I was reading an Eva fic, a sort-of crossover with Dogma, actually, and came across this line (from Metatron, talking about Shinji):
"Must come from piloting the giant purple people eater."

Has anyone else made that connection? Would Doug?-- "And with strange eons, even Death can die." - H. P. Lovecraft
"I got better!" - Shino Keiko, commenting on the above quote.

www.eclipse.net/~rms/dwbrush.html
in Sam Ashley's "A Brush With The Past", Doug runs into a phrase "We Made Holes In Teeth", and this has confused the hell out of me.. Anyone know the origin of this phrase?Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

The Travelling Wilburys
The Devil's Been Busy (in your backyard)
Runaway (1990)

While you're strolling down the fairway
Showing no remorse
Glowing from the poisons
They've sprayed on your golf course
While you're busy sinking birdies
And keeping your scorecard
The devil's been busy in your back yard.
Steaming down the highway
With your trucks of toxic waste
Where you gonna hide it
In the outer space?
You don't know what you're doing
Or what you have to guard
The devil's been busy in your back yard.
Sometimes you think you're crazy
But you know you're only mad
Sometimes your better off not knowing
How much you've been had.
You see your second cousin
Wasted in a fight
You say he had it coming
You couldn't do it right
You're in a western movie, playing the little part
The devil's been busy in your back yard.
Sometimes they say you're wicked
But you know that can't be bad
Sometimes you're better off not knowing
It'll only make you sad.
They're coming down Picadilly
Dripping at the dash
Wasting sticky Willy
Covering him with their cash
They just might not have noticed, they've been beating him so hard
The devil's been busy in your back yard.
The devil's been busy in your back yard.
The devil's been busy in your back yard.

- CDSometimes a gundam rom rpg snes swigs, but an arpeggio not including a rancor always
unanimously gives lectures to the in disguise barred enclosure!
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

The title has essentially all of the content, here - it just occured to me as something to say before someone imparted a large amount of kinetic energy to a baddie, while watching the intro to an episode of Pretty Cure, specifically, the Brainy One in a labcoat doing chem lab experiments and then transformed, triangle-jumping up the girders in a construction area.
Actually, Pretty Cure is perhaps the least annoying pure 'Magical Girl' show I've yet to see, with reasonably good plotting leavened with the occasional completely oddball concept - like a monster of the week that's a possessed vacuum cleaner, and a dark general who looks like David Bowie as the Goblin King but in facepaint. Okay, teah, it is a kid show, but it's a well done, well animated kid show.
Three or four different groups are fansubbing it, but I don't think any of them are past ep11. I'm not sure if it's still airing or not, but the subs are recorded from TV, judging by the presence of a clock display in the upper left corner...
Of course, there is something deeply wrong about a couple of - well, either grade schoolers or young-drawn high schoolers - who always do their chrome-plated-nude transformation sequence holding hands and have a paired final attack called 'Magnificent Screw...'
- CDSometimes a gundam rom rpg snes swigs, but an arpeggio not including a rancor always
unanimously gives lectures to the in disguise barred enclosure!
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

So anyway, the first thing that pops up in my head after reading this is:
How cool was that? Very cool, indeed. As a long-time fan of Ah My brother and Drunkard's Walk, as well as a general cross-over fan, I enjoyed reading it.
But, being me, I can't help but quibble. Quibble and poke and prod and pick those damnable nits that nobody else sees.
But first, the praise part: it was incredible just how effective the duelling perspectives were in this story, particularly in the fight scene. The way it switched from OUR HERO DOUG, first person, to OUR OTHER HERO, WHAT'S HIS FACE, UH, RIGHT, RIGHT, CHRIS, in the third person, was very effective in both maintaining tension and showing the personalities of the characters during the fight. The jarring nature of the duelling narratives worked perfectly well with the jarring nature of their fight with their constant playing with time.
Also, I am completely unable to tell when it is Herr Schroeck writing and when it is Angel-san writing. Perhaps it's due to my complete inability to notice any damn thing ever but most likely it is due to the sympatico between the two writers. This has none of the feel of a round robin but rather a true collaboration.
Now then, onto the bitching and it begins with the question: whose story is this? It says "Drunkard's Walk" on it and so far most of the action has centered upon OUR HERO DOUG and that's all to the good. But there has to be clear-cut answer to the question of who the main protagonist is, because I doubt that a story with two protagonists would work. Which isn't to say that there couldn't be sub-plots given to supporting characters, but there has to be a clear distinction made as to who the main character is and who the supporting characters are.
Fer instance, in the first (well, second) Drunkard's Walk, it was OUR HERO DOUG who was OUR HERO. Lisa had a storyline given to her, as did Katherine Madigan, and Priss (Nene to a much lesser extent, and Sylia learned a lesson somewhere in there but where the hell was Linna, anyway?). But it was OUR HERO DOUG's story. Main guy, him. His story.
Take, um, MASH the TV series. A ensemble cast, a GREAT ensemble cast. But it was Hawkeye's story, always and forever Hawkeye's story and it worked because it was his story.
So, again: whose story is this? Because if it's not made clear, then it's going to be muddled. I would enjoy it, sure, but . . . protagonist, supporting character.
Second bitching: the main conflict in this that Doug learns that not all gods are selfish and capricious through the bonding that comes from rebuilding a bike?
Hmm . . . that's . . . that's kinda not very . . . big. I mean, in the second Walk we had Doug vs. Genom pretty early on. We could see it all coming. I guess this bitch isn't very good, because we're so early on in the story but . . . you know, no clear ANTAGONIST here yet to match THE PROTAGONIST.

It is always quite foolhardy for a young and ill-trained party
To gather at a tavern and to say
"We have had it with our teachers.
Let's go off and kill some creatures,
And find a ton of gold to haul away."
And that is called bashing the balrog.
And the people who long to attack
Think, once they have bashed on the balrog,
The balrog will not bash them back.
It is equally foolhardy for that armed and eager party
To win one lucky battle and feel sure,
"We have polished off a goblin,
But he left our fighter hobblin'.
Perhaps this magic potion is the cure."
And that can make bashing the balrog
Too much for the cleric and elf,
Who find, when they're facing the balrog,
That their fighter is not quite himself.
It is even more foolhardy for the changed and weakened party
To stare back at the balrog and to say
"We can zap and we can bite you.
We are quite prepared to fight you.
We suggest you turn around and fly away."
And that's called insulting the balrog,
For balrogs aren't easy to bluff.
They know, with a competent balrog,
No army is half strong enough.
And it's just a bit too tardy when a member of the party
Succeeds at his IQ roll and exclaims
"Try a Light spell or Entangle
While I get a better angle,
For I think I know a way to douse his flames."
And that is called fleeing the balrog,
And those who are wiser agree:
While comrades are bashing the balrog,
It's safest to go climb a tree.
It is almost as foolhardy for the others in the party
To bravely join the fray with spell and sword.
It has no chance of destroying.
At the worst you'll be annoying,
And at best you'll keep the foe from being bored.
And that is called bashing the balrog.
But should any witness survive,
He'll see, once you've bashed on the balrog,
The balrog will skin you alive.
So no matter just how hardy be the fools within your party,
And no matter just how lucrative your aim,
If it ever is suggested
You can get by unmolested,
You should rise and pound the table and exclaim,
"We never can win against balrogs,
However the dice might be tossed.
For the rules of this game are obscure and arcane,
And the party that plays it is lost, lost, lost!
The party that plays it is lost!"
-- Leslie Fish, Bashing The Balrog
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

...the following scenelet from a possible Read or Die Step came to me, and I just had to share it.
----------
Yomiko snapped up her hand, and a half-dozen small sheets of paper materialized in her grip, stiff as steel and razor-sharp. Back-to-back with her, Doug made almost the same gesture; spikes of a milky, translucent material popped out between the fingers of his right hand. He glanced over at Yomiko and shared a sly grin with her, then looked back at the foe."You got a choice, buddy," he said in a low, dangerous tone. "You want paper..." He gestured at Yomiko, then brandished the sharp slivers in his own hand. "...Or plastic?"Yomiko spared a portion of her concentration to roll her eyes athim.----------
No, I don't have a particular song in mind. Yet.-- Bob
---------
The one-L Hel has a face.
The two-L Hell, it's a place.
But I will bet a silver bell
There isn't any three-L Helll.
-- with apologies to Ogden Nash
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

As noted in the Website area, I've taken the DW FAQ out of beta and made it live. There's now a button and a text link on the DW Main Page that'll take you to it. For anyone who might have bookmarked it already, the direct URL for the page hasn't changed.-- Bob
---------
The one-L Hel has a face.
The two-L Hell, it's a place.
But I will bet a silver bell
There isn't any three-L Helll.
-- with apologies to Ogden Nash
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

This Step has been falling together nicely, even though I haven't actually set out to work on it at any given point. But I now know just about how things will flow through the entire plot, and I've got answers for a lot of the problems and objections Xenoproctologist posted here two years ago.
Anyway, to celebrate my burst of optimism over the story, here's just a little tiny moment from late in the plot.
-- Bob

This will also be going into the DW FAQ, which is in beta right now (see post in DW General).

Oh! My Brother!, and thus Drunkard's Walk V, are in an alternate universe from canon Oh! My Goddess. It is a wildly divergent timeline (wild divergence #1 being our favorite apotheosized Canadian). If there is a canon conflict between Oh! My Brother! and Oh! My Goddess, Oh! My Brother! wins, because that's the storyline Doug's visiting.

If you need to identify when the story takes place relative to events in the canon timeline, Drunkard's Walk V is placed sometime before the canon's "Lord of Terror" arc. Besides that being Chris's designated point in time for OMB, it also happens to coincide nicely to the extent of Bob's exposure to the manga.

As for characters from beyond that point, well, it might be nice if they appear, but first both Chris and I have to a) know about them, b) know them well enough to write them, and c) have a story reason for using them (or get a big enough kick from a cameo). Furthermore, Chris is final arbiter on who gets to live in his universe, and if he doesn't like, say, Hasegawa, well, Tokyo City Records will suddenly be missing a birth certificate...

Is that clear, everyone?

-- Bob
---------
Single Stage To Orbit: Rockets like God and Heinlein intended them!