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A little more than a teaser...
04-16-2016, 12:05 AM
I've been working on DW8, don't worry -- but for some reason, DW-S has been calling to me, too. And one of the little bits I've gotten done is the prologue. Enjoy, if it doesn't infuriate you with its brevity and vagueness.
0. Time Lost And Forgotten
I am the wind to fill your sailI am the cross to take your nailA singer of these ageless timesWith kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
-- Jethro Tull, "Songs From The Wood"
Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; forlove is strong as death, passion cruel as the grave; it blazes uplike blazing fire, fiercer than any flame.
-- Song of Solomon 8:6 (NEB)
And if the music stopsThere's only the sound of the rainAll the hope and gloryAll the sacrifice in vainIf love remainsThough everything is lostWe will pay the priceBut we will not count the cost-- Rush, "Bravado"
My name is Douglas Quincy Sangnoir. And I do not know how old I
am.
There are only two women in my life whom I have ever lovedwholeheartedly and unconditionally: my wife Maggie, and myadopted daughter Makoto.
And there are only two women in my life in whose service I wouldwillingly sacrifice my life: Wetter Hexe, and Tsukino Usagi.
This is the story of why I no longer know my exact age. It is
the story of how I became a mentor and teacher to the first
metahuman heroes to appear on their version of Earth. It is the
story of how Makoto and Usagi took their places in my heart. And
finally, it is also the story of how in the end I did in fact lay
down my life, in revenge for one and in the service of the other.
For twenty years I couldn't remember any of this. For two
decades, all I could recall -- if I even thought about that
timeline at all -- was arriving on that Earth, and finding a songto open a gate to the next world on my journey home less than 24
hours later. Even now, with my memory allegedly restored, vast
swaths of my recollections are fuzzy, or riddled with holes. Ifit weren't for my usual journal entries -- which I found in my
helmet's computer, stashed in a hidden directory and locked with
my password -- I would have had even less idea of what happenedon that version of Earth than I do now.
I didn't seal those journal entries away myself -- as best as I
can reconstruct the events at the very end, I had no reason to do
so or even to anticipate needing to do so. All I can imagine is
that when Usagi ordered the Ginshuizou to "put it all back",
whatever passes for the controlling intelligence of that magic
crystal golf ball decided to do it for me.
Why it didn't just wipe the log entries outright I'll never know.
Maybe it was afraid of what I'd do if I ever found out.
Maybe it was afraid of what *Usagi* would do.
There at the end, I might have been, too.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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I enjoy what little of it there is. I'm curious if the entire step is going to told in this "this is what I have figured out style" or if it is going to be told as a type of flashback in the normal narration style.
I've another question but ignore me if I'm getting into spoilers. I'm curious that given the established time resets in the Sailor moon universe, and the dimension crossing in the DW2 universe, if I should hoping for an happy ending for Doug and Makoto. The prologue makes it obvious the step wasn't all candy floss and puppy dogs, but on the other hand Sailor Moon (well the first season of the original anime which is all I've seen fully, the rest of my knowledge is pop culture and fanfic) isn't the same level of darkness as say Evangelion. Its been too long since I've read either DW2 or Girls, Girls, Girls so forgive me if Makoto's fate is already established.
Quote:skyfire2020 wrote:
I enjoy what little of it there is. I'm curious if the entire step is going to told in this "this is what I have figured out style" or if it is going to be told as a type of flashback in the normal narration style.
I've another question but ignore me if I'm getting into spoilers. I'm curious that given the established time resets in the Sailor moon universe, and the dimension crossing in the DW2 universe, if I should hoping for an happy ending for Doug and Makoto. The prologue makes it obvious the step wasn't all candy floss and puppy dogs, but on the other hand Sailor Moon (well the first season of the original anime which is all I've seen fully, the rest of my knowledge is pop culture and fanfic) isn't the same level of darkness as say Evangelion. Its been too long since I've read either DW2 or Girls, Girls, Girls so forgive me if Makoto's fate is already established.
Sailor Moon could get amazingly dark, especially in the originating manga. It is however a generally hopeful universe; yes it can be a dark and terrible place, but if you have the strength of will and heart to fight on you will have your happy ending. Not 'can' have your happy ending, will.
So, yeah. A happy ending for Makoto, Doug and for everyone they love in that universe is pretty much assured.
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Quote:Chapter 1 of Drunkard's Walk S is now at 31kB.
*does happy dance*
I almost want to say that Sailor Moon is darker than Evangelion. Certainly not on average, but there are times. Evangelion is a slide from bad to worse, with an accompanying slide from fan service to fan disservice. But things in Sailor Moon can look darker because of the contrast with the normally light setting. In particular Sailor Moon Stars is pretty dark, especially in the manga. I posit that the backstory to Stars, particularly with respect to the Drake equation, is darker than the entirety of Evangelion. At the least, any story in which main characters die, leaving a girl to face Azathoth alone is pretty freaking dark.
-- ∇×V
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Holy shit.
GO BOB GO! 
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I have long been reluctant to take on multiple projects at once -- DW8 and DW13 together were mainly because Helen's writer's block has been long and profound -- but dammit, this suddenly started insisting on being written and I couldn't say "no" any more.
EDIT: Let me note that I am doing my research on this, and you will see things that just don't appear in the usual Sailor Moon fic. For instance, I don't think any SM fic I've read notes that Azabu (not "Juuban", although "Azabu-Juuban" is acceptable) is one of the districts of Tokyo where foreigners live in large quantities, and is very multicultural while deliberately maintaining a Japanese appearance and flavor. Doug will notice this. It's also one of the more expensive areas of Tokyo, though not the most -- we knew that Ami and Rei are both well off and given how easily she went to England Minako is very likely so as well, but I doubt anyone's really considered Usagi or Makoto as anything but middle class before. Makoto in particular must have a hefty trust fund or something, given the rents in the area. I need to get a really good visual reference yet on her apartment, but the partial images I've found suggest that by Japanese standards it's huge -- bigger than the one I gave Doug, and he's got his usual IT professional job plus trade goods plus leftover cash from a similar Japan in another timeline to pay for it. I'm rambling. Anyway, the point is, I'm doing my research, right down to the weather and of course the phases of the moon as usual, and it's paying out unexpected dividends for this story.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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ISTR that the embassy the girls visit in episode 22 was placed where the real-world German embassy (was is still "West German" at the time?) is located, so I knew there were foreigners in the area... but, no, I don't recall seeing any fanfic that mentions this.
--
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
The manga started in 1991 so it would've become the German embassy, although it's certainly possible that if it's early in the story all the duplicate facilities had yet to be closed down and consolidated.
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Quote:Hazard wrote:
The manga started in 1991 so it would've become the German embassy, although it's certainly possible that if it's early in the story all the duplicate facilities had yet to be closed down and consolidated.
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Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
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Bob: you may want to check out ATC's Sleeping With the Girls. (Every time he falls asleep he slips through dimensions... and winds up in another girl's bed!) Midway through the fic, the SI (nicknamed 'Walker' by the SB community since he remains unnamed in-story) even runs into an actual Australian while trying to kill Nephrite with the help of the senshi. And in the thread, discussion abounded about the 'fallout' there would be from the detonation of a device with similar energy to a Davie Crocket (experimental man-portable nuke - 0.5 KT, launches like a big RPG)... all the usual alphabet-agencies going nuts over something that does that with no fallout?
Yeah, it will be interesting to see ATC continue this fic. 
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Of course they're all rich and worldly, they're royalty after all. It is possible that Kenji's company is located in or near Azubu, and was able to buy the property for the Tsukinos without giving him that large of a salary. A lot of houses are bought outright by employers like this for sarariman in Japan -- the real estate market there is really different, including the near lack of a market for "used" houses. But I'd say that upper middle class is the low end of the possibilities for Usagi, considering how much coin she spends at Crown Arcade.
But as for Pippi Ponytail, her parents must have left her a bag of gold.
-- ∇×V
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Quote:robkelk wrote:
ISTR that the embassy the girls visit in episode 22 was placed where the real-world German embassy (was is still "West German" at the time?) is located, so I knew there were foreigners in the area... but, no, I don't recall seeing any fanfic that mentions this.
Hooboy. There are at least eighty or so -- I didn't count the entries -- embassies and consulates in Minato, the larger ward that Azabu is part of, including the US. (And in Warriors' World, Warriors Beta.) If Princess Diamond's embassy is the real-world German embassy, that's only ten minutes or so from the Tokyo Tower -- and the Google Maps pin for Azabu-Juuban is right smack at the midpoint of that route (and a couple blocks from the train station of the same name). I think I need to drill down and find out where Doug's apartment is... I know it's close to the train station, because he's paying a premium on his rent for the location. But I haven't determined an actual address.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Quote:Black Aeronaut wrote:
Bob: you may want to check out ATC's Sleeping With the Girls. Yeah, it will be interesting to see ATC continue this fic.
Oh, I'm very familiar with it -- and waiting eagerly for him to continue it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Quote:vorticity wrote:
But as for Pippi Ponytail, her parents must have left her a bag of gold.
Do we know if her apartment is the same one she lived in with her parents or if she moved in after their deaths? I'm pretty sure she was a transfer student, but that doesn't necessarily mean she moved to a new home in order to transfer. I'm asking this because it is possible her family wasn't that wealthy; her standard of living may partially be the result of a court settlement regarding the plane crash that killed her parents.
Checking the Sailor Moon wiki, it claims: "In Chapter 1 - The Melancholy of Mako-chan, the first story of the Exam Battle series that takes place in the Infinity arc, it is shown that Makoto is very scared of airplanes because of the accident. The story also revealed that Makoto likes cooking and bargain hunting." Perhaps the bargain hunting is because she has a limited amount of money and secretly worries about her long term financial security? Her enjoyment of cooking could also indicate that despite the loneliness of eating alone at home, she prefers not to eat out too often due to the expense.
----------------------------------------------------
"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
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Amusing trivia unimportant to the story: around the corner from the German Embassy in Minato? A Japanese Mormon temple. I kid you not.
And I have found http://www.pizzastrada.jp/]a pizzeria for Doug to frequent -- one that actually makes pizza Americans would recognize. Sadly, they don't appear to deliver.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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*blink* Suddenly I want to suggest giving Zach Stephens a walk-on appearance, for some reason.
(Zach Stephens, "deliverator" for Celestial Pizza, is the Role of Zachiel Firewheel. He's shown up a few times in Symphony of the Sword, where he's Balder's son and an agent of the Celestial Intelligence Agency, but Gryphon initially devised him for an In Nomine campaign that never happened, in which he would've been an Ofanite of Creation IST Judgement.)
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Doug will be able to go see the visitor's center and tour the grounds. But if he wants to see anything beyond that he'd have to convert. 
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Black Aeronaut Wrote:Doug will be able to go see the visitor's center and tour the grounds. But if he wants to see anything beyond that he'd have to convert. Doug's already pledged himself to a Celestial, so a conversion probably isn't happening...
--
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
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Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:
Amusing trivia unimportant to the story: around the corner from the German Embassy in Minato? A Japanese Mormon temple. I kid you not.
The Mormons are surprisingly numerous in the Pacific. My father worked in the Marshall Islands and hopped around Micronesia for a while, and he said that they were all over the islands. It was part of their missionary devotions.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
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