Headless ghost animatic

My voices got corrupted so i was only able to salvage the sound effects

The headless ghost storyboard

She always goes for the cute ones

A perfect time to visit my grand mother, I hate coming to this place. Of all the places she decided to spend the rest of her days, it had to be a creepy, eerie, dark forest in the mountains in the country side. Who would live here? Who in there right mind would bring themselves to be in the presence of …. THIS place? My grand mother was always for the creepy. Yet no matter what we say, no matter what I say, she never seems to realize her choice of lifestyle is just…. Weird.

So I’ve been on this trail walking to her “cabin” or house, whatever you want to call it, for a while now. I can’t drive because there’s no actual roads in this forest. So, like people from before technology was invented, I have no choice but to walk to my grand mother's home. Lovely. I wouldn't complain as much if it were just right up the hill. However her house lies within this "Blair Witch Project" scenario of a forest. It is so irritating to--

I lose my train of thought when I spot another human being. It's a girl. A cute one. And she's walking in my direction. What's she doing all the way out here? She doesn't even look like she lives out here. She dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and a pair of blue chuck taylors. Kind of plain for a girl that cute, but then I would question why she would be dressed to impress in the middle of the woods. She looks at me as she walks up to me, meeting my eyes. She smiles and waves. Such a lustful look. What's with that? She stops in front of me. Oh boy!

"You're not from around here are you?" She asked

I clear my throat and answer. "No I'm not. My Grand Mother lives around here. She's in a cabin."

"Oh I know the one." She says. "Here, I'll take you."

Well that's awfully nice of her. Here I am complaining to myself and the locals decide to help out. Oh I should ask that.

"Are you from around here?" I ask.

"Yes. Believe it or not, I've lived here my whole life. We get alot of people like you around here. Lost and upset."

"I'm not upset" How did she know I was upset? Do I look angry?

"You seem tense when I came up. It's not so bad here. Once you know the area, you'll never want to leave."

The way she said that made me feel a little.... weird.

"Well I'm just visiting. So I'll probably be gone in 2 days and I doubt that's enough time to learn anything about this place."

That sounded kind of rude, but then she told me this: "Well one thing you might want to know about this place is that it may be a little haunted."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, they say there's a woman out here who goes around and throws her head at people. The head bites down and sucks out their life essence. Creepy huh?"

Lovely. Now I'm upset again. Now I have to walk the rest of the way to my grand mother's house with a crazy lady who believes in ghost. AND she's cute! God, Why is it always the cute ones?

"That does sound pretty creepy. She wouldn't happen to be around would she? We're not close to her.... haunted... nest... place are we?"

"No, she doesn't come out until night fall. You're fine for now. But I'd stay indoors after hours if I were you."

"Oh yeah? What she only goes after men or something?"

"Well she does go after the cute ones. Or so I hear."

Well that's sweet of her in a creepy sort of way. She thinks I'm cute. Well she's not bad herself. Now if only she wasn't such a wierdo, I think we could make this trip interesting.

Well we eventually end up at my grand mother's house and I couldn't be more thrilled. My feet are killing me.

"Well this is it" I tell her.

"So it is." She says.

"Would you... like to come in for a while?" I'm totally gonna go for it.

"It's getting late. I have to be getting back. Besides I don't think the old lady likes me."

Really now. Why wouldn't my grand ma like her? I mean she is a christian woman. All that ghoustly, ghoulish talk would drive any elderly church goer bat shit crazy with religious talk. Though it sucks because it only means I'm going to bed alone tonight. Oh well.

"Well thanks for the company miss..." I never asked her name.

"Sam. You can call me Sam. It's short for Samantha but I'll answer to Sam."

"Well Sam, you be safe out there."

"And you too. Don't let the headless ghost get you!"

"Yeah.." Please go away now. I don't want you to come in anymore.

So at Grandma's house. It's the usual. Greet me with hugs and kisses, pinch my cheeks, ask me where my dead Grand father is, and of coarse, have I been in church recently. It's always good to see her. Though I still wish she had picked better living conditions.

"So I saw you talking to that girl on the way up here." She says

"What girl?" I like playing dumb with her. It's a habit that's hard to break.

"You know. The girl. The devil girl."

Now that is just mean. Just because she believes in ghost doesn't mean she should be considered a satanist. Old people are mean to people who are different.

"Oh her. Why is she the devil girl?" I ask

"She speaks the tongue of the beast! I've seen her do some devil things in the forest."

"Devil things?"

"You know. Like, making herself bleed all over the place, screaming at the sky, doing... magic... I don't know. Don't talk to her anymore."

"If you say so." Okay so she IS a crazy girl. Maybe it's best she didn't come in.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked

"What's that Grandma?"

"I need you to go out and get me some logs for the fireplace. It's going to be cold tonight and I'm keeping the heating furnace off to save on gas bills. So can you be a dear?"

"It's dark out."

"Please sweetie, it's going to be cold."

"Fine"

I really do not want to go out there in the dark. I don't want to be killed by some wild animal. I'd rather die with dignity. But I decide to suck up and be a man. My grandma's cold. I throw on my coat and slip on my boats and head out into the... wilderness. I can't believe I even have to say this. So now I'm out in the middle of the woods.

It is pitch black. If it wasn't for my dear friend, the moon, I wouldn't be able to see a thing. I find a couple of pieces of logs for the fire so I gather them up. However, when I'm ready to get back, I realize... I'm kind of lost. I'm pretty sure you can tell I am very upset. I walk around for a bit and then something catches my eye. Something flickered. Something shiny, something... not dark. I look over to see what it was. I remember that white t-shirt from earlier today.

"Sam?" I call out to her.

She slowly turned to me and smiled. But something was wrong with that smile. It was cold, bad, .... evil.

"She always goes for the cute ones!" She says in a low raspy voice.

"What are you... talking about?" The moment I said that, something dropped. Something heavy hit the ground. I'm not sure what it was because my eyes were fixated on something rising. The shiny thing, Sam's face, rose into the night sky. Her eye's still fixated on mines. I then assume, that whatever hit the floor, was probably the rest of her. I was too scared to realize anything at that moment.

"SHE ALWAYS GOES FOR THE CUTE ONES!!!!!" she screamed. Her head flew at me and bit into me. That sharp, sudden, pain gave me the push to snap out of it. I wrestled her head off of me and threw it to the side. It never touched the ground. Instead, it rotated to stare at me once more and she smiled again.

"I really think... you're cute..." She flew towards me again. trying to bite me. I hit it with a log and ran for it. I don't know where I was going but I sure as hell needed to get away. I eventually ended up back at the cabin. I threw open door and slammed it shut behind me. My grandma came in and saw the fear in my eyes.

"You saw her didn't you? The devil lady?"

"What... what... what the hell is going on here!! Who is she?!" Seriously though. What am I dealing with here?

"The devil himself. The headless ghost."

The myth my story is about: the Nukekubi

Its kind of fascinating. A ghost that throws it's head at it's victims. I really like ghoulish myths like this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nukekubi

BlazBlue series

One game that’s influenced me is probably the Blazblue series. It’s different from any other fighting game I grew up playing, with an interesting cast of characters, all with their own unique game play. In most fighting games, story isn’t very important and that may also apply to Blazblue as well. However, Blazblue is probably one of the only fighting games that’s so heavily influenced on a story that develops these character’s strengths and personality with each entry through the series.

The characters I believe are what make this game’s story interesting. It’s not your typical cast of fighting game characters like the martial arts expert, the large wrestling characters with the cheapest grab moves, and the evil dictator whose hosting a tournament to gain every fighting ability to rule the world. Blazblue’s characters stray away from that tradition with it’s own unique style. With a half vampire who lost his arm, an officer with amnesia, a blob of living sludge that shoots insects, you always ask the question “how in the world did these characters get like this?” It made me actually wonder about the plot of this game and though it is extremely confusing to follow, it still keeps me interested in how it’s all slowly unraveling.

From what I’ve gathered, the story is about Ragna, a rebellious fugitive, who searches for his younger sister who was kidnapped by an entity named Terumi. Having his arm sliced off and left to die, he was turned into a half vampire by Rachel Alucard, a vampire with seemingly ungodly powers, who watches over everything from her own Halloween type realm. Ragna goes to a city in hopes to find his sister there but only finds his younger brother along with the rest of the cast of the series there waiting for him. It turns out he has an S class bounty on his head for attacking NOL branches and destroying devices known as Murakumo units which are robotic copies of his sister and also have developed a human emotion of love towards him.

The Story at first felt like it was all over the place, with each character having there own path to walk. However it all ended up being connected and the characters actually had progressing relationships with one another and that carries over into the next game. I never knew that this type of thing could be possible or even remotely interesting especially in a fighting game. While I may not think that story is that important in fighting games and it may not be that important in this one either, I find it fascinating that the affects from the previous story slightly changes the character’s game play and fighting style in the next entry. I’m currently waiting for the third entry which is supposedly the conclusion to the series, but as long as the hardcore fans enjoy the hardcore fighting engine, even though the story may end, I think the game’s going to be around for a while.

Article Story assignment

“Somehow I’m still alive.” Mori Hirazawa awakens, drenched and muddy in a large puddle of mud which use to be a parking lot. “What in the world happened? Is this even for real.”

Staggering to his feet, Mori goes off, stepping on soggy dirt and water. She stops when he steps on something harder. A branch maybe? That would’ve been better than what he realized he had stepped on. Adjusting the weight of his heel, a human arm emerges from the water. Mori covers his mouth, possibly holding back vomit begging to escape from his body. “Oh God…” he managed to mutter.

Mori continued on, trying really hard to block out the image of what he’s seen. But every which way he turned, there is nothing but chaos and destruction. Tears soon emerged from his eyes as he could no longer hold them back. The shaking was scary enough but the sight of the horrifying wall of water that reduced his home to nothing is still stuck with him. Soon the ground begins to shake again. “Aftershock? Yeah… it’s an aftershock…” He waited and stood still for a bit for the shaking to finally stop. Mori gripped his pockets and felt a lump. His cell phone. Did it get damaged in the water?

He reaches into his soaked pockets and pulls out his wet phone. He opens it and turns it on. Luckily it still worked but the earthquake knocked out the cell phone communication signal. However he does see the little envelope reminder in the corner of the screen, telling him he has a text messge in his inbox.

“Mako!” Mori remembers sending back and forth text to his older sister Mako. “I wonder if she’s okay… Damn no signal!” He holds his phone high into the air hoping to get a signal to call her. The fact that he was out of contact from his sister worried him a great deal. “What if she’s hurt… I hope she’s okay…”

He climbed up a soggy hill. His legs becoming extremely muddy. He came across a familiar road. “Good. This is goes into town.” He knew the road goes straight to his sister’s home. He and his mother always drove down it to visit her. Mori opens his phone again to see if there was any sort of signal he can get. He then notices the envelope in the corner of the screen again. He clicks open his inbox and reads the last message his sister had sent him. His stops in his tracks at the sight of the message:

“OMG the ground is shaking! Are you okay M-“

She didn’t spell his name. only the hiragana character of “mo” was shown. Was she not able to finish the text? Did something happen before she clicked “send?” Mori’s mind was racing. He raised his phone up again to hopefully get a signal to respond to his sister. He wants to know that she’s safe. He wants to know if anything has happened to her. It was driving him crazy. She’s the only real family he has left after their parents funeral a month ago. Is it right for him to lose anymore love ones?

“No choice.” He sighs and realizes that he has to walk to her home.

As Mori continued walking along the road, he checks his entire inbox. The whole back and forward text between him and his sister. “Wow. This is stupid.” He laughed. He cycled through the angry argument that they were having via text message. “All this for a stupid picture?” That stupid picture was a baby picture of him and his playing in the bath house with no clothing. She had showed the picture to a group of friends at a party she went to the other night and somehow they ended up on the internet. Mako thought it was cute and funny. Mori didn’t think so though. It irritated him that his sister was parading him around like that to strangers and now his face is on a popular social networking site for everyone to see. It even got sent to his phone. Mori eventually came across it in his inbox. It was the same picture their mother kept in her wallet. He remembers she always opened her wallet and smiled, seeing her two children misbehaving as such. After she passed away, Mako took it for herself.

Mori starred at the picture for a good while as he walked along the road. He wanted to take his mind off the half destroyed house that layed in the field to his left. He was trying very hard to block out all his surroundings. However, ignoring his peripheral vision, while starring at a tiny cell phone screen, proved to be difficult. He could hear a siren go off in the distance. Is it the state of emergency horn? Is help finally on the way? Mori’s thoughts drowned out at the sound of a woman screaming.

It was off to his right. He hears her crying out “Tasukete! Tasukete!” Cries for help. “My baby is trapped inside!”

“Baby?” Mori said. He slid down to the collapsed house. “Miss are you okay?” She frantically held onto Mori’s shoulders with tears flowing down her cheeks. “My baby! She’s still inside! Help me!” She cried. Mori bit his lip and looked at the house. There was no longer a front door for it has caved in forward. Though Mori did see a window he could easily access. “Wait here.”

The woman broke into a prayer chanting “Tasukete Kami-sama! Tasukete!” Mori left her and went around to the window. He tore a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around his hand. He punched through the window and climbed through it carefully. Mori tripped a little bit forward as the house was leaning at an angle. He got his footing and stood perfectly still for a while. A head of him he can see what probably used to be the living room area with the ceiling collapsed in. Then he heard it: it sounded muffled by all the debris but he can make out the sound of an infant crying out for its mother.

“Shh.. shh.. I hear you. I’m coming.” Mori says in a whisper. He steadied himself and climbed through the debris. He cut and scrapped himself a lot but he tried to ignore it. He pushed passed some collapsed concrete and continued on into what appeared to be the remains of the kitchen. He could make out the outline of a refrigerator along with destroyed counter tops in the dark. The crying became louder, as if it were in the same room as him. Actually it was. He saw a baby’s crib and in it lied a pink faced baby grabbing its blanket while crying furiously. “Ahh you’re cute chibi-ko!” Mori carefully reached into the crib and picked up the little one.

“Dear God! You need changing!” Mori tried to ignore the smell and cradled the baby in his arms as he walked back the way he came. It was a lot harder getting out than coming back in. the angle was steeper going back up to get out of the window. The house somehow sunk even lower to the basement level. Mori was in a dangerous spot. However he thought about the baby he held in his arms and decided to push all the worries away. Mori proceeded to walk up the collapsing house, steping over debris and furniture that got tossed around. Suddenly another aftershock rolled by, the furniture tripped up Mori and he fell backwards against a wall.

The baby exploded into a wail of crying and screaming at the sound of loud banging and the violent movement it was feeling. “Ugh! … Don’t cry..” Mori stood to his feet and continued on through the chaos. Just then, help had arrived. A fire fighter peered through the broken window Mori had made and their eyes had met. “Oh thank god!” he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Don’t worry! We’re coming to get you!” He was a local fire fighter who lived nearby. Luckily he was in the area. He lowered a fire hose with a looped knot at the end. “Oh I see” said Mori. “But they should take the baby first.”

He took the hose and tightened it around the infant. He stopped crying and starred at Mori, as children generally do. “There’s a baby down here! He’s coming up first!” He yelled to the fireman. He nodded “okay” and he carefully hoisted the child up to safety. Mori could hear the woman happily yelling for her baby. He felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders. Now he just needed to get out of there himself.

“Okay it’s coming back down! Get ready!” he called to Mori. He nodded and waited for the hose. When it touched down, he grabbed it and wrapped it around himself and was hoisted up slowly through the window. Three firefighters greeted him, calling him a hero. The crying mother held her baby and came over to hug Mori with her other free arm. “Arigato gozaimasu!” she said gratefully. Mori bowed to her and turned to get back on the road.

Before he could continue on, one of the firefighters stopped him. “Where are you going? Do you need medical help?” he asked. “I need to find my sister. I’m going into town to look for her” Mori turned to walk but the firefighter stopped him yet again. “I can give you a lift. I’m heading that way to for a search and rescue scout anyway.” Mori wanted to say “no thanks” nut his tired body and sore feet said “get on that truck!” and his body won the battle.

On the truck, Mori noticed that it suffered water damage from the passing wave. He was amazed that it survived and was relieve he was getting a ride to his sister. “Almost there” said the fireman. Mori became anxious to get off the truck and start looking for Mako. But the anxiety soon turned to uneasiness at the sight of the town submerged in water. The firefighter pumped the brakes with the sound of flowing water beneath the truck. “Down there?” the firefighter asked Mori. He couldn’t speak right away. The small town he always remembered seeing down that familiar hill as a kid, was suddenly underwater. “Hey. Don’t worry, we’ll find her. I’ll radio in a rescue chopper.” He grabbed his radio and gave to coordinates of their position. Mori still couldn’t find words.

Suddenly, another aftershock, this one stronger than the others, caused the ground around Mori to crack and slip into the water. The firefighter tried to rush to get him before getting washed away but it was too late. Mori didn’t see much. He only remembers being swallowed up by sea water and washing around in all sorts of directions. Soon he stopped violently thrusting around and swam in a direction he needed to go, up. He surfaced and caught his breath. Somehow he ended up next to the roof of a convenience store and hoisted himself out of the water. He rolled onto the roof and laid on his back, gasping at the air. Suddenly his phone began to vibrate.

It was a small faint vibration due to all the water damage. He opens it to find that the screen was completely white. He hits it a couple of times to see if it’ll clear up which it eventually did. It was a new picture message. Mori opened it and saw that his sister had taken a picture of her bedroom window. But it seemed odd. Tinted, yet clear. “Is her phone under water?” Mori tried calling her with little signal he had but no luck, straight to voice mail. Mori looked around. Even though it was underwater, he knew the area. Mako’s house wasn’t far away, but the question remained on how to get there. He soon got that answer when he heard someone calling to him.

The firefighter had pulled out the emergency raft and rowed to Mori’s side. “Daijoubu-ga? Are you okay?” Mori nodded yes. “C’mon, a search and rescue chopper is on the way, lets get you back to land.” Mori hesitated. “Do you mind if we swing by my sister’s place? I just need to know if she’s okay.”

“A rescue chopper is coming! She’ll be alright!” the fireman urged him to get on the raft with him, but Mori just starred and hesitated. He eventually gave up. “Fine. We’ll swing around to her place but after that, we’re going back!” he said irritated.

Mori was relieved and got on the raft. As they rowed down the river of the town where his sister lived, he looked around at all the roofs emerging from the surface. Then he saw people. People began standing on their roofs, signaling for help. Trying to get the firefighters attention. He signaled back that help is coming and told them not to worry. Mori felt kind of bad for being the only civilian in an emergency raft but he couldn’t think of that now. They soon reached Mako’s neighborhood. “So much debris” the fireman said as he rowed. Mori agreed, looking at the water. He saw clothes, trash, floatable accessories, and then, a familiar photograph. He reached for it almost tipping the raft over. “Hey! Watch it! What are you doing!” Mori apologized and studied the wet picture. He couldn’t help but laugh. “All because of this huh?” Mori chuckled.

“What’s that?” asked the firefighter. Mori showed him the embarrassing picture that his sister had posted on the internet. “Whose this?” he asked

“That’s me and my sister when we were little. Crazy isn’t it?” Mori joked. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw her. Standing on her roof, crying, while clutching her cell phone, Mako didn’t hear the boat swim up behind her. Soon all the weight of the world lifted off of Mori’s shoulders at the sight of his older sister in one piece. He rubbed his eyes, trying to hold impending tears. “Sis!”

She turned quickly to see the orange raft floating in the water. “Mori-kun!” she wiped away her tears as well. “You’re okay!” Mori broke out into laughter, then sniffled. “This doesn’t change anything! I’m still mad at you!” he joked while waving the picture. She saw that he had the picture and she started to laugh to. “I’m sorry!” he laughed. The fireman carefully pulled up to the side of the house and slowly and carefully assisted Mako onto the boat.

As they rowed back to land, Rescue choppers from the Special Defense, National Security, and The United States air force, arrived, helping other families and loved ones in times of this sudden disaster. But it’s only just beginning. There are people who are still in need of help around the country and we can only pray that we save them all.

Non Fiction Fiction Sentence

A young teenage boy searches for his missing older sister after the disaster in Japan.

link to actual article:

http://www.anime-expo.org/2011/03/11/massive-earthquake-tsunami-hits-japan-the-spja-extends-heartfelt-thoughts-prayers/