Anime-opener dream fragment - Tatsu no Kanshin & others

[classicdrogn]

---

(Keiu, BTW, is originally from Hokkaido, which leads to the amusing image of her and Miyou walking down the street side by side, with Miyou bundled up and hugging herself and Keiu happy as a clam in shorts and t-shirt.)

---

"Brrr... I cannot beleive this. Aren't you supposed to be of a tropical dragon clan? And people call *me* Yuki-onna."
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[Valles]

Hey, Drogn? Just what genre -are- we putting this in, anyway? I mean, yeah, it's obviously some flavor of shounen, but more finely...
Anyway, picking up -exactly- where we left off.
============================================
Bosu-sensei nodded back, then glanced back down at his list. "Yo, new kid!" he called.
A girl's voice answered, low and clear as a churchbell. "That's not my name."
The teacher guffawed and made another check mark. "Right, right, got it, Miyou-kun."
"Thank you," she said coolly, tucking a fallen lock of night-black hair back out of her face and behind her ear.
Most of the students in class 2-C agreed that it was very odd that they were taking a field trip the very first week after they were back from winter break, but opinions were divided between conspiracy theories, rampant silliness, and simply blaming it on Bosu-sensei's half-pickled brain. Regardless, paperwork troubles had interfered with the usual schedule of things, and so they had only met Gosai Miyou halfway through the day before.
Despite this, she had already made a major impression - tall and athletic without being unfeminine, well-built but perfectly proportioned, and as coolly unflappable as a mountain pond - the male half of 2-C had spoken or thought of nothing else all day.
Kennan did better than most of his peers, in that he had taken time to note both the dry, subtle humor in the phrasing of her answers in class and the gentleness with which she had delivered the first of what she had to know would be many rebuffs, and that his eyes had actually lifted high enough to notice that her face was as beautiful or more so than the rest of her, and her eyes the most arresting shade of ruby-red.
He had lost track of her in the press of disembarking the bus, but now that he could see her standing tall in clear sunlight and smiling politely as Sato Kimiko (Class rank 98, Sewing Club, Film Club, the corner of his mind dedicated to storing and processing all the myriad details of his job as senior editor of the Yearbook Club remarked) chattered wildly to hide her nervousness.
He stared, and thought of absolutely nothing at all.
After a moment, however, he became aware that Tsuchi was holding one of the paper water cups they'd been given as they got off the bus under his chin. He blinked, and asked her, "What on earth are you doing?"
"Catchin' the drool, so you don't get it on your nice clean uniform," she informed him, with a saucy grin.
He glared, then paused, then grinned himself. "And I guess I can help repay you for this service by coming by and making sure that you're all ready next Friday, when a certain young man of our mutual accquaintance comes by to pick you up on the way to-"
She slapped a hand over his mouth, blushing fiercely. "Never mind about that!"
"Sure, sure," he said, but he leaned back against the rock and watched the trees overhead wave in the brisk winter wind coming down of the mountains. Tsuchi did likewise, and they waited in a companionable silence until Bosu-sensei came to the end of his list.
"All right, sheeplings!" he roared, crumpling the list and tucking it into one of his pockets. "Now that we're all here, we're gonna-"
"Hey, hey, old man! What about me!"
The not-quite-former biker turned and blinked, since there was no one standing in the direction of the voice that had adressed him.
"Down here!"
He looked down.
=============================================
Naturally, Tsuchi never calls her brother anything but 'Gaki'.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

---

Hey, Drogn? Just what genre -are- we putting this in, anyway? I mean, yeah, it's obviously some flavor of shounen, but more finely...

---

Romantic action-comedy drama, wasn't it? And, ah... well, I dreamed what turned out to be ep1 and had what seemed like good ideas about dragons and things at the time, but there's really no prose muse working on me for this one as of yet. I'd love to pas it to a studio with sysnopses complete and a check big enough for them to follow it so I could see what happens, and I'm loving your written bits nearly as much, but so far I'm only a backboard.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[Valles]

---

Romantic action-comedy drama, wasn't it? And, ah... well, I dreamed what turned out to be ep1 and had what seemed like good ideas about dragons and things at the time, but there's really no prose muse working on me for this one as of yet. I'd love to pass it to a studio with sysnopses complete and a check big enough for them to follow it so I could see what happens, and I'm loving your written bits nearly as much, but so far I'm only a backboard.

---

Meh. Meh, I say. Even a couple of lines would be enough to help me keep up a back-and-forth... which, while I've never really tried it for prose, certainly makes things flow easier in conversations like this one.
And we'll probably have to settle for 'Action-romance' or something like that, since my sense of humor is basically limited to the inappropriately silly (Arbyfish, et al.) and the Whedon School of Wisecracks.
Even so, I, too, would love to see this actually done - especially if it was done so that Ken and the other dragons pulled off the kind of fluid, cat-smooth, bird-fast motion I see them using in my mind's eye.
Ja, -n
(maybe back with scenelet after dinner)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

---

Meh. Meh, I say. Even a couple of lines would be enough to help me keep up a back-and-forth... which, while I've never really tried it for prose, certainly makes things flow easier in conversations like this one.

---

I know that, but I just don't have ANYTHING here. Getting FF7's dated MIDI music stuck in my head isn't helping any, either... (COME ON! I have Game Boy Advance games that look and sound better than this - granted, they're a couple years newer and use pre-rendered sprites, but still. For twelve bucks used, I'll give it a while to let itself prove it's "holy grail of RPG plot/play" hype, prehistoric graphics and all.) I supose the "Your brother, your problem" bit comes next, then it's Ko-gal and the Groupies... Perhaps an image for her would help?

Name: Tsukurimono - (artificial product; decoration; fake; crop)
Shareta - ( stylish; tasteful; fashionable)
Function: Queen Bitch
Skills: Count all the way to 100 (to properly brush her hair), Specialist: Gossip, Specialist: Dating, Journeyman: Cutting Remarks
Abilities: Enhanced endurance (Shopping), Low-pressure tolerance (High Horsemanship, Keep Nose in Air), Sonic attack (SQUEEE!)
Description: Bleach-blonde and having a deep tan with that slightly plastic look that comes from a bottle, Shareta seldom keeps any street outift for more than a month, and even her school uniforms are made from the richest fabrics and tailored as much as she can get away with. She doesn't QUITE look like a hooker, since she doesn't go overboard on the makeup, but as far as anyone in the hero cast can tell the source of her popularity is a mystery, as she is without apparent redeeming features.
Still, she attracts a crowd of sycophantic trend-following girls and has a handful of drooling guys wrapped around her finger. She makes it well known that her parents are wealthy executives and that she travels all over the world during school breaks, but they never show up for school functions and according to what someone overheard walking past the teacher's room only her governess was there when Bozu-sensei went for a home visit at the end of last term. (Naturally, said personage was THRILLED to meet him.)
Groupies: They try to mimic Shareta's look, discernable mainly in the lapse - One is too tall to be mistaken for her idol, one a bit too chubby, another's parents won't let her grow her hair that long, and none of them can quite afford the expensive fabrics she wears. They rarely say anything that she hasn't said first, and are always quick to backtrack if it seems she disagrees with whatever semi-original thoughts they might express.
Role: Fill out school crowd scenes, act as foils or distractions when a scene starts to drag.
- CD

Much later edit to avoid doubleposting:
I just had a suddden thought RE dragon biology - their closest purely mundane terrestrial relatives, despite their saurian appearance, is most likely the duck-billed platypus. Modern birds, after all, are offshoots of actual dinosaur lines according to my vaguely remembered science show archeology, and platypi are already egg-laying mammals with a feathery coating - and feathers could surely proceed to scales if they could proceed FROM scales. They're also carnivorous, eating small insects and critters filtered out of the mud. Yes, they lack fifth and sixth limbs, but there's the whole magic-influenced evolution thing, even if you don't buy into the dragons simply having been made that way by one or another form of divinity.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[Bob Schroeck]

---

I just had a suddden thought RE dragon biology - their closest purely mundane terrestrial relatives, despite their saurian appearance, is most likely the duck-billed platypus.

---

Just as an aside on this topic... some years ago Peg and I visited the American Museum of Natural History in NYC with Steve Jackson (yes, of SJG) and a mutual friend, and I remember spending a great deal of time studying a display that showed the difference in bone structure between dinosaurs, modern lizards and mammals. It occurred to me at the time that draconian physiology must be closer to mammalian than saurian. I remember wanting to do something with this for Narth -- a page on the biology of dragons, perhaps -- but I never got around to it and I forgot the details. Something about the structure of the hips, along with vertical leg jointing rather than horizontal, I think...

-- Bob
---------
It's a "magical" land. I think "magical" is ancient Greek for "pain in the butt". -- Bun-Bun, Sluggy Freelance, 11/9/03

[classicdrogn]

Well, you can't have sexy dragon-girls without mammaries, and that sort of tears it, right from the get-go.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[Valles]

---

I know that, but I just don't have ANYTHING here. Getting FF7's dated MIDI music stuck in my head isn't helping any, either... (COME ON! I have Game Boy Advance games that look and sound better than this - granted, they're a couple years newer and use pre-rendered sprites, but still. For twelve bucks used, I'll give it a while to let itself prove it's "holy grail of RPG plot/play" hype, prehistoric graphics and all.) I supose the "Your brother, your problem" bit comes next, then it's Ko-gal and the Groupies... Perhaps an image for her would help?

---

*snip*
Oh, great. And I've got no -clue- how to write them.
*sigh*

---

I just had a suddden thought RE dragon biology - their closest purely mundane terrestrial relatives, despite their saurian appearance, is most likely the duck-billed platypus. Modern birds, after all, are offshoots of actual dinosaur lines according to my vaguely remembered science show archeology, and platypi are already egg-laying mammals with a feathery coating - and feathers could surely proceed to scales if they could proceed FROM scales. They're also carnivorous, eating small insects and critters filtered out of the mud. Yes, they lack fifth and sixth limbs, but there's the whole magic-influenced evolution thing, even if you don't buy into the dragons simply having been made that way by one or another form of divinity.

---

Peleontology is fossils. Archeology is arrowheads and such.
A lot of my stuff for these dragons has been sort of inspired by an essay I read online a -long- time ago on Draco, from Dragonheart. Combine that with a desire to see what the critters would look like if you attempted to design them so that they could actually exist - well, assuming some new, stronger material for their bones or a waiving of the cube-square law - and there you are. Accordingly, if you ignore the the skull, the length of the tail, and the alterations needed for the flight muscles and the second set of shoulders, then you're basically left with the skeleton of a really -big- cat. As in, 'ribcage the size of a small SUV' big.
Which, to go off on a tangent, goes a long way towards explaining why Tsuchi and Miyou can't just pull Ken back up over the railing, despite their both being high-level atheletes - if his human form's built anything like his natural one, he'd weigh more than both of them put together, since Fanged Dragons are -massive-... something like three or four times the weight of a Stone. Though that presents the problem of why he had trouble lifting the Gaki, who couldn't weight more than a fifth of what I'd guess him as...
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Foxboy]

It's simple. His arms parse to his draconic forelimbs, not his wings. Thus, in "human suit," he's got AMAZING lateral obliques and back strength...
Oh, if you need help with "Queen Bitch Kogal," imagine her as Cordelia from BTVS, or basically any snooty cheerleader type from any American cartoon or the Fangirls from Fruits Basket.
''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

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Oh, if you need help with "Queen Bitch Kogal," imagine her as Cordelia from BTVS,

---

That is exactly who I envisioned when I read the description. Maybe with a bit of B-Ko tossed in.

-- Bob
---------
It's a "magical" land. I think "magical" is ancient Greek for "pain in the butt". -- Bun-Bun, Sluggy Freelance, 11/9/03

[Crescend]

---

I just had a suddden thought RE dragon biology - their closest purely mundane terrestrial relatives, despite their saurian appearance, is most likely the duck-billed platypus. Modern birds, after all, are offshoots of actual dinosaur lines according to my vaguely remembered science show archeology, and platypi are already egg-laying mammals with a feathery coating - and feathers could surely proceed to scales if they could proceed FROM scales. They're also carnivorous, eating small insects and critters filtered out of the mud. Yes, they lack fifth and sixth limbs, but there's the whole magic-influenced evolution thing, even if you don't buy into the dragons simply having been made that way by one or another form of divinity.

---

Actually, there was a special aired on Animal Planet a while ago where they brought a bunch of scientists together to try to imagine how dragons could naturally evolve. See if you can find it on eMule or torrent - it was quite comprehensive.
Linky Linky

[classicdrogn]

First, on the arm strength thing - lifting Gaku in that position means a bicep-curl first (done with only moderate strain, the main problem having been the shock to his joints from catching the kid oin the first place) and then trying to do a shove with the ... is it deltoid or trapezius on the top of the shoulder? and triceps, while swinging from the first motion and his own body moving as the aggregate center of mass shifts out to the side, pluss pulling a partial chin-up move with the other arm to get the kid high enoguh to be reached.

---

Oh, great. And I've got no -clue- how to write them.

---

Well... I'll try. Skipping ahead a little, then, ...
Miyou had unhurriedly made her way to one side of the stairs in order to slip around the slow-moving group she'd caught up to, a knot of bleach-blonde girls trying to hide their lack of athleticism in frequent pauses to exclaim over the view or lean together for some murmured confidence. She paused for a moment as the obvious leader of the group turned a too-bright smile her way and greeted, "Oh, it's Gosai Miyou! I'm Tsukurimono Shareta, of course. I saw you dealing with Kimiko earlier, Miyou-chan, you handled her most elegantly - perhaps a little more so than she deserved," the bottle-tanned girl insinuated, saccarine-sweet. "That one has some small skill as a seamstress, but no fashion sense WHAT so ever, and no appreciation for advice from those of us who do."
Miyou made a noncomittal sound and cocked her head ever so slightly as Shareta paused to favor her with another toothpaste-commercial smile, moving with the group as they started up the stairs again.
"I'm sure a refined person like yourself would be far more grateful for a few tips - oh, you're off to a good start on your own, but everyone knows I'm the Fashion Queen of (what was the high school named again?) Why, with just a few TEENY image improvements you could even hang out with us!"
(Miyou blows her off, less gracefully than her usual, having determined Shareta to be poisonous vermin. They snipe back, taking note of freakish red eyes and disgusting untanned skin "white as a corpse!")
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[drakensis]

> Miyou blows her off, less gracefully than her usual,
< having determined Shareta to be poisonous vermin.
> They snipe back, taking note of freakish red eyes and
> disgusting untanned skin "white as a corpse!"
"Ah, but if I make significant image improvements I won't be associated with you and your fellow poisonous reptiles. Makeover time!"
D for Drakensis

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

[classicdrogn]

Stand Up (For the Champions) by Right Said Fred. Yeah, that guy who did I'm Too Sexy," but this sounds nothing like that.
ETA: You know what else? This series is just SCREAMING for a Harry Potter crossover. The 'dragons' that we see in HP canon are Beast Dragons, occupying roughlty the same evolutionary position as the great apes relative to humans, while wizards come from families that have crossbred with one fo the magical races at some time in the more or less distant past, with the animagus and metamorphagus talents appearing in those with fairly strong rakshasa ancestry, while dragon-based families lose the transformation at two or three generations, then the bulk, and then - usually - the power. Crabbe and Goyle's families appear to have kept the bulk lng past noteworthy power or intelligence, or perhaps soem ancestor found an old family record tying together daconic heritage with wizarding power and tryied to boost their offspring by magically crossbreeding with beast dragons.
(Beast dragons and the true dragon clans are no more compatible than humans and apes boilogically, BTW, thgouh one can of course gram just about any two life forms together with sufficient magical research)
This would even work with the Draco-cenctric outline I posted not too long ago where canon-Draco is just a sleepwalking shell personalty, whose true self awakens from teh control paced on it by Lucius to casue the divergence. He could be either the product of magical experimentation/ritual to restore the purity of the magic-using blood of the noble and ancient Malfoy line (possibly by the infusion of actual true-dragon blood or potions based thereon during Narcissa's pregancy) or else a fullblood Plumed stolen before breaking shell and raised to beleive he was human. He'd have no need of enforcers if he was a true half-dragon, even half-plumed.
Ah! My muffin are cooked! Must wander off.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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

[Valles]

---

ETA: You know what else? This series is just SCREAMING for a Harry Potter crossover.

---

Aaagghgh! My eyes! My -mind-! Brain bleach, brain bleach!
Seriously, though, as interesting as the thought of what the dragon challenge from GoF would look like with Kennan subbed in for one of the dumb critters, lets leave that concept to the screaming fans, hey?
...
I. R. Aardvark. Now -there's- a concept to fry your mind.
Ja, -n
(Stopped being an HP fan about the time it got depressing enough to resemble real life.)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

---

(Stopped being an HP fan about the time it got depressing enough to resemble real life.)

---

Eh, I still haven't gotten past about 1/3 in HPB, because it keeps striking me as less plausible than some of the fanfics out there. It's still better than Eva, though.
- CD Guh, now there's a mental image, Hideaki Anno's Neon Voldemort Wizangeleon. Got any of that brain bleach left to lend me?What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
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

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Neon Voldemort Wizangeleon

---

Gah. Would Gendo be Voldy or Dumbledore?

-- Bob
---------
It's a "magical" land. I think "magical" is ancient Greek for "pain in the butt". -- Bun-Bun, Sluggy Freelance, 11/9/03

[Berk]

Bah.
Snape.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

[Bob Schroeck]

Duh.
Of course.

-- Bob
---------
It's a "magical" land. I think "magical" is ancient Greek for "pain in the butt". -- Bun-Bun, Sluggy Freelance, 11/9/03

[Valles]

Present Day (duh)
Mix and Match (both shonen -and- shoujo archetypical elements)
Cat Girl (Maeve)
Joshikousei (three out of five main characters)
Heavy Sleeper (subverted - Kennan can sleep through anything -except- someone intentionally trying to wake him, in which case he bounces straight from 'dead to the world' to 'wide awake' without going through any of the stages in between)
Ninja (oh boy do we got ninja... but mostly Miyou)
Tall Dark And Bishoujo (also Miyou)
The Thing That Goes Doink (subverted - Tsuchi has one in her (realistically cramped) apartment's flowerbox)
The Ordinary High School Student (Kennan)
Schoolgirl Lesbians (Maeve and Keiu)
Anime Theme Song (natch)
Ancient Tradition (Miyou and her clan)
Blank White Eyes and Blue With Shock, as appropriate
Cute Little Fangs (Maeve, -all- the Dragons)
Demonic Invaders (with a Hindu background)
Fanservice, including
Clothing Damage
Gainaxing
a Hot Springs Episode
Panty Shots (usually 'cause of the wind; see above)
Festival Episode (Ken and Miyou's first date is at a year-end fair, various others)
Grand Finale
Hermetic Magic (sort of subverted - it appears, along with just about every other magical tradition concievable, each used by a different character)
Impossibly Cool Clothes (Maeve, also subverted when characters complain about having boring normal uniforms)
Invisible to Normals (either subverted or with a lampshade on, because the government in particular -is- noticing, but the core cast doesn't know that they are)
Ki Attacks (Tsuchi)
Mask Power (subverted, since Keiu's the -least- dangerous of the core cast)
Noblewoman's Laugh (subverted by Tsuchi, who a. not noble, b. aware of that she does it and c. -hates- the fact)
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You (Ravana is immune to anything -except- humans)
Parental Abandonment (both normal (Tsuchi, Miyou) and subverted (Ken, Keiu))
Perpetual Molt (Keiu)
Roofhopping (Tsuchi)
Single Stroke Battle (half to three quarters of the fights on the show)
Snow Means Love (Ken and Miyou; Keiu and Maeve)
Swirling Dust (Tsuchi)
Transformation Sequence (Ken and Keiu, somewhat subverted since a. it doesn't happen very often, b. it's animated differently every time, c. its shown in real-time, ie, it really does take that long, and d. -really- disgusting)
This and That (Tsuchi and her BF; Ken and Miyou towards the end of the series)
Big Bad (Ravana)
Worthy Opponent (Jaan, somewhat subverted since he gets away)
Evil Overlord (also Jaan, who has -read- the Evil Overlord List)
Psycho For Hire (Britva)
The Man Behind the Man (Ravana and An Liu)
The Dragon (An Liu, somewhat subverted, since he's not a physical type)
The Government (subverted, since they turn out both competent and on the side of the angels)
The Ghost (Tsuchi's boyfriend)
Green Skinned Space Babe (Maeve)
Extraordinarily Empowered Girl (Miyou)
and, a bit, the Five Man Band, with
The Hero - Miyou, who has brains, beauty, and whoopass, all in one... and tends to be, er, rather intense
The Lancer - Kennan, dedication incarnate but laid back about it
The Big Guy - Tsuchi, aka, She Who Kicks Ass. Also a subversion, since she's got the others beat on terms of raw brains
The roles of The Smart Guy and The Chick swap between Keiu and Maeve on a regular basis, depending on circumstances.
Did I miss any?
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

I was thinking about this the other day, while rereading Dragoness Eclectic's Mythic Descent which also prominently features rakshasa/-si - and I think I have the answer as to why all of the naughty kitties we have are from other parts of the world than the Indian subcontinent, where they originate from, and have only partly rakshasa troops. Namely, they are renegades against Vibishana the Good Demon, son (or was it nephew? I can't rmemeber already) of Ravanna, king of the Rakshasa homeland of Hidden Lankha, and exiles by their (or in Maeve's case, her parents') choice. This also gives Maeve something to do when she decides to go back to the side of the angels - she returns to the ancient rakshasa duty of being a temple guardian.
I was alos thinking about the details of how the Four Directions were looking to unleash te one imprisoned in the shrine. It might be a little too Inu Yasha-ish, but what if there are five weapons, The Claws of _________, that they have to retrieve from it and use together in a ritual of some kind - a katana/wakazashi pair, a straight tai chi sword, a naginata, and one of those sickle-and-weight-on-a-chain thingies (manriki-gusari?). This would give them a series of goals that could be achieved to heighten the threat, and an alternative to one thwarted attempt after another to break a single seal or set of them - and eventually, only Maeve having taken the one she successfully unsealed when she defected is standing in An Liu's way of finishing the ritual.
4th & 5th Claws - katana and wakazashi, captured by Jaan and immediately given to An Liu before he washed his hands of the whole thing, having lost too many of his valued subordinates for so little.
2nd Claw - straight sword, taken by Maeve, who uses it to deadly effect if in a more european style than intended.
3rd Claw - naginata, which is unsealed by .... um, turtle-guy, but mysteriously vanishes. Miyou eventually figures out that her jounin took it to keep it out of the hands of rakshasa and dragon alike... when Long An Liu magically locates it despite warding jutsu and goes to personallyt retrieve it, throwing around attack magic the likes of which none of the hero cast can beleive, let alone having seen. This both establishes his baddassitude and backs up the threats he makes to turtle-guy to take matters into his own hands if the 1st and 2nd Claws are not retrieved soon. He shreditates popcorn-nin until the supernaturals arrive (summoned, prosaically enoguh, by Miyou calling them on a cell phone) arrive, but is plainly leaving because he doesn't want to bother with them, not because he thinks they're a threat. Dragon strength is put to use more in rescuing those trapped in the wreckage of the compound than any sort of combat, since anyone combast effective and not trapped is in chunky bits.
1st Claw - the chain hammer and sickle thing, of course.
United and propertly incanted over, the Five CLaws become - was it Ravanna himself or some lieutenant? - the Big Bad's handhold in this world, by which to tear a hole and enter. Going fromt he thumb as #1, why which weapon is which should be obvious for the most part.
- CD
ETA: The ritual: The five blades of the weapons are driven throguh a wall in the appropriate positions, then a rune crcle is laid out on the other side of the wal from the hadles, and the incantation reeled off. Things glow and the sky goes dark, then the blades twitch, pivot as if the hand they're the claws to just clenched, and rip out that section of wall, revealing a really BIG eye in a tiger-like face. Two hands tear the hole wider until the giant boss-guy can step out and administer beatings after the commercial break, then he puts up a shield and does his own summoning to bring Ravana to the mortal plane just in time to have a reaction shot before "Continued in Ep25..." appears at the bottom of the screen. New credit montage, with stills of the characters looking pensive at sunset.What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?
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.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
--
"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

[Valles]

*loves the Claws* Except, we have four curved blades and one straight one - which just doesn't seem quite right. Maybe something more along the lines of a dao, cutlass, or khopesh?
I took a pass through IMDB, BTW, so Tatsu no Kanshin's original (ie, Japanese) cast might be:
Miyou - Yumi Toma (Hongou Yui, Urd)
Kennan - Noriaki Sugiyama (Uchiha Sasuke)
Tsuchi - Yukama Nogami (Tessa Testarossa)
Keiu - Ayako Kawasumi (Melfina, Lafiel)
Maeve - Yukari Tamura (Tenten, Ichigo Morino)
An Liu - Mayo Suzukaze (Himura Kenshin)
Britva - Masami Iwasaki (Drake Anderson)
Jaan - Nachi Nozawa (Alexander Anderson)
Madora (aka, Hobbes) - Akira Kamiya (Roy Fokker, Ryo Saeba)
Ravana - -All- of the cast and sound production team blended together.
Ja, -n
(English-speaking VA's will have to be left to someone who watches more dubs than I do...)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[VladimirTherin]

I think Bosou sensei needs more screen time :-)
Then again, one of my all-time favorite characters is Fujisawa-sensei.

[classicdrogn]

---

*loves the Claws* Except, we have four curved blades and one straight one - which just doesn't seem quite right. Maybe something more along the lines of a dao, cutlass, or khopesh?

---

Well, I wanted something that could be used in a european style, and while sabres are used for fencing, you need a long blade for the index finger- not a lot of curved long blades in the euro traditions, as far as I can tell, until you get far enough east that finding one in Ireland would be on the odd side.
They would be the Claws of Madora, I take it?
Oh, and the draconic disaster releif in the 3rd Claw bit above is intended to be the end of the Miyou's-clan-as-enemies plot, the fact that they stay to help out poeple who've condemned them as just another bunch of inhuman monsters (together with the most reactionary members haveing been pureed by An Liu) giving the innja cause to reconsider their position. Doesn't hurt that Miyou is in line to be Clan Head now, either.
- CD
What, you think Samuel L. Jackson isn't going to survive the zombie apocalypse?

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.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
--
"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

[Valles]

---

Well, I wanted something that could be used in a european style, and while sabres are used for fencing, you need a long blade for the index finger- not a lot of curved long blades in the euro traditions, as far as I can tell, until you get far enough east that finding one in Ireland would be on the odd side.

---

A cutlass or falchion doesn't qualify? Also, if you'll look here, the yanmaodao looks to me like a case of convergent evolution with your classical European sabre... So, yes, I think it could fit quite well.

---

They would be the Claws of Madora, I take it?

---

*nodnod* Written 'Evil Tiger', yes.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."