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bedlamsbard · 3 years

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Part 12 of the other side AU concept, the second epilogue sequence! At least one more sequence after this before I either start revising or just keep on going as concept writing.

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Humidity made the rock of the cliff face slick against his fingers, forcing him to pay extra attention as he made his way up it. He clung to the seemingly sheer rock with his fingers and boot-toes stuck into grips too small for most humans to manage for more than a few meters, relying on the Force to keep him from falling. Heights had never bothered him, but he still didn’t look over his shoulder at the vast spread of jungle beneath him; he needed all his focus for the climb itself.

“Sure,” Ezra Bridger muttered, the words so soft that they were closer to being a thought than voiced, “ninety-nine percent of the time it’s ‘sit in this cell until we can think of something better to do with you,’ but it’s that one percent of ‘you’re a Jedi, please do this incredibly dangerous thing that no stormtrooper can pull off’ that gets you.”

The unfamiliar weight of both the sniper rifle and the pack slung across his back made the climb a little more awkward than he would have preferred, but he didn’t mind it. Going anywhere without a weapon right now would be a bad idea, not to mention the fact that he was still a little impressed that Captain Pellaeon had given him one at all. More than one, as it happened; he had a blaster pistol holstered at his hip and a couple of vibroknives secreted elsewhere around his person. Pellaeon didn’t know about the blades.

Despite the fact that the humidity was so thick that the growing fog was just short of being rain, Ezra couldn’t resent his current position. If he fell – and it wouldn’t take much – then not only would it be an ignominious end, but it was likely that no one back at Chimaera Camp would even notice his absence for a few days. If they did, Pellaeon would probably assume that he had made a break for it. It was an option that Ezra had considered and discarded given their current circumstance, but he was keeping it open if those circumstances happened to change. He knew roughly where they were in relation to the Chimaera’s crash site, but he was also aware that there was nothing space-worthy left on the star destroyer. Aside from the ships back at Chimaera Camp, there was only one other option to get offworld, and Ezra wasn’t quite that desperate yet.

It felt good to have his hands on the living stone of the planet, to feel fresh air – and yes, the fog – on his bare skin, to lick his lips and taste the slight tang of the moisture of a new world. He had spent nearly all of the previous six years on the Chimaera; the Force was everywhere, but it was different in space than it was planetside. After spending his entire life on Lothal, the months the Ghost had spent with Phoenix Squadron in deep space had been a shock to him. It had been at least a little preparation for all those years on the Chimaera.

This wasn’t Lothal, but he was still attuned to the Living Force and he could still feel the thread of wrongness that ran through it here. As far as they knew, this planet didn’t have a name, just the designation it had been given when they entered the star system; if it had an indigenous sentient species, they hadn’t run into them yet. Ezra had no way of knowing what the planet should have felt like in the Force, but he could tell that there was something badly wrong here and getting worse by the day.

A few minutes later, he pulled himself up over the top of the cliff with a grunt and crouched there, breathing hard, then took out his water flask and drank sparingly. The Chimaera’s scientists were monitoring the water in the stream that ran past Chimaera Camp and had found that its chemical content was changing by the day; Ezra had water purification tablets with him, but there was always the chance that whatever was leaching into the water table was wouldn’t be affected by the Imperial-issue tablets.

He put the flask back onto his pack and took the sniper rifle off his back, using the scope the same way he would have done a pair of macrobinoculars. The scope was the reason he hadn’t brought a pair of macrobinoculars; if he had to he could remove it from the rifle to use on its own, and he might need the weapon. While he had never been formally trained as a sniper the way that some of the stormtroopers and death troopers aboard the Chimaera had been, given the time needed to set up a sniper’s shot he could use the Force for nearly the same level of accuracy. If not, well, a sniper rifle was still a rifle – this one was reconfigurable, so Ezra could always break it down into an assault rifle or a heavy blaster pistol. While most death troopers used the BlasTech E11-D and DLT-19D that were standard issue, they often had the liberty to carry other weapons if desired, which was how Ezra had gotten his hands on the A280-CFE that was commonly used in the Rebel Alliance.

The view from the scope showed him only the seemingly impenetrable tree cover of the jungle he had come through. Ezra knew that there were a number of clearings in it, some large enough for a light cruiser like the Scylla or the Charybdis to put down in – and in fact the Seventh Fleet’s remaining cruisers were parked in two such – but even with the scope they were impossible to see. It had a range of five kilometers on a clear day, which this wasn’t; a heavy blanket of fog mixed with the tall native trees of the planet, turning the view beneath him into a grayish-green sea. With a sigh, he straightened up again. He kept the rifle in the curve of his arm rather than returning it to his back, wanting to have it quickly to hand if he needed it; the few seconds it would take to swing it around could cost him his life.

The jungle began again a few meters from the edge of the cliff. Ezra eyed it dubiously; having spent his entire life to the age of fifteen in grasslands he still found forests both disconcerting and distasteful. When he stretched out with the Force, though, he could feel the life within it – confused by the changes being wrought upon the planet, but still present. The wildlife, he knew, would be his first hint of real trouble.

Right now it told him that there was nothing to be concerned with except for the planet’s native dangers. Still, Ezra hesitated, looking at the edge of the jungle and fighting down his nerves. Annoyed by his own reluctance, he sank down into a tailor’s seat, resting the rifle across his knees. He fell quickly and easily into a light meditative trance; he had years of practice, after all. He didn’t let his attention roll out the way he had done when he had meditated the previous night at Chimaera Camp, but turned it inwards instead. He just wanted a few minutes to clear his head.

He was, he realized, afraid.

The fight on the Chimaera had been one thing, as had the handful of other skirmishes he had been involved in over the years, but this was the first time in more than six years that Ezra had been completely on his own, whether on an alien worlds or back on the Chimaera. If he had died then, at least Grand Admiral Thrawn and the other Imperials would have known, assuming the whole Chimaera hadn’t been destroyed at the same time. There was no real difference in being out here than there was being back with the Imperials, who had more reason to want him dead than anything else on this world and had come close a few times; Thrawn had twice had his own men shot over two such incidents. Ezra had scars from the attempt that had come closest to succeeding. On this world only Captain Pellaeon and a handful of other acquaintances – not quite friends – amongst the Chimaera’s complement really cared if he lived or died. Some days Ezra wasn’t entirely sure that he himself did.

Kanan had lived like this for years, Ezra reminded himself, and often in worse situations than this one after his entire world had died. So had Zeb. Ezra could do no less than either of them, and refused to fail them.

It hadn’t been left to him to make any decisions one way or another for a long time now – not the kind of decisions that actually mattered. He had been volunteered for this particular mission rather than volunteered himself, but hadn’t bothered to argue it even though others had. It was something to do, at least.

Years ago he had asked Captain Rex about the Clone Wars, which Kanan only ever talked about when forced or when he had been drinking, which wasn’t very often. The old clone had gone quiet, thinking about the question, and then said slowly, “When you go into battle – whether it’s a major push like Geonosis or a five man black ops mission – you go in understanding you’re already dead. You can’t be afraid of dying. You accept it – you take it inside of you.”

Rex hadn’t said whether or not he had learned that from the Jedi he had served with, but Ezra wouldn’t have been surprised if he had. He let that knowledge fill him now, the reminder that in the Force he was both living and dead at once, and even if he was still drawing breath now, it was a state that could change at any point. There was no point in being afraid of the unknown: what would happen would happen as the Force willed it. All he could do was the best that he knew how.

He opened his eyes and got to his feet, tucking the rifle against his shoulder as he went into the jungle.

It was slow going. The undergrowth seemed to be thicker up here than it was in the lowlands around Chimaera Camp. The tree cover was so thick that it blocked out most of the sunlight, leaving Ezra to pick his way through the jungle in greenish gloom, trying not to trip over creepers on the forest floor, which had leaf litter so thick that in places he sank into it up to his ankles, or hang himself on the vines that passed from tree to tree. Many of the tree trunks were so wide around that it would have taken a dozen men holding hands to encircle them. Nor was it silent. Animals – he saw avians and snakes, along with some kind of small red-scaled reptile and the quick flash of a furry mammalian tail vanishing up a tree – called out constantly. They weren’t much bothered by his passage, as animals usually weren’t, though more than once he heard them go quiet in response to some native predator passing through. He sensed disquiet among them even as they went about their normal routines; they were as aware of the changes happening on the planet’s surface as he was. More so; this was their home.

Mid-afternoon brought the downpour that Ezra had learned to expect after the past three days onworld. Rather than press on, he spent the time crouched on the upturned root of one massive tree, sheltering as best he could beneath leaves the size of his cell door back on the Chimaera. The rain seemed to come down in sheets, like a solid wall of water despite the fact that by the time it reached him it should have been disrupted by the tree canopy. Ezra managed not to get drenched this time – the first day he had gone out to stand in it, to the horror and disgust of the sailors assigned to guard him. Most members of the Imperial Navy hated and distrusted uncontrolled weather at best and planets entirely at worst. This time getting soaked would be a hindrance – and besides, it wouldn’t particularly aid his already slow passage. Ezra watched the rain fall from the dubious shelter of the tree and let his mind drift out in something that wasn’t quite a meditative trance – while most of the native wildlife had gone to shelter at the same time he had, it wasn’t a guarantee that the enemy would do so as well.

When the rain had passed and the sun had reappeared, Ezra recommenced his slow trek through the jungle. He hadn’t stayed completely dry in the downpour, but the scout trooper’s undersuit he wore was more or less waterproof; it still left him feeling uncomfortably like he had gone through a sanisteam in his clothes. He paused twice to eat, the tasteless emergency rations that stormtroopers carried as a matter of course, and once to refill his water flask at a stream after he had tested the water with the Force and decided he didn’t need to use one of the water purification tablets. By the time that dusk fell, casting the jungle into even further gloom, Ezra had, he guessed, advanced within a kilometer or two of his goal.

The advent of darkness slowed his progress even further. He took out the night vision goggles he had gotten from the Chimaera’s death trooper captain – promoted from the ranks two years ago after the remaining death trooper officers had died – and put them on, blinking as the shadows of the jungle resolved into only moderately more penetrable shades of green. While he had a glowrod, using it would be just as good as sending up a beacon, not something he wanted. He could have passed through the jungle without needing to see at all, except that would leave him vulnerable to something he wouldn’t have thought possible six years earlier.

By the time he sensed the final setting of the sun sometime later, the jungle had been the next thing to pitch-black for more than an hour. Ezra was silently arguing himself out of trying to find somewhere to sleep for a few hours when he felt the nearby animal life go silent, then recommence its noisy outcry. The negation and recommencement of sound shifted in his awareness of the Living Force, and he swore wearily to himself.

Something was coming towards him.

He settled the rifle more closely against his shoulder and touched a finger to the night vision goggles, making certain that they were as firmly affixed to his face as possible. He had learned the hard way that what was coming left no trace in the Force – not of itself, at least.

Ezra could have gone up a tree, but he was city born and bred and could count on one hand the number of times in his life he had actually tried to climb a tree. Even in this unfamiliar environment he felt far more comfortable on the ground that he would have perched on a branch – he was sure he could get up to one, but not positive that he could stay there, a hesitation he would never have had on a cliff edge or a high-rise. He was absolutely certain that trying to fight on one would end with him flat on his back on the ground, and that was a best case scenario.

Instead he settled himself in the soldier’s stance he had learned from Rex, letting the rifle rest loosely against his shoulder as he let his awareness spread out. Animals, frightened by the alien sight and scent of the intruders, fled their approach; plants flinched away from the heavy tread of feet. Ezra felt them come closer and closer – a near-silent passage to anyone but a Jedi. The air felt close and heavy around him, the night sounds of the wildlife vanished into stillness or flight. Ezra let his mind fill with the blazing clarity of the Force, until in every way that mattered Ezra was the Force itself. The Jedi were the sword hand of the Force, Kanan had said more than once; with or without a lightsaber Ezra was still a Jedi.

He fired even before he saw the flicker of movement in his night vision goggles.

The crack of the blaster shot broke the stillness of the night air, sparks flaring at the laser bolt struck armor it couldn’t penetrate. Ezra threw himself sideways, feeling the rush of air as the thrown thudbug just missed his previous position. He rolled and came up on one knee as he fired again, twice in quick unison, relying on instinct rather than the little his vision showed him. He got one more shot off and then had to reverse his grip on the rifle, slamming it upwards two-handed to block the amphistaff blow aimed at his head. Quick as the serpent it resembled, the amphistaff lost its staff form and lashed out, its jaws gaping wide. Hissing, it spat poison at his eyes.

The night vision goggles cracked as the poison struck. His vision blurring – knowing he had only seconds before they broke entirely or the poison dripped down onto his skin – Ezra thrust out with the Force. The amphistaff’s bearer didn’t release the living weapon, but his arm and the amphistaff both swung wide, away from Ezra as he threw himself into a backflip, ripping the night vision goggles off as he did and letting them fall.

Darkness closed over him.

He pulled the rifle back to his shoulder and fired again; once more, sparks briefly illuminated his enemy as his shot struck uselessly off armor. Then the warrior was on him; Ezra swung the rifle like a club, feeling it connect with his enemy’s skull. Undaunted, the warrior lashed the amphistaff like a whip; the serpent slashed down across the barrel of the rifle, cutting the weapon in two.

Ezra didn’t hesitate, just flung the remaining half of the rifle at his opponent even as he flung himself sideways again, avoiding the amphistaff’s attempt to get its teeth into his throat. He twisted and came up with his blaster pistol, firing as fast as he could pull the trigger – a steady stream of blaster bolts, nearly all of which sparked uselessly off vonduun crab armor. Only one penetrated between the joints of the armor, making his opponent grunt in pain. His ears ringing from the blasterfire, Ezra thought he heard it echo oddly in the jungle, but he was already moving, grabbing one of his vibroknives with his left hand and slashing backhanded in the same motion. With the Force behind it, the vibroknife cut through the amphistaff in the vulnerable place just below the head. Halfway through the blade stopped, jammed against the creature’s seemingly indestructible internal structure. It thrashed in the warrior’s hand.

It couldn’t cry out, but he could. Ezra could neither understand the words nor sense the emotions that underlay them, but he released the vibroknife and got both hands on the grip of his blaster again, firing at the place he thought he had seen a vulnerable point between helmet and breast plate.

The blaster jammed.

Oh, karabast, Ezra thought – he didn’t have time to voice the words before his opponent’s free hand shot out and closed around his throat. He was lifted off the ground, armored fingers like durasteel cutting off his breath. The blaster fell to the ground as he clawed at that implacable arm, fingers scrabbling over the plates of living armor that covered his opponent’s forearm. He felt it twitch beneath his fingers, lending its strength to the enemy.

His opponent snarled something in his native language, his fingers tightening. Ezra reached for the Force as his vision started to gray out, knowing that if he wasn’t dead yet then it was because the enemy intended to take him alive. After enough suffering to make up for the death of his amphistaff.

Light flicked out like a whip, coiling around the warrior’s body.

Ezra had just enough time to feel astonishment before the brief flash of a jetpack’s repulsors heralded the being who slammed feet-first into the warrior, knocking him sideways. He dropped Ezra, turning to grapple with this new adversary as the glowing line of energized whipcord vanished. Ezra hit the ground, gasping for air but already reaching for another of his sheathed vibroblades.

Even now his enemy was absent from the Force, but the new arrival wasn’t. Ezra didn’t bother to think, just drew his vibroknife, thumbed the switch on, and waited – with his amphistaff dead, or at least out of commission, the warrior was left with only whatever razorbugs or thudbugs he was carrying and his dagger-like coufee. He heard the living weapon scrape against – or possibly through – what could only be beskar, and a grunt of surprise. The brief burst of a short-distance repulsor sent the warrior stumbling back a step and Ezra struck in his moment of confusion, slamming his vibroknife up beneath the skirt plates of his armor to the vulnerable place on the inside of his thigh where most humanoids had a major vein. He felt the weapon dig in and dragged it down as far as he could before the warrior cuffed him aside, sending Ezra flying to strike a tree.

He hit hard enough to black out for an instant, but was dragging himself upright as soon as he could, reaching for his fallen blaster through the Force. The grip smacked into his palm hard enough to hopefully displace the jam and he raised it, aiming at the spot he thought the enemy was.

There was a blaster shot, not his, and in its flash he saw the warrior on his back in the undergrowth. It also illuminated the injured amphistaff making its way like a sidewinder through the leaf cover, with Ezra’s vibroknife still stuck into its neck.

Even as the flash faded Ezra fired. His own shot wasn’t aimed at the creature, but at the hilt of the vibroknife, slamming the weapon those last few precious centimeters forward to sever head from body. Ezra heard it thrash briefly, dying, and then there was silence.

He would have liked nothing more than to collapse and sleep for a week, but he braced himself against the tree with his free hand and kept the blaster in his other hand. His head was pounding; he knew he’d have bruises the next time he looked, to go with the bruises he still had from the Chimaera’s final battle and crash.

“Who –” He coughed as his abraded throat protested. “Who’s that?”

Light sprang into being, the thin artificial life of a glowrod illuminating the Mandalorian woman standing by the warrior’s corpse. After four years living with one, Ezra was hardly going to forget that particular silhouette. His gaze traversed the slopes of painted beskar armor, noting the fresh scars on it from the coufee blade before settling on the helmet before the woman reached up to remove it.

“Ezra?”

He stared. Then he tried to take a step backwards and couldn’t, his shoulders already braced against the tree trunk. His mind didn’t seem to want to come to terms with what was in front of him, even as he lowered the hand with the blaster in it. He slumped back against the tree, letting it take more of his weight.

“Hey!” She crossed the space between them with a few quick steps and grabbed his shoulder, her grip solidly human and real. “Don’t you dare pass out on me now!”

Ezra reached up and closed his free hand around her forearm, staring into her face. “I’m not going to pass out,” he said. “They usually patrol in threes –”

“Yeah, we met the other two. They’re dead. You want to sit down?”

“I’m fine,” Ezra said, or tried to say, but was already folding up. He sat heavily, belatedly holstering the pistol he was still holding. “You changed your hair,” he said inanely.

“Yeah, I do that,” Sabine Wren said. “So did you.”

Ezra touched a hand self-consciously to what remained of his hair – long on top and pulled into a tail wrapped with strips of thin leather, close cut at the sides, because he had spent the past six years with sailors and stormtroopers who thought a buzzcut was the height of fashion. He stopped with his fingers hooked through a strip of leather, stared at Sabine, and felt himself start to shake. “You’re real,” he croaked, even though the Force had already told him the answer. “You’re really here.”

“Yeah,” she said, her hand still on his shoulder. “I’m really here. We’re all really here.”

When he looked up again, he felt as much as saw them ghosting out of the shadows at the edge of the glowrod’s illumination like the spectres they had been named for. Ezra was too tired and overwhelmed for further disbelief; he pushed himself to his feet with Sabine’s help and stumbled into Kanan’s arms.

“I felt –” he said shakily, his voice muffled by the fact that he had buried his face in the other man’s shoulder. He fisted his hands hard against Kanan’s back, aware of how gloriously alive he felt. “– in the Force, I felt something change, six months ago. I felt you come back.”

“It’s me,” Kanan said, his voice gentle. “Yeah, Ezra, it’s me.”

Hera put a hand on his shoulder, smiling, and Ezra turned into her embrace, then Zeb’s. He was shaking so badly that Zeb had to help him to a seat on an upraised tree root, one hand folded over his shoulder as though he couldn’t bear to let Ezra out of his grasp. He wasn’t entirely certain that he wasn’t hallucinating – that he hadn’t been taken captive after all and this was some new torture. Then he looked at Kanan’s calm white eyes and touched the Force again, gingerly, like prodding a sore tooth, and knew it wasn’t a trick.

“You’re going to explain that,” he said, a little wildly. “You were – I thought – I saw – I felt –”

“Yeah,” Kanan said again. “It’s a long story.”

Meaning not now. Ezra took a shaky breath and leaned back into Zeb’s reassuring grip, watching Sabine crouch to inspect the fallen warrior. She touched the scratches on her breast plate gingerly, then her eyes widened as a hand-size piece of beskar broke off in her hand – the coufee had cut nearly through it and the slight pressure of her touch had freed it. “What are these things?” she demanded.

Ezra sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Long story.”

“We saw the Chimaera,” Hera said, sitting down on his other side. She kept her blaster in her hand, resting across her knee, which under the circumstances Ezra thought was the wisest thing she could have done. “We were on our way to the rendezvous coordinates when Kanan sensed you, but we had to find somewhere safe to put down. Chopper’s with the Ghost about two kilometers away.”

Ezra rubbed his hand across his face. “They’re from beyond the Unknown Regions – beyond our galaxy, maybe – and they’ve been making a push towards the Empire since it was still the Republic,” he said. “They’ve been tracking the Chimaera and the rest of the Seventh for months – years – and finally cornered her here. They’re warriors – shapers, they call themselves; everything they use is organic, alive – their armor, their weapons, their ships.” He nodded at the warrior’s corpse and the dead amphistaff beside him. “They’re called the Yuuzhan Vong.”

#this one was the chapter I wrote to the same song on repeat #cut scenes and concept writing #other side au tag #as always comments are appreciated

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theshatteredrose · 4 years

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Relic Keepers: Awakening of the Red Lily (Chapter 7) - Original Novel

AN: So proud at myself for being able to maintain my weekly updates so far, in spite of the headaches I’ve been experiencing. Hope I can continue to maintain it :’D Anyway, hope you enjoy reading!

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Chapter 7:

As Eishirou checked his tablet of their possible location, Zayne kept an ever-vigilant eye on their new surroundings. The sunlight had dimmed considerably the last few minutes, indicating that the sun was soon to set completely.

They needed to find their way back to the others as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to experience flailing about in the dark, in the middle of an unmapped forest no less.

While he recognised the greenery around them to be that of the forest of which they had entered, he didn’t recognise their surroundings. To be fair, the entire forest was just so dense, it was difficult to see through the foliage more than a couple of feet. They could be a few feet away from the expedition site without even knowing.

The loud buzzing of his communicator caused Eishirou to jump slightly. He immediately plunged his hand into his bag to pull out the hand-held device.

Jacob’s concerned face flickered into view. “Eishirou!”

“I’m fine!” Eishirou immediately responded with, knowing that it wouldn’t calm the worried Jacob completely, but should at least ease his concerns. “Zayne is with me. We’re both fine.”

That did get a small sigh of relief from him. “So, Zayne is with you. I got your previous message but was unable to reply.”

“We were underground at the time. Reception was spotty at best.”

“Where are you?”

Good question.

“Jacob, listen; under the clearing where that stone tablet was discovered is a series of mine shafts. That’s where we fell when that ShadowDweller attacked. And they’re connected to an ancient tunnel system. And that’s connected to a large underground chamber holding a mosaic and an altar. So, you need to be careful in that clearing. The ground could give way in other places.”

Jacob listened to him prattle off the information and was silent for a moment as he took it all. “We’ll talk more on that later,” he finally said. “Are you still underground?”

Eishirou shook his head. “No, we’re above ground and back in the forest. But I don’t recognise where. I think we ended up in another part of the forest. A deeper part.”

Jacob turned away from the screen for a moment to speak with someone else. Maybe that of Ernesta. “I’ll send you the map from my tablet,” he stated as he turned back to the screen. “Overlay it with yours and you should be able to pinpoint out location.”

Yes, that should work!

“Right. I’ll send mine, too.” Eishirou reached into his bag to pick up his tablet and was about to excuse himself on the communicator because, honestly, he needed two hands. But instead, Zayne was the one to take it from him. He moved to stand right next to him and he held onto the tablet for him, allowing for him to use both at the same time.

He sent the Elite a graceful smile before he turned his attention back to the task at hand.

“Any ShadowDwellers where you are?”

“Not currently.” Jacob appeared to have someone else holding his tablet for him also. “Team 3 has split into two groups. I’m still at the clearing with Ernesta and Tatsu. The others are escorting the rest of the expedition team. Sunset is about an hour away. We need to get out of this forest pronto.”

Honestly, he didn’t need to say that; Eishirou heard the urgency in his voice.

Just as Eishirou sent his portion of the map, his tablet beeped at him to alert an incoming message.

“Did you get the map?”

“I did,” Eishirou confirmed as he tapped the screen and opened the new message. “Did you?”

Jacob was seen nodding as his gazed to his right. “Yes. From what it tells me is that you’re far deeper than I had anticipated.”

That sounded about right. But thanks to Jacob’s map, Eishirou at least had a direction to head off in. They were way east of the expedition site. A good twenty-minute walk if they were lucky and the path was straight.

But it was likely that the sun would set before they were able to re-join with the others.

Zayne suddenly placed his hand on Eishirou’s shoulder in an attempt to gain his attention. “Tell them to remain where they are; we’ll come to them.”

Eishirou nodded. “Prof, stay there with the others. It’ll be easy if we find our way to you.”

Jacob turned back to his communicator sharply. It was obvious that he wanted to argue that. However, he didn’t. He knew he was right.

“Alright, but send updates of your map every five minutes.”

Sounded reasonable.

After offering the Jacob his reassurances, Eishirou closed down his communicator. He then retrieved the tablet from Zayne and took a moment to study.

“We need to head west,” he said, thankful that his tablet also had a compass.

“Alright, you take the lead. But don’t get too far in front of me,” Zayne requested firmly.

“Roger that.”

With his tablet in hand, Eishirou turned to face west and chose the nearest path, hoping that it would continue to take them in the direction they needed to be.

Despite knowing that ShadowDwellers did inhabit the area, the atmosphere of the forest felt tranquil and peaceful. Not to mention the fresh air and the gentle breeze was comforting. It wasn’t much of a surprise after being stuck underground for a while.

Even so, he hoped they didn’t have to camp for the night. He had been camping a couple of times before, when he was younger. Never in the middle of a ShadowDweller infested forest at night, though. And he didn’t fancy trying it tonight. Especially without previsions.

“This is quite the first assignment,” Zayne commented surprisingly casually. “And you said bodyguard missions were boring.”

Eishirou shot the Elite an apologetic smile. “Well, this is the first time something like this has ever happened to me.”

Zayne tilted his head to the side in a sign of curiosity. “Really? You were pretty calm throughout.”

Really? Oh, good. That meant Zayne hadn’t seen him blush fiercely or his heart race in his chest just by being in very close proximity with him.

Gah, why did he have to remember that?

“W-well, so were you,” Eishirou quickly directed the conversation toward Zayne himself. “Hard to believe this is your first mission.”

Zayne nonchalantly ran a hand through his hair. “Really? Meh, guess I’m just a natural at it.”

He sounded somewhat dismissive, so Eishirou chose not to press him. He didn’t have the right to poke and prod, anyway. Even if he was curious about the Elite. He was quite the enigma.

They both fell silent as they continued to head in a westly direction. They path had a few twists and turns, but thankfully it kept them moving west. And edging close to the expedition site.

They had better hurry, though.

“It’s getting dark,” Eishirou commented as he glanced at their surroundings with a sense of worry.

The lush green foliage with wild flowers of vivid reds and yellows was charming during the light of day. Peaceful even. But as the light began to fade, the tall trees took on towering shadowy figures. Figures that leaned imposingly over them.

“I’m reluctant to use my wings here,” Zayne muttered. “Might draw unwanted attention.”

That was true. The bright blue lights of his mana wings were sure to be quite the beacon, though. “Yeah. But we need to see, too.”

Zayne uttered a sigh. “True. Ok, wait a sec.”

Eishirou immediately stopped walking and turned toward Zayne. The Elite closed his eyes only for his brow to wrinkle and he opened them again. He pivoted his head to either side of him, seemingly looking for something.

Before Eishirou would ask him what was wrong with a worried tone, Zayne spoke;

“I can hear something.”

Eishirou blinked. He couldn’t necessarily hear anything. Well, Elites were said to have heightened senses. “Voices or something else?”

Zayne didn’t answer immediately. He kept his gaze at their darkening surroundings. He suddenly bristled protectively and his wings burst into formation. He quickly spun around to face down the path they had travelled. “It’s that damn centipede ShadowDweller!”

Eishirou felt his heart drop into his stomach. He was about to ask him if he was sure but the loud sound of the splitting of trees and wild rustling of branches gave him all the answers he needed.

A loud beep from his tablet startled him. He immediately looked down to see a menacing red dot on the outer edges of the screen. And that red dot was moving in their direction at an unbelievable pace.

How did…?

It must have when they had that near encounter with the ShadowDweller in the mines. The tablet must have recorded its presence. A built-in warning system?

Ah, it didn’t matter at the moment!

“It’s coming straight for us!”

“Ah shit,” Zayne spat as the sound of splintering wood grew louder with each passing second. “I just hope we can get to that clearing before it catches up. Otherwise, I’ll fight it myself.”

Eishirou skittishly looked at their surroundings. They were in a narrow path, surrounded with tall trees and impenetrable shrubbery. Not the ideal battlefield.

Instead of pulling out his mana holsters to prepare for battle, Zayne spun around to face Eishirou and darted toward him. And suddenly swept him into his arms and held him against his chest. “Hold tight to your tablet.”

“H-huh…?” Eishirou uttered, his features sporting another blush. Even though the situation was beyond serious and this was no place to start getting all embarrassed!

“This way is faster. Hold onto my neck.” With his tablet clutched in his left hand, Eishirou meekly slipped his right arm around Zayne’s neck and shoulders. “Let’s go.”

Eishirou had to resist the urge to utter a sound of surprise when Zayne suddenly sprung into the air and spread his mana wings. He wasn’t able to gain much altitude due to the thick canopy of the forest, so he concentrated his mana to propel them forward as fast as he could.

But even with the sound of wind rushing past his ears, Eishirou could hear the sound of trees and the earth shaking. He glanced over Zayne’s shoulder, but because of the shadows of the setting sun, he couldn’t see very far.

Thankfully, his tablet was able to see what he couldn’t.

“It’s catching up.”

“Where is it?”

“Right behind us!”

“Damn it,” Zayne cursed as he tightened his arms around Eishirou. “Hold on, I’m taking a sharp corner.”

Eishirou unconsciously curled closer to Zayne, pressing his cheek against his shoulder as Zayne pulled to an abrupt stop. Somehow overcoming forward motion, he planted his feet onto the ground and lurched to the side, down a forking path. His mana wings worked quickly to ensure that he didn’t send them both crashing to the ground, but he did have to use his legs to cushion the sudden change in direction.

He skidded across the ground, leaving gouges in the soil as evidence. He turned them both around in time to see a black blur with a magnitude of scurrying legs trundle past. Speeding down the path in a straight line, taking out everything and anything in its way.

Just like when they encountered it underground, as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared from view. Though, they may not be able to visibly see it, they could hear it.

And they certainly heard the high-pitched insect screech of frustration.

It…was after them, wasn’t it?

“You all right?” Zayne asked him, slightly breathless.

“Y-yeah,” Eishirou answered as he stayed curled close to him. “It’s incredibly fast.”

“Yeah. Too fast and big to turn corners,” Zayne muttered with a half smirk of satisfaction. “Where are we?”

Eishirou glanced down at his tablet. “Ah, a few yards away from the expedition site!”

Better yet, the ShadowDweller had moved away from the site, too.

“That means they’ve heard all the commotion as well,” Zayne commented as he stood up straight, keeping a firm hold on Eishirou in his arms. “Point the way.”

“Head straight up this path we’re on now.”

“Got it.”

Without another word, Zayne turned and took to the air once more. They were drawing close to the expedition site now. Only a few more yards.

A loud ping from his tablet caused Eishirou to look down at in with trepidation. It couldn’t take sharp corners, but it could move in a circle rather easily. “It’s coming again.”

Zayne tightened his jaw and his eyes hardened. “You can see the expedition site?”

“Yeah.”

Zayne’s gaze was firm, serious, and stoic as he stared forward, ignoring all that noise of destruction behind them. “…Good. If it all turns to shit, I want you to run and don’t look back.”

Eishirou snapped his head up to stared wide-eyed at the Elite. An unfamiliar feeling of fear appeared in the centre of his chest, momentarily leaving him breathless.

He…he was serious.

No, he couldn’t let him…

“Zayne!”

That was Ernesta’s voice!

Zayne immediately recognised it, too. There was a flicker of relief in his gaze before he pressed his lips tightly together. “Hold on.”

Much like he had done just moments ago, Zayne made a sharp turn and darted into an opening with the greenery. As they burst forth through the shrubbery, they found themselves in the middle of a clearing that was lit by a hastily built high-powered lamp. And by the mana wings of two members of Elite Team 3.

Eishirou had never felt such relief.

“Get ready!” Zayne yelled at them. “It’s a big bastard!”

Ernesta and Tatsu darted forward, allowing for Zayne to shoot past them. “Where is it?”

Zayne skidded across the ground in order to stop, his grip around Eishirou never faltering for even a second. “Right behind us.”

Ernesta abruptly revealed her mana holster and readied it in a defensive stance. Her posture was ridged, but ready. Back straight, head high. No fear. Completely ready for whatever was to come.

“Get Eishirou to safety,” Ernesta ordered coolly. “Tatsu, draw it into the clearing.”

“No need,” Tatsu was equally calm and unfaltering. “It’s coming on its own accord.”

“So, it’s after Zayne and Eishirou, then?”

“More likely than not.”

Why was it after them, though? Was it because they intruded into its territory? Or was it because of something else?

“Eishirou!”

As Jacob rushed over to them, Zayne finally placed Eishirou back onto his feet. Though he soon grabbed him by the upper arms and pulled him toward him. “Now, go hide. And remember what I said.”

B-but…how could he turn his back on him and run? Just leave him like that?

Before Eishirou could form a response, Zayne released his hold on him and Jacob snatched him up into his arms to hug him desperately. He numbly replied to Jacob’s questions, watching from the corner of his eye as Zayne walked over to join Ernesta and Tatsu.

“This ShadowDweller?” Ernesta asked.

“Encountered it in the underground mine,” Zayne replied calmly. “It’s incredibly fast; on a straight protectory. It can’t handle sharp corners.”

“Hm. You’ll have to tell us everything that occurred when we return to the academy,” Ernesta commented in a surprisingly easy-going manner.

Zayne didn’t have a chance to respond. From the dark and dense forest, the ShadowDweller appeared. It burst forth in a shower of tree limbs and a flurry of leaves. It thundered into the clearing, though following the outer edges.

It circled its entire body around the clearing. Circling them. Penning them in.

With the canopy above them, the ShadowDweller raised only a fraction of its upper body up of the ground. Four pincers framed a circular mouth that was lined with sharp, surprisingly white teeth. Teeth that seemed to glint somehow, despite the dimming light.

“We’re surrounded,” Tatsu informed everyone in an all too nonchalant manner.

“That’s fine,” Ernesta unexpectedly replied. “We just need to take off its head.”

“Finally,” Zayne muttered as he readied his own weapons. “Time to beat the crap out of this guy.”

There was nothing for Eishirou to do, but allow Jacob to wrap his arms around protectively as they hunkered down within the clearing.

And…wait to see what would happen.

#scifi fantasy #young adult #original fiction #adventure #suspense #mystery #treasure hunt #Relic Keepers Awakening of the Red Lily

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killfaeh · 3 years

Photo

Back to childhood with AppleWorks

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to tell you about a very old software that kept me busy for many, many hours during my teenage years and that I've had the pleasure of rediscovering these days. Apple fans will have glitter of nostalgia in their eyes, others will have the opportunity to discover a beautiful tool that has not forgotten to be compatible with Windows. It is AppleWorks! AppleWorks was an office suite, installed on all Apple computers of the time, which, in addition to the classic word processor, spreadsheet and Power Point presentation, also offered a vector drawing tool and a bitmap drawing tool. It was my first experience in digital drawing and photo manipulation and with a bit of inventiveness, I was able to get some amazing things out of it. Behind its apparent simplicity, this little soft hides an unsuspected power. Let's go for a little trip back in time!

Small overview

The painting module

Gallery of illustrations

Install AppleWorks (Yes! It still works! )

Small overview

AppleWorks is 6 softwares grouped into one. When you launch it, it offers you the possibility to create 6 types of documents: word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, bitmap drawing, vector drawing.

I quickly talk about Spreadsheet, Database and Presentation because I never used these modules. Anyway, know that with Spreadsheet you could make like with Excel, with Database, create databases and with Presentation, make like with Power Point. (You can click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

And here are, then, the 3 modules that I really used!

The word processor

I wrote all my comics scripts, presentations and internship reports there when I was at school, until my dad bought Microsoft Office. Hard to compete with the Word arts. 8D Except that Microsoft Office did not offer vector drawing software, nor bitmap drawing software. So it was not about to dethrone AppleWorks.

The vector drawing module

This module helped me a lot to make diagrams to integrate in the word processor, draw dungeon plans for our Donjons and Dragons sessions, make some logos or paste editable text on images like my comics pages. I particularly liked its ability to generate gradients that roughly matched the shape in which they were applied, and there are recent vector drawing technologies that still can't do that and that's a little bit annoying to me. And finally, here is the module where I really spent the most time!

The bitmap drawing module

Well... Some geometrical shapes, a pencil, a brush, a filling tool, an eraser... So far it doesn't look much different from Paint. Wait until you see what it is capable of. :p

The painting module (bitmap drawing)

To begin, AppleWorks 6 is not the first version of AppleWorks that I worked with and already at that time, I had my little habits and what a disappointment for me when I didn't find my favorite features !! Looking for a little bit it turned out that they were just a little hidden and just needed to be tidied up a bit. Because yes! This small software already had a customizable interface by drag and drop as on a modern Photoshop!

Now all is clear, we can get to the heart of the matter: drawing! :p I've already mentioned the toolbar on the side earlyer, which is already familiar to you if you've ever used Paint. Now, let's move on to the area just below: the palettes. AppleWorks offers a limited palette of colors.

You can combine the selected color with a pattern to apply. Some of them look like manga screentones.

Some fun colorful patterns are also available.

And finally a small palette of gradients is also available.

Well... A few funny patterns, some gradients. It's enough to have fun for 5 minutes, but nothing special. We will going not very far. That's where the real work begins. :p Do you remember? A few moments ago I added buttons in the horizontal bar at the top, including this one.

And this is what it opens!

A customization window! :D Not enough colors in the default palette? Never mind! You can create as many color palettes as you want.

Not enough patterns either in black and white or in color? You can create as many pattern palettes as you want!

The default gradients palettes is too poor? No problem! You can create as many gradient palettes as you want! And for the moment, I spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time on this section! You can make circular gradients.

Linear gradients.

And gradients that fit the shape in which you apply them. Well, it's far from perfect with concave shapes, but it already allows for interesting things.

And to give the coup de grace to Paint, with AppleWorks you could even create your own brushes! :p

There are even some effects available such as blurring.

This AppleWorks is a piece of cake in the belly! :D Now that we know about its possibilities, I propose to show you a small gallery of what I was able to do with this software from end of nineties to middle of 2000s. :D

Gallery of illustrations

Let's start with the very first drawing I made with AppleWorks in 1998. We didn't have a scanner at the time, so I had to do it entirely with the mouse. It was also a time when I didn't have much notion of saving the original files and I considered that as soon as I had printed the drawing, it was no longer worth keeping it on the computer to save space (the hard drive was 4 GB). So this is a scan of the printed version you see here. x)

A good old Darth Vader! (1998)

Well, making a drawing from A to Z entirely with the mouse was laborious, so I also used AppleWorks to create backgrounds and print them. Then I would do my drawing by hand and cut it out and paste it onto the printed background. I was able to make interesting effects by understanding the limitations of the software and exploiting them. By understanding that gradients were composed of a series of solid color bands, I could make focus line effects by filling them with the filling tool with a different patterns or gradients.

This posing remind some Dragon Ball character (Between 1998 and 2000)

It is also with AppleWorks that I made my first attempts at photo manipulation. I used photos from an encyclopedia we had on CD-ROM and manipulate them by tinkering them and copying and pasting small pieces here and there. Then I printed my montages and paste them onto the comics pages.

My montages were mainly used for space scenery. (1999 - 2000 in collaboration with my sister)

This software really pushed me to be creative to get what I wanted out of it. I had even managed the tour de force of pasting a white lineart over a photo.

(2000 - 2001)

In the absence of layers, I had to work on 2 files in parallel and with the lasso select tool. And then one day, our first scanner finally arrived home! There the serious things could begin! I was able to stop trying to make drawings with the mouse and use AppleWorks to put in color drawings made with the traditional way. So I was able to go further from the end of nineties. It obviously started with Saint Seiya. x) (You can always click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

I loved the Aquarius saint. He was my favorite character from Saint Seiya. ^^ (2000 - 2001, this way)

At the beginning I was just doing solid colors, but as I experimented with the features and learned how to combine them, I ended up getting more and more advanced renderings.

Aoshi Shinomori from Kenshin and Ashram from Record of Lodoss War. These two were also my favorites characters at one time. (Between 2004 and 2006)

If you have enlarged the images you must have noticed that the line is particularly crenellated. There was no antialiasing, no layer system with opacity levels, no tolerance threshold for the filling tool. So it had to be black, or white, but not in between. As a result, AppleWorks was not really adapted to work on drawings with small details, hatching or heavily detailled backgrounds...

I tried anyway. :p These last 4 examples I think I made them between 2004 and 2006. The comics pages come from the first version of the Nécrotech project which is currently in a dormant state (but which I intend to resume one day). You'll notice on the first image of the last page some effects whose style stands out a bit from the rest. It's normal, I made them in another old painting software, Art Dabbler, but this is another story. :p In 2007, I got tired of suffering, I started to use The Gimp, in 2008 I bought my first graphics tablet, in 2009 I embarked on the Photoshop adventure and you know the rest: I sold my soul to Promarkers and Clip Studio Paint. And then there are days like that, we fall back into childhood. (Click on the image to see it at full size and distinguish the pixel patterns. I know, I repeat myself, but the devil is in the details. :p )

Last week, I decided to make a theme of the Drink'N'Draw from A to Z with AppleWorks to see what I could get out of it with 15 more years of experience in drawing and illustration. 8D With some tips you can get a pretty amazing result! I am happy with the result, especially the colors. It wasn't done without pain. The feature I wanted to take full advantage of (customizing color patterns) is buggy on the Windows version of the software, so I had to set up a Mac OS X Snow Leopard virtual machine to be able to do the finishing touches. What an adventure! In any case, AppleWorks is always well adapted to make pixel art and this experience has allowed me to learn new things applicable in recent and professional softwares. I had never really tried pixel art, which I love, by apprehension of the execution time. I think I found the trigger to get serious about it. I will explore it further. :D Well, well, well! But in fact, calculating gradient patterns for pixel art with shaders shouldn't be complicated. I think I will add such an effect in Péguy ! :D

Install AppleWorks

You've read it right! You can still install and use AppleWorks in 2021! :D

Windows

I did the test with Windows 8.1 on my Cintiq Companion tablet from Wacom, and in the comments it seems that it also works very well on Windows 10. To do this you will first install the latest version of QuickTime 7 which you can find on this page. You double click on the installer and you do next, next, next... Even when you are asked if you have a product key. It is not mandatory and useless for our needs. Then you go to this page and download the first file. You unzip the file and double click on the installer, then same procedure as before: next, next, next... You can do retro digital painting now! :D

Mac OS X

Apple computers have changed so much in 20 years that it is now impossible or at least very complicated to run the original programs on today's machines. The manipulation therefore consists in using the Windows version with the Wine emulator. If I had no problem with the procedure, it may seem a bit complicated for non-technical profiles so I simply propose you to download the final application I created myself via this link on Google Drive. You just have to download it, unzip it (with a double click) and launch it. If you're a computer geek and want to get a version of AppleWorks without the color pattern bug, you can get the .dmg here and install it in a Snow Leopard virtual machine.

Be reasonable about the size of your files. This is an old software that will have trouble supporting surfaces exceeding 2000px by 2000px. There is a way to cheat a bit, it is by creating a vector drawing file and creating a bitmap drawing surface inside.

That's all for that nostalgic moment. I think I will come back with some illustrations made with AppleWorks in the future. :D Have a nice day and see you soon! Suisei

P.S. If you want miss no news and if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the newsletter here : https://www.suiseipark.com/User/SubscribeNewsletter/language/english/

Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/News/Entry/id/308/

#illustrations #AppleWorks #digital art #retro digital art

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nipponnomad · 7 years

Text

Translation: ONE-Sensei Young Sunday Interview :D

youtube

I did my best to summarize this hour-long interview with ONE-sensei, uploaded to YouTube by Young Sunday in March and uploaded to Tumblr by the lovely and talented @one-blog last week. Please note, while my Japanese is decently high-level, I typically translate written Japanese rather than spoken Japanese (which, by its very nature, is harder to translate), so there might be mistakes here or there. That said, I believe I captured the general gist of things. If you're fluent in Japanese and want to do a more comprehensive translation in the future, please feel free!

EDIT: Here are some more detailed translations of selected parts of the interview, based on Japanese transcripts that @isasm found. :)

ONE-SENSEI: YOUNG SUNDAY INTERVIEW

Things to note:

-I mostly focused on what ONE said, as the hosts talked a lot and tended to get off on tangents.

-ONE comes across quite shy in this interview, especially in comparison to the super-chatty hosts. There are times when the hosts start to ask him a question and he doesn't seem to know what to say. There are also a few times where it looks like ONE is honest-to-god dissociating. That said, it's a good interview that includes some pretty insightful commentary.

-ONE is forced to sit in the creakiest wooden chair known to man.

-Maybe this is common knowledge, but is ONE married? You can see what looks like a wedding ring in a lot of shots.

-Instead of “ONE-sensei,” the hosts refer to ONE as “ONE-kun” throughout. I'm not sure why. It's kind of cute though.

The Interview: ONE's Life Story

The hosts begin with small talk, chatting about a new album they've listened to, and introducing ONE-sensei and his work in general terms. ONE doesn't actually show up until about nine and a half minutes in. The hosts ask if he's seen their show before and he says he has, that he watched it after he was invited to appear on it. The hosts seem quite pleased and amused about that.

ONE is asked what sorts of activities he did in middle school and high school. He responds that he did tennis in middle school, but he wasn't at a super high level. Because ONE comes across pretty shy and self-effacing, the hosts joke that they can now understand where Mob Psycho came from. They then announce that they're going to do an abbreviated life history for ONE, who says he's nervous.

ONE says he was born on October 29th, 1986, and is a Scorpio. His birthday is next week or the week after next (from when this interview was filmed). The hosts remark on how he's relatively young.

ONE says he was born in Niigata but raised in Saitama Prefecture, where he's lived for 22 or 23 years. His hometown is near Kounosu (wherever that is). He specifies that his town shares a DMV with Kounosu, which is such a charmingly mundane detail. :P

The hosts ask what kind of kid he was. He says he was a normal kid, but “low tension” (i.e. low energy, quiet, laid back). The hosts say that that explains why his characters tend to be low tension as well. ONE agrees that might be the case. He says there are times when he gets more energetic, and the hosts tease him, implying that now is certainly not one of those times. ONE says he did get really energetic when the One Punch Man anime was announced.

How ONE Started Drawing Manga

The hosts ask how he felt when the One Punch Man anime was announced, and ONE says it was really awesome. The hosts remark that One Punch Man reminds them of American comics and is like a “Japanese Marvel.” ONE agrees that he has a similar image of One Punch Man and has always found its advent a little mysterious—like he doesn't quite know where it came from. ONE states that it's now been about three or four years since One Punch Man debuted in Ura Sunday and Shonen Jump.

ONE says that he started drawing manga in elementary school and can't remember exactly how he got started. He says he remembers reading Crayon Shin-chan on the shinkansen and stuff and trying to draw it (he specifies that he was very slow at drawing at the time). He says that Crayon Shin-Chan was an early influence on him, which the hosts find unusual.

The hosts ask about his upbringing and whether or not his parents were strict. It seems his family was a bit strict and he didn't show them his manga growing up—because he was embarrassed, but also because he expected he would be scolded for drawing manga instead of studying. So basically, he hid his manga hobby until he got to college. The hosts compare him to Kamuro from Mob Psycho, presumably because of the strict family.

The hosts ask if ONE ever submitted one of his comics for publication. ONE says he did submit to Shonen Jump when he was a first-year college student, but that it didn't go well because “it wasn't an interesting story.” He says the guy who reviewed his manga at Shonen Jump went through it really fast with a totally blank face and that ONE was sent packing pretty quickly.

Because the submission didn't go well, ONE started putting his comics on his personal blog. At the time, it was really hard to read the comic on your phone because you could basically only see one panel at a time and you had to go through all fifteen pages that way. Eventually, he started drawing manga on his computer and uploading it from there. He got really into the “pasokon manga” culture and bought himself a drawing tablet and downloaded Comic Studio.

He began uploading his work to a pasokon manga site where all the users were beginners or semi-professional. As far as I can tell, the site was called NEETsha, short for “NEET Shakai” or “NEET Society.” (Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that one.) This was when he started drawing One Punch Man.

About One Punch Man

The hosts ask where the name One Punch Man (“Wanpanman”) came from. One host points out that it obviously sounds like Anpanman. Obviously it also sounds like One Piece (“Wanpiisu”), which is a sales juggernaut in Japan. ONE points out that actually “Wanpanman” outsells “Wanpiisu” overseas.

They ask what kind of character ONE was aiming for when he created Saitama. ONE says he always loved shonen manga and read a lot of it, and he thought about the final episode/battle, when the character was at their greatest strength. Basically, he thought it would be funny to start with a character who was already at the peak of their power and go from there, watching each successive villain get taken out in one hit.

Within the world of One Punch Man, the hosts note, Saitama is basically a regular person, he's laid back and flexible and his main concern is everyday stuff like going to special sales. They also note that Mob is similar, being a quiet type of guy who keeps a low profile until his percentage starts going up.

The hosts ask if One Punch Man immediately became popular after ONE posted it to NEETsha. ONE says it was pretty soon afterward, and that he enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts and comments and encouragement.

At this point, the hosts realize the interview is half over and they've totally forgotten about the personal history thing.

About Mob Psycho 100

As the hosts see it, there are three major themes in ONE's work: 1) What is power? 2) What should be done with power? 3) What is our true power, and how are we supposed to live with that power? We don't typically see the characters longing for more power; instead, we're dropped into the middle of the story and watch what they do after they've already become powerful. This is evident in Mob Psycho 100.

The hosts ask if the Mob Psycho manga has changed from when ONE put it online to when it was released in print. ONE says it hasn't really changed but it was worse reading it online because it was so small and hard to read on a cell phone screen. The hosts also ask if ONE has had assistants helping him to edit and fix things up, but ONE says they weren't there in the beginning.

The hosts look at some of the pages from Mob Psycho and comment on the art. When they compliment ONE's use of lines for emphasis in one picture, ONE says, in a self-deprecating sort of way, that he just did it using a tool in Comic Studio. The hosts also remark on the way Reigen holds a phone in one panel (you probably know which one) and laugh a lot. However, following this seeming criticism, one of the hosts keeps calling the art in Mob Psycho “punk” or “hip hop.” I had a hard time figuring out what he meant by that, but I think he's calling it a sort of indie, outsider art. He goes on to say that it's not like how everyone else draws and isn't imitating the prevailing manga style.

The same host states that there are two kinds of mangaka: 1) the “cover band” type that imitates others without really thinking for themselves, and 2) the type that doesn't imitate others and thinks for themselves. For example, many “cover band” mangaka imitate the battle scenes in Dragonball, whereas the ones in Mob Psycho look—if anything—more like battles in Akira. The hosts ask ONE if he was inspired by Akira. ONE says he likes Akira but doesn't really answer one way or another.

The hosts have been talking a lot, so they interrupt themselves to ask if ONE wants to correct them on anything. ONE has just one thing he wants to say: when he was drawing the picture of Reigen holding the cell phone, surprisingly enough, he drew it while looking at his own hand. This comment gets big laughs.

Themes in ONE's Work

The hosts discuss the issue of “leveling up,” comparing it to “geemu nou” (“game brain,” a type of dementia allegedly caused by playing too many video games). In English academic discourse, we would probably call this “gameification.” Basically, people who play a lot of games—as well as the protagonists in a lot of shonen manga—become obsessed with “reaching the next level” and don't focus on anything else. The hosts ask ONE if there's some sort of lesson in his work about the dangers of this type of single-mindedness.

ONE says that he's noticed this tendency in shonen manga. By contrast, he discusses the series he was influenced by as a child, Crayon Shin-chan—specifically, the movie version of Crayon Shin-chan. As a series about a normal family, Crayon Shin-chan was generally fairly peaceful and funny. However, in the movie, things got kind of serious. ONE believes that, when things get serious in a gag series, they hit extra hard.

He compares this to One Punch Man. Even though it's a gag manga, the world itself is pretty serious, with people being killed by monsters all the time and so on. Existence itself is like a gag in the world of One Punch Man, which ONE finds interesting.

Finally, the hosts show pages from the fight between the esper kids and Claw's 7th Division. They discuss the part where Mob very calmly and directly tells Gas Mask Ojiichan: “Having psychic powers won't make you popular.” Gas Mask Ojiichan then gets upset and yells: “EVEN SO, I SHOULD BE TREATED SPECIAL!” So basically, Claw is full of children who never managed to mature into adults and don't want to become “commoners.”

ONE then talks about “commoners,” average people who get up in the morning, get on the train to go to work, and do their best day after day. ONE thinks that this in itself—being a member of society—is difficult in its own way, and that's what Saitama and Mob are trying to do.

I feel like that's a really lovely way to end the interview. Sadly, they never finish the personal history and we never find out what ONE's favorite food, color, movie, manga, and type of woman are. :(

#ONE #one-sensei #one-blog #one punch man #mob psycho 100 #opm #mp100 #translation #interview

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