#aliens directors cut | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fountainpenguin · 8 months

Note

Since they're similar questions, how about 16-19 for the ask?

[Current Ask game]

What is your best piece of advice for writing action scenes?

Tension, quick sentences with sharp words and snappy dialogue, and focusing on things like adrenaline, racing hearts, fear, and things that might hurt you. Bare bones description in most places (with more in areas where a character pauses to recover). Basically, keep the "camera" on the character. Unless the character is actively looking around and thinking about other things, the story shouldn't either.

Trying to put unique flair in action scenes, especially if your story has a lot of fight scenes, is a good idea too. You don't want them to feel repetitive. Also it's a good idea for your POV character to have a reason to be the POV character; i.e. let them be the one who comes up with the way to achieve victory (if they're going to win) rather than someone on the sidelines giving the winning suggestion.

If you want to have lots of description (especially if you're in a new setting or early in the story) then having your POV character be an outsider watching a fight works too, I think.

[Examples from my work + the other questions under the cut]

---

Some ways I've used this advice:

Frayed Knots - Anti-Cosmo in "Deep" witnessing Cosmo and King Northiae fight Snowball the dragon, and Anti-Cosmo committed a cultural taboo by shapeshifting (His soul strings were also tangled with H.P.'s during this time so they were stuck together). Anti-Cosmo wasn't super involved in this fight because he screwed some things up, but that's fine... this fight scene is doing everything it needs to do. It's showing the reader Anti-Cosmo's attempts to be strong, how it flops, and what he learns from this experience.

The focus here was in putting pressure on Anti-Cosmo. We see his anxiety, we see his genuinely good desire to help, and we see the moment he decides to bend the rules. He carries the consequences of his taboo situation throughout Act 3 (begging Prince Eastkal not to tell anyone he shapeshifted).

Anti-Cosmo has good ideas, but struggles to execute them and/or hurts people while executing his plans. That's his whole theme in Frayed Knots... and this one fight is a representation of that. After all, you can't say Anti-Cosmo hurts people if we don't see him hurting them! In this situation, he deliberately drew more energy from H.P. than he needed to because he got greedy... which plays into his character in general and aligns with his behavior in later chapters where Anti-Cosmo makes a lot of bad choices because of his anxiety and greed.

It's who he is and that always stays consistent. He doesn't suddenly get to be cool just so he can fight a dragon and save a city. Nope.

Factor It In - The Narrator making a suggestion to WordGirl in "Tree Diagram" but WordGirl being the one to come up with a solution that won the fight. The fight was actually split between two chapters and I used Chapter 1 ("Order of Operations") to set the scene so the reader had context before WordGirl rushed back into the fight.

The focus here was in showing WordGirl and Huggy working as a team without Kid Math (who was mind controlled and attacking them); the rest of the story focuses on how WG and KM clash emotionally.

We showed how WordGirl and Kid Math are closely matched in strength. We set the scene (winter, traffic, bystanders pulling the fallen heroes from the road). We also set up things like WordGirl's super hearing and how overwhelming that can be for her. She also had a brief moment to look at her bruises and chat with civilians (Brent and Chuck, in this case). We also see a hint of a superpower that KM has that WG has never used before.

The fight scene does a lot for the story, and I try to shift deliberately in and out of "reflective moments where we pause" and "fast-paced action moments." For example, there's a moment where WordGirl tackles Kid Math and they both go rolling in the snow and get dazed until a civilian (their art teacher) drags them to the sidewalk. That's a shift out of the action and into a reflective moment, yet it feels natural and keeps the tension high because the reader (hopefully) is wondering if they're hurt or if they're about to get hit by a car.

Dog's Life - In "Flicker," BigB stands on the sidelines fretting while Scar fights a creeper. As the outsider, BigB has the full perspective of how Scar is dancing around, and it's scary for him when Scar leaves his view. Scar keeps denying any offers of help, yet BigB and the others get increasingly anxious when Scar gets backed against a cliff. BigB also counts how many hits the creeper has taken (and loses count when Scar and the creeper go over the drop).

The focus here is in feeling out of control or feeling like you don't have information (which pairs super well with my take on BigB in this 'fic, since BigB's entire thing is "the quiet guy who knows everything about everyone"). His anxiety goes up when things get unpredictable, so this was an action scene that paired well with this particular character.

The creeper fight is also a good contrast to the opening scene for this chapter, where BigB stood at the top of a hole with his hands behind his back and watched his friends fumble against a zombie spawner... We saw him watching a fight in his element first (comfortable, keeping tabs on the situation, staying aloof) because that little skirmish wasn't something that was supposed to stress the reader. When it was time to up the tension, the fight was something that made him nervous even though he wasn't the fighter.

What is your best piece of advice for writing angst scenes?

I think the important thing for angst is the build-up: the swing before the punch. To understand the pain, you need to have seen the sweet. I personally think opening a story in the middle of an angst scene wouldn't be the best move in most cases, as I think it works best after the scene has been established as "normal."

The goal of angst isn't a jump scare... it's the layering on of things that get worse and worse. Doubt, mistrust, betrayal... these things need to stem from something else. You need to see the slow break.

What is your best piece of advice for writing hurt/comfort scenes?

For hurt: Similar to angst, build-up is important, although opening with the hurt in something that's specifically mild hurt/comfort works well, probably. I'd say take your time to show the hurt and explore the concept of the hurt before you turn it around. Focus on the pain. Emphasize what's hurting so the reader is rooting for the comfort. Hurt/comfort is all about taking the time to settle down and breathe, and you can do that by showing a slow healing process.

For comfort: Slowing down... Focusing on details, especially in regards to physical touch. This is the time for softness, paying attention to other people or objects, and roaming your eyes around the room. Thoughts can wander and you have very slow, meandering, thoughtful moments in a safe space.

What is your best piece of advice for writing comedy scenes?

I don't know if I'd say I have comedic scenes, usually, though I have jokes sprinkled in my work. For me, I try to set characters up in situations I know they work well in. H.P. is snarky and Anti-Cosmo is paranoid, so they're a great comedic pair. H.P. likes to carry a joke a little too long and Anti-Cosmo gets easily flustered. I also played Anti-Wanda as someone who uses a lot of innuendo, which is another "flustering Anti-Cosmo, which is funny" situation.

H.P. and Anti-Wanda bounce really well off each other too because they don't take anything seriously and they'll make fun of everything (There's a scene in "King Me" I've had written for like 5 years that I can't wait to share... you'll know it when you see it).

I like to put characters in funky situations that the reader doesn't commonly find themselves in... I feel like that's inherently funny. For example, in "Flypaper," WordGirl had to rescue Super Why from a vending machine. He's 3 inches tall and that was the funniest place I could think for him to get stuck. It's inherently bizarre.

Another of my favorite moments from "Flypaper" was Becky asking Rex if he wanted to go to the beach and he was like "Aww man" because "he's not supposed to fly 30 minutes after eating." I think just... thinking about what a normal human would do in a situation and then asking yourself "how can I make this funny and specific to THIS character" helps a lot.

I think Dog's Life has some good examples of larger scenes that are funny. Here are some highlights:

Scott walking with Scott down the hall to drop off paperwork and Scar spends the whole time lightly bantering and/or flirting with him in an attempt to make Scott give him "banned blocks" from outside the city walls so he can have cool ceiling tiles. Eventually Scott gives in to a little bit of roleplay and they banter back and forth, and Scott finally says the one thing that makes Scar break character, which was implying that he actually WOULD give Scar ceiling tiles if he made it worth his time. Scar gets excited and Scott has to walk away rolling his eyes... it's silly to me.

It's funny because it's... ridiculous. No reader would ever be in that situation. For ceiling tiles. And the inherently roleplay nature of these two, who live in a society where everyone switches naturally in and out of their roleplay hats, is very funny and adds layers to every interaction. But while a reader won't find themselves in this situation, this set-up is extremely in character for Scar, who's always looking for good ceiling blocks.

I'm particularly fond of a scene I'm dropping in the Tuesday chapter which involves Martyn. Martyn has a knack for being silly in serious situations, so I deliberately put him in a serious situation and made him break the tone of it. Which means he sprints across a cave in the middle of a fight, screeching at the top of his lungs that he needs a time out because he "hasn't put his crocs in speed mode yet."

It wouldn't be funny if he said that line while he was just exploring in the cave... It's the fact that he's running from a guy with a sword that seals it. It's the funniest thing I could think for him to say and I set the situation up to make it as silly as I could. Just... trying to catch the reader off guard in little ways that feel true to the character.

In each of these scenes, the funny thing matches perfectly to the character's personality. If you want to write a funny character, you should take the time to figure out what exactly they think is funny and in what situations you could put them that would let them shine.

For H.P., it's snarky deadpan, so he often gets put in serious situations (such as council meetings). For Anti-Wanda it's innuendo, so she often gets paired with Anti-Cosmo who considers himself above such humor (and gets flustered easily). For Scar it's flirting and pretending to be oblivious, so he gets juxtaposed with someone who will let him get that far without cutting him off early. For Martyn it's having the wrong vibe for the situation.

I don't plan too much humor in advance, though if I come up with something funny, I like to add it. I have a certain tone I like and then I try to think what the funniest, sensible thing that could happen in a situation is :)

[Current Ask game]

6 notes · View notes

superat626 · 7 months

Text

Just hanging about for a target.

#Tep #toonkind #toonkind dnd #i forgot that the pencils i was using were water colour so have some of that #went to digital the shading but ehhhhhh wasn't worth it so it's paint and pencils #that one scene from alien directors cut #art by my hand

2 notes · View notes

chronic-ghost · 1 year

Note

Okok this is for the fic director’s cut bc I love your work!! For The Hush of the Very Good what was it like crafting the MC? I so seldom see a insert fic with a strong MC but you executed it flawlessly. I’d love to see some of your thoughts!

Ah you're so sweet! 💖

So full disclosure, I didn't read "reader" fics until Midnight Mass and I certainly didn't write any. I'm of tumblr old and for a long time, it was unheard of - dare I say cringe - to write self-insert fics, so I tended to avoid them. But after diving headfirst into the mm collection on ao3 and finding some truly earth-shattering and mind-blowing fics that i still think about to this day, i figured i could try it out.

The MC herself (perhaps unsurprisingly as an self-insert) has a lot of me in her. My thoughts on religion - how it presents for men and women differently - how I feel about being in a church, and of course my obvious thirst for John Pruitt 😍 I also wrote her as a sort of mirror to John - someone who loved and lost and nearly went insane because of it. Someone who carried enormous guilt for their past, who couldn't relate to anyone around them because they viewed themselves as basically an unlovable monster - until they found the only other person who could possibly understand. I'm an absolute sucker for couples who are intimately aware of each other because hey, i'm also in this super fucked up situation and i think you understand me in ways i can't even say out loud and writing that for one of the biggest fuck-ups in recent media was a joy and a pleasure.

All of this to say, it was all very intensely self-indulgent and written in a haze in about a month and i am so happy to hear you liked it!

#taylor talks #the hush of the very good #monsignor john pruitt/reader #director's cut #this was SO FUN to think about #tbh i still struggle with jumping the line into OCs in terms of giving a name a description etc #i dk why and i'm experimenting with it because i can't control myself against a back story #but i also do see all you frowning when the backstory is so in depth - just make an oc at that point #i feel like it comes down to alienation #i don't want readers to lose the experience of being there in favor of some oc i thought was cool #i think im also scarred from the My Immortal days so for now i will stay safely in my lane

2 notes · View notes

incorrectbatfam · 1 month

Note

It's movie night but they can't use the home cinema, what do they do?

[week 1]

Bruce: Thanks for letting us use your place for movie night while we fix that leak at home.

Dick: No problem. Besides, I have plenty of snacks and the director's cut of Dumbo.

Everyone: *gathers around*

Dick: *puts on the movie*

~ 10 minutes in ~

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*

Tim: My crime alert's going off.

Harper: Mine too.

Duke: Must be big.

Bruce: Suit up and rendezvous in three.

Dick: *sighs and pauses the movie*

Dick: Can't get one night in this damn city.

———————

[week 2]

Tim: Steph, why are we at a karaoke lounge?

Steph: I know the owner's cousin's hairdresser's dog walker's sister's girlfriend and I convinced them to let us use the party room. Don't worry, it's just like a TV screen.

Steph: *puts on Pitch Perfect*

Steph: Ooh, I love this part.

Steph: *grabs a mic and starts singing*

Everyone:

Damian: *stuffs napkins in his ears*

———————

[week 3]

Jason: Since we decided on Pride and Prejudice, I thought I could play it at my safehouse.

Dick: Sweet, thanks!

Jason: *unlocks the door*

Dick: *tries to step in*

Jason: *stops him*

Jason: I said I could play it. I never said you could come in. I don't want your you-ness all over my new stuff.

Bruce: Jason, be reasonable.

Harper: Yeah, you got this junk off the side of the road.

Jason: My junk, my rules.

Tim: Then what are we supposed to do?

Jason: Fire escape's around the back. You'll get a decent glance.

~ 20 minutes later ~

Dick: *leans his head in to hear better*

Jason: My air, my rules.

Jason: *closes the window*

———————

[week 4]

Bruce: Cass, it's your turn. Got the movie?

Cass: *nods and plays Rambo on her computer*

Barbara: Uh, why isn't there any sound?

Cass: Volume button broke. Just read lips.

Jason: Kinda hard to do that with the brightness at zero. Did that stop working too?

Duke: Looks fine to me.

Jason: Shut up, Flashlight.

———————

[week 5]

Tim: I brought my entire Star Wars collection.

Bruce, dodging a space laser: Not the time.

Tim: Okay.

Bruce: *punches an alien robot*

Tim: How about now?

———————

[week 6]

Barbara: Sorry I got a cold, but at least we can still have movie night on Zoom. I torrented a copy of The Matrix.

Barbara: *shares her screen*

*movie plays*

Barbara: *leaves herself unmuted*

Barbara: *starts crinkling Sun Chips*

———————

[week 7]

Everyone: *crowd around Damian's phone watching My Neighbor Totoro*

Bette: Why is your phone so small?

Damian: I have tiny hands.

———————

[week 8]

Harper: Because we're watching Cars this week, I thought I could put together an all-immersive experience.

Bruce: BY LOCKING US IN A RUNAWAY SEMI-TRUCK?!?

———————

[week 9]

Duke: I called this company and since we're heroes, they're letting us use their electronic billboard for this week's movie at a huge discount. Kill Bill should be coming on right about...

*movie starts playing*

Jason: Not bad, Narrows.

*billboard switches to an ad*

———————

[week 10]

Carrie: Since Steamboat Willie is now public domain, I thought we could do something different tonight.

Carrie: *pulls out a flipbook*

———————

[week 11]

Everyone: *watching Love, Simon in a dark living room*

*lights flick on*

Apollo and Midnighter: *standing there in date night outfits*

Steph: Um, Cullen, who are these guys?

Cullen: *laughs nervously*

Cullen: Everyone, meet Apollo and Midnighter. They're kinda-sorta my gay uncles and we're kinda-sorta in their apartment and I kinda-sorta didn't expect them to come back early.

Midnighter: Remind me why we gave you a spare key?

———————

[week 12]

Kate: *sets up a projector and plays Glass Onion*

Bruce: Kate, this is a crime scene.

Kate: The fun part's already done, let Gordon do cleanup this time.

———————

[week 13]

Alfred: Back in my day, we did not rely on scrupulous use of technology. Which is why I propose watching a classic Sherlock Holmes tale on a classic instrument.

Alfred: *pulls out a zoetrope*

Steph: Anyone know what that is?

Dick: Not a clue.

———————

[week 14]

Luke: Nothing like a good ol' drive-in movie. Great idea, Helena.

Helena: I know, and the Godfather is perfect for this.

*Batmobile crashes through the screen*

Steph: Sorry we're late.

Duke: I'm still figuring out the PRINDL.

———————

[week 15]

*TV playing the Aristocats*

Bruce, trying to flirt: I like what you've done with the curtains.

Selina: Thanks, but it was Snowball's after-dinner surprise.

*TV blinks off*

Tim: Hey, what gives?

Selina: *takes a chewed-up cord out of a cat's mouth*

Selina, sighing: This is why I married rich.

———————

[week 16]

Luke: May I present the ultimate Snakes On A Plane drone show!

*phone rings*

Luke: Hello? ... Yes, this is he. ... Mhm. ... Yep. ... Okay.

Luke: Never mind, the FAA says I can't.

———————

[week 17]

Everyone: *watching Legally Blonde at Bette's place*

*dogs barking*

*sirens*

*loud music*

*car honk*

*neighbors shouting*

Bette: Sorry, we have thin walls.

Bruce, shrugging: Eh, still not as bad as HOA.

———————

[week 18]

Damian: Where is movie night this time, Father?

Barbara: My money's on another crime scene.

Bruce: Actually, I rented out the theater just for us and they're playing a special edition of The Mark of Zorro. Everyone got their snacks?

Duke: Popcorn, check.

Cass: Licorice, check.

Steph: M&Ms are obviously the right answer by the way.

Dick: I got a slushee.

Jason: I got the slushee machine.

Bruce: Alright then, take your seats. The movie's about to begin.

*movie plays*

*Rogues break in, make a mess, and leave*

Bruce:

Bruce: I miss my parents.

505 notes · View notes

blackbird-brewster · 18 days

Text

Highlights from Catherine Tate's Q&A Panel at Armageddon Expo 2024 (NZ) :

[I took notes best I could during the panel but some may be paraphrased]

Q: What's your favourite Doctor Who alien?

CT: The wonderful Ood!

Q: Who's your favourite Doctor? (Crowd gasps in anticipation)

CT: Well, I get asked this a lot, and obviously it's David (Tennant). I don't know what number he is, he keeps coming back. But definitely, David. Although, someone recently pointed out that I was technically the first ever female Doctor. So you know what? Me, I'm my favourite Doctor.

Q: What's your favourite episode you were in of Doctor Who?

CT:The Runaway Bride, because that's where it all began.

Q: What's a favourite memory of working with David Tennant on Doctor Who?

CT: The scene in 'Partners in Crime', the one with the Adipose, there's the scene where Donna and the Doctor see each other from across a room. But they're both behind glass and they have the whole mime scene with the windows. Well, I remember it was about 3am when we were filming that - - Russel really likes to film at night if the story is taking place at night - so it was 3am, and I said to the director 'Uh, right here it just says Donna Mimes' and he said 'Yeah do whatever'.

So that whole scene was ad-lib during shooting and David and I were so in sync with it, we did that first take and the director said cut and print!

Q: How emotional were you filming your final scene in Journey's End?

CT: So, we didn't always film in order. And I'm not really a sentimental person, but I will say I thought Donna's ending was absolutely perfect. When she meets the Doctor she was always yelling at the world, and she was so different than what she was by the end, she had so much growth with the Doctor and she changed so much in her time with him, but then, she forgets the him and all those memories. And that final scene, what really got me was how he says 'Donna, I'm off' and she's just, I think she's on the phone, and she just waves dismissively. She doesn't know him anymore. Russell, the way he ties things together, he's brilliant, that man.

Q: What was it like working with Bernard (Cribbins)?

CT: Oh, Bernard. God, I love him. He was so funny and talented. He always had stories and voices and sound effects. He loved making people laugh. But we had a gag where every single time I called him I'd say (Donna Voice) 'GRANDAD!'

He'd say, "Who is this?"

"It's Catherine."

"Catherine who?"

"Catherine Tate"

"Never heard of her."

We did this every time I called him and I loved it.

Q: Is there anything annoying about working with David Tennant?

CT: No, absolutely not. He's perfect. He's the best person to work with. I will say though, I was annoying him a lot. When we did the 60th Anniversary specials, our trailers looked exactly the same and I never knew where my trailer was. I'd walk into his all the time!

Sometimes I'd walk in and see his shoes in the trailer and instead of thinking 'Oops, wrong trailer', my brain went 'What's he gone and left his shoes in my trailer for?'

It got so bad, sometimes I'd walk up the stairs and from inside I'd hear 'NO.'

Q: Was it weird coming back to play Donna after all these years? Especially when it was along side David Tennant?

CT: It was a bit weird, more in the 'Oh I hope i still know how to do this' way than anything. But I did think it would be hilarious if David and I arrived on set and every take we just did completely wrong voices. Just thought it'd be hilarious for him to go (in an airy upper-crust British accent) 'Ohhhh, hellloooo. I'm the Doctor'

Q: If you could take any prop from set, what would you take?

CT: Ohhhh, I'd have very large pockets and see what I could fit. But mostly I think it'd be a sonic screwdriver. It's gotta be a sonic screwdriver, doesn't it? It's small and mobile... Easy to steal. Plus, it'd fetch a great price on Ebay!

Q: Best show you've ever worked on?

CT: The Office, they paid me tons of money.

Q: My mum loves David Tennant, is there something you can say to dissuade her?

CT: Hm, something to convince her he's not.... Oh, he doesn't believe in astrology! I'll say 'It's Mercury Retrograde' and he'll say 'NO, NO, NO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT'.

Other Highlights:

As soon as she came out, she saw the stage had no steps to the audience, so she stayed on mic and went the long way round to go into the audience and interview people, trying to find who had traveled the furthest to be here. She was sorely disappointed everyone was just from Aotearoa 🤣

Donna Lines She Performed:

"Oi Spaceman! You're not mating with me sunshine!" (Crowd went wild for that)

"Binary. Binary. Binary." (🥺)

She did some of her characters: Lauren Cooper mostly, but also wished someone Happy birthday as Nan

#Catherine Tate #Donna Noble #Doctor who #Lauren Cooper #Catherine Tate show #About me 2k24 #The great cate tate adventure #dw 60th #David Tennant #tenth doctor #fourteenth doctor

430 notes · View notes

yowie-wowie · 2 years

Text

#seriously as soon as i heard the words quarantine protocol i knew shit was gonna go badly #alien directors cut #ridley scott #ripleys believe it or die

0 notes

torpublishinggroup · 5 months

Text

Check out Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston for an introspective historical fantasy full alien science and earthbound magic!

Letter from the author below the readmore 📚🖊️

Will Do Magic For Small Change is about theatre, physics, and bold girls...

who want to live and love out loud and on stage when folks would rather they fade to black!

I teach college theatre, and my students have for forty years complained about the play selection and casting process that cuts them out of possibilities. They were too fat, too black, brown, Asian, or queer, so directors never cast them, never looked for plays that featured roles for them, never offered stories of their lives to our community. They were too something to be worthy of art. I brought this long history up (for the nth time) in a faculty meeting twelve years ago and someone yelled at me, history doesn’t matter—as if there was just one history and we all knew it and it was gone anyway. Maybe those students couldn’t act and that’s why they never got cast. They were mediocre and wanted to hide behind being fat, brown, Asian, or queer! We could all be mediocre, but some folks go into audition knowing that they are who the director / playwright / producer has in mind and others have to wonder, can they see me as a full human being. Would an audience? And if nobody believes your story on stage, what does that mean for folks believing in your life? So I decided to write about Cinnamon Jones and her friends and their search for who to be in a world that can’t see them.

I’d been reading all I could about Dahomean warrior women who supposedly made an appearance at the Columbian World Exposition in Chicago. Newspaper reports from 1893 characterized the performers in the Dahomey village exhibit as 'horrifying,' 'supremely hideous,' and 'a barbaric spectacle.' Photos featured bare-breasted women with hatchets and knives looking bored. No one interviewed the women. No one asked them to tell their stories. In my previous novel, Redwood and Wildfire, the main characters run into Dahomean warrior women strolling the fairgrounds in colorful headdresses, pounds of beaded jewelry, and woven fabrics that dance in the wind. I asked myself, who are these women? In Will Do Magic a story-gathering alien lands in Dahomey, comes to know the world starting with Dahomey as normal. The story the alien tells on the warrior women might not be the story they’d tell on themselves, but it offers Cinnamon a history to inspire her future.

— Andrea Hairston

#will do magic for small change #andrea hairston

268 notes · View notes

carrot-gallery · 10 months

Text

Asteroid City missing scenes from the play that we don’t see but we hear described:

Obviously the cut scene with the wife, which happens on the alien’s planet in a dream. You’ll have to replace me. My photos always come out.

The scene Jones misses his cue for because he’s outside: June & the cowboy are making out in the station wagon; they’re bandaging the understudy’s hand.

The scene Jones auditions with: Augie talking to Woodrow. I think your sisters are aliens too. Sometimes I think I still hear your mother breathing beside me in the dark. Maybe she is in the stars.

Act 3 Scene 5: the director’s wife recommends that Midge says her line after the door closes. I think we jump over this scene when Jones leaves the stage, but will have to check the title cards to be sure

The scene where everyone falls into a trance-like sleep. Unknown if Conrad ever actually wrote this into the play. But we know it’s supposed to happen around the time of the scene Jones misses.

#pls add any im missing!! im curling up in this movie like a caterpillar #asteroid city #asteroid city spoilers #wes anderson

251 notes · View notes

moralesmilesanhour · 10 months

Note

Hi, hope you're doing well. I was hoping to request Earth 42! Miles with a SO that's really into art. Like fashion and films and literature and all that and knows a lot about art history.

Hell yeah! (I'm an art history major and my mom did fashion design so I got rlly excited at this)

Warning: vague spoilers for 'NOPE' (2022) if anyone cares about those lmao

"...Do you need sumn?"

Miles gave you a weird look. You had been looking him up and down for the past ten minutes, and not in the good way. Your eyes narrowed.

"Your 'fit is bothering me."

The fit in question? A sleek, structured leather jacket paired with swampy-green basketball shorts. The horror.

Miles looked down, then looked at your own monochromatic ensemble as you stood with your arms crossed. Somehow you had made a large belt with a blue tracksuit make sense. Clearly you knew something he didn't.

He tilted his head in curiosity. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's..." your made wild gestures with your hands, "...the silhouette. I don't like that jacket with the shorts, it creates a weird shape to me."

Miles blinked. "I don't follow."

You shook your head, "Just lemme getchu a different pair of pants."

As you threw open and rummaged through your closet, the boy sighed.

"I'm not wearing any of them tight ass skinny jeans."

"I know, that's not what I'm looking for...ah! These could work!"

Miles yelped as he dodged the two folded pairs of jeans you tossed at him.

You turned and pointed him towards the bathroom.

"Try em' on, 'cuz we not going out with you looking like this. Claro?

"Claro," Miles grinned with his hands raised in surrender before making a beeline for the door.

He made no attempt to defend his sense of fashion because, frankly, it was funnier when he let you rant about color combinations and "silhouettes". And he got free stuff out of it.

Miles re-entered not more than five minutes later, shifting uncomfortably in a pair of faded bell-bottoms.

You clapped your hands together excitedly.

"That's so cute!"

The boy's upper lip curled up in distaste, and your face fell.

"You don't like 'em?"

"Yeah, not happening."

"Ugh, fine. Lemme see the other ones, then."

Another trip to the bathroom, and Miles returned in a pair of boot-cut jeans of a much darker wash. The way he leaned against the door frame told you that he was far more satisfied with these. You nodded in approval.

"You need some boots with those," you said, visualizing the ensemble in your head.

The grin on Miles' face immediately dropped at the word 'boots'.

"Absolutely not."

"Come on! They're called 'boot cut' for a reason!"

"The converses stay. Those are off-limits."

He crossed his arms, and you relented.

"Fine. You're so boring."

"I'll be that," Miles shrugged. "Movie starts in fifteen. Let's bounce."

You smacked your boyfriend in the arm as you exited the theater.

"You fell asleep?!?"

"I'm sorry, okay? They took mad long to show the alien!"

"To show the--that's not even the point of the movie!"

Your arms had begun to flail around, and it was taking all of the strength Miles could muster not to laugh.

"Cálmate," he gently brought your arm down before taking your hand. "Tell me everything you liked about it at my place."

"Don't tell me to 'calm down'," you muttered.

"So?" Miles plopped down on his mattress, patting a spot next to him. "What happened while I was knocked out?"

You rolled your eyes, but sat down anyway.

"So like, the whole thing's about spectacle, right?"

"M-hm."

"So they get the weird film director guy to help them film the alien, 'cuz OJ figured out that the alien is a animal, like a horse. Then this guy from TMZ comes and puts his life in danger tryna get footage..."

Miles rested his chin in his palm as he watched your eyes light up.

"...Miles, are you listening? And then she did the motorcycle maneuver from 'Akira'!"

"Yeah, I'm listening. Still need to watch that one."

"...then the movie ends with the sister about to get swarmed by reporters, 'cuz the whole point is that, like, everyone's just tryna make money off of the story even though people literally died."

The boy leaned in and pecked you on the cheek. "Very succinct analysis. Now can we play some UNO?"

Miles shoved his cold hands into his pockets and shifted from one foot to another. You gazed into the painted-on eyes of the ancient African headdress encased in a cube of glass.

"Look, Miles! Cool right?"

He snorted, "Looks like one of your wig heads."

"It's bad bitches in every time period," you parried back. "You like that one?"

Miles had moved to your right to get into a staring contest with a mask in a similar display case. It was round with prominent, low cheekbones and jagged fangs to complete its frightening expression.

"Yeah, this shit hard. Can we take pictures in here?"

"Yup. It's a Sachihongo mask. Mbunda style."

He took out his phone and snapped a photo; He had that look in his eyes that he got when he was about to build something for the robotics club. Miles smirked.

"I think this is my favorite section."

This was fun to write! Made me wanna hop on a train and visit the MET again sdfghjk I just had to scroll through they website to make sure my descriptions were accurate. Thanks for requesting!

#earth 42 miles morales #earth 42 miles morales x reader #earth 42 miles morales x black!reader #miles morales x black!reader #miles morales x reader #spiderman across the spiderverse #moralesanhour #requests

276 notes · View notes

fountainpenguin · 10 months

Note

2,3,11,49 for the second ask meme.

[ #ridspoilers - For "Flypaper," which was posted last Friday; just me talking about the prose I liked in a scene near the end]

[Current Ask game]

---

2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?

I've been writing 'fics since I was 7, when I used to write 'fics and print them out and put them in sheet protector folders. Every chapter used to be one page - with no paragraph breaks - written in size 22 font. I also used to handwrite 'fics on little stapled paper books I made.

My passion for storytelling has always been there (as has my obsession with platonic relationships, ha ha) but my skills have definitely come a long way since then :)

My most recent 'fic is "Flypaper," which is a "silly idea treated 100% seriously" cartoon crossover set at a superhero convention. I'm actually really, really happy with it and it took all my energy not to spoil my favorite scenes when I answered that previous Ask about favorite prose.

When I do long one-shots, I try to give myself one or two things to really hone in on. Recently with "Looking Back," that was "seemingly insignificant worldbuilding details" and "talking around the elephant in the room." With "Flypaper," I was focusing on my prose and sensory details the whole way through (so we get lots of descriptions about scalding shower water, greasy crumb-covered fingers, or the way hair blows in your mouth when you're on the beach).

Here's perhaps my favorite scene in the story:

He's still holding out his arm. Tentatively, WordGirl brings her hand to his. Both his palms together wouldn't be enough to cover even one of her fingernails. She does her best to give a firm handshake that won't make him feel like she thinks he's made of glass, but she's well aware of her super strength and, um… his notable lack of invulnerability. "I'm an English major too," she tells him. "Well… I'm planning to double major, but I just keep going back and forth. Two of my friends are going into journalism. I haven't decided if that's my calling too. I'm more interested in creative writing." Super Why whistles and withdraws his hand. He kicks his feet forward, floating back. "Double majoring sounds like a lot of work. That's so cool. I think I'm content chasing my lonely editing degree, but it sounds like there's a lot you want to do with your life. I gotta say, I really admire how you manage to balance your hero work and personal time." "Well, I couldn't do it without Kid Math. He's a lifesaver. I'd crumple like a tissue if he ever moved away." Huggy squeaks in agreement, sliding down from her back. The snack machine rattles, then starts dumping snack bags down the dispenser chute. WordGirl gets up, just glad to get off the floor. Super Why rises with her, using his hover boots to keep a short distance from her face. "Oh yeah," he says. "I'd like to take a look inside his book. I mean, I've gotta check it for triggers first before I get eaten alive, but I've always loved picture books. Graphic novels are basically picture books for big kids." Idly, Super Why spins his pen around his fingers. It clicks and clicks and clacks. It sounds like a train spinning its wheels on rails that lead to freedom. "You're into creative writing too? Are you signing books this weekend?" She looks away. Her blood flares with magma, but her skin stays cold. No pretty metaphor. Just plain old-fashioned cold. It's a good thing she's wearing gloves. Her nails bite through them to her palms, but at least this way, it's a lot less noticeable. "Oh," he says. The word plunks through the air between them. It's the same deep, dark sapphire blue you'd find in the ocean depths before the world fades to black because it's distant. She does not respond. Her chest beats, gnawing at the emptiness around the place her heart should be. And WordGirl does exactly what she always does, which is pluck out her soul, wring it by the throat, and stuff it back inside like she's throwing a casserole in the oven. Sometimes her soul needs a good whack against the wall, but it'll be "as good as new" by the time she's slapped the salt out of it. No one can ever know. They are not allowed to know. She'll wait and she'll wait and she'll wait, gouging gashes in her palms before she ever voices the faintest hint of disappointment. Because she can't just throw a tantrum over the cruel irony of the world.

There's a lot to unpack here. This constant back and forth juggling WordGirl has been doing throughout the story where she's trying to accommodate for Super Why's physical needs (like holding the microphone for him while they were speaking together on their panel) but she's also trying not to talk down to him or hurt him in any way.

WordGirl is such a "go, go, go" character who's always whipping back and forth, and I love the way I showed her actively being cautious and taking her time to make sure she didn't accidentally knock the Super Readers over. Just being around Super Why forces her to slow down and live in the moment, which is exactly what everyone else in the story keeps telling her to do.

When she's out with her friends on the beach and in town, she's still the "big sister." She's still "the mentor figure." "The one in charge." She almost doesn't suggest going to the beach because the mental workload of "getting ready and getting the others ready too" sounds tiresome. Before they went to the beach, she listed off some things she'd like to do (Run, dive, and fly with seagulls) and she doesn't do any of those things.

Even off-duty, WordGirl sees herself as responsible for her friends, and I just... really love this moment where she's talking to Super Why. She's trying so hard to suppress the envy she feels towards Kid Math. She loves him as a friend and coworker, but she's built this wall between herself and him - a wall that's painfully visible when she infodumps her feelings on Tobey and he just sits in silence trying not to criticize her - and I just really like playing with that.

I love this moment because Super Why can see right through her. Earlier, right after the panel ended, someone asked if she was selling books at the convention "like Kid Math" and she faltered and said no. At the end of the story, Super Why asks the same question, but he instantly picks up on her discomfort because he's Whyatt "Communicate With Me Or I Will Die" Beanstalk.

I love this bit where I wrote "And WordGirl does exactly what she always does, which is pluck out her soul, wring it by the throat, and stuff it back inside..." I like how ominous it sounds. It's the first moment she openly admits to her struggles... and she still chooses to stuff them down as much as she can.

I love this entire scene where Super Why is (unintentionally) picking her apart right where her cracks are. Whyatt has always been Mr. Scheduled. He needs to do everything by the book (literally) and he doesn't do a dang thing unless he's thought it through. His show is all about leaving the situation to calm down so you can turn the problem over in your mind and take a breath before you try to deal with it. He's got his life figured out. He knows what he wants to do with his career and he wants to ask about her life.

WordGirl has a vague direction of where she's going, but she hasn't solidified her plans. She's always been flighty and noncommittal, to the point that her friendships strain because of it and she's always pushing off things she wants to do in favor of duty or other people. She has ideas. She can't commit. She doesn't give herself time or permission to enjoy things.

I love this moment because Super Why sees WordGirl as "like me, but with a scarier life" and he's always assumed she's as scheduled and cheerful as he is... up until right here where he's like "... Oh. Oh, you've got THINGS to unpack, let's talk about that."

Earlier in the story, WordGirl does try talking to Rex and he's extremely uncomfortable with it, and she carries this fear that "Talking to Rex is uncomfy and will not make me feel better." But I really wanted to write teen Super Why as this guy who's made a life out of conflict resolution. He really picks up on her feelings and tries to help... They are friends, your honor.

If you've been following me long enough to remember the first time I ever posted WordGirl and Super Why friendship content (that drawing of them reading books in the sky, which I'm so sad I cannot find), then you've known me far too long, ha ha... I've wanted to write about the bookworm superhero kids for like 10 years and I'm happy I finally did. It was tons of fun to age them up, analyze their characterization, and play them off against each other.

I'm really happy with the prose and dialogue in "Flypaper," and it's secured a place as one of my favorite 'fics of all time <3

[More answers under the cut]

49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?

I don't think so; I don't talk about my fanfics with offline folks. I've recommended a few of my 'fics to online friends over the years, but I'm not sure if they've read them.

---

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

This is always a difficult subject to talk about. My tastes as a writer, reader, or even as a fan in a fan space are usually wildly different than popular opinion. I tend not to like the popular ships, I don't like the popular characters, I don't usually enjoy romance, and I don't like writing short one-shots that are just 2 to 3,000 words.

I like tension, drama, and long introspective stories with deep worldbuilding. That's not something I often get to see in my fandoms (or even in the published novels that have been crossing my path in the last few years tbh). It's always weird to me when I remember what some of my more popular stories are, because sometimes I feel like, "?? Really? That's the one that resonated with you?" To each their own.

I gave it some thought and I think if I had to pick one, I'd say I feel my best completed 'fic is "Minion" (the one about H.P. and Sanderson bargaining with the Fairy Elder and Sanderson gets turned by her pheromones and assists her while she's there).

This is a piece that I think any reader could come across out of the blue, even if they know next to nothing about Fairly OddParents, and still pick up on very quickly. I think it's well-written, does an excellent job of being true to character, slots effortlessly in between canon episodes, fits with the quirky humor vibes of the series, I think it's fun and interesting, I think it has a lovely amount of fluff and tension and angst, and it pulls in the worldbuilding without leaving the reader feeling overwhelmed.

We get to see Sanderson's complicated feelings towards H.P. and H.P.'s complicated feelings for Sanderson. We get to meet Jorgen's mom and see an extremely powerful character that all of Fairy World respects (someone who was only namedropped in one episode towards the end of the series, and I think it's fun).

I think it's the best piece I have that shows the pheromone turning lore and it's the major piece that showcases what Sanderson's true personality is like when the pheromones are stripped away. It's often difficult to convey this idea that "Hey, Sanderson is who he is largely because H.P. is influencing him with pheromones, but he's also not a slave... he's just a young adult with eusocial insect genes that direct him to serve whomever the "queen bee" in the area is." I think "Minion" absolutely nailed what I was going for.

I'd love to show more pheromone influences, but it doesn't often come up. We've seen H.P. under Reddinski's influence a few times (he backs away, crouches low, and becomes more agitated in Reddinski's presence). Sanderson acts differently under different authority figures (like Longwood, Smith, and even Anti-Cosmo), but he's ALWAYS still Sanderson.

I really like the way that "Minion" explores this part of his life - and Fairy culture along with it - and also the way it explores how torn Sanderson feels about leaving H.P. in favor of someone else. Sanderson knows H.P.'s getting older and weaker. He also knows that H.P. isn't always kind to him. It's a struggle to think about where he wants his life to go.

Sanderson rarely gets to see himself when the pheromones are washed off. It's a weird sense of exploring his identity. I really like "Minion" and how it plays with the pheromone culture in a way that I think is easy for even outsiders to adjust to, and it's one of my favorite pieces. Nice, simple, and perfectly blends the internal and external plots.

My personal goal is to push Factor It In to be my best 'fic (Trying to stick close to canon, feature characters doing likable things, no major character death, no extreme trauma, feels very middle grade and cartoony and actiony, and doesn't go off the rails with worldbuilding). It's a project I'm genuinely passionate about and I have a lot of fun with, but I'm also trying to give it those "marketable" vibes [like fluff] that I need to practice for my future novels.

Come What May and Pink and Gray were my previous attempts to do what I want to do with Factor. That is, to write something more "middle grade" and trying to hit at least a few "commercial fiction" vibes. They both kind of got away from me when I leaned too far into the supernatural and made them sort of... ?? "sepia-toned" in their feel. They're a bit grim and aren't lively and fun stories.

CWM drags its feet a lot. It's really just a story about Kevin Crocker wandering around interacting with people or local businesses. He has his own weird plot stuff going on with witch magic and the Crocker house, but he's not truly involved with plot and action on a large scale. It's because that's not really his personality: he's guarded and reluctant to get invested, so he's basically "Okay, we'll unpack that later."

The slow, "I know this is going somewhere but I don't feel like readers know it's going somewhere" vibe was one of the reasons it fell by the wayside and I left it on hiatus for so long (that, and because I took some of the upcoming chapters to a writer's group to get critiqued and they got torn apart pretty badly, so that was a motivation killer that haunted me for years). CWM will never achieve that original "vibe of a commercial middle grade novel" goal I had for it, but I've written its next chapter and I want to finish it for what it is. Pink and Gray and 28 Cities have fallen into the same "swung and missed" crevice for me, but I hope that one day I can get back to them and wrap them up even if they've missed the intended mark.

Over the years, I did look at Factor It In a few times and wonder if I should pick it up again, but it was never the right time to give it the attention it needed. I want it to be "marketable" and "commercial" in the sense of "This is my practice story for real-world novel vibes and I want it to serve a specific purpose that will require patience and thoughtfulness." 5 years was a long time to wait, but I'm glad I didn't rush into it. It's going to be exactly what it was always meant to be- the thing that Come What May couldn't be. Whether or not it resonates with others is something that we'll find out over time, but I want it to resonate with me and be an excellent representation of my writing <3

(Also prefacing this with the warning that Factor isn't going to LOOK like a middle grade novel because I'm expecting it to be about 540k words by the time it's done, but it's meant to have middle grade vibes even though "longform content" happens to be the way the characters look in my art style.)

I do love Origin, Knots, and so many of my other stories for being what they are. I think Origin and Knots - which need to juggle pacing and worldbuilding in a peculiar way - are great in the deep dive category they're intended for.

But Factor is special to me because even though I'm still clinging onto things I personally like reading (like long passages of dialogue, slice of life moments that take their time), I'm also pushing it in a way that I don't push Origin and Knots... It has certain rules that it abides by behind the scenes, like how much worldbuilding I allow to leak into it or where I cut things. It has a steady plot and only takes place over 6 to 7 months whereas Origin and Knots take place over hundreds of thousands of years. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with it.

tl;dr - The goal isn't "write the best 'fic in the WordGirl fandom and be sad if it's not popular." The goal is just "write the best middle grade style, publication-adjacent piece I can, and succeed in the places where Come What May failed." That's what I'm trying to do by "making it into my best 'fic."

I have pieces like "Trying Too Hard" or "Looking Back" that I would never DREAM of taking to get critiqued because those are Intentional Bathtub Stories which are doing Very Specific Things You Would Not Normally Publish, because they exist as part of a larger storyline. Factor It In plays closer to publication rules even if it is still longwinded longform content. I like it and I hope others do too :)

(Some of my upcoming story ideas like Pulling Your Puzzles Apart, Francis, and Along the Cherry Lane also fit this "cartoony and skimming the surface without going too deep" vibe I'm aiming for with Factor, so keep your eyes out in the future if that's something that interests you!)

---

11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?

I dooooon't think so... I usually end up with a lot of weird ideas and/or niche favorites who are background characters, so I'm the one writing the content I want to see.

I think the closest I've come to sharing a lot of similar 'fic ideas with someone is just the general vibe of Poof's aged-up character: average little guy who struggles in school and is super brokenhearted when Timmy is no longer part of his life. I feel like that's pretty common (and I support it).

I don't actually read a lot of 'fics in the fandoms I'm most interested in-- I usually browse AO3 for specific tags of relationship dynamics or random settings or adventure tropes because "excellent portrayal of a relationship dynamic I like involving characters I don't recognize" beats "characterization in my own shows that feels OOC and likely isn't a trope I love anyway" any day, ha ha... I'm trying to get better at reading more in my actual fandoms this year, though, and supporting the community with my comments.

(FOP world is very filled with crossovers, though... I am in the market for some good non-crossover 'fics to pursue)

tl;dr - I don't remember writing a 'fic for a specific concept someone else has done before. I do remember that years ago, before Kevin Crocker existed, someone wrote a fic about Denzel's illegitimate grandson ending up in his care and getting assigned Poof as a godparent.

I remember thinking about this story a lot when Kevin's episodes were first coming out and when I was drafting "Come What May," but only 1 chapter was ever written and "Come What May" has a different plot entirely. The general "awkward young relative inside the Crocker house" stuck, though.

[ I went looking and I found it- it's called "Heir to the Throne" <3 ]

[Current Ask game]

#WordGirl #Super Why #FAIRIES!#ridwriting #ridspoilers #asks #Anon #Ask box games #Long post #Grammar queen #Bookworm boy #Arithmetic Lad #Flypaper #Factor It In #Satirical vocab alien child show #Come What May #Director's cut

7 notes · View notes

fallloverfic · 7 months

Text

"Nimona" movie artbook thoughts

There's so much neat stuff here. Spoilers for the movie below the cut but just dang I love this

So many neat ideas for long-haired Ambrosius. Ponytail Ambrosius! He looks so cute!

There was going to be a magazine cover with "Goldenloin bares it all" and I like to think part of this is in reference to the two pin-ups Nate drew (Pin-up 1 and Pin-up 2). It's neat to see how much they were building up his celebrity in more ways. In other concept art, he was on more magazine covers, and he shows up as part of a parade. There are lots of concepts of Goldenloin fans.

Also this Ambrosius test is amazing. The weird Todd/Ambrosius fusion in motion lol But you can tell they even modified it later to turn it into Todd. He's a bit softer here in a way and just... fun. Todd cosplaying as Ambrosius/having a nightmare/dream about it aldkjalj

It was also interesting to see more confident Ballister. There's an animation test with him fighting some Institute guards, and it's very clear in early concept art (from that popular viral test back in 2021 as well) that he was more confident in earlier production.

More adorable Ambrosius/Ballister moments, and some cute Ambrosius. They're absolutely sweet.

And unfortunately one of the biggest losses in the movie: the amazing stuff they show for Meredith Blitzmeyer. At one point she was going to be covered in magic tattoos.

"For a long time, the character of Meredith Blitzmeyer was in the film. She served many different functions in many different iterations. At one point, she had a magical van that was bigger on the inside. In another, she was covered from head to toe in magical tattoos. And in another, she was the head of a vast underground society, called the Silver Society, comprised of all the magical creatures forced into hiding by the institute. Ultimately, the story went in a different direction, but her design and model were so beloved that she wasn’t lost but repurposed into The Queen." This all sounds so cool (except the repurposed into a character who dies in the first 10 minutes of the movie part T-T).

She has an entire spread. It's neat that she got to show up in some form (when they recycled her design for Valerin), but I love the idea of the Silver Society and her place in it and also Ballister having more friends and just ugh. These designs and world-building are so cool. I wish we'd seen all of them in the movie.

Also finally an eye dings chart! With everything clearly explained lol Neat to know I wasn't imagining some in-between diamond/square shape when Ballister is changing.

And this pride flags spread! There's a drag queen club! I just love all of this!! Seeing them spread throughout the movie is fun but it's neat to see the collection here!

Also this line: "In actuality, there has not been a monster attack since the first, so the fear and belief of the possibility is the only thing keeping the populace in check." It's neat to get confirmation of that.

Also a very much more violent Nimona was in the early/late-ish production lol.

José Manuel Fernández Oli talked on his Facebook collection of concept art about there at one point being an underground of outcast shapeshifters, and I don't know if that's what we're seeing here, but we were at least maybe also going to get more magical people (which matches the Meredith plans)??

Weres? People with fire magic? Satyrs? Demons? Elves? Or just a wider range of shapeshifter people. That would have been so cool.

There are environment designs for the Institute, Ballister and Nimona's hide-out, people designs, a few more test animations they haven't put up elsewhere, more Nimona shapeshifts (more dogs and cats, a second kind of gnome, more of her bulkier, muscular design, more types of dragons, a goat, more ancient Nimona concepts, plant monster Nimona, alien(?) Nimona, etc.). We nearly had goblin Director. Older Gloreth concepts... It's all really awesome.

All in all, a lot of really cool stuff.

142 notes · View notes

cuubism · 2 years

Text

actor hob, and pretentious asshole film director dream

[ this got so long and so weird and specific i'm so sorry ]

so hob is an everyman actor. a good actor, charismatic, funny, fan favorite, but not the type that gets cast in highbrow art films. mostly he does like romcoms, mid-budget action movies, feel-good family films, etc etc. and he's totally cool with that, he's good at what he does, and people enjoy those films, anyway. he might be getting a bit bored though, a bit stagnant. might be thinking it's time for some reinvention. and there might be a certain director whose ridiculous and nonsensical but dreamy films he's particularly enamored with...

dream makes REALLY pretentious art films. the types that get studied in graduate level film classes and have fifty different academic papers with fifty different theses trying to puzzle them out. dream is a master of themes and images and subtle construction. he is also a COMPLETE asshole and impossible to work with, an auteur in the most stereotypical way possible, he writes and directs, he micromanages all his projects, he asserts his vision and god help anyone who goes against it. nobody can handle him, nobody can STAND him, and the only reason he still gets funding for these projects is because they win awards, so many awards, and the studios want to ride on the coattails of those awards. but it's getting to the point where even his most ride-or-die producers are ready to give up.

right off the back of dream's most recent bafta, a rather naive Big Exec approaches him to direct the next installment of his Big Superhero Franchise. dream is immediately like fuck off with that bullshit but the exec pleads with him that the franchise is flagging and they really need something new to spice it up. plus the pay will be enough for dream to finance like 10 of his own ridiculous art films without having to rely on producers for money. and dream really is about to get cut off for being a complete insufferable asshole so he takes the gig. it kind of feels like prison though.

anyway, he gets to work trying to make this shitty boring film at least marginally less shitty and boring. he doesn't have a lot of leeway -- a lot of the story is locked in, half the cast is set from prior installments etc. dream immediately regrets taking this job, he'd rather die in actual prison than work on this mindnumbing piece of trash. it feels like it's taking an eternity and who could possibly stand an eternity of this???

well. enter hob, whose agent managed to snag him a 2nd-lead sort of role in this thing. it's not QUITE the reinvention he was going for but the pay and exposure are really good -- and even if they weren't, the moment hob saw that dream was attached he was immediately on board.

cue dream tearing his fucking hair out and basically being a complete menace and diva on set -- no that wasn't good, yes we have to do a 57th take, oh my god this dialogue is horrible give me that shitty script i'm writing my own thing, what do you mean the plot is linear???, wait there are how many cgi aliens????? i'm going to kill myself -- and Hob, pretty much Just Happy To Be There as always, takes one look at this beautiful dramatic emo asshole and is like oh. yes. i don't know what i'm saying yes to, but i'm saying yes. just immediately enamored with this bitch against all logic, he's like i've seen all your films i know how your mind works you brilliant nihilistic mess of a person. i'm on board. let's go.

first scene that hob's in dream is once again ranting about the atrocious script, which he did not write and is hardly allowed to change -- or, every change he makes is too weird and the studio keeps nixing it. everyone keeps sighing and being like oh my god can we please just shoot i wanna go home, meanwhile hob's like alright then. let's workshop it. and dream's just like. what. you aren't just gonna tell me to shut up? and hob's like no, youre right, this script is trash, but i know you're just going to write something really weird and psychedelic that they won't let you shoot. and dream's like you dare to speak to me that way??? and hob just puts his hands on his hips and is like listen, i actually know more about this sort of general audience family film thing than you do, mister arthouse, so are you going to work with me or not? and dream's just like what... is happening... because usually people who try to 'handle' him either just cave to his every demand like wimps, or just fight him on everything to 'prove' that they're in control, and hob is just kind of... not doing either of those? anyway dream doesn't know what to do with him.

so they workshop it. turns out hob actually DOES know how these sort of general audience all-follow-the-same-three-act-structure films work and how to improve things within those confines, and also he understands what like, normal people like, you know, casual feel good movies, not everything has to be a mindbender, jesus. so they bounce ideas off each other for like 3 hours until they finally get something that's okay enough that dream no longer wants to fling himself into the sun. meanwhile everyone on set is staring at them like 👀. then dream is like come back to my trailer we are rewriting the other 116 pages of this script right NOW. what else is hob supposed to do but follow.

then hob becomes the designated Dream Handler on set. dream starts using him as his barometer for what 'normal people' would like because he does not understand that at all. ("hob, will 'people' accept this?" "well considering youre spinning the camera around on a string i'm gonna go out on a limb and say no"). dream becomes kind of obsessed with him because his life is so like, normal, and he's okay with it?? he doesn't find existence to be an insufferable prison from which there is no escape?? and hob is like aw i know you're such a tortured artistic soul *pats him on the head*. plus, hob is actually a good actor, and he's able to put a lot of heart into even this mediocre big budget film, and kind of forces dream to confront the idea that there's more than one good type of story. that different stories serve different purposes and a straightforward happy story is okay, actually.

(and that the problem is the corporatization of the storytelling, not the story itself)

anyway the movie ends up being pretty good, dream still kind of hates it because he wasn't given full artistic license but he has to grudgingly admit that it has at least some merit. after the premiere hob is like (cheekily) so you gonna direct the sequel? and dream is like i did not write that to have a sequel. and hob's like it has a cliffhanger? and dream's like so???? and hob's like well theyre definitely gonna make a sequel. and dream's like i hate this planet. also no i'm not going to make the sequel. i'm going to fuck off to the woods and make a movie about teeth. do you want to star in it? and hob's like you're so fucking weird i'm obsessed with you i'm going to kiss you now.

so yeah, that.

#dreamling #the sandman #just chuckin aus into the void cuz who knows if i'll ever actually write them #sorry this au became insane XD #it got SO much longer and more meandering than i was aiming for i just wanted to write a little 2 paragraph summary LOL #then it grew several legs #long post #anyway dream doesn't have a 'full name' in this btw he just directs under Dream like he's beyonce or something 😂#you can think of dream as sort of like ingmar bergman or luis bunuel #and hob is like. mark ruffalo. so you can try to imagine that dynamic if you wish XD #sort of inspired by the way art film directors keep getting roped into directing marvel and disney films for some reason??#my writing

720 notes · View notes

rustingcat · 6 months

Text

Stars

Kara knew it was going to be a long day the moment her sister called her at 5 am, and asked her to help with a rampaging alien in town. She kissed her girlfriend softly on the forehead and teared herself out of bed, put on her suit and jumped into National City's sky.

It was well after 8 when Kara finished dealing with the aftermath, stopping to help the firefighters to take control of the area and clear out any debris. She made it to her office at eight twenty five, after a quick stop to shower at home, only five minutes short of her meeting with Cat. She shot Lena a quick message to reassure her she was okay, promising to make it to lunch and went in to greet Cat.

The meeting stretched longer than she liked. She started daydreaming about lunch with Lena and considered surprising her with some flowers just because, when her phone rang again with Alex emergency ringtone for the second time that day. Cat waved at her dismissively, telling her to "go save the day." Kara flashed her an apologetic smile and left.

She's only been to the new DEO a handful of times after she stepped back from most of her Supergirl duties. It was quite similar to the previous one, if only the Med bay had better access and less glass doors. J'onn and Alex were already near the big screen, styling the schematics of an old warehouse.

"What's up Alex?" She asked, making herself known to the group.

"It's about the attack from this morning." Alex said.

"Did he escape?"

"No, apparently this guy was a distraction. While you were fighting with him, there was a massive break in inside a large warehouse belonging to Lord industries. They were working on a special energy source that was far from market ready, which means it's highly dangerous." Alex used her serious tone, meaning things were worse than it seemed.

"If it was a distraction, did you try to interrogate the attacker from this morning?"

"That's the other thing," J'onn crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. "We identified him as a G'newtian, a very peaceful species that is more likely to give up than even attempt a fight."

"Then, why..?"

"We found traces of toxin in his blood," J'onn continued.

"He'd been dragged?"

"Most likely," He nodded. "We're working on an antidote, hopefully we'll be able to break him out of it soon."

"We are currently trying to locate him by searching for the energy signature, But we–"

"Director Danvers!" One of the agents cut her off. "We received a message that there's another attack near the pier."

"I'll take care of it," Kara announced. "You focus on the next heist."

"Alright, stay safe. We'll update you once the antidote is ready." Alex said and Kara flew out.

It was another G'newtian that greeted her at the pier, raging terror and destroying everything in sight. She did her best to hold him back, prioritising keeping civilians safe over taking him down. Nia joined in part way through the fight, using her dream energy shield to protect who she could. Kara didn't want to cause the poor soul any more damage than necessary, he was as much of a victim there as the rest of the people around then, if not more. When an agent told her the antidote was ready, she made a quick trip to the DEO balcony, leaving the young mother to make sure everyone was safe, took the antidote from the agent, and came back to swiftly stick it to his upper arm. It took a few seconds, but the G'newtian passed out motionless on the ground, ending the fight with minimal damage.

Kara just made it to the DEO with the G'newtian to let him recover, when Alex strode in, face furrowed and emanating pure frustration.

"I guess you didn't catch them?" Kara guessed, using a lighter voice to hopefully alleviate some of the tension. It didn't seem to work."What did they steal this time?"

"Power plant, they took the new L.L foundation's emergency energy capsule." Alex pulled up the schematic on the screen.

"They already have enough power to level the entire city with this thing." J'onn pointed out.

"You think they're building a bomb?" Alex inquired.

"There's a good chance for that." J'onn nodded.

Kara took a step back and let them continue the investigation as she checked her phone. It was well past lunch time, she quickly opened Lena's conversation to apologise, finding there a few messages asking her to be safe with little red hearts. She smiled to herself and pressed the call button.

"Kara! Are you okay?" Lena asked before she could even say hello.

"Yes, I'm more than fine," she tried to reassure her.

"Are you sure? Is there more going on? Do you need help?"

"I promise we got it under control, and if we need help, Alex will call you immediately."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, It's probably just another alien. I defeated many before."

"I know many aliens that are not 'just'."

"Oh, yeah? Anyone in particular?" Kara was grateful to break the tension with some light flirting.

"I wouldn't call you 'just'."

"What am I if I'm not 'just an alien'?"

There was a small beat of silence. "You're a gift from the stars, Kara."

Kara was left speechless, she wasn't ready for this kind of statement. Warm feelings spread throughout her body, giving her the energy she needed after everything she went through that day.

"Promise me you'll be safe, alright? We need you safe."

Kara nodded to herself and swallowed hard. "I promise."

"I love you."

"I love you, too

Read the rest of the chapter on AO3

#i barely had time to draw this #the marathon is almost over #don't worry the happy ending is coming #supercorp #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #supercorptober #supercorptober2023 #my art #my fic

115 notes · View notes