#because then every animal she hunts and kills would turn into a ghost and aide her in combat

[extervus]

Sorry to Skyrim OC post in 2022 [<- not actually sorry] but I'm starting a new character and this one is gonna be a Skaal-born Nord Werebear hunter (as in, she is a werebear who is also a hunter. She doesn't hunt werebears). Her whole deal is that she's trying to embrace her Skaal roots (she was adopted and raised by a Dunmer and Imperial couple outside of Solstheim after her birth parents died) by becoming a great hunter. And of course she's a werebear so that's another reason she really likes to hunt. She's also gonna be a master at illusion magic because her Dunmer father had her go to magic school when she was young so she uses that to aide and hone her hunting skills. No she doesn't consider it cheating. At some point she's gonna join the Dark Brotherhood because her Imperial father had ties to them so they caught wind of her marksman and illusion skills and reached out to her. Her name is Vibeke :)

[spells-and-liquid-luck]

OMG YOU SERIOUSLY DO TWILIGHT ILYSM

would you do Jasper accidentally turning a seventeen year old y/n in the forest because she cut her knee open or something and he deals with her terrible moods because she lives with the cullens now. her ability is to like 'fall asleep' and be able to wander around like her spirit can. but she doesn't like feeding on the animals cause she thinks its stupid so the family kinda dissaproves

Headache- Newborn x Cullens

Pain— constant pain. I was writhing in it, and groaning in agony. It felt like my body had caught on fire and I was burning alive. I had to endure three days of pure torture to become a monster. I really didn't feel the need to be a vegetarian as the Cullen's liked to put it. Not that I wasn't hungry, the thought of sinking my teeth in an animal kind of grossed me out. Besides, I'm a seventeen year old new born. I'm going to be a teenager forever. If hell was a feeling, I was going to be in it forever.

It was all because of that damn forest. If I hadn't hadn't there, and hadn't been so clumsy then I would still be human. All I remember was that I was supposed to be going hiking. My brown hiking boots were strapped up, and against my better judgment, I strayed away from the trail. The wind was blowing nicely and it made me feel like I could really breathe up there, and I was soaking it all in. I had stepped on so many crunchy leaves and twigs that the ground didn't feel much like ground anymore so I tried to be cautious and step over some but that was when I not so graciously tripped on an uprooted tree. I ended up scraping my knee and I didn't think anything of it. The blood wasn't too bad so I reached for my backpack that was still attached attached me to quickly grab a band-aid, but the wind had blown a bit harder, and vampires are natural hunters so I didn't hear him coming. Next thing I knew, he was drinking my blood as if I were a human juice box.

Lots of people would have resentment for being turned, but I didn't blame Jasper. I knew that he felt guilty enough afterward. He had enough restraint to stop himself from really killing me, but if I can be honest I hate this place. The perfect family. That's what we had to be. Not to be seen for what we truly are, even if they just killed animals like every other hunter in this town. The whole thing was stupid to me, and now my new family hates me because I refuse to kill an animal. Well, Rosalie hates me to be more specific. She thinks I'll draw too much attention to myself and get us us killed by the Vulturi. Carlisle is just a bit disappointed, even though he doesn't show it, it is still obvious that he is. He gives me the choice on what I want to do, but he's hoping that I choose the option that aligns with their morals and lifestyle.

The only cool thing about being a vampire is that we all get our respective abilities. Alice can see the future, Edward can read minds. Mine being me comfort. As everyone known, vampires don't sleep, but us sort of like being in a state of meditation. Being still and quiet without the restfulness of a good night's sleep. I can travel the world like a ghost. Nobody sees me and I can't hurt anyone if there is nobody around to hurt, and I can see the world like the way I used to see. Colorful and cozy. I can feel things like the way I used to feel it, like the way the rain water hit my skin and didn't make me feel like a wet stone statue. I am ghost-like in that state, but I can feel somewhat human when I use my powers.

Today was a day that I planned on using my power to its full extent. Why today? Because it's the Cullen's favorite day. Hunting day. I certainly don't feel like joining them. My plant for today is to be in my room and escape like I always do. Emmett stomped into the blinding white living room. "You're going to have to do this at some point." Emmett stated his eyes looked almost feral as he was mentally getting ready to fight off a mountain lion. I gave him my best death glare, but I'm not as threatening as I would like to be. How could I be threating to someone who had the muscles of a bear? I just couldn't. "You're either going to go on a human blood frenzy or starve yourself to death! Pick the better choice and hunt a damn deer! You're going to get us all killed one day!" Rosalie said as she looked like she would murder me right here. Esme and Carlisle's eyes looked at me in sympathy. They treated me like something was wrong with me and that made me nauseous. If I could be sick, I would. "She can decide for herself what she wants. Let her be, but I'm trusting her to make the best choice." He gave me a stern fatherly expression before turning away and grabbing a navy blue coat off of the coat rack like he needs it. Esme put a loving hand on my shoulder before she left. "I'll try to bring something back for you to eat. I'm not letting you starve or find out that you sunk your teeth into an innocent human." Esme was always motherly to me. She was the closest out of all of them to being human. She had compassion and love for everyone, and she is the only one who had the patience to deal with me; I respect her the most.

As they left, I quickly headed to my room, closing the door behind me and lying down on the couch next to my CD player that Edward had gifted to me. I let my body sink down into the couch and I closed my eyes. One...two...three. I counted to myself and concentrated on my power. Soon enough, the usual feeling overcame me. It felt like I was falling, but I knew it well enough to not be scared of it. Focusing on what I could feel in the state that I was in. Mossy covered trees, brown twigs, rocks, lake water. I could feel and see all of it. I walked through the forest just like I used to and it was beautiful. The trees were covered with moss and rain water just as it was that day. The breeze that ran through the forest left chills on my arms as I soaked it all in. The feeling this gave me felt like a dream yet also felt like I was really human and that's what I loved about my powers. It felt so real. Suddenly, the smell of a human threw me off completely. I walked cautiously to the root of the smell, and to my surprise, it was me. It was me on that day. I tried to warn her but I couldn't because she wouldn't hear me. I watched myself trip and saw as the blood ran down my leg in a small trickle, but there was nobody there to bite me. The smell of ran through my nose and rushed through my senses leaving a horrible feeling of insatiable hunger that ran through me. This wasn't like the other times that I drifted. This was different. This was scary. I tried to hold myself back but the restraint that I needed was almost impossible to achieve at his point. The only way was to try to get back. Closing my eyes and focusing on my world. The Cullen's house. Thr cold atmosphere. The classical music that played throughout the house. Focusing on the last miniscule detail of Carlisle and Esme's faces. I was instantly pulled back, surrounded by everyone. "Are you okay, newbie?" Emmett asked. "You've been out for hours." Edward stated. "We tried shaking you out of it, because your emotions were going crazy. You were scared..and hungry. Like ravenous." Jasper explained. I sat up with slight confusion washing over me from the experience that I just had. The blood-thirst that was still running through my veins still burned my throat. It wasn't hard to see what I wanted as they all could see and feel it. "I told you she was hungry." Rosalie said while rolling her beautiful golden eyes. "Here, drink it. I told you I'd bring you something." Esme handed me a bag ofbblood that she somehow collected for me. I took it immediately with no questions and sipped on it hungrily. A small thank you left my lips as I finished. The feeling of hunger was quickly replaced with a feeling of contentment. "All better now right?" Emmett said with a smirk. "Hopefully your mood swings will subside. I was getting tired of leveling them out." Jasper said. "You should've read her mind. That was a horror movie all on its own." Edward chuckled. "Do you need anything else?" Carlsile asked. I thought about asking him about what I just saw, there was not point in keeping secrets anyway. "I saw myself the day that Jasper accidently turned me, but I was the one standing there instead of him. I felt like I had no control." Carlisle instantly went into doctor mode as he listened intently. "I feel like it could be that you used your gift while you were too thirsty. It sounds like it was just a side effect. You need to be more careful." The parental nagging; it felt endearing. "You'll be okay." Carlisle patted my shoulder. "I think we should all give her some space now. Let's go kids." Esme said as she escorted them all out. "I'll check on you later." She said as she lovingly left a kiss on my forehead. I was taken aback by her motherly gesture, but I didn't hate it. I relaxed back down and reached for the on button on the CD player as I let Bach fill the room.

Tag list:

@flamey-0

[robininthelabyrinth]

prompt:  Bodyswap of Nie Mingjue and Baxia?

link to ao3 because this is long

There were a lot of rules about the saber spirits, but the most important one was always: You control the saber, do not let it control you.

The line between being a hero and being a monster was a very thin one, easy to overstep: with the horrible temper that was as much an ancestral inheritance as their cultivation style, it was all too easy for members of their family to become corrupted. Cultivating the saber spirit gave them power, but it also inspired rage – it would be all too easy to start making excuses for your conduct, to become corrupted by your own desires, to say “Oh, it’s his fault, he made me angry” or “He shouldn’t have gotten in my way” when what you meant was “I decided he didn’t matter.”

That was unacceptable.

If people didn’t matter, then nothing mattered, and all the sacrifices that had ever been made in the name of upholding justice and righteousness, using violence for good, were for nothing.

Control and principle – those were the foundations of Nie cultivation.

The saber spirits heightened the tension of it: the balance between power and responsibility, between blind rage and principled justice. Each saber spirit belonged to a single master, reflecting the quirks of their personality, but at the most base level they were all the same, simple and straightforward: they wanted to destroy evil.

All evil.

Without exception. Without mercy or nuance or – anything.

That’s why it was the job of the saber’s master to keep them in check. A saber spirit would make no distinction between a lost ghost draining a little yang energy to preserve its own life or a fierce corpse murdering people left in right, between a yao that took in the energy of the sun and moon and a yao that fed on corpses, between a small child stealing bread to feed their family or a criminal stealing in through the window to commit a rape – only a human could make those sorts of decisions.

Or so Nie Mingjue had always been taught.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, late at night, Baxia lying on the bed next to him instead of properly in her case where she belonged. “I think you could probably learn to tell the difference, if you wanted.”

Baxia purred in his mind, temporarily calm and sated – he’d gone night hunting the day before, accompanying his father, and he’d been the one to take down the creature: a maddened yao that had once been a boar, and which had recently taken to ripping people to pieces with its tusks.

His father had been very proud. He’d ruffled Nie Mingjue’s hair as if he were still a child – he wasn’t, he was a big brother now, his little brother born just last month – and called him his prodigy, ignoring the way the other Nie cultivators on the night hunt frowned.

They always frowned.

Nie Mingjue wasn’t supposed to get his saber until he was twelve. Before that, it was all practice sabers: heavy wood, to help strengthen the arms and shoulders, and eventually dead steel, to learn to finesse and how to not cut your own head off, and only once you’d shown sufficient skill in those could you finally get a spiritual weapon of your very own.

Nie Mingjue picked up Baxia for the first time when he was six.

There’d been fighting, an incursion into the Unclean Realm by assassins – some small sect, probably egged on by Wen Ruohan in a way that could never be traced to him, but anyway they were all dead now – and when he’d heard the screaming, it hadn’t even occurred to him not to help.

Suppress evil, no matter where it lives; uphold justice, no matter what it takes.

He’d been only a child, but there had been children screaming, children his own age confronting fully grown cultivators, and that hadn’t been fair at all.

Nie Mingjue had sprinted to the armory, hoping to find something – anything he could use, even just one of his practice sabers, and that was the first time he’d seen her.

Baxia – though she hadn’t been Baxia back then – had only been half-forged then, enough spiritual weapon to channel his qi but not enough to really respond to his commands. That was fine: he didn’t know the techniques to wield her properly back then, anyway.

The basics were good enough against cultivators who never expected that the young child heir of the Nie family would be able to lift a sword longer than he was tall, much less wield it.

He’d aimed low at first, going for tender ankles and vulnerable knees, and then when they’d tried to leap up against him he brought his saber up against them, aiming for their bodies.

There was a lot of blood.

Nie Mingjue was descended from a butcher: his father had been taking him to see animals get hacked up for their kitchens since before he’d started walking, a way to inure him to blood and guts and gore, to animal screams that weren’t so different from the screams of the battlefield.

It was still strange, seeing blood on the flood, blood on his blade, to see the light fade out of a man’s eyes and know that he made that happen – that his soul would be irrevocably marked with the stain of having taken a life.

As a reward, Nie Mingjue’s father had ordered that Nie Mingjue could take up his saber early.

A lot of people in the sect didn’t agree with that decision. Even now, two years later, they still frowned whenever Nie Mingjue did something, muttering warnings about how children couldn’t be trusted to control themselves, how the saber spirits were unpredictable, how a cultivator’s life might already be cut short and how there was no need to cut a childhood short as well.

Nie Mingjue’s father ignored them. Nie Mingjue ignored them, too.

He liked Baxia.

And he thought, maybe, that she liked him, too.

No one had ever told him that he shouldn’t have been able to tell.

-

The first time they switch, it’s to save his life.

It wasn’t the first time they’d gotten closer than they should: Nie Mingjue had figured out if he channeled not only qi energy but vital energy into Baxia, circulating it through her as if she were an extension of his meridians, they would fight better – she would be light in his hand, anticipating his movements, putting her force behind his blows alongside his own. He’d even noticed that he could almost ‘see’ things differently – flickers of pulsing qi in cultivators, ghostly flame in corpses – and he thought it might be that he was seeing things the way she saw things, if a saber spirit could be said to see.

He’d done it more and more, only for one of his teachers to notice and scold him fiercely. Allowing something into his vital qi was opening himself up to possession; it might help his cultivation in the short term, an emergency measure, but in the end, the saber spirit would turn on him, devour him – after all, who was truly free from evil?

At first, Nie MIngjue tried to be good, to stop, but Baxia all but sulked at him – his swings dragging a little more than could be blamed on air resistance, a feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness even when he killed some fierce corpses for her, randomly waking him up in the middle of the night with fake alarms because his saber figured out long ago that he hated that – and eventually he just gave it up.

Every Nie saber was different, after all; like all spiritual weapons, they reflected their master. Maybe he and Baxia were just – different?

(And if it made it just a little easier to keep an eye on little Nie Huaisang, who’d just learned what crawling was and that he liked utilizing it to get to the most dangerous places possible, well, that was just an additional perk – how people ever took care of children without having a second pair of eyes, Nie Mingjue had no idea.)

And then they were at a night hunt, fighting something especially big and bad and vicious to the extreme, and all of a sudden Nie Mingjue felt something that reminded him of Sect Leader Wen, of the slick nauseating feel of his cultivation, and his father’s saber shattered.

Everyone panicked, shouting, and the beast roared, seeing its chance, and it jumped forward, goring Nie MIngjue’s father – still stunned – in the belly and knocking him down, and then rushing towards Nie Mingjue himself who was frozen in horror.

The next thing he knew, he wasn’t – he wasn’t knowing, anymore, or at least not the way he had before.

Everything around him was qi, and qi was in everything: different colors-textures-flavors (flavors?!) that showed him the difference between a living person and the dead, between plants and animals and the dirt beneath them, and even the subtle gradations inside the three souls and seven spirits, the way the qi-flame varied in color, the lightness of the soul slowly corrupted with rot – with evil.

It was vile.

He watched as his body leaped to the side, avoiding the beast’s charge – the movements were a little jerky, he thought, and Baxia sent some frustration back that he thought might roughly translate to listen it’s a new body and I’m trying here if she were capable of speech – and then spinning around, leaping up, and then bringing him down on her.

There was an encouraging sort of feeling from Baxia – go on, do the thing, you can do it – and somewhere along the way down, aided by the force of muscle and gravity, Nie Mingjue figured out that he was supposed to bite down, the sharp end of him all a single tooth, sharp and vicious, and he grabs onto the beast’s qi with all his might, tearing at it furiously, venting his rage.

A few more swipes with the blade and the beast died, Nie Mingjue drinking in its vital energy as if it were water as the creature’s souls and spirits scattered – he even purified the ones he could reach, making sure that nothing would remain behind, rotting and infecting the world with its madness and evil.

It felt good. To see that evil disintegrate into the wind, to know it would never hurt anyone again – good.

He wanted more.

There was a tug on his mind, Baxia calling him back as if he risked going too far, and habit kicked in: he turned in response to her call, trying to come to her side or have her come to his, and suddenly the world went off-kilter again and he was standing up on two legs (he had legs?) and the beast was dead in front of him, stinking of blood and bile –

He was human again.

Nie Mingjue dropped his saber, staggered to the side of a tree, and vomited.

Baxia returned to her place on his back, a quiet vibration that conveyed no feeling, only a reminder of her presence. He didn’t know what to say to her, what to think, what – anything.

You’ll leave yourself open to possession indeed.

Luckily, no one in the clan had noticed the lapse: the other Nie cultivators who had been on the hunt with them, both young and old, applauded Nie Mingjue for the steadiness of his nerves (a lie) and one of the elders even commented that it seemed as though his cultivation had increased substantially.

It had, too, but what was Nie Mingjue supposed to say? That he’d literally eaten another creature’s cultivation, drinking its blood and gnawing on its bones, until his spirit has become swollen with power?

That he’d enjoyed it?

He had three days to wonder and worry about it, trying to think about how to handle it, and then his father opened his eyes for the first time after the coma from the wound inflicted from the beast, eyes full of madness and fury aimed at every living being around him, and then he had other things to worry about.

-

After he became Sect Leader, Nie Mingjue spent a great deal of time telling his saber that he couldn’t just stab Wen Ruohan across the table of a discussion conference.

In his head, of course – Nie cultivators were known to be close to their sabers, even closer than most cultivators of other sects were with their beloved swords, but it would still be seen as strange to actually talk to your sword as if it could respond.

Baxia couldn’t talk back, of course – she was still a sword, in the end, incapable of human speech – but that never kept her from talking back, albeit in her own way.

She liked to highlight parts of Wen Ruohan’s body that would make for good cutting – Nie Mingjue’s eyesight had never quite returned to normal since that first switch, and he could always see a very faint ghostly overlay of qi on all living creatures around him, especially cultivators – and send encouraging feelings to him, like a mother cat nudging her kitten towards its first mouse, and Nie Mingjue would press his lips together and not smile because that would be weird.

It was one of the only things that made the discussion conferences – sitting across the table from his father’s murderer – bearable.

Nie Mingjue was perfectly aware that if anyone, even those in his own sect, ever found out about his unusual relationship with his saber, they would condemn him as unorthodox, possibly even crossing the line into demonic cultivation, even though he never touched resentful energy for his own use, never summoned ghosts or demons, nothing of that sort.

But he couldn’t stop.

Even if he wanted to – and he didn’t really want to – there was going to be a war soon, and his sect depending on him. His brother needed him.

And he needed Baxia.

After the first time, it had gotten easier than ever to slip sideways into her – to let her be the man, and him the sword. Nie Mingjue was, if he did say so himself, a very good saber, Baxia laughing in agreement at the thought, and it was so freeing to be nothing but a weapon, to have no concerns but wanting to kill and kill and kill.

Naturally, that was why he couldn’t permit himself to do it too often.

Connecting with Baxia was no longer something he had to try to do, as it had been when he was younger, but rather the opposite: he would have to try very hard to try to seal the connection between them, something he did only when he was extremely upset about something, and even then he wasn’t sure the link ever closed down all the way.

She was an extension of his body, a part of him; his vital qi poured into her, unreserved, and when he cultivated, her cultivation increased apace as well, her saber spirit strengthening to new heights of power – what helped him, helped her, and what helped her helped him.

It could almost, embarrassingly, be considered a form of dual cultivation.

It never felt wrong.

Nie Mingjue prided himself on his adherence to principle, to ethics; he knew people said he was too strict, too harsh, even unmerciful, but there was forged steel in his soul now, unyielding, and every year that passed he found his tolerance for evil grew less and less.

Evil in the world – and evil in mankind.

He knew there was evil in himself as well. He never deceived himself on that front: if Baxia were free to do as she pleased, to massacre all evil as she wanted, he would be one of her targets, no matter how she grumbled whenever he thought that. Virtue could be as corrupting as vice; he wasn’t any better than the people he condemned.

The only thing he could say for himself is that he always tried to do the right thing. He tried never to take action solely for his own benefit, to lift his saber only in the defense of a just cause, to do what he must and go no further.

Excepting only, perhaps, for Baxia – but as long as he controlled it, as long as he turned her only against evil, then surely, it was still within the boundaries of the limits his ancestors had laid out, that strange cultivation style of the saber spirits.

Well. Mostly against evil.

If perhaps during an especially boring discussion conference where his only job was to look fierce and disapproving, he let himself drift a little, and someone else (equally good at fierce and disapproving, if not actively better than him) take his place – if sometimes when he slept he let her go for a walk to stretch out legs she didn’t have and play around with the feeling of having thumbs – if occasionally she would coax him into letting her be the one to sharpen him, rather than the other way around, so that he could feel exactly how it ought to be done –

That didn’t seem too wrong.

-

The ability to detect evil in the souls of men did not actually mean that Baxia was good at people.

On the contrary, in fact – in many ways, she was very much a typical saber, wanting only to destroy, and it had taken years of explanations before she reluctantly applied some human standards to her perceptions of what constituted evil.

Sometimes, Nie Mingjue agreed with her – Jin Guangshan was a pathetic waste of a man, a worthless good-for-nothing no matter how decent his cultivation was – and sometimes he couldn’t even begin to understand her perspective – Jiang Fengmian was lukewarm about everything, which was irritating beyond belief, but Baxia wanted his head on a pike yesterday and sulked when he told her that absent a very good reason she was not going to get what she wanted.

She babied Nie Huaisang the same way he did, and bullied his saber into being obedient to him – very much not how that was supposed to go, but Nie Mingjue had always been weak where his baby brother was concerned – but she viewed most of the world with intense suspicion and not a little bit of rage.

She didn’t like Meng Yao.

It was a bit like Jiang Fengmian, actually. There was no reason that Nie Mingjue could think of, and even shifting into a spirit to study the other man didn’t reveal anything other than the usual evil one would expect to see in any person, and it wasn’t as though Baxia could tell him – she just hated what she hated, and no matter how much Nie Mingjue pointed to Meng Yao’s good acts, his defense of the common folk, his merits on the battlefield, she never gave in.

Still, good help was hard to find, and Meng Yao had never done anything that didn’t fit in well with Nie Mingjue’s standards – even if there was something wrong with him, deep down, did it really matter, as long as it never showed its face?

Nie Mingjue tried to keep his distance, emotionally, but it was hard. Meng Yao seemed on the surface to be a good man, efficient and capable; he was intelligent and well-spoken, creative and stubborn, talented to the point of brilliance.

Nie Mingjue didn’t have many friends, and Meng Yao was – there. Even Lan Xichen, who he trusted (and Baxia agreed, even if she thought Shuoyue was a bit of a priss), liked him; the conversation between the three of them flowed easily, pleasantly, and Nie Mingjue almost felt as though he were something other than the leader of a sect at war, as though he were a regular cultivator chatting with his generational cohort about all manner of things.

Baxia howled in the back of his head, wanting to rend Meng Yao limb from limb.

He ignored her.

In the end, she was right, and he was wrong.

The evil buried deep in Meng Yao’s soul could not be denied.

His betrayal at Langya, premeditated murder and then a personal attack; his decision to change his colors and join the Wen sect, his murder of helpless Nie sect cultivators; the cool manner by which he traded his war glory to the Jin sect for a place and a name that only shone gold to the outside world –

It was a disappointment.

Nie Mingjue should have trusted Baxia.

(He agreed to swear brotherhood with the man because Lan Xichen wanted it, because he still hoped against hope that he could purify the evil in Meng Yao’s heart the way he did the evil of ghosts, could bring back the friend he’d once thought he’d had – but it was still a disappointment.)

Maybe that was what gave him pause, during the competition at Phoenix Mountain – he’d only met Wei Wuxian in passing before, never spent much time with him, and even less once he’d become the fearsome Yiling Patriarch that wielded demonic cultivation as a scythe against their mutual enemies.

He’d expected to have to talk Baxia down from trying to kill him at once. After all, according to the stories, he stank of resentful energy, having pulled it inside of himself until it tainted every inch of him; it followed him like a cloak of power and cruelty.

The reality was – different.

Him? Nie Mingjue thought at Baxia, mildly appalled. You like him? Really?

Baxia purred, pleased.

This I have to see.

He usually tried not to let Baxia take over in front of his fellow sect leaders, who were by now all very well trained at spotting abnormalities of even the slightest sort, but the curiosity was killing him.

In the eyes of a saber, Wei Wuxian was – a man.

Just that, nothing more. He had some virtues and some faults, good and evil mixed together in no greater or lesser proportion than Meng Yao, and while he was surrounded by resentful energy, was shot through with it, it did not infect his souls or spirits with rot any more than anyone else. It passed through him like any other type of qi energy did, the ghostly flame sliding through his meridians as though he were on the verge of becoming a demon himself and yet not absorbed within, not kept – he used only what he pulled at any given time, letting the power run through his fingers like water, and never stored it inside –

He lacked a golden core.

No wonder he couldn’t store any power; even if he wanted to, he couldn’t, the taint injuring him as it flowed through his system without purification – it was as if he were drinking alcohol while lacking a liver – but at the same time he lacked the ability to build it up inside of him.

Nie Mingjue wondered what had happened.

He waited until later – after a number of embarrassing incidents, mostly involving Jin Zixuan’s confession of affection to Jiang Yanli, a love affair which Nie Mingjue had absolutely no interest in but which made Nie Huaisang roll around on his bed, clutching his fan to his chest and sighing dreamily – and then he went to where the Jiang sect was housed and asked to speak with Wei Wuxian.

“You know it’s quite late, Sect Leader Nie,” Wei Wuxian drawled, his arms crossed in front of him defensively. “And I’m not any more inclined to give up the Stygian Tiger Seal because of the hour.”

“What?” Nie Mingjue asked, bewildered, and then – “Oh, that. It’s a vile thing and ought to be destroyed, but that’s on your conscience. If you misuse it, I’ll turn my blade against you; if you lose it to someone else, I’ll drink at your funeral; other than that, it’s no business of mine.”

“…oh,” Wei Wuxian said, his arms loosening. “Sorry, I assumed. You came to speak with me and not Jiang Cheng…”

“I’ve been speaking with Sect Leader Jiang all day,” Nie Mingjue said, impatient. “About everything from matters of principle to fishing rights in small rivers that only three people even know exist – and we’re scheduled to do it again tomorrow. Why would I bother him after hours?”

Wei Wuxian laughed, then looked surprised at himself and coughed to cover it up; he stepped out of the doorway to let Nie Mingjue inside. “All very good points. So it is me you want to talk to…what about? If it’s not the Stygian Tiger Seal…my cultivation, perhaps?”

“In a way,” Nie Mingjue said. “I should warn you in advance that you may find my questions rude.”

Wei Wuxian waved that away and turned to fetch them some jars of wine. “I don’t care about rudeness. As long as your question isn’t ‘why do you still do it’.”

“Why would I ask that? It’s always better to be a cultivator, however unorthodox, than not at all.”

Wei Wuxian stopped moving after having picked up only one jar, his hand still outstretched towards the second one.

“Now that’s an odd way to phrase it,” he said, and his voice was low and sounded dangerous, but Baxia didn’t so much as quiver, so Nie Mingjue knew there was no real threat of a fight. “Second Young Master Lan spends a great deal of his time imploring me to resume orthodox cultivation; I would have thought you’d be of the same opinion.”

“But orthodox cultivation is impossible without a golden core,” Nie Mingjue said, puzzled as to why Wei Wuxian would care about what Lan Wangji thought enough to mention him, or for that matter why Lan Wangji apparently spent all his time pestering Wei Wuxian in an effort to make him mend his ways.

Wei Wuxian dropped the jar in his hand with a deafening crash.

-

Wei Wuxian sent Nie Mingjue a letter after he’d settled down in Yiling.

In it, he very politely (the man knew what politeness was?) apologized for the disturbance he had caused, explained that the Wen sect remnants were composed entirely of old men and women, a child, and only two young people, one of which was now the Ghost General, that had helped him before, on the occasion which they had once had the opportunity to discuss, and so there was a life debt between them. He stated that if Nie Mingjue wished to visit and review the situation himself, he would gladly open his gates to one who did not seem prejudiced against him, who might judge the situation fairly; he requested, very humbly, that if Nie Mingjue wouldn’t mind considering lending his voice to the Jiang sect, which was even now negotiating a marriage with the Jin sect, and which had undoubtedly been put in a very bad position as a result of his apparently inexplicable actions.

Nie Mingjue snorted at the mix of earnestness, presented as slickly as any diplomat – Wei Wuxian had clearly been trained by the Jiang sect to be their ambassador, and sometimes the training even managed to overcome his extremely irritating personality – and took Nie Huaisang with him when he went.

A gesture of good faith.

It turned out to be necessary, since Baxia took one look at Wen Ning and all but begged to chase him around, promising not to hurt him but please oh please –

Nie Huaisang smacked Nie Mingjue in the face with his fan, which had never happened before, and Nie Mingjue snapped out of the daze he was in and recalled Baxia to his hand at once, his face coloring in embarrassment.

“Forgive me,” he said to Wei Wuxian, voice stiff; he couldn’t believe he’d just done that. “I meant no offense to either you or to Wen Qionglin.”

Wei Wuxian’s extremely angry expression abruptly vanished off his face, leaving behind only confusion. “You – know his courtesy name?”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “I wasn’t aware that my reputation indicated an inability to utilize common courtesy.”

“…most people just call him the Ghost General, nowadays.”

Nie Mingjue didn’t know what to say to that apparent non-sequitur (who cared what other people did?), and looked to Nie Huaisang to see if he had a better response.

Nie Huaisang shrugged. “I thought you said he was conscious, Wei-xiong? If he is, then he’s a person, and if he’s a person, he has a name. It’d be as rude as me calling Baxia ‘that old stick’.”

That was, in fact, something Nie Huaisang had done once, when he’d been a teenager and angry about having to go to the Wen sect’s camp – in fairness, Nie Mingjue hadn’t been exactly pleased about that either – and Baxia had chased him up and down the hallway, smacking his ass to make him jump every time she caught him, until he was out of breath and apologizing and also laughing more than a little.

Nie Mingjue put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “He doesn’t have that much of a death wish.”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “I keep forgetting you have a sense of humor under there. Would you like to come inside? I don’t have much here, but we can talk about whatever you need to give yourself comfort that the Wen sect remnants aren’t going to hurt anyone.”

“It’s not necessarily a matter of future harm,” Nie Mingjue said. “There is also the past.”

“They’re non-combatants –”

“Wen Qing ran a Supervisory Office.”

Wei Wuxian winced.

“It’s something we can talk over,” Nie Huaisang said. “She might need to submit to a trial or something, but I don’t think death is necessarily the only outcome. Maybe something in which she uses her abilities in service to the community..?”

“She’d be happy to, if anyone would allow it,” Wei Wuxian said wryly. “Oddly enough, not too many cultivators are willing to allow someone surnamed Wen to examine them.”

“We can set a good example,” Nie Huaisang chirped. “My brother and I – why not? Maybe she can explain why he acted so uncharacteristically earlier.”

Nie Mingjue sighed. If there was one lesson he’d never managed to get into Nie Huaisang’s head – there were many, actually – it was that family laundry shouldn’t be spread out in front of others. He couldn’t have waited until after they’d left?

Wei Wuxian blinked at them both. “You’ll have to forgive me, Nie-xiong; I’m not that familiar with your brother. What was uncharacteristic?”

“He let Baxia do as she liked instead of stopping her,” Nie Huaisang said promptly. “It was impulsive, and he normally would never.”

“And you think it’s a medical issue?” Nie Mingjue asked, doubtful. More likely all those years of jointly possessing his own body with Baxia was starting to need paying for. “Huaisang…”

“It’s worth checking!”

Wen Qing didn’t find anything other than some disturbed qi, which could be the result of just about anything, and Nie Mingjue told Nie Huaisang to drop the issue in a tone that brooked no dispute.

Still, since it was clearly worrying his brother, there wouldn’t be any harm in asking Meng Yao – no, Jin Guangyao, he was Jin Guangyao now – to come over to play Clarity for him a little more often.

They could talk a little about Jin Guangshan’s frankly unseemly attempts to weasel the Stygian Tiger Seal out of Wei Wuxian at the same time. Based on everything he’d heard from Wei Wuxian, including the man’s willingness to destroy at least a half of it as a gesture of good faith, there was really no basis to claim that it ought to be confiscated from him. And with the Nie sect standing alongside the Jiang sect, the Jin sect would have no chance to use this as an opportunity to rally the cultivation world against Wei Wuxian and use the excuse to extract the seal for their own unknown purposes.

The whole situation would probably irritate Jin Guangshan immensely, even if only as proof that he was not in fact the obvious successor to the Wens in terms of dominating the cultivation world.

Chief Cultivator – hah!

If one had to be selected, and Nie Mingjue was against the whole idea, then it wouldn’t be Jin Guangshan. It wouldn’t be anyone from the Jin sect; every time he visited Lanling, Baxia shook on his shoulder and he agreed with her anger – the entire place was shot through with corruption, festering in evil, ambition and greed the only virtues they recognized. Allowing them to sit, fat and comfortable, at the top of the cultivation world for no other reason than their ambition and their wealth, the fact that they’d hung back and let others do the majority of the fighting and so didn’t need to waste money in rebuilding…it was unacceptable.

He’d have to make that clear to Jin Guangyao, somehow.

He hoped his sworn brother wouldn’t be too disappointed.

-

Severe qi deviations were said to be horrifically painful, with every vein in your body bursting, every meridian cracking, your blood boiling, your bones breaking as your qi reversed course and began destroying you from the inside –

Whoever said that was right.

Nie Mingjue felt his mouth fill with blood, his eyes dripping with them, and he saw Jin Guangyao everywhere around him, laughing at him, Meng Yao mocking his weakness in trusting him over his own instincts, over Baxia; he tried to lash out against him, only for him to disappear in front of his eyes, reappearing elsewhere, and he wanted nothing more than to kill – to kill – to stop him before he hurt anyone else – before he laid a finger on Nie Huaisang, before he deceived Lan Xichen, before – he had to kill him – he had to –

There was so much pain.

Pain and rage, fear and fury; it was like a tide that rose up, inexorable, to swallow him.

He screamed – and everything stopped.

There was no pain.

Steel did not feel pain.

Nie Mingjue was a saber once more, his qi still sick and pounding inside of him, going the wrong way, his rage still overwhelming him, but for a saber that was all right, it was all right not to know anything but rage and fury and the desire to kill: you control the saber, it doesn’t control you.

As long as his master held him back, he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone he shouldn’t.

He himself would not be hurt.

Steel did not feel pain.

Baxia complained about scratches in her surface, sulked about them, but that was just vanity, which he’d inadvertently taught her; she didn’t actually suffer, as long as she never broke –

Baxia.

If Nie Mingjue was the saber, then she was the human: she was the one in the body that was self-destructing, she was the one who was bleeding out of every aperture, she was the one who was screaming.

Baxia!

She shook him off, pushing him firmly back towards the blade and away from the flesh; steel felt no pain, and she was steel all the way through her soul – a little pain was not going to stop her.

She straightened his spine, stood up tall, and bared his teeth at Jin Guangyao, who was even now backing away, his arms around a frantic Nie Huaisang, who did not understand. She pointed Nie MIngjue at their enemy, their mutual enemy, and he wanted so badly to fly forward, sharp end first, wanted to pierce that traitorous dog through the heart and make sure he would never harm anyone again.

He wanted to rend him to pieces with his teeth, like a wild dog himself; he wanted to drink his vital energies and purify his innermost soul, to send him to his next reincarnation before his soul could even think of lingering – let him be reborn as a dog, as a snake, as a worm! Let him pay for the wrongs he has committed!

No. No, on second thought, he shouldn’t die. He should live – live and face the penalty for his actions. Let him be cast off from his comfortable life, let him live forever in seclusion with no friends and no succuor, let him know that all of his ambition has come to nothing.

Nie Mingjue roared in silent fury, and Baxia opened his mouth and roared as well: the sound that emerged from his throat was inhuman, the scream of steel scraping steel, a sound no human should ever be able to make.

“Er-ge!” Jin Guangyao shouted, his eyes white all around the irises; he clearly hadn’t anticipated Nie Mingjue surviving the qi deviation to this point. “Er-ge, come here – da-ge has gone into qi deviation, and he’s trying to kill me!”

“He’s not trying to kill you!” Nie Huaisang shrieked. “She is –”

And then, as if realizing what he’d just said, he turned shocked eyes on Jin Guangyao, abrupt realization filling his face.

“She’s trying to kill you,” he repeated dully. “Kill you – she only wants to kill evil, to punish wrongdoing. What have you done?!”

-

In the end it turned out that Wen Qing’s expertise was useful after all.

She came to Lanling and went to work immediately, but it still took nearly two weeks for her to set all of Nie Mingjue’s meridians and spiritual veins back into place, working on each one at a time; the entire process would have been agonizing enough to kill any man just from the pain alone.

It was a good thing that the one undergoing the process was not a man.

“So, this is weird, right?” Wei Wuxian asked Nie Huaisang, who’d refused to leave his brother’s side; he ate and slept on the floor next to the bed where Wen Qing operated, and his fingers were clenched around the saber’s hilt in silent supplication. “You Nie – you’re not all half-swords, are you?”

“Sabers,” Nie Huaisang corrected, rubbing his eyes. “And no. It’s just my brother. He and Baxia have always been very close.”

“Close,” Wei Wuxian echoed. “Close. Yes, I suppose that’s – a way to put it. He’s literally letting himself be possessed by his own apparently sentient saber spirit right now; I suppose you would need to be close, for that.”

“At least Baxia serves only one master,” Nie Huaisang said sharply. “Can your Tiger Seal say the same? Or is that honor reserved for your Suibian, which even now is gathering dust on your shelf, and which you will never use again?”

Wei Wuxian stopped and grimaced. “I’m being obnoxious. Forgive me.”

Nie Huaisang waved a hand, dismissing it. “And I’m tired; think nothing of it. As long as – as long as this works. As long as we can get him back.”

Wei Wuxian only ever took the briefest glances at the table where Wen Qing operated; he did so now and immediately turned away, shuddering in memory – it was even more gruesome than what he’d endured. “Is he…in there? Being suppressed by her?”

“No, thankfully not,” Nie Huaisang said, and tapped the blade of the saber. “He’s in here.”

Wei Wuxian blinked. “He’s – in the saber?”

“He is the saber. They’re – sort of joined, I think? If they were once separate entities, they’re not anymore; the saber and the person are both part of a single body – no, two bodies, two bodies with two consciousnesses. Most of the time, da-ge possesses the human body and Baxia the saber, but sometimes they switch and she takes the body and he the saber; that’s what’s happening now.”

“How did that even happen?” Wei Wuxian wanted to know. “It makes my unorthodoxy look almost boring – a heresy, sure, but one that flowed naturally out of how things are typically done, the sequel to a book, written in the same style. What he’s doing…it isn’t even from the same library!”

“It is for us,” Nie Huaisang said with a shrug. “We cultivate saber spirits, like I’ve explained. This is – different, yes. But on the other hand, he might be the first Nie cultivator in a thousand years to survive the qi deviation that comes from cultivating the saber spirit.”

“Probably would have been better to test that theory a few decades later, though, huh?”

Nie Huaisang grimaced. “Yes. When I think about what Jin Guangyao nearly did…! And I liked him, Wei-xiong; I really liked him. Da-ge liked him, and da-ge doesn’t get close to people, not easily. It always hurt him, what Meng Yao did to him, but he still swore brotherhood with him so that he could try to teach him good from evil…”

He shook his head.

“I can’t believe you’re even considering not executing him,” Wei Wuxian said, shaking his head as well. “Is permanent seclusion really going to be enough?”

“Well, there’s going to be a trial,” Nie Huaisang said. “Though it’ll be fairly short, given that da-ge survived and Wen Qing already indicated that there appears to be the effects of spiritual poison – I would never have thought he’d be using that stupid song to do it. The one er-ge taught him so that he and da-ge could make up…! You’re not wrong, Wei-xiong; seclusion might be too good for the likes of him. But er-ge is insisting we give him a chance to explain.”

“He’s good at manipulating emotions,” Wei Wuxian said. “Aren’t you concerned he’ll play on whoever you have as judge?”

“Not if they’re appropriately objective.” Nie Huaisang looked at Wei Wuxian sidelong. “What do you think?”

“Me?”

“Well, you and Jiang Cheng. The Jiang sect is the only one of the Great Four sects not implicated by all this – though I suppose your sister is engaged to Jin Zixuan. Do you think that would be enough to disqualify you?”

“No, we’ve never gotten along; I wouldn’t be biased. Which I mean…I guess that means I could do it?”

The saber in Nie Huaisang’s hands trembled, moving forward a little as if straining to fly up and go somewhere.

Nie Huaisang looked down at it, and nodded. “Da-ge’s right – there’s something else I should mention. Something we just found out, in the basement of Koi Tower…”

“In the basement? What did you find?”

“A boy by the name of Xue Yang,” Nie Huaisang said. “And he has a very interesting story to tell.”

[things-we-used-tc-share]

Manifestor // 15

Plot:  Set in a world where Witchcraft is real, and the government hunts down those who practice magic, Thomas must flee to an underground safehouse after being discovered. Now fighting a war against Witches who seek the end of non-magic people, Thomas must learn to control and harvest his powers, as well as the manifestation of his sides to bring about peace and unity in the Human and Witch world. (Nanowrimo 2018)

--

The morning sun cracks over the horizon, gifting the world with its brightness and the realization that the entire city was torn to pieces. There were fires on the street being put out as the duo walk down the concrete jungle; some buildings had taken minor damage and the streets almost look to be a ghost town. Jack sighs heavily, burrowing his hands into his jacket pockets and keeping his eyes trained down on the concrete beneath his feet “Even more of a reason for humans to hate us,” He murmurs under his breath with a matching scowl.  “If life couldn’t get any harder, it has now,”

“Now what?” Thomas asks “Where do we go and what do we do?” He knows no matter where he goes he puts those around him in danger, and he doesn’t want to face the consequence of those actions. Meaning he couldn’t go looking for Sophie and Joan and the others that had supported him over the last few months.

“We keep training,” Jack says with a low exhale “We do our best,” He pauses “There’s got to be a way still into that place, a way we can access the inside from the outside without the control panel, think about it, when it was built they still had to have a way to get in before they set up the control systems, but something that granted such easy access would always have had to have been kept under wraps,” Thomas does a double-take, looking up at him with wide eyes “Which means no one could have used it, in fear of it being found and accessed,”

“Jack you’re a genius,” He grins as the two change course towards the seafront again, the pace quickened and the beginnings of a triumphant and nervous smile on Thomas’ face. “We can keep training in there, and there should be enough food, those things will eventually be back, and we need to be prepared,”

The two of them sprint through the city, jumping over potholes and tumbling down to the beach like a hurricane made of two people. They step into the familiar surroundings and begin to search, through every crack in the rocks, under every plant. Plant. Thomas freezes “Plants shouldn’t be growing here,” He mutters “Below this there’s no dirt or mud or places the plants can make roots, judging by the height of ceilings in our rooms it should be impossible for there to be enough space between the ground and the ceiling of the cavern to grow,” He drops to his knees, his hands rummaging through the dirt, but it wasn’t dirt at all. His hands move further, pressing against the grooves of the fake earth, his mind calling up images of the control room. “On the far side of the wall there were pipes that ran down from the surface, tunneling oxygen, this, what we’re standing on here is where the oxygen was coming from, these aren’t flowers, they’re machines,” He traces his footsteps to the side where the pipes would have been. “And this, if I’m correct, is where someone would have had connected them to the surface, meaning...” He presses against a small metallic groove “Gotcha,” He pulls upwards, and the earth swings up with it, glued to a trapdoor.

Jack beams as the two slip through it, using the pipes to slide down to the ground, the door falling shut above them.

Now back inside, they take in the ghost town of an underground school. Thomas swallows as he moves through the rooms, following down past the spot where he’d seen his friend “Die,” and around the corridor he knew would lead him to his room. Once inside, he begins to pull things into a bag, collecting an emergency bag in case they would have to leave quickly. His plants were still alive, sustained by Jack’s pretend sun; he waters them despite the lack of knowledge on whether he’d have time to take them with him this time.

They move outside and down the corridor, trying not to look at the dead bodies around them “We should clear them up, put them in the sick room, cover them and stuff, maybe note down their names, out of respect,” Jack says solemnly, which the other agrees too.

It’s a test in a way as Thomas summons air to animate the bodies, hovering over themselves and trailing behind him. There are once again not as many fatalities as he’d expected, but still... too much. In a strange sense of déjà vu, he hears groaning and panicked breathing and leaves the bodies levitating as he starts towards the noise, heart thumping.

He almost wants to laugh when he sees Dan on the floor, looking disorientated bleeding from a forehead wound; he definitely wants to laugh when he sees Phil next to him, trying to bandage his own arm. At least two had survived.  “Are you two just prone to getting yourself so injured people think you are dead?” He scolds, kneeling beside them. Another test.

He brings his hands to Phil’s arm first as he’s the most conscious and most obviously in pain, focusing his energy he concentrates on images of healing, relaxation and calls Logan to stand beside him. “It’s dislocated,” The logical side provides “You should be able to push it back into place,” Thomas looks at Phil, who simply nods dazedly, sinking in the warmth that Thomas was providing before the arm slides firmly and painfully back into place.

“Thank you,” The other mumbles, pushing his ebony hair from his eyes with a small smile “You seem to be doing pretty well of running around saving people,” Thomas smiles sadly before turning his attention to Dan, who is bleeding from a forehead wound.

“Likely to have a concussion,” Logan supplies, studying him, “You can heal him, if you recall, using the powers of Earth, you can also help him think much more clearly if you’re ready to push yourself,” Thomas nods and exhales slowly, concentrating again. If Dan had been more conscious he would say it felt like flowers were growing in his veins, opening up his lungs and removing fog from his senses. He smiles instead, and the wound on his forehead slowly closes up. Logan looks immeasurably proud, placing a hand on Thomas’ shoulder. “Well done Thomas,”

Jack comes hurrying in at this point, watching the end of the interaction with a wide smile “Who said you ever needed a teacher?” He chuckles, helping Phil to his feet as Thomas helps Dan stand. “You two are pretty tough, I mean you’ve not died yet and that’s saying something,” The two men grinned bashfully, despite being twice Thomas and Jack’s sizes, possibly combined, they looked very small and shy as they shuffled from one foot to another.

“What happened to everyone else?” Dan finally asks, combing his curls from his eyes and looking around, not a sound was heard except for echoing silence and the dripping of water.

“They’ve left, they must’ve thought you were both dead, but we came back because we’re sort of on the run, I’m apparently at the top of the hit list for some very bad and scary Witches,” Thomas explains with a sarcastic bitterness on his tongue “They want to use me for their games,” Jack looks solemnly over Thomas’ shoulder “Or they want to kill me, because if I’m not an asset to them then I’m an opposition,”

“We’re currently just clearing up the dead, putting them somewhere more laid to rest instead of just strewn in a corridor,” Jack explains in addition, he gestures back down the tunnels as he speaks “But, who knows, we may find more survivors if we keep looking,”

Dan nods firmly “We’ll help,” Thomas is already protesting, trying to clarify that he was absolutely a danger to be around but Dan only shrugs “I’m depressed anyway, if I don’t die here I’ll probably off myself somewhere else,” Phil shoves his shoulder but the younger is already laughing “I’m joking, mostly, I do just want to help though, I’m no safer out there with the government looking for me than I am here where there are food and shelter, at least for now,”

Phil nods in agreement “Dan’s right, we might as well stick together, at least not alone improves our chances of survival,” Jack gives a small smile to Thomas, who still hasn’t quite grasped the fact that he had people that cared about him in this tiny little underground world. “I’ll help you with the bodies, Dan and Jack can go and look for more survivors,”

As it turns out Phil’s specialty is Air, and he’s much more controlled and graceful with it than Thomas’ cluttered and shaky movements, gracefully pulling the bodies into a floating trail behind him as he went along to the corridors, before leading them into the hospital ward where he allowed them to rest in neat lines side by side. With a flick of his wrist the sheets from the bed lifted and gracefully draped themselves over the dead bodies, burying them in a sea of white. Thomas sighs, counting at least twenty bodies here, all dead because of him.

“It wasn’t just you that they were after,” The British born man comments “The first time they weren’t looking for you, they just wanted to cause destruction, you were only an added reason, they would’ve come back to attack either way, Thomas,” It’s like he can read his mind or maybe just the expression on his face. He must be a picture of guilt and self-loathing at this moment. The taller squeezes his shoulder “We should take all the first aid and extra blankets we can though, they’ll be helpful,”

The two pull all the first aid kits from the drawers and off the walls, piling them into a large bag with added plasters, bandages, oils and creams. Phil carries the bag whilst Thomas carries a stack of blankets. They meet Jack and Dan in the cavernous hall where life had been the center of the universe and behind them was…Dodie? She looked tired like she’d been asleep for two days or possibly hadn’t slept for two days; there were two ways that expression could go. But she’s delighted to see Thomas and Phil.

“I stayed here because I could tell there were other people still here,” She explained “Still alive, I could feel their heartbeats through the walls,” Was this an Earth thing, or a Dodie thing? Thomas didn’t have time to ask as she hugs him and looks up at Phil and Dan “I was right, I just couldn’t find you, and then I blacked out, it took me a day for my body to heal itself, and then I found Jack and Dan,”

“So now what?” Dan asks, following the content silence of Dodie’s excitement “Do we…run…are we going to have to fight again?” Thomas nods and looks around at the empty halls.

“We’re going to train and fight them because they will return, almost certainly for me, they destroyed half a city to try and kill me, but the moment I was winning they disappeared,” Dodie sits down on one of the worn down chairs, looking downcast as she fiddles with her hands. “So we’ll just have to keep training, if you want to stay here that is, I understand if you would rather leave,”

Phil shrugged and shook his head “I have wanted posters with my face plastered all over them, I wouldn’t last a minute out there with the government on my tail, neither would Dan, we’re wanted all over Europe and America,”

“What…what did you do for that to happen?” Thomas asks, slightly bemusedly. Dan snorts but has the decency to look somewhat embarrassed whilst the elder of the two sighs and leans against the table. “We killed some people,” He admits finally, and Thomas’ eyes flash with concern “Dan…Dan has a little sister, who told Dan that there was a man who did some not very nice things,” Dan scoffs as if to say Phil’s words were too nice and flowery for the things a monster made in the form of a man could do. “Dan killed him, he froze his blood and drowned him in his own saliva, and then he killed four other men who got away with similar things, I took the brunt of the blame so that Dan’s sister would not question him, but there were witnesses, and we fled the country, came here, wanted for five counts of murder,”

Thomas blinks slowly, eyebrows raised, he couldn’t imagine either of them in a position where they would make that choice, but if he’d had a sister he’s very sure he wouldn’t have a choice to make. That man would be very, very dead.  He expresses this as a show of comfort, albeit still uncomfortable with how the air now settles around them. He thinks he would’ve done the same and now, killing was not a new experience to him. But killing a human was something he hoped he would never have to do.

“Shall we start training then?” Jack breaks the silence, hands digging into his pockets as he steps forward “Because there’s many monsters in the world and we’re going to have to fight them,” Thomas nods in agreement, standing up straight.

“Let’s get training, but first, I need to change out of these grimy clothes,”

--

 Ko-fi

[vvhippoorwill]

Restrained? O:

Send “Restrained?”for a randomly generated number for a starter in which one or both of our characters are:

4. In a cage

It wasn’t like he could follow her everywhere.

He had no reason to, not from her perspective –– and in hindsight, he really should have asked the king if this was a secret supposed to be kept from her for as long as possible, or if he could just save himself the trouble and tell her.Not that she’d necessarily believe him, but it’d give him an excuse to do the things he’d rather be doing than milking the cows.

..Not that he minded doing that, farm work was enjoyable in its own right, plus the cows seemed to like him –– point was, Alice went out to collect herbs every morning, on her own, and there was not a thing he could do about it. He hadn’t yet found a reason to push himself on her that countered her enjoyment of being alone with nature for an hour or so. ( Even he could imagine how a presence like his might be a disturbance to that. )

So, as his mind ran circles around that issue once again, it was lucky that the milk didn’t spontaneously spoil under his stare, which only broke once the task at hand seemed finished and he sent the last animal off to graze. It was late in the year and the nights were long, the sun was but a dim hope on the horizon when the mood of the air suddenly seemed to shift, radiating a feeling of unease different from the one he always got, and a quick glance to the stables told him he wasn’t alone in his perception this time.

But what exactly did it mean? Nothing good; that was as far as he got with his interpretation, nevertheless it was enough to make him put down the bucket and head for the front gate.It was.. cold. Of course, of course; this season’s mornings tended to be. But it was not just the air, or the mist licking at his boots. Not the same cold that pecked at this skin from the outside, but one that was already in his body –– no, not just his, it was as if all the animals could feel it, too; spreading through their bloodstream, running shivers over their small bodies. No bird was singing. No rabbit peeking through the grass.

Something had happened. To her. With her. It didn’t matter.

He thought he could smell fire, but there was none. The forest laid too quiet, too asleep, and no chimney in the village was smoking.

Closing the gate behind him, he started off towards the woods, having memorized the path Alice took every morning from the one time she allowed him to come –– but it was a long one, and the darkness seemed to eat him right up, and even though the feelings of wrong and hurry eventually won over, once he started to run it took less than half a minute for him to trip over something in the shadows and crash face first into the mud.

The forest did not love him like it loved Alice. It did not come to his aid, even if his intentions were to come to hers. Never mind that, though. As if some roots, rabbit holes and a bit of darkness could stop him.Picking up speed again, he took larger strides this time, lifting his feet higher as the mist thickened, in addition to the dark, soon hiding the ground from view completely. It was as if he was running through nothingness, his feet disappearing, not knowing whether any hold was going to be there at all until his soles hit it.For all he knew the ground could just open up any moment, he would not see it coming. And in a way, it did, another hole, soft spot, swallowing his right leg to the ankle, but he did not pause to untwist it, ripping it from the earth without thought or concern to continue on his way. Every puddle and stick only served to firm his determination, and soon he was so concentrated on running he almost didn’t hear the echo along the silent trees.

It was not Alice’s voice. Not even human.It was the scream of a horse, or the howl of the wind, and he would’ve disregarded it for the latter if it wasn’t so familiar.After everything, he stumbled to a stop, knee-deep in fog now.

Before him, further down the path it stood; as clear and pristine as it had looked in his dreams so many times. Yet, he was sure he was not sleeping now. Not daring to step closer to the equine body, he watched its gentle glow from afar, knowing its many colours as they changed with the sky, knowing the one it wore today, radiating spotless white as the moon or the stars itself, even with them hidden by the thick curtain of heavy clouds.Any other time he might have stopped to analyze, try to fathom the meaning of this, whether it meant it was real or that he was losing his sanity, but this was not the moment for contemplation.Instead, he figured it might have come for a reason, growing bold to show itself here; so he decided to meet it with similar boldness.

“Have you come to make yourself useful? It’s about time,” he called down the path, watching it lift its head, another unearthly howl chasing past him in a gust of cold wind. It did not reply in words, of course not, merely turning and taking off as he had expected it to.In his dreams, one would walk and one would follow. This was no different.

It did occur to him, naturally, that this –– ghost, spirit, demon whatever it was –– might be malicious, or even just harmfully playful, and that it could be taking him anywhere. Still he chose to follow it. It wasn’t trust, but close enough.

Not that keeping up proved necessarily easy, as the creature had taken off the small path soon after, running and jumping with the unparalleled elegance and grace no horse should possess in the thicket of the woods.The cold numbed any scratches the wooden claws might have laid onto his skin, but even so he lost sight of the white blur eventually, continuing on in the direction he was going until he could see light break through the trees ahead.

This time, though, he was listening; slowing the moment he could hear voices: Human this time, definitely, but still not Alice’s. Men’s voices.Stalking slowly now along the treacherous ground, the mist had thankfully thinned too, he crept up to the edge of the clearing; staying hidden until his breathing had calmed enough to make out what was being said. There were two men talking as far as he could tell.The first sentence he really understood, though, was as such:

‘Look at those eyes! She’ll sell for a fortune for sure.’

Ah. Slavers.

How he’d missed dealing with those types.

His blood still pulsating strongly through his veins, his hunting knife was already in his hand the moment he thought it; he was about to step forward and face the men when another thought stopped him short.Did they know who she was? It wasn’t unthinkable that they had come here with her in mind, that someone had recognized her eyes –– that would be bad, because these guys certainly didn’t work alone. Even if he killed them, more would come.Though the quiet sounds of pain and rough handling that carried along the wafts of mist told a different story, one of two men that were not aware just how valuable the treasure on their hands was.

Yet, they were going to steal it either way.

‘We need to get a better look at her later. We could probably even make up a story about her being a lost princess or something, I mean, those eyes! Someone’s gonna believe it.’

They were not wrong, Raphael had to give them that much. He briefly wondered what thoughts those words might’ve spawned in the mind of the woman herself; if she would ask him about their meaning later and what he should reply.But that did not matter right then. First of all he had to get her back.

The nerve of these men, really. Coming to this village, these houses, to steal women in the dead of the night and expecting to get away with it. And they were likely used to just that happening, too. Places like this produced farmers, not fighters; invading the homes of unsuspecting families in the dead of the night, any resisting father would simply be slain.Why go through the hassle of abducting a noble’s daughter if that of a shepherd was just as pretty? Stupid, they were not. Just pathetic.

Raphael was by no means a saint. He had, at best, a loose grasp on morality, and he would never have an ounce of knightly righteousness in him. His work was one of the most dishonorable occupations a man could have.And yet, even in his world, preying on the weak was low. Not that he recognized these men as strong, now. It was more of a case of the weak preying on the powerless. As pitiful a display as a pair of human eyes could witness.

And yet, that was not what fueled his anger, if one could even name the creeping cold as such, as he stepped out into the clearing. He never had that same burning rage that drove men to start fights over nothing, beat one another until one’s hand looked like the other’s face. He never got burned by it, never even felt warm, a flicker of something so rarely lit and impossible to grasp that, every time it inevitably died back out, he’d wonder if had finally died for the last time.

But it was there now and it grew stronger, stronger at the sight of the owners of the voices, the wagon that certainly had more than just Alice trapped behind its cover. The other women didn’t matter, though. He couldn’t care less about them.

No, it was just about her. Alice. She, her life, her safety had been entrusted to him by her supposed father, by the king –– she was his to look after, she was his to value above all else, she was his to protect.

She was his.

And these guys had the gall to try and take her away.

He did not care that they saw him coming, sprinting across the cold grass, that they had a few seconds to prepare –– a few seconds weren’t enough, not for the likes of them, with one still working the cage and the other almost injuring himself in an attempt to free his sword quickly.He hit that one first, didn’t slow down until he reached and all but jumped him; easily blocking the sword with his knife, its movement having been unthreatening and predictable, a wild swing out of fear rather than any usable move.Once past the weapon it was easy, always so easy; grab, hook, trip, down. He made sure to drive the other’s head against the frozen dirt as hard as he could, and as he laid there in a daze quickly got up again to let another harsh kick follow against the man’s temple. One sword dropped from limp fingers as the second one clashed against Raphael’s hunting knife once more, the second man having overcome his shock in favor of rage –– not that that would be any more helpful in a fight. Then again, Raphael had never been interested in a fight to begin with.

It only took one twist of his wrist, the man’s sword getting caught in the gut hook of his blade, a moment’s pause for Raphael to kick out and force his boot between the other’s legs with no shame nor hesitation.If anything, he might’ve wanted to snort that the look on the other’s face.Yes, it was a woman’s move. Yes, it was dishonorable between men. But there wasn’t a single man here who’d set out to do anything honorable tonight, was there?Two more strikes with the hilt of his blade, one to the gut and one to the throat, then he let the second bandit go down, too; more conscious than his friend but not getting away any sooner.

“I’ll get you out in a moment,” he called towards the wagon, the voices behind the planes having long fallen silent, although he took it as the good sign of them listening and waiting rather than falling into panic. He hadn’t honestly expected the latter, even, considering Alice was in that cage as well. Even with her speech taken, she would have taken charge of the other girls, calmed them.She didn’t need more than her eyes to do that. Maybe not even magic.

Bending over, he collected the sword of the man at his feet first and tucked it under his belt for safekeeping. Then, he grabbed hold of one of the man’s feet, pulled the shoe off just enough to expose the heel, and with one flick of his knife sliced through the achilles tendon before dropping the foot and proceeding to repeat his actions on the unconscious man.“Can’t have you running, can I,” he commented blandly; knowing full well none of these men could outrun him, that he’d catch them even completely uninjured. It was, at the bottom of it, torture –– and torture was his job. He’d drive the defeat into these men’s bones in every way he could, and later he’d make them tell him just what or who had incited them to come here of all places.

But for now –– right. The cage. Wiping the knife on the bandit’s pants, he sheathed it while walking over to the cart; grabbing the key from the other man on his way.

It only occurred to him then, as he pushed the plane back, that he’d be dealing with a bunch of terrified women. Definitely his specialty.

Could he have some more bandits instead, please?

[evolutionsvoid]

Just by looking at them, you can easily guess that the Furceros are related to the Cyclops. Both are single-eyed reptilian creatures who possess tusks and the ability to change the color of their hide. In fact, certain cultures refer to the Furceros as "Lesser Cyclops," as they are smaller and much less aggressive than the massive Cyclops (do note that the Furceros are not a fan of this name. Being referred to as "lesser" is not something they enjoy). They can also be found in the same areas as the Cyclops, though they tend to highly prefer the tropics and jungles. The key differences between them and the Cyclops are their long, thin legs, prehensile tail and sticky tongue. The long limbs help with climbing trees and thick vegetation, while their tails aid with grappling and also serve as a kickstand! Unlike the Cyclops, whose tongue is reduced and trivial, the Furceros possess a sticky tongue that can reach out almost two feet! While this is not as impressively long as other chameleons, it is meant more for probing cracked exoskeletons and pulling in food past their long tusks. These pointed teeth are good as tools, but they often get in the way for eating, so their long tongue helps fix that! As I mentioned, the Furceros are one of the main sapient denizens of the rainforests and jungles. They place their homes deep in these dense forests, to the point where it is incredibly difficult to locate them unless you have a map or are extremely lost. Due to their preference for the deep jungle, outside cultures are suspicious of them and see them as a secretive and insidious group. Some believe that both they and the Gralatars are the defenders of the ancient ruins and temples hidden within, and that any explorer who vanishes during a quest have most likely been slain by these "beasts." While Gralatars are seen as trap-makers and hunters through trickery, the outside world sees Furceros as deadly assassins. Due to their ability to change the color of their skin, the Furceros are believed to be able to become practically invisible in their jungle home. Tales speak of unseen foes who come from all sides and drag poor souls into the deep brush, never to be seen again. Beings like ghosts that drop from above and then vanish with their victims like smoke. Ask any common person outside the jungle about the Furceros, and they will speak of invisible assassins and vicious specters that defend their forest home. While these stories are indeed spooky and chilling, they are also 100% garbage. It's almost funny how wrong people have it about the Furceros, because if there is one thing the Furceros despise more than anything, it is the idea of blending in. If you ever actually met a Furceros, you would not be dealing with a stealthy shadow but a boisterous rainbow that is ready to punch you in the face with an array of vibrant and obvious colors. To put it simply, the Furceros are not subtle people, and they are quite happy that way. No camouflage or simple appearances for them, they want to stand out. Not only will they change their hides to be an array of bright colors, but they will also cover themselves in as many colorful things they can find. To their culture, appearance and color is everything. It is a status of power and position to them, as well as a tool they use during the mating season. To be biggest and brightest person around is to command the attention of everyone in the room. You don't get noticed with drab colors and simple trinkets, no, you get all the attention through intricate feather accessories, painted tusks and dyed bones. You can see this when you meet their chieftains, as they often have the biggest and loudest headdresses and garbs you will have ever seen. You can also witness this if you happen to be a common dryad that doesn't really have that many colors on her. When I first came to the village, every one of them kept giving me this puzzled look and they often didn't pay much attention to me. Turns out, they were confused by my lack of decoration and believed I was trying to be sneaky and suspicious by not standing out. I talked with them about it and they told me that I was simply too bland and drab to be noticed (which was nice because it cleared up the issue, but still HEY!), so they decided to dress me up. The sheer amount of paint, feathers and trinkets they put on me was crazy! After I left to my next expedition, I had to spend three days scrubbing myself to get all the body paint off! It was quite something trying to explain to everyone why I was colored blue and yellow!

Though some may see this cultural practice of theirs silly and juvenile, it is something that is a huge part of their tribes. Not only is one's attire and colors important for being noticed, but it is also crucial for ceremonies and catching the attention of a mate. In fact, the time of year where they find suitors is the absolute most anticipated days of their lives. Everything before and after these few days are building up to such a grand event. To lay it down in simple terms first, the males of the tribes are looking to woo the females with their colorful getup and complex costumes. If a female likes what she sees, she will approach the male and the two will go off together and begin their relationship. In time, this will lead to offspring and so on so forth. The thing to keep in mind, though, is that it is not as simple as I just wrote it. One does not simply win the females over with the appearance they carry with them day to day. To truly win their hearts, one must make a super special costume and display. To do this, the males of the tribe will spend their entire year leading up to this moment gathering materials and working on their courting display. This will always be done in secret, and it is taboo for a male to let anyone see their costume before that special day (especially if it is a female that sees it). What they want is to build up anticipation and then surprise everyone with their special appearance. If someone were to see it before the ceremony, then they wouldn't be getting the strongest response. These courting garbs they make and wear will wildly vary between individuals (because you don't want to show up to the dance wearing the same clothes as another person! How embarrassing!), as they are constructed with special preferences and ideas in mind. Some may go after a specific color scheme, while others may look to have a theme. Certain males who have their eye on a specific female may try to learn what her favorite things are so that they may incorporate them into their costume. Since these costumes are incredibly complicated and intricate, they require a great deal of materials and resources. A good chunk can be gained by trade and personal collecting, but a lot will come from their hunts for food. When it is time to hunt for food, the leaders of the tribe will create hunting groups and then select four to six individuals to fill each of these parties. What is important here is that the leaders will decide which territories each group will hunt in, sending their best hunters to places where prey is bountiful and the lesser ones to areas that are a bit more limited. Those who want recognition and a cut of the kill will seek to be placed in the first group of hunters, as that means they have a better chance of downing prey and claiming valuable materials. Those picked for the weaker parties and sent to places where prey is a bit more scarce will be a little bummed out, but will use this hunt to try and impress the chieftains. If they can bring back big prey or lots of food, than perhaps next time they will get a shot at being in the lead party. For these hunts, both males and females will participate, as they both desire the goods that come from downed prey. These hunting parties search the jungle floor and understory for meat and edible plants. They tend to use long-reaching tools, like spears and polearms that they craft from wood, stone and sap. You may notice that their weapons are just as flashy and decorated as they are, which is actually more important than you may think. Each Furceros' weapon is unique to them, so that there is no confusion on whose tool is the one that landed the killing blow. When prey is downed, the first thing the group will do is look to see whose weapon is the one that finished the beast off. When it is decided, the lucky hunter will be given prime pickings on the fallen prey. What I mean is that this hunter will get to select one piece or part of the animal that they get to keep for themselves. After that, the next hunter will get a pick, and then the next and so on and so on. What they are taking is not the meat or flesh, but things like feathers, beaks, claws and other decorative materials. These collected goods will be added to their personal trinkets, or the males will use them to help construct their special courting costume. Though females do not make courting displays, they will still collect pieces of slain prey so that they can add them to their own appearance. Males who are interested in a certain lady should be observant when she goes to collect her piece from prey, as that will give hints on what her preferences are. Once each hunter has claimed their trophy, they bag the meat and continue the hunt. At the end of the day, they shall return to the village and spread the food around. In time, the courting days will finally arrive and the tribe will prepare itself for the special ceremony. The young and old will work to set up the stage and decorations for the event, while the competing males go to their burrows to don their garbs. The eligible females will line the designated "walkway," where they will sit to watch the show and judge the presenting males. A structure similar to a stage curtain is made to hide the males from the ladies' gaze until the time is right. The leaders will have a list of names that they will announce, which is the cue for the specific male to take to the walkway and show off. They will strut down the path, often adding some dance moves to further add to the display. They have a short window of time to walk down to the end of the walkway, then turn around and return to the hidden curtain. It is this brief time where the females will watch and judge their displays, looking to see if any of the males win their admiration. At any time they may choose their potential mate, be it during the show or after all the displays have finished. For them, it is first come first serve, so it is important that they make their decision before someone else beats them to it. If one male has a rather incredible display, you may see a few females quickly getup and hurry to the backstage to be the first in line. Even after the show, the undecided females may ponder their decision for a few days. Some may decide that none were worthy and then wait for the next year, while some may ultimately choose which display stuck out the most to them. The couples who come together that night will spend their next years developing their bond and raising offspring, while the unpicked singles will get to work improving their display for the following year. While this ceremony is important to them, it is by no means a serious event. It is practically one big party, with food, drink and merriment being shared between all. I have had the honor of being invited to one of these events, and I have to say it is a dangerously good time! So much cheering, eating and drinking! The dances that occur after the event seem to last for hours, which can be quite tiring if one has had too many goblets of fig wine! I would gladly have a night like that again, but never would I wish to experience the morning after again! Not in this lifetime! This courting ceremony of theirs is not the only event they hold during the year, as the Furceros are quite the partying group! It seems like almost every month has a special ceremony or ritual they perform, which is meant to appease the gods and strengthen the bond of the village. Though the outside world may like to pretend they're insidious, explorer-eating beasts, they are actually quite the friendly group! In fact, they have even been capable of befriending Floral Dryads! Really! It is shocking to believe and amazing to see! It turns out that Floral Dryads who live in or near these tropical areas are actually quite close to the Furceros. It seems their love for colors, ceremony and flare have given them a thing in common, and the two species are great friends. I would never have suspected! To think those snooty plants could be friends with a tribe of lizards; or friends with anything! Imagine my shock when I finally found the Furceros village I was searching for! Here I was, pushing through dense jungle, hoping to find a hidden tribe that has (supposedly) remained isolated from the outside world for centuries, only to have my first sight be a Floral Dryad helping fix up a Furceros' flower wreath! And to think I was worried about finding a translator! Anyways, Floral Dryad communities that live near Furceros tribes will often form a partnership, where the dryads will grow crops and fruits while the Furceros hunt for meat. The two will trade for food, trinkets and other colorful things, and when the time comes for celebration, all parties are invited. It appears the Floral Dryads down here are much friendlier and open than the ones back home, which makes me want to take some back up north to help set their fellow sisters straight! Not only are they partners with dryads, but they do seem to share a bond with the spidery Gralatars, though this was not always the case. From the stories, it seems the two tribes were at odds with each other, as the Furceros enjoyed feeding on the enlarged spiders and the Gralatars weren't too pleased with that. The two tribes fought each other for years, until the day their god intervened. It sounds like the "God of the Jungle" rose up and demanded that the two cease their warring, as they were both children of his domain. Through him and the words of a faithful "Priestess" (It's always capitalized in the tales, I don't know why), the two species made up for their previous sins and struck a deal. They would no longer be enemies and they would respect the homes and lives of each other. While not all of them are the closest of chums, they coexist with one another and uphold their end of the bargain. The Gralatars will stick to the canopies and trees, while the Furceros hang down below. All may travel where they please, as long as they respect the territory they are in. The two species even trade with each other, with the Furceros mainly looking to get their claws on the Gralatars' silk. Their webs can make strong rope and unbreakable nets, which the Furceros use in construction and hunting. One of their favorite things to trade for are "Sticky Nets," which are made of Gralatar webbing that has not been dried. They use this special tool on Great Mottled Caecilians, as it not only pins the great beasts down, but it also subdues their ravenous colonies of Peeler Beetles. The large amphibians can then be slain, while the gobs of beetle-covered webbing are then dried and broken up to get a load of delicious crunchy beetles! Yum!                 In conclusion, the Furceros are a fun, happy group that do not deserve the myth of being deadly or dangerous. Such tales and stories need to come to an end, before anything wicked comes from these misguided assumptions. There is no violence or malice to be found here, only merriment and fun! The only thing that I experienced during my time with them that could even remotely considered mean was when I showed up wearing things that I thought were colorful and flashy. I preemptively tried to dress vibrantly because I knew they respected those that were decked out in colors and trinkets. Turns out my definition of "showy" came nowhere close to theirs. The only way I could have been more underdressed was if I was bark naked. The looks I got was the ones who gave to a child when they got into mom's makeup and tried to "look pretty." I mean c'mon guys, I was trying! Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

[aion-rsa]

Ready Player Two Ending Explained: How the Sequel Jumps the Shark

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This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Ready Player Two. You can read our spoiler-free review of the sequel here.

At the end of Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel Ready Player One, Wade Watts a.k.a. Parzival inherits everything he set out to win in James Donovan Halliday’s Easter egg hunt: the OASIS creator’s massive fortune, as well as control over the digital world itself. So how could Cline, and Halliday, top that with Ready Player Two?

By helping humanity level up.

The sequel’s ending definitely goes in a very different direction than how Ready Player One ended, both relating to the book’s central quest and in how it opens up the world of Cline’s future-Earth. Read on as we trace the path from the Seven Shards for the Siren’s Soul to the posthumous gift that allows Wade to finally achieve some level of closure when it comes to his adventures in the OASIS.

What Are the Seven Shards for the Siren’s Soul?

Not even two weeks after winning control (along with the rest of the High Five) of the OASIS, Wade in his unique capacity as Halliday’s sole heir (via the Easter egg hunt, at least) receives another gift: the OASIS Neural Interface, or ONI. By interacting directly with OASIS users’ brains, the ONI allows for an all-senses experience of the digital world. It takes very little convincing for Wade, Aech, and Shoto to vote to share the ONI with all users, though Samantha votes against and Ogden Morrow abstains.

Once there were 7,777,777 OASIS users connecting via ONI technology, Halliday released another posthumous riddle:

Seek the Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul

On the seven worlds where the Siren once played a role

For each fragment my heir must pay a toll

To once again make the Siren whole

But at first Wade is stymied by the quest, unsure who the Siren is or how he would go about finding seven shards with few clues to start with. The sequel’s action doesn’t truly pick up until the High Five are visited by a ghost in the machine: Anorak, Halliday’s NPC avatar in the OASIS. Except that Anorak is actually a self-aware AI that’s gone rogue, kidnapped Ogden, and forced him to begin finding the Shards. Once Og outsmarted the AI, he turned to the next best option: Wade/Parzival would have to find the Shards, but this time he would have a twelve-hour ticking clock before he and the half-billion people logged in via ONI would hit their time limit and be lobotomized.

Like the three keys to three gates in Ready Player One, each Shard is tied to a moment in Halliday’s life, particularly a moment set in the 1980s, particularly 1988-89: the year that foreign exchange student Kira Underwood spent in Middletown, Ohio, and where she met Halliday and Morrow.

While racing after the Shards, the High Five learn that when Kira had to go back to England after her year abroad, she left behind a D&D module that she had written for the rest of their group to play in her absence: The Seven Shards of the Siren’s Soul, in which her character Leucosia was trapped in suspended animation, her soul split into seven pieces that her friends had to find.

Wade comes to realize that the Siren in the OASIS quest is Leucosia herself—that is, a digital copy of Kira’s consciousness, an AI like Anorak. But while the flesh-and-blood Kira died before the ONI was officially created, the final memory toll is the last seven seconds of Kira’s memory, as Halliday tricked her into trying an ONI prototype while she was still alive. It copied over her consciousness up until that moment, creating Leucosia.

Initially, Halliday had kept Leucosia in a private simulation, in the hopes that he could convince her to love him. But he soon realized that because he had copied over every aspect of Kira’s personality and experience, that included her love for Ogden. Further, witnessing Kira’s memories of Halliday at his most insecure and selfish moments made the man realize how wrong he had been to violate her trust.

While it was Halliday who created the Seven Shards quest, it was Anorak who wanted Leucosia as his prize. Anorak, the digital copy of Halliday who grew unstable when his creator tried to remove the worst parts of his own personality from the copy and instead just gave his monstrous alter ego more control over the OASIS. With that power, he is able to hold Parzival and millions of other OASIS users hostage until Z can restore the Siren’s Soul.

How Do the High Five Win the Quest?

Even though Parzival is the only person (aside from Ogden Morrow) able to physically collect the Shards, he relies heavily on members of the High Five and the L0w Five in order to complete the seven trials. Each puzzle draws from a different person’s own particular fandom or knowledge base: Z’s new ally L0hengrin figures out the first Shard years after it gets announced; Shoto is the one to crack the riddle of Sega Ninja, while Art3mis walks them through the John Hughes tribute planet that is Shermer, and Aech coaches Z through doing musical battle with the Seven Princes on the Afterworld. Of course, Wade is the one with the personal experience on education-is-fun planet Halcydonia, and the trip to Arda I is a Tolkienesque date for Parzival and Art3mis.

Finding the Seventh Shard is simply a matter of visiting the Shrine of Leucosia on the D&D planet Chthonia, site of the final battle in Ready Player One. Once all Seven Shards are collected, one need only combine them into one jewel in order to resurrect Leucosia.

But what Z hands over to Anorak is a counterfeit jewel, which he uses to surreptitiously trade the Robes of Anorak back into his inventory. This allows him to teleport into Castle Anorak and threaten to push the Big Red Button that will destroy the OASIS—even if that means it will kill the half a billion people forcibly logged into the OASIS.

Ultimately, Parzival convinces Anorak to duel Halliday’s heir to prove that he is the only one worthy of inheriting Halliday’s power. And while Anorak thinks he’s fighting Wade, who is starting to suffer the effects of Synaptic Overload Syndrome, instead he’s up against the other heir: Ogden Morrow (who had indeed inherited Halliday’s treasured collection of arcade machines), near death after captivity and torture but putting on an ONI headset for the first and last time in order to enter the OASIS as the Great and Powerful Og and duel Anorak the All-Knowing.

Who Dies in the Final Battle?

Whereas the Battle of Castle Anorak in Ready Player One caused an OASIS-wide massacre of all the users who came to Parzival’s aid—who he later brought back to life—the casualties in Ready Player Two’s final showdown are much smaller. Z is mostly a spectator to what he calls “the most epic player-versus-NPC battle in the history of the OASIS… It was like Yoda versus Palpatine, Gandalf versus Saruman, and Neo versus Agent Smith, all rolled into one epic clash of the titans.”

The two seem fairly evenly matched until L0hengrin appears, fresh off her own epic side quest, to deliver Og the sword Dorkslayer. The sword was a creation of Ogden’s, once he received Halliday’s posthumous email apologizing for creating Leucosia without either Kira or Og’s permission. Knowing that Anorak might go rogue, Og created the contingency of an in-world sword that only his avatar could wield. Once he receives the sword, it’s all over, requiring only a single blow to destroy Anorak.

In the real world, Sorrento has already died. When Wade and Samantha, acting via telebots, went to rescue Og from his and Kira’s mansion, Anorak (also via telebot) decides that Sorrento has served his purpose and shoots him. Unfortunately, Sorrento is able to get off a wild shot that strikes Og in the stomach, a wound to which he eventually succumbs after killing Anorak in the OASIS.

Who Lives (Again) After the Final Battle?

After Anorak is defeated and all of the OASIS hostages are released back into the real world, Wade wakes up after a few days’ recovery. Samantha passes on Og’s last words to Wade, telling him that he should bring Kira back so she can decide her own fate. At first Wade is confused, but he remembers teenage Kira’s D&D module: The party has to collect all seven shards and reassemble them into the Siren’s Soul. Only then can they free Leucosia from suspended animation. Once they do, she presents them with their reward. A powerful artifact with the power to resurrect the dead, and make them immortal in the process…

First Wade assembles the Seven Shards and resurrects Leucosia, who explains that she is technically the world’s first stable AI (though Anorak predated her, he was clearly unstable by the end). She also reveals that Halliday, when he realized how badly he had wronged Kira and her, offered to destroy the ONI technology. However, she told him not to, because she was glad to have been created, as she could carry on Kira’s memories rather than letting them get lost. She also didn’t want to be alone. “I don’t feel like some sort of unnatural abomination,” she explains to Wade and Samantha. “I feel fine. I feel alive.”

It’s similar to what Black Mirror has done with their “cookies,” or AI copies, especially in its episodes “White Christmas,” “San Junipero,” and “USS Callister.” Each explores these copies’ rights to be considered as independent entities, their fates separate from their human counterparts.

Leucosia gifts Parzival the Rod of Resurrection, which will allow him to bring back any OASIS user who has died in real life—but only if they had used the ONI to back up their consciousness. So Z is able to bring back Art3mis’ grandmother Ev3lyn, as well as the Great and Powerful Og, to be with Leucosia. Unfortunately, he can’t bring back his mother, who died long before the ONI technology existed, nor Daito.

But what he does realize is that everyone who did ever use an ONI headset automatically has the chance at immortality: “We might be part of the last generation ever to know the sting of human mortality. From this moment forth, death would have no dominion.” From beyond the grave, James Donovan Halliday had created the Singularity by way of simulacra.

What Happens to the OASIS and the ONI-net?

Although Wade spends the entire book agonizing over the possibility of pushing the Big Red Button, ultimately he decides against it. It’s not his call to take away an entire world that provides escapism for people suffering in poverty, or who feel uncomfortable in their physical bodies, people for whom the OASIS is the only realm in which to be their true selves.

So, humans get to keep the OASIS and the ONI-net; but they don’t get to learn about the Singularity created by the ONI technology and the Rod of Resurrection. The High Five decide that it will take some time for humans to get comfortable with the idea of living alongside digital ghosts of their loved ones in the OASIS; but that won’t stop them from making plans for generations from now.

What Happens to Wade?

Or perhaps the better question is, what happens to Wade… and what happens to Parzival.

Like Ready Player One, the sequel’s action was narrated by Wade after the fact, recounting a digital adventure that changed the real world forever. The twist here is that in the final chapter (appropriately titled “Continue…?”), readers learn that the first-person narrator is technically Parzival, a digital copy of Wade’s consciousness in the OASIS.

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed that when Wade returns to the OASIS to resurrect Leucosia, he mentions that it is his final login to the OASIS. This makes sense in the final chapter, when the tenses shift to describe Wade in third-person but Parzival in first-person, revealing that the two shared memories of the entire story, until their experiences diverged at the creation of Parzival as a self-aware AI copy.

What is the Future of Humanity?

In his bleakest moments, Wade had worked with Aech and Shoto to build and prep the Vonnegut, a spaceship intended to leave Earth behind for a new home. Samantha was understandably upset at the idea of the OASIS’ co-owners abandoning an overpopulated Earth for their own gains, as this ark could only hold about two dozen bodies.

However, once the High Five begin resurrecting the AIs via the ONI technology, they come to a better plan: Move Parzival, a copy of Art3mis, Ev3lyn, Og, and Leucosia from the OASIS into ARC@DIA, the standalone simulation on the Vonnegut, and set a course for Proxima Centauri, where they hope to find a habitable, Earth-like planet. The voyage will take close to fifty years, but the AIs will have one another in their digital world and won’t need to take up any resources like human bodies would. Along with copies of all of the ONI users—in suspended animation—and frozen human embryos, the Vonnegut will have more than enough physical bodies and digital souls to populate a new world, should they find one.

There is, of course, a huge ethical dilemma in copying over a billion OASIS users without their knowledge. Wade leaves it up to Parzival, since he knows what reincarnation is like. They seem to be adopting an “ask for forgiveness, not for permission” attitude—assuming that the copies’ namesakes on Earth even ever find out about the AIs’ existence.

Parzival also distinguishes how he and Wade are different people despite their shared experiences. Wade and Samantha elect to stay on Earth, where they get married and get pregnant with a daughter they plan to name Kira. (Shoto and Kiki have their son, Daito, while Aech and Endira remain happily married.) Fatherhood gives Wade a renewed purpose, while Parzival both delights in his immortal, ageless relationship with Art3mis but also hints at the AIs possibly constructing bonds that may transcend human ways of relating to one another: “Our relationships with one another have also evolved, now that we’re immortal beings of pure intellect, freed from our physical forms and set adrift in the vastness of outer space, possibly for all eternity. Even though our perspectives may have changed, we still value those relationships above all else. Because out here, that’s all we have.”

The book ends on dual notes of hope: that the humans remaining on Earth will recommit themselves to figuring out how to fix their planet, while still thriving in the escapism of the OASIS; and that their digital counterparts will settle a new planet, or even make contact with another civilization who can help them continue to evolve.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Wade and Parzival both grow up playing video games, and spend their formative years inside one. Then their paths diverge: Wade finally realizes that there are enough people and experiences in the real world that matter enough to keep him grounded IRL, going so far as to claim that he will never put on an ONI headset again. Meanwhile, Parzival carries their gaming spirit further, to explore more digital worlds via ARC@DIA and what feels like a whole new level in the video game that is life. Sounds like Cline has left enough of an opening for the possibility of Ready Player Three…

The post Ready Player Two Ending Explained: How the Sequel Jumps the Shark appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[queen-of-deans-booty]

Roadkill- Part 1

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2,174

Warnings: Typical Supernatural violence, language, angst, minor character death, blood, you know the usual

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. If you’re a junkie for this sort of thing, then a tag list is the right thing for you! If you want to be a Queen, I’ll add you to that list too! Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!

Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.

Tags at the bottom

“Thanks again, Bobby. I really appreciate you coming down here and helping.” You said with a smile, hugging him tightly.

“Anything for you. Now, I have to get going but call me later on, okay?” He said, hugging you back.

“Of course. Well, I can practically feel Sam making holes in my skull from how hard he’s staring at me. I’ll call you later.” You kissed your father on the cheek and he smiled, getting into his own truck and leaving.

“It’s about time.” Sam teased.

“Hey, let me have this one, okay? I’m done now and you can tell me all about your case as Dean drives us slowly insane.” You said, getting into the backseat. Sam let out a humorless laugh and got in the passenger’s seat, Dean taking off down the road.

“You know, if I wasn’t here, I don’t know how you or Dean will get anything done.” Sam said.

“We did it for almost 3 years when you left to go to college.” You said, looking at him.

“Okay, ouch, I’m just going to tell you about the case I found.” Sam said, clearing his throat.

“Yeah, why don’t you.” Dean said as he drove.

“Okay, there’s a highway 41, which we are going to get on. There have been 12 accidents over 15 years. Five of them were fatal and all of them were happening on the same night.” Sam said, reading from the papers he printed earlier.

“So, what are we looking at? Interstate dead zone? Phantom hitchhiker?” Dean asked.

“Not quite. Year after year, witnesses said the same thing made them crash. A woman appearing in the middle of the road, being chased by a man covered in blood.”

“Two spirits haunting the same highway?” You asked.

“Yeah, remember those articles I printed out? Well, 15 years ago, a woman named Molly was driving with her husband, David, when they hit a man, Jonah Greeley. She killed him and herself, David surviving. She haunts that road every year with Greeley.” Sam said, looking at you.

You decided to go to David’s house to find out what happened to his wife to see if there were bones to burn. You found out that she was cremated which confused you because why was she still here? What was keeping her here, then?

“So, what, are we trying to kill Greeley and then what? Kill the woman? Are you sure we’re even going to see her here? What if she already killed someone else?” You asked from the backseat. You found the case yesterday and this haunting only happened once a night per year so you had to get this right or else you would be coming back next year.

“There is only one way to find out, right?” Dean said, driving along the highway where this woman would hopefully be. Dean has been driving for a while until you saw a woman run from the woods in a panic, screaming for help. Dean cursed as he slammed on the brakes, not hitting the woman.

“Stop! You have to help me!!” The woman yelled, very frightened.

“Does she even know she’s dead?” You asked, looking at Sam. Molly came running to the window and she banged on it until Sam rolled it down.

“Alright, alright, calm down. Tell us what happened.” Sam said, looking at her. You got out of the car to make her feel better and so did Sam and Dean and then Molly began explaining what happened.

“My husband and I were driving and we saw a man in the road I swerved and we crashed. When I came to, my husband was gone and my car was wrecked. I went looking for him but that’s when the man from the road came back and started chasing me.” She said, panic still in her voice.

“Did he look like he lost a fight with a lawnmower?” Dean asked.

“How did you know that?” She asked, looking at him.

“Lucky guess.”

“Ma’am, what’s your name?” Sam asked, trying to make her feel like she could trust you guys.

“Molly. Molly Mcnamara.” You looked at Sam and Dean who exchanged looks with each other.

“I think maybe you should come with us. We'll take you back into town.” Sam said.

“I can't. I have to find David. He might have gone back to the car.”

“We should get you somewhere safe first. Then Dean, Y/N, and I will come back. We'll look for your husband.” Sam aid, using his sensitive side and big hazel eyes to get her to go with them.

“No. I'm not leaving here without him. Would you just take me back to my car, please?” Molly said, not trusting Sam.

“Of course, come on.” Sam said. You and the Winchesters drove to the crash site, parking on the road above the grounds. You got out and followed her down the hill, not seeing a car anywhere. But there wouldn’t be a car here since there wasn’t a crash to begin with. That crash happened 15 years ago.

“I don’t understand. I’m sure this is where it was. We hit that tree right here. This…. This doesn’t make any sense.” She said, walking away and out of earshot for you and the Winchesters.

“We have to get her out of here. Greeley could show up any minute.” Sam said.

“What are we going to tell her?” Dean asked, looking at Sam.

“I don’t know, the truth?”

“Sam, she's not going to believe us. She’s going to run away from us and we will have lost our chance with her. I say we take down Greeley and then deal with her.” You whispered, seeing her walk back.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I crashed into that tree. I don't know who could've taken it. It was totaled. Please. You have to believe me.” She begged.

“Molly, listen, we do believe you. But that's why we want to get you out of here.” Sam said, trying to persuade her.

“What about David? Something must have happened. I have to get to the cops.”

“Cops... that's a great idea. We'll take you down to the station ourselves. So just come with us. It's the best way we can help you and your husband.” Dean said.

“Okay.” She sighed, following you and the Winchesters back to the car, getting in the backseat with you.

“Molly, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to find your husband and he’s going to be alright and so are you.” You said, trying to comfort the spirit.

“Thank you.” She said with a soft smile.

“So, tell us about you. What were you doing on this road, anyhow?” You asked.

“David and I were supposed to be in Lake Tahoe. It's our five-year anniversary.”

“A hell of an anniversary.” Dean commented.

“Right before, we were having the dumbest fight. It was the only time we ever really argued... when we were stuck in the car.” She said with a sigh.

“Yeah, I know how that goes.” Sam said with a light laugh. Dean scowled at him and he lost the smile, looking at Molly again.

“You know the last thing I said to him? I called him a jerk. Oh, god. What if that's the last thing I said to him?” Molly said, getting tears.

“Hey, it’s going to be alright. We’re going to find your husband. I promise you.” You said, hating the fact that she didn’t know. She was stuck in this time loop and she didn’t even know it. As Dean was driving, the radio started making weird noises then suddenly House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals started playing. Dean and Sam frowned, looking at the radio.

“Did you do that?” Dean asked.

“No.” Sam replied.

“I was afraid you'd say that.” Dean said with a sigh. Shit, that meant he was here already.

“This song…” Molly said, trailing off. “This song was playing when we crashed.” The radio crackled again and settled on another station. Instead of another song, a deep, creepy voice started talking and you could only assume who was speaking to you.

“She's mine. She's mine. She's mine.” Greeley said.

“What is that?” Molly asked, scared. You looked at the road and gasped when you saw Greeley standing in the middle of the road. Dean glared at him and floored it, speeding at him knowing he wouldn’t actually hit him.

“Hold on.” Dean said.

“What are you doing?” Molly asked, scared. Dean drove straight through Greeley who vanished into a puff of smoke. He was gone for now but he won’t be gone long. He’ll come back for her.

“What the... What the hell just happened?” Molly asked, demanding of answers.

“Don't worry, Molly. Everything's gonna be alright.” You said, giving her a reassuring smile. Just then, the Impala started to stutter, slowing down. Greely must be messing with the car.

“Spoke a little too soon sweetheart,” Dean said as the Impala coasted on the side of the road. Dean tried starting it again but it wouldn’t go no matter how hard he tried. “I don't think he's gonna let her leave.”

You sighed, knowing it wouldn’t be that easy. You couldn’t sit in this car all night so you and the Winchesters, plus Molly exited the car, looking around the empty road for any sign of Greeley.

“This can't be happening.” Molly said, rubbing her face.

“Well, trust me, it’s happening.” Dean said, walking to the trunk and opening it. He revealed the weapons stash he had and you looked at Molly who already saw it. Her eyes widened and she backed up from the men, ready to run away.

“Well... Okay. Thanks for helping, but I think I got it covered from here.” Molly said, looking at you.

“Wait, Molly, please just wait a minute.” You said, catching the brothers’ attention.

“Just leave me alone.” You looked at Sam for help.

“No no no. Please. You have to listen to me, us.” Sam said, knowing she saw the arsenal in the trunk.

“Just stay away!” She said, turning away and starts to leave.

“It wasn't a coincidence that we found you, alright?” Sam blurted out. You looked at him, wondering what he was going to say.

“What are you talking about?” Molly asked, stopping and turned back around.

“We weren't just cruising for chicks when we ran into you, sister. We were already out here. Hunting.” Dean said, sighing.

“Hunting for what?” She asked wearily.

“Ghosts.” You blurted out, not giving her any time to adjust it.

“D... d... don't... Sugarcoat it for her.” Sam said, exasperated.

“You’re nuts.” Molly said, chuckling humorlessly.

“Really? About as nuts as a vanishing guy with his guts spilling out. You know what you saw.” Dean said, not having any time for this.

“We think his name is Jonah Greeley. He was a local farmer that died 15 years ago on this highway.” Sam said, hoping she would stay.

“Just, please, stop.” Molly begged.

“One night a year, on the anniversary of his death, he haunts this road. That's why we're here, Molly. To try and stop him.”

“Now, I suppose this… ghost made my car disappear, too.” She said, not expecting an answer.

“Crazier things have happened.” You said, biting your lip.

“You know what? I'm all filled up on crazy. I'm gonna get the cops myself.”

“I don't mean to be harsh, but I don't think you're gonna get too far.” Dean said, laying everything on the line as it was.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Molly asked, offending by his tone.

“It means that plan A was trying to get you out of here. Obviously, that didn't go over too well with, uh, Farmer Roadkill.”

“Molly, we're telling the truth. Greeley's not gonna let you leave this highway.” You said.

“You're s... you're serious about this, aren't you?” Molly asked, giving in slowly.

“Deadly.” Dean stated.

“Every year, Greeley finds someone to punish for what happened to him. Tonight, that person is you.” Sam said.

“Why me? I didn't do anything.”

“Doesn't matter. Some spirits only see what they want.” You said, hinting at more than what she knew. Molly only saw what she wants to see and that is probably why she hasn’t found peace yet. She didn’t know David was still alive and well.

“So, you're saying this... Greeley, he took my husband? Oh, god.” Molly said, getting tears at the thought of her husband at harm.

“Molly, look, we're gonna help, alright? But first, you gotta help us.” Sam said, stepping closer to her.

“Help you? How?”

“We need to see that cabin you ran into. Can you take us there?” You asked, Dean going back to the car to fill the duffel bag with the weapons.

“Do I have to go back there?” She asked, hating the idea.

“You want to find your husband, yeah?” You asked. She sighed and nodded, ready to leave when you three were.

The Queens:

@maddieburcham1 @ginamsmith  @mogaruke @whit85-blog @inlovewithbja @spn67-sister @kdfrqqg @jarpadandjensenaremyheroes @roxyspearing @supercalifragilistic26 @mishamigose @cobrakai1967 @essie1876 @wishedworld @crispychrissy @laqueus-ludovicus @nostalgic-uncertainty @jerk-bitch-and-an-angel @potterhead1265 @starswirlblitz @untitled39887 @ta-n-ja @deans-fallen-angel-boy @scarletluvscas @notnaturalanahi @tahbehonest @stay-in--place @dreaminofdean @posiemax @donnaintx @mikey1822 @alexandriajanae4 @li-ssu @just-another-winchester @obsessivecompulsivespn @emoryhemsworth @newtospnfandom @mizzezm @goldenolaf25 @jessikared97

The Dean Beans:

@akshi8278 @mega-mrs-dean-winchester @winchesterandpie @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @carribear31 @tacklesackles @oreosatmidnight @not-naturalfangirl @missselinakitty @iam-a-cutiepie  @kristendansmith @milo-winchester-4ever @jensenackesl @codyshany316 @pheonyxstorm @helllonearth @juniorhuntersam @pouterpufftrain @ruprecht0420 @shut-ur-face-and-get-in-the-car @carriemichelle2012 @aubreystilinski

Series Rewrite Junkies:

@helllonearth @amyisabellal @deanwnchstr @caseykitten6 @quixoticcat @supernaturalblogging @notmoose45  @crowleysminion @mina22 @tahbehonest @hadleymcallister2177 @destielsangels @spnhybrid @oreosatmidnight @valerieshubin @seninjakitey @flyonlittlewinchester  @aubreystilinski @rocketqueeens @emilygracespellins

[the-master-cylinder]

Charles Band decided to go after the media market in a different way. He was beginning to make a picture called SWORDKILL in 1982, about a samurai who was frozen in ice, when he realized something. “I had watched all these foreign film representatives take my pictures, license my pictures, and basically go to Cannes and Mifed [the two major foreign film markets), rent an office and make sales, and make a huge commission on basically the fruits of my labor. I thought if I was going to have any control at all, I should go to the foreign marketplace and sell my own stuff, especially since over the years my pictures did very well for everyone. They were very commercial.

“I got many letters from French distributors and Japanese distributors, congratulatory letters saying here’s a copy of our advertising campaign as a momento. So I kind of knew some of the players. I decided to take SWORDKILL, which was just about to shoot, and a couple of other pictures, which I was going to make later that year, and hang my shingle in some hotel room in Cannes and actually begin doing it myself.”

Band came up with the name Empire and the company was formed as Empire International, which, with the aid of Band’s promo reel, was also able to raise funds for upcoming, incomplete projects as well as SWORDKILL. In order to pre-sell domestic rights on an independent picture, one needed to guarantee a certain amount of “p and a” or prints and ads expenditure, so Band figured he ought to set up a modest U.S. theatrical distribution organization and begin to distribute these pictures in order to later sell them to the burgeoning U.S. video market.

Parasite (1982) Retrospective

Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983) Retrospective

Ghoulies (1984) Retrospective

Empire is widely perceived as the new American International Pictures, and you as the new Roger Corman. Is that a fair assessment? Charles Band: It’s funny, all these categories, independents, mini-majors, B movies, C movies, I don’t know. We can never be like AIP because the times are different. AIP started out making B pictures to fill double bills they were originally the second feature at a drive-in. That whole market is gone, and maybe the analogy here is that much of what we do fits into the video pipeline. Maybe that’s the new market that allows us to cover most of our downside, but I just feel that we’re here to make good movies. There weren’t too many AIP films, or Corman films, that were good movies. There were many of them, and there were some with all sorts of interesting cult appeal . Some launched careers of a few of today’s big stars. But in terms of track record, if you look at both bodies of work of those two distribution-production concerns, there aren’t too many good movies. I hope that by the time we’re into ’87, at least one out of every two or three of our pictures will be considered a well-made film, and that will last 10, 20, 30 years, forever.

In terms of budgets, Empire seems comparable to AIP. Charles Band: It ‘snot written anywhere that a good picture must cost a ton of money. You don’t have to spend $20 million on a film. We made a small picture last year called Re-Animator. and not only did it get good reviews , but it did well for us as far as its profitability. It’s a picture that cost just about a million dollars, and it had a lot of talent and quality. As we get better, our pictures will get better, and not necessarily more ex- pensive. Our aim is to make real good movies.

What happened with both AIP and Corman is that after they had discovered a talented director or star, they couldn’t hold on to him once the studios offered him work. Can you keep that from happening at Empire? Charles Band: Not only can we, we are. You can be real smart and draft a contract that commits people for two or three films, but the only thing that’s going to bring people back is how you work together. With a few exceptions, the other independents and studios have a very repressive atmosphere. It’s very tough to get pictures made there, and when they’re in the process of being made, rarely do you get to sit down with the studio head, or anyone who understands pictures, for that matter. Those people who are running the studios, for better or worse, are not filmmakers.

The Alchemist (1983) In 1955, young waitress Lenora (Lucinda Dooling) finds herself inexplicably driving down the California highway to an unknown destination. This doesn’t bode well for Cam (John Sanderford), the hitchhiker she picked up, because he has to endure her somnambulist driving. The duo eventually end up at a graveside in the woods and meet alchemist Aaron (Robert Ginty), who is just as shocked to see them as Lenora appears to be the reincarnation of his wife who was murdered nearly 100 years earlier.

The Alchemist was your first directorial effort, how did that come about? Charles Band: Well, I wasn’t the director when that film first started. The guy who was responsible for the trailers on VHS was producing the film at the time and after about three days of production, he called me up and said that the current director wasn’t working out and could I parachute in to help finish the film. The original director had shot about 2-3 days of work and I then finished about 6-7 days of shooting. I have no memory of the director.

The late Robert Ginty was the star of The Alchemist and at the time was coming off success with The Exterminator. What was he like to work with and what was his appeal as a leading man? Charles Band: I had no input in casting Ginty. He was already on board. What I do notice is that with a lot of leading men there is no simpatico in them. Ginty was a very human actor with simpatico and it was sad that he left us so soon. He did come across as an “Everyman” sort of guy.

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Ghost Warrior (1982/1984) a.k.a Swordkill A deep-frozen 400-year-old samurai is shipped to Los Angeles, where he comes back to life. Dazed and confused, he goes on a rampage. Can the female scientist and her colleague who revived him stop him before it’s too late?

Trancers (1984) Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a police trooper in the year 2247 who has been hunting down Martin Whistler, a criminal mastermind who uses psychic powers to turn people into mindless “trancers” and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a tranced individual by scanning them with a special bracelet. All trancers appear as normal humans at first, but once triggered, they become savage killers with twisted features.

Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time using a drug-induced time-traveling technique. Whistler’s consciousness leaves his body in 2247 and travels down his ancestral bloodline arriving in 1985 and taking over the body of an ancestor, a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling. Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler’s body—effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to—and chases after him through time the same way. Deth ends up in the body of one of his ancestors: a journalist named Phil Dethton.

With the help of Phil’s girlfriend—a punk rock girl named Leena (Helen Hunt)—Deth goes after Whistler, who has begun to “trance” other victims. Whistler plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City (the future name of Los Angeles), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler’s murder spree of their own ancestors. Deth arrives too late to prevent most of the murders and can only safeguard Hap Ashby (Biff Manard), a washed-up former pro baseball player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe (Anne Seymour).

Deth is given some high-tech equipment, which is sent to him in the past: his sidearm (which contains two hidden vials of time drugs to send him and Whistler back to the future), and a “long-second” wristwatch, which temporarily slows time, stretching one second to ten. The watch has only enough power for one use, but he later receives another watch to pull the same trick again.

During the end fight with Whistler, one of the drug vials in Jack’s gun breaks, leaving only one vial to get home. Jack is forced to make a choice: kill the innocent Weisling (who is possessed by the evil Whistler), or use the vial to send Whistler back to 2247, which would strand Jack in the present. Jack chooses to inject Weisling with the vial, saving the lieutenant’s life but condemning Whistler to an eternity without a body to return to. Jack then decides to remain with Leena in 1985, although observing him from the shadows is McNulty, his boss from the future, who has traveled down his own ancestral line, ending up in the body of a young girl.

Interview with actor Tim Thomerson

Tell us about this journey of Jack Deth. Tim Thomerson: I got this role as a character named Rogue in Metalstorm (1983), and we started working, and that was my first time working with Charlie Band. I had a lot of fun with it, Charlie was fun to work with, and kind of left me alone, which I like. I don’t like a lot of direction. We had quite a lot of fun doing it and then this idea for TRANCERS came up. This is still Empire now, so fast forward to late 1984 early 1985. The FUTURE COP was the original title for TRANCERS, so I went to Danny (Bilson) and Paul (De Meo), and we had meetings together. They were fans of these Philip Marlowe type detective guys, so we were all in love with that genre, and I always liked Sam Spade, Humphrey Bogart, just a fan of that particular character. Charlie wanted to do this cop that comes from the future in LA today, meaning from the year, 20-something. So Charlie didn’t really care what we did with the character from what I remember, so Danny and Paul wrote up this guy Jack and so that’s how that was born. When the character transformed into the other body that was named Philip, it’s a tribute to Marlowe. That was Danny and Paul’s idea, to write it up like that, and for there to be some kind of dialogue and kind of the crispy kind of way of saying. You’ve seen that movie right?

Many, many times. Tim Thomerson: Yeah, so for what it is and for the time that it was shot, it’s a pretty classic B movie I think.

The opening of the film is great, the cross between the future and the past and that noir-like feeling is easy to get on board with. Tim Thomerson: I think it really had its own feeling about it. I thought that while we were shooting it, even though it’s a silly ass movie. But it just had a feeling, you know? Charlie was great to work with on set, and was funny, had a winning personality, and Helen was just a hilarious girl. She really is a funny chick. The performances were really good too; you can tell they got along.

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The Dungeonmaster (1984) Paul Bradford (Jeffrey Byron) is a skilled computer programmer who lives with his girlfriend, Gwen (Leslie Wing), and “X-CaliBR8,” a quasi-sentient personal computer that Paul programmed and which he interacts with via a neural interface. Gwen is jealous of Paul’s unusually close relationship with X-CaliBR8, to whom Paul has given a female voice, and fears that their relationship will be destroyed by Paul’s reliance on X-CaliBR8 for his various day-to-day activities. One night, Paul and Gwen are both transported to a Hellish realm presided over by Mestema (Richard Moll), an ancient, demonic sorcerer who has spent millennia seeking a worthy opponent with whom to do battle. Having long defeated his enemies with magic, Mestema has become intrigued with technology, and wishes to pit his skills against Paul’s, with the winner claiming Gwen. Arming Paul with a portable version of X-CaliBR8 (which takes the form of a computerized wrist band), Mestema begins transporting Paul into a variety of scenarios in which he must defeat various opponents. Most of the challenges involve Paul using his X-CaliBR8 wristband to shoot people, monsters, and objects with laser beams. After Paul completes Mestema’s various challenges, the two engage in a final battle, which takes the form of a fist fight in which Paul kills Mestema by throwing him into a pit of lava. After Mestema dies, Paul and Gwen are transported back to their house, where Gwen expresses her acceptance of X-CaliBR8 and suggests that she and Paul get married.

David Allen on the stop-motion for the “Stone Canyon Giant” David Allen first became involved in directing an episode of Charles Band’s DUNGEONMASTER almost two years ago, as a test for working with Band on THE PRIMEVALS, a property they have in development together. Although Band had already directed his segment of the film, no clear story had been worked out. The film had been sold on the basis of its premise-a showcase of effects sequences-and it had to be delivered quickly. Band suggested doing a sequence which featured a large statue brought to life (as in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS), and Allen agreed.

Allen spent two days on location, shooting mostly in continuity without storyboards, then three weeks, off-and-on, in the studio to do the effects. According to Allen, the finished segment is “heavily footnoted with explanations for why it didn’t turn out better. We’d do something and think it was okay and then get the shot back from the lab-but we’d already be working on a new shot. A couple of shots are okay, but there are so many below-par scenes. I wanted to go back on location almost a year after the original shooting and redo the first shot of the statue in Dynamation-a split-screen effect all on the original negative. A good first shot would have better set the stage.”

Allen would also have liked a chance to introduce the statue “more poetically, with music,” but he never had an opportunity to speak with the film’s composer, Richard Band. “A pause for mood and atmosphere would have given the sequence some intelligence, but in the time allotted I didn’t think of it.”

Besides doing animation for his own segment, Allen provided two effects for other sequences of the film: for an exploding car, Allen took an explosion he had photographed years ago and superimposed it on the shot, for the conclusion of the film he provided a shot of the evil magician falling into a lava pit. “Band came up with that at the last minute–the film was written as it went along. I did it for a few hundred dollars, using a six-inch doll, some old cliffs I’d used long ago, and oatmeal. I didn’t think it would work, but with all the fire and smoke I put in there it came out, maybe not wonderful, but credible.”

Although dissatisfied with the final result, Allen nevertheless enjoyed the experience. “I learned a lot,” he said. “I got the camera where it needed to be. I enjoyed getting everything done in two days. I was scouting locations sometimes only twenty minutes ahead of the camera crew.”

Interview with Jeffrey (Paul) Byron

This was your second adventure with Band’s band; were you excited to be back in the B-movie saddle? Jeffrey Byron: Sure! I had a great time on METALSTORM and every actor likes to work. So doing a second movie right afterwards was great.

Seven chapters and seven directors Jeffrey Byron: Indeed. It was il fun and unique experience and was ahead of its time. It was a clever idea. It was like doing se ven separate films, which was very cool.

What was your favorite segment and why? Jeffrey Byron: That’s easy! The one that I wrote (SLASHER) about the serial killer. My older brother Steve Stafford directed it, and I was able to hire some close actor friends to be in it. It was a blast!  Being directed by my brother Steve was a great experience. He is a talented filmmaker and in some respects this segment inspired him to get more and more directing jobs Plus I got to hire some great actor friends to be in the segment I wrote. That was gratifying as well.

Do you have insight or back story as to the name change? Jeffrey Byron: I don’t recall how that happened. That was up to Charlie Band. He was a wiz at that kind of stuff. He came up with all the rates. I assume he changed the title because he got more traction with THE DUNGEONMASTER, because of the popularity of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

As in METALSTORM, you had to square off against Richard Moll, but this time as an ancient demon. Was he a more worthy nemesis this time round? Jeffrey Byron: Richard and I got to know each other on METALSTORM, so we had a warmer rapport on the second film. We had a perfectly good relationship on the first film, but we knew each other better by the time we did this film and he was a pro so it was a great experience

Any RAGEWAR trivia or lesser known facts you can share with us? Jeffrey Byron: All the scenes that were shot in my characters apartment..were actually shot in any actual apartment!

What was next for you after THE DUNGEON MASTER? Jeffrey Byron: Quite soon after I jumped into the soap opera world. They had been chasing me down for awhile and I finally agreed to do ONE LIFE TO LIVE. After I left that show. I went on to do ALL MY CHILDREN, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and finally PORT CHARLES. I did other work in between but the soaps were my bread and butter.

The Dungeonmaster was a try-out of several different directors. Charles Band: “It was a fun idea. I’ve always done things a little differently and we had a number of directors at the time who all wanted to direct features. We were getting pretty prolific and it was exactly that. I think there were seven directors, if I’m not mistaken. There were more that we were actually looking at but seven wound up directing seven little chapters in this Dungeonmaster film. I would have to think real hard to remember who directed what, but that’s what happens. We made a strange little film.

“It’s actually a fun film to watch. Part of what low-budget films suffer from is you usually are relegated to one location because that’s all you can afford. Unless you are really adept at story-telling and casting, you need to make these movies much more character-driven. Dungeonmaster’s one of those films which diverts you with seven or eight different environments. If nothing else, it certainly looks colorful! It made a great trailer, that’s for sure.”

Savage Island (1985) Women who have been captured and sold as slave labor to a South American emerald mine hatch a plan for revolution and revenge.

Empire seems very loyal to its people  given a few pictures, everybody gets to direct. Is that a deliberate policy? Charles Band: Definitely. It’s rare that talent is Just born overnight. It takes time and it’s crazy for a big company to gamble with its resources on a new director. If it turns out wrong, it makes no sense going and spending the time. It makes more sense to educate people here and pay for the tuition, so to speak. Some turn out to be wonderful and some take more time. I can’t think of one that we’ve worked with so far that hasn’t picked up the Empire banner and shown promise.

People like Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon, and other directors who have had good experiences with us and are now making their second or third film with us this year, find that our whole directive here is making movies. That’s where all our energy goes. We’re passionate about making movies. That makes their lives much easier because we can work well together. David Schmoeller just finished a picture for us called Crawlspace that turned out very well, and he has had several offers to go elsewhere to make pictures. Well, he has turned them down to make two more pictures back to back for us. I don’t know if the offers were for substantially more than what we’re paying him, I Just know that the experience on Crawlspace was real good for all of us. and good for him creatively. Once a script is approved and we know what we’re spending on a picture, we give the directors total free reign to make their movie.

Re-Animator (1985) Retrospective

Zone Troopers (1985) In Italy in World War II, four members, led by their grizzled sergeant (Tim Thomerson), of an American military patrol are lost behind enemy lines. They discovers an alien spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its crew. The alien pilot is dead, and one of the aliens has been captured by the Nazis, hampering efforts of the aliens to return home. A larger Nazi unit, with scientific and medical personnel, also investigate the crash and seek to capture the alien’s technology and use that to win the war. However, the aliens side with the Americans after the Nazi’s actions to their crewmember.

Another popular title was Zone Troopers. How did that come about and where did the concept come up? Charles Band: Well, I had Danny Bilson and Paul Le Meo, who wrote Trancers and the stars of that film Tim Thomerson and Art La Fleur on board. I also had a wonderful Production Designer and Art Director and it also gave me an opportunity to go back to Italy as I grew up there. Some people don’t realize that the likes of Crawlspace and Troll were, along with Zone Troopers, filmed in Italy rather than the USA. It was a great set-up for about three years as we got some good films made, but then things changed and the dollar and lira value changed, so it became difficult to continue to film there, but we are very proud of those films.

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Zone Troopers was also directed by Danny Bilson, who had an interesting time of it. “We had a German army of Italian-speaking extras,” Bilson recalls. “We had to have these Nazi SS troops come across a meadow, and they looked like Girl Scouts. Trying to be Mr. Director, I went to show them how to do it. We’ve all played army when we were little kids, and you know how to do it, but when I was right in the middle of showing them, I slipped into this big pile of cow slop. Paul (De Meo) cried out helpfully, ‘But do you want them to fall in the cow shit?”’

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“We had a lot of fun with the Italian prop men,” De Meo chimes in, “One of them came up to us and asked where he should put these two bottles of gin. We wondered what the bottles of gin were for and started looking through the script, thinking that maybe we forgot something. It turned out that somewhere in the script was a description that said two GIs are playing gin. Another time, a prop man bought a pineapple because he didn’t know that was a‘40’s term for a grenade.”

Bilson is very happy working for Empire. He calls it a secure environment that constantly provides an opportunity to work. He feels that the experience he and others are gaining will build confidence and lead to better-made films. Paul De Meo compares the working atmosphere with “almost being like working at Warner’s in the ’50’s. There are lots of people making lots of movies In all kinds of genres.” Bilson Is particularly proud of the fact that he’s been able to work in low-budget, exploitation films without “ever having to do a women-in-prison film or a slasher movie nothing I would find morally objectionable. That’s just not our meat-and-potatoes.”

Do your writers come up with concepts? Charles Band: Most, if not all. of our projects come from my titles and concepts. That’s a reward for me, to get to dream things up and then assign various projects and concepts to writers and see the picture get made and distributed. So, it’s a little different than the way other people work where they have 200 script submissions a week and they hope to find one and develop it. We’re lucky enough not to be looking for any projects. If anything good comes along, we’re here to read it. We still have our hundred script submissions, but basically, we’re Just looking for good writers. Very few of our projects Just walk in the door perhaps one in the last year. We have hundreds of concepts we’ve been developing over the last few years, and those are the ideas that will become movies.

It sometimes seems that the lack of control works out well when you have a Stuart Gordon around, but there are some films Eliminators comes immediately to mind  that needed somebody to step in and say, “This isn’t working.” That script Just didn’t seem ready. Charles Band: True, but that’s the script’s fault, not the director’s. It’s impossible to predict how a project is going to turn out. You can do all the right things and it Just doesn’t work. On the other hand, you can make 500 mistakes and suddenly the picture works. You want to make sure you have the best script possible, but sometimes things are rushed, and that shows. It always comes down to the script. Sometimes the script reads real well but it Just doesn’t play that way. Eliminators was one of the best scripts we’ve ever had here. It reads great. Why the script reads so well and the picture isn’t so good to some, the picture is fun and works; to others, it’s disjointed if you read the script, you’ll find a really well-written, fun script, very cohesive, very weird. I have no defense, or no explanation for why some pictures work and some don’t. The best we can do is to make certain we start off with a good script and that the talent we assemble is right, then hope for the best. You just don’t know. You don’t even know when you see the dailies. There are some times when you see the dailies and you’re in love with every shot, and it gets put together and it just doesn’t work.

Trancers was one of the best things Empire has done and I was surprised it didn’t do better. Charles Band: So was I. It was one I directed, so I was anxious to see it work. But it was the least effective of all the first year’s pictures. That’s another sad thing: There’s no telling which picture is going to work.

Was it supposed to be the first in a series? Charles Band: Yes. I always wanted to make an inexpensive series, not something that would cost tons of money and be hard to get off the ground. We could have made two of those movies a year. I love the character of Jack Deth and the whole thing would have been fun to do. We were even close to doing another one in spite of the first’s failure, just because ‘why not?’ But we’ll come up with something else someday. Tim Thomerson’s a major talent and no one’s used him right except us in Trancers .

Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson have written another film that will begin production soon, Journeys Through The Darkzone (1986). Bilson will direct. “It’s about these guys who work on a dumping fishing station where people get their anxieties out through recreation,” Bilson reveals. Then people start disappearing from this colony on this water planet. It’s a little like Outland. An investigation leads to this attraction, which is an alien machine which can project you into an alternate reality to satisfy your fantasies. But it has hidden dangers.”

The pair are currently scripting Arena (1989), which they describe as Body and Soul in space. Arena is based around a fantasy sport and involves a bid for a new champion, racketeering and space gangsters.

The Caller (1987) One night, an unusual stranger in need asks a woman living alone in a house in the woods if he can use her phone. It soon becomes clear that they’re playing a strange mind game and that there’s something very wrong about the woods.

The History of Empire Films Part Two Charles Band decided to go after the media market in a different way. He was beginning to make a picture called SWORDKILL in 1982, about a samurai who was frozen in ice, when he realized something.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #42

“i don’t ask much, i just want you.”

have you ever been to the white house?   no, i haven't. what are your plans for tomorrow?   not shit.  like always.  maybe be able to adopt my snake. do you have a debit card?   no why did you stop working at the last place you were employed?   i kept having anxiety attacks that induced vomiting. have you ever made out with a complete stranger?   no...? what would you do if you found out your ex was pregnant/fathered a child?   probably kill myself. are you very close to your siblings?   no would you kiss the last person you kissed again?   i'd love to. what bugged you about the last person you dated?   well i know now that he's not very understanding.  but he tried to be. have you ever slapped someone, why?   i hit my sister when i was little.  don't remember why. have you ever had sex with someone the same night you met them?   no, because i'm not a whore. if you could fly or breathe underwater, what would you choose?   the latter, i think. is your life the same as it was a year ago?   exactly the fucking same. are you in love with someone?   should be obvious enough. what is your relationship status? are you happy with that?   single, and no.  i'm lonely as fuck. have you ever thought you could do a better job at being president?   hell no. when people smoke around you, does it make you cough?   sometimes.  it'll always give me a headache. would you rather name your child michelle or monica?   michelle do you know anyone who works at mcdonald’s?   no have you ever felt like you lost a part of yourself?   i KNOW i fucking have.  when jason left, it was like the majority of me fucked off. have you ever suspected your mom or dad of having an affair?   no. when you younger and misbehaved, what did your parents threaten you with?   mom would threaten to spank me or take away computer privileges do you think it’s weird how babies are made?   i mean yeah, i guess, but it is what it is. how would you react if your last ex wanted to get back together?   i would just... fuck, man.  i'd be so damn happy. are you comfortable in a short skirt?   fuck no. do you and your family go on a vacation every year?   no.  we never do. when you were going out with your last ex and you had the chance to date your celebrity crush, would you have left your bf/gf for them?   absolutely not.  i don't care who my celeb crush is, no one lights a candle to jason. does your dad swear?   yeah if your last kiss asked you on a date, what would you say?   absofuckinglutely!!! do you think braces are sexy?   does anybody, really?  it's just something you tolerate.  i don't think anyone's "sexy quotient" is affected by whether or not she/he wears braces. do you know anyone that is gothic?   i'd love to be a goth if i could afford the wardrobe. how many coats of mascara do you use?   like two what were you almost named?   kathryn does your family hire someone to do your chores for you?   no do you know how to use photoshop?   very vaguely how about sony vegas?   yeah what is the main reason you want to have children when you grow up?   idk, i just... do?  when i was with jason, i wanted children because i loved him so much and thus human instinct would have it i wanted his kids, but now that i'm with nobody idk, i just want kids one day.  i guess. what do you struggle with?  depression, anxiety, ptsd, bipolarity, no job, no money...  i struggle with everything. are you self conscious?  VERY what is the name on your birth certificate (feel free to withhold your last name for privacy reasons)?   brittany marie is all you need to know. what day did you take your first breath?   february 5th, 1996 what are the names of the lovely individuals that brought you into this world?   donna and ken. the stereotyped image of a girl LOVES to shop. does this hold true to you?   i like to shop only if it's for myself.  i know that sounds greedy, but i just like... don't get the pleasure sensation otherwise. even if shopping isn’t your favorite... every girl has a favorite store. what’s yours?   hottopic which type of undies do you wear most: Thongs, bikini/briefs, bootyshorts, or granny panties?   if i wear underwear, bikini. describe your style for me, using minimal words?   comfortable do you have a walk in closet? do you even have a closet it all?   no, yes. tampons or pads? why?   tampons, because i don't like feeling like wearing a bloody diaper. do you ever pamper yourself? what do you do?   no, because i'm fucking poor. do you like surprises?   no.  i get scared of what it is. how many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust?   none. when is the last time you watched a hockey game?   yearrrrssss ago. ever been paid for sex or a sexual favor?   nope. have you ever been to a strip club?  no, and i never will. do you listen to a variety of music, or do you tend to stick to one genre?   i stick to a genre.  metal. when you’re going to be at home all day, do you bother to get out of your pajamas?   no.  which is like every day. do you play angry birds?   no.  i just recently saw the movie tho and it was super cute. what do you have pierced on you?   ears, nose. what’s important about april?   my little sister's birthday is there anyone who hates you?   probably if I say “psycho”, who is the first person that comes to your mind?   me dated someone more than once?   no where did you get the last shirt you were wearing?   hottopic does your mom know your deepest darkest secrets?   no. are you scared of needles?   nah, not really. do you know what an ‘amv’ is?   yeah, i make them sometimes. how many songs are on your ipod/mp3 player?   over 1,000 are there any orange clocks in your house?   no do mice freak you out?  not at all. how many formal dances did you or have you gone to in high school?   i went to two proms. is there a certain movie you always cry at when you watch it?   yeah, "the notebook" tears me up everytime. are any of your siblings married?  yeah do you like kiwi?   hell yes. ever go ghost hunting?   no when it’s time to dress up for a special occasion, are you more likely to wear a dress, a skirt, or dress pants?   dress if you eat oatmeal, do you add water or milk to it? what is your favorite flavor?   milk, bc i dislike its flavor when i add water.  my fave's apples and cinnamon. if you could only own a hair dryer, curling iron, or straightener, which one would you choose?   straightener if you’re straight, have you ever thought about kissing the same sex? if you’re gay, have you ever thought about kissing the opposite sex?   no. your last relationship, who dumped who?   he dumped me. do you believe in love at first sight? explain.   no, because even thinking it's possible to look at someone and love them is ignorant as fuck. do you keep a planner?   no, because i don't need one.  i don't do anything significant, ever. do you want kids anytime soon?   no. are you excited for next year?   not really.  new years doesn't mean anything.  what occurs in time isn't affected by one year suddenly ending and changing into another.  2017 will be just as bad as 2016, probably. do you know any german words?   i took four classes of it, i know plenty. do you say any words that are pretty specific to your area?   no have you ever smoked?   nope can you make yourself cry?  no. have you ever held a starfish?   i don't think so. would you rather live in hawaii or alaska?   alaska could you use a haircut?   totally what do you put on your scrapes or cuts?   usually, nothing.  sometimes a band-aid. do you like cheez-its or cheese nips better?   cheez-its by a long shot. have you ever held a snake?   yes.  i hope to again very soon<3 do you know anyone from canada?   yeah, jacob's ex.  nice girl. has a wild animal ever been loose in your house?   mice are you scared to look at your own organs on x-ray or ultrasound?   naw, shit's cool. have you ever met an alaskan?   only online.  my friend mikaela's alaskan. did you ever play spyro?   lmao.  i'd STILL be playing it if i had my ps2. have you ever had a near death experience?   car wreck, yeah. do you think some babies are ugly?   some definitely are. do you love stuff crusted pizza?   no, actually. do you apply lotion after you bathe?   no, but i REALLY should. has a youtube video of yours ever gotten over 10,000 views?  nah son. would you ever get a tattoo on your collar bone?   ha ha, i already do. do gangs scare you?   of course they do.  the bloods tried to break into our house once when ashley was home alone with maddie. what do you think of girls with huge boobs that don’t wear bras in public?   i don't care how big your boobs are, if your breasts are developed, wear a bra, please.  it's only to be decent. does your best friend wear makeup?   she rarely does. do you prefer to fix the problems or just end the relationship?   be a fucking adult and fix the damn problems. would you rather have donuts or donut holes?   donuts do you still watch movies on vhs?   no, mom got rid of ours have you used a ouija board and had a freaky experience with it?   no, never used one. what’s one health problem you wish you didn’t have?   get rid of my depression.  god, please. what “group” did you belong to in high school?   everyone considered me an emo.  guess i was and still am one, i'm so ridiculously emotional. what is the best thing you have done in your life?   dated jason. what is your favorite animal? list three adjectives to explain your choice.   meerkats, as they're very social, ridiculously bold, and curious. what was your nickname growing up?   twinkie if you could be anything in the world, what would you be and why?   a meerkat biologist, because i love meerkats so much and they make me happy. have you ever had feelings for 2 people at the same time?   nope. if you found someone seemingly perfect for you, but it turned out they had a child… would you still give the relationship a chance?   at my age, no. if your best friend of the opposite sex tried to kiss you, would you start kissing them back?  probably not, honestly. have you ever kissed someone who has previously kissed someone you hated?   yep do you think the next person you kiss will be a better kisser than the last person you kissed?   HA.  i HIGHLY doubt that.

[hentaihunblog-blog]

Best Anime Movies To Watch – OtakuKart

New Post has been published on https://hentaihun.com/blog/2017/12/12/best-anime-movies-to-watch-otakukart-2/

Best Anime Movies To Watch – OtakuKart

Looking for some Marvelous Anime movie? I have got you some astonishing hand-picked collection of the movie. Here is a list of  Top 10 Best Anime Movies You Must Watch.So without any further delay let’s start with our Top 10 Anime Movie List

Top 10 Best Anime Movies Of All Time

Patlabor: The Movie (1989)

Many of the films on this list are here because they’re landmark films for their directors, or that they move the art form of Japanese animation forward in meaningful ways. Patlabor is just a good-ass movie made by a bunch of talented people, including future Ghost in the Shell collaborators Mamoru Oshii and I.G Tatsunoko (the early name for the production company that would become Production I.G). Set in the distant future of 1999, Patlabor’s hardboiled sci-fi police procedural explores the connection between humanity and technology, and how we approach law enforcement in an age of automation. Also, this list would otherwise be sorely lacking in giant mech movies – this film has them in spades, and they fight a bunch. It’s pretty cool.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Studio Ghibli commissioned director Mamoru Hosoda to make Howl’s Moving Castle, but sent him packing after rejecting his initial concepts. Hosoda then turned around and directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, an abounding and inventive dramedy that’s as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, the film follows high schooler Makoto Konno as she learns that she has the power to quite literally leap through time. First, she uses these powers to get good grades, but she quickly learns that her actions have consequences. It’s a wildly imaginative slice of life and marked the emergence of an important voice in animated films.

Your Name (2016)

Since the release of his first short film Voices of a Distant Star (which he wrote, directed, and animated by himself over seven months), Makoto Shinkai has been described by multiple critics as the next Hayao Miyazaki. With his most recent film Your Name. (yes, the period is part of the title), Shinkai finally steps out steps out of the shadows of the greats and finds his own voice. To describe it as a mere body-swapping film does it a great disservice, as it finds the humor and humanity in a situation where two young high schoolers find themselves in each others shoes and desperately want to find each other. But then, Shinkai pulls the rug out from under you halfway through and Your Name. turns into a different kind of film entirely.

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

Vampire Hunter D is often credited as being one of the first anime films specifically targeted for an older audience, and its success paved the way for many of the films on this list. It’s a slow, haunting burn that follows the titular, monosyllabic vampire hunter as he aids and protects a young woman from a demonic menace. Featuring the brooding character design of none other than Final Fantasy concept artist Yoshitaka Amano, Vampire Hunter D is the dark glimpse into the maturation of anime as a genuine theatrical art form.

Ninja Scroll (1993)

If Akira and Ghost in the Shell were the opening salvos for anime’s initial resurgence in the West as more than Saturday morning fodder, Ninja Scroll was the knockout punch. Releasing in the West around the same time as Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll is a stylish, hyper-violent flurry of over-the-top battles and geysers of blood. Ex-ninja Jubei is coerced under threat of death by a Tokugawa spy to hunt down and defeat the Eight Devils of Kimon, each one with its own mystical set of powers. In an hour and a half, Jubei fights a dude whose skin can turn into stone, a naked snake lady, a guy who can melt into shadows, and a woman who plants gunpowder in people’s bodies and uses them as living time bombs.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Studio Ghibli is perhaps second only to Disney in terms of cultural relevance and worldwide recognition in animation, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is where it all started. It follows the eponymous young woman as she navigates a post-apocalyptic future where venturing outside small population centers means having to contend with giant insects and a deadly miasma. Here, you will see many of Ghibli’s themes on humanity, community, mortality, and environmentalism converge, accompanied by lush hand-drawn animation and swashbuckling action.

Perfect Blue (1997)

After working as an animator on other films, Satoshi Kon made his explosive directorial debut with Perfect Blue. It’s about a J-Pop idol who leaves behind a music career to pursue acting, and the further she dives into the role, the more reality and fiction begin to blur together. Kon’s signature style seems to spring forth fully realized from the first frame, his unique take on magical realism ensuring you never see the seams until he wants you to. Kon’s career was cut short due to pancreatic cancer, but his influence can be seen everywhere, including Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Oshii’s adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s seminal graphic novel series is simultaneously one of the most influential and enigmatic anime films ever made. There’s definitely a plot here, as a team of armored police officers leads by Major Motoko Kusanagi attempt to hunt down a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, but Ghost in the Shell is far more concerned with exploring the philosophical ramifications of its transhumanist themes than it is providing any sort of narrative payoff. It’s a strange one to watch, packing a lot of information and world-building into its brisk 82-minute runtime, but its length and structure allow for repeat viewings that are as rewarding as the first.

Spirited Away (2001)

If you want a good snapshot of Studio Ghibli’s history, first watch Nausicaa, then watch this one. Here is Miyazaki at the height of his craft, using advancements in animation technology to enhance but not overpower an Alice in a Wonderland-esque story filled to the brim with strange creatures and imaginative scenarios. It’s a coming of age story about a young girl who finds herself lost in a bathhouse for the spirits, interacting with an assortment of fantastical creatures as she attempts to rescue her parents. That Miyazaki still explores the consequences of the convergence of nature and technology shows how timeless and important these themes are.

Akira (1988)

Akira is a powerhouse of a film, every frame of animation exploding off the screen with kinetic energy and effortless style. It’s based off the first half of Otomo’s massive graphic novel series of the same name (the second half created after the film was completed, explaining the wild divergence in plotlines), following a group of delinquent teenagers in Neo-Tokyo decades after the end of World War 3. One of these boys, named Tetsuo, is abducted by a secretive government unit and experimented on, awakening his latent psychic abilities which quickly spiral out of control. What follows is a strange, gut-wrenching landmark of science-fiction, filled with rad bikes and an absurd amount of destruction.

Did you like this list.Comment your reaction after completing any one of these.Also if you want any list to be done by me feel free and lemme know, If you wanna get in touch with me on social media like Snapchat-Vibsz16 and Instagram you can follow me there ^_^

Top 10 Best Anime Antagonists And Their Quotes

A major and most part of a show’s appeal is the villain. Be they suave and sophisticated, or insane and genocidal, they’re always one of the more memorable aspects of a series. With this in mind, I have constructed a list of the Top 10 anime antagonists.

10.Future Rouge – Fairy Tail

Quote – The earth will crumble, the skies shall burn, and the flames of light shall be extinguished, for I am the Dragon King: the emperor born from the.Dragon King Festival!

9.Satou – Ajin

Quote- When I Play Games, I always play on hard mode.Because higher the difficulty….more fun it gets.

8.Neferpitou – Hunter X Hunter 2011

Quote- This person is important to someone who’s important to me.

7.Envy – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Quote-uit your pathetic blubbering, you idiot! You were trying to kill one of our most important sacrifices. Do you understand me?! You could’ve messed up the entire plan! What would we have done then?! Huh?!

6.Vicious – Cowboy Bebop

Quote- I’m the only one who can keep you alive… And I’m the only one that can kill you.

5….

CONT READING…

[upontheshelfreviews]

If you’re new to the blog or just want to revisit from the beginning, click HERE to read the review for “Tourist Trapped”.

Previously on Gravity Falls: Twelve year-old twins Dipper and Mabel Pines are spending the summer in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a little town where the strange and supernatural are almost everyday occurrences. When Dipper’s not trying to learn the identity of the Author of the enigmatic Journal that’s been aiding him in his adventures, or Mabel isn’t trying to start the perfect summer romance, they’re evading ghosts, monsters, zombies, and attracting the attention of a powerful demon who once sought to wreck their great-uncle’s mind. As of late Mabel’s formed a tentative truce with her former rival and rich bitch Pacifica Northwest after saving her from some murderous mini-golf balls, but things are complicated when it comes to her and Dipper…and they’re about to become even more so…

  C-can it be? An episode review perfectly appropriate for Halloween at last? Huzzah!! Come everyone, let us partake in the Dance of Joy!

We begin not with the Pines family but with the Northwests in their resplendent mansion overlooking Gravity Falls. Preston Northwest (Nathan Fillion) and his wife are preparing for a gala event they’re set to host the following evening. Pacifica enters wearing the wrong dress – lake foam green, not sea foam green like her mother requested. Pacifica insists that she likes wearing this dress, but her father rings a tiny bell that silences her protests.

Without warning, the plates, silverware and chairs begin to float around the room and smash themselves. Preston insinuates that this unusual occurrence is a strangely familiar one. With only several hours left to deal with this supernatural problem, the Northwests happen upon the one person who could save their party.

The next afternoon Dipper settles himself in for a nice long marathon of his favorite show “Ghost Harassers”. Too bad for him it’s preempted by Mabel, Candy and Grenda wanting to watch live coverage of the rich and famous arriving at the Northwest Mansion for their annual high-society gala. Only the uppest of the upper-crust are allowed in while the common folk must content themselves by tailgating outside the manor gates.

Dipper shares my thoughts on these kind “news stories”; that it’s pointless celebrity worship that nobody should care about, especially when it’s about the Northwests, who have caused them so much trouble in the past. He even says that he’d tell Pacifica Northwest she’s the worst to her face. Then Pacifica shows up at the door asking for his help. His response?

When Mabel overhears Pacifica telling him to name his price for his aid, she demands Dipper give in so she and her friends can attend the party. Dipper and Pacifica reluctantly agree and she drives them up to the mansion. While Candy, Grenda and Mabel fawn over the fanciness, Preston welcomes Dipper and has Pacifica go dress him in more suitable party attire.

The girls get a sneak peek at the guest list and learn a wealthy young hottie from Austria, Marius Von Hauser, will be attending. As much as they want to pursue him Candy says that chasing someone in that league would only end in disaster and they tentatively agree that he’s off-limits. That doesn’t stop Mabel and Candy from taking turns flirting with him when Grenda’s not around since her outspokenness usually scares guys away. But Grenda finds out, they fight, she tries the whole “your shoe’s untied” trick on Marius to prove a point and I’m just getting this B-plot out of the way rather than cutting back and forth to it so we can focus on the A-plot.

All paranormal activity signs point to a painting of a very manly lumberjack in a room decorated with hunting trophies by Gaston (though there’s a surprising lack of antlers in all of this decorating). Dipper’s not too concerned with dealing with the pesky poltergeist, though. When it comes to the Journal’s ghosts, you’ve got your Caspers, your Slimers, your Pinheads and your Freddys to name a few, and chances are a spirit that pops in and out of pictures and just floats furniture around is gonna be in the first category.

And then Sam Raimi takes over directing duties.

Flesh, skin and clothes appear on the skeleton and it takes the form of a disfigured lumberjack with a beard of hellfire. It declares its thirst for Northwest blood and chases the kids through the manor grounds and back. A quick look through the Journal reveals that ghosts from paintings can be trapped in a silver mirror and Dipper spies one hanging on the wall of the bedroom. But Pacifica refuses to let him fetch it since their muddy shoes would ruin her parents’ favorite carpet and get them angry.

While arguing they fall through a portrait into a secret room where discarded furniture and other things are stored away. The ghost follows them in, ripping dust cloths off old paintings and knocking over boxes of silverware in its haste to kill Pacifica. Dipper finds a silver mirror in one of the boxes and throws it in the ghost’s path before it can finish her off. The impact blasts them out the window into the garden, but the ghost is captured and Pacifica uncharacteristically shows a fair bit gratitude to Dipper for saving her life.

The Northwest family thanks Dipper, none more so than Pacifica, and her parting with Dipper is adorably awkward. He leaves to make sure the ghost is exorcised properly, wondering aloud that maybe Pacifica isn’t as bad as he thought. The ghost laughs ominously, saying Dipper’s naivete reminds him of how he once felt when he was alive, and shares his tale:

Years ago the Northwests asked the lumberjacks of Gravity Falls to build them a mansion with the promise that, upon its completion, they would throw a grand party for the entire town once a year. Many hardworking folk died to ensure the mansion was built, but after years of labor the task was done. Yet the Northwests refused to let the common people who toiled away for them to be a part of their celebration and shut the gates to them permanently. As they trudged off, only the lumberjack remained behind to rail against the Northwests; but the deforestation around the mansion’s hilltop caused a terrible mudslide which resulted in his death. With his last breath the lumberjack cursed the Northwests, vowing to return 150 years to the day should the mansion gates still be closed, and spill the blood of the family who could never keep their promises. And not only did the ghost keep his word, but the Northwests knew he would…somehow.

Dipper is furious that the Northwests used him to avoid responsibility. Preston is welcoming guests, including Gravity Falls reclusive and ancient Mayor Befufftlefumpter, when Dipper storms back in. Pacifica is happy he returned but he tells her to can it and accuses them of not breaking the curse when they knew how to do it themselves all along and making him put his life on the line. Preston gloats that there’s no way he could hold a party for the richest, most powerful people in the world and have “his kind” mingle among them. Pacifica tries to apologize that she couldn’t tell him the truth but her father rings the bell again and she instantly shuts up.

This convinces Dipper that Pacifica is as terrible as her whole line and declines the invitation to stay at the party to finish exorcising the ghost. The lumberjack tells him that if he sets him free instead, they can both take revenge on the Northwests and their kind; but Dipper refuses only because Mabel is still at the party and he doesn’t want anything to befall her. He does however give in to the ghost’s final request to take one last look at the forest. Unsurprisingly, it’s a trick to get Dipper to drop the mirror. Once broken, the lumberjack is freed and it flies back to the mansion with Dipper in hot pursuit. He brings the taxidermied animals to life and begins turning all the terrified guests into wood.

Overhearing the lumberjack proclaim the only way to reverse the spell is for a Northwest to open the gates, Dipper searches the mansion for Pacifica and finds her in the hidden room in one of the most striking visuals of the episode.

In an episode that features some of the darkest imagery so far in the series, these are a few brief seconds that have resonated heavily with fans. Here we have Pacifica, raised from birth to act like an adult shown as what she really is – a lonely, scared, sad child.

Pacifica shows Dipper the reason why she’s so down and out with her flashlight. Surrounding her are portraits of every deceitful selfish act committed by her bloodline, things long covered up that she once believed were lies, now sneering down on her.

You wanna know why this room was locked up? This is what I found in here – a painted record of every horrible thing my family’s ever done. Lying, cheating, and then there’s me. I lied to you just ‘cuz I’m too scared to talk to my stupid parents. You were right about me. I AM just another link in the world’s worst chain.

Dipper promises her that it doesn’t have to be this way and they rush back to the great hall, which has become a forest of humans (even Mabel isn’t saved). Dipper confronts the ghost but it turns on him and leaves Dipper screaming for his life as he is transformed into wood.

“The last form you will ever take.”

For the coup de grace, the ghost begins to set the mansion aflame with the intention of burning everyone inside. Pacifica distracts him by promising to open the gates but the ghost calls her bluff. As she reaches for the lever, her parents pop up from a hidden shelter demanding she think of their reputation. Pacifica hesitates, but presses forward.

Then her father brings out the bell.

The tiny ringing drives Pacifica crazy, though to Preston’s annoyance she won’t give in.

And finally she jams down on the lever.

As the plebs pour in, the satisfied spirit gratefully tells Pacifica she is not like her family, lifts his curse and moves on to the afterlife. Preston is helpless as the masses turn his soiree into a uncouth but lively shendig. Even Pacifica and Dipper get in on the fun, messing up the carpet without a care. Pacifica thanks Dipper for believing in her. As for the girls, Mabel and Candy apologize to Grenda and the three reaffirm their friendship. Marius then approaches Grenda, confesses he’s taken by her boldness and gives her his phone number. Everything is going perfectly for nearly everyone…

  …until Dipper bumps into Old Man McGucket, who’s been looking for him. He just finished fixing the laptop and wants to warn Dipper that something crazy is about to happen soon, something that could very well mean the end of the world. Dipper’s not in the mood to worry about that kind of thing, however, and he goes back to the party, leaving the inventor to fret over their swiftly impending doom.

  This episode is easily among my top ten favorites. “Northwest Mansion Mystery” did to Pacifica what “Society of the Blind Eye” did to Old Man McGucket, taking a character we didn’t think could be capable of such depth and shining a light on them, with the added bonus that “The Golf War” helped foreshadow that. I’ve made no secret in the past that I wasn’t a fan of the one-dimensional valley girl bitch stereotype that Pacifica was in Season One – a sentiment shared by fans and the creators alike – so seeing her do a complete 180 while providing a peek at just why she turned out the way she did was certainly welcome. Those scenes with the bell, while not delved into, are pretty uncomfortable to watch; that on top of Pacifica’s repeated “You wouldn’t understand!” when Dipper asks why she’s so afraid of upsetting her parents brings up some unfortunate implications.

Speaking of Dipper and Pacifica, I never really took the fans shipping them seriously until this episode. In fact…it kind of made me ship them too. Their banter is fun to listen to, there’s some good chemistry, and they end up bringing out the best in one another. Sadly this is as far as a possible romance gets between the two of them, but you need only look as far as the internet if you’re not fully satisfied (just be careful when you do).

This is actually one of the very few episodes where Mabel’s subplot doesn’t really hold my attention; when it goes back to the girls arguing over pursuing Marius I just patiently wait for the scene to end so we’ll return to Dipper and Pacifica. Kevin Michael Richardson does a menacing turn as the lumberjack ghost, though there’s not much of a difference between his voice and the one he does for Sheriff Blubs. And I don’t know what it is about Nathan Fillion and douchebags but he plays them so well. As for the rest of the episode, there’s a lot of great spooky atmosphere, from the colors and strong shadows to the ghost’s haunting, which like I said is very reminiscent of Evil Dead. Much like the episode itself it manages to be both funny and scary, and like the best Gravity Falls’ adventures, is tied together with a lot of heart. And of course, there’s that ending which hints at greater and more terrifying things to come…

  And the Internet Went:

End Credits Craziness: In the midst of the ghost’s chaos, a couple hides inside a closet. That couple is none other than… Agents Powers and Trigger in disguise! Powers reports that the bureau is detecting increasing readings from the Mystery Shack, and it’s time for them to act. Then they bicker like a married couple over where Trigger put his cell phone before Tambry stumbles upon them and makes things even more awkward.

Callbacks: Now that the Society of the Blind Eye is no longer a thing, supernatural happenings are gaining more attention as seen by the newspaper in the opening. That same giant vampire bat was featured in the Journal in the very first episode. Mabel and Pacifica are still on good terms after the events of “The Golf War”. Dipper casually rubs in the fact that Pacifica’s family lied about being the town founders as discovered in “Irrational Treasure”. McGucket has kept his word to look into his past and fix the laptop as a result of “Society of the Blind Eye”, though he keeps up the kooky old hillbilly act to throw off suspicion.

And then there’s the way Dipper is frozen into wood, as prophesized by the Shapeshifter from “Into the Bunker”…

  There’s also the matter of a book I’ve failed in my duties as a Gravity Falls aficionado to mention, a large oversight considering I own a copy signed by Alex Hirsch (yes, really.) It’s called “Dipper & Mabel’s Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun!”, and it’s a cute little book full of activities and jokes aimed mostly for kids. Why I bring this up, however, is the inclusion of hidden messages sprinkled throughout that foreshadow certain events that were brought to light in this episode: Grenda will marry rich, the mayor of Gravity Falls is not long for this world, and the end of the world will come quicker than the end of summer…

Crowning Line of Hilawesomness: In an episode so full of good ones it’s hard once again to choose, but I think I’ll go with a tie between Pacifica’s confession and what she says to Dipper once she breaks her cute-awkward thank you hug –

“…Can I pay you to pretend that never happened?”

Mabel SWatch (Sweater Watch): Mustard yellow with a cartoon moose and hot pink pine tree border on the sleeves and hem. The pink dress she wears to the party just barely counts as a sweater since she knitted it herself.

Dear Princess Celestabelleabethabelle: Our family’s past and upbringing are not what make us, it’s what we choose to do in spite of it.

Have You Seen the Agents?

“…We really should have picked a better place to hide.”

Where’s that wacky triangle at?

  Next time on Gravity Falls –

Hey, I just realized Grunkle Stan wasn’t in this episode. I wonder where he could be…

“Hey Shelf, you finish the review yet?”

(gasp) Kitty!

“Ugh, it’s me, Cynicism. I’m trying out my Halloween costume. I’m going as Optimism. What do you think?”

Wow, I didn’t even recognize you. Nice work.

“Yeah, yeah, save it for the actual holiday. Are you done yet or not?”

Just finished.

“You made any progress with the…you know…”

I wish I could say I did but –

“Oh come ON! It’s been a month since we last talked and you did NOTHING to get ready like you told us?!”

Don’t blame me, I’ve got a life outside this blog you know.

“Yeah, some life. Some life that isn’t even gonna exist with the rest of us if you make one more slip-up. But hey, what do I know? You’re the one sitting around working on your dumb little picture books while ordering everyone else to prepare for the -“

All right, all right, I’ll see what I can do for November!

“You’d better. I know we don’t have that many readers but there’s a fair few who’ve been looking forward to what you’ve had planned since last year.”

You think I don’t know that? You think this is the first time I’ve let my readers down? Listen to me you adorable little abomination, I may be stuck right now when it comes to doing movie reviews, but no matter how long it takes, I always finish what I start.

“Good. Now quit yappin’ and get crackin’.”

I will.

But you know, since I’ll most likely be too busy to go out on Halloween, I might be more motivated to finish quicker if someone were to bring me back some candy…

“…Fine. But I’m gonna throw out the junky ones so it can form into a giant child-eating monster.”

I wouldn’t have it any other way. Gravity Falls Review: “Northwest Mansion Mystery” (S02E10) If you're new to the blog or just want to revisit from the beginning, click HERE…

[hentaihunblog-blog]

Best Anime Movies To Watch – OtakuKart

New Post has been published on https://hentaihun.com/blog/2017/12/12/best-anime-movies-to-watch-otakukart/

Best Anime Movies To Watch – OtakuKart

Looking for some Marvelous Anime movie? I have got you some astonishing hand-picked collection of the movie. Here is a list of  Top 10 Best Anime Movies You Must Watch.So without any further delay let’s start with our Top 10 Anime Movie List

Top 10 Best Anime Movies Of All Time

Patlabor: The Movie (1989)

Many of the films on this list are here because they’re landmark films for their directors, or that they move the art form of Japanese animation forward in meaningful ways. Patlabor is just a good-ass movie made by a bunch of talented people, including future Ghost in the Shell collaborators Mamoru Oshii and I.G Tatsunoko (the early name for the production company that would become Production I.G). Set in the distant future of 1999, Patlabor’s hardboiled sci-fi police procedural explores the connection between humanity and technology, and how we approach law enforcement in an age of automation. Also, this list would otherwise be sorely lacking in giant mech movies – this film has them in spades, and they fight a bunch. It’s pretty cool.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Studio Ghibli commissioned director Mamoru Hosoda to make Howl’s Moving Castle, but sent him packing after rejecting his initial concepts. Hosoda then turned around and directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, an abounding and inventive dramedy that’s as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, the film follows high schooler Makoto Konno as she learns that she has the power to quite literally leap through time. First, she uses these powers to get good grades, but she quickly learns that her actions have consequences. It’s a wildly imaginative slice of life and marked the emergence of an important voice in animated films.

Your Name (2016)

Since the release of his first short film Voices of a Distant Star (which he wrote, directed, and animated by himself over seven months), Makoto Shinkai has been described by multiple critics as the next Hayao Miyazaki. With his most recent film Your Name. (yes, the period is part of the title), Shinkai finally steps out steps out of the shadows of the greats and finds his own voice. To describe it as a mere body-swapping film does it a great disservice, as it finds the humor and humanity in a situation where two young high schoolers find themselves in each others shoes and desperately want to find each other. But then, Shinkai pulls the rug out from under you halfway through and Your Name. turns into a different kind of film entirely.

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

Vampire Hunter D is often credited as being one of the first anime films specifically targeted for an older audience, and its success paved the way for many of the films on this list. It’s a slow, haunting burn that follows the titular, monosyllabic vampire hunter as he aids and protects a young woman from a demonic menace. Featuring the brooding character design of none other than Final Fantasy concept artist Yoshitaka Amano, Vampire Hunter D is the dark glimpse into the maturation of anime as a genuine theatrical art form.

Ninja Scroll (1993)

If Akira and Ghost in the Shell were the opening salvos for anime’s initial resurgence in the West as more than Saturday morning fodder, Ninja Scroll was the knockout punch. Releasing in the West around the same time as Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll is a stylish, hyper-violent flurry of over-the-top battles and geysers of blood. Ex-ninja Jubei is coerced under threat of death by a Tokugawa spy to hunt down and defeat the Eight Devils of Kimon, each one with its own mystical set of powers. In an hour and a half, Jubei fights a dude whose skin can turn into stone, a naked snake lady, a guy who can melt into shadows, and a woman who plants gunpowder in people’s bodies and uses them as living time bombs.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Studio Ghibli is perhaps second only to Disney in terms of cultural relevance and worldwide recognition in animation, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is where it all started. It follows the eponymous young woman as she navigates a post-apocalyptic future where venturing outside small population centers means having to contend with giant insects and a deadly miasma. Here, you will see many of Ghibli’s themes on humanity, community, mortality, and environmentalism converge, accompanied by lush hand-drawn animation and swashbuckling action.

Perfect Blue (1997)

After working as an animator on other films, Satoshi Kon made his explosive directorial debut with Perfect Blue. It’s about a J-Pop idol who leaves behind a music career to pursue acting, and the further she dives into the role, the more reality and fiction begin to blur together. Kon’s signature style seems to spring forth fully realized from the first frame, his unique take on magical realism ensuring you never see the seams until he wants you to. Kon’s career was cut short due to pancreatic cancer, but his influence can be seen everywhere, including Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Christopher Nolan’s Inception.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Oshii’s adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s seminal graphic novel series is simultaneously one of the most influential and enigmatic anime films ever made. There’s definitely a plot here, as a team of armored police officers leads by Major Motoko Kusanagi attempt to hunt down a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, but Ghost in the Shell is far more concerned with exploring the philosophical ramifications of its transhumanist themes than it is providing any sort of narrative payoff. It’s a strange one to watch, packing a lot of information and world-building into its brisk 82-minute runtime, but its length and structure allow for repeat viewings that are as rewarding as the first.

Spirited Away (2001)

If you want a good snapshot of Studio Ghibli’s history, first watch Nausicaa, then watch this one. Here is Miyazaki at the height of his craft, using advancements in animation technology to enhance but not overpower an Alice in a Wonderland-esque story filled to the brim with strange creatures and imaginative scenarios. It’s a coming of age story about a young girl who finds herself lost in a bathhouse for the spirits, interacting with an assortment of fantastical creatures as she attempts to rescue her parents. That Miyazaki still explores the consequences of the convergence of nature and technology shows how timeless and important these themes are.

Akira (1988)

Akira is a powerhouse of a film, every frame of animation exploding off the screen with kinetic energy and effortless style. It’s based off the first half of Otomo’s massive graphic novel series of the same name (the second half created after the film was completed, explaining the wild divergence in plotlines), following a group of delinquent teenagers in Neo-Tokyo decades after the end of World War 3. One of these boys, named Tetsuo, is abducted by a secretive government unit and experimented on, awakening his latent psychic abilities which quickly spiral out of control. What follows is a strange, gut-wrenching landmark of science-fiction, filled with rad bikes and an absurd amount of destruction.

Did you like this list.Comment your reaction after completing any one of these.Also if you want any list to be done by me feel free and lemme know, If you wanna get in touch with me on social media like Snapchat-Vibsz16 and Instagram you can follow me there ^_^

Top 10 Best Anime Antagonists And Their Quotes

A major and most part of a show’s appeal is the villain. Be they suave and sophisticated, or insane and genocidal, they’re always one of the more memorable aspects of a series. With this in mind, I have constructed a list of the Top 10 anime antagonists.

10.Future Rouge – Fairy Tail

Quote – The earth will crumble, the skies shall burn, and the flames of light shall be extinguished, for I am the Dragon King: the emperor born from the.Dragon King Festival!

9.Satou – Ajin

Quote- When I Play Games, I always play on hard mode.Because higher the difficulty….more fun it gets.

8.Neferpitou – Hunter X Hunter 2011

Quote- This person is important to someone who’s important to me.

7.Envy – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Quote-uit your pathetic blubbering, you idiot! You were trying to kill one of our most important sacrifices. Do you understand me?! You could’ve messed up the entire plan! What would we have done then?! Huh?!

6.Vicious – Cowboy Bebop

Quote- I’m the only one who can keep you alive… And I’m the only one that can kill you.

5….

CONT READING…