#keno presenting

[ryanyflags]

Gender-quality presenting flags :D

Wanted to make some presentation flags that were missing (or at least, I don't know of any flags for these terms), so here they are. (May or may not be part of a bigger flag project)

abine presenting ✦ midbine presenting ✦ bine presenting [pt: abine presenting, midbine presenting, bine presenting.]

✦ abine also can be called abinarine & abinine. ✦ midbine also can be called midbinarine & midbinine. ✦ bine also can be called binarine.

atrine presenting ✦ midtrine presenting ✦ trine presenting [pt: atrine presenting, midtrine presenting, trine presenting.]

✦ atrine also can be called atrinarine & atrinine. ✦ midtrine also can be called midtrinarine & midtrinine. ✦ trine also can be called trinarine.

ilyagine presenting ✦ aporine presenting ✦ outher presenting [pt: ilyagine presenting, aporine presenting, outher presenting.]

✦ aporine can also be called aporaine. ✦ outher can also be called outhr, outhrine, & outherine.

keno presenting [pt: keno presenting.]

✦ keno can also be called kenoine & kenous.

↓ References: ✦ original gender-quality-presenting flag format (feminine, masculine, neutral, & xenine presenting). ✦ nonbine, androgynous, genderless, & maverine presenting flags (in the same format). ✦ nonbine, midbine, abine, & atrine (alt) flags. ✦ binarine flag. ✦ midtrinarine flag. ✦ trinarine flag. ✦ ilyagine flag. ✦ aporine flag. ✦ outherine flag. ✦ kenoine flag.

So they all follow the above gender-quality presenting flag format (3 stripes, with the outer 2 stripes being for the gender-quality in question).

I just took the colours of the above gender quality flags, simplified them to 2 colours, and used them on the edges. Pretty straightforward. The only slight exception is atrine presenting, which has a lightly yellower center grey stripe. This is to help a bit with contrast, and match the general aesthetic I do with atrinary flags (where atrinary yellowish white is used instead of plain white, or whatever the default light center colour of the flag format is).

[cookinguptales]

my family is watching antiques roadshow again, and we were talking about the wwdits vampires trying to sell their old belongings at one of these things... which quickly devolved into how much we want to see them doing appraisals on the show.

laszlo is presented with an authentic norman rockwell painting and he's like "not enough tits, not enough bush" and he just like. throws it. finds some vintage victorian pornography and is like THIS IS MORE LIKE IT.

nadja is just wandering around judging jewelry by how haunted it is, giving insultingly lowball estimates, and stealing the pieces she likes best as soon as the cameras are off her. she mostly just hypnotizes a bunch of old ladies, but yes, there is a body count.

nandor is thrilled by how much antique weaponry there always is at these shows, but he is mostly enamored of All The Horsies. because for some reason, there is always so much horse art on this show. every horse painting is worth one million dollars.

colin is giving actual legit appraisals, his are the only ones that are at all accurate, but his appraisals are so long-winded (he draws them out just to keep folks anxious) that people usually pass out before they find out what their treasures are actually worth. he does not bother mugging them. (nadja often does, though.)

guillermo is like GUYS, WE REALLY SHOULDN'T BE ON TV... until the exact moment that he finds out how much a lot of their old shit is actually worth. once he loosens up, he finds that he actually really enjoys wandering around and looking at all of the antiques, even if they do kind of uncomfortably remind him of a very unpleasant ex.

nadja will, before this is over, shove a bunch of stolen jewelry at guillermo and tell him to hide it in his pockets. he will bitch while doing exactly that. colin will help the two of them resell their illicit gains on ebay the next day.

(meanwhile, laszlo has managed to pull both keno brothers.)

bonus for my fellow nandermo fans:

despite coming out of the whole endeavor much richer, guillermo is feeling unsettled because his ex-boyfriend always used to ramble at him about antiquities and he realizes that he was never once asked what he thought about any of them. it feels odd to realize how much he does actually enjoy the subject in the absence of a much larger personality that always made him feel smaller.

(story of his life, huh?)

after all this is done, he goes back out to some local shows and auctions, much smaller ones, and nandor accompanies him. they gossip at each other the whole time about which pieces they like, which they think are ugly, and which are drastically overpriced.

guillermo uses his new misbegotten wealth to buy nandor a statue of a horse, which he promptly names john.

[maddys-nerd-blog]

Hello!!

Sorry for my silence for the past while, but I’ve been extra busy and doing a bunch of fun stuff!! Like going to a really awesome Turtle Con to meet ELEVEN TMNT ACTORS, including the first con appearances of Shamon Brown Jr and Micah Abbey!!! It was an awesome day and everyone there was so nice!!!

I drew everyone there gifts as a token of appreciation for all they’ve done in the fandom, and to celebrate the franchise reaching 40 years!! My art isn’t that good but I stepped up my skills to make these the best gifts I could!!

Here’s what I drew!

I think my favorite pieces that I did were the Mondo-Mikey art in terms of background and color, the Keno and Mutant Mayhem Donnie ones in terms of posing, and the Splinter one got me a ton of recognition at the con and my silly art blog on Instagram for some reason! 🥹

I’m happy they liked their presents!! It was truly an amazing experience as a TMNT fan!! 😁

And don’t worry! I’ve been chipping away at my AU! I’m currently working on a side story for it so stay tuned!!

Have a nice day! ☺️

[kusanagihaku]

Hey! I’ve been following your blog for a while now but I think I’m missing something. Your two most recent(?) posts about Taiga were about reading is 五格 and 地格/总格 (10,31) but I don’t really understand what these are or where it is that your finding them in the game. I figure it might be hard to explain what they are to someone who doesn’t understand Japanese culture or anything but could you try to elaborate in any way? Thanks!

五格 (five elements?) is a type of onomancy first written about by kumazaki keno. it’s a type of name divination that people use to choose a name for their children, company or stage/pen name.

because it works by calculating the number of strokes in a name, it’s used mostly to decide between kanji options when coming up with a name. depending on the total number of strokes, the luck that the name predicts you will have can be good or bad.

you calculate each number based on the kanji then combine them for interpretation, so you can't find it in the game! it's more of looking at the individual characters in their actual name. let's use alan's name as an example!

① 天格 (24) refers to his 'inherited luck', ② 人格 (18) refers to his 'main luck', ③ 地格 (19) refers to his 'early luck' (before he hits middle age), ④ 外格 (25) is his 'support luck' (from friends or partner) and ⑤ 总格 (43) refers to his 'later luck' (after he hits middle age). these numbers are derived by adding up the strokes of the kanji.

the resulting numbers correspond to an interpretation (there's a full list of 1 to 81 floating around somewhere), but the interpretation is usually read in relation to other numbers. i usually can't be bothered to count the strokes and scroll up and down to put all the numbers together lmao, so i use sites like this to help me add everything up!

1 天格 and 2 人格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with his parents/mentors. for alan, his parents might be more old-school. at work, it might be hard for him to get approval or validation from his mentors... which sounds really vagastrom / tracks with what dante has expressed about vagastrom...

2 人格 and 3 地格 can be interpreted together to read his character. honestly i gasped cried a little when i read it??? he takes good care of his children/juniors - even though he may be overly protective (!!), he thinks about them all the time and can easily be negotiated with. his sense of responsibility is very strong, will care for others and he will work hard (!!!!!) which to me makes the mortkranken chapter even more lovely… the members of vagastrom will follow and defend their captain to the end and there’s good cause for that… (captain of my heart……..)

2 人格 and 4 外格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with others. when he's in trouble he may have a lot of friends willing to come forward to offer him support (especially financial... certain vice-captain i'm looking at u!!!!). if he remains kind and down-to-earth, he will see success. (i am once again begging the universe to give alan a safe and normal life i love him)

2 人格 and 5 总格 can be interpreted together to read his work/financial outlook. things won't go his way easily; he will need to work harder than most to succeed. (i am once again begging the universe–)

3 地格 and 5 总格 can be interpreted together to read his relationship with his future family. he might be not be good at communication (!!) and may be stubborn (!!!). he might end up quite pessimistic, but this can be changed if he puts in effort to change his mindset. (i am ONCE AGAIN begging the universe PLEASE to give alan love–)

obviously i read names very much for fun and you can take it as seriously or as lightly as you want, but i think all the readings i've done so far for all the characters track very much with how they're presented in-story... which makes me wonder if some writer in the tkdb character design room has all their 五格 numbers and interpretations mapped out...

anyway, hope this is clear enough!! if I explained anything unclearly I found this site that explains it the most simply (web translate available)!

[kittynumyum]

So I don't really make a lot of posts for my tmnt iteration where it's just only text, since I mostly prefer to show my iteration through my drawings. But, I figured I might as well do this so you guys get to know a bit about the main characters that are going to be part of my story, so here we go!

Character Summary List:

The Boiz:

Leonardo: Leader in Blue. Centered arc is the first arc.

Raphael: Big and red and always ready for a fight. Centered arc is Yokai Uprising Arc

Michaelangelo: Orange and one of a kind. Centered arc is City at War Arc

Donatello: Purple and rocks machines. Centered arc is Galactic Frontier Arc

Other Main Characters:

Splinter: The turtles' rat sensei/father. Is Hamato Yoshi and has a tragic family backstory.

April O'Neil: The turtles' first best friend since they were kids. Currently a college student. Is besties with Donnie.

Casey Jones: The turtles' second best friend (Raph meets them first when they were younger, then the others during the present). Hockey player and vigilante. Has a dorky crush on April. Is besties with Raph.

Keno: The turtles' third best friend. High school student who works part time at his family owned pizza place and is badass at martial arts. Is besties with Mikey.

Metalhead: A turtle robot created by Donnie to assist the turtles through medical needs. Eventually, with Donnie's programming, they gain some sentient and becomes more willing to help out the team in any way they can.

The Mighty Mutanimals:

Old Hob: A mutant cat from TCRI, who originally started the gang. Once had a thing against humans due to being experimented on by them, but now wants to help protect the city and his friends.

Slash: A giant mutant spiked sea turtle from TCRI, who was overmutated from an ooze explosion. He started as a frenzied monster, but is soon healed by Dr. Rockwell. He leads the Mighty Mutanimals.

Leatherhead: A mutant alligator from TCRI

Mondo Gecko: A mutant gecko from TCRI

Dr. Rockwell: A mutant monkey. Was originally a human scientist who worked alongside Stockman at TCRI, but experiments went wrong in where he got turned into a monkey, (but he seems unphased with that situation ig lmao)

(And in short, they are all very close friends with Mikey)

Foot Clan:

Shredder: Leader of the Foot. Is responsible for the death of Yoshi's family. Main antagonist of the first arc.

Karai: Shredder's adoptive daughter. One of the members of the Foot Elite (Is viewed as the weakest Foot Elite, even Shredder views this). Is frenemies with Leo.

Tatsu (AKA: Tiger Claw): A mutant tiger who was originally human. Leader of the Foot Elite and is second-in-command of the Foot

Chris Bradford (AKA: Rahzar): A mutant wolf who was originally human. Member of the Foot Elite and is in charge of taking care of the new and upcoming recruits. He also becomes a better father figure for Karai.

Bebop: A mutant warthog who was originally human. Besties with Rocksteady.

Rocksteady: A mutant rhino who was originally human. Besties with Bebop.

Jennika: A mutant turtle who was originally human. She was the youngest member of the Foot Elite (is actually better than Karai).

Outer Space:

Fugitoid: A robot who was once a scientist but got his mind transfered to a robot. Is the one who originally formed the rebellion against the Triceraton Empire.

Mona Lisa: An alien salamander who is a gladiator fighter in the Triceraton Arena. She helps Donnie with his survival and skills in fighting in the arena.

Tokka: An alien turtle who decides to tag along the turtles' adventure.

Traximus: A triceraton guard who is secretly working with Fugitoid in the fight against the Triceraton Empire. He helps Donnie in finding a way to escape, as well as a way to take down the Triceratons' planet buster weapon that they have abused its power with.

Emperor Zanramon: Leader of the Triceraton Empire. Main antagonist of Galactic Frontier Arc.

Captain Mozar: Second-in-command of the Triceraton Empire.

Hidden City:

Baron Draxum: A goat yokai who is the leader of the Hidden City. Main antagonist of the Yokai Uprising Arc.

Huginn and Muninn: Baron Draxum's loyal pets.

Koya: A falcon yokai who is the general of the yokai army.

Miyamoto Usagi: A rabbit yokai who was formerly a warrior for Baron Draxum. He then helps the turtles in taking down Baron Draxum.

Alopex: A fox yokai who is the leader of the yokai rebellion.

Venus: A mutant turtle. Was created by Baron Draxum as a weapon against the turtles.

The Pantheon:

Kitsune: A fox yokai who is the eldest of the Pantheon. She is known for her variety of mystic powers and tricks. She is first seen in the Shredder Arc, where she is Shredder's right hand other than Tatsu. She is then seen again in the Yokai Uprising Arc, where she is Draxum's right hand.

Tengu: An eagle yokai who is the second eldest of the Pantheon. He is known for his mystic powers in weather-like abilities (thunder, earthquakes, etc.). He takes his duties more seriously.

Bakeneko: A cat yokai who is the youngest of the Pantheon. They are known for shapeshifting and playing with fire. They are very mischievous.

Nure-onna: A snake yokai who is the second youngest of the Pantheon. She is known for her deadly poison and cataclysmic powers yes this is based off of Cat Noir, shut up. She is very scary.

Sarugami: A monkey yokai who is the middle sibling of the Pantheon. He is known for his immense strength. He does not speak at all.

Ryujin: An all powerful and evil dragon who was banished to the Twilight Realm. He wishes to destroy the entire world and recreate it in his own image. Main antagonist of Dawn of the Pantheon Arc

Other Villains:

Krang: A powerful alien race who was banished to Dimension X. They wish to conquer the entire universe and remake it in their image. Main antagonist of Zero Hour Arc.

Baxter Stockman: A mad scientist who works at the TCRI.

Bishop: A special agent of the US government and head of the EPF. Main antagonist of City at War Arc.

Hun: A crime boss who is the leader of the Purple Dragons.

Rat King: A mad man who can not only control the rats, BUT ALSO MUTANTS! Main antagonist of Mutant Madness Arc.

[konjaku]

下野[Shimotsuke] Spiraea japonica

A long, long time ago, there was a region called 毛野[Keno|Kenu] in the northern part of the present Kantō region. As time went by, around the 6th to 7th century, it was divided into two regions, 上毛野[Kami-tsu Keno|Kenu] in the west and 下毛野[Shimo-tsu Keno|Kenu] in the east. Then, in the Heian period(794-1185), these became 上野国[Kamitsuke-no kuni|Kōzuke-no kuni] and 下野国[Shimotsuke-no kuni], and in the Meiji period(1868-1912), they became present 群馬県[Gunma ken] and 栃木県[Tochigi ken], respectively. 国 means province or country, 県 means prefecture. And, this plant got its name because it was found there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryōmō_Line

利根川[Tonegawa], which flows through the Kantō Plain, is the second longest river with the largest basin area in Japan, and its longest tributary is 鬼怒川[Kinugawa]. 川[-gawa|Kawa] means river. Kinugawa originates in the northern part of Tochigi Prefecture and runs through the prefecture from north to south and empties into Tonegawa. 鬼怒[Kinu] literally means the oni(ogre) gets angry, but this is an ateji(phonetic-equivalent characters), and Kinugawa was originally 毛野川[Kenugawa].

Incidentally, if 下野 is read as geya, it means to leave the government service. This is short for 野に下る[Ya ni kudaru](lit. go down to the private sector) and is not related to Shimotsuke.

[shiro-luxunder]

ok time to indulge in my hypofantasma brainrot

this is lyjori

tumblr probably tanked the resolution but i guess thats fine

also his pre-brandshock version, i did change the second color of her eyes, yes i didnt color it fully just pretend that it is, ok?

they are based off the chesire cat, eastern dragons, mustelids and old man historians

anygays details!

Sembla: dream

Affiliation: Humanity, he adores her tether and would go against the "end of mission" ritual, taking their tether with them off the planet, to keep their tether alive for as long as possible, if she was even working towards the endgame of the mercy mission, which he is not

Paradigm: Krainian, with Mettoan ancestry

height: 14'3", standing upright(pretty much never, she prefers to just float through the air than using his legs)

pronouns: he/she/they, doesnt really care tbh

occupation: historian/author

design notes: all four tentacle-esc limbs are switchlimbs. they have a zippermouth that goes down to about the middle of her neck. feet are talon-like. tail is often curled up like a chameleon, but he sometimes uses it to grab things. the tips of the horns, tail and(of course) the claws are all kraizenium/vanium, as such the horns and tail are much tougher at the tips(the same hardened tips are present on the switchlimbs, just a lot smaller). she wears silver reading glasses

important facts: brand is inside of ears. tether is perrin tophage. tanja is #6969ff. amplifier is the library[F-6-S-43-LIB-8736]

trivia: her name isnt based on anything, and "lie" and "jaw being the first 2 parts of his name was a coincidence

@keno-reblogs

[fibonacci-hell]

Kenopsia: The Forever Ocean, yeah? I was curious as to "Hey, so how long have the Kraizen had to live/how long have the Vani been around, anyway" since they have a different time system from us!

So, I did the only thing I could possibly do and did all the math for it.

Wanted to drop it here for anyone in the Keno community who might just only be on Tumblr and make a more officially organized version of this for anyone interested.

A text version is under the "keep reading" for anyone that needs it!

The Brandshock occurred some 5.3 million years ago. How long would that be to the Kraizen/Vani?

Scale for reference, straight from the Kraizen/Vani page from @JunoSaturna on Toyhouse.

Ti (crackles/ticks/seconds) = 1 Earth second, 60 BPM

Zhe (shifts/minutes) = 50 ticks

Qa (marks/hours) = 50 shifts

Tal (tallies/days) = 50 marks

Volya (frames/months) = 100 tallies

Mienze (cycles/years) = 10 frames

Metaze (murals) = 120 cycles

The Actual Math.

1 Earth Year = 31,540,000 seconds/ti.

31,540,000 ti ÷ 50 per zhe = 630,800 zhe.

630,800 zhe ÷ 50 per qa = 12,616 qa.

12,616 qa ÷ 50 per tally = 253.32 tallies (253 tallies and 16 qa).

253.32 tallies ÷ 100 per frame = 2.5332 frames (2 frames and ~53 tallies) -> 0.25332 cycles.

2.5332 frames × 5.3 million years on Earth (time since the Brandshock) = 13,425,970 frames (1,342,596 cycles/11,188.3 murals)

So, what does this say?

In their units, the Kraizen have been roaming around as the Vani for 1,342,596 cycles as of the current day, or around 11,188 murals.

A Kraizen's average lifespan is 12,000 cycles. As of current, a Vani would have lived through ~111.88 average Kraizen lifetimes.

1 cycle ≈ 3.948 Earth years. With that conversion present, 1 average Kraizen lifespan ≈ 47,376 Earth yYear.

In short? It has been a LONG TIME.

Kraizen Life Milestones in Earth Years (to the nearest whole)

Infancy/Toddler: 0-20 years

Childhood: ~20-79 years

Prepubescent Age: ~79-474 years

Kannmeta (Kraizen puberty): Occurs when around 474 years old

[evilgabe29]

chapter 1 of working title

A boy ran through the streets of Artagan. His grey coat flapping in the wind a little too fast as if the air just wasn't ready for him yet and scrambled to keep up. Once he got to his destination he just barely stopped himself from planting his pace into the solid brick wall of the job centre. He entered the small building a bit winded.

The centre wasn't big, no building in Artagan was. Some felt that it made the place feel suffocating. Although those people got jobs on only their tenth visit or less, most took comfort in the cramped space. This was the boy’s hundredth or so visit to the centre despite people supposedly being in need of any Kenek they could get, bloody liars.

The boy walked over to the ticket dispenser and removed the small piece of paper from the slot, which was immediately replaced with another one. The ticket had the number one written on it meaning he got here first this time, which also meant he gets first pick on any jobs that get brought in. The boy then sat down in the lone foldable chair in the middle of the room, for a new visitor it would look out of place as if it was fulfilling a quota for having seating in public areas, but long time visitors found it as with most things exactly where it needs to be. 

The boy woke up to a voice, and a sharp pain to his head.

“Oi, Vik wake up i can't have you holding up the line” said the voice that he’d determined to belong to Hektor the caretaker of this job centre, he was a relatively big man, that's relative to Vik though who was only eleven half-feet tall and skinnier than a keno wire, Hektor on the other hand was approximately 13 half-feet by Vik’s approximation with enough mussel to make a heaver go bankrupt trying to lift him. 

“Owww” Vik groaned standing up “do ya really have to hit me?” 

“You got the first ticket, no one else can go until you do dumbass, there might actually be something for you this time,” Hektor said, dragging him to the terminal. Hektor was not only the caretaker of the centre he also delivered new jobs to the terminal every week.

Vik perked up at his words, would today be the day he actually got a job? Of course he didn't let himself get too hopeful but he was still very excited.

After plopping him down in front of the job terminal Hektor turned it on, making all the rotating letter plates whir to life, at this point Vik finally took stock of his surroundings and all the people that were standing in line. Intellectually he knew the reason, there had been a record number of ships that arrived to port this week and ships tended to hire personnel when they came to port, he still jumped at the sheer amount of people present.

The terminal made a final loud Click indicating that it was finished setting up, Vik turned to it and inserted his ticket into the terminal, it then did some more whirring as it accepted the small paper, then it clicked once again signifying that it was done with its operations and was ready for use.

Vik gingerly put his magenta tipped fingers on the keyboard, with each keypress making the terminal jump to life. he pressed the enter key with a finality that made him worry if he might have accidentally broken it, but the command he put in to filter the jobs by ones that were looking for dashers went through and he took a relieved sigh and took a step back to looking at all the rotating letters plates, once they stopped his heart did too, after his hundred visits, almost a year coming here once a week, finally, finally something popped up.

-~very cool line break, this is still the same chapter just a bit latter~-

Vik walked to the port, canvas bag slung across his shoulder, right hand resting on his Ring Spike tied to his belt and the left clutching the job printout with all his strength as if it was gonna run away from him. He didn't even want to dash with the fear of losing the paper. Vik was still half convinced that he would be turned away, maybe it was a mistake, maybe they meant to look for a dodger and wrote dasher instead but the other half of his brain noted that he did have the paper, there was proof that he accepted the job and even if they didn't need a dasher most ships found the increased speed they provide to be very useful.

Vik had intended to have one last look at his home, he did feel a fondness for the slum like city Artagan had become in the last hundred years, even if he also resented it for taking his parents from him. He reasoned that the government and companies of a city isn't necessarily the city itself but logic and reason could only do so much.

It wasn't long before he reached the port he entered, anxious that guards would appear out of nowhere and arrest him but none did, he walked over to landing pad twenty-seven which was indicated on the print out.

Two men stood on the landing pad, one clad in a yellow shirt under a thick fake leather coat and leaning his back on the railing, while the other one had on a blue dress shirt that was too clean to be from any of the slums. He stood straight backed with his hands clasped behind him. They seemed to be looking out for people. Vik reflexively took his hand off of his Ring Spike and hid it under his coat. He wasn't supposed to have one, normal people weren't supposed to have one. But he'd swiped one off a visiting ring scout intending on selling it since it was heavy enough to be worth a chunk or two but then he'd realised it was made of Keno from Armanis and worth way more to him as a battery then just some spare change.

Vik walked up to the two men incredibly nervous, possibly the most nervous he'd ever been. Vik proffered the paper to the two men though as he'd expected the blue clad man took it with gloved hands. He unfolded the crumpled piece of paper that he’d unconsciously been gripping as if his life depended on it. The man visibly relaxed as he started reading through the paper. The yellow clad man though he looked at Vik’s fingers, his eyes sparkled as he saw the deep colour of the Athos stains on them. his lips curved up slightly at the corners.

“Okay so you're the dasher eh?” Vik snapped to attention at the sound of blue shirt’s voice. It was quite relaxed, not at all how he'd expected someone who looked like he'd had a drain pipe shoved up his ass to sound.

“YES!..uhh yes that's me,yes,” Vik responded still a bit nervous

“a bit jumpy ain't aren't they Lan?” yellow shirt said nugging blue, his voice was gruffer than blue’s but was equally more energetic

“Hektor mentioned that there haven't been many requests for dashers going through his circles. So they probably think were gonna scam them or something” he muttered reading through the print out 

Once he was done he folded it up as neatly as he could given its state and put it in the back pocket of his dress pants 

“Alright everything looks to be in order Vik, Nell mind showing the new kid around? we’re still waiting on a heaver so get them all set up while i wait.”

“Sure, come with me shortstuff” yellow shirt turning to the scout ship behind him and gesturing for Vik to follow him, Nell if he wasn't mistaken. 

Vik hesitated at first but they seemed pretty trustworthy and he wasn't likely to get another opportunity like this any time soon. so he followed Nell.

-~cool lil line break just because i want to, what are you gonna do? Sue me?~-

The ship wasn't pretty well at least it wasn't in the conventional sense it had very clearly seen better days there were several patches of metal that had been welded or bolted on often both. not only that but various pieces of the ship were almost certainly mismatched. despite this or maybe because of it Vik absolutely adored the ship. 

“We call her Theo after one of the very very old myths” Nell said, running his gloved fingers through his light brown hair. 

“I haven't heard of any myths like that, what’s it about?” Vik asked, genuinely curious.

“No idea.”Nell announced proudly.

“What? Why would you name it after something you don't even know about?”

“Oh I don't know anything about it but my brother over there could give you a four and a half hour lecture on the name alone” Nell said gesturing with his thumb towards Lan “multiply it ten-fold if he ends up going on about philosophy, which he usually does”

They finally got to the ship’s entrance, it was a white rectangular metal door with four rectangular indentations like something you’d find in a house. Trials it probably was an interior door, how did all the air not escape the moment they took off?

“How do you have that as the door to your ship?” Vik said with no small measure of awe, it fit the aesthetic of the ship so well after all, even if he had no idea how it functioned they clearly had made it here so it must work somehow.

Nell chuckled as he turned the knob and swung open the door, revealing an oddly open interior, of course the ship was big on the outside but he had expected the small cramped quarters of military ships, although those also tended to use non Athos driven forms of propulsion and tended to have had much bigger crews.

Vik entered the craft stepping over the rubber lining where the door had been, this must be how they kept air from escaping, there was no way that was safe.

The ship’s interior had five rooms, four he assumed were for crew and then the last must be for the washroom? But where would the engine go? Then he saw it, a giant hunk of Keno glowing a beautiful yellow suspended by six metal spokes with a seventh going directly downwards made of a whitish-silvery material. 

“Whoa!” Vik said in awe.

“Yeah, she’s a beauty ain't she.” Nell said, still standing outside “you're free to take any of the quarters that don't have a name on the door yet, once the heaver arrives we’ll explain to you both on how to operate Theo here. In the meantime, get yourself comfortable.” He then left the ship to join his brother out on the landing pad.

Vik opened the first door he saw that didn't have a name on it, and was beholden to the ship’s washroom, it was quite…functional, it contained only a toilet and sink and they both were not the prettiest even by Vik’s odd standards. He closed the door and kept looking; he didn't need to use it right now and his bag was starting to weigh on him a little bit. There were two unmarked doors next to the washroom, he chose the one furthest away from it and opened the metal door. 

The quarters were what some would call cramped but just like the job centre he found it cosy instead, the room contained a simple bed and desk. Vik put his bag on the desk and collapsed onto the bed. When was the last time he’d actually slept on a bed? It was so comfortable. Vik Then passed out.

tagging mutuals:

@ohnoitsslime @caligusabs @beloveddawn-blog

@illarian-rambling @theeccentricraven @kaylinalexanderbooks

and per request:

@mr-orion

[genderstarbucks]

Alt Transkeno | Male to Keno | Female to Keno

Transkenoine / Transkenous is an umbrella term for those whose identity is partially or fully kenoine/kenous. It can also be considered an umbrella term for those who transition towards kenosity, or a kenoine/kenous identity. It may refer to someone's gender, presentation, or both.

Alt transkeno flags, since I'm not a big fan of many of the other flags I've found

[eldorr]

Fleshstarean

With symbol (left) || without symbol (right)

A gender in some shape or form, is related to both flesh/meat/gore, and stars/space/astronomical bodies.

Fleshstarean can manifest as one's gender relating to both gorecore (and/or slaughtercore) and spacecore. One may simply be both gorecoric and spacecoric, or one may be both gorecoric and spacecoric and collect genders that relate to both gore and outer space.

Fleshstarean can also be called Meatstarean or Gorestarean. This gender may share qualities associated with Astronomique, Caelgender, Spacecoric, Berserkic, Meatgender, Gorecoric, etc.

.

This gender may present (be experienced) as being any of the following:

A xenogender (or xenine gender), an outherine (or aporine) gender, an aetherine gender, a diastine gender, a macarshric gender, and/or a kenochoric (or kenoine/kenochord) gender. It may also be experienced as a gender that's simply xenic/xeno-aligned, outheric/ outher-aligned, aethic/aetherine-aligned, diastic/diastine-aligned, macric/macarshric-aligned, and/or a kenic/keno-aligned.

When it comes to classification purposes, Fleshstarean would most accurately fit under the Diastine label, as depending on the individual it could be experienced as a xenogender and/or outherine gender, depending on how one experiences their gender in relation to gore and stars/space.

In general the names are set up as Flesh-star-ean, Meat-star-ean, or Gore-star-ean.

[thelucyheartfilia-archive]

Online Casinos - An Introduction

Online casinos are the internet rendition of the regular casinos, which permit players to wager on games and win prizes online. Likewise called as the internet casinos or virtual casinos, these are being laid out on a rising rate throughout the course of recent years. Online casinos use an Irregular Number Generator (RNG), which provides a succession of numbers in an irregular request, in light of which the table games and blackjack are played. Most of the online casinos either lease or buy the software from organizations like Realtime Gaming, CryptoLogic Inc, Playtech, Microgaming and Global Game Innovation.

There are essentially two sorts of online casinos classified based on the connection points they use - downloadable casinos and electronic casinos and a few casinos offer both these sorts. A few online casinos offer live gaming choices likewise, where the vendor will be in the studio and players can collaborate with the seller constant.

Electronic Casinos

While playing in these casinos you don't need to download the gaming software. Your PC program needs to help modules like Macromedia Streak and Macromedia Shockwave. HTML point of interaction is likewise permitted by a few online casinos.

Downloadable Gaming Experience

In certain sorts of online casinos, you need to download gaming software to play various casino games. These are quicker than the online casinos because the help modules needn't bother with to be downloaded, yet are presented by the specialist organization. The software interfaces you to the specialist organization through which wagering and playing occurs. These are additionally predominant in the event of sound and designs than the online casinos.

Sorts of Online Casino Games

Most of the these casinos offer normally played gamed like baccarat, craps, poker, blackjack, slot games, keno, roulette and bingo. For paying these games, you can put money through various store choices.

Appealing Advancements

Most of the these casinos to draw in new players offer numerous special offers and arrangements (casino bonus) on joining and keeping in mind that saving the underlying sum. Almost all casinos advance casino bonus offers on a major way. Some bonus can be cashed out while some others must used while play. A portion of the casinos offer focuses rather than money, which increment after each online game you win. Comp focuses are additionally one of the popular ways of offering bonuses to online players, which can be cashed out as prize, money or com focuses itself. Betting sum and focuses vary with each game you select to play. While certain casinos offer appealing advancements on each game, some others could limit the bonus offers to certain games. They acknowledge many store choices as well.

[jumping-jackalope]

in Andor I really love how "luck" is portrayed. like, Cassian is one of the most wanted people in the galaxy after the Aldhani robbery but he is arrested and sentenced to a lifetime of slave labor in prison over "nothing". Keno leads thousands of people in rebellion from prison but himself can't escape alive because "i can't swim". Cassian is initially in trouble with the Empire not for any of his deliberate, planned law breaking but for accidentally killing a guard.

like the lower in class a person is, the more random the acts of violence are against them. it presents as "luck" but its a manifestation of the scope of the Empire's oppression.

[photon-crest-art]

A new Fani fella to share! This is Taiperox (TIGH-pair-ocks), a wind Krianian who specializes in creating and using long-range weaponry to combat the ever-present Kval threat. He’s both a mechanic and a Forger, spending much of his time at a forge- one he inherited from his mother Peroxin- developing weapons and combat-oriented machines. Outside of work, he’s a kind and formal gentlekwaiz with an immense passion for all aspects of weaponry. Though, he is known to have difficulties reading the tone of words at time, especially when it comes to conversations where a serious problem like an injury is presented as a joke.

As of now, Typerox has no post-Brandshock variant. I made him specifically for pre-Brand RP servers such as Lezelanos, though I may make a post-Brand variant for him later. We’ll see; I’ve thought of bringing him into a Keno story project of mine, though there’s no guarantee it’ll actually happen.

Bonus doodle :)

[wow-its-me]

I have a 45 slide keynote presentation on my Mutant Mayhem predictions

Here’s some of them (basically all of them, summarized)

“Cowabunga!!” And other common catchphrases and battle cries, for example : someone yelling there own name

The movie ends with a pizza party

Raph and Leo get into an argument, and fight (either verbally and/or physically)

Everyone THINKS that splinter is dead, he’s not

April attempts to investigate by herself, learning vital information, but getting into trouble in the process, the turtles come save her

Donnie builds a robot! It brakes :(

Donnie’s bo staff is snapped in half during a fight

A mass mutation event is indirectly and accidentally caused by the Turtles 

Raph and Casey fight,, then their best friends

Casey attempts murder

Splinter gives extremely vague advice (on purpose, he enjoys the drama)

Neither shredder or kraang will be a main villain, but one (most likely kraang) will be a looming threat, a villain for a sequel.

Karai

Like always they will try to modernize the turtles, my guesses for this are, Mikey makes and outdated meme reference, someone is a twitch streamer, Donnie listens to Miku, new anime references

April and Casey will be teenagers, but older than the turtles

The turtles will all be the same age, with Mikey as the designated little brother, and Leo as the designated older brother

The idea of retro mutagen/anti ooze will be mentioned, if not a main part of the plot

Rob Paulson voice cameo

Leo Makes a bunch of dad jokes! His personality will be a mix between Rise and 2012

Raph tries to swear, but doesn’t/is interrupted

Appearance of an IDW character who hasn’t appeared in much else

Danny or Keno mention or reference?? (Maybe this one isn’t as likely but I want them to come back,,,,)

The earth protection force exists but ISNT APPART OF THIS AT ALL I’m talking like small Easter egg you don’t see till your fifth watch

Casey Jones is a girl (lesbian Casey Jones,,,, Gasey)

ALOPEX we know that the villains for this movie will be some sort of evil league of mutants. I think Alopex could easily be apart of this

Again the Krang and the foot won’t be important to the plot or characters but DO play some sort of role in the evil mutants thing

This will be MUCH lower stakes then previous movies

A main focus on the “henchmen” of other iterations, Bebop, Rocksteady, Leatherhead, Stockman

And I know I mentioned Casey a lot in this, however Casey Jones is very much a “lvl 2 main character” I don’t think that they can be introduced until the other characters are established, and probably won’t be included in this movie

Also the trailer will probably come out during the superbowl

[turtlethon]

Turtlethon Extra Slices: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze”

US Release Date: March 22, 1991 UK Release Date: August 9, 1991

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is the follow-up to the hugely successful first live-action Turtles movie, released in the US through New Line Cinema. Much has changed in the year since the original TMNT film made its debut, coinciding with Turtlemania reaching its peak. Its director, Steve Barron, reportedly bowed out during post-production, the project heading in a different direction than he had originally envisioned. Judith Hoag, who played April O’Neil, was also unhappy, feeling that the finished product was too violent and that the more spiritual elements of the original story – I’m guessing this would have related to the mystical connection between the Turtles and Splinter ultimately confined to the campfire scene – were left on the cutting room floor.

As discussed in the entry for the first movie, the darkness present in that initial cinematic Turtles outing generated some consternation, not only from pundits and parental groups but from certain parties concerned with the business side of TMNT, most notably action figure licensee Playmates. What’s remarkable is that the final cut had already been watered down from what Barron had envisioned: most notably, the scene where Shredder’s right-hand man Tatsu took out his frustrations on one of the Foot Clan hoodlums was intended to have been considerably more violent than it ended up being. The pencilled-in punk rock soundtrack was swapped out for more commercially palatable hip-hop and new jack swing material that would shift plenty of units when the inevitable cash-in “Music from the Motion Picture” CD was released. These considerations would go on to dramatically impact the creative direction of the sequel: if there was so much money to be made in a gritty Turtles movie, so the thinking went, surely a brighter, agreeable one would draw in an even bigger audience.

The clock was also ticking. It was apparent to all involved that the dizzying levels of success the Turtles had achieved would be fleeting; inevitably kids would move on to whatever the next hot new trend would be before too long, and so there was a need to rush the second movie into production almost immediately after the first proved to be a hit. Barron was replaced by Michael Pressman, whose work in the years immediately prior had mostly been in the made-for-TV-movie field; meanwhile Paige Turco would be drafted in to fill the role of April. External factors would also lead to the Turtle whose original voice actor had the highest profile needing to be re-cast: Corey Feldman was dealing with addiction issues during the production of TMNT II, and so the decision was made to replace him with Donatello’s in-suit actor Leif Tilden for this chapter of the trilogy.

We open with shots of various New Yorkers enjoying pizza before being introduced to Roy’s, where delivery boy Keno (Ernie Reyes, Jr.) is tasked with making yet another visit to the home of April O’Neil. Upon arriving, he spots a robbery in progress at a neighbouring shopping complex. Keno confronts the crooks and uses his martial arts prowess to take out a few of them, but soon finds he’s bitten off more than he can chew, their numbers overwhelming. The Turtles intervene, having spotted the raid in-progress from nearby, and so an extended fight scene unfolds.

It’s immediately apparent how much things have changed from the first movie, where in their initial appearance the Turtles were barely glimpsed at all, acting quickly under cover of darkness to avoid being seen. Here they show no such restraint, yukking it up and engaging in slapstick reminiscent of the 1987 cartoon at its worst as they use toys and other items dotted around the stores they wander into to defeat their opponents. (I’m reminded particularly of the atrocious fight in the baby store from “Four Turtles and a Baby”, one of the lowest points of the entire series.) Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop has continued to develop the technology used in bringing the Turtles to life, something on show here: from the outset we can see that the team are now more wide-eyed, expressive and capable of pulling off cartoony expressions than before. As a result, they more closely resemble their animated counterparts from the Fred Wolf series.

A particular sequence of note involves Michaelangelo wielding sausages as makeshift nunchucks; this was removed from the initial UK release of the movie on the instruction of the then-director of the British Board of Film Classification, James Ferman, who was unwilling to recognise any distinction between the improvised weapons and the real thing. From the Region 2 DVD release in 2002 onward this scene was restored, the twin moral panics of the Turtles and nunchucks corrupting the youth both by then only vague memories which had long since receded out of the public consciousness.

Keno is instructed by the Turtles to call the police and request someone pick up the defeated robbers; by the time he returns not only have the crooks all been tied up, but his pizzas have been taken, a wad of cash left in their place.

April returns to her fancy new apartment at the same time the Turtles sneak in the window. The group yuk it up some more while also discussing the defeat of the Shredder at the end of the previous movie and their need to find a new home, given that the Foot Clan learned of the existence of their old lair. Splinter soon emerges and reminds his sons of the importance of remaining invisible as ninjas. He goes on to add that thoughts of Shredder should remain buried in the past.

At a garbage dump, a hand and a familiar bladed gauntlet are seen emerging from the debris. By sheer coincidence, this site was also selected as the fall-back location for the Foot Clan, its remaining members seen arguing among themselves in a hideout nearby. Tatsu again flies into a rage, declaring himself the group’s new leader, but this proves to be short-lived: Shredder returns, remarkably resilient for someone who up until now was thought to have been crushed to death by a garbage truck. He declares his intentions to target April as a means of getting back at the Turtles and Splinter, the only thing he now cares about.

Reporting for Channel 3 News, April chats with a spokesperson for Techno-Global Research Industries (TGRI), Professor Jordan Perry, at the site of a contaminated area the firm is now working to clean up. Perry says little of any substance in the piece, which is watched on TV by the Turtles and Splinter. Freddy, a member of April’s news crew, sneaks behind a taped-off area once filming is over and discovers giant dandelions, a tell-tale sign that something has occurred with a huge environmental impact. Later, Perry informs one of TGRI’s employees that all the mutated dandelions must be removed, explaining that allowing the press to film there was the best way to ensure no-one suspected anything unusual was taking place.

Unbeknownst to April, Freddy, the rookie on her crew who discovered the giant dandelion, is an undercover member of the Foot. He takes his findings back to Shredder. Now clad in snazzy new purple attire, Shreds orders Tatsu to prepare his troops for an upcoming mission.

Splinter entered an extended period of meditation after watching April’s report, and upon her return home summons her along with the Turtles to the roof of the apartment building. There, he reveals that he kept the cannister that contained the ooze which, fifteen years earlier, transformed him along with the Turtles into their current forms; when re-assembled, the initials printed on it read “TGRI”. Now, he tells his students, the truth about their past has re-surfaced, and with it a potential danger to the people of the city.

Professor Perry is seen in a lab on TGRI’s premises, examining records that show only one cannister of the type possessed by Splinter remains, the rest marked as “disposed”. He’s soon taken captive by Tatsu and a group of Foot ninjas. Later, the Turtles sneak into the building and examine the records on Perry’s computer, only to be confronted by Tatsu and his men, who goad their enemies with the prospect of claiming the last remaining full cannister. A fight breaks out which initially seems promising but again the Turtles are limited to performing slapstick routines with the items scattered around them, largely forbidden from using their weapons. Things peter out with Tatsu hurling a smoke bomb at the green teens, allowing both him and his men to escape.

Later, the Turtles begin preparing to move out of April’s apartment when Keno wanders in, suggesting that given the staggering number of pizzas she orders she may as well take another from an unsuccessful delivery intended for a neighbour. April struggles to make excuses after the delivery boy spots Michaelangelo’s nunchucks sitting on the counter, attempting in vain to demonstrate her proficiency with the weapons in a sequence that I’m sure severely traumatised James Ferman. None of this convinces Keno, who spots the Turtles hiding in plain sight and forces them to come out into the open. After learning of their history, he reveals his own knowledge of the Foot and their recruitment activities, suggesting he could work his way into the operation on their behalf, an idea endorsed by Raphael but swiftly shot down by Leonardo and Splinter.

Under duress from both Shredder and Tatsu, the kidnapped Professor Perry begins the procedure of using the remaining cannister of ooze to transform the two most vicious animals the villains could find. Meanwhile the Turtles say their goodbyes to April, heading underground in search of their new home. Raphael’s temper (and his on-again, off-again tension with Leonardo) flares up again as he refuses to participate in this exercise, stomping off to find a better use of his time. Moments later, Michaelangelo unwittingly stumbles upon an abandoned subway station, complete with unused train carriages, and the group begin to discuss the possibility that this could serve as their new residence.

At the Foot’s hideout, Shredder demands from Perry that the mutants be ready for battle with the Turtles as soon as possible, noting the failure of both his ninjas and himself in defeating the team, and that the next battle will be “freak against freak”. At Channel 3, April is pressured by a station manager called Phil – Charles from the first film is never mentioned – to do a more ratings-friendly story on swimsuits rather than pursue her investigation of TGRI.

Back to Shredder again. Having tired of waiting around, he demands Tatsu remove the bar keeping the two new mutants in their makeshift junk cell, a grey hand and a brown furry one occasionally poking out. Dutifully the underling does so, and the beasts are revealed: snapping turtle Tokka and wolf Rahzar, though neither are named at this point. After Shredder declares himself to be their master, the mutants mistakenly think him to be their “mama”. Both are, to the great frustration of Shredder, mere infants; it’s explained to him by Perry that this should have been obvious from the outset. Like the Ninja Turtles, who in this continuity grew from infants to adolescents over the course of fifteen years, Tokka and Rahzar will learn and develop over time, but for now are far from the fearsome warriors the masked villain had envisioned. Shredder orders them to be terminated, but Perry pleads that there must be a use for them, demonstrating that their relative strength can make them useful in carrying out tasks around the hideout.

It’s remarkable that we’re forty minutes into TMNT II and Shredder, an intimidating and grandiose figure in the first movie, is following the exact same trajectory that his animated counterpart did back in season two of the 1987 show, already becoming an ineffectual schmuck who clearly has no clue what he’s doing. With that observation out of the way, we now return to the movie, already in progress.

Raphael helps Keno to infiltrate the Foot’s operation as per his earlier suggestion, the delivery boy impressing a recruiter in a combat exercise. As a further test, Keno is required to remove a set of bells from a mannequin in a cloud of smoke; after doing so with unseen help from his Turtle ally he becomes a full-fledged member of the group, later reuniting with Raph in the scrapyard hideout. It doesn’t take long before both are spotted by Tatsu. Raphael orders Keno to flee, soon finding himself face-to-face with Shredder.

Keno relays the news of Raphael’s capture to April, and the other Turtles soon stake out the scrapyard in search of their brother. Conscious that they’re walking into a trap, the group discover Raph gagged and tied up. Shredder has the remaining Turtles placed inside a net, raised via a crane and about to be dropped on a set of scrap metal spikes until Splinter intervenes, a well-placed arrow cutting the team free ahead of time. The reunited Turtles continue to deliver quips and one-liners more than kicks or punches and find themselves vastly outmatched by the brute force of Tokka and Rahzar, with Donatello being thrown through the roof of the shack where Professor Perry is being held. After Michaelangelo discovers a manhole leading back to the sewers, the group escape with Perry underground; Tokka attempts to give chase but is too big to fit, and after getting stuck prevents the Foot from pursuing the team further.

Perry is amazed by the existence of the Turtles, and in a bit of role-reversal pieces together the events that led to their origin and recounts these to them before they can reveal their backstory themselves. After being introduced to Splinter, he goes on to explain to the group the properties of the substance that caused them to take on their current forms: “an unknown mixture of discarded chemicals was accidentally exposed to a series of radiated waves, and the resulting “ooze”, as you put it, was found to have remarkable but dangerous mutinogenic properties.” Though the cannisters were intended to be buried, one was lost down a sewer.

Donatello is troubled by the revelation that the Turtles were merely an accident, convinced there must be more to their origin that what Professor Perry is telling them. Splinter offers words of wisdom, telling his son to not “confuse the spectre of [their] origin with [their] present worth”, adding that “the search for a beginning rarely has so easy an end”.

Shredder unleashes Tokka and Rahzar on the streets of New York, encouraging them to engage in general mayhem and destruction as a means of getting to the Turtles. The next day, April reports on the resulting wreckage for Channel 3; in a call-back to the first movie she corners Chief Sterns, who goes out of his way to not directly address the issue of the two mutants and refuses to do anything about them. It soon dawns on April that only the Turtles will be able to stop Tokka and Rahzar. After concluding her broadcast April is pulled into a nearby alley by a group of Foot Soldiers, one of whom removes his mask to reveal his identity as her trainee. Freddy declares that he has a “message” from Shredder for the Turtles. Later, April is seen meeting up with the Turtles in their new home, where she relays what she was told: that if the Turtles don’t appear that night at a construction site, Shredder will unleash Tokka and Rahzar in Central Park.

Professor Perry begins the task of creating an anti-mutagen that will revert Tokka and Rahzar back to their original forms, the Turtles offering their assistance. (Along the way Mikey accidentally drops a slice of pizza into the mix, but keeps this quiet.) The team are surprised to learn that the final substance won’t take the form of a spray, but will be a liquid that the two mutants will need to consume for it to take effect. Enjoy this shot of the anti-mutagen in a Bart Simpson glass because this movie, for better or worse, is so 1991.

The Turtles arrive at the construction site carrying a box of donuts, soon finding themselves again face-to-face with Shredder and his army of ninjas. Wielding the remaining cannister of mutagen, Shreds tells the team that the substance which made them will now be the cause of their destruction, summoning Tokka and Rahzar. The green teens attempt to offer up the donuts as a peace offering, but the ruse falls apart when the ice cubes concealed within containing the anti-mutagen are tossed aside. Like in their prior encounter, the Turtles are hurled around, vastly overpowered by Shredder’s new mutants; soon the battle spills into a neighbouring nightclub.

Performing in the club is one Vanilla Ice – not portraying a fictional character, but rather himself - who to what I presume is the delight of the patrons briefly pauses his set to watch in astonishment as the Ninja Turtles do battle with their oversized opponents. After the music begins playing again Ice launches into a freestyle rap about the events unfolding in front of him. Meanwhile Perry meets up with Donatello and notes that the portions of the anti-mutagen ingested by Tokka and Rahzar aren’t working as intended, the excessive consumption of CO2 making them burp profusely. Donatello suggests a further dose might act as a catalyst for the anti-mutagen, picking up a nearby fire extinguisher.

While all this is unfolding, Keno is meditating with Splinter, but can’t contain his frustration at having to stay behind while the Turtles have their big confrontation. The team’s sensei is insistent that taking on Shredder is a job only his students are suited for, but the delivery boy won’t listen and makes his exit. This all feels tacked on; Keno had already made the mistake of getting into trouble with Raphael earlier, for him to need to learn this lesson a second time comes across as if the writers are struggling to find a way to keep him involved.

As Vanilla Ice repeats his “GO NINJA GO” chorus, the Turtles use barrels to take Tokka and Rahzar off their feet, forcing them to ingest the contents of the fire extinguishers until both doze off.  The team take on further waves of Foot Soldiers as “Ninja Rap” continues; after defeating their foes the green teens get in on the dance routine themselves, ultimately joining Ice on stage in perhaps one of the most notorious scenes in TMNT history.

This moment that will live in infamy is mercifully interrupted, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see the Shredder in my life. Still wielding the TGRI cannister, he promises to produce further mutants, over and over again in future movies until this series becomes unprofitable – though not exactly in those words – until Keno intervenes, kicking the container out of the masked villain’s hand. Shreds attempts to rebound by taking a club-goer hostage, threatening to transform her using a small test tube also containing some of the mutagen. The Turtles use the instruments from Vanilla Ice’s band (???) to create a sound loud enough that it blows a nearby speaker, the resulting explosion sending the villain flying through a wall. On their way out, the team note that Tokka and Rahzar have reverted to their original forms.

In a dockside area outside the nightclub the Turtles peer into the water, seeing no sign of their old foe. Rejoicing and cowabunga-ing follows but this turns out to be highly premature: Oroku Saki’s hand bursts through the structure of the pier ahead of a final encounter. Having consumed the contents of the test tube, he’s grown into what Donatello dubs a “Super Shredder”. Soon the Turtles find themselves beneath the pier, watching as the oversized villain wrecks everything in sight. Leonardo is briefly manhandled by the mutated foe, but instructs his team to remember the importance for ninjas of working within the confines of their environment; they are, after all, turtles, and so as the remnants of the pier crush Super Shredder, they dive out into the water nearby, safely re-emerging moments later. The group watch as, for the third time in this movie, Shredder’s hand shoots out of the ground, suggesting there’s still more fight in him, but he can’t cling on any longer, and finally passes away, for really reals this time.

April is seen reading a thank-you note to the Turtles from Professor Perry on the news as the Turtles return to their subway home. Presumably some time has passed since the battle with Shredder as Splinter quizzes the team about their actions, wondering if they were seen during the battle; when they insist they kept a low profile, he produces a copy of the Daily News with a full-page photograph of them on the front page, accompanied by the headline “NINJA RAP IS BORN!”; a second, smaller headline reads “DOCK DEMOLISHED OVERNIGHT”. 

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was highly regarded even at the time, and its reputation has only grown in the three decades that have followed; it was and is a truly great comic book adaptation, one that’s aged remarkably well given that it was produced on a small budget. None of this can be said of The Secret of the Ooze, which is by no means a bad movie – at least in my estimation – but which never rises above being merely enjoyable. To go from great to kinda sorta okay still represents a decline, and it’s not hard to see why. TMNT II is burdened by the sheer size of the Turtles machine as it was in the second half of 1990, the demands from different parties insistent on shaping the future direction of this property too great, the need to have a second movie out in the wild while there was still money to be made taking precedence over crafting a coherent movie experience. Along the way the losses accumulated from the first film continued to build, some out of anyone’s control but others self-inflicted: Steve Barron, Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas and Corey Feldman are all gone and their respective replacements can only do so much. Perhaps the biggest loss of all, however, is the first movie’s ability to strike a balance in tone between the earnestness of the Mirage comics and the tomfoolery of the Fred Wolf cartoon. Now, only the tomfoolery remains. TMNT II revels in the worst impulses of the 1987 cartoon, and I say that as someone who’s plainly a huge fan of the MWS Turtles. A decision was made to alienate the older audience who embraced the first movie, the wishes of licensees and parental groups clearly taking precedence. It’s regrettable.

Speaking of regrettable decisions, I’m sure that in late 1990 shoehorning Vanilla Ice into the climax of this movie made a lot of sense. The first film benefitted from having MC Hammer’s “This Is What We Do” on its soundtrack months before “U Can’t Touch This” blew up in the summer, and no doubt his newfound name recognition helped shift additional copies of the tie-in album well into the autumn. Here, again, we see the machinations of TMNT Incorporated at work: given the enormous success of “Ice Ice Baby” in the closing months of the year, why not take things a step further and insert Hammer’s new rival into the sequel? We can laugh about it now – in 2023 the corniness of “Ninja Rap” and the visual of the Turtles cavorting with the rapper feels like a joke we’re all in on – but all of this was assuredly a misfire. By the time the movie landed in US cinemas in the spring of 1991 it was clear that Ice’s appeal was limited to his initial hit; by the summer, when TMNT II received its UK release, he was a walking punchline. And so, Ice’s prominence in the marketing materials for this movie comes across as a major blunder: an association that, with their own popularity entering the beginnings of its downswing, the Turtles didn’t need.

For the faithful, however – the legions of kids who had followed the green team on TV for years at this point – this movie’s failings would have extended far beyond the presence of one Robert Van Winkle. The first film was notable in the elements it chose to adapt from the 1987 series, but also in what it elected to omit: the Technodrome, Krang, and the Channel 6 crew were all curiously absent, and it seemed inevitable that at least some of these would be held over for the follow-up. More than any of these, however, there were two obvious players for the Turtles to encounter in a hypothetical sequel: Rocksteady and Bebop.

It’s timely that we should discuss the thorny issue of Shredder’s mutant henchmen here, a week after covering their final TV appearance in the cartoon’s eighth season; while reflecting on their role within the show I wrote about how critical they were in establishing the 1987 show’s comedic credentials, even more than the Turtles themselves. In this respect, they represent everything that differentiates the Fred Wolf TMNT from the other incarnations of the property.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Over the years, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s position regarding Rocksteady and Bebop seems to have hovered somewhere between low-key resentment and unreserved loathing. While these characters were created early on as part of the development of TMNT into an action figure property, it’s clear that the versions of the duo which eventually made it to air were in line with the vision of David Wise and the Murakami-Wolf-Swenson studio. When that vision turned out to be incredibly profitable – not just Rocksteady and Bebop, but the pizza gags, the catchphrases, April as a reporter and everything else that had been introduced as part of the transition of the Turtles to TV and as a toy line – a situation arose where the various parties involved each felt they were responsible for the elements that had made it all possible.

This all came to a head in 1990, as the worldwide popularity of the Turtles reached its apex. The Turtlethon entries for that year’s episodes tell the story of the ill-feeling brewing between two primary camps: Mirage Studios, whose artists by that point felt that the supporting characters they had created such as Leatherhead had been mishandled in the transition to animation, and MWS, whose zanier Turtles had been what introduced the vast majority of kids to the property. Eastman & Laird had put their foot down before – nixing outlandish ideas such as an early proposal for the post-season one Turtles to have them move into the Technodrome, where they would have resided with a no-longer-villainous Baxter Stockman – but it was in season four where we really saw the fallout of these creative differences, with “Ray” and Mona Lisa the end result, the latter far more successful than the former.

It’s understandable, then, that Eastman & Laird were keen to keep MWS out of the loop as far as the live-action films went, preventing Fred Wolf and his studio from taking any potential credit (and profits) from their success. And so, for movie-goers, there would be no Dimension X, no Burne, no Irma, no Vernon, no (robotic) Foot Soldiers, and certainly no Rocksteady or Bebop. Evidently there was some push to include the mutant duo in the movie – possibly from Pressman himself and/or the studio – and so a compromise was reached. Yes, Shredder could have two creatures to do battle with the Turtles on his behalf, but they would need to be new creations, free of any association with the cartoon.

Taken in isolation, Tokka and Rahzar could be seen as merely a disappointment, a poor substitute: they are, in the worst possible way, Bebop and Rocksteady at Home, TMNT’s own fake Razor and Diesel (an ironic comparison, given that the real Diesel played Super Shredder in this very movie). Like Vanilla Ice and all the casting changes, they represent another weight around this film’s neck. But they infuriate me in a way far greater than any of TMNT II’s other failings after examining how the film was marketed. Promotional materials such as commercials from the time of The Secret of the Ooze’s release go out of their way to not show Tokka and Rahzar; to hint at the idea that the Turtles will fight two new beastly enemies, leaving viewers to connect the dots themselves. Even within the movie itself, the visual of a grey, beastly hand and a brown, furry one prior to the full reveal of the mutants plays upon our expectations that Rocksteady and Bebop are waiting behind the scrap heap veil. When that turns out to not be the case it’s a giant middle finger to the audience, whose money has already been taken.

While I can understand Eastman & Laird’s desire to have the live-action movies remain an undiluted vision of what they intended the Turtles to be, the contempt displayed for the audience here – for children – is risible in my eyes. I’m giving Kevin and Peter the benefit of the doubt and assuming these were executive decisions made within the studio, given that the final product ended up hewing far closer to the cartoon anyway, something that by all accounts was the total opposite of what they themselves wanted; I don’t believe their disdain for Rocksteady and Bebop was so great that they orchestrated this deception to trick kids, but somebody involved with this film was clearly okay with it. To be clear, the secrecy surrounding these characters only went so far - they’re showcased in detail in the half-hour special on the making of the movie - but in the greater scheme of things there was definitely some sleight of hand at work here; if you should happen to think Rocksteady and Bebop will be in TMNT II, little in the pre-release marketing would convince you otherwise.

The greatest irony of all this is that Tokka and Rahzar would continue to hover around the periphery of the TMNT universe in the years that followed, but it was a surprise inclusion in season seven of the MWS cartoon that made something of them. “Dirk Savage – Mutant Hunter” was a terrific episode made better by appearances of the two mutants, re-interpreted as a duo whose friendship is so strong that when Tokka is captured, Rahzar can’t bear to be separated from him. And who was responsible for redeeming them? None other than David Wise, the same writer who helped craft Rocksteady and Bebop into the hapless henchmen whose buffoonery Eastman & Laird refused to sanction.

Today, many of the concepts created in The Secret of the Ooze remain a part of the fabric of TMNT: Tokka, Rahzar and Super Shredder all pop up on occasion in video games or as action figures. The film itself is fun fluff, the kind of thing you watch if it shows up on TV on some idle Saturday afternoon, and a representation of the exact moment where the bubble of Turtlemania burst, even if we didn’t realise it at the time. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the most derided film of the trilogy, would follow two years later. We’ll come back to that in a few weeks, but next time on Turtlethon we jump forward again in time to 1995, where the drastic reinvention of the green teens that took place the year prior somehow still hasn’t been enough: it’s out with Shredder and in with Lord Dregg as we learn the uncover the secrets of “The Unknown Ninja”.