For everyone's comments before I do the entries for Part 2.
Fred
**** **** ****
The
Loon and the Ladies from Avalon
Concordance
by
Fred Herriot
**** **** ****
WRITER'S INTRODUCTION:
In a reflection of what Bob
does for the main Step stories in Drunkard's Walk, I decided to expand on my own
writer's notes by making a separate page to act as a sort of concordance to
further explain what is being written in this story and how it relates to my
own work, both in the Phoenix From the Ashes universe and elsewhere.
As Bob does in his
concordances, entries will be grouped per part and ordered by their appearance
in the story text. However, as this is
crossing over with my own work, I'll start off with a synopsis of PFTA to better give
everyone a review of what let up to the situation Doug encountered when he woke
up after his latest world-gate jump.
Enjoy!
Fred
**** **** ****
THE STORYLINE OF THE PHOENIX
FROM THE ASHES UNIVERSE
Based somewhat on the
universe of The Senior Year, a fanfic series written by myself and my
friend Mike Smith in the 1990s, Phoenix From the Ashes is a three-way
crossover series between Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½ and Ikkitosen. As I stated in the writer's notes for PFTA,
the story occurs at the end of the Yatsura manga timeline (the "Boy
Meets Girl" storyline depicted in manga episodes #354-364), at the time
Shampoo was introduced into the Ranma manga timeline (as depicted in
manga episodes #31-36) and sometime after the arrival of Sonsaku Hakufu at the
Nan'yo Academy and her fight with Ryomo Shimei in the Ikkitosen manga
timeline (as depicted in manga episode #6).
PFTA itself is set in the early
summer of 2010.
The basic plot of PFTA
is this:
Set as a sequel to Gregg
"Metroanime" Sharp's Bet story "Crippled," we find
Saotome Ranma paralysed thanks to Shampoo in Nerima General Hospital. There, he meets Moroboshi Tariko, a volunteer
nursing assistant who is also a student at Tomobiki High School along with her
twin brother Ataru, adopted twin sister Hiromi and adopted older sister Negako
(who is the grandmaster of the Moroboshi Clan's school of martial arts, Saiko
Jinseijutsu-ryu). Learning what Ranma
had endured over the years of his training trip with his father, Tariko
arranges to have Negako look in on him.
In doing so, Negako discovers that Ranma now has a fractured soul and is
also linked to two other souls. With the
help of the Avalonians – a race of female humanoid bioroids that the Moroboshi
siblings helped liberate from their masters four months before the start of PFTA
– Ranma acquires three "twin" sisters of his own: Kanami (his "true" twin sister,
whose soul was sheared away from Ranma's thanks to the Neko-ken training),
Kikuko (the soul of the young woman who had drowned in the Nyanniichuan spring
at Jusenkyo 1500 years ago) and Miiko (the reborn soul of Liú Yan of the Latter
Hàn, who – like so many others from his time period – found his living spirit
trapped in a magatama earring Ranma would later find when he and Genma were
fleeing from China).
As Ranma is healed by Negako
and moves to form a real family with his new sisters, he learns several things
about his parents. Genma was seen as muyokoshi
(meaning "useless filial child," a term I learned about from Don
Granberry's fanfic Comes The Cold Dragon) from the Hayashi Clan, though
Ranma's paternal great-grandmother Chiaki is still alive. Thanks to a pre-nuptial agreement signed
between the Hayashi family and the Saotome family before Genma married Nodoka –
which demanded that all of Genma's and Nodoka's children be raised
"properly" – the seppuku agreement that Genma forced on Nodoka
promising that Ranma would return a "man above men" effectively allowed
Chiaki to "bring Ranma back" to the Hayashi family. Of course, Kanami, Kikuko and Miiko were
"brought back" as well, effectively rendering Genma and Nodoka
childless.
Atop that, Nodoka and her
family had engaged in a decades-long deception concerning their own
ancestry. It turns out that Nodoka is
the granddaughter of Professor Henry W. "Indiana" Jones Jr., a
"stain" on the Saotome Clan honour which had to be hidden at all
costs (I based this on the fanfic Suikoden One Half by MadHat886). Unfortunately, the rejection of such earned
Nodoka's relatives the wrath of the Ark of the Covenant (which Indiana saved
from the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark), the Holy Grail (which
Indiana protected from the Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
and the Crystal Skulls of Akator (which Indiana shielded from the Soviets in Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), guaranteeing they would die
between their 40th and 50th birthdays (save for those who did
acknowledge Indiana as their relative).
Not wanting to have anything to do with such a lie – not to mention
Nodoka's warped attitudes demanding Ranma be a "man above men" as
well as her refusal to acknowledge the claims Kuonji Ukyo and others had for
Ranma's hand in marriage – Ranma flatly renounces Nodoka when they meet for the
first time in a decade in his Nerima General Hospital.
As Genma and Soun – even in
the face of Happosai's return to their lives thanks to Negako, leading to the
revelation that Ranma's father and Akane's father did not have proper masteries
in Musabetsu Kakuto-ryu – try to do anything they can to force Ranma to renounce
his grandmother, Ranma's interactions with Ataru's sisters eventually won him
the interest of Ryomo Shimei (birth-name:
Sebone Mimoko); it was Mimoko's cousin Do Kazua (the reborn Dèng Dang;
he was the brother-in-law of Mimoko's past-self Lu Méng) who helped with
Ranma's trauma care after he was cut down by Shampoo. That – along with Mimoko's cousin Shikuko
(also known as Ryofu Hosen) and her lover Noberu Miyako (a.k.a. Chinkyu Kodai)
taking passionate interest in Moroboshi Ataru – served as the bridge to allow
all the toshi of the Seven Battle Schools of Kanto to reunite with their reborn
emperor (Moroboshi Hiromi, in her first life, was Liú Hóng, the Xiàolíng
Emperor of Hàn), thus completely wrecking the "fate of the sacred
bead" that drove toshi to re-enact the critical events of the last years
of the Latter Hàn Dynasty and the start of the Three Kingdoms age which is the
primary theme of Ikkitosen.
As this is happening, Ataru's
past relationship with a certain Oni warlord's daughter comes back to haunt his
family. Six months before the start of PFTA
(around the time of the first Yatsura movie Only You), Ataru
learns thanks to a wedding crasher from the planet Noukiios that his
"wife" Lum was actually (in her soul) an Avalonian clone-bioroid
replica of hers named Henso. Thanks to a
terrible curse unleashed on Lum by the Old Lady of the Oak Forest asteroid (as
seen in the third Yatsura movie, Remember My Love), Lum – along
with her best friends Benten, Oyuki and Ran – had their very lives
stolen from them when Henso (along with Kamen, Mienai and Damasu; they are the
clone-replica bioroids modelled after Lum's friends) was first woken at the
prompting of the expat Vosian bounty hunter Nassur five years before PFTA.
Since the Niphentaxians (the
Avalonians' masters at the time) were seen as the Urusians greatest allies, the
pressures of galactic realpolitik prevented Nassur from exposing the
Niphentaxians dirty little secret to the outside galaxy. Thus, Lum and her friends – in Avalonian
bodies – were forced into exile on the Noukiite colony world of Okusei, where
they befriended many of the reborn Flower Youth of Noukiios (all of whom are
modelled after the Koihime Muso versions of the many heroes and warriors
of China's Three Kingdoms age as depicted in The Romance of the Three
Kingdoms).
On learning the truth about
his "wife," Ataru symbolically divorced Henso, and then travelled to
Okusei to see to it that a fractured element of his soul and the two other
souls within his mind could be given lives of their own. Ataru gained three sisters: Negako (the spirit of the Saiko
Jinseijutsu database of ninjutsu fighting knowledge that Ataru had become
the 57th host of when he was six years old), Hiromi (the living spirit of Liú
Hóng) and Tariko (Ataru's true twin sister, whose soul was sheared off from her
brother's thanks to Negako and Hiromi being in his mind). After realising there was a whole RACE of
beautiful women being held as literal sex-slaves by a race of sycophant mimics
that actually worshipped Lum (and later Henso) as a living goddess, Ataru and
his sisters helped the Noukiites and the Yehisrites (both of whom are galactic
superpowers in this universe; Lum's homeworld of Uru is a middle power)
liberate the Avalon bioroid factory and all the Avalonians from the
Niphentaxians. This effectively cripples
the Galactic Federation of Planet-states (the alliance of small and middle
powers that Uru, Fukunokami, Neptune, Elle and other worlds are a part of) and
sees Earth placed under Noukiite protection, thus effectively allowing the
strange events that had rocked Tomobiki for months to finally come to an end.
However, thanks to the
Yaminokuni prince Rupa (from the fifth Yatsura movie, The Final
Chapter) coming along to claim his bride, Henso was kidnapped from Uru and
taken to Yaminokuni to be married.
Kamen, Mienai and Damasu – aided by the Urusian Imperial Round (I based
them on the Imperial Uruseians from Lew Burton's fanfics Just A Dream
and Still Dreaming from the 1990s) and the Niphentaxians – tried to
kidnap Ataru to help rescue Henso . . . but found themselves stopped thanks to
Tariko and her new girlfriend Kanami.
This attempted "invasion" of Tomobiki prompts the nations of
Earth to officially form the United Nations Earth Defence Force. Based on fifty star battleship/carriers built
by two young toshi, Ki Tsukihana (a.k.a. Kogetsuei) and Hakaru Ayami (a.k.a.
Jun'iku Bunjaku), a ten-ship force travelled to Yaminokuni – augmented by
several thousand toshi under Hiromi's leadership and a Canadian armoured
brigade group mostly crewed by Avalonian volunteers – to set a trap for the
Urusian Imperials and the Niphentaxians by making it look as if Earth supported
Rupa's desire to marry Henso.
End result: The total defeat of the Imperials and the
Niphentaxians.
On returning to Earth, Ranma
reconciled with Nodoka and saw to it (with Hiromi's help) that Genma was
forever publicly shamed for all his past actions concerning his son (not to
mention frozen as a panda, rendered as weak as a kitten, then banished to
China). Nodoka welcomed Ranma's sisters
as her daughters . . . and even got the chance to form a family bond with
Indiana Jones; she would later come to adopt the Hayashi name herself. Ranma elected to go to the Nan'yo Academy
alongside Mimoko. Kikuko had, by then,
formed a Nujiézú marriage bond with Shampoo; both would go to Nan'yo. Kanami would remain with the Hayashi
siblings' grandmother in Tokyo's Taito Ward, though she maintained her
relationship with Moroboshi Tariko.
Miiko would fall in love with Koeru Kumomi (also known as Choun Shiryu)
and attend Seito until the spring of 2011, when both transferred to
Nan'yo. Kuonji Ukyo – after having her
own honour restored thanks to Ranma renouncing the Saotome name – would
eventually fall in love with Mago Tsueko (a.k.a. Sonsaku Hakufu). The Tendo sisters would – thanks to their
father's refusal to acknowledge what happened to Ranma – renounce all family
bonds with him and be "brought back" into the family of their late
mother, the Miyamoto Clan. Akane and
Nabiki would transfer to the Yoshu Private Academy to allow the former to forge
a relationship with her new sensei, Ebisu Kyoko (a.k.a. Koshaji). Nabiki and Kasumi themselves become lovers
with two of the original Avalonian crew of Hiromi's flagship H.M.C.S. Haida,
Acting Sub-lieutenant Ikusawa Kyoko and Ordinary Seaman Sasagawa Narumi
respectively. And Hibiki Ryoga – who had
been badly affected by Ranma's near-death at Shampoo's hands – would reconcile
with his rival . . . and then, thanks to Mousse, got an Avalonian twin sister
of his own after he was exposed to the waters of the Nyanniichuan in Hibiki
Yoiko, not to mention become the boyfriend to Haru Asumi (a.k.a. Chohi
Ekitoku)!
Five months after the events
in PFTA (as depicted in the story Avalonians and Questors), an
accident with an ancient alien super-weapon known as the Staff of Gihan
propelled H.M.C.S. Haida (with a very short crew and Moroboshi Hiromi
and friends aboard for the Christmas holidays) into the universe of the United
Federation of Planets in the year 2371, where they encountered the U.S.S. Enterprise
NCC-1701-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
There, they helped ensure the Battle of Veridian III (as depicted in the
movie Star Trek - Generations) would turn out much better. Along the way, Hiromi and her friends
discovered that thanks to a fan of the manga series Battle Royale from
Phentax Two, the cast of that story had their very souls yanked through the
dimensional veil into the PFTA universe at the time the Noukiites and Yehisrites
came to liberate the Avalon bioroid factory.
Thanks to the help of Inada Mizuho (the Staff's current controller) and
Moroboshi Negako (who later came with friends to search for Haida aboard
U.S.S. Arizona), ALL the participants of The Program were
restored to full life as Avalonians, then allowed to settle down across
Japan. Mizuho and her friends from
Shiroiwa Junior High School (the stars of the original Battle Royale),
along with a class from Shikanotoride Junior High School (the stars of the movie
Battle Royale II - Requiem) all elected to become freshmen students at
Tomobiki High School.
And now, it is the late
spring of the year 2011 . . .
**** **** ****
PART ONE
Senshobu-jinja
The name of Sakurambo
Sakura's shrine is never given in Urusei Yatsura. While I was writing episodes for the Anime
Add-venture, I remembered that many of the high schools located in Tomobiki
took their names from the six days in the Japanese calendar which indicate what
luck people would have. The two parts
that combine together to make the word "Senshobu" are Sensho
(written ??, literally
meaning "first victory") and Senbu (written ??, literally meaning "first
burden"). In essence, the name
implies either a balance between good and bad luck, good luck for the length of
the whole day or bad luck for the whole day (all depending on interpretation,
of course).
Tomobiki-cho,
Nishitokyo-shi
Tomobiki's
location is never properly given in Urusei Yatsura. According to some sources, Tomobiki is a part
of Nerima (which is where Ranma 1/2 is set). However, starting from The Senior Year
side story "Furinkan Spring," I placed Tomobiki in the city of Hoya
west of Nerima on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.
That city united with the city of Tanashi in 2001 to form the new city
of Nishitokyo (literally "West Tokyo").
Would-be
Zoroastrian warrior-priestess
In
the Battle Royale novel, Mizuho is depicted as living in a fantasy world
where she (as the "Warrior Priestess Prexia Dikianne Mizuho") was a
servant of the God of Light, Ahura Mazda.
The manga expanded on that by revealing that Mizuho was also an avid fan
of Dungeons and Dragons. Upon
being reborn on the Avalon bioroid factory and gaining control of the Staff of
Gihan, Mizuho believed she (and her friends) had been spared the ugly fate
facing them all in The Program thanks to Ahura Mazda's personal favour. Thus, on her being adopted by Sakurambo
Sakura, Mizuho began to explore real Zoroastrian doctrine, thus making her the
first true Japanese Zoroastrian.
The
Staff of Gihan
The
Staff appeared in the TSY story "Great Father Ataru Stage Two -
Remembrance." There, thanks to it
being controlled by one of the Guardians (a behind-the-scenes group that
ensured that no threat to the Church of Lum would ever succeed), the Staff – on
learning that the "Holy Friends" of Lum, Nassur and Benten, had a
child named Junba – unleashed a "doomsday protocol" that killed THREE
BILLION hardcore believers on Phentax Two.
I repeated this theme in Lonely Souls when the Staff learned of
the "death" of Lum via Moroboshi Ataru; the same result
happened. However, in LS, the
Staff would eventually wind up in the hands of Ataru's youngest sister in that
story, Saeru Hinako (in my writings involving the Sister Princess cast,
I always give them family names).
"Moshi-moshi."
"I
will be there in ten minutes, Sakura."
Click. Dial tone.
Negako's
curt and abrupt nature comes from her very origins as a living database of
ninjutsu knowledge collected over hundreds of years in a virtual
"library" of battle skills and experience. Since ninja as a whole have to be very calm
and collected when doing a mission, Negako effectively decided that learning
how to emote as normal people do is a horrendous waste of energy, so she
doesn't bother with it. She does feel
emotions, of course . . . but would only express them with either a slight
increase of pitch in her voice, a quirk of her lips or the classic
tendon-twitch over her eyes.
You're
In The Army Now, Mister Loon
Derived
from the classic military marching song You're In The Army Now, of
course.
Leopard
2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks
Being
a paramilitary officer – and having been based for years in England as part of
Warriors Alpha – Doug would recognise a lot of things of a military nature
virtually on first sight. Since this
story is set in 2011 and since both the Leopard 2s and the Abrams were
introduced in the 1980s, he would be familiar with them.
Leos
were normally diesel-driven machines
The
power plants used by Canadian Leopard 2s (nicknamed the "Leo") in the
PFTA universe is a modified gas turbine that – while having the same
power as the Honeywell AGT1500C turbine powering the Abrams – was rendered environmentally
safe by both Avalonian and Niphentaxian technologies, reducing the machine's
carbon footprint to absolute zero.
Combat
stop
One
of my earliest military experiences was being given the chance to drive a
General Motors Canada Grizzly AVGP (Armoured Vehicle, General Purpose) while
participating in a MILCON (Militia Concentration) in the summer of 1985. The NCO in charge of my group at that time
warned me not to do a "combat stop;" in other words, hit the brakes
hard and cause the vehicle to screech to a halt. Unfortunately, when he called out to me to
stop (having to repeat same instruction twice over the noise), I did . . . and
nearly pitched all the other passengers out the top hatch at the back of the
vehicle!
Wonderful
constitutional in the boonies
I
love the use of the word "constitutional" when used to describe a
brisk walk; I picked it up from one of my favourite novels, Harry Turtledove's Guns
of the South.
The
actual pattern of their camouflage shirts and pants — not to mention their web
gear and even their boots!
Henrietta
Croce and her friends wear the current Canadian Forces camouflage pattern,
known as CADPAT (Canadian Disruptive
Pattern), when they're out in the field.
The pattern that normally is used at CFB Niagara in spring is the TW (Temperate
Woodland) pattern. CADPAT also comes in
WA (Winter Arctic) and AR (Arid Region) patterns. And yes, even the web gear (the harness
soldiers wear to carry kit like extra ammunition) and the boots are done in
CADPAT pattern to better help people hide themselves.
One
with a simple design of dark sides with a pale middle the same width as the
flag's height, a stylised maple leaf placed there.
The
pattern of the National Flag of Canada is designed using a heraldic concept
called the Canadian Pale, which implies a central vertical band the same
width as the height of the flag itself.
Thus, the white central of the Maple Leaf Flag forms a perfect square
with the red maple leaf charged (or placed) on the centre of the field.
Yep. Black maple leaf on the turret.
Canadian
Army tanks always have a black maple leaf on the turret to mark them as
such. All Canadian Army field vehicles
are either camouflaged or painted a medium green shade. Using any bright colour such as white or red
would be a big no-no in this case.
A
shake of the head as a "too-cute-for-words" smile crossed her
camouflaged face.
Henrietta
and her friends camouflaged themselves because they were simply unsure as to
what sort of person just popped into their dimension. Of course, once they got within close range
of Doug and could use their empathy to scan him thoroughly, they realised he
was pretty much a friendly and thus approached him peacefully.
"You're
just outside the city of Welland in Ontario," the soldier then said. She waved to where I believed was the west
according to the sun's position in the sky, and then she waved northeast. "Niagara Falls is about fifteen
kilometres that way."
Canadian
Forces Base (CFB) Niagara is located in Crowland Township of the old County of
Welland; these days, the territory is divided between the Cities of Welland and
Niagara Falls in the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The base borders are as such:
NORTH: The Welland River between the Welland Canal
south of Port Robinson to the west and the line midway between McKenney Road
and Morris Road in Niagara Falls to the east.
EAST: The line between McKenney Road and Morris
Road south from the Welland River to Lyons Creek, along the creek east to
Montrose Road, then south to Netherby Road.
SOUTH: The line of Netherby Road from Montrose Road
west to the intersection of Doan's Ridge Road in Welland, northwest to the
intersection of Miller Road, southwest and south to the line of Netherby Road,
then west along Netherby Road to the line of the Canadian National Railway
track running parallel east of King's Highway 140.
WEST: The line of the Canadian National Railway
track running parallel east of Highway 140 north from Netherby Road to Buchner
Road, then northeast on Lyons Creek to the line of Matthews Road, then north on
Matthews Road to Schisler Road, then west along Schisler Road and East Main
Street to Farr Road, then north to just beyond Becken Crescent, west to the
Welland Canal, then north to the Welland River.
"A
unit worthy of its hire."
This
is based on the title of William J. Patterson's memoir concerning the Canadian
Guards, A Regiment Worthy Of Its Hire:
The Canadian Guards, 1953-1970.
"Sometimes
frowned on by the boys in the Vandoos, the Royal Canadians and the Patricias,
but they do their job and take pride in it."
Here,
Doug speaks of the three full-time infantry regiments that were active when the
Canadian Guards were formed in 1953, the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR),
the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and le
Royal 22e Régiment (R22eR, also known as the
"Vandoos"). Many people
believe the reason the Guards were forced onto the Supplementary Order of
Battle (in effect, disbanded in all but name) in 1970 was that a regiment
formed in 1953 had no right to take precedence over regiments formed in 1883
(the Royal Canadians) or 1914 (the Patricias and the Vandoos), regardless of
the fact that the Guards, as ceremonial protectors of the Sovereign, had
historical precedence on their side.
This prompted Hiromi to recommend the new Guards have a fully bilingual
battalion (1st Battalion) assigned to Haida at CFB Niagara, a
French-speaking battalion (2nd Battalion) based at CFB Valcartier in Québec and
two English-speaking battalions (3rd and 4th Battalions) based at CFB Halifax
in Nova Scotia and CFB Chilliwack (east of Vancouver) in British Columbia
respectively. This is why Henrietta and
her friends are training at the Land Forces Québec Area Training Centre
in Valcartier for their Soldier Qualification (the Canadian Army's
environmental course) and trades training.
One
honkin' HUGE starship to boot!
I
borrowed this from words spoken by then-Chief of the Defence Staff of the
Canadian Forces, General Rick Hiller, when he – in pressing for new equipment
for the military after deployments to Afghanistan post-9/11 began – used "honking"
to describe how big certain pieces of equipment (such as the Boeing CC-177
Globemaster III) needed to be.
The
Regional Municipality of Niagara
In
1970, the counties of Lincoln and Welland in Ontario were amalgamated into a
regional municipality, which is a county-level government formed in a
high-population zone to allow more centralisation of essential services such as
policing. At the same time, the
twenty-six municipalities that existed in both counties at that time (11 in
Lincoln County, 15 in Welland County) were amalgamated into twelve larger municipalities
to streamline local government. The
territory of Crowland Township (as noted above) in Welland County, for example,
was split between Welland and Niagara Falls.
I
assumed she was Navy given her nearly-black work dress uniform
What
Sasamoto Narumi wore is known as Naval Combat Dress in the Royal
Canadian Navy. Known properly as Number
5 Dress, this includes a black waist-length zip-up work jacket, black trousers,
a dark blue button undershirt with long sleeves, Gore-Tex boots and either
beret or baseball cap. The NCDs are
designed to be flame-retardant.
A
very nicely-designed unit tag with the word HAIDA in orange-gold on a dark blue
field surrounded by ship's rope and topped by a British-type naval coronet,
three maple leaves at the badge base
Before
the unification of the Canadian military in 1968, sailors who wore the
square-rigged dress in the Royal Canadian Navy wore a black ribbon emblazoned
with their unit name in gold on the base of their sailor caps. After 1968, the only times sailors wore unit
patches was when they were allowed to put on a knit version of the ship's badge
over their name tags on the work jacket (not to mention wear baseball caps with
their ship's name and pendant number).
With Haida's commissioning, the crew borrowed the Canadian Army
concept of using a short-form shoulder title on the epaulette slip-ons (like CG
for the Canadian Guards) to identify their ship when they aren't wearing their
NCD jacket. The shoulder badges are done
in Haida's official ship's colours of dark blue and gold.
Gemini-class
shuttle from Battlestar Galactica
This
is the name I give to the Colonial shuttle that served as auxiliary craft on
the Galactica and her sisterships from the original 1970s television series.
The
twin-headed thunderbird ship's crest of Haida
The
official crest of H.M.C.S. Haida is described properly as follows: Blazon Or, a base barry wavy azure and
argent, a thunderbird of the Haida tribe with wings displayed sable. In normal English, this means that the badge
is gold overall, with wavy blue and white waves at the lower end of the badge
(simulating water), a black twin-headed thunderbird (or "thunder river
bird" as it's sometimes called) rising from the waves.
"Even
if we are polyglots."
The
Avalonian crew of Haida speak the following languages fluently: Sagussan (or Avalonian), Japanese, English
and French. A polyglot is normally
described as someone who can speak and interpret four or more languages
fluently.
An
honest-to-goodness Mass Hug of True Love
Watch
the opening music of the first Sister Princess television scene to see
what I mean by this. That scene comes at
the very end of the opening music.
The
Welland By-Pass Channel
The
Welland Ship Canal connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario west of the Niagara River
once went through the heart of the city of Welland. Due to its sharp curves and a SWING BRIDGE
that left little room to manoeuvre just south of downtown, the Saint Lawrence
Seaway decided to build a wider and deeper channel to the east of Welland's
urban area, thus allowing a near straight-line to connect the old channel from
Port Robinson to the north to Port Colborne in the south. The By-Pass was opened in 1973.
Rose
City of Ontario
Welland's
nickname. There is also an official
"City of Welland Rose," which is a beautiful flower that is an
eye-catching blend of yellow, red and orange.
You can visit the Welland city hall website to see pictures of this
particular flower type.
"Or
is it still Canadian Forces Maritime Command?"
The
name of Canada's naval service officially reverted back to the Royal
Canadian Navy on 16 August 2011, which is about two months ahead of this
story.
RUMINT
I
am a fan of the action/adventure stories based on the real-life experiences of
Commander (retired) Richard Marcinko USN, also known as the "Rogue
Warrior." In his books,
Marcinko loves making use of short-form abbreviations in the narrative (with a
handy glossary of terms always at the back of the book). This is one of them.
Medical
Division, Executive Department
The
ship's company of any Canadian warship is divided into "departments"
controlled by one of the senior officers.
Each department is then divided into "divisions" which serve
specific crew functions. The Executive
Department of any Canadian warship, which is controlled by the Executive
Officer (XO) or second-in-command, is the group that handles all matters
concerning discipline, health services and personnel administration
issues. Other departments on a standard
Canadian warship include the Deck
Department (the ship's boatswains), the Combat Department (the operational controllers), the Engineering Department (the technicians
and mechanics), the Supply Department
(the logistics personnel) and the Air
Department (the supporting aircraft staff for ships that can carry aircraft).
Deck
A12 Aft
H.M.C.S.
Haida is formed of a main hull of twenty decks numbered from 1
to 20, fifteen superstructure decks above Deck 1 (numbered from A1 to A15) and
twelve superstructure decks below Deck 20 (numbered from B1 to B12). Since the upper superstructure is split into
forward and aft blocks, locations on Decks A1 to A15 have to also indicate
which part of the superstructure they're in.
Battle-name
This
is the phrase I coined to describe the name toshi used that was derived from
their past-selves' given name and style name (if they had them).
So
what was she doing on a Canadian starship?
Hiromi's
explanation for this is simple: If she
took the Japanese Starship Yamato as her flagship, she would offend all
those the Japanese Imperialists hurt before and during the Second World
War. If she took the United States
Starship Arizona as her flagship, she would offend everyone who really
don't like Americans. If she took the
People's Republic of China Starship Zhèng Hé as her flagship, she would
offend everyone who don't like the Chinese.
If she took the Republic of Korea Starship Paekbom as her flag,
she would offend the Japanese and most likely the Chinese. As many people across the planet have little
issues the Canadians, Haida won by default.
Besides,
I AM Canadian and am very proud of that fact!
Are
the humans of his Earth as long lived as Vosians or Avalonians?
Vosians,
on average, live approximately 500 years Earth-time. Avalonians, on average, live approximately
800 years Earth-time.
"Natural-born
or fate-gifted?"
These
are Yizibajohei terms to describe metahumans from other worlds (as I noted in
writer's notes to The Doctor Is In).
Yizibajohei usually describe themselves as Gifted (and yes, that is
always written with a capital "G").
"Her
battle-name amongst those like her is 'Ryuko Kyorei.'"
Hiromi
utterly refuses to allow any toshi to address her by the normal Japanese name
used to indicate her past-self, "Reitei." It's either "Kyorei-sama" or her
given name.
The
Mandate of Heaven
In
Mandarin, this concept is known as Tianmìng (written in Chinese as ??, literally meaning "destiny
of Heaven"). The classical Chinese
philosophical concept that determines if a ruler of a nation has the blessings
of the Heavens to rule over his/her people; unlike the Western concept of the
"divine right of kings," those who seek the Mandate of Heaven must
comport themselves properly to be respected as such. This is how Doug later realised Hiromi was an
emperor in her past life.
Shu
Hàn, Cáo Wèi and Dong Wú
The
Three Kingdoms that were formed in China after the final fall of the Latter Hàn
Dynasty in 220 C.E. Shu Hàn was first
formed in 221 C.E. as a response to the founding of Cáo Wèi the year before
from the last central elements of the Latter Hàn. Dong Wú officially broke away from Cáo Wèi in
229 C.E. These days, Shu Hàn literally
"lives on" in the students of Seito High School. Cáo Wèi is personified by the students of the
Kyosho Academy. And Dong Wú lives on in
the students of the Nan'yo Academy.
Nánmán
The
catch-all phrase meaning "southern barbarians;" back in classical
times, if you weren't Chinese, you were a barbarian. In Ikkitosen, the Nánmán are
personified by the students of Nanban High School under Kashira Emi's
leadership.
"Great
warriors of ancient Ireland"
In
PFTA, I theorised that there were other "resurrected warriors"
beyond the toshi of the Three Kingdoms active on Earth. The spirits of ancient Ireland that Hiromi
references here are the characters from the Ulster Cycle of Irish myth, as
shown in stories like the Táin Bó Cúailnge (literally "The
Driving-off of the Cows of Cooley" though normally translated as "The
Cattle Raid of Cooley"). Those from
Ireland are normally addressed by the Irish Gaelic word gaiscíoch (which
literally means "man of prowess" though this word is normally
translated as "warrior").
Megatokyo
in 2037 with the Knight Sabres
Doug's
time with Sylia Stingray and her friends was shown in Drunkard's Walk II.
Nekomi
in 1997 with the Norns and their friends
Doug's
time with the Norns and their friends was shown in Drunkard's Walk V.
Tokyo-3
in 2015 with Shinji, Asuka and Rei
Doug's
time with the Evangelion pilots will be depicted in Drunkard's Walk VI.
"Hiromi-san,
why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
Unlike
other toshi, Moroboshi Hiromi has only been resurrected once since the death of
Liú Hóng in 189 C.E. In the 1,821 years
between the end of her first life and the effective start of her current life
in 2010, Hiromi's spirit was forced to literally watch as those of his/her
countrymen were reborn again and again (on an average of twenty
reincarnations), forced to relive their lives and fates again and again. While she doesn't have any real memories of
watching such things happen – Negako removed them from Hiromi's soul before she
was given her own body – the echo of that experience (and the resulting guilt
over what Hiromi did and did not do in her first life to prevent the
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" from starting up in the first place)
is still firmly etched in Hiromi's soul and haunts her to this day.
Other
toshi such as Kumomi have – over the incarnations – come to view Liú Hóng in a
much different way than what history sees him as. By the time the current generation of toshi
were born, the being known to them only as "Reitei" was a living
symbol of what their past-selves had once enjoyed before the start of the
Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 C.E.: A
time when all of them lived under one ruler and in one house. Thus, when Reitei actually "came
back" in the person of Moroboshi Hiromi, even the most skeptical and
selfish toshi was glad to acknowledge her as their reborn emperor.
"Shiryu-dono
. . . "
Whenever
Hiromi addresses a brother or sister toshi by battle-name, it always is with
the suffix honorific "-dono."
In effect, Hiromi is calling Kumomi "Mistress Shiryu."
Major
General Helene Diedmeier a.k.a. "Wetter Hexe"
As
Doug possesses paramilitary rank in the UNMPF, I felt it only right for Helene
to have the same thing. My reasoning for
making Helene a two-star general is this:
A major general/rear admiral is, in the American sense of the term, the
senior peacetime rank a serviceman can achieve. Those who become lieutenant generals/vice
admirals or generals/admirals in the American armed forces are said to be
"temporarily promoted" to those ranks to match the positions they are
assigned to and – on retirement from active duty – are allowed to finally
retire at the higher rank. And since the
UNMPF is a small force compared to regular army formations around the planet,
having someone at a three-star or four-star position really doesn't make any
sense.
Professor
Albus Dumbledore's friend Fawkes while I spent a year being the Defence Against
The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts some years and dimensions ago
Doug
encountered Fawkes and everyone at Hogwarts in Drunkard's Walk VIII.
A
Chinese fènghuáng perhaps . . .?
Unlike
those toshi possessed by the power of haoryu (people such as Hiromi's
spiritual cousin Koro Sonami), Hiromi has a spirit that doesn't take over her
mind when she loses control over herself . . . and also soothes those close to
her such as Sonami (see PFTA Part 43 to see what I mean) when they're
taken over by the dragons within them.
Tengsei
Fans
of The Senior Year will know this planet by the name Jiyu. In TSY, this is a Zephyrite colony
world and the name itself is Urusian in origin; it was an explorer from that
planet that discovered this world a long time ago. Due to the Moroboshi siblings' past troubles
with the Urusians, Hiromi does NOT address this planet by the Urusian name and
will gladly shout down anyone who does so in her presence.
Land
of the Morning Calm
This
is derived from the Korean word "Choson" (written as ?? in Chinese characters). The characters that go into this name
literally mean "morning calm."
Eta
People
who are knowledgeable in Japanese culture will recognise this name as the term
applied to what are known as "burakumin" these days. Of course, Hiromi doesn't care to support
such idiotic beliefs, so she can say the name with a straight face.
When
I first created the Noukiites for the TSY story "Arrive
Reiko-chan," I devised a character-encoding system based on Korean han'gul
which runs this way (as I described in Writer's Note #3 in Part 1 of Long
Way Home):
CONSONANTS: K/G=NG, N=CH/J, T/D=CH', R=P', M=T', P/B=K',
S=H. When NG falls before a vowel, it is
silent. Mid-syllable sounds G, J, D and
B aren't used in common Noukiite.
DOUBLE
CONSONANTS: KK=NG,
TT=CH', PP=K', SS=H, JJ=N
MULTI-CONSONANT
SYLLABIC END SOUNDS: KS=H,
NJ=CH', NH=S, LG=K', LM=T', LB=P', LS=K, LT=CH, LP'=P, LH=N, PS=M.
VOWELS: A=U, E=O. I and Y stay the same. The different types of O (O and O) and U (U
and U) do not matter in this case.
DIPTHONGS: AE=UO (WO), OI=EI, OA (WA)=EU, OAE (WAE)=EUO,
UI=AI, UE=AO
Chilli
pepper in Korean is written as koch'u, which is encoded as eta in
Noukiite. The pronunciation, however,
would be a little closer to "eh-dah."
"I
will see to it personally that Ryoko-chan will not speak to you for a
MONTH!"
Morokuzu
Ryoko is the real name of the young toshi known as Shokatsuryo
Komei. She was first introduced in
the Ikkitosen manga in chapter #46.
"Whoever
did that deserves to be shot and pissed on!"
Typical
vulgar military saying when it comes to something that is a very serious no-no,
especially in the eyes of senior petty officers and sergeants.
"And
thus, effectively crippling the alliance of local galactic powers . . . "
This,
in the universe of The Senior Year, is a quasi-League of Nations
alliance called the Galactic Federation of Planet-states. When Mike Smith and I devised the universe
for TSY, we realised right away that Takahashi-sensei really never did
much to describe what the universe of Urusei Yatsura was like beyond
Earth. Mike and I – since we both wanted
to bring in some heavy hitter powers like the Vosians (Nassur's people),
the Yehisrites (a warrior race that is the TSY analogue to the
Klingons in Star Trek) and the Zephyrites (a very theologically
spiritual race akin to the Bajorans in Star Trek but with FAR MUCH MORE
military power) – elected to make peoples such as the Urusians (Lum's
and Ran's people), the Fukunokami (Benten's people), the Neptunians
(Oyuki's people) and the other races introduced in Yatsura smaller in
size of population, number of colony worlds and overall military power. This allowed Mike and I to, along the way,
explain WHY the Urusians would want to invade Earth in the first place; rival
powers to the Galactic Federation – in hopes of destroying the alliance once
and for all – were preparing to move in (as Doug will later discover in Part 2)
on Earth and Lum's people decided to head them off at the pass. The introduction of peoples such as the
Zephyrites – and the revelations concerning the true power of the Urusians –
provided some of the story conflict that rocked people's lives in Tomobiki in TSY. In effect, to borrow a phrase Hiromi used in
the Anime Add-venture, the Urusians and their allies formed "a federation
of lies" which is unworthy of any respect whatsoever.
"The
ch'uokyek of Noukiios and the ib'f of Yehisril"
The
ch'uokyek were introduced in the Anime Add-venture storyline The
Emperor's Army, which is where I first came up with the UNEDF. The ib'f were introduced in the TSY
story "What Price For Love?", the story where I introduced the
Niphentaxians and the Avalonians. As
spirit-dragons, they are akin to humanoid celestials as Bob envisaged in Drunkard's
Walk, but are more influenced by animal logic than human emotion.
"An
abandoned starship construction satellite they found in a dead solar system not
too far from here . . . "
That's
the Sagussan starship factory satellite that was located by the Daishi'cha
in the TSY story "Great Father Ataru Stage Six - Auction."
"They
were willing to allow us to take control of THIRTY Class M worlds — again,
using the Star Trek term — in many solar systems to the galactic 'west'
and 'south' of us that they had no use for anymore."
This
particular territory harkens back to my TSY and Sailor Moon
crossover story Lonely They Who Guard, which postulated that Beryl and
her servants were once Seifukusu nobles who were disowned of their houses and
declared "The House With No Name" for their behaviour concerning the
Moon Kingdom during the time of the Silver Millennium (which I set
approximately 1,000 years ago). The
frontier territory of the Seifukusu Dominion closest to Earth, in the reality
of LTWG, was once the territory of Beryl's House.
"Husband,
aren't you . . . who's this?" she then asked as she gazed on me.
I
blinked. Shades of Ten'o Haruka and
Kaio Michiru!
Hiromi
was gay.
And
if her being that way was accepted in her current position . . .!
Like
all Avalonians, Hiromi and Mioko are bisexual, not lesbians.
She
gave me a classical kung fu-like salute with her hands, though it was the right
fist into the left palm and not the other way around.
The
right hand-in-left fist was the military salute in old China, as demonstrated
in anime such as Soten Koro and video games like Dynasty Warriors.
Given
the sprinting jackrabbit insignia over the kanji ?? for
"Tomobiki" . . .
The
Tomobiki High School sports teams are known as "Usagi" in
Japanese. I use the term
"Jackrabbits" when I describe these teams in English.
But
WHY on Earth would someone go out and name a high school of all things
after the concept of bad luck descending on a person's friends?
The
word "Tomobiki" (literally meaning "attracting
companions"), denoting the sixth of the six-day lunar cycle known in
Japanese as the Rokki ("six brilliances") or Rokuyo
("six weekly days"), can mean several things. For funerals, Tomobiki is a VERY BAD day to
have them. However, for weddings,
Tomobiki is the BEST day to have them.
No doubt, this was one of Takahashi-sensei's many in-jokes that she used
in Yatsura.
"Lord
Colonel Sangnoir"
Hiromi
is often in the habit of addressing people by the terms "lord" and
"lady" when she starts talking in what Doug starts calling
"Hiromi-speak" in Part 2.
"The
Hana family of Rishiri-to"
The
late Moroboshi Nagaiwakai's family as first indicated in The Senior Year. For the most part, they were descendants of
Vosian colonists who crash-landed in northern Hokkaido centuries before. By the time Nagaiwakai herself was born in
the early part of the 20th century, the Vosian psionic powers were all but
bread out of her DNA; all she possessed was the Vosian lifespan and her ability
to recognise a potential husband (which she did in Moroboshi Kokeru, who was
named as a nod to the young son of Ataru and Miyake Shinobu that appeared in
the Yatsura manga episode #13, "We Are The Children"). In the PFTA universe, Nagaiwakai died
of loneliness some years after Kokeru (who was a kamikaze pilot) killed himself
in shame for not having died for the Showa Emperor during the last years of the
Greater East Asia War.
"The
Kasuga Clan, a family of powerful onmyo-ji"
In
my recent writings whenever I use Moroboshi Negako, I had Kurumi of Kotetsu
Tenshi Kurumi be the one to give the Saiko Jinseijutsu the name
"Negako" (written as ??,
literally meaning "child of wishes").
In Long Way Home, when Ataru and his siblings go to honour all of
Negako's former hosts, they go visit the Kasuga Shrine in Yokohama, which was
introduced in Kotetsu Tenshi Kurumi 2-shiki. One of the side stories of Long Way Home
was Negako taking Kasuga Nako under her wing to awaken her powers . . . so that
Nako – who is hopelessly in love with Kurumi (whom she knows is stored in an
old air raid shelter under her family shrine) – would win the Steel Angel's
heart on her awakening after decades in storage to save her from killing people
in World War Two.
The
Promise of Bunka Go-nen
When
I first introduced the concept of the Saiko Jinseijutsu in the "Tiger
Saga" storyline of The Senior Year, I made it to be a totally evil
being that would destroy anyone that got in its way of seeking what it
desired. Over time – which I first
hinted at in the TSY side-story "Children of Eternity" – I came
to see this human killing machine in a new light. Thus, in recent years, I devised the concept
of the Sacred Promise of Bunka Go-nen, where would-be hosts of the Saiko
Jinseijutsu would swear a life-binding magical oath to do anything to help such
a being become its own person. In the
history of hosts for Negako, Ataru is the last one in line.
Elder
Mother
The
spiritual leader of a group of Avalonians or Sagussans. This concept was first introduced in The
Senior Year in the character of Noa (whom I based on the labor pilot from
the anime series Kido Keisatsu Patlabor). Though seen as a very important person in the
community, the Elder Mother is usually NOT the elected village leader.
She
also had a wedding band of some sort on one finger.
As
noted in the PFTA side-story "A Nice, Quiet Place," Takanashi
Naoko became bond-mates to Redet Henso.
Both are now engaged to be married, so Naoko wears a special ring made
of Urusian tiger-gems with a diamond in the middle, which is embossed on a
holder shaped like a Canadian Navy ship's crest. Technically, Naoko's ring marks that she is a
bonded woman . . . though Avalonians would be able to sense out such a bond.
Kamioka
Shinobu
Shinobu
is a minor character from the dating simulation game Ojosama Express,
which was released by MediaWorks (the same company that did Sister Princess)
in 1999 for the Sega Saturn. This is the
same game where I got the character of Yamaguchi Seina from.
This
girl actually helped Data's daughter during their contact? Wasn't Lal dead?
This
happened in Part 3 of Avalonians and Questors, "The Return of Lal."
"Passcode
is 'S-H-I-N-O-B-I-4-E-V-E-R.'"
When
she came to live full-time on Earth after her exile on Uru, Redet Henso began
disguising herself as an Earth woman and came to call herself "Nomade
Shinobi" in reflection of what Henso (and Lum in the real Yatsura
universe) did in the manga story "Even Though I Wait For You" (manga
episode #27). In that story, Lum/Henso
disguised herself to prevent Ataru from being embarrassed when his male
classmates drummed him into supporting their efforts to put down Mendo Shutaro
(who, by then, had captured the heart of every girl in the class with his looks
and charm) . . . but said plan fell through when the girl Ataru's classmates
tried to get to help out got herself sick from eating too much thanks to the
money she was given to date Ataru.
"Access
the files marked under the sub-folders 'Grand Prix' and 'Pretty League.'"
This
hints to the two games I used to get characters to flesh out Haida's
Avalonian crew in PFTA and A&Q, Zenkoku Seifuku Bishojo
Grand Prix (literally "National Sailor Suit Beautiful Young Lady Grand
Prix") and Doki Doki Pretty League.
The
former of the two games is an adult visual novel that came out in 1996 from the
now-defunct Lyceen group which attracted my eye while I was in Korea thanks to
the excellent artwork. Some of the
characters in Grand Prix such as Takanashi Naoko, Yoshino Tomomi and
Ikusawa Kyoko got recycled into a proper dating simulation game named Find
Love in 1997, which was released for the Sega Saturn. One of the more interesting points about Grand
Prix is that it's the first video game to come out of Japan that displayed
full-frontal nudity without any sort of censorship.
The
latter of the two games was released in 1998 by XING for the PlayStation
platform. A mixed dating and sports
simulation game where the player serves as the manager of an all-girls junior
high school baseball team, Pretty League had no obvious hentai elements,
but does show the girls in hot pants-like baseball shorts.
The
Dragon Jade
A
magical crystal that was the focus of the attention of many toshi in the second
Ikkitosen anime series, Dragon Destiny. It is said to have the power to change a
toshi's fate and could be used to control any of the haoryu possessing senior
toshi such as Koro Sonami and Mago Tsueko.
In PFTA, the Dragon Jade was used to remove the souls of 31,738
toshi (all but two of them having lost all memories of their first lives) which
were trapped in a magical forest north of Nanban High School (the concept of
which was introduced in the fourth Ikkitosen anime series, Xtreme
Executor).
Recreation
Flats
A
"flat" in the Royal Canadian Navy is a hallway close to a major
location inside a ship. Other such flats
I've noted in my stories include "Sick Bay Flats" (right next to the
ship's medical station) and "Regulating Flats" (right next to the
office of the regulating petty officer, the man in charge of disciplinary
matters).
Weather
deck
The
external (exposed to outside environment) part of any ship.
Main
gun Turrets A and B
Like
all warships built and manned on British Royal Navy traditions, the lettering
of all main gun turrets on Haida starts from A and advances from the bow
aft AND starts from Z and decreases from the stern forward. Since Haida has eighteen triple-gun
turrets, their locations on the ship's hull are as follows (using phonetic
letters):
BOW
Alpha
- Upper forward weather deck
Bravo
- Upper forward, superfiring over Alpha
Charlie
- Lower forward weather deck
Delta
- Upper port forward weather deck
Echo
- Upper starboard forward weather deck
Foxtrot
- Lower port forward weather deck
Golf
- Lower port forward, superfiring over Foxtrot
Hotel
- Lower starboard forward weather deck
Juliet
- Lower starboard forward, superfiring over Hotel
AMIDSHIPS
Romeo
- Upper port aft, superfiring over Sierra
Sierra
- Upper port aft weather deck
Tango
- Lower port aft weather deck
Uniform
- Lower starboard aft weather deck
Victor
- Upper starboard aft, superfiring over Whiskey
Whiskey
- Upper starboard aft weather deck
X-Ray
- Upper aft weather deck
Yankee
- Lower aft, superfiring over Zulu
Zulu
- Lower aft weather deck
STERN
Defence
Research and Development Canada
Short-formed
always as DRDC, this is the sub-department of the Canadian Department of
National Defence (DND) that is in charge of all scientific and technological
research needs for the Canadian Forces.
DRDC has units located in Halifax (known as DRDC Atlantic; there is a
branch office in Esquimalt in British Columbia), Ottawa (both DRDC Ottawa and
the DRDC Centre for Operational Research and Analysis), Suffield in Alberta,
Toronto and Valcartier. DRDC Suffield
was the laboratory that created CADPAT.
In the PFTA universe, DRDC Niagara is tasked to deal with all
space technological research.
Starship
Fleet Maintenance Facility Merrittonia
This
unit, known in Navy shorthand as SFMF Merrittonia or SFMF-M, is Haida's
shore-bound second-line maintenance facility.
With main offices on the east bank of the Welland By-Pass Channel,
SFMF-M is also responsible for the surface starship dock that was built on the
southern end of the grounds of CFB Niagara, set on the border between Welland
and Niagara Falls to ensure neither city would have bragging rights as to which
would be Haida's official home port city. Much to the awe of many, Ki Tsukihana was
inspired by the scene in the 2009 Star Trek film when James T. Kirk saw
the U.S.S. Enterprise was being built in the Iowa cornfields to build
such a facility, which makes the ground dock for Haida the largest
physical structure in the Niagara peninsula.
Like
Rena's voice was pure Kyushu
In
Avalonians and Questors, I set Shikanotoride Junior High School in the
Shinkogakura section of the city of Nagasaki on Kyushu.
"The
Great Emperor"
Much
to Hiromi's annoyance, Mizuho ALWAYS calls her by her title in her first life.
"The
Master's Final Mystery"
As
an Avalonian, Mizuho can perceive the Te'a. Since Avalonians as a whole believe that
mortals are NOT supposed to know what lies beyond the Veil of the Te'a
(as Seina will describe to Doug in Part 2), Mizuho refers to this concept by
such a title.
A
country-made version of Sailor Moon's magical sceptre grown to battle-staff
size
Doug's
meeting with the Sailor Senshi will be depicted in Drunkard's Walk S.
The
Storyman
This
is the name-song for Chris de Burgh's sixteenth studio album, released in 2006.
****
**** ****
Fred
**** **** ****
The
Loon and the Ladies from Avalon
Concordance
by
Fred Herriot
**** **** ****
WRITER'S INTRODUCTION:
In a reflection of what Bob
does for the main Step stories in Drunkard's Walk, I decided to expand on my own
writer's notes by making a separate page to act as a sort of concordance to
further explain what is being written in this story and how it relates to my
own work, both in the Phoenix From the Ashes universe and elsewhere.
As Bob does in his
concordances, entries will be grouped per part and ordered by their appearance
in the story text. However, as this is
crossing over with my own work, I'll start off with a synopsis of PFTA to better give
everyone a review of what let up to the situation Doug encountered when he woke
up after his latest world-gate jump.
Enjoy!
Fred
**** **** ****
THE STORYLINE OF THE PHOENIX
FROM THE ASHES UNIVERSE
Based somewhat on the
universe of The Senior Year, a fanfic series written by myself and my
friend Mike Smith in the 1990s, Phoenix From the Ashes is a three-way
crossover series between Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½ and Ikkitosen. As I stated in the writer's notes for PFTA,
the story occurs at the end of the Yatsura manga timeline (the "Boy
Meets Girl" storyline depicted in manga episodes #354-364), at the time
Shampoo was introduced into the Ranma manga timeline (as depicted in
manga episodes #31-36) and sometime after the arrival of Sonsaku Hakufu at the
Nan'yo Academy and her fight with Ryomo Shimei in the Ikkitosen manga
timeline (as depicted in manga episode #6).
PFTA itself is set in the early
summer of 2010.
The basic plot of PFTA
is this:
Set as a sequel to Gregg
"Metroanime" Sharp's Bet story "Crippled," we find
Saotome Ranma paralysed thanks to Shampoo in Nerima General Hospital. There, he meets Moroboshi Tariko, a volunteer
nursing assistant who is also a student at Tomobiki High School along with her
twin brother Ataru, adopted twin sister Hiromi and adopted older sister Negako
(who is the grandmaster of the Moroboshi Clan's school of martial arts, Saiko
Jinseijutsu-ryu). Learning what Ranma
had endured over the years of his training trip with his father, Tariko
arranges to have Negako look in on him.
In doing so, Negako discovers that Ranma now has a fractured soul and is
also linked to two other souls. With the
help of the Avalonians – a race of female humanoid bioroids that the Moroboshi
siblings helped liberate from their masters four months before the start of PFTA
– Ranma acquires three "twin" sisters of his own: Kanami (his "true" twin sister,
whose soul was sheared away from Ranma's thanks to the Neko-ken training),
Kikuko (the soul of the young woman who had drowned in the Nyanniichuan spring
at Jusenkyo 1500 years ago) and Miiko (the reborn soul of Liú Yan of the Latter
Hàn, who – like so many others from his time period – found his living spirit
trapped in a magatama earring Ranma would later find when he and Genma were
fleeing from China).
As Ranma is healed by Negako
and moves to form a real family with his new sisters, he learns several things
about his parents. Genma was seen as muyokoshi
(meaning "useless filial child," a term I learned about from Don
Granberry's fanfic Comes The Cold Dragon) from the Hayashi Clan, though
Ranma's paternal great-grandmother Chiaki is still alive. Thanks to a pre-nuptial agreement signed
between the Hayashi family and the Saotome family before Genma married Nodoka –
which demanded that all of Genma's and Nodoka's children be raised
"properly" – the seppuku agreement that Genma forced on Nodoka
promising that Ranma would return a "man above men" effectively allowed
Chiaki to "bring Ranma back" to the Hayashi family. Of course, Kanami, Kikuko and Miiko were
"brought back" as well, effectively rendering Genma and Nodoka
childless.
Atop that, Nodoka and her
family had engaged in a decades-long deception concerning their own
ancestry. It turns out that Nodoka is
the granddaughter of Professor Henry W. "Indiana" Jones Jr., a
"stain" on the Saotome Clan honour which had to be hidden at all
costs (I based this on the fanfic Suikoden One Half by MadHat886). Unfortunately, the rejection of such earned
Nodoka's relatives the wrath of the Ark of the Covenant (which Indiana saved
from the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark), the Holy Grail (which
Indiana protected from the Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
and the Crystal Skulls of Akator (which Indiana shielded from the Soviets in Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), guaranteeing they would die
between their 40th and 50th birthdays (save for those who did
acknowledge Indiana as their relative).
Not wanting to have anything to do with such a lie – not to mention
Nodoka's warped attitudes demanding Ranma be a "man above men" as
well as her refusal to acknowledge the claims Kuonji Ukyo and others had for
Ranma's hand in marriage – Ranma flatly renounces Nodoka when they meet for the
first time in a decade in his Nerima General Hospital.
As Genma and Soun – even in
the face of Happosai's return to their lives thanks to Negako, leading to the
revelation that Ranma's father and Akane's father did not have proper masteries
in Musabetsu Kakuto-ryu – try to do anything they can to force Ranma to renounce
his grandmother, Ranma's interactions with Ataru's sisters eventually won him
the interest of Ryomo Shimei (birth-name:
Sebone Mimoko); it was Mimoko's cousin Do Kazua (the reborn Dèng Dang;
he was the brother-in-law of Mimoko's past-self Lu Méng) who helped with
Ranma's trauma care after he was cut down by Shampoo. That – along with Mimoko's cousin Shikuko
(also known as Ryofu Hosen) and her lover Noberu Miyako (a.k.a. Chinkyu Kodai)
taking passionate interest in Moroboshi Ataru – served as the bridge to allow
all the toshi of the Seven Battle Schools of Kanto to reunite with their reborn
emperor (Moroboshi Hiromi, in her first life, was Liú Hóng, the Xiàolíng
Emperor of Hàn), thus completely wrecking the "fate of the sacred
bead" that drove toshi to re-enact the critical events of the last years
of the Latter Hàn Dynasty and the start of the Three Kingdoms age which is the
primary theme of Ikkitosen.
As this is happening, Ataru's
past relationship with a certain Oni warlord's daughter comes back to haunt his
family. Six months before the start of PFTA
(around the time of the first Yatsura movie Only You), Ataru
learns thanks to a wedding crasher from the planet Noukiios that his
"wife" Lum was actually (in her soul) an Avalonian clone-bioroid
replica of hers named Henso. Thanks to a
terrible curse unleashed on Lum by the Old Lady of the Oak Forest asteroid (as
seen in the third Yatsura movie, Remember My Love), Lum – along
with her best friends Benten, Oyuki and Ran – had their very lives
stolen from them when Henso (along with Kamen, Mienai and Damasu; they are the
clone-replica bioroids modelled after Lum's friends) was first woken at the
prompting of the expat Vosian bounty hunter Nassur five years before PFTA.
Since the Niphentaxians (the
Avalonians' masters at the time) were seen as the Urusians greatest allies, the
pressures of galactic realpolitik prevented Nassur from exposing the
Niphentaxians dirty little secret to the outside galaxy. Thus, Lum and her friends – in Avalonian
bodies – were forced into exile on the Noukiite colony world of Okusei, where
they befriended many of the reborn Flower Youth of Noukiios (all of whom are
modelled after the Koihime Muso versions of the many heroes and warriors
of China's Three Kingdoms age as depicted in The Romance of the Three
Kingdoms).
On learning the truth about
his "wife," Ataru symbolically divorced Henso, and then travelled to
Okusei to see to it that a fractured element of his soul and the two other
souls within his mind could be given lives of their own. Ataru gained three sisters: Negako (the spirit of the Saiko
Jinseijutsu database of ninjutsu fighting knowledge that Ataru had become
the 57th host of when he was six years old), Hiromi (the living spirit of Liú
Hóng) and Tariko (Ataru's true twin sister, whose soul was sheared off from her
brother's thanks to Negako and Hiromi being in his mind). After realising there was a whole RACE of
beautiful women being held as literal sex-slaves by a race of sycophant mimics
that actually worshipped Lum (and later Henso) as a living goddess, Ataru and
his sisters helped the Noukiites and the Yehisrites (both of whom are galactic
superpowers in this universe; Lum's homeworld of Uru is a middle power)
liberate the Avalon bioroid factory and all the Avalonians from the
Niphentaxians. This effectively cripples
the Galactic Federation of Planet-states (the alliance of small and middle
powers that Uru, Fukunokami, Neptune, Elle and other worlds are a part of) and
sees Earth placed under Noukiite protection, thus effectively allowing the
strange events that had rocked Tomobiki for months to finally come to an end.
However, thanks to the
Yaminokuni prince Rupa (from the fifth Yatsura movie, The Final
Chapter) coming along to claim his bride, Henso was kidnapped from Uru and
taken to Yaminokuni to be married.
Kamen, Mienai and Damasu – aided by the Urusian Imperial Round (I based
them on the Imperial Uruseians from Lew Burton's fanfics Just A Dream
and Still Dreaming from the 1990s) and the Niphentaxians – tried to
kidnap Ataru to help rescue Henso . . . but found themselves stopped thanks to
Tariko and her new girlfriend Kanami.
This attempted "invasion" of Tomobiki prompts the nations of
Earth to officially form the United Nations Earth Defence Force. Based on fifty star battleship/carriers built
by two young toshi, Ki Tsukihana (a.k.a. Kogetsuei) and Hakaru Ayami (a.k.a.
Jun'iku Bunjaku), a ten-ship force travelled to Yaminokuni – augmented by
several thousand toshi under Hiromi's leadership and a Canadian armoured
brigade group mostly crewed by Avalonian volunteers – to set a trap for the
Urusian Imperials and the Niphentaxians by making it look as if Earth supported
Rupa's desire to marry Henso.
End result: The total defeat of the Imperials and the
Niphentaxians.
On returning to Earth, Ranma
reconciled with Nodoka and saw to it (with Hiromi's help) that Genma was
forever publicly shamed for all his past actions concerning his son (not to
mention frozen as a panda, rendered as weak as a kitten, then banished to
China). Nodoka welcomed Ranma's sisters
as her daughters . . . and even got the chance to form a family bond with
Indiana Jones; she would later come to adopt the Hayashi name herself. Ranma elected to go to the Nan'yo Academy
alongside Mimoko. Kikuko had, by then,
formed a Nujiézú marriage bond with Shampoo; both would go to Nan'yo. Kanami would remain with the Hayashi
siblings' grandmother in Tokyo's Taito Ward, though she maintained her
relationship with Moroboshi Tariko.
Miiko would fall in love with Koeru Kumomi (also known as Choun Shiryu)
and attend Seito until the spring of 2011, when both transferred to
Nan'yo. Kuonji Ukyo – after having her
own honour restored thanks to Ranma renouncing the Saotome name – would
eventually fall in love with Mago Tsueko (a.k.a. Sonsaku Hakufu). The Tendo sisters would – thanks to their
father's refusal to acknowledge what happened to Ranma – renounce all family
bonds with him and be "brought back" into the family of their late
mother, the Miyamoto Clan. Akane and
Nabiki would transfer to the Yoshu Private Academy to allow the former to forge
a relationship with her new sensei, Ebisu Kyoko (a.k.a. Koshaji). Nabiki and Kasumi themselves become lovers
with two of the original Avalonian crew of Hiromi's flagship H.M.C.S. Haida,
Acting Sub-lieutenant Ikusawa Kyoko and Ordinary Seaman Sasagawa Narumi
respectively. And Hibiki Ryoga – who had
been badly affected by Ranma's near-death at Shampoo's hands – would reconcile
with his rival . . . and then, thanks to Mousse, got an Avalonian twin sister
of his own after he was exposed to the waters of the Nyanniichuan in Hibiki
Yoiko, not to mention become the boyfriend to Haru Asumi (a.k.a. Chohi
Ekitoku)!
Five months after the events
in PFTA (as depicted in the story Avalonians and Questors), an
accident with an ancient alien super-weapon known as the Staff of Gihan
propelled H.M.C.S. Haida (with a very short crew and Moroboshi Hiromi
and friends aboard for the Christmas holidays) into the universe of the United
Federation of Planets in the year 2371, where they encountered the U.S.S. Enterprise
NCC-1701-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
There, they helped ensure the Battle of Veridian III (as depicted in the
movie Star Trek - Generations) would turn out much better. Along the way, Hiromi and her friends
discovered that thanks to a fan of the manga series Battle Royale from
Phentax Two, the cast of that story had their very souls yanked through the
dimensional veil into the PFTA universe at the time the Noukiites and Yehisrites
came to liberate the Avalon bioroid factory.
Thanks to the help of Inada Mizuho (the Staff's current controller) and
Moroboshi Negako (who later came with friends to search for Haida aboard
U.S.S. Arizona), ALL the participants of The Program were
restored to full life as Avalonians, then allowed to settle down across
Japan. Mizuho and her friends from
Shiroiwa Junior High School (the stars of the original Battle Royale),
along with a class from Shikanotoride Junior High School (the stars of the movie
Battle Royale II - Requiem) all elected to become freshmen students at
Tomobiki High School.
And now, it is the late
spring of the year 2011 . . .
**** **** ****
PART ONE
Senshobu-jinja
The name of Sakurambo
Sakura's shrine is never given in Urusei Yatsura. While I was writing episodes for the Anime
Add-venture, I remembered that many of the high schools located in Tomobiki
took their names from the six days in the Japanese calendar which indicate what
luck people would have. The two parts
that combine together to make the word "Senshobu" are Sensho
(written ??, literally
meaning "first victory") and Senbu (written ??, literally meaning "first
burden"). In essence, the name
implies either a balance between good and bad luck, good luck for the length of
the whole day or bad luck for the whole day (all depending on interpretation,
of course).
Tomobiki-cho,
Nishitokyo-shi
Tomobiki's
location is never properly given in Urusei Yatsura. According to some sources, Tomobiki is a part
of Nerima (which is where Ranma 1/2 is set). However, starting from The Senior Year
side story "Furinkan Spring," I placed Tomobiki in the city of Hoya
west of Nerima on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.
That city united with the city of Tanashi in 2001 to form the new city
of Nishitokyo (literally "West Tokyo").
Would-be
Zoroastrian warrior-priestess
In
the Battle Royale novel, Mizuho is depicted as living in a fantasy world
where she (as the "Warrior Priestess Prexia Dikianne Mizuho") was a
servant of the God of Light, Ahura Mazda.
The manga expanded on that by revealing that Mizuho was also an avid fan
of Dungeons and Dragons. Upon
being reborn on the Avalon bioroid factory and gaining control of the Staff of
Gihan, Mizuho believed she (and her friends) had been spared the ugly fate
facing them all in The Program thanks to Ahura Mazda's personal favour. Thus, on her being adopted by Sakurambo
Sakura, Mizuho began to explore real Zoroastrian doctrine, thus making her the
first true Japanese Zoroastrian.
The
Staff of Gihan
The
Staff appeared in the TSY story "Great Father Ataru Stage Two -
Remembrance." There, thanks to it
being controlled by one of the Guardians (a behind-the-scenes group that
ensured that no threat to the Church of Lum would ever succeed), the Staff – on
learning that the "Holy Friends" of Lum, Nassur and Benten, had a
child named Junba – unleashed a "doomsday protocol" that killed THREE
BILLION hardcore believers on Phentax Two.
I repeated this theme in Lonely Souls when the Staff learned of
the "death" of Lum via Moroboshi Ataru; the same result
happened. However, in LS, the
Staff would eventually wind up in the hands of Ataru's youngest sister in that
story, Saeru Hinako (in my writings involving the Sister Princess cast,
I always give them family names).
"Moshi-moshi."
"I
will be there in ten minutes, Sakura."
Click. Dial tone.
Negako's
curt and abrupt nature comes from her very origins as a living database of
ninjutsu knowledge collected over hundreds of years in a virtual
"library" of battle skills and experience. Since ninja as a whole have to be very calm
and collected when doing a mission, Negako effectively decided that learning
how to emote as normal people do is a horrendous waste of energy, so she
doesn't bother with it. She does feel
emotions, of course . . . but would only express them with either a slight
increase of pitch in her voice, a quirk of her lips or the classic
tendon-twitch over her eyes.
You're
In The Army Now, Mister Loon
Derived
from the classic military marching song You're In The Army Now, of
course.
Leopard
2 and M1A1 Abrams tanks
Being
a paramilitary officer – and having been based for years in England as part of
Warriors Alpha – Doug would recognise a lot of things of a military nature
virtually on first sight. Since this
story is set in 2011 and since both the Leopard 2s and the Abrams were
introduced in the 1980s, he would be familiar with them.
Leos
were normally diesel-driven machines
The
power plants used by Canadian Leopard 2s (nicknamed the "Leo") in the
PFTA universe is a modified gas turbine that – while having the same
power as the Honeywell AGT1500C turbine powering the Abrams – was rendered environmentally
safe by both Avalonian and Niphentaxian technologies, reducing the machine's
carbon footprint to absolute zero.
Combat
stop
One
of my earliest military experiences was being given the chance to drive a
General Motors Canada Grizzly AVGP (Armoured Vehicle, General Purpose) while
participating in a MILCON (Militia Concentration) in the summer of 1985. The NCO in charge of my group at that time
warned me not to do a "combat stop;" in other words, hit the brakes
hard and cause the vehicle to screech to a halt. Unfortunately, when he called out to me to
stop (having to repeat same instruction twice over the noise), I did . . . and
nearly pitched all the other passengers out the top hatch at the back of the
vehicle!
Wonderful
constitutional in the boonies
I
love the use of the word "constitutional" when used to describe a
brisk walk; I picked it up from one of my favourite novels, Harry Turtledove's Guns
of the South.
The
actual pattern of their camouflage shirts and pants — not to mention their web
gear and even their boots!
Henrietta
Croce and her friends wear the current Canadian Forces camouflage pattern,
known as CADPAT (Canadian Disruptive
Pattern), when they're out in the field.
The pattern that normally is used at CFB Niagara in spring is the TW (Temperate
Woodland) pattern. CADPAT also comes in
WA (Winter Arctic) and AR (Arid Region) patterns. And yes, even the web gear (the harness
soldiers wear to carry kit like extra ammunition) and the boots are done in
CADPAT pattern to better help people hide themselves.
One
with a simple design of dark sides with a pale middle the same width as the
flag's height, a stylised maple leaf placed there.
The
pattern of the National Flag of Canada is designed using a heraldic concept
called the Canadian Pale, which implies a central vertical band the same
width as the height of the flag itself.
Thus, the white central of the Maple Leaf Flag forms a perfect square
with the red maple leaf charged (or placed) on the centre of the field.
Yep. Black maple leaf on the turret.
Canadian
Army tanks always have a black maple leaf on the turret to mark them as
such. All Canadian Army field vehicles
are either camouflaged or painted a medium green shade. Using any bright colour such as white or red
would be a big no-no in this case.
A
shake of the head as a "too-cute-for-words" smile crossed her
camouflaged face.
Henrietta
and her friends camouflaged themselves because they were simply unsure as to
what sort of person just popped into their dimension. Of course, once they got within close range
of Doug and could use their empathy to scan him thoroughly, they realised he
was pretty much a friendly and thus approached him peacefully.
"You're
just outside the city of Welland in Ontario," the soldier then said. She waved to where I believed was the west
according to the sun's position in the sky, and then she waved northeast. "Niagara Falls is about fifteen
kilometres that way."
Canadian
Forces Base (CFB) Niagara is located in Crowland Township of the old County of
Welland; these days, the territory is divided between the Cities of Welland and
Niagara Falls in the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The base borders are as such:
NORTH: The Welland River between the Welland Canal
south of Port Robinson to the west and the line midway between McKenney Road
and Morris Road in Niagara Falls to the east.
EAST: The line between McKenney Road and Morris
Road south from the Welland River to Lyons Creek, along the creek east to
Montrose Road, then south to Netherby Road.
SOUTH: The line of Netherby Road from Montrose Road
west to the intersection of Doan's Ridge Road in Welland, northwest to the
intersection of Miller Road, southwest and south to the line of Netherby Road,
then west along Netherby Road to the line of the Canadian National Railway
track running parallel east of King's Highway 140.
WEST: The line of the Canadian National Railway
track running parallel east of Highway 140 north from Netherby Road to Buchner
Road, then northeast on Lyons Creek to the line of Matthews Road, then north on
Matthews Road to Schisler Road, then west along Schisler Road and East Main
Street to Farr Road, then north to just beyond Becken Crescent, west to the
Welland Canal, then north to the Welland River.
"A
unit worthy of its hire."
This
is based on the title of William J. Patterson's memoir concerning the Canadian
Guards, A Regiment Worthy Of Its Hire:
The Canadian Guards, 1953-1970.
"Sometimes
frowned on by the boys in the Vandoos, the Royal Canadians and the Patricias,
but they do their job and take pride in it."
Here,
Doug speaks of the three full-time infantry regiments that were active when the
Canadian Guards were formed in 1953, the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR),
the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and le
Royal 22e Régiment (R22eR, also known as the
"Vandoos"). Many people
believe the reason the Guards were forced onto the Supplementary Order of
Battle (in effect, disbanded in all but name) in 1970 was that a regiment
formed in 1953 had no right to take precedence over regiments formed in 1883
(the Royal Canadians) or 1914 (the Patricias and the Vandoos), regardless of
the fact that the Guards, as ceremonial protectors of the Sovereign, had
historical precedence on their side.
This prompted Hiromi to recommend the new Guards have a fully bilingual
battalion (1st Battalion) assigned to Haida at CFB Niagara, a
French-speaking battalion (2nd Battalion) based at CFB Valcartier in Québec and
two English-speaking battalions (3rd and 4th Battalions) based at CFB Halifax
in Nova Scotia and CFB Chilliwack (east of Vancouver) in British Columbia
respectively. This is why Henrietta and
her friends are training at the Land Forces Québec Area Training Centre
in Valcartier for their Soldier Qualification (the Canadian Army's
environmental course) and trades training.
One
honkin' HUGE starship to boot!
I
borrowed this from words spoken by then-Chief of the Defence Staff of the
Canadian Forces, General Rick Hiller, when he – in pressing for new equipment
for the military after deployments to Afghanistan post-9/11 began – used "honking"
to describe how big certain pieces of equipment (such as the Boeing CC-177
Globemaster III) needed to be.
The
Regional Municipality of Niagara
In
1970, the counties of Lincoln and Welland in Ontario were amalgamated into a
regional municipality, which is a county-level government formed in a
high-population zone to allow more centralisation of essential services such as
policing. At the same time, the
twenty-six municipalities that existed in both counties at that time (11 in
Lincoln County, 15 in Welland County) were amalgamated into twelve larger municipalities
to streamline local government. The
territory of Crowland Township (as noted above) in Welland County, for example,
was split between Welland and Niagara Falls.
I
assumed she was Navy given her nearly-black work dress uniform
What
Sasamoto Narumi wore is known as Naval Combat Dress in the Royal
Canadian Navy. Known properly as Number
5 Dress, this includes a black waist-length zip-up work jacket, black trousers,
a dark blue button undershirt with long sleeves, Gore-Tex boots and either
beret or baseball cap. The NCDs are
designed to be flame-retardant.
A
very nicely-designed unit tag with the word HAIDA in orange-gold on a dark blue
field surrounded by ship's rope and topped by a British-type naval coronet,
three maple leaves at the badge base
Before
the unification of the Canadian military in 1968, sailors who wore the
square-rigged dress in the Royal Canadian Navy wore a black ribbon emblazoned
with their unit name in gold on the base of their sailor caps. After 1968, the only times sailors wore unit
patches was when they were allowed to put on a knit version of the ship's badge
over their name tags on the work jacket (not to mention wear baseball caps with
their ship's name and pendant number).
With Haida's commissioning, the crew borrowed the Canadian Army
concept of using a short-form shoulder title on the epaulette slip-ons (like CG
for the Canadian Guards) to identify their ship when they aren't wearing their
NCD jacket. The shoulder badges are done
in Haida's official ship's colours of dark blue and gold.
Gemini-class
shuttle from Battlestar Galactica
This
is the name I give to the Colonial shuttle that served as auxiliary craft on
the Galactica and her sisterships from the original 1970s television series.
The
twin-headed thunderbird ship's crest of Haida
The
official crest of H.M.C.S. Haida is described properly as follows: Blazon Or, a base barry wavy azure and
argent, a thunderbird of the Haida tribe with wings displayed sable. In normal English, this means that the badge
is gold overall, with wavy blue and white waves at the lower end of the badge
(simulating water), a black twin-headed thunderbird (or "thunder river
bird" as it's sometimes called) rising from the waves.
"Even
if we are polyglots."
The
Avalonian crew of Haida speak the following languages fluently: Sagussan (or Avalonian), Japanese, English
and French. A polyglot is normally
described as someone who can speak and interpret four or more languages
fluently.
An
honest-to-goodness Mass Hug of True Love
Watch
the opening music of the first Sister Princess television scene to see
what I mean by this. That scene comes at
the very end of the opening music.
The
Welland By-Pass Channel
The
Welland Ship Canal connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario west of the Niagara River
once went through the heart of the city of Welland. Due to its sharp curves and a SWING BRIDGE
that left little room to manoeuvre just south of downtown, the Saint Lawrence
Seaway decided to build a wider and deeper channel to the east of Welland's
urban area, thus allowing a near straight-line to connect the old channel from
Port Robinson to the north to Port Colborne in the south. The By-Pass was opened in 1973.
Rose
City of Ontario
Welland's
nickname. There is also an official
"City of Welland Rose," which is a beautiful flower that is an
eye-catching blend of yellow, red and orange.
You can visit the Welland city hall website to see pictures of this
particular flower type.
"Or
is it still Canadian Forces Maritime Command?"
The
name of Canada's naval service officially reverted back to the Royal
Canadian Navy on 16 August 2011, which is about two months ahead of this
story.
RUMINT
I
am a fan of the action/adventure stories based on the real-life experiences of
Commander (retired) Richard Marcinko USN, also known as the "Rogue
Warrior." In his books,
Marcinko loves making use of short-form abbreviations in the narrative (with a
handy glossary of terms always at the back of the book). This is one of them.
Medical
Division, Executive Department
The
ship's company of any Canadian warship is divided into "departments"
controlled by one of the senior officers.
Each department is then divided into "divisions" which serve
specific crew functions. The Executive
Department of any Canadian warship, which is controlled by the Executive
Officer (XO) or second-in-command, is the group that handles all matters
concerning discipline, health services and personnel administration
issues. Other departments on a standard
Canadian warship include the Deck
Department (the ship's boatswains), the Combat Department (the operational controllers), the Engineering Department (the technicians
and mechanics), the Supply Department
(the logistics personnel) and the Air
Department (the supporting aircraft staff for ships that can carry aircraft).
Deck
A12 Aft
H.M.C.S.
Haida is formed of a main hull of twenty decks numbered from 1
to 20, fifteen superstructure decks above Deck 1 (numbered from A1 to A15) and
twelve superstructure decks below Deck 20 (numbered from B1 to B12). Since the upper superstructure is split into
forward and aft blocks, locations on Decks A1 to A15 have to also indicate
which part of the superstructure they're in.
Battle-name
This
is the phrase I coined to describe the name toshi used that was derived from
their past-selves' given name and style name (if they had them).
So
what was she doing on a Canadian starship?
Hiromi's
explanation for this is simple: If she
took the Japanese Starship Yamato as her flagship, she would offend all
those the Japanese Imperialists hurt before and during the Second World
War. If she took the United States
Starship Arizona as her flagship, she would offend everyone who really
don't like Americans. If she took the
People's Republic of China Starship Zhèng Hé as her flagship, she would
offend everyone who don't like the Chinese.
If she took the Republic of Korea Starship Paekbom as her flag,
she would offend the Japanese and most likely the Chinese. As many people across the planet have little
issues the Canadians, Haida won by default.
Besides,
I AM Canadian and am very proud of that fact!
Are
the humans of his Earth as long lived as Vosians or Avalonians?
Vosians,
on average, live approximately 500 years Earth-time. Avalonians, on average, live approximately
800 years Earth-time.
"Natural-born
or fate-gifted?"
These
are Yizibajohei terms to describe metahumans from other worlds (as I noted in
writer's notes to The Doctor Is In).
Yizibajohei usually describe themselves as Gifted (and yes, that is
always written with a capital "G").
"Her
battle-name amongst those like her is 'Ryuko Kyorei.'"
Hiromi
utterly refuses to allow any toshi to address her by the normal Japanese name
used to indicate her past-self, "Reitei." It's either "Kyorei-sama" or her
given name.
The
Mandate of Heaven
In
Mandarin, this concept is known as Tianmìng (written in Chinese as ??, literally meaning "destiny
of Heaven"). The classical Chinese
philosophical concept that determines if a ruler of a nation has the blessings
of the Heavens to rule over his/her people; unlike the Western concept of the
"divine right of kings," those who seek the Mandate of Heaven must
comport themselves properly to be respected as such. This is how Doug later realised Hiromi was an
emperor in her past life.
Shu
Hàn, Cáo Wèi and Dong Wú
The
Three Kingdoms that were formed in China after the final fall of the Latter Hàn
Dynasty in 220 C.E. Shu Hàn was first
formed in 221 C.E. as a response to the founding of Cáo Wèi the year before
from the last central elements of the Latter Hàn. Dong Wú officially broke away from Cáo Wèi in
229 C.E. These days, Shu Hàn literally
"lives on" in the students of Seito High School. Cáo Wèi is personified by the students of the
Kyosho Academy. And Dong Wú lives on in
the students of the Nan'yo Academy.
Nánmán
The
catch-all phrase meaning "southern barbarians;" back in classical
times, if you weren't Chinese, you were a barbarian. In Ikkitosen, the Nánmán are
personified by the students of Nanban High School under Kashira Emi's
leadership.
"Great
warriors of ancient Ireland"
In
PFTA, I theorised that there were other "resurrected warriors"
beyond the toshi of the Three Kingdoms active on Earth. The spirits of ancient Ireland that Hiromi
references here are the characters from the Ulster Cycle of Irish myth, as
shown in stories like the Táin Bó Cúailnge (literally "The
Driving-off of the Cows of Cooley" though normally translated as "The
Cattle Raid of Cooley"). Those from
Ireland are normally addressed by the Irish Gaelic word gaiscíoch (which
literally means "man of prowess" though this word is normally
translated as "warrior").
Megatokyo
in 2037 with the Knight Sabres
Doug's
time with Sylia Stingray and her friends was shown in Drunkard's Walk II.
Nekomi
in 1997 with the Norns and their friends
Doug's
time with the Norns and their friends was shown in Drunkard's Walk V.
Tokyo-3
in 2015 with Shinji, Asuka and Rei
Doug's
time with the Evangelion pilots will be depicted in Drunkard's Walk VI.
"Hiromi-san,
why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
Unlike
other toshi, Moroboshi Hiromi has only been resurrected once since the death of
Liú Hóng in 189 C.E. In the 1,821 years
between the end of her first life and the effective start of her current life
in 2010, Hiromi's spirit was forced to literally watch as those of his/her
countrymen were reborn again and again (on an average of twenty
reincarnations), forced to relive their lives and fates again and again. While she doesn't have any real memories of
watching such things happen – Negako removed them from Hiromi's soul before she
was given her own body – the echo of that experience (and the resulting guilt
over what Hiromi did and did not do in her first life to prevent the
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" from starting up in the first place)
is still firmly etched in Hiromi's soul and haunts her to this day.
Other
toshi such as Kumomi have – over the incarnations – come to view Liú Hóng in a
much different way than what history sees him as. By the time the current generation of toshi
were born, the being known to them only as "Reitei" was a living
symbol of what their past-selves had once enjoyed before the start of the
Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 C.E.: A
time when all of them lived under one ruler and in one house. Thus, when Reitei actually "came
back" in the person of Moroboshi Hiromi, even the most skeptical and
selfish toshi was glad to acknowledge her as their reborn emperor.
"Shiryu-dono
. . . "
Whenever
Hiromi addresses a brother or sister toshi by battle-name, it always is with
the suffix honorific "-dono."
In effect, Hiromi is calling Kumomi "Mistress Shiryu."
Major
General Helene Diedmeier a.k.a. "Wetter Hexe"
As
Doug possesses paramilitary rank in the UNMPF, I felt it only right for Helene
to have the same thing. My reasoning for
making Helene a two-star general is this:
A major general/rear admiral is, in the American sense of the term, the
senior peacetime rank a serviceman can achieve. Those who become lieutenant generals/vice
admirals or generals/admirals in the American armed forces are said to be
"temporarily promoted" to those ranks to match the positions they are
assigned to and – on retirement from active duty – are allowed to finally
retire at the higher rank. And since the
UNMPF is a small force compared to regular army formations around the planet,
having someone at a three-star or four-star position really doesn't make any
sense.
Professor
Albus Dumbledore's friend Fawkes while I spent a year being the Defence Against
The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts some years and dimensions ago
Doug
encountered Fawkes and everyone at Hogwarts in Drunkard's Walk VIII.
A
Chinese fènghuáng perhaps . . .?
Unlike
those toshi possessed by the power of haoryu (people such as Hiromi's
spiritual cousin Koro Sonami), Hiromi has a spirit that doesn't take over her
mind when she loses control over herself . . . and also soothes those close to
her such as Sonami (see PFTA Part 43 to see what I mean) when they're
taken over by the dragons within them.
Tengsei
Fans
of The Senior Year will know this planet by the name Jiyu. In TSY, this is a Zephyrite colony
world and the name itself is Urusian in origin; it was an explorer from that
planet that discovered this world a long time ago. Due to the Moroboshi siblings' past troubles
with the Urusians, Hiromi does NOT address this planet by the Urusian name and
will gladly shout down anyone who does so in her presence.
Land
of the Morning Calm
This
is derived from the Korean word "Choson" (written as ?? in Chinese characters). The characters that go into this name
literally mean "morning calm."
Eta
People
who are knowledgeable in Japanese culture will recognise this name as the term
applied to what are known as "burakumin" these days. Of course, Hiromi doesn't care to support
such idiotic beliefs, so she can say the name with a straight face.
When
I first created the Noukiites for the TSY story "Arrive
Reiko-chan," I devised a character-encoding system based on Korean han'gul
which runs this way (as I described in Writer's Note #3 in Part 1 of Long
Way Home):
CONSONANTS: K/G=NG, N=CH/J, T/D=CH', R=P', M=T', P/B=K',
S=H. When NG falls before a vowel, it is
silent. Mid-syllable sounds G, J, D and
B aren't used in common Noukiite.
DOUBLE
CONSONANTS: KK=NG,
TT=CH', PP=K', SS=H, JJ=N
MULTI-CONSONANT
SYLLABIC END SOUNDS: KS=H,
NJ=CH', NH=S, LG=K', LM=T', LB=P', LS=K, LT=CH, LP'=P, LH=N, PS=M.
VOWELS: A=U, E=O. I and Y stay the same. The different types of O (O and O) and U (U
and U) do not matter in this case.
DIPTHONGS: AE=UO (WO), OI=EI, OA (WA)=EU, OAE (WAE)=EUO,
UI=AI, UE=AO
Chilli
pepper in Korean is written as koch'u, which is encoded as eta in
Noukiite. The pronunciation, however,
would be a little closer to "eh-dah."
"I
will see to it personally that Ryoko-chan will not speak to you for a
MONTH!"
Morokuzu
Ryoko is the real name of the young toshi known as Shokatsuryo
Komei. She was first introduced in
the Ikkitosen manga in chapter #46.
"Whoever
did that deserves to be shot and pissed on!"
Typical
vulgar military saying when it comes to something that is a very serious no-no,
especially in the eyes of senior petty officers and sergeants.
"And
thus, effectively crippling the alliance of local galactic powers . . . "
This,
in the universe of The Senior Year, is a quasi-League of Nations
alliance called the Galactic Federation of Planet-states. When Mike Smith and I devised the universe
for TSY, we realised right away that Takahashi-sensei really never did
much to describe what the universe of Urusei Yatsura was like beyond
Earth. Mike and I – since we both wanted
to bring in some heavy hitter powers like the Vosians (Nassur's people),
the Yehisrites (a warrior race that is the TSY analogue to the
Klingons in Star Trek) and the Zephyrites (a very theologically
spiritual race akin to the Bajorans in Star Trek but with FAR MUCH MORE
military power) – elected to make peoples such as the Urusians (Lum's
and Ran's people), the Fukunokami (Benten's people), the Neptunians
(Oyuki's people) and the other races introduced in Yatsura smaller in
size of population, number of colony worlds and overall military power. This allowed Mike and I to, along the way,
explain WHY the Urusians would want to invade Earth in the first place; rival
powers to the Galactic Federation – in hopes of destroying the alliance once
and for all – were preparing to move in (as Doug will later discover in Part 2)
on Earth and Lum's people decided to head them off at the pass. The introduction of peoples such as the
Zephyrites – and the revelations concerning the true power of the Urusians –
provided some of the story conflict that rocked people's lives in Tomobiki in TSY. In effect, to borrow a phrase Hiromi used in
the Anime Add-venture, the Urusians and their allies formed "a federation
of lies" which is unworthy of any respect whatsoever.
"The
ch'uokyek of Noukiios and the ib'f of Yehisril"
The
ch'uokyek were introduced in the Anime Add-venture storyline The
Emperor's Army, which is where I first came up with the UNEDF. The ib'f were introduced in the TSY
story "What Price For Love?", the story where I introduced the
Niphentaxians and the Avalonians. As
spirit-dragons, they are akin to humanoid celestials as Bob envisaged in Drunkard's
Walk, but are more influenced by animal logic than human emotion.
"An
abandoned starship construction satellite they found in a dead solar system not
too far from here . . . "
That's
the Sagussan starship factory satellite that was located by the Daishi'cha
in the TSY story "Great Father Ataru Stage Six - Auction."
"They
were willing to allow us to take control of THIRTY Class M worlds — again,
using the Star Trek term — in many solar systems to the galactic 'west'
and 'south' of us that they had no use for anymore."
This
particular territory harkens back to my TSY and Sailor Moon
crossover story Lonely They Who Guard, which postulated that Beryl and
her servants were once Seifukusu nobles who were disowned of their houses and
declared "The House With No Name" for their behaviour concerning the
Moon Kingdom during the time of the Silver Millennium (which I set
approximately 1,000 years ago). The
frontier territory of the Seifukusu Dominion closest to Earth, in the reality
of LTWG, was once the territory of Beryl's House.
"Husband,
aren't you . . . who's this?" she then asked as she gazed on me.
I
blinked. Shades of Ten'o Haruka and
Kaio Michiru!
Hiromi
was gay.
And
if her being that way was accepted in her current position . . .!
Like
all Avalonians, Hiromi and Mioko are bisexual, not lesbians.
She
gave me a classical kung fu-like salute with her hands, though it was the right
fist into the left palm and not the other way around.
The
right hand-in-left fist was the military salute in old China, as demonstrated
in anime such as Soten Koro and video games like Dynasty Warriors.
Given
the sprinting jackrabbit insignia over the kanji ?? for
"Tomobiki" . . .
The
Tomobiki High School sports teams are known as "Usagi" in
Japanese. I use the term
"Jackrabbits" when I describe these teams in English.
But
WHY on Earth would someone go out and name a high school of all things
after the concept of bad luck descending on a person's friends?
The
word "Tomobiki" (literally meaning "attracting
companions"), denoting the sixth of the six-day lunar cycle known in
Japanese as the Rokki ("six brilliances") or Rokuyo
("six weekly days"), can mean several things. For funerals, Tomobiki is a VERY BAD day to
have them. However, for weddings,
Tomobiki is the BEST day to have them.
No doubt, this was one of Takahashi-sensei's many in-jokes that she used
in Yatsura.
"Lord
Colonel Sangnoir"
Hiromi
is often in the habit of addressing people by the terms "lord" and
"lady" when she starts talking in what Doug starts calling
"Hiromi-speak" in Part 2.
"The
Hana family of Rishiri-to"
The
late Moroboshi Nagaiwakai's family as first indicated in The Senior Year. For the most part, they were descendants of
Vosian colonists who crash-landed in northern Hokkaido centuries before. By the time Nagaiwakai herself was born in
the early part of the 20th century, the Vosian psionic powers were all but
bread out of her DNA; all she possessed was the Vosian lifespan and her ability
to recognise a potential husband (which she did in Moroboshi Kokeru, who was
named as a nod to the young son of Ataru and Miyake Shinobu that appeared in
the Yatsura manga episode #13, "We Are The Children"). In the PFTA universe, Nagaiwakai died
of loneliness some years after Kokeru (who was a kamikaze pilot) killed himself
in shame for not having died for the Showa Emperor during the last years of the
Greater East Asia War.
"The
Kasuga Clan, a family of powerful onmyo-ji"
In
my recent writings whenever I use Moroboshi Negako, I had Kurumi of Kotetsu
Tenshi Kurumi be the one to give the Saiko Jinseijutsu the name
"Negako" (written as ??,
literally meaning "child of wishes").
In Long Way Home, when Ataru and his siblings go to honour all of
Negako's former hosts, they go visit the Kasuga Shrine in Yokohama, which was
introduced in Kotetsu Tenshi Kurumi 2-shiki. One of the side stories of Long Way Home
was Negako taking Kasuga Nako under her wing to awaken her powers . . . so that
Nako – who is hopelessly in love with Kurumi (whom she knows is stored in an
old air raid shelter under her family shrine) – would win the Steel Angel's
heart on her awakening after decades in storage to save her from killing people
in World War Two.
The
Promise of Bunka Go-nen
When
I first introduced the concept of the Saiko Jinseijutsu in the "Tiger
Saga" storyline of The Senior Year, I made it to be a totally evil
being that would destroy anyone that got in its way of seeking what it
desired. Over time – which I first
hinted at in the TSY side-story "Children of Eternity" – I came
to see this human killing machine in a new light. Thus, in recent years, I devised the concept
of the Sacred Promise of Bunka Go-nen, where would-be hosts of the Saiko
Jinseijutsu would swear a life-binding magical oath to do anything to help such
a being become its own person. In the
history of hosts for Negako, Ataru is the last one in line.
Elder
Mother
The
spiritual leader of a group of Avalonians or Sagussans. This concept was first introduced in The
Senior Year in the character of Noa (whom I based on the labor pilot from
the anime series Kido Keisatsu Patlabor). Though seen as a very important person in the
community, the Elder Mother is usually NOT the elected village leader.
She
also had a wedding band of some sort on one finger.
As
noted in the PFTA side-story "A Nice, Quiet Place," Takanashi
Naoko became bond-mates to Redet Henso.
Both are now engaged to be married, so Naoko wears a special ring made
of Urusian tiger-gems with a diamond in the middle, which is embossed on a
holder shaped like a Canadian Navy ship's crest. Technically, Naoko's ring marks that she is a
bonded woman . . . though Avalonians would be able to sense out such a bond.
Kamioka
Shinobu
Shinobu
is a minor character from the dating simulation game Ojosama Express,
which was released by MediaWorks (the same company that did Sister Princess)
in 1999 for the Sega Saturn. This is the
same game where I got the character of Yamaguchi Seina from.
This
girl actually helped Data's daughter during their contact? Wasn't Lal dead?
This
happened in Part 3 of Avalonians and Questors, "The Return of Lal."
"Passcode
is 'S-H-I-N-O-B-I-4-E-V-E-R.'"
When
she came to live full-time on Earth after her exile on Uru, Redet Henso began
disguising herself as an Earth woman and came to call herself "Nomade
Shinobi" in reflection of what Henso (and Lum in the real Yatsura
universe) did in the manga story "Even Though I Wait For You" (manga
episode #27). In that story, Lum/Henso
disguised herself to prevent Ataru from being embarrassed when his male
classmates drummed him into supporting their efforts to put down Mendo Shutaro
(who, by then, had captured the heart of every girl in the class with his looks
and charm) . . . but said plan fell through when the girl Ataru's classmates
tried to get to help out got herself sick from eating too much thanks to the
money she was given to date Ataru.
"Access
the files marked under the sub-folders 'Grand Prix' and 'Pretty League.'"
This
hints to the two games I used to get characters to flesh out Haida's
Avalonian crew in PFTA and A&Q, Zenkoku Seifuku Bishojo
Grand Prix (literally "National Sailor Suit Beautiful Young Lady Grand
Prix") and Doki Doki Pretty League.
The
former of the two games is an adult visual novel that came out in 1996 from the
now-defunct Lyceen group which attracted my eye while I was in Korea thanks to
the excellent artwork. Some of the
characters in Grand Prix such as Takanashi Naoko, Yoshino Tomomi and
Ikusawa Kyoko got recycled into a proper dating simulation game named Find
Love in 1997, which was released for the Sega Saturn. One of the more interesting points about Grand
Prix is that it's the first video game to come out of Japan that displayed
full-frontal nudity without any sort of censorship.
The
latter of the two games was released in 1998 by XING for the PlayStation
platform. A mixed dating and sports
simulation game where the player serves as the manager of an all-girls junior
high school baseball team, Pretty League had no obvious hentai elements,
but does show the girls in hot pants-like baseball shorts.
The
Dragon Jade
A
magical crystal that was the focus of the attention of many toshi in the second
Ikkitosen anime series, Dragon Destiny. It is said to have the power to change a
toshi's fate and could be used to control any of the haoryu possessing senior
toshi such as Koro Sonami and Mago Tsueko.
In PFTA, the Dragon Jade was used to remove the souls of 31,738
toshi (all but two of them having lost all memories of their first lives) which
were trapped in a magical forest north of Nanban High School (the concept of
which was introduced in the fourth Ikkitosen anime series, Xtreme
Executor).
Recreation
Flats
A
"flat" in the Royal Canadian Navy is a hallway close to a major
location inside a ship. Other such flats
I've noted in my stories include "Sick Bay Flats" (right next to the
ship's medical station) and "Regulating Flats" (right next to the
office of the regulating petty officer, the man in charge of disciplinary
matters).
Weather
deck
The
external (exposed to outside environment) part of any ship.
Main
gun Turrets A and B
Like
all warships built and manned on British Royal Navy traditions, the lettering
of all main gun turrets on Haida starts from A and advances from the bow
aft AND starts from Z and decreases from the stern forward. Since Haida has eighteen triple-gun
turrets, their locations on the ship's hull are as follows (using phonetic
letters):
BOW
Alpha
- Upper forward weather deck
Bravo
- Upper forward, superfiring over Alpha
Charlie
- Lower forward weather deck
Delta
- Upper port forward weather deck
Echo
- Upper starboard forward weather deck
Foxtrot
- Lower port forward weather deck
Golf
- Lower port forward, superfiring over Foxtrot
Hotel
- Lower starboard forward weather deck
Juliet
- Lower starboard forward, superfiring over Hotel
AMIDSHIPS
Romeo
- Upper port aft, superfiring over Sierra
Sierra
- Upper port aft weather deck
Tango
- Lower port aft weather deck
Uniform
- Lower starboard aft weather deck
Victor
- Upper starboard aft, superfiring over Whiskey
Whiskey
- Upper starboard aft weather deck
X-Ray
- Upper aft weather deck
Yankee
- Lower aft, superfiring over Zulu
Zulu
- Lower aft weather deck
STERN
Defence
Research and Development Canada
Short-formed
always as DRDC, this is the sub-department of the Canadian Department of
National Defence (DND) that is in charge of all scientific and technological
research needs for the Canadian Forces.
DRDC has units located in Halifax (known as DRDC Atlantic; there is a
branch office in Esquimalt in British Columbia), Ottawa (both DRDC Ottawa and
the DRDC Centre for Operational Research and Analysis), Suffield in Alberta,
Toronto and Valcartier. DRDC Suffield
was the laboratory that created CADPAT.
In the PFTA universe, DRDC Niagara is tasked to deal with all
space technological research.
Starship
Fleet Maintenance Facility Merrittonia
This
unit, known in Navy shorthand as SFMF Merrittonia or SFMF-M, is Haida's
shore-bound second-line maintenance facility.
With main offices on the east bank of the Welland By-Pass Channel,
SFMF-M is also responsible for the surface starship dock that was built on the
southern end of the grounds of CFB Niagara, set on the border between Welland
and Niagara Falls to ensure neither city would have bragging rights as to which
would be Haida's official home port city. Much to the awe of many, Ki Tsukihana was
inspired by the scene in the 2009 Star Trek film when James T. Kirk saw
the U.S.S. Enterprise was being built in the Iowa cornfields to build
such a facility, which makes the ground dock for Haida the largest
physical structure in the Niagara peninsula.
Like
Rena's voice was pure Kyushu
In
Avalonians and Questors, I set Shikanotoride Junior High School in the
Shinkogakura section of the city of Nagasaki on Kyushu.
"The
Great Emperor"
Much
to Hiromi's annoyance, Mizuho ALWAYS calls her by her title in her first life.
"The
Master's Final Mystery"
As
an Avalonian, Mizuho can perceive the Te'a. Since Avalonians as a whole believe that
mortals are NOT supposed to know what lies beyond the Veil of the Te'a
(as Seina will describe to Doug in Part 2), Mizuho refers to this concept by
such a title.
A
country-made version of Sailor Moon's magical sceptre grown to battle-staff
size
Doug's
meeting with the Sailor Senshi will be depicted in Drunkard's Walk S.
The
Storyman
This
is the name-song for Chris de Burgh's sixteenth studio album, released in 2006.
****
**** ****
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"