Just a rough draft of Coco because I haven't posted anything in a long time. It's time to shake off the laziness and start getting things done. Winter has arrived in full force and I'm feeling so sluggish 🫣
For some reason only now that I'm so deep into finalizing the first 20 pages of the CB fancomic I'm starting to see all the plot-related flaws and absurdities... But I'm trying to be more lenient about them because let's face it, the whole premise of Crash Bandicoot is so absurd and cartoony to begin with.
Fingers crossed that my writing won't end up being too jarring.
Stormy Descend Chapter 1 The escape of subject 218
Art done by @b-r-i-n-g-x do not repost
Summary: Coco bandicoot is just another subject, a back up general for cortex army. She accepted her fate, waiting for the day the news arrived. What she didn't expect was her finding her own family inside of cortex inner sanctum, and developing a crush on his cheerful niece.
Tags: slow burn, childhood friend, friends to enemies, first love, single parent, psychological torture, body modification, found family, betrayal, first crush, minor character death, blood injury, science experiments
Ship: Coco/Nina
It was late into the night as Cortex looked over his data, he gently touched the serial number of the subject. He smiles softly as he looks at the numbers, he then looks at the date. It was almost time to start the final stage of his plan, it was almost time to show the world just who Neo Periwinkle Cortex is. He taps his pencil on his desk thinking his general would need a name. A name that would strike fear into the soul of his enemies, as he loses himself in his thoughts the radio near him starts to play a song.
"Cause every time I seem to fall in love
Crash! Boom! Bang!
I find the heart but then I hit the wall
Crash! Boom! Bang!"
He turns to his radio, his eyes lighting up from the lyrics as he quickly writes down a name. He laughs to himself as lightning strikes. "IT'S PERFECT! Oh he is going to love this gift way more than the Wumpa cake!" He collects his data and stacks them getting ready for the final test, he hums to himself in excitement as he heads over to the training room. He shoves past N. Brio holding a box filled with clothes, he panics as he loses his balance. "Ah not again! Master Cortex, what is the rush?" He gains his balance as he turns to see Cortex speed walking down the hall, he lets out a sigh seeing the man vanish slowly down the hall.
Taking a deep breath he continues his walk to the holding chamber, he kicks the door open as the sound of various animals welcome him. A tall bandicoot grabs the bars of her cell glaring at him, N.Brio drops the crate feeling a sharp pain in his back. "Why are you here? Cortex already ordered the other lab assistants to take him away from me." N Brio rolls his eyes hearing the bandicoot speak, he turns to face the tall creature. "Tawna, I'm aware we have plenty of secret chats. But I'm sure you are aware of the huge box here, yes? No wonder master Cortex wants nothing to do with you."
Tawna glares at N Brio, she crosses her arms as the man starts picking out different shirts from the box. "What is that supposed to mean smart guy?"
N. Brio lets out a laugh as he turns to her again. "You idiotic marsupial, you're just around to keep subject 218 distracted. A pretty distraction, a reason to keep him going beside the wumpa fruit." Tawna frowns hearing his words, she looks away from the man. "That's…not true, what we have is real. The only real thing in this horrible place, I wont let you trick me..." Now bored of the conversation, N. Brio turns back to the box grabbing more clothes. He then makes his way to the back of the room, where he hears gun fire. He sighs as he gets closer to the aggressive tapping of buttons, he stops walking as he watches a young bandicoot shooting down zombies. He clears his throat to get her attention, she turns surprised as she pauses the game.
"Hello subject 220, I have brought more clothing for you mainly because I'm not a fan of you wearing the overalls my mother made me." He drops the clothes in his hands in front of the bandicoots cage, he then steps away to give the girl space. He waits for a few moments before walking back, only to see the bandicoot is back to playing her game."SUBJECT 220! What are you doing? Master Cortex will need me soon, I can't waste time on you." The bandicoot stops playing as she turns to look at the pile of clothes, she frowns as she picks up a shirt with the words 'Hot bad boy scientist' making her squint in annoyance.
Brio sighs as he walks back to the box pulling out more clothing, he walks back tossing them at her. She squeaks as the pile of clothes land on her, she pokes her head out of the pile looking at the new selection. "That's all that's left, you better have changed by the time I get back." N. Brio walks away leaving the young bandicoot to look at the clothing, she hums as she starts putting an outfit together. She starts to rip a red shirt before moving on to a gray one, she starts to put the rip parts together before she begins to sow the parts together. As she goes to pick a pair of pants she hears the door to the room open, she brushes it off as a scientist just checking on them. That was until she heard a cage open, her ears twitching when she heard Tawna speaking. "I'm not doing those tests so you can let me go!"
The door to the room slam shut, leaving the young bandicoot alone with only the sound of her video game playing. Slowly she continued putting together an outfit to wear, once she finished she changed into it. Her face lights up excited for the new outfit, she then piles all the clothes into the corner going back to playing games on her PlayStation. That is until the power goes out, she looks around confused before an alarm starts blasting through the room.
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Cortex starts pulling down levers on the walls, he checks the power gauge making sure all the energy in the castle was going into the Cortex Vortex. N Brio. looks around nervously as they strap the newly named subject Crash on the chair, he holds on to the switch of the machine as he stares at Crash looking around confused. N.Brio lets out a nervous laugh. "Master Cortex, we haven't determined the cause of past failures!" Cortex walks over to his master computer ignoring N. Brio, his eyes filled with excitement. "This bandicoot will be my general, he will lead my Cortex commandos. Then we finally got what we always wanted N Brio, WORLD DOMINATION!"
N.Brio looks at Crash giving the bandicoot a wink before hitting the switch, the machine starts to light up as Cortex continues to talk. "This time I shall reign triumphant, don't you see N.Brio after all these years we are closer than ever before!" N.Brio starts to lift Crash into the Cortex Vortex, Cortex turns around smirking as he watches Crash go into the machine. "Master Cortex, the vortex is not ready. We have no idea what it could do, after so many failures I would hate for you to lose this one!" Cortex scoffs at the comment as he turns to the monitor, he watches as the meter next to Crash photo lights up. "Oh N.Brio do you truly think my most powerful creation would fail to fall under our control? After all we went through, I gave him my favorite shorts, not to mention I even named him!"
N.Brio lets out a laugh when he sees the machine breaking, Cortex eyes go wide seeing the meter drain. He turns to see the Cortex Vortex start to break, cords connected to the machine coming undone as N. Brio acts fast moving Cortex out of the way. More parts start to fall off the machine as Cortex runs to his computer, the screen lights up showing the one fear Cortex had. "Bandicoot rejected? NO, NOT AGAIN, NOT ANOTHER FAILURE!" Acting fast, Cortex runs after Crash once the bandicoot breaks free from his restraints. Seeing Cortex run to grab him, he quickly spins out of the way, making the scientist fall to the floor. "CAPTURE HIM!"
The lab assistants start running towards the bandicoot while N. Brio takes a step back, he watches as the bandicoot runs to the window. He panics at the sight making his way to catch the bandicoot, as Crash runs out the window he looks around to notice he was in the air. The bandicoot looks down nervously, "Uh oh…" he falls to the sea below leaving the group of men staring in shock. Cortex pushes them aside as he looks at the sea, "MY SON!" Slowly he notices his assistants staring at him. He lets out a soft cough, "Ahem MY CREATION! He has to survive this fall, he passed all the tests!"
Cortex looks at the sea hoping to see any sign of life, there he notices a small light in the water. He squints, suddenly the bandicoot floats to the surface coughing out the sea water. "HE LIVES! Quickly grab the female, knowing how close the two are there is no way Crash will leave her behind." N.Brio watches as a lab assistant grabs Tawna, she acts fast punching the man as she looks around to escape. Seeing Crash escape the castle gave her hope that she could, as she makes her way to the exit she gasps seeing more men approach her. Cortex laughs as he presses a button, a collar gets placed on Tawna making her glare at the man. "I will never follow your orders."
Cortex smirks showing a mannequin with the same collar as her, he then presses a button making the collar blow up. She stares at the destroyed mannequin in front of her, slowly she touches the collar around her neck. Cortex steps in front of her, seeing the smug look on his face fills her with disgust. "Now then, are you ready to see your lover boy?"
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Crash starts to cough hard as he spits out sea water, a mask floats in front of him concerned. "Are you okay? You took quite the dive, luckily being sealed away for so long let me charge enough magical energy to save you." Once Crash catches his breath, he turns looking at the castle in the distance. He lets out a small grunt getting the mask's attention, he looks at the castle then at the bandicoot next to him. "I see, well then introductions are in order. I'm Aku Aku, I used to be a powerful witch doctor for my tribe before losing my physical body." Crash turns to the mask with a smile, he starts to let out a different assortment of sounds from squeaks to annoyed grunts. Aku nods as he listens to the bandicoot, once Crash finishes Aku looks back at the castle. "Well then Crash, I will love to assist you with this journey. Cortex sounds as bad as someone I know, we can't let him make this army, not to mention save your friend."
Crash lights up as he starts to dance showing the mask his excitement over the team up, he chuckles at the dance before looking at the path ahead of them. "This won't be easy, are you sure you're ready for this Crash?"
Crash stops dancing, he looks down the path filled with different kinds of experiments that Cortex had created, he thinks back to the training he got from Cortex as he looks forward. He nods, Aku smiles seeing how the bandicoot was able to be so expressive after what happened to him. As they move forward Aku watches in awe seeing the bandicoot spinning into the creatures, he bounces on an assortment of different platforms making Aku cheer him on as he follows behind. Whenever things got too dangerous the mask would spring into action, jumping onto Crash's face to protect him from fatal blows.
After hours of exploring the pair decide to make camp, Crash hums as he eats a wumpa fruit. Aku looks around making sure no one has seen them, once he felt comfortable in their safety he took his place next to Crash. "You certainly have talent, never seen someone move the way you do. If we keep up this pace we can reach the other side of N. Sanity island, from there we can take a boat to wumpa Island, getting us another step closer to Cortex." Crash lets out a small squeak as he continues to eat his stash of wumpa fruits, Aku lets out a small chuckle. "Yes the island does have more wumpa fruit than this one hence the name, though that is not the point on why we are going there. Be sure to remember that, we must save your friend and stop Cortex."
Crash stops eating as he frowns, staring at the fruit in his hand, he thinks back to the tower. How Cortex always gave him gifts, always gave him special treatment yet after every test when he walked back to his cage he always saw the others. The other animals in line waiting for the moment Cortex decides to change them, it always felt normal. That was till he was told about what Cortex was really planning, slowly things felt twisted. The idea his close friend is still there made him nervous, his ears twitch just at the thought of what she could be going through. Noticing the silence, Aku turns to check on the bandicoot. Not wanting to worry his new friend, Crash turned around pretending to have fallen asleep after eating the fruits.
Aku smiles as he uses his magic to pull a makeshift blanket made of leaves to cover Crash. "Rest well Crash, I will make sure to keep us safe and sound."
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Cortex sighs as he blasts an assortment of sad songs in his room, he slumps into his chair as he scoops up some mint chocolate ice cream. He sniffs as he wipes his eyes, he then shoves the ice cream into his mouth. N Brio gently knocks on the door before entering, he frowns as he covers his ears from the loud music. He passes by Cortex then unplugs the radio, Cortex glares at the scientist clearly annoyed by the lack of music. "N Brio cant you leave a man alone to sulk!" He gets up from his chair making sure his robe is on tight as he walks over to the radio, he hands over his ice cream to N Brio as he looks for the plug. "Master Cortex I understand you had high hopes for the bandicoot, but you have been in here for three days!" He lets out a small manic laugh before putting the ice cream bowl on the floor. "Our men notice the bandicoot isn't leaving but coming back here! The plan with the female is working, we can't lose our great minds now that we have gotten so close!"
Cortex eyes light up as he smirks, quickly he wraps his arm around N Brio making the man blush. "N Brio get the other bandicoot ready, we need a new general in case of anything!" N Brio smiles seeing the man acting like his old self again, he lets out a soft cough as he stands up hiding his blush. "As you wish, what will you do in the meantime?" Cortex walks over to his closet pulling out a fresh lab coat. "I'm going to pay Crash a little visit, help motivate him on this hopeless journey of his!" N Brio nods as he leaves the room, the sound of the man's laugh echoing down the hall.
He walks down the halls quickly going over the items they needed to begin training, he enters the room, the sound of cars could be heard. He walks over to the cage, he swings the door open making the blonde bandicoot jump. She turns looking at N Brio with wide eyes, he takes out a small remote from his pocket. He waves it at her then hits a button causing the power in her cage to turn off. "You want your games? Then you have to prove yourself to Master Cortex, though looking at your scores your nothing compared to that brother of yours." She frowns at his comment as she stands up, she brushes the dust off her new outfit.
"What do you mean I have to prove myself?" She carefully steps back, making sure to keep her distance as she studies the man in front of her.
N Brio sighs at the question as he steps away from the cage. "I have no time to answer idiotic questions."
As a small laugh escapes from his lips a loud slam of a door catches their attention, N Brio eyes go wide seeing the man that walked in. "N Gin?! I thought you were on vacation?" N Gin keeps walking toward the cage, he stares at the bandicoot before him letting out a small smile. "I see you decided to let the cat dress up, she has good taste, better than the rag she had before. Have we decided a name for her?" N Brio rolls his eyes as he looks at the girl, she looks at the two nervously. "No, I'm sure you're aware that Master Cortex doesn't just casually name his subjects!"
N Gin laughs as he walks into the cage to inspect it, as he looks over the cage he notices the system on the floor. He laughs as he looks back at her, she rubs her arm unsure what the man is up to. "I shall enter a request, I think Coco would match her perfectly. After all, her style in mechanical engineering is so subtle you didn't even notice, hehe I'm sure she will be a great asset to us." N Brio walks into the cage glaring at N Gin, the man only hums to himself completely ignoring N Brio. "You can't be serious to think he would be okay with you naming her!"
N Gin quickly looks over Coco then back to N Brio. "Yes, thanks to a little gift I took care of for him." Without another word he grabs the playstation then leaves the cage, N Brio sighs feeling flustered from the encounter. Coco steps forward taking a deep breath, she then begins to speak. "If you guys can see something in me then…I will go with you to this training." N Brio turns, giving her a nod as he walks out of the cage, he looks back waiting for her to follow. She slowly follows after, as they walk down the halls she couldn't help looking around in awe. N Brio stops in front of the training room, he turns to her as he pushes open the door. "Welcome to your new normal Coco, don't let us down."
“Hey, you know, this whole ‘creating an artificial human’ thing isn’t as hard as it looks. Wonder why it took Victor Frankenstein two years to pull it off.”
This guy– this guy works fer Cortex– y’know, CURRENTLY– this guy r-rR-r-routinely tries ta KILL you, a-and yer brothah– and yer just– y-yer just all, all hunky-dory!? W-wh-why’s HE get a free pass!?!
—N— n-NO— no, no, no— I-I-I’m callin’ B.S. You— y-you STILL— you are a-a-ACTIVELY helping Cortex try to bump her and her brothah off and, and, a-and try to take ovah the world. A-and sure, sure, yeah, all right, I— I-I did too! But I LEFT! A-and all I’m doin’ now is— is, is, is tryin’ to HELP! I-i-in SOME way or another! M-maybe I ain’t so GOOD at it, but— b-but at least I’m TRYIN’! What are— what are YOU doing? B-b-b-buildin’ the clown anothah, anothah g-g-global mind control ray or somethin’!? Y-yY-y-YOU DO NOT HAVE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND HERE!
“Hey, you know, this whole ‘creating an artificial human’ thing isn’t as hard as it looks. Wonder why it took Victor Frankenstein two years to pull it off.”
This guy– this guy works fer Cortex– y’know, CURRENTLY– this guy r-rR-r-routinely tries ta KILL you, a-and yer brothah– and yer just– y-yer just all, all hunky-dory!? W-wh-why’s HE get a free pass!?!
“Gosh, what’s your problem? The guy just complemented my work. He’s not getting a ‘free pass’ at anything.”
“Okay, I mean– yeah, I’m aware of the formalities, but N. Gin is… okay, sometimes. When I was little, he’d sneak a Nintendo 64 into my cell, and we’d play Smash Bros until Cortex caught us. Yannow, when you weren’t there.”
Coco’s hands pause for a moment, and she briefly cycles through her thoughts.
“…Jeez– okay, whatever. Whatever. Forget it. Both of you, get out of here.”
LEFOU’S SONG: “Perfect Little Life” | LeFou Finally Gets His Own Song
A newly written musical number imagines what it would be like if Beauty and the Beast’s LeFou had an “I Want” song. Inspired by the work of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, “Perfect Little Life” explores a different side of the character, following the sidekick as he struggles with his feelings for Gaston and dreams of a quiet life they could share together.
The song is produced and performed by Tony nominee Rory O'Malley (The Book of Mormon), with music by Max Mueller and lyrics by Cooper Collins. Recorded with the Budapest Scoring orchestra, the video features new illustrations of the familiar characters by Abigail Whitnall.
Let's begin introducing the villains' concepts! First, let's present the mastermind behind all the evil plans.
Some interesting facts about him: "Cortex" is a name he gave himself, to sound like a stage name, Dr. Neo Cortex. He was born in a wagon on his way to London during the Industrial Revolution.
The N on his forehead isn't a license plate, but a crooked tattoo done by circus performers shortly before he was placed in the local freak show due to the abominable tattoo on his enormous, frightening head.
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