NARRATIVE TEXT:

Name: Sean O'Gann

Age: Ageless (physically 17)

Weapon: Hand to Hand combat

Series: Misfit Demon Manor

"If I hear you make one more head pun, it'll be yer head that's punted down field."



Character Bio:

Sean O'Gann is, obviously, a Dullahan, an Irish spirit that often is a headless rider carrying their head. He's also a pretty no nonsense kind of teen (or physically a teen) that just wants to get things done on his own accord as efficiently as possible. Just a touch above taciturn, it's not that he doesn't talk much, its more that he doesn't care to spend precious words on fools. He wears an enchanted ribbon on his neck to keep his head on his shoulders, which he removes when he feels his head might be in danger. When in "off-head mode", he tosses what appears to be handfuls of gems on the ground that act like multiple eyes to give him a comprehensive view of his battlefield. If you asked him what his fighting style was, he'd cheekily tell you it was like "Headless Kenpo" or something.



Level: Clay Cross Residential District

Clay Cross appears to be such a typical American east coast town, in the autumnal season. Dry leaves, gently falling from flame coloured trees, sleepy, old houses with peeling paint and iron gates. Old, moss covered cemeteries, even older neighbourhoods and the ancient Seven Oaks manor overlooking the downtown make the residential district feel like an old town with secrets. And that's because it is, as it was founded by an old cult worshipping old demons and gods. If you look hard enough, you might catch a glimpse of some dark figures hiding between buildings, slithering shapes writhing in corners and storm drains, or maybe a local giving you an evil eye (or 3). Don't be too surprised if you take a little damage with your back turned; there's always something out to get you in the "friendly" streets of Clay Cross.



Boss: Cecil the Vampire

Cecil moved to Clay Cross not too long after Akiva and friends "cleansed" the manor to become a boarding house. As a vampire from jolly old England, he enjoyed a little celebrity-dom when arriving in this sleepy American town, due to the accent and dignified air (it helps he's also fabulously wealthy). However, a few obstacles have appeared into his plans of taking the town, namely Akiva, Skylar, and their entourage of goodhearted yokai/creatures (a waste to his mind). Sean not deferring to his power also rankles him, so these two have quite the grudge between themselves. Cecil's hand to hand combat makes him a perfect rushdown character, and his blood based long ranged attacks make him a little tricky to take down.

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IN-CHARACTER TRACK COMMENTARY FROM GONKAKA:

Takayuki Mitsuyoshi: I have apologised many times since development to my bandmates for how long it took me to complete this track, but I feel compelled to do so again. It took just over two months- a ludicrous turnover for a single piece as far as I'm concerned.

(Denji places a reassuring hand on Takayuki's shoulder)

Denji Koshiro: It's understandable, considering the circumstances.

Takayuki Mitsuyoshi: Yes, I suppose; a combination of factors that I shan't go into here lead to me making myself extremely stressed and, consequently, very ill. Though even as my body and mind were rebelling against me, I fought to get this song into shape- it came together very gradually over those two-something months, with lots of little tweaks here and there to ensure everything sounded just right. I had a similar crisis of style as Fumie did for Air Ain't High- going in a more dance-y direction, or sticking to the synth fusion of the core property- though I very quickly settled on doing both, depending on the section. I'm extremely happy with the end result, despite it all; it felt very good to write a song with such strong bass guitar component for the first time in a while, and the general theme of the level- a town with a dark secret and a cult hiding in the shadows- gave me an excuse to grab a sample from the trailer to my favourite horror film, The Wicker Man. It's a shame that we had that sampler failure during recording, though.

Fumie Saso: Oh yes, with those vocals right?

Takayuki Mitsuyoshi: Yes; I still cringe in embarrassment when I hear the song back, but we just didn't have time in the moment to re-record the track with a replacement sampler.

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DECON'S TRACK COMMENTARY:

Two and a bit months is probably the longest turnover I've had on a track in... a while. I sincerely apologies; you can thank an untold amount of IRL bullshit, piss poor luck, and bad mental health for that one. Hopefully, future BM2 tracks won't be in the kiln for quite as long.

For the most part, ideas were strong for this one for the outside; a lot of the early roadblocks I hit (when I had the opportunity to actually work on the damn track) were in things like sample choices, audio balancing- the minute details. Everything had to be just-so, and at several points in the process quite a few things I tried weren't working out and had to be tweaked. One of the biggest headaches I had was with the melody during the "chorus" sections- the actual melody was easy, but I spent ages cycling through samples to find one I liked. I'm still not 100% sure if I made the right call with the one I ultimately went with, but it sounds better then everything else I tried out. Another rough spot, believe it or not, was bridging the first "chorus" with the second "verse"- that little two bar break was the very last thing I worked on in the composition process cos I just didn't know how I wanted to handle that bit of connective tissue.

I am pleased with the song in the end- as I type I'm still just coming out of the mindset of actively working on it (and given that work phase went on as long as it did and was as difficult as it was, I'm mostly just fucking thankful it's done and I can move the fuck on), but what's there is strong. I completely fucked up in one spot and dropped the wrong version of the vocals I was editing in post- take a guess which one- and didn't even notice until it was too late to fix it, but fuck it, mistakes happen. I'll just work it into the metanarrative and say Takayuki Mitsuyoshi (the Gonkaka member wrong the song "in canon") encountered an error with the sampler playing those vocals or... something. Yeah.

This song contains the following sample + audio from freesound(.)org:

- audio from The Wickerman 1973's trailer

- strong windy night (170129)

- Nightscapes Asplund (1ratatosk1)