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youmarin · 2 years

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Peculiardom's Fall

A/N: Hello, it's me! Haven't published any writing content of mine for a while and I'm terribly sorry for that. I'm back to going to university in person since my first year - now's my last hopefully-. September was a wild ride: family, my health (I'm good now, just a scare at the worse time ever), a hurricane and the consequent academic recess of three weeks (and we're still far from stabilizing from that. I spent the following 13 days without power and still it is rare to spend two consecutive days with it. The electricity problem on the island is worse than ever and they dare say the system's woking just fine). So during that "free" time, I read the last two books of the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children I was missing and wrote this alternate sequence for the cruise scene in which Jacob does submit to Caul. It's not much, but just for a start if I ever venture to write more about Miss P's world (I know most of you who had followed me are here for hq and obx content anyway).

Jacob started to hear for the first time what he was most certain was Caul’s voice while he, Emma, Hugh and Enoch searched for the wights and the northern peculiar girl they had kidnapped, also hoping to save their friend who they had believed dead for the past months, Fiona. It didn’t need to happen much for him to be startled by it, but at the moment he did his best to get rid of any trace of its haunting effect. Caul had been defeated, buried in Abaton along with the Library of Souls. He was dead and not to worry about. On the other hand, there were so many more real matters at hand to attend then: Avoiding war, insurrection, the fugitive wights and discovering what was their scheme, finding V, saving their friend. It seemed that for every problem they solved five more took form.

What he now wished he hadn’t done was keeping it to himself. Now, being on the cruise’s deck, Caul’s monstrous appearance floating right in front of them, and an army of hollows surrounding them.

The latter had been safely under his control, until he heard it again taunting him. But it wasn’t projecting outside for everyone to hear, he could hear it, feel it in his head trying to overpower his own reasoning, his own self. In its current state, his mind, fractured among little less than half a hundred creatures, was at risk of being corrupted and he could feel himself falter as the devil himself spoke: kill the girl.

Noor and Emma were shouting to him now, alarmed, but their calls weren’t reaching him, for he was too busy trying to shut up the foreign one growing louder in his mind.

“Jacob! What are you doing?”

“Something’s wrong.” and as if to confirm, she felt the creature under her stiffen, then falter and jerk violently, its hold on her tightening.

Kill the girl

Jacob shut his eyes tight.

Kill the girl

He shook his head, “Get out.”

You can’t fight me anymore. I can sense it, your mind slipping from you and surrendering to me.

“No.” His hands reached up to his head, clutching it.

I’m superior to you all, don’t you get it? Seriously, did you believe you could stop a God?

“Shut up!” He screamed, and could feel himself breaking.

“Jacob?” Started Noor, a slight tremble on her voice. “Whatever he is doing or saying to you, ignore it.”

“We’ve beaten him before.” Added Emma, not giving up to hopelessness yet. There was no way she could let Jacob fall like that. “Fight him, Jacob.” She wouldn’t leave him behind. And just trying seemed futile anyway. If Caul had Jacob, he had all of their lives at his mercy. There were at least 40 hollows still standing, plus the perverted being towering over them, the cloud right below him churning furiously. Without Jacob, their chances of survival had reduced to none; not just of the three of them, but of the entire peculiardom. As this new reality started to take form in front of her very eyes, her thoughts started to give way to desperation.

“We need to stop him. Together. You said you wouldn’t let me do it alone. I need you so we can stop him.” Noor tried again.

Jacob got enough control left to release all three of them from the hollowgasts’ once safe hold and they stumbled to the floor as he groaned as if in physical pain.

Aren’t you tired of fighting? Of holding onto false hope? Join my side, and there’d be no more fighting, no more thinking, no more fear. I’ll rid you of that burden.

With each prod onto Jacob's mind, he felt the boy's spirit become weaker.

Yes, the voice inside his head rang placidly before his own started to vanish for good, Isn’t this much better? You’ve done well, kid. Now, kill the girl.

Jacob turned towards a terrified Noor, which was stumbling to her feet. His whole body trembled with rejection, a painful grimace etched on his face while against his wishes, the hollowgasts launched themselves at his friends. Noor squirmed in its hold, and Horatio, having been gravely ill before, was effortlessly subdued. Emma, reaching the last ounces of fight left in her, battled against the one going for her and tried freeing her friends, sending fireballs at them. For a moment, she thought she might make it; she even ran towards Jacob and shook him by the shoulders, in hopes of snapping him out of Caul’s control.

“Jacob, please, come back to us. We need you, we have to get out of here. Our friends are counting on us.” She tried, but the tamer had become tamed.

“He’s too strong. It’s in my head.” Jacob struggled to let out. A few tears had fallen from his eyes, and between quick breaths, he hurriedly said things going from, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want things to end like this.” to, “I’m so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.”

And that was the last he said before any trace of pain was gone from his features. Instead, a nightmarish smile took over them, while a hollowgast captured Emma, whose scream was quickly muffled by the lack of air on her lungs, the hollowgast tongues circling over her neck, waist, and arms.

He turned back to Noor, feeling her life blinking out as the hollow’s hold tightened around her. She was going to die, and the entire peculiar kind would fall soon after.

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futuristic-coffinnails-x · 4 days

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Setting: New City, 2077. A grimy, rebellious metropolis controlled by the megacorporation Syntek.

Music: Blend of Ramones-inspired punk anthems and Fear Factory's industrial metal with Misfits-esque horror elements.

Overall Tone: Raw, rebellious, questioning authority, with a bittersweet victory and an ambiguous future.

Episode 1: Demolisher

Ramones Vibe: Intro introduces Blitz, a factory worker by day, punk rocker by night. Witnessing Syntek's cruelty, he transforms into Demolisher, a DIY cyborg vigilante with spray-painted rebellion symbols.

Misfits Influence: Grainy visuals, chaotic attacks with Misfits-inspired skull symbols left behind. Demolisher becomes a symbol of hope and rage against the system.

Episode 2: Absolute Zero

Ramones Chorus: The Resistance forms, inspired by Demolisher. They're a motley crew with homemade weapons and a Ramones-style anthem "Smash the Machine!"

Misfits Mayhem: Syntek unleashes the monstrous Machine, a bio-mechanical horror reminiscent of Misfits imagery. The battle against the Machine is a chaotic punk mosh pit.

Episode 3: Archetype

Ramones Introspection: Blitz grapples with his identity, unsure if he's hero, pawn, or product of Syntek. A melancholic Ramones ballad plays as he questions his humanity.

Misfits Mystery: He investigates Syntek's dark past, uncovering disturbing experiments on human consciousness, mirroring Misfits themes of the unknown and the monstrous.

Episode 4: Resurrection

Ramones Rampage: The Resistance attacks Syntek HQ in a "Blitzkrieg Bop" fueled assault. Ramones anthems blare as they clash with corporate security.

Misfits Aftermath: Victory leaves New City in ruins, reflecting the Misfits' post-apocalyptic landscapes. The episode ends with a bittersweet note, knowing the fight isn't over.

Episode 5: Recharger

Ramones Reflection: Blitz confronts his cybernetic dependence in a virtual world. A haunting Ramones song plays as he searches for answers in the code.

Misfits Metamorphosis: He discovers Syntek's plan to merge the Machine with the virtual world, creating a digital prison. This revelation has Misfits-esque shock value.

Episode 6: Descent

Ramones Rebellion: With newfound knowledge, Blitz rallies the Resistance for a final stand. Ramones anthems fill the air as they confront Syntek's plan.

Misfits Maelstrom: The final battle is a chaotic mosh pit. Blitz dismantles Syntek, freeing New City but succumbing to his cybernetic enhancements. He disappears, leaving his fate unknown.

Ending Scene:

The Resistance rebuilds amidst ruins. A child plays a Ramones-inspired melody on a guitar shard. A data screen flashes: "The machine sleeps, but dreams."

Ambiguities:

The cost of freedom and the uncertain future of New City.

The ethical dilemma of resurrecting digitized human consciousnesses.

Blitz's fate and the blurring lines between man and machine.

This breakdown incorporates the Ramones and Misfits influences alongside Fear Factory's cyberpunk world, building a raw, rebellious narrative with an ambiguous ending that prompts viewers to ponder the complexities of the story and its world.

PLOT GENERATED BY AI

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my-words-are-light · 2 years

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'Deus Ex': How To Write Villains With Humanity

I really like this scene from Deus Ex. A lot of writers think giving a villain humanity means giving Bloodsaw Ignites-Kittens a jarring moment in which she reminisces on her mother's cooking or says "Good morning" to her receptionist or, Mary Shelley forbid, has a flashback about their abusive childhood because of a horrible parent to whom "giving them humanity" seems to not make sense to the author for some reason when they do the same for Bloodsaw Ignites-Kittens.

What Deus Ex does here is take a villain with absolutely no redeeming qualities but give us a moment to remind us that, for all of Walton Simons' nanotechnology, he is still a human being interacting with human systems.

Context and transcript will follow below the video:

The stoic Walton Simons is the right hand man of the megalomaniac Bob Page, who orchestrates the evils you face throughout the game. He also effectively controls the organisation you're in, which in turn makes Walton a superior officer to you. Indeed, he's been appointed as the director of FEMA after Bob effectively bribed a senator with the cure he's monopolising for the plague he's manufactured.

You first meet Walton after you finish the first mission. Assuming you didn't kill the "terrorists" and captured them like you were ordered to, Walton will personally interrogate them and ask that he not be disturbed. Should you listen in, you will find that he is more than willing to abuse his power in threatening the families of the captives. From the intro cutscene to this point, you know that Walton Simons and Bob Page are monsters who will do anything and everything to get what they want and nothing is beneath them.

Later on, you return to HQ again and hear that Walton is paying a visit to Dr Jaime Reyes. Oh no! Is he going to threaten Jaime with EVIL SCIENCE? Is he going to abduct the good doctor and experiment on him? What could be possibly be planning with the game's most sympathetic character according to what I remember of a game that came out twenty-two years ago?!

So you go down to the doctor's office and overhear the following conversation, which plays in the above video clip:

Dr Jaime Reyes: "What kind of pain?" Walton Simons: "Behind the eyes. A sharp burning. Almost electrical." Dr Jaime Reyes: "How's your bioelectric level?" Walton Simons: "It's always at a hundred percent. I like to stay prepared." Dr Jaime Reyes: "That's probably it right there. Free radicals. You should charge your systems only when they've been significantly drained." Walton Simons: <slowly, as if surprised> "I wasn't informed of that." Dr Jaime Reyes: "It's a lot like an electric razor. If you leave it plugged in all the time, the battery loses its zero point. Just watch your levels." Walton Simons: "Interesting. Thanks, Doctor." Dr Jaime Reyes: "Let me know how it goes."

And that's it. It's just a regular medical checkup. Even the man who works for the man who wishes to control everything and become effectively a God, he still needs to go to a doctor for an eye checkup because he couldn't tell what the problem was himself. What's more, he's cooperative and doesn't hide anything (owing probably to his stoic nature), his tone of voice indicates he wasn't expecting the diagnosis to be what it was, and he's genuinely thankful for the help.

This is what makes a villain human, which isn't the same as what makes a villain sympathetic. Bloodsaw Ignites-Kittens is an attempt to invoke sympathy that often falls that because it doesn't align with what we know of her villainous actions, or the Freudian backstory behind her actions is so weak that it feels like it was thrown in there for the sake of avoiding criticism of a "flat" villain.

Walton Simons is not sympathetic in the slightest; he's just as power hungry and monstrous as his boss. However, Walton is human. That's the thing about humans; they're complex but that doesn't mean they're sympathetic, because plenty of humans act with complete disregard for everyone around them and solely for the sake of their own profit, power, and survival. However however, that's the thing about humans; they may be seeking to build a new Enephtee-mining factory off the coast of Peru but that doesn't mean they don't need to try and find a time in their busy schedule to get a check-up now and again.

Also, I'd just like to say that this diagnosis is brilliant in terms of the themes of the story of Deus Ex. Walton Simons is injured because he keeps himself at 100% bioelectric charge at all times, basically being at the peak of his power to address any problems that come his way. The doctor telling him that this is a bad thing for his health shakes him; for the sake of his health, he has to not be powerful all the time. Considering the goals of Bob Page, it's a neat way of the story telling us that the pursuit of absolute power won't go well for you.

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

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SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you haven’t seen Season 1, Episode 5 of “Loki,” now streaming on Disney Plus.

I think it’s when Alligator Loki ate President Loki’s hand that I realized I was in love.

To be sure, I was always into “Loki,” Marvel Studios’ third Disney Plus series and the first devoted to exploring a single character: the god of mischief as played by Tom Hiddleston. From the first episode, I dug the absurdist deadpan humor imbued by head writer Michael Waldron, and I was immediately smitten with how director Kate Herron employed ’70s sci-fi brutalism and a particularly British affinity for bureaucracy to build out the world of the Time Variance Authority.

“Loki” looked unlike anything I’d ever seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an increasingly difficult prospect given there are now 26 discrete iterations of the MCU — soon to be 27 with the impending debut of “Black Widow.” As the show has progressed, that feeling has only grown more acute as “Loki,” in its exploration of its title character’s identity, managed to carve out its own unique personality not just in the MCU, but also in the grander landscape of sci-fi storytelling.

To put it as simply as I can, “Loki” is a cosmic-yet-intimate time-traveling romantic action comedy about how Hiddleston’s sexually fluid narcissist finally learns how to fall in love with himself — or, rather, the female version of himself who has lived a whole lifetime of harrowing experiences apart from his own. In doing so, the show has proven that not only can the MCU work on television, it can thrive on it.

Marvel Studios’ first Disney Plus series, “WandaVision,” was a fabulous first step onto TV, proving that the MCU, itself an experiment in creating an episodic series of blockbuster feature films, could shrink itself down to the scope of an American sitcom. Its exploration of grief and the restorative power of comfort TV could not have been more relevant to an audience enduring a devastating pandemic. But as it unfolded, the escalating mystery of what was actually happening on “WandaVision” — Evan Peters showing up as Pietro-but-not-actually-Pietro, Kathryn Hahn hiding in plain sight as Agatha, Elizabeth Olsen unwittingly responsible for almost everything on the show as Wanda — began to overwhelm it. Fans and major entertainment news outlets alike began wildly theorizing each week — it’s Mephisto! it’s Magneto! — and the pressure to achieve a Marvel-sized scale, service a wide ensemble of MCU characters, and resolve all its narrative strands made the final episodes of “WandaVision” feel, to some, misshapen.

Marvel’s follow-up series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” meanwhile, was at once more conventional and more ungainly, with five separate antagonists (John Walker, Karli Morgenthau, Helmut Zemo, Sharon Carter and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine) operating at cross-purposes and overshadowing the two title characters meant to be at the heart of the show and the exploration of being a Black man in America meant to drive it.

“Loki” avoids all of that, because it’s the first MCU show that understands to its bones that the best television is about its characters first, and its story second. The lasting pleasure of longform storytelling is allowing the audience a far deeper understanding of who is on screen than a two-hour movie can allow. That sensibility is already woven into the MCU: Watching Tony Stark, Thor, and Steve Rogers grow and changed over multiple features has been central to the franchise’s unprecedented success. But while Marvel’s conviction to make their shows the same way they’ve made their movies makes sense, it’s also had the paradoxical effect of making “WandaVision” and “FAWS” feel too overloaded with their characters doing stuff than just letting them be.

Each episode of “Loki” does just that. In Episode 1, Loki and Mobius (Owen Wilson, never better?) sit and talk about why Loki does what he does; in Episode 2, they ruminate on the nature of accepted reality while trying to solve the mystery of the variant Loki’s whereabouts. In Episode 3, Loki and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, an instant star) spend the entire hour walking through a doomed planet getting to know each other, and casually coming out in the process. Episode 4 is when the story shifts into a higher gear, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer emerging as its true antagonist, but even that episode allowed for several extended scenes of human connection, between Ravonna and Mobius, Loki and Mobius, and Sylvie and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku, richer with each episode).

This week’s penultimate episode, “Journey Into Mystery,” introduces several new Loki variants, a critical new location in the Void (the purgatory at the end of time into which all pruned entities are dumped) and a blockbuster movie sized enemy in the monstrous, timeline devouring Alioth (re-imagined somewhat from the comic books). And yet, there’s still time for Loki and Sylvie to sit on a hill, share a conjured blanket and quietly express how much they mean to each other, and there’s also time for Classic Loki (the great Richard E. Grant) to get a deeply satisfying character arc. After explaining how his own existential despair at his lot in life allowed him to live well past his encounter with Thanos, Classic Loki’s encounter with Loki and Sylvie reinvigorates his sense of glorious purpose — and helps Loki to understand he’s more powerful than he’s ever allowed himself to be. It’s a full meal in miniature, and Grant makes the most of it.

All the while, Herron and writer Tom Kauffman work in all manner of delightful alternate reality Easter eggs, from the USS Eldridge (purported to have been part of an experimental cloaking and teleportation device in 1943) to the Polybius video game (purported to be a government psy-ops scheme). More notably, there are also some MCU Easter eggs, including the Thanos helicopter and the Living Tribunal that flit by quickly and appear designed to tickle Marvel die-hards and pleasantly mystify everyone else. And then there’s Alligator Loki, a flawless creature who should be protected at all costs.

There is one blink-and-you-missed-it moment, though, that could be something more, when the Qeng Enterprises logo shows up on the Avengers tower. In the comics, Tony Stark sells that tower to Qeng, which is secretly connected to the same Marvel boogeyman that’s haunted “Loki” from its premiere: Kang the Conqueror. The decrepit house Loki and Sylvie are stepping towards at the end of the episode also looks like it could — could — be Chronopolis, Kang’s HQ in the comics, although the TVA itself could be that as well. In any event, it’s been well documented, here and elsewhere, that Kang could be the entity who is really behind the TVA, especially since “Lovecraft Country” star Jonathan Majors has already been cast in the role and will appear in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

If “Loki” does introduce Kang in its finale, however, then the show is stepping onto its highest, thinnest tightrope yet. This is supposed to be a show about Loki, not about a villain that, within the world of the MCU, remains a total unknown. It’s a massive risk for any series to bring in a brand new character — let alone the Big Bad! — in the final episode, so this could be another example of an MCU series serving the larger franchise at the expense of its own story. That would be a shame. Sticking the landing, after all, has always been troublesome for TV because TV is so much more about the shared journey than the ultimate destination. And yet, if anyone in the MCU knows how to alight onto safe ground despite impossible odds, it is the god of outcasts, who lives to survive.

“Loki” streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney Plus.

#Loki #episode 5 review #spoilers

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the1stn0elle · 3 years

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Haikyuu!! Analysis

Summary:

Haikyuu!! Is a story that follows Hinata Shoyou, a first-year at Karasuno High School, and his journey as a volleyball player for the Karasuno Volleyball team. Karasuno, a once powerhouse school known for volleyball and the legend of “the Little Giant” has been dubbed as the “fallen crows” as in recent years they have failed to make it to the spring tournament or nationals. Through the series, we see the hardships and many internal struggles of the characters as they develop as players and reach for the top to become the best volleyball players they can be. Haikyuu!! Is based on the many personal philosophies of each individual character and how they perceive achieving greatness in the sport. Misconceptions abound and faulty beliefs sometimes cloud the judgment of the characters as they work to reach nationals and get first place. HQ is a comedy that can be just as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking as it has the ability to make its viewers start cheering for the other team with how well the characters are developed and characterized. We get to follow Hinata and the rest of the Haikyu!! Cast as we see them fail, succeed, and learn every step of the way.

Analysis:

Part I:

Throughout the series, up until the 4th season, there are recurring mentions of “geniuses” and “innate talent” when teams are describing their opponents. A prime example of this would be with Oikawa Tooru, the setter for a powerhouse school in Miyagi called Aoba Johsai. Oikawa struggles with trying to surpass his past underclassman Kageyama Tobio, who is currently the setter for the Karasuno VB team and is known for being a prodigy setter and “the king of the court” due to his tyrannical type authority on the court that got him into trouble at his past school. Oikawa is seen to struggle with a deep-rooted dislike and envy of Kageyama as in their middle school days Kageyama took hold of Oikawa’s position as the team’s first lineup setter. Oikawa’s ambitious and motivated disposition caused him to overwork himself as he strived for perfection to gain a foot ahead of the rising VB genius Kageyama; in the series, it is mentioned by Oikawa that he knows he might never be able to reach the skill level of “geniuses” like Kageyama and Ushijima (Wing-spiker of the Shiratorizawa VB team) but he still puts his all into everything he does so that he can try to reach a fraction of their abilities and get to nationals.

Oikawa’s character brings in a very interesting narrative to the series as from his experiences with volleyball, the audience can gather the essential purpose for Oikawa’s character. Oikawa is ordinary and he is no genius like his toughest rivals and he is aware of his shortcomings as a player and despite all the sweat, blood, and tears he puts into volleyball he may still not ever be able to overcome his most formidable foes.

It comes down to a belief that is held among many of the players that even if you put your all into volleyball there are still geniuses and prodigies that will always be able to outperform you no matter what you do because they were born with a talent that very few VB players have and hard work simply isn’t enough in the face of raw, innate talent. But at the end of the day, it is Oikawa’s rivals that have created the monstrous drive to achieve great heights and reach the top and the same can be said for many of the other characters of HQ.

Part II:

In the fourth season of HQ, the entire narrative that the series held up to this point was flipped on its head and another major character philosophy was introduced. During the nationals match of Karasuno v. Inarizaki, an important character is revealed. Kita Shinsuke is the captain of Inarizaki and while he may not particularly stand out amongst the rest of his team, he is an individual whose presence simply demands respect. Kita’s entire existence debunks the narrative of Haikyuu!! That has been based around Oikawa’s experiences with his “monster” rivals Ushijima and Kageyama. In chapter 286 Kita’s infamous monster speech takes place and the viewer’s understanding of HQ dramatically changed.

Kita describes that individuals like Miya Atsumu who are recognized for their immense talent push themselves harder than the average person, and how his hard work and dedication has lead him to his current abilities.

Kita clearly states how people aren’t necessarily talented right from the beginning and these individuals people deem as “monsters” and “geniuses” put so much time and effort into polishing their craft. He even considers it rude since it completely discredits all struggles these so-called “monsters” have put in honing their skills.

Kita’s speech about monsters and geniuses brings to add the perspective that the terms don’t even manage to graze the surface of what goes on behind the scenes of “talented” individuals. He believes that those who view certain goals as unattainable are simply falling victim to a self-fulfilling prophecy as those who give their all to reach their peak through hard work and diligence are the ones who get their efforts rewarded. This isn’t to say that hard work alone will always bring about the desired result but at least you don’t set yourself up for failure by predicting your failure before you’ve even tried. Nobody simply has everything, everyone must overcompensate for what they lack in by polishing the areas they are strongest.

Another concept that Kita brings into the series is his main philosophy on life: “I am built upon the small things I do every day, and the results are no more than a byproduct of that.” this important quote of his emphasizes the idea that the results are only based upon what has been done prior meaning it isn’t even the most important part in the process; if one works hard every day and gives it their all then there should be no doubt that they won’t perform their best.

#haikyuu!!#passionproject #kita shinsuke #inarizaki #oikawa tōru #anime analysis #manga analysis

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olivereliott · 3 years

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Top Five Harley-Davidson Sportsters, Part One: Ironheads

Harley-Davidson has just rebooted one of the world’s longest-running model lines, with the launch of the new Sportster S. But remarkably, it’s only the third major engine update in the Sportster’s 60-plus years on this earth.

Before the new Revolution Max-powered Sportster S came, we had the Evolution motor that debuted in 1986. And before that, the iconic Ironhead. But throughout each era, the Sportster has always been a mainstay of the custom scene.

To celebrate, we’ve rounded up our ten favorite Sportster builds, divided by their motors. This week, we’re featuring five top-shelf Ironheads from some of the world’s best custom builders—including illustrious names like Max Hazan [above] and Hideya Togashi [below].

Next week, it’s the Evo’s turn.

Hide Motorcycle There’s a long history of Japan’s love for Americana, and the humble Sportster is no exception. Case in point: this Ironhead Sportster by Hideya Togashi of Hide Motorcycle (that’s ‘Hee-day’). It was one of the stars of 2018’s Mooneyes show—a show that Togashi-san is a regular fixture at.

The bike’s built around an original but refurbished 1966 XLCH motor, complete with a Linkert DC-7 carb. But the rest of it is mostly is custom, and it was built without any specific style or theme in mind. “As always, I cherish the balance, and maximize the beauty,” says Hideya.

The motor sits in a scratch-built nickel-plated hardtail frame, with the OEM frame number plate grafted on. Hideya kept the original steering head, triples and forks, but added custom sleeves. The Harley rolls on 21F/18R wheels with drum brakes.

Hideya fabricated the aluminum headlight nacelle and fuel tank, and built the oil tank. The rear fender’s been scalped from a vintage Harley FX Super Glide, then modified to suit. Swept back bars and a pair of beautifully-bent nickel-plated exhausts add to the vintage vibe.

The paint’s extra classy too—a 1930s Harley scheme laid down by Skop Paint Works. Hide’s Ironhead blends vintage speedway and flat track styles together to create a minimalistic and impossibly cool machine. The perfect use of an Ironhead motor. [More]

Hot Chop Speed Shop Here’s another bike that stopped visitors to the 2018 Mooneyes event dead in their tracks: a twin-engined Harley drag bike by Kentaro Nakano at Hot Chop Speed Shop in Kyoto. Using two Sportster XLCH engines, Nakano-san built the monster as a tribute to the drag racers of the 70s.

Unsurprisingly, it picked up two awards at the show—from the top Japanese mags, Hot Bike and Vibes.

‘Double Trouble’ uses a 1969 Ironhead in front, with an older engine at the rear. Both run with S&S Super B carbs, fitted with custom velocity stacks. Kentaro’s friend Kazuhiro Takahashi of Sakai Boring helped rebuild the engines.

The two V-twins are linked by connecting plates, and their output shafts are connected to two separate primaries. The transmission’s a four-speed from a 1980s Big Twin and Kentaro has set the timing of the two motors so that they go ‘potato potato’ at idle, but scream at high revs.

The whole arrangement is housed in a custom hardtail frame, fabricated from steel tubing. There’s a set of early 70s Ducati Imola forks up front, with 18” rims at both ends wrapped in M&H drag slicks. Kentaro installed a pair of Airheart brakes up front, with a Wilwood brake out back.

All of the bodywork was fabricated in aluminum, from scratch. Fuel sits in the cylindrical reservoir up front, with oil held in the seat ‘cowl.’ Custom upholstery from Atelier Cherry adds to the period-correct look.

Double Trouble’s finished off with a narrow set of custom drag bars, with a 1970s H-D tacho out front. The bodywork’s been left raw, with tidy Hot Chop Speed Shop decals on the tank. Buttoned up, it’s both elegant and monstrous. [More]

Hazan Motorworks Max Hazan’s work speaks for itself, but what’s remarkable is that the American builder’s had an unmistakable signature from day one. If you don’t believe us, then consider the fact that this Sportster-powered artwork was only his fourth build.

“I start with a motor that I find aesthetically pleasing, put it on the table, and build the bike around it,” Max told us back then. In this case, the motor is exquisite. Max built it up with two 1981 Ironhead front heads, split the rocker covers and added matching Amal carbs.

The frame was built from 7/8” and 1” steel tubes, and also holds the oil and wiring. The front-end’s a work of art on its own; it uses two springs under the fuel tank, and a damper behind the headlight. The only rear suspension is a pair of springs under the seat, with about 1.5” of travel.

Max had a set of 1920s car tires in his hands, so he built the bike up with a 30” wheel out front, and a 31” hoop at the back. They suit the scale of the bike too—which measures eight feet long, but weighs just 300 lbs.

Almost everything was fashioned by hand, using metal that was lying around the workshop, or, in some cases, small salvaged parts. There’s a frosted shot glass as a taillight cover, and a porcelain doorknob on the hand shifter. The handmade tank only holds 1.5 gallons… but Max is under no illusions about his creation having to be ridden far.

Eight years on, this Ironhead still stands as one of our favorite Harleys—nay, customs—and some of Max’s best work. [More]

HardNine Choppers The 1979 Harley-Davidson XLCR is arguably too rare to be customized these days, but the owner of this Sporty has three. So he had no qualms about handing one over to Swiss builder Danny Schneider for a makeover.

Danny, who operates as HardNine Choppers, is an ex-motocrosser who had previously built two Triumph flat trackers, and was itching to give a Harley the same treatment. So he took on the project with the provision that he could turn it into a tracker. Luckily, the client agreed.

Danny’s work went deep—starting with the motor that he bored out from 997 cc to 1,340 cc, with KB Performance pistons. The carb is from the Harley performance specialists, S&S Cycle, and the exhaust is a custom nickel-plated system that exits under the seat. Danny had to relocate the oil tank to accommodate it.

The custom fuel tank echoes the lines of the original XLCR unit, but it’s actually a slimmer, split design (the left side houses the oil). Danny hand-shaped an aluminum tail section too, with slits to help dissipate heat. He made the seat pad himself, too.

Suspension is by way of Showa shocks from an FXR, fitted with Öhlins cartridges, and Bitubo rear shocks. It rolls on 21F/16R spoked wheels, with a Beringer brake set that Danny drove to the French company’s HQ to have made.

This XLCR is a clever mix of classic style and modern parts, tied together with a host of custom touches and a fresh paint job inspired by a mini-bike spotted on the street (true story).

It’s also a great story of perseverance; Danny took a two-year break in the middle of the project to welcome his daughter into the world and battle testicular cancer. Then he crammed two month’s worth of 15-hour days in to finish it in time for the MBE Expo show in Verona, Italy. Much respect. [More]

DP Customs We’ve featured a slew of slammed and hot-rodded Harleys from the now-defunct DP Customs over the years, but this was one of their wildest. Brothers Jarrod and Justin Del Prado built it as a personal project between client jobs, using Justin’s own 1000 cc 1979 Ironhead Sportster as a donor.

DP Customs went all-out, starting with a turbo that had been sitting in the shop waiting for the right project.

The motor was rebuilt with forged pistons and new valves and springs, then the turbo was installed with a custom draw-through setup, and a Mikuni carb. From the custom aluminum intake and exhaust, to the custom oil system that runs into a Mooneyes tank, it’s an impressive setup.

Like three of the other Harleys on this list, this one features a scratch-built hardtail frame. It uses DP Customs’ signature 6” stretch and 4” drop, with a custom 19” wheel up front, and a modified 15” car wheel at the back. The front brake’s a Brembo, and the rear is a custom system with a combination sprocket and rotor.

Up top is a wafer-thin seat, with a traditional peanut tank up front. DP Customs installed clip-ons with Biltwell Inc. grips, and head- and taillights—but there’s no speedo, and no turn signals. The asymmetrical paint job, red frame and gold wheels should clash, but somehow they harmonize, maximizing the Harley’s eye candy appeal.

DP Customs admit the bike wasn’t built with practicality in mind, summing up that “it hauls ass in a straight line, and the brakes work.” [More]

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giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 4 years

Text

Hypothetical plot outline for Spider-Man 3

We start off moments after the end of Far From Home. Peter swings Michelle out of the downtown area as the public starts going crazy following Mysterio’s video message. Peter, Ned, MJ, and Aunt May are taken to Avengers HQ by Happy Hogan, who tells Peter that the Avengers know the video was obviously faked. Happy tells Peter to wait at Avengers HQ while the Avengers work on damage control and gathering evidence that Mysterio’s footage was doctored. Peter is essentially put on house arrest.

We get a montage of Peter trying to pass the time as the Avengers try to clear his name. He plays games with Ned, Aunt May home-schools him, and we get some cute romantic scenes between him and MJ. Then, one night, Peter’s spider-sense goes off. He explores the building to figure out what’s going on and stumbles upon a new character. The intruder, who we learn is the MCU Cindy Moon (separate from the other Cindy in Peter’s class), is heavily injured. She collapses in Peter’s arms.

Cut to our main villain of the movie, Sergei Kravinoff aka Kraven the Hunter. In the MCU, Kraven is introduced as an elite bounty hunter who uses extralegal/illegal methods to catch his prey. He sets his sights on Peter Parker, saying that he intends to bring him to justice. However, we also see him in a secret meeting with Dr. Mendel Stromm of OsCorp. Stromm says that a “whistleblower with top secret information” named Cindy Moon is planning on ruining OsCorp and that he needs Kraven to capture her. Stromm says that Norman Osborn will triple his current payment if Cindy is successfully caught.

Back to Peter, Peter introduces his friends to Cindy. We learn from Cindy that she was practically raised by OsCorp; she was given up by her family at an early age and put through the Spider-Program. She was the longest surviving, and most successful, test subject (so...a bit like Eleven from Stranger Things, except with spider powers). Cindy says she’s been planning her escape for nearly seven years. She didn’t intend on hiding out at Avengers HQ, it was just the closest building nearby.

Peter says that she can hide out with him but before they can get comfortable, Avengers HQ is approached by Kraven the Hunter and the police, who tracked Cindy down. While figuring out how this happened, Cindy is dismayed when she discovers that there’s a tracking chip embedded in her body. Happy Hogan tries to stop Kraven at first but is forced to let Kraven search the grounds when he produces a warrant for both Peter and Cindy’s arrest (Cindy is given a fake criminal background by OsCorp in order to fool the Avengers). Happy then helps Peter and friends escape the building, forcing them to go on the run.

At this point, the movie turns a bit into “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” with Peter and friends deciding to flee the country as Kraven the Hunter closes in on them. We get some awkward bonding between Peter, Ned, and MJ with Cindy Moon, who is incredibly socially awkward due to having spent her entire life in a lab. While on the run, having been disturbed by Cindy Moon’s life story and OsCorp’s illegal activities, Peter makes the decision to expose OsCorp for the Spider-Program. MJ and Ned tell Pete that he should focus on staying low but Peter says that he can’t just stand by and watch OsCorp get away with their crimes.

Cindy is reluctant at first, not wanting to get recaptured and sent back to her captors, but is eventually convinced by Peter’s determination (something along the lines of “We can’t be on the run forever. We have to fight back eventually”). The four make plans to get proof of OsCorp’s crimes by sneaking into the main OsCorp lab where Cindy was kept hostage. In this part of the movie, the focus is on collecting intel and items to help in the OsCorp break-in. During this, Peter has his first battle with Kraven. Surprisingly, Kraven is able to fight toe-to-toe with Peter. Peter gets away while Kraven rethinks his strategy.

As the break-in approaches, we learn that Kraven is growing suspicious of his employer. While he has no qualms about capturing Peter, he’s suspicious about Cindy. Kraven was under the impression that Cindy was just a whistleblower. To figure out what is really going on, Kraven launches his own investigation into OsCorp. What he finds disgusts him.

In addition to the Spider-Program, he finds several of OsCorp’s other “projects”. There are cages of monstrous beings being held captive by OsCorp, many of them being references to the Spider-Man rogues gallery (specifically the Venom symbiote, a monster made entirely of electricity to reference Electro, and a half-man/half-fly to reference the Human Fly). Kraven gets spotted, leading to a stand-off between him and OsCorp’s mercenaries. Kraven survives the encounter, but only barely.

The break-in begins. This is set up like a spy movie, with Peter, Ned, MJ, and Cindy all playing a crucial part in the plan. The plan is going fine...until Mendel Stromm and OsCorp’s mercenaries corner them. Stromm says that Cindy will be returned to the Spider-Program...along with Peter. Ned and MJ will then be executed to tie up any loose ends. A fight occurs but Peter and Cindy are forced to stand down due to the threat on Ned and MJ’s lives.

Just as we think that Peter and Cindy have been defeated, Kraven sneaks up on Stromm and holds him at gunpoint. Kraven says he wants revenge and Stromm replies that Kraven can’t do anything to harm him. Kraven then activates an EMP, shutting down all electricity in the area. Even though the emergency generator is activated, Stromm is horrified as this means that any one of OsCorp’s monsters could’ve been released during the blackout. Only one escaped, but it’s the most dangerous of them all; a gigantic, green monstrosity that starts killing everyone around it.

Peter describes it as a “greenish goblin”.

During the chaos, Peter, Ned, MJ, and Cindy escape with the evidence needed to expose the Spider-Program. Kraven, having succeeded in getting revenge, shoots Mendel Stromm dead and makes his escape.

In this part of the movie, Peter and Cindy have to deal with the Green Goblin monster, that’s now on the loose and is destroying everything in its path. We get a thrilling showdown as Peter and Cindy basically tag team on the Green Goblin, with Cindy dealing the killing blow. Despite their status as wanted fugitives, the public cheers them for their victory. Just as they think they can relax, Peter leaves on his own to confront Kraven.

We’re now at the final, final showdown of the movie. Peter confronts Kraven, who was trying to flee the city. Peter says that Kraven needs to pay for releasing the Green Goblin into the city and getting dozens of people killed. He’s also angry at Kraven in general for trying to arrest him and his friends. Kraven says he released the monster in order to take OsCorp down and that, at least for a little while, they were on the same side. He also says that he disapproved of what happened to Cindy and that his crusade against Peter was just business. Despite this, Peter says Kraven still got innocent people killed and needs to pay for his crimes. Kraven says he won’t go down without a fight, the two battle it out, and it ends with Peter defeating Kraven.

As Kraven is taken away by the police, he shrugs off the idea that he’ll be charged with the Green Goblin incident since there’s no way to link him to the rampage. However, the officer reveals that he’s actually being arrested for the murder of Mendel Stromm. Kraven laughs to himself at that.

As the movie ends, Happy Hogan tells Peter that his name was successfully cleared by the Avengers. With the help of a “crazy lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen” (coughDaredevilcough), the Avengers were able to prove that Mysterio was behind the attack on London. And with the evidence collected from OsCorp, Peter, Cindy, Ned, and MJ are able to expose the Spider-Program to the world, resulting in heavy negative attention to OsCorp. Now officially a free woman, Cindy parts ways with Peter and friends, saying that she wants to find her place in the world.

Movie ends with Peter triumphantly swinging through the city, his reputation restored.

Mid-credits scene: While resting on a rooftop, Peter is pulled into this mysterious, dream-like landscape being presided by an old woman. The woman introduces herself as Madame Web and she says that she needs Peter’s help. Peter asks what she needs help with and Madame Web says that someone is trying to manipulate the multiverse.

Post-credits scene: J. Jonah Jameson is harassed by Flash Thompson for his blatantly biased reporting against Spider-Man.

(@angel-starbeam, @justaleapoffaith, @lostinthespeedforce, @spideychelleforever, @whistlingwindtree, @acerobbiereyes)

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darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts · 4 years

Text

Devil’s Trust pt2

Warnings: Strong language, Moblord styling warlords.

Masterlist

---

Chapter 2

Rumour mills were in full production. The gossip circles were tapping out messages on the underground jungle drums throughout the city and word was out … The Ghost was here!

“Beware the shadows and its moving shade. Be mindful of your actions and the repercussions made. Judgement comes to those who don’t. Beware the Ghost.”

Every family with ties to the underground knew the stories. They were told and passed on generation to generation. Tales the grown-ups told the children the same way the ordinary everyday people would recite a fairy tale. Except these were different.

Fairy tales were edited narratives, sugar-coated and glossing over the gory details to give the next generation growing up in the world a little moral guidance. When it came to the stories about the Ghost there was nothing sweet about them. Even in the dark underbelly of the world, there were lines you didn’t cross, rules you obeyed and when that was ignored it was the Ghost that took you.

It was because nothing about it was hidden and all of it was true that is struck fear into the hearts of all those living in the underworld. The Ghost was the avenging angel in their world. The Judge, jury and executioner at your final supper. They were responsible for making the unrepentant pay the price owed. Every detail behind the stories of the Ghost could be easily found in the lines of text written by the coroner; if they found the body at all. The question hanging in the air… who was the Ghost targeting now?

---

Two minutes, it was all he could claw back from the time given to him by Sasuke. He had to get out of the main flow of traffic. The road opened up after a few sharp turns, the wheels of his car were smoking as he pulled hard on the handbrake and went down some roads that were so narrow, they could take the wing mirrors off the car had he not been more aware of the space provided.

His engine as it raced through the old cobblestone routes of the old city filled the air with a monstrous roar even as the vibrations threatened to shake the chassis from the rest of the car. The other vehicles had not given up the pursuit but were now forced to follow him in single file. He wanted to get them out of town but that would be asking for too much. He followed the labyrinthine roads following a map in his own head and decided drawing them out to the dockyard was the best option. You’re in my playground. Don’t presume you can back me into a corner when I know all the short cuts.

The smile on his face grew deeper as his focus on the road ahead cleared. He was not so much the vision of a man being pushed in a murderous pursuit through the twisting veins of the city but that of one that was simply out for a drive on a long weekend. Yes, this was his city. The dark side streets and alleys were his bread and butter, all the old roads the jam that just served to make his nightlife all the sweeter for his hunt.

As the front of his car exited the alleyway like a bullet from a shotgun. The cobbles under his wheels gave way to slick dirt. The moisture from the water in the air here meant the ground was never what you could call dry. The natural clay content of it meant it was like skating on an icy pond. The other cars exited behind him and began to separate up to cover as many routes behind him as they could.

It was laughably predictable and he couldn’t avoid the dry chuckle that left him as he glanced in his rear-view mirror and once more pulled on his hand brake causing his car to spin on the ground under it so he could come face to face with his pursuers. The salt clogged mud slick sprayed in arcs by his rear bumper before falling still on the ground once more. He could almost feel the hesitation from them as he changed the game from cat and mouse into one of chicken.

Mitsuhide put his hand up to the handle on the roof clicking a hidden button that slid back a small compartment there revealing a primed and loaded gun. Now then, who’s first?

---

Stepping foot back into HQ Nobunaga was almost immediately accosted by a highly strung Hideyoshi. The man had been sitting in a chair by reception and practically pounced the second he saw his Boss’s highly polished shoes touch the tiles.

“You’re back!” The man blurted out as if in shock. Warm caramel brown eyes searched Nobu from top to toe as if he were expecting some sort of mortal wound to be present.

“Naturally.” Nobu replied rather lazily as he fixed his right-hand man with a nondescript look. He was a little amused but mostly thankful that it was past office hours and there were no clients that would be in need of explanations as to why the Vice President was acting like someone had put itching powders in his boxers.

“You didn’t answer your phone. I was worried.” Hideyoshi spoke with panic still clear in his voice and slightly shaking. You really would make someone a fine wife one day Yoshi. Still, for all your fussing I can’t deny you have been a dependable ally during some of the darker times.

“When are you never worried?” Nobu replied in exasperation failing to suppress the sigh that was building inside him.

“Why didn’t you answer?” Hideyoshi appeared hurt by being ignored and it was obvious it had been yet another thing he deemed life-threatening or at the very least major enough that could yet again bring down the foundations of their company that were already standing on rocky terrain.

He didn’t know if it was the lingering effects of his time at the Birdcage or if he had simply found the eye of the emotional storm that had been raging inside him. He was reluctant to dwell too long on such a thing but he couldn’t keep his newfound amusement from escaping him.

Nobu smirked slightly and replied. “I left for a few hours. I fail to see what disasters could have befallen during that time that could not be easily handled by the men I left in my place. A fact that was confirmed when I turned my phone back on and was bombarded with several messages one of which was our new resident tech expert informing me that the matter was in hand.”

Hideyoshi stood where he was mouth agape at the succinct rundown of events. A surge of satisfaction washed over Nobu as he succeeded in rendering the other man speechless. The doors to the underground car park opened revealing a spectacled arrival carrying a bag printed with a grocery store logo.

“You fixed that?” Having found his voice again Hideyoshi stated more in shock than as a question as he turned his attention on the new arrival. Sasuke quickly looked between the two men noting that they were both showing polar opposite levels of the emotional spectrum and made the connection to the only incident of interest for the day.

“Yes. It did take a little bit of creative hacking to do it but I was able to shut down the news drone and have the incident written off as a scene being filmed for a new movie. Hardly something out with my skill set.” Sasuke pushed up his glasses causing them to glint in a way that made him look even more like a casual superhero than normal.

“You think people will buy that?” Hideyoshi stammered at the unbelievable ease with which Sasuke replied. Nobunaga stood silently watching the two converse. He plunged his hand deep into his trouser pocket his fingertips finding the edge of his key that would allow him to escape to his rooms.

“They already have.” Sasuke flashed his smartphone with a still image of the street view below the drone and the new headline “High-Speed preview of new action movie – was the Director’s choice of using the real world refreshing or irresponsible?” Nobunaga’s lips tugged into a large satisfied smile and chuckled with the amusement of the audacious plan as well as the apparent effect, it had on Hideyoshi.

“You don’t exactly look shocked by any of this.” Hideyoshi stated trying to figure out why he seemed so lax about the events. Ever since the companies had merged, he had to confess he had a hard time getting a read on this young man. His expressionless face gave nothing away and it was unsettling to not even be able to detect a real shift in tone as he spoke. Hideyoshi was a people person or as Mitsuhide had pointed out on more than one occasion a people pleaser. To be unable to get even subliminal guidance from someone as to how to assist them or what they are even thinking unnerved him.

“Kenshin is my Boss. Being asked to shut down a few cameras and changing a few things on the city grid to redirect attention is nothing.” Sasuke replied in a calm manner with a little shrug that only seemed to frustrate Hideyoshi even more.

---

The sound of tape being pulled from a roll and placed over cardboard almost seemed to echo in the almost empty rooms as the last of their things was finally packed. Her cat sat by the window where it had claimed a place for itself the second Mitsuhide had retrieved it from Takahiro’s loft space. Swishing its tail unhappily, as its blissful time enjoying the sunlight was being disturbed by the sounds of moving.

It had been a whirlwind experience coming back to Azuchi HQ after everything that happened. She had thought to try to explain everything at the church about her living arrangements but it seemed Mitsuhide already knew that she no longer had her apartment. He could have left her to return to Takahiro’s apartment but it seemed that was not an idea he wished to entertain. All of the familiar faces welcomed her regardless of the tension that was present in the air. Something had clearly been happening but it was going to be a few days before anyone explained the current situation to her.

Staying in his rooms at Azuchi was only ever supposed to be temporary. He was pulling strings and taking late-night phone calls trying to secure somewhere new. He wanted her to be safe it was key and his number one priority. Whilst it was safe at HQ Mitsuhide hadn’t felt entirely comfortable leaving her there on a permanent basis. [Name] was effectively a magnet for danger, as far as he could work out. Whilst they had survived a lot, he had no liking for the idea of leaving her in a place where she could easily become embroiled in yet another “plan”. On top of that if the others discovered [Name] was related in some distant way to the enemy he really didn’t like the idea of what might happen to her.

She took another look around the room just in case she had missed something they needed. Thinking that it looked just as empty as it had done when she first came here. Mitsuhide wasn’t exactly minimalist by choice it was something to do with his work. The less you have the fewer things people can use against you, but the lack of luxury items or things you might expect as a common standard of living somewhere were also not present in the apartment. He was never really at home to notice that an electric kettle or a microwave might actually help him a little in the mornings or late evenings. The longer she stayed the more she noticed little things she had taken for granted, like a hairdryer. She had taken to picking up these missed items on her way home from work.

Mitsuhide said nothing to the accumulation of objects appearing in his apartment. He knew what they all were and how to use them just had never seen a need to have them. They were together and would be for a long time. His small isolated little hole had been filled with something far closer to a kind of peace than he ever thought someone like him would even have a hope of seeing. It was a form of culture shock that was not entirely unpleasant. Despite his home being taken over with progressively more acquired bric-a-brac and miscellaneous goods, he felt comfortable and at ease. She had turned his place into the same warm and inviting area her apartment was, and he found he sort of liked it.

“Hey Kitten, you got any more ready to go?” A lively voice called out before the person attached to it had even managed to make it into the room.

“Think this is the last one.” [Name] called back turning to smile at the men who had been helping shift most of the belongings.

“Good because I’m not making any more trips.” Ieyasu huffed cracking open the lid on a bottle of mineral water and chugging half of it in one go.

“It was nice of you to help out Yasu.” [Name] smiled sweetly unaffected by the salty blonde’s attitude.

“I’m only doing it to shut Hideyoshi up and to get you and the body collector out of my hair.” Ieyasu hastily started to make an excuse desperate to hide the redness he felt breaking out on his face. He wasn’t exactly a stranger to interacting with women but there were certain types of them that seemed to trigger him to fluster badly. Masa often teased him that it looked like he was a teenager having a short circuit because a pretty girl spoke to them.

“Body collector?” She inclined her head a quizzical expression replacing that beaming smile.

“Best not to ask Lass. Yasu’s still a little salty over having to deal with what is left of your fella’s… whatever he does.” Masa chuckled and put his hand on her head. [Name] pulled herself back swatting the hand from her and met his smile with a brief glare that was rendered powerless by the man’s lack of concern.

“It’s strange to think I’m leaving here again.” She rolled her eyes and glanced about again.

“It’s not too late you know Kitten. Just have to say the word and I could steal you away…” Masa moved like a cat sliding up closer and leaning over to whisper in her ear. Failing spectacularly as his volume control was definitely off.

“My-my, someone is feeling confident despite his lack of depth perception.” A teasing voice came some somewhere behind them carrying a chilling edge to it. All three of them turned to see Mitsuhide propped up against the doorway, one hand in his trouser pocket. The smile on his face at first glance appeared pleasant but didn’t reach his eyes at all, it could send a shiver up anyone’s back.

---

It had taken some time to secure a residence for them but after conducting some final checks he was finally back at HQ. That little diversion from earlier had been interesting but he was still thankful for it to have reached its conclusion swiftly. He parked his car alongside the van that stood there with its loading doors wide open revealing box after box piled up methodically, each one labelled in her delicate handwriting. Looks like I’m a little late to the party on this one. I wonder who got the job of assisting the Princess. I could see Hideyoshi doing that, the man never knows when to stop smothering.

Moving from the car park to the elevator in the lobby he was hit with a feeling of something a little nostalgic. He had never really taken the time to appreciate the building. It was a base of operations, somewhere to work out of and run back too. It was also naturally a legitimate business and on a weekday was as busy as an anthill at a picnic. Today though it was quiet and as he stepped into the lift, he realised that the significance of the place was about to shift for him. He would be here but it was only going to be for work. He would maintain a room but it would only be for use on occasion. Is this what a normal life feels like? Working and then going home somewhere else?

The closer he got to his rooms the more he was aware of activity. And then just before he entered, he heard the unmistakable voice of Masa.

“It’s not too late you know Kitten. Just have to say the word and I could steal you away…”

“My-my, someone is feeling confident despite his lack of depth perception.” He stopped in the doorway adopting an air of nonchalance when he was, in fact, feeling anything but. The familiar tease in his voice didn’t manage to cover for him either. Of all the people why him? It’s not as bad as Shingen I suppose but still…

“I knew you were there.” Masa snorted meeting Mitsuhide’s smile with a knowing grin of his own. It was like watching a cat and dog in a face-off about to have a scuffle.

“Then you are also lacking in your sense of personal preservation.” Mitsuhide slowly moved closer to [Name] pushing himself between her and Masa forcing the other man back. Masa was chuckling and looking at Mitsuhide as if he had just found something brand new and shiny to play with. Don’t try to play games with me. You can only imagine what I will do and even then, I would easily surpass your delusions. Wait a minute why am I so annoyed right now?

“Have you met Masa? The guy is a walking disaster who is basically a pain in my ass.” Ieyasu spoke up disrupting the atmosphere enough to dissipate some of the friction.

“Haha, I’m going to miss you guys.” Her laughter from behind him snuffed out the last of his rising turmoil. She was a miracle balm to his fraying nerves. He was still not used to this thing called “love” they shared. It still threatened to be an all-consuming fire he would happily die in.

“No need to pull that face [Name].” Masa adjusted himself and pulled back. He had amused himself enough and didn’t wish to upset Mitsuhide further. It was so easy to see the emotions playing in the usually unreadable man. He had seen them clear as day in his friend after that fake funeral incident and the only one oblivious to it was apparently the man himself.

“He’s right, not like you are going so far away you can’t visit. I will probably be busy but you will no doubt find a way to disturb me.”

“Wouldn’t hurt you to be a bit more honest there Yasu.” Masa laughed and roughly rubbed his knuckles over the top of the fluffy blonde’s head, before picking up the last sealed box. “Anyway, I’ll take this down to the van.”

“I’ll hold the door for you.” Ieyasu leapt forward and barged past Masa nearly knocking him over in a rush to escape the room.

“Being awfully friendly today aren’t you Yasu?” Masa looked a little shocked at the sudden show of enthusiastic helpfulness.

“Not really I just don’t want to stay around here and play gooseberry.”

“Those two make a good pair.” [Name] said wistfully as she watched the others leave. It made him feel like he wanted to make her look at him.

“They do have an extraordinary ability to make up for each other’s deficiency.” He turned around locking her small frame in his arms. “Now then little one whatever shall I do with you?” I never had myself pegged for a possessive man. You really do have a curious power little mouse. The things you do to me.

“Me? What did I do now? I haven’t done anything.” [Name] startled and her blue eyes began to flicker around wandering the room attempting to remember anything that might have incurred punishment.

“You are very guilty my dear, you just haven’t realised it yet.” He dipped low and sealed her lips shut with his. I will never get bored with watching you, my love. If this is a dream I don’t want to wake up.

“Mmfph… Mitsuhide! Don’t tell me you’re jealous.” She placed her hand on his chest pushing him back. Her upturned eyes looking at his searching for answers he didn’t wish to give. Jealous? Ah, so that’s what that was…

“Alright… I won’t tell you.” His lips curved into a wolf-like grin as he claimed her mouth again.

---

The stars in the sky were obscured by that sickly glow from the city. He could only very faintly pick out one or two points of light above him. The air felt heavy but he was unsure whether that was an omen of rain or the echo of his own discomfort.

His time at the club had been a welcome distraction even if he hadn’t been able to completely let go. The carefully crafted world of his was becoming more unstable. Voices carried in the wind, not wanting to openly admit the facts. They were concerned once more and it all had a negative impact on the trust, they had in Azuchi. A trust they had in him. The firm hand he once held the city with was being pried open and he could feel it slipping like sand through his fingers. But who the hell is it? Who is still pulling strings?

He sighed and lowered himself down onto the bench in the pavilion. His gaze moved from a fixed point in the past to the present and he frowned. Nobody liked change, but that is exactly what was happening. Esshu should have collapsed but didn’t. There was one reason for that, the only one that made any logical sense and it was that there was more than one head running the show. Wheels and cogs began to turn in his mind as he thought through various proposals and suggestions that he could use to secure a foot in the door at the other company. Anything I offer would be much harder to refuse if I could just find the focal point. That weak link in the chain that holds all the strings. Who do I know that could find that?

---

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aromanticmage · 5 years

Text

A Day at Delphi

tw self harm and sexual assault mention, also spoilers for Retribution

Julia had heard the rumors, of course, everyone has, but to see her sitting in the main conference room of the Rangers HQ. fills her with a mix of apprehension, curiosity, and dread.

The Seer, a mysterious woman who travels the world, professing her unprecedented psychic abilities; the power to answer almost any question, to give information that few possess. She offers her services for free, but only allows for one question.

Julia had always been skeptical, but the reports and testimonies from those who actually met with her have almost always been filled with confirmations of the Seer’s abilities.

So here she was, standing off to the side, thinking, as Herald, Argent, and Steel discussed what question they should ask. Steel, of course, was incredibly skeptical, and was trying to figure out a question that would give them sensitive information that they already knew, while also giving them useful information that they could use to save lives.

Julia turned to look at the Seer. She wasn't anything impressive; an old, wrinkly woman, with bronze skin and almost snow-white hair. She wore a thick scarf, a button-up shirt, a leather jacket for... some reason, and some slacks with sandals. The Seer was sitting in one of their rolling chairs, drinking some coffee that Herald had made.

And she had been staring at Julia the entire time the other three Rangers had been talking. Her steel-grey eyes were sharp and intense, and she wasn't looking at Julia like she was trying to figure out a puzzle, rather her eyebrows were furrowed, like she was worried about something, almost daring Julia to do something.

Julia already knew exactly what questions she wanted answered, but the Seer had tossed the first one out the window the moment she sat down, before Julia had said a single word.

“I will not answer any questions regarding Hollow Ground. I may be psychic, but i'm not immortal.” She had said, glaring at Julia.

Which left the next question. The biggest problem in Los Diablos, the one villain who’s been giving them more trouble than any other since...

Well, since Heartbreak.

Julia glanced at the other three Rangers, before taking a deep breath, locking eyes with the Seer, and asking her question, silencing the room.

“Tell us about Entropy.”

Steel, Argent, and Herald looked over at Ortega, surprised and annoyed that she had wasted their question on what was most likely a short-term problem.

Their annoyance turned into confusion at the Seer’s response.

“Please, Julia.” The Seer said, her eyes slightly softer now as she looked at Ortega in what could only be described as pity. “Ask me something else, you don’t want to know this.”

“Not that I agree with your choice of question, Ortega, but why exactly do we not want to know about Entropy?” Steel asked, curious.

“Not you. Her.” The Seer replied, motioning towards Julia with her head. “Knowing Entropy, who they are, what made them, will destroy you, Julia.”

Now all of the Rangers were both curious and apprehensive. What horrors lie in Entropy’s past?

Unfortunately, Julia could not get it out of her mind. There was something... sympathetic, about them. Something that resonated with her.

And something just a touch too familiar for her liking.

“Please, I need to know.” She said, at last.

The Seer closed her eyes, and sighed. When she opened them again, they were now undoubtedly full of pity and sorrow.

“Very well” She said. “To know Entropy... you must know how they began.”

The Seer waved her hand, and the room went dark.

The Rangers were startled, but the Seer spoke up. “My powers allow me to create mild illusions, as well as see the past, present, and future.”

The room changed, now the Rangers were standing in a laboratory, full of medical equipment, computers, and scientific notes.

Right behind the Seer was an enormous cylindrical tank, and floating in that tank was a young man.

No older than 17, this young man had dozens of tubes and cables connecting to various parts of his body, including his mouth, that all went through the tank, and connected with various machines nearby. The young man’s eyes were closed, but the Rangers could see that he was well built, his dark brown hair was cut almost to the scalp, and that his skin was a light brown in color.

But what caught their attention was the numerous circuit-like tattoos covering the vast majority of his body, almost glowing in their orange color, marking this young adult as a Re-Gene.

“I... don’t understand.” Herald said after almost a minute of silence. “This is Entropy? He’s a Re-Gene?”

“His skin isn’t blue..” Ortega said, pondering this new information.

Steel looked on in silence, the gears in his head turning, while Argent silently confirmed that the Seer is indeed psychic, as this matches what Entropy told her in the sewers, after the Auction fiasco. Not like she could tell her fellow Rangers that, however.

“Entropy is a Cuckoo, an experimental infiltration unit, created by the Special Directive for activities where the normal Re-Genes are incredibly inefficient, such as Espionage, Sabotage, Assassination, and Tactical Coordination.” The Seer explained.

“Bet I can guess which Entropy was built for...” Herald muttered, shifting weight off his injured leg.

“You’d be surprised, Daniel” The Seer said, ignoring the looks of surprise from the Rangers as she waved her hand, changing the scene.

Now the Rangers were in a crowded ballroom, full of well-dressed men and woman. Entropy, wearing a waiters outfit and carrying a tray of drinks, passed by them.

“Entropy was designed to detect danger, spies, and lying, and then report it to their handlers. Essentially, a living psychic radar.” Seer explained, and as the Rangers watched, Entropy frowned, before making eye contact with an older man in a suit, and then turning to look at an inconspicuous man in a relatively cheap tuxedo. The first man nodded, and the scene faded to black.

“Wait a second... is Entropy self-aware? Has the Directive been creating sapient Re-Genes?” Ortega asked, to which the Seer nodded.

“That’s....” Steel said, before trailing off.

“Unethical” Herald chimed in.

“Terrible! Monstrous!” Ortega said. “They can't just.. Make people!”

Argent stayed silent, waiting to see how this would play out.

The Seer waved her hand again, and this time they were in a training yard, not unlike that of a prison. The walls were high, but from the surroundings, they were in a hot, arid place.

Entropy, wearing only a pair of shorts and a tank-top, their tattoos visible, sparred with a large man, clearly human. Each displayed impressive martial arts skills, blocking almost every well-executed strike. The fight went on for almost a minute before Entropy got the upper hand, and the large man went down.

Entropy stood down, and the man got up off the ground, looking impressed, before shouting some commands to a few other Cuckoos who were watching nearby.

Once again, the Scene shifted, and this time, it kept shifting.

It showed Entropy training, learning various martial arts, the locations of pressure points, how to fight, how to scale walls, how to parkour, how to blend in with society.

As these scenes changed, The Seer spoke. “Entropy was a weapon, and the Directive is not so foolish as to allow their tools to have free will, thus the Cuckoos, who were arguably just as sapient as normal humans, had to undergo regular brainwashing to keep them docile and loyal.”

“....Unfortunately for them, the Directive did not account for the power that a clever telepath like Entropy was capable of.”

The scene changed once again, this time it was Entropy lying on a small bed, in a tiny cell, wearing nothing but a hospital shift, the orange tattoos shining across his skin. He was staring up at the ceiling, and appeared to be doing nothing.

“Entropy did not wish to be a slave. They wanted to be their own person, to make their own decisions. To keep themselves sane, they built a tiny space in the corner of their mind, which they would retreat to for brief moments, to gather their resolve, to gain the strength to keep pushing forward.”

“And as time went on, Entropy expanded that little space, more and more and more, until they could finally break free of the programming that their masters instilled into them.”

The Seer waved her hand, and now it showed Entropy, covered in sand and dirt, wandering through the desert.

“Entropy incited a breakout of one of the Directives more dangerous experiments, and in the chaos, a large number of Cuckoos escaped from The Farm.”

“The Farm?” Steel asked.

“Where they make their Re-Genes, located deep in the deserts of Nevada. Entropy wandered these deserts for days before finding a way out.”

The Seer waved her hand, and the scene changed to be one of Los Diablos, from the distant outskirts, looking over the majority of the broken city.

“While many of the cuckoos were rounded up, Entropy managed to escape here, to Los Diablos, almost a decade ago.”

Those last words brought the gears moving inside the Ranger’s heads to a screeching halt.

“Wait... a decade? Entropy’s been here for a decade?” Ortega asked. “Then why become a villain now? What changed?”

The Seer looked at Ortega, staring her down for a few moments, before turning her head away, sighing.

The scene changed to one of a dark alleyway. An old man, homeless, most likely, cowered near the back corner, illuminated by some light coming down from above, while several people, none of whom could be seen in detail, were fighting closer to the entrance, wrapped in shadow.

“Entropy decided to use their powers for good, and so they became a vigilante, fighting crime on the streets of Los Diablos.”

Before any of the Rangers could process this, the fighting noises stopped, with all but one lying on the ground, unconscious.

The old man, frightened, called out. “Who are you?”

The one lone figure approached slowly, and then stepped into the light.

Ortega’s world stopped.

The figure was wearing a dark grey skinsuit with cyan lines running along the boots, legs, and arms, with a similarly colored coat covering their torso, stretching down to their hips. Their face was covered in a mask, with solid, cyan eyes hiding even the wearers eye color, and a dark grey hood with a cyan inner lining pulled up over their head.

The figure spoke, their voice deeper and more masculine than when Ortega had last heard it, or even when she had first heard it, but far too painfully familiar for it to be anyone else.

“My name is Sidestep” The figure said, crouching down and holding out their hand. “I’m here to help.”

The scene went to black, and the Rangers stood stock-still, trying to process what they had just seen.

“That’s.... No.” Herald said, shaking his head. “No, that’s ridiculous. Sidestep... Hannah... isn't a villain, she isnt a Re-Gene, and she’s not a man!”

The Seer rolled her eyes, then lifted up her hand to change the scene... before being interrupted by Ortega, who was sitting down in one of the chairs.

“Anna is.... Trans.” Julia said, her voice quiet. She was clearly still processing this, trying to rationalize it, make sense of it. “She told me a few weeks ago... she... started doing hormones right before we met..”

The Seer blinked, before nodding. “I had forgotten that she told you that” She said, ignoring the glare that Julia sent her way as she waved her hand.

The scene shifted to show Entropy, as they had been shown to the Rangers, at least, wearing the Sidestep costume, the hood down and the mask pulled off. They were standing in a bathroom, staring into the mirror and frowning at their reflection, obviously displeased.

The Seer waved, and the edges of the scene blurred, and it turned into a timelapse, changing rapidly. The Rangers watched as Sidestep, not moving, slowly morphed from masculine features to feminine. Their grey eyes slowly softening, and their hair growing out, dark brown and curly.

“Entropy didn't have a name before now, just a series of numbers, so they took a new name and a new face, not just to hide, but to reflect what she felt inside, what she saw in the mirror, and so Hannah Brown was born.... Anna to her closest friends.” The Seer said, giving Julia a look and a little smile as she said that last part.

The scene started playing, and Hannah’s face lit up as her deep frown disappeared and was replaced by a wide, bright smile, one that tugged on Julia’s heartstrings. How long had it been since she had seen Anna smile like that?

Hannah pulled her Sidestep mask over her head, looked at herself one last time in the mirror, before turning and walking away.

“So Hannah’s a Re-Gene... wait, was Hannah the one who controlled me?!” Argent said, turning to the Seer.

“You’re getting ahead of me... Angie.” The Seer said, stressing Argent’s name and glaring at her.

Argent’s eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything else.

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

The Seer turned to Ortega, who was looking at her with tired, sad, confused eyes. In response, she waved her hand, and the scene morphed to depict Hannah and Ortega standing next to each other, looking at a group of Re-Genes. Ortega recognized this as the preparation right before the Nanosurge incident. The scene rippled, and Hannah’s mask disappeared, showing her face.

“Those things always freak me out.” The Past-Ortega grumbled, and the Julia watching felt her heart drop into her stomach.

Hannah’s eyes widened, and she turned her head slightly to look at Julia, who was frowning at the Re-Genes, obviously disgruntled. She then turned her head away, looking downcast and ashamed, tears starting to well in her eyes.

“....Anna...” Julia whispered, her heart full of sorrow and regret.

The Seer waved her hand again, and the scene started shifting again, showing stills from Hannah’s career as a hero.

Psychopathor. The Nanosurge. More.

“Hannah came to love the Rangers, and cared deeply for everyone she worked with, including you, Wei.” The Seer said, glancing at Steel, who gave no response. “But as much as she wished she could, she was a fugitive, escaped government property. She could never have a normal life, she could never give herself to another, for fear of what they would say and do should they see her tattoos... her brands, and she could never join the Rangers due to their background checks.”

Steel spoke up. “...Because she didn't have a background... This whole time... I thought...” He trailed off, falling silent again.

“If she loved the Rangers so much, then what could have possibly happened to turn her into Entropy?” Herald questioned, the revelations about his childhood idol hitting him hard.

The room fell silent, while Steel and Ortega shared a look.

“The Heartbreak Incident.” The Seer said, and she waved her hand.

The scene changed to that of an apartment building, and both Hannah and Anathema appeared. Steel and Ortega’s hearts twinged at the sight of their long-lost teammate.

The scene shifted slightly, and once again Sidesteps mask and hood disappeared, before the scene started to play, and everyone in the room, as well as Hannah on screen, watched in horror as Anathema melted, crying out in pain. Hannah turned away, clearly suppressing the urge to vomit as she held her hand over her mouth.

Hannah shook her head, tears running down her cheeks, before she turned and walked up the stairs.

“The one who caused the Heartbreak incident was a powerful telepath, and Hannah did not leave their meeting unscathed.”

As Hannah reached the top floor, she stumbled, grabbing her head and steadying herself before moving forward, gritting her teeth.

“Luckily for Hannah, she was clever enough to stand against Heartbreak’s far superior raw might. She retreated inward, back to the sanctuary she had carved out in her brain, the one that gave her freedom. As she pulled back, she locked doors, set traps, turned her mind into a psychic maze, but she could not save all of her. She had to sacrifice something.”

The scene slowed, and suddenly a 2D image of a brain appeared on Hannah’s head. About 80% of it, from the brainstem moving towards the frontal lobe, was yellow, and wrapped in chains, but the rest of the brain was grey, with a bright red spot in the frontal lobe.

“Hannah had always had a problem with self-doubt, with self-hate and mild depression, most of it caused by dysphoria, but when she was forced to leave her despair out in the open for Heartbreak to ravage..”

The small red dot expanded outward in a plum of thorny vines, snaking through the entire brain.

“Her mild despair evolved into clinical, suicidal depression”

The scene resumed, and Hannah, her teeth grit and her face determined, reached a door and slowly opened it.

The scene distorted, faint images of surgery and whispers of medical professionals overlayed onto the scene of Hannah, her eyes now shut tight, stepping into the apartment, turning towards something, someone, and firing her gun.

Then, Hannah opened her eyes, and Heartbreak was revealed.

A young woman, no older than Hannah herself, was lying on the ground, a hole burned through her hospital gown, just to the left of her heart. IV tubes were strewn about, many still connected to her arms. Her eyes were wide open, empty grey eyes.

Hannah’s eyes went wide, and with shaking hands, she pulled her gun back down, and shoved it into her jaw.

Ortega - past Ortega, that is - appeared out of nowhere, and grabbed the gun out of Hannah’s hands, starting to shout something before the gun went off, blinding her. Without hesitation, Hannah turned towards the nearest window, and at full sprint, threw herself into it.

Ortega’s eyes recovered only soon enough to see Hannah fall out of sight.

The scene changed, and Hannah’s crumpled body was laying on the pavement, her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling erratically, her right leg bent at an odd angle, and a small pool of red spreading from a large cut in her head.

The sky rumbled, and as rain started to come down, a few paramedics appeared, carrying a stretcher.

Steel grit his teeth, berating himself for not following up on those leads.

Once again the scene shifted, this time to the ambulance, driving away from the Incident.

One of the paramedics spoke. “How’s it doing?”

“Pretty bad, banged up its spine, got some head trauma, a few broken ribs, and dislocated leg.”

“Is it gonna make it?”

“All the way to the Farm? No way, we gotta get this thing to a hospital or it’s gonna expire.”

Ortega grit her teeth and shook with silent fury at the way they were referring to Hannah. The faint smell of ozone filled the room, but Ortega managed to keep from doing anything, instead just sitting and watching.

The scene shifts to a hospital, where those same paramedics, being led by a doctor, pushed a now sewn-up Hannah back into the Ambulance, but just as they passed through the sliding glass doors, Hannah’s eyes shot open, and she quickly sat up, grabbed at the nearest paramedic, and began punching him in the throat, his wheezing gasps of shock and pain doing little to sooth Julia’s burning anger.

The other paramedics quickly pulled her off, slamming her back down into the stretcher, before the doctor pulled out a needle, uncapped it, and stuck it into her neck.

“N..No! J...Julia...” Hannah got out as the sedative took effect, and her eyes dimmed before finally shutting.

Julia couldn't take anymore. As the scene ended, she got up from her chair, and left the room.

The Seer turned to look at Steel, who sighed, got up, and followed after his teammate.

Steel found Ortega curled up just outside the conference room, sitting on the floor with her head in her hands, obviously crying.

Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, Steel, with not small amount of effort, slid down next to her, and place his hand on her shoulder.

“There.... There...” Steel said, grimacing as he heard the awkward words coming out of his mouth.

“I... I wasn't there for her. She depended on me... This is my fault.” Ortega whispered.

Steel shook his head. “We all make choices, and we all make mistakes.” He said, thinking about his words carefully. “There was no choice you could have made that would have let you be there for her. I could have chosen to keep following the leads, but I didn't. And now I think, that that was a mistake.”

Ortega pulled her head up, tears staining her cheeks, to look at her old friend.

“The only thing we can do for her now is... to find out what happened to her, and then try to do right by her.”

Julia nodded, and after helping Chen to his feet, they both re-entered the conference room.

As they stepped back inside, the room went dark again, and The Seer looked at them, slightly annoyed. “Now, if we could continue?”

Both Julia and Steel nodded, and the scene around them changed.

“Hannah was dragged back to The Farm kicking and screaming, but this time, she was treated not as an asset, but as something to be experimented on.”

The first scene depicted Hannah on an operating table, surrounded by men and woman in full-body scrubs. Hannah herself was naked, locked down onto the table by steel restraints. Thankfully the view of her was mostly obscured by the doctors, the Rangers could tell that she was awake, her grey eyes wide and tears steadily flowing down her cheeks.

Julia had to take deep breaths to keep herself calm, which was as hard as it sounds when being shown graphic, interactive images of your lover being tortured and taken apart.

“Hannah held out hope that you, the Rangers, would come to save her.”

The scene changed to show Hannah in a tiny cell, curled up and leaning against the wall, wearing nothing but a hospital gown. Her head had been shaved down to what it was when she was first shown, back before she was Hannah.

“That hope didn't last the first year.”

“.....First?” Herald asked, hesitantly.

The Seer nodded, and the scenes changed. The first was a sad, broken-looking Hannah facing down a rabid dog held on a leash, before the leash was broken, and the dog lunged faster than any dog should have been able to move. The second was Hannah, her arms covered in bright-red cuts, blood dripping down her fingers, a piece of glass in her hands. The third was Hannah being led, almost dragged by a leash, a muzzle over her mouth, and wearing nothing but a straight-jacket. The fourth was Hannah’s cell, pitch black, but there was enough to see that there were two people in the room, and they were very close together, one laying across the bed.

“For four long years, Hannah was experimented on, tortured, dehumanized..... and raped.”

At that last word and scene, three of the Rangers growled in anger, while Julia stood up, her mods firing, a look of fury on her face.

“I’m going to kill them. I’m going to take them apart and burn that place to the ground!” She roared.

The Seer just stared at her. Steel placed her hand on her shoulder, his insulated hands protecting him from Ortega’s electricity.

Ortega looked into Steel’s hard, determined face, and understood what he was trying to convey.

Not yet, and not like this.

Looking away in defeat, she powered down her mods, punched the conference table hard enough to crack it, and then sat back down, rubbing her knuckles.

“And yet, once again, Hannah defied the Farm’s expectations. During her time in captivity, her powers grew exponentially.”

At this, Argent sat forward. Now they were getting somewhere.

“What caused her powers to grow?” Steel questioned.

The Seer shrugged. “Hell if i know”

The four Rangers turned to look at the Seer, all bearing an expression of disbelief.

“I’m not omniscient you know, there are gaps in my knowledge, but anything i don't know about for certain, i can at least make an educated guess about. In this case, either the power boost was caused by the Directive’s tinkering and experiments, it was caused by Heartbreak fucking around in her mind, she was always going to get this power boost, or some combination of the three, it’s not really that important right now.” The Seer explained.

The Seer waved her hand, and the scene changed to show Hannah, asleep in her tiny bed, curled up on the mattress.

“You see, Hannah eventually learned how to perform complete bodily takeover, implanting herself into another person’s body and controlling them, like a puppet.”

The scene shifted to show the hallway outside the cell, and a single guard walking past, who suddenly shuddered, and the scene shifted, revealing Hannah in his place, wearing the guard’s uniform. She quickly moved through the facility, and walked in through a door labeled “Security”.

A few moments later, a few gunshots go off, and an alarm sounds.

The scene changed to show Hannah trenching through the desert, once again covered in dirt and sand. She trips and falls, and an expression of intense anger and determination appears on her face before she forces herself back up.

“Hannah had been broken and fractured in a dozen different ways. She was not Sidestep anymore, and she had plans in the making.”

The scene shifts to show Hannah in Los Diablos, wearing a large grey hoodie with the hood pulled up, and a pair of jeans. She’s keeping her head down, moving through the crowd.

“Why didn’t she come back to us? Why didn't she come to us for help?” Ortega asked, even though deep down, she knew why.

“Mostly, it was fear. Hannah had no idea how much any of you knew about the Directive, how much any of you knew about the Re-Genes or about her. Another part of it was anger, anger at how none of you came to save her, how, in her eyes, you all abandoned her.”

Ortega cast her eyes downward, guilt swallowing her soul once again.

“But what infuriated Hannah the most was, despite the anger at all of you, despite her anger at the world for letting this happen, she still nurtured that original flame, her desire to be a hero. And yet, her enemies were on the side of good, her villains owned the heroes, so what could she do?”

“Her answer: to loose herself from the moral constraints of good and evil, of law, of heroes and villains. There is only her justice, and she will only get it once she tears The Farm to the ground, salts the ashes, and has everyone in charge of the Directive thrown in jail. Only then will she let herself rest.”

The scene changed, and this time it was Argent, holding a box close to her chest, being tackled by Herald through a wall. The scene shimmered slightly, and Argent was replaced by Hannah, wearing Argent’s clothes.

Argent growled out in anger. “I can’t believe i let her into my head, i should have known better than to trust her.” Her words earned her a glare from Ortega.

“But what was the point? Why..... possess Argent?” Herald asked.

The Seer waved her hand, and the scene shifted back to the Nanosurge, a still image of Hannah, her nose bloody, holding back the tide of nanobots with her telepathic powers.

The realization came to all of them at once. “Hannah can control nanovores... with her telepathy...” Steel muttered. “But wait, she saw the damage those things can do first hand! Why would she take them? We know she hasn't used them yet, since Entropy hasn’t killed anyone.”

The Seer nodded, and the scene changed again, this time it was after the fight, with Steel and Herald over Argent’s unconscious body. The view panned out to reveal Hannah, her hood up, standing in the crowd, looking at the two heroes before turning and walking away, down and alleyway to a dumpster, which she opened and retrieved the nanovore box from. She looked at it, gave a slight smile, then walked away, humming a tune.

The Seer waved her hand, and the scene changed to show Hannah going back to a surprisingly nice apartment, setting the nanovores down on a table, and then going to bed.

“Hannah has been preferring to use a Puppet to do most of her work, rather than risking her own body. Her puppet is comatose, and it’s only through Hannah that she is able to live again.”

The scene switches to another apartment, and a tall, young woman wakes up from her bed.

Ortega lets out a cry of shock and anger as Jane, the friendly young woman she took to the Museum Gala, strides out of the apartment, across the hall, and into Hannah’s apartment to pick up the Nanovores, and leaves with them.

“Hannah.... Is Jane?? Has she just been... manipulating me this whole time??” Ortega almost shouted.

The Seer shook her head. “As far as i know, Hannah has been spending time with you as Jane because she truly missed you, and missed being your friend.

....But yes, she did manipulate you into asking her to the gala.”

Ortega sat back with a loud, annoyed groan.

The scene shifted to a laboratory, different from the one at the beginning. A tall, beautiful, dark-skinned woman with long dreadlocks and wearing a lab coat leaned over a microscope, inspecting something as Jane stood nearby.

“"You think they're possible to reprogram, then? Could they attack inorganic instead of organic matter?" Jane said.

"The parameters should already be in place inside them; it is only a matter of finding and adjusting the settings. I do not traffic in failure, mon amie. To control them is going to be the challenge." The woman in the lab coat said, her accent clearly french.

The scene shifted again, this time it was a simple still image of Psychopathor fighting a number of Re-Genes, and Hannah, dressed up in a hoodie and wearing a mask, picking up and running away with Psychopathor’s psychic targeting web.

The scene changed, this time it showed Hannah in a warehouse, wearing the Entropy armor, her black cape billowing behind her, and her mirror-like helmet in her hands as she held a phone up to her ear, talking to someone.

“Not everyone is glued to their phones you know.” Hannah said, and Ortega realized that she was talking to her. This is what she was doing at the time??

The scene shifted and blurred, and this time it showed Jane at the museum, walking into a bathroom with her purse, then walking out again without it.

Ortega grit her teeth, angry at Anna for making her complicit in hurting people, even if she did try to limit the damage.

The Seer waved her hand, and now Hannah was in her Entropy suit, on top of Herald, pressed into a ruined car. The scene warbled, and Hannah’s face became visible, the helmet gone.

Herald was taken aback; she looked furious.

Shitty little fanboy baby, It should have been me, I deserved to join the Rangers, to be there with her! Why wasn't I you?!

Hannah’s vocalized thoughts, somewhat distorted, floated out into the room.

Herald was struck. Hannah, his idol, the one he looked up to and.. And even.. Maybe felt a bit more towards than just respect and awe... was jealous of him?!

The scene shift, now Hannah was standing over Ortega, crumpled on the Museum steps.

As past-Ortega turned and asked “Who are you?”, Hannah’s face fell from a victorious sneer, to one of horror, as if she was just realizing who she was fighting, who she was defeating. Hannah closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and began her speech.

The scene shifted again, skipping past Argent’s fight in the sewers, and showing Ortega, asleep in the hospital. The door opened, and Hannah walked in.

Her face fell when she saw Julia’s state, and she slowly walked over and took her hand.

I... I can’t believe I did this to her...

Hannah’s eyes welled up with tears, which she quickly wiped away with her hoodie sleeve. She looked at Julia’s face, then down to her hand, which she was slowly rubbing and caressing.

Why didn’t you stop me, Julia? I’m... I’m sorry.

Julia felt what anger she was holding onto slip away, and internally cursed herself for being so... so... weak for her.

And with that, the scene ended, and the room returned to it’s normal state.

The Seer suddenly looked exhausted, and quickly moved to sit down in one of the chairs, breathing heavily.

“Are.. you alright?” Herald asked, getting up.

The Seer nodded, waving her hand at him. “I’m.. fine. Hope that answers your question, Julia, and i hope it was worth it.”

Julia glared at the Seer, before turning away, thinking some more.

The Seer nodded. “Welp, i’d better get a move-on, have fun with your knowledge!” She said as she left the room. As she strolled down the hallway, she smiled to herself. Just as planned.

#April 27th 2019 #Fallen Hero: Rebirth #fanfiction #hannah brown #sidestep #spoilers

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catsundercherryblossoms · 5 years

Text

|Chapter 8: Belly of the Beast| Her Forgotten Past //Attack on Titan fanfic//

Rewind: 5 hours earlier

Hot. Boiling.

When I dropped into the Titan's stomach, I was submerged in a pool of boiling fluid. Every inch of my body burned. I clawed my way up, half swimming and half desperate flailing, until my head broke the surface and I was allowed to breathe again. What I breathed in could barely be called air. It felt like I was inhaling fire, shriveling my lungs and every other intestine in my body.

Blood. The boiling fluid in which I struggled to stay above was blood. I realized with ultimate horror that I was drenched in its sticky, crimson color. It coated my hair, it hung on my eyelashes, it was up my nostrils and worst of all, it was in my mouth.

A wave of nausea hit me.

And it only got worse once I noticed all the dead bodies floating around me.

I lost it. I fucking lost it.

My screams echoed off the walls of the Titan's stomach so loudly that it stirred little waves in the blood. I tried backing away but that only resulted in me bumping into more floating cadavers, lifeless with their mouths soundlessly open, the whites of their eyes peeking out. It was unclear whether I was crying blood or tears. There was no telling them apart when they rolled off my chin and dripped down.

This can't be happening... I just want to get out. Get me out of here, please.

Splash! Something broke the surface next to me. I didn't register it properly, assuming it was a dead body come to life, and I just kept screaming my head off. I tried slapping it away hysterically as it continued to get ahold of me.

"Johanna! Eurgh, stop! Johanna, it's me!"

It was no dead body. It was Eren. He blocked all my hits with one arm. One arm? I started to calm down, recognizing those startling green eyes even under the blood painting his face, and then I looked at his... well, the remnants of his left shoulder.

"Oh my god," I said weakly, "Eren... Your-"

"It hardly matters right now." He said grimly and looked around. "This is hell."

The thick, heavy air was becoming a little too much for me. It fogged up my senses and darkened my vision. My arms grew tired, unable to keep me afloat, and I began sinking.

"No!" Eren scooped me up in his one arm. "Johanna, please, you can't die first. Please, I can't watch you die like this."

What was going on? Everything was spinning. I could feel my cheek pressed against his uniform jacket as he held me close, probably scared that I might sink.

I focused on the life still abounding in Eren's eyes, knowing that life would soon leave mine. "You know," I said, barely above a whisper, "I always admired your determination..."

"No... please..." he pleaded tearfully.

My breaths were ragged. My strength was fading. I closed both eyes, unable to resist it any longer, and allowed myself to be enclosed in darkness.

But I could still hear Eren's choked voice... distant as if he were miles away, but present.

"Why... why do they take everything from us?" His hold on me tightened and he pulled me even closer against his chest. "Our lives... Our dreams... gone because of them. Damn it! Damn it all!" He growled and I could feel the reverb against his shirt, the sound coming deep within his core. It was wrathful to the point of primal. "I won't give up. I swear on God, I'll eliminate all of them! Every single Titan, with my bare hands!"

BOOM!

There was a deafening and sickening noise- like tearing flesh. Eren's hold on me disappeared. What was happening? Before I could even process the situation, my body landed on solid ground. The street, specifically. A wave of blood came down on me, like a broken dam releasing its flood, and I was soaked once again. I gasped for breath.

Tall. Not just tall- giant. Fifteen meters of skin, muscle, and terror.

Somehow, I had encountered a completely different Titan from the one I had been trapped in seconds ago. It let out a monstrous roar, and ever so slowly, it's large head turned to look down at me.

I felt like a fragile shard of glass waiting to be stepped on.

The Titan's eyes bore into me, and I stared straight back. As bizarre as it seems, something clicked. It just clicked. That emerald gaze... why was it so familiar?

The Titan stretched out its hand, inching closer and closer to my tiny shape. I could not move, nor did I have the motivation. After all that's happened... dying didn't sound so bad.

The Titan picked me up on the palm of its hand, bringing me towards its mouth. I didn't even scream. I didn't even fight it. I simply accepted the situation as he opened his wide set of teeth. What caught my attention was how he placed me on his tongue. Deliberately. Almost like the beast was scared of eating me. Surely, my suspicions were ridiculous. Every titan's natural intention is to devour humans. It's what they do best.

But no. There was something different about this one.

He carefully closed his mouth and I was enshrouded in darkness. I could feel the whole side of my body turn slick with saliva. By now I was just waiting for the moment when he would tilt his head back and swallow me entirely. I was ready to welcome my demise.

But it never came.

Rumbling shudders and footsteps. We were walking. It appeared the beast had no plans on eating me, but instead preserving me. Weird.

Eventually, my body gave out due to exhaustion. I blacked out.

Fast Forward: Present time

"Annie, is she breathing?"

"Open the door!"

"This isn't real, this isn't real..."

Scuffling. Shouts. Threats.

"Dammit, she's not breathing! Does anyone know CPR?"

"There he is! Kill him!"

"Where are they taking Eren?"

"You're going to be okay. I promise. Dadda promises."

"Breathe!"

Air filled my lungs and I opened my eyes. The air no longer burned and instead it cooled my flaming insides. In, and out. In, and out. Inhale, exhale.

The blankness my mind had obtained in sleep started to become tainted. The past events came back to me slowly. Like paint trickling onto an empty canvas.

Bodies. Blood. Bodies. Blood. All around- everywhere- death.

I sat up, involuntarily screaming, as the horrible memories clouded my thinking. My whole body trembled. But not from cold.

"Jo! Easy, easy. I'm right here." Annie rushed to my side.

"Where am I?!" I asked. I was on a medical stretcher, a blanket thrown over me. I still wore my bloody, disgusting uniform except for my jacket and gear. Someone must've taken it off me, and if not, then it was probably lost...

"We're in Wall Rose. We're on stand by right now. No orders have been given." Annie explained. She reached into a crate and pulled out a jug of water. "Here, you're very dehydrated."

"No. Something happened to me, Annie." I ignored her offer and looked around. We were stationed under a tent on the side of the street. Soldiers ambled back and forth, leaning against stacks of supply crates or slumped hopelessly on the floor. It was a very monotone environment. Several heads turned in my direction. The way they stared at me was concerning. I wouldn't have labeled their gazes content to see me alive. No, it was definitely the complete opposite. They were suspicious.

Suspicious of what?

"Annie, people are staring at me." I whispered.

Her blue eyes, usually cold as glaciers, seemed to melt a little. "Jo, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember..." I stuttered, "G-Getting eaten... being in the Titan's stomach with Eren, and... something happened- I don't know what, but something happened and then I was out of the stomach. And then another Titan, Annie. Another Titan appeared." I told her shakily. Maybe I sounded insane, but I didn't care at the moment. "It was... different. It helped me."

She nodded. "We know."

I furrowed my brows. "You do?"

"There was this Titan- the same one you're talking about. And it helped us too. It killed all the other titans and assisted us while we took control of HQ." She said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "And... eventually it collapsed. Maybe it was all the damage it had taken, maybe something went wrong and it couldn't regenerate. Who knows? But when it died... Your body fell out of it’s mouth. And Eren..." Annie stopped herself.

I waited, desperate. "What? What about Eren? Please, don't tell me he's-"

"Dead?" She chuckled dryly. "No. It would've made more sense if he was. Eren came out of the weak spot. The nape of the neck. Somehow, he was the Titan."

I tried to take in her words. But she might as well have been talking another language. "What do you mean, he was the Titan?"

"Jo, Eren can turn into a Titan." Annie clarified. "He's one of them."

A pause. I stared back at her, considering her claim. In my mind's eye I was back in the Titan's stomach. The loud explosion, how the stomach had torn from the inside out, and the feeling of lying on the cold cobblestone street, drenched in blood, looking up at that second Titan that had appeared out of nowhere. Except it didn't come from nowhere. The Titan was Eren all along.

And he wasn't trying to eat me when he put me in his mouth. He was trying to keep me safe.

I got up abruptly and started looking around. "I need to talk to him."

"What? No, you need to stay put. You're still too weak!" Annie scolded and she grabbed my arm.

"I'm fine! I need to talk to Eren- just tell me where he is!" I shook her off.

If people were wary at first, they were definitely disapproving now. I must've been making a scene, because even people outside the tent were stopping on the street to watch. Maybe I wasn't thinking straight. Maybe I should listen to Annie and rest.

Fine, I will do that. After I find Eren.

"Get off me, Annie!" I struggled as she twisted both my arms behind me. "He helped me! He can help us too!"

"Help us?" A cadet spoke up. I stopped, recognizing him. He had been throwing up in the courtyard before the battle started. Daz, I think his name was. "You must be out of your mind! You're crazy! He's a monster from hell! The first thing he'll do is devour us, and you're gonna be first in line!"

Rationality was replaced with hostility. I snapped and ripped away from Annie's hold, lunging towards Daz. He let out a girlish scream and I tackled him down. Gasps spread across the tent. My hands fisted his collar and I bared my teeth at him.

"You don't know what you're talking about..." I said, and suddenly I was a whole other person. A person on the brink of insanity. "You weren't there! YOU DIDN'T SEE WHAT I SAW! They were all around me- bodies... and they were burning... and- and-" Suddenly I was bursting into uncontrollable sobs. It was like someone undid the last screw holding me together. I fell apart on the spot.

"Jo!" Another voice spoke up.

A pair of strong arms lifted me off Daz, who quickly scrambled onto his feet and took off. I wanted to fight the person now cradling me, but what was the point anymore?

"Its okay, you're going to be fine." Jean said with a frown, letting me cry into his chest.

“Keep it moving, people. Nothing to see here." Annie shooed away the others.

"You need to take it easy, okay? When we found you, you weren't breathing..." Jean said. His voice sounded exhausted. "It was probably because you stayed inside that Titan's mouth so long. We thought you might've suffocated. Reiner had to do CPR. It's a miracle you're even here..."

He hugged me tighter. My crying soon quelled and there was nothing left to do, nothing left to say. I felt heavy, exhausted, and worn down to the bone. But how would I ever sleep again? Every time I close my eyes, I see the lifeless faces of the fallen soldiers who rotted away in that damned Titan's stomach.

Rest seemed impossible.

BOOM!

The ground shuddered underneath our feet. I gripped Jean tighter. People gasped and screamed. Was that an explosion? From where?

We rushed outside of the tent and checked the street.

"Was that cannon fire?" Bertholdt asked next to me.

"But why just one shot?" Jean said, confused.

"Look! Over there!" A random soldier shouted. He pointed to the sky.

Up ahead, we could see smoke. It appeared to be originating in the town square by the gate.

"Maybe they fired a shell by accident?" someone said behind me.

No. The cannon fire couldn't have been a mistake. The wall Garrison may be comprised of heavy drinkers, but they weren't stupid. Especially in a tense situation like this. They were qualified soldiers and knew how to work the cannons. But more importantly, when it comes to defending, they never missed their target.

That shot was everything but accidental. Something sketchy was happening right under our noses.

I observed the smoke, and furrowing my brows, I realized it wasn't smoke at all. It was undoubtedly steam. Titan steam.

There was a Titan inside the walls.

Except, that's impossible. Wall Rose didn't have a breach. The only way a Titan could get inside is if...

They could fit through the gate. If they were human size.

Of course...

I looked at Jean, alarmed. He returned my look and gulped.

Well... Now we knew where Eren was.

End of Chapter 8

#eren jaeger #eren yeager #eren x oc #levi ackerman #jean kirstein #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #corporal #attack on titan season 1 #survey corps #anime #fanfiction #herforgottenpast

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monstrousproductions · 5 months

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how do i make up the alien words in travelling light? well its a very complicated system. you see, first i make a funny noise, and then i google it to make sure it doesnt mean "penis" in another language.

#travelling light #travelling light podcast #behind the scenes at monstrous hq #writblr #writing

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the-master-cylinder · 4 years

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SUMMARY In the near future, Earth has been devastated by a thermonuclear war over the depleting petroleum reserves. What little petrol remains has become a precious commodity fought over by vicious warlords and mercenaries. A war party led by Straker (James Wainwright) find a vast supply of diesel fuel in a compound once thought to be radioactive. When his daughter Corlie (Annie McEnroe) refuses to execute the previous owners, she runs away from her father’s base camp. Fleeing through the open desert, she runs into Hunter (Michael Beck), an ex-soldier armed with a high-tech motorbike, who takes her to shelter at his farm.

After keeping her on the farm on a temporary basis, Hunter sends her off to live in the walled city of Clearwater Farm, governed by a strict old-fashioned democracy, where she is quickly accepted by the community. However, she is soon discovered by her father’s men, who move to attack the Clearwater community. In the chaos that ensues, Corlie manages to escape back to Hunter’s remote hideout.

The mercenaries terrorise and pillage the city. Straker tortures the resident mechanic Rusty (John Ratzenberger) into giving him the location of Hunter’s secret hideout. Straker moves to attack Hunter’s base and recapture Corlie. Hunter and Corlie escape on his bike and Straker, in a rage, plows through Hunter’s residence with his truck. Hunter takes Corlie back to the Clearwater people and asks Rusty to build him an armored car to attack Straker’s “battletruck”. While Rusty and Hunter and a few others are thus occupied, one of the residents turns traitor and knocks out Coralie, putting her in a wagon and heads out to deliver her back to Straker. Hunter tries to stop him, but the traitor sets an ambush for him and wounds him with a crossbow. Believing that he has killed Hunter, he appears at Straker’s headquarters with Corlie in the wagon.

Meanwhile, Hunter regains consciousness and manages to limp back to Clearwater on his bike. While getting patched up there, Rusty finishes the armored car and shortly Hunter takes off in it, despite the fact that he is wounded. He attacks Straker’s HQ, plowing through buildings and tents and eventually dropping a grenade into Straker’s 50,000 litre diesel supply. He then runs and Straker, now in a towering rage, takes off after him. In the process, he forces the driver to overdo it in the truck, overheating the turbines. This stresses out the driver, (who loves the truck), and leads to dissension between him and Straker. Hunter meanwhile gets some distance ahead, jumps out of the car and climbs to a high place overlooking the road and it is now revealed that the whole attack on Straker’s HQ was a ruse to lure the truck into an ambush. The Clearwater people are at the high place waiting for Hunter with his motorcycle and a rocket launcher which Hunter had given them earlier in the movie. Hunter fires a couple of rockets at the truck, one causes slight damage and a small fire, which causes more stress between Straker and the truck driver. The driver attempts to kill Straker, who he feels is uselessly destroying the truck. Straker kills the driver, who slumps over the wheel and now the truck, throttles set to full, is more or less out of control.

Back on the bike again, Hunter manages to jump onto the truck through a hole in the top that one of his rockets had made. A battle ensues, the truck still careening wildly back and forth while Corlie tries to control it with the body of the driver slumped over the wheel and Straker furiously shouting commands to everybody. Eventually, Hunter fights his way to the front, temporarily stuns Straker, grabs Corlie, and jumps with her from the back of the still wildly out of control battle truck with Straker in the truck as he is still screaming, making death threats, and bumbling about the smoking ruins of the interior of the truck before it falls off a cliff as it crashes and explodes to kill him.

Hunter and Corlie end up back at Clearwater, where Corlie apparently settles for good as part of the community. Ever the loner, Hunter rides off into the sunset on a horse, promising Corlie that he will be back “sometime”.

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BEHIND THE SCENES The film was Warlords of the 21st Century. Originally released by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures regionally in California as Battletruck, this genre vehicle was promptly pulled over for an extensive overhauling of its advertising campaign and labeled with a new title. The original poster artwork featured a monstrous Battletruck explosively smashing everything in its path, echoing the crash-and kill apocalyptic trend of such highway combat flicks as Damnation Alley, Mad Max, Death Race 2000 and The Road Warrior.

Warlords takes place somewhere, sometime in the near future, in the wake of the oil wars. Nations have collapsed into chaos. There is no governmental authority outside the major cities; many who have fled the dying megalopolis have united in small communities to battle the marauding criminals and outcasts ravaging the countryside.

The most murderous “Warlord” is Colonel Straker, a merciless renegade who commands the indestructible Battletruck. Straker has discovered a secret government fuel stockpile and using it as his base camp, he plots a bloody campaign of terror against the nearby community of Clearwater.

But before his plans can be realized, Corlie, his young female companion, escapes his domination, fleeing on foot across rugged countryside, pursued by Straker’s men. Surrounded, she is rescued by a mysterious armor-clad road warrior on motorcycle. Hunter, an ex-commando who has turned his back flaps on society and lives a hermit-like existence in a mountain retreat, delivers Corlie to Clearwater. Refuge is short-lived as the community is attacked and destroyed by the maddened Straker, but Corlie has already escaped again. She seeks out the enigmatic Hunter, confronting him with a fateful choice: to maintain his neutrality or to face Straker and his murderous Battletruck.

Although non-stop stunt action is at the heart of this film, its soul is the interrelationship among its three characters. Hunter, played by Michael Beck (of The Warriors, Xanadu, Triumphs of A Man Called Horse), is a grim individualist who has rejected socie ty. Yet, he still cares about human life, and when spurned on by outrage after outrage, he will strike back. He is the respected but reluctant warrior.

Hunter’s opponent is the ruthless Straker, portrayed by James Wainwright, a veteran actor best known as the star of the TV series Jigsaw and for his roles in High Plains Drifter and Joe Kidd. Straker is a cold-blooded opportunist. He sees the world degenerating into chaos as an advantage to fulfill his own dreams of power, glory and control. Driven by his insatiable lusts, he executes his plans and his enemies-with the same flint-edged coldness. His only weaknesses are inflexibility, pride, and love for a girl named Corlie.

She is played by gravel-voiced Annie McEnroe, a stunning young actress who scored as Michael Caine’s ill-fated co-ed lover in The Hand. In Warriors, she is once again a victim of circumstances, tormented by her love for Straker and her hatred of the man and what he represents. She flees in search of a peaceful future, but first she must end her own violent past.

Plotting the Triangle For writer/director Harley Cokliss, second unit director of The Empire Strikes Back, this tripartite relationship provided the movie’s most fascinating moments. “What I was trying to do in the film was to give each character a certain amount of duality,” he says. “Straker, the evil king,’ is plagued by his obsession for Corlie. He’s an interesting, yet vulnerable kind of villain. Corlie is ‘a damsel in distress,’ though she’s kind of ambiguous and manipulative. She knows what she wants and uses other people to get it. People actually get killed because she doesn’t reveal her own identity. All she can say is, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.’ There’s this kind of terrible attraction/repulsion which exists between them, like when she says, “I can’t stay with you, you know that.”

The specific nature of the affiliation between the evil Straker and the lovely Corlie is hinted at throughout the storyline. Their actual secret is confidential, shocking and not what you might expect. “We had to decide “How explicit do you want to make it?’.” Cokliss explains. “My feeling was we should go for a PG-rating because we wanted the film to be accessible to kids. It’s an exciting story about a future world that today’s kids may actually live in one day.

“Still, I was interested in having the characters’ motivation be adult. We tried to walk the line; it’s there for those who see it, yet it doesn’t smack you in the face,” he adds. “That’s why we chose to be a little circumspect. It is there if you want to find out. To me, it’s the main thrust of the film: why does this man pursue this one woman? Three quarters of the way into the film, you realize why there are clues dropped in dialogue, and you know that she’ll run away again and he’ll pursue her. It should come as a shock to the audience.”

The film’s hero, Hunter, resembles earlier cinematic characterizations etched by Clint Eastwood. “We did go back to the origins of Eastwood’s character, “Cokliss says, “which are the samurai pictures. A man of action should define his character through his actions rather than his dialogue. Of course, we talked about Clint’s minimal dialogue and how less is always more. The difference is that Hunter has a moral code. I really see him as a Zen Warrior, because he doesn’t seek out conflict. He moves away from it, only picking up the gauntlet when no other option remains.

“He’s forced to take a stand. When he lies on the operating table having his wounds dressed, he says, “No, they might come back for me.’ Hunter isn’t thinking, ‘I’m going to protect you,’ He knows Straker’s men will return for him and that anybody who has helped him will suffer. Hunter is really the reluctant hero who accepts the mantle only when he knows it’s inevitable. He knows there can’t be two bull mooses in the same part of the forest. Ultimately, he and Straker must come into conflict. But Hunter is the man who picks the time.”

Of course, a sequel typically, although Warlords of the 21st Century has yet to throttle into major, nationwide release, a follow-up has been discussed. “There are plans for a sequel,” Cokliss says, “in which many things we’ve begun to develop in this picture will be realized. We only had seven weeks to film Warlords, there were some very complicated sequences and I would have wished for at least 10 additional weeks and more money. What we had to do was boil the picture down to its bare essentials. We had no fat. We actually had to take scenes out in order to finish it within that time frame. I would have liked more scenes which more fully defined Hunter’s character and his relationship with Corlie, as well as ones dealing a little more with the alternative technology, “But we didn’t have time to do those things,” Cokliss sighs. “that’s the type of thing I want to resolve in the sequel, because I know I’ve raised many questions for the audience. They know at the end of Warlords the story isn’t over for Hunter and Corlie.

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“To me, this first film is about the mantle of kingship in a society in transition. It could be a Medieval tale, a Samurai story, a Western. What I wanted as a landscape, or time, to play out a story in which everything was without convention-where things were shaken up, unleashed, and literally could rattle around and reassemble themselves. In chaotic times, where there are those who oppose authority and law and order, you have people who band together in tribes. And you have this bandit king, a Warlord, call him what you will, trying to carve out his own territory and impose his will. Yet, he is not destined to be this land’s ruler because of various reasons. Warlords is like King Lear in that sense. And you wonder, when he dies, who will fill that void? I do have certain ideas how that leadership void will be filled in this world, and that’s what I hope to take up in the next picture.”

Warlords was filmed entirely on location in New Zealand, in the remote Central Otago region of South Island. The unspoiled barren landscape helps to personify society’s collapse and the primitive isolation forced on the survivors in the post-oil-war world. With few modern technological conveniences available, more practical alternatives must be substituted. “Obviously, people are not going to stop traveling,” Cokliss explains, detailing the futuristic tourist mind. “There are jokes about Volkswagens lasting forever. Well, I think the idea of two horses pulling a converted Volkswagen bus is wonderful! What you see in the film is what we did. There are very few special effects in Warlords. What we did, we did for real.

“The Battletruck, for example,” Cokliss says. “It’s steel-plated on a chassis, weighing 25 tons. Really! It was an armored truck, and actually went through buildings with hardly a scratch.

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“Hunter’s motorcycle was designed to run on methane. We postulated that he could brew and compress the gas from the decomposition of waste and vegetable matter. New Zealand, Italy and other countries now run their cars on natural gas. The technology is there for the type of energy-efficient community we created using wind solar and water power.”

Inevitably, comparisons arise between Warlords and the summer’s other similar vehicular-combat adventure-fantasy, The Road Warrior. Both focus on rugged loners, their ultra-fast vehicles and their violent adventurers in a post-holocaust world. Cokliss addresses the differences between the two movies. “I love The Road Warrior! It’s a terrific film with some very exciting action sequences, but it’s very dark, like a nightmare. The audience doesn’t project themselves into that story because it’s too bizarre. That’s why there was talk among distributors that our film would hurt Road Warrior or visa versa.

“To my mind, they are two very different films, which complement each other. They happen in different time scales; Road Warrior occurs further on in a more bizarre future. Warlords has a very believable, realistic landscape and time. It’s very much like a Western in its story dynamics and landscape a science-fiction Western in a very violent future.”

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CAST/CREW Directed Harley Cokliss

Produced Lloyd Phillips Rob Whitehouse

Written Michael Abrams Irving Austin John Beech Harley Cokliss

Michael Beck as Hunter Annie McEnroe as Corlie James Wainwright as Straker Bruno Lawrence as Willie John Ratzenberger as Rusty John Bach as Bone Randy Powell as Judd

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Starburst Magazine#43 Starlog#67

Warlords of the 21st Century (1982) Retrospective SUMMARY In the near future, Earth has been devastated by a thermonuclear war over the depleting petroleum reserves.

#80sFilms

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purefunskatezine · 4 years

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BANNED IN ST. LOUIS

Friend and Pure Fun contributor, Matt Picker, originally wrote this article for our 13th issue but seeing as Ban This just turned 30 years old, I figured it would be fun to publish it online for everyone to enjoy. - Larry

Summer ‘89: I was living in Chesterfield, Missouri, a western suburb of St. Louis, about to start my first year of junior high. My younger brother and I were certifiable skate rats and card-carrying members of the Bones Brigade- not the actual Bones Brigade, of course, but the mail-in fan club version created by Powell Peralta to keep skateboarders immersed in news, tour dates, and product offering in the days before the internet. It was always a great joy to come home and see that large white envelope sitting on the kitchen counter, adorned with the familiar red Rat Bones stamp and Santa Barbara, CA return address.

Powell Peralta was my favorite skateboard company, and I spent many hours foregoing schoolwork to meticulously doodle their various logos and pro model graphics in the margins of notebooks and test papers. At the time, Powell videos like The Search For Animal Chin and Public Domain were the undisputed holy bibles of skateboarding: the standard to which all others aspired, the videos you watched before embarking on daylong skate adventures or all-nighter parking lot sessions.

One afternoon late in the summer, an envelope from Powell arrived in the mail. Usually these would carry Intelligence Reports (the Bones Brigade ‘zine) and a few stickers, along with the occasional patch, folded poster, or postcard autographed by a team rider like Tommy Guerrero or Kevin Harris. However, this one was different. Instead of the normal assemblage of Bones-branded swag, this one contained a folded paper invitation, which read:

Imagine yourself sitting with Tony Hawk, Ray Barbee, Lance Mountain, Stacy Peralta, and George Powell, watching the World Premier of “Ban This”, our newest video production. Got that? You’re there with your popcorn and your drink and there’s McGill sitting next to you and it’s showtime! Too good to be true? Well, it’s all possible because Powell Peralta is bringing the World Premiere of “Ban This” to St. Louis and, because you’re a Bones Brigade member, you’re invited to the very showing ever on Sat. Nov. 18at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Just follow these simple instructions to obtain your 2 free tickets…

Was someone messing with me? Surely this couldn’t be real. Head spinning, I called up my friend Dave, who lived on the next street over. A fellow Brigadier, he had just received it too. Minutes later, he was at my house, invitation in hand. We could barely comprehend what we were looking at: things like this just simply didn’t happen in St. Louis. Sure, we had some demos here and there, but a Powell Peralta video premiere? An event of this magnitude may go down in California, but not here in the middle of the rust belt. None of it made any sense, but we weren’t going to question it.

I immediately grabbed the phone and dialed up Powell HQ, reserving our tickets for the debut screening of Ban This on Saturday, November 18, 1989. A few weeks later, they finally showed up in the mail. This was really happening. To say that the level of excitement was high amongst my group of friends would be a massive understatement- we talked about it almost nonstop. Speculation ran wild: how could Public Domain be topped? What new tricks would be debuted? Who would have the opening segment? Which members of the (actual) Bones Brigade would be in attendance? Was Johnny Rad going to play? It was almost too much for our juvenile, skate-addled brains to process.

After an excruciating few months, the long anticipated day finally rolled around. More correspondence had trickled in from Powell in the interim- there would be an autograph signing beforehand at Splash, our local skate shop, featuring Tony Hawk, Ray Barbee, Steve Saiz, and Ray Underhill (along with Stacy Peralta himself). Luckily it was an unseasonably balmy afternoon, because the line snaking into Splash spilled out the front door and creeped down past several storefronts, hundreds of kids long. Despite being perched awkwardly behind a glass display counter on barstools for the better part of two hours dealing with an endless line of skateboard-wielding kids, the Brigade was all smiles, doling out innumerable autographs, shaking hands and posing for pictures with any kid who wanted one.

That evening a group of us piled into someone’s mom’s car and took off, getting to the Sheldon early to take it all in. The buzz was off the charts as we finally took our seats and the room went dim. I will never forget the deafening roar of the packed theater as the screen turned blue and a gigantic Ripper the size of a two-story house poked his bony fingers through the screen and tore out, laughing maniacally. You’ve obviously seen Ban This so I won’t go into too many details on the video itself, but suffice to say that starting with Frankie Hill’s monstrous opening segment and lasting straight through to Tony Hawk’s jaw-dropping 540 ollie ender, it was a scene of sheer, barely-containable pandemonium. You could have powered a small city with the energy in that hall.

After the video ended, everyone filed upstairs to a ballroom for an extended meet & greet/hangout with the Powell pros. The huge room was decorated with cardboard stand-ups of the lab professor who narrated the video, and numerous red winged ripper banners peppered the walls. There was even a little bulldog running around that everyone joked was the very dog that stole Lance Mountain’s board in Public Domain, flown in for the occasion. The scene was overall very chill, at least compared to the near-riot that had ensued in the theater, and to just be there in a room casually mingling with people like Tony Hawk and Ray Barbee, chatting about skateboarding, ramp building and whatever else was nothing short of surreal.

Splash Skate Shop, we later discovered, was an instrumental component in the St. Louis world premiere coming to fruition; yet despite extensive prodding from myself and my friends in the months following Ban This, the owner was always very vague on the details, usually smiling and saying something to the effect of “I just worked it out with Stacy”. My brother recounts, “I have a very hazy recollection that he just asked and they said OK, if he arranged everything”. Could it really have been that simple?

Whatever the circumstances, to this day, I consider that event to be a real milestone in my life. What an unbelievable privilege it was to be one of the first 150 people in the world to see a brand new Powell Peralta video- at the height of their dominance- was not lost on me then or now. Luckily, I kept everything I ever received associated with that night- very likely some of the only remaining copies in existence- and I’m happy to get to share them with everyone reading this issue of Pure Fun. Even today, watching Ban This (and all the old Powell classics) continues to provide maximum stoke, fueling my quest to cheat adulthood and stay young forever, which I’m happy to say is still going strong at 37.

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bookramblings · 5 years

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The Beauty of the Wolf

Author: Wren Delaney

Published by:HQ Stories

Pages: 385

Format:Hardback

My Rating ★★★

For he is the beauty & I be the beast…

In the age of the Faerie Queene, Elizabeth 1, Lord Francis Rodermere starts to lay waste to a forest. Furious, the sorceress who dwells there scrawls a curse into the bark of the first oak he fells:

A faerie boy will be born to you whose beauty will be your death.

Ten years later, Lord Rodermere’s son, Beau, is born – and all who encounter him are struck by his great beauty.

Meanwhile, many miles away in a London alchemist’s cellar, lives Randa – a beast deemed too monstrous to see the light of day.

And so begins a timeless tale of love, tragedy and revenge…

My thoughts

The Beauty of the Wolf, written by award-winning author Sally Gardner under a pseudonym, was a book that caught my interest as soon as I came across it. I really do love a fun fantasy read, not to mention a fairytale retelling, but all in all, I struggled with this one initially. For probably the entire first half of the book, the slow pacing felt as though the plot was just not moving forward at all. Despite the excellent world-building, I felt like I was waiting and waiting to get to the heart of this story, and it wasn’t until about 200 pages or so in that I finally felt some magic in the atmosphere and began to genuinely enjoy the book.

The story is told from three viewpoints: the beauty, the beast, and the sorceress. This actually became really quite confusing at certain points, as it was not always clear who was being referred to as the beauty and who as the beast – this switches around quite a bit between Beau and Randa as the story progresses. The constant changing of the point of view left me unclear about which character was talking.

I (mostly) enjoyed the writing, which felt very poetic and descriptive, but there were definitely moments where it did get a little too over-descriptive. I found the book to be very wordy, with tons of descriptive writing, and this made for a pretty sluggish reading experience.

There were so many interesting characters in The Beauty of The Wolf, with of course Randa and Beau at the heart of the story. Beau is beautiful inside and out but to him his beauty is a curse, not a blessing along with his desire to murder his repulsive father. Beau has a gift bestowed on him by his faerie mother, he can hear the thoughts of certain magical beings and he quickly becomes devoted to a particular voice, which keeps him company in even his loneliest moments. The voice belongs to Randa. Fate brings Beau and Randa together again and eventually Beau sees her in her true form. Despite the love they feel for one another, and the sorceress will stop at nothing to keep them apart.

If only the other characters had been given a little more depth and backstory also, and perhaps fleshed out a tad more, I feel the book would have been more appealing to read, particularly in those first hundred or two pages.

The story was about looking past outward beauty and looking at the beauty inside of someone. The start was slow, but I’m glad I didn’t give up on this one as things actually got a lot better about halfway through, when finally Beau and Randa were able to interact.

The sex scenes were kind of awkward and uncomfortable to read, with the use of slang profanities and language feeling very out of place in a world of magic and fairies. Several of the sex scenes early on in the book felt unnecessary to the plot and I’m still not really sure why they were included.

The Beauty of the Wolf is essentially a mixture of Folklore and Fairy tale, telling an intriguing story about looking past outward beauty and seeing the true beauty inside of someone. If you enjoy twisted fairy tales, there’s a good chance you’ll love this, but I’m afraid I was left feeling a bit disappointed overall.

I loved the premise, and the ideas behind this book were great, but on reflection I felt it was the execution that let this one down. There's a lot of potential but I think some more editing could help.

Overall reaction:

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caranelguild · 5 years

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Caran El, Rafe 15

Our reader must be reminded of our adventurers’ separation in the end of the last entry: in the darkness of the sewers, facing off against a mysterious shadow, are Gwyllt, Otato, and Rhedyn. Creeping above ground with a strange Hannerd man is Auni. Both groups are intending to converge on the Sablist Guild HQ on Domination Street . . .

But before we have a reunion, the gigantic shadow in the underground needs to be addressed. Or it doesn’t, as it turns out: our sewer group retreats slowly away as it slowly approaches and shifts down a shaft to the blackwater sewer below. Rhedyn, looking up through the shaft, sees the dull glint of a chitinous shell passing on the ceiling up above. Now wreathed in the foul fumes of true sewage, the trio moves on . . . but is it just their imagination or can they still hear the deep creaks and unpleasant sucking noises of the creature they’ve left behind?

Now many meters above them, Auni is conversing with Esa, the old Hannerd man, about the Sablist guild. Esa relates that the guild is run by Dreydark Morlas, the brother of the Tulean emperor, High Patriarch Felkfis Morlas. Dreydark is running the guild under the assumed name of Belluc Black. The Sablists had once been his personal circle of politicians and officers before he decided that their influence could be better used in a different setting. Not a fan of his brother’s weak rule, Dreydark Morlas as Belluc Black registered a guild with the city of Nos whose goal is (beyond genocide, of course) to reclaim to majesty of the Tulean Empire of old. Further, Esa tells Auni of a secret entrance in the blackwater sewers below the HQ where, as a servant, he was told to (illegally) dump waste directly into the channels. There is a servants’ alleyway entrance also.

Auni and Esa arrive in view of the HQ and Auni sets out along Domination Street to the alley where he, Bellemere, Borinn, and Groá had entered the sewers so many months ago. However, in this well lit street, he fails to go unnoticed, and a guard hails him from an upstairs window of a building across from the Sablist HQ. He droops into his drunk routine, but Esa flashes a sheet of gold foil and claims to be on artistic reconnaissance for the International Artists’ Guild down the street. The guard tells them to make their art elsewhere, and Auni makes a beeline for an alleyway other than that he intended for and then circles back to it from behind.

Meanwhile, our sewer strollers (slinkers?) experience the relief of sensation exhaustion as they continue strolling (slinking) from green light to green light in the direction they hope is Domination Street. They reach a T crossing, and Otato is sure he hears voices, indistinguishable over the slosh of sewage, coming from the left. They creep across the bridge to the far avenue, where Rhedyn becomes sure there is some manner of other light beyond the green haze of the next shaft up. The group moves onward, and from just outside of the green light strain their eyes forward, making out the flicker of torches and the dark, lithe silhouettes of Tuleans. Above the figures, hanging low over the middle of the sewer, they observe a sack of some sort. Otato tastes rancid meat on the air. They make as to stealth quickly through the shaft light to the shadows on the other side of the shaft light, but their movement attracts the notice of the distant figures. One of the two takes a torch from a wall sconce and moves towards our party. When it has made it halfway, Rhedyn extinguishes the torch. The figure, now in complete darkness, skitters back to its companion and the torchlight, where they wait for our adventurers to approach.

Except our adventurers are doing the same, and a goodly time passes. Then, above and behind the Tulē, our party sees creeping from the darkness a monstrous snail with half a dozen eye stalks and spikes protruding in every direction from its shell. The creature they avoided in the greywater sewer above! The dark elves do not seem to notice it. Gwyllt begins conceiving of a plan . . .

Auni and Esa enter the alley familiar to the former, and they make to lift the manhole cover. Auni wishes to test the stranger, suspecting there is strength hidden there, but Esa proves no help at all in the lifting of the solid iron disc, so Auni concedes and lifts it all by himself. They slip into the greenlit darkness below, and Auni slides the cover back into place. Esa is first into the shaft down to the next layer, but quite quickly he is climbing back up, reporting a sighting of torchlight.

“I will take a look,” says Auni generously, and clambers down a few rungs until he gets a view of the situation below. The familiar terrain presents itself to him: a T crossing ahead, the main channel crossways to him crossed by a bridge, on the fair side of which stand two Sablist guards. The guards are facing into the darkness to Auni’s right, and as he watches one of them turns back to a crate by the area of the wall Auni knows contains a door. The Tulē withdraws a bow from it, strings it, and then fires a quick arrow into the darkness of the guards’ current focus. Then a second arrow is fired, and Auni hears a cry.

Then he hears someone deliver a speech in a deep-city Myradin accent. Auni cannot make out the words, but Otato and Rhedyn can, because the speech is Gwyllt’s.

“Drop your weapons!” he announces, “or face the wrath of Poobar, the Lord of the Sewers. If you resist, his Great Slug shall feast on your bones!”

His speech does not produce the reaction he wished for, so he darts forward after Rhedyn, who was already creeping further into the darkness towards the Sablists and has an arrow in her hip to show for it. Otato overtakes them both, however, his powerful lizard legs pumping. He slides into the torchlight, surprising the elves, who jump back out of the range of his sword. Then Rhedyn lashes fire at their legs, and one falls to the ground. As he staggers up, he and his companion are suddenly skewered to the wall by spikes of solid shit. In their periphery (their focal drawn by the gruesome scene before them) the sewer trio sees a dark shape run from the alley channel onto the bridge and then suddenly vanish.

Spikes of poo, they think . . . AUNI! Otato rushes onto the bridge from his side, takes two steps, and suddenly falls through the stonework as if it did not exist. Letting go of his sword, which plops into the sewage, he just barely grabs onto the edge of the bridge that exists. Rhedyn and Gwyllt watch him vanish until all they see of of him are four fingers, seemingly disembodied.

Auni is in deep shit, and knows what he is about to face, so when the sewage around him begins to boil with the shapes of dozens of voracious many-toothed Balaii, he is not surprised, but he is desperate, and responds to the beasts’ advances with waves of magic. Despite his gargantuan efforts, he is lacerated by many teeth, and one eel latches onto his ankle and begins pulling him down.

“Cut the cord!” he cries out before being pulled temporarily under and taking in a mouthful of liquid excrement.

Rhedyn is trying to help Otato out of the shit, but hasn’t the strength on her own to drag out the half-tonne lizardman. Gwyllt makes a judgment call (that few others would make, it must be noted) and follows Auni’s direction, leaping out over the sewage onto the hanging sack, where he is momentarily stunned by the sudden aromatic POOF of the stench of the rotten meat he is now embracing. Otato is sliced by a series of teeth but pulls himself (and a Balaii attached to his tail) out of the sewage, where he and Rhedyn prepare to gut some fish.

Auni is in deeper shit now, dragged completely under by the eel on his ankle. Even the sudden presence in the water of the rancid meat (Gwyllt falls in with it and swims like an eel to the wrong side of the sewer, where he pulls himself up) only draws away a few of his assailants, and he finds himself fighting for breath as desperately as he fights the Balaii.

. . .

And that’s where we leave them all for this episode!

#caran el #journal #traverse #chapter eight: ei dal

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