From the Maybe-Possibly Utena Step

[Bob Schroeck]

In the wake of a shopping trip...
I gave her a thorough once-over. Low-heeled ankle boots that had a pattern of piecework and color that would have made them something like saddle shoes had there been more than a hair's contrast between the two shades of leather. Red spandex biker shorts. Black leather jerkin-like top with a military cut to it. Surmounting it all was that trenchcoat -- Australian-made, matte black leather, hanging nearly to her heels. She wore it slipped over her shoulders like a cape, a single button at the top of the chest holding it in place like a cloakpin. Between its swirls I thought I could see the end of her scabbard. She stopped a couple of feet away from me, planted her fists on her hips, and gave me that artless, confident grin of hers. "What do you think?"I looked her over a second time, and shook my head. "I knew Ishouldn't have let you stay up all night watching 'Highlander'."She laughed. "I can't wait to let Akio know that there can beonly *one* prince."

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Rod.H]

---

I looked her over a second time, and shook my head. "I knew I shouldn't have let you stay up all night watching 'Highlander'."
She laughed. "I can't wait to let Akio know that there can be
only *one* prince."

---

Oh, oh, oh boy! I like.
Not sure if you can get a trench like that here, but I've never poked me head into the leather shop on the main motorcycle shop drag here either.
I'm wondering now whether or not Akio would catch that pop culture reference, but the spectators on the wall should.
--Rod.H (who recently caught up on the first arc of RGU)

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Oh, oh, oh boy! I like.

---

I'm glad it appeals to someone beside me. The plot isn't quite falling together yet, but I have a whole sequence laid out for getting Utena a sword, which involves ren faires, the SCA, a public duel between Utena and Doug, a swordsmith based on an actual blademaker I used to know, and getting Utena into an Italian Renaissance boy's outfit that looks suspiciously like the "little prince" getup her silhouette ends up wearing in the show's early flashback/intros. If I can just build the rest of the story and not copy the best parts of Symphony of the Sword at the same time, then this just might work after all.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[offsides]

Well, I like what I've seen so far, but you're right about it being a tough one. Unfortunately, no new ideas here...
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

[Bob Schroeck]

Every time I try to brainstorm a little on this, I keep finding myself drawing on elements from both SOTS and Archimage by Jude McLaughlin. Bleagh.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Ace Dreamer]

> Every time I try to brainstorm a little on this,
> I keep finding myself drawing on elements
> from both SOTS and Archimage by Jude McLaughlin. Bleagh.
I know I am not one of these authentic pre-reader people, but how about a few ideas...
1) Doug might be considered by some entities to be a (minor) agent of the Three. This implies that some of their enemies are his enemies. Who is opposed to them, one way or another? If the three have the Triple Goddess as one face, the Herne the Huntsman, their consort/opposite number might fit. Or, someone like Surtur. I think Ares (Mars) and Loki have been overdone as opponents, so I would avoid these. Alternatively, what sort of entity would be really ticked off by Doug and how he uses his powers. Note that the attention span of such beings can be very short, or at least _seem_ that way!
2) As the Three operate through agents, so their opponents, or fellow chess players, might. If Akio is soul-less, this might make it a lot easier for certain entities to influence him, or even promise him something like his soul back! If he is told that the appropriate but very carefully arranged ritual sacrifice of Doug would help him...
3) Throw in a shapeshifter, that has been sucked into the world as a side-effect of Doug's gate. If you want to stir things up there is nothing like a shapeshifter! [grin]
4) Cause Doug's arrival in the world of RGU to displace someone else, who will only return when he leaves. He might take a while to figure this out, and when he does it puts him under some extra pressure. This could be a one-off due to the nature of this world.
5) One or more of the existing cast has a serious crush on Doug, and goes to serious attempts to make sure their love is not unrequited. Given the number of strange personalities there are about the place, this is far from unlikely. Cruel, yes, but...

If none of this helps, well, we aim to bemuse! [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[zojojojo]

---

Every time I try to brainstorm a little on this, I keep finding myself drawing on elements from both SOTS and Archimage by Jude McLaughlin. Bleagh.

---

How about when Doug enters the world, he falls on top of Saionji right after Utena beat him that first time?
Or, if you've already got the timing of his entry down, have him land on someone else right after Utena beats them... Really, I just want to see someone get flattened by a dead-weight on the dueling platform
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[Bob Schroeck]

---

How about when Doug enters the world, he falls on top of Saionji right after Utena beat him that first time?

---

Well, my problem with the original concept I had for the story was that Doug would end up usurping all Utena's heroism. I do not want that to happen.
The obvious solution is to do what I did with Bubblegum Crisis -- position my story after the series so that Doug can't screw up the climax. Since (SPOILER ALERT) Utena vanishes at the end of the show, leaving the question of whether or not she got the power of revolution unresolved (END SPOILER) that gives me an interesting possibility. Presuming that Utena did teleport somewhere, somehow, probably using the Power, what if she and Doug both arrive at the same spot at the same time, both unconscious? Thus my current plans pick up more or less at the moment the series ends, and I hope to build to a point where I tie up all the loose strings as excitingly as Gryphon did in Symphony. And I have such a cool idea for what the Power of Revolution is...
...no, I'm not telling. You'll just have to wait.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[zojojojo]

---

And I have such a cool idea for what the Power of Revolution is...

---

the Mystic ability to imitiate The Beatles perfectly?
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

[Bob Schroeck]

Actually, it's the mystic ability to make wherever she stands the new (rotational) North Pole...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[offsides]

Bob,
I just want to state, as a resident Physics major, that this is the singularly most terrifying concept in a fanfic that I have _ever_ heard. Even if the planet itself survived the incredible forces this resulted in, everything on the planned not embedded in bedrock would go flying at entirely too great a speed. Please note that this includes things like the oceans and most of the top covering of the rest of the planet...
Just needed to get that off my chest...
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

[Ace Dreamer]

OK...
What if seeing as it is a magic power the change goes smoothly, and the world is now just rotating about a new axis...
Less messy, but really, really, going to mess up that daylight saving time! [grin]
Or, the effect is as if this new axis had always been the current one (oblate spheroid bits rearranged, etc), but people can remember how it used to be...
Cheers!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Bob Schroeck]

Um, guys?
I was kidding.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[offsides]

Oh, I know you were kidding - you just squicked the inner physicist in me with just the concept... Bad enough even that it took me about 10 minutes to fully move on.
(Yes, I know, that's a bit of an overreaction, but as someone with a very vivid imagination with a mind of its own (mine! and a solid knowledge of physics, it was too late to stop the reaction by the time I'd finished reading the concept...
I just wanted to give you credit for coming up with something that shocking
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

[Morgan Champion]

Oh Offsides,in an early issue of the Authority's first run,the Doctor(their resident druggie super-mage) literally tore Italy off the face of an alternate Earth,in order to liberate it from its alien opressors.What would happen to that Earth as a result? And would Doug be able to survive in that world for a couple of days (or long enough to fire up a gate song)?
The reason why I'm asking this is-what if Doug arrived on Sliding Albion as the Authority ,heard their parting message,managed to follow them home secretly,and over time,developed a plan to take them down."There's only one kind of monster that uses bullets"

[drakensis]

---

The reason why I'm asking this is-what if Doug arrived on Sliding Albion as the Authority ,heard their parting message,managed to follow them home secretly,and over time,developed a plan to take them down.

---

I think he'd have to be REALLY skimping on his reasearch to realise that the Blue deserved everything they got. He might be pissed at the level of collateral damage but it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to get the full story, which casts the Authority in no worse a light that, say, Harry Truman.
He might want a shiftship though.
D for Drakensis

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

[Ace Dreamer]

We _knew_ you were kidding!
But, that doesn't mean that the concept is not worth exploring a bit! [grin]
For example, substitute the manipulation of quantum worldlines from a sheaf of worldline possibilities for magic, and say that Utena manipulates the perceived consensus reality so that it has imposed on it a whole different worldline and associated history, selected by her.
That's pretty Revolutionary! [grin]
(This assumes that I haven't got my quantum in a twist!)
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Bob Schroeck]

I should remember that... that'd make a good basis for another (different...) fanfic. It's also disturbingly close to the concept I came up with...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Ace Dreamer]

> It's also disturbingly close to the concept I came up with...
That sort of thing happens to me, sometimes...
It's not reliable, or predictable, or anything _useful_ like that, but it happens! [grin]
Ah well! [grin]
Let's see, was it "Sheldrake's Theory of Morphic Resonance", or something? When it's Steam Engine Time, it steam engines?
As long as you are still on speaking terms with your Muse.
Cheers!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Bob Schroeck]

---

As long as you are still on speaking terms with your Muse.

---

You ever have one of those conversations with someone that just goes on seamlessly for hours? And you can go to bed, sleep all night, get up, and when you run into that person again pick right up where you left off and keep going for another day?
That's the kind of speaking terms I'm on with my muse right now.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Ace Dreamer]

> > As long as you are still on speaking terms with your Muse.
>
> You ever have one of those conversations with someone that just goes on seamlessly for
> hours? And you can go to bed, sleep all night, get up, and when you run into that person again
> pick right up where you left off and keep going for another day?
>
> That's the kind of speaking terms I'm on with my muse right now.
I _think_ that's good! Yes, it's happened to me.
Hmm. So, we should be sending you coupons for energy drinks? [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Hmm. So, we should be sending you coupons for energy drinks? [grin]

---

Nah, she understands that I need to sleep now and then.


-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Star Ranger4]

::Clipped from the DWII-Chap 13::

---

"We Didn't Start The Fire", actually, nor was he acting in an Ohtori-like capacity. .

---

This kinda makes me wonder... Would being in a different cosmology radically change the effects of some songs? a perfect example of this would be playing "End of the World" in the Utena setting..."I was an Otaku before those kids came along and changed the meaning of the word."
-- HM "Howling Mad" Wilson to more than one team-mate.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Bob Schroeck]

---

This kinda makes me wonder... Would being in a different cosmology radically change the effects of some songs?

---

It might, if it made for a good story. That's really the only answer I can give to some questions like this. There have been many instances in-game where we were off-plane and Doug's powers worked normally; I can't really think of one case where they didn't.

---

a perfect example of this would be playing "End of the World" in the Utena setting...

---

Depends on which song you mean, and its lyrics -- and whether Doug had an effect for that song to begin with. I can easily visualize a case where a song might only work in a specific different cosmology because that's where he first used it.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Star Ranger4]

Such as "Konichi wa Hurricane"?
Well, specifically, I was thinking of "Its the End of the World as we know it (but I feel fine)".... The one that I confused with "We didn't start the Fire" for a flash review of WW History."I was an Otaku before those kids came along and changed the meaning of the word."
-- HM "Howling Mad" Wilson to more than one team-mate.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children