Drunkard's Walk Forums

The "old-timers" around here no doubt remember the New Year's Challenge stories I post every first-week-of-the-year, and the more recent omake that have started to show up around this time of year. Well, this year's omake challenge http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.arts. ... 597f64da13]has been posted, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it...

Quote:Okay, basic 3 anime character teams allowed, standard character rules apply here (i.e. NO BANNED CHARACTERS!)

During some experiments with the master device, I summoned Mirror-Lina and Mirror-Naga and the mirror itself as a third character/item in an attempt to see if summoning items would take up a slot for the upcoming New Year's Challenge. It did, which prevented me from summoning of the random civilians from that particular OAV story. My one regret is that I didn't unsummon the item and put my device in lockdown mode. After I left and went clothes shopping with the two ladies to find them outfits they felt comfortable in, my Challenge Lab video recorded a visitor, one who stepped out of a grandfather clock that appeared in my lab all of the sudden. The audio recorders picked up the following:

"Oh my, the havoc I could wreak with this device. Finally, I could once-and-for-all end that pitiful rival of mine, The Doctor... wait, no, that would only birth The Valeyard, I bet. Something more sinister, more devious, more... masterful... heh-heh. But first, a distraction for this poor fellow should he return too early..."

Upon my return after the shopping trip and dinner (the mirror ladies had the appetite of the regulars, so I was gone a while), I saw what had happened, and immediately unsummoned the mirror wherever it was, however I had not stopped the devious Gallifreyan from causing some chaos. Just like in the OAV, getting rid of the mirror did not get rid of the mirrored people. This time, The Master has let loose 3 individuals in your city, mirror-Chuck Norris, mirror-Bruce Lee, and mirror Mahatma Gandhi. You and your team are to deal with the mirror rampagers, my hands are full with Mirror-Lina and Mirror-Naga.

Deadline will be the end of November when I post the NYC official entry info.

(Bill's somewhat more creative in coming up with these things than I was...)

I'm not having a problem coming up with a team for this; I'm planning to "recruit" associates of my usual Team Lovely But Dangerous. What I am having trouble with is figuring out what mirror-Chuck Norris, mirror-Bruce Lee, and mirror Mahatma Gandhi are like.

(Those who haven't seen the Slayers OAV with the Reversal Mirror will need some explanation. Basically, it's a Mirror of Opposition, but instead of making opposites of people it reflects based on their (A)D&D alignments, it makes the oppsites based on the originals' GURPS disadvantages and quirks... It was deemed far too embarassing to ever use.)

Since I only have until mid-to-late November to write this thing, I need ideas about the "bad" guys Real Soon Now, please...

(Oh, and if anybody else want to play but doesn't have Usenet access, I'll re-post the stories to Usenet if you ask.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Well, mirror Chuck Norris is... not going to be very impressive. Nor would mirror Bruce Lee. (remember it creates people with the opposite personalities, so
mirror Norris will be such a coward that he will refuse to confront anyone and mirror Lee will be almost as unconfident)

Mirror Gandhi? SNAKE GANDHI!

Let us just say that you are fucked.

------------------

Epsilon

Well, that just depends on who I pick, doesn't it? (Hmmmmm... One from Card Captor Sakura, one from Read or Die, and one from Negima!... Should I be so totally munchkin as to pick Negi, from the most recent chapter of the manga?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Quote: Epsilon wrote:

---

Well, mirror Chuck Norris is... not going to be very impressive. Nor would mirror Bruce Lee. (remember it creates people with the opposite personalities, so
mirror Norris will be such a coward that he will refuse to confront anyone and mirror Lee will be almost as unconfident)




Mirror Gandhi? SNAKE GANDHI!




Let us just say that you are fucked.




------------------


Epsilon

I'm tempted to suggest reference to Gandhi II (Weird Al song from UHF).
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

"No more mister passive-resistance!"
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

(Here's the first part of my Omake Challenge story, for entertainment purposes only. I already know where I'm going with the rest of the story, but I don't have time to write it this afternoon...)

Oh, dear. The message from Bill wasn't at all good... but it could have been worse. Bill had summoned up a Mirror of Opposition. Like most such magic items, this one created duplicates of its victims with their major personality traits reversed while leaving their skills intact. Unlike most Mirrors of Opposition, this one didn't invert personalities on a coarse good/evil and communal/individualistic scale; this Mirror was more precise, swapping out identifable personality traits. (When it was used on Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent, it created an alturistic Lina and a demure Naga.) I had a decent chance to solve this one.

But I couldn't possibly take care of mirror-Ghandi on my own. (Quoting the "Ghandi II" sketch from Weird Al Yankovic's movie UHF, "No More Mister Passive-Resistance!" That's how mirror-Ghandi would think all the time.) I needed a team.

The problem was, I couldn't draw upon my usual team. Chisame needed to hear what she was hearing from Negi's father's friend right now. Yomiko still hadn't rebuilt her life after what Joker had done to it; I'd called her away from that too many times already. And Sakura was still a pre-teen; it was time to give her a break. I couldn't in good conscience call upon Team Lovely But Dangerous yet again... but I could call upon Team Dangerous But Lovely.

First, an information specialist. At least two of Chisame's classmates would be able to fill this slot, and I've always wanted to meet one of them. A moment later, the summoning device had called Nodoka Miyazaki to serve as the core of the team. "Tell me your name!" she demanded while pointing at me.

"I call myself Rob Kelk, Ms. Miyazaki," I replied. "And that magic item you recently picked up will have told you my full name." Sure enough, a book with my name on it was floating in front of her. I'm counting on you to use that ability to help solve this mess, I thought, knowing that my thoughts about Bill's problem would appear in her book.

Next, a combat specialist. I briefly considered Yomiko's friend Drake Anderson, but decided against him. While he was willing and able to use lethal force, making him Dangerous, there was no way he could be described as Lovely. Besides, the psychological-warfare factor would be greater with the person I had in mind.

"Oh, that's not nice," Nodoka commented.

"What? Oh, right; you're still reading my surface thoughts. Do you think she can't do the job?"

"I don't know. I've never seen that anime, and she wasn't in the manga. I don't know what she's like."

"Well, now you get to meet her." I smiled as I activated the summoning device again. "We met once a while back, when I was transported to her world in place of the person I transported to this one. Hello, Miss Li."

"Shaoran's sisters are 'Miss Li.' Just call me Meilin," she replied. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Kelk. So this is your world..."

"That it is. Ms. Miyazaki knows why I've brought you here; would you speak with her while I call the third member of the team?"

Finally, somebody who was willing to do whatever needed to be done. I activated the summoning device one last time, and a gorgeous, buxom raven-haired woman appeared in front of me. "Hiiiii," she drawled sexily as she closed the book she was reading.

"Hello, Ms. Makuhari."

"Oh, call me Nancy. So, where are the mirror-clones?"

Huh? "How did you know?"

She held up the book she'd brought along so we could see the title: Tales of the New Years' Otaku, 2008 Edition, edited by Bill Martin. She smiled. "I picked this up from the British Library. Mister Gentleman had the entire series. You really do like Yomiko-san, don't you, Rob-san?"

Oh, wonderful. The Pratt/deCamp/Heinlein theory of transfictionality has finally reared its ugly head... and it's bitten me on the ass in the process. Assuming the book Nancy held was accurate. Time to change the subject. "Can we get down to business, please?"

"Sure!" Nancy smiled. "According to the book, this is what we're going to do..."

(To Be Continued, of course...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Hmm... Having Nancy pulling out the novel really takes the tension out of the story. Even if it isn't 100% accurate, the fact that they have such an
accessible and none cryptic guide means that they have an almost 100% chance of Getting It Right(TM)...

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

Quote:"And this is where we have torrid, bodice-ripping, amazing sex..." Nancy drawled, her eyes full of promise as she looked up from the book.

I panicked.

"Just kidding. This was written by Laurel K. Hamilton. She can't write ANYTHING without smut," she continued, a wicked smirk on her face.

''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Quote:Hmm... Having Nancy pulling out the novel really takes the tension out of the story.

Good point. I'll drop that from the version I post to Usenet.

Quote:"And this is where we have torrid, bodice-ripping, amazing sex..." Nancy drawled, her eyes full of promise as she looked up from the book.

I panicked.

"Just kidding. This was written by Laurel K. Hamilton. She can't write ANYTHING without smut," she continued, a wicked smirk on her face.

However, this is too good not to save and use elsewhere...

Oh, yes - Bill's finally given us the mirror effects:

Quote:Actually, [Chuck Norris] goes from cool, calm, collected, TV & movie star who's basically only into self defense into the guy who most of the Chuck-memes are about. Your city is now a Chuck-tatorship. A straight-shooting Jeet Kun Do artist who's the master of "Fighting without fighting" becomes a sneaky, arrogant, villanous guy who' would have taken David Carradine's life for stealing the role he created for Kung Fu. The man who was a face of passive resistance and went on hunger strikes is now a gluttonous, musclebound Indian who doesn't mind fighting dirty.

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

In that case, you might find use for my own contribution to the Norrisfest:

"Chuck Norris can murder inanimate objects."

--Sam

"Surf's up, space ponies -- I'M MAKIN' GRAVY WITHOUT THE LUMPS!!!!!"

...And... the story dies because of my problems writing fight scenes. I missed the cutoff.

Ah, well. I can salvage some of this writing for the 2009 New Year's Challenge.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Oi! Next time you want a fight scene, email me! Just give me a general idea of what kind of carnage you want, the rules, what can and can't happen, and
I'll make some magic happen for ya.