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LadyPep — The Glove
#fantasy #haddock #isolde #originalcharacters #regency #werewolf #capella336 #isoldemarlowe #malcolmhaddock #sirdrexel
Published: 2017-10-30 20:47:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 895; Favourites: 18; Downloads: 2
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Mrs. Haddock was knitting a blanket for a new baby borne to one of the families who tended the orchards of the estate to go along with a generous basket of food. Haddock was absorbed in the second act of Hamlet, enjoying the silence. Mrs. Haddock’s needles had been click-clicking in the background for the past hour when they abruptly ceased.
“Malcolm?”
Haddock looked up over the lip of his book.
“Yes, Mother?”
“I was just thinking,” she said, cocking her head in a loving manner. “It’s starting to get cool outside again, and you and Miss Marlowe mustn’t let a musty old woman like me keep you two lovebirds locked away in this ancient place while the nice summer weather is waning.”
Haddock lowered his book with a deep sigh.
“We enjoy keeping company with you, Mother. You’re the one who hired Miss Marlowe as a companion for just that.”
Mrs. Haddock twiddled her knitting needles.
“Yes, I know, but you two should spend some time together. Just with each other. Why don’t you take Miss Marlowe down to the village and have a day to yourselves, hm?”
“But—”
“I insist, Malcolm.”
Mrs. Haddock was giving her progeny the same look she reserved for him as a youngster when he tucked a family of toads into her bedsheets.
“Fine,” Haddock muttered, hiding behind his book again. Mrs. Haddock smiled and resumed her knitting.
Miss Marlowe was delighted when Haddock woodenly asked if she would like to go to the village with him to enjoy a day on their own. If he had been a woman, he would have been turned off by his surly attitude. Fortunate for Miss Marlowe that she took his bad attitude in stride. Haddock allowed himself to be led around like a dog on a short leash while Miss Marlowe did a majority of the talking, telling him about her family and the latest happenings in her neighborhood as they made their way to the village. There, they had passed too much time in a fabric store where Haddock felt a little piece of him die inside. He had the distinct feeling that Miss Marlowe stretched out their stay in spite. Afterwards, she was kind enough to suggest they pop into the bookstore. Haddock ordered a sizable stack that would enrich his collection and bought a small book that Miss Marlowe was eyeing to keep up appearances of their courtship. She was genuinely surprised by the gesture.
“What was that for?” she asked as he handed her the book following the purchase.
“You wanted it, didn’t you?”
“I, um…yes.”—she gave him a peculiar look—“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” he said as they exited the store.
They let the sounds of the street fill up the space that could have been devoted to talking, retreating to their thoughts. Haddock didn’t really know why he had bought the book for Miss Marlowe. It had been extremely impulsive. How had he known that she wanted it in the first place? Because you were watching her in the store. The revelation of that little inner voice sent a hot jolt throughout his chest. I was watching her to make sure Sir Drexel wouldn’t happen to try anything, he argued. The little voice wasn’t convinced. In a bookstore? Sure, sure. Haddock gagged the little voice and tried to think along another tack. His eyes wandered over to Miss Marlowe with her hand on his arm. He directed them directly in front of him. And as if materializing out of his imagination, he saw Sir Drexel striding down the street straight ahead. Haddock tried to pretend that he hadn’t seen the other, but Sir Drexel had already sighted him and was making a beeline for the couple.
Haddock tightened his grip on his cane, ready to deliver Sir Drexel an almighty wallop should he try to start anything. Miss Marlowe—that ever-perceptive woman—took notice.
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “You don’t need to be causing a scene in the middle of the marketplace. The villagers already think you’re a mad hermit as is. Don’t give them fuel for their fire!”
Haddock had to grudgingly agree with her logic.
“Fine.”
Sir Drexel drew up to the couple, eyeing them down his gladiator’s nose. He tipped his hat.
“Haddock,” he spat. It sounded like a curse word. His eyes flicked over to Miss Marlowe’s face and a muscle in his cheek twitched.
“Miss Marlowe.”
The way he said her name had an icy snarl in it that caused Miss Marlowe to dig her trembling fingers into the crook of Haddock’s arm.
“It’s so nice to see you, Sir Drexel,” Miss Marlowe ejaculated, her chipper tone belying the fear she was telegraphing through Haddock’s appendage. He could feel some distinct bruises forming. Sir Drexel smiled at her, but the smile didn’t reach up to his eyes.
“I beg pardon, Miss Marlowe, but I just came over to deliver a message to your friend here.”
Haddock raised a thick brow at the other man. What could Sir Drexel possibly have to say to him? Sir Drexel grinned, and proceeded to slap Haddock in the face with a glove. People close enough to witness the exchange gasped.
“I challenge you to a duel,” he said with a wolfish grin. His eyes slid over to Miss Marlowe. “For stealing the affections of my paramour.”
Having gained the intended attention, Sir Drexel swept away, whistling.
------
DUN DUN DUNNNN Drexel is an attention-seeking jerk. Things only get worse before they get better...
Characters/Story©LadyPep
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Comments: 39
I have a confession to make... I haven't been reading the awesome story.... I don't know why and after reading this far can't come up with a good enough reason. Lol
I've yet to read a story involving a "monster" like protagonist to be constructed this cleverly... being one that's into Robert Lewis Stevenson and such I feel just like I'm reading a period novel due to the sentence construction and the insertion of particular words. It makes it sound very believable. You made me feel acquainted with the characters without any boring introduction which is just captivating... So far it's been a joy to read and I think I've chosen a poor place to stop. (Be careful Haddcock!) I also like seeing your drawings of the late 18th century clothing vs your usual Victorian era. Nice job on the Top hats, dusters, and Spenser Jackets! Love it!
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Haha! Don't feel so bad--a lot of people have only checked out the art part of these pieces.
I didn't think I'd get so involved with this story, seeing that I only came up with Haddock in September as a one-shot character for my independent study animation class, so it's fun and surprising to see how far the story and character has come since then!
Thank you so much! I was hoping to make it sound period appropriate, so that's great to hear. 
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That's some pretty impressive development in such a short period. I feel I must ask, have you ever contemplated a future in literature. I know of the many difficulties, but it is a lil' bit easier than the graphic novel/ comic book route... just asking.
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I actually have about five different novels in various states of incompletion or brainstorming that I started writing way before Maelstrom was an idea, so I've been dabbling in literature for a long time. 
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Oooo!!! The dramarggh!!! (So sorry for the delay in commenting beneath this, I haven't been very well recently.) I smiled at Mrs Haddock's not-so-subtle attempts to matchmake her son with Isolde. It was a touching moment when Haddock bought Isolde the book too- what was it? Some Romantic poetry by Byron or Keats? Or an epic medieval tale by Sir Walter Scott? Or even a swooningly gothic novel by Mrs Radcliffe?
I'll stop. lol.
I'm curious about Sir Drexel challenging Haddock, especially when he was soundly beaten the last time. But I'm sure he has some dastardly motive afoot....
I love the dynamics of the picture, with Drexel glaring down at Isolde, his face in shadow and hers half in light. I smiled at Haddock's arm protectively raised to defend her too. I'm really enjoying this story!
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(No problem! I've been crazily typing up three essays and working on an animation project for finals, so I haven't had time to comment/reply on stuff here until lately too >.<)
Mrs. Haddock is a lot of fun--I'm going to have to include her a lot more after all the Werewolf Drama abates and we can return to good ol' Relationship Drama. lol
Sir Drexel is the type of fellow who'll run away to the city for a few years to lick his wounds and come up with a revenge plan or two that he stews on until the right moment...
Thank you! I like throwing in little subtle touches like that to show what's going on in the characters' heads.
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I love the style these are draw in!
I've got to take time and read this story and the other ones too.
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Thank you! (It's a super easy style for me to work with too
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I've read it up to here. Oh my gosh! This short story is so cool! The more you go the deeper it gets. Sir Drexel is an evil EVIL man.
You're working wonders with this. I can easily see this as a novel.
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Thank you!! Drexel was a somewhat late addition, since I needed an antagonist and catalyst that would throw Haddock and Isolde together. He's useful for drawing those two closer at least. lol I might try to compile this as a novella if I continue to work on it long enough!
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It's a really neat story. Drexel didn't even feel like an after thought. He's one of those villains you see and go. "Man that guy's been causing trouble forever! He needs to go and now, but who can stop him?!" He is really bad news. Perhaps one of the worst werewolves I've seen because he knows what he's doing!
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Thank you! That's great to hear! I was hoping that he wouldn't feel shoe-horned in.
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Bwahahahaha! I dig a good glove-slap! what a dweeb!
I lov ethe lighting in this! I don't know how you manage to get that glow but it looks great!!
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I'm a bit torn that I didn't draw the actual glove-slapping part (but it would have made Haddock look derpy and we couldn't have that!)
Thank you! 
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Oh my, lol, no need to slap him Drexel, it's most unbecoming behaviour for a young lady - BAM *crawls away beneath the glare and leaves town while adopting a new identity after faking her own death*. I wonder how long Drexel stewed over that to let him believe he was getting away with this slight.
Fight fight fight fight.
Wolf fight, or human fight hmmmm.
Oh yeah, and why was I under the impression that Drexel was dark haired?
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HAHA! He's been plotting this ever since he fled town when Haddock whupped his butt; Isolde dumping him for Haddock was just the spark he needed to ignite the fire...
Both. Both is good.
Inky said that dark-haired Drexel looked too similar to Haddock, so I went ahead and changed his hair color to a sandy blond to make him stand out a bit more.
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I couldn't resist. He sat in his lair having long winded fantasies about how his vengeance will go. 'First I shall slap his eyebrows off, without them he'll be powerless'
Haddock should come join a lot of my boys in the League of Extraordinary Eyebrows, they'll have his back.
Taking it to the extreme, this is a double duel because that's how werewolves roll. No silver bullets I hope, that'd be cheating, Drexel
Aw really? I liked him with dark hair, though now he looks less like a brute and more like the cold and conniving type , it's funny how much a hair colour change can influence character
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Drexy would steal those eyebrows if he could, they're like the Ark of the Covenant for him. If he had brows like that, he'd be unstoppable! Yes, strength in numbers would certainly help to defeat the Inferior Brow Society. They'd fry those pretenders with their combined power!
Werewolves can never do anything the easy way *sigh*
Though he's a brawler, he's definitely the scheming type too. Yeah, I know what that's like--since I've been working on those superhero characters on Instagram, I've been changing some of their hair colors and subsequently their personalities since the new hair colors don't seem to fit with their old personalities.
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Lol, lets hope they don't actually disintegrate people (as, if i recall correct, is what happened in Indiana Jones) *everyone is blasted to ash when Drexel don's the brows*
Now that you mention it, it's far too dangerous to have such a concentration of brows in one location, for the good of MindSpace, these characters should be kept apart to maintain the balance, and the uninitiated (those not born with the power, such as Drexel) could never handle such raw responsibility - go forth and maintain equilibrium Haddock, only YOU can achieve that in your respective world, do not let that power fall into the wrong hands.
Of course not, then they'd just be regular wolves!
Brains and brawn, he's the real deal. It's true, that's usually why I don't change hair colour from initial designs, because for some reason everything else needs to then change as well (its weird!) - actually I don't think I've ever changed a character's hair colour...but then again, now that I consider it, I have a lot of dark haired characters and very few light haired ones...
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Haha! That scene still makes me uncomfortable...but Temple of Doom takes the cake in the I'm Uncomfortable Category!
lol With great power comes great responsibility!
Most of my current characters have been changed drastically over the years (they're all pretty much Recycled OCs xP), and I feel that with each version/look they're personalities were different. It's pretty rare that I have a character who stays relatively "the same" while their appearance is modified.
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I have only ever watched one Indiana Jones film all the way and that was the ark one - on tv...it is the one with the snake pit isn't it? When they get tossed down this excavation? (I wasn't paying much attention at the time lol)
Do you mean this www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZZe0m… - how did he live without a heart though...
Not all are mentally ready for such responsibility so it's a good thing Haddock has those brows, they're safe where they belong.
Oh I think I told a lie, I did at one point do an overhaul of a character, but have since never drawn him again, the rest have just gone through evolutions of 'better drawing'
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Yep, that's the first one! I had read a giant "Making of" book for the Indiana Jones series beforehand, so that helped to take a little edge off of the second movie; it was actually pretty interesting to know how they accomplished those effects while watching it (fun fact: Doom is what gave us the PG-13 rating--which is understandable!). The first and third are the best in my opinion--Doom got weird and dark (although I did enjoy the kid!) and Crystal Skull was just EW.
Those abandoned characters are bound to show up later on (especially when I don't know what to do for a new character design)...
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Honestly I find that the effects for old movies (although sometimes laughable in this day and age) were actually waaaay more exciting to see and amazing to think about in terms of ingenuity. I mean sometimes I see old effects and go 'how did they do that?' - they also have a lot more character and charm than CGI, which I think sucks the life out of everything. Bring back amazingly crafted masks and make-up, and compare it to CGI and you can see the difference. Example: Lord of the Rings facial make-up for Uruk-hai, compared to the heavy use of CGI in the Hobbit for orc faces - the first has so much more realism and substance-feel compared to the CGI. Gollum was CGI but because he was basically the only character fully CGI, you didn't notice, but in the Hobbit, 70% of everything was CGI. Sure it's amazing, but the realism and 'real live creature' feel is still not there. So give me a person in make-up any day and I prefer it.
Indiana Jones is a classic BECAUSE it was a product of the times and utilised the technology of the times in inventive ways, so when they made the Crystal Skull (which I believe was in the 2000s) it just killed it because they sucked out the charm and innovation with the bandaid cinematic tool of CGI...(plus the cheesiness and one liners don't work in this day and age when you try too hard to recreate those from a past era - they work for the originals, they don't work in this age).
Bottom line - CGI is becoming so mainstream and 'cheaper' that it's sucking the charm and character out of everything - and the overuse of it in this day and age, is killing cinema.
That's my view anyway (I feel the same way with animation. Bring back cell-drawn, traditional animation, bring it back!)
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I totally agree! After I settled on studying film as my major, I started researching movies and found that they had to be a lot more creative back then; I'm still impressed by those old matte paintings and how real they look! Kudos to those painters! I'm just sad that that kind of art in films has become extinct because of CGI. 2001: A Space Odyssey completely baffled me when I watched it for the first time since I was wondering how Kubrick achieved such sophisticated effects in the 1960s (sadly, he decided to trash all of his sets so no one else could use them).
OH MAN. Don't get me started on my inferiority of the Hobbit movies. I was so excited to hear that Jackson would be adapting the book, which made me immensely disappointed after I watched them. A lot of what I liked about the LOTR trilogy was the use of practical effects, extras, and only using CGI when absolutely necessary. I feel like CGI has become a big cop-out for movies now (although I'm not a big fan of the new Star Wars films--I'm one of those annoying purists who stick to the Expanded Universe prior to Disney buying the franchise--I do appreciate how JJ Abrams incorporated puppets and practical effects in The Force Awakens). The Hobbit films also used 48 fps which made it really obvious that 99% of everything was computer generated...
And the CGI in Crystal Skull wasn't even that good. I mean, the first Transformers movie came out a year before and had better looking effects!
I got interested in animation because of the hand-drawn aspect, and I'd LOVE to work on some 2D animation stuff for a job, but it seems like the only place where that's being used is in television. Studio Ghibli and Cartoon Saloon still use traditional animation, but those studio locations are a little too far away. lol
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Wow yeah! Now they just slap it all in with CGI (not that it doesn't take effort) but that dedication to realism is now sort of gone. I was impressed by the spinning room in 2001: A Space Odyssey - I still want to know how that was done. (lol, it's the equivalent of ancient kings having the architects of their tombs buried alive with them - no one can use them again)
I was sort of excited as the book was more amusing than the Lord of the Rings books, so I was waiting to see if the same charm would be portrayed (it wasn't) - but the CGI ruined it for me. You know, I watched a play of the Hobbit and I am still impressed by the dragon, while Smaug in CGI was just 'meh'.
I have only ever watched, like, a short segment of Star Wars so can't really comment! But I heard that they had to hand-draw all the little laser beams between the ships in the old films - not like these days. Puppets should be brought back - one reason is also because the interaction between the actor and the puppet is more natural. If you've seen any of the Jim Henson films in which actors interact with puppets, they forget the people are operating them and interact with this creature as though it is real - that shows on screen, more than someone trying to force themselves to envision the human or object in front of them as it should be.
I can only assume they were going for a certain aesthetic which probably didn't work...
I always wanted to animate, and if I ever chose to suffer through it, I'd pick hand-drawn (actually I tried a few hand drawn ones with tracing paper but said 'never again') but yeah, there's a certain magic with hand drawn animations you don't see with CGI, I mean each animator was different, and styles are more pronounced - the human aspect is there. Ghibli is great for keeping it alive and I hope it remains, i mean I'm not a fan of Disney (they're ok) but when they decided to go CGI - I lost it, I have no faith in them at all anymore, they're done, they're over, they're through. When they bring back hand-drawn animation, I'll forgive them. I loved it when they released The Princess and The Frog BECAUSE of the hand drawn quality - compare that to Tangled, it wins.
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I had to look up how they did those effects right after I saw the movie--they used a giant spinning cylinder that the actor walked on like a treadmill while they spun the camera around.
I was annoyed when all the orcs turned out to be CGI--it helped to make the battles more realistic when you have actual actors battling each other instead of someone swinging at a fake computer-generated creature. I got this giant 'Making of' book for the first Star Wars movie from my library a few years back and was blown away by how they achieved all those effects in the '70s! I feel like puppets are more engaging for the audience too, and with the knowledge of practical special effects nowadays, they can make them even more lifelike.
It's taken me about four months to complete that 30-something-second animated sequence of Haddock's life stages for my Independent Study class! I have gained considerable respect for animators who do that for a living (I also wonder how they don't go insane after 100 frames in lol). I like being able to see the pencil lines in close ups of characters too--it makes the film feel a lot more natural, if you know what I mean.
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Lol wow, the mystery is now solved!
Oh me too, even worse when the dwarven army came and the one riding the giant pig was also CG when the Billy Connolly is still alive and has a perfectly decent face to use...that's like having a live actor there, but choosing to reconstruct them all over again.
People were forced to be more innovative to achieve the effects they wanted, now people are just lazy, and it shows. I hope a day will return when special effects looks back and decides to revive those old techniques. I mean, have you watched the show 'Face off' - not the film of the same name - the competition show with make-up artists? Look at what people can do, and you choose to digitize it?
Sure it takes longer, but the end result is more physically weighty
Lol wow, well done achieving that, at least you can say that the animation you achieved is nice and smooth and flows well. i agree, it gives it more motion too, I think that's also why sketches have more life to them
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Ughhh, YES. The last movie was the only one we didn't see in theaters, and even then, I was bored for most of the time. It was pretty much Nopeville from the the second film.
I've seen commercials for that show and I'm really impressed by what makeup artists can achieve! I just watched Back to the Future with my family (for the billionth time lol) and I didn't realize that the actors who played Marty's parents and Biff were actually in their twenties. They looked like they were forty--that's some convincing prosthetics!
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The thing is that none of that happened in the actual book, but it did happen like, somewhere in the lore of middle earth, so it was mashed in to make three movies out of what could have been told in one...(also, the amount of enemies and creatures, and obstructions Legolas hopped on was ridiculous)
You should watch it, i've watched every season, and the small mini contests they started doing, it's really interesting, and it's also great to see a competition show in which people aren't bad mouthing one another for a change. They had a similar one with Jim Henson's monster shop but for some reason it only had one season...
Lol, you know I've only ever seen bits of those films! And I never saw the parents in any of the segments I happened to catch (olding people up is notoriously difficult - Face-Off taught me this lol, as is making different genders appear the opposite...)
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I had read the Silmarillion beforehand, so I knew that they were probably going to show the fight between the Council and Sauron (since it would give them a chance to show Gandalf doing something when he off and disappears), but they didn't really execute the added scenes very well. They just felt long and boring. I wish they had done what they did with the LOTR trilogy's extended edition films and just showed what needed to be shown in theaters and added the extra scenes for die-hards in the DVDs. Oh my gosh, yes! At least they made his fighting somewhat more believable in the LOTR movies. We always watch the HISHEs after seeing a big budget movie like that, and they added this scene at the end about that that is absolutely hilarious!
Is it on Netflix?? I now I saw an ad for it on SyFy when it came out, but that was a few years ago... lol My mom and sister love watching cooking competition shows, and I'm always amazed how brutal those competitors can be.
They also made Michael J. Fox look like a woman in the second film and they had me convinced until my mom told me what was going on!
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I actually owned the Silmarilion but never read it. Poor Gandalf basically does everything, and honestly if I were him I would have kicked Thorin's uptight arse about a hundred times along the way - who wants THAT as a king? Crown Gandalf that's what I say.
Lol I laughed so hard at the credit animation (also the dragon sickness part) - but yes, I did keep saying 'why not just use those giant worms and be done with it" and...the eagles...
But then again there would be no epic film without all of that right?
I'm not sure, I don't have a Netflix account but I'm pretty sure you could find it on there - though they were playing it on Scyfy too - just really old seasons you're right. Oh god, I feel your pain, my mum and sisters basically JUST watch cooking shows (and blacksmithing shows) and 'survival' shows like Yukon Men - but if you REALLY want to see contestants arguing over no good reason and making your blood pressure rise, just watch 'Ink Master' - it's a tattoo contest and the people on there are like...just constantly ready to fight and can't handle critiques - if you want to despair in the human race, just watch it. It's a shame though as it's an interesting show, just, ruined by the drama (although apparently that's what people LIKE - we must be weird) if i want to watch people screaming and fighting i'll just look at my family thank you very much.
Lol! You mean this
static1.squarespace.com/static…
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It took me a while to get into it because it's not like the LOTR or Hobbit books, being something like The Definitive History of Middle Earth.
Gandalf would have made a great king! Of course, he'd probably disappear for long periods of time going off on quests and such. lol Aragorn was far better king material than Thorin when comparing the two. The funny thing was that my mom made a comment that Legolas was like he was in a videogame in the Hobbit films. lol They could have gotten rid of at least an hour or so of fighting by using those worms (or the eagles).
Ohhh, I saw ads for that show and just went "nope" as soon as they focused on the bickering. I would watch more competition shows if they just focused on the people's skills instead the smacktalk and near-fisticuffs. >.< I just keep thinking of this pin whenever I think of cooking shows now!
Exactly! They saved a lot of money on actors for the last two films. lol
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"Miss Marlowe ejaculated," That line made me laugh. XDDDDD
Very well written! As you can tell, I loved some of the wordings. XD Very clever.
I can't wait for the next part. ^_^
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Haha! Thank you! It's been a lot of fun getting back into writing again!
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I wanna hear some more about baby Haddock now.
-reaches the end- oHHHHH NOOOOOOO
i hope this is a wolf fight tbh that would be SICK
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Lol! Maybe I'll include some flashback sequences in the future...
Spoilers: first there'll be a gunfight, then we'll get to the anticipated wolf fight ;^)
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