#how do people put out comics so fast? i feel like a turtle.

[soothsayerditty]

local gods make a geep

[juukeboxx]

General Headcanons - Michelangelo

Here we are with the last batch of general headcanons for the turtles. This time it's for everyone's favorite party dude Michelangelo! These have been a lot of fun to write, so I plan on going into iteration specific headcanons in the future :) Keep in mind that these headcanons are for no one version of Mikey in particular. Enjoy!

Word count: 674

Mikey is a very creative turtle. His mind is constantly creating little scenarios with characters from his favorite mediums (usually comic books, movies, and video games) so he’s constantly doodling.

Ever since he was a kid he’s always doodled on himself with pen or marker. He still does this.

At one point he was also super interested in the culture around graffiti. Graffiti is a pretty common thing in New York and he's always wanted to try it himself. So he found some spare cans of spray paint lying around an alley and started practicing. Turns out he really likes doing it! Some of his art has gotten noticed by some big graffiti artists on social media and it makes his heart soar seeing much more experienced artists giving him praise.

Super super active. He loves skateboarding the most, but Mikey will play any sort of sport if invited. He has a lot of energy and sports just allows him to release that energy while having fun.

Absolutely the best cook in the entire family. He especially likes cooking with one of his brothers or even Splinter. Leo isn’t really allowed in the kitchen but Mikey has him do simple tasks so that his oldest brother is included. Baking is not necessarily his jam because baking is an exact science, but he can make a mean batch of brownies.

Everyone knows that Mikey is very experimental with what he puts on his pizza. Sometimes it will be duck a l'orange pizza, but other times it will be sardines and jelly beans.

Mikey loves being around people. In fact, he thrives when he's surrounded by his friends and family. It brings him a lot of comfort being with the people he loves the most.

The whole part of being a ninja is staying in the shadows. Mikey, however, has a pretty hard time doing this because his natural curiosity causes him to wonder off and explore. There have been multiple occasions where he's been seen by kids walking the streets of New York with their parents while he was out exploring.

It was Mikey's idea to do a game night once a week. They bust out the snacks and pop and it's the winner of the previous week that decides which game they play that night. He is currently undeafeated in Mario Kart.

Like Donnie, it takes a lot for Mikey to get mad. He just always has such a positive and bright attitude it’s really hard to find anything to bring him down. But where Donnie would rather talk issues out and use diplomacy, Mikey isn’t afraid of throwing hands and starting a fight. The worst thing anyone could do is insult his friends and family in front of him.

Mikey has a big heart and he wears it on his sleeve. He cares very deeply about people, but the consequence of that is that it hurts him immensely when they’re gone. It feels like the end of the world to him.

He admittedly has a bit of a problem with spacing out. Sometimes he'll get so lost in his thoughts that he'll stare off into space for a little while. It usually takes one of his brothers tapping his shoulder or calling his name a few times to help bring him back.

Mikey is super proud of his combat abilities. He's a quick thinker and moves fast on his feet which makes it hard for enemies to attack him. He gets incredibly excited if his brother's ask him how he pulled of a certain move since he gets to show off a little bit.

Mikey knows that he isn't the smartest, that he isn't much of a strategist or that he isn't the strongest when it comes to raw strength. But he is, in a way, the glue that holds the team together. His wealth of positivity and being able to look at any situation and see the glass as half full is what pulls his brothers out of even their darkest moments.

[pandawriterstuff]

Pinehallow Summary & Character List

This is my main WIP, if I'm complaining about characters doing whatever they want, this is them.

Pinehallow Summary-Monty, an eleven year old boy who has spent most of his life traveling from place to place with his in-demand lawyer mother, Irene, is sent to live at his uncle's horse ranch because she thinks he needs roots. Used to nearly everyone but his mother not being around long enough to get to know, Monty is more than a bit uncertain about this. But in scrambling to find his place in a town different to anything he's ever known, he finds friends, both human and animal, makes discoveries, and even manages to foil a plot against Pinehallow Ranch itself.

Character List

Monty (Montgomery) Cade Waller- Main character, 11, white. Monty is curious, bright, and more than a little awkward. He has a tendency to state the obvious, which can be endearing or annoying depending on your perspective. Big vocabulary and grown-up way of speaking because he’s spent more time around grown-ups than other kids. He’s quietly stubborn, particularly when it comes to being told he’s wrong when he knows he’s right. Insecure about socializing and friendships because of constant moving and traveling. Can’t hold a grudge for the life of him, even when he likely should. He likes bugs, birds and turtles, would rather read nonfiction than a story. Fills lonely afternoons with sketching, nature sketching on the ranch.

Irene Waller- Monty’s mother, 36, white. Irene is a powerful corporate lawyer, either full of energy or exhausted, never in between. She loves using words to sway minds and deciphering documents to find exactly what the opposition doesn’t want her to find. Sometimes Irene wishes she was using her skills in more meaningful ways, but also really likes the money, the traveling, and the competition. Has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of show tunes from musicals. She has a hard time letting people get close. Would stab someone for her baby, but knows it’s better to teach him to stab for himself. Only partially joking. Dolly Parton is her hero, and as much as she loves her music, it’s Dolly the business woman and Dolly the philanthropist that she strives to emulate.

Keith Waller- Monty’s uncle, 34, white. Horse Rancher. Keith loves working hard and getting dirty, and if he’s not exhausted at the end of the day he’ll be looking for something else to push him there. Otherwise he gets antsy. Loves animals and absolutely will not tolerate anyone mistreating any of the animals on his ranch-ordinarily he’s very careful of his size and strength, in that situation, all bets are off. Times that by about ten for any of the ‘barn rats’ that help around the ranch for riding lessons/time. Loves romantic comedies and telanovas and doesn’t care who knows it. Keith doesn’t read a lot, it never came easy to him, but if he’s taking a long trip he’ll always check an audio book or two out of the library instead of just relying on the radio.

Juniper - Keith’s goddaughter, 15, white. She has a calm, confident personality with a smile for most everyone she meets. If she doesn’t have a smile for you and it isn’t because her head is in the clouds over a girl, you’ve probably earned her scorn and will be ignored as much as possible. Juniper raises rabbits and it’s taught her patience, and a lot about unfairness when a kit doesn’t make it. She helps out with riding lessons at the ranch in exchange for riding time of her own, and has become a fixture, spending more time there than she does at home, and when she can get away with it, school. Loves sunflowers and her sunflower comforter is probably her most prized possession.

Nell - Caretaker/cook for the ranch house(would cooking lunch for the workers still be a thing on a modern ranch?). 38, white(?). Not about to put up with nonsense. Will make you cookies if she doesn’t have to put up with nonsense. Please. At one point she wanted to be a chef and has a year of culinary school under her belt, but quickly decided the super fast paced and competitive environment wasn’t for her. Anything that was making her hate one of her favorite things that fast could not be good for a person. She intends to live a long, long life and that kind of stress can just walk right out of the door. Loves to go on long walks, often into the hills (BLM land) behind the ranch. (maybe she was taught/took a class on foraging, and teaches Monty to find wild onions and stuff? But this would mean *I* have to learn about foraging in Idaho.) This leads to a contented, if often silent, companionship between her and Monty, who desperately wants to explore/record/sketch everything about the natural world of his new home, particularly the parts that are off limits to him without an adult along.

Ray- Family Friend/Co-Owner of R & M General (designed to feel vintage, but shiny. Bit of a tourist stop now, they decided to lean into it.), 50, Black. He uses his background in chemistry to make amazing looking candies and chocolates, using that to deal with a time he used it in less pleasant ways when he was in the military. He never expected anybody outside of his small town, or maybe the folks at the county fair to make so much fuss over them. This might embarrass him, if he weren’t so delighted. A cheerful man with a dreamer’s heart, a magazine once referred to him as a small town Willy Wonka. He dotes on his wife, often making and gifting her small surprises. An amputee in honor of my Grandpa (missing left leg at the knee, possibly missing one arm as well, but I’m not sure how that would affect candy making.). Has certain parts of his past he just doesn’t talk about.

Mavis- Co-Owner of ____ with Ray, 48, Black. Fierce and kind in equal measures, Mavis believes in protecting what’s hers, and as far as she’s concerned the entire town of (oh my god, it needs a name) is included in that. Mavis is very selective about the battles she fights, but when she chooses one she throws herself in whole-heartedly. On several committees around town, she’d be on more, but then she wouldn’t have enough time to really get into the work of the ones she loves. She knits in her limited free time, often while listening to the news, but sometimes opera. Has started knitting stuffies in the shapes of the more unusual candies Ray makes, it’s silly, but fun, and tourists and the local kids love it. Still head over heels for Ray, even though his often dreaming about things for ages instead of just doing them is also still baffling to her.

Leanna - Juniper’s sort-of girlfriend, 15, Vietnamese. Quiet, a little cynical, but very empathetic. She avoids the news because it’s that or be mad and want to cry all the time-until she hears about something she can’t not research, and goes on a 24 hour google search and learns far more than is probably good for her about a species going extinct due to logging in prohibited areas, or genocide being covered up by claims of violent uprisings. She loves manga and comics. Leanna sometimes tries for a cottagecore* type aesthetic, but mostly thinks it's too much work. She’s starting to worry about what she’s going to do with her future, and people telling her that she’s only 15 and doesn’t have to worry about it yet is NOT HELPING.

*even though cottagecore isn’t a thing in the early-mid 2000s this is maybe/vaguely set in. Shh, let me have this. Anne of Green Gablesesque maybe?

Winnie - Leanna’s mom, 45, Vietnamese. Widow? A little ditzy, but a lot loving. Everyone in town is convinced she’s the stoner type of hippy, but no one minds as she’s someone who truly wants to know how you’re doing when she asks and strangely almost always has very spot on advice. She’s rarely on time anywhere, but that’s because she’ll have stopped to talk, and often to help, whoever she’s run into. Leanna and her bicker over this when she’s late picking her up. Always wears bright colors. Loves Agatha Christie books. Calls everyone, even people 50 years older than her, hon.

Logan - Juniper’s stepdad, 40, white. Kind of a jerk, but most of the jerky things he says are actually jokes that fall flat or have simply gotten old. Tries really hard, like *really* hard, but has a tendency to get annoyed if people don’t appreciate his efforts right away-more in his personal life than professional, possibly because of his profession. A contractor, hard worker, loyal, has worked for the same company since he was twenty even though they don’t often treat him right. Sometimes tries to buy people’s affections. Wants to have better communication with Juniper, but it’s gotten really hard the last few years and he’s never quite sure why.

Candice - Juniper’s Mom, 39, white, works at a nursery that sells seedlings and baby fruit trees, has a cheerful, calm personality, but a lot softer and more lowkey than Juniper’s version. Very house proud, but has a ‘maximalist’ approach to decorating-everything is in its place, but there are places for lots of things. Loves spending time outdoors, but would rather spend it tending her garden than hiking or riding, preferably with a cup of tea by her side. On the weekends, a fruity beer or wine instead. Wants to go on one of those train rides where you get to drink wine, eat canapes and try to solve a mystery, thinks Winnie might be a good candidate for someone to go with her.

Ura - a ‘barn rat’, 12 and a half, white(maybe a Czech immigrant? 2nd generation?) . A cheerful, rough and tumble boy who is always climbing things, and often being told to stop when he gets too high for other people's comfort. Ura is fearless when it comes to physical feats, but has a fear of ‘slimy’ things like worms and frogs. He has a thick layer of pudge and a big appetite, but is athletic and strong enough that anyone bullying him over it would be doing it at their own peril. Not that he’s the type to start fights, or even finish them most of the time. Doesn’t feel he quite fits in with his family, who are all more serious, reserved people. Redwood is his favorite of the horses, and Keith has all but given up on telling him that sitting on the floor of Red’s stall to talk to the horse isn’t exactly safe.

Elliot - Ray and Mavis’s son, Black, 19 and a college student-maybe/probably at U of I. Lives on campus, but comes home at least a couple weekends a month. Has an older car that he and Ray fixed up together, that is his pride and joy. Quiet, with an irreverent sense of humor that he unleashes somewhat at random. Interested in robotics, engines and mechanics and generally has some project he’s working on, a piece of which may or may not be in his pocket. Often has oil, grease, or ink on his hands, either from working on or designing a new project. A bit of an overachiever, he can spread himself thin trying to live up to all his responsibilities at once. He’s best friends with Randy, a friendship his parents want to disapprove of, because the few times Elliot’s gotten into trouble not only was Randy there, but 99% of the time whatever it was is Randy’s idea, but never quite manage too.

Randy - Handyman at the ranch, mixed race Hispanic and white, 21. Technically head handyman, because the old head retired six months ago, and is a little young/inexperienced for the job, but he’s not the type to back away from a challenge and has risen to the occasion beautifully. Loves rock and metal music, and spends a lot of his free weekends at concerts, the ones crammed into little venues and bars where people are practically on top of each other and the beat is so loud and solid it throbs through you, connecting you to everyone even before you hit the mosh pit, are his preference. He’s been working at the ranch since he was 16, and feels like he has a claim on it, not afraid to speak up if he thinks a decision Keith is making isn’t right or that he isn’t taking something important into consideration. Can be a bit wild when he’s not being the responsible one, definitely doesn’t always think before he acts.

Alma - Local artist/worker at R & M’s, Hispanic, 25. Alma is a painter and poet, a confident young woman who’s figured out that half of surviving as an artist is being your own agent/a salesperson as well, and in addition to several shelves at the R & M that hold postcard prints of many of her pieces, both the coffee shop and cafe have some of her larger paintings displayed, and she always has a booth at the Saturday market, though the majority of her sales come from her website. Alma is cheerful, and likes to tease, and growing up the middle child of four brothers, is very able to hold her own in verbal sparring. She’s close with her family, still living with her parents, and while at first her father was dismayed at her choice of career, he now hands out her business card to basically everyone he talks to.

Miriam - Nell’s Mom, white, 71, a little deaf, speaks loudly, partially because of the deafness, partially because she spent too long letting other people push her around and when she hit about 50 decided she was going to be the one talking over people now. She’s earned it. Age has made her more delicate than she likes, bruising and scraping easily, but she’s determined to do most things for herself. Those that are beyond her she has no problem loudly ordering someone else to take care of. Volunteers a lot, often fosters kittens for the local animal shelter. Used to chain smoke, quit when Nell was a teenager because she kept leaving pictures of diseased lungs everywhere. Still uses the candy ones as a substitute.

Places

Unnamed Town- Somewhere in Latah County, Idaho, where there is not already a town in the way. Around 200 years old and has grown and shrunk and grown again, and currently has a population of about 12,000. Having grown out from a traditional mainstreet, _______ no longer has the western style boardwalk seen in old pictures, but it does have a large cluster of local businesses and ‘hot spots’ still along that old main street, a coffee shop, a diner, a combination bookshop and independent library, a hardware store, a bar, a few places I haven’t thought of yet, and of course R & M General. There is a historical barn half a mile or so away from mainstreet that has been converted into a theater/meeting hall/dance hall, and a community center was added onto it in the early 90’s. During the summer there is a farmer’s market on the property every Saturday. The elementary school and junior high are all on one property, several miles out of town, because the majority of families live on farms, ranches or small rural properties rather than in one of the neighborhood clusters in the town itself. The junior high is 7th, 8th and 9th graders, in a newer two story building, and the elementary school is divided into lower and upper elementary with the bracket shaped building basically being cut in half, K-3 on one side and 4-6 on the other. The high school is outside of town on the other side by several miles, and actually serves kids from another town(s) as well. There is also a trailer park with about forty units, not exactly sure where it is yet, but Miriam(Nell’s Mom) lives there. There is also an animal shelter, a vet’s office, a cemetery, and a couple churches, and I’m sure more things to come.

R & M General (working title?)- Ray and Mavis’s store, a general store with a candy focused twist. A vintage Pepsi sign, neon still bright, and a charming green glass juke-box filled with hits from the 1940’s onward grace the front porch of the R & M, along with a long bench that locals are encouraged to use for a spell or to listen to a couple songs, provided they can behave themselves (teenagers arguing over who their favorite member of the rat pack is might be amusing, considering they were already ‘mom and dad’, or at least older brother and sister, music by the time Mavis and Ray were teenagers, but when they get loud it also gets annoying.). The store itself still has the original wooden counter up front and built-in shelves along the walls, but all refinished and polished to a high shine. A mixture of display types going down the middle of the store, barrels and baskets filled with skeins of colorful yarn and cloth or Mavis’s knitted stuffies(and during winter sometimes socks and mittens), other sewing and craft supplies, display racks with local arts, postcards and carvings, sometimes wind up toys made by Elliot, and of course many, many displays of candies and chocolates. They also have a lot of dry goods, and some of the simpler candy types have little instruction booklets and the ingredients it takes to try out making them yourself stocked in the same display, drink coolers, and sometimes have local produce available. Basically, they have a bit of everything, except for building equipment/home repair supplies, and that’s because of the hardware store across the street.

Pinehallow Ranch-A sprawling 100 acre ranch in Latah County, Idaho where the Waller family has been doing something or other with horses for four generations now. Originally it was a horse breeding ranch, but Keith and Irene’s grandfather felt the money was in training horses, and offered boarding as well, and Keith has continued to build that up, offering lessons for a variety of styles, ages, and skill levels. Butting up against BLM land that allows additional grazing and trail riding, the ranch has four pastures, a large corral, a medium sized indoor arena and two horse barns, one for boarded horses and one for the ranch's own stock, and an equipment barn, an old bunkhouse that is mostly used to store feed-though Randy has slept there when in between places, mostly unbeknownst to Keith-and some smaller equipment sheds, placed where they’re needed. The main house is an L-shaped ranch house with a porch that goes around the entire long front of the house with a large herb/kitchen and rock garden arranged around that. There are treed pockets scattered here and there, left alone as the rest of the ranch was developed, but the creek Monty and Juniper sometimes hang out at is on BLM land, as is most of the forested area around the ranch.

Pinehallow Taglist @sleepysera @enchanted-lightning-aes @odysseywritings @thegreatobsesso @writing-is-a-martial-art and @hiitsolivia If anyone else wants to be added just interact with the post :) (My more advanced tumblr knowledge has led me to believe this is better than asking people to reblog/comment to be added, but if I'm wrong just let me know.)

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Day 5

Prompt:  Any intense emotions your soulmate feels you will also experience.

Word Count: 1,730

Main Taglist: (Send an ask to be added or removed!) @starlocked01,​​​ @spoopy-turtle,​​​ @lizluvscupcakes,​​ @more-fandon-than-friends​, @i-cant-find-a-good-username, @vindicatedvirgil, @star-crossed-shipper, @justaqueercactus, @gayboopnoodle, @sanderssidesweirdo, @the-sympathetic-villain

Soulmate taglist:(Send an ask to be added or removed!) @elizabutgayer, @melodiread, @tsshipmonth2020, @mikalya12

CW: Panic attacks, anxiety, mentions of self depreciation, mentions of horror.

Logan felt another burst of anxiety deep in his gut and sighed. This was the tenth time in three days, he was starting to be worried for his soulmate. He focused on his breathing, feeling for the familiar tug of emotion. After years of doing this, he’d ‘hacked the system’ so to speak by figuring out where the emotional connection was in his head. Once he’d figured that out, it was a simple matter of pushing emotions across it. So, he did that. He pushed a strong calm over to his soulmate, hoping their anxiety would lessen. He breathed out a sigh of relief when it did, when the pit of doubt left his stomach and his throat opened back up, when he didn’t have to struggle to keep his thoughts clear instead of giving in and drowning in the hate his brain spewed at him in that moment.

He hated the way the anxiety made him feel but also knew that his was tame compared to his soulmate’s. To combat it, he started happy stimming, flapping his hands near his face until he was grinning. He didn’t realize he was pushing his happiness through the connection until he felt the joy being radiated back. He stopped stimming, letting his hands falling back onto the library cart bring him out of his thoughts and remind him of his current task: to reshelf books.

Logan loved working at the library. He loved getting to read as much as he wanted, to have the ability to interact with a bunch of people or choose to stay by himself. The best thing about working in the library is that he got to see people’s faces light up when they found a book. Whether it’s the next book in a series they were reading, a book they’d almost forgotten about, one they had cherished memories of as a child, or a new one they were finding for the first time, he loved seeing the different expressions on peoples faces.

Today would be a good day for that as the library had invited a local author to come in and read his books aloud. Not many knew this, but he had two different pen names. One he used to write children’s books, the other was used to write horror stories with the main focus being human vs nature. Logan had researched the man extensively last night, not getting to sleep until a few hours before he had to get up for work.

The door jingled and a man in a hoodie walked in, making his way over to the children’s section. Logan watched him go, wondering what brought him here today, the reason for his visit to that particular section. When Logan saw him reach out a brush a spine, a soft smile lighting his face, he knew it was a nostalgic visit. He went back to his work, finishing in the adult section and moving to the children’s.

He saw that the tall man had sat down in a comically small chair compared to his height, his leg bouncing in some sort of anticipation. Logan felt the anxiety curling into his stomach again, making him want to curl up on the ground or scream in an emotion he was unable to put words to. Instead, he finished putting the books away and walked up to the man, ignoring the voice in his head that was telling him everyone was watching him at all times.

“Are you waiting for someone?” Logan sat on the ground beside the man, watching the way his head ducked further into his hood.

“Something like that.” The man muttered. His fingers were pulling on his sleeves even while his leg was vibrating. There was something unknown but familiar in the man that made Logan curious about him.

“You look like you could use a distraction.” He said, finally pinpointing the reason the man looked just the slightest bit off.

He chuckled but Logan knew there was little to no mirth in it. “Sure, that’d be nice.” Even so, his voice was genuine.

So, Logan started talking about bookbinding and the differences between modern and medieval Europe. He talked for a half hour or so. During that time, he felt the knot of anxiety untie and slip away, his thoughts clear, and an almost giddy sensation come from across the bond. He paused and realized that the giddiness was coming from him and being reflected back across the bond like a loop.

Logan smiled at the man sitting next to him, carefully watching him. He was no longer hunched into himself, no longer hiding from the world. He seemed to be relaxed, his shoulders were down and his head was up, hood thrown back. His leg was no longer bouncing and his hands were no longer tugging at his sleeves. He had a smile on his face and, in that instance, Logan was sure he could talk to this man for hours and never lose his attention.

Logan didn’t resume talking about his latest hyperfixation, glancing at his watch instead. “I need to get ready.”

The man reached out as Logan stood, helping him up but also glancing at his watch before a panicked look crossed his face. “Shoot, is it really that time already?”

Logan nodded. “My watch is always on time. Do you have somewhere to be?”

“Here. I just didn’t expect time to fly so fast.”

“Well, you know what they say about having fun.” Logan began tidying up the area, getting the small chairs and soft sitting surfaces to face the chair the man was sitting in as it seemed to be against the wall already. He found the copy of the book that was to be read and placed it on the table nearby before standing by the door.

The head librarian walked up to Logan. “What have you been doing with V. A. Strand this whole time?!”

Logan’s head would have spun around if he were in a cartoon. “What do you mean? Are you telling me that the random man I helped down from a near panic attack is the author who’s reading to the children today?!”

She looked at him like he was stupid. “Of course!”

Logan looked back to see the man,  V. A., smiling and greeting all the children and parents who filed in. He politely refused autographs and pictures but did allow the children hugs, which Logan thought was sweet. He hadn’t realized he’d been talking to one of his favorite authors of all time about bookbinding of all things for half an hour. Logan shook his head, perfectly content with the way the conversation went, the way he was able to calm the man down, the smile he got at the end of it. None of that time was wasted, neither was it made more special simply because he now knew the man’s identity. It was simply a slightly shocking discovery.

He nodded at that thought and turned back, watching the way V. A didn’t have to look at the book, knowing exactly which words were on which pages, what the pictures looked like. Logan wondered how many late nights he spent, pouring his ideas into words. Logan knew the man illustrated his own books and wondered how long it must take.

The reading was over before Logan was aware. About halfway through, he’d been told to get back to work so he grabbed a new cart and was at it reshelving books. He tried to listen in to the reading, wanting to keep talking with and to V. A., someone he’d only exchanged a few words with but he was already desperate to know their opinion on anything and everything. He wanted to know what he had rattling around in that head. After all, no one can be that quiet without having something on their mind. True, they could simply be quiet, but that meant they were either allowing their mind to wander or they were having thoughts on the discussion. Either one deserved to have those thoughts heard and appreciated.

Logan hadn’t noticed the reading was over until a hand tapped him on the shoulder. He turned his head to look and found the object of his thoughts staring back at him, hand retreating back into his hoodie pocket. Logan smiled. “Can I help you with something?”

He nodded. “I think we might be soulmates?” The sentence came out as a question rather than the statement he surely must have meant.

Logan’s smile only faltered slightly in shock, the thought never having crossed his mind before then. “Why do you think that?”

He seemed to draw into himself, his shoulders rising and his head ducking down the slightest bit. Logan wanted to reach out and hold his hand, to tell him everything was going to be fine. He didn’t, instead, he waited for him to speak. “Earlier when you helped calm my anxiety, I could feel a calm and almost giddy feeling as you talked. I don’t find bookbinding particularly delightful so I knew it had to come from someone else. I don’t know, I guess you seemed to be the obvious choice.” He shook his head. “Sorry, it sounds stupid now.”

He turned to go but Logan reached out a hand and gently grabbed his elbow. His hoodie fabric was as soft as it looked. “Hey, no. It’s not stupid. I hadn’t thought of it until now, too caught up in enjoying talking with you, but it feels like it’s possible. You wanna test it?”

He turned back, leaving Logan’s hand on his elbow. “How?”

“How many times have you panicked or had excessive anxiety over the past three days?”

“Including both times today? Eleven.” The statement was accompanied with a wince of embarrassment, as if he were ashamed of having emotions.

Logan nodded, a smile splitting across his face. “That’s as many times as I’ve felt it from you.” His shrug was much more nonchalant than V. A.’s was just now. “So, do you wanna get a donut from the shop down the street and chat sometime soon?”

He laughed. “That sounds nice. Although, I guess we should exchange names and numbers as well.”

They did so and V. A., no Virgil, walked out the library door, waving to Logan on his way out.

[wthelvetica21]

🔗💀Linked Souls

in the Digital Cabaret’s lobby

All four of the Mystery Skulls investigators found themselves in a calmly lit room with skull decor. It was quaint to say the least. There were also musical instruments like guitars and old fashion keyboards on the walls as well like it was a recording studio. All of them were laying on the same large circular sofa with two tables.

Lewis: What… The hell… just happened…? Guys?

Vivi: Just a few more minutes okay Lew. I swear… mar 

Vivi rolled back sleeping with her plush turtle that she kept in her backpack before they headed out.

Arthur: (yawn) Can you keep it down… Whoa OH HOLY SHIT! Where are we guys? This can’t get any weirder man.

Mystery: *soft barking* (I must keep a low profile for now. I have a feeling that we’re not… in our world anymore. I sense four none hostile souls and least one that’s harbors some justifiable apprehension towards us.)

Lewis is the only one who could hear Mystery via supernatural telepathy.

Lewis: Huh? I hear voices from outside… 

Lewis along with Mystery and Arthur put their heads on the double doors to listen in.

Teenage Male Voice: I don’t know if this is a good Idea Doc. They seem sketchy as hell if you ask me. Especially the ghost rider reject in particular.

Calm Female Voice: I’m sure hun, my tombsona can since people’s intentions right away. They seem to be looking for someone or something whom was involved with the murder of the young man in the suit who has become a ghost. It’s all I could glean however. But the dog though.. is odd… He’s not a threat to us but that might not be his true form.

Suave German Voice: He could be a lycan… What? It’s possible since that ghost is particularly one that still has his body. 

 Mystery: *tilts his head* (A lycan? As in a werewolf? He also knows that Lewis is a special case as well.)

Softer Male Voice: … 

Strangely Familiar Voice: What’s that Armstrong? You think that we should meet them one by one? Maybe 2 by 2 would work better. I would rather meet them later… I’m still having a hard time processing this whole situation. I just woke up after all.

Lewis: Wait?… Is that the? (Is that the guy singing in that weird dream from earlier? Could it be that comatose guy who was begging for help? It’s modulated a bit but it’s that voice I heard. I just know it.)

Mystery: whimper (Lewis? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You know that voice?)

Lewis: Uhh… I could’ve sworn I heard his voice before. (he said softly)

Calm Female Voice: Don’t worry cher. We’ll go first. Come on Rust since you’ve been itching to meet them.

All three backed up from the door so they wouldn’t get hit.

Teenage Male Voice: WHAT!? Why the hell me? Why not Tesla, Armstrong, or even your… Hey don’t give me that look. Dammit okay fine… let’s meet them already. (mumbles in Spanish)

Lewis: Tch… (Yeah you’re already gonna be a pain in the ass from the get go. Must be a high schooler or somethin’.)

Strangely Familiar Voice: Wait! I changed my mind. I’m very curious about these people from another universe.

The double doors open and two individuals come out. One was a woman who had discolored blue skin with glowing neon blue paint. And she had flowing hair that acted like willow wisps. She also had the attire of a stage magician with some witch doctor elements. The most noteworthy thing about her was the navy blue mask with glowing cyan eyes and outlines that took up most of the top portion of her face. She could even be mistaken for a ghost like Lewis. 

Vivi: OMG, she’s… so… cool! Oh man I wish I had that classy outfit she’s wearing. I could match with Lewis for once.

Mystery: *tilting his head groaning* (She’s certainly someone Vivi and Lewis could get along with very well. Maybe she patched us up from that elevator.)

Doc: My name is Doc or you could call me Ms. Doc for convenience. I’m the drummer for The Living Tombstone. Next to me is zero_one. He’s our keyboardist and composer. He also does the vocals as well.

The other individual was a tall svelte man who was shorter than Lewis but slightly taller than Arthur.  He looked like he was wearing a skin tight jump suit with yellow circuit lines with an orange fade to them. In the center of his torso is a rectangle that looks like a microchip with a heart beat indicator. He also was wearing a helmet that had a plume of golden orange hair made out of plasma and a pair of headphones. But what really caught Lewis’s attention was the LED skull with a bolt shaped crack on the right. He recognizes him as that guy from that dream he while he was passed out on that mining elevator. Almost immediately both of them blurted out…

Lewis & zero_one in unison : Do I know you from somewhere? But how?

Lewis : Hold up… Um Hey… (Aw man this shit just got weird already.)

zero_one : Uh… Hi there… (Oh… awkward.)

Arthur: Welp… This just got awkward and weird fast. What is going on here man? You recognize the dude with the mohawk?

Lewis : It’s a… 

Rust: Oh that does it… I’m going in. What flying fu…. oh… This is already got a weird vibe. Who the hell are you people anyway? AND You… yes you the ghost rider reject how do you recognize our front man hah?

Lewis : growls (Great another asshole with a green motif. But he’s some kind of punk who’s just got outta high school). 

sigh (trying to contain his anger) I’m not sure, I just seen someone like him that’s all…

Stoping the young man in biker attire with the green skull mask from lunging at Lewis was a slightly older gentleman who’s color scheme was similar to Lewis’s. He had the attire of a mad scientist with a winter hat.

Tesla: Can you not be hasty Rust for just a moment. They are not a threat to us remember. Herr Geist (german : Mr. Ghost) I still have so many questions. How did you find the elevator to this universe?

Lewis : Umm… (Who the hell is this guy? He looks like he just stepped out of an anime or a game or something.)

Long story short but it may sound batshit crazy ; we were chasin’ a dismembered gang green arm with a single black eye. Did ya’ll see him.

Rust: uhh… what? What kinda story is that? You must be tripping on something really strong to come up with that.

Behind the slightly befuddled young man in the green was a larger skull faced man with a burnt space suit who’s glowing red. He looks like he’s trying to calm things down before a fight breaks out between Lewis and Rust. 

Armstrong : … signing (I believe we all need to calm down first before we get our stories out there. I’m Armstrong gentlemen, lady, and… dog. You hail from another universe?)

Lewis : Huh… good point sir. (Why do I know what he’s saying even though I don’t know sign language. This shit really couldn’t get any weirder.)

Lewis then gives a paraphrased version of what Armstrong was saying to rest of the Mystery Skulls gang. Doc explained that Armstrong has tinnitus but can still play the guitar very well despite that. His tomesona can also give some form of synesthesia to compensate for his hearing loss.

Rust: (shakes his head in disbelief) Fine whatever. Names Rust, don’t ya’ll forget it. I do the vocals and rap.

Tesla: Guten Tag, my name is Tesla Herr Geist, Chicken with Mechanical Arm, Mysterious Dog, and Liebshen.

Lewis : *groan of frustration* (Oh that’s effing lovely. He better be usin’ that word as a term of endearment and not trying to flirt with her. But at least he isn’t an annoying little punk like the green one.)

Vivi: Oh how rude of us not to introduce ourselves. We are the Mystery Skulls ; we’re paranormal investigators. I’m Vivi Yukino, I’m the researcher of the group. But my day job is at a used comic book shop called TomeTomb. Oh I also know how to play electric guitar.

Tesla: Oh is that right Liebshen? Very nice indeed.

Armstrong : … (puts both of his thumbs up for approval and nodding)

Doc: Huh, TomeTomb(soft chuckle) what an interesting name. And you are young man?

Arthur: I’m Arthur Kingsmen, I’m just the mechanic of the group and I’m not as interested with this paranormal crap as much as Lewis and Vivi. And I work with my uncle Lance at his auto repair shop called Kingsmen repair. Also I play keyboard and actually own three keytars as well (he said proudly). Ha they almost costed me an arm… and a… (nervous chuckle). Yeah, the arm is a different story though. (he said sheepishly scratching his head.)

Rust: Well it must have… literately. Holy shit man, three of them? Talk about overkill.

Lewis could see zero_one light up like a kid in a candy store as soon as Arthur mentioned his keytars. He could feel this feeling radiating in the core of his locket ; its joy. He then sees zero_one approach Arthur like someone who was reunited with a long lost sibling.

zero_one : Three keytars? (in rapid secession) What brand are they? How did you get them? What year were they made? Do you have any pictures of them? 

Arthur: (he had a smile that the rest of the Mystery Skulls gang haven’t seen in months) Really? I have a 1980s Casio, a late 90s Korg, and an early 2000s Yamaha. I had some connections back then and I usually find them used online even though they were still…kinda expensive. And yeah I have pictures of them on my phone, you can come and look if you want.

The Orange-Yellow color coded duo sat next to each other like they just got a new hand held game and rambled on and on about mods and midi plug ins for keytars for a good 20 minutes. Lewis wished that he didn’t go into that cave in the first place. The relationship between Arthur and zero_one was not just like two long lost brothers but it was like his friendship with Arthur before this whole third wheel and ghost thing ever came about. Lewis felt a small pang of guilt before getting interrupted with a question.

Lewis : sigh… (At least Arthur is feelin’ better already after all the shit I put him through. Maybe comin’ here isn’t going to be that bad after all. Just Maybe…)

Rust: Who’s the dog though? Gotta say though he kinda looks badass with the red and black.

Mystery: *shrugs in embarrassment* (Yabai. (Japanese: Oh Crap.) Maybe I shouldn’t show my true form now, maybe wait til they are ready or Vivi or Lewis mention it.)

Vivi: Oh his name is Mystery. He’s our mascot, sorta. I know he isn’t a ghost like my boyfriend over here.

Tesla: Boyfriend ha… Oh well, but you could do so much better then…

Doc: Tesla stop. Lewis is Vivi’s beau, just leave it be. There are other women you know…

Tesla: Uhh. Gut, I’m a man of honor.

Lewis : (Oh sure you are hat guy.) 

Okay then, I’m Lewis Pepper and I’m more the guy who handles the heavy equipment in our paranormal investigations. My day job is waiter and chef at my adopted family’s restaurant “Pepper Paradiso”. I also play violin and I am a train vocalist.

Rust: Oh… really? Come on zero_one, me and you, let’s nock this amateur down a peg or two.

zero_one : You’re kind of putting me on the spot here Rust. Lewis did say he was trained, maybe you should’ve not called him that.

Lewis : (narrows his eyes) (Oh, I’ll knock this Rust punk down a peg or two.)

 Oh really Rust. Alright I’m game but just you and me. Mono a mono. Let the best vocalist wi…. huh?

Then a feeling comes over both Lewis and zero_one that made both of them and harmonize a beautiful arpeggio that brings all the room in awe. Rust was drowned out by both of them because he was just as shocked as everyone else in the lobby.

Doc: Oh honey, both of ya’ll voices are like two angels. And you thought he was an amateur Rust?

Rust: Well, damn I’ll admit it, you and zero_one won on this one. For now.

Armstrong : … signing 

zero_one : interpreting for Armstrong : Well since the introductions are out of the way, I believe you said something about a dismembered arm earlier. Is that the reason why you stumbled into our universe?

Lewis : Well yeah, it said it lead us into a trap or some shit like that. It was also working with someone or something else that wanted to do all of us in. 

* Loud Alarm *

A I Voice: Warning security breach detected. / Subject identified as a green dismembered arm that has already made entry into timeline v. / prerecorded transmission from the multi-universal edge by Helvetica. 

Helvetica: Something has just breached the reality layline. Sending distress signal to prime universe about Null’s escape. Butterfly effect radiating towards other divergent TLT timelines. Three inter-universal ones from the prime timeline. At least three no… it’s five from the universe MSA (Mystery Skulls universe). I’m making my way to timeline v as soon as possible. End of Transmission.

Lewis : Welp… I can see things have gone to shit already. At least we know where it is now. Might as well go looking for it but we’re do we even freakin’ start huh?

Tesla: I’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise you. My prime self told me about this Null character but… what is it doing at this time period I wonder? Poor fraulein Helvetica sounds like she can’t handle this on her own. She might be proto_type’s student but even a student needs some extra help. We should worry about the four ones from our universe first before the one’s from our visitor’s universe.

zero_one : Wait? There are people from Lewis’s universe that crossed over to this universe too? What’s going on here?

Tesla: It’s most likely a butterfly effect like the distress called mentioned. Oh I believe we already have a lead or two, that’s gut. Really gut.

A I Voice: First sightings found downtown at High May’s Junior, Le Macabre Dance club, and Toriyama’s School for the Arts.

They decide to split up into teams to not only look for the possessed arm but for at least three people from the prime timeline in TLT’s universe.

 Mystery, Tesla, and Vivi are going to that Toriyama Art school in Japan since Vivi is fluent in Japanese. Lewis is thankful that Mystery is with her if Tesla tries anything.

Arthur, Rust, and Doc decide head to that Le Macabre Dance club which is in Puerto Rico. Rust apparently knows his way around there.

While Armstrong, Lewis and zero_one head towards a popular hot spot on San Francisco’s Yvette district; more specifically a hole in the wall bar known as High May’s Jr. Lewis decides to go there alone since he can change his form at will unlike Armstrong or zero_one but has agreed to meet up with them later once they found whom ever they are looking for. Armstrong thinks he’s way too conspicuous to be seen in public and decides to rendezvous with this Helvetica woman who made that distress call earlier along with zero_one.

End of Transmission

Lewis :  Well. I still have my ID and all. But I don’t think it’ll matter all that much. I swear this whole thing with timelines , butterfly effect and shit makes me feel like I’m in a very anime video game. Was something like Blaze blue or whatever? Or someone’s fanfic… Umm… Nah, that’s fu_king bonkers.

[aion-rsa]

What Went Wrong With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze?

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The story of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went from underground comic book to the highest grossing independent film of all time is the stuff of Hollywood legend. But ask producer Tom Gray about the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, and you are likely to hear an altogether different tale. One of a frantically rushed production, censorship backlash and a change of director and direction. Actors were replaced, there were clashes with the comic book creators and a series of strange and unusual characters were added to the mix – including Vanilla Ice.  

Gray was head of production at Golden Harvest, the Hong Kong studio behind martial arts classics like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, when comedian-turned screenwriter Bobby Herbeck first approached him about a live-action film adaptation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s cult comics.  

It’s fair to say he took some convincing.  

“I hated the idea. I thought it was stupid,” Gray tells Den of Geek. Undeterred, Herbeck pestered Gray for months until the Golden Harvest chief had a sudden change of heart.   

“I had an epiphany and thought we could just put stunt guys in turtle suits and make all our money in Japan. That was why I was interested; making it low budget. It escalated when Steve Barron came onboard.”   

Barron had made his name with groundbreaking music videos for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and A-Ha’s “Take on Me” and sold Gray and TMNT creators Eastman and Laird on his vision for the movie.   

More importantly, he enlisted the late Jim Henson and his legendary Creature Shop to bring the Turtles to life using state-of-the-art animatronics, which came at no small expense.   

Even so, Gray found the project was a hard sell when it came to finding a major studio willing to distribute the movie.   

“George Lucas’s Howard the Duck had just come out and bombed,” he recalls. “When I went around people would say ‘oh no I’m not going to put my name on the next Howard the Duck. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, how absurd.’ Nobody wanted to step up in the major studios.”   

Undaunted by the mass rejection (“Hollywood is always the last to know”) Gray eventually secured a deal with New Line Cinema, then best known for A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

The rest, as they say, is history.  

That first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie came from nowhere in the spring of 1990 to make an astonishing $135 million, becoming a cultural phenomenon in the process. A sequel was inevitable but the results were anything but.   

“It was rushed,” Gray says when asked for his overriding feelings about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.  “Once the first film opened, we figured we had to get another one out as quickly as possible because this whole thing could fade away very quickly if we didn’t come back.”   

Incredibly, a release date for the sequel was set for almost exactly a year on from the original. That seems crazy to think now, in the era where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is carefully plotted out years in advance, but this was 1990 and New Line Cinema. At this point the production company which was working on its sixth Nightmare on Elm Street Movie in the space of just seven years. The quality of those films had varied wildly but one thing had remained consistent: the quick turnaround.  

“New Line wanted it out on pretty much the same date, maybe a week earlier in fact. So, we rushed into the production, got a script together. The overarching thing was speed. We had to get it out,” Gray remembers. “I think that’s probably the reason why it doesn’t top many people’s list of the best Turtles movies.”   

A Change in Tone

One of the first challenges facing Gray was a tonal one. While the first TMNT film had garnered praise for maintaining the dark and dangerous feel of the original comics, not everyone was happy.   

“We started getting some pressure from parental groups. They felt it was a little too dark and a little too frightening for children,” Gray says.  

In the US, there were reports of Turtles toys and merchandise being banned in schools over worries they encouraged aggressive behavior in kids. In the UK, the characters were even rebranded the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles amid concern among censors that the word “ninja” promoted violence. Michelangelo’s nunchucks were also banned. It wasn’t just the censors who expressed concern either.   

“The toy company was also telling us that maybe we shouldn’t be too dark,” Gray said. “And then, of course, then there was Jim Henson himself, who died while we were making the first film. His whole thing from the beginning was that he didn’t want to make a really dark film. Steve [Barron] was able to convince him it was the way to go even though it was different from the Muppets and everything he had done before. They had a great relationship. Jim trusted Steve.”   

The decision was made to approach the material with a lighter tone, with Todd Langen’s original script undergoing a major rewrite to address the change. Despite the change Gray insists an attempt was made to retain some of the darker elements.   

“We tried to get somewhere in between but probably didn’t succeed.”   

Ultimately, however, the looming deadline left little room for nuance.    

“If you sit down and think about this thing too much, you’re never going to get underway,” he reasons.

A New Director  

In another notable shift that fans have questioned down the years, Barron did not return for the sequel.  

The Irish filmmaker told Flickering Myth that the shift in sensibilities was the deciding factor.   

“[It was] lighter, and all the instructions that had gone on from the first film were coming from the producers about keeping the color and lightness and getting away from the dark edge in number two,” he said. “For me it was poppy, and that wasn’t my sensibility.” 

Gray tells Den of Geek Barron didn’t come back “for reasons that I won’t go into” but during the interview paints a picture of difficulties during their work together on the first film.   

“I fought with the crew every single day but they did a hell of a job. Budgets were not adhered to but I’ve always given them credit because of their vision,” Gray says.   

The producer also revealed that the first film was re-edited from Barron’s original version after his bosses were left unhappy with the director’s cut.  

“The studio did edit the film in the end to come up with a different version.  It was felt it was cut so you didn’t get to see the roundhouse kicks and fighting which was the hallmark of Golden Harvest. When the bosses saw it in Hong Kong, they complained that they couldn’t tell what the turtles were doing. They wanted to see these guys kicking and fighting. Steve’s style was good but we wanted another look.”   

Despite Gray’s diplomatic tone, it’s not difficult to imagine such developments might have created tension. In Barron’s place came American filmmaker Michael Pressman, who Gray knew from his days at United Artists.    

“What I liked about Michael was that he was a disciplined director. Having gone through the problems with the first picture I wanted someone who shot fast and stayed on budget. That was my main motivation,” the producer says.    

A capable director who has gone on to enjoy a long and varied career in television, little of the blame for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2’s failing can fall at Pressman’s feet though it’s undeniable that some of the creative spark of the first film was lost with Barron’s exit.   

So was much of the original’s violence, with the Turtles rarely shown using their weapons in the finished film while the action set pieces were also significantly watered down.  

Eastman and Laird

Despite the criticism levelled at the sequel for failing to retain the tone of the comics, all of what went into the movie was greenlit by the TMNT creators. Part of the deal inked by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman saw them retain final approval on anything in the film. But that created other issues both at script and production level, as Gray recalls.  

“Kevin was certainly more malleable with going along with things because of the budget but Peter was very difficult to get things by because he would say ‘Oh, well Michelangelo would never say that’. So, it was very hard from the point of view of the writer trying to figure it all out.”   

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With Barron no longer around to mediate and sell them on the plans and with time ticking on, the pair’s reluctance to sign off on ideas led to increased tensions.  

“We argued a little bit,” Gray says. “These things are never sweet or nice. It gets down to what we can do and, in the time provided. It’s about compromise. In the end they approved Langren’s changed script.  Maybe it was reluctantly but we weren’t going to meet the demand and get this out if they kept changing things.”   

Tokka and Rahzar

One of the most noted criticisms of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 concerned the decision to introduce two new sidekicks alongside returning villain Shredder, rather than draw on the wild array of mutant animals that had featured in the comics and TV series. 

Many fans had expected to see Bebop and Rocksteady, the mutant warthog and rhinoceros supervillains made famous in the cartoon, feature. However, that cartoon outing proved both a blessing and a curse. 

“I didn’t want them in any of the movies,” Laird later revealed on his personal blog. “It’s not so much that I disliked the characters so intensely, but more that I found their constant one-note shtick in the first animated series to be extremely annoying and silly to the point of being stupid.”  

Gray’s version of events differs slightly.   

“We wanted new villains because we would get a piece of the royalty, which we didn’t have with the first movie. We figured if we created something they didn’t come up with we would get a piece of the pie. It was a business decision.”   

Together with the creatives at Henson’s Creature Shop, they “threw together” Tokka and Rahzar, a mutant Alligator Snapping Turtle and wolf respectively, based on pretty much whatever was available. 

“Those things were basically the Henson Creature Shop’s ideas, because they had to figure out, technically, what they could do, how big they were going to be and how they could move,” Gray says. “They had to design all this stuff, put someone in the suit and then wire them up or get the animatronics going to make it work. So, we just went to them and said we need a couple of villains.” 

Indeed, the resulting animatronics proved less complex and less compelling than the heroes in a half shell – and it showed on screen.   

“They were just big models,” Gray admits. “We cut corners, there’s no question about it.”   

Sweaty and Claustrophobic

Meanwhile, the turtle suits themselves had undergone little in the way of upgrades since the first film, when the actors playing the four leads experienced any number of issues. Not the least of which being the claustrophobia and sweating that comes with wearing up to 70lbs worth of turtle suit.  

The animatronics also, despite being state-of-the-art, continued to suffer their fair share of glitches.  

“We knew what the difficulties were and they were unbelievable,” Gray says. “There were days when we couldn’t even get these things set up.  We were filming right near the Wilmington Airport. We set up a shot and when it came time for action the Turtles would not speak. We realized they were on the same frequency as the airport.”    

Gray blames the lack of a major upgrade, in part, on the lack of additional budget.    

“The budget didn’t exponentially go through the roof, because of the speed,” he explains. “I have read things saying it was $20 million. It wasn’t, it was $16.5 million.”  

A New April O’Neil

Away from the animatronic issues, the human cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 proved a mixed bag.  Corey Feldman didn’t return to voice Donatello after pleading no contest to a drug possession charge while, more notably still, Judith Hoag was replaced by Paige Turco as April O’Neil.  

Hoag later told Variety she was never approached about the sequel, claiming her omission was a result of the fact she complained about the level of violence in the first movie and the six-days-a-week shooting schedule.  

“Everybody was beating everybody up,” Hoag said. “I thought the movie suffered because of that. It was something I spoke to the producers about, I think they thought I was too demanding, and moved on.” 

Not that Gray felt the production suffered as a result of either changes.  

“No, not at all,” he says. “Certainly not with Corey Feldman because it’s a voice. Remember when you play that movie around the world it will be in 40 or 50 different languages and subtitled anyway. It makes no difference and nobody overseas even knew Corey Feldman was doing a voice…With Judith, we thought it might be of concern but then again it’s all about the Turtles. People aren’t showing up for Judith – though she did a fabulous job – it was really all about the Turtles.”   

Elias Koteas also failed to return as the ice hockey stick-wielding vigilante and ally Casey Jones – though that was more down to the film’s shift away from adult themes and one of the more violent human characters.   

“Casey was discussed but the reason he dropped out – and I don’t think this was a major issue – was the direction we wanted to take the film,” Gray says. “We wanted to go lighter. That was part of cleaning up the act.”   

In his place came Ernie Reyes Jr, a rising martial arts star who had served as a stuntman on the first film and was introduced as Keno, a pizza delivery boy who befriends the turtles. It was a stark departure from Koteas’s character but, once again, it was one Gray says came with the backing of the TMNT hierarchy.   

“If Peter and Kevin had wanted Elias back, he would have been back. So, either we were able to convince them that we wanted to go with Ernie and they went along with it.”   

Vanilla Ice

Quite how they were convinced to include rapper Vanilla Ice in the proceedings is anyone’s guess, with the rapper turning up in a mid-film nightclub scene to perform new single “Ninja Rap.” His cameo continues to delight and horrify fans to this day. Few will be surprised by the commercially-minded circumstances that led to his appearance.   

“SBK the record label producing the soundtrack album said ‘You gotta have Vanilla Ice in this, he’s hot’ so we put him in…We had a good album out of it. Sometimes you don’t make the movie for the reason of art you make it because the thing could go away in a heartbeat. I’ve always been fairly honest and upfront about our motives. It is a business.”     

While others might disagree, Gray stands by the inclusion of Vanilla Ice in the film.  

“He actually did a very good job. He’s a very cool operative and he loved doing it.”   

Shredder or Krang?   

Looking back on the sequel, as much as anything, the most disappointing aspect was the decision to resurrect Shredder rather than explore different villains in the way other comic book franchises have.  

While Shredder has always been the main antagonist, as with Bebop and Rocksteady, there remained a plethora of colorful villain characters that could have been plucked from the pages of the original comic or the animated series. But the decision to stick with Shredder was not one takem lightly by anyone, and others were discussed.  

“We went through the whole catalogue of villains and certainly Krang and all these other characters were in play,” Gray says. “We thought of them but we stayed with what works and that’s what you do in these situations. Don’t try and get too clever.”   

As much as anything he blames the Hollywood system and a refusal to take risks. New Line too, would have no doubt been happy to press ahead with a Shredder-oriented sequel, seeing him as the TMNT’s very own Freddy Kreuger of sorts.  

“Nobody trusts their instincts,” Gray says. “You go with what worked before and try to modify it a little bit. If it works [and the plethora of Freddy sequels suggests it did] then you are justified in using the same thing over and over again.”  

Once again though the decision to stick with Shredder and avoid the kind of time and expense required to create something like Krang, a brain-shaped alien carried around in the waist of a robot man, was influenced by that release date.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze opened in theaters on March 22, 1991, less than a year on from the original. It went on to make over $78 million to become the second most successful independent film of all time.   

Despite turning a profit, the film garnered mixed reviews and left Gray and others disappointed.  

“It didn’t deliver on what we had hoped because there was this race against time to get it out one year after the first one. When you do that, you really have to compromise.”  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III 

After the rush to make a second film, it was decided that they would take more time over the third one.  

But anyone hoping for a return to form was left disappointed by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in TIme, which saw the gang head to 17th century Japan.  

“With number three, we were aiming something at the Japanese market, which was the number one market for foreign films,” Gray explains. “That’s why we had the time travel storyline with the samurais. That was definitely one of the motivations.”  

There was just one problem though.  

“We hoped it would get the film released in Japan. To this day, it has not been released in Japan.”  

Though Gray returned to produce an animated fourth film in the 2000s box office returns diminished with every film. By the time Michael Bay got involved in the franchise, Gray was long gone. He now considers himself “out of the turtle game” with this being one of the last interviews on the subject. But despite the highs and lows endured on the second film, Gray remains proud of what was achieved. 

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“These movies were made by committee. It’s amazing they turned out so well.”  

The post What Went Wrong With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[djsherriff]

Since everyone and their dog is doing this , I figured I get on the bandwagon while I can and redesign the train wrecks that are Snowflake and Safespace, now remade into Sword and Shield (real original I know) I got ideas for the others too but for now I’m gonna focus on the twins.

Very tempted to make them into my own characters 

Rewritten bio and artist comments down below 

(I’ll be using Xry/Xe pronouns for Snowflake/Sword cause it’s easier to differentiate between the singular and plural of “they” while still keeping Sword’s non binary identity intact, but if this is disrespectful please feel free to inform me)

A pair of twins who developed their powers as young children , these two only had each other to be their true selves as they hide from the world in fear of how others would react to their growing mutant abilities.

But after a neighbour catches Sword making a shurikens in the backyard, the twins are kidnapped and experimenting on. After one failed test caused their minds to become psychically linked, the two forged a plan and escaped their kidnappers. All their deepest ,most personal thoughts and secrets were exposed to each other and since than the twins’ relationship has became strained as they been on the run since, hoping to reunite with their family and help others on the way as they use for powers to be heroes in the new warriors team.

Shield

The twin brother of sword and the team’s brawn , though don’t think his got no brains as his the most mature of his friends , as that comes to him naturally as the older brother. Despite his large size and intimidating strength in sports, Shield is rather soft spoken and avoids conflict when he can , fitting that his powers are defence only, he likes spending his time watching cat videos and memes about animal puns.

His extreme over protectiveness and tendency to be cold towards strangers makes his more socially open twin frustrated with him, especially since their minds have become psychically connected, though this new development isn’t easy for Shield to deal with as his attempts to keep his sibling close just seems to be pushing xem further away.

As mentioned , Shield’s power is for the most part purely defence as he can create shields for himself and others made of pure energy that materialises as bubbles and , well, shields of different kinds. The bubbles can be moved from both the inside and outside and can even be used to bounce out of areas. (Kinda like the bubble shield from Steven Universe) while he uses smaller shields, he can use these in a more offence style by defending himself as he shoves into enemies or bounces enemies away from him, as his a jock his skills in sports goes naturally to him as he combines the two in combat.

Sword

The twin sibling of shield and the teams token ninja fan, Sword lacks the common sense to wield th xyrs powers with any grace or dignity and is usually the one who gets xyrs friends dragged into chaos. Sword is loud and unpredictable, xyr offence only powers only encourages��xyr reckless behaviour as xe much rather copy from anime and stream horribly done stunts than to actually train and practice his skills.

Ever since their minds have become psychically linked , Sword has felt like xyrs privacy and personal freedom has been stolen from xem, Sword purposely tries to be with other people to avoid Shield’s own clinginess and to find new connections to make.

Much similar to xyrs twin , Sword can create items made of pure energy but they materialises as bladed weapons , such as their favourite the shurikens. Xyrs is much more faster and flexible as they best suited to running across the battle flied throwing whatever they can at the enemy , while fast this makes xe an easy target.

Some personal notes:

The major difference between my redesign and the original is that I decided to completely throw away the ice powers that Sword/Snowflake had , as it was obviously made for the awful name “Snowflake” rather than anything else to do with the character, as well as there being a dozen other ice themed heroes in comics in general.

So going off on how Shield’s original design as Safespace was how he was a purely defensive hero, I decided I play into the idea that the twins powers worked better when they worked as a duo rather than on their own and so I decided that Sword would be a purely offensive fighter in contrast.

Going off with the twins being contrasting foals and complementary opposites, I decided that they should be as different as twins can get while still looking like a pair of siblings. So shield is a big guy who does American football regularly while Sword is basically a stick who lives off of roman pot noodles, it’s a mystery how xe can run for miles if I honest.

So with Shield, his a big brother and gentle giant type character where he could crush a man’s skull if he really wanted to , but he would never want to do such a thing as he would rather keep a kitten safe. Shield is generally very over protective of anyone he considers family and while he avoids conflict, his very much an introvert and hates crowds , often shielding himself from social interaction as he would shield his loved ones from getting hurt. His biggest character flaw would be that he can be clingy and stubborn, and would have to learn to be more open to new ideas and new people and get out of his own safe space when he really needs to.

The biggest character inspiration for his redesign are Clay Bailey from Xiaolin Showdown and Hunk from Voltron in personality and body shape, while his style is obviously taken from American Footballers.

Sword is Shield’s opposite , as the younger twin xyrs is much more open to new things as his pretty much a ball of untamed energy.  Sword could be a very dangerous character with his ability to create weapons out of thin air, but due to laziness to actually work xe is very unskilled in both his mutant powers and his use of those weapons, this is a major reason why xe has more scars and bandages as xe is much more accident prone than Shield. Since shurikens seemed to be a huge part of Snowflakes powers , I decided that Sword would be a massive weeb and be very much into the geek culture of anime while not really getting anything besides what’s on the surface (as much as any of us were when we were teenagers lol) to further contrast xyrs brother who’s more into sports as a jock. Sword’s biggest character flaw would be xry don’t think things through when doing whatever xe want to do , and that xe would have to learn to consider the feelings of others, in that not everyone gets offended by the same things and people who are seemingly “over sensitive” aren’t snowflakes.

I’d also imagine that being non-binary ,  Sword being psychically linked to xry twin brother puts a strain on the relationships as Sword was robbed of coming out on xrys own terms ( Shield supports Sword , but that doesn’t make it any easier that Sword was basically been forced out the closet when the mind link happened )

Biggest character inspiration for the character redesign is Naruto , Boruto’s dad, and Leo and Mikey from the rise of the teenage ninja turtles, xyrs is a shameless weeaboo and it shows in xrys awful ninja wannabe costume.

I hope you enjoy my own takes on the characters but feel free to criticise if I overstepped my boundaries or whatever.

[devotedlydeepeststrawberry]

Sooouu, I started this by wanting to explain why Rise!Leo wouldn't be a good leader right now and I kinda ended up explaining where I would take the story if I wrote it. Anyway I'm a bad writer and English is not my main language so if anybody gets inspired by any of this and decides to write a fan-fiction from it, be my guest (and please link it).

First of let's start with my initial why Leo wouldn't be a good leader. Even though he has a great gut feeling (I think he was wrong only one time in the first season), is relatively good at planing, is able to motivate his brothers with his speeches and his brothers do listen to him sometimes he lacks responsibility and confidence.

Different to Donnie, who is awesome at one specific thing and seeks recognition for it, Leo does not have a specific thing he is good at. Instead he seeks recognition in medals and competitions, he is boasting about his wins because they are the only thing he has going for him and nobody else is praising him for anything, even when he is right or saves somebody. This lead to Leo thinking he is not good enough on his own, even tough he proved otherwise in Bug Busters where he was alone in Big Mama's Hotel and was still able to save his brothers. The first thing he did in Portal Jacked when his brother were lost was to go to Señior Hueso for help(sorry for misspelling his name), in Flushed but Never Forgotten he went to his father for help. Unless he can't help it, he makes sure that he is never alone in a situation that might go south because he lacks the confidence to use the skills he has.

The second point is the fact that he isn't responsible enough to be a leader. He tries to avoid responsibility for his actions every chance he gets. That's why this Leo doesn't want to be leader because he knows that he would be responsible not only for himself but also for his brothers. And that ties in with his lack of confidence. However, in Flushed but Never Forgotten, when his family was in danger he threw away his reason, went after them without a plan and took on full responsibility for the plan while being ready to be the only one to take punishment, sacrificing himself. Meaning he is only ready to take responsibility in dire situations.

On the other hand Raph, being the oldest, is used to care and be responsible for his brothers, but he cares too much. He didn't want to let Mikey go on a mission alone, his plan for better teamwork only worked because his brothers pitied him and when Donnie put their family in danger with his gifts Raph didn't want to hurt Donnie's feelings. This are things a big brother would do, not a leader. As it is right now both Raph and Leo are bad leaders, the former for caring too much and the latter for not wanting to be one.

And this where I explain where I would take the story so Leo can become a leader.

First off, Leo needs to get confidence and more leadership skills. But where would he get that? Of course by being away from his family and meeting new people. But, where?

Currently, we know three places where he can go do that:

human world(with the thing that turns yokai's into human)

The Mystic City

Battle Nexus

The human world is more for Donnie. He already has a group he fights against (Purple Dragons), and is more interested in normal school than his brothers. Aside from that, Donnie has the brains to recreate the thing that could turn them human plus he would greatly benefit from being a human. Donnie's main issues are his constant need for praise and his lack of understanding other people's feelings. For him meeting teachers who praise him and people who have the same intellect as him would do wonders on his mood. Of course he would also need to handle bullies and realize that in the real world team work and communication is really important. Plus you won't be able to choose who you work with, you need to be able to compromise and understand the other persons strengths and weaknesses, that also means putting other people before himself. Donnie also needs to understand that, as much as hates being sociable, everybody can be useful so he needs to make a lot of connection, even with people dumber than him and he is not allowed to insult them. Leo would be there to tell him that, but Donnie wouldn't listen to him until he is in a great pinch. In the end he realizes that Leo was right, but never tells him that and his live improves greatly.

Leo is a sociable person. He would be quick to make new friends and maybe be relatively popular. He wouldn't benefit at all from going to a human school.

The Mystic City is not a challenge for Leo. Aside from Draxum, there aren't really dangers he would need to face there. The last time he was there, he survived without his sword in the bad part of the city. He did have Hueso with him but why would Leo go there alone in the first place? Leo also doesn't have good mystic powers, but do you know who does? Mikey. From what we have seen of Mikey, he is friendly and creative. Mikey would thrive in the Mystic City, find friends, be creative and maybe even learn a thing or two to impress his older brothers. For why he would go there, he would want to prove himself to Raph. He is not just a baby anymore, he can survive without him breathing down Mikey's neck. Leo would be supportive, give Mikey some advice on pirates and bad places, maybe ask Hueso to help Mikey discreetly. It would work out in the end. Leo would be right once again. Raph wouldn't like all of this one bit.

Now to the Battle Nexus. I really thought that this would be the perfect place for Leo. Being a champion is an easy bait for him, but Leo isn't dumb. He wouldn't trust Big Mama and would not easily fall into her trap. Besides the Battle Nexus is one against one, not for teams and why would Big Mama want Leo there in the first place. No. She would want somebody strong, feral, somebody like Raph. Give Raph some cutesy stuff and the trap is laid. So we have a Raph that is totally alone in the Battle Nexus for days while fighting big scary mutants and yokai. He would go crazy, and wouldn't find a way out. Cue, the other three trying to save him with Leo's plan. It fails, miserably. For the first time in Leo's life he was actually wrong at something and it could have cost his brothers lives, it was all his fault. And this time it wasn't a lesson by his father. He needed to plead Raph to calm down while protecting his other two brothers. Raph listens to Leo's pleading and calms down after a while, but in Leo's eyes Raph didn't calm down because of him but out of his own strength, since, after this, Raph learnt how to control his feral side and was able to save all four of them all on his own.

All of Leo's brothers overcame their weaknesses. They became better ninjas. Leaving Leo the only one who hasn't changed. He was still bad with his mystic powers, and the medals he earned were worth nothing.

So how would Leo grow? Simple, just like all the Leos before him. He gets to fight the same enemy as them but in a different way. There was a shot in the episode Shadow of Evil(around the 18 minute mark, can't screen shot it now) where Draxum creates a rift. On one side of it are three turtles and Splinter and on the other side, The Foot and Leo. All of them look surprised at where Draxum is. Now, this could be as to create a balance in the scene or for foreshadowing. I will choose the latter for my story.

As we know Draxum and the Foot soldiers are not on the best terms. There will be betrayal and fights in their future. However Draxum became too powerful for two soldiers to defeat, so they steal the finished armor but they don't wear it. Fast Forward to turtles plus April plus Splinter vs Draxum. Turtle family loses and the only one to escape is Leo. Leo has show to go to drastic measures for his family and is ready to accept help because he is too scared to fight alone. Enter The Foot Brute and Lieutenant with the finished armor. They tell him about how the armor grands wishes and could give Leo the power to save his family. His gut tells him that this is a bad idea but his gut was wrong before, and this was the only way to save his family. He accepts wearing the armor to save his family, together with the Foot clan.

Of course they succeed, but Draxum manages to escape. Now that Leo's wish was granted the armor or, better, Shredder takes over Leo's body. Like I said, Leo is skillful but he doesn't know how to use his skills and has no confidence but imagine Leo's skill and weapon in Shredder's hands. The turtles are lucky that the new villain isn't yet used to his new body, so he decides to escape, together with the Brute and Lieutenant.

And that's it for what we see of Leo for a while. The other episodes would be about a life style without Leo. His family will realize how much Leo has actually done for them and even start missing his jokes. They will live their lives, fail and succeed at stuff, while searching for Leo. Each turtle will get their individual episodes that seems fine, but kinda off in way. This way ROTTMNT can fulfill their promise to not be a Leo centric show because every turtle gets their own arc. They will have their own enemies and issues to fight and overcome, while Leo is just a supporting character and he importance only becomes clear once he is gone.

Now, while the other turtles had a few episodes of their story arc with some interludes for comic relief and episodes of the family members, I want Leo’s story to have one half hour episode episode, like Shadow of evil. So, what is happening with Leo?

While his his body is controlled by Shredder, his mind is trapped in the armor, together with the person who sealed Shredder all those years ago, Karai. You can imagine her anger when she realized a turtle let Shredder lose. They talk. He explains who he is, how he got here etc... Karai explains to him what ’here’ is and who Shredder is. Leo realizes he released armageddon upon the world, and, more importantly, his family. However not all hope is lost. Since Leo has Lou JItsu’s DNA, he, in a way, is related to Karai, meaning he has the power to fight against Shredder and take his body back. Leo tries calling Karai grandma, that did not end well. Anyway, Leo doesn’t know how to fight against Shredder so Karai offers to teach him and since they are in the armor Karai decides to use Leo’s memories to create a copy of Lou Jitsu to boost Leo’s moral.

Leo needed a pep talk, a bunch of stuff happens but Leo still wasn’t able to understand how she could fight against Shredder and Karai got more irritated by the minute. Meanwhile, Shredder realized what Karai was doing, knowing what and who Leo is and how dangerous the situation could get for him, he separates Karai and Leo by trapping Leo in a simulation of what happened in the war when he was sealed according to his and Kara’s memories. Bad move.

Leo was stuck in a never ending loop, where a bunch of good people died and Karai sacrificed herself to stop Shredder. Turns out Karai was quite similar to Lou JItsu since she didn’t care for her families destiny as well and that was the catalyst for her families death by the hands of Shredder. After a while Leo had enough and managed to use Karai’s training to stop the loop, turn back time and fall right into the story. He meets Karai and Usagi the young, soon to be leaders of their repective armies. Right then they were arguing about what they should do. In fact, one of the main reasons why Shredder couldn’t be defeated in the past was because Usagi and Karai would argue too much so they created two armies instead of one. Leo knew if they had put their differences aside or at least compromise lives could have been saved, so he decides to change this simulation

He acted as the middle man for the two and compromised a co-leadership. They didn’t trust him at first but with time they became close friends with Karai teaching Leo about swords and Usagi helping with the mystic powers They created an army and when the time came to choose a leader Leo was chosen with Karai and Usagi being his advisors. They managed to defeat Shredder. Leo got back to the Karai in the armor and they continued their training until Leo’s family came to save him.

The turtle plus April and Splinter used their training from their own arcs to save Leo. They were apologizing to Leo and all the typical stuff. Leo didn’t finish his training with Karai so he still wasn’t able to defeat Shredder for good but he couldn’t let Shredder use his body to kill his family, Karai understood and let him go with a last words being something along the lines of ‘Go my teenage mutant ninja turtles’, giving them their name while he just said ‘bye, grandma’.

He managed to get his body back but the armor and Shredder were still alive. Giving Leo an end goal. After this incident Leo had some PTSD to handle(he fought in war). Things happened and everybody gradually realized that Leo would be good leader and he was offered the position he accepted. I mean it couldn’t be worse than what happened in the simulation,

[cupofsorrows]

A Conceptual Post About Pokémon as D&D Monsters

I know, I know, it’s been done before, but I’ve been having a lot of ideas about D&D lately and it occurred to me that it might be fun to try to adapt Pokemon to the standard dnd setting(s) - that is, not just copying them wholesale as in, “you open the dungeon door and see a pikachu” but taking the concept of the creature and placing it in your world as something that genuinely belonged there. Like, say, You confront your party with a large turtle-monster that sprays high-powered water jets as its primary mode of attack. It’s essentially a blastoise, but that isn’t what it’s called and it doesn’t necessarily have to follow the rules that an actual blastoise would in the pokemon games. I’ve seen pokemon stat block writeups before, but they’re usually pretty straightforward “this is a psyduck” type deals, and what I’m interested in is retooling the monster to fit in a different world (while keeping the core of it intact). What’s it called (if it has a different name)? Where does it come from in your world, and where does it live? If the original had evolutions, does this version? Lots of potential there. To that end, here are a few pokemon that I think have particularly interesting concepts:

Phantump: Honestly all of the ghost pokemon have interesting concepts but I didn’t want to have a disproportionate number of ghost-types so I chose this one. Core concept is a furtive little forest spirit that uses old tree stumps (or perhaps fallen logs) as surrogate bodies/protective shells. Canon lore says they’re supposedly the spirits of children who died in the forest, so take or leave that as you please. Now, none of these suggestions have to look exactly like their inspirations as long as they convey the idea - for instance I sort of imagine these guys as little humanoid figures made of gnarled wood, which also gives me distinct skull-kid-from-LoZ vibes (but maybe that should be a separate post...)

Heliolisk: I don’t really know what drew me to this critter in particular, except that ‘solar-powered lizard that can shoot electricity and stuff’ is just a good creature to put in a made-up world (probably in a desert region). It even has “-lisk” in its name, like the more infamous basilisk, so it already sounds like it SHOULD be a mythical creature. As I’m writing this I realize that it strongly resembles the already-in-dnd shocker lizard, but come on, this thing is way more badass. Also I was just reading about it on Bulbapedia and apparently it can run super-fast? so... that’s in there, too.

Snorlax or Slaking: Look I just like the concept of a big hairy beast that’s super strong but spends almost all of its time asleep. Not even sure that would affect its stats but it’s great flavor.

Zygarde: A host of tiny organisms - maybe even single-celled - which can come together to form larger gestalt creatures (most famously a massive serpent/worm, but even more powerful forms may be possible). Should be a very powerful, possibly unique, individual, since it is a legendary pokemon.

Dhelmise: Sentient algae that uses marine detritus as a ‘skeleton’? The ghost type delivers again! I imagine that before humans were responsible for so much stuff being in the ocean these must have used a lot of animal bones (and maybe some driftwood) instead.

Seismitoad: I think there are already frog monsters with sonic attacks, but that was only half of the appeal for me here, the other half being ‘large bipedal frog’. I hold this as being very different from bullywugs, grippli, or any other amphibian-based humanoids: While froglike, those are all still fundamentally types of people, whereas this beast is first and foremost a frog. A frog that walks upright and has opposable thumbs. This also works with poliwhirl/poliwrath and croagunk/toxicroak, but then the sonic/vibration stuff won this one out for me by a slim margin. (Addendum: I have come to the realization that seismitoad and croagunk don’t actually have opposable thumbs according to their artwork. Whatever, just fudge it.)

Tropius: This one’s just plain weird. Like, almost exeggcutor-level weird (dang, maybe I should have chosen exeggcutor instead. But tropius is less famously weird. Side note: what’s up with pokemon based on palmlike plants?) It’s part small sauropod dinosaur, part banana tree, and while I’m not sure whether it should be classified as a plant or not, I do know that it can definitely fly. Also, it produces delicious fruit you can eat!

Parasect: You probably figured I was going to mention this one. Everyone thinks of paras and parasect when they think of pokemon with weird but cool concepts. MY take is that the fungus could infest different types of giant vermin, perhaps making it the basis for a template. Or not; these are just suggestions. Do whatever.

Larvesta and Volcarona: Maybe I’m just on a kick from all the GKOTM fanart I’ve been seeing, but giant fire-spitting caterpillar + giant fiery moth adult seems like a creature idea worth exploring. Larvesta also takes longer to evolve than any other stage-one pokemon, which I see as representing a long time spent in larval form (or pupated), which in turn resembles kaiju’s long periods of ‘dormancy’, bringing us back to Mothra (as all things must). Also, I think larvesta/volcarona are the only bug/fire types in the whole series so far? That’s nuts to me but it just makes them even more special.

Abra: Honestly the way this guy looks is like 90% of the appeal for me here. Abra looks like an armadillo tried to evolve into a monkey and somehow ended up with psychic powers in the process. It levitates and teleports, and according to the lore it’s usually asleep but thanks to its psychic powers is still aware of its surroundings. That’s right, its eyes aren’t really narrow, they’re just closed all the time. Do any images of abra with its eyes open exist? If they do, are we prepared to see them? As always, don’t feel like you have to give any of these guys evolved forms just because they evolve in the games. I’m definitely not saying this here specifically because I like abra’s design more than its evolutions, no sir.

Pinsir or Heracross: Pretty much the same as with the toads a few entries above. Clearly not people, but just vaguely reminiscent enough to maybe be just a little unsettling. C’mon, I know they’re cute in the games and the show but tell me you wouldn’t be at least slightly perturbed if you saw a real-life beetle the size of a 10-year-old trundling around on two legs. Even if you thought it was rad as hell you’d still get out of there pretty quick if it started trundling towards you.

Slowpoke: Listen if you don’t get the appeal of a semi-aquatic, ambiguously mammalian quadruped that has psychic capabilities but is also comically oblivious to external stimuli then I just don’t know what to tell you.

Barbaracle: Colonial organism sort of like Zygarde, except the individual parts are bigger. It could even be modular, with the various ‘limbs’ combining in different ways, although that could also complicate the stat block.

Gothitelle: Conceptually I suppose this is just another humanoid psychic creature, but a while ago I saw someone point out how its frills and whatnot are sort of reminiscent of a sea slug, and damned if ‘anthropomorphic nudibranch’ doesn’t get my blood flowing.

Rapidash: Pretty simple, a unicorn variant/non-evil fire horse. Who wouldn’t want one of those?

Necrozma: I never actually played Sun and Moon 2, nor did I get too deep into the postgame ultra beast stuff in SuMo 1, so regrettably I missed out on a lot of the wonderful interdimensional weirdness. While each ultra beast is appealing in its own way, Necrozma is practically a Lovecraftian Great Old One already what with how it was once an interstellar being of heat and light but was somehow injured or depleted and has now become a completely different creature that travels from world to world absorbing all light. That’s a pretty raw concept for any story, let alone a cute kid’s game. And it’s always a plus when something can be cool and threatening while still being safe for a G rating! You could also do what SuMo2 did and take your heroes to a world that’s already had its light stolen by the beast, to explore how the inhabitants of that world have been affected as well as show what awaits the heroes’ world... or just as a nice change of scenery. Lastly there’s the possibility that Necrozma must ultimately be defeated not through violence, but by figuring out how to restore it to its original form. It isn’t too often that the cosmic monstrosity could actually use your help, and it might leave the PCs feeling like they really accomplished something epic. Alternately, it returning to its original form also makes a great homage to the multiple forms of every JRPG final boss ever, a trope that has been under-represented in D&D for TOO LONG.

...and that’s it, at least for now. Naturally, there are about a thousand other possibilities, including different ways of interpreting the examples I’ve provided here. I suppose they could also be used for purposes besides D&D, although if you’re going to put any of this in the fantasy novel you’ve been working on I suggest you be extra diligent in obfuscating the creatures’ actual origins so as to avoid a visit from any lawyers. I don’t know if anybody is actually even going to see this post at all, but if it does end up getting around, then I fully encourage all of you to put your own spins on this if you’re inspired to do so! I’d love to see what other people might come up with.

[mikauzoran]

Adrienette Drabble Sixteen: Hole

Adrien survived Wednesday by hiding out in storage closets and sneaking into class through the back door just seconds before the teacher. He sat in the last row so no one could stare at him, and he carried all the things he needed for the day in his satchel so that he didn’t have to return to his locker and risk running into anybody between classes.

Lunch was tricky. He fled at the bell and hid until it was safe for Chat Noir to emerge and head up to a rooftop to eat undisturbed.

Thursday followed a similar pattern.

Adrien was beginning to think that maybe he could survive like this for the remaining two weeks of the school year when Nino ruined his plans on Friday.

“Gotcha!” Nino declared victoriously as he grabbed Adrien by the arm.

Adrien yelped and struggled frantically to escape.

Seeing the terror on his friend’s face, Nino released his hold. “Whoa. Chill, Mec. Hey!”

Adrien made a run for it, heading for the storage closet down the back hallway off of the gym.

Nino gave chase only to find Adrien cowering behind a rack of folding chairs. “Hey,” he called softly. “Adrien, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. What’s going on?”

Adrien curled in on himself, trembling as he gasped, “D-Don’t look at m-me.”

Nino backed away slowly and took a seat on the other side of the chair rack. “Okay. I’m not looking at you. …Can we talk about this?”

Adrien didn’t respond.

Nino pursed his lips. “You breathing over there?”

“N-No,” Adrien answered honestly.

“Okay. Let’s do that first. Can you take a deep breath for me?” Nino coaxed and listened to Adrien inhale. “Now exhale slowly, all right?”

Adrien did as requested.

“Good. Good job. Now do it again, okay?”

Nino waited, listening to Adrien for a couple breaths before remarking, “You know, I’ve been worried about you. You haven’t been answering your phone, and every day when I stopped by your house, they told me you were sick.”

“I…don’t have my phone. I’m not allowed to talk to Marinette, so…Nathalie has it locked in a drawer…so that I’m not tempted,” Adrien explained, shame filling his voice.

“I see,” Nino whispered. “Well, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”

Adrien gulped and replied in a tiny voice, “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you’re…” Nino trailed off because Adrien was obviously not “okay”. “…not dead or something,” Nino finished lamely.

Silence fell between them again, and Nino let it be for a while.

“…Is there anything you need from me? Seriously. Anything. Even if you think it sounds dumb, go ahead and ask,” Nino offered.

Adrien didn’t respond right away. “…Can I have a hug? I know guys don’t hug, but…”

“Guys not hugging is a stupid rule,” Nino snorted, getting to his feet and going over to sit beside Adrien, wrapping an arm around his friend and pulling Adrien in.

Adrien circled his arms around Nino’s waist, tucking his head under Nino’s chin.

Nino gave Adrien a squeeze, resting his head against Adrien’s and assuring, “Mec, you can have a hug whenever you need one. Anything else you need?”

Adrien shook his head. “…You’re not going to press for an explanation?”

“You don’t owe me one,” Nino replied simply.

“I feel like I do.”

“But you don’t,” Nino chuckled.

Adrien made a disgruntled noise.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Nino prompted.

“I think you already know what happened,” Adrien mumbled.

“I’ve heard the heavily redacted, hysterical-Marinette version, but that wasn’t what I asked you. Do you want to talk about it?”

Adrien considered for a moment before snuggling in closer. “There’s nothing to talk about. I screwed everything up. Marinette doesn’t want to date me. I’m walking wounded here. There’s nothing to talk about.”

“I don’t think that’s what actually happened, but…okay,” Nino easily agreed. “We’ll leave it alone for now, but if you change your mind and do decide that there’s something to talk about, just let me know, okay? For now, do you want to go get some lunch, or do you want to stay here a little longer?”

Adrien raised his head to look curiously at Nino while still maintaining a loose hold. “Get lunch…with you…and Alya and Marinette? I’m allowed to come back?”

Nino winced. “Uh…Sorry. Just with me. I don’t think…I don’t think lunch with the girls is a good idea.”

Adrien pulled away, nodding as he wrapped his arms around his knees and hugged them into his chest. “Yeah. Okay. No…I’m good. You should go eat with the girls, Nino. You don’t have to share my exile with me. Go eat with your…your girlfriend.” The word got stuck in Adrien’s throat.

“Dude, no,” Nino insisted. “And you’re not in exile.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “I think that’s kind of the definition of exile when you’re not allowed to go back to someplace you really want to be. You should go have lunch without me.”

“Adrien,” Nino sighed. “Look. I’m going to tell you a secret. Even if I wanted to go have lunch with the girls—which I don’t because I would never leave a buddy hanging like that—I can’t.”

Adrien arched an eyebrow in confusion. “You ‘can’t’.”

Nino shook his head. “Marinette would kill me. She is seriously out of her mind with worry because of you. She told me Wednesday to go eat lunch with you—again, not that she needed to because I was going to anyway—but you disappeared so fast, and I couldn’t find you. Same thing on Thursday. Today, Marinette took me by the collar and told me that I had better track you down and make sure you weren’t eating alone otherwise she’d take my Miraculous and give it to my brother Noël. So, you see, I couldn’t eat lunch with the girls even if I wanted to.”

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “Y-Your Miraculous? Did you just say your Miraculous?”

Nino’s mouth rounded into a little ‘o’. “Shoot. She didn’t tell you about that part? She told me she’d told you that you could talk to me because I knew everything. I thought she’d…”

Adrien shook his head in a comically slow fashion.

“Well.” Nino pursed his lips. “I guess both the cat and the turtle are out of the bag now.”

Adrien paled. “She…told you about me?”

Nino waved his arms vehemently. “Nonono. I figured that out myself from context.”

Adrien frowned incredulously. “What context?”

Nino rubbed at the back of his neck, averting his eyes. “Well, last Friday she texted me about dating Chat Noir, and then Saturday afternoon I texted her teasing about her sexy kitty boyfriend, but she flipped and said she absolutely could not date Chat Noir, but then she wouldn’t explain. I asked if it had anything to do with Adrien-you, and she flipped some more about how you’d confessed to being in love with her and how things were a mess. At that point, I kind of put things together and realized the only way that the situation made sense was if you and her friend Minou were the same person.”

Adrien’s face lost all remaining color.

“I also realized that I had helped steer her off a cliff by suggesting she date Chat Noir,” Nino groaned.

“Oh,” Adrien replied softly. “…Thank you for saving my butt the other day with that silly putty akuma.”

“Any time, Mec…. I am going to be a wreck from now on knowing it’s you out there,” Nino realized. “This is going to suck.”

“Sorry in advance,” Adrien muttered.

“You’d better be when you literally give me a heart attack,” Nino snorted.

“…Your gamer tag finally makes sense. NinjaTurtleIRL…. Isn’t that a little obvious?” Adrien snickered.

“It’s been three years, and you haven’t figured it out,” Nino countered smugly. “Is ‘LeChatDeLaPrincesse’ any better?”

Adrien winced.

“Come to think of it, you’ve had that handle for a couple years now, haven’t you? But you only started liking Marinette romantically a few months ago. What’s up with that?” Nino quirked an eyebrow suspiciously.

“Okay, so maybe I’ve had a low-grade crush on her for a while. Chat and Marinette started hanging out two, two and a half years ago, and…I don’t know.” Adrien shrugged.

Nino nodded. “Many guys have found themselves in a state of ‘I don’t know’ with Marinette. It’s a common reaction.”

Adrien sighed, resting his chin on his knees. “Yeah, but how many guys has she driven past the brink of desperation into lunacy?”

“You’re not crazy, Adrien. You’re just in love. Trust me. I know they feel similar, but there is a difference,” Nino assured.

“…I got my father to allow me to see a therapist,” Adrien remarked in a voice just above a whisper.

“Dude, that is awesome!” Nino gave Adrien’s upper arm a celebratory clap. “I am really excited for this new leaf your dad has been turning over lately!”

Adrien grimaced. “All it took was telling him I was afraid I’d end up killing myself if things didn’t get better.”

Nino’s elation quickly dissipated. “You shouldn’t tell people that…unless it’s true.”

Adrien gulped and nodded. “I don’t ever want to get to that point, but with the way things are going…I am afraid of eventually getting there.”

Nino wrapped his arms around Adrien once more and squeezed tight. “We are going to get you better, okay? We’re going to keep you safe, so don’t worry about the future. Let’s focus on the here and now. All right?”

“‘Kay’,” Adrien mumbled into Nino’s neck. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ve got you,” Nino promised.

They stayed like that a good minute before Nino tentatively pulled back to ask, “You doing okay now? You want to get some lunch, or is there anything else we need to talk about?”

“I’m ready for lunch, but I don’t want to go down to the lunch room with everyone else,” Adrien admitted.

Nino nodded. “All right. I’m going to go get food, but then I’ll meet you back up here, and we can eat together wherever you want. Sound like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Adrien affirmed with a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

Nino rolled his eyes fondly as he got to his feet. “Silly boy. You don’t have to thank me. I love you, Mec. I’m here for you.” With a wink, Nino was off, leaving Adrien to consider what a great friend he had been blessed to find.

…And the fact that Marinette was still looking out for him, worrying about him eating lunch alone when she wasn’t in a place where she could eat with him herself.

Hope swelled in Adrien’s chest.

 Adrien told Nino to head back to class first after the lunch break and that Adrien would be along soon. When Adrien snuck into class through the back door at the very last minute, he found Nino sitting in the back row in the seat next to the one right by the door that Adrien had been occupying the previous two days.

Adrien blinked owlishly.

“Can I sit here?” Nino inquired, prepared to be told no. “It’s okay if you want to be left alone, but I thought you could use some company.”

“You don’t want to sit up front by Alya?” Adrien pressed, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

Nino waved away Adrien’s concern “Not until my best bud can sit up there next to me.”

“Sometimes I want to kiss you,” Adrien chuckled. “Thank you, Nino.”

“Any time,” Nino assured as he tried to keep his blush under control.

[faunusrights]

‘AFTER THE FALL’ - LIVEREAD III

The more I hear about the latter half of this book, the more depresso espresso I’m drinking. Let’s see how it goes, huh?

(Since there’s more chapters in the latter half than the first half, short chapters will probably get combined together for the sake of. I’m lazy.)

CHAPTERS EIGHT AND NINE

I love that Velvet’s the one who enlisted Weiss and Yang, expecting shit to go sideways. She saw these two gays on main and went ‘they look like they can party’. Was she wrong? No. Did she invite Cinder for the express purpose of drama? Yes. Can you make me stop shipping Sinnamon Bun? Also no.

Okay, this book has read my mine though!!! Ruby pitches a Beacon Battle Club where they play music as they fight, and no word of a fucking lie, that happens in Great Weiss Shark AU! I am not kidding! I had this whole story planned out! This is theft of the HIGHEST order.

“Doilies are absurd and elitist,” Yang said.

This is simultaneously the least Yang-like line and also the most Yang-like line I’ve ever heard. The duality of idiot, I suppose.

I like Fox! I really do, actually! He’s my son now. Although, the bad news is I dunno if I can replicate him in The Frapp Logs, so he’ll just have to keep dragging Coco to the ends of the earth. Same thing, right? R-right?

“Leaders can’t be the comic relief.” Fox raised his eyebrows. “Jaune.”

Is this the second time Jaune’s been dragged? I’m living for it. Also, sleepy Blake! And CFVY knowing she’s (they’re) a Faunus! And the second book behind a book! I love you, Blake.

Velvet correcting Yatsu’s ‘catnap’ joke! I wrote a ficlet about this exact thing once, so I TOLD you my Velvet’s NEARLY CANON. SHE JUST NEEDS TO EAT MORE PROTEIN IS ALL.

Onto chapter nine. God, these chapters get thinner by the second, huh?

BACK TO THE DESERT WE GO, and there’s... fog? Which is now gone! Wow! Is this a plot device? Foreshadowing? I sure hope so, because why on earth it would warrant a mention we’re just not too sure!

A sandstorm is incoming and hidden tracks are gonna get blasted away. I’m trying to figure out if this is all pathetic fallacy or if I’m reading too much into handy-dandy plot devices. Why not both?

Heart-to-heart with Coco and Yatsu... and we’re back to Yatsu giving Velvet all the hugs. Now that I’m sensing the Velv/Yats vibes, I’m extra suspicious. You stop that. Let Velvet have a fashionable GF at least if you won’t let her kiss Weiss!!!

‘[...] even the women were down to halter tops. Focus, Coco, she thought.’

Ah, lesbian as always. I’m soothed. Carmine enters the tent and Coco gets even gayer. I’m very soothed.

‘What was Jaune doing after losing a member of his team, a friend... someone he clearly cared about.’

I don’t care about what Jaune feels. Why the heck would Coco even care? There’s literally so many more people that impacts than just Jaune, lawd.

CHAPTER TEN AND ELEVEN

Back to Fox, who is honestly the shining star of this book by now. I love you, my blind and sassy son.

I love Ada and the battle mechanic she has! I’m really enjoying how Fox interacts with the world around him and using his Scroll and AI as an accessibility device. It’s neat! I didn’t expect them to go as ham on him as they did, but they did.

“Update,” Ada said. “Weapon has projectile capabilities.” “You mean it’s also a gun.”

Obligatory gun meme.

Combat stuff happens, Fox wins a fight against a confused Edward, and it turns out Gus is the one summoning Grimm and Fox just got jumped, so we slide into another flashback for chapter eleven. Lemme tell ya, this book ain’t afraid of moving fast.

“I guess you slightly oversold your ability to track the survivors,” Coco said.

Again, this is one of those lines that reads as very... callous? Kinda mean? I’ve always had Coco in my head as someone who very broadly puts her team (and their feelings) first, even if it’s rough, so lines like this make me go 🤔

Velvet falls, Yatsu panics, Coco gets up in everyone’s grill. There’s a lot to this dynamic I am not enjoying right now, and even then this seems inconsistent with the CFVY we’ve seen in the book itself. I know the author’s trying to communicate that Coco is tired and frustrated, that I get, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t how... it would really happen given her character? I dunno. ‘S weird.

Was that a fat joke I spotted there? From Coco? I need a nap. Also COCO LET VELVET DO THINGS JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK ME SIDEWAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Coco has claustrophobia! I wrote her as having agoraphobia, so this is a hilarious turn of events. Also Coco has two brothers, not one: Mate and Toma.

Coco is fighting Grimm in a cave with CFVY, but still finds time to criticise Velvet in combat. Hey, maybe if you let her do things, she’d prove you wrong, dingus. And then she does! See!

Aaaaaaaand the six survivors are all dead. This was a pretty traumatic event, all told, which makes it weird that they look... less affected in the show? Still, this chapter was VERY weird for the characterisations because Coco seems especially inconsistent, alas. Anyway, onto:

CHAPTERS TWELVE AND THIRTEEN

The sandstorm is approaching and catching the wagons, which I have just realised are actually vehicles that use fuel. Mostly because that’s the First I Heard Of It.

‘Velvet noticed a pistol tucked in the back before she closed the door.’

Hi, can Chekhov please pick up his gun from aisle twelve? Thanks.

GIANT SAND TURTLE. AVATAR AANG C’MERE Y’ALL GOTTA LEARN HOW TO DEFEAT THE FIRELORD.

“You said it’s big enough to ride on?” Velvet asked.

Maybe this is why Coco dismisses Velvet so often. She only pitches the craziest ideas, which is why I love her. That said, Coco finally lets Velvet do something! It’s a miracle of man! Climb that turtle, bihh!

Yatsu calls Velvet V. I’m so used to Velv that V sounds entirely too cool for this idiot.

Everyone’s pissed again, but-- IS THAT THE SAND WORM THING FROM ARRAKIS?! What A Tweest!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody coulda seen THAT coming!!!!!

So let’s go to chapter thirteen, where Fox has had the shit beaten out of him behind a Denny’s. Sound about right.

So what’s-his-name-- Bertilak, whomst from now on shall be called Bert because what sorta water tribe name even is that (wow the ATLA references are on fire today). Anyway, Bert is being paid by someone else to deliver people with Stronk Semblances like summoning Grimm! Gee I Wonder Who That Might Be (I don’t actually know but I’m honestly not going to be surprised either way).

“Yeah, [Bert]’s a real bastard.” “Even I can see that,” Fox sent.

I love it. Fox really has been the highlight of this book for me.

Fox is on the ground and the referee is counting him to ten, so it’s mid-chapter-flashback time! We learn how Fox’s parents died (sinkhole) and how that became his motivation for... going to Beacon? Okay, tenuous link at best, but I’m going with it.

Carmine is full of trouble and Fox is determined to take Bert with ‘em. Let him DIE.

I’m gonna keep going since we’re not four chapters from the end, so:

CHAPTERS FOURTEEN AND FIFTEEN

Flashback time! Again! Only it’s CFVY’s POV of their return to Beacon. I wouldn’t mind this if like. We hadn’t already seen this from RWBY’s perspective in the show? People know this from my tastes in fanfic, but I’m not a huge fan of retellings of canon events, it’s soooooo boooooring. So I’m just gonna grind through this asap.

(I do like that RWBY and CFVY have all these parallels being called to. As they should.)

Okay we’re past the recap and OH LAWD I HEARD OF THIS BIT. Goodwitch is here (I love u Glynda no matter what) but yeah, I’ve heard this part is Big Oof so uh, let’s see this happen go down. Velvet is being requested to see Ozpin so /buckles down.

Velvet’s being questioned alone for the Whole Thing, and team CFVY have burst into the office demanding to know why, and Velvet’s a crying wreck! I’m still very >:I for everyone being overprotective of Velvet, c’mon, but also: Oz, can you please have tact? Just once in your life? Tact? Do you has it?

Anyway, CFVY have reconciled and we turn to chapter fifteen, in which: Yatsu.

Carmine has Gus, everyone’s on the Turtmobile, and shit’s hitting the fan. Yatsu’s going after Gus and Carmine alone, and I’m still waiting on Chekov’s Gun to Chekov its way right into someone’s butt. Unless it’s Chekov’s Red Herring.

Here comes a fight scene! I never have much to say during fight scenes, so, uh, yeah. There’s some real last-minute exposition in places, though, where it really shouldn’t be.

Eey, Carmine is telekinetic! Very powerful and also OP, gotta nerf that shit right down, Edward.

Yatsu’s very nearly defeated, Bert is back, baby, and shit’s getting real. Time for chaaaaaaaaaper sixteeeeeeeeeen.

CHAPTERS SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN

Today’s livereading soundtrack is Simple Things by Zero 7. The whole album, I mean. This is a fun little fact to make sure you’re still awake and aware, ‘cause I sure ain’t!

Roy Stallion of BRNZ is presumed dead, along with the whole team, so big RIP to May, who was cute and deserved better. Swear to God if ABRN are dead too I will kill a man. Two men, to be specific.

Velvet admits she never wanted to come to Vacuo, Coco promises they’ll return to reclaim Beacon in future. This reads like a protagonist’s last speech on hope and strength in friendship... and it should, as Coco gets swallowed by a worm! Straight up just down the hatch! This should be a tragic beat, but this is honestly so funny. Coco, pick better ways to die.

Anyway, we’re onto chapter seventeen. I was very kindly given this message:

And I-- OH HELL YES! HELL YES IT’S A SCHOOL DAY TIMETABLE!!!!!!!!!! THE LORE! THE CLASSES! THE NAMES! THE FACTS! THIS IS THE BEST THING IN THE ENTIRE BOOK SO FAR WHICH REALLY GOES TO SHOW I HAVE NO HOBBIES!

Is this a... flashback? Flash... forward? I’m not sure, actually. Either way, CFVY are in Beacon clearing the place of Grimm. Actually, this must be a flashback to before they went to Vacuo, I suppose, which would make sense to follow Velvet’s little admittance last chapter before Coco got swallowed like a paracetamol tablet.

Velvet waited for someone to ask her what she thought, what she wanted, by no one did.

Now I’m SAD why won’t people be NICE to VELVET just ONCE!!! God, this book really just gives her the short end of the stick every time.

Off go CFVY to Vacuo. Bye.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN AND EPILOGUE

Heremst we go.

Coco’s alive! I mean, no surprise. And full of the Joques as ever:

Coco figured sacrificing your life for a teammate was one way to be remembered as a good leader, but maybe that was just cheating.

RIP Coco and her claustrophobia! Hey, now that was good foreshadowing! That gets a whole Murphy Cookie of Approval. 🍪

Coco loses her Scroll and her hat, but Velvet swoops in to save the day! Meanwhile, Bert has been convinced that Carmine double-crossed him, so they’re battling it out! Basically, Gus cast frenzy. Finally, it works in everyone’s favour.

“I can’t believe I thought you were cute,” Coco spat.

Some lines in this book haven’t been very good. This one, on the other hand, very much is.

So Carmine goes underground and starts creating sinkholes everywhere like a weird desert gremlin, and Edward manages to block her Semblance and like. Carmine flat-out nearly suffocates herself to death. Another death I would have found both gruesome and hilarious for its irony. But Velvet uses Flynt’s trumpet to quite literally doot the sand away, and-- I’m so sorry, this line has me literally laughing to myself. She fuckin’-- doots the sand. Oh my god.

Anyway they win, catch up with Slate and the Nomad Fam, and meet team SSSN! The boys are back in town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Things are looking good.

Epilogue time. I’m still laughing about the sand-dooting.

So, we don’t know who paid Bert and Carmine, I guess? I do believe there’s maybe a sequel or something in the works, apparently, so maybe this is part of an overarching plot type thingie. Still.

Ah, yep, Coco confirms that they’re not through with this line of investigation yet, But, Velvet wraps it up with a heart-felt, if not a little bit cheesy, segment about home being wherever CFVY is, and so the book comes to a close.

WRAP-UP

So, I’m definitely gonna have a second read-through of this without having to constantly stop and do a liveblog, but the book was... okay, I guess? I feel like this plotline wasn’t the greatest one for CFVY, and that the author doesn’t have a crazy good handle on the characters -- he’s likely more suited to original content, which is valid. It’s a good romp and we do get new lore, but as expected, I feel like CFVY would be best used in the show that conceived them in the first place. A book is nice, but I’d love to see their return in RWBY itself, especially since this book wasn’t really... long enough, I don’t think? Seriously, y’all’ve met me. I do write hundreds of thousands of words in this world and I still haven’t written everything I wanna yet! I’d also like to see more Velvet as seen in RWBY Chibi, in which was she Cool and Good, and maybe less Yatsu alongside her directly. But! It’s a book! It’s decent! It’s CFVY! For most people, it’s Good Enough. And they’re valid too.

[pbandjesse]

Today was an excellent day. I'm sore right now but I feel really happy. But there was some family stress today which has me nervous but it'll be okay. Cause it has to be.

I slept alright last night. I woke up a few minutes before my alarm. I took my time getting out of bed. And got washed and dressed. I couldn't find my romper i wanted for a bit but then discovered it was inside another dress? Annoying. But I felt super cute. And not a stitch of makeup.

Which is something im working on. Something I feel like I do every summer. Relearn to like my face without eyeliner, it's hard sometimes, but I'm working on it.

The stressful part of the day is when i textes my dad to see if he could talk earlier then we had planned. And he called and didnt sound right. Very mellow and whispery.

Turns out he took himself to thr ER without telling my mom!! And then told me not to tell mom. I told him that was ridiculous and to call her. But they had put him on medication amd wasn't himself. And it was scary. So now he's not coming to see me on Sunday and that makes me sad. But well figure it out. Mom says he'll be okay. And dad pocket dialed me later in the day and he sounded more himself. I worry about him.

The rest of the day was nice though. James and his sister Charlotte came to get me. She met my cat, and the Fulwilers continue to not understand how to approach cats. And she asked, and then proceeded to, shake sweetp's hand. It was very funny.

We grabbed my bag and left quickly though. We had a fun ride. I was a bit dazed and hadnt eaten because i was on the phone. So i was a little quiet but i enjoyed their sibling banter a lot. We drove out to the summer camp they grew up going to and working at. And it was super cool and i understand why it was so important to them. I still wish i had that kind of camp experience but we both agree our kids will go there someday. Its important to both of us.

We stopped to say hi to a few people. I got a hug from some important people in the creation of James as a person. And then we left Charlotte there and headed out.

We went to the quarry. It was the first day they were open on a week day for the summer. And besides a group that was almost exclusively using the volley ball nets, we were the only ones there.

It was cold. Breezy. But the water was nice. And once you were in it it was nice. We floated and swan. James went and talked to the manager, who trained him to be a life guard! Always meeting nice people James knows. We joked with the life guards and floated. James helped a teen stand on the rolling log. It was fun.

But then a turtle bit me on the butt and i yelled. So that was exciting.

Eventually we stopped for snacks. And we were freezing. Need more towels next time. But the snacks were good. And then i went to take Shelby pictures for instagram. And then James were to do the rope swing and I sat in the shallows.

I watched the fishes and James came back to me. But he was frozen and shivering. It wasn't that cold but something was up. So he went and dried off and got changed.

I hung out on the dock and enjoyed the sun. He came back and we chilled for a while. But then i went to get changed too, was annoyed because i thought i packed underwear but couple find it. Actually dropped it like an idiot and had to go back for it. Ah well. I felt really cozy and sun warm and that was really nice.

Me and James cuddled up on the benches on the dock for a while. Quiet in the sun. It was just perfect and I was so happy. We took some pictures. And then decided to pack up and go. We both needed food.

We went ti the amish market. Gor sandwiches and fries. I enjoyed walking around. There was a crystal place and they had a quarter machine tI get random crystals. Jess says that its fate that decides what you need. And with howlite, onyx, and and jasper, I would have to agree.

We also got Amish pretzels and a milkshake and it was excellent. We left and headed to the bbq place to pick up a fathers day thing for Tucker but we waited for like 10 minutes in the drive through before we gave up and James went inside and was served comically fast. But by then I was really sun tired and wanted to go home.

We got back and dropped some stuff off. Got my watermelon. Packed up a couple mirrors to take to his parents, and off we went.

James left me at his apartment to lay down. And he went to take the car to his mom. I spent some time playing animal crossing and resting. But i nevr actually slept. Ah well.

James got back and after some laying down he msde us pizza bagels and then we came back here to my apartment so I could wash my hair.

And now hes asleep and i wish i was too. We have abother fun filled day tomorrow. Early morning yoga class in the park, then getting ready for Jordan's birthday party, and then the cook out itself. Im looking forward to spending time with my friends.

I hope you all get some good rest tonight. Be safe out there. Sleep good.

[nationalsupersagency]

Notes on “Crisis in Mid-Life! & Other Stories” Issue 1

So I had the pleasure of reading this comic and Issue 2 yesterday (and by yesterday, I mean the day I started drafting this post) after I returned from the mall. Honestly, I was expecting them to arrive later. Literally, as I drove out, I noticed a flat package on my front porch, backed up, pulled back into my driveway, and kept them in the car until I got home. I was excited to read them and was not disappointed.

There are two variant covers you can buy for each issue and I choose Gurihirus covers because I found them far more appealing. J Bones variations reminded me of the Boom Studios comics.

Each issue has three little stories. Two continue through other issues and one is a small adventure with Jack-Jack.

Anyway, here we go.

An * indicates potential canon information that can be helpful in writing fanfictions.

There are spoilers down below, so if you prefer to read the comics to learn what happens, steer away from here.

Crisis in Mid-Life! Part One

First, I’d like to say that I LOVE Gurihirus art style. By far my favorite and the characters look adorable. 

We begin at a black and white flashback with young Mr. Incredible.

He’s performing the classic ‘hit a mode of water transportation with a champagne bottle’ bit.

It was the nations first ‘Swordfish-Class Nuclear Submarine’ at Munciburg Naval Base*

A piece of scaffolding crumbles and the submarine starts to fall.

Mr. Incredible is able to hold the vessel up until everyone is able to get away, then he is able to place it down without sustaining any damage.

This moment is remembered in history as his “Greatest feat of strength.”* 

Fast forward back to the swinging sixties.

The lady interviewing Mr. Incredible says she was in Kindergarten when that happened.

Mr. Incredible is back to do the same thing basically but to a ‘Sunfish-Class Submarine’

I had to look up ‘sunfish’. Seriously. Here’s what they look like.

Google it and you’ll find weirder pictures.

When the reporter, Brenda, asks Mr. Incredible if it feels like old times to be back again, he answers, “It’s really about our brave men and women who serve on these submarines.”

Mr. Incredible is about to begin, when the ceremony is interrupted by Bomb Voyage.

Has Bomb Voyage not aged at all or is his makeup covering his wrinkles? He looks the same.

Oh, but he can speak English now. Guess they didn’t want to squeeze subtitles into the bubbles.

He blows up the support of the submarine, and basically, history repeats itself. 

Mr. Incredible catches it. However, he feels outweighed. He is unable to wait for civilians to run so he can put it down. It falls on him.

He’s under there for ten minutes before bff Frozone comes to his rescue.

Bomb Voyage got away. Again.

“Typical of his diabolical escape plans. He knew I’d catch the sub and save those people instead of chasing him. He must also have known this model’s heavier than the last one.”

No one got hurt, which is good.

The submarine captain tells Mr. Incredible the Sunfish-Class Submarines are three tons lighter than the Swordfish.

Reporter Brenda runs back up to Mr. I and goes, “Is your age finally catching up with you?”

Mr. Incredible claims he’s in the prime of his life! 

Frozone is Mr. I’s best bro and gently pulls him away from an uncomfortable interview by claiming there could have been other reasons why he couldn’t hold the submarine up.

He also tells his bro, “They’ll forget about this in a few days.”

Low and behold, guess what makes the front page of Munciburg Herald.

‘Is It Time For Mr. Incredible To Hang Up The Tights?’

Supers were just made legal again and poor Mr. Incredibles power may be declining.

Bob and Helen are at the Nation Supers Agency Medical Center.

Apparently, the NSA has a clinic/hospital for superheroes only, as I had believed they did.*

And Bob and Helen are there in civilian clothes, no masks, so it doesn’t look like they need to suit up to get examined.*

Helen is making him go to make sure he’s not sick. Bob thinks they’re wasting their time.

Doctor tells him he’s in good health.

“See Helen?”

“You’re aging though.” says the doctor. “You can’t expect to do everything you could in your prime.”

“But I’m in my prime right now!”

Helen is just like

The doctor tells Bob he’s not in his physical prime.

Bob is like

Back at home, Helen is trying to reassure him that he’s not all washed up, all while telling Dash not to run around the table, making sure Violet remembers her backpack, Dash remembers his jacket, and telling Jack-Jack diapers don’t go on heads. 

“You don’t need to qui-- VIOLET! YOUR BACKPACK!”

Bob decides to see Rick because he might have dealt with aging superheroes before.

Ricks is back with the NSA, out of retirement. Shortest retirement tbh.*

“I’m not in the best shape either,” he says. “But I’m wiser.”

He shows Bob a framed picture of his son, Rick Junior.

That’s right. Dicker has a son and his name is Rick Junior. He even has his fathers nose.* 

Junior graduated from the Academy (what academy you ask, I don’t know) with Honors.

“I look at him and I know I’ve passed on my knowledge... He’s my legacy and that makes it all worth it.”

Lightbulb goes off in Bobs head as he remembers he’s got three legacies.

Back at the Parr home, Dash is making Violets room messy after she just cleaned it.

Her walls and drawers are white. Her bedsheets are purple. She’s got clothes, books, a bag of chips, and some stuffed animals including a bunny which I bet is named Mr. Skipperdoo. 

Violet traps him in a force field and demands he cleans her room back up.

Pride leader Bob steps in.

Instead of telling Dash to clean up Violets room, he’s like, “You’re doing it all wrong. You want to mess up someone's room so they’ll have to clean it, mess it up like they would.

Uh... what the hell Bob. Dash is gonna start doing that now.

Then Bob advices Violet not to step on clothes when she’s invisible or people can see the indents of her feet.

Violets got Captain America socks. I think she’s low-key a fan.

The kids are all, 

Downstairs for family bonding time.

“Experience is the difference between a good hero and a great one.”

Basically, he tells the kids he’s gonna start training them and they’re pumped.

Helen is a bit concerned though.

Violet tells her it’s a family bonding experience. Dash adds that she mentioned how important it is to learn to use powers responsibly. 

Helen gives in, thinking in the end that it’s not a super bad idea as long as Bob behaves, but she’s still a little worried.

Bedtime Story Part One

When Jack-Jack shapeshifts after dinner, his tummy gets upset.*

He’s in his demon form jumping on Bobs bed. Bob says he’ll tell him a bedtime story if he behaves.

Jack-Jack becomes a baby again.

Bob goes into Story Mode. “This is the tale of the hero who saved the rest of the heroes.”

Superheroes in the Glory Days had an annual conference called “The Summer Crossover” and it was held at this swanky hotel called the Chez swank Hotel.*

It’s across the Metroville Bridge.

“We’d have seminars on subjects like super/civilian balance, secret hideout feng shui, and escaping the deathtraps in your own mind.”

Secret Hideout Feng Shui

Escaping the Deathtraps of Your Own F****** Mind

That sounds metal af.

So in the panel, I see Psycwave, Blazestone, Macroburst, Dynaguy and Plasmabolt but who is the other guy? He literally looks like a walking shit. Could it be...?

The main villain of this story is Baron Von Ruthless. We get to see a little of him.

So Big BVR was in a giant robot with lasers that sucked all the powers out of the supers except one. Any guesses who?

No?

Why, none other than Mr. Incredible of course!

Bob mentions here that there’s a super named ‘Junior Sidekick’.

Bob claims he took out the giant robot with one punch.

Dash and Violet barge in, calling bs on their dads claims.

And Bob is like, *gasp*. ‘I’m so offended you think I made this up.’

The kids start pointing out what’s wrong with his story/

Bob goes, ‘Ok, so I left out some parts. You think you can handle the real thing?’

“Could be a scam to trick us into some forced family bonding time...” says Violet, still loaded with sass.

The kids take their place on the bed to listen to dads story.

A Relaxing Day at the Park

This is the Jack-Jack story.

So, as we all know, the Parrs live in a nice house. Unsurprisingly, there’s a nice children's playground nearby.

Bob puts Jack-Jack in the sandbox then sits on the bench to chill.

JJ is playing in the sand and having such fun when he sees an animatronic turtle with a bunch of balloons. There’s a baby about as big as he is, trying to get these balloons but he can’t reach.

So the baby resorts to crying.

Jack-Jack sees the turtle as a bad guy that stole the balloons and decided he must take action!

His laser eyes blow up the turtle and somehow, the balloons don’t float away. JJ gives them to his new pal.

Bob only closed his eyes for a second and Jack-Jack had wandered off.

He sees the blown up turtle and goes, ‘Yikes. We’re not coming back here.’

So those were my notes for Crisis in Mid-Life & Other Stories. I will try to get to the second issue soon. 

[frozenmiwa]

Review: Rise of the turtles, part 2 (TMNT 2012)

Here we go again, I know it’s been a while. Originally, I meant to get this review out during the quarantine last March but I never got to it. I got the first season on DVD during March and I thought of just watching the episodes from DVD instead of finding them online. During June I got myself a problem however: My TV broke (or more precisely: speakers broke) so I couldn’t really watch anything with any kind of audio. Now that I have my new beautiful TV, I thought nothing would be more suitable for my first watch than some TMNT.

With that, I decided to take a notepad, sit on my sofa and watch the second episode.

Continuing the last episode, Turtles realize who ever took April and her father, may have some answers to what happened to them 15 years ago so they end up interrogating Snake, the man who was driving the van. While they find out the “people” doing these kidnappings are called “The Kraang” and that they have been kidnapping scientists from the city, they don’t find out why. Snake himself doesn’t know the answer, he tells the turtles where they can find the Kraang but manages to get away from them later on. While he is listening in Leo and Raph trick him into believing they are going to use his van to drive in as they are attempting to save April and her father – which is not actually way they plan to use his van. The turtles return to the lair to gear up for their mission. Raph has a tender moment with his pet turtle while Mikey pops up and ends up being chased by Raph with spoon. While Leo is having doubts whether their plan will be a success or not, Splinter then encourages Leo by telling about his past, of how Splinter – as a man lost everything due to a feud with a former friend, Oroku Saki. While Splinter may have lost his family and his name, but he eventually gained a lot of things, like his sons. Leo not completely sure about things, he is positive they will make it through the mission somehow

In the Kraang headquarters April makes a hilarious attempt on escaping and failing at it, while Snake and the Kraang guards outside are waiting for the turtles to arrive. Turtles are on their way alright, using the van as a distraction while they themselves use a different way of transport. When the turtles have found their way inside the building, it turns out it is not something you’d see every day as the place is filled with alien robots. After a while they manage to find April and her dad, however once the turtles are about to get them out, the Kraang appeared and took both humans away. Turtles chase after them but a newly mutated Snake (later named Snakeweed by Mikey) shows up and turtles find themselves yet another battle. This leaves Donnie to save April before she’s taken away by the Kraang. While Donnie manages to save April, her father isn’t quite as lucky as he is still at the clutches of the Kraang.

In the end rest of the turtles manage to take care of Snakeweed – even though not permanently. April moves in with her aunt and is determined to get her father back somehow, the turtles (or mainly Donnie) offer their help in the matter and thus gain their first human ally. So, all is well – or as well as it can be at the moment.

Or is it?

As turtles find out, one of their shuriken ends up in the news, while turtles think it’s cool, Splinter tells them to be more careful from now on as they are mainly meant to say hidden for their own good. And he is right about that as we find out someone very sinister is seeing this very same news broadcast in Japan and plans on visiting an old friend…

What I liked about the episode:

+ Over all this was a very good episode, it had a solid plot, good pacing and great action scenes. Even that one where April tries put up a fight. I found that scene very comical and entertaining. However, my favorite fight scene had to be the one where the turtles face off newly mutated Snakeweed.

+ Speaking off Snakeweed, I’m glad we saw what his mutation process looked like. As far as I can remember I don’t think we have seen mutation scenes in previous shows, so I haven’t really payed the process much attention until now. From what I could tell the whole process was painful and it had horror-esque feel to it, so that’s a plus.

+ I know I didn’t give April much of praise on my first review and it is no secret I hate her with burning passion, but in this episode, I found myself kind of liking her character. She wasn’t someone I would go nuts over, but her personality showed off nicely. Nothing of her personality came off as forced and I liked her interactions with Donnie even though I do not ship Apritello in this version.

+ I really liked the ending, it wrapped out the episode nicely but also brought up a new threat in Shredder while not giving away too much when it comes to his appearance. This helps to keep his character as sinister as he should be.

What I didn’t like:

Honestly, I don’t think there was a thing I didn’t enjoy about this episode, and that’s a first. My only complaint doesn’t have to do with the episode itself but the way the episode was put on DVD. I’m perfectly aware this episode was meant to be one parter, but it in some releases it was presented as a two parter. I remember seeing this one as parts 1 and 2 myself when it aired in my country. I would have liked if the DVD did the same, but oh well, at least I got to watch the whole thing as it was intended.

…I don’t have lot to say about the dub Finland eventually got, simply because I don’t remember much about it. What I do remember I did enjoy Shredder’s Finnish voice. He was voiced by Jarmo Mäkinen, who voiced Valtor from Winx Club as well as Savanti Romero and Zanramon for the third season of TMNT 2003. While he didn’t have deep voice like Kevin Michael Richardson but that didn’t stop him from sounding menacing. I think Mäkinen is similar Markus Bäckman who voices Splinter in a way they sound great as villains. What I like about Mäkinen is that he is able to portray his villains (and I’m mainly talking about his interpretation of Prime leader Zanramon in the season 3 of TMNT 2003) as chill one moment and threatening the next. So, I would say he was a good pick for Shredder. Now I only wish I could have a good memory of him voicing Shredder.

And now, some screen shots!

Turtles seeing the mutagen cannister. I really love their expressions here.

Raph about to do some interrogation....

...In a form of mutation roulette. One of my favorite scenes in the episode. I like the glowing effect they did with the ooze here.

Kraang base.

“What? I can be the only one who’s hungry.” - I can relate.

Everyone here: Mikey, weren’t you supposed to do something?

Leo and Raph looking for Snake.

Snake hiding.

Donnie at work.

Raph busted after having a sensitive talk with his pet turtle, Spike.

“Were you talking to your pet turtle? That is so adorable.”

Leo having some doubts. Luckily Splinter has a story to tell.

Last battle between Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki. I swear from this angle young Oroku Saki does remind me of Hamato Yoshi from 2003 series.

Tang-Shen with their baby daughter Miwa, during the battle.

Oroku Saki starting the fire...

...Which kills Tang-Shen (at least it seemed so before season two that is.)

April knows her rights alright..

But because the Kraang don’t care about their rights she comes up with a plan...

...Buuut it doesn’t look like it’s working.

“Well I guess we can just sit here..” - I must say I like coloring of their cell.

Snake and some Kraangdroids waiting for turtles’ arrival.

Snake mutation.

Turtles climbing the wall.

And they made it in. I really like they gave each turtle different eye color in this version but during action scenes they still have white eyes like in the comics.

Argument between Donnie and Raph.

Some alien robots.

...But now they are toast.

It’s a brain thing!

And now it’s biting Mikey!

This is what happens when you pause an episode at a random moment. Mikey looks cute though.

You heard him Raph, we are going that way.

Donnie manages to find April’s cell.

Action with Mikey.

Donnie picking the lock.

“Hey, do you think it’s easy to pick a lock with these hands?”

Not so fast...

...Because these guys are here.

And with them, more trouble arrives.

Like newly mutated Snakeweed for example.

April being taken away by the Kraang.

Leo figuring out the plan to get rid of Snakeweed.

...While Donnie is trying to save April.

And now it’s April’s turn to hang in there.

April saved by Donnie.

Leo in action.

Snakeweed electrocuted.

Turtles have gained themselves some new enemies.

It’s Kraangy! ...Wait, that doesn’t happen until season 2... or 3... can’t remember.

Turtles promise to help April find her father.

Maybe it’s just me but I find April’s pupils creepy looking. They make her eyes look souless... at least to me.

I swear Donnie has the cutest design ever.

Leo talking to Splinter inside the dojo.

Watching the news.

Okay, who dropped this?

Yay, they made it on the news!

So what’s the worst thing can happen?

Well there’s always this omnious person.

Ending still.

Okay I admit, I may have over do it with the screen shots but they are my favorite thing about these reviews, that and getting to watch some TMNT.

So, what’s next? For now, I’m going for the third episode of TMNT 2003. Hopefully it doesn’t take as long as this post. We can always hope, right?

[caleblovesthecoldandfall]

That night was the first night that I’d been comfortable in my home in weeks. The feeling of being watched was gone. My belongings weren’t out of place when I went to my room.

I suppose I should’ve been grateful since it’s what I wanted after all. Instead, I was disappointed. Now that I’d met the person stalking me, I was sad that she wasn’t hanging over my shoulder.

I woke up the next morning afraid that Katherine Carvosso was a figment of my imagination or a very vivid dream. I started to believe that the day before couldn’t have happened. I mean really, what were the chances of a girl like that talking to a guy like me?

Thankfully, my worry was short-lived. The second I looked outside, I saw that Katherine was waiting for me. She lay on the hood of her car, her skin gleaming in the sunlight, classic square shades over her eyes, in tight jeans, and a yellow button-up blouse with the sleeves rolled up.

One poor guy across the street couldn’t find the will to move out of the middle of his driveway. His coffee was pouring down the front of his clothes. A lady stopped as she was jogging by, put her hands on her hips, and probably wondered why she even bothered.

“Uh, hey-mom-I-don’t-need-a-ride-today-bye!” I said and dashed out of the house before my mom had a chance to ask any questions. I tried to look smooth as I walked down the path, but I tripped over my feet the closer I got to Katherine. “You know, you shouldn’t do that.”  

She slid off of her car and landed lightly on her feet. She tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brow. “Do what?”

“A girl like you can’t just sprawl herself over a car like this; it fries people’s brains.” I pointed to the guy across the street as an example.

“Are you saying I did that?” she whispered as she got into the car. I sagged into the passenger seat.

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” I said and fastened my seatbelt.  

She giggled. “Please explain this, because I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“You’re gorgeous,” I said. My ears grew hot. She chewed her lip to try and hide the smile that wanted to break across her face. The car shot away from the curb.

After we parked in front of the school, I led the way inside. I looked at my shoes until I heard a few whistles and hollers directed our way. All eyes watched us so intensely it was as if they’d spotted royalty and were awaiting directions. I heard a sea of whispering all around us.

The basketball team glared at me. I guess I’d stolen their spotlight. Derek dug his fingers into his basketball and resisted the urge to hurl it at me.

“Does this happen everywhere you go?” I asked.

“Hmm?” Katherine looked away from her phone. “Oh, what, the staring? I don’t know, maybe.”

No one was brave enough to bother us today. Everyone left my usual area in the classroom deserted. After we had taken our seats, I have no idea what happened. I suddenly found myself walking to my next class. I didn’t even remember hearing the second bell ring. I rubbed my heavy eyelids. I guess I still had some sleep to catch up on.

Katherine’s hand slipped into mine, and she whispered into my ear, “Let’s get out of here.”

“What do you mean? And go where?”

“Anywhere.” She bumped my shoulder with hers. “You can’t tell me this is fun for you.” I came to a stop as I realized what she was suggesting.

“You want me to ditch?”

“It’s not like you’d be missing anything important.”

“Yeah, but I can’t just ditch…I—it’s bad,” I said. I looked over my shoulder and searched for a teacher. I felt like I was going to get in trouble by merely mentioning the D-word.

She shook her head. “You’ve been way too cooped up, I’m not letting you say no.”

She tugged me along. I didn’t have the will to take my hand out of her grip and refuse. My blood buzzed as we went down an empty hallway. We ducked around corners and hid from any teachers we saw along the way.

We escaped out of the front entrance. Now that there were no more places to hide I ran straight for her car. Granted running for me was a sad jog. By the time I got to the car, I was gasping for air. We jumped inside. Katherine revved the engine and tore out of the parking lot. I laughed as I watched the school grow smaller in the side-view mirror.

“I can’t believe I did that,” I said and ran a hand through my hair. I felt weightless.

  The day invited me to forget that ditching was bad with its cloudless blue sky, dazzling sunlight, and traffic free roads. The songs on the radio kept my thoughts at bay, and the engine’s hum massaged my muscles. The grungy buildings of downtown faded into shopping centers and neighborhoods. Only the gurgle from my stomach pulled me from my trance.

“Hungry?”

“I guess so,” I said. We exited the highway and searched the side of the road. I pointed to a modern-day glass hut, splattered with color and character pictures. “A burger sounds nice.”

“No, absolutely not. Fast food is suicide.” She stuck her tongue out and shivered as we drove past.

Eventually, we pulled up to an impressive building that resembled a pagoda. Samurai statues guarded the tinted windows. A handful of men in sharp suits went inside. Katherine’s car was not totally out of place in the parking lot.

“Now this is real food: all organic, locally acquired, and their employees don’t work like dogs for minimum wage,” she said.

It was dim inside. Glass cases held ancient replicas of armor and ornate teapots. The dining room was loud from all of the conversations and sizzling grills. Katherine spoke quietly to the hostess, and we were led to a secluded table, away from the noise.

“We will be right with you.” The hostess bowed.

Katherine waved her off and said something in another language. My brow arched. “You speak Chinese?”

“Japanese.”

“Oh, whoops.”

Despite having a large table to ourselves, Katherine planted herself in the chair beside me. Our arms were close enough to touch. I gulped at the minuscule gap separating us. Why would she sit so close to me?

“May I get you something to drink?” a waiter asked.

“Two strawberry lemonades, please,” she said. The waiter nodded and walked away. Katherine put her elbows on the table and turned to me. “So, five years from now, what do you want your life to be like?”

I scratched the back of my head. “I guess if I have to pick…I’d like to draw comic books professionally.”

She laughed. “That’s it?”

I tapped my chopsticks together. “I don’t like talking about myself,” I said.

“Don’t worry so much about what people think about you. Be yourself. If that’s not good enough for them, then you didn’t need those sorts of people in your life,” she said and poked my side. It tickled, and I fought against the compulsion to smile. “So, what, no wife? No five-million-dollar home?”

“I thought the whole point of the ‘Five Years from Now’ question was to be realistic,” I said.

The sound of a buzzing phone interrupted us. She took her phone out of her pocket. Her pleasant expression darkened when she opened a text message. I couldn’t read what it said. Her thumbs pounded at the screen in response. Her body became rigid. She jammed the phone back into her pocket. Her foot tapped on the floor, a million taps per second, and she chewed her thumbnail.  

“Uh…is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure,” she answered, but her thoughts were clearly elsewhere. “You didn’t have to be somewhere after school, right?” I shook my head. “Good.”

My curiosity was rising. Questions zipped through my mind. I didn’t care about trying to coax answers out of her anymore. I had to know, now.

“Why are you here?”

“We’re getting to know each other.”

“Not really. You won’t let me ask anything about you.”

“Perhaps you don’t give me questions I like,” she said. My lips formed a tight line. “There’s plenty I could tell you. I like the color green. I had a cat named Oreo because she was black and white. My favorite pastime is hiking. See, you never asked about that sort of thing.”

“That’s great but—”

“Don’t ask about what I can’t tell you.”

I blinked. “Why can’t you tell me?” She ignored me, and she sipped her lemonade. “What are you? A spy? A secret agent?”

“I’m not answering that.”

“Is it against the rules or something? Do you have superiors watching your every move?” I peered over my shoulder.

The chef arrived, saving Katherine from my barrage of questions. I had enough sense to stop asking in front of a stranger. As I watched our food cook, I ran through several theories about her. She had to be a part of some big ultra-classified organization; CIA (possibly), or an unknown military branch. From what I could tell, she was well trained. She snuck into my house like it was nothing. She was a talented liar. She’d made it seem like she slipped so I could catch on that something was out of place. But I was sure I didn’t know anything that she didn’t want me to know.

I tried to enjoy the chef’s skills of flipping his spatulas and making artful displays with our food, but it was hard with Katherine’s mood change. She glared at the chef like she just wanted him to cook the food and quit playing around. Her phone continued to go off. Every time she checked it, the edgier she became.

“Finally,” she said once the food was ready. She snatched her plate, ate three bites, and then pushed it away. She crossed her arms and waited for the bill to come.

I basked in the onslaught of flavor. Everything had cooked to perfection. I didn’t know how the chef could mess around like he did and the food still came out spot-on. If I tried doing that in the kitchen, all I would get is some unevenly cooked food. I cleaned my plate. Full and satisfied, I leaned back in my chair and became aware of the world around me once more.

Katherine was eyeing me like a turtle that took ten minutes to cross its tank. “Are you done now?”

“Yeah.”

I realized why she was so irritated. Our server had been waiting for me to finish before bringing the bill. When she opened it, I saw the price of our lunch.

“Whoa! Uh, I don’t have that kind of money,” I said.

“I got it,” she said as she took out a roll of hundreds. My eyes bugged out. Who walked around with that much cash? I wanted to ask about it, but she was already making her way towards the exit. I had to waddle to keep up with her.

Her sense of urgency got worse once we were outside. Her eyes scanned the area. When I didn’t walk fast enough, she pushed me forward gently. Not even the safety of the car made her calm down. She squeezed the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white.

“Where to now?” she asked.

“Well, there’s a mall across the street—” Before I could finish, the car was halfway to the nearest intersection.

The mall wasn’t crowded like it was on the weekends, but there were a few clusters of people. Katherine made it a habit of blending into each and every one. She kept me away from the windows and stores that were too empty.

“Why are you avoiding empty places?”  

“I’m not. If you really want to go into the women’s lingerie store, go right ahead,” she said. After that, I kept my mouth shut.

We did four laps around the mall before we ran out of things to look at, so she dragged me to the movie theater. The darkness seemed to put her at ease. Her eyes stopped darting around so much, and the tension in her muscles lessened.

The first movie we watched was three hours. Apparently, that wasn’t long enough to avoid whatever it was she was hiding from. I didn’t mind. I got to see whatever I wanted. The only requirement was that it had to be at least two hours. At times, she would lean over and whisper into my ear; a joke, or an insightful fact I didn’t know. I hadn’t really had the experience of going to the movies with someone closer to my age (at least I think she was). That was fun to know what it was like.

She was reluctant to buy snacks until she saw the candy. She bought a small mountain of Skittles. Since she got junk, she agreed it was only fair that I got some, too.

The next time I checked my watch, it said 9:46 p.m. My mouth fell open. I checked my phone. My mom had sent a couple of messages and called ten times. I opened one of the texts.

 MotherShip: Where are you? Are you still alive?

Dan: I’m ok. Sorry, hanging out with a friend. Be home soon.

 I didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

 MotherShip: Ooo a friend? Is it a girl?

 I shook my head at the phone. I wasn’t even going to respond to that. I tucked the phone away. Katherine stood beside me, eyeing everyone like they were up to no good.  

“I really liked the movies,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I had her attention, she didn’t bother to look at me. “But I should probably go home. School tomorrow and my mom is worried…”

She frowned, hung her head, and let her arms dangle lifelessly. “Alright,” she said. “You’ve grown weary of my company.”

“You know I haven’t,” I said. Her head jerked up, and a stunning smile appeared on her face like nothing was wrong.

“Just checking.”

We went past a strip of outlet stores that formed a walkway between the theater and the mall. The storefronts were dark and barred, and the walkway was lit by cozy lanterns now that the sun had gone down.

The others who had seen the last movie with us were all parked by the theater. Katherine’s car was still on the other side of the mall. So, it was just the two of us as we walked back.

Our footsteps echoed around us. Katherine’s eyes dashed left and right. The further we went, the more her phone buzzed with messages. She didn’t check them.

I didn’t have to be a super spy to know something was wrong. I could feel it in the heavy air, and in the way the hairs on my arms stood up. The area didn’t feel so big and empty anymore; it felt tight and claustrophobic—like many invisible eyes surrounded us.

My lungs clenched, and I had to remember to breathe. I searched for anything that might be out of place, but I didn’t look too hard; I didn’t want to find out.

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind her. “Stay close,” she whispered and slowed her pace.  

She took another cautious step forward. We were now standing in the center of an intersection. Leading out to the parking lot were two passageways between the stores. There were two figures on each side waiting in the shadows. The sight of them felt like a punch to the chest. I heard pounding in my ears.

All four, men I saw now—slowly came towards us. They were tall and muscular. They wore black tactical clothing with lots of pockets. An assortment of knives hung on their belts. Even in the faint light I could tell they had cold, hard expressions, and their eyes all held a strong sense of purpose. They were all looking at me.

A hard bubble of air formed in my throat.

Katherine growled. “Great.”

Read chapter 3

Copyright 2018 Caleb Karger

Sneak preview for “Daniel Haley and the Immortal Ninja”

Do not steal. Do not alter text.

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 29.11.18

Another week another grab bag of comics in what might be one of the highest rated weeks of the Roundup since I started over a year ago! But how does everyone hold up? How do they all compare? I’m asking for dramatizing’s sake but genuinely there’s nothing in this week that isn’t immensely enjoyable if they even remotely pique your interests. GREAT week for comics, everyone. GG.

Tesladyne’s Atomic Robo, Image’s Black Magick, DC’s Super Sons, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters II, IDW’s Transformers: Lost Light

Tesladyne’s Atomic Robo and the Spectre of Tomorrow #2 Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, Jeff Powell

There is a certain amount of dry wit and scientific community knowledge that is instrumental to getting the full experience out of the clever writing and deceptively simplistic design of Atomic Robo, and for the past few months I’ve been making a solid attempt to evaluate these comics and Robo himself based on the entertainment received without much of that. And, in all honesty, the more I’ve looked into this the more I wonder if that’s the wrong approach for “unbiased” evaluation to begin with. 

For example, I’ve been very firm on my description of Usagi Yojimbo as being one of those great comics that only gets more and more enriching as you grow a personal interest in history, Japanese culture, and mythologizing -- it’s far enough removed from our actual realities and accessible enough that I recommend it to people who don’t have those interests, but I find that those interests add so much more to the experience. The simple designs, the consistency, the way the narrative is built in episodic spurts more than long form narrative -- those are all reasons I can in good faith recommend these comics to people outside of niche interests, but those niche interests add so much to any reading that it’s difficult to really express why anyone would want to read without so much as acknowledging it. 

That all said, this particular issue continues that same level of quality and intrigue, but also rewards the emotional investment you may have in the characters involved. PersonallyI relate a lot more to Robo’s sense of self-exile and reclusive depression which only causes more and more problems to pile up far more than I’d have ever thought I would, and I don’t think I’d be alone in that. There’s also the long time readers’ reward in seeing consequences to that stollen crystal from Doctor Dinosaur’s island ages ago. All great stuff which is only more greatly emphasized by the creative use of familiar real world scientific organizations and entities wrapped up in this bizarre and surreal reality of Atomic Robo.

Image’s Black Magick (2015-present) #9 Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott

Sometimes the real value of storytelling lies less in identifying the complete package and more in being able to identify the way it weaves multiple elements and even genres at once to provide a new kind of satisfying narrative. And it’s in that way that I think Black Magick has so quickly become not only one of my favorite Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott comics, but one of my favorite recent publications in general. 

Black Magick follows a noir-style crime drama in structure, but its embrace of the supernatural and, especially, in witching stories provide the sort of edge that makes the tiredness of the former genre feel fresh even in the heavily saturated market for procedurals we have currently, while the latter feels completely reborn from that small but influential boom we felt in the 90s. I have never been closer to re-marathoning The Craft, Practical Magic and Charmed outside of the Halloween season. But each new issue of Black Magick brings me that step closer.

This issue also happens to follow the very specific to this week trend of leaning heavily on emotional stakes to really pull itself and its characters above even the thickest of genre settings however, and Black Magick specifically manages that while maintaining an incredibly tight hold on Rowan’s perspective. Which is fascinating because on reread you really realize how much the POV shifts away from Rowan and onto the other characters and their subplots but in reflection it all feels like it’s only in service to Rowan’s main story more than anything else. 

Nicola Scott continues to prove she is perhaps the most gifted and, really, the most prolific of comic book artists in the modern era and I maintain that seeing the true extent of her talents is best assessed by reading this comic and just allowing yourself to be blown away by it all.

This issue also gets major props for introducing a familiar. Good, comic. Perhaps not as action filled or breathtaking as the last issue which was a nail biter from start to finish, but most certainly deserving of those 4/5 stars. 

DC’s Super Sons (2017-present) Annual #1 Peter J. Tomasi, Paul Pelletier, Cam Smith, HI-FI

If you’re one of those people -- and let me absolutely clear that it is more than understandable to be one of these people -- who find super pets and the absolute general ridiculousness of a storyline that involves super animals in any capacity with a timeline that makes no sense and the only real dialogue that matters being literal growls barks and yips, this is not an issue worth your $4.99, you’ll hate it and be annoyed with people like me screaming from the rooftops that you should buy it and read it and love it. And that is completely and utterly fine and reasonable.

I am not fine or reasonable, however, and this is literally the most rewarding $4.99 I’ve spent on a comic in ages. Because no joke there were several times while I was liveblogging this issue both on my main blog and to my friends in PMs that I was literally in tears crying with laughter because

because

Holy shit guys.

In recent years a continued criticism I have carried for superhero comics is that there is a huge tone problem, in that there is a genre’s worth of tones and atmospheres that could be played off of to give at least each individual book if not each individual issue its own feeling and its own intrigue that would set it apart from the rest of the line that given week. DC, especially, has contributed greatly to this tone problem because as I’ve said many times, there was about five years there where even the color palettes for their comics had no variation between them. And it was maddening. 

So to have something goofy, to have something different, and to have it be fun, enjoyable, full of twists and turns, and not so damn determined to take itself beyond seriously, it makes this comic throwback feel like a breath of fresh air in the most necessary of ways. 

And I should be clear, I don’t mean that this comic is for everyone, or that Super Sons as a comic in general doesn’t manage to strike that cord a lot since it really is one of the most enjoyable comics DC has put out in years, but this really felt like a treat, an additional, ridiculous, hilarious story set so far apart from what’s come before. It’s greatly enjoyable. Genuinely deserve of my coveted 5/5 stars. 

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters II (2017) #5 (of 5) Erik Burnham, Tom Waltz, Dan Shoening, Charles Paul Wilson III, Luis Antonio Delgado

We finally come to an end of this second giant mashup of Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, truly the sort of framework and pairing that is as old as time, and I get to reward everyone’s patience with me reviewing these for a month an a half straight with some final thoughts of sorts. 

I compliment both of these writers quite a bit for their respective contributions and the absolute mastery they both have shown for the voices of their respective franchises, but as this week is pretty well summed up with Rena Waxes Philosophically And Is Old, I think both of our times are better spent here by pointing out something a bit different that really came together with this issue. And that’s that for how pitch perfect these writers are for capturing the long expected voices of these beloved characters, the real remarkable compliment I can give them is how they have uniquely captured and redefined these voices to really make them their own.

Despite how much my childhood might have desired these team ups (and believe me, it so did) the fact is that these interactions and these relationships are utterly a modern invention, and what could easily fail outside of the concept states instead flourishes with us here specifically because they are sticking to their guns and not always angling for the obvious route with these interactions. That’s what makes all of this so fascinating and so rewarding as a fan.

In comparison to the predecessor, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters II does not have as tight of a storyline with a steady but consistent pacing and understanding of where it’s going. But I think because that set up was taking care of in the original these five issues allowed for more experimentation and more concentration on character development and fun scenarios. So if you’re far more invested in character interactions and in comics taking full advantage of the outrageous and unique tone of its medium, there’s probably all the more for you to enjoy with this compared to the first. But at the same time, it would be lying to say that the main driving plot and stakes, with Darius Dun’s ghost and the Fast Forward Evil Turtles-lite trying to harvest souls in a complicated and underused concept didn’t come off as overall a bit weaker than the original.

All that said, ultimately this comic is a joy for fans and it seems to be aimed quite specifically at that audience either way. And in that case I have to give it my highest regards.

IDW’s Transformers: Lost Light (2016-present) #11 James Roberts, Jack Lawrence, Joana Lafuente

Ever since the last arc of James Robert’s parent series, More Than Meets the eye, there’s been a few gaps in the concept of what happened on the Lost Light during and after the mutiny, whether or not the crew saw the Rod Squad’s las message, and especially curious to people like me who can’t help themselves but love our affable and entirely flawed co-Captain Rodimus, what was his final request for his burial and what not since we saw the rest of the crew’s.

And in the second part of this “Mutineer Trilogy” that we have for Lost Light, we are at long last getting our answers to many of those questions. And for a reveal that was a year coming, the Lost Light manages to pack all the twists, turns, and punches that we could hope to expect! 

It’s fascinating to see Getaway’s sense of grandeur when it comes to himself, his plans, and really the whole driving force with the mutiny, but I really find that where Roberts’ writing and where we as readers get the most out of is the interesting and very layered sense that Roberts has for the lore of the Transformers. It feels like every subtle piece of dialogue, whether it concerns lore and mythology of the universe or not, is really weaved throughout with a submersion in this fictional culture. And that, especially, is really revealing here. It’s a very rewarding way to handle lore and I greatly appreciate it. 

One that does make me apprehensive with the turns Lost Light has taken most recently, however, is that moral grayness sometimes feels really blurred with a light take or even somewhat forgiving light given to what are undeniably and outright stated as fascist and genocidal elements of the Transformers’ past, especially Megatron. Having this issue completely dedicated to Getaway’s perspective while tackling these themes doesn’t really help because he is most egregiously one of the most villainous and traitorous characters the series has tackled, but while it feels like he’s only using the aghast feelings of the crew toward Megatron, ultimately he’s the only one who gives a speech against Megatron’s past of genocide and fascism while also taking over in the most truly reprehensible and fascist ways possible himself. This is further blurred by having some very topical buzz words like “fake news” uttered by Getaway in a... lbr pretty nonsensical way in-universe, but then have him going around imprisoning or hideously killing all of the crew which doesn’t agree with him.

I’m basically waiting for Roberts to fully address all of this in the story but right now it feels very much like “both sides are extreme and bad” mentality that, given Roberts’ politics and statements irl, I don’t think is what he ultimately wants this story to be coming away as, but I’m nervous and would like for things to tread lightly considering the current environment. 

ALL of my apprehensions and concerns out of the way, this is still a fascinating and ultimately fantastic comic that I really truly enjoy and would love to see more of because if Roberts’ Transformers is guilty of anything it’s definitely guilty of raising my expectations and setting that bar so high because of how good and how complicated and interesting all of it ca be in the right hands.

Hey there! We finish up another pretty fun, if not quick, week in comics with lots of stories and characters, and another pretty great time from yours truly. And if you enjoy these write-ups or anything else I do whether it be the Roundups, my Rambles, my personal creative projects, or you’re interested in my upcoming podcast, you can help contribute through donations to my Ko-Fi, Patreon, or PayPal. For as little as $1 per project, you make all of this possible.

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