Happy holidays! [S] Checkmate timing test
These timings match up with Tensei's "Of Gods and Witches":
Before the battle we see WV greeting AR and being super excited. AR is kinda baffled but gratified. We see their former memories in the clouds, maybe WV points to them?
Jane, Nanna, and Kanaya target bigger undead monsters. Casey's undead consort army shows up when they are almost overwhelmed. Rose and Roxy both slap their foreheads in comic dismay.
Karkat, Terezi, and the carapaces are ground troops against regular underlings.
Remaining Alpha kids are air support against flighted underlings.
Hal is hanging out taking messages from everyone directing battle traffic.
The preloader shows the Battlefield, surrounded by those weird checkboard vine things. It should be just crowded and dark enough to imply a serious sense of foreboding. Upon the flash loading, the Battlefield spins and zooms as the music starts.
SCREEN 1: 00:00-00:05 Pan up across a wide shot of the kids in various battle positions on the battlefield. Aerial combantants (Terezi, Hal, Davesprite, and the Alpha kids sans Jane and plus Calliope. Kat note: Davesprite’s on the lilypad. Matches last convo, and also, he’s a beta too :P) are around the scene. Karkat and WV stand on top of a hill, WV holding a waving red flag. The Beta kids are standing on a lilypad in center screen.
SCREEN 2: 00:05-00:09 On the chord, pan down across the kids on the lilypad, all in battle ready poses with weapons out
SCREEN 3: 00:09-00:15 On the chord, the opposite side of the hill we just saw WV and Karkat on. Pan to the right hand side. They stand on top of the hill. Scrolling by at differing speeds to the background hill are Jane (holding her fork made from the White King’s scepter), Kanaya, and Nanna. WV’s army of carapacians is gathered around them.
Screen 4: 00:15-00:19 On the chord, worm’s eye view of The Alpha kids and Calliope in the sky.
Screen 5: 00:19-00:21 A view of the underling army approaching: think the carapacian armies in flashes such as WV: Rise Up, where the hills are all separate layers that do a lot of panning. A mix of undead Alpha session underlings mingle with the Beta session’s horde of monsters.
Screen 6: 00:21-00:23 A bird’s eye view down onto the Beta’s lilypad.
Screen 7: 00:23-00:26 Third drumbeat Jane raises the scepter to begin the Reckoning. A red filter descends over the sky and contrasting green defense portals appear on the final drumbeat before the flute. A few streaks of meteors can be seen. The Reckoning has begun.
Screen 8: 00:26-00:28 As little synthesizer pretending to be a flute plays a first solemn note, the red filter descends further, the Betas look up to Jack fly overhead. They pan up, Jack moves down.
Screen 9: 00:28-00:32 On the second synthesized flute note, Jack lands on the platform.
Screen 10: :32-:34 The Betas and the ground pan down, Jack pans up. PM lands either in front or behind them
Screen 11: :34-:37 The background turns chaotic and red as Jack’s health vial appears. It’s already huge, as befitting of a final boss. It fills with vitality gel, but when it reaches the end, it laps itself and starts filling again in a different color.
Screen 12: :37-:41 Cut to a wide shot of the lillypad hovering over the battlefield. Clouds flit by, meteors fall, a crowd of underlings is trampling their way from right to left across the screen. STRIFE ROUND _ _ _ pops up at the bottom and numbers start spinning, eventually settling on ??? so that you don't know whether John had to reset to get this outcome or how many times.
:41 Slamming back to the lilypad, where John has his first engagement w Jack. This is done in a style of sprite similar to Rose’s fight with Jack pre-Cascade. They lock sword to hammer.
:45 Planetside, the Mayor raises his hand and Karkat raises his sickle and yells something. The carapace army advances against a horde of mixed underlings.
00:48 A general group of carapaces rushing forward.
00:50 Carpacean and underling footsoldiers meet. Remember: Carapaces on the left, underlings on the right!
00:52 Kanaya and Jane face off against a bunch of undead. Kanaya with her chainsaw, Jane with lifey powers glowing around her hands.
00:56 Transition by having John’s hammer and Jack’s sword meet on screen, and with a flash, we cut back to them.
00:56-00:58: With a series of blows in time with the guitar notes, John moves Jack rightwards across the screen.
00:58 John takes off Jack’s hat, but gets knocked back.
1:00 John jumps into metaphorical shadows of the background and Rose slides in, needles at the ready.
1:03-1:09: Rose takes off a tentacle. It would be amusing to try and have some kind of callback to her previous fight with Jack here.
1:10 Dirk, Roxy, Jake airborne. vs flighted underlings. This would be a good moment for a fraymotif: Jake gets the idea to use it, and either performs his and Dirk’s Caccia Amore (a buff whereby they swap glowy power auras and cleave through a group of underlings no problem) or his and Roxy’s Shot in the Dark (trapping a group of underlings in a black voidy version of Jake’s hope bubble and ricocheting bullets inside until they’re all grist).
1:26 Show planetside combat. Cool moments for people:
Karkat drags a few airborne underlings down with Blood powers for his army to trample.
Terezi does some sort of mindy thing perhaps to direct Jane and Kanaya
-The second of Jake’s two fraymotif ideas. Because you know, he’s the only one who was actually seen buying his, and Act 5 is pretty goddamn clear Fraymotifs are purchased from consorts.
-General note: While the kids can be doing good, the underlings have to be putting up a fair fight, with the tide of battle turning to the underlings’ favor once Jack uses the Miles. Otherwise the Crisis Point looks like it comes out of nowhere for no good reason.
JACK PLATFORM
1:40 Dave + Davesprite versus Jack. Davesprite takes off a wing and Dave gets his sword. Jack tries to bludgeon Dave with his massive healthbar…
1:50: Jack getting his health bar lopped in half by Dave. (NOTE: Dave does not participate in direct offensive attacks, only defense)
1:58: Jack summons the Red Miles, which destabilizes the lilypad, throws all the betas off balance, and punches holes in the lilypad. Terezi's jetpack is hit and she crashlands.
~2:05~ Crisis point
2:12 dirk gets decapitated like a dumbass.
2:13 rxn shot: Roxy is like why tf did u do that
2:15 Kanaya and Jane chainsaw their way out of an Underling Jane revive-killed a little too late, leaving them trapped in its ribcage. They’re pinned as soon as they emerge. Don’t worry, I’ll be making the gore sooty and ashy because Gill has done enough gore-things.
2:17 Karkat's army is cornered by a bunch of tough looking underlings. Looking up at the sky, meteors are hurtling towards the surface.
2:21 General pan of the carnage, ppl looking desperate
2:27 JACK PLATFORM On the Crescendo: Dave raises a hand and a bunch of Skaian defense portals glow red. Zoom into one to picture of Earth with the time ticker showing time passing.
2:30 On the crescendo: GB!Jade pops through the portal with the meteor and nabs the planet, then leaves the way she came. THEN the meteors shoot through, passing harmlessly through empty space.
2:34 Use as transition to Jade’s attack (keep the meteor but change the background), grabbing meteors and blasting them through/around Jack
2:40 PM and Jack dueling, but PM getting knocked back
2:42-2:50: A montage of tired and pinned kids (Jane reviving Dirk goes here):
2:50: Jade and PM look @ each other and nod.
2:50 As the drums kick up, PM charges the screen, providing transition for Jade’s retreats into the sky.
2:52 Jade hovers. A fraymotif circle appears beneath her while the former-Becs are seen on the lillypad below.
2:53 Cut to below her: The Spacey thing can be seen in the sky, but something comes over the hills in dramatic fashion. Cheers love, cavalry’s here The hills and the army rise until they’re in frame, Casey at the helm.
2:57 is the reveal shot with the low strings.
3:01 As the drums swell, Casey orders them to charge. They go for the underlings’ flank, a wide shot showing skeletons mobbing underlings.
3:03 A reaction shot of the two armies meeting.
3:05 Roxy and Rose slap their foreheads in a show of comic dismay, but Rose looks down in surprise to see a fraymotif circle under her feet.
3:08 In time with the Savior chords, the boys also notice the fraymotifs circles under them.
3:11: The camera cuts back to a wide shot of the battlefield to display the name of the 4-person motif: Unite Synchronize. No, shush, I know what I’m doing.
3:12 Jade gets some big ol’ insta-runes lighting up behind her.
3:13 PM and Jack fly awhile before PM suddenly takes off into the open void. Jack is confused, looking around for her. He looks up.
3:19 Activating lock-on fraymotif thing, comprised of the Light and Time circles. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.
3:22 Rose and Dave, with their insta-runes.
3:23 John nyooms in front of Jade and activates his own insta-runes. I definitely know what I’m doing, stop looking at me like that.
3:26: Space + Breath instarunes light up and spin in a way that can only mean FRIKKIN LASER BEAMS.
3:28: Zoom out, through the various flavors of instarunes, out to Jack who’s in the dead bulls-eye of all of them.
3:30 He tries to evade, but Light + Time mean there’s a dead lock-on on him.
3:32: Well clear of the blast, all four kids do a gesture that sets off the beam.
3:34 MAXIMUM BULLSHIT ACHIEVED: THE GIANT LASERBEAM OF FRIENDSHIP
We see it go off from a few angles in time with the beat and get Jack caught in the crossfire at 3:38 , taking off another tentacle and wing.
3:40: After getting laserblasted, Jack stumbles back, weakened, only to look up and see
3:42: HEY THERE, PM. She flies at him, just above the beam, sword ready and the camera zooming in each successive chord.
3:46 On the second to last chord, Jack raises his one arm and broken sword in defense: on the last chord, there’s a shot of them in the frame together, rush at one another-
3:50 Everything goes white; SHE STRIKES and fades in on her in the aftermath of a sword stroke, having taken Jack’s hand.
3:53: Everything sloooows down and Jack slowly falls to the ground away from his detached hand.
3:57 A shot of the battlefield with all the enemies dissolving as Jack falls.
04:03 On the low piano key, pulses and the battlefield goes from a torn red hellscape to normal. As the flash ends, it fades to a final screen before the replay button appears: a battlefield scene with the lillypad in the foreground transitions to the victory platform, where a green house stands. No, I don’t care if Hussie’s was red: It’s the Beta kids’ fight, the Beta kids’ regent, the Beta kids’ Battlefield, the Beta kids’ frog, and the Beta kids’ STORY - it’s the Beta kids’ green house on that goddamn victory platform.
FLASH ENDS
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Everyone on Mercay knows Linebeck
For some reason, playing Animal Crossing always inspires me to write, and today it inspired me to write this... poem? This ...thing vaguely about Linebeck. It’s exactly 1000 words and I haven’t edited it since writing it.
So... if you’re interested in reading it, then please enjoy!
~
Everyone on Mercay knows Linebeck
He’s famous and brave and confident
And he looks the part
In his pristine coat and dashing scarf
With his flamboyant movements
And charismatic words
Most people on Mercay
And all others that know of him
Don’t think to look beyond that tailored mask
And allow their attention to be drawn
To his alluring tales
Instead of what is
Right in front of them
Those more enamored by him
Can describe his face perfectly
They always recall the curve of his smile
The glint in his sharp green eyes
The way his hair falls behind his shoulders
Too captivated by each of his calculated moves
To see the way his eyes are sunken and his cheeks are hollow
How though his hair is well-taken care of
It’s at the same time unkempt and uncombed
Every time he is seen in town
And his dexterous hands
With the prominently visible tendons
And the thin fingers that look just a bit too long
With jagged fingernails that look as though
They were bitten rather than trimmed
And whenever his coat sleeve slips back
You can see for a brief moment
His rail-thin wrists
And anyone who goes out of their way to see him
Will tell you
That is all you are able to see of him
Under those immaculate clothes
And little as it is
Hands tell detailed stories
But this captain’s hands
Tell no tales with such detail
As bandaged fingers suggest little more than
Slight mishaps in repairs
Or a slip of the hand when cooking
If he allows you close enough
Close enough to
Touch his hand for just a moment
Then every time
Without fail
Those skilled and slender hands
Are just a little too cold
Despite the way they move
And their proximity to machinery
The sailor smiles in such a way
That makes you forget the temperature of his skin
And turns your attention to his face again
His gaunt face
Hidden in plain sight
With dry and cracked lips
And circles under his eyes
Dark as the deepest depths of the sea
And the way his smile is never reflected in his eyes
He tells lavish stories and details to the listeners
Faraway islands with dangerous dungeons
That they will never see
But with enough detail and imagery
That they don’t feel that they need to
He tells about the ocean
About the endless horizon
And about himself
About his adventures
And his achievements
And everything he’s seen beyond that endless horizon
But he never talks about himself
People come from around the island to hear him talk
A few coming for the stories
A few coming out of admiration
A few coming out of desire
And they hear about an accomplished, adventurous sailor
And never about the person sitting in front of them
The ones most fascinated with him know nothing about him
They have to assume that he likes the color blue based on his coat
He never allows anyone to buy him a drink
And he never tells anyone what he likes to eat
No one knows what his hobbies are
What kinds of flowers he likes
If he likes any animals
What kinds of books he likes to read
No one knows how old he is
How long he’s been sailing
The ones most attentive when the stories are told
Make the uncomfortable realization
That he never mentions another person in his stories
No family
No friends
No companions
When he speaks to someone in the tavern
He never says their name
When someone goes to touch him
He flinches away before recomposing
He never asks favors
And never makes small-talk
Whenever he wins at cards
It can be heard that his lies
Have the same cadence as the truth
Though no one knows the truth
And no one wants to admit that
He is a different person
With everyone he speaks with
The only consistency
Seems to be the brief glimpses of anger
Flaring up so sincerely in his eyes
Or bright flashes of fear
In the way he reacts
When someone asks if he is being honest
Some nights he can be found
In the corner of the tavern
Sitting silently
With nothing to eat or drink
Laying out fifty-two cards
And then sorting them with a cold
Mechanical
Methodology
Some days
After a story he struggles to tell
He leaves very early
Blinking hard and resisting the urge to cover his ears
Shying away from touches and lights and smells
He is rarely seen in the streets of the town
And sometimes any semblance of cheer and confidence
Is gone
Replaced with listless stares and lethargic movements
And once you see past his charisma
Though the pristine grooming
The perfectly tailored responses
And the too-perfect movements
You find yourself looking at something
Something
Beneath a hollow mask
Made up of tireless imagination
Of exaggeration and mimicry
Something to hide behind
A mask that leaves you wondering
Why it was crafted in the first place
And what it is hiding
Beyond hints of an emaciated body
And shallow stories and replies
This mask
Propped up by fear
And endless charisma
And just-right movements
This mask hiding something
That almost no one on Mercay
Realizes even exists
And even those who do know what exists
Cannot search any further
As even with the mask identified
You cannot see underneath it
Unless the one wearing it removes it
And so those pretty words
Distract the people of Mercay
Away from what is hiding in plain sight
Keeping them from that deeply uncanny feeling
That something is deeply wrong
With the man that they idolize
The man they know nothing about
Except that he is a sailor
Who shares his name with his ship
But people still hear his stories
And find themselves captivated
By this hollow illusion of a man
Sitting in front of them
And still people will say
Everyone on Mercay knows Linebeck.
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