Super Saiyan Showdown

This week's post is dedicated to this week's match between Sean "Goku" Schemmel and Chris "Vegeta" Sabat on Dragon Ball FighterZ.

For those who don't know, a few weeks ago there was an episode of Dragon Ball Super airing on Toonami that featured Vegeta and a clone of Vegeta, which excited Chris Sabat enough to tweet about the "Sweet Vegeta Action!"which in turn prompted Sean Schemmel to point out "it's just fake Vegeta, not real Vegeta" which led to a Twitter war that within 24 hours escalated to a full challenge for the voice actors to play Dragon Ball FighterZ against each other and settle once and for all who is the better Saiyan, a challenge which was supported by Funimation and Bandai Namco to make it a full ESport event streamed this past thursday night on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Funimation. I watched it on YouTube, and unfortunately, they decided to time it for night on the west coast with little regard for the sleep needs of east coast viewers, and even worse, they had a lead up of other players on the game making the main event not until midnight eastern standard time. But I made the sacrifice to stay up and watch it and it was amazing.

First off, Chris Sabat comes out wearign a #TeamVegeta shirt like he's a pro fighter ready to win, then Sean Schemmel comes out wearing Goku glasses saying "Kamehame-hi!" Right away it is clear Chris Sabat is here to win and Sean Schemmel may be ready to play, but nowhere near the over 9000 of Chris Sabat. Then they got to the actual match...

Dragon Ball FighterZ allows players to have three fighters on their team, Chris Sabat chose his characters, Vegeta, Piccolo and Yamcha, while Sean Schemmel chose his characters, Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan Blue Goku, and Goku Black. Sean tried to psych out Chris by using Trunks in one round, but it did not work. It was supposed to be best two out of three,but they went five rounds and Chris really won each of them, although he let Sean win the last one, but just barely. It was brutal, like setting the game to easy mode and playing with your best character. I have played a few Dragon Ball Z games and I know what an ass-whooping looks like on one of these games, Chris gave Sean an ass-whooping, HARD. In the first four rounds, Chris only lost a fraction of a health bar from one character while Sean's entire roster got slammed. For the last round it looked like Sean might have had a chance when he brought Chris down to just Vegeta at half health, but then Chris beat two out of Sean's three characters without taking any damage and it came down to a really tight finish, so Chris didn't even make the easy match easy. I'm not sure which was more humiliating, when Chris started playing with only one hand and still beat Sean or when he won using Yamcha to beat Goku. Oh wait I know, it was when Sean stated complaining that his "buttons weren't working" dude, you do that when you're playing at home, not when you're playing in a pro exhibition match in front of a bunch of fans both in the arena and at home with the streamers.

They are talkign about a rematch which I think would be great, I mean, anytime we can gt these two together for Chris to beat Sean-I mean for them to play Dragon Ball for us-it is great entertainment. For now, Chris Sabat is the undisputed champion Super Saiyan with the belt to prove it, and I'm sure he will show it to you if you ask.

Final Fantasy World Building: Orders of the Church of Eight Spirits

As I have mentioned before, I have been toying with the idea of redeeming Final Fantasy Spirits Within with a sequel taking place a thousand years later. To that end I have been doing some world building and I came up with th concept of the Church of Eight Spirits.  In order to end the Phantom War, the waves of eight spirits were used to stop the phantoms. Humans were one of the few species to survive so when life came back, and so they were among the few to remain unchanged after the rebirth, at least mostly. Eventually, some people developed psychokinetic abilities that most people simply called magic. Males can control electricity and heat energy, both raising it as fire and reducing it as ice, and these powers are known as Black Magic. Females can enhance healing and generate protective force fields, and these powers are known as White Magic. Some of the females who can use White Magic can specialize their force fields to take the form of Eidolons which, regardless of the user, always take the same eight forms, Carbuncle, Ifrit, Shiva, Ramuh, Leviathan, Titan, Sylph and Bahamut. From this, the Church of Eight Spirits was born, believing that the Eidolons are the same eight spirits which saved the world during the Phantom War. The Church of Eight Spirits is divided into orders to organize the magic users.

Orders of Mages

Summoners - The highest order, ascended from White Mages, they summon the Eidolons largely for ceremony to remind people the power of the spirits, though occasionally for combat if necessary. The first is always Carbuncle, Bahamut is the last they learn and the rest develop in between according to the summoner. They lead the church and through the church lead the people.

White Mages - All Summoners start as White Mages, but not all become Summoners. They serve the church by helping people, protecting the weak and healing the sick, and through their good deeds strengthen the community and thus faith in the church.

Black Mages - The primary known group of males capable of Black Magic, they traditionally used their abilities to help others by operating technology and fighting wild beasts that would threaten humanity. However, over time they realized that they cannot ascend to Summoners and will always be second rate, or at least feel that way. Then came the prophecy of the Blue Mage, an ascended Black Mage with power equal to or even greater than the Summoners. This belief splintered the Black Mages and the primary branch left the Church to build their own culture around nine hundred years after the Phantom War.

Red Mages - A splinter group from the Black Mages, they tend to have limited magic abilities, sometimes limited to just one spell, and supplement their magic by learning to fight with swords. After the Black Mages separated from the Church, the Red Mages remained loyal to the church, some mistrust the Red Mages, but the mercy of the White Mages who witnessed their valiant efforts to defend the Church has assured them a place within the Church, even if it is at the bottom.

Blue Mages - Ascended Black Mages with unknown power, they may not even exist at all, but if they do, they are the most powerul and dangerous people in the world.

Dark Knights - Red Mages who sided with the Black Mages and joined them in exile to support their new order.

Orders of Warriors

Dragoons - The highest order of Knights, they prove themselves through a sacred trial though they have no magic of their own, they have proven themslves worthy of fighting by the side of the mages and protect the people from monsters as well as protecting the Church from heretics. They are known for wielding spears or lances and wearing distinctive draconian armor.

Onion Knights - The standard knights that protect the general populace and train those who intend to become Dragoons. Theere are some career Onion Knights who watch over the initiates, but it is largely composed of anyone who demonstrates will and prowess.

 Monks - A reclusive group within the Church of Eight Spirits that don't have any magic but have dedicated themselves to protecting the crystal quarters of the meteor that triggered the Phantom War. They seem certain that the crystals have some power of their own, but nobody knows what it is if this is true.

Guilds

Hunters - There are those who have no magic, choose not to join the knights, and yet are still brave enough to fight the wild beasts that threaten humanity. These freelancers tend to join the Guild of Hunters to get support from allies, even if it is just a fresh weapon.

Bards - Entertainers who learn about music and seem to add little if anything to the world, and yet in there songs are the secrets of the past most have forgotten but should have remembered.

Thieves - As everyone else fights for their lives, these rogues collect what gets left behind, whether this is good or bad depends on who's asking.

Tamers - The most ruthless of all, these are the people who learn to tame the most dangerous wild monsters and use them to hunt other monsters. The danger of what they do makes them the one Guild that had to go into exile with the Black Mages and the Dark Knights.

Black Clover and the Saiyan Showdown

So there's a new show on Toonami, and after four episodes, I guess I'll say something about it. I do like the show, or at least the premise and energy behind it, but it is very slow to open, although I suppose 7th Moon opens slow too, so I shouldn't judge.

Black Clover takes place in the Clover Kingdom where everybody can use magic and basically it takes the place of technology so people use it to handle just about everything and one's life is decided by what magic one is capable of, and the highest honor is to prove oneself worthy of becoming a Magic Knight, the kingdom's military. This situation is particularly hard on Asta, the only person in the entire kingdom who actually does not have any magic at all, and sadly has the most ambition and heart of anyone. It would be nice to say his attitude makes up for his lack of ability, but in this case, it doesn't quite work, at least not until he gets his grimoire and his unique power of an anti-magic sword which levels the field for him because when he fights his sword cancels out any magic and reduces his opponent to having to fight as powerless as him, but since he's actually developed physical strength to make up for his lack of magic he usually has the advantage at this point. Four episodes in and this has only been relevant twice, Asta hasn't even figured out exactly how his power works, he's just excited he got a grimoire. Everybody thinks he's a loser, until he proves himself in a surprise move, but then they think it's just a stroke of luck, everybody except Yuno, his lifelong friend and rival. Yuno is the polar opposite of Asta, he is a prodigy of wind magic and everybody is sure he's going to be the next Wizard King, but Yuno sees something in Asta and knows better than to count him out. Their rivalry is pretty friendly, they grew up together and respect each other, but Yuno has realized that no matter how little anyone thinks of Asta, no matter how hopeless he may seem, he's the most likely to beat him for Wizard King and they have to give it their all to decide which one it will be.

I like the setting, but I realized the premise was a little too familiar, a little too Naruto and Sasuke, or even too Goku and Vegeta. It wasn't until now that I noticed the trope of best vs the worst rivalry, but I noticed this one may have a different take on it. I may be reading too much into what I think is foreshadowing, but Black Clover began with a story about the Wizard King who defeated a demon, and then Asta gets the original Wizard King's grimoire while Asta gets the five leaf clover grimoire in which the fifth leaf is said to hold the devil. Perhaps it's nothing, but I have this nagging feeling that Asta will release the power of the demon and the friendly rivalry will end up re-enacting the ancient battle. I could be wrong, but in either case getting to watch their parallel journeys may be interesting enough to be worth watching so I'm sticking with it.

Speaking of rivalries, a big battle is coming up, the battle Dragon Ball fans have been waiting for since the American television premiere, Goku vs Vegeta, by which I mean voice actors Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabbat. So last weekend there was an episode of Dragon Ball Super premiering on Toonami which featured two Vegetas and Chris "@VoiceOfVegeta" Sabbat was hyping it on twitter as is his obligation as a voice actor, and now beyond a shadow of a doubt an absolute nerd level EXPERT. Then Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku, decided to tease and taunt him on twitter and it escalated, literally overnight. The first post was on Saturday night, by Sunday evening, Chris had issued an official challenge to take on Sean in a game of "Dragon Ball Fighter Z" where they will play as their respective characters, simultaneously asking Funimation and Bandai, their employers behind the english dub of the game, to get behind this as an esport event. Fans went for it and Funimation decided it was cool enough they were in for it and now it has been announced that January 25, the fight will happen and it will be streamed on YouTube, Twitch, Funimation and wherever else they can get someone to agree to back this up. So I will be watching along with the rest of the fandom while two voice actors play a video game to decide who is better, Gok or Vegeta. All I want to know is will there be epic trash talking in character?

Final Fantasy XV Episode Ignis

Episode Ignis, the last of the DLC regarding Noctis party members, came out a few weeks ago, but I got busy and did not hav time to play until now. I managed to play through it in a couple hours, or rather I should say, the canon part of it, but I'll get to that later. This DLC provides the least out of the three timewise, and yet, it still was the most fun. Part of this is gameplay, it is the only one that allows the use of magic, although the elements are mechanically just covers for different attack methods, single, multiple, and ranged, and you also get a hokshot for one part which allows Ignis to move like Noctis, so it often feels more like the original game than the other two did. The other thing that made this episode better was relevance to the story overall, it takes place immediately after Noctis fights Leviathan, and by immediately, I mean Titan is still fighting Leviathan and the whole place is a disaster area like the last hours of a hurricane when you're pretty sure you can trust the weatherman who says it's almost over, but each minute could be your last. Ignis is looking for Noctis and ends up working with Ravus who wants to protect his sister, but he's too late and seeks vengance on Noctis and Ignis at the last moment. The only part that matters is finding out how Ignis went blind, which you should have been able to guess from the trailer is that he tried to use the Ring of Lucii against Ardyn and it burned his eyes because he wasn't the King. It is important because it does make that part of the story alittle different, when I first played through, I assumed Ignis got blasted in the face by either the Leviathan or the Niflheim troops and that it was ultimately Noctis fault for dragging him into this, but now we know that Ignis willingly did something stupid to save Noctis and did it to himself, so it's a little less sorrow and sympathy and more admiration to rise to the occassion knowing he'd have to pay a price and being stoic enough to not blame anyone for it and just keep fighting. I mean, he stays in the fight for ten years including going solo and basically becoming the zatoichi, Ignis may be a posh Britishesque foodie, but all in all, he is the most badass motherfucker in the group. In fact, as the only one who doesn't go through a whiny phase, and he can use magic, I'm going to say he's actually far more badass than Noctis and Gladiolus combined, and don't even get me started on Prompto. I respect all of them, but Ignis is the best.

And now for the bad, the alterante ending. I didn't play through it because I read about and it sounds stupid. In the alternate ending, Ignis chooses to go with Ardyn rather than fighting him at Altissia, which leads to him sacrificing himself to save Noctis leading to an ending in which Noctis doesn't die and gets to live as King. What bothers me about this ending is from what I read, Noctis is able to resurrect Ignis, which makes me wonder, if he can do that, why Ignis and not Lunafreya? It is nice to see a happier ending where Noctis survives, but it I detect too many plot holes to enjoy it. I know some people will say there are plenty of plot holes in the story already so why worry about this one, but as a writer myself, I find there is a significant difference between plot holes that serve to move the story along, and plot holes that contradict everything just to give us a new and different ending that is arguably better than the original. I don't know who thought this was a good idea, but it's bullshit.

Also there's supposed to be a new update to the main game in which you can now switch between the characters. Basically, now that they have released the individual episodes with a specialized interface for all four, they are alowing you to use them all in the main story. This is good and bad, good because I like that it's in the game, bad because it sucks that the game has been out long enough for the game to have already been finished before this mechanic was available. I guess it would be fun to play through again, and I can understand giving some players a chance to experience the story with the exclusive perspective of Noctis, but seriously, this is the sort of thing that should have been in the intial release of the game. Did they actually need more time to implement this, or did they just want to screw with us for a year?

Don't forget that the Assassin's Festival is almost over and it really makes me want to go to a Renaissance Fair and cosplay as an Assassin and respond to everyone who asks me what I'm doing by simply saying "Nothign is true, everything is permitted." I really think this should lead to a full game about the Legendary Assassin of Lestallum back when the power of the meteor was first being harnessed and reveal the Assassin was actually the Wanderer, a former King of Lucis.

Hundreds of years ago, while the Wanderer was still a prince, there was unrest in Lestallum and there was possibility of a peasant uprising. The King was busy and did not have time to do more than consult with the nobles of Lestallum, who claimed the concerns were exaggerated. The prince goes to investigate firsthand and is promptly kidnapped by the budding resistance, primarily an Amacita, a Scientia, and an Argentum, the ancestors of Noctis allies who are also the brawn, brains, and heart of the operation respectively. The prince has his doubts about the nobles which are confirmed and he joins the resistance, finding out the nobles will silence him if he tries to do anything overt, he works in secret as the Assassin, while a Dorden and a Ghiranze, ancestors of Vyv and Dino keep up the ruse that he is prisoner. A Teulle, an ancestor of Holly, has figured out how to use the Meteor for power, which could rival the Crystal itself, and while she has good intentions, her research is hijacked by a Besithia and a Tumelt, ancestors of Verstael and Loqi respectively. The Besithia has also abducted the daughter of the Argentum, giving his reason for being part of the resistance. As the Assassin Prince investigate the conspiracy, he finds it spreads across Lucis all the way back to Insomnia where the Tumelt is conspiring to assassinate the King and usurp the throne. The Assassin Prince succeeds in defeating the Tumelt only to discover the true mastermind was Ardyn who was trying to prepare him to be a worthy opponent, but finds him lacking and leaves without a trace. The Prince then sheds his identity as the Assassin and instead becomes the Wanderer, known for his twin blades that will become Royal Arms. Fearing that Ardyn will use his weapons, he makes sure his tomb is near the Titan to be protected by the god until one who is truly worthy comes to claim it, and it is brought by his three friends whose families' destinies will forever be tied to his own.

Toonami is back tonight, don't forget to watch and support 7th Moon joing the lineup!

7th Moon: the spirit world

After last week's post, I realized I have left the nature of the spirit world wide open. Spoiler alert, I have no plans to actually visit the spirit world in any of the five novels I will write in this series, so if you care, this blog post will be the one time I go over the actual details of a spirit world I intended to leave behind the veil.

The other dimension is yin and yang, or more accurately, from yang to yin. The spirit world is polar, running from yang, the pole of creation, to yin, the pole of destruction. The mortal realm is a plane of existence that exists at the point of convergence at the center of the spirit world. Everything on the yang side is Togenkyo, everything on the yin side is Jigoku. There is a natural flow of raw energy from yang to yin, Shinryuu shapes the energy into spirits called shikigami, charged with yang energy, then they take on mortal form as po energy, and when they reach the end of their lives, they convert to yin shikigami and go on to be consumed by Kageryuu and get recycled back to the beginning of the cycle all over again.

The natural flow does have exceptions, and it all has to do with hun, the spirit of mind that connects to the po, spirit of body. Everything in nature has po, but only humans have hun. The hun's purpose is to attain enlightenment through religion, gathering yang to return to Togenkyo at death. Hun that achieve enlightenment independently through self-discipline become bodhisattva and exist in Togenkyo as immortal beings while their po reincarnates with brand new hun that repeat the cycle. Hun that fail to become bodhisattva can still ascend to Togenkyo if their soul recieves enough prayers to be venerated as an ancestral kami, which yields the same result as becoming a bodhisattva except that the when the po reincarnates there is no gurantee that it will be protected through further cycles of reincarnation. Then there are the great kami of legend, the ancient gods of Japan. The great kami were ancestral kami that were so influential that their po did not reincarnate as mortals but instead connected to yoshiro and their shrines across Japan to persist as long as they are worshipped and the hun influence earthly matters by directing the flow of yang through Togenkyo to the mortal realm. Each of the great kami of legend is limited in their influence by position and only have power by directing the flow of energy in Togenkyo, meaning that if any of them returned to the mortal realm they would be powerless because once the energy gets to the mortal realm it has already settled and is too late for the kami to exert their influence.

There is one exceptional kami, Raiju. As stated in the last post, Raiju is the only spirit besides the dragons Shinryuu and Kageryuu that has any power that can be maintained even when in the mortal realm, specifically Raiju has electrokinesis in his own right and can manipulate electricity and even generate it even when bound in the mortal realm. Another thing that makes Raiju unique is that he is the only kami that consists of po rather than hun. in the time of swordsmith Masamune, a samurai named Kyutsume killed eight men in battle before loing his own arm and being forced into retirement. His eight victims returned as undead and tried to reanimate the severed arm using the corresponding po which should have passed into Jigoku. Their plan was to get revenge against Kyutsume by creating a monster with his arm to kill him by his own hand. However, they performed the ritual incorrectly and the price they paid was that they each lost an equal portion of their po and the collective po became a new spirit that was Raiju. Raiju returned to Kyutsume and became bound to a ten piece yoshiro that can be used to summon Raiju when all ten pieces are assembled by Kyustume or a reincarnation of him. When Raiju is not manifesting with his yoshiro he is typically with Kyutsume who became a bodhisattva after death and creates random lightning storms, which, like all of the other natural phenomena under the influence of the kami is indiscernible except by enlightened mystics.

When a soul fails to attain enlightenment, they proceed into Jigoku where the hun and po are bound by the sins they committed in life and suffer accordingly, the greater the sin, the longer the suffering. Those who didn't sin very much but still failed to attain enlightenment will go through this phase quickly and once the bonds of sin break, the hun and po separate and are devoured by Kageryuu to return tothe natural cycle. This is arguably better than the alternative which is to become a yokai. Yokai are the result of a soul that does not repent through their suffering and instead embrace their sin and become corrupt. The po still separates and proceeds through the natural cycle, but the hun becomes yokai. Without po, the yokai cannot return to the mortal realm and must remain in Jigoku. The leader of the yokai is Akuma, the first yokai, as ancient as the great kami of legend. Akuma was a cruel tyrant in life who had so much sin that he became exceptionally corrupt and stubbornly refused to die. When he faced his ultimate fate of being devoured by Kageryuu, he fought until he subdued Kageryuu. Subsequently, Akuma became the ruler of Jigoku and torments the souls that end up there, attempting to corrupt any soul he can into another yokai to serve him.

So now the big question, if I have no intention of going to the spirit world in this series of stories, why is any of this relevant? This is relevant because of the Shrine of the Golden Dragon which was key in the war against the one hundred and eight yokai that was fought in the time of the swordsmith Masamune and is reenacted by the reincarnations of the yokai and the bodhisattvas that defeated them when the seal at the shrine was broken. In the book 7th Moon, the shrine's seal is broken when Ryu and Sakura leave, the yoshiro of Raiju are stolen, and Sasuke is killed. When the seal is broken the souls of the yokai are released to return to the mortal realm. The only way spirits of the dead can return to the mortal realm is if they have a body without a soul to inhabit. Historically, the only bodies without souls were corpses, but when 7th Moon genetically engineered artificial humans, they were not part of the natural flow and therefore they would not be viable. Once the seal at the shrine was broken and the yokai were free, they were able to reincarnate as the one hundred and eight soldiers that were successfully produced. Well, actually, to be more precise, one hundred and five of the soldiers were yokai, the remaining three were the bodhisattvas that defeated the yokai in the past, the protagonists of the story, Hidariude, Keisei, and Kichiku, who were reincarnated specifically to combat the yokai. The last three yokai were the Tsukomugami who used a machine body as Seichei, Kageryuu who like Shinryuu couldn't reincarnate until the biotech was perfected to create a suitable vessel, and Akuma who wanted to use Han Toromi himself.

I will go over the origins of the yokai and their relationship to Shinryuu, Raiju and the three boddhisattvas in a later book titled Guardians of Paradise, but it was hinted at in 7th Moon. A few decades before the time of the swordsmith Masamune, Japan was invaded by Chinese from the mainland. They failed in their invasion and drowned at sea attempting to return home. After the ritual that created Raiju, the yokai that inadvertently created him rallied the army of one hundred and eight yokai and Akuma took over their little plot and led his own invasion using the drowned bodies to march on Japan. Shinryuu brought together Kyutsume, Bakeneko, and Nyudo and blessed them to use their power to stop the yokai. Once the yokai were defeated, to make sure they never returned, the shrine was used to make a seal that prevented them from coming back to the mortal realm. To maintain this seal, there had to be a monk, a miko, and a sword priest to maintian the shrine and it's rituals. This tradition continued unbroken for eight centuries until Ryu and Sakura left the shrine and the seal began to be weakened, and was finaly broken completely with the death of Sasuke and the theft of the yoshiro.

The context of these spirits, both good and evil, is the world I have just explained. The stories I have to tell will take place only in the mortal realm and neither Togenkyo nor Jigoku, or any of the other spirits beyond the one hundred and eight yokai, the three bodhisattvas, Shinryuu and Raiju will ever have any role to play in any of these stories.

7th Moon magic system and website woes

First of all, 7thMoon.co went down a few weeks ago because I didn't renew the website builder, which turns out to also be the host service and it is currently not cos efficient for me to have a website for a book nobody is buying and a ame nobody is playing, so if you want it back, buy the book using the links here or go straight to Amazon and play the game on Steam and give me some feedback to let me know you actually like what I'm doing and that this project is worth me paying for my own website.

Second, there is some stuff I had thought about adding to my website, but since I don't have my own website anymore, I'll post it here. I had submitted my book to one reviewer who said I had an unclear magic system. I would like to explain the magic system here, starting with this handy venn diagram chart.

So we have a total of five categories of special powered individuals; robots, cyborgs, espers, bioroids, and shinto. Strictly speaking, only shinto and espers have any actual use of magic or anything even resembling magic.

• Robots - humanoid machines that are designed for warfare and are typically more efficient by design, their primary advantage is that they are made of metal which is more durable, and they may also have special modifications that can make a type of robot more effective for particular tasks. The downside is that they follow programming and except for Seichei exhibit no free will which makes them effective servants but erratic without a master.
• Cyborgs - humans who have had machine parts added to them giving them certain mehanical advantages like robots, but still have free will as well as other possible biological advantages. Only four are in this story, Baz, Aka, Hidariude and a surprise at the end of the story.
• Bioroids - genetically engineered humans, they have a variety of advantages over humans but all are derived from existing biological examples, so while their abilities exceed human limits, they are not exceeding the limits of biology, physics, or any other science.
• Shinto - Japanese spirituality, blessed followers have access to certain powers that involve spirits, inhabitants of a parallel universe that does not strictly adhere to the laws of science in our dimension. However, while spirits are unrestricted in their own world, to exist in our world they do have to follow certain rules or else our world rejects them and expels them to their world.
• Espers - bioroids and cyborgs that have access to shinto powers that allow them use of psychic abilities that exceed normal abilities. Only five characters in the story have reached this level of power, Hidariude, Keisei, Kichiku, Douji, and Hime, although Hime's powers are limited because she is not a true esper.

Psychic Powers
Psychic powers are technically not magic, they are abilities that are possible due to neural resonance. Resonance is a natural phenomenon in which materials will vibrate at a particular frequency, triggered by proximity to vibrations of another object. Since such vibrations are due to waves, and the human brain emits measurable brain waves, this means that it is hypothetically possible for brain waves to resonate with other waves and allow for brain activity that extends beyond the brain. There are four specific abilities that come from this.

• Psychokinesis - this is the broader umbrella category for three more specific abilities, pyrokinesis, geokinesis, and electrokinesis, and usually an esper can only use one. The reason for this limitation is that using these abilities is already a strain beyond normal human abilities, even an esper's enhanced mind simply cannot stretch far enough to use more than one without breaking the esper's mind.

1. Pyrokinesis - brain waves resonate with heat energy, since fire is simply heat energy released from rapid exothermic oxidation or combustion, this allows an esper to manipulate the energy to control fire, including its direction, as well as igniting flammable materials by focusing heat energy in one spot or delaying a fire by holding back the energy. Pyrokinesis is limited by the fact that fire can't be created without fuel, so a combustible item is required, without a ready supply of natural fire, this ability generally doesn't work.
2. Geokinesis - brain waves resonate with seismic waves, the energy measured during earthquakes, this allows an esper to manipulate the earth to cause tremors and move stone. This ability involves a lot of heavy lifting, and like lifting with the body, lifting with mind causes strain. While the ability to move earth with the mind tends to be greater than the ability to move physically, it still has limits by the amount that can be moved and how far, for example, moving a small stone is much easier than moving a boulder, and moving a boulder is easier than cracking the ground open, and trying to make movements beyond what the esper sees is all but impossible for the esper to retain control of.
3. Electrokinesis- uniquely, Hidariude exhibits this power somatically instead of through his brain, although Douji and Hime could exhibit electrokinesis by synchronising their brain waves with the electromagnetic spectrum. Hidariude has an electrogenic organ in his arm that normally allows him to produce enough electricity to operate his cybernetic arm, but with trainign he can double or even triple his output in short bursts, and even direct the field as long as it remains in physical contact with him, his retractable blades, or his sword. However, once he releases the electricty, his control diminishes with distance and overuse strains his body so that he can be faigued if he attempts to increase his output beyond triple or use it multiple times in succession and this fatigue leads to him not being able to even produe enough electricity to use his cybernetic arm.

• Telepathy - neural resonance between espers, allowing them to share thoughts by synchronising their brain waves. This ability is limited to espers and they can only use it with each other, like many forms of communication, it requires both a transmitter and a reciever, meaning an esper can project thoughts only to another esper that can read the thought projections. They cannot read the minds of non-espers nor can they project their thoughts upon a non-esper.
• Precognition - The ability to predict events, limited to a few seconds at best, this ability is really only useful to evade and counter attacks. It is triggered by adrenaline and involves synchronising with an opponent who has simple thoughts from their lower brain regarding movements, and also suffers the restriction that the body must be able to keep up with the rate of perception, if for any reason the esper's reaction is slower than the opponent, the ability will prove ineffective.
• Transdimensional transcendance - the one ability useable by non-espers, though with extreme rarity, this alows an esper to interact with a parallel universe across a dimensional divide. excpet for a rare few nexus points where the dimensional divide is thin and the two universes overlap, the other universe is completely inaccessible to beings of this universe, but the spirits that inhabit it can exist interdimensionally, but have their own limitations that prevent most humans from being aware of their presence.

Transdimensional Powers
There is a dimension that is beyond mortal comprehension that seperates the world we know from a paralell universe where our laws of science do not apply. Simply put, the inhabitants of this other world are spirits and they are capable of magic. However, while spirits are fully aware of our world, they cannot interact with it directly without a compatible vessel in this world, either an inanimate object known as a yoshiro, or a living being known as a yoshiromi. Using these vessels, spirits can enter into our world by using them as physical bodies, a process known as shintai, but their powers are limited once they do. Only three spirits can use their powers fully during shintai, the Golden Dragon Shinryuu, his countepart the Shadow Dragon Kageryuu, and thunderbeast Raiju. Raiju can use electrokinesis and prefers connecting with elctrokinetic espers so their abilities synchronize better. Shinryuu and Kageryuu are able to fully manifest, but strain their vessels in doing so and must either surrender their vessels after a short time to allow for recovery or risk destroying their host completely and be unable to return to this world at all, the amount of time they get depends on how much power they use during shintai. Aside from these exceptions, spirits are limited to being able to animate the inanimate and enhance the abilities the host has already. This means that they cannot impart any ability the host doesn't already have and prefer hosts that have similar abilities already. Aside from the the dragons and Raiju, other spirits include souls of the dead, shikigami, and the yokai demons. Souls of the dead are humans whose minds were able to synchronize with the other dimension so that when they die, they continue to persist in the spirit world. Typically, the souls of the dead attain a status of bodhisattva and reincarnate in the living world after serving their purpose and fulfilling their duties in the spirit world, becoming more powerful with each reincarnation. The yokai demons are powerful beings that serve Akuma, their king who subdued Kageryuu and forced the otherwise omnipotent being to join their ranks. In the spirit world, the yokai are tyrants that claim a territory called Jigoku where they torment human souls and attempt to corrupt them into yokai, and they want to enter our world so that they can torment the living as well as the dead. Finally, the shikigami are the random lesser beings of the spirit world that only come to this world when summoned by those who know how. Shikigami differ from other spirits in that they their lack of power and intelligence comes with the trade-off that they can inhabit any physical object without needing it to be a dedicated yoshiro, but otherwise face the same restrictions.

Magical Objects
Yoshiro - as mentioned before, yoshiro are physical objects that can be inhabited by spirits. The only yoshiro mentioned in this story are the blades of Kyutsume and the Genji gauntlet that collectively form the yoshiro of Raiju, the Masamune Shinryuu that can be a vessel for Shinryuu or the souls of its previous wielders, and the statue of the Golden Dragon, which is supposed to be used for Shinryuu, but never functions as such during the whole story.

Yoshiromi - as mentioned before, yoshiromi are humans that act as vessels for spirits. Technically, this means that the espers are all yoshiromi as well as Seichei as the Tsukomogami and the bioroids as reincarnations of the yokai, but formal use of the term is reserved for Douji and Hime as the intermittent hosts of the dragon spirits, and Hidariude as temporary host of Ryu and Shinryuu. Otherwise, they are reincarnations, the difference being that reincarnations inhabit their vessels for their entire mortal lives.

Shimenawa - a rope decorated with zig-zag paper lightning bolts that protects yoshiro or yoshiromi, in this case allowing for others to control shintai, meaning that it can be used to stop shintai and expel a spirit from its host.

Onifuda - written prayers, which in themselves lack any significant powers, except when a miko (female shrine attendant/priestess) or kunoichi(female ninja) makes one using flashpaper by writing in ink made with sulfuric acid on cotton sheets, then it becomes an explosive that is particularly compatible with pyrokinesis.

Once Upon a Time

I was planning on talking about Black Clover, but that's moving so freaking slow, it's going to have to wait until there is something worth writing about. In the meantime, I'm going to give an update on Once Upon a Time.

The series attempted a reboot, which was a good idea, but perhaps they should have taken a cue from fellow fairy tale show Grimm and went out a high note. After years of establishing the complicated family tree of Henry Mills, they decided to send him off to an alternate fairy tale world where he falls in love with a Spanish Cinderella and another round of the Dark Curse moves the new cast to a suburb of Seattle. The problem is trying to keep track of all of the new characters and old ones and how they work with the third iteration of the curse.

Henry and Regina are back, along with Regina's sister Zelena, who has a now grown daughter named Robin who has fallen in love with Alice from Wonderland, who is the daughter of Captain Hook from an alternate world and Mother Goethel who entrapped Rapunzel who is also Lady Tremaine the mother of Druzella and stepmother of Cinderella bringing everyone except Tiana and Jack into one tangled family tree. The problem is, alternate Hook is supposed to be from a world that exists because of a wish that just happened last season, and yet he is tied to a history that goes back to when the fist curse was cast, not to mention we already covered Cinderella, Tremaine, and Druzella in two episodes back in Storybrooke and Rapunzel in another, which means we are crossing a lot of wires here. Oh and also they've added new rules to the curse yet again. This show has been entertaining, but they are struggling to hold this version together and they need to wrap this up and end the series with this season.