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haute-pockette · 2 years

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My observations and head canons about fighting styles in Rise

Splinter

As per Hamato tradition he learned Karate and Kobudo from his grandfather. Likely a more hard striking style since the purpose of learning was to potentially take down the Shredder demon.

He likely learned to use Nunchaku first as that’s pretty common, using them helps develop a better posture in fighting as well as speed in striking. But my guess is Sho likely focused on more lethal weapons (Splinter looked perfectly comfortable with a pair of axes when fighting Draxum to save his sons)

When he left though I have a feeling Splinter explored different martial arts as self-expression. He picked up Aikido as it’s a softer fighting style.

In a lot of his fight scenes Splinter almost never throws a punch (he might in one of the faster frames but a strike with his hands shown on screen is almost never done). Instead he keeps his hands occupied with weapons or blocking opponents.

That or he tends throw his opponents and use their momentum against them. He even does it to the giant Yokai monsters in the battle nexus. Hence Aikido.

Most of his strikes are kicks (or tail whips as Splinter but that doesn’t count). They are often high or done with a jump or a spin. I’m guessing he picked up Taekwondo as well.

Movies don’t want the same throws over and over, they want cool strikes and some violence. So he picked up Taekwondo to do movies cause a part of him didn’t want to touch Karate again.

Taekwondo is similar to Karate in that it’s a hard striking style, only it has more kicks involved. So he took to it pretty easily.

Besides I personally think it’s a more visually interesting fighting style than Karate, so that’s what he mainly used for his films.

His style quickly turned into a mix of the two. Throws and grapples to keep his opponent off balance with kicks and strikes to knock them down for the count.

Donatello

He adopted the kick and throw style of his father from copying Lou Jitsu movies just as his brothers did.

He tends to prefer the kicks since being in close-quarters combat puts him at a disadvantage weapon-wise.

Half the time his throws are not to take down his opponent but distance them from him.

Donnie was always nitpicked over getting the techniques right. He’d keep practicing until he could pull off a move effortlessly both with empty-handed moves and with his bo.

Mainly because he knew he wasn’t as strong as Raph or as quick as Leo and Mikey, so he worked to have the most accurate technique.

He was bummed about having the bo at first when they were little. But as he learned to work with it he realized that it can be dangerous and powerful. The weapon’s momentum adds to the strength of the strike so it makes his attacks stronger.

Plus it’s length allowed him to fight with some distance and that gave him more confidence in fights.

Before he made his tech bo he was always looking to diversify and expand his skill to have as many advantages as possible. He’d practice some Kungfu techniques he picked up from online. While he’s no expert in this style, Donnie can still use them in a pinch.

He dropped it when he made his tech bo though because the style works better with longer and more flexible staffs than titanium could offer.

Slowly picking it up again after getting his Ninpo and working on techniques for the various weapons he can change his bo into with the mystic energy.

Leonardo

Lou Jitsu style fighter all the way.

Prefers kicks over throws cause it looks cooler and he’s all about that aesthetic. He pulls all the stunt attacks from the movies.

He also started copying Capoeira because it’s cool af and bad ass.

He doesn’t really punch cause his hands are occupied by swords (or sword if it’s during the show cause ODACHI ARE HUGE, seriously boy be waving that thing around with one hand??????).

He's only ever made lethal strikes against origami ninjas, Shredder, the Kraang, and Warren Stone.

He’s very precise about taking out enemies without killing any other time. Splinter drilled into his mind when he was little that he was not meant to be a killer. That they are more than just fighters.

If he is weaponless he goes for quick takedowns.

He prefers not to be weaponless though, and is always the first to grab improvised weapons.

While he tends to stick to swords and sword-style fighting, Leo is one of the best at picking up different weapons. Kama, Staves, Tanto, Tanbo, Nunchaku, Tonfa, really anything he can dual wield he tends to favor.

When he got his Ninpo he practiced throwing weapons more. He’d practice with Shuriken then move onto his Katana. He practiced with his brothers present as well, they practiced catching so he could switch places with them in the heat of battle like he did with Raph during the finale fight.

Michelangelo

Being smaller than almost every opponent, he favors throws to keep them off balance.

He’s a fast striker, preferring to go in to hit then get some distance before any retaliation.

He also incorporates flips and gymnastics so he can maneuver around his opponent and strike in even small openings.

His kicks often come from above, using the momentum of a flip to add power to his strike.

He’s picked up some other martial arts styles, practicing some Kungfu with Donnie, they both do a lot of more Northern styles together.

He also likes to practice Capoeira with Leo too.

He’s damn fast with chain weapons. Two section Nunchaku, three section Nunchaku, Kusari-fundo, Chigiriki, Kusari-gama, rope-dart. If it’s tethered he can wield it. (Also the most accurate at firing a grappling hook, like Leo and Raph can’t even get their hooks to catch on something half the time)

He’s pretty decent with a bo too, but he prefers the movement chained weapons allow.

Is also the most accurate with thrown weapons like Kunai and Shuriken. The boy just has the best sense of spacial awareness out of all of them really. He kind of developed it as not to hit himself with his weapon and it only kept expanding from there.

Raphael

With his strength and size he is the most comfortable fighting without weapons. Kicks and throws can send baddies through walls.

Half his throws are inspired by wrestling, the big nerd.

He's the most comfortable using his fists since the Tonfa and Sai are just extensions of one’s strikes. Without them his style reflects Shotokan Karate despite never having been trained in it by Splinter.

He kind of misses his Tonfa cause he’s not always comfortable being able to stab with the Sai. He’ll really only go full strength against big bads like Shredder, Kraang, and Big Mama (who he knows won’t hold back).

He even pulls his punches on Origami Ninjas cause he feels bad and doesn’t want to really hurt Buddy’s brethren.

He knows how to handle other weapons, he just needs time to adjust and settle in to handling them before he’s decent. Surprisingly good with Nunchaku, finds them similar to Tonfa but with more extension and mobility.

He just isn’t as precise in his attacks as the others. His technique lacks but he makes up for it in strength and ferocity.

Worst aim of the bunch when it comes to projectiles. He leaves the Shuriken throwing to his brothers.

#rottmnt #headcanons #rottmnt splinter #Lou Jitsu #Donatello #Leonardo #Michelangelo #Raphael #Fighting #Martial arts #tmnt

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awigglycultist · 2 years

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Okay now that several ppl have helped and rbed my post, here's a longer list of some content/trigger warnings in NMT2 (I tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible but there are some small spoilers. If you want to know anything more about any of these feel free to dm me. Also feel free to add on more if anyone has anything else that comes to mind)

Honey Queen

- Lots of Death all around, but especially durning the honey queen pageant, tho there's other points too (34:00 - 35:00 tho we don't see the actual death) (1:13:10 - 1:13:39) (1:14:50 - 1:50:40) (1:16:03 - 1:16:50) (1:25:00 - 1:25:28)

- Durning the song at the very beginning, Honey Queen, there's lots of clips of honeycomb (3:20 - 5:001 but honeycomb doesn't show up immediately)

- There's also lots of clips of bees in the same song (same as above)

- Zoey's grandma is homophobic (she never says anything particularly horrible, also she's a very minor character, but still) (23:50 - 25:09)

- Another character outs someone (23:50 - 25:09)

- A huge fight scene (1:10:30 - 1:16:50)

- There’s a not too graphic depiction of hanging, it happens when Linda and Zoey are fighting backstage on the catwalk (1:14:50 - 1:15:40)

- I'm really unsure how to explain this one but a very gross and graphic description of pig corpses magically coming together to form something else (1:24:16 - 1:24:43)

- At the end, there's a really close up shot of a mouth (think like the one in the them but like. Idk it was just grosser/scarier) (1:24:40 - 1:25:18)

- There's flashing durning the Nibbly Ditty (1:26:36 - 1:26:48)

Perky's Buds

- Gun violence (4:19 - 4:57) (51:34 - 52:54)

- Animal violence (birds spefically), both at beginning and the end (4:19 - 4:57) (52:54 - 53:19)

- Animal death (birds spefically) at the end (52:54 - 53:19)

- 4 people die, it's all in one scene when the nighthawks start attacking (24:35 - 25:37)

- Graphic vomiting scene when Ezekiel make Ziggs and Emma be feed like birds (they don't show vomit but the nosies and descriptions are very gross and graphic) (33:33 - 34:44)

Abstinence Camp

- There's lots of blood splatters on the screen durning Axe Man , they're pretty fake looking, it's just a red overlay in splatter patterns but it may still be something that bothers you (song is 58:55 - 1:02:33)

- You can see an axe a lot throughout Axe Man (same as above)

- Durning Axeman there's a bit with an axe holding a pair of underwear with a ton of blood covering it (59:55 - 59:59)

- Flashing images durning Axe Man (1:01:10 - 1:01:15) (1:01:42 - 1:01:48)

- You can hear someone vomiting for a little bit at the beginning of Abstinence Camp, starts as soon as The Axe Man song ends (1:02:34 - 1:02:39)

- Lots of death of all around 1:28:43 - 1:29:35) (1:42:48 - 1:43:19) (2:00:09 - 2:00:36) (2:01:00 - 2:01:18)

- Gross description of someone after they've died (1:29:55 - 1:30:10)

- several mentions of sex and masturbation. But the thing I can really pin point is once someone does masturbate and it's described (1:26:30 - 1:27:32)

Daddy

- A dog dies, of natural causes. When Frank goes home from the mall and then goes to the vet. (9:49 - 10:42)

- There's 4 deaths from when Shelia goes to the honey festival and forward for the rest of the ep. (51:51 - 52:28 this one is off screen but this is the moment we find out they're dead) (53:43 - 54:07)(57:33 - 58:04) (1:04:25 - 1:04:55)

Gun Violence (53:43 - 54:07)

Killer Track

- The song Killer Track is played when Kale and Miss Holloway are in the van (don't worry about when Rose is the van) it also has lost of flashing a loud nosies (1:26:36 - 1:28:19)

- There's a fake out death, it's a huge spoiler so dm for more info (1:37:30 - 1:38:23 this is when it happens but it's also talked about for a while after lmk if you want that too)

- Someone dies after the song Runaway With Me (2:01:45 - 2:02:12)

Yellow Jacket

- At the beginning when Hannah is in shop class, blood spatter across the screen throughout her vision (8:59 - 9:10) (9:39 - 9:49) (10:23-10:25 there's a sound for this one too, idk how exactly to describe it except well it kinda sounds like a finger getting cut off)

- Description of Hannah's accident (10:25 - 10:30)

- When Webby first appears there's a clip of a small spider (17:32 - 17:37)

- There's a bit where blue goo is puked into someone's mouth, can't get around this without a bit of more spoilering too so dm if you want to know when it happens (1:3544 - 1:35:58)

-Death, it's not an actual human that dies if that matters to you (1:41:13 - 1:41:27)

#starkid #hatchetfield #nightmare time #for later

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muzzzzle · 6 months

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That's what being an ex-Auror means

Ooooh how I was waiting to post these ones 👺 Can’t stop thanking marvelous @phinik for having such heartbreaking visuals 💔💔💔

And just so it happens — these screens fit perfectly with yet another piece from Volatile Times fic 🥰 Here’s another extract from the latest chapter, enjoy!

Nancy and Sebastian glanced around and followed him without a moment's hesitation. The lights were starting to go on in the windows as the people of Hogsmeade peered sleepily out of their dwellings, trying to figure out what was happening. Some had already run out into the street, in their nightgowns and wands at the ready.

Several huge trolls — much bigger than the one Montgomery and Sallow had dealt with at the beginning of the school year — were swinging their batons around indiscriminately, turning the main square and the benches lining it into a battle arena of stones. Nancy noticed immediately that they were wearing goblin silver armour and their eyes were burning a furious red. She looked to the epicentre of the mayhem, where rare flashes caught her eye in the dust, and froze as Sharp spun his wand masterfully, dodging attacks and putting up sparking shields, while still casting spells. He used Diffindo to slice the tendons of one of the trolls that were not covered by his armour, causing it to fall to the ground, hitting the one next to it. Without waiting for the creatures to regain their senses, he threw some sort of vial at them, which, smashing against the head of the one lying on top of another, turned it almost instantly into pure stone, cracking seconds later. The other three, thinking slowly, turned towards him and tried to swat him with their batons, but the professor, not even moving from his position, put up a block of such power that their batons flew right back into their mangled faces, sending them into a temporary knockout.

Nancy couldn't take her eyes off him, his wand was shooting lightning bolts, he was electrified, his every movement was measured and precise, not a single swing was wasted. His blacker-than-night hair was spread across his fully focused face, and she thought for a moment that he smirked, knocking over one of the trolls behind him without even looking at him. Montgomery stared at him avidly, realising how foolish she was to think she knew how to fight. Her use of ancient magic seemed to her like a game for little ones who weren't allowed to hold the real thing, lest they break it. Three of the five trolls had already been out — and Sharp hadn't hit a single building in the battle perimeter in doing so — that's what being an ex-Auror meant. If that's what he was like with the injury, what could’ve he been capable of without it?

The fourth troll, whose neck was ringed by a writhing and hissing snake, tried in vain to tear it apart as smaller figures shrouded in a red-and-black flare began to encircle the square. Montgomery shrieked as one of them lunged a double-edged axe in her direction, grazing her already sore cheek, and quickly dispatched it with the help of Dissendo's shockwave. The goblins surprisingly didn't pay that much attention to her and Sebastian, clamping down on Sharp in an increasingly tight ring. He was still managing to make gaps in their attack, forcing the stocky figures to smack into the walls and slide down, but quantity prevailed over quality, and Nancy, rushing to his aid, tried to take them down one by one, but behind the dense wall of shining armour she could barely see him.

“Professor!” she shouted desperately as he disappeared from her sight.

For a moment she thought she intercepted his gaze amidst a pile of dark metal, then she heard a shriek. The goblins cheered, raising up their weapons.

It was only a second. Her eyes widened, heart skipped a beat. Nancy, enraged, burst into a wild cry, wand in her hand moving as if on its own, and Ranrok's followers flew in a whirlpool of silvery-blue discharges, clearing her path to Sharp, who was lying on the ground. A goblin axe was lodged quite deeply in his shoulder, his entire shirt stained a brilliant scarlet, Aesop tried to pull himself up, but the loss of blood was taking its toll very quickly - his eyes were already unfocused, wandering confusedly over her face.

#aesop sharp #professor sharp #aesop sharp x mc #volatile times fanfic #hogwarts legacy screenshots #nancy montgomery

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captain-grammar · 1 year

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Netflix cancelling a BUNCH of their shows featuring diverse casts and WLW characters reminded me of a rant I had earlier in the year on Twitter with regards to The Old Guard but didn't share here. So, here it is.

I've seen tweet after tweet on yonder Twitter from people who were unaware that there's going to be a sequel to The Old Guard so if you'll indulge me, I'm about to don a tin-foil hat and speculate wildly as to why it's slipping in under the radar and what might be the reasons for that.

Within the first week if The Old Guard being released in July 2020, it was already in the top 10 most streamed movies on the platform at reached around 72 million households in a month. Incredible viewing figures. It was well-reviewed by critics and a runaway smash hit with viewers - "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes - and gained an active, passionate fanbase online the instant it was released (hello, welcome to Tumblr) due in part to the fresh take the movie had on the dull, formulaic action-movie genre.

Netflix had momentum. They had the stats to work with and a fanbase to back them up. They could have announced their intention to make a sequel back when interest was fresh (as they did with the likes of The Gray Man) and gotten everyone excited while it was being talked about. Because it was being talked about. A sequel was in the works fairly early on with the cast and crew pretty much confirming as much on social media. But in this fast-paced, binge-consume world, Netflix seemed to wait until all the hype had died down before making it official.

WHY? Why take a big-hitting, genre-bending, record-smashing movie that you KNEW had proven to be a success and KNEW had a follow-up in the pipeline and let it die? A hugely sceptical part of me has a theory that it was down to just how genre-bending it was.

From my experience online, the vast majority of those who enjoyed it reflect the characters of the movie and the team behind it - diverse, LGBTQ+ individuals who rarely see themselves on screen without it feeling like a kind of tokenism. The movie was directed by the amazing Gina Prince-Bythewood - a black woman. The cast was lead by two strong females who were neither sexualised or portrayed as damsels in distress. Two of the men were unashamedly in love with each other. All of the main male cast were allowed to be emotional and even cry. In the action genre, these things are all but unheard of. Male characters are rarely given emotional complexity beyond revenge and women are usually relegated to the role of side-kick, love interest or doe-eyed ingenue learning from the "best".

Because the genre tends to lean towards a stereotypical male audience.

A part of me wonders whether that's why Netflix didn't give it much promo and kudos and have let the pot come off the boil in terms of hyping The Old Guard's return. The service has a history of platforming voices that are anti-LGBTQ and cutting diversity within its ranks. And now they're at it again, axing a slew of shows after only one or two seasons that all seem to feature wlw relationships fairly prominently.

If you're not a straight, cis, white male then they're not interested in catering for you. If you're a minority, too bad. The fact that The Old Guard was a hit with the very communities they seem to be actively oppressing is a hurt that Netflix seemingly refuses to live with.

I'm just sick of "was the movie/show popular among straight white men?" being the metric against which a piece of media's success is measured. As if that demographic is the Holy Grail and if your fans aren't 28 year-old cis dudes, you've somehow failed.

I thank Netflix for bringing some truly great stories to life but at this point, I cannot trust them to keep them safe any more.

#the old guard #netflix #bry rants #like honestly kids #i went for it

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wanderingnork · 4 months

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Top Ten Horror Movies: 2023

Back at Halloween, I listed my top ten horror movies of all time. Now, I'm going to list the top ten just from this year. It's 10 out of 48. Not the quantitatively best movies, necessarily, but the ones that compelled me the most, that I enjoyed the most, that I remember the best. In ascending order:

Slotherhouse: A sorority girl adopts an illegally-acquired sloth in order to try to increase her popularity while she runs for sorority president. Things go spectacularly wrong when the sloth turns out to be...murderous.

I liked this movie for its sheer audacity. Slasher villain sloth? They committed to the bit! They made it a slasher! And the sloth was done with a puppet. A VERY GOOD PUPPET. Sloths already look like plush toys, so this wasn't a huge stretch. The puppet required five puppeteers to operate, had ten axes of movement in her adorable face, and a real voice actor handling her lines. Yes, LINES. The sloth noises are part of the script! Is it a great movie? No. But is it a joy to see an audacious, absurd, well-crafted labor of love on the silver screen? YES.

The Ruins: A group of foolish college students go to visit a forgotten Mayan pyramid. Very quickly, they find out why it was forgotten when the vines covering the pyramid turn out to be...murderous.

This movie is clever, bloody, and relentless. Whenever things went wrong, my stomach dropped even further. I was on the edge of my seat by the end. My ONE quibble: I think the alternate ending should have been the real ending, and I don't understand the rationale for why it wasn't. It's real. To me.

Southbound: A series of connected short horror stories that take place along the same stretch of road in the desert of Southern California. Each story flows into the next, with the final story circling back to the beginning of the movie.

A delightful anthology that felt more like it was a single movie, I really just enjoyed Southbound a lot. Each story has good horror in different ways. Some are psychological, some are body horror, some have monsters, but they all come together to tell a single tale. And what a chilling tale it is. Plus, I love getting to see the variety of ages and body types throughout the movie. This movie is populated by Real People and that's wonderful, especially for one that's so...dare I say, liminal in nature.

Five Nights at Freddy's: A young man in dire need of money to care for his younger sister takes a job as a security guard at an abandoned pizzeria. He thinks it's an easy job, until the animatronics that used to entertain children turn out to be...you guessed it, murderous!

This one I loved largely for the animatronics. The work put in to make those iconic haunted robots weighty and real is staggering. They exist! Actors in suits, puppets, full moving animatronics...it's beautiful. Just beautiful. The movie itself is a great adaptation, but we're all really there for Freddy and his friends. I'm so excited I finally got to meet them on the big screen.

Incantation: A woman asks viewers to repeat an incantation to help her ailing daughter as the film opens. We follow the story of mother and daughter from the mother's ill-starred exploration of a taboo ritual in rural Taiwan to the climax of the movie, which has to be seen to be believed.

Contains the scariest monster I saw this year, full stop. Also had to peel myself off the ceiling when it was over from the tension. And then listen to really loud music to get that fucking incantation out of my head.

Skinamarink: Two children awaken to find that their father is missing, and so are all the doors and windows of their house.

This is a divisive one. People either love it or they hate it, and even people who love it can see why others don't. It really does contain a lot of still shots of doors and ceilings at weird angles. But...something about this got to me. To the child who used to have night terrors. To the part of me that still doesn't like doorframes full of darkness. This movie will live with me for a long time.

Splinter: A troubled couple gets carjacked by an escaped convict and his girlfriend. When they stop at a gas station, the four of them have to work together to survive as a monster hunts them down.

This was a MARVELOUS monster movie. I loved the splinter beast. I loved the disembodied crawling hand. But more importantly, I really loved that escaped convict character up there. He turned out to be the true hero of the story and I cried for him. It was unexpected, but I have to say out of all the characters I saw this year...he's #1.

Phase IV: A strange event results in ants becoming sentient. Two scientists go out to study them, and quickly get a lot more than they bargained for as the ants assert their dominion.

I would have dismissed this as a silly B-movie except for the ant actors. Yes, ACTORS. The sequences of the ants are shot using macrophotography, carefully cut so that ants seem to have personalities and goals. Their deaths are tragic. Their heroes are bold. I cared more about them than I did about the human protagonists! And it's all beautifully shot, too, with so much detail and care put into everything. It's a real tragedy that so many ants actually died during filming, though.

The Red Shoes: A ballerina takes on a challenging role in a ballet based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes. As she embraces her role, the lines between stage and reality become increasingly blurred.

A pretty standard but well-crafted and beautifully-costuemd tragedy, this stands out for the GLORIOUS ballet sequence. We get to see it performed in full, 15 minutes of dance, music, and art, including beautiful practical effects and painted sets that transport us directly into the fairy tale itself. You can watch it for free on YouTube here (and the full movie is available for free there, too, if you so choose). It's beautiful and haunting enough to be a horror short film on its own.

Martyrs: When a young woman seeks revenge on the people who kidnapped and tortured her as a child, nothing goes according to plan--and it's her best friend who will pay the ultimate price.

Unflinching, brutal, Martyrs brings us face to face with violence that isn't cinematic or interesting. This isn't Saw, where the appeal is in the clever traps and tension of escape. It's a story about inescapable violence enacted on an innocent person. I also think it's a story about...the Final Girl. The character, the young woman, the innocent victim, who takes on the monster so that the audience can experience catharsis and find themselves free of their pain for a while. Thanks to Anna's sacrifice in Martyrs, I experienced that kind of catharsis myself. And that's what makes it the best horror movie I saw this year: no other horror movie made me feel like this one did. No other horror movie changed me on a fundamental level like this one did.

(Interested in other horror recs? Check out the lists here.)

#nork rants #horror recs #the horror tag

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honeybeewhereartthee · 3 months

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Pink kkomas 165

Spoiler for my stories

"hello. Can I help you?" Purple smiled to his customer who's his having today, but internally he wonder if his having another troublemaker in his shop.

"I want hamburger." The customer ask.

"were not Wendy's..." The demon want to complain but then thought about it before he snap his hand and the front desk turn into a burger shop grill with full equipment and ingredient in the side. "But customer is a customer, what do you want for your burger?"

"ahm.... I want tuna one." The customer clap his hand in Glee as he decided his order. "Coming right up!" Purple nodded his head as the customer swing back and forth with humming tone. "Where is this place?" He wonder why he found himself in this place to begin with.

"ah? Your new here?" Purple expertly fried some burger and slice some tuna patty to the grill while looking up to his customer. "I should be dreaming right now I think..." The customer thought the moment earlier when he fall asleep with his friends and important person.

"Ohh. I guess there's cases of you sleeping travelling to this place. " Purple nodded in understanding. As he said that he place the burger in front of the customer. "How would you like to pay?"

"placing tabs under rogue credits." The customer says as he give a paper with a name of certain someone called 'mikejima' in it.

"I see." I wonder if this person is a weirdo or not. But customer is a customer. ' purple thought as he put tabs to the said name. His customer happily eat his burger.

...

In another place in the Crystalize multiverse

Mikejima saw a screen pop out in front of him as a dragon come running to mewl his head off.

[ Minus $$$ for Tuna burger

- Crazy boutique]

"huh?" He quickly shoot his gun to the head of his enemy before it can strick and drop kick the overlord that was throwing an axe to him but as he about to take care of the enemies coming from behind a gigantic chaos hummer axe slice the enemy into two.

"thanks."

"Mikejima shouldn't laze around stupid." His temporary partner Ai commented as he dust himself. "Sorry about that, someone put tabs under my name so suddenly." The other chuckle hopelessly.

"ehh... Turn off your notification tab to begin with, it's a distraction. I wanna finish this job and go back to that world so I can go do the task ask nicely by my flower~" ai at first is sassy and uncaring about the things about his partner before his all flower and heart when mention of you.

But his not that distracted to not able to see the enemy in 6 o'clock and thrown his huge axe to it and pulled it back with an invisible chain and catching it effortlessly.

"You bastard dare disturb my moment?" Ai is now trigger and out for blood, before long his already eliminating a whole path of distorted characters from a disconnected world they are task to go too.

"wow..." Mikejima cannot help but whistle and laugh before he follow along. Through he still wonder what's up with the sudden pop up of someone putting bills under his name. Even so it's just a burger.

#pink kkomas

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sang8262 · 9 months

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something clicked and i've been playing a lot better all of a sudden (climbing those ranks baybee), so it's a good time to rant and gush about what i love about JP in-game:

First, I'm just really having fun with the game lmao. I'm someone who'd force myself to learn the playstyle of the character I personally like, so it's quite fortunate that I do enjoy his zoning, and at times set play gameplan.

Obviously his design/ personality/ aesthetics are what got me into maining him in the first place, so that's not too surprising. This includes how his specials and animations parallel his characterization so well, such as him hiding his hand behind his back, or consistently using Psycho Powered moves with said hand, etc etc.

Specifically, I absolutely love the smaller details in how he holds his cane when he twirls it. His hands n all are animated so satisfyingly (the recovery frames on a lot of his moves showcase this well).

I believe the whole game is mo-capped, so I owe my life to everyone who made his beautiful kicking animations possible. 6HK where he balances on his cane for the donkey kick, absolutely amazing, leg so hot. And it's a godlike button I swear. Can antiair, cancels into specials, hits twice so it can break armor against some moves/ reacting with DI is a lot easier, and I think off DR it's a really good meaty too. Probably my favorite normal he has in general.

Idk why he has such a hurtbox on the 2nd part of this move where his crotch is. What are they implying with that. Hm.

Oh and shoutouts to 6MK as well, the overhead. It's such an elegant axe kick, and the arc it goes in is really satisfying. Also to j.LK. It's a cute looking kick and a fast overhead/ crossups. Look at him go.

Also also: 5HK. I don't need to explain.

Soeaking of very satisfying: his parry animations. I think the universal sfx they use for parry fits him real well, since he's using the cane to deflect and it would reasonably make such a sound. Looks particularly sick when parrying multi hit moves.

Specials wise, it's all the small motions he does and how he carries himself. Like the way he stands/ shifts his weight for the attacks are done soooo well. The way he spins for Stribog. The little foot tilt when sending out cmd grab ghost. Again all the hand animation, like the snapping on manually detonating Departure. How he waves away the remaining Psycho Power when Amnesia doesn't counter anything. The difference between gripping his hand to feint ghosts, versus sending them out with a flourish. I know this is almost his entire moveset but hey what can I say, they're all really great.

ONE THING tho, is that I kinda don't like his back throw animation. I get it's supposed to be based on bartitsu/ using the opponent's own weight against the cane to throw them, so I can appreciate the attentiom to realistic detail. But in practice, it's rather slow and looks like a huge fuss compared to how some other throws look.

This is made all the more noticeable when you consider his air throw, which is instant dopamine. Made all the better when you throw someone out of specials, or as a hard read. The way he slams them into the floor with a scoff is mwuah, perfect.

I love the frame they have on Supercombo lmao

Gameplay wise too, he really reflects so much of himself. Mentioned before but the hilarious intentionally unintentional teabagging from his 22 inputs, or how he's so often hated by fans for how he plays. Incites controversy indeed.

What inspired this whole rant is actually how insanely evil you feel for locking down the opponent full screen with projectiles. One aspect of it is against defensive or hesitant players, who'll let you get away with spamming full screen.

But the other, much cooler scenario, is shutting down every weasely attempt to close the distance. They can jump, shimmy, Drive Rush, or use specials to try and get in, but guessing right and countering everything is fun times. Sending them back to the other side of the screen despite all their efforts, and you can taste the salt through the screen.

It's also how he forces them to play JP's mini game, even outzoning characters like Guile and Dhalsim. Match up wise tho? Most pathetic moment is Honda ex headbutt ignoring every projectile. Very sad times, and I'm offended I need to defensively parry.

Silliest MU is the mirror for sure. I hate it. I love it. JP is weirdly vulnerable to his own gameplan, since Amnesia can't counter projectiles, and his DR is way slow. Spikes/ ghosts become a "who can parry and do ex spikes first" projectile wars. And you cannot distinguish between whose Departure portals are whose (they're angled a bit differently but in a match that's impossible to reasonably identify). You're both trying to out gimmick the other to get the edge which can get very scrambly or super one sided. Either way, a JP is winning no matter what, and please do remember to feed Cybele if you lose.

I was about to close out but I just remembered Drive Reversal!!! No wonder I forgot cause I keep forgetting about it in game too;; But if only for the animation I should press it more often. Love that they put in a golf swing motion for the cane wielder, and he's got form. And I have to thank them for deciding to give us the back view.

#sf6 jp #jp rambles #i love studying gameplay of him cause i like looking at the animations frame by frame #looking forward to spamming screenshots of every frame ever once we get more costumes

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niannianyabao · 7 months

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In Defense of the Little Shop of Horrors Theatrical Cut

Few words are as dirty as the phrase “focus testing,” the process in which bewildered strangers representing various marketing demographics are ushered into the screening of an unreleased film and then battered with questions about their feelings. Alright, it’s a bit more involved than that, but it’s also a process well known for being used as a crutch by nervous studio executives (also known as The Man) to rein in artistic types who want to try out something that, God forbid, might fail. The fallacy of this system has been discussed in broader scope by more learned souls than I, so today let’s keep it simple. There is one case in which I remain in favor of the results of a focus group: the infamous edited ending of the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors.

For those not in the know, a brief history: Little Shop of Horrors is, at its basest roots, the story of a poor young man, Seymour Krelborn, who finds a mysterious plant that brings him a great deal of wealth, accomplishment, and the love of the girl he was pining for; trouble being that the plant feeds on blood, and as it gets bigger and the stakes get higher, Seymour has to resort to feeding it bodies. The story was originally a 1960 film born from the production house of gimmickry master Roger Corman, with the plant serving as a pretty heavy handed drug metaphor and Seymour as the only victim. In 1982 the story was adapted into an Off-Broadway musical with a score furnished by future Disney Renaissance composer Alan Menken, becoming a Greek tragedy rather than a morality play (a stroke of genius that no doubt has a great deal to do with the play’s enduring quality). That musical then became the basis for the 1986 film starring Rick Moranis and directed by Frank “he did things besides Muppetry?” Oz.

Now, the play ends with Seymour, his paramour Audrey, and eventually the entire planet being consumed by the ravening alien plant dubbed “Audrey II.” Seymour’s undone by his fatal flaw, there’s a Greek chorus, and the show ends on a direct address to the audience called “Don’t Feed the Plants.” It’s a metaphor, y’see. The film was initially shot with that ending as well, until focus groups declared that they hated it, and Oz was forced to go back and shoot a happier ending with Seymour and Audrey surviving (as well as a small Audrey II peeking up out of the idyllic garden). People have hated that ending ever since. But while it’s definitely sappy, perhaps unduly so, it’s still a better fit for the finished film than the original ending.

The first issue is one of medium, which is almost unfair to hold against the film. “Don’t Feed the Plants” is directed toward an audience assumed to be in the same room, and is almost always staged correspondingly (plant props falling on the audience or a giant puppet looming over the seats). It takes advantage of the intimacy of theatre as a medium in order to impress that last message as a plea by the dead characters, and that in-person bond with the actors is a huge part of making something like that work.

Oz tries, to his credit, making the final shot of the director’s cut involving Audrey II seeming to rip through the screen. But it’s simply not the same, and once the characters we’ve spent 90 minutes with are dead there’s no urgency or horror in seeing unnamed civilians overwhelmed by vines. Nor does it help that he cuts up the rhythm of the finale to twice its original length in order to have long, looooooong shots of giant plants rampaging through the city. And because it alters the stage convention of Seymour et al returning as plant buds to sing the final number, it doesn’t so much surge into its ending as it limps the remaining six minutes until the credits finally roll. Even Seymour’s death lacks punch on screen. While his stage counterpart died making a final run at the plant with an axe, screen Seymour is picked up and swallowed up with agonizing, passive slowness.

“Passive” is the word du jour when it comes to film Seymour. Rick Moranis’ performance is wonderfully sweet and endearing, and perhaps it’s because of that there are a dozen little cuts and tweaks centered around absolving his character of culpability. Stage Seymour’s arc is one that takes small but active steps toward his own damnation, thus making it a tragic but fitting end when he sacrifices himself trying to end what he started. Film Seymour might go through the same basic motions, but as film goers we’re used to sympathizing with people who do bad things for sympathetic reasons. And the film almost goes out of its way to make the overall tone sympathetic: the film death of sadistic dentist Orin ends with Seymour saying that “it was for her,” and Orin’s first confused and then non-repentant reply hammers home that this is a man better off dead; likewise, by having Seymour successfully pull the gun, it cuts away the staged version of Orin pitifully begging Seymour (in song!) for help.

Mushnik’s death is also given a semi-karmic edge in the film. While stage Mushnik is no saint, the script plays genuinely on the fact that he’s troubled by the implication of Seymour being a murderer (“just so my conscience can rest easy” is his last line before Audrey II starts up “Suppertime”). Film Mushnik, meanwhile, not only saw Seymour chop up Orin (rather than only suspecting it) but is perfectly fine with letting that fact slide in the name of blackmailing Seymour for the plant. And Seymour’s active hand is once again removed, having him babble in shock until Mushnik trips into the plant on his own (stage Seymour manipulates Mushnik into crawling right into Audrey II’s mouth). In both cases Seymour’s biggest sin is passivity, allowing bad things to happen for his own advancement but not actively taking part in them. Even “Feed Me” is restrained: one would think that the film would take advantage (as it does with other numbers like “Somewhere That’s Green”) on at least a cutaway or two when Seymour is indulging in his more selfish desires for fame. Instead, we stay in the room (which probably has something to do with that fantastic puppet), and Audrey II looms so large as to make Seymour seem like the helpless prop.

Much of this is helped along, in the stage show, by the three chorus girls (Chiffon, Crystal, and Ronette) who comment on the action of the play. Most of their numbers are cut or shortened to help with the film’s pacing, meaning that numbers like “You Never Know,” about Seymour becoming famous after his radio interview (and positively loaded with the toxic masculinity and capitalist success language that push him to his doom throughout the play), gets replaced with the functional but less subtext-heavy “Some Fun Now;” the reprise of the opening cautionary tale prior to the end of act I is gone; and, most importantly, “The Meek Shall Inherit” omits Seymour’s monologue.

“The Meek Shall Inherit” is the montage number wherein Seymour is deluged by contracts, fame, and fortune. The meat of it can still be seen in the film, though you’ll notice that Seymour mostly sits, silent and bewildered, as he has for much of the film. The full song, by contrast, includes an interlude where Seymour argues with himself about signing the contracts, knowing that agreeing to it will mean killing more people to keep Audrey II alive. But, afraid that Audrey won’t love him without his success, he makes the decision to go through with the agreements – it’s his last chance to back out, and instead he signs his metaphorical death warrant. The fact that we see him work through and make that decision is crucial as a turning point. It’s what makes the line “you’re a monster, and so am I” work, and it means that without it Seymour works only as a piteous and not a tragic figure.

In fact, the one active move film Seymour makes in distinction from stage Seymour is to take a stand after the arguably accidental murders, not only not making that damning decision about the contracts but instead vocally refusing to give Audrey II more human meat. He becomes a hero struggling to claw his way out of the pit he blundered into rather than a Shakespearean victim, and the needs of the third act correspondingly become different.

In particular, the film-only number “Bad” (no doubt written, as is common for film musicals, to have a shot at the Oscar’s Best Original Song category) only really works in a scenario where Seymour makes it out alive. It’s a grand eleven o’clock piece of gloating for Audrey II and a brutal, semi-slapstick gauntlet for Seymour as he tries to take the plant down. The effect of placing that sequence before Seymour’s death not only has a cruel effect on the tone (he’s not just eaten but humiliated first, and doesn’t even get that last active choice with the axe), but also results in Audrey II having two victory moments back to back – rather than the confrontation being focused on Seymour’s failing and then leading into the idea of The Plant as a bigger, more metaphorical threat to be presented to the audience.

But “Bad” does work as a final test that Seymour needs to go through to atone for what he’s done, accidentally or not. It works as the moment when he decides to overcome his sin of passivity and become an active hero. That feels, corny or no, like the story the film specifically is writing for its Seymour – not a tragic downfall but a transition from innocence to experience (so yes, even that gotcha moment with the bud works, as it ties well into the idea that Seymour might have to face up to his old sins in future). It wound up telling a different story, one that arguably lacks the brutal emotional punch of the stage show but meshes better with the film’s high concentration of weird comedic bits (looking at you, Bill Murray!). The front half is so loaded with goofy guest stars and tongue in cheek humor, so dialed back in letting Seymour be an actively flawed character, that ironically it’s the tragic end that winds up feeling like a cheat.

And besides, Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene are too damn cute for me to want anything but the best for them.

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convexicalcrow · 6 months

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Fic: Eerie Silence

My fic for the Spook Me Halloween Ficathon is done! :D I wanted to explore the lore behind the Black Mines in Decked Out 2, and this is what I came up with. Read here, or on AO3.

Summary: Scar's sure there's a huge cache of diamonds at these coordinates he found in a book in the Vex's astral library, so many diamonds that they could make ConCorp the richest company on the server several times over!

"Are you sure it's here?" Cub asked.

They were looking at a very ordinary looking taiga with a lake in the middle and rivers off to the sides. Nothing at all suggested there was anything special here. The pillagers who'd come with them also looked unimpressed as did the ravagers. Though, to be fair, the ravagers always looked unimpressed. They pawed the grass and huffed, nudging anyone they were next to.

"Yes, yes, of course! I checked the book myself before we left! We're at the right coordinates! It's here, I promise!" Scar said, shoving his communicator at Cub as he pointed at the coords on screen.

"And we had to go back, what, a thousand years or something?" Cub said.

"It was hidden in space AND in time! I know I deciphered the date right, it'll be here," Scar said confidently, but not in a way that reassured Cub.

"Well, I hope you've done the time magic right then, for all our sakes. What, exactly, are we looking for again?" Cub said.

"According to this record by one of the Evokers, there's a huge cache of diamonds here! Imagine how rich ConCorp could be if we found it! Besides, the Vex told us to find it, and we swore to obey, didn't we, Cub?" Scar said.

Cub sighed. "We did, we did, yeah. Alright. We'll make camp then start digging tomorrow."

Cub's diary, day 1: Following one of Scar's hairbrained ideas again. Landed on some abandoned planet thousands of lightyears away from the Hermitcraft season 6 world. No idea what we're doing here. Fully convinced Scar's just sent us on a wild goose chase. We'll find no stash of diamonds here. Why would we? Besides, we're already the richest Hermits without these. What more do the Vex want? Is there something about this place that they're not telling us about?

Cub had been digging for days, to the point where his hands were aching. They hadn't found anything unsual, though the fact that there was buried ice and snow in a definitely-not-snowy taiga suggested something weird was going on here. Cub was still withholding his judgement though. Underground ice wasn't that weird. It could just be an oddity. It happened. It didn't mean there was anything special here.

More pillagers had been sent for as the area of ice was growing larger, and there was no way Scar and Cub could dig it out on their own. At least their camp was comfortable. Built from spruce and stone, it was a selection of houses and other buildings, but it did the trick. Even the ravagers looked slightly happier once they had a stables of their own to sleep in and a good supply of feed. The land was good for farming, and there were plenty of supplies around them to work with, from food and crops to other wood types, plentiful resources in the caves, and even some villages that they'd pilfered and raided.

Cub stood by the fire as Scar handed out some rabbit stew he'd been cooking. Everyone looked exhausted. Not that morale was bad per se, but, well. Over a week straight of digging and all they'd found was some ice. If this treasure was indeed buried deep in the earth, how much longer would it take to find it? Months? Years? Would it even be there? So much of this was resting on Scar having picked the right year. If it wasn't, well. Who knew what they'd find down there?

Cub's diary, day 17: Days 1-11: digging. So much digging. At least the camp's been set up well, and there's plenty of food, but it's been a struggle. My body isn't built for this kind of manual labour anymore. I'm too old. My back is sore, and my hands haven't stopped aching. I couldn't hold a quill for days, let alone a pick axe.

But at least I have some news to share. On day 12, we found something! The endless layers of ice and snow opened up into some kind of icy labyrinth that seemed to have been created by someone, or someones, unknown. Not that we heard anyone there though. The place seemed empty? Abandoned?

We walked around for a while and found what we thought was the entrance. The giant thick doors sat slightly ajar and off their hinges, as if they had been damaged somehow. It wasn't clear what might have damaged it.

There was what I assume was a door marked 'exit' but the pressure plates before it didn't seem to do anything, so we don't know what's behind that door. Also the door was made of some kind of dark, sticky substance we'd never seen before. Assuming it was even a door. It might have been some kind of odd corrosion that's eaten away what used to be there. All I know is that substance had what felt like little stars in it, and they glowed and moved and twinkled in the low light. It also stunk really bad, which is why I think it must be some kind of corrosion. Maybe it ate some iron doors or something maybe.

I do know the air felt… eerie. Like something bad had happened here. Everyone was quiet in there, as if raising our voices would disturb whatever danger might be in here. We didn't stay much longer though. We heard some kind of shrill cry that instilled us all with fear. We returned to the camp as quickly as we could. We haven't been back yet.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure we should continue exploring. Something about that place feels off. Like it's been sealed away for a reason. Scar still seems convinced it's the right place, but at least he hasn't run off on his own yet. There's still time, of course, the man can't stay still to save his life. I just hope I can stop him before that point, or we might all be doomed.

The Vex, it's fair to say, weren't happy, that much Cub could tell, as he and Scar knelt in place, being scolded for their hesitancy. Cub understood. He really did. They wanted the diamonds, but no one wanted to go back down there, not unless they had to. Well, no one except Scar. There was no pleasure today, though, only pain. That's what he got for being disobedient. Pain, and the Vex shrieking in his head until he gave in. They'd go back into the caves. Was it a mistake? Well, only time would tell, but Cub knew when it was better to keep his mouth shut.

Cub's diary, day 18: Can't sleep. They won't let me. So I'm just sitting out here looking at the sky. I've been- dreaming. Bad dreams. I see- can't see, really. Some kind of darkness. And- that corrosion from the doors? It's everywhere. Sticky and hot and burning and it feels like it's eating me alive. Sometimes I've seen glimpses of something large, a black shadow stalking through the passageways. And through it all, a heartbeat. Mine? Or something else's? I see glimpses of a mineshaft carved into hard, black rock, like it's all been stained with coal or something, right? But I also see- bones.

I dunno if what I'm seeing is what's down there, or if it's just my imagination running wild. I just know it scares me. I really don't think we should be digging down there, but I know it's foolhardy to say no at this point. The Vex will simply possess me until it's done and perhaps kill me afterwards once I've served my purpose. That's fine. I am Theirs to do with as They wish.

I just wish They wouldn't have given us such a dangerous mission to do.

Cub's diary, day 22: We've spent three days exploring the icy caves and found what looks like a crypt somewhere in the middle. Well, it could have been a crypt, but there didn't seem to be any bodies - or any coffins for that matter. Old half-rotted barrels were falling to pieces in a couple of the rooms, and the icy ground made the stone floors more slippery to traverse than we would have liked. It made our progress rather slow.

The silence of the caves kept us all quiet. It just didn't feel like the place to speak. Footsteps were careful, voices barely above a whisper, light kept dim with soul lanterns to avoid melting any ice or snow. Every now and then, we heard another shriek like the first one that had sent us packing the first time. There were also- grumbling sounds. Crying? Some sort of creature trapped down here maybe? In some lower levels perhaps? I'm still not sure I want to know the answer. This place gives me the creeps.

"'Place? Find? the- staff? coin? key? and lay down? destroy? offer? to the dying? no, kneeling man,' I think that's what it says," Cub said, trying to decipher the sign they'd found in what they had decided to call the throne room, as it had a large statue at the end and two doors on either side that appeared to go… somewhere else? They looked like they were made of some kind of oxidised metal, maybe copper? But copper didn't exist in this world, right? Maybe it was something else. The signs looked badly worn, and half the letters appeared to be damaged. Not enough that the meaning couldn't be intuitied if you knew what you were reading, but Cub still found it tricky.

"Well, this guy looks like he's kneeling, right? And there's some kind of thing at his feet, see? With a key engraved on it?" Scar said cheerfully. "So I guess we just have to find a key now, hey?"

"In this place? Unlikely. Where are we gonna find keys in here? There's hardly anywhere they could be hidden. There's no barrels, chests, nothing that suggests anything was kept here," Cub said.

"Well, we've only explored part of this place, haven't we? There's still a ton more left to see. Who knows? We might find one eventually!" Scar said. "Come on, let's go see if we can cut out any more of that ice from the basement stairs."

"Sure, sure," Cub said, unable to share his enthusiasm as he followed him back through to the staircases and down to the entry to the crypt. There were two staircases going down but they were almost entirely filled with ice. Some of the pillagers had been trying to break it up, but it seemed to be very thick, hard ice that was proving quite resistant to the effort. Perhaps there was a reason for that.

Cub's diary, day 25: We lost two pillagers to a deep lake in one of the rooms yesterday. It looked like it led somewhere, but I wasn't going to risk swimming in icy water to find it. They jumped in before either Scar or I could stop them, and they never came back. Scar carved a little memorial for them in the crypt in one of the small rooms on a slab of stone. Perhaps it really is a crypt now.

That room was interesting, though. We found heaps of chests and barrels to search, as well as some old TNT. The wooden boardwalk looked half-rotted in places though, so we stayed away from there. We didn't find any keys though, just a rusty old coin with engravings too worn to decipher. This place must have been abandoned for a very long time. I wonder who built it?

Cub's diary, day 35: My fingers are numb from mining ice for days. My toes are numb, too. I've lost all sense of the cold down there, even with extra woollen clothes on. It's just cold. I can't even think anymore. We spend twelve hours a day mining through ice, finding nothing, and return to camp exhausted. I eat, I sleep, I dream of nothing. Then I wake and do it all again the next day. If we don't find anything soon, well, maybe there's nothing there to find.

Cub's diary, day 36: I saw something. Down there. In the crypt. Something-

Ahh, maybe it's nothing. Ghosts don't exist, right?

"You sure this is even a key? It looks so bent out of shape, man," Scar said as he examined the key one of the pillagers had given him, found half-buried in soil behind a sweet berry bush.

The pillager shrugged. "Looks like one, though. We've found nothing else that looks even close to a key. Might as well try it."

"Hmm. What do you think, Cub? Should we try it?" Scar said, handing him the key. "Do we just- what, you said the sign said to give it to the kneeling man?"

"Yeah, yeah, I think we would just- there's that plate you found, right? With the key engraved on it? It might go in there," Cub said. He spent a moment trying to bend it back so it was a little straighter, but to little success. "Only one way to find out, though."

Cub wasn't sure he wanted to know what was behind those doors as he knelt down to fix the key in place. The engraving was a little deeper than he expected, and a little wider, but the key didn't quite fit. But it did disappear, and he heard some pistons firing along with some strange tune he didn't recognise.

"Oh, hey, did that work?" Cub said, getting to his feet.

"It sure did! Come on, let's see where this goes!" Scar said, running for the doors.

That strange corrosive substance was on the walls in these tunnels, making it smell like it had been filled with rotting carcasses. They didn't hang around, hurrying down the stairs to see what was at the end of them. There had to be something, right?

Well, there was certainly something. The staircase went down several flights and seemed to spiral back on itself before it opened up onto a stony area with what looked like mycelium and mushrooms nearby. But that wasn't what they noticed. No, what they saw first was the remains of a ravager. Old, old remains, but remains nonetheless, ones that couldn't be anything else. All that was left were the bones, the armour, and the saddle, the leather rotting away and bent out of shape.

"Well, shit. Who had ravagers down here? Was this a pillager camp once upon a time?" Scar said.

"Well, I dunno, you're the one who read the book about this place," Cub said. "What'd it say?"

"Well, I don't know, I wasn't paying attention to that! I saw a puzzle and did some puzzlin'!" Scar said.

"Well, you said it was written by an Evoker, right? So they must have been down here as part of a raid party or a patrol or something, right? How else could a ravager get this far down and die like this?" Cub said.

"I guess so, yeah. I wonder what they were doing down here," Scar said.

"Hiding diamonds? I dunno, maybe you should read that book again, Scar, just sayin'," Cub said.

Scar huffed, but didn't reply. Instead he started walking, moving away and around the skeleton as he headed deeper into the cave.

"Why don't you read it, Cub? I'll be down here, seeing if I can find us some diamonds!" Scar called, disappearing around a corner.

Cub's diary, day 40: I finally tracked down that book Scar got the coords from in between exploring the lower levels. Scar locked the doors open with some rocks to stop us having to find another key to get down each time, and we made good progress in exploring these lower levels.

This looked much more like a mine, albeit a winding, confusing one. There also wasn't as much to dig through, though some of the pathways and corridors were blocked by rubble and needed to be cleared before we could go further. We still haven't found anything more though. These caves look far more extensive than the icy ones above, and there's no real sign of anything constructed apart from an old rotting bridge that we've seen so far.

I still think we're on a wild goose chase though. The book was an Evoker's diary from around this time, talking about a patrol down here to look for some treasure, just like we're doing. Clearly someone came back alive or we wouldn't have the book to begin with, but I dunno. Some of the things the Evoker talked about make my skin crawl. There's definitely something down here that doesn't want to be woken.

I've seen shadowy figures in the distance all the time we've been down here. They're… I don't know if they're human, or once were human. They have weird faces, maybe like birds? I dunno. I know it's stupid, but they really do feel like a warning. Like seeing ravens in a cemetery, you know? This place is telling us to leave and never come back, and we ignore that at our peril.

"Scar, I got you!" Cub said as he grabbed Scar's arm before he fell through the rotting fence posts that guarded a little cliff face overlooking a large lake with the rotting remains of a ship stuck against the rocks. "I told you, you can't trust anything here. It's not going to hold you!"

"I know, I know. But it's such a pretty lake! I wanted a closer look!" Scar said, moving away from the fences.

"You can do that more easily once we find a way down, not by you falling through and breaking your legs, okay?" Cub said.

"Well, then, you'd better find a way through, hadn't you? I wanna go see it!" Scar said. Carefully, he peered around the edges of the rock, doing his best not to lean on the fencing, seeing if there was another way. "Hey! I see something! There's like-"

Scar was cut off as a trident flew out of nowhere and hit his shoulder. Scar didn't even have time to panic, but at least Cub was able to pull it out quickly and set it aside.

"Man, are there drowned down there? That's gonna make things tricky," Cub said as he pulled out a healing pot. "Here, take this. That'll sort you out."

"God. Thanks, Cub." Scar sat up and drank the potion, ignoring the blood stains that would be left on his jacket. There would be time to worry about that later. He felt his heart slow down as the potion healed him, taking away the wounds and leaving him feeling much more energised. "Honestly I'm surprised anything's still alive down here, let alone a trident drowned! What cheek!"

"Maybe he's protecting the ship. What else would he be doing, you know?" Cub said. "Then again, how did a ship that large even get down here in the first place, you know? Was there once some kind of river that lead down here? It's so huge!"

"I dunno, but I guess we'd better go look, right? Just to make sure? Maybe there's some log books or something there, you know?" Scar said.

"Yeah, maybe. Can't hurt to check it out," Cub said.

Cub's diary, day 42: It took another four hours to figure out how to get down to the lake. The caves on this level were far more open, but there were a lot of tunnels and passages that had collapsed or had been closed up by rubble. Some crisscrossed over each other, others led to dead-ends, some spiralled past each other and never met. It wasn't a maze, but it did feel like one. There were more specks of that corrosion that we found by what looked like another door that opened with a key. It seeped in from around the door, spreading into the stone around it and down into the floor. Something- something was crying down there. Something bad. I wasn't convinced we should continue, but of course Scar could sense treasure, so we kept going.

The lake itself was larger than it had seemed from our first view of it. It spun off into branches and was quite deep. There were little caves dug out from the walls, and streams of water falling from the roof, suggesting that there could be another lake above that, or maybe some kind of river, maybe? We hadn't found any other bodies of water on our way down, but it's possible we just simply missed it.

We lost another pillager as we made our way around the lake. That trident drowned was super accurate, and we were lucky to only lose one, but the rest of us did get hit a few times. I was just about out of healing pots by the time we climbed aboard the ship.

Not that we found much there, if I'm honest. The ship was solid, but clearly abandoned. Maybe we found a few pieces of gold, but that was about it. I took the pillagers and returned to the surface to our camp to rest. Scar stayed aboard the ship, said he was sure there was something there in the captain's room that he wanted to find. Fine. Whatever. I was done exploring for the day anyway, and we were out of supplies so I left him to it. I just didn't expect that would be the last time I saw him.

Cub's diary, day 50: Winter's set in here. The ground is cold, and our crops are plagued with some kind of blight that eats everything we plant. Thankfully the animals haven't been affected, and we had enough stored away to be eating well for now. I've had a couple of pillagers make a new camp in a plains some distance away, just to ensure we still have food. Just in case we can't farm anything here.

But. Scar's still missing. We've made a few patrols down to the ship but we can't find him. What we did find the first time we went was that corroded door was now wide open, and wedged with rocks. Something - Scar? - had gone down there. Or had, perhaps even worse, broken out.

There's more of that corrosion everywhere. I don't know if any of the other pillagers have noticed it, but it's there. Small patches breaking through rocks, hiding in shadows, like somehow our presence here has enabled it to spread. Those figures hiding in the distance seem much closer too.

You might wonder why we're still here. Anyone else might have fled by now. But I dunno. Something tells me Scar's still out there somewhere. Whether he's still himself at that point, I don't know, but he's definitely not dead yet. I know, because I'd never hear the end of it from the Vex if he'd died. And right now, They're more worried about the diamonds still, so. We keep going. We keep going.

Cub's diary, day 51: We're going through the second door. Don't ask me why, I think it's a suicide mission. There's clearly monsters down there. I can hear them every time we've been past there. But the Vex won't be disobeyed, and so we go below. Vex help us if we never return.

"Okay, just- I dunno why, but be as quiet as you can down there, okay? I just have a feeling we shouldn't make any noise. Something down there won't like it," Cub said as they stood outside the door, looking down at another staircase lined with that same starry corrosion. The smell was awful, and the silence deafening.

"Maybe we should've brought the ravagers. They can handle anything," one of the pillagers said.

"Nah, too noisy. Too much. This is going to require careful footsteps and a lot of sneaking. Stick together, okay? We don't know what's down there, or what it's capable of," Cub said.

The pillagers nodded, and after another moment of hesitation and making sure the door was indeed wedged open and wouldn't close behind them, they started to descend.

The air was humid. Cold, but humid. The corrosion down here was much more widespread. They stepped out of the staircase and into what looked like an old mine. A proper one, as opposed to the other two floors they'd explored. Was 'floors' even the right word to describe them? Cub wasn't sure. Wasn't willing to think about that right now.

"Grab onto each other. Don't get spooked. Silence, sneaking, no sound above a whisper okay? We don't want to draw attention to ourselves," Cub said.

Cub felt one of the pillagers grab his coat, and he hoped the others were following suit. Perhaps rope would have been better, but ah well. Where to go now, though? There was what looked like some kind of passage to his left, which seemed easier than the passage ahead, which had part of the floor collapsed. It might be possible to jump it, but Cub wasn't willing to risk it. He gestured left, and that's where they went, slowly creeping through the dark mines.

The pillager behind Cub froze, bringing their travels to a standstill. Something- something had croaked? Or chirruped? It was a soft sound, not like the shrieks they'd heard earlier. Cub looked back at them.

"You heard that too, right?" Cub said, keeping his voice as quiet as he could.

They all nodded. Something- there was that cry again. Some kind of creature crying as if it had been disturbed. Cub took a step and something crunched under his foot.

"Oh. Oh no. That's not bones, is it? Is this place full of bones?" Cub said.

"Do you want to know?" said the pillager behind him, matching his tone.

"I'm not sure I do. Do- do you think we can risk a light down here? It's just so dark, you know?" Cub said.

"I don't know. But-"

What sounded like an angry cry echoed around them, and it seemed to be closer than the first cry had been. Was something getting closer to them?

Cub peered around the corner and saw another shadowy figure in the distance. When he looked again, the figure was gone. Something-. His Vex senses were pinging very strongly. Perhaps Scar was close by.

Cub gestured forward. There wasn't really any other options at this point. On they went, into the darkness.

They had found what looked like some kind of office at the bottom of a set of stairs. Half the wood was rotting away, and there were definitely bones down here too in the corridors, but they had decided to overlook that. No point in worrying about that, right? They were old anyway. Whatever had happened here wasn't still present. Right?

The office itself was ransacked. Not much remained. Though there was that one-

"Hey, isn't that Scar in that poster? What's he wearing?" one of the pillagers said, drawing Cub's attention to the poster above the desk on the wall.

"Hotguy? Who the fuck is Hotguy? I mean, it's definitely Scar, I'd know that face anywhere, but what's it doing here? It's old, too. Real old. That's not something Scar planted here for us to find as a prank, I guarantee it. He'd have jumped out to scare us by now if he had," Cub said.

The door closed behind them, trapping them in the office. A shriek went off somewhere. Cub could have sworn he heard footsteps retreating, and perhaps, softly, a very familiar laugh that sent chills down his spine.

Cub's diary, day 57: The office door was jammed hard, and we wasted a lot of time trying to decide if it was worth all the noise to break it open and get out. My instincts told me not to do so, that perhaps whatever was down here was trying to keep us safe, but imprisonment is still imprisonment, and we were running out of food.

We didn't break down the door, though. There were some trapdoors that had rotted off their hinges that gave us just enough space to slip through. They were pretty high up, though, but we managed to stack up enough to get there. We came out on the stairs and headed back down again, aiming to follow the corridors.

Well, that was the plan. We followed the rails and found an open area in the middle that looked down at what looked like perhaps two more floors below us. Lava pooled down there, and there was clear evidence of mining activity as we explored some of the rooms nearby.

We didn't see anything weird, but something just felt off, you know? Like it was trying to make us believe we were fine. I dunno. We weren't fine, though.

We found Scar. He was-. That corrosion stuff had infected him somehow. He was wearing his Vex mask, with that stuff just covering him. He was draped in a long cloak, which I think was the same as the shadowy figures I'd been seeing. He'd been watching us. He claimed he was helping. That he was healing the sculk? I think that's what he called it? from the invasion from the miners. That they'd dug down too deep. Gone where they had not been invited. The sculk were only protecting their home. They meant no harm. We were safe, there was nothing to worry about.

I wanted to kill him. Leave his body down here to rot with all the other bones. I should've done that. Maybe then-

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