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vomara · 4 years

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atla sense8 au.

a couple people seemed interested so i decided to type this all up. there's a LOT, and i spent more time than i should on this, so i hope someone reads it. (3.5k words total, it’s practically a plot outline.) aspects of the sense8 lore has been modified to fit ATLA, and for people who aren’t fans of the show, i try to be clear, but if it’s still confusing, here’s a link to the wiki page that details how the sensate thing works.

it's all under the cut.

no one in the gaang knows they're a sensate, not even when the avatar awakens from his 100 year slumber.

so when exactly is their cluster "born"? (aka for non-fans, when do they suddenly gain their psychic connections to the people within their group/"cluster"?) it happens at roku's temple, during the winter solstice. roku himself "births" their cluster, and tells aang briefly about what he just did. aang understands -- because sensates were common knowledge amongst air nomads.

aang, katara, and sokka escape one way and zuko escapes another, and for the next week, they start... feeling odd. soon, roku starts to visit them and they start having sudden migraines. one day, sokka's out hunting when aang suddenly "visits" him, sees the ferret-hare sokka's about to kill, and stops sokka from killing it. somehow, instead of being stupefied by their newfound ability, sokka just chews aang out for letting his next meal get away. they discuss what aang knows about the sensate ability over the fire. one of the abilities, beyond "visiting", is "sharing", where they can share skills with each other. katara tries to take advantage of this during "the waterbending scroll".

zuko has a dream with roku and afterwards, starts getting migraines, but for the most part, he doesn't feel the connection. why? iroh knew that zuko was an unawakened sensate from a young age, and thus kept blockers (sourced from the OotWL) on hand in case zuko woke up. normally, iroh would want zuko to embrace his nature, but iroh also realizes that there's danger in being a sensate, especially in the fire nation. most information of sensates has been suppressed there over the years, and zuko could be headhunted if found out. (and... there's another reason as to why iroh gives zuko blockers, but more on that later.)

toph is also within the cluster, but nobody actually knows that for some time. aang, katara, and sokka have their suspicions that someone else is in the cluster, but they can't discern whom. this is because toph's blindness has an odd effect through her connection. while sensates would usually be able to identify each other by seeing each other's physical appearance when they "visit" through their bond, toph has no conception of her own appearance, and as such, she initially can't seem to project herself visually the way that everyone else does. since sighted people -- aang, katara, sokka -- rely heavily on physicality to identify others, this hampers them.

it doesn't help that bending is complicated by the cluster connection. toph can't use her bending to "see" aang, katara, and sokka when they visit her via psychic connection, because they aren't physically there. likewise, they don't receive any visual input, either, when they visit toph. instead, they receive this odd earth-sense feeling that's absolutely foreign and indecipherable to them. when toph visits them, she has to leave almost immediately -- her occipital lobe is severely underdeveloped and thus, she can't interpret the visual information they give her. with time, they should be able to resolve this, but not immediately after they made the connection. all of this this is a significant barrier between their communication -- they can speak, but early on, toph, understandably, begins to think that the other three don't actually exist and manages to effectively block them out. this prevents them from realizing the connection they have until s2. (more on bending later.)

the "medication" (blockers) that uncle gave zuko becomes a normal supplement he takes, in the form of tea. he thinks it's to stave off migraines. still, sometimes he goes a little too long between doses, and sees some peculiar things. when he's sleeping, his dreams get odd. one night, he dreams of escaping into a storm. he shakes it off, and when his ship gets trapped in another storm, he takes it as an omen.

aang, likewise, has a dream the night after being rescued by the blue spirit. a man looming over him, nothing more than a sillouette, fire in his hand. "... and suffering will be your teacher," he hears.

when sokka looks into yue's eyes, euphoria runs though him. he thinks it's love, but it's something more. yue is an unawakened sensate, and while it's rare for unawakened sensates to make connections with other sensates, it does happen, and in this case, she's made a connection with sokka. (for non-fans: sensates can make psychic connections with people outside their cluster by meeting each other's eyes. they must be physically in the same space when they meet eyes, though. connections made outside of the cluster cannot share skills, but they can "visit" each other.)

(yes, this means toph is immune to creating connections outside her own cluster. this is both a boon and a loss -- she can't have unique connections, but that also means that malicious sensates can't force a connection with her.)

pakku fesses up to the fact that kanna left him, and that she probably left him due to his misogynistic attitude. however, a lot more people have left the NWT in the last 100 years, that weren't all related to cultural problems. many sensates, when they were "born", suddenly had the perspectives of people who lived in other nations, and many left to join the rest of their clusters. this is something that katara discovers from yugoda.

after zuko's ship is blown up, his supply of "medication" becomes even less regular. when zuko infiltrates the NWT, his medication is wearing off, and a migraine is coming on. he pushes through it. when he and katara fight, they meet eyes, and something electric runs through both of them. they ignore this, but it happens again between aang and zuko, when zuko's medication is wearing off even more. none of them know what's happened, but aang remembers the experience later.

when yue sacrifices herself, sokka quite literally feels her apotheosis. later, he realizes that he can still feel her. katara feels the cycles of the moon because she's a waterbender, sokka feels it because he and yue are connected.

the foggy swamp shows aang toph's appearance... and things slowly start to change within their cluster. during "the blind bandit", aang recognizes toph to be his future earthbending master immediately, but so too does katara and sokka, who, in canon, did not make the immediate connection. when they chase her down, they finally manage to make toph understand that she's part of a psychic cluster, that those voices she heard before were real.

during "zuko alone"/"the chase", katara sees something she shouldn't see. there's a man standing over someone else, with his back to her, twin swords in both hands, wreathed in flame. she can't see his face but he feels familiar.

in "the chase" itself, aang also sees zuko, this time fully recognizing him, and then so too does sokka. since toph and zuko both are somewhat closed off, they can't sense each other -- but aang, katara, and sokka, who don't know this, thus incorrectly believe that toph doesn't have a connection to zuko at all. therefore, they come to the conclusion that zuko is a sensate, but that he's not a part of their cluster. they must've created accidentally met his eyes and made a connection with him back when he was chasing them. though sokka has to wonder why zuko didn't just use his connection to better track them down, like he's somewhat doing now, during "the chase".

after zuko reunites with iroh, he's shaken by the odd visions he had of the gaang while traveling. he doesn't understand that he's psychically connected to them, so they felt more like premonitions. he tells iroh a little of what he saw, and iroh nearly startles in alarm as he realizes that zuko's cluster is the avatar's group. but given the fact that zuko is reeling from both the fight with azula and iroh's injury, iroh decides to keep it to himself. when zuko asks if iroh has any more of the migraine "medication", iroh gives it to him -- only for now, he thinks.

in "bitter work", toph takes advantage of the psychic connection to teach aang earthbending. katara had done this before, a little, but not much, because aang never really needed it. for earthbending though? it's useful. toph gets aang to "visit" her, and forces him to stay. when he's visiting her, he only gets her sensory input, and thus, he's blind. he has to spend time with her and learn to decipher the information that toph's earth-sense gives her. this helps him understand his own earth-sense.

also, just for fun, before sokka gets stuck in a hole in that episode, he accidentally visits katara while she's practicing bending. he asks her what it feels like. she lets him take a ride in her body and shows him how it feels.

and that's really how bending works in conjunction with the psychic connection -- bending is partially based in body, so when a sensate briefly possesses another sensate's body, they can bend whatever element is in that body. but that's also contingent on their own spiritual connection to the element. in sokka's case, his peculiar attachment to the moon (yue) makes him not-the-worst at waterbending when in katara's body. when katara and sokka "visit" toph, the information they get from her earth-sense is not as precise as the info that aang gets, because they have less connection with the earth. so on and so forth. yes, when someone "visits" aang's body, they can bend all four elements. this particular property of possession only works well within clusters, as it's part of the skillsharing aspect which is unique to clusters.

there are other effects on bending, too. when iroh begins to teach zuko lightning direction, he first begins by teaching zuko the basics of movement in waterbending. zuko picks up the push-and-pull fluidity of the style almost immediately. why? because some of katara's and aang's expertise has trickled down to him, sometime when his connection wasn't blocked. (during the siege of the north, specifically.)

when aang loses it after appa is kidnapped, everyone in the connection can feel his anger. they can feel the avatar state, almost as they were there themselves, shrouded in anger and grief. and katara drags him down to earth once again, but sokka and toph run forwards to meet him, and together, they hold him in their presence and provide him comfort and support through their connection. somewhere else, zuko begins to cry, and he doesn't quite know why.

for most of the rest of the season, zuko takes blockers regularly, and his connection to the gaang is blocked. the exception is when he falls ill after setting appa free. an illness that deep is semi-resistant to the blockers, and odd memories weave their way into his dreams -- an air nomad laughing with him (aang), black snow falling from the sky (sokka), his mother's face superimposed over another's (katara), the feeling of badgermole snout against his cheek (toph), and the feeling of being buried alive in lava (roku, their cluster "mother" who passed some memories down to them). all of this is in a blur that mixes with the rest of his absurd and symbolic dream, and he can't quite separate them out when he awakens.

in "the guru", when aang ascends the last chakra and sees the cosmic energy around him, he can see the visage of the rest of the cluster there, glowing sillouettes akin to his avatar state. they're tethered to him, but guru pathik tells him to let go of his connections. he has to be willing to keep moving even without them, even if they died... but he can't. he's fallen in love with their connection -- katara, sokka, toph, and the odd flickering image of someone else on the horizon. and suddenly, he can feel katara in danger, viscerally so, and he has to leave.

during "the crossroads of destiny", tension comes to a head. when katara talks to zuko, she references the fact that zuko made a sensate psychic connection to her, aang, and sokka, while he was hunting them. (remember, she doesn't know he's part of the cluster, but thinks he's a sensate from another cluster that managed to connect with them through eye contact.) this confuses him, but he doesn't quite get the clarification he needs before iroh and aang come in, and both aang and katara leave. when azula traps iroh, and leaves zuko and iroh alone, iroh finally reveals to zuko the extent of what he is, including the fact that the rest of his cluster, the rest of his psychic family, is the avatar and his friends. from this, zuko also discerns that the medication wasn't actually medication, and feels angry at iroh, which in part leads to his betrayal.

"if you go down this path, i can no longer protect you, nephew," iroh says, as zuko leaves to fight azula.

the lightning strike is a terrifying moment, and it reverberates throughout the sensate bond. katara almost collapses but manages to get aang to safety. toph and sokka are struck with fear and pain. and zuko... feels a twinge in his chest, something that penetrates even through his blockers. he barely manages to hide it.

in "the awakening", aang tries to close himself off to his cluster, and he hides from them. out in the ocean, he sees yue, and roku, and suddenly he sees them in a deeper fashion, feels the sensate energy between them. katara, sokka, and toph track him to the island with their connection.

at the start of s3, zuko goes home. his usual supply of blockers is running low, since he got them from his uncle, and he's just run out. now, zuko meets his father again for the first time in years. when he looks up into ozai's eyes, all the muscles in his body are too warm, too cold. and ozai narrows his eyes, and smiles. why, he didn't know his son was a sensate, too.

they both recognize what just occured, and ozai tells him that he'll leave zuko a supply of blockers to take regularly. the crown prince has just returned home in honor. it would be horrible if they'd have to send him away once again, on another hunt.

you see, ozai first awakened when he was in his late twenties, before he married ursa. sensates are forbidden knowledge in the fire nation, but azulon suspected that there would be sensates in his family one day. but since being a sensate gives you an unfortunate connection to people that may not be fire nation, it's not something that either azulon or ozai was happy about. so ozai vowed to prove his loyalty by hunting and killing his clustermates. this is a painful and terrifying process. killing a clustermate is like a killing a part of yourself. and ozai did this several times. he even killed another fire nation woman that was part of his cluster; he surmised that her temporary connection to those of earth and water would make her traitorous, and justified it that way. now, all of ozai's clustermates are dead, but he still retains his abilities as a sensate to connect to other sensates.

zuko is... happy that his father seems to respect him, but he feels uneasy. the unease remains as azula delivers to him the blockers, like she knows exactly what he is, too. and the way that she acts as if he knows the avatar is alive, does she suspect that the avatar is part of his cluster? did she see him react to his so-called death in a way that indicated a psychic connection? he doesn't know, and he feels so very uneasy and destabilized.

during "sokka's master", sokka's more skilled at swordplay than he should be. he chalks it off to natural talent, but there was a weird, long moment where he almost selected the dual dao as his weapon of choice. later, when he's planning the invasion with the water tribe, hakoda notes that sokka's handwriting has become neater and more formalized, closer to the sharp script of the fire nation nobility. sokka thinks that it's from being in the fire nation for too long.

in "the avatar and the fire lord", aang and zuko both find out that roku and sozin were part of the same cluster. through this, aang realizes that avatars of the past have had clusters of their own, ones that they kept a secret but nevertheless had. roku and sozin are also shown to have outlived the rest of their cluster, but sozin killed roku and became the last one standing. from that act, zuko realizes the history that runs through the blood of fire royalty -- the sin of killing one's own spiritual brothers, fratricide of the highest order. it's a curse that even ozai followed through on, and it's one that zuko will eventually be damned to if he cannot rise above it -- this is what iroh tells him as zuko kneels in front of his cell.

when zuko escapes the fire nation on the day of black sun, he takes a supply of blockers with him. after all, if he doesn't block his own sensate ability, his father will be able to track him using the connection they made with each other. when he confronts the gaang in the western air temple, he doesn't get the chance to explain that he's part of their cluster, but alarm bells go off toph's head. he leaves to go back to his camp, and she follows because she NEEDS to verify this hunch. he burns her, but when she finally gets back to the gaang, she knows for sure that she recognizes that voice -- he's the odd voice she heard once back during the chase, sleep deprived. he's psychically connected to her.

the puzzle pieces fall together in the gaang's mind. zuko had already established connections with the other three, so they assumed before that their connection to him was a product of them meeting eyes with him during his initial hunt. but toph cannot make connections with people outside of her cluster, due to her blindness, so she can't possibly have a connection with zuko... unless he's a part of their cluster. it's a terrifying conclusion, and not one that everyone wants to accept. behind toph, aang is probably the one who most wants to accept zuko -- it's unnatural to reject a clustermate, that he knows from what the monks told him.

zuko takes his blockers diligently, so that his father can't find him through the connection. but, by the time he and aang meet the dragons, it's worn off, just a little. not enough that ozai can find him, but enough that he and aang can share in the rainbow fire together, their inner fires vibrating at the same beautiful intensity. this connection is one they alone share -- even when katara, sokka, or toph try to bend fire in either of their bodies, they can't capture the real spirit behind the fire.

sokka takes a few blockers with zuko before they go to the boiling rock, but the rest of the small supply that they take with them to the boiling rock is burned away with the rest of the warship. as a result, it's a race against time for them to get hakoda and get out, as their medication wears away. for sokka, he's practically waiting for the blockers to wear off, so he can SOS aang, katara, and toph, but for zuko, once the blockers wear off, his father can find him once again. in this case, it's actually a good thing that he gets outed as an impostor and imprisoned because then, at least, anybody who comes after him aren't coming after him because they tracked him through the bond.

however, when azula finds the gaang at the western air temple, it IS because ozai told her they'd be there. that's because zuko's blockers wore off before he could arrive at the temple and take another from the rest of his supply. everyone's back to being sort of safe during their stay at ember island.

when aang gets stranded on the lionturtle, the lionturtle shows him not only energybending, but the very psychic nervous system that connects him to his clustermates. it's almost like the roots of the foggy swamp tree, this great psychic energy that connects everyone and everything but is strongest between the sensates. they are all connected, but their sensate connections are an incredible and unusual manifestation of this energy.

aang takes away ozai's sensate abilities alongside his bending, so he can no longer abuse them. if energybending is a sort of "neutralization" of ozai's bending ability, the removal of his sensate ability is a sort of "severance". it severs ozai from that great psychic energy that connects everyone and everything, and in some sense, that's a fate worse than death. that's as if the world rejected you and judged you unworthy of the connections that living creatures make. aang doesn't regret doing what he did to ozai, but he opts never to do it again.

after the war, zuko finally stops taking blockers. he's free to truly connect with the rest of the gaang. toph embraces her connection as well, and one day, she manages to actually see, using sokka's eyes first, and then one by one, every one else. furthermore, the rest of the gaang finally begin to understand how she “sees”, and as a result, they all become more comfortable visiting each other.

love blossoms within the cluster, both platonic and romantic.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #aang #zuko #katara #sokka #toph #atla au #yeets this into the tags because i spent so much time on it and i want people to read it #me: oh this will be a cute set of headcanons! [3 hours later]#i have unreplied asks solely for the fact that i WILL write an essay #my brain hurts man i went crazy stupid with this #PLEASE read it. i'm begging you #this is the fruit of my labor #mine #text #headcanons #*head hurty noises*#atla headcanons and aus

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vagabondanon · 5 years

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For posterity; Grand Summoners X KLK Collaboration Limited Time Side Story

Spoilers ahead for Kill La Kill itself, the Side story in GS, and shockingly Kill La Kill: If. An overview of a story only available for a limited time.

It may be surprising to many, if not practically all fans of the show, that Kill la Kill: if was not the first video game story to star a certain pair of scissor crossed sisters (that I might care too much about and will continue to obsess over any and all content for, which led me to downloading a gacha game and grinding for days to level them and their equipment for no other reason than it was them.), and a handful of their closest compatriots/equipment options. Kill La Kill was featured in a (relatively) short crossover story in Good Smile’s mobile game “Grand Summoners”. In it you could (eventually when the event was rerun and all content was put out on the NA version) spend Gems/”alchemy stones” to “summon” Ryuko, Satsuki, and Mako as units. Senketsu, Junketsu, Guts, Mako’s two star fight club uniform, Mako’s brass knuckle, Ryuko’s scissor blade, Bakuzan, Mako’s fight club baseball bat, and the completed Rending Scissors (titled “The Snippity Snips” for some as yet unknown, but probably awful, reasons) as support “Equips” that can be carried by any unit with compatible sized/typed slots. Sukuyo Mankanshoku’s croquettes also featured as a consumable item that dropped as mission loot for minor stat buffs if consumed by your four unit squad before any mission. (Equipment refresh 2% faster, base skill refresh 2% faster).

While the stats themselves are interesting as they provide direct numerical valuation of everything listed above in terms of what they can do Offensively, Defensively, etc the story itself is the focus of this post. Because it turns out that out of everybody that knew about it nobody else cared enough to preserve it in whole. (And as I have learned from experience, if you like something save it. Before you wake up one morning and find 1/3 of it has been deleted off the face of the earth) And it could only be accessed for a limited time before it was removed, and again basically nobody seems to either know or care that it actually had more than just pixelated cameos at all. (KLK game marketing tho, for real. Twice now.)

So I present a record for the Library, Grand summoners X KLK, a “too long, I can’t read it anymore anyway, so tell me what happened”; I got you.

(”Stickers” were given for log in streaks that you can post as the only form of communication in multiplayer modes/lobbys.)

The story opens with two of the GS main characters, Rayas and his possible love interest(?, that is at times vague) Mira, out hunting a monster that purportedly had a vitality so high it was unkillable. Upon finally finding the thing the monster hunters as a group had corralled into a forest they are interrupted by a flash of white light. That drops Ryuko, Satsuki, and Mako in full combat readiness between them and the monster.

(Lower right stickers are Rayas and Mira. Our characters on this wild ride.)

Confusion ensues all around.

The monster runs off to escape, but not before Senketsu (and Satsuki somehow) could "feel” the monster was empowered by Life Fibers. Ryuko blames Satsuki and becomes suspicious of her involvement because of their presence there. (Ryuko constantly tries to pick up the fight they, per Mako, had been having before they got dragged in. What fight? No idea. Fight club Mako is there, but the post fight club Ryuko and Satsuki are not. Except Ryuko can be upgraded to full Kisaragi. How? No idea.) Satsuki refutes being responsible. She also talks down to everyone. (For reasons somewhat unknown.) In KLK fashion the conversations that follow dip into the absurd. Satsuki's text font is so large at times her lines broke the speech box (though this seems to have been fixed in the cutscenes that can be downloaded today as record provided for beating it while the event was on), before going off in search of answers/on the hunt. Ryuko insults the kinda gary-stu mc by calling him “a geezer” (He claims to only be 25 in shocked response), demands he not gawk at her by minding his own business, and ran off after Satsuki. Mako follows Ryuko to keep from being left behind.

Leaving the GS MCs to give confused ellipses laden speech not sure what just happened, and this continues throughout the story.

(Interesting line from them though, the girls officially have 0 magic in full Kamui. So life fibers confirmed as entirely nature/science/organic based/origin? If this story has any weight.)

Also apparently Satsuki is so in tune with/knowledgeable of Fibers she can sense them. Or maybe Junketsu could. It isn’t specified how Satsuki is picking up what Senketsu is without being able to hear him. The “Life Fiber resonance” as it is called guides them either way. The chase leads deep into a forest/jungle full of dense vegetation (which in the missions slows them down leading to loads of fights against mobs of fiber altered orcs, monsters, and human bandits that get stronger the further they go. All controlled by life fibers.)

Ryuko doesn't know what the word vegetation means.

Mako took a nap as they waited for the GS MCs to catch up so they could get some answers as to where they were, and what they could be facing, after Satsuki points out they are not on Earth.

Between remarks during the missions themselves and in the cutscenes the cast attempts to figure what the Fibers are doing when they link up again. They figure life fibers can't break space or time (when weak, or not an OLF, as we learn in KLK: if) so no teleporting or time travel without magic at that time. So chase is deemed possible, but “so long as a single cell of a randomly infused organism exists the whole can regenerate” leading to more grueling fights the deeper they go toward the “source”. Over the same missions Ryuko butts heads with Mira, pointing to a dislike of tsunderes, as she hates when people are not upfront with her. Cast notes that they have similar voices as they argue eventually, but over time they find common ground to drop hostilities after the discussion.

When they reach the big monster again the GS MCs offer to fight it first, they are obliged. Ryuko actually wants to fight Kaiju though to the point she is actively looking forward to fighting giant monsters. Mako from the beginning thinks “Monster Land” is a theme park as she roots everyone on (she is a support character with buffs/healing equipment). Satsuki wishes to see how “magic” works, and if its effective. During the missions leading up to and including the boss fight Ryuko is confronted on if she would do “what it takes” as things ramp up in seriousness, to which she confirms that she has no issues killing targets to win if necessary. As you go through missions which involve mowing humanoids down by the dozen.

(Did not expect that, but given her life it's reasonable to expect that no Kiryuins have truly clean hands. I don’t suspect she has actually killed anyone before. Though that might not be for lack of trying, or simply lack of caring for opponents after any particularly nasty beat downs that may or may not have been shown to us when she reached high school in flashback.)

The first main boss (of two) is a giant quadrupedal demon like monster (”Betelgeuse” model in game colored differently) with spines on its body, altered seemingly loosely based on Senketsu. They share Yellow Orange “eyes”, some shapes, majority body coloration, and it possesses red clawed feet/hands/spines. Guarded by three dire wolves. (battle oddly enough took place in a desert canyon map, not forest as the cutscenes show they should have been in. Probably just a copy paste of the boss's regular arena.)

Once it is weakened/dropped Ryuko uses Sen'i Sōshitsu, but Senketsu fails to absorb the life fibers in it. The cast notes they see strings beyond the edge of the screen (which we can’t) and corpse though, which (likely) led from it to the true final boss that appears from there shortly afterword.

The final boss was a giant green bipedal monster with a vertical mouth that splits its face, which is based on a bright red boss in the main story (Beta-3), which was artificially created by one of the in game story factions through magi-tech. So one of those surviving living war machines likely got picked by Life fibers as a host in this new world they found themselves. It was powered by “Magically enhanced Life fibers” of some sort. (The battle itself was particularly difficult because the character's “top” ability, “Arts”, are powered by a substance called “Battle Ether” that is generated while in combat by using base moves. In this battle there was a substantial decrees in Battle ether production, likely trying to mimic the monster absorbing all free energy around it. Both Bio, or magically.)

This was also another boss fight that took place in an arena that shouldn't be there as it was inside a lab like structure full of green circuit looking lines over all the surfaces. Again likely because that was the “original” boss's arena. Once it is defeated it drops to the forest floor and reverts into a pile of fibers like the OLF in the show when its core got cut, just red instead of orange.

Mira and Ryuko have a moment ribbing “Ms. President”. Rayas just wants to know what is going on. (He won’t really understand it all.)

Satsuki can somehow read/anticipate people's wills, and life fibers exhibit a will through “vibrations in their strings” (Banshi vibrate? Wut.). She reads the vibrations by stabbing her sword down into the mass and holding the hilt.

Satsuki proclaims the life fibers were made to “fix seams” and somehow activates the monster's magic-infused life-fiber corpse to repair a hole in space and time itself. The monster was figured to be what likely dragged them all there in the first place through that hole to provide fibers from their Kamui it wanted. The hole in reality is propped open until they all passed through back to their own world where it is fixed permanently. After which the GS characters proclaim them immensely brave for literally running into a hole in reality without any hesitation.

Thus ended the Side Story.

Not sure who who wrote the script so its hard to tell how much of their given words are “true to cannon”. But it was credited as involving Nakashima who was directly on hand to make the first long explanation promo video on the JP YT channel. Who honestly knows at this point. But time wise it must have been made during production of KLK: if, which leads back to some very interesting consistent points.

Per KLK if: Life Fibers can in fact fuck with space, time, and reality itself. Though this is a power Satsuki was unaware of, (consistent with GS side story) even if she was the catalyst for initiating it in IF’s case through Junketsu's link to the OLF. Junketsu being Ragyo’s original “final” Kamui this was likely a function Ragyo prepared for her life after Earth. It would explain why she was so willing to give up the planet and everyone on it instead of seeking to rule it at least, she could literally just create her own reality and be its true god. Per how KLK: if ends by dumping “existences/minds” back to true reality at different times through the flashes of white light, with only the faintest of memories in the strongest of minds involved, they also very likely explained how this GS story can both feature fight club Mako and not change official “canon”. Or at least I thought it couldn't, before If once again set down that Life Fibers are the most powerful force in existence basically making up the “fabric of reality” itself on a whim.

Is the GS story retroactively canon if IF is canon?

Did Nakashima use the GS story as a test bed for KLK:IF ideas he had in the works?

Will we see more reality hopping for even more spin off stories?

Can these two finally have a happy reality as a couple?

:Shrug:

If you want to see all almost 30 minutes of prerendered cutscenes that remains for yourself in all their limited animation, and honestly somewhat questionably translated/proofread, glory I recorded them and threw that here: https://youtu.be/s3FneXNL8eQ

(Apologies for any sounds on top of the game’s already exceptionally loud music. I have never recorded from android before, I have no idea how to mute mics in the Google games app thing, and it picked up some air con being funky near the middle for a sec.)

#kill la kill #grand summoners #kill la kill Materials archiving #Nobody played this nobody cares why write it up #Because I can #For the lore

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tenscupcake · 5 years

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Kingdom Hearts 3 - An Honest Review

I’d like to preface this review by saying I am an unabashed Kingdom Hearts geek. Like, through and through. I played KH1 when I was just a tween, and have picked up a copy every installment since (in some cases, even bought the entire console just to play that one game). I still have CDs of the game soundtracks, a few discs which have nearly burnt out on replay in my car. Sanctuary After the Battle will forever make me cry, whether or not I’m watching the cutscene that goes along with it. I’ve replayed most of the titles multiple times. Wasted away hours on YouTube watching Story So Far recaps and funny commentaries about the games in preparation for KH3. Like millions of other enthusiasts, I have been eagerly and patiently (all right, sometimes not so patiently) awaiting the arrival of KH3 since the moment I first finished KH2 – 13 very, very long years ago.

At around eight o’clock on premiere night, I took my place in line at my local GameStop wearing my Kingdom Hearts t-shirt and pajama pants, brandishing the miniature Kingdom Key clipped to my lanyard. Finally holding that blue case in my hands was absolutely surreal. One of those natural highs it took me hours to come down from. Tears welled up in my eyes at the first few somber piano keys as the title screen faded into view.

Lots of people asked me, in the weeks and even months leading up to the release (because believe me, at any opportunity, I would not shut up about how excited I was about this game), if I thought it would live up to the hype. Pfft, I thought. People outside the KH fandom never understand. Of course it will. Sure, the series has had its weak links, its hiccups (the battle system in COM and the perpetual re-releases of old games with minor tweaks, to name a couple). But with the compelling cinematic storytelling and uniquely delightful gameplay of the main series’ smash hits - KH1, KH2, and BBS – in their repertoire, I knew the team at Square was capable of pulling this off. To me, it was just a given that it would be epic. That playing it would be worth all the years of waiting. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind this game was going to be lit. As. Hell.

I’m only saying all this so as not to give the impression I went into this game looking to find flaws, to nitpick it. Or with the expectation of being disappointed. In fact, quite the opposite.

I wanted to love this game. To me, loving KH games is one of very few constants in my life. I was supposed to love this game. I needed to love this game.

But the truth is, I didn’t.

That statement has been pretty difficult for me to come to terms with.

In what few early reviews and videos I’ve found of people discussing their thoughts on the game, I’ve found fans to be quite split: with some unreservedly loving, others downright hating the game.

I fall somewhere in the middle of the polarized fandom. I did NOT hate the game. It was actually a good, if not great game. But putting it on a sliding scale of satisfaction and disappointment, I would say it’s tipping toward the latter. And as it’s taken me hours of mulling, reading, and discussing with other players to characterize and articulate precisely why, and because I think I owe it not only to the series and the characters therein, but also my younger self to leave no stone unturned, this review is going to be a long one.

I’m finding it easiest to break it down by category:

Graphics.

This game is beautiful. It was sort of a dream come true to meander around in real time with the gorgeously, smoothly animated versions of Sora and the gang that we’d previously only been able to see in the rare cinematic cutscenes at each game’s beginning and end. Most of the Disney and even Pixar worlds and characters are rendered to nearly the same quality as their film counterparts. I often found myself just standing in place for a while, admiring it all. The vivid green landscapes of Corona, the beaches and sprawling sea in the Caribbean, the towering cityscape of San Fransokyo. And walking on water where the sky meets the sea? Stunning.

Gameplay.

All in all, this game is pretty damn fun to play. It was all I thought about during long days at work: I couldn’t wait to jump back into the action. Pounding on Heartless still brings me back to the good old days. And who doesn’t want to run up the side of buildings as Riku and Roxas demonstrated so epically, so long ago, in the World That Never Was? Soar to sky-high Heartless as easily as you can lock onto them? These new movement aspects brought an almost superhero-esque quality to the game, reminiscent of Spider-man’s wall-crawling or Batman’s grappling hook, that, if a bit unrealistic, I found to be immense fun. And compared to previous games, worlds are no longer cordoned off into many separate areas, and with the sheer scale of them, KH3 experiments with a quasi-open-world style that is rather freeing.

I also really appreciate that the character interactions with your party and with NPCs felt much less clunky. For one thing, they FINALLY did away with the press X-to-progress text-only conversations that were so prevalent in previous games, with all the dialogue left to voice actors. Even minor NPCs that only show up one time were given a voice, making every interaction that much more immersive. Transitions from cutscenes to the action were also much more fluid, and Sora and his current teammates talk to one another as you pow around. Even if it’s just a warning from Goofy you’re going the wrong way, or a heads-up from Donald there’s an ingredient or lucky emblem nearby, it was still a new feature I was glad to have.

Combat-wise, this game has a lot going for it. This installment brings nearly all the combat styles we’ve seen up until this point: magic, combos, form changes, flowmotion, shotlock, companion team-ups, and links. And it even introduces a few new ones on top of all this: the ability to swap between three different keyblades at will, and the new Disney parks-inspired attraction commands, where you can summon roller coasters, tea cups, and spinning carousels to your heart’s content. What this enables is for the player to never get bored during a battle. With so many options to choose from in each new enemy encounter, you never have to stick with the same combat style or get stuck in a rut of just mashing X to hack and slash everything. All things considered, Sora’s got some pretty sick moves this time around. Whipping out Thundaza, watching lightning explode across the screen and zap all the enemies in sight with it? Wicked. Floating above the ground, wreaking ethereal, glowing havoc with the Mirage Staff? Awesome. Surrounded by a sea of Heartless, locking onto 32 different targets at once and unleashing a flurry of lasers to slash through them all? Amazing. Thumbs getting fatigued fighting the third maddening iteration of Xehanort? Give yourself a break from the chaos in a giant, technicolor pirate ship, watching it thwack your adversary on every rock back and forth.

On one hand, the hefty damage most of these combat options deal gives the game an almost Ratchet and Clank-esque ‘blowing shit up’ vibe, which is undeniably fun. But, this array of choices does become a double-edged sword. With grand magic, attraction commands, form changes, and team attacks all fighting for space atop the command deck, they tend to pile up quickly. It’s not at all uncommon to rack up three or four different situation commands after only about 30 seconds of fighting. Sometimes, the constant need to make a choice, especially in a busy battle, can be more of a burden than a blessing. Having to shift between situation command selections on top of attacking, blocking, and accessing your shortcuts can be a bit cumbersome.

Unlike in previous games, there also aren’t many consequences for over-using special attacks. In KH2, your drive gauge ran out and needed to be slowly refilled. You also ran the increasingly high risk of morphing into the near-helpless Anti-Sora by relying too much on drive forms. But here, no matter how many times you’ve used a special attack, your MP will reload in a few seconds, and you can easily just ignore the situation command for Rage Form when it pops up. In BBS, it felt like it took a good while to power up to a form change, whereas in KH3 it seems like you can spend just as much time in a powered-up keyblade form change as in regular combat.

And, because so many of these situation commands are so powerful and frequent, they tend to dominate the entire battle, making the combat in the game much easier than previous games. Bordering on too easy. Where in other entries in the main series, I usually had to die several times on each boss in Proud mode before I devised the right strategy to defeat them, I rarely died at all in this game. On the surface, that isn’t such a bad thing. As I like to say a lot of the time, when I play a game “I’m here for a good time, not a hard time.” But there comes a point when the combat is so easy that it no longer gives you that sense of accomplishment when you progress past a tough batch of heartless or a particularly merciless boss – you know, that punching the air, whooping to yourself sort of pride. I was definitely missing that, at times.

Believe it or not, I think the Disney attraction commands, though powerful, and at first hilarious, were a bit too extra. After only a few hours in they just became annoying, and I was doing my best to ignore them when they popped up, even wishing I could turn them off. Now and then, I’d accidentally trigger the Blaster or the raft ride and just roll my eyes while canceling back out of it. Because it doesn’t really feel like you’re doing any fighting, let alone the real-time keyblade-style fighting uniquely special to this series. And forget trying to effectively aim while you’re in one. After a while the only thing I found them useful for was, as I mentioned earlier, taking a break from a fight when you’re fatigued, as they give your thumbs a break and cause you to take much less damage. While they were cool at first, my final impression of this addition to the combat was all flash, no substance.

I was one of the few who actually liked and took advantage of flowmotion in DDD, and was excited to see it brought back here. But this, too, turned out to be mostly another annoyance. I’m not sure if it’s because the actionable objects are so much more spread out in KH3, or because they actually built in restrictions on combos here, but I was unable to keep a flow going at all. After only one successful strike after leaping off a wall or pole, the blue glow of momentum vanished. It didn’t feel like “flowmotion” at all, just a one-and-done special attack that tended to kill any rhythm I had going moreso than facilitate it. So while conceptually and visually it was promising, I unfortunately no longer found it very useful.

Also, and I realize this is completely subjective, but I found the form changes to be stylistically underwhelming overall. I thought the drive forms in KH2 (especially Master and Final) were visually and stylistically cooler, and seemed to have more finesse.

Worlds.

When I was whisked away from San Fransokyo and landed in the final world of the game, I found myself disappointed by the number of worlds I’d been to, expecting there to be a handful more. Though, when I counted the worlds up, the tally was at nine. So I asked myself why it felt like so little, when nine didn’t seem like a small number. But, tallying up the worlds in previous games, KH1 had 13, KH2 had 15, and BBS had 10. Which does put KH3 on the low end of world count. Also, in all three of these previous games (especially KH2 and BBS), you had to return to these worlds more than once, usually unlocking new content and/or areas each time, leading it to feel like there were more worlds than there actually were. Though KH3 has a comparable length of gameplay to complete the story, it definitely does feel like it comes up short in terms of variety of worlds you get to visit. As a result, some of the worlds where you spend 3 or 4 hours at a time can start to feel like they’re dragging on a little bit. And on the flipside of that, there are certain worlds that you technically do visit in KH3 I did not include in the world count, because you are there for such a fleeting amount of time, or in such a tiny portion of the world – e.g. Land of Departure, the Realm of Darkness. Worlds that would have been awesome to get to actually explore! And perhaps the biggest letdown of all, though you get to visit Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden via cutscenes, there is no play time in either. Serious bummer.

As far as the worlds they did choose to include, the selection admittedly left me ambivalent. I was really glad to see Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Big Hero 6 included, but wasn’t over the moon about any of the others. I was really counting on having a Wreck-It-Ralph world (I mean, how perfect would that be?), and would love to have seen them tackle Zootopia, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons, or the Incredibles. I’d even settle for a return to Halloween Town (shameless NBC fangirl, what can I say). The Emperor’s New Groove could have been pretty damn funny. Even A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo could have offered some unique gameplay opportunities. Certainly better content to work with than Frozen, at any rate.

As far as the plot/experience within the worlds, I also found it to be a mixed bag. I did enjoy all of them, even ones I did not expect to enjoy too much (i.e. Frozen and Pirates). Honestly, though, I found myself a bit bored in worlds where they followed the plot of the films too closely, to the point that it felt like an abridged re-hash of the movies. I know they’ve taken this approach before with earlier Kingdom Hearts games, and I may sound like a hypocrite for only critiquing it now. But I think even in stories where they did do this earlier, like Tarzan or Aladdin, they executed the re-tellings more successfully. The plotline was altered just enough to ensure Sora was a part of the action through and through. After playing those games, Sora was indelibly inserted into those films in my head. To where the next time I watched them, I was jokingly asking myself “Where’s Sora?” But that was not the feeling I got here. In worlds like Corona or the Caribbean, Sora was just sort of jammed into the plot where he didn’t really fit. In many of the longer cutscenes, I actually forgot Sora was even there – even forgot I was playing Kingdom Hearts. Sora didn’t really feel needed. I definitely found it more enjoyable to be part of a new adventure with the characters – like what was done with Toy Story and Big Hero 6, where Sora was able to play more of an active role in progressing the subplot. It was nice to feel like I mattered!

Extras.

These were hit-or-miss for me. I actually screeched with excitement when Sora and the gang ran into Remy, and enjoyed the scavenger hunt for ingredients. And while cooking with little chef was a treat I wouldn’t want to see cut from the game, I found most of the cooking mini-games to be simultaneously too short (less than 10 seconds each!) and needlessly hard to master (especially cracking that egg).

Admittedly a Disney and Disneyland fanatic, I also got a kick out of the lucky emblems (aka hidden mickeys). I thought they were one of the most fun collectibles we’ve seen to date in the franchise.

Which brings me to one of the more controversial extras in the game: the gummiphone! While a lot of people are ragging on the inclusion of this dynamic, I enjoyed it. The Instagram loading screens were a little jarring at first, but they really grew on me. And being able to point the camera at Goofy, Sully, or Hiro and watch them pose for a picture in real-time was nothing short of adorable.

Another thing that surprised me? The game’s occasional self-awareness. I almost included a separate category for this, because I’ve never seen another game do this, and did not see it coming! But the “KINGDOM HEARTS II.9” title screen gave me a good chuckle. It doesn’t make up for all the 1.5, 2.8, 0.2 nonsense we’ve had to put up with, but it’s at least nice to see they can poke fun at their own ridiculousness. And when Sora laments how long it’s been since he’s seen the folks in Twilight Town; then Hayner, confused and even a little creeped out, says “It hasn’t been that long”. Simply acknowledging the vast disconnect between the short time that’s passed in-universe since KH2 and how egregiously long the fans had to wait – well, it had me in stitches. It was morbid laughter, sure, but refreshing nonetheless.

Um, the folk dancing in the square in Corona? Literal funniest thing ever.

One thing that I really missed? Closing keyholes. Finishing worlds wasn’t the same without them.

At this point in the review, I’ve covered basically every aspect I can think of save for one: the story. I’ve purposely saved it for last, because it’s the most important aspect of the series to me, the one that can make or break a Kingdom Hearts game.

From the categories I’ve judged thus far – content, visuals, gameplay, extras – I’d probably give this game a solid 8 or 9/10. I had some issues with the overly cluttered combat, the difficulty level, and the slight disappointment with which worlds were included and the ways they chose to play out the subplots in each. But in the grand scheme of things, all these complaints are minor, and don’t detract from the fact that it’s just plain fun, in a new league with some of the most entertaining and most beautiful titles out there.

But that’s exactly it. Beautiful graphics are the new bare minimum for this generation of console gaming. If a game released for the PS4 or Switch isn’t visually outstanding, it runs a real risk of faltering behind the competition. There is no shortage of beautiful games on the market in 2019.

And if I want a fun game, I can pop back into Mario Odyssey or get a group together to duke it out in Super Smash Ultimate. I can easily download a dozen fun platformers on Steam for less than 50 bucks.

Yes, KH3 is really beautiful, and really fun.

But that’s not why I was so excited to play it.

A legion of kids and teenagers stuck with this series well into their twenties and thirties, never giving up on the release of the next installment. Trudged through handheld games and blocky graphics and clunky battle systems and convoluted plot lines. Why? Well, of course I can’t speak for all KH fans, but for me, and all the ones I know personally, it’s because of the story. It’s always been what, in my mind, sets KH apart from any other video game I’ve ever played. It’s the only game series that’s ever made me cry. The only one I’ve ever owned merchandise for. The only one I’ve ever been so invested in that I can discuss it with friends, even acquaintances, for hours on end. The only one that’s made me care so much about the characters that they feel like my friends. With how much time has passed since I started, maybe even my kids. No pun intended, the series has heart. It contains the same sort of magic that going to Disneyland as a child did. Or, it used to.

Kingdom Hearts 3 didn’t need to just be a great game. It needed to be a Kingdom Hearts game. One that built a wove a compelling story filled with intrigue and emotion from the first hour. One that did justice to all the characters (and by now, there are a lot of them) that we’ve grown to love over the last 17 years. One where a prepubescent kid can yell a speech up at a threatening villain that makes you believe, harder than you’ve ever believed, in the power of friendship. One that instills a childlike optimism that no matter how dark the world gets, as long as someone keeps fighting, good can still triumph over evil. One that tugs on the heartstrings in just the right ways, at just the right moments, to manage to make you cry – repeatedly – over a gang of outspoken, angsty kids with clown feet.

The thing about the story in KH3 is: it’s not inherently a bad story. Sure, it’s a mess, it doesn’t make much sense, it leaves you with more questions than answers, it’s incredibly cheesy, and it retcons a good deal of lore from previous installments. But many of these things could be said of other Kingdom Hearts games. The fact that these descriptors apply to KH3 isn’t what disqualifies it as a worthy entry in the series, in my mind.

For the most part, it’s not the story itself I found disappointing. After all, think about how a summary sounds on paper: reunions with long lost characters, long-awaited battles, conclusions of lengthy character and story arcs.

The biggest problem wasn’t so much the concept of the story, but rather the execution.

First of all, the pacing. The pacing was terrible. Almost nothing happens the first 20-25 hours of the game. I can think of maybe two scenes that got me on the edge of my seat, gripping my controller in the hopes it would advance the plot further: the scene with Mickey and Riku in the realm of darkness where you get to play as Riku for a few minutes (sadly the only time in the game that you do), and running into Vanitas in Monstropolis. Nothing. Else. Happened. Sure you run into Larxene in Arendelle, and goof around chasing Luxord in the Caribbean, but none of this is actually relevant to the plot we care about. Certainly not the plot the story is telling us to care about from the beginning.

And that leads me to the second issue – how vague your objective actually is. The ultimate objective of the game seems clear enough: rescue Aqua from the realm of darkness, maybe worry about the other two Wayfinder trio once we’ve found her, and defeat Xehanort. But this is not Sora’s given objective. Rather, it’s to find the ‘power of waking.’ Which is not explained, either to Sora or the player. Sora, on the other hand, appoints himself to another mission entirely: contemplating the unfairness of Roxas’ disappearance, he seems to mainly be focused on finding him and restoring him to a physical existence. However, this mission is starkly at odds with the canonical explanation of Nobodies in general and Roxas, specifically. The last time we saw Roxas (chronologically speaking) he reunited with Sora, and as far as we know, he’s still part of Sora. So, the mission to “find” Roxas as if he exists as an entity in the real world is perplexing. Second, lacking hearts, Nobodies can’t exist as a whole on their own. So even assuming we can “find” him in Sora, how far we going to bring him back without splintering Sora into a Heartless and a Nobody again? Even according to the series’ own complex lore, it doesn’t make sense. Therefore, the first half or more of the game seems aimless, not really knowing what we’re meant to be doing, or how. It’s hard to be invested in a story with no clear objective. Not something we can easily get on board with like “Find Riku and Kairi” or “Track down the Organization.” Just “Go find the power of waking.” Okay.

And while a lot (and I mean a lot) happens in the last 4-5 hours of the story to tie up loose ends, it’s crammed together in such a jumbled rush that it’s almost impossible to appreciate any of it.

After collecting Aqua and Ventus, long lost characters reappear on screen one right after another assembly-line style, to the point that none of them feels special or poignant anymore.

Not only that, but the characters who are brought back, many of them beloved protagonists from earlier installments in the series, are not given any time to shine.

It was promising when they let Aqua fight Vanitas in the newly restored Land of Departure. Ven is her friend, her responsibility; it was her fight. But with this taste of getting back a playable character from the franchise, I expected that as the plot progressed, it would open up plenty more chances for past protagonists to take the stage. That we’d be able to step back into the oversized shoes of other playable characters we’d missed. That when (or if) others returned in all their glory, they’d get to strut their stuff.

But that is precisely the opposite of what happened.

I mean, Ventus didn’t get to steal the spotlight for the final clash with Vanitas? By definition, his natural foil?

Terra didn’t get to exact his revenge in an epic showdown with Xehanort, the guy who stole his body and enslaved him for more than a decade?

Roxas and Axel, reunited, couldn’t team up to pound on the Organization members that tormented them? Instead, after his surprise entrance, Roxas got hardly any screen presence at all, and Axel’s epic new flaming keyblade got destroyed, making him sit out most of the fighting after all the build up that he was training to fight?

Oh, and you know who else was utterly useless through the final battles, demoted once again to a damsel in distress despite years of hype that she’d wield a keyblade in this installment, and multiple cutscenes indicating she, too, was training to actually fight? Yup. I don’t even need to say the name.

And to only get one small boss fight as Riku, when in the previous installment he had half the screen time?

The heroes we’ve missed for so long and longed to return to the screen are not resurrected with the dignity and respect they deserve. They are relegated to side characters, who are either completely sidelined for the final battles, or else just hacking away mindlessly in the background as you marathon one ridiculously easy “boss” after another Olympus Coliseum-style.

Speaking of resurrecting characters: the manner in which they brought some of them back was so nebulous it was impossible to understand, let alone experience any sort of emotional reaction.

For one: Roxas. For starters, it’s pretty lazy writing to have Sora be the one pursuing his return (however that was supposed to happen), only to have that pursuit peter out completely, and for Roxas to just appear at the final battle with no resolution or explanation of how. (Nor the satisfaction of fleshing out how Sora achieved it.) But more importantly, where did he come from? There was no scene in which he emerged from Sora’s being. So, where was he? Also, I get that they must have used the replica Demyx/Ansem brought Ienzo as a vessel for him, but how does he have his own heart now? There was no evidence to indicate Sora or Ven lost theirs again. This is a pretty glaring plot hole.

Second? Naminé. This one really came out of left field. No one had even spoken about Naminé the entire game, save one throwaway line. Then all of a sudden, near the very end of the game, everyone cares about bringing her back, too? Even Sora, despite his hours-long obsession with bringing back Roxas without a word about Naminé, sees a newly empty vessel and asks “Oh, is that for Naminé?” All I could do at this point was laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Even more confusing? Xion. She was a replica, with no heart, no personality... a walking vial for Sora’s memories. How on Earth did she get brought back? What was there to bring back? And what was the point? Xion always felt far more like a plot device than an actual character.

At this point, so little made sense and so many characters had appeared in a row with no regard for continuity or maintaining canon that my heart was really starting to sink. It all felt like it was meant to be fan service. Bring back everyone’s favorite characters: they’ll love that, right? But the issue is they did it no matter what rules they had to break, or canon they had to ignore. Sure, I wanted a lot of these characters back, I think a lot of people did. But not at the expense of good writing.

Even if one completely excuses the hole-filled poor writing that got us there, it didn’t even feel real that we had these awesome characters back. Because they just sort of existed, as high-def cool anime hair and porcelain skin and not much else. Not only did they not get to show us what they’re made of in epic fight sequences, but there was no meaningful dialogue from any of them. Where was Terra giving his friends any sort of recollection of his time as Ansem’s guardian? Riku and Roxas making amends? Aqua thanking Sora for keeping Ven safe? A brofest about protecting their friends between Riku and Terra? Axel saying anything at all meaningful to his best friend when he finally saw him again? For all the reunions we got, it was shocking how little substance there actually was in any of them.

It was an insanely rushed ending, with stunted, shallow dialogue, and awkward tears that felt forced rather than genuine.

KH3 is to KH1&2 what Moffat Who is to RTD Who. A lot more flash, a lot less substance, and hollowed out characters that no longer provoke deep emotion.

Characters’ emotions were not handled well in this game. Like when Sora, notorious for being a persistent optimist, dissolves to hysterics and claims he’s “nothing” without his friends. But we never get to see this sharp departure from his M.O. (because he has lost his friends over and over throughout the series without reacting this way) really wrestled with. It’s just swept under the rug after a single line from Riku. It’s okay for characters to hit rock bottom: in fact, it’s good for them. But such episodes have to be properly fleshed out, or they won’t have an impact.

Also, just my two cents? Making your characters cry is not a shortcut to get your audience to cry. It’s a lazy way of demonstrating feeling. In the writing world, there’s something called “show, don’t tell.” Making characters cry left and right with hardly any time devoted to the proper dialogue and action is the equivalent of telling, rather than showing. This series is unique to me precisely because it’s the only video game to make me cry (repeatedly). But I didn’t shed a tear in this game. And I think that is so telling. I always think of this behind the scenes video I watched for Doctor Who, in which they filmed different versions of a (very) emotional scene. In one of these versions, the Doctor properly breaks down and cries. David (the actor) upon seeing this version played back to him, said: “I worry if you see him breaking down, it stops you breaking down, as well.” He was onto something there. They didn’t end up using that take in the episode, and I think everyone would agree it was the right call. I’m not saying crying is inherently bad and always to be avoided. In fact, the opposite: it can be very powerful if used sparingly, and at the right moments with the right build-up. But overusing it, with no apparent regard for characterization nuances, basically making it your only method for tell your audience a character is emotional? It’s a little insulting. You also need good dialogue, good acting (or in this case, good animation and voice acting), and proper timing if you want to strike a chord with anyone.

Which, speaking of, I thought both the dialogue and the voice acting in the game as a whole left something to be desired (and seemed almost painfully slow?), and I think a big reason why emotional moments tended to ring hollow.

Onto another aspect of the story: how it ties in to earlier installments in the series. There was a fair amount of speculation going into this game whether or not smaller, handheld-console based installments and extra nuggets from mobile games and re-releases would be relevant in KH3. But regardless of which side of the argument fans fell on, the fact remains that many fans had only played KH1 and KH2, possibly BBS, prior to playing KH3. Many people don’t have the money or the interest in playing on multiple handheld consoles (me being one of them, though I toughed it out in this case) or cell phones, nor the tireless dedication and yes, more money, to purchase games a second time for Final Mix versions and secret endings. This is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean they are bad fans, or less deserving of playing or enjoying KH3. Someone should not have to be a zealous super-fan to be able to enjoy a video game, or any form of entertainment. If you show up to Avengers: Endgame without having seen some of the previous major installments in the film franchise, you are probably going to be confused. I don’t recommend doing that. But is it necessary to have re-watched them all 20 times, speculated for hours on blogs and message boards, and read decades worth of Avengers comics to be able to understand it? Of course not. Though some insufferable comic book elitists insist they’re better than everyone else because they know more about the Marvel universe, the fact is you don’t have to be a Marvel super-fan to enjoy the films. That’s how it should be. Because it’s okay to be a casual fan of something. Content creators normally recognize this, and respect all of their audience. But here, there was critical information from pretty much every spinoff handheld game that you needed in order to have any idea what was going on. There wasn’t even any recap system like in KH2 (the static memories) to get you up to speed on what had happened in the series up until this point. Not to mention the location of the final boss fight, as well as the very last cutscenes centered around a mobile game/movie that I had never even heard of until I was in the middle of playing KH3. Now I am something of a KH geek as I said, so I’ve sat through Union Cross now and done my best to understand some of the more obscure lore. But, call me crazy, I don’t think it’s fair to expect every single person who plays the game to do that in order to understand it. Games are supposed to be fun, not homework.

Which brings me to my last point: this game was supposed to be the end of the saga as we know it. Whether it’s the end of the series or simply the end of this story arc and subsequent games will follow a villain besides the many iterations of Xehanort is yet to be seen (as of me writing this), but it was established this game would be the end to the main trilogy so far. And, to have that end be the main character swanning off on his own (as some have speculated, possibly to his death)? With everyone else from the series partying on the beach like someone important isn’t missing? As someone who came into this game expecting closure, I felt completely blindsided by this ending. After all he’s been through and all the sacrifices he’s made, Sora deserves better.

Kingdom Hearts 3 was visually and mechanically a blast, and credit should go to the developers, artists, and designers where credit is due. But as a fan who plays this series not for graphics or flashy gameplay, but to immerse myself in the story, I’m left feeling cheated. The way the plot unfolded and the way the characters were handled did a disservice to both long-time fans of the saga and to the characters themselves.

I always have a hard time with this, but if I had to put a number to it? I’d say maybe 6/10.

It hurt just to type that.

I’m not giving up hope in the franchise. If there’s ever a KH4 (which still seems unclear right now), I’ll probably still play it. I’m trying to give the creators the benefit of the doubt: they were under a lot of pressure to create a great game, and had too much time in development on their hands and too many sprawling ideas and tried to do too much at once. I’m all for second chances. But if they want the trust of fans like me back, they’re going to have to earn it.

Over the last couple months as I’ve put together this review, I’ve found myself in doubt. Even, dare I say it, like a bad fan, though in principle I vehemently reject the notion someone is a bad fan for disliking an installment of any franchise they love. Am I just too old for Kingdom Hearts now? I wondered. Was I romanticizing the series the whole time, and it’s not as good as I’ve built it up to be in my head? After all my time spent waiting, am I being too critical? I tortured myself over it. So, a couple of weeks after finishing KH3, I popped in the 1.5/2.5 HD compilation into the PS4 and restarted KH2. I had to see if it even came close to the hype I’d built in my head in the 8 or 9 years since I played it last. Almost 60 hours of gameplay later, I can say with confidence that I had not romanticized it at all. This game is amazing. I didn’t mind watching 30 minutes of cutscenes at a time because everything is so compelling. So the graphics are dated, but who cares? The combat is FUN without ever being cumbersome. It’s just the right level of difficulty that there are still some battles and bosses that require multiple attempts and the journey continuously instills a sense of pride and accomplishment. It has so much heart. I still teared up in the same places I used to as a teenager.

KH2 is still a perfect 10/10, and playing it again with fresh eyes only made me realize just how disappointing KH3 actually was.

There’s an old adage that it’s the things we love most that hurt us the most. I wouldn’t feel so let down, or compelled to write 6800 words why, if I didn’t love this series with all my heart. I’ve seen a lot of fans insulting and belittling anyone who dares to criticize the game online, and frankly I’m baffled by that. I critique and discuss all forms of entertainment I enjoy: and that includes both the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and flaws. And I guess I tend to associate with people who do the same. It doesn’t make us bad fans, but passionate ones. I’m not sending hate mail to Square telling them the game unequivocally sucks. I don’t have any ill will towards them or think they’re irredeemable writers or developers. I’m simply recording and posting my honest thoughts to help myself process how I’m feeling, and perhaps others if they choose to read them.

I’m genuinely happy for the fans who loved the game and felt it worth the wait – I don’t want to pick any fights with them (so please don’t pick any fights with me, either). I’m sadly - believe me, no one is sadder than me to admit this - just not one of them.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh meta #kh3 #kh #idk if any of my followers play but #there aren't many places i can post such a long review #so my old blog seemed an appropriate place #written by yours truly

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syncogon · 6 years

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[QZGS Prequel TL] Ch 4: That Year, The Flowers Blossomed

info post and links for the QZGS prequel, 巅峰荣耀

characters: Sun Zheping, Zhang Jiale

releasing this in light of the recently translated chapters (948-950). if you like this, please reblog so more people can see it! and as always, let me know any and all thoughts!

Translated by: Syncogon

Glory!

The word flashed across the screen, a sight intimately familiar to every Glory player. But in this situation, that word signified far more than a mere PK victory in the Arena.

This was an ultimate victory, the birth of a championship.

Glory Professional Alliance Season 1, champions: Team Excellent Era!

Amidst the cheers and applause, Team Excellent Era gathered together onstage to accept their award. But they were missing one person, the one player who was most important to their victory.

Ye Qiu, One Autumn Leaf…

Even for this most important victory, he still behaved liked he did for every match during the season – a quiet appearance, a quiet departure.

Who was Ye Qiu?

This was the hot topic throughout the entire season, but in the end, there still was no answer. Even during the post-match press conference, when asked this question, the Excellent Era members were as tight-lipped as ever.

“He’s purposely acting mysterious to build hype,” someone said, watching the televised press conference. This sort of sentiment wasn’t uncommon.

“Whether or not he’s purposely building hype, he’s still strong, very strong,” another person replied.

“But Big Sun, you refuse to participate. Otherwise, would he still be so popular?” the first speaker continued. “Say, why did you refuse the invitation to join a professional Glory team? If you did, the one standing on that stage would definitely be you.”

“Idiot, it’s not that simple,” replied the one called Big Sun.

“Big Sun, I just think you’re stronger than that guy!” But after that person finished speaking, he suddenly felt that that statement was too bold, and hastened to add, “At least, you’re definitely not any worse than him. Why couldn’t you be the one winning that championship?”

“Because this isn’t just about one person!” said Big Sun.

“Then what else is there?” asked the first person.

“There need to be helpers! You guys, you can’t even see the importance of that Qi Master in their team!” said Big Sun.

“The Qi Master? You mean Qi Breaker? Wu Xuefeng? You’ve gotta be kidding, you think he’s an expert?” that person said disdainfully.

“What the hell do you understand?” Big Sun scolded.

“Okay, okay, the finals are over, prepare to log on!” From the side, another voice came.

This was an ordinary internet café in City K, a frequent hangout for this group of Glory-loving youths. They often came and played until the deep hours of the night.

A frivolous hobby? Perhaps…

But looking at the youthful faces reflected in the flashing screens, who could be sure that there wasn’t a dream hidden within?

Team Excellent Era, One Autumn Leaf. In this one night, they gained countless fans.

But – championship.

Tonight, this word entered many people’s hearts, a word even more attractive than “glory,” for it was formed by the accumulation of countless “glory” victory screens.

This time, championship belonged to Excellent Era, belonged to One Autumn Leaf.

Then, what about next time?

Dreams were just this kind of careless imagination, buds anticipating germination.

***

July.

One month passed since the end of Season 1 and Excellent Era’s final victory, but the overwhelming publicity still hadn’t ended. Especially in city internet cafes, which attracted large numbers of gamers, flyers advertising Glory and the Professional Alliance covered every corner. The e-sports television channel had replayed that final, ultimate face-off between Excellent Era and Royal Style many times by this point.

Nine times!

Big Sun knew this number very clearly. Whenever he saw a replay broadcast, he mentally complained “again?” But every time, he stopped whatever he was doing and watched the match, eyes never leaving the screen.

The channel had replayed the full match nine times, so he watched nine times. Including the initial live broadcast, that made ten times he had watched this match.

Everyone was praising One Autumn Leaf’s power, and Big Sun didn’t disagree. One Autumn Leaf was absolutely very strong. Even though Big Sun was fairly self-confident, when he thought of One Autumn Leaf, his heart trembled a little.

But it was just a little. In a 1v1 match, although he wouldn’t claim a guaranteed win, he wasn’t the slightest bit afraid to declare One Autumn Leaf his opponent.

What really made him feel uncertain was the Excellent Era team as a whole, and in particular, a different player on this powerhouse team.

The Qi Master named Qi Breaker, Wu Xuefeng.

Why didn’t anyone notice his existence? Why didn’t anyone pay attention to his contributions?

Big Sun really didn’t understand. Whether it was the media reports or the player discussion boards, Wu Xuefeng was a name that was constantly left out.

But that shouldn’t be the case!

He was clearly the number two of Excellent Era, and his existence was crucial to Excellent Era and One Autumn Leaf.

Big Sun had watched the last match of the finals a total of ten times, and after each time, he understood this point more deeply. But too few people noticed this. Everyone seemed to think that as long as there was one strong expert on the team, that team could easily take every victory.

“How could it be that simple…” Big Sun sighed as he arrived at the internet café. When he walked in, he quickly realized that today’s atmosphere was different. Everyone turned to look at him, as though they had been waiting for this moment.

Big Sun was confused, but he still walked to the counter. He wasn’t the type to be intimidated easily.

When he took the computer card from the café counter, someone had already come to his side.

“Berserker? Blossoming Chaos?” that person asked.

Berserker, was the class that Big Sun played in Glory.

Blossoming Chaos, was the name of his Berserker.

“That’s me,” replied Big Sun.

“I hear your skill’s not bad?” the other person asked.

“It’s alright,” said Big Sun. “What do you want?”

“We want to make a team. If your skill really isn’t that bad, then we invite you to join us. Together we’ll take part in next season’s Glory Professional League, and win the championship!” said the other person.

“You and…?” There was only one person standing in front of Big Sun right now.

But immediately, five other people stood up from a row of computers, all young, all filled with anticipation. They had been waiting here for Big Sun for a while now.

“I’ll give it a try,” said Big Sun, starting to become interested as he walked toward his computer. The others quickly created the room in the Arena, and a large number of spectators entered. There were many in this internet café waiting to watch this excitement.

Log on, Berserker, Blossoming Chaos.

Big Sun entered the Arena, found the room named “Sword Points To Championship,” and he couldn’t help but feel his heartrate surge.

“Let’s go!” he invited loudly. “All at once, or?”

All at once?

There was a pause as the café spectators digested this, then there was the sound of laughter.

“Big Sun, you really are berserk!” someone yelled. Regular customers of this internet café all knew each other, especially fellow Glory players.

Was this berserk?

Big Sun was confused. If they were just testing his skill, then all at once or not, wasn’t it the same?

The opposing six players also seemed as though they had been greatly insulted, and their stares were rather hostile.

“I’ll go.” But one of them seemed rather calm. If there was anything useful to be said, it had to be said in the Arena.

His character entered the stage, 1v1.

Berserker, Blossoming Chaos.

Battle Mage, Dominating Grudge.

The countdown timer reached zero and the battle began, the characters placed in their respective starting positions. The map chosen was the one players in the Arena used the most often.

Big Sun was a little disappointed.

On such a simple map, you couldn’t demonstrate anything aside from mechanics. What about judgment, prediction, experience… If this was supposed to be a true measurement of skill, then this simple and direct map was definitely a poor choice.

But the opponent was already approaching, waving his spear as he charged in front of Blossoming Chaos.

Blossoming Chaos shifted to the side and lifted his greatsword.

Backwards Slash!

The Battle Mage flew into the air.

Big Sun was further disappointed. It was just a simple dodge and counterattack, yet the opponent had been entirely unable to react in time. If it had been One Autumn Leaf…

He didn’t finish that train of thought. Even he could admit that that anticipation was a little too high.

He controlled Blossoming Chaos to attack. It wasn’t even that ferocious, but the opponent was helpless, and the battle ended forty seconds later.

“So strong!” The spectators wowed in astonishment.

Strong?

Big Sun smiled bitterly. He hadn’t even been playing seriously!

“You’re just too weak,” he said.

His opponent fumed.

“All at once!” Big Sun didn’t want to waste any more time. Joining a group like this, the thought of “sword pointing to championship” was frankly ridiculous. Still, he wanted to know what kind of skill level the others had.

But the group still didn’t see what they were up against.

“I’ll go,” another one said, still coming onstage by himself for a 1v1. Forty seconds later, he lost.

Another one. Thirty-seven seconds, lost.

Finally, the remaining three set away their reservations and decided to attack together.

Two minutes fifty-four seconds, the three of them lost.

The internet café was dead silent. All of the patrons knew that Big Sun was very strong. But even one on three, he was still able to win that easily and that completely? The three players attacking together had hardly inconvenienced Big Sun – they were ruthlessly beaten without half a chance to counter.

“Amazing!” But after suffering such a brutal defeat, the six players were even more excited.

“You’re the expert we’ve been looking for!” one of them exclaimed to Big Sun.

Big Sun scoffed. “But you’re not the team I’m looking for.”

The spectators all laughed and started throwing taunts.

“Get lost, noobs.”

“Had us all excited for nothing.”

“Turns out you’re so weak!”

In the midst of these mocking shouts, the six players could only sadly leave. Even afterwards, the crowd continued to buzz with discussion about how bad those players were, how absurd it was for them to claim they were making a championship team.

Even so, thought Big Sun, they couldn’t be considered that weak… The six players all had very high win rates in the Arena; their confidence wasn’t without basis.

But they were still far from good enough! That stage is much more difficult than you imagine… Once again, in Big Sun’s mind flashed that battle he had watched over and over, ten times. And he had often imagined, if he had been in that situation, what would he do? What could he do?

But what he could accomplish just by himself… it was severely limited. The scene, as he imagined it, was incomplete.

Big Sun shook his head. Things weren’t that simple!

“Big Sun, Western Desert, hurry!” There was a sudden shout, jolting him from his thoughts.

“What?” Big Sun quickly directed his Blossoming Chaos to exit the Arena.

“There’s a battle, hurry and help!”

“Right away!” Big Sun wasn’t the only one to reply. All of the internet café patrons who had been spectating in the Arena also quickly exited and headed toward the Western Desert area.

As frequent customers of the same internet café, they often played together in-game. If one person in trouble, everyone else would rush to help, together fighting and killing, attacking and retreating.

“Hurry, there’s an expert!” urged the person who had called for help.

An expert?

Everyone laughed. Right now, especially after what had just happened, calling someone an “expert” sounded like a joke. Too many people these days carelessly claimed themselves to be experts, including those six players who had just left. They had been aiming for the championship, and yet couldn’t even defeat someone in a three on one match.

“An expert? Those are the best!” the café players jeered. From cities all across the Glory world, they began converging on Western Desert.

***

Western Desert, a level 50 leveling area.

The sun was already low in the west, sprinkling twilight upon this expanse of wilderness, adding a touch of magnificence. But at this moment, few people had the time to admire the beautiful scenery, for a large-scale PK was currently ongoing in this wilderness.

What caused this PK to start?

By the time Big Sun and the others made it to the scene, it was too late to figure out the cause. All they knew was that the ongoing battle was fierce, and once they identified their comrades in the fray, they quickly joined their team.

“Where’s the expert?” Everyone laughed, still remembering that joke.

“It’s that Spitfire, called something Blossoms!” someone replied.

“Something Blossoms?” A derisive voice came from right beside Big Sun, and he identified the speaker as a Knight standing by his character in game.

But Big Sun noticed that in the fading light of the sun, there were long shadows floating in the sky. He lifted his field of vision to look at the setting sun. The light wasn’t especially blinding, and he realized – these shadows were flying toward them at an alarming speed.

“Watch out!” Big Sun yelled, quickly controlling Blossoming Chaos to perform a Colliding Stab to the side.

“Watch out for what?” That Knight was still laughing.

The shadows descended, the blossoms arrived.

In an instant, an explosion of fireworks swallowed the Knight. And it didn’t stop there – deafening gunshots rang out in succession, and the flurry of light and shadow only continued to grow. Big Sun frantically maneuvered Blossoming Chaos to dodge the blasts. Quickly scanning the area, he suddenly spotted a quickly moving shadow.

“Over there!” Big Sun shouted.

“What? There?” No one understood to what he was referring.

“Fuck!” But within the internet café, two people slammed their keyboards in anger and frustration. It was that Knight, and someone who had been standing very near him. Together, under that gorgeous display of light and shadow, their health had fallen to zero.

“At 1 o’clock direction! No, 11 o’clock! 9 o’clock!” Big Sun fixed his eyes on that character and yelled directions to his partners. That player was moving too quickly, constantly changing his position.

“Big Sun, what are you talking about!” No one could keep up with his tempo.

“That player – something Blossoms!” Big Sun yelled, frustrated. He also couldn’t see clearly the account name of that character, who was really quite sneaky, weaving around the battlefield, using other players as cover, constantly hiding. In such a chaotic battle, it truly could be quite difficult to identify one ID in particular.

If no one else could see it, then he could only depend on himself to take care of this!

Charge!

Big Sun’s Blossoming Chaos readied his greatsword and charged, meeting head-on a Blade Master who had jumped forward to block him.

Backwards Slash!

Blossoming Chaos had prepared the stance for this attack early on. The slash was sudden, and by the time the opponent realized what was happening, it was too late for him to dodge or counter.

The Blade Master was sent flying. The player’s technique wasn’t bad – he adjusted his motion in the air, using a Falling Light Blade to try and counterattack – but a crimson slash was already coming toward him.

Wild Blood Strike!

A skill that used a sword, but was called a strike.

Most of the skills of the Berserker class were strikes and slashes, less like a swordsman and more like a knife user. But knife or sword, this enemy Blade Master landed and the crimson Wild Blood Strike travelled right through him, slamming into the ground behind.

Boom!

It seemed as though the earth shook to its core. One blade sliced a road of blood, and Blossoming Chaos rushed forward to slash again. The greatsword danced chaotically, and in the blink of an eye, sent countless more enemies flying.

“Watch out, watch out for that Berserker!” On the battlefield, the opposing players were beginning to shout.

“Which, which?” someone asked.

“That one, that Blossom something!” someone hollered.

Another blossom.

This side had a blossom, the other side had a blossom. And right now, this blossom was charging toward that blossom.

But it wasn’t that simple.

At the beginning, his opponent only used other players for cover, but suddenly, another impressive display of light and shadow began, and his opponent used the explosions to flash in and out of appearance.

Let’s see how long you can maintain that!

Big Sun refused to give up. This sort of Spitfire playstyle required lots of skills to be used in rapid succession, and the mana consumption would be very high.

But a second later, Big Sun realized, even though the Spitfire’s mana consumption was high, he was dealing a significant amount of damage with this onslaught of explosive attacks. Practically no one could dodge his attacks, which had a wide range of effect. Not only did the display of light and shadow seal the movements of this Spitfire’s opponents, it also served to augment the Spitfire’s own attacks and those of his allies. Originally, this had just been a chaotic free-for-all, but because of his intervention, his side was suddenly beginning to gain an attack rhythm.

But if a rhythm can be established, it can also be broken!

Charge! Continue to charge!

Big Sun continued to fixate on his target, and purposely tried to disrupt his opponent’s attack intentions. His constant slashing had long since dyed his blade red, his greatsword sending blood droplets scattering. It wasn’t any less impressive a display than that dazzling show of explosions.

“Stop him, stop him!” the shouts continued, but fewer and fewer in number – not because they were ignoring him, but because they had already fallen.

Falling under the light and shadow, falling under the spray of blood.

Throughout the battlefield were the prone bodies of the defeated players, throughout the battlefield were dropped equipment. But there was no pause in battle – at this point, whoever stopped to take a breath would be the next to fall.

It was a battle; therefore, there would be a victor and a loser in the end!

“Where are you running!” yelled Big Sun. Blossoming Chaos, who was currently under the Berserk status, swung his sword as he rushed forward.

Collapsing Mountain!

The greatsword slashed down. The battlefield was strewn with bodies – after such an intense and chaotic battle, all except for two players had fallen. The Spitfire, no longer able to use other players as cover, was finally vulnerable to Big Sun’s direct attack.

Something Blossoms?

Indeed, it was something Blossoms.

Finally, Big Sun could see the name clearly. Hundred Blossoms – Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.

Dazzling Hundred Blossoms couldn’t dodge the greatsword in time. But he still managed to lift the automatic pistol in his hand, and a spurt of bullet fire blasted out.

Pu!

Blood splashed from Blossoming Chaos’ body, but although the attack landed, the damage wasn’t high; it was just an ordinary attack that had no chance of stopping the Collapsing Mountain. When the greatsword connected, the flying blood droplets became more vivid. Dazzling Hundred Blossoms crumpled to the ground – he had a sliver of health remaining, but for all purposes, victory had been determined.

But Big Sun didn’t let Blossoming Chaos finish the job.

Was victory determined?

It was, but the reason Big Sun had won was because he happened to arrive at the scene a little later; his condition was a little better, a little fresher, while the opponent had already been in battle for a period of time, draining his mana and energy.

If that last shot had been a true Spitfire skill, this battle would still be ongoing.

Big Sun pulled back his greatsword and braced it against his shoulder.

“Heh…” he laughed. Looking at the fallen player before him, Big Sun suddenly felt that the scene that he had long imagined was suddenly becoming complete, moving from a mere possibility into a reality. This scene here, the two of them, flashing explosions and scattered blood… It should be worthy of that grand stage, no? Worthy of that battle he had watched ten times over?

“Your skill is pretty good,” he said. “Want to partner up?”

“Huh?” The fallen player was clearly caught off-guard. “Who are you?”

“Sun Zheping, Berserker, Blossoming Chaos. You?”

“Zhang Jiale, Spitfire, Dazzling Hundred Blossoms.”

“Then what about our team?”

“Team?” Zhang Jiale looked at the names of their two characters and thought. “Double Blossoms?”

“How is two blossoms enough? Better Hundred Blossoms,” said Sun Zheping.

And so that year, in Western Desert, springtime came for Hundred Blossoms.

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #tka #全职高手 #translation #mine #qzgs prequel #szp's account falling scattered flowers was retcon-tl'd to blossoming chaos so i had to fix that here - have not updated my other works #because of that i had to make some other changes too so lmk if there are any mistakes #blossom duo is honestly most tragic duo and i get feels every time i think about them #i hope this augments your enjoyment and appreciation of the recent tl'd chapters

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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30 Best Nintendo Switch Games

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

After four years of the Wii U, we were eagerly anticipating its successor. While there were plenty of great games on the doomed platform, the Wii U just never caught fire with the public at large. But four years into the Switch’s lifespan, and Nintendo has turned things around dramatically.

Instead of winding things down, the Switch shows no signs of slowing down, with plenty of excellent third party games in its library, as well as more than a few innovative titles from the Big N as well. The platform has also been a great way to bring underrated Wii U gems to a broader audience of Switch adopters. With a rumored 4K upgrade on the horizon, there’s a good chance that the Switch may even have another four years ahead of it,

But for now, these are the very best games available for the portable-console hybrid:

30. Untitled Goose Game

2019 | House House

Anyone who’s even been to a pond can attest to one simple fact: Geese are dicks. Untitled Goose Game lets you finally live out the fantasy of being one of nature’s most annoying creatures, flapping, honking, and generally being a nuisance to the residents of a fair English town. The only thing missing is the goose poop covering everything in sight.

Untitled Goose Game is a short but sweet experience inspired by classic stealth games that adds just enough charm and innovation to make it one of the best indie games on the platform.

29. Dark Souls Remastered

2018 | FromSoftware

There’s not much more that can be said about Dark Souls that hasn’t been said about this revolutionary action RPG title already. Its tough-as-nails difficulty, foreboding atmosphere, and esoteric storytelling have made it a fan-favorite and critical darling.

The Switch port doesn’t change much. It’s actually a visual downgrade from the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions without the benefit of 4K resolution, but being able to play Dark Souls on-the-go more than makes up for that. This may not be the best version of Dark Souls, but the gameplay still stands up, and like a lot of Switch ports, being able to finally play the game on a handheld makes it a worthy pick up.

28. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

2017 | Ubisoft

“What if Mario starred in an XCOM game?” might sound like the basis for some very ambitious fan fiction, but somehow Ubisoft pulled it off with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The Rabbids actually fit into the Mushroom Kingdom pretty well and the Rabbid impersonations of Mario and company are hilarious.

Even if Mario games aren’t typically your cup of tea, the tactics featured in this turn-based strategy title add a layer of difficulty rarely seen in the plumber’s resume. If you aren’t careful, the corrupted Rabbids will repeatedly hand you your ass on a platter.

27. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

2018 | Nintendo

The Captain Toad levels were the best parts of Super Mario 3D World, one of the few well-reviewed Wii U exclusives that haven’t yet made it to the Switch. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker delivered more of what people loved, this time for the 3DS.

Ignoring traditional Mario-style platforming for isometric puzzles that bar jumping, getting all the stars in every level of Captain Toad is genuinely challenging but rarely frustrating. Captain Toad also stands out as one of the better Wii U ports for the Switch, thanks to a number of new levels, although many of them are only available as paid DLC.

26. Starlink: Battle for Atlas

2018 | Ubisoft

Starlink: Battle for Atlas is a fun space shooter bogged down by a confusing and frankly unnecessary toys-to-life gimmick. The basic premise equates to a sort of smaller scale No Man’s Sky, but with highly customizable ships and weapons.

The big draw for the Switch version is exclusive Star Fox content, missions that feel like the animal-themed space combat game people have wanted from Nintendo for years. They’re certainly better than Star Fox Zero. The retail version even comes with awesome Arwing and Fox McCloud toys.

With gamers largely burned out on the toys-to-life phenomenon, Starlink didn’t exactly light up the sales charts, but it did sell best on the Switch and is scratching that Star Fox itch.

25. Hollow Knight

2018 | Team Cherry

Nintendo basically created the Metroidvania genre, but the company has been remarkably stingy about releasing new 2D Metroid games. Thankfully, Hollow Knight is here to fill the void with its insect-filled underground world. While there have been many takes on the Metroidvania formula over the years, a Tim Burton-esque aesthetic gives Hollow Knight a unique edge over the rest of the field.

Of course, Metroidvanias are only as strong as their maps, and Hollow Knight’s giant, secret-filled levels are easy to get lost in for hours. And then there’s the Dark Souls-inspired combat, which requires both patience and skill to master. We can’t wait for the sequel.

24. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

2017 | Monolith Soft

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is not for casual gamers. The main story alone takes more than 60 hours to complete and you’re looking at well over 100 hours of gameplay if you dig into the side content. Its systems, particularly the Pokemon-style Blade system, aren’t very user-friendly and require time to truly understand. But for those who are willing to keep with it, or who enjoy complex stories and mastering all the intricacies of a JRPG, there are few games of this caliber available on the current crop of consoles. And none of them are on the Switch.

23. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

2019 | Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is arguably the very best game for the original Game Boy, held back only by the portable’s lack of buttons and color. The Switch-exclusive remake easily rectifies those issues, and improves on this classic with so much more, including customizable dungeons and a delightful new art style inspired by children’s toys.

The core Link’s Awakening experience remains as enjoyable as it first was back in 1993, with the deceptively small Koholint Island giving way to nine labyrinthine dungeons and some of the best puzzles in the entire series. This is a great example of a remake done right.

22. Stardew Valley

2017 | ConcernedApe

There’s something oddly relaxing about farming games that Stardew Valley taps into better than any other game in the niche genre. Maybe it’s the especially calming music, the charmingly well-written characters, or just being able to live out your agricultural dreams at your own pace. Whatever the exact reason, Stardew Valley has garnered millions of fans since its original release.

Part of the appeal is the regular updates. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, ConcernedApe will add new content to keep the game fresh. And while Stardew Valley is a fantastic experience on any of the numerous platforms it’s currently available on, being able to play it anywhere on the Switch arguably makes it the definitive version.

21. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

2019 | Nintendo

The Switch’s success has allowed many Wii U games to enjoy a second life. With their brief levels, Mario games have always been perfect for handhelds, and with its pitch-perfect controls and heavy nods to Super Mario Bros. 3, New Super Mario Bros. U is arguably the best side-scrolling Mario game of the last decade. The Switch port even includes all of the New Super Luigi U content previously only available as DLC and a new playable character, Toadette.

20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2017 | Bethesda Game Studios

We probably didn’t need another version of Skyrim, and the Switch port doesn’t look that much better than the original 2011 release, but as with other ports of older games, the ability to play one of the greatest RPGs anywhere is a good reason to double (or triple) dip. And there are a few cool unlockables though amiibos, like the Master Sword.

It’s impossible to ignore such a classic RPG on the Switch, especially now that you can play it on your lunch break or on the bus. But seriously, Bethesda, you can stop porting Skyrim now. Get to work on The Elder Scrolls VI and maybe bring that to the Switch.

19. Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee

2018 | Game Freak

The Pokemon franchise has been around so long at this point that the Let’s Go games are actually the second remakes of the original 1996 Red and Blue games. That’s okay though, as even the last remakes were released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. By 2018, it was time for a new coat of paint.

Let’s Go freshens things up with modern 3D graphics, wild Pokemon that are now visible in the overworld, and Mega Evolutions from more recent games. The biggest change is the most divisive: motion controls for catching Pokemon. It can be a little silly at first, but it actually adds to the game’s charm.

18. Luigi’s Mansion 3

2019 | Nintendo

Luigi has long played second fiddle to his more famous brother, but after three spooky solo games, he’s built up a successful franchise in its own right that ranks up there among Nintendo’s best. If the previous Luigi’s Mansion games had a flaw, it’s that they got a little repetitive. Luigi’s Mansion 3 thankfully fixes that problem with a massive 17-story hotel with plenty of puzzles to solve and ghosts to trap. And while Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a fantastic single player experience, what really gives it legs is its co-operative modes for 2-8 players, making it the best ghostbusting game since, well…Ghostbusters.

17. Octopath Traveler

2018 | Square Enix

Square Enix’s love letter to 16-bit RPGs might just be better than the classics. Octopath Traveler boasts an innovative battle system that tweaks the typical turn-based formula and unique “HD-2D” graphics that are unlike anything else in the genre. It’s easy to lose several hours playing in portable mode or at home on a big screen. And while the story drags a little bit at times, it’s still worth playing to the end to see how the tales of all eight protagonists play out.

16. Astral Chain

2019 | PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames’ streak of creating the best and most unique action games in the industry continues with Astral Chain. Everything that has made the developer’s past titles like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata instant classics is on full display here, from the massive set pieces to the bonkers anime-inspired story of humanity making its last stand against an interdimensional threat.

And while you’d think those previous efforts pushed combat in an action game to its limits, Astral Chain’s innovative gameplay finds way to introduce new twists to the Platinum secret sauce. Here, you control both your main character and a fully customizable tethered Legion to maximize combos. This is the perfect game to tie you over until Platinum finishes up Bayonetta 3.

15. Bayonetta 2

2018 | PlatinumGames

The first Bayonetta was a sexy, stylish take on action-adventure hack and slash games, with some of the smoothest combat around and a badass protagonist. Bayonetta 2 doesn’t mess with the winning formula but adds more combat options and some of the most ridiculous setpieces ever put in a game, like a battle on top of a moving fighter jet. If you’re looking for something a little less family-friendly on the Switch, look no further than this hectic action game.

14. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

2018 | Retro Studios

The original Donkey Kong Country trilogy is a highlight of the 16-bit era, but in hindsight, it was more beloved for its graphics than its gameplay. It was only once Retro Studios took over the series that the franchise began to live up to its potential, with super smooth platforming and levels more creative than even some of Nintendo’s Super Mario games.

While Retro’s first Donkey Kong Country game on the Wii was a little too punishing, Tropical Freeze got the balance between challenging and frustrating just right. The game was originally released on the Wii U, and the Switch port adds Funky Kong as a playable character. This is an excellent platformer to play with a friend, too!

13. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

2021 | Nintendo

Super Mario 3D World is a top-notch Mario game, so it was always a shame that it released on a platform as underwhelming as the Wii U. The genius of the game is how it so perfectly combines the best elements of 2D and 3D Mario games. Levels have clear beginnings and endings, and ultimately you just need to climb the flag pole at the goal, but there’s also plenty of room for exploration to track down every last green star. Plus, the cat suit is one of the weirdest and best power-ups in any Mario game.

Everything that made the original Wii U release a must-have remains the highlight of the Switch port, but the addition of Bowser’s Fury, a new adventure where Mario and Bowser Jr. must quickly complete missions before the arrival of a giant, enraged Bowser, makes this one well worth a double dip.

12. Pokemon Sword and Shield

2019 | Game Freak

Sword and Shield may not be the best games in the long-running Pokemon series. Arguably, the lack of some older Pokemon (even after two big expansions) is a pretty big mark against it, but the eighth generation still has a lot going for it thanks to more streamlined gameplay, a massive open-world, and the fact this is the first time a mainline Pokemon game can be played on a home console. That’s something that fans have been clamoring for since the series’ inception back in 1996.

So no, you can’t quite “catch ‘em all,” but you can still have a great time battling the gym leaders of Galar in the seemingly never-ending quest to become the very best.

11. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

2018 | Firaxis Games

Despite the Switch’s early success, it’s still home to relatively few third-party console exclusives, but Civilization VI alone almost makes up for that deficit. This is an uncompromising PC port with 24 different civilizations available from the get-go, and all of the features from the original version. It also works great with either a controller or touchscreen controls. If you’re looking for a 4X strategy game on the Switch, Civilization VI is the one.

10. Diablo III: Eternal Collection

2018 | Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo III is one of the best games of the last decade. The Switch port is late to the party, but if you really want to slay demons on the go and don’t have a laptop handy, this is the perfect way to play the classic action RPG.

The Switch version adds a handful of Legend of Zelda items, including a Ganondorf costume. It’s not an earth-shattering exclusive, but it’s an easy excuse to sink a few more hours into this game.

9. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

2019 | Nintendo

Nintendo is still mostly known for accessible games that appeal to a wider audience. But then there’s Fire Emblem, a series of hardcore tactical RPGs where every battle can mean permanent death for you and your allies. While still true to its roots, Three Houses takes some liberties with the typical Fire Emblem gameplay. There are still plenty of battles to be fought, but the first half of the game largely takes place at a monastery where you’re a teacher preparing your students for war. And the long-used “weapon triangle” has mostly been replaced with the need to equip the best weapons for each character, adding a new layer of strategy.

As if all that didn’t make for dozens of hours of gameplay, the ability to choose which of the titular three houses you belong to has radically different consequences for the game’s story. It takes a very long time to experience everything that Three Houses has to offer.

8. Super Mario Maker 2

2019 | Nintendo

Super Mario Maker 2 is the definitive Mario game, building on its already near-perfect predecessor with new power ups, a world maker, and assets from Super Mario 3D World. The star of the show is the almost endless supply of user created levels that constantly surprise with twists on other genres and some of the most fiendishly difficult levels ever devised. And if you’re the creative type, the course maker remains one of the most intuitive modes in any game, allowing you to design perfectly playable new levels in just a few minutes.

Even if making Mario levels isn’t you’re thing, Super Mario Maker 2 includes a surprisingly fun story mode of 100 original levels that stand toe-to-toe with anything else in the legendary franchise.

7. Hades

2020 | Supergiant Games

Rarely do story, gameplay, and atmosphere mesh together as well as they do in the rogue-lite Hades. You play as Zagreus, the prince of the Underworld, with the simple goal of escaping from the monotonous life you’re forced to lead under your apathetic father. You’ll die a lot during this quest, but each time you’ll get a little stronger and gain new abilities from the gods of Olympus that keep the experience fresh. Hades knows exactly how to leverage its setting, perfectly capturing each deity’s unique personality and abilities.

The rogue-lite gameplay is also well suited for short bursts of gameplay or marathon sessions, making it a perfect fit for the Switch, which is currently the only home console its available on. It’s easily the best third-party game on the system, and one of the best reasons to pick up a Switch if you haven’t already.

6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

2017 | Nintendo

Mario Kart 8 is the best kart racing game ever made. That was true with the original Wii U release and it’s true of the Switch port, which includes all previously released DLC and adds a few new characters and a completely reworked battle mode. Each and every track has its own challenges and the addition of anti-gravity racing is a nice update to the formula.

With tracks and characters from F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing, Mario Kart 8 also feels like the most complete Nintendo racing game of all time. There’s really no reason for a Switch owner not to have this one in their collection.

5. Splatoon 2

2017 | Nintendo

Nintendo has never developed a multiplayer shooter like Call of Duty or Halo. Odds are it never will. But the Splatoon series is just as good as those shooters, especially the second installment. Like with the original, the focus of Splatoon 2 is to use a variety of paint-spraying weapons to cover as much of each level as possible. It’s actually a lot more fun and creative than most of the high-profile shooters out there.

Splatoon 2 adds quite a few new levels, weapons, and unlockables. There’s also a sizable single-player mode, and a ridiculously fun cooperative mode called Salmon Run. If that’s not enough content, Nintendo released the lengthy Octo Expansion DLC in 2018. A copy of Splatoon 2 could occupy a Switch gamer for months.

4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

2020 | Nintendo

For a lot of people, Animal Crossing isn’t just a game. It’s life. New Horizons was always highly anticipated, but its release at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdowns made it a much-needed escape for millions of people. Birthdays, graduations, and weddings couldn’t be held in-person, so many were celebrated within New Horizons. Even President Biden and Hong Kong democracy activists set up their own islands.

Even without the specter of Covid-19, New Horizons would still be one of the best games on the Switch. Nintendo has been perfecting the franchise for two decades now, but this version of Animal Crossing is easily the best yet, allowing for near-limitless customization of your own little world. And yet you’re still free to play at your own pace, without any of the pressure of the outside world. The ultimate appeal of Animal Crossing continues to be that it allows us to live our ideal lives.

3. Super Mario Odyssey

2017 | Nintendo

Is Super Mario Odyssey the best 3D Mario game? It’s hard to argue otherwise. Odyssey borrows its level structure and progression system from the beloved Super Mario 64, which Nintendo had largely ignored for the last two decades. Several new twists on the traditional 3D platforming formula, like the ability to throw your new hat buddy Cappy at enemies to take control of them, make Super Mario Odyssey feel incredibly fresh. There probably won’t be another platformer this good on the Switch.

2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

2018 | Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. has remained wildly popular since it debuted in 1999, and there’s always been a lively debate about which title is the best in the series. Melee arguably has the best mechanics, while Brawl’s Subspace Emissary boasts the most complete story mode. The Wii U game looks fantastic, but the Ice Climbers and Snake were sorely missed.

Ultimate tries to satisfy the fans of each game by including every character who’s ever appeared in the series (plus a few new ones), more than 100 stages from throughout the Nintendo universe, a deep adventure mode called World of Light, and interesting tweaks to even the oldest characters in the roster. If Ultimate isn’t the perfect installment of Smash Bros., we don’t know what is.

Further Reading: Super Smash Bros. Characters Ranked

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2017 | Nintendo

Breath of the Wild is the perfect marriage of traditional Legend of Zelda 3D gameplay and innovative new systems. The world and story are unmistakably Hylian, yet the game puts a major focus on exploration and experimentation to an extent never before seen in the series.

Yes, the number of weapons have been cut down drastically, but the handful of abilities — like freezing time and creating ice blocks — create even more ways to complete the game’s challenges and traverse its world. And you will want to explore every last inch of Hyrule’s beautifully realized world.

For almost two decades, Zelda games closely following the formula established by Ocarina of Time, one of the greatest games ever made. Breath of the Wild throws out almost all of the concepts that Ocarina pioneered and redefines Zelda as something more open-ended and exciting that will hopefully continue to evolve over the next few years.

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pokemaniacal · 7 years

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Oricorio

I do not have a good record with anything capable of earning the title of “gimmick” Pokémon – Pokémon whose schtick is some unique move, ability or game mechanic that was so clever Game Freak felt they could stop there, and didn’t need to have the Pokémon be any good or the design make any sense. Today we decide whether Oricorio, the dancing honeycreeper Pokémon, fits that description. Four interchangeable and mostly cosmetic forms, a weird signature move, a weirder ability… the phrase “walks like a duck, quacks like a duck” comes to mind, but let’s take a closer look.

Oricorio’s English name references the orioles, a family (or rather, two unrelated families, one native to the Old World and one to the New) of brightly-coloured insectivorous songbirds. Her names in other languages are more generic references to birds and dance, and her actual design probably draws, if anything, not on the orioles but on Hawaiian honeycreepers – another family of brightly coloured songbirds, most of them in various shades of yellow and red. Like “Darwin’s finches” in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, Hawaiian honeycreepers are famous for having rapidly adapted from a single basic form to fill a wide variety of different ecological niches. Some have short, thick beaks that can crush seeds, some have long, thin beaks for spearing insects, and others have curving beaks for sipping nectar from flowers, hence the name “honeycreeper.” The technical name for the phenomenon is “adaptive radiation,” and it’s particularly common on remote islands, like the Hawaiian archipelago, where there may be a large number of unoccupied ecological niches for a species to diversify into. Oricorio, accordingly, has four forms, which individuals can switch between by feeding on the sweet nectar of special flowers that are unique to each of the four main islands of Alola. The different colours of the flowers correspond to the meanings of each of the islands’ names in Hawaiian: yellow flowers on Melemele, pink on Akala, red on Ula’ula, and purple on Poni. Wild Oricorio can be found wherever the flowers grow, and mimic their colours, but also gain different costume-like features that evoke a distinctive style of dance from the real world, characteristic of particular regions, with personality traits to match.

Each form has a different type: Electric/Flying for yellow, Psychic/Flying for pink, Fire/Flying for red, Ghost/Flying for purple. The yellow, Electric-type, Melemele Oricorio is energetic and cheerful, with puffs of feathers like a cheerleader’s pom-poms on the end of her wings – a North American style of dance, associated with giving energy to others. The pink, Psychic-type, Akala Oricorio is laid-back and relaxed, with a long skirt and crown of pale feathers that bring to mind a Hawaiian pā’ū skirt and lei, the paraphernalia of hula dance, which is linked in modern pop culture with tropical relaxation. The red, Fire-type, Ula’ula Oricorio is proud and passionate, with frills of feathers like a flamenco dancer’s long dress, and white curlicue feathers that evoke hooped earrings, evoking the intense traditional dances of southern Spain that are now a shorthand for burning, desperate love. Finally, the purple, Ghost-type, Poni Oricorio is calm and quiet, with fans of feathers at the ends of her wings like the sensu fans used by geisha in old-fashioned Japanese dances that still evoke tradition and ceremony. We’re also told that the purple sensu Oricorio’s style of dance famously reminds immigrants from Kanto of the traditional dances of their homeland, just to push home that these styles are meant to have geographical and cultural resonance, as well as emotional connotations. Their different styles of dance are said to have corresponding effects on onlookers; the pom-pom style dance giving energy to friends, the pā’ū style dance lulling and slowing enemies, the baile style dance “causing its enemies to combust in both body and mind” (ouch), and the sensu style dance “sending the minds and hearts of its enemies to another world” (ouch?). Those four distinct personalities and the magical effects associated with the dances link Oricorio’s core theme of dance with the characteristic traits of her four possible elements – Fire-types are passionate, Psychic-types are sedate, and so on. This is quite important, since Oricorio otherwise has relatively few connections to those elements (as we’ll see later).

The point of all these different styles is probably to emphasise that Alola is multicultural, like the real Hawai’i, where American, Japanese and Polynesian (and to a lesser extent Iberian) culture are all important parts of the regional identity. We should probably imagine that, for the people of the Pokémon world, all those styles of dance and their paraphernalia are based on Oricorio’s dances and plumage (in the same way as, for instance, the Roman alphabet actually comes from the Unown). There is something a little bit odd going on here, though. Hawai’i’s multiculturalism is essentially a legacy of colonialism, of American, Iberian and East Asian interference in, and immigration to, the islands. The real-world dance styles that Oricorio is based on – with the exception of the Polynesian pā’ū style – are relatively modern imports to Hawai’i. But Oricorio is not native to Kanto, Unova, or Kalos (the closest region we have to Iberia so far); to our knowledge, she is found only in Alola, and her different forms have specific niches that relate closely to the floral ecology of the four major islands. It seems reasonable to think that the four forms all originated right here, in the Alolan archipelago, and that the resulting dance styles were also adapted by humans in Alola. Should we turn it all on its head and imagine that in the Pokémon world Alola was not colonised, like Hawai’i, but a coloniser – an ancient maritime power whose kings had a ship in every port and a finger in every pie? Did Alolan sensu dancers introduce the forms they learned from Oricorio to Kanto and Johto centuries ago? Does the stamp of Oricorio’s intercontinental influence represent the last remaining trace of an ocean-spanning empire that left different shards of its cultural heritage all over the Pokémon world?

…or is this just the kind of subtle nonsense that happens when you create a particularly anthropomorphic Pokémon without thinking through what it would imply about human culture in the Pokémon world?

Such a question, dear readers, this meagre blog is hardly adequate to answer.

We are, however, reasonably equipped to answer the less speculative question of whether Oricorio is actually any good. Oricorio seems at first to be a pretty rubbishy fast and frail special attacker. And… well, in singles, she kind of is. She’s got good, but not excellent, speed and special attack, average defences, and a movepool that makes me sad. To elaborate – with one exception, the only special attacks she learns are Flying attacks and Hidden Power, and of the Flying attacks, Air Slash is below average in power and Hurricane is below average in accuracy (barring appropriate weather support). Heck, she doesn’t even have any attacks of her own secondary types on her move list – except for her signature move, Revelation Dance. This is a respectably powerful special attack with no secondary effects, but one interesting property: its type changes to match the type of Oricorio’s dance style, Electric, Psychic, Fire or Ghost. In principle it’s a cool little trick that links Oricorio’s in-game tactics to the central features of her design. In practice, it means that, although Oricorio technically has Electric, Psychic, Fire and Ghost attacks, she can’t have them at the same time, which is what she would actually like, because there’s no way to change her style mid-battle. In some ways, Oricorio would be better off without Revelation Dance, since it would force Game Freak to give her actual attacks from each of her possible types.

The support options are a bit more inspiring. Oricorio has Baton Pass, respectable speed, and a few useful set-up moves, including Agility, Calm Mind and Swords Dance, and she probably wouldn’t be terrible at passing buffs, although her defences leave something to be desired. With Calm Mind, Baton Pass, Revelation Dance and either Agility or a Flying attack, she can help out a more competent team member without being totally helpless herself, although there are probably better Pokémon out there for the job. She can use her speed to Taunt other support Pokémon, and she can heal herself with Roost. U-Turn lets her dart out of danger, although it’s largely superfluous on a Baton Pass set, and probably not much good on a more straightforwardly aggressive set either, since Oricorio pretty much needs a turn or two of Calm Mind setup before she can do a worthwhile amount of damage. There’s not much else to give her more variety. Even Swords Dance can’t really enable a proper physical attacker set, since Oricorio’s base score is not impressive and her movepool basically extends to Acrobatics and Steel Wing. But don’t worry – the best is still to come.

Oricorio’s most interesting feature is the unique Dancer ability, which immediately copies any “dance” moves used by another Pokémon (Oricorio still gets her regular turn). In singles, this is situational at best; mostly it makes Oricorio an interesting switch-in to some Dragon Dance or Quiver Dance sweepers, since they won’t be able to outrun her. In doubles, on the other hand, this ability allows Oricorio to really shine and do all kinds of ridiculous stuff. You see, Oricorio will also copy her partner’s dances, letting her piggyback off their setup moves, particularly Quiver Dance. Strictly speaking you could also try this trick with Swords Dance, but again, Oricorio’s poor attack stat and physical movepool advise against it. Special mention here goes to Volcarona, who can buff Oricorio with Quiver Dance and give her free attacks with Fiery Dance, or to a pair of Oricorio (if you’re allowed two Pokémon of the same species on a team, which you often aren’t) who will copy each others’ Revelation Dances. Lilligant is also an interesting option here – with her Own Tempo ability, she’s immune to confusion, so you can get Oricorio to disrupt your opponents with Teeter Dance without harming Lilligant, and Oricorio will copy both Quiver Dance and Petal Dance off her. Practically the only downside is that you have to actually use Lilligant. Some credit should also go to Pheremosa and Ribombee, who, along with Volcarona, learn Quiver Dance and are faster than Oricorio, ensuring that she gets a special attack boost before her own first attack. In any case, if you can set Oricorio up to get a free Quiver Dance, she rather suddenly becomes an extremely threatening special attacker with quite solid special defence. Her movepool is still weak, with just Air Slash or Hurricane, Revelation Dance and an appropriate Hidden Power (Ice for a pom-pom Oricorio, Grass for a baile Oricorio, or Fighting for a pā’ū or sensu Oricorio). However, she’ll now have the power to bludgeon enemies into submission even through resistances, and with the right partner she may also be able to cheat out a bunch of extra Fiery Dances or Petal Dances. In any turn-based game, the power to just get extra turns for free, even in such a limited way as this, can be tremendously game-breaking, to the point that I actually sort of understand how limited Oricorio is in other ways. She’s rubbish in singles, and I don’t think there can be any changing that, but a good dance partner in doubles can let her steal the whole show, and with better defences and a good movepool she might become downright unstoppable. Take her for a spin and see if you can make her work – just remember that Cresselia’s Lunar Dance kills her instantly.

I can’t help but like Oricorio. The fact that something so unassuming in a standard battle format can become so incredibly dangerous in a multiple battle, and in such an unexpected but delightfully thematic way, is appealing. I do wish Oricorio were less garbage in singles, and I really wish there were more to distinguish her different forms, but I’m happy to allow that, from a game design perspective, the nature of what her Dancer ability does is so dangerous that it makes a lot of sense to just give her a basic kit to begin with, then tack on a larger movepool in subsequent generations if she doesn’t appear to be breaking anything. The design, too, is very Alolan, emphasising the multicultural heritage of modern Hawai’i while tying in with an important real evolutionary phenomenon – even if it does leave me with some odd questions about what, exactly, Oricorio’s relationship with the history of Alolan dance is supposed to be. So, gimmicky? Oh, indisputably – but, miraculously, a decent job anyway.

#pokemon #alola #alola pokedex #oricorio #flyingtypes #electrictypes #psychictypes #firetypes #ghosttypes

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jayleeg · 7 years

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What's going on with Marvels comics this time?

Okay, so this guy who called himself “The Whisperer” who claims to be a Marvel Comics employee dumped a crap load of company dirt onto reddit. Once those rumors surfaced Bleeding Cool ran an article about how it was all crap. And then the rumor leak guy fired back that Rich, the administrator of Bleeding Cool, got paid by Marvel to write the article debunking his rumors. Honestly the entire thing is like a soap opera.

I mean I shouldn’t find this stuff interesting, normally I don’t, I stay away from gossip sites for a reason (and that reason is most of it’s torrid and exaggerated) but as someone who’s worked in the market of business data and trends for twenty years I *have* been wondering why Disney hasn’t intervened with the comics division of Marvel when a) it’s going under, sales are way down and b) they’re ruining their brand with crap storytelling. So out of all of these ‘rumors’ the one I can actually believe is that Disney is staging an intervention and also toying with the possibility of moving Marvel Comics to Burbank, California in order to keep a closer eye on them all.

Anyway, the rumors that started the drama are copied and pasted under cut (and by pasting them here I am no way claiming or endorsing that they are in any way valid, they very well could be a bunch of crap) and I linked the Bleeding Cool article debunking some and taking credit for others above…

Editorial is miserable. Understaffed, under experienced and overworked. The direction at the top corporate level is a mess of politics and in-fighting. They all look the fool to Disney because of Feige’s split and the bad PR & constant gaming of their declining sales is wearing on them. Top brass want to make a hard left back to what worked with Steve, Thor, Tony, Banner and other recognizable faces. Editorial knows how bad it’s going to look to push all their diversity celebrations to the side. Reality is those books didn’t sell. A lot of it had to do with Marvel’s chincy practices finally reaching a breaking point with fans but the internal editorial spin is that comic shop fans aren’t ready to embrace change.

>The terrible reaction to Hydra Cap/Secret Empire forced a change in plans. Originally it was going to end with a quasi-Dark Reign scenario where Hydra is vanquished thanks to Kubik shenanigans and the World Security Council from the movies steps in to assume power over super heroes and everything has Civil War-era overtones with registrations, boot camps, the idea of an Inhuman ban. The Vanishing Point would be a way to bring back Steve, Tony, Thor, Banner; sort of like Hickman’s “Time Runs Out” jump-skip but in reverse, it would rewind the characters to before the Hydra subversion stars. The classic heroes realize that they have lost touch with the people and need to learn how to fight for them again. In the meantime, the new generation of Miles, Kamala, Riri and other Champions would form “the resistance” against the WSC state. (“Generation” was also planned to be the transition from the classic guys taking a step back and letting the new generation lead the charge).>>>Legacy is a rush-job. They can’t afford to take the classic characters off the table like that for so long but they also don’t want to piss off the new diverse audience they’ve been trying to court. They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, and please all masters. It’s a scattershot way to buy time while they right the course on several books. It’s not going to be about “new number 1s” but milestone 500, 600, 800 issues. A lot of these big volume numbers are really stretching the definition but the constant relaunches have started to seriously damage the trade department’s ability to plan out long-term marketing.

>They’re bringing back the Ultimate line for the teen heroes. Miles will become Ultimate Spider-Man again. Siri becomes Ultimate Iron Man. X-Men Blue becomes Ultimate X-Men. Champions becomes the Ultimates. The only “adult” character that will be a regular presence is Captain Marvel because they want her to be seen a prominent character to the overarching power structure of the WSC/SHIELD and other elements that will factor into her movie heavily. They’ll still make guest appearances in the “main” books but don’t expect them to anchor anymore franchises. Bendis staying on Miles and Riri. Hopeless is still on Ult X. New Ultimates writer is Amy Reeder

>Waid is a stop-gap on Cap to bridge the Legacy launch, then takes over Iron Man with 600 (Doom will be the main villain). Coates is taking over Cap with 700. They want him on the book to endorse the image rehabilitation. There’s a lot of face-palming internally about the “cap is a nazi” talk. He’s on both that and Black Panther as long as his schedule allows.

>They got lucky with Greg Pak and Hulk. It leads into a Planet Hulk revival pretty seamlessly.

>Jane Foster dying was always the end-game with the storyline, but the positive response with female fans means they’re trying to find a way to make her stick around. Tentatively planning to make her the new Valkyrie as the movie version is a blank slate and no one cares about the 70s Defenders character.>Classic Thor will be space-bound for awhile. Definitely through “Ragnarok.”>>

>Slott is off Amazing Spider-Man. They’re going to move him over to Friendly Neighborhood; the fear is he would sign exclusive with DC if they took it away from him completely. Plus he struggles with deadlines and there’s less risk with him off to the side. They can’t ignore declining sales anymore and it’s time for a refresh.>Spencer was earmarked for ‘Amazing Spider-Man” for awhile but he’s “earned it” after taking the heat for Secret Empire. Plus there are fans of his “Superior Foes” book in editorial and the plan is to emphasize tech-based criminals, go smaller scale, focus on NYC. Yes, like the movie. No, they’re not going to de-age him to a teenager. (Although it is a corporate synergy idea that has been floated; editorial has been able to argue that there’s no great way to do it … yet. They’re hoping Tom Holland ages up and they give up on that idea. The time-displaced X-Men are an albatross brought on by First Class synergy).>No major plans for MJ beyond guest spots here and there. The marriage isn’t coming back ever. Renew Your Vows will stick around until its a money-loss. It’s just a spin-off that had some legs, like Spider-Gwen. Silver Sable/Black Cat plans are being developed. Big plans for the Venom series to have a central role in Marvel events.>>>The X-Men are still in a tight spot. ResurrXion was itself a rush job after the Inhumans movie push was officially kaput and there was no future for family of books. Because of the Fox issue, they still can’t create new ideas that could go toward the movies so its literally just nostalgia retreads. Uncanny will be back next year with Xavier. Old Man Logan is sticking around for the foreseeable future with X-23 becoming his sidekick, the book will be called “Wolverine.” They burned out Deadpool fans with the price gouging, so no plans for spin-off series, but there will always be mini-series on the side to line out trades.

>Seriously, don’t expect the classic Fantastic Four anytime soon. Ike has seemingly dug his heels in; even though Fox will probably never figure out what to do with them, he’s spiting the brand because of how bad the negotiations went. Sue & Reed and the kids are seen as “boring” enough to sacrifice. Two-In-One is basically a containment book for people to get their F4 fix. It’s an inventory book, no set writer, it’s like “Avenging Spider-Man” or “A+X.” Different writers will get to use different pet characters.

>Ms. Marvel is in a funky spot because most at Marvel are aware that something organically special happened with her book. She’s basically the new “Runaways,” a special project with a special writer’s connection. It will last as long as Wilson wants to writer her, with a focus on the bookstore market while she pops in and out of other books when relevant. They want the audience to have enough familiarity with her because it’s inevitable she’ll be adapted sooner than later; it’s way too soon for her to be introduced into any Carol Danvers sequels so the TV division might snag her for their Hulu/Freeform teen show pitches. (Moon Girl is saved by her trade sales but the threshold is much lower for if sales drop any lower.)

>Wilson is also taking over Captain Marvel. They need to make it work and she’ll do the best job tying the legacy together. Kamala, Monica Rambeau, SWORD — its all part of it.

>Runaways is just a mini-series. They just want the trade out in time for the Hulu show. They can’t seem to get readers to care if it’s not BKV but they know people still love the franchise.>Cloak & Dagger and New Warriors series are coming. Squirrel Girl is wrapping up and North is moving her storylines over to NW where she’ll be the main character.

>Elektra, Bullseye, Kingpin tanking so hard shook them. They need the “Marvel Knights Netflix” corner to be sustainable, so they’re relying on Bendis on Defenders & Jessica Jones for awhile. Say what you want about his other stuff, everyone here thinks its still his sweet spot.>Brian Buccellato is on Daredevil with issue 600.>Justin Jordan is on Moon Knight; big hope that he can give Marvel their “mature” critically acclaimed book that juices up that corner of Marvel.

>Secret Warriors and Royals are already wrapping up. Rosenberg is moving over to one main Inhumans book. Quake/SHIELD will be background characters until “Agents” wraps up (everyone knows this is the last season).>They’re going to give Ahmed a shot with Black Bolt until sales drop.

>No plans to take Duggan off Guardians. Gunn is moving full steam ahead with Adam Warlock weirdness and they want to make sure those characters/ideas are “accessible” but still fun.

>Punisher War Machine is just one storyline involving Stark tech. They want to pull the character back from some of the real-life darkness and imagery; Nate Edmondson’s rep + Secret Empire has made him “ugly” (plus no one cares about Cloonan’s run). They want to scale him back to the Spider-Man/Defenders side of street-level, with less focus on real guns and more emphasis on comic book-y tech.

>Al Ewing is on Spirits of Vengeance. Editorial likes him, but he can’t sell a book to save his life. They just want someone with a love of Marvel lore to write the magic/horror characters to have them prepped for future Movie Phase exploration with a Blade reboot. They know that corner of Marvel horror needs its own “Annihilation.”

>It’s just like … a Spencer plot device. It could have been WeirdWorld (oh boy that was a failed plan). It’s just Spencer’s take on a “place out of time” a la Morrison.

>There are no plans for a Spidey reboot like that. They can’t get readers to pick up a teen Peter Parker since Bendis killed off Ultimate.

They wrote themselves into a corner because no one cares about kids books like Marvel Adventures or that “Spidey” book from last year.

There has been some discussion about an “Untold Tales of Spider-Man” relaunch with teen Peter and the high school cast but they don’t want Busiek and there’s no market for “prequel” books.

There’s a thought (and I agree) that once the animated Miles movie comes out, they’ll have their “Spider-Man for kids” so we want to keep him strong in the comics and cartoon merch. The Sony deal is kind of closed off but in terms of brand direction, we’re all about synergy. The Gwen revival talk is dead now that the Emma Stone movies are done.

We’re just kind of waiting to see Sony’s next steps but there’s kind of like a prep for nostalgia for the Raimi trajection in terms of MJ & college.

We’re in the dark about a lot of the post Infinity War plans now but the overarching brand direction we were looking at was scaling it to revolve around Spider-Man even though Marvel can’t make a solo Spidey film.

I think Tom Holland is going to be the new lynchpin for the MCU. They’re not going to have a new “Iron Man” franchise but they’ve got Holland locked into a deal where he’ll teaming up with characters in their own stuff.

The original plan was to mirror the Civil War to Secret Invasion to Dark Reign arc.

There’s a reason this is called Secret Empire. The next step was “Nomad”‘ing the entire Marvel line-up. There was a lot of editorial excitement about saying something about Trump’s win and the baby boomer backlash.

No one was expecting the backlash to cap hydra and they probably could have kept the original plans intact but I think it was the sales/marketing push that buried it.

Not everyone is an idiot here; we are aware of how we price gouge comic shops. I think that was more the issue and once all the online fan political arguing started happening around the book, retailers just finally threw their hands cause it wasn’t worth the outrage.

Jason Aaron is off doing his own thing. His Avengers BC thing is just a Morrison mini series idea he has.

Spencer “made his statement” now that Captain Sam won’t be the status quo (that was the original plan while Steve goes back to the maskless “Super Soldier” identity).

I think everyone agrees it’s time to take teens away from Waid.

But the senior editors had big plans for that push and now there’s nowhere else to put it. But we can’t just get rid of it forever.

There was no plan to replace all the “white men” its just how the pieces fell into the place. Honestly, the Riri thing was the tipping point. It was Bendis’ idea, no one in editorial had a big plan for it and it hurt the big post-Secret Wars push to make Tony Stark the franchise of the MU.

Since it’s basically a book for his daughter, we’re kind of stuck keeping her in print.

Edit wants to have a fresh voice on a Miles book in time for the Sony cartoon. David Walker apparently had a pitch that got people excited.

But there’s just no way to take Miles AND Riri away from Bendis without burning a bridge with him forever.

I’m not kidding: the Slott FNSM run is going to marketed like Joss Whedon on Astonishing. It’s its “own thing” “unrestricted by the monthly continuity but still taking place in the MU” which is code for “if its late, its late.”

It’s going to be sold as “separate but equal” to Amazing. I have no idea how long it will last, but it’s to assuage his ego apparently as he was not interested in other books.

I don’t think anybody wants anyone else to jump to DC. The real fear is Disney seeing that Warner had success moving the comics office to Burbank and lining everything up under one roof.

Moving Marvel Comics out of NYC and onto the Disney lots is a real possibility. A lot of us will get downsized or just not relocate if that happens.

not surprised. just our typical variant trick that’s been meant with diminishing returns while contracts get lined up for new last-minute books to replace post SE plans.

shitty day for me because i had to handle a lot of the online damage control until like 8:30

This is how Marvel corporate works under Ike: we don’t give the fox and sony movies anything but we will milk the cash in on comics.

After X3, the plan was to do a teen focused reboot, so we were going to cash in on that. Not literally the movie cast, but remove the baggage and make them streamlined and accessible to younger demos.

Claremont is like the “Spider Man wedding” of X Men. Its this unwieldy thing that none of the senior editors like that they want to rewind but because of the movie deal we can’t make new IP.

X-Men has been a micromanaged mess since I started here. AVX was a sales team gimmick to replicate Civil War, which messed up Schism. Remender’s plans got hijacked by the time displaced O5 which was a pretty shameless Bendis pitch to corporate. There’s no central architect guiding the franchise, just big plans that get derailed by the next sales gimmick.

Then the fox talks started going really south and it wasn’t just “don’t give them new ideas” but actively scale it back.

Yes Ike and corporate really thought they could replace X Men with Inhumans. They don’t actually care what it is, just as long as they own it.

The 05 was seen as a way to scale it back and might as well “House of M” the last vestige of Grant Morrison’s run and just make Scott & Emma straight up super villains. But its been a mess cause no two writers are working together on the bigger picture and Gillen and Aaron and Remender all had different plans.

IVX was a mercy killing to a character that had been written into a corner

Carnage: big villain for the Venom plansPower Pack: early early development for a freeform show, comic would follow obviously

i’m writing this on my personal laptop out of the office. no one at marvel checks this place. and if they did, they just see 4chan as a bunch of trump trolls.

#marvel #comics

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mage-cat · 7 years

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Unbubbled, Chapter 4

It’s finally done! I’m thinking about uping the rating to T on AO3, because Amethyst isn’t going to get any less suggestive with Pearl in a new relationship, but I figure that as long as it stays merely suggestive it still qualifies as General Audiences. The shipping takes a backseat to the plot pretty quickly in this one.

This may be the thing that finally gets me hate from Lapis fans, but I’ve been working on this theory for over a year. Story under the cut.

Link to chapter 1 on Tumblr here.

Link to AO3 here.

Bismuth decided the next day to bring Peridot's prospective ammunition to her rather than have Peridot come to the Temple, mostly because she was curious to see another modern Crystal Gem base. Steven was the first to offer to show her the way. Amethyst came long to see Peridot, because she could not miss a chance to see her girlfriend find new and interesting ways to attack targets. She was a little surprised when Pearl decided to join them, since Pearl kept her reason—being close to Bismuth awhile longer—to herself. Garnet also invited herself on the trip with that twitch of her visor that said Future Vision was involved but she wasn't going to share details until the right time.

At first neither Steven nor Amethyst thought much about the fact that Pearl was walking the last leg of the trip with one arm looped around Bismuth's. She often did the same thing with Garnet after all, and it didn't really mean anything. “Three's a crowd” still applied even when the third in question was your oldest friend. But then Amethyst caught sight of Garnet grinning. The last time she had seen that particular smile had been when Amethyst came back from the first night she had spent at the barn without Steven in tow.

She grinned at Pearl. “Oh, great! You are so much more fun when you're getting some on the regular.”

“Amethyst!” Pearl cried blushing blue.

“What? Not in front of Steven? He's nearly fifteen. Greg's already talked to him about the human junk. I'm pretty sure he's figured out that there's things consenting Gems do in private.”

Steven responded to this by continuing to look straight ahead with his face somewhat pinker than usual. Watching Ruby and Sapphire make up after arguing had been all it took for him to connect those dots. He felt he could handle hearing it, but he was certainly not up for actually participating in this particular conversation.

Bismuth seemed to side with Amethyst on this one as she smiled wide. “And I clearly remember you and Rose being downright shameless, which I might point out left more Gems than just me hopelessly pining.”

“Pearl was a heart breaker?” Amethyst couldn't help herself. She had been through months of Pearl and Garnet smiling like parents on prom night every time she had mentioned Peridot. It was impossible to embarrass Garnet over romantic stuff, but Pearl was always fun to fluster. There was no way Amethyst was passing up such a clear opening.

“Not knowingly.” The blue on Pearl's cheeks was spreading.

“I could have told you,” Garnet said, which started to make Pearl feel positively ganged up on.

“Relax, P,” Amethyst said. “I'm happy for you. Did I or did I not support you through the whole Sheena thing?”

“I seem to recall you saying, 'Start smaller. Talk to a nerd.'”

“Okay, but outside of that moment of not wanting you to get hurt your first time out, you know I was behind you.”

Seeing Bismuth's confusion, Pearl explained, “Sheena is a human friend who was very kind as I worked a few things out.”

“She took Pearl's rebound edge off for ya,” Amethyst translated.

The barn was coming into view, and the part of Bismuth's mind that had spent centuries building structures of what she thought was every description forced a question out of her mouth before she realized it. “Was the building that shape before Peridot got her hands on it?”

Pearl was only too happy for a different track of conversation. “The tower used to be a separate structure, and straight up-and-down. After one of Peridot's machines punched a hole in a wall, she decided to use the tower to patch it.”

“I'm sure it's structurally sound, but man. Peridots: great engineers, weird sense of aesthetics.”

A moment later they heard a barking noise, and a gourd with four legs and a face ran up to them and jumped into Amethyst's arms.

“Hey there Pumpkin! Did ya miss me?” The walking vegetable responded by nuzzling Amethyst's chest, humming contentedly.

Bismuth looked at Steven. “I'm guessing this one is your work?”

“Yep. First time I did it on purpose.”

“What happened when you did it on accident?”

“Let's just say that there's a village of watermelon people living on Mask Island now.”

Bismuth considered this for a moment. “You ever visit?”

“Not since the day I accidentally possessed one while I was asleep.” Her eyes went wide. “Yeah, some of my powers are different from Mom's. If she had that one, she never told anybody about it. I wonder if maybe she had it and didn't know it because she didn't sleep much. Dream walking is very weird.”

“I guess it would be.”

Peridot followed behind her pet. “Pumpkin makes for a pretty good watchdog; doesn't she? I was little surprised when Steven called and said you would all be coming.”

“It's been too long since we had a group visit,” Garnet said.

“Well, I'm always glad to see any of you.” She turned to Bismuth, “And you can meet Lapis!”

As Peridot led them the rest of the way to the barn's entrance, Pearl noticed that Bismuth wasn't breathing. She didn't actually need to breathe unless she was speaking, but she normally made a habit of it.

“Lapis! The others are here!” Peridot called out.

Lapis walked out of the barn. “Hel… You!” She stared, wide-eyed, at Bismuth for a second before taking flight and hiding herself on the balcony Peridot had made out of a truck. For the moment that she was midair, her back was turned to them and her gemstone in full view.

That seemed to be the confirmation Bismuth had been waiting for. With the breath she had been holding she also shouted. “You!”

Peridot looked between her roommate and her new friend with a wide, brittle smile. “So I take it you two know each other?”

Lapis poked her head out over the side of the truck bed. “Well it's not like she formally introduced herself before she left my gemstone lying on the battlefield!”

Bismuth stepped closer, leaving Pearl confused behind her. “Would you have let Selene leave if I had left you standing? Because she was pretty you wouldn't.”

“Wait. Selenite?” Pearl said before looking up. “You're that Lapis Lazuli? Aquamarine Lapis Lazuli?”

“That explains a lot,” said Garnet.

“To you maybe,” said Amethyst.

“Is someone actually going to explain something that happened during the war for once?” asked Steven, which caused the four veterans to look at each other, unsure of where to start.

Lapis spoke up. “It's my story. I tell it.”

Bismuth crossed her arms over her chest. “Just don't think I won't add in whatever you leave out after you're done. Selene did a lot of talking after she joined up.”

“Of course she did." Lapis' tone was bitter as she flew down and called up a screen of water for a visual aid. Even if the story was new to some, most of the images were familiar to all of them. Pumpkin squirmed out of Amethyst's arms and went to make comforting sounds by Lapis' feet. She didn't seem to notice as she started. "I was sent to Earth for a simple terraforming assignment. One of the spires was planned to be in the middle of a sea.” The Lunar Sea Spire swam into view. “I held the water back long enough for the sustaining devices to be put in place and went to report to Blue Diamond's court. That was the day my life as I knew it ended. It should have been the day the fledgling rebellion ended,” Sapphire lay prone with a diamond emblem on her chest and Pearl standing over her with two swords, “but the Sapphire didn't foresee a Ruby twisting fate.” Ruby jumped into view and after a moment of confusion, a figure that was unmistakably Garnet replaced the two small Gems. “Fusion. And that fusion ran straight into the arms of the Crystal Gems.” The screen showed Garnet being welcomed by Rose and Pearl.

“The Diamonds couldn't let the rebels be the only ones with that card to play, so the Fusion Corps was started.” On the screen, Lapis stood alongside about a dozen other figures. “Those of us who had been at court for Garnet's first formation were considered the first choice for recruits. Mostly it was as a way to keep the knowledge of fusion on as much of a need-to-know basis as they could. No one asked for my opinion on the matter. My opinion didn't matter. Only the rebels would ever think to disobey their Diamonds.

"Everything we did was trial-and-error, mostly error in the beginning.” Most of the other figures faded away, leaving Lapis facing a Gem roughly a head taller and much more angular that herself. There was a square-cut gemstone on her chest set point down. “Selenite and I were the first to fuse, the first to hold it together, the first Gems still aligned with the Diamonds to put aside our proper purpose and become a war machine, Aquamarine.” Steven thought he recognized the lone figure a moment before he placed it, an illustration in Buddy Budwick's journal. She had been part of a mural in the Pyramid Temple, fighting Rose Quartz. “I would be lying if I said there wasn't any thrill to it. Aquamarine saw possibilities in my water powers that I never had, that no Lapis Lazuli ever had. The Sea Spire that had been my last terraforming assignment was even changed to the Lunar Sea Spire in our honor. It became a place for fusion to be studied, even celebrated.” The screen showed Gems walking among four-armed statues. “Still, all I really wanted was to stop fighting. I wasn't made for it.

"Another discovery we made was that the components of a mixed fusion don't actually share all of their thoughts and memories when they fuse.” Aquamarine split apart. “Fusion partners can still have secrets. Selenite's secret was that, even as we fought the Crystal Gems, she was thinking about joining their cause.” Selenite turned her back on Lapis to face a five-pointed star.

The scene changed to Aquamarine in the middle of a battle. “I didn't know what she had been planning until we were cornered in the middle of a battle by her,” Bismuth entered the frame, “and Selenite forced us to separate. 'You can come with us,' the Crystal Gem said. 'Just say yes.'” The smile on Bismuth's face looked cruel, and when sad by Lapis, the words where much less welcoming than they should have been. “I didn't say yes,” Lapis' mirror was alone on the screen, “and I woke up in the mirror to the face of an interrogator who wouldn't believe that I knew nothing about how or why Selene was now fighting on the side of the traitors. We were fusion partners. How could I not know? You know the rest." The screen went blank and shrank into nothing as Lapis returned the water to the pool.

After a moment of quiet Bismuth said, "She thought you try to talk her out of it, and if you failed, that you would report on her. That would mean she would never escape."

“Of course I would have talked her out of throwing her life away for this planet! Homeworld was going to win eventually, and we could go back to doing what we were meant to do. And where's Selenite now? Are her shards scattered in the dirt somewhere? Part of the Cluster or another one of the forced fusion experiments? Or is she running around this planet with… with claws or too many legs or something?”

The last time Bismuth had seen Selenite she had been whole and free. It was Pearl who answered. “Homeworld forces captured her about a hundred years before the war ended. They made a big propaganda piece out of it and built this elaborate temple powered by her gemstone. The whole place was one big trap daring us to try and get her out. We finally managed it a few years ago, on Steven's first serious mission in fact. She's bubbled now. It's as safe as we can make anyone.”

“What makes you so sure that she needs to be bubbled?”

“The dozens of gems that we released from artifacts over the course of the first few centuries after the war only to have them turn out to be corrupted. You avoiding the Corruption was a fluke. I'm sorry I didn't bubble you when I found you, but between the Corruption and the cracks, I never imagined that there was enough of a person left in there to care.”

Amethyst cut in, “Wait. One thing that's bugging me. 'Just say yes.' That's the same thing Jasper said when she asked you to fuse after we crashed y'all ship. Is that why you did it?”

“Jasper?” Bismuth asked. “The Homeworld escort you mentioned. She was trapped in a fusion. With her. For months. Is she still sane?”

Lapis looked away as she said, “No.”

Pearl elaborated, “We managed to find and split Malachite just as the Cluster was about to emerge. The internal pressure of the planet was causing terrible earthquakes. We lost Jasper down a fissure.”

Amethyst continued, “Whatever went down in Malachite's mind left Jasper with a major fusion obsession.”

“She found me. I knew what I had done to her was over the line. Malachite was nothing like Aquamarine. When she said that she wanted to go back to that, I panicked, took a load of ocean, and punched her over the horizon,” Lapis wrapped her arms around herself.

Steven said, “She started rounding up corrupted Gems. I think they were mostly other Jaspers. She said she was building an army so that she could defeat us. It probably didn't help that it was our fusions that kept us from losing our fights with her.”

“In our last fight, Smokey Quartz had her on the ropes.” Amethyst bumped Steven's shoulder to make it clear just who Smokey was. “She got desperate and fused with one of the corrupted Jaspers. It didn't hold, but Jasper, sort of, caught Corruption from it. We didn't even know you could do that. The way she was talking as it happened, I think she was pretty messed up in the head before. She was made on Earth during the war, and the way it all went down, she blamed Rose for everything she had gone through.”

“And she never really understood that I'm not Mom.”

“Being wrung through the wringer after coming back just made everything worse.” Amethyst turned on her heel to face Lapis. “And you did that to her because she happened to remind you of someone else? It was never about keeping Steven safe; was it? We were on the beach. The waves were at your feet. You could have poofed Jasper with a thought.”

“Why do you care? You hated her before that last fight.”

“Of course you don't understand. You weren't there at the end. You didn't have to watch her break out in Malachite-green blotches and horns! No one deserves that!”

“And you blame me? You're the one who wanted to beat her in that fight. Or you could blame her.” Lapis waved an arm in Garnet's direction. “After all, none of this would have happened if Her Clarity over there had just let her dime-a-dozen bodyguard take her punishment!”

At some point in the shouting, Pumpkin had made her way to Peridot, who now clutched her to her chest. “You don't mean that. You can't mean that.”

“For sure I can't! I can't look at any of you. I'm leaving.” Lapis took to the air at top speed.

“Lapis, wait!” Peridot called out.

Garnet put a hand on Peridot's shoulder and crouched down to her eye-level. “Let her go. She'll be back, and for the same reason she stayed in the first place. She has nowhere else to go. You've done well, Peridot. You've kept Lapis safe, even happy. If she ever changes her mind about the Crystal Gems, it will be in part because you were her friend when she needed one. It will be a few hours before Lapis is likely to return. Amethyst, you shouldn't be here when she comes back. Bismuth, it's best if you weren't either. I'll be staying.”

“Why?” asked Peridot.

“Because she wasn't completely wrong. I do have some responsibility for the Fusion Corps. There's a conversation I would have had with her much earlier if I had known who she was.”

“And what she said about Ruby?” Steven asked.

“There was a time when Ruby would have agreed with her.”

Her anger dissipated, Bismuth's expression turned a bit sheepish as she turned to Peridot and held out the bag she had been carrying. “So, um, I guess this would be a bad time for you to be testing projectiles, huh?”

Peridot shrugged, “There's not likely to be a better one any time soon. I need something other than Lapis to focus on until she gets back, and if we keep it to an hour or so there shouldn't be much chance of Lapis returning while you're still here.”

Garnet twitched her visor. “It should be fine.”

“I'll show you my practice range.”

#cat writes #steven universe #fanfiction #bispearl #amedot

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haprilona · 7 years

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Descendit Lunaticus, Chapter 3

Title: Descendit Lunaticus Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Genre: Hurt/comfort Rating: T Note: This is a ‘music fic’. Each musical note symbol ( ♫ ) links to a FFXV song that adds to the mood and reading experience. You’re not required to listen to the links while reading, but I highly recommend it! This story was written mostly for the sake of playing with the atmosphere and mood, not for the plot.

I recommend you read this in AO3 as it has drawings, correct formatting etc. to enhance the reading experience. Characters: Noctis Lucis Caelum, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, Prompto Argentum, Ignis Scientia, Gladiolus Amiticia, Aranea Highwind, Cid Sophiar, Cor Leonis, Libertus Ostium, Iris Amicitia Relationships: Noctis/Lunafreya, Ignis/Aranea, Prompto/Cindy Word count: 16187 Summary: When Ardyn makes Noctis choose between the Crystal and his friends, Noctis chooses his friends out of brotherly love and dooms the world. A decade later Noctis is no longer the Chosen King fighting to reclaim his throne, but a common hunter whose only purpose in life is his friends and protecting the remaining Lucian civilians from the horrors of the eternal night. One day he is reunited with someone he thought was forever out of his reach, but not in a manner he would’ve wanted.

Also at AO3 & FF.net

♫

Noctis sat on the stairs leading up to the wall and sharpened his Engine Blade with a whetstone.

Today was the annual market day which meant merchants from both former Niff bases – Fort Highwind and Meldacio Stronghold – as well as Tenebrae and Accordo would put up booths in Lestallum. The fort’s inner and outer yards were filled with folk of all ages. Over five thousand people were itching to get out of the depressing environment to enjoy a day filled with bright colourful lights, lively music, good food and fun, or to sell their wares and make a profit. Vans and buses were overloaded and the noise level was nearly unbearable, which is why Noctis had decided to take refuge by the south wall to avoid the north gate’s hassle.

Prompto and Gladio were helping Iris and Talcott put up their booth. Noctis had offered to go with them, but received a message through a walkie-talkie telling him to remain within the fort. Aranea was no doubt about to put him to work again.

He checked his sword’s blade and deemed it sharp enough. His walkie-talkie buzzed.

‘Noct, meet me at the garage. Cid and I have something to discuss with you.’ It was Ignis.

“Copy that.”

He tied his sword to his belt and briskly made his way past the masses. During times like these he wished he could warp; he was not a fan of crowds of any size.

“About time ya came. I ain’t getting any younger”, Cid complained in his typical manner. Noctis took comfort in that; it meant the old man was still in good enough health to complain. He feared the surly mechanic didn’t have many years left in him. His health was gradually worsening to the point where he couldn’t stay out of bed for longer than a few hours at a time.

Talcott did his best to assist the elderly man whenever he could, but he already had his hands full helping Iris and Wiz at the farm. Prompto had offered to take Talcott’s place at Cid’s side, but he had been bluntly turned down. Cid hadn’t been too pleased when he first witnessed Prompto making advances at his granddaughter. He wasn’t quite convinced the freckled young man was up to his standards. And every potential suitor knew that it wasn’t Cindy’s standards they had to meet, but her grandfather’s.

That had been some years back, and Noctis believed that were Prompto to renew his offer, he wouldn’t be turned down a second time. Cid had been not-so-subtly probing information from the former king about his best friend. Noctis had made sure to mention his skills with machinery and paint a positive picture of Prompto’s characteristics; amazing gunner, kind-hearted, great sense of humour, passionate and committed towards the people he loved. Cid took an interest in the blond’s capabilities, but had huffed at the mention of humour – something about having had enough of that with Reggie’s quirkiness. In the end when Noctis pointed out how ready and eager Prompto was to be of service to the man he considered a living legend, Cid had given up and grumbled about his current full-time caretaker being a ditz and needing a replacement.

Now if only Prompto had the balls to approach Cindy without needing Noctis for moral support.

“Not getting any younger? Could’ve fooled me.”

“Speak up, boy! Ya know I’m deaf in one ear.”

Noctis smirked to himself. Yes, he knew. And he would take advantage of the fact whenever he could. It was quite satisfying to talk back to Cid without having to worry about offending him in the process.

“So, what’s this all about?”

“The Commander has requested us to take one of these elemental cannon prototypes to Meldacio Stronghold”, Ignis replied.

“Aren’t you too busy to leave the fort?”

“Actually, I have other business to attend to while there. I am merely taking this chance to spend more time with you while performing my duty simultaneously.”

Noctis grinned. “Efficient as always.”

He approached one of the cannons. Attached to it were several see-through objects that reminded him of drum magazines. Inside the magazines were crystal cartridges filled with raw elemental energy similar to the flasks he carried on his person. He recognised some components as parts taken from the MA-X Cuirasses as well as the junk he had retrieved from Caem. He couldn’t really tell much based on its appearance alone. That was more of Prompto’s area of expertise.

“So, is this the cannon they used during the daemon raid?”

“The one that nearly killed you, yes.” Although he put up a calm and collected front, Noctis could tell from the way the muscles around Ignis’ throat tightened that the tactician had been extremely worried for his health.

Not wanting to wallow in what could’ve been – he was an expert at that by now – he quickly changed the subject. “How many rounds do those magazines contain?”

“Exactly one hundred”, Cid proudly declared. “That oughta ensure them Meldacio folks are supplied fer more than one invasion and keep the fiends in check.”

“Impressive”, the hunter complimented. Cid grunted nonchalantly, but Noctis didn’t miss the smug turn of his lips.

“Now get off yer asses and push ‘er to the trailer. Cor’s waitin’ fer y’all.”

♫

It had been many years since Noctis had taken the wheel while Ignis sat in the passenger seat. After Regalia’s service came to an end, the four men had trekked all the way from Gralea to Tenebrae to lick their wounds. It had been especially painful for Ignis who had yet to learn to move about unaided. Aranea had offered to fly them along with a hundred homeless Tenebraean civilians back to Lucis. The men had attempted to reclaim the Crystal when rumours spread of its new location in Insomnia. They had stood no chance armed with only regular Meldacio Hunter HQ provided weapons and without Noctis’ powers.

After their humiliating retreat from Insomnia, Noctis had parted from his companions. He needed time to reflect and to come to terms with the reality of his situation. He had failed his people and annulled his forefathers’ and Luna’s sacrifice to nothing. He needed to find a way to make things right.

‘I don’t expect you guys to understand, but I need to do this on my own.’

‘No way am I leaving you, Noct! You’re my best friend!’

‘Prompto, I need to find a way to get my powers back, but I have a duty to my people. Please. Ignis, Gladio. Take care of the civilians while I’m away.‘

‘Don’t take too long. My sister will get gross otherwise.‘

‘We’ll be waiting.‘

Four years Noctis had searched for a way to reclaim his powers. He revisited each tomb, but nothing helped. He poured over old tomes in Accordo’s libraries and researched history in hopes of finding a solution. After those long, lonely years, he found himself at the gate of Fort Vaulleroy where Aranea had built a safe haven for refugees. Civilians from as far as Galahd and Calcano inhabited its dull grey cement walls. It took some persuasion until the former Niflheimian Captain and Lucian King came to an understanding and agreed he would stay as long as his identity remained hidden from everyone within and without the fort.

An exaggerated inhale beside him brought Noctis back from his musings.

“New fragrance?”

“Huh?”

“You smell not unlike Iris.” There was no accusation in his soft timbre, just a neutral remark.

“I do?” Noctis brought his collar to his nose, but all he could smell besides his usual odour was the sweet scent of the sylleblossom hidden in his vest. Shrugging, he took a swig from his water canteen.

“Have you told Gladio of your courtship?”

The water went down the wrong way. Noctis pulled the van to a stop and waited until the violent coughing had subdued.

“I take that as a ‘no’”, Ignis calmly stated and patted the younger man’s back.

“Take it as a ‘no, I’m definitely not dating Iris’”, the hunter managed to correct between hacks and coughs.

“I sincerely hope you’re not implying you had a one night stand.”

Noctis sputtered. “What? No! I just borrowed her soap when me and Prompto ran out.”

Ignis smirked to himself. “If you say so.”

“You don’t see me commenting on your scent. If anyone here smells like a girl, it’s you.”

“Yes, well, that’s to be expected when the Commander has given me permanent nightly order of ‘get to bed or drop dead’.”

Noctis grinned. “Oh, so you have no say in your relationship? Ouch.”

Ignis kept his tone indifferent, but Noctis could tell by the way he fingered his gloves and cleared his throat that the older man was slightly embarrassed. “She does like to remind me of her superior rank from time to time.”

They had never outright announced it, but it was common knowledge that the blind brunet shared quarters with the bossy dragoon. They had been together for four years more or less. Sometimes Noctis wondered if Ignis had any secret desire to become a father. Aranea was forty and didn’t have many years left before her biological clock stopped ticking altogether. Noctis hadn’t even dreamed of becoming a father after his wedding was permanently cancelled – not until he had held Little Luna, freshly scrubbed from dirt and blood, in his arms. He yearned for a life he could never have now more than ever.

While Prompto hadn’t been able to successfully catch Cindy’s attention due to her inhumanly tight schedule, Gladio had been popular among the ladies since day one. He hadn’t found his special someone yet, but it was only a matter of time. He went through lady friends faster than Noctis went through gun polish.

Even Iris, who still hoped to turn his head, had dated other men. He had heard from Talcott that the brunette had had a long-distance relationship with a Lestallumian man before said man perished in a daemon attack while on his way to visit her. They hadn’t been together for more than few months. That was two years ago. He was glad Iris had taken friends and family with her to Lestallum to keep herself distracted from painful memories.

He sometimes wondered if she truly loved him that much or if she was merely in love with an idealised version of him. She hadn’t seen him at his worst and wasn’t aware of how deep his scars ran. She had always seen him as The Crown Prince and like most girls, she dreamed of a fairy tale ending in the arms of a prince who would sweep her off her feet and ride them into the sunset on a white chocobo. He liked to think she had outgrown such childish fantasies by now. He had no crown. Only the ring of the Lucii kept in his breast pocket was a proof of his lineage.

The van’s CD-player played traditional Tenebraean folk songs in a low volume. Prompto had found the undamaged record in one of the deserted Coernix gas stations during their reconnaissance scouting. There weren’t many working music players in the fort. Noctis jealously guarded this rare gem from the other inhabitants, because it was one of the only links he had to Luna and his childhood.

“Haven’t heard these tunes in a while”, Ignis commented. Most people knew Ignis had a radio in the command tower, but what they didn’t know was that Aranea herself had it bought for him specifically as a token of her affection. Noctis knew; he had been the delivery boy.

“Don’t think Radio Ravatogh has a record of it.”

“Ah. That would explain it.”

Even with the radio station’s impressive music library, repetition couldn’t be helped. Hardly any new songs were recorded and no new instruments were made. The only music available were songs from the past or few remaining street artists who tended to gather large crowds in Lestallum and Altissia. Singing and drums were the only available instruments along with guitars with missing cords.

“So, what business do you have in Meldacio Stronghold?” Noctis absently eyed the gleaming eyes of nocturnal beasts they passed by. The hallowed headlights discouraged them from attempting to attack the van and its occupants.

“I’m to hire seasoned hunters to teach each civilian above the age of eighteen living in Fort Highwind basic self-defence and training with arms. After the recent raid we are sorely outnumbered. I am hoping to get a couple of hunters to stay permanently, but for now I have to concentrate on training a new batch. According to the Commander, the Marshal has whipped the hunters into top shape since he repurposed Formouth Garrison.

“He’ll whip my ass if he sees me.”

“Undoubtedly.”

Noctis pulled the van to a stop in front of the stronghold’s gate.

“Inspection!” a man wearing the standardised Meldacio Hunter HQ’s uniform called.

♫

For all its similarities, Meldacio Stronghold felt like a completely different civilisation. The population slept above the surface in a repurposed garage as opposed to the underground dwelling of Fort Highwind. There were no MTs or other independent machines in sight. Everything was operated and performed by humans. A large training ground was occupied by hunters. Even children and the elderly were sporting the brown vests and carrying weapons.

Noctis pulled the van to a stop in front of one of the garages and stepped out. The scent of machine oil mixed with Leiden spices hit his nose in full force. The stronghold’s main exports were spices, herbal and medical plants, wildlife meat and cotton according to Ignis. There had even been talk about reopening the Balouve Mines and clearing it from pests with the hallowed lights and Cid’s elemental machinery technology.

“Glad ya’ll made it safe.” The two men turned around towards the familiar voice. Dave, now sporting strands of grey amidst his brown hair from years of stress and worry, made his way past a grim looking group of armed teenagers towards the two Crown citizens. Pronounced eye bags hung beneath his grey eyes and permanent worry lines creased his forehead. “Been a while.”

“Sure has.”

Dave offered Noctis his hand in greeting. Dirt coated the older man’s fingernails and his hands looked like they required stronger chemicals than just hand soap to get them clean. He smelled of smoke and machine oil. His hand felt coarse to the touch.

“We sure could use that cannon. The Marshal will be pleased.”

“Is he about? I have something I wish to discuss with him”, Ignis interjected.

“He’s overseeing the training. I’ll let him know ya’ll arrived.”

“’Appriciate it”, Noctis offered a final smile before turning back to Ignis while Dave quietly talked into his walkie-talkie.

“Nervous, Noct?”

The hunter chuckled. “You bet I am. That man is not easily pleased and I’m pretty sure he’s not happy with me being missing in action for half a decade.”

“Closer to a full decade considering you had the Commander keep your location hidden even from the Marshal.”

“Don’t remind me.”

A stern man with a katana holstered on his hip approached the duo with swift long strides. His short brown hair was the same military-cut style it had been a decade back, but the colour had turned a shade or two lighter and his hairline had moved closer to the top of his head. The creases on his forehead and around his eyes were more pronounced and only highlighted his discernible displeasure. His brows were creased in a scowl and his lips were stretched to a thin, unhappy line. Were it any other man, Noctis would’ve described him as looking royally pissed. Not even Ignis’ disapproving frown could compete with that of Cor Leonis.

“You’re late.” Cor’s steely blue gaze scrutinized Noctis. “I expected your arrival an hour ago.”

Ignis stepped forward. “Apologies, Marshal. We were stuck in traffic due to the crowds leaving for Lestallum. It is the market day, if you recall.”

“A wise man plans ahead and leaves with ample time to spare.” His eyes never left Noctis’. The younger man did his best not to squirm and shifted his weight in discomfort. “And what is your excuse?”

“I-“, he began, but found it difficult to speak through the lump that had formed in his throat. “I needed time to come to terms with everything that’s happened; Dad, Luna, the daemons…” Revenge against the Empire had long fuelled his perseverance, but when it had been robbed from him due to the daemon outbreak, he had lost his sight on what truly mattered. Prophesies, darkness… All vague concepts that he had no true knowledge of outside his contact with the Starscourge virus as a child. The Empire was something tangible and something he could hold responsible for the loss of his home, throne and love.

“For ten years?”

Noctis couldn’t help flinching at the unforgiving tone. Ignis took pity on him and cut in: “Four. His Highness has been working under the Commander for the rest.”

“Moping in seclusion and hiding beneath the Dragoon’s skirts is ill-befit behaviour for a king. You have a duty to your people first and foremost.”

Noctis lifted his chin in defiance and held the Marshal’s hardened gaze. “I made a terrible mistake in Gralea, I know that now. I’ve tried to put on the ring, but the Lucii couldn’t or wouldn’t grant me their power. The Astrals have forsaken me and my only link to the Six-“, his voice trembled slightly as he remembered the corpse he had fished from the ocean. “My only hope to make things right is waiting for burial in the fort’s morgue.”

A familiar burning sensation behind his eyes warned him of the incoming tears, but he didn’t allow them fall. He wouldn’t show weakness in front of the man who had no sympathy for sob stories. All of them had to deal with loss.

“I’ve worked every day since to make sure my people have a safe place to stay.” He pointed at the hallowed floodlights. “If it weren’t for me, Cindy wouldn’t have been able to recreate the lights and this settlement along with all the others wouldn’t be as safe as they are now.” His voice exuded quiet determination. “I may not be the King of Light the prophecies foretold, but I will give my all to rebel the darkness and keep my people safe with the skillset that I have.”

Cor’s scowl softened to a frown. “There is the resolve I had hoped you still harboured.” He clasped the younger man’s shoulder, something resembling approval in his gruff voice. “And you shall further help your people today. You will accompany me to the Balouve Mines. If we are to arm every man and woman, they will need weapons. And to make weapons we need the resources the mine has to offer.”

He left Noctis little choice, but if a trip to the mines was all it took to be forgiven in the Marshal’s eyes, he would gladly do it. “That all?”

“Don’t get cocky. Our attempts to reclaim it from the daemons haven’t been successful. Miss Aurum is preparing a new weapon for us to utilise, specifically made for this operation. She still needs time to fine-tune it. In the meantime I would have you take the cannon out for a test run.”

“Marshal-“, Ignis began.

“I’ve handpicked three of my finest trainers to accompany you back to the Fort once we’re done in the mines.”

‘That Cor… Always three steps ahead of us’, Noctis mused.

Noctis walked back to the van to unload the cannon.

“Ignis, how do I do thi-?” He glanced around him. The blind brunet was nowhere to be seen. “Now where did he go?”

♫

“Do you have the goods?”

“Got ‘em right here. What about you? Do you have the cards?”

Ignis pulled out fifty ration cards out of his pocket. While gil was still used, fresh vegetables were far more valuable. Ration cards were used by the people of Fort Highwind to partake in daily food provisions to ensure there was enough for everyone and no-one would take more than their share.

The shady Meldacio merchant let out a low whistle. “That’s ten more than last time you checked in.”

“Consider it a bonus after six years of partnership.”

The merchant signalled his accomplice to push forward a cart filled with labelled boxes that read either ‘Leiden pepper’ or ‘Quality cotton’.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Scientia. Your need for quality coffee will keep me and my mates’ families sustained for years to come!”

“Tell your men to unload the cargo to the trailer once my companion unloads the cannon and is out of sight. And be subtle about it.”

“You got it.”

Ignis adjusted his clouded shades. A gesture the merchant had learnt to signal impatience or nervousness. “And be sure to put them in the back so my companion won’t find out.”

The merchant stuffed the ration cards in his coat’s inner pocket. “Doesn’t Highwind ever wonder why you buy so much pepper and cotton whenever you visit us?”

“I need only remind her of the blandness of the food-quality and how fast she goes through her capes when battling red giants.”

“I dunno, man. I have a feeling she might be looking through her fingers, just ‘cause it’s you.”

Ignis said nothing and briskly left before the man could voice more inane comments.

♫

No matter how many times Noctis had ridden the ancient elevator, it didn’t get any easier. He hated having to depend on something so unreliable. It creaked forebodingly as it slowly descended the men deep underground.

Dave fingered the nozzle of his flamethrower. As eager as the hunters had been to put the new cannon to use and clear the mines from fiends for good, they had to take the highway and use something less destructive. The last thing they needed was to accidentally destroy one of the walls holding up the structure and get buried alive.

The backpack of Dave’s incendiary device consisted of three cylinders; the first two similar to a traditional flamethrower for holding compressed, inert propellant gas and flammable liquid, while the third had a tortuous tube made of crystal filled with magical fire in its raw form. Should he run out of the more potent firepower, he’d still have the regular version as a backup.

Cindy never ceased to impress Noctis with her creations. He could definitely see what appealed to Prompto – besides her rather obvious, uh, assets. Cid had sent his granddaughter a copy of the blueprints for the cannon’s cartridges to be used in different weapons, such as the newly made flamethrower. It was still a prototype and hadn’t been tested, but she was confident it would do the job.

Noctis twirled one of the crystal flasks between his fingers nervously. If the mines were anywhere near as dangerous as the last time he had been here, they’d be tightly pressed.

A heavy-built man with a traditional Galahdan hairstyle – Libertus, if he remembered correctly – elbowed him. “Put that away before you cause an accident.” Noctis rolled his eyes and made the mistake to glance Cor’s way. It took only a stern glare from the Marshal to make him obediently shove the flask back in his vest pocket. He opted to tap the hilt of his sword instead. Ignis sighed in irritation beside him, but Noctis paid him no mind.

Umbra’s ears were flat against his head and his jaw was tightly clenched shut. He put up a brave front, but it was obvious he wasn’t keen on going so far underground. Mines are no place for a dog, Cor had said as much. Noctis had ordered the canine to stay outside, but for some reason he had ignored him, cantered to the lift and refused to budge. One of the battle-hardened veteran hunters, Richard, had threatened to shoot the dog himself if the canine turned out to be a liability. Safe to say, Noctis had a thundaga flask with the hunter’s name on it just itching to be used.

There were seven of them in total in the mine cage, excluding Umbra; Noctis, Ignis, Cor, Dave, Libertus, Richard and William. It was a somewhat tight fit, but they managed just about. The hallowed spotlight the size of his nightstand cast a pale blue light over their grim faces. William had taken the task to carry the heavy torch on his back.

Noctis hadn’t had much chance to get to know the two hunters. What they seemed to lack in manners and charm, they most likely made up for with skills at arms. They had been personally trained by Cor, after all. Both carried a revolver, a flare gun, knives and a short sword.

Libertus, on the other hand, didn’t appear ill-willed, merely reserved. He wasn’t wearing the browns and greys of Meldacio Hunter HQ; instead he wore what appeared to be a modified Kingsglaive uniform. A breastplate in the shape of the symbol of Galahdan province protected his front. His face was covered in several pale scars which Noctis suspected were received from the numerous battles he had fought in the name of Lucis. Two holsters hung from his belt, each meant for a kukri of a different size.

Noctis shifted and turned to face the Galahdan. “You were part of the Kingsglaive?”

“Aye. What of it?” He warily eyed at the former king.

“Where were you the day your king died?” Noctis knew it served no purpose to open old wounds, but he truly wanted to know what had really happened during the destruction of Insomnia. The only eyewitness he had spoken with was Iris.

“Escorting the Lady Lunafreya outside the city”, the Galahdan gruffly replied.

His heart skipped a beat.

“Really?”

The glaive crossed his arms. “I don’t have any reason to lie. The kings of Lucis are dead and I have no-one left to answer to.”

Noctis could feel Cor’s cool gaze on the back of his head. “I see.”

Libertus’ suspicion seemed to fade when he saw the hunter’s shoulders hunch. “I can tell you wanna ask me something. Spill.”

Noctis inhaled and exhaled slowly to calm himself. He had never expected to find another link to the past in a daemon infested mine of all places. “How was she? Was she hurt during the escape?”

“She got few bumps and bruises, but she made it out in one piece.” His eyes crinkled in good humour. “I could tell she was a fighter. She might not have carried a weapon on her, but she sure knew how to make the best out of a sticky situation. Reminds me of someone else I knew.” He fingered the smaller kukri with a fond smile.

“Thank you.”

Libertus’ brow lifted in question.

“For keeping her safe”, Noctis specified.

Richard snorted. “You her secret ex-lover or something? Too bad it’s late to cash-in on that scandal.”

Noctis’ hand was already removing the Engine Blade from his belt by the time Libertus butted in: “Knock it off, Dick.”

With a final creak the lift reached its destination.

“I won’t have any spats in my squad. Spare your aggression for the daemons”, Cor barked. “The fiends have made their nest deep within this tunnel. Be on your guard.”

He took point, his hand readily resting on his katana’s hilt. Noctis followed his example. William removed the heavy spotlight from his back and held it against his hip to point the light forward. They followed the rails, all the while keeping a watchful eye for any incoming carts. Goblins were known to ambush any fools brave enough to wander through their claimed home territory. It was eerily quiet. Only the clanking of booted feet against the iron rails and Umbra’s nails scratching the rocky path broke the silence. They reached a large room branching out in several smaller tunnels. There were still no signs of life.

The men turned to follow a narrow tunnel further down. Water trickled down from above them. Noctis lost his balance on several occasions as his feet slipped on the wet rocky ground. Thankfully Ignis was behind him and kept him upright and from making himself look like a fool in front of Cor and his men. Swallowing his pride, Noctis let his hand follow the cold rock wall for support. The sound of moving rocks alerted the men.

“The structure doesn’t sound stable”, Ignis commented.

“It’s not”, Richard confirmed.

“Just great”, Noctis muttered under his breath.

Umbra barked sharply in warning. A steady rumble and squeaking of wheels increased in volume.

“Watch out!”

♫

A mine cart came out of the darkness and knocked William over who was at the rear and hadn’t heard the warning. Several goblins jumped out of the cart and swarmed him. Cor was already engaging the meddlesome fiends while Richard pulled William to safety. The wounded hunter grunted in pain; he had hurt his leg badly from the crash and couldn’t stay up on his feet. The spotlight had taken the brunt of the blow and was damaged beyond repair. Only the men’s pocket torches lit up the tunnel.

Umbra turned to the opposite direction of the goblins and growled. Heavy footsteps alerted the hunters to a new presence. A tall, pale figure fearlessly walked beneath the shaft of Noctis’ torchlight. Seeing its mutilated face and lidless onyx black eyes up close sent chills down the former king’s spine. It held its long katana in a lazy hold, the blade resting against its shoulder. It bode its time as if waiting for something.

Another horde of goblins approached from behind it. Then, without a warning, the tall daemon lunged forward and swiped its long blade to where Libertus’ neck was just a split second ago. Anticipating the attack, Cor had rushed forward to parry the aramusha’s strike. The Galahdan backed off from the duel and joined Ignis in dispatching the goblins.

“More coming from the rear!” Dave called. The air sizzled as magical flames burst out from the nozzle of the flamethrower. The stench of melting skin and boiling blood was nigh overwhelming. The goblins’ loud screeches of pain seemed to only summon more fiends. The five hunters and a glaive had their hands full. Even Umbra joined the fray. With his jaws he snapped any wandering goblin’s neck that dared to come too close to his master. Foul tasting black blood coated his fangs.

The aramusha took Cor by surprise and rushed past him straight towards Dave’s unguarded back. Noctis hurried to protect the older man. Sparks flew as metal clashed with metal. His booted feet skidded backwards on the rocky floor from the force of the daemon’s blow. Cor took the chance to slash at the daemon’s back, but it was too quick; it kicked Noctis right in the stomach and sent him flying before turning around to parry the Marshal’s attack.

Noctis landed next to Dave who immediately extinguished the flames to avoid burning his ally. The goblins rushed forward to overwhelm the defenceless flamethrower operator. Noctis pulled out his thundaga flask and let it fly among the pack of goblins. The whole tunnel lit up in blinding white light as lightning crackled and killed a dozen goblins, momentarily paralysing the rest of the daemons and allowing Noctis time to roll out of the flamethrower’s line of fire. Dave continued his assault. Electricity continued to sizzle from where Noctis’ flask had landed and killed any goblins that made the mistake to step too close.

Richard and William had pushed the mining cart sideways and used it as cover to fire at the horde. Ignis joined Cor in engaging the aramusha while Libertus covered Dave’s back. A familiar sound of high pitched gurgling came from behind the daemon leader.

Bombs.

Not good.

Noctis scrambled to his feet and ran past the tall daemon. The bombs were already increasing size at an alarming rate. He cleaved the closest bomb in half with his Engine Blade. It fell with a heavy thud, its dying flame illuminating the tunnel in hellish red light. Another three continued to grow. He managed to kill one more and engage another, but the last one evaded his slash and made its way to its master. Noctis wished now more than ever that he had his warping abilities.

With nothing else at hand, he took out his last magic flask – a leftover low-potency blizzard grenade – and threw it towards the daemon. The blizzard spell did little damage, but it slowed the bomb’s advance enough for it to go off prematurely. The explosion destroyed the fragile structures keeping the roof supported. The last remaining bomb next to him followed the previous one’s example and detonated. Noctis jumped for cover, but was thrown into air by the force of the blast. He landed painfully on the hard ground.

Rubble and jagged rocks fell and blocked the tunnel, separating him from the rest of the group. He lay still as dust and loose rocks showered down on him and waited for the loud rumble to come to a stop. The loose dirt covered the corpses of the bombs, hiding the light of their dying flames and encasing the tunnel in complete darkness once more.

♫

Noctis couldn’t hear the sound of fighting anymore. He couldn’t hear anything at all besides his own ragged breathing and the sound of his racing heart. He inhaled the dusty air and coughed. He could hardly see through the haze even with the aid of his torchlight. He waited for the dust to settle before he shakily stood up and attempted to wipe the excess dirt from his clothes. His hair and face were covered in grainy sand. Even his mouth and ears hadn’t been spared from the dirt shower. He spat out the muck and wiped his dirty face with an equally dirty sleeve. Some mess he had gotten himself in.

He was trapped. He moved to the rubble blocking his way to his friends and attempted to push, but nothing moved. It was as impassable as the sealed doors of old he had read about in stories. He felt sick. Sweat formed on his brow and upper lip. Blood gushed loudly in his ears and his breathing grew erratic. He instinctively clutched to his pained chest and fought against the panic attack that threatened to take hold of him.

I’mgonnagetburiedaliveI’mgonnagetburiedalive-

‘Keep calm, Noct’, he ordered himself. Funnily enough his inner rational voice sounded like Ignis.

His head felt light. He couldn’t breathe properly and only managed to inhale short gasps of thick grainy air.

‘Breathe in, breathe out. That’s it.’

He took in a long shuddering breath and exhaled it as slowly and calmly as he could. He continued his breathing exercise until he was certain the hyperventilating had passed.

Noctis leant against the wall. What was he to do now? He took out his walkie-talkie to inform his companions of his current situation. There wasn’t even any static crackling in response, only dead silence. With few options available, Noctis turned to face the opposite side and searched for a way out of the enclosed space. His torchlight found a rock formation that looked loose enough to be moved. Carefully he pushed and was rewarded with a low peal as rocks tumbled and formed a small hole. He slipped his sword through it before crawling out of the death trap.

He took a long whiff of the stale underground air. His headache lessened as his lungs got their fill of oxygen. Rocks crumbled ominously above him. The structure was still unstable.

He walked in silence for good five minutes before the sound of squealing stopped him in his tracks. He covered his torchlight with the palm of his gloved hand and held his breath while standing completely still. A small pack of goblins emerged from a junction. They halted as if sensing his presence and sniffed the air dubiously. They crept closer to his hiding spot. Once they were only a spear’s length away, Noctis uncovered the torchlight and killed the momentarily blinded goblins.

Two goblins had stayed far enough to avoid getting blinded and sneaked in from the side to assault him. Noctis blocked the first one’s attack and send it flying back with a hard push from the flat side of his blade, but not before the goblin successfully snatched one of the two remaining potion bottles he carried on his person. The daemon stumbled briefly from the blow, but didn’t let go of its prize. It chugged down the contents of his potion and cackled gleefully. Stunned by the dirty trick, Noctis failed to react on time as the second goblin reached him, its poisonous fangs digging through the fabric of his sleeve into his arm. With a yelp of pain, Noctis kicked off the creature. Its sharp teeth ripped his flesh as it was forcefully dislodged from its prey. Not wasting any time, the hunter impaled the off-balanced goblin.

The last remaining goblin squeaked and fled with his empty potion bottle clutched between its bony hands.

The poison worked surprisingly fast. Already Noctis was feeling its affects; his breathing grew laborious and his limbs felt heavy as lead. His head swam as he stumbled forward, his hold on the Engine Blade slackening until the blade’s tip scraped the dusty ground. He tripped and fell heavily on his side. The sylleblossom fell from his pocket and landed in front of him. He couldn’t summon the strength to even lift his head. He was so tired. He wanted badly to take a nap.

Just five minutes.

His eyes drifted shut.

♫

Somebody was crying. Noctis opened his heavy eyelids and blinked at the blurry image of something blue in front of him. The sweet smell of the sylleblossom gradually helped clear the fog from his head. Sitting up, he noted he was still in the mines and separated from his friends. His arm was sore from where the goblin had bitten him. He took the last remaining potion bottle on him and emptied its content on the wound. He ripped a strip of cloth from his undershirt and wiped it clean from the dirt and dust before wrapping it around the swollen limb. He had no antidotes on him; Ignis carried most of their medical supplies. He could only hope the potion was enough. He took the fallen flower and put it back in his pocket. Curiously enough his limbs didn’t feel nearly as heavy as they had before, even if he was still wobbly and unfocused.

A sharp sob reminded him of an unseen presence. Picking up his Engine Blade, Noctis staggered towards the sound. Was someone else stuck down here? How long had they been here?

“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you”, he slurred. His tongue felt unusually thick in his mouth.

He came to a crossroad and paused to listen. The sniffling and sobbing was muffled as if the crying person was hiding under a thick blanket. He followed the sounds to an empty room and stumbled over discarded mining equipment. The shaft of his torchlight found its target huddled against the stone wall. He instantly recognised the faded white dress, now covered in dust.

“Luna?”

The crying quieted down. She lifted her head and warily watched him.

“How did you get down here?” His head buzzed and he nearly lost his balance as he made his way beside her. His feet were numb and he couldn’t trust any of his senses to guide him safely. His eyesight occasionally blurred, his ears rang as if he had stood next to a firing turret for too long and he constantly felt like he was free-falling and about to phase through the floor. That poison must’ve done a number on him. His current condition reminded him of his 18th birthday when Prompto had taken him to a sleazy bar in the outskirts of the city to celebrate. He hadn’t realised how drunk he was until it was too late.

Ungracefully he slumped down next to her.

“You let me die.”

His eyes widened. He could hardly believe his ears. She was actually talking! All he managed was a clever “Huh?” in reply.

“You let me die”, she repeated. She dropped her hands from her tearstained cheeks to her lap and glared at him insistently. “You let me die for nothing.”

Words failed him. He could only gape at her and stutter incomprehensibly.

“I showed you by example what it meant to sacrifice everything for the good of all of Eos. Yet here you are, doing nothing to stop the Scourge and end all suffering. You made a promise to me!”

His heart thudded rapidly against his ribcage, his hands were clammy and he could feel adrenaline rush through his veins. Suddenly he was hyper aware of his surroundings and of her smallest movements. In the back of his mind he wondered what caused this abrupt alertness when just a moment ago he had felt so sluggish.

Little Luna continued her relentless accusing. “I thought you loved me! I thought you wanted to be with me, forever!” she cried hysterically. Tears welled in her bright blue eyes as she wrinkled the hem of her dress between her small hands in distress.

Noctis cradled her head between his palms. “I do love you. I do want to be with you.”

Her eyes focused on his in an intense stare. “Then why?” She lifted her hands to clutch his vest. “Why won’t you join me in death?”

Dread gnawed at his insides. Kill himself? And leave his friends and the people who depend on him?

“I still have people here who need me.” He stroked her icy cheek with his thumb and rested his forehead against hers. “Please. Wait for me, Luna.”

She lowered her gaze, her hold on his collar tightening. “I’m done waiting.”

Her eyes gleamed yellow. Something oozed from the seams of her layered face. A trail of black blood trickled down from her hairline and over her eye, all the way down to her dress’ neckline. She unsteadily stood up as more blood dripped from her nostrils, mouth, ears and eye sockets. Soon her whole face was covered in the foul fluid and the top of her white dress was soaked from it. Noctis scrambled on his feet and backed away from her.

“If you won’t do your duty and would have me die in vain, then grant me this one satisfaction.” She cornered him against the wall. He had nowhere to run. “Share my suffering!”

The bones of her small fingers crunched and popped as they stretched and grew into long sharp claws similar to an arachne’s and tore his vest and shirt open. She ripped his skin with ease and dug into his meat. His stomach lurched as her twitching fingers wiggled between his muscles. He wanted to scream, but his parched throat managed only a guttural gasp. She let go of his collar and scrabbled at his meat. He felt faint and was certain he would’ve collapsed had she not held him put with the hand that twitched between his muscles.

Seemingly happy with herself, she removed her bloodied pawing hand and punched hard enough for his ribcage to shatter. She split the bones and carelessly tossed them over her shoulder before pausing to admire her work. She looked like a child celebrating her birthday as she pulled his heart out from his chest. His veins were still attached to the pulsing organ. Seeing them stretch made his stomach churn from nausea. He heard a sickening, wet squelch as his veins snapped from the tension and released his heart. She held the still beating heart in front of his eyes. He heaved uncontrollably and vomited bile on her white bony arms. She didn’t appear bothered by the stinking body fluid in the slightest and merely cooed at him.

“Don’t worry, dear Noctis.” Her voice was eerily soft, almost like a sweet lullaby. “I will safeguard your heart just as you have kept mine safe for all these years.”

His numb hands found the hilt of his sword. The blade punctured her lungs. With a raspy wheeze she collapsed to the ground after he dislodged the blackened blade from her petite body. He staggered backwards and dropped the sword, horror written all over his shell-shocked face. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted next to her still body.

♫

With a startled gasp Noctis sat up, his hand clutching his chest. He dropped his gaze to his breast and was relieved to see his clothes intact and his body hale and healthy. He was drenched in cold sweat and his clothes clung to him like a second skin. The calming scent of a sylleblossom invaded his nostrils. It was like a breath of fresh air compared to the stuffy and still air of the mines. But it wasn’t the only scent he could smell; a familiar stale stench crept up his nose. Noctis turned his torchlight to point towards its source.

His blood ran cold and the torchlight fell from his trembling hand.

Next to his bloodied Engine Blade lay a pair of bony white feet. Even with the upper body shrouded in shadows, he could tell the limbs were twisted in an unnatural angle.

Had he truly…?

A dry sob wrecked his frame. He attempted to stand up, but his legs were barely responsive. With a frustrated gnarl, he forced himself on all fours and crawled towards the small body. Just as he was within arm’s reach, the pale legs began to move. He halted and watched with bated breath. Was she alive? A quiet scraping of flesh across the hard floor was the only sound he could hear. Something dragged the body further away into the darkness, leaving behind a black-blooded trail.

“No!”

Picking his torchlight, he lost his balance and collapsed. With only his arms mobile, he dragged his body forward. He followed the trail until he came to a small hole, just large enough to fit a goblin or a child’s body inside. He stuck his arm into the hole and felt around. A layer of something sticky covered the floor and squelched between his fingers. His hand enclosed around something solid. He withdrew his hand and held it next to his torchlight. His hand and arm were covered in wet slosh that consisted of foul smelling daemon manure mixed with rotten black blood. In his hand he held a broken piece of a goblin skull. With a repulsed shudder, he tossed it away.

He peeked into the hole, but couldn’t see anything. His only reward was the disgusting stench of daemon waste. He heard a wet snap as if a limb was pulled out of its socket. Quiet gnawing and munching echoed from within the daemon nest followed by an occasional pleased hiss. He pulled out of the hole and threw up. Yellow liquid trickled down his chin even after he had finished emptying his stomach. He wiped the drops of bile from his beard. His throat felt like it was burning and tears blurred his vision. He had killed her and left her remains to be defiled.

Not wanting to listen to the sickening symphony, he crawled back to where he had left his sword.

As he reached his soiled weapon, his torchlight hit something reflective. He forced himself to sit upright and picked up the see-through item. It was a potion bottle. And not just any potion bottle, but the very same one the goblin had stolen from him. How did it get here? Why hadn’t the goblin brought its buddies to finish him off while he had been unconscious?

He held his head as the familiar buzzing intensified. His body was still fighting against the poison.

He hadn’t felt so utterly alone for a long time. Ever since he had discovered his friendly ghost, he had felt like he always had someone following him and watching his back. She had saved him from getting ambushed during the daemon raid and she showed him where the injured chocobo was. He was fairly certain he had her to thank for his swift recovery from the elemental cannon’s blizzard blast as well.

How come she wanted him to kill himself? Was it truly her or had he been hallucinating thanks to the goblin poison? He desperately wanted to believe it had been just the figment of his messed up imagination, but the lifeless body and the fresh blood on his blade were evidence he had hard time ignoring.

♫

But what if…?

He glanced at the empty potion bottle and the black trail leading to the unknown creature’s nest.

Little Luna never spoke when he was conscious. The only time he had spoken with her was when he was knocked out from the blizzard blast, and even then she had only told him to get better for his friends’ sake. She never accused him of his failures or demanded him to pay a blood price. On the contrary, she always made sure he stayed alive.

With a trembling hand, he took out the fragile blue flower out of his pocket and inhaled its aromatic scent. The throbbing lessened and he could feel the numbness of his legs gradually fade away. Maybe the flower had some kind of healing properties against venom? It seemed to be slowing down the poison from taking over. He distantly recalled Luna telling him that sylleblossoms were used in hygiene products such as soaps as well as in medicine. They grew everywhere in Tenebrae and were therefore cheap ingredients.

His hope rekindled, Noctis wrapped his scarf around his lower face and placed the flower beneath the makeshift mask. He breathed in its sweet fragrance. He sat and waited for the buzzing to stop. Once he was confident he could stay on his feet, he stood up using his sword as support.

Even now Little Luna was saving him. Had she not placed the flower in his vest, he would’ve succumbed to the poison hours ago.

♫

He left the room and stopped at the crossroad to listen. He could barely hear distant tumbling of rocks and high-pitched squealing of goblins coming from the opposite tunnel. It might lead him back to the fight and back to his companions, but he was in no condition to fight endless hordes of daemons. His mind made up, he took a turn to the right.

The tunnel led up and away from the stale stench of daemon waste. The further he went, the clearer the air smelt. A sudden loud static made him jump and nearly hit his head on the roof.

‘-oct. Come in, Noct.’ The wave of relief was nearly overwhelming after hours of constant tension.

He quickly brought his hand to his walkie-talkie. He took a calming breath and readied his aloof pretence. “Present. I’m alright, just took a detour down in daemon latrine. Amazing stuff.”

‘Glad to hear your humour is still intact’, the strategist dryly commented.

“How’re you guys? All still in one piece?”

There was a brief silence on Ignis’ end. ‘I’m afraid we lost Richard during the cave in. He was crushed under heavy debris while he tried to carry William to safety. He tripped over a goblin corpse and William fell from his back. Thankfully Libertus managed to pull William out of the danger, but we couldn’t do anything for Richard. He died instantly.’

Noctis sent a silent prayer for the hunter’s soul. He might’ve not liked the man, but he didn’t wish death for anyone.

“I see.”

♫

The sight of torchlight shafts had never been so welcome in his life. Umbra ran to him without restraint. Noctis chuckled and allowed the dog to fawn over him.

“Good to see you, too. Was lonely without you.” He patted the dark-furred head affectionately.

Ignis held his nose. “You truly smell like you’ve been living in the sewers for the past week.” Like all of the men, the blind brunet was covered in dust. The hems of his glaive uniform were burnt, presumably from friendly-fire.

Libertus, who was carrying an unconscious William on his back, halted when his torchlight illuminated the dark-haired hunter. “Damn, you look like you’ve been through hell.”

Noctis looked down at himself. His dominant arm was caked in black stinking slosh while the other had a soaked-through rag covering his wound. He looked like someone had rolled him in tar and thrown him into a pit of dirt. Prompto would kill for that photo.

Cor eyed the rag wrapped around Noctis’ arm. “Ignis, take out your medical kit. He is injured.” Unsurprisingly the grim Marshal was the least injured out of all of them. Only indication of a struggle was the dirt and sweat covering his skin. Noctis was a little disappointed he didn’t get to see the showdown between the aramusha and former Crownsguard. He would’ve preferred that by far to what he had to witness while separated from his companions. He forced the images, sounds and smells out of his mind with a shake of his head and concentrated on what was before him.

Ignis immediately took his kit from his rucksack. “What happened? Where are you hurt?”

“A goblin bit me on the arm. I feel a little woozy, but otherwise I’m okay.”

The tactician frowned as he fumbled to find the injured arm. He removed his gloves and discarded Noctis’ makeshift bandage to feel the wound with his fingertips.

“Ow! No need to press it. It hurts enough without you adding to it.”

Ignis ignored him and cleaned the wound. He had Noctis drink an antidote while he wrapped his arm in a fresh bandage.

“I’m impressed ya’ll made it this far on your own and while injured”, Dave commented. His voice was gruff yet warm. “Doesn’t take more than one bite from a goblin for a man to kick the bucket.” Noctis noted the older man was favouring his other leg as he stood. If he squinted, he could see the outlines of a bandage hugging his injured thigh beneath his grey hunter slacks. Scratch marks covered his bare arms. His other sleeve was ripped from where the aramusha’s katana had grazed him.

Libertus lowered William down and straightened his back. “Sounds like he’s got the favour of one of the Six”, he lightly joked. The Galahdan’s breastplate was falling apart. He must’ve taken a heavy hit sometime during the fight. He had a bandage wrapped around his forehead where he had received a new gash to add to his scar collection.

“Wouldn’t count on that”, Noctis mumbled.

Once his wound was taken care of and Ignis had made sure Dave and Libertus drank another potion to keep their wounds from reopening, the men trekked to the elevator and returned to the surface. Noctis couldn’t help but notice how spacious the mine cage felt with Richard’s absence. William woke up, but refused to acknowledge any of them. Libertus quietly explained to Noctis that Richard had been William’s step-brother and the only family he had left. It was best to let him grieve in peace for now.

The ride back up went by in a flash as Noctis mulled over all that had happened down in the mines. He would have to ask Prompto if he had seen Little Luna while he’d been away. He still felt unsure about relying on his senses, even as the sylleblossom kept him sober and the antidote continued to purge the poison from his bloodstream. He wasn’t sure he could tell the difference between sleep and awake anymore. He could only hope it was a temporary state.

The rusty cage-doors opened. He hurried out into the open space and deeply inhaled the cool air. He had no idea how long they had been down there, but it felt like days. He had almost given up on smelling fresh air ever again when he had stumbled alone in the darkness, poison weighing his limbs down.

“We have cleared most of the mines”, Cor informed him. “Libertus, take him and William to the Stronghold’s medic. Ignis, Dave. Get yourselves looked after as well. I will bring another team tomorrow to wipe out the leftover daemons.”

“Yes, sir!”

Noctis made to follow the rest of the men back to the car when Cor’s hand on his shoulder halted him. He glanced quizzically at the older man.

“You did well, Majesty. You saved us from getting buried alive.”

Noctis lowered his gaze. “Hardly. Richard’s dead thanks to me. Had I been faster, the bombs wouldn’t have gone off.”

“No use mulling over what ifs. You can waste away years thinking what could’ve been.” His steely blue eyes softened. “I should know. I’ve carried the weight of your father’s death on my shoulders all these years. For three years I searched for you, Majesty. I thought I had failed you as well and that the line of Lucis had ended.”

Noctis lifted his hand to clasp Cor’s coarse one. “You’ve never failed me, Marshal. You did your best to ensure the people of Leide had a safe place to stay. I couldn’t ask for more.”

Cor briefly squeezed his shoulder before briskly making his way to the vehicle. He was already contacting the Stronghold to make sure the medical staff was ready to receive them.

They stayed in Meldacio Stronghold overnight. It was quite a different experience from his time in the Fort’s infirmary. For one, they had actual beds instead of having tables posing as beds. An elderly lady came every hour to check on him and the monitor plugged to him. So far everything seemed good. The antidotes were doing their job to cleanse his blood and the medical herb tea she had prepared for him helped him to calm down. Umbra was allowed to lie next to his bed. Libertus, Dave and William were also recovering in the same building, but kept in separate rooms. Ignis had suffered no serious injuries and had decided to sleep among civilians.

Noctis fingered the bright blue flower. He had kept it hidden from everyone, including his companions and the medical staff. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to hide it. It wasn’t like anybody would take it from him and demand to make it into an antidote. He switched off the lights and cradled the bloom next to his face.

♫

The first thing Noctis did once he arrived to Fort Highwind was to find Prompto. He found the blond at Cid’s garage, staring intently at a blueprint as if he was trying to make heads or tails out of it. Cid might be a genius, but deciphering his hieroglyphs was another matter entirely.

“Hey, Noct. Did Cor roughen you up good?” He grinned.

“He didn’t need to. The daemons did that for him.” Noctis replied dryly. “He took us to clear the Balouve mines with Cindy’s newest creation.”

Prompto instantly perked up and set the papers down. “What did she invent this time? Anything cool? I tell you, man, she’s amazing! Can you imagine a romantic date in the garage; surrounded by machinery and the smell of chemicals and armed with a tool box? The things we could teach each other-“

“A flamethrower using elemental energy”, Noctis interrupted his gushing. As endearing as it was, he really didn’t need to know all the juicy details of Prompto’s Cindy-related fantasies.

“Did it work?”

“Yeah, we got the place cleared up.” No need to tell him of the more gruesome details. They all had their own demons to deal with. No pun intended.

“Listen, Prompto.” Noctis scratched the back of his neck as he tried to keep himself calm. “Have you seen Little Luna while I was away?”

“Nope. But the real deal is still kept in the morgue. The rest of the hunters were buried outside the fort, but since she doesn’t stink like a corpse should, they let her chill.”

Noctis sighed in relief. He wanted to be there when it came time to say his final goodbye.

“Apparently Aranea got some phone-calls from Tenebrae’s ambassador requesting her to be brought back to her homeland to be buried. They want to give her a proper ceremony fit for an Oracle.”

“Do you have any idea when it’s scheduled to take place?”

Prompto shrugged. “In a few weeks. They’re making a fancy pall for the coffin and everything. Dunno much about funerals, but apparently they require a lot of work and the Tenebraeans wanna make it the best they can or something.”

“Thanks.”

So Little Luna was missing. No big deal, he had been away only two days. He refused to entertain the thought that he had truly killed her in the mines. She was just busy. Doing ghostly things.

His excuses did little to ease the knot of dread that had formed in his belly.

♫

Noctis woke up with a startled gasp. His pulse was racing and his heart felt like it was about to tear itself out of his chest. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat and trembling like a leaf. He glanced at the green digits of Prompto’s newly purchased alarm clock. The freckled blond had bought it as a souvenir from Lestallum. It was shaped like a chocobo’s head. Noctis wasn’t sure if it was meant for him or Prompto. He liked to think he had outgrown his youth’s habit of sleeping in. Normally the goofy clock made him smile, but tonight he could only remember a chocobo with a bloodied rag covering her eyes and how she had slumped down like a ragdoll when he put a bullet through her brain.

His sheets were damp. It was his third night terror that night. Thankfully Noctis had managed to persuade Prompto to go visit Cindy and therefore wasn’t present to witness what a mess he was. He had let Umbra out after waking from his second night terror. Sometimes Umbra took it on himself to make rounds around the fort as if he was serving as eyes for someone. Gentiana, perhaps? It was almost comforting to think one of the Six still cared about the decaying remains of humanity. Almost.

Noctis kicked off his covers and sat up. He couldn’t take this anymore. He was under constant strain from anxiety attacks and plagued by images of the past few weeks. He felt like he was stuck watching a never-ending loop of a shitty home video. He saw the mutilated faces of the hunters that had died in the daemon raid. He saw himself killing an innocent animal as an act of mercy, the chocobo’s blood splattering over the embodiment of his most precious memories.

He saw Luna and Ardyn. He could still vividly recall every detail from that day; how her light blue eyes had widened in surprise as a knife dug into her flesh, how she had bled black blood as the corruption within her frail body threatened to eat her from the inside, how her hair had come free from the elegant braids, how she had defiantly stood her ground in the face of death and attempted to free her killer from the curse of his own making.

But most of all, he saw Little Luna. He saw her getting strangled by imps and heard her terrified scream. He saw her widened glassy eyes as he betrayed her trust and attempted to rip her mask off. He heard the faint gurgle as his sword impaled her plague-ridden body. He heard the distant munching of daemons feasting on her remains.

He hurried out of his dorm to the restroom and emptied what little was left of the contents of his stomach. Shivering, he spat the foul taste from his mouth and washed his face. His pale reflection stared back at him from the dirty mirror. His sunken eyes were bloodshot and his shirt had visible sweat patches. He looked like hell.

Noctis staggered out of the restroom and made his way to the infirmary. He needed something to calm his nerves. Only a single nurse was on duty at this time of night. It was easy enough to sneak past her to the storage room where the drugs were kept. He found the pill dispenser with ease – he had stolen from it three times that week. He didn’t know much about drugs, but he had become acquainted with oxymorphone during his stay in the infirmary and found out it was easy to get high as a kite from them.

Without hesitation, he popped a handful of pills in his mouth and replaced the dispenser in its shelf. Carefully he cracked the door open and made sure the coast was clear before sneaking back to the corridor. Now all he needed was to get back to his dorm and enjoy the brief break from his nightmares.

“Noct?”

Fuck.

He froze in his tracks. He toyed with the thought of making a run for it, but realised he’d just postpone the inevitable. Iris caught up with him. She was wearing nothing but a long-hemmed faded shirt as a nightgown and her farmer-boots. Her long brown tresses were tied to a loose braid that rested over her shoulder. Her hands were damp from a recent wash. She must’ve come from the restroom and spied on him. It would seem he wasn’t the only one with sleeping problems.

“So it was you.” She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him sternly. “I heard the nurses talk about drugs disappearing. I didn’t expect you to be our resident junkie.”

“Leave me alone.”

She grabbed his arm before he could turn his back on her. “Noct, I can see you’re hurting. Let me help you. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I can’t sleep when I keep seeing her die”, he slurred. His eyes were glazing over from the drugs. “I killed her and now she won’t visit me anymore.”

Iris frowned in confusion. “Who are you talking about? Who won’t visit you?”

“Littl’un”, he mumbled.

“Little one?” Iris echoed. “Noct, you’re not making any sense.”

He pulled his arm free from her hold and pushed past her. He reached his dorm’s door and opened it only to have Iris slam it shut.

“Noct, you’ve been like this over a week. You’re distant and hurting. Your actions don’t make any sense to me!”

Irritated, he grabbed her by the wrist, opened the door and shoved her inside. He closed the door behind him and staggered to his bunk. Iris sat down next to him. Her sylleblossom scented shampoo only reminded him of the fleeting moments of happiness he had shared with Little Luna. Had he known his days with her were numbered, he would’ve done something more. He wouldn’t have let her out of his sight.

He snapped out of his melancholic musings when Iris shyly took his hand in hers. Her sincere hazel eyes were so different from Luna’s pale blue ones. They were warm and easily approachable, just like her brother’s, yet they seemed to lack something.

Whereas Iris’ eyes seemed to always shine with admiration and awe, Luna’s cool blue gaze had regarded him as an equal – even when he had felt inferior as a crippled, plague-ridden boy. The four year age gap had done little to help him feel like he could one day stand as her equal, but time and time again she managed to push such insecure thoughts away with a mere turn of her lips. When she smiled, the very air surrounding them had felt warmer. Only Luna could melt his heart so effortlessly, even when his only window to her soul had been the vacant, glassy eyes of Little Luna. His heart ached as he remembered how Little Luna had laughed and smiled when they danced. He’d never see that sunny smile again.

“I’m here for you, Noct. If there’s anything at all that I can do to help, I will.”

Iris’ bare thigh lightly pressed against his as she leant closer. Her smooth hand felt warm around his. It was nothing like the small chilled hand of Little Luna.

Iris was alive.

Luna was gone.

“Anything?” His voice was husky and his throat felt dry.

“Anything.” She squeezed his hand, her lips parting in anticipation.

“I want to forget.” He dropped his gaze to his lap and took a shuddering breath. “For one night, I want to forget everything.”

His head swam. He could already feel the first wave of euphoria from the pills hitting him in full force. He barely registered as the clothes came off and her small pink mouth covered his.

♫

Something soft and warm was pressed against him. He could hear cries of seagulls and smell sea salt. Was he in Altissia? Drowsily he opened his fogged eyes and looked down to see his wife’s golden head resting against his chest. Their thin blanket was tangled between their feet. He saw her wedding dress hanging next to the wardrobe while his suit had been lazily tossed over the back of a chair. Noctis found his wife’s hand and fingered her wedding band. How come he had no recollection of the day before? Had he been drinking too much in the after party?

She stirred, but remained asleep. Her bare skin glowed under the morning sun. They lay in the bed for what felt like hours, but she showed no signs of waking up. Deciding he wanted to surprise her by bringing her breakfast to the bed, he carefully disentangled his limbs from hers and sat up.

He caught his reflection on the mirror of the vanity table. He was suffering from a serious case of bed hair, but it wasn’t anything a brush and hair gel couldn’t fix. He approached the mirror and rubbed his smooth chin. Something was off and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Somehow his face felt foreign, like he was seeing someone else’s face. But it was clearly him, so why-?

Shrugging, he opened the blinders. The morning sun suddenly vanished behind the horizon and the previously warm sea breeze dropped in temperature. With a shudder, Noctis closed the balcony door and went to retrieve clothes from the wardrobe. It was so dark he had to switch the lights on. Instead of the expected yellow glow, the room was illuminated in hallowed blue light.

What was going on?

He sat down next to his wife and gently shook her to wake her up. Her healthy, slightly tanned skin from the Altissian sun had turned to a sickly pale white. Seaweed was tangled between her wet locks.

“Luna?”

She rolled over to lie on her back. Her single lifeless eye stared blankly into oblivion. The skin on her cheek and arm stretched until it tore to form holes from which he could see bones and rotten flesh. Something moved underneath her skin and made its way up her throat to her mouth. A shellfish poked its head out between her parted lips, another from her open cheek. Water trickled down from her nostrils and the corners of her mouth.

Her clouded eye turned to stare at him as she lay paralyzed. All he could do was watch as the critters multiplied and feasted on her flesh.

♫

Noctis sat up and stared at his trembling hands. Another nightmare. It had begun pleasantly enough, but it didn’t last. They never did. Nothing seemed to work. Not sleeping pills, not drugs, not even-

He turned to stare at Iris’ curled up body beside him. He felt sick. He couldn’t believe he had slept with her just to distract himself from his guilt and grief. Carefully he climbed off the bed as not to wake her up and put on his clothes. He needed a shower. Badly. He snatched his towel, faded black jeans and clean skull-printed shirt that still faintly smelled of his soap – of Little Luna – from the wardrobe and silently left the dorm.

He undressed in the locker room and made his way to the showers. Dozen other people were already there when he arrived. The dorms were assigned to groups and each group had timed food serving and showers to avoid overcrowding. His assigned showering time wasn’t due for another hour. Not paying any mind to the people or the occasional confused glance cast his way, he made his way to a shower stand, turned on the water and adjusted the temperature to freezing cold. He closed his eyes.

He couldn’t remember anything coherent from last night with Iris; just detached sounds and sensations. He suspected he had kept his eyes closed throughout the affair. Perhaps he had even tried to convince his drugged mind that he was in Luna’s arms. Would explain the dream he had had afterwards. He was glad for his hazy memory, but he couldn’t erase the night completely from his mind. Removing all evidence from his filthy skin and bed sheets was one thing, but what about Iris? She would remember everything without a doubt. What would she think? Gladio was going to skin him alive if he found out.

To think just before he arrived to Meldacio Stronghold he had been vehemently denying sleeping with Iris to Ignis. How much could happen in a week.

He scrubbed his skin until it was red and raw. The cold water numbed him to the pain. It was the same soap he had used to clean Little Luna. He turned off the water and wiped his eyes, but his vision remained blurry. Was he crying? His clogged nose confirmed his suspicion.

He dried and dressed himself in his clean spare clothes before leaving and heading upstairs to the surface. He needed fresh air and he didn’t want to deal with Iris right now. He’d go back to his dorm and wash the sheets when Prompto returned from Hammerhead to save his sorry hide from the brunette’s wrath.

“Hey, Prince!”

Noctis sharply turned to glare at the dragoon. “Shout that a little louder, will you.”

“What’s gotten your boxers in a twist?” Aranea arched an eyebrow at him, her hand resting on her hip.

He pointedly ignored her remark. “Do you have work for me?”

“My, you sound almost eager.” She teased. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m only here on Specs’ behalf. You weren’t answering your HT.”

The walkie-talkie was clipped to his vest and he had left said vest in his dorm. He sincerely hoped Iris hadn’t answered it. He really didn’t want to go through the drama this early in the morning.

“Lead the way, Boss-lady.”

Aranea took him to the command tower’s elevator and placed a key card on the reader before choosing the top floor as their destination. No bumbling civilians were allowed anywhere near the sensitive computers and equipment. They found Ignis at his work desk, sipping Ebony as he listened to the pre-recorded female voice go through the MT-reports. Noctis suspected it had to be annoying listening to the monotonous voice all day long, but the blind man had little choice if he wanted to work on his own. And if Noctis knew Ignis at all, he dared to claim the ambassador preferred to not rely on other people if given the choice.

“Not like you to ignore a call, Noct”, Ignis commented and set his coffee mug down.

Aranea walked to him and leant down to peck him on the lips. “I’ll leave you boys to it.” With a final caress across his jaw, she left the room, the heels of her leather boots clicking loudly against the concrete floor.

They waited until she had disappeared inside the elevator.

“So what’s this about?” Noctis settled down in a worn leather office chair.

“Something has been bothering me for a while now. You recall the incident in the mines? The poison you suffered from was highly potent and should’ve rendered you unconscious within minutes. Yet we found you wide awake – sober even – hours after you got poisoned.”

Noctis uncomfortably shifted in his seat and rubbed the still healing skin of his arm. He wondered if he would have to carry goblin-fang shaped scars for the rest of his life. “I did put a potion on the wound.”

Ignis leant forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “Noct, I can tell when you’re withholding information.”

He should’ve known by now. Nothing went past Ignis. “I might’ve carried a sylleblossom in my pocket.”

The brunet straightened in surprise. “Ah, I was wondering how come you smelled like Iris’ shampoo. That would explain it. You were aware of its medical properties, I take it?”

“No, I-“ He scratched the back of his neck as he searched for the correct words. “I carried it for sentimental reasons.”

Ignis furrowed his brows in bafflement. “So you didn’t make fine powder of its petals and mix it with water or a potion to drink it?”

“Ah, no.” He was in for it now.

“May I ask where you received a sylleblossom? As far as I’m aware, the Tenebraeans sell only finished products, not raw ingredients.”

How could he explain? He had no proof of Little Luna’s existence, not anymore. Except for the vase-

Oh shit!

Iris was in his dorm. She’d notice the flowers without a doubt. Not only would he have to explain to Ignis how he murdered the embodiment of his lover’s soul – he didn’t really know how else to describe her, she didn’t exactly fit the ‘ghost’ -category – he would also have to explain to Iris why he had flowers not native to Lucis in his dorm. He was already in deep enough mess. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings further by admitting he had bedded her just to forget about the person who owned his heart.

“Noct?”

He flinched. “It’s a long story.”

“We have time, don’t we?” Ignis leant back on his leather chair and crossed his gloved hands across his abdomen, his coffee forgotten.

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

Noctis sighed. “You remember how I was searching for something that I wasn’t sure if it existed?”

Ignis hummed in confirmation.

“I’ve been seeing Luna a lot ever since I found her body. She gave me the flower.”

The older man inhaled sharply. “My word.”

Noctis dropped his gaze to his single motorcycle glove, his shoulder slumping under the heavy burden of guilt and shame. He wasn’t ready to talk about Little Luna.

“Have you thanked her for saving you?” He could hear the smile in the blind brunet’s voice.

He lifted his head. “Huh?”

“Surely you haven’t lost your manners.”

Of course. He still had the notebook. Maybe, just maybe-!

“I gotta go!” he announced and dashed to the elevator.

He found Umbra waiting for him outside the command tower. The dog barked in greeting.

“Hey, boy.” Noctis knelt and scratched behind the canine’s ears. “You didn’t come keep me company last night.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Maybe that’s for the best.”

Umbra’s presence might have prevented him from doing what he did, but in the end he had no-one but himself to blame. The dog hadn’t saved him from his night terrors or his night-time visits to the infirmary.

Noctis took the notebook from its casing and flipped it open to a blank spread. He tapped the end of his pen against the page in thought. This was Luna, he reminded himself. He didn’t need to dress his gratitude in fancy words. She would understand. She had told him a long time ago to be himself and not care about royal protocol. It was between only the two of them. He wrote in slow and precise penmanship. Only his best handwriting would suffice.

‘Thank you for your thoughtful gift, Luna. It saved my life. I hope this message reaches you, wherever you are. I miss you.’

He read and reread his words before glancing at Umbra. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, for her words to just magically appear next to his? He had to be patient. Noctis closed the book and put it back in its holster.

“Deliver that for me, will you?”

Umbra wagged his tail, but made no move to follow his request. Was it because there was no-one to deliver it to anymore? Or did he simply not need to move when Luna wasn’t physically bound to this world? Maybe she had already written her answer?

He took the notebook and checked his entry. The page next to it remained blank. His heart fell in disappointment. With a sad sigh he left to assist Cid while waiting for Prompto to return.

♫

Noctis lay in bed and went through the photos Prompto had taken. Hammerhead garage hadn’t changed much since he last visited. The diner had gone through drastic interior changes as it no longer served as a resting place for weary travellers but as a last line of defence against invaders from Insomnia.

Cindy had let her blond curly locks grow past her shoulders and kept them in low pigtails. Her formerly tanned skin had lost its healthy colour from lack of sun, just like the rest of the population. With the post-apocalyptic climate to take into consideration, she had abandoned her hotpants and replaced them with faded jeans. She wore a red and black flannel shirt beneath her old custom-made Hammerhead jacket. Curiously enough, her ever-present cap had changed owners and sat snugly on Prompto’s blond head.

Noctis glanced at the nightstand. Previously absent from any items, it now held Little Luna’s sylleblossom arrangement, his handheld radio, Prompto’s alarm clock and Cindy’s cap.

There were plenty of pictures of Cindy working on hallowed lamps. He even found a picture of Dave getting the cylinder of his flamethrower refilled. A dark-skinned boy wearing Hammerhead’s cap appeared in several photos. Prompto had told him Cindy had taken Takka’s son as her apprentice to ensure her knowledge would be passed on to the next generation.

The two blonds seemed happy, surrounded by gadgets, tools and machinery. Prompto had told him how he had repurposed his Drillbreaker to a drill that could efficiently harvest elemental energy from deposits. Apparently that had been the ice-breaker and earned him Cindy’s undivided attention. Noctis was happy for his friend. It had taken the shy blond a decade to get to Cid’s good graces and muster the courage to approach Cindy without relying on the former king’s support.

As he absently browsed through the photos, he came across several pictures of himself making strange poses in the dorm. He was laughing and holding his skull-printed shirt in one hand and holding air with the other. It seemed like he was swaying from side to side. On closer inspection he noticed the sylleblossom arrangement was missing from the background. The pictures were taken when he had been dancing with Little Luna.

He turned the camera around in his hands and snapped a photo of the nightstand. Surely enough he could see only the radio, alarm clock and cap on top of it. Did it mean only he and Prompto could see the flowers?

Well, if nothing else, it meant he didn’t have to explain their existence to Iris. He almost wished he had to, if only to prove he wasn’t going crazy. He still hadn’t come up with a sound theory as to why only he and Prompto could see Little Luna. Prompto had suggested it might’ve been because she was responsible for bringing the two friends together, but it didn’t really make any sense in Noctis’ mind. Personally he suspected the Starscourge had something to do with it. Besides him and Prompto, only the daemons seemed to be able to sense her. He wasn’t sure about Prompto, but it felt safe to assume the blond had been in some kind of contact with the plague when he had been nothing but a babe in Verstael’s laboratory. Noctis himself had been infected by it when the marilith had attacked him and his entourage. But it was all speculation.

Scratching on the door alerted him to Umbra’s return from his rounds. The hunter opened the door to let the dog in and removed the notebook and its casing from his back. Umbra jumped on the bed to his usual spot and settled down for the night. Not able to help himself, Noctis checked the notebook. Still nothing. With a heavy sigh, he put the camera and notebook down on the nightstand and switched off the lights.

Prompto had already fallen asleep. It was a long drive from Hammerhead to Cleigne. He wondered how much longer he would share his dorm with Prompto before Cindy’s siren song had him packing his things for good.

♫

Noctis blearily opened his eyes and squinted at the green digits hovering over the nightstand. 4 am.

He lay still and listened. All he could hear was the steady hum of the radiator and Prompto’s soft, barely audible snoring. Umbra slept soundlessly at his feet, his warm fur comforting against his toes. What had woken him up so early? He felt his neck for dampness, but found no evidence suggesting he had suffered from another night terror. Just as Noctis was about to be lulled back to sleep by the familiar nightly sounds, he felt the mattress of his bed dip under additional weight.

Had someone sneaked in?

Quietly sitting up as not to alarm the intruder, he waited for his eyes to get adjusted to the dim light of the alarm clock. His heart skipped a beat when he recognised the familiar thin legs and newly mended and washed summer dress. She sat at the edge of the bed, her back facing him as she ran her bony fingers through the sleeping dog’s fur. She was clutching something in her other hand.

Luna.

Startled, she turned around, her body tense. She had clearly expected her visit to go unnoticed. It was only then that he realised he had said her name out loud.

Before he realised what he was doing, he had leant forward and pulled the girl to sit in his lap, arms wrapped around her small frame in a tight embrace. He buried his nose in her blond locks and inhaled deeply – she faintly smelled of his soap and Iris’ shampoo and nothing else. She had no odour of her own, just what was artificially given to her.

While it secretly made him delighted that she smelled of his soap and made him feel like he owned her, at the same time smelling Iris’ shampoo only reminded him of what he had done the previous night. How quick had he been to replace Luna after thinking he had lost her for good. He had been so eager to distract himself from his grief by any means possible. Guilt throbbed painfully within his chest.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to- I didn’t want to-“, his voice was raspy from lack of use.

She interrupted him by playfully pinching his bicep and pulled back enough for him to see the understanding in her pale gaze, her lips curving in a wan smile. Reaper, he had missed that smile. As she reached up to wipe away his tears, her glassy eyes caught the faint green light of the alarm clock and reflected it like a coeurl’s. She dropped her hands to his and held his fingers, squeezing them reassuringly.

There was nothing to forgive.

She let go of his hands and moved out of his lap before pushing him to lie back. He frowned, but grudgingly complied. She stroked the side of his face as a final parting before making to stand up.

He wasn’t about to let her disappear on him again.

He snatched her wrist and forcefully pulled her to lie on top of him. Her sharp hip bone dug into his abdomen painfully, but he managed to help her settle to a more comfortable position with his free hand. Her bangs hung like a curtain over her eyes, hiding half of her immature features in shadows.

He tugged the locks framing her face behind her ear and dropped his hand to the chilly cardboard-like skin of her face. He found the familiar seam of her layered face, but made no move to try and uncover its secrets. Instead, he let his fingers trail down to cup her chin. Her face was a blank mask as he pulled her head down to his and captured her lips in a chaste kiss. There was no warm breath against his face, no frantically thudding heartbeat within her breast. The realisation cut his insides like a knife. She wasn’t alive – she was only as real as he made her out to be.

In the back of his mind he knew what he was doing was wrong on so many levels, but at this moment he couldn’t find the voice of reason within himself and let his instincts and morbid fascination take over. He stroked his thumb across her chapped lips and let it trail down to her pale neck. He watched her face for any reaction as he carefully pressed the bruised skin, but received none. Her vacant stare only confirmed what he had suspected ever since she first denied feeling any pain – she was physically completely numb, and perhaps even emotionally to some extent. He had seen brief flickers of emotions here and there, but most of the time she reminded him of a marionette without a guiding hand or a broken mirror that reflected his emotions back at him in distortion.

Feeling slightly guilty for intentionally trying to cause her pain, he lightly brushed his lips over the bruises. Without his hand to support her head, she let it drop to rest in the crook of his neck, her unmoving lips pressed against his sensitive flesh in a feather-light touch. She was completely still as she lay draped across his chest, and like an unfeeling doll, she let him have his way with her. Greedily he ran his hand across the bare skin of her upper back and traced her sharp shoulder blades, while simultaneously combing her blond tresses with the other hand. He made it a game to himself to count the tiny scars decorating her uncovered skin.

His limbs gradually grew heavy. He was emotionally drained and overall beyond exhausted after everything he had gone through for the past week. Sleep weighed his eyelids down, but he refused to let himself rest. He didn’t want to lose her, not when he just got her back. His hold on the limp girl tightened possessively.

Stirring, Little Luna brought her small hand to caress his bearded chin. Thrilled by her unexpected movement, his arms immediately loosened their hold and allowed her to sit up. Cool fingertips gently closed his droopy eyelids. He mumbled a half-hearted protest, but quieted down when strands of her hair tickled his face and her lips graced his forehead in a ghostly caress. He fell asleep to the scent of sylleblossoms after summer rain.

The next morning he found something small and light blue sitting next to his pillow. On closer inspection he realised it was the very same Carbuncle figurine his father had given to him as a child to watch over him. The paintwork was peeling off the wooden surface and the colours were washed after a decade of rolling in rubble and dust. He wondered how she had known where to find it. Maybe that was why he hadn’t seen her all this time? He couldn’t imagine it being easy to find even if she could bend some rules of nature to her advantage.

He placed it next to the wooden vase. The sylleblossoms were still in full bloom. He had checked the vase to make sure the flowers didn’t run out of water, but the water level hadn’t dipped in the slightest ever since receiving the thoughtful gift. It was as if the vase and its contents were suspended in animation.

His notebook was open. Had Prompto looked through it? Or had Luna…?

He quickly took it from the nightstand. Next to his message had appeared a sticker of a moogle wearing an arm cast. He recognised it from flyers he had seen back in his school days. It was the mascot of IPCHC – Insomnia’s public children’s healthcare centre. Beneath it read ‘You need to take better care of yourself, so I won’t have to!’

He let out a strangled laugh.

As he traced the words with his fingertips, he noticed a drop of ink smearing the page. Curious. For as long as he had known her, she had never left even the smallest of smudges. It was definitely Luna’s handwriting, so it wasn’t like Prompto had left him a fake message.

He brought the book close to his nose and smelled the paper. There was no mistaking the stale smell of daemon blood. Was Little Luna hurt? Had she bled over their notebook? Better yet, what was she? So far he had been content on letting her existence remain a mystery if only to enjoy a stolen moment or two before she was permanently taken from him. Ever the pessimist, he only deemed it a matter of time before she would disappear for good. He prayed to the Reaper that day would never come.

As he closed the notebook, he noticed his left arm was devoid of teeth marks. Had she healed him again? Due to her calling as an Oracle, Luna’s body had been corrupted from within when she healed others from the plague. Was something similar happening again? Was Little Luna killing herself to keep him healed?

He silently vowed he wouldn’t let her die again. Not even for his sake.

Special thanks to @yelde917 for beta-reading. ^^

#ffxv fanfiction #noctis lucis caelum #lunafreya nox fleuret #noctis x luna #noctluna

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the-master-cylinder · 4 years

Text

The Library SUMMARY In the frame story of the film, H. P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) learns of a monastery where a copy of the Necronomicon is held. Having been a regular there for his research, he sets up an appointment, his cab driver told to wait outside. Taking insult when the head monk calls his work “fiction”, Lovecraft insists that all his writings are true. Requesting to read the Alchemical Encyclopedia Vol. III, Lovecraft steals a key from another monk and flees to the cellar where the Necronomicon is being held. Unknown to him, a monk has seen him. Unlocking the vault where the book is held, the door closes behind Lovecraft unexpectedly, making him drop the key down a grating and into the water below. As that happens, one of the seals is opened.

Lovecraft sits to read and record what he is reading. It’s not specified if he sees visions of the future through the book, or if the book contains future accounts. It’s likely the stories will come to pass, and for the Necronomicon have already passed, alluding to the Necronomicon’s timelessness, as all the stories take place well beyond the 1920s.

Lovecraft is confronted by the head monk, who assures him that all will be fine if he opens the door. Lovecraft admits he dropped the key. Furious, the monk warns Lovecraft to replace the book, but the author is attacked by a monster in the water beneath him, and the last of the seals opens up. The head monk reveals himself to not be human at all, as he begins stretching his body through the bars to enter the room, and Lovecraft uses a sword in his cane to defeat the monster in the water.

Gathering his things and grabbing the book, Lovecraft begins to depart, being caught by one of the monks who warns him of the foolishness of his actions, telling him he will pay for his misdeeds. Lovecraft then escapes to the taxi and orders it to leave, and it leaves unpursued.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION Originally envisioned as a small linking device tying the movie together, the story was fleshed out further by Yuzna and writer Brent Friedman as shooting progressed. The result is an Indiana Jones-flavored tale in which H.P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) visits a secret room in a library, where he sneaks a peek at the Necronomicon and starts to read its various tales. In the process, he unleashes some wicked forces that will stop at nothing to dispatch those who have disturbed its resting place.

Optic Nerve’s Vulich took on that challenge. “I like the idea of doing these subtle makeups anyway, and it’s kind of rare for us to get a chance to do something like this, so we jumped at the opportunity,” says Vulich. “Having worked on Re-Animator, Jeffrey may have been concerned at first about the makeup being too outlandish or heavy. When I started to tell him it would be very subtle, he kept on saying, ‘I like this word “subtle.”

Turning Combs into the reclusive writer was a “weird task,” according to Optic Nerve’s Everett Burrell. “First of all. hardly anybody knows what Lovecraft looked like. Very few photos of him have been published, so we had to dig around a bit.” Burrell’s partner, John Vulich, did the makeup, “which was basically a chin and a nose. You could only do so much. You couldn’t make him heavy, or he would look fey. People are so used to seeing Jeffrey in the RE-ANIMATOR films that it’s a nice change.”

Combs appreciates the way Vulich’s makeup helped capture some of the real character, who was altered for the purposes of the film. “I don’t think we were necessarily going for a dead-on, ‘Wow, look-that’s him!’ appearance, but at least we wanted to attempt a resemblance, for the hard-core fans,” the actor explains. “I tried to incorporate elements of the real H.P. Lovecraft, but because of the way the script was written, my characterization wasn’t the way he really was. So that’s why the makeup was a little more important; otherwise, I could have gone in there and just been myself without any alterations, but I wanted to do something that would at least harken back to the real guy.”

The end result Involved allowing as much of Combs as possible to be visible in the makeup, in order for his charismatic personality to shine through. Jeffrey is a known actor, and we didn’t want to diminish that aspect of it,” says Vulich. “We wanted people to know it was Jeffrey, yet still give it a Lovecraft feel.”

Screaming Mad George creation in which Lovecraft rips a librarian’s head open only to reveal a monster inside remained from principal photography, while the reshoots added more creatures to spice things up.

“Essentially, we were just trying to show a monster down in the pit to match a shot of a tentacle coming up through a grate that Optic Nerve had done,” says John Foster, who co-supervised the show with Buechler for MMI (Magical Media Industries). “We made it look like a Cthulhu variation-it’s basically a creature with some tentacles and a lot of eyes.”

Steve Johnson was also called in to create the “wall safe monster” that emerges from the library walls where the Book of the Dead routinely rests in peace. “It was basically a hand puppet operated by four people, explains Johnson of this creation, which resembles a huge hand with teeth in the middle that is capable of flopping and bending in unnatural ways. “There was a webbing material around the slots where people would place their hands in it to operate it. Then we had silk bags filled with methylcellulose on the fingers of each of our hands which had about 20 teeth attached to them. So it was this very mobile mouth that could stretch and get really big and then condense and constrict down. We kept it very simple, but also made it really come alive.”

This wasn’t the creation originally intended for the segment, according to Johnson, who went back to the drawing board to rethink the final incarnation before shooting commenced. “The end result became more simple and direct,” says Johnson. “It was a non-linear creative process which I’ve been leaning towards lately. The first creation we did didn’t move in the right manner and the stuff didn’t look alive. So we came up with a new technique and approached it a different way. When you do that. sometimes you end up with a better product.”

CAST/CREW Directed Brian Yuzna

Jeffrey Combs as H. P. Lovecraft Tony Azito as Librarian Brian Yuzna as Cabbie

The Drowned SUMMARY Edward De LaPoer, a member of the De La Poer family, is tracked down in Sweden after inheriting an old, abandoned family hotel (the name of this character is the only resemblance of this segment to lovecraft’s story The Rats in the Walls). Left a sealed envelope from Jethro De La Poer, he learns of his uncle’s tragic death. Upon a boat trip return to New England, a crash on the shore killed Jethro’s wife and son. Distraught, Jethro picked up a copy of the Holy Bible in front of several funeral mourners, tossed it into the fireplace and announced that any god who would take from him is not welcome in his home. That night, an odd fishman arrives and tells him he is “not alone”, then leaves behind an English translation of the Necronomicon. Using the book, Jethro brings his family back to life. However, they are revived as unholy monsters with green glowing eyes and tentacles in their mouths. Feeling guilty, he chooses to commit suicide by casting himself off an upper floor balcony.

Edward, distraught over a car accident years before which killed his wife, Clara, finds the Necronomicon and performs the ritual to revive her. That night, Clara arrives and asks to be invited in. Edward apologizes for the accident. Clara begins to regurgitate tentacles from her mouth, and in a panic, Edward pushes her away. Clara angrily attacks, but Edward, with a sword taken from a nearby wall, cuts her. She turns into a tentacle leading underneath the floor. Drawn underground from the injury, the creature below destroys the main floor and rises, a gigantic monster with tentacles, one eye and a large mouth. Edward cuts a rope holding the chandelier, jumps to it and climbs to the ceiling. “Clara” again tries to restrain him, but Edward destroys a stained glass window, the sunlight driving her away.

Edward pushes the chandelier rope free from the pulley, the pointed bottom piercing the monster in the eye, presumably killing it. Now on the roof, Edward has avoided the same fate that Jethro had years before, and decides to live.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION Part of the appeal of adapting Lovecraft, according to director Christophe Gans, is the author’s very precise mythology, which he wanted to adhere to as much as possible. “He’s created a mythology where there is no heaven or hell,” explains Gans. “He was trying to go beyond the dream world, beyond the appearance. If we can see that, we can explain the success of Lovecraft. He really is one of the great authors who predates the post-acid culture.”

In fact, he was so determined to bring his specific vision to the screen that for his 30-minute segment, he had nearly twice the amount of storyboards usually required. “You could flip the pages of the story. boards and watch the movie.” explains FX consultant Tom Savini, who worked with Hadida on the upcoming Killing Zoe before reteaming with him on Necronomicon. An admirer of Savini’s work, Gans had hoped the esteemed goremeister would do a major chunk of his segment, but because of time constraints and a lack of prep time following Killing Zoe, Savini opted to hire his former colleagues at Optic Nerve to help out.

Heading up the FX team on this segment was Optic Nerve’s John Vulich and Everett Burrell (the latter has since left the company to focus solely on computer-generated FX). “Christophe wanted to approach this stuff with real striking imagery. going for the feel of a Maria Bava film mixed with a classic Hammer aesthetic,” says Vulich. “The trick with this segment was trying to come up with really disturbing setpieces, but also creating effects that were beautiful yet horrifying. There are a lot of contradictory images, which I think works well in the horror genre.”

On the set. Payne as Edward is visited by his beloved Clara. Ford has been made up to look pale and sickly, and Vulich has airbrushed intricate, soft-looking veins over her naked body. It’s an appealing sight to Payne’s character, who is nonetheless unsure how to react. With lightning flashing constantly outside the set window, the whole sequence has an eerily sexual feel as Ford slowly crawls toward the distraught Payne, seducing him with an impossible sight-the watery resurrection of his wife.

“We wanted to make her horrible, but in very subtle ways.” says Vulich. We put these white, pasty veins on her because Christophe wanted to make her look like a marble statue. She also had this weird tubing stuck to her back, since the water god Cthulhu keeps his victims on a sort of tentacle to use them as puppets. So we have this scene where she’s writhing on the ground in this pseudo-sexual position. Even in dailies, it kind of made you queasy to watch it.”

Another Optic Nerve creation was a Cthulhu minion that visits Jethro one rainy night. It was originally conceived as a simple character appliance, but Vulich ultimately opted to sculpt an elaborate fullhead mask. “We came up with this fish monster that’s sort of a henchman and definitely a homage to Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth,” the artist reveals.

The zombie attack by the ocean victims, which was to be spearheaded by Tom Savini. “There was once a scene where we would see Cthulhu controlling all these people with his tentacles, and all the shipwreck victims would come back and Bruce Payne’s character would have to fight them, recalls Tom Rainone. It was cut out of the film early on and almost came back at the last minute, and it would have been classic Savini. Brian, Samuel Hadida and Savini sat down to figure out what they were going to do, and Savini just went off on an excellent tangent about how to do it in the easiest fashion. This would have been a pretty neat scene, but they finally cut it for time and budget reasons.” – Tom Rainone

Optic Nerve was deep into working on the first season of Babylon 5 and couldn’t come back to do all the necessary additions and reshots, so Bart J. Mixon landed the job, working under the banner of Bart Mixon’s Monster Fixin’s (he has since formed ME.FX with longtime collaborator Earl Ellis). These tricky reshoots included a full-body appliance for actress Ford as Clara turns into a long, veiny, tentacled mass from the waist down. This was the most appealing segment, because it wasn’t so much redoing things that didn’t work but adding to what was already there,” says Mixon. “The show happened relatively quickly. and therefore the techniques had to be down and dirty. We set Maria up through the floor with this tentacle makeup. She wore a long wig in the film which was nearly 6 feet long, so we were also able to design the effect around our limitations, using the hair to hide any seams we might have had.” A second stage of this makeup followed as Clara rises from Cthulhu’s watery pit to convince her beloved Edward to join her in briny bliss. Additionally, computer-animated enhancements were an integral portion of these two gags.

Mixon also provided a one-eyed Cthulhu monster that rips through the hotel floor and tries to pull Edward down. “The basic design was two skulls fused together at the eye sockets,” the artist explains, “Christophe saw this image in some photo collages created by J.K. Potter, and we extrapolated the design from that. We used it as a foundation and built upon it. You can still kind of see the twin skulls, but we added tentacles and various other factors onto it.”

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Further additions to this segment included a flashback insert shot of a little boy who looks up at Jethro to reveal glowing green eyes and a squid like mass squirming out of his mouth. Newcomer Todd Rex recalls sculpting this creation without the aid of a lifecast and only a blown-up still frame of the young actor to work from. “It was a 112-hour week and very little money.” says Rex, who also worked with Spectral Effects Studios’ Sam Greenmun on other blood gags and minor FX throughout the extensive week of reshoots. “The puppet looked pretty good. considering it was just a rubber head with a giant syringe in its back filled with squids and goo.”

CAST/CREW Directed Christophe Gans

Bruce Payne as Edward De Lapoer Belinda Bauer as Nancy Gallmore Richard Lynch as Jethro De Lapoer Maria Ford as Clara Peter Jasienski as Jethro’s son Denice D. Lewis as Emma De Lapoer Vladimir Kulich as a Villager

The Cold

SUMMARY Reporter Dale Porkel is suspicious of a string of strange murders in Boston over the past several decades. Confronting a woman at a local apartment building, he is invited in only to find the entire place is very cold. The woman he has confronted claims to suffer a rare skin condition which has left her sensitive to heat and light. Demanding the truth or his story runs as-is, Dale is told the story of Emily Osterman’s arrival to Boston twenty years before.

Emily had supposedly taken residence in the apartment building, and told by Lena, the owner, not to disturb the other tenant, Dr. Richard Madden, a scientist. Her first night, she is attacked by her sexually abusive stepfather, Sam, who has tracked her down. Running away, the two struggle on the steps leading to the apartment next door. Dr. Madden opens his door, grabs Sam’s arm and stabs his hand with a scalpel. He falls down the stairs and dies. Emily is bandaged up and given medication. That night, Emily is awakened by the sound of drilling and she sees blood dripping from her ceiling. Heading upstairs, she finds Dr. Madden and Lena mutilating Sam’s corpse. She passes out, to awaken later in her bed with a clean ceiling. Dr. Madden assures her that it was all a bad dream.

The next day while job hunting, Emily sees two cops with flyers asking for information about the murder of Sam. She confronts Dr. Madden, and he comes clean: though Sam was already dead from the fall, Dr. Madden claims he would have killed Sam regardless for what he had done to Emily. Dr. Madden reveals his copy of the Necronomicon to Emily and explains to her how he learned of its information on sustaining life. In the greenhouse, Dr. Madden proves this by injecting a wilted rose with a compound to revive it, claiming that as long as it is kept out of the sun, it will never die. The two have sex, with a distraught and angry Lena spying on them.

That night, Lena threatens to kill Emily if Emily will not kill her, as Lena is in love with Dr. Madden, a feeling that has never been returned. Emily flees, only to return months later. Upon arrival, Emily finds her boss from the diner in Dr. Madden’s apartment, struggling to avoid death. Lena stabs the man in the back, killing him. Lena insists on killing Emily, but Dr. Madden will not allow it. The two struggle, destroying lab equipment in the process. The resulting fire injures Dr. Madden severely, and without his fresh injection of pure spinal fluid, feels no pain as his body disintegrates before he dies. Lena shoots Emily with a shotgun in revenge. Emily announces her pregnancy, and Lena, feeling a loyalty to Dr. Madden, saves her.

Dale suspects the woman he’s talking to is not Emily’s daughter, but Emily herself, having contracted a disease from Dr. Madden during intercourse. Emily reveals he is right, and that she is still pregnant, hoping one day that her baby may be born. She also reveals that she has continued murdering for spinal fluid, and chooses to keep a supply stockpiled. Dale realizes his coffee has been drugged as an aged Lena approaches him, brandishing a syringe.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION The segment to be filmed was “The Cold”, directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The story focuses on creepy scientist Dr. Madden (David Warner), who has a special secret for eternal life that a young woman (Bess Meyer) soon discovers.

Screaming Mad George Unused Melting

Screaming Mad George, who was responsible for the main FX involving Dr. Madden’s meltdown, was interested in doing it in a totally different way. “We created a radio controlled head with skin over it that was made out of gelatin, but not as flexible,” George says. “We wanted to have the makeup melt on the inside in increments instead of strictly on the outside. It was a subtle effect, but it was only shot from one angle and there was no coverage. It became difficult to cut together later in editing.”

“From the beginning, I talked with Brian about conceptualizing what is melting in ‘The Cold’ and why he is not undergoing the typical meltdown we’ve seen before,” says George. “So I experimented with it and tried to have the skin remain on the outside and have the insides melt and ooze out. It looked pretty good, but when we shot it, the camera was only pointing in one direction and they had no coverage on anything, so it became a problem in the editing to cut it together. So all there was this dummy moving and melting a bit, and because the outside didn’t dissolve, it was much too subtle.”

For “The Cold,” George was also unavailable, so Mixon provided additional FX to Dr. Madden’s meltdown, taking it a few extreme steps forward. “This effect ended up being the single goriest thing I’ve ever done, and it was a refreshing change of pace since at the time I was working with the Chiodo Brothers, and they were heavily into character puppet stuff that had a cartoony, fanciful edge to it,” recalls Mixon. The goal was to make it the sloppiest, drippiest, grossest thing we could, with pus foaming out of the body for no reason and eyeballs collapsing out of the head. We threw whatever we had in there to make it as grotesque as possible.”

Filling in for the absent Warner was actress Dinah Cancer, who was disguised by extensive makeup. “She had been in this corpse suit for 18 hours on Fright Night 2 and wasn’t eager to do that again, but I assured her it was only heads and hands,” says Mixon.

The result was a very bloody scene whose over-the-top nature so impressed Yuzna that he started coming up with other gags to throw into the sequence. “Todd Masters had this chest appliance lying around, so at the last minute. we did a quick shot Brian wanted where we rip open the character’s chest and see the ribcage, and there are hunks of foam and organs inside.” Mixon recalls.

CAST/CREW Directed Shusuke Kaneko

David Warner as Dr. Madden Bess Meyer as Emily Osterman Millie Perkins as Lena Dennis Christopher as Dale Porkel Gary Graham as Sam Curt Lowens as Mr. Hawkins

Whispers

SUMMARY During a pursuit of a suspect known as “the Butcher”, two police officers, Paul and Sarah of the Philadelphia Police Department, are arguing over their failed relationship and the coming baby. The argument leads to a crash, flipping the cruiser upside down. Paul, having unbuckled his seat belt in the argument, is knocked out and dragged off by an unseen person. Sarah unbuckles herself, breaks the window and exits the vehicle. Unable to call for backup, she follows a blood trail alone.

Inside the old warehouse, Sarah follows as Paul is taken down a service elevator. Sarah trips on a rope and falls through to the floor, saved from impact by the rope around her ankle. The rope breaks a second after. As she gets up, she finds a man in glasses, Harold Benedict. Insisting he is merely the landlord of the warehouse and the Butcher is a tenant, he offers to lead her to him. Downstairs, the two are shot at by Mrs. Benedict, a blind old woman. Sarah, sick of getting a run-around, takes the shotgun and orders the two to lead her to the Butcher. Mrs. Benedict indulges in gossip first, insisting she’s not really Benedict’s wife. She also claims the Butcher is an alien. While searching for the Butcher, Sarah makes her way to a cavern filled with bat-like creatures and other monstrosities, but the Benedicts pull the ladder from the hole, leaving Sarah trapped. As Sarah ventures through the cavern, she starts to become scared, even promising to keep her unborn child. She later sees Paul, but he has already been eaten by the bat-like creatures that inhabit the cavern. His brains are needed by the bats to reproduce. The bats then begin to corner her. She later wakes up on a table where Mr. and Mrs. Benedict are seemingly trying to feed Sarah to the alien bats.

Sarah suddenly wakes up in a hospital. Her mother and a doctor (who resemble the Benedicts) rush into her room. Sarah was forced to have an abortion as a result of the car accident earlier, but her mother insists that she will be forgiven if she forgives herself. Sarah wants to see Paul, but Paul is brain dead and turns out to be in the very same state that he was found back in the caverns. Sarah screams in terror in spite of her mother’s pleas to not scare the baby. Sarah does not understand what her mother is talking about, as she thought the baby had to be aborted. Her mother opens her blouse and reveals that the baby is inside the womb of the alien-bat creatures. Sarah is even more scared especially after removing her bed sheets and finding out she has lost half of one of her arms. Suddenly, the hospital setting changes back into the cavern. Sarah is still on the table, about to become a meal for the alien bats. Harold wants to leave but Sarah still has the keys.

“This became a sort of existentialist horror show, which is a very bizarre way of approaching a genre film,” notes Todd Masters, who handled FX duties on what may be the most viscerally intense and surrealistic story of the bunch. More “symbolically figurative than literal,” the most prominent creations were the monster puppets dubbed “turkey birds,” which bear suspiciously vaginal slits in their centers out of which the creatures talk.

“They also had beaks that came out of the mouths and were essentially chain-driven with electric carving knives,” says Masters. “They had little blades that moved back and forth and a fluid sucker you could actually drain liquids through.”

Ultimately, the pressures of having little time to conceive these creatures resulted in Masters having to cast the birds out of a reliable but very heavy substance called Skinflex, which made it more difficult for the operators to control them. “The plan was not originally that they were going to be suspended by puppeteers as they were, so ultimately they looked like these big floppy birds,” says Masters, who crafted various versions of the creatures, including one which had eyeballs and a brain in its belly and another with a fetus growing inside.

“Since the budget was cut at the last minute, we originally planned to shoot the puppets basically as shadows, Masters continues. “We were always told we wouldn’t see them that much, so we didn’t have to worry about putting much money into making them animatronic, but we still needed them to be flexible. Brian wanted to leave some holes in the rough cut as well, so he could show investors what was missing in order to get more money for reshoots and have time to create better payoff shots.”

As for “Whispers.” Masters returned to pick up where his company left off, doing a few more shots of the “turkey bird” puppets and a wide assortment of blood gags as well as a couple of stop-motion flying puppets created specifically for this shoot. “We ended up filming these animated shots of them flying around the room and blending into the walls,” recalls Masters. “I was leaving for Africa the morning after we wrapped. so I didn’t even see what the shots looked like until I came back.”

CAST/CREW Directed Brian Yuzna

Signy Coleman as Sarah Obba Babatundé as Paul Don Calfa as Mr. Benedict Judith Drake as Mrs. Benedict

“This is the Necronomicon I wanted to do for Sam Raimi in ARMY OF DARKNESS, but that one had to look something remotely like the one in EVIL DEAD II, which had a sort of twisted face on the cover. I stuck with the same kind of design but on a much bigger book. It turned out fairly interesting, but it was not the book I wanted to do for Sam. I wanted a more ornate version. This one is a bronze skeleton over an animal skin cover, with embossing and engraving on the bronze.” – Anthony Tremblay (Production Designer)

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION In 1992. director Brian Yuzna came up with the idea of creating an anthology film franchise using the book as a linking device to tell various H.P. Lovecraft-inspired stories, each helmed by a director from a different country. With financing in place, Necronomicon went before the cameras in spring 1993, but a funny thing happened on the way to the screen. Despite receiving release overseas, the makeup FX-heavy movie seemed as if it had been left for dead as it waited for an American distributor to pick it up.

“My producing partner on the film, Samuel Hadida, was determined that we could get a nice theatrical release out of this picture.” Yuzna explains. “I believe that because the film was a trilogy and distributors felt it was a bit uneven, Sammy could never land a good enough deal. It’s hard to get theatrical distribution for these movies anyway, so the film just sat around.”

Written by Brent V. Friedman, Necronomicon features tales loosely inspired by the HPL short stories “The Rats in the Walls,” “Cool Air” and “The Whisperer in Darkness.” Originally intended as a low-budget direct to-video entry, the project slowly evolved beyond that as international financing started trickling in and each director’s input expanded the production. The film now promises to be the largest FX extravaganza to come from the independent arena in quite some time, though a theatrical release still hasn’t been ironed out.

“I was brought in to rewrite three stories scripted by Lisa Morton and make them scarier, but in the course of doing so the whole project changed,” Friedman explains. “Everything got upscaled. Instead of doing a simple horror film, everyone thought that we should get a little arty here and do something different. All the boundaries got completely expanded when more money came in-for better and for worse.”

Necronomicon has been Yuzna’s pet project for years. He’s always secretly desired to create the ultimate Lovecraft movie, with faithful adaptations of his stories, but as the film went through development he admits that it eventually became only “loosely based on Lovecraft.”

Bart was called in during post production to punch up the melt down of Dr. Madden in the “Cool Air” sequence.

“We realized it wasn’t going to work, and we needed to just make a movie, Yuzna says, while Friedman adds, “We tried to keep the spirit in there, but it’s tough because we really have three different visions of what Lovecraft is about. It’s good because each interpretation is so unique and varied. At the same time, it’s going to be hard for people to see what my concept of Lovecraft was because when I wrote them, there was an underlying theme of my vision of Lovecraft and three people have interpreted that, so it’s kind of diluted.”

“Having three directors is like making three separate movies,” says Yuzna. “However, there are also three different cultures as well. Shu Kaneko doesn’t speak any English and Christophe has never directed a movie before, so it’s been very difficult from that position.”

The film is broken into four separate features: “The Library”, “The Drowned”, “The Cold” and “Whispers”. “The Library” segment is the frame story, which begins and ends the movie.

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Fangoria#135 Fangoria#143 Fangoria#159 Imagi-Movies v01n03

Necronomicon: Book of Dead (1993) Retrospective The Library SUMMARY In the frame story of the film, H. P. Lovecraft (Jeffrey Combs) learns of a monastery where a copy of the Necronomicon is held.

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