Wander Over Yonder Mini Bible, Part 1.
idea that was haunting me while i took a shower earlier (transcript & single image page under the cut)
(figured i'd split it up so it would load a little quicker and display a little sharper)
TRANSCRIPT:
{hater and peepers are in a time orbble, and hater is racing along at full speed while peepers, unable to keep up, whirls around the orbble, yelling, distraught, as he does.}
HATER: back to the present! back to the present!!
PEEPERS: WHOAOAOAOAOAOAOAOAA!!!
{hater skids to a stop, and peepers is left to tumble until he loses his momentum.}
HATER: WAIT!! IS THAT...????
PEEPERS: WuoWoWOWwoOOough OOMPH!!
{hater presses his lack of a nose against the orbble's wall. beyond it, there's a stage, spewing smoke from machines into the crowd surrounding it. there's a banner hanging above it, reading "NOzN", stylized like the nine inch nails logo.}
HATER: IT IS!! IT'S...IT'S THE NINETY-OUNCE NIHILISTS POST-DEMOLITION GHOST-PLANET TOUR!!!
{hater continues to gush about the particular album he owns that contains the setlist they did for this particular tour, and says he knows all the words. peepers is picking himself up off the floor.}
PEEPERS: oogh...wh... that old band? hold on. when exactly did this tour happen?
HATER: oh, not too long ago. only a few...
(pause)
HATER:...hundred years ago
PEEPERS: because if ninety-ounce nihilists broke up in... wait. DID YOU SAY HUNDRED???
HATER, talking over peepers: SHH SHH SHUT UP PEEPERS, IT'S STARTING!
{focus turns to major threat on the stage, holding the microphone and introducing himself. to his left is somebody with a big hat and an equally big electric guitar.}
MAJOR THREAT: how's it going tonight? feeling doomed? well, get used to it!! we are NINETY-OUNCE NIHILISTS!!!
HATER, offscreen: hey, who's the guitarist?
PEEPERS, offscreen: i don't know, sir...
HATER: never seen him on the poster...
{the guitarist tilts his head up to reveal his identity... it's wander! wander in guyliner and a leather jacket!}
HATER: wait... NO!!!
PEEPERS: wait, WHAT??
{hater gapes down at the stage, croaking in shock and disgust. peepers looks down in shock.}
PEEPERS: wh- how- that can't be right!... that makes him how old??
{wander starts to play his guitar, major threat starts to sing.}
HATER: all this time. that filthy riff...i can't believe it...
PEEPERS: neither can i, sir...
-----
this is pretty silly and self indulgent but i finished it in such a short window of time i figure it mustve been a necessary assignment. here are a few songs they could be playing because i like nine inch nails and i like wander over yonder music
imagine if u will. two man gentleman band cover
some stuff
i've been itching to share my swap au since i thought it up, but i think i now finally have an actual baseline to introduce it with!!
the idea isn't that it's a personality swap, but a role swap, with wander and sylvia as antagonists and hater and peepers as the protags, and i have a whole lot to say about it so im gonna go ahead and infodump below the cut
so i've renamed these two, at least, since hater's story has become less about getting over himself and more about how he sees the world Now That He's Gotten Over Himself. i'm calling him The Great (and absent) Lord Lackadaisical right now, but i don't think that's what he'd like to be called, since he's an absent ruler who doesn't really care to be in a position of so much power and would rather fuck off to all the planets with really nice hot tubs. he and Sir Peepers (his loyal knight who cannot be convinced to leave his side) travel the galaxy with hater's sweet ride (i'm not too good at designing motorcycles yet. pending).
i haven't thought of new names/titles for wander and sylvia just yet (i cannot just call him Sitter Over Therer) but i do know what their deal is, and it's the main reason i made this au (i feel like if wander were a villain he would not in fact be a villain like lord hater or dominator because i think that kinda disregards wander's whole Shit, he'd be like screwball, and even then he'd have very strong convictions that he's doing the right thing): wander has a cult (a hivemind, kinda) and sylvia is his priest.
i think wander comes along this mushroom during a time in his life when everything seems to have been torn asunder, and instead of continuing his adventures and learning and growing as a person, the mushroom offers a solution that doesn't require much effort on his behalf. the mushroom links people together borg-style, makes them share a brain and a purpose. wander not only thinks it's super neat, but he's in such a poor state of mind when he finds it, he convinces himself it's the only way to make the galaxy a better place.
sylvia is the only person in his Ring of Friends who isn't hooked up to the mushroom, because she's actually wander's friend, and she's his ride or die. she does the things she does out of free will and dedication to her best friend, including preaching and fisticuffs.
^^^ here's some more of my initial concept art. originally the mushroom was gonna be a tree, but i had a vision of an upside down mushroom (or several, to take the place of watchdogs) scuttling around and by god is it easy to make that look like his hat.
the thing that really really pushes wander over the edge is the sheer boredom of it all. when he's connected to the mushroom, he's very little more than the brain they all share. he can't move around, and that KILLS him (see: the hole lotta nuthin). so when hater (name pending) comes along and refuses to join him and annoys him enough, he gets suuuuper stoked about having something to really DO for once.
anyway. this is what i've got for now. do you like it. you can be honest if you dont like it
part of the fun of the original alien is the horror of the nostromo itself imo. it’s a cell of corporate greed ferrying narrowly-trained workers across barren space. it’s huge and yet claustrophobic, cockpits crammed with machinery giving way to yawning berths dripping chains and water. the supercomputer is named mother in a stroke of human anthropomorphization, but instead of providing comfort or protection, it’s only a courier between its creator and its wailing brood. ripley yells “mother! mother!” at a matronly-voiced computer that speaks calmly over her helplessness. the ship is full of endless details and patterns and unlabeled buttons and dials the audience can’t entirely make sense of; to do anything on the ship is a rigorous, technical process, and we must depend on the characters to know it. the internal mechanics of the ship are so alien that a literal alien can hide among the bits and bobs and not be noticed. it’s great.
Exploring underlying anxieties around sexual assault, loss of bodily autonomy, and forced impregnation in Alien (1979) - a film where fear of rape and forced birth is applied to every character, not just female characters oversexualised to titillate the viewer.
A facehugger in Alien (1979). Via IMDb.
From Merriam-Webster:
Rape: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception
Sexual assault: illegal sexual contact that usually involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority
After a short preface, in this piece, I’m going to watch through Alien (1979) and do a close reading of the text, exploring and analysing themes of and including:
Rape and Sexual Assault
Reproductive Coercion
Pregnancy and Reproduction
Loss of Bodily and Personal Autonomy
The Body as a Resource — in regards to Labour and as a Worker, but also as a physical trading resource — in a society that desires profit
If any of these might be upsetting for you or you don’t feel as if you can stomach them at the moment, it might be a good idea to bookmark this piece and come back to it at another time.
This piece is going to go through the film Alien (1979) and talk in-depth about particular scenes in chronological order, with quotes from the script and screencaps throughout, so there will be spoilers for the whole of the film.
Read in full here!
h
Pose Practice.
(This can be for any of the characters) What do you NOT miss about Bikini Bottom?
i have had a fever for the past three days