I did a big bunch of doodles for both EM and my Wizard of Wasteland story. Various mini scenes, me trying to get the hang of drawing Gremlins, and eventually be giving up on staying in the normal style and riffing to come up with my own way of drawing them. But there’s a lot here, so I’m going to post close-ups of some of the doodles under a Read More.
First off: A confused mouse and an embarrassed Gremlin! (Harry’s probably asking Prescott why he didn’t just teleport out of the safe he got stuck in)
Markus the Gremlin!
Some mini-scenes for my story (which may or may not happen)
Me working on my own version of the Gremlin designs.
Playing with the idea of Harry being a Gremlin instead of a mouse. (He looks cute, and I like it.)
Mickey having a meltdown post-EM than Donald helps him through. (Because I wanted to see more supportive-friend Donald. And Donald seems to go through just as much or even more crazy things than Mickey does, so he’d probably be the best person/duck to talk to about everything.)
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A commentor on Ao3 asked me about Harry’s friendships in Wasteland and how the toons viewed/thought of him. Not only did I deliver, I MAY have gone a little overboard on one of them.
Be warned, this got LONG.
Oswald and Harry have a kind of unique relationship, but I'd say they're pretty good friends, if not terribly close in the beginning.
Ozzy, when he first met Harry, was hesitant about being around/hanging out with him. Harry looks a lot like Mickey, which made it hard for him to be close/super friendly with him. Harry’s also a pretty “blank slate” toon when he first comes to Wasteland, even if his “design” and personality seem pretty fleshed out.
(“Blank Slate” toons are basic ideas/designs that don’t have much of a background and don’t seem very thought out yet. They’re usually background/single episode toons.)
But once he got past the resemblance, they got along pretty well and a lot of Harry's creations made his job as "King of Wasteland" easier.
Another thing to remember is that, despite everyone in Wasteland liking Oswald, it's implied that he was a bit of a recluse after the Thinner Disaster. I’d wager that he isn’t terribly familiar with newer residents because of that, so Harry would have probably flown under his radar for a while before they two of them happened to run across each other in town. But by then Harry’s probably established himself as another resident and everyone already knows him.
So Oswald mostly viewed Harry the same as everyone else in Wasteland, as a resident that he needed to help/care for.
Harry likes Oswald as a person and respects that he tried to make Wasteland into a Home for everyone, and is thankful for it. But he's also a bit of a cynic (one of his many contrasts against Mickey and a holdover from being human) and thinks there are things Oswald should have been doing instead of locking himself away. He knows Ozzy was grieving, so he doesn't really bring it up. Although he would drop hints about things Oswald should do whenever the rabbit stopped by. Kind of a “I’m a little mad at you but know you’re going through stuff so I’ll let it go” type situation.
Their relationship would probably change a bit after the Main Story here, with Oswald working harder to look out for Harry and helping him through and identity issues that may crop up. Eventually, they're fairly good friends that MAY lean into a more family-like role with each other.
(Oswald is a Dad after all, and Harry's a teen with no real father figure in his life so that could have a hand. But then again, Harry looks like Mickey, so it's also a bit of a "he's kind of a brother" situation too.)
Mickey is also sort-of friends with Harry, but he also doesn't know him as well as the other toons in Wasteland.
He was first under the impression that Harry was for a "Mistaken Identity" thing and feels bad that Harry had been "made" just to be swapped for him for a bit then forgotten, so most of their early interactions are pretty awkward on his side of things. Later on, he finds that he gets along pretty well with Harry and they shift more into being friends. He's also a bit more people-aware than Oswald and probably picks up on Harry actually being younger than him despite how similar they look pretty quickly, and that factors into his opinion too.
(Harry is, after all, a teenager compared to Mickey’s “ambiguous young adult” shtick.)
Harry is actually pretty indifferent to Mickey when he first shows up at the shop. And at first doesn't believe he’s the real Mickey, being so used to look-a-likes around Wasteland. He’s really not prepared for Gus to explain that “Yes, he’s really Mickey Mouse. He was abducted by the Blot and Mad Doctor, we’re trying to get him home again.”
He knows Ozzy doesn't like his brother but decides to take a wait-and-see approach to things, since he never really knew Mickey and wasn’t up to making a fool of himself. It's only after he hears about Mickey helping everyone around Wasteland that he decides he likes the guy. And after subsequent visits and chats, they shift to being friends. Harry is also more open to letting Mickey into areas of the shop that he normally doesn’t let people into, like the lab where he makes potions and such.
Mickey becomes more worried/protective about Harry after his past is revealed and probably makes a habit of checking in from time to time. He still can’t wrap his head around the idea of a kid genuinely losing hope in the world around him, and can’t help trying to share all the good things he knows about to help fix that.
Again, they're good friends that may lean into more family-like roles, but more along the lines of being brothers or cousins.
(Which would probably be how Mickey would explain how they knew each other/why they looked alike to his friends if they ever somehow met.)
Ortensia is someone Harry respects, but she’s also a pretty big Unknown to him. The Thinner Disaster had already happened when he appeared which means she was already Inert and Harry never got the chance to meet her until after the events of EM1. They’re mostly acquaintances but are slowly getting to know each other.
And Harry is pretty good friends/on good terms with most of the residents of Wasteland. He’s not super outgoing and can be pretty awkward at times, but he does make friends and tries to help out where he can.
One of his friends is Madame Leona from the Haunted Mansion, as they both share an interest in magic and the forms it takes.
She’s also the only person in Wasteland that Harry has to actively seek out in order to talk. They have bi-weekly tea sessions where they talk shop, share the most recent book/magic they’ve been looking at, and spill gossip about the rest of Wasteland. There are probably a number of ghosts who join in too and add in their own gossip and reading suggestions.
(Basically, it’s like a supernatural Book Club!)
Gremlin Gus is probably more of an acquaintance than a friend. They know of each other, but aren’t terribly close. They talk on occasion, but it’s more in-passing than anything else.
He worries more about Harry after the story, but it’s in a protective, borderline-parental way.
I think another friend of his, maybe even his Best Friend, would be Gremlin Prescott.
It might seem a little odd, but I think they would bond over their love of creating new things to help out Wasteland and sharing the projects they’re working on with each other. They’ve probably even put their heads together to make joint projects too!
Having the drive to actually create in Wasteland seems pretty rare, most toons seems to prefer using pre-made things or following already created recipes. Most of the Gremlins don’t seem interested in making new machines and focus more on maintaining what’s already there instead. And toons don’t seem to want to make anything new or pursue new projects, always trying to keep up their familiar habits and lifestyles.
(There are a few exceptions, but this seems to be mostly true.)
Part of this could be because of the Thinner Disaster and the Blotlings. It’s hard to find motivation to build/make something new if you know it’s just going to get destroyed, so a lot of them seem to have developed a “Why Bother?” mindset about it. Which results in everyone being stuck in a rut, and they can’t really find anything new to cheer themselves up and contributes to the frustration/sadness everybody suffers from.
That makes Harry’s Alchemy Shoppe and Prescott’s inventions unique. They’re always trying to make something, even if it might not stick around or be appreciated very much. And it’s something they both enjoy doing. Both of them appreciate the work the other puts into their projects and they bounce ideas off each other a lot.
They probably know each other really well, too, and can name the other’s favorite foods/books/interests without a second thought (and be right about it). They’re the kind of friends that can hang out in each other’s work spaces without talking and be perfectly happy about it, or spend hours gushing about their latest interest/project and not get bored with it.
They’re best friends, which would also make the events of EM2 so interesting since it would add an extra element to Prescott’s motivations.
Prescott isn’t just frustrated that no one can see his genius, he’s frustrated because no one can see the genius of his Best Friend either. Wasteland is finally recovering from the Thinner Disaster, but the work he and Harry had been putting in through it all had never been appreciated as much as he felt it should have been.
He wants both of them to be recognized, and is frustrated that no one seems to pay attention to their work, even if Harry doesn’t seem bothered by it.
It also adds an interesting duality/angle to Prescott’s relationship with the Mad Doctor.
Prescott is proud of his mechanical inventions and wants to be recognized for his work on them, both of which the Doctor promises to him. And while Harry is his best friend, he knows Harry’s never been a tech guy/mechanic and that a lot of Prescott’s interests go right over his head. But Harry’s still super supportive about them and is always ready to listen, which Prescott deeply appreciates.
But the Doctor gets him. He doesn’t just listen to Prescott when he talks about machines, he understands him. He understands the tools, the lingo, the schematics, everything. Prescott’s never had anyone outside of his fellow Gremlins understand him and be interested in what new things he wanted to create. It’s a new intoxicating experience and he can’t help being caught up in it.
Harry, on the other hand, isn’t interested in being recognized for his work. He just wants to help out where he can make the life of himself and everyone else in Wasteland easier. Their difference in opinion is one of the few things they get into arguments about, which unintentionally fuels Prescott’s motives to help the Doctor after a bad fight before the start of EM2.
Harry is worried about Prescott for most of EM2, first for his distance at the beginning then for how strange the idea of him intentionally wrecking Wasteland. But he never gives up on Prescott as a person, saying that something wasn’t right and that he wouldn’t do that for no reason.
During the story, Prescott is pretty much the only one who knows what’s going on and is desperately trying to help as best he can. He knows something is wrong with Harry and wants to help him, but he’s a prisoner and there’s only so much he can do. From trying to send hints, to remotely controlling/fixing things, to putting barricades to slow things down. He deeply hates the helpless feelings he has while there.
After the story, he throws himself into trying to help Harry and make up for the damage to their friendship, as well as the hurt he caused the rest of Wasteland.
It takes it a while for them to mend things between them, but it’s easier for Harry to forgive Prescott since he’s sincere about his guilt and is actively trying to make up for it. (And not just showing up and saying “Sorry, I did a bad. Friends again?” and expecting Harry to forgive him.) Things are a little rocky, but they’re working on it.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It’s been a while since I fussed with this AU, and I posted some stuff for it. Check it out, this one is meant to be a quick sum of the story/main arcs.
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So, I decided I wanted to share the storyline for the crossover sketches I'd posted. It isn't actually written out, but I've got a lot down for the outline.
But that's a lot of writing and it isn't really finished, so I've decided to share a brief summary of the story I've got in my head. And, if people show interest, I can post more detail for the various sections of the story.
Story Summary:
Harry is abducted, changed into a mouse toon and sent into the Disney Toon World without his human memory. But since he was never an official toon, he never had the chance to gain a Heart and ended up in Wasteland.
After the first two Epic Mickey games, the person who abducted Harry comes to Wasteland, looking for a way into Toon World to take the powers of the Disney Magic-users for their own. And they believe the keys they needed to get that powers lie in the world for forgotten toons.
Wasteland starts suffering from mysterious damages that can't be pinned of the previous problems they'd had, the Pete's are working against Wasteland for some reason and seem to be following someone's orders, and no one really knows what's going on or why.
Mickey comes back (again) and they make some progress. Then Mickey is kidnapped, Harry goes missing, the Blot is revived/unleashed the later defeated, the villain is thwarted and left to Yen Sid's mercies, and Harry's lost memories were returned.
Eyes, poses, tiny scenes, and a lot of toon hands. Like... A lot of hands. Because toon hands are strangely hard to draw and therefore need to be practiced.
Harry's job/lifestyle in Wasteland is somewhere between being a wizard, a spell crafter, and an alchemist.
He tries to recreate spells and potions he remembers with what he has in Wasteland. And also makes new spells, potions, and powders as he goes.
Basically he's going "I need something that does [this], now how do I do that?" And "What happens if I mix [this] with [this]?" And, occasionally, "I know something that does [this] already exists, but I don't now how it was made. Let's see if I can figure it out."
Harry's place of residence/business can be... Chaotic, to say the least.
