[OOC][Info][PLOT][Arc 1] The Midoriya

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, so I've been giving it thought what few spare CPU cycles I've had lately....  

Here's what I got in mind so far.

3902 McCullough Rd
San Antonio, TX 78216


  Midoriya1.JPG (Size: 84.55 KB / Downloads: 113)

   

   

This is a busy little corner in the unincorporated Olmos Park enclave of San Antonio.  If you pan north and east a bit, you'll find a thin, twisty, meandering little road called Contour Drive.  This is no ordinary neighborhood.  Local millionaire businessman Red McComb makes his home here on this street.  Thus, it will be here that we're find the Lowell-Bunnings and Tsukimura households.  It's amazing this isn't a gated community, but despite its affluence, Olmos Park is down to earth like that.

There is also a gun club nearby, but it's nothing to stress over.  It's a trap and skeet shooting range where they use low-power bird shot.

An idea I have is that when they do show up, the building changes so it has a second floor with apartments in the same Art Deco style as the storefront below.  The main apartment will have direct access to the main storefront.  The roof will have the family dojo and garden.

As usual, the rank and file will not notice these changes, as the Metacontinuity, with its malleable causality, will make it seem as if it's always been that way.  The only people that will notice are displacees and Managers.

Basically, this will be one of those things that manages to slip through the Goddess's carefully cast nets.  As for the plot, I'm still trying to hash that out.  Don't worry, it will come at some point in time or another.

The main reason I like this is because not only is it in a wealthy neighborhood that will easily support the Takamachi family's public business venture, the storefront itself is whimsical and trendy.  While the sudden shift to the Art Deco style will undoubtedly throw the Takamachis, they will certainly get used to it as the visual style is inviting and friendly to Americans, loudly declaring "Good food is found here!" Even if it's not exactly what Americans are used to, San Antonians are increasingly metropolitan these days, even among those of the Conservative bent.

Thoughts?

[Labster]

:+1: LGTM

The good thing about Art Deco is that it scales up to tall buildings really well.

Is this the same neighborhood as your apartment complex? I kinda need to have a rough idea for my scene in Halloween, at least in terms of urban/suburban/rural and relative value of the neighborhood.

About the not noticing thing, I was thinking of having a character be from the Metacontinity base universe, but also have him have memories of being from another universe. Someone who wasn't central to the fictional story, but had a bit part. And having him be aware that his memories are a little incongruent. I guess I can post more on the wiki if you're interested.

[robkelk]

Hmmmmm... (checks Wikipedia) ...yes, the timing works out!

The Halloween trick-or-treating might be a good way to introduce the "Magical Lyrical" families to the rest of the displacees, assuming they've arrived in the Metacontinuity before October 31.

How it could work: Tomo hears about Contour Drive, jumps to the logical conclusion that rich people give away better-quality stuff (which is true in Ottawa, but we have "Embassy Row" to set the example), and convinces everybody else to make the trip to the neighborhood. While trick-or-treating, they get something tasty at the Midoriya, and move along to the next address. A couple of minutes later, Kazari (who has already been established as recognizing Rin from the Fate/stay night game) recognizes the Midoriya staff as being from the Triangle Heart game. (Don't ask me where Kazari got H-games - although she is a Judgment officer, so maybe she discovered them while scanning laptops in the evidence room.) She mentions this to Ruiko, who asks, "Wasn't that the source for the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime?" (First-season MGLN was aired three years before first-season ACSR.) Chibi-Usa asks "What's a Nanoha?", gets a description from Ruiko (MGLN is one year too new for Tomo to know about it), and races back to the Midoriya - maybe there's another magical girl her age!

Thoughts?

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh no, my place is a WAYS off...

   

And it's not quite the nicest neighborhood.  I wasn't kidding about it looking rough in my writings.

As you can see in the next picture here, we're in close proximity to Lackland AFB.  Once in a while we get overflown by a VC-22 Osprey doing training out here.  Lemme tell you, them some LOUD suckers when they're barely even 1000ft overhead.

Also, I can hear the Air Force trainees doing their firearms training from where we're at.  That's how close we are.

Also, Boeing has a major maintenance facility at the old Kelly field (nee Kelly AFB), so seeing C-5 Galaxies flying overhead is a very common occurrence as they need x-amount of flight hours after major maintenance to be recertified for service.  C-17's, C-130's, KC-135's are sometimes seen as well, and even Air Force One will stop by to have work done now and then.

   

Here's what the place actually looks like from the front...

   

And from the back, you can see a bit of what the units look like from inside the courtyard.

   

The neighborhood being a bit on the rough side, Ben will drive everyone out to prime trick-or-treating territory - about a mile north is an elementary school and a large park.  The park has several baseball diamonds, a playground, jogging paths, and even a skate park.  This is the most likely location for that confrontation with the bullies.

   

Bit more to come due to attachment limits...

[Black Aeronaut]

Hmmmmm... (checks Wikipedia) ...yes, the timing works out!

The Halloween trick-or-treating might be a good way to introduce the "Magical Lyrical" families to the rest of the displacees, assuming they've arrived in the Metacontinuity before October 31.

How it could work: Tomo hears about Contour Drive, jumps to the logical conclusion that rich people give away better-quality stuff (which is true in Ottawa, but we have "Embassy Row" to set the example), and convinces everybody else to make the trip to the neighborhood. While trick-or-treating, they get something tasty at the Midoriya, and move along to the next address. A couple of minutes later, Kazari (who has already been established as recognizing Rin from the Fate/stay night game) recognizes the Midoriya staff as being from the Triangle Heart game. (Don't ask me where Kazari got H-games - although she is a Judgment officer, so maybe she discovered them while scanning laptops in the evidence room.) She mentions this to Ruiko, who asks, "Wasn't that the source for the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime?" (First-season MGLN was aired three years before first-season ACSR.) Chibi-Usa asks "What's a Nanoha?", gets a description from Ruiko (MGLN is one year too new for Tomo to know about it), and races back to the Midoriya - maybe there's another magical girl her age!

Thoughts?

Ack!  Ninja'd!

Okay, yeah that WOULD be a great way to run into them!  Now I just have to work out how to time everything.  If we run into them while in the middle of one of the story arcs, that could steal the show, so to speak.... Lemme chew on it a bit.

The nice part is that I wrangled that 15-passenger van, so transporting all the trick-or-treaters won't be a problem.  If we need more carrying capacity then there's always the ever-faithful SCRAPPY!

   

   

For anyone 12 and up, riding in the cargo bed is legal here in the state of Texas, even on the highways.  It's a bit noisy, but a fun and novel experience for kids.  Someone else would have to drive the van, though, as Scrappy has a manual transmission - something of a dying breed this day and age with 8- and 10-speed automatics.

[Inquisitive Raven]

But the cargo bed is covered.  You don't get the full experience if it's covered.

Heh, I rode in the back of a pickup many years ago in summer camp.That was before various states started outlawing it. Somehow I'm not surprised that Texas is a state that didn't.

[Black Aeronaut]

The going idea here in Texas is that there's work to be done in the back of a truck, so it makes things a little more convenient if the Help doesn't need to be constantly jumping in and out of the bed. And also, sometimes you just plain have more bodies than seats and no vans to move them.

The fact that it makes life easier on families with very little means is a bonus. Though a semi-popular modification is to do what Australians do with their Utes: scavenge a bench or a couple of bucket seats from another truck and bolt them into the bed (making sure they're bolting into the frame rails underneath), just behind the cab and facing backwards. Put a roll bar on for just in case, and you have perfectly safe seating complete with seat belts.

Regarding the cover, I wouldn't want to mess up their costumes with 75mph slipstream.

[Labster]

Ouch, based on that timing, I need to change Chiyo's costume.  I do like the idea of Tomo hunting down the best candy spots in San Antonio.

Let's see, looks like the weather was low 60°, high 82°F, then low 72°F on Halloween 2016.  No precip.  Of course, by then, all of the chaos butterflies could have altered the metacontinuity climate, but close enough.  That's actually a nice big courtyard, maybe the party will be outside?  Has that swimming pool been converted to an onsen yet?

I think my party will arrive by motor vehicle; not sure if we'll still have it once we're there.  Given that all but two of my cast has never been to a desert (myself and Fujitaka), and that six tenants are in the tourism industry but don't have boats yet, the natural course of events tends towards a vacation.  I thought about the train, but really it's all about the Grand Canyon and the Balloon Festival, and that's not on any Amtrak route.  And Fujitaka will want to see at least one Puebloan ruin, probably Canyon de Chelly.  But 18 passengers, I dunno, maybe we can rent a bus.  Not sure if Athena would need a class B license to drive a Minibus, or if I should hire a charter.  Standard class C is limited to "2-axle, GVWR of 26,000 lbs".  You drive 13 tons, and what do you get?

[Black Aeronaut]

Well, if it's only a few extra, we can take the Super Beast. It's a bit overkill, but it has a four-door crew cab, and everyone else can fit in the passenger van.

And yes, the party, for the most part, will be outside. Texas's sub-tropical climate means that the temperatures at around Halloween time are usually quite pleasant. The swimming pool remains a swimming pool, though I'm thinking that Ben might convert it to a salt-water pool to cut down on harsh chemicals. The actual onsen will have its entrance be in the "old" manager's office in the middle of the courtyard, while Ben has moved the office back into its original location - a spot that looks like an apartment unit at the very end of the second floor of the third wing.

[robkelk]

Let's see, looks like the weather was low 60°, high 82°F, then low 72°F on Halloween 2016. No precip. Of course, by then, all of the chaos butterflies could have altered the metacontinuity climate, but close enough.

Who needs chaos butterflies (or an outdoor heater) when we have Sailor Mars?

The swimming pool remains a swimming pool, though I'm thinking that Ben might convert it to a salt-water pool to cut down on harsh chemicals.

"What do you mean you aren't going?"

"I'm making up for enrolling a month late. It's important to study."

"They have a swimming pool."

"Granted, it's also important to take a break and get some exercise."

"That's better, Ami."

[Black Aeronaut]

Let's see, looks like the weather was low 60°, high 82°F, then low 72°F on Halloween 2016.  No precip.  Of course, by then, all of the chaos butterflies could have altered the metacontinuity climate, but close enough.

Who needs chaos butterflies (or an outdoor heater) when we have Sailor Mars?

Just saying here and now to simplify things: Unless someone does something that Ben might call "Really fucking flashy", I see no reason that weather patterns would be altered.  Therefore, if weather is to be a factor in your story, you can refer to your local almanac.

The swimming pool remains a swimming pool, though I'm thinking that Ben might convert it to a salt-water pool to cut down on harsh chemicals.

"What do you mean you aren't going?"

"I'm making up for enrolling a month late. It's important to study."

"They have a swimming pool."

"Granted, it's also important to take a break and get some exercise."

"That's better, Ami."

Snrk.  Ami might be disappointed by the size - it's not a terribly big pool.  At least it's got a reasonably deep enough 'deep end' (something like 13 feet) for diving from the ground level.  I'll see if I can get some measurements and I'll definitely upload a few pics.

[Labster]

That was just me saying that I'm not militant about the weather being as observed. Setting the weather so that it matches the mood of the plot is fine. It's more I don't know the climatic variation in San Antonio. I can give you a reasonable climate range for everything within 500 miles of LA, but weather on the other side of the Dry Line is a bit mysterious to me, enough that I have to look it up.

[Black Aeronaut]

That was just me saying that I'm not militant about the weather being as observed.  Setting the weather so that it matches the mood of the plot is fine.  It's more I don't know the climatic variation in San Antonio.  I can give you a reasonable climate range for everything within 500 miles of LA, but weather on the other side of the Dry Line is a bit mysterious to me, enough that I have to look it up.

Snrk.

Weather here goes like this:

Spring:
Brilliantly sunny days with massive thunderstorms that will make you question why you ever came here in the first place.

Summer:
Long stretches of hot and humid weather.  Some days tend to be very windy.  Expect the occasional out-of-nowhere pop-up thunderstorm.  (No, really.  They just suddenly spring up from practically nothing, dump rain for a little bit, and then are just as suddenly no more.)

Autumn:
Same as Spring, only with a cooling trend rather than a warming trend.  Expect sudden cold snaps.

Winter:
Completely off the friggin' walls.  Week-long stretches of warm sunny days (you would think it was spring or autumn and not the middle of winter).  Week-long stretches of sudden bitter cold.  Week-long stretches of dreary, rainy weather.  The occasional thunderstorm that make you wonder why the hell you came here again.  And every once in a while we'll have a Bad Winter where we'll get things like freezing rain, sleet, or sometimes even snow.  (Here in a place where that's the exception rather than the rule?  This is very bad.  We have sand, and that is IT.)

[Rajvik]

Of course BA is leaving off that one season that anyone within 100 miles of the Gulf should always be ready for, Hurricane season

[Black Aeronaut]

Eh. For us up here in San Antonio, it usually means that the thunderstorms in the fall are that much flashier and frequent. We're fortunate that while the land is prone to flooding, it drains rather quickly once the water is granted sufficient thoroughfares. This is why some of the streets here are literally designed to act as sluiceways, and why we have two 25ft diameter drainage tunnels that run under the downtown area.

(You can tell which streets these are where the intersections suddenly dip down to accommodate.)