. 

-Apparently the ballroom from the Brute Boris boss fight is one of Lauren's favorite rooms. Bard made a comment to that it was very obvious what the reference was, she agreed, and then said "Doesn't that chandelier look like its from Phantom of the Opera?" I'm gonna be real with you, I have yet to actually watch Phantom of the Opera, so I dunno, but I'm assuming that's what the room is referencing (unless you Bioshock players have something similar that I don't know about).

- "Was Alice Angel's death always planned? No, it wasn't. We actually had talked about a major event with her, but the problem was that it was so big that it took away from Bendy. And we have to remember that it's Bendy and the Ink Machine, not Alice Angel and the Ink Machine." ""We had this whole dynamic worked out and we were really excited." She paraphrased that the Meatly said "Lauren I'm gonna have to break your heart here, but I'm gonna give you a gift at the same time." "That gift was Allison." "It was a really tough decision for both of us because we really loved Alice." Additionally, the number of people who hated Alice's fetch quests seemed to influence the decision to kill the character off. Lauren made a comment about it feeling a little "forced" as a result, especially since she "had so much potential". She does agree though, the fetch section was really painful when it first came out, and bless the team for working so hard to fix it.

-"That was one of the harder things, establishing a yelling voice for Allison that was different from Alice Angel." Girl I feel that, I feel that so hard. X'''D Like I'm just a hobbyist and I have a hard time differentiating between characters, I can only imagine how much she's had to work through that. "There's a lot of games where I do a lot of battle cries." It’s true, Lauren’s got an EXTENSIVE number of roles from over the years (hard to believe she’s been at this voice acting thing since I was two years old). 

-The clarinet player for Lonely Angel is Joe Carello, and apparently he's super in love with Boris! She got him a Boris plushie and he was so excited for it, how sweet! (This is where I’m gonna apologize, as there is a good chance I’m getting the spelling of these names wrong.)

-Patrick McDougall, Lauren's audio engineer and producer is very experienced in the Hollywood scene, like he's worked with the Blues Brothers and on the Dick Tracy soundtrack, and that's why he was recommended to her. She was terrified to meet him, but he's an absolute gift and a total sweetheart. She referred to him as an "audio wizard," and it's the cutest thing, I love that.

-Lonely Angel was the first time Lauren had written a jazz song and worked with live jazz musicians! Yeah, that’s right, LIVE MUSICIANS.

-Andrew Carroll was the pianist on Lonely Angel. She referred to him as “her rock.” 

-Lauren went on for a while about how collaboration is a really great thing, making the point that there’s a balance to be found between holding true to your vision and being open to others’ ideas, and that just really resonated with me. It’s very true, and I think it’s something we should talk about more often.

-Fun fact, Joey Drew has TWO VOICE ACTORS! For Chapter 3, it’s David Eddings, but for Chapters 4 and 5, it’s another gentleman by the name of Dave Rivas. I never would’ve guessed, the two sound so similar and do such a great job bringing the character to life that I thought they were one and the same. So hats off to you gents! (I’d actually like to talk more about him and Lani Minella another time, scrolling through their roles over the years has shown some really interesting stuff.)

-Lauren made a comment about how Allison is a “deep character.” I really hope we get to hear more about this in the future.

-Okay, this is an indulgent note. I made a comment during the Beast Bendy boss fight, “ X'''D Listen, this is an ice rink and Henry doesn't know how to skate, let him hug the wall.” And Lauren responded with something to the effect of ‘is this Bendy on ice?’ Somehow this led to her saying she could not ice skate or dance, and one of the things she told the Meatly early on is that "You don’t want me to dance, but I can sing!”, which I just think is kind of fun. (I can’t ice skate either, and I lived in an area where hockey was a huge deal for years, so I empathize.) 

-The stream ends with someone known as Kiwi (a friend of theirs) cuing a sound clip of “Hello darkness my old friend” as Beast Bendy dies, and honestly it was amazing. That will forever live rent free in my head, the timing was PERFECT.

BATDR:

-Lauren Synger is the voice director for this game! She was also the voice director on Showdown Bandit and Boris and the Dark Survival. (Side note, she mentioned there was a lot of voice recording done for Showdown Bandit that we never got to hear, and she’d love to go back to that world at some point, though it doesn’t sound like any plans are set in stone currently.)

-Lani Minella is the casting director! Lani has been in a lot of legendary games. I know her best as Rouge the Bat back in Sonic Adventure 2 and Heroes, but here in the world of Bendy, you'll hear her as Lacie Benton, Emma LaMonte, and in Showdown Bandit as the Bandit himself. 

-When asked if Alice would be returning for BATDR, Lauren said she couldn’t say anything in regards to that, but she did say Allison would be returning, and that she was really excited for it. She also noted that the entire team wishes they could reveal more and talk about it because it’s such a fun project, but we’re gonna have to wait. It’s coming soon, and it’s a good time. It was along the lines of ‘it’s killing us just as much as it’s killing you.’ 

-She pronounced the acronym as “Bat Dr.” which isn’t really news, I just find it cute. When is Gwen getting her doctorate. X’’D 

And that’s all that I managed to catch on this stream (though there may be different things you find notable on your own watch-through). I know it’s not much in terms of new news, but like, I didn’t expect it to be. I was there to have a fun time watching someone experience Bendy for the first time, and that’s what I got. I really love hearing about the development history though. I’ve been around since close to the beginning of this series (I came in a month after Chapter 2 released), and there’s stuff that even I didn’t know that came out of this. There were stories I heard before that got more detailed too. Overall, it was a great way to spend Halloween, and I hope you give it a watch. Bard’s a really fun streamer and I think you’ll appreciate his content. A big thank you to both of them for hosting such a fun event!  Final thoughts? My god, this was fun, it was so much fun. Getting to hear more about one of my favorite characters, spending time with such a fun group of people? It was bliss. Here’s wishing you all a wonderful day! 

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

the marvelous mrs. maisel 4x01-02 thoughts

yay, i’m finally caught up!!!! i’m glad that i watched s3 immediately before this, because i had totally forgotten all the stuff that we jumped right back into.

i did think that 4x01 was a bit shaky and felt a little off – which makes sense considering that unexpected two-year break – but 4x02 felt much more in the usual spirit of the show to me and i enjoyed it a ton.

i’m getting the vibe that people are really not feeling midge this season and finding her pretty unbearable. i still love her, i just feel like she has a lot of growing to do. (though i get never knowing with a palladino heroine if she’s going to get called on her bs!) personally, i don’t mind seeing her in this current narrative position. like, i love emma woodhouse, i’m cool with a fairly insufferable lady who’s got growing to do.

i know that we opened the season with midge wanting REVEEEEENGE re: the shy situation, but i think that portrayal doesn’t necessarily equal endorsement here in the writing. i also thought that beat where she saw the announcement of shy’s engagement on tv was pretty clearly her showing some remorse and awareness of the magnitude of her accidental actions, in that now she knows he’s been driven into that when otherwise he might not have had to take such an action. so i don’t necessarily think she’s as terrible – and the narrative endorses her being as terrible – as the general stance on the internet seems to be right now!

super enjoying the journey so far of her realizing what it means to be a financially independent woman and starting to become conscious of how much of her power was specifically her power as joel’s wife. her not having her parents to fall back on financially (and them being ashamed of that!) just adds to the tension. i think it’s really interesting and promises a lot more interesting story of what it was like to be even a relatively privileged woman at the time, and i’m extra excited in terms of how it’s going to influence her comedy. (loved her stealing all of that basic dude’s terrible sexist jokes!)

susie remains perfect. PERFECT!

i continue to love midge and susie together so, so, so much, and as always they are just a total blast and a joy to watch interact. even when they’re having the world’s most deranged half-nude slap fight! THEY ARE MY EVERYTHING. i am not looking forward to what goes down when midge finally finds out about the problems susie has been having with her money.

midge wearing susie’s jacket and hat while she aimlessly wandered the streets in despair really touched my heart.

so glad to see more of susie’s sister tess, she is hilarious. well played, francie jarvis!

also, MY MAN DIGGER STILES!!!! as soon as i heard his uniquely hilarious droll tones, i was catapulted to new heights of joy!

love abe’s whole journey!!! love the glimpses we’re getting of rose the professional matchmaker!

loved that scene of midge and abe having a nice moment of connection and commiseration together at the end of 4.02!

i know we didn’t see imogene very much, but her outfit was very iconic. that hat!

sophie checking herself into an insane asylum and using her butler as human furniture like she’s tom wambsgans, asdjfa;lkdsjfal;skdfjaldka. never leave, sophie! you are hilarious to me!

please let joel and mei keep on being a thing instead of this show having its millionth midge/joel relapse. i really like the idea of joel eventually remarrying and midge never doing so (because her life partner is susie), and joel and mei’s dynamic is just so full of great storytelling opportunities.

that terrible dude at the club saying midge and susie are a cute couple is the most legit terrible dude since that random guy in the spring break episode of gilmore girls called paris rory’s girlfriend

yay i’m so excited this show is back!!!!!! see you friday, folks!

[calyxaomphalos]

The Ghosts of Windy Ridge

Turn 5 is the morning of day two. I rolled a three component turn, but got stuck on the item that's exactly what I need.

Location #2, the diner, I named Timmy's Diner. With a reaction roll of only a 2, I was not impressed.

Neighbor #12, human who is very spiritual/religious, was Suzy Dermer, a waitress, but she's also a deacon at the church.

2 April 2022, Saturday Morning

Having had such an unpleasant night at the church, I thought I'd go someplace where strangers are usually welcomed, the local diner. It was a bit further from the main highway than would make for a successful diner and it showed. Timmy's Diner looked to be about half full when I got there, so I didn't have to wait at all.

I took a booth by a window and started giving the menu the once-over. Pretty standard diner fare. I had visions of some French toast and bacon and some hot coffee. Before I'd even started to set the menu down, a young woman approached the table. She was probably in her late 20s with mouse-brown thin hair tied back in a sad ponytail. Her smile was big and bright, though, and she held a pot of coffee in one hand and an empty mug in the other.

"Coffee?" she asked cheerfully.

"Oh, yes, please and thank you," I replied.

"I LOVE your hair. Sorry if that's too forward or anything, but wow, we don't usually see something like that around here," she blurted out as she was pouring the coffee. Her enthusiasm was making up for the fact that the coffee smelled terrible.

"It's fine, really! I get a kick out of it when people enjoy the color. That's one of the reasons I do it. I mean, I enjoy it on myself first and foremost, but when others also like it, it's cool."

"D'ya need any cream? Are ya ready to order? Oh! I almost forgot! 'Hello, I'm Suzy and I will be your waitress today.'" She said the last bit with the tired tone of someone who has said that same thing a few dozen times a day, every day for the last several years. Then she cracked a big grin.

"Hi, Suzy, I'm Serren and I'm staying in Windy Ridge for the month, looking up the history of an old friend of mine, but first, no thanks on the cream, and I'll have some French toast and a side of bacon."

"Okie dokie! Let me put that in to get started and check on my other customers, but then I have to come back and hear more!" Susy jotted down my order and bustled off behind the counter. I gazed out the window for a bit, sipping the awful coffee. I'd added sugar, but it hardly helped to cut the bitterness.

A few minutes later, Suzy was back holding the coffee pot. "Refill for ya? Can you tell me about your friend?"

"No thanks on the coffee, though maybe more when the food is up. My friend passed away a few years ago, so I'm not sure you'd know him. His name was Mo Forrester."

Suzy's eyes lit up. "I've lived here my whole life and I for sure remember Mr. Forrester. He was a substitute teacher at the high school some times. He was great. I sure miss him."

Just then a loud, gruff voice barked from the kitchen. "SUZY! ORDER UP!"

"Don't let me get you in trouble. I'll be in town a while, hopefully we can talk another time!"

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

18. Skeleton

Buddy and Sammy find the “goldfish room” as the latter calls it, AKA the closet where Joey keeps his skeletons, literally. And in the process, Buddy learns about a few of the skeletons in Sammy’s metaphorical closet. (Set during ink hell, pre loop, post Buddy befriending the lost ones/searchers.)

The Prophet was a strange ally.

It was weird to work alongside someone who worships the guy who tore you in half and is the biggest reason why you’re stuck in a nightmarish, inescapable studio, especially when it wasn’t the nicest or friendliest person before getting claimed by the ink. (Although, as he thought back on it, had he ever met Sammy before it was claimed by the Ink?)

But ANY ally was better than an enemy, especially when that ally knows the studio better than anyone else down here. Besides, it seemed like the Ink man was either unaware of their past or didn’t even know who they used to be, and even if it did, it wasn’t angry about their past issues.

At the same time, working on scavenging trips with the former musician was a nightmare; it was way too tranquil about the situation, and there were too many weird murderous monsters that the wolf and gofer were aware of.

“I do not need to run, little wolf. I can evade these creatures without issue through my Lord’s gift.” The Prophet calmly stated as Buddy gestured confusion about why it didn’t run when the pair heard something that sounded suspiciously like the projectionist’s screams. “Besides, running through these halls is risky, I would be heard by those… more unsavory denizens of this studio and get ambushed by them.”

He wished his typewriter was quieter in instances like this, being able to type out ‘But what if you get caught by your lord?’ and other messages to hand to him without risking alerting the Ink Demon would be great. Or just having his voice back in general.

“If my Lord decides to send me back to the puddles, then it is his right to do so to prove I have changed.” He answered the unspoken question. “But it does mean that I have to work harder to get him to notice how much I have improved, get him to notice me…” 

‘Please don’t read my mind unless I give you the “go for it” gesture. It’s creepy otherwise.’

“My apologies, little wolf, while your thoughts come in quieter than everybody else’s… they’re still noticeable, especially when it’s just the two of us.”

Buddy hesitantly nodded and just tried to lead the Prophet out of the ransacked room to look for more stray supplies.

A few more hours of searching lead the pair to a locked room, something that experience told him meant that either it was another dead end or a hidden treasure trove of supplies, and not wanting to go back to the safe house empty handed, he was ready to roll those dice.

Buddy gestured for the Prophet to stand guard as he picked the door’s lock, and as the door slowly creaked open, he was thankful that he couldn’t speak because the scream that came out from his mouth would’ve been loud enough to alert every monster in the studio.

The former gofer felt sick to his stomach when he saw them. Piles upon piles of rotting, mangled, corpses. Human Corpses, not toony corpses like the other Borises or the butchered up members of the Butcher gang. Most of them were unrecognizable, partly because he had never seen most of these people in his life, and partly because they had decayed so much that what remained was hard to figure out who was who and what. The oldest corpses were nothing but skeletons and clothes, and the freshest one looked like…

...Like his own body.

“The goldfish room...” The prophet muttered loud enough for Buddy to hear, startling the poor pup out of his skin as he didn’t hear him enter behind him.

The wolf shuddered and continued to scour the room for anything worth the hassle of all of this. Boris wanted to take a few of the bones, which Buddy unenthusiastically obliged.

“Don’t eat those!” The Prophet interjected so loudly and harshly that it startled both the former gofer and the wolf toon. The ink creature’s anger was so much scarier with how rare it was to see now. “Especially not him! He’s my-” The Prophet stopped itself by covering its ‘mouth’ with its hands as if it was about to reveal a big secret and just took the skeletal arm out of Buddy’s hands and put it back where he found it. Its voice went back to it’s normal calm tone that reminded him of someone who was on the verge of falling asleep, but Buddy heard somberness in the musician’s pitch. “...they’re unclean...”

‘Prophet?’ Buddy gave him the “go ahead, read my mind” gesture. ‘Prophet, what is this place? Who are these people?’

“...You’ve seen your own corpse among them, correct?”

Buddy nodded.

“I know you’ve met Joey, but tell me; ...Has he ever called you ‘Henry’ before?”

‘Yes he has, but what does that have to do with…’ he gestured at the bodies on the floor ‘this?!’

“Henry’s been gone for a long time now.” The prophet stated, but there was a hint of recollection in his tone that weakened the calmness, and the more he talked, the more broken (for lack of a better term) his voice became. “Do you think that you were Joey’s first replacement goldfish? That after Henry left the studio, you were Joey’s only other other Henry?”

Buddy’s ears began ringing and he heard music; it was loud, distorted, fast-paced, and all over the place, the type of music that makes your heart pound out of your chest and makes your hackles stand up, the type of music that tells you to run, but doesn’t clue you in to where or why. The prophet’s body started to shake and tremble.

“The first Other-Henry was actually named Henry as well. And like his predecessor, was an excellent artist who really connected with the characters...”

‘Sammy? What’s going on? do you hear this too?!’

“But unlike Stein, Ross was a very stubborn person who refused to let anyone push him around, especially by either Joey or myself. Surprisingly, I liked that man, but he didn’t last long...”

Fear kept Buddy’s legs frozen to the ground as he covered his ears in a fruitless attempt to muffle the music, it felt like it was being played directly in his head, and then it clicked when the whispers started up, whispers in their tone, but not in volume, they were loud enough to drown out parts of what the Prophet was saying;

‘Sammy help us!’

“The next one was more like you, a younger, less experienced and more skittish person, his first name was ‘Lawrence’ so everyone called him ‘Larry’ to avoid confusion...”

‘Sammy, where are you?’

“...But he was also too nosy for that poor boy’s own good.”

‘you’re too weak!’

“The one after that was a scatterbrained fellow, very passionate about his work but didn’t focus very much on one topic or another...”

The Prophet’s monologue was completely drowned out by the music and chorus of desperate and angry “Other Henries” at this point. Buddy knew he was still talking because of the musician’s gestures, but didn’t hear a single word out of him. 

‘Saaaaaammyyyyyyy....’ ‘You’re such a spineless coward...’ ‘Sammy please save us..!’ ‘Why did you let Joey kill us?’ ‘The ink... it’s so cold...’ ‘No wonder Susie hates you so much...’ ‘Sammy, please! It hurts!’ ‘Why did you let us die?’ ‘Why won’t you help us?’ ‘You’re no better than Joey.’ ‘Sammy, help us!’ ‘I thought you loved me...’ ‘Sammy, help us!’ ‘You promised me that you’d always be there!’ ‘Sammy, help us!’ ‘They were right about you...’ ‘Sammy, help us!’ ‘Saaaaaammyyyyyyy....’

He knew that the lost ones, searchers and Prophet could hear each others’ thoughts, but didn’t understand what that was like until now that he was hearing Sammy’s thoughts. No wonder most of them were always so depressed and on edge...

‘Sammy?’ the gofer shook Sammy gently, only to hear his own voice join the chorus of other Henries as one of the ones who sounded like he was mad at him. ‘Sammy, snap out of it!’ he shook the Prophet harder, still not waking the Ink creature out of its trance. ‘SAMMY!’ Doing the first thing that came to mind out of desperation, Buddy slapped the mask clean off of it.

The music and voices died as if they were a candle light snuffed out by the wind.

For a few seconds that felt more like hours, Buddy and Sammy stared at each other in silence before Sammy put its mask back on as if nothing happened and led the toon wolf out of the goldfish room, took a key out of its pocket and locked it behind them.

-----

Back in the safe house, Buddy started up a pot of bacon soup, the stuff tasted a little bit better when it was hot while Sammy tuned the banjo in the dining area and Dot tried to stir up conversation.

“So... how did the supply run go?”

“Fine.”

Buddy involuntarily let out a snort as he took the soup off the stove and took out his typewriter.

[It was the scariest one we’ve ever done so far.

While looking around for stuff, we ended up in this place S The Prophet called ‘the Goldfish room’ and it was filled with dead bodies. HUMAN dead bodies. And mine was in the pile! I couldn’t tell if it was haunted or if it was just the prophet’s thoughts going]

“Little wolf, I do not wish to think about that room again...”

[Sorry.]

The wolf sheepishly put the typewriter to the side and poured the soup into bowls. As the toon and lost one ate, the prophet mostly just stared into his bowl as if he was watching something in it.

“...Before my enlightenment, I was not a good person.” The masked musician stated unprompted.

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t an evil person per say, and I wouldn’t go as far as to call the man I used to be a monster.” He sighed and adjusted his mask. “But I was certainly a bad person, an asshole, a coward who hid behind physical strength, and I had more vices than virtues.”

[Prophet, what are you talking about?]

“I’m trying to answer the questions I know you have before either of you two pester them out of me. Maybe when you’re sated my Lord will allow me to forget again.”

[Are you sure? you seemed really upset back ...there.]

“Well look at it this way, maybe getting it off your chest will help you feel better about it?”

“I suppose...” The prophet sighed again.

“So what does you being a crackhead before finding the Ink Demon Religion have to do with a room full of dead bodies?”

“Dorthy!”

“...I’ll just listen before asking anything else.”

“Thank you.” It readjusted its mask. “Now where was I...” it hummed to itself for a bit before speaking again, with venom slowly but surly pooling into its words. “I had more vices than virtues, and Joey could see all of both, using my virtues to his advantage, and using my vices against myself, he did everything he could to keep me from leaving him too, and it worked.”

The prophet took in a deep breath to stabilize itself.

“Every time I tried to leave, he did something else to make me stay; ‘I love you’s turned to gifts, gifts to false promises, false promises to threats, threats to blackmail, blackmail to going through with it, and when he felt me slipping through his fingers he turned to taking advantage of my addictions... That... monster was a parasite in all aspects except physically... And I didn’t even notice until I might as well have been a walking corpse as I was seeing others march to my fate, but I couldn’t even so much as squeak out a warning without Joey swooping in on his behalf. Some Henries, heads of the art department, didn’t need to be warned by me as they found out what would await them and fled. But Joey didn’t like that... When I tried to warn the ones who needed to be warned, it was easy for him to dismiss me as a loon, a drunk, and an addict, until eventually I just gave up. I couldn’t even save myself, let alone anyone else... let alone the other art departments...”

“...I just stopped trying to keep Joey from leading the sheep to the slaughter, maybe they’re right to be angry at me for being such a coward...”

It then turned to face the wolf and put its hand on his shoulder.

“You’ve asked yourself if you’ve ever met me before the Ink had claimed me, as for that, I don’t know, nor do I think it matters, Buddy. I was nothing but a shallow and beaten husk of myself long before I even had tasted the ink. Even if you met me before then, you only met a ghost, not a person.”

The three then stayed in silence for a while before the clicks of Buddy’s typewriter caught the other two’s attention.

[Well, if it helps you any I think you’re not as bad of a person as you tell yourself you used to be.]

“And I don’t need to hear everyone’s thoughts to know that you’ve really stepped up to the plate when it counted. I don’t think a coward would try to do have the stuff you’re doing now.”

“Thanks you two” The Prophet’s voice cracked with emotion. “That... that really means a lot to me.”

[mythicamagic]

“We’re not just friends and you fucking know it.”

Susie you sent so many! Bahaha, I might do some others of yours but otherwise this might be the ask I do out of the ones you sent lolol 

Put under a ‘read more’ for length

---

There wasn't much that could rattle Kagome Higurashi.

She remained adaptable, resolute, and forthright throughout most stressful situations, having stepped up to the plate to assist Mama with housework and babysitting after her father had died. She could experience surprise, sure. Mock tests could throw her until she dug her heels in. A guy could ask her out and she'd recover soon enough- slap away a non-consensual kiss or thigh grab easily.

But bone-shaking, heart-stopping, crippling shock? To be blind-sighted by complacency? Only one demon proved capable of doing that.

"Why does it not surprise this one to find you still emerged knee-deep in the fossils of the past, Kagome?" the syllables of her name slip-free in a quiet, resonant baritone.

Kagome jolted, stiffening. Gradually turning within the museum hallway- caught between alarm and confusion- her breath halted.

Gone were his golden eyes and the silver stream of long hair. Instead, he wore contacts, hair short, black and slightly tousled from the wind. Despite all this, if Kagome relaxed her eyes- she could see the suggestion of glamour hazing his appearance, a murky white outline around his hair hinting at its true colour.

Sesshoumaru's cold, handsome face was practically unchanged. Perhaps there were the faintest shifts- his body appearing slightly more built, features just a tad older in the firm line of his jaw.

He presented her with a small potted plant, since he knew she hated cut flowers. The seriousness with which he offered the tiny white flowering bulb almost made her smile, almost. "Congratulations on graduating."

"Thanks," she said automatically, unable to stop staring. She cautiously accepted the gift, skin managing to avoid his touch as though it were a live-wire. "How'd you hear about that?"

"Your mother told me."

"O-oh," she blinked, realising he must've gone to her house first before tracking her down at work. Kagome swallowed, conflicting feelings arising. Shaking them off, she drew her shoulders back and turned flippantly to stride down the hall. "So how’s things? Nice weather we’re having, huh?"

“It has been a long time, miko,” his voice turned solemn, filled with something inexplicable as he followed, keeping pace easily. Kagome pretended not to hear the silky reverence in his tone. “Is there not anything more...substantial, we could be discussing?”

She hummed, “less than five-hundred years isn’t so long.”

“The centuries dragged. I felt every day as though it were a month.”

“I’m sure your mate kept you occupied.”

“This one would not know, I never mated.”

Kagome stiffened, grinding her teeth. “Oh,” she muttered. The life she’d pictured for him fell away, crumbling into ash. Somehow she wasn’t comforted by it.

"You have a boyfriend,” he rumbled, a statement not a question.

"Mama told you that too?" Kagome asked, walking to an exhibit and setting the plant down in favour of gathering her notes, expecting another round of kids fresh off the bus to arrive at any minute.

"No, the hickey on your neck that you've tried to hide with make-up served as enough evidence," he pointed out, vaguely amused.

She reddened a touch, tugging her collar up self-consciously. "Observant as always.”

"It is only a recently acquired skill. Looking back, this one was quite blind during our time together," he hummed. "Lack of experience. I understand plenty now. Would you care for coffee? Strictly platonic, of course."

"... I don't think that's such a good idea, do you?" Kagome gripped her papers tight. "I wouldn’t appreciate my boyfriend meeting up for coffee with an ex."

Sesshoumaru’s eyes glinted, smiling slightly. "And you would not lie by telling him we were friends," his gaze warmed as though savouring something, sweeping ageless attention over her with a lingering, intimate air that made her remember warm lazy mornings spent in his arms.

Kagome’s hands tightened further, crumpling the organised papers, fingers shaking. “We’re not just friends and you fucking know it.”

He exhaled, voice soft. "You have not changed."

Her heel drew back, tucking the notes under her arm. Sweaty palms smoothed over her neat blue pencil skirt and blouse. Six years wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough time to get over him. 

“Guess not,” she dismissed, refusing to give a snippet of passion. But the acid was there, simmering beneath her tongue. She couldn’t help but glance at him. “...Feels like a waste; you not even mating a pureblood. I thought it meant a lot to you.”

“Pureblooded heirs meant a lot to me,” Sesshoumaru clarified. He stepped closer, and Kagome shuddered, moving back to maintain distance. 

Noticing this, the demon stopped. Regret hazed his carefully arranged expression, before he inclined his head, dark bangs hanging forward. “This one did not intend to open old wounds, miko.”

“Then what did you want?” her voice shook. 

“To show that I have...changed. It was foolish of me to let you go.”

“You were just upholding your beliefs. It’s not like you ever said you wanted Hanyou kids, I just assumed you’d be fine with it since we were fucking,” Kagome bit out. “Of course, getting your kicks and actually raising half-breeds are two totally different things. I shouldn’t have figured you were over your bigotry- that I’d solved anything by being a really good lay.”

“This Sesshoumaru was wrong-”

“Well lucky you, I didn’t get pregnant during our magical time together, so we dodged a bullet there. It was just miscommunication. A young relationship. I’m over it.”

She didn’t feel over it. 

"Look, you've seen me. Can that just be enough? Let’s end it here.”

Sesshoumaru moved closer, gazing at her fervently. He opened his mouth to say more, before it clicked shut, jaw clenching. "If that is what you wish."

"Yep, I'm super busy," Kagome pretended to check her watch, not registering in the time. 

"I have an office downtown," he shifted. "If you need a 'non-friend' I am easy enough to find," pausing as he turned- Sesshoumaru slowly reached out. He tucked the tag down at the back of her blouse that had stuck up slightly at the back of her collar. "Some habits are hard to kick, hm?" he uttered softly. He'd used to do the same thing all the time whenever she’d worn modern clothes in the feudal era. 

Back when she'd been his.

Kagome’s breath shuddered. "I'm not going to come to your office.”

"Perhaps that is a good idea," a tempting mouth hovered close to her ear. "Otherwise there would be no witnesses to save you, and I'd have to demonstrate the full extent of how much I've missed you, Kagome," his voice barely contained the purr of longing that rolled out between them as he pulled away. Sesshoumaru then turned. He took his leave silently and regally, like nothing had happened. 

As though he hadn’t just sauntered in and shattered her all over again.

[roiscrying]

THE WAY I LOVED YOU - draco malfoy x hufflepuff reader

Inspired by/based on Taylor Swift’s the way i loved you

words: 2.1k

warnings: swearing??

Draco sat crossing his chest as he stared at the other boys in the room. For Muggle studies they had gotten to take a trip into the Muggle world and him, being the only Slytherin boy in the class, was paired up with Cedric and a Hufflepuff in his year who he had yet to bother to learn the name of. He understood the logic, as the Hufflepuffs were annoying, but they didn’t get on his nerves as much as the rest of the houses. That was except for Diggory, “You know Y/N is in the room right next to us” the other Hufflepuff spoke up, Draco shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the girl’s name. Her being of course, the reason he so strongly disliked being put in the same room as Diggory. Who really would want to room with the person their ex moved on from them with, especially when it was not just any ex, it was Y/N.

“Yes and” 

“Would anyone really find out if we used that new spell to-”

“To listen to their conversation?”

“Exactly,”

“Justin I don’t know if that’s the brightest idea” Draco grunted in agreement,

“You just don’t want to hear Y/N talk about Cedric, Malfoy, someone jealous”

“No,” he responded a bit too quickly, “I just don’t want to get in trouble” the boy, Justin scoffed, “fine, do it, but i’m not taking the blame when you two geniuses get caught” he regretted the words almost as soon as they left his mouth but his pride stopped him from taking them back. With a quick mumble of words a mirror-like object appeared and hovered in the air, giving them access to see and listen to the room next door. you sat along with two other Hufflepuff girls, Susan Bones and Hannah Abott, who also happened to be your two closest friends. Your conversation was uninteresting for the boys for several minutes, discussing trivial topics and cracking inside jokes, so much so that Justin was about to end the spell when Susan piped up, 

“Sooooo, what is it like dating Cedric” all three boys started intently listening. 

~~~~~~~~~

You let out a soft laugh, a gentle blush reaching your cheeks, 

“Well, he is sensible and so incredible-” 

“Uhg I’m so Jealous”  Susan groaned making you laugh again, a bigger smile spreading across your features,

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wanting nothing more than to just slap the growing grin off of Diggory’s face.

“He says everything I need to hear and it's like I couldn't ask for anything better” the girls in the room squealed and a pillow was thrown from Hannah hitting Susan in the face as she spoke up, 

“What was your date like, tell me everythingggg” 

“Well, he opened every door, and he kissed my hand and he said, ‘you look beautiful tonight’ and I felt perfectly fine” you paused taking a deep breath and looking tentatively towards the other girls,

The hesitance apparent in your voice and features caused Draco to sit up slightly, sure it was foolish to think she would miss him, but part of him still had hope that you missed him even half as much as he missed you.  

“Well?” Hannah spoke up,

“What is it Y/N,”

 “Uhg this is going to sound so stupid but if I’m honest, I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain when it's 2 a.m. and I was cursing his name, when I was so so in love that I acted insane, that's the way I loved him” Susan let out a loud gasp which earned her another smack in the face with a pillow by Hannah, 

“What was that” you remarked as soon as the girl had entered the common room and could no longer hear the two. 

“What was what Y/N”

“You know what I am talking about”

“I don’t believe I do” you sighed incredulously, 

“You just told someone that I was obsessed with you and wouldn’t leave you alone?” you scoffed shaking your head, “you are incredible” you spat

“Y/N, you’re being unreasonable, you know why I had to do that”

“Unreasonable Draco?” You laughed bitterly, “Don’t turn this on me Draco,”

“Why are you acting like this Y/N-”

“Why am I acting like this?” you shook your head again, “Do you even realize what you are saying? It’ ‘unreasonable '’ to be mad at my boyfriend for saying that I’m just some girl who is obsessed with you and won't leave you alone? Unbelievable. Actually, very believable. Nothing is ever your fault.”

“Y/N not now-”

“Not now Draco? Am I inconveniencing you?”

“Y/N that’s not what I meant-”

“What did you mean then?” The boy sputtered for answers as you turned on your heel and walked away, you weren't done with the conversation, but you knew he would follow, or at least you hoped he would, some strange part of you wanted to know that he cared enough about you to follow you. 

“Y/N wait” you heard the boy running behind you and you picked up your pace until you reached the quad, immediately taking notice of the pouring rain that seemed to always accompany their arguments,

“I’m so sick and tired of this Draco” Y/N yelled as she turned to look at him, pulling your robes tighter over your body as she felt the rain instantly beginning to soak through your clothes. 

“Y/N please” the boy begged, 

“Draco why can't we be like everyone else, I’m tired of being your little secret”

“Y/N you know why,”

“But I don’t understand! I don’t care what people will say, that doesn’t mean anything!”

“Y/N I know this is new to you, but it's different when-” the words came out harsher than he intended,

“It’s different when what Draco? When you have a reputation to uphold? Draco this is what I mean, if I’m not worth ‘tainting’ your reputation or whatever the hell you think will happen then we shouldn’t be together at all”

“Y/N you don’t mean that”

“But I do. You’re really prioritizing what people think of you over me?” You let out a bitter laugh, “one great boyfriend” you remarked sarcastically, “I’m done with this bullshit, having to act like we’re something we’re not. You need to choose right now, your superficial reputation, or me” your voice had become hoarse from the amount you had been screaming. You felt her heart break as he stayed silent, closing her eyes as you felt tears slip out, “I guess I know your answer then” the sound of the rain was loud enough you didn’t hear him approaching and jumped slightly as you felt him gently take your hands into his, 

“If you think for a second that I wouldn’t pick you-” the boy paused, “You are the best thing that's ever happened to me Y/N,”

“Then prove it,” you whispered and in an instant his hands were around her body closing the space between them and pressing his lips against hers. Your eyes stayed shut as you smiled softly returning the kiss only pulling away when your lungs burned and you needed to take a breath, “No more hiding?”

“No baby, all of Hogwarts will know you’re mine baby girl”

Draco let a small smirk appear on his face at your remark, raising an eyebrow at Cedric who had turned to the boy. His face had obviously dropped from it’s previous smirk. 

“Shut it Susie-” With that the girls were silent again, now both listening intently to you pour your heart out,

“Uhg I’m so lost because Cedric, he respects my space and never makes me wait and he calls exactly when he says he will. He's close to my mother, and talks business with my father. He's charming and endearing and I'm comfortable”

“Butttt”

“Even breakin' down and coming undone, it was a roller-coaster kinda rush,” you let out another sigh  “And I, I never knew I could feel that much, but that's the way I loved him” you jumped up so you were standing on your bed, leaning dramatically against the wall behind you, “It’s not that Cedric isn’t amazing and everything a girl could ever want, but it's just,” you sighed looking down at the girls who had moved to sit on the edge of your bed, “He can't see the smile I'm faking.”

“Oh Y/N,” Hannah spoke up sympathetically,

“But my heart's not breaking 'cause I'm not feeling anything at all. Draco was wild and crazy, just so frustrating,” you groaned flopping back down, your tone more wistful when you spoke up again , “intoxicating, complicated, he got away by some mistake” she trailed off 

Over the past few days since the winter break ended Draco had been super distant, constantly avoiding you or making up excuses not to talk to you. It had been a few days by the time you finally were able to catch him alone. He was hunched over with his head in his hands in a corner of the library. You had just sat down when her eyes flicked over his arm and noticed something, you danced around the issue trying to make small talk with him but finally fed up with his short dismissive answers you decided just to address it,

“What is that Draco,” you snapped. You knew very well what it was, but nothing in you wanted to believe it was true. 

“I-I,”

“I thought you were different Draco,” 

“I-I, I had no choice”

“Bullshit” the words left your mouth before you could stop it, the feeling of betrayal too clear in your mind to let you think straight, “wasn’t it you who told me even in the most dire situations you always have a choice”

“Y/N I didn’t mean this”

“I really believed you Draco, I thought you loved me, you were using me weren’t you,”

“Y/N I was not, I never lied about anything I-”

“Oh really,”

“I never lied about my feelings for you Y/N, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me”

“You really expect me to believe you Draco? When you have a dark mark on your arm”

“Y/N please” his voice broke. His words were true, he had no choice, and he cared more about you than anyone else in his life, he would do anything for you. But you wouldn’t listen to him,

“I don’t want to hear it Draco, we’re done” you said plainly, trying to ignore everything in your heart telling you to hear him out, to comfort him, to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

You made a mistake, you knew it, but then there was Cedric, a sweet boy in your house who was nothing but kind towards you, he was perfect, but that was the problem. He was too perfect, you didn’t have the same fire and chemistry that came so easily with you and Draco, the conversations never flowed as smoothly, the kisses weren’t as passionate, you didn’t want to admit it, but he just was missing something, he wasn’t Draco. You had envisioned a life with Draco, you could see yourself walking down the aisle to him, there was something missing from Cedric where you could never let yourself daydream to that point. He was nice, a good guy but there was something missing. 

Draco was broken after you broke up with him, he felt as if a piece of himself was missing, something he hadn’t realized he needed until you were there, and something he realized he hadn’t appreciated enough when you were there. 

“And now, I miss our screaming and fighting and kisses in the rain when it's 2 a.m. and I was cursing his name, when I was so so in love that I acted insane, because that's the way I loved him” 

“Breakin' down and coming undone,” Hannah spoke up earning a nod from you,

“It's that roller-coaster kinda rush,”

“I never knew I could feel that much, but that's the way I loved him”

“You should tell him,”

“He probably hates me now, I can’t believe I let myself-”

“You were shocked Y/N,”

“I just, Cedric is an amazing guy, he’s everything anyone could ever need, but he’s not what I want, or who.”

Cedric let out a heavy sigh and looked back towards Draco. He sat frozen, eyes showing some sort of disbelief and longing, as much as he hated it, he knew what had to be done. 

“I think I’m going to break up with him” your voice spoke freezing everyone in both rooms, “I can’t keep leading him on like this, I don’t want to use him,”

[dorminchu]

Manipulated Living: Chapter 1

Fandom: Deltarune Characters: Kris, Noelle, Susie, Ralsei Rating: G | PG Summary: Push Susie away, she'll be mad for a couple days and eventually come around. Ralsei welcomes a threat with open arms, and like your mom, he's too-quick to forgive.

If you lose Noelle, you're never getting her back.

In Real Life, Susie clears a path for herself down the school hall. The other kids never meet your eyes with a genuine smile. There's always that tinge of concern. Friendly, but definitely not going to invite you over for study sessions without parental intervention.

You're almost old enough to get a job at the diner, like Catti.

Up 'til your latest adventure in the spare classroom, Susie was the only one who bullied you with any gravitas. Reporting her to the teacher, she'll only ramp up her efforts. You've never gotten in a real fight, besides the occasional wrestling match with Asriel. You've seen Susie in plenty of fights down here. She isn't going to pull any punches.

It's not a big deal. Susie's never actually hit you before. When she threatens to shove you into your locker, or that one time she threw the apple at your head, you didn't really hold it against her. It's probably the most attention anyone gives her, all day. It's easy to hold a grudge against your own reflection.

You lack your brother's animal magnetism, so you make up for it the only way you can. Visiting dad on the weekends, you bring home his bouquets, even though they'll end up in the trash. When you visit Mr. Holiday at the hopsital every afternoon, it's not just for his sake.

In Real Life, between Ms. Alphys and brushing off Susie and Berdly and a hundred other distractions more important than your company, she's not your friend. She's something else.

There are a million selfish motivators behind each act of kindness.

She told you once, that she likes being scared. Even if she doesn't remember telling you this time. Even if she'd probably get along fine with Susie on a Ferris Wheel, and Susie could use a friend of her own, somehow you'll always get left behind.

You're standing with her right now, in the alley. You're grown so used to the distant traffic, now the quiet swallows you both, you can hear your own pulse. As Noelle slides the ThornRing onto her hand, she's tensed up. At first, you think it's a little too small for her hand. Past the first knuckle, she bites back a cry.

Without thinking, you drop your sword and grasp her wrist. Noelle flinches.

The thorns have dug into her flesh.

You watch the ashy substance run down her hand. It's not quite liquid but thinner than ketchup. It soaks the fur around her paw and gently smudges your skin like graphite. Monsters don't bleed like you do.

She tries to speak but only manages the first syllable of your name.

You look up. Her eyes, welling with unshed tears, find yours.

Something in your throat tightens.

You let go her hand and turn away before she can speak. Always thinking of others before herself. There's a part of Noelle, buried beneath a veneer of good intentions, that's a lot closer to Mr. Holiday's other half. You've seen it sometimes, when she talks to Catti at her locker or whenever her dad laughs off your concern and it turns into another coughing fit. You see it now, in the clench of her muzzle, this icy sheet of finality in her eyes.

"I'm fine," she says, forcing the brightness into her tone. "You shouldn't worry so much."

You've nurtured your childhood friend into someone else. A pale imitation of her sister. If you sit down with her in this alley and offer to bind her hand she'll just push you away. A rejection that's final, and a million times worse than any boisterous declaration of rivalry or unearned forgiveness. It's something Susie has yet to grasp and Berdly doesn't ever grasp until it's too late.

Push Susie away, she'll be mad for a couple days and eventually come around, punch your shoulder and offer to. Ralsei is more emotionally intelligent, but he's more of a kid than you sometimes. He welcomes a threat with open arms, and like your mom, he's too-quick to forgive.

If you lose Noelle, you're never getting her back.

She walks beside you, just out of arm's reach. She's cradling her injured hand in the other. The sleeve of her robe smudged.

Berdly is waiting a few blocks ahead.

Maybe this time will be different.

[organdon3r]

The ink demonth: EVERY. DAY. OF. THE. MONTH. :')

TW//character death, description of body (skeleton), (unspecified) character vomiting

Characters: Sammy Lawrence, Joey Drew, Jack Fain, Norman Polk, Thomas Conner, Shawn Flynn, Alice Angel/Susie, unspecified employees

Mentioned characters: Henry, Susie, Buddy/Daniel, Wally

Word count: 1155

Sentence count: 25

Character count: 6407

Reading level: college (student)

Pride can lead to wealth, it can lead to an amazing family - an amazing life..but sometimes you're so caught up in yourself everything turns twisted, laughing at you in the face; making you watch all those happy moments tear apart on repeat like they're playing on an everlasting reel. All your friends, side by side, staring at you body whilst you're knee deep in your own mistakes.

It's funny how so much can be ruined in so little time, just like the studio. It's like survival for the fittest just a hell lot more difficult..whether you're part of a colossal wonder, or your face is a mystery to many, you are never truly safe..those who died always rise though, that's when their true personalities shine through the veil they wore.

"We've all been waiting, the battle may well have been messy, but trust me..for the smoke that has held us back this far has been taken away..today is the day!"

A figure stood up on the box, a mask hiding his face whilst multiple black creatures - made of ink - surrounded him

"The only god that will be appeased today is my lord..the one who will set us free.."

Let's go back about 30 years, Heavenly toys. Shawn Flynn sat at a stool, a doll of Alice Angel in his hand and a paintbrush in the other.

"Y'see, I don't see the point in these Alice Angel whatchamacallits! Yes she's a nice character, that's all I'll say positive, but they ain't sellin'!"

His Irish accent rang about the room

"It's like we're in this stupid play of Joey's! Trapped inside of a glass box whilst he watches!-..uh..y..yeah?.."

Shawn froze, his own heartbeat was what he thought his ears heard..but it wasn't. That man knew his own beat from the rest, and that wasn't his..a shiver went up his spine as he was almost in a trance; walking towards the room, which was built for Alice Angel, Flynn opened the door and gasped: in the centre of the room was the skeletal body of Alice - her matted black hair covering her face. She hummed a tune which played as soon as the female character was created and voiced.

"A- Alice! You're lookin'..pretty today-..u- uh Alice-?..Aaalic- OH MY GOD!!-"

Shawn screamed as the skeletal, twisted, angel lunged at him - the door slammed shut alerting fellow GENT worker Thomas Conner and a bunch of other Toy department employees. Tom let out a huff as he pushed past the crowd of people, all thinking this place was haunted - I mean, they weren't wrong! As the door creaked open on the floor was the body of Shawn Flynn, ink mixed with blood dripping off of the wall next to the door and the worker's heart missing out of his chest; his eyes lifeless, like his soul had been sucked out of his body. There was an array of mutters, people vomiting and some even ran away in fear; there was the few who stayed quiet and stared whilst the rest started to cry out of shock.

"What kind of sinner would do this!?"

An employee cried out, covering their mouth whilst Thomas stepped into the room - cautiously looking around incase the murderer was still present. Nobody was there..that was until there was a quiet giggle behind the glass - the light turned on as a voice, starting off it was angelic and beautiful.

"I just want to be a beautiful angel…I want to make it to heaven….but..the things I've done aren't redeemable…yet it's all worth it..for beauty!"

The voice, once again, laughed - it danced around the room; hitting all those near. There was an electrical crackle as the power turned out; then the sound of a vent slamming open..and then a scream, the voice similar to Thomas'..and it was: his body flew into the wall, thudding against it. Before the attacker could do anything the lights flickered back on as Joey Drew, the great dreamer, stood in the doorway; at that point everyone finally felt somewhat safe in the light.

Word about the death and attack spread around the studio fast - people trying to work out who the voice belonged to and why they would do it, some thought of Susie but she was too sweet for that!

"WALLACE..FRANKS."

A voice yelled out - bursting out of his office, half covering in ink, his blonde hair now stained black.

The Projectionist, Norman Polk, leant against the border in his projector booth - watching his coworker storm in, throwing his papers on the composing stand

"Pipe burst again Samuel?"

He asked, chuckling at the male who glared at him

"Listen, Lawrence, I'd be careful around Mr Drew - I heard he's been spreading some lies 'bout this being a ^safe haven^ for all employees.."

Sammy rolled his eyes, responding in a snarky tone

"Yeah yeah Norman, I know you think you see the 'full picture' but you don't know the true image..anyways I'm heading into the sewers to get some of these papers to Jack..seeing as Joey's gopher has lost his footing and gotten lost somewhere I have to manage more jobs.."

The man walked off, walking past the surprisingly empty Infirmary and into the sewers. The ink went up to his knees like mud - reaching his musical partner's desk he tapped Jack on the shoulder. The male jumped a little, looking back at Sammy and smiling:

"Oh! Sam! Hey are those for me..? I could've just gotten them myself: I just finished my papers!"

His voice was optimistic and vibrant, poor thing didn't even know what was happening - so Sammy decided to hint at being a little more cautious than he was already

"Listen..Jack, um, if I were you I wouldn't talk to Joey for awhile..just give me the papers… trust me.."

The music director muttered in his friend's ear who, looked completely confused but, nodded

"Yeah, okay Sam, whatever ya say pal!..eh, seeing as you offered I got these to take to Bossman - mind if you-?"

Samuel smiled, but didn't answer, instead he took the papers - no questions asked.

Getting out of the sewers he struggled to do yet trying to get to Joey's office was more of a struggle: the administration office is a maze and of course Mr Drew's had to be in the heart of it! By the time Lawrence had made it he was exhausted, still he opened the door - straightening himself up

"Hhh..Mr...Drew?"

He looked around the office, before bumping into Joey who shoved a book into his hands; the music director stumbled back, shifting the papers to one hand and putting the book in his other

"Sir..what is this..?"

Joey laughed - taking the papers from Sammy, each page noting on each employee. Himself, Joey, Henry, Buddy, Susie…it went on and on!

"THAT, my dear Lawrence…is the illusion of living

AAAAHHH

Two days this took (surprisingly)

But I'm proud of it!

Yes, there's a lot of moving around but I'm happy!

(Ink demonth hosted by @halfusek)

[rosepetalwings]

Oh I'm More Than Glad To Talk About Deeprune

ok so lets run through the au in sections

DEEPRUNE

Story:

The cast are now all mythological mermaid/siren creatures.

The Light World is the epipelagic zone (and upper half of mesopelagic zone) of the ocean and live in ignorance of the strange creatures that look as they do in the twilight below...

Dark World is mid-mesopelagic and below, full of frightening sea creatures those so blessed to live in sea reef coral homes could never hope to fathom... and should never hope to meet.

One day, one of the 4 kings of the ocean basins drew help from a powerful, unknown force and imprisoned his peers at the bottom of the deep sea trenches... And to this day, he rules his little area, biding his time for the day the Dark can take over the Light.

That is, of course, unless a very human looking siren, a sea crocodile tough girl, a bioluminscent jellyfish(?) fluffy boy, and a villainous... cloaked hybrid thing can fulfill a very familiar prophecy...

Locations:

Light Zone

Hometown - A bright and cheerful coral reef with a good amount of merfolk in the community.

School ‐ Building constructed out of stone and hidden amongst normal marine foliage and coral. Normal congregations of school akin to what the land-dwellers (or terrans, as the merfolk might call them) do for their own children.

Hospital ‐ Made in the same way as the school and serves the same function as its land counterpart. The hospital does have different instruments to serve its marine patients, however.

QC's diner - Hidden under a rock shelf and is more of an open seating arrangement. Fan coral serves as a sort of decorative barrier to keep the seating plan from being too open.

ICEE's p"e"zzeria - Incredibly conspicuous and placed between the brightest coral on the reef for the attention-grabbing colors. High visibility means free advertising, no?

The Graveyard - In a clearing among the kelp forest, there lies a set of engraved stones covered in algae. It's especially quiet there. Peaceful when you focus on the sunlight filtering in through the kelp stalks.

The bunker - Placed just before the continental shelf begins to fall off into complete and utter darkness. The merfolk in town warn their children to never near that area.

Dark Zone

????? - A craggy mess of rocks on the outskirts of the continental shelf. The light begins to grow strange here for whatever reason...

Castle Town - A shipwreck amongst the craggy rocks in the dark where a strangely kind shadowy figure lives.

Field - A seemingly endless stretch of ocean in which a Lightner's vision alone cannot be used to find one's way in the dark, lest they be horribly lost until the end of time. Or lest they stray further down, where it grows darker, yet darker...

The Scarlet Forest - Not really a forest, per se. More a jestful remark over the collection of sea creatures that have evolved to have a red tone to their skin as camouflage in the watery depths. The creatures are so very frightening and strange with their sharp-toothed open maws and flashy photophores. Strange to think how normal this all is down in the depths...

Great Board - The inlets and caves that checker the continental slope and house very many deep sea merfolk. Very many large tunnels dug out to house many of the population and keep them interconnected as a society. Alas, this stationary grouping also makes them vulnerable to the power of kingly apex predators.

The Castle - Hidden within the depths of the Mariana Trench. None of the Board have seen the castle in such grave depths and lived to tell the tale. None but a strange barreleye and his hyper young ward...

Characters:

Lightners

Kris - A mostly human-shaped siren, save for fishy bits, including but not limited to, gills and an iridescent shine to their hair. Always sneaking off to play tricks on unsuspecting beach goers. Kind of a quiet kid but their mischievous grin says it all for them.

Susie - A rude, rough-and-tumble kind of sea crocodile gill girl that does not appreciate nautical wordplay. She will appreciate your lunch money, though.

Noelle - The most nervous kelpie you'll ever meet. Easily provoked but she's very sweet and intelligent and perhaps she's a shade dorky, but it's through that dorkiness she'll find a way to make you smile.

Asriel - Sweet and effortlessly loveable and smart and talented capricorn brother to Kris who's just gone off to do independent study in a different sea basin! He's coming back to town next week; Kris seems a little downcast as of late, though...

Alphys - Marine iguana teacher at the reef's local school. Please don't ask her for her reviews on neat human media she's managed to salvage, we'll be here all week.

Undyne - The undying undine on everyone's minds! ...Because she's likely tried to tackle you for minor offenses like littering or jay-swimming in the humdrum life of this little reef town. She's somewhat of a vigilante, working by her own judicial metrics and warning the reef of any terran sightings or other such troubles. Not much to report on though, these days...

Toriel & Asgore - The capricorn divorcees. Haven't you heard; the news has spread all over the place! What a shame too, they looked just like the perfect reef family...

Sans and Papyrus - The strange brothers that just moved into the reef... Coelacanth merfolk with mottled, skeletal appearances. The shorter brother "runs" the reef market. ...If you can get a fin in the door, anyway. The taller one hasn't made much of a public appearance in town yet; hard to comment on him.

Darkners

Ralsei - The prince of the prophesy, as well as the bringer of Light to the Dark, as symbolized through his charmed hat and cloak, to make him appear as though he is but a jellyfish that sways with the currents. Seems to be as soft in personality as a jellyfish's bell though.

Lancer - A hooded, mischievous figure that's always up to no good. It's kind of hard to tell what he is, with his short, stubby tentacles and furry, webbed paws, but he's kind of too adorable and personable to care much about it. Popular vote's on dumbo octopus though.

Rouxls - A vigilant barreleye with his haunting eyes always to the sky in search of tributes to pay his king or danger from which to protect the child of a royal bloodline he's been entrusted to care for. He's ditzy and kind of an asshole, but deep down, he's got a good SOUL... that glows through his transparent chest.

Seam - Ah? Looking for wares? Seam's will definitely have something to cure what ails you. The old anglerfish sits behind the shop counter, items lit only by the faint light of small jellies and the wisened shopkeep's lantern-like forehead protrusion. Go for the low prices and stay for the enchanting tales.

Jevil - A laugh sounds in the dark before you could ever approach his cell. He's nothing but needle teeth smiles when he explains to you the nature of the game. Numbers game. Must be a couple of sharks to have gotten down there in the first place. And this freed jester wouldn't have it any other way - sharks to goblin shark.

King - He is, by all accounts, imperceivable. He is larger than life and covered in shifting, writhing appendages that do not keep the shape you once thought them to be, no matter how hard you attempt to keep your focus on any point of his form. He is Leviathan, and the fact that you are before him means that you are incredibly fucked.

Knight - [REDACTED]

PREVIOUS DRAWINGS

Rouxls and a mysterious man

Unmasked Lancer

okay... i think that's about it! don't be afraid to ask for more clarification on anything, i know i gave general overview/musing blurb of... kind of everything i could think to describe! hope this is fine!

or ask me to infodump on another of my AUs! ;3c