[OOC][PLOT] The Fourth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Black Aeronaut]

Write it!

Fund it.

Will do.  I just wanna also get the plot outline for the next story arc banged out... which pretty much takes place right on the heals of this one...

Although I was half-expecting Precia to show up in the Imaginary Number District.

And if it's about a week or two after Halloween, that make a perfect time for Cinder Fall to pay a visit to Los Angeles.  Makes me wonder who else has been giving Precia grief.

If you got ideas, please do share them.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to make things more... "interesting".  

So... Precia in San Antonio, Cinder in LA, and the Unseelie in Ottawa, all at the same time?

I think we've identified just when things kick out of low gear.

Don't forget the Red Lectroids on Jersey.  It's gonna be Wall-to-Walpurgis Night!

Yeah, the only problem is that after this and the next story arc, it's gonna be kinda hard for me to top that.  I've got a few ideas, though.

@Black Aeronaut
Just a quick proofreader's note: "Simulacra" is strictly a plural. The singular is "simulacrum."

Thanks!  I'll make sure that's patched up when I get around to banging this thing out.  Shouldn't be too hard for me now that I know exactly what to do.

In fact, the hardest part now is going to be cooking up some engaging fight scenes.  The problem with that is that reading about a fight scene is nowhere nearly as fun as watching a fight scene.  I would be impressed if someone could transcribe a Monty Oum fight sequence and keep it interesting to read.

[Black Aeronaut]

Sooo, the Wolkenritter and Hayate.

Hayate will come to at the Children's Blood and Cancer Center in Austin.

Good news: She's getting some of the best medical care in the world.

Bad news: She can't find the Tome of Night Sky and her Wolkenritter are nowhere to be found.  Even the remnant of Reinforce Eins is absent.

Gil Graham is with her, along with Aria and Lotte (both passing for human).  They are not certain what's going on, but for some reason, Hayate is listed as Graham's foster child and the Liese twins are her caretakers.

Meanwhile, back in San Antonio, events begin to transpire.

A nameless wretch finds the Book of Darkness.  Who they are, unfortunately matters little, because they promptly stumble into a Witch's Lair (you know the one) and is devoured.

Leaving only the Witch/Simulacra of Alicia with the book.

Bad things are about to go down.

Meanwhile, back at Westwoods, Washu-chan, with the help of Nanoha, Fate, Raising Heart, and Bardiche are trying to get a better handle on Ben's anti-magic abilities.  In an idle state, he seems to put out a passive field that only extends a few inches from his skin.  Only a state of deep sleep or deep relaxation seems to fully disable it.  And an angry or enraged emotional state expands the field by several meters and intensifies it by an order of magnitude.  In this state, Benjamin seems to be able to completely dispel magic up to C-Rank (by TSAB's scale), partially degrade B-rank spells, and somewhat weaken A-rank spells.  Spells that are AA-rank and up are not noticeably affected.

Washu hypothesizes that Ben has something similar to the Counteractor present in Misaki Masaki-Jurai, only much weaker.  She also hypothesizes that Ben may be able to strengthen his ability, and even use it directionally, though it will take time for them to learn how he is able to control it.

Nanoha, Fate, and Alicia all begin attending a school nearby the apartment complex together.  Alicia and Fate are officially foster children of the Takamachi's until Lindy is found.  For the time being, they keep their original surname of Testarossa.

Alicia has tested well enough to place into third grade, but at Benjamin's advisement, she is placed with the 1st grade instead where it is likely that she will be much happier.  Nanoha and Fate are in 3rd grade despite testing well enough for 5th - again, on Ben's recommendation.  Although he does say that it's not a bad idea for the two to be in the same class together as that will greatly reduce the likelihood of bullying.

Meanwhile... Kyubey shows up and asks Alice Lowel-Bunnings if she wants to be a Magical Girl.  Unfortunately, Alice has never read Faust or anything like unto it, and while she is aware of the overall situation, she does not know about what Kyubey actually is.

Her wish?  For her and her friends to always be together.

Quick!  Let's plot out what kind of Puella Magi Alice would be!

Details Details Details!

I'm thinking maybe some kind of spatial manipulation power.  Great support ability - her main power lets her create wormholes for rapid movement of large groups.  Her magical weapon is an ornate rifle in the Winchester-style, but with a double-set double-phase trigger.

(This is actually pretty nifty. Double-set means the gun has two triggers. One trigger is the dedicated set trigger, which takes up all the slack from the firing trigger so it becomes 'hair triggered'.  Double-phase means pulling the set trigger is not required, making the gun more versatile.)

Her outfit could be reminiscent of those worn by Annie Oakley...




If that ain't good fodder for a mahou shoujo costume, I don't know what is.

Hell, I could easily see Annie'O being an object of fascination for Alice because some aspects of the sharp shooter's life are practically right out of a romance story.  For example, her talent only came to light at the age of 15 where she beat a traveling-show marksman, Frank E. Butler, and then married him soon after she turned 16!  And these two stayed the course together for the rest of their lives.  In fact, after his wife's passing, Butler was so heartbroken that he didn't eat anymore and passed away only eighteen days later.

Additionally, the woman was quite outspoken - she wanted ALL women to practice marksmanship, not only for self defense, but as a form of mental exercise.  She even wanted to train a group of women-sharpshooters for the US Army in the event that the USA and Spain went to war.  Unfortunately, they declined her offer.

Also, at only five feet tall, she wasn't nicknamed "Little Sure Shot" for nothing - she was legitimately small!

So.  Let's mix all that together and stir...

Admiral Graham manages to make contact with Lindy, apprising her of the situation.  They agree to keep an eye on the news for anything REALLY weird going on.  And boy do they find it.

The strange disturbance at Joint Base San Antonio.  And the string of bizarre deaths of homeless people.

They're not sure since none of it is the BoD's modus operandi, but they decide to keep an eye on things.

The Alicia-Witch has taken full control of the BoD and the Wolkenritter.  With them working for it and not being any the wiser since their memories were wiped, they set out with two objectives:
Find linker cores to feed into the book.
Find and kill Fate and Alicia

Thing is, this thing is all the worst possible things that Alicia could have been - greedy, vicious, jealous... it wants to eliminate it's two 'sisters' so that its 'mother' will come back and love it like she is supposed to.  A perfectly innocent desire twisted into something horrific and ugly.

In the meantime, it has been feeding on the hapless ones that stumble by it's nest who are already on the threshold of being suicidal.  No shortage of that these days, unfortunately, and the Alicia-Witch has been growing fat off of this terrible bounty, both breeding new familiars and filling pages in the BoD.

And then along comes Alice.  Completely unaware of the horrible danger she is in while being led by Kyubey.  The Incubator is sure that with the feeding grounds being so rich, the Witch has spawned several mature familiars by then.  (Not quite actually since, unknown to the Incubator, the Alicia-Witch has been splitting energy between breeding familiars and filling the BoD.)  Besides, even if it hasn't been enough time yet, it figures that maybe Alice can be left to the Witch's tender mercies as it gorges itself on her.... or if Alice defeats it... well, without grief seeds to purify her soul gem, it won't take too long for Alice to become a Witch herself.

Slow progress, perhaps, but still...

For the time being, though, the night is awash for Alice, and she returns home with Kyubey reassuring her that tomorrow they'll find it.

The next day, disaster.

As Nanoha, Fate, and Alicia ride the bus to school, Shamal locates them.  It is only a last-minute Barrier Seal by Arf that keeps everyone else from coming to harm.  And while Nanoha and Fate go on the defensive to protect Alicia, the Westwoods Apartments become a kicked-over anthill.  Of course, in all the excitement, Ben gets a bit too carried away with things, manages to get a gun, and before anyone realizes it, he's taken off in Scrappy.

He has Family out there now, and the only way they're gonna take it away from him is over his dead body.

Meanwhile, Nanoha and Fate are confused.  The Wolkenritter do not seem to recognize them, and it is slowly starting to sink in that the worse has probably happened.  As they dodge attacks, this time wary of Shamal's tricks, the worry over what has become of Hayate.

And then Benjamin, having been let in by Arf because she hasn't heard yet, arrives and makes a distraction of himself, running and carefully gunning to conserve ammo, and basically just making himself enough of a threat that he can't be easily ignored.  It helps that he's familiar enough with the terrain to make hit-and-run tactics work in his favor.  And it works just enough for Nanoha and Fate to get to the safety of Washu's lab with Alicia.

Finally, Vita manages to nail Ben, nearly killing him.

Squishy shows up and assimilates itself into Ben and then he let's Vita have it.

Up until then, the Masaki family and Urzu Squadron have been tying up the Wolkenritter with a combination of skill and numbers.  And now, Lindi, Chrono, Gil Graham, and Lotte and Aria have just shown up to the party.  Between that and Ben's Antimatter Surprise, the Wolkenritter retreat, leaving the others to perform damage control.

Marller and Sebastian get called in for backup - shit has well and truly hit the fan.

Ben calls a powwow - there's too much to go over, too many new players on the scene, and not a whole lot of time.  Newcomers are briefed.  The newly acquired information is disseminated, and everyone is debriefed.  Ben is admonished by Sebastian.  Ben counters with, "And what if it had been Lord Phantomhive before he was made a Grand Duke of Hell, out there with no protection?"  Sebastian counters that he would not have been as incapable as Benjamin and that Fate and Nanoha were far from defenseless, but concedes the points that Alicia was vulnerable, Nanoha and Fate were outnumbered at the time, and that when family is in danger it tends to pull all the stops out.

Though at any rate, Benjamin is far from defenseless himself now.  Washu sticks him in a hyperbaric time chamber in order to give him a crash-course in how to make use of his new physiology, as well as to whip up a basic combat suit for him.  (Think along the lines of the same suit that Washu gives to 'Walker' in AdmiralTigerCla's Sleeping With the Girls.)

Taking into consideration the situation, Peorth is called in as well - they'll need her skills in order to deal with the BoD once it's subdued.

Trouble is that a Witch's Lairs are notoriously hard to find.  Even the Goddesses can only point to a general direction.  So the idea is had to use Nanoha and Fate as live bait, having them simulate a battle in the skies above San Antonio.

And it works!

As the Wolkenritter emerge, even though they are being stealthy about it, the portal is still detectable and they have a fix on the lair.

But just as they think things are about to start going their way...  Alice shows up, led by Kyubey.

Ben realizes his horrible, critical blunder.  In the aftermath of Precia's ultimate demise, he only gave the broad strokes, and then with Alicia's resurrection occupying his mind, forgot to go into further detail.  In fact, everyone pretty much forgot about it.

And now, poor Alice had become damned soul - a cursed child because of his shortcoming.

Benjamin is torn between rage and despair as he tries to get Alice away from Kyubey... but instead, Alice insists that this time, she was going to stop the big bad so that Nanoha didn't have to... and then dives into the Witch's Lair.

Unfortunately, Kyubey gives them the slip, but now at least they know to watch for the little fucker.

Outside, Nanoha, Fate, Arf, and Ryoko continue their battle - Ryoko on Zafira, Arf on Shamal, Nanoha on Vita, and Fate on Signum.  On the surface, it seems that everyone is evenly matched... only that with the exception of Ryoko, all the others know their Wolkenritter counterparts quite well.  And even with Ryoko, she simply and completely out-classes Zafira.

As they fight, memories from before are slowly reawakened, and just when everyone has each other on the metaphorical ropes, the Wolkenritter suddenly understands what has happened, and the true master that they are betraying.  With that, they turn their attention back ground-side.

Inside the Witch's Lair, Alice has gotten a head start on everyone, using her movement abilities to close the distance between herself and the Witch.  And has discovered an abomination.

A horrible, twisted, and disgusting parody of little Alicia, reclined in a gothic bed, its body that of a mature woman, but its face that of a child still - one with black, soulless eyes that only communicated a ravenous hunger.  Its belly was horribly distended as unborn things writhed under the skin and small versions of the Witch, like horrible ghoulish toddlers, climbed out from her skirt one by one.  The Book of Darkness hovers ominously overhead, pulsing with an evil intent.

"You're not mommy..." hisses the abomination.  "Only mommy is allowed here!"

And then Reinforce Eins's voices comes from the BoD itself: "RUN ALICE! RUN!"

And so she does, with a horde of chittering, giggling, and squealing with delight as they chased her.  This is about where she runs into Ben - much to her surprise.  After making sure she's alright, Ben goes to work on the familiars using a basic beam-saber weapon given to him by Washu.  His AMF makes them vulnerable enough to kill easily.  Alice snaps out of her BSOD moment, gets her magic rifle, and starts helping.

Once the others start showing up, Ben takes a moment to explain to her how important it is that she protects her Soul Gem.  Naturally, she sticks to the middle of the group for safety's sake.

"Is it always like this!?" she asks Nanoha.
"I don't know.  This is only my third Big Bad... well, fourth if you count Precia twice!"

(As a side note, Ben can tell that Fate is being squicked out by having to fight horrible perversions of her sister, but she's being a real trooper about it.  All the same, he makes a note to make sure Fate and Alicia have some cuddle time later.)

Once they get to the Witch itself, Ben takes a shot at it - his time in the hyperbolic time chamber having given him the opportunity to practice lowering the yield of his M/AM projectiles to much safer levels.  Of course, the BoD reacts, but Ben just keeps right on hammering the abominations until he's all spent.  With the Witch weakened, a risky gamble is put into play.

Hayate is teleported in.  She may not have had the BoD in her possession when she arrived, but she still has its backdoor access keys.  With a bit of effort, she is able to wrest control of the BoD from the Witch, turning it back into The Tome of the Night Sky once again, and expel the malignant code that had developed (again).

And then everyone just unloads on the Witch.  Ben, of course, makes a grab for the grief seeds before the get the hell out of dodge.



Once it's all over, Ben calls another big pow-wow, this time calling in the Takamachis, the Lowell-Bunnings, and Tsukimuras.  It's decided that Alice will stay the night with Washu since they need to see if they can fix what's been done to Alice, or at the very least, make it so she's in no danger.

Alice, however, makes it clear that she does not want to go back to how things were.  She wants to remain as a Mahou Shoujo and stay with Nanoha and Fate.  Suzuka stands by her side out of solidarity - besides, as a vampire, albeit a young one, she's actually no slouch herself.  Shinobu sighs and says that it looks like she's gonna have to teach her sister how to use her abilities effectively in a scrap.

Ben jokingly says, "Oh great.  Yet another mouth to feed!" with a wink and a grin.

In the meantime, Hayate is having her reunion with the Wolkenritter... And Eins.  And then once the subject of the BoD's self defense program comes up, Ben shuts them down flat.  He will not see Eins going that route again.  They have Goddesses and quite possibly one of the most brilliant minds in the multiverse, along with enough quantum computing power to disassemble the BoD's programming code like a cheap watch.

They absolutely CAN fix her.

The only question is now, would Eins like a little sister named Zwei?

A few more things are sorted out.  Lindy spends some watching how Nanoha and Fate interact with Ben before confronting him: she has decided that she will leave Fate in his capable hands.  Besides, how could she take the girl away from him now when it's obvious that she's in love with him?  (And not to mention how Nanoha seems to be right there with her~...) Lindy doesn't mean for it, but it does make Ben a bit uncomfortable having that pointed out by someone new to the situation.

It's also decided that Hayate will stay there as well.  Washu has already repaired her body and Hayate is taking great glee in being able to walk, run, jump, and dance.  And then she causes a bit of ruckus and teasing by kissing Ben on the cheek for the help he's been.

Admiral Graham will stay at Westwoods with Aria and Lotte.  Together, they'll be starting training for the young ones.

Later on, Ben is still up, and so is Washu.  Fate, Nanoha, and Alicia are staying in his spare room for the night - they're already conked out and snuggled up together in one big futon.  It is adorable.

Ben has just fired off the report to the other Apartment Managers, letting them know what's happened so they can stay in the loop.  Tea is shared and Ben admits to Washu that maybe he's not technically human anymore... but he'll be damned if he's gonna let anyone tell him otherwise.  But what's really troubling him is The Girls.

For the time, he's simply going with it, but he is worried about other people finding out.  And regardless, this is going to be almost a decade of walking on eggshells for him if they never grow out of this.  He is fine with being like an adopted brother, but the romantic aspects of their relationship worry him.

Washu isn't going to tell him about what she and Momoko talked about.  Everything is up in the air, still, as far as she's concerned.  But Washu does comfort Ben in reminding him that Nanoha's parents approve of him... and so does Lindy.  And Ben grudgingly agrees... for now.

Somewhere on the south side of town in the half-abandoned industrial sprawl that was once Kelly Air Force Base, a group of Kyubeys appears.  They are herding a pair of the Familiars from earlier into a secluded alley, and it is here they begin to make another Witch's Lair.

And in the San Antonio Children's Hospital, Akemi Homura's eyes snap open.

She knows already.

Something is incredibly wrong.

The End....?
<mingthemerciless>OH-HO-HOH-HAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! AHH-HAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!</mingthemerciless>

[Labster]

Although I was half-expecting Precia to show up in the Imaginary Number District.

And if it's about a week or two after Halloween, that make a perfect time for Cinder Fall to pay a visit to Los Angeles.  Makes me wonder who else has been giving Precia grief.

If you got ideas, please do share them.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to make things more... "interesting".  

The first one was more of a comment that IIRC the way to El Hazard was through the imaginary number space, which is the void she fell into.  Academy City has district numbers, one of which is overlaps the rest, and is the Imaginary Number District where Hyouka is from.  No more thought than combining those two ideas, though they're not particularly related.  In fact El Hazard is more like the Imaginary Number District, metaphysically speaking.

The second point... I'll think about it about and send PMs.

So... Precia in San Antonio, Cinder in LA, and the Unseelie in Ottawa, all at the same time?

I think we've identified just when things kick out of low gear.

Don't forget the Red Lectroids on Jersey.  It's gonna be Wall-to-Walpurgis Night!

Yeah, the only problem is that after this and the next story arc, it's gonna be kinda hard for me to top that.  I've got a few ideas, though.

In fact, the hardest part now is going to be cooking up some engaging fight scenes.  The problem with that is that reading about a fight scene is nowhere nearly as fun as watching a fight scene.  I would be impressed if someone could transcribe a Monty Oum fight sequence and keep it interesting to read.

I'm really not worried about topping it, because it will surely happen.  My characters keep surprising me.  Sakura's power is still growing exponentially.  The roadmap for me is the third OP song from CCS.  All of it is relevant, but:

Genkai no nai
Kanousei ga koko ni aru
Kono te ni
(It's gonna be your world)
...
Utau youni, kiseki no youni
「omoi」 ga subete wo kaete yuku yo
Kitto, kitto
Odoroku kurai

There are no limits
All possibilities are right here
In my hands
(It's gonna be her world)

Like a hymn, like a miracle
My feelings will change everything
Surely
So much, it's almost astonishing

So in a mutable universe, I will have a character with the power to change everything.  If, you know, she lives.  If we've learned one thing from history, it's that something is murderous to true heroes who get enough power.  From Arthur to Tecumseh to Martin Luther King, Jr. we've lost so many chances to as people -- and so many of the rest were corrupted.  And on that count, perhaps the fate of the world falls on Tomoyo's shoulders.  Heavy is the head that wears the frilly bonnet.

You know, Gryphon got a lot better at fight scenes.  CORE was cool and all, but look at a later work like "The Revolution Will Be Televised".  Or "Quarantena", which isn't a fight scene, but it is an action sequence with the most impeccable timing.  But yeah... I'm also worried about how rubbish I will be in writing my first fight scene.

[Black Aeronaut]

Good point. I'll have to go back and start shotgunning Twilight and SotS again.

[robkelk]

Once it's all over, Ben calls another big pow-wow, this time calling in the Takamachis, the Lowell-Bunnings, and Tsukimuras. It's decided that Alice will stay the night with Washu since they need to see if they can fix what's been done to Alice, or at the very least, make it so she's in no danger.

Alice, however, makes it clear that she does not want to go back to how things were. She wants to remain as a Mahou Shoujo and stay with Nanoha and Fate. Suzuka stands by her side out of solidarity - besides, as a vampire, albeit a young one, she's actually no slouch herself. Shinobu sighs and says that it looks like she's gonna have to teach her sister how to use her abilities effectively in a scrap.

No time to make a proper reply right now. I'll just comment that (a) Usagi comes from after she's rescued everyone else in episode 200 of Sailor Moon, and (b) I've been borrowing Washuu-chan a fair amount, so fair's fair.

[Labster]

The plot in general seems sound. That's more than enough to start writing, I would have just started it, and had all of the rest of it as vague bullet points in my notes as they come up. I don't know who Alice Lowel-Bunnings is. Is that an original character?

I think actually a bigger challenge than the fight scene, is figuring out what a witch's lair for Alicia would look like. It's like trying to paint insanity into a visual medium. And for a character with so little screen time, what are the ephemera of her life in that fever dream? I'm probably a big enough David Lynch fan I can help. But in text, you can incorporate sensations not in the anime, like smells and touch. The wiki has Rune fonts which should definitely be used. Anyone around here speak German?

Alicia has tested well enough to place into third grade, but at Benjamin's advisement, she is placed with the 1st grade instead where it is likely that she will be much happier. Nanoha and Fate are in 3rd grade despite testing well enough for 5th - again, on Ben's recommendation. Although he does say that it's not a bad idea for the two to be in the same class together as that will greatly reduce the likelihood of bullying.

Obviously this kind of thing depends on the person, but this sort of thinking was applied to me several times, and it was terrible every single time. All of the time I wasted in school, because someone convinced my parents that I would be happier with people my own age, whole years of my life wasted in boredom. But then our whole school system is designed to silo people into the same skill level, so that when they reach a real workplace they can be totally unprepared for dealing with failure and people with different levels of skill. </rant>

But really, reconsider this, especially for Nanoha. Is she the kind of person who would be happier if she knew she had been held back? Most bullies wouldn't even be interested in her after she shows her alpha side even once. Exceptionally stupid kids may discover the family art, and she will inform them that she went easy on them, and it will be true.

[Black Aeronaut]

I kinda goofed on her name.  It's supposed to be 'Alisa' and not 'Alice', and 'Bannings', not 'Bunnings'.  She is, depending on the continuum at hand, either Alisa Lowell or Alisa Bannings.  She's a character from both MGLN and Triangle Heart.

In Triangle Heart 3...

Known as Alisa Bannings in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Alisa is a bitter young girl around Nanoha's age. She holds a grudge against all people, but somehow befriends Nanoha after Kuon has turned good. Alisa is actually a wandering spirit seeking rest after she was kidnapped and brutally murdered. In the Lyrical Toy Box game, even though she has passed to the spirit realm, her influence is felt everywhere. Nanoha meets Lindy at Alisa's grave.

In MGLN...

Alisa is an outspoken, dog-loving Anglophone and multimillionaire (sic) heiress, who gets angry when people keep secrets from her. Like Suzuka, she is a friend of Nanoha Takamachi and (in A's) Fate Testarossa. Like Nanoha with Yūno, Alisa treats an injured Aruf under the assumption that the familiar was just a big dog. She and Suzuka find out about Nanoha and Fate's status as mages near the end of A's when they witness to Nanoha and Fate's battle with Hayate possessed by the Book of Darkness. During the time frame that StrikerS occurs, Alisa is living an ordinary life as a college student. Alisa was adapted from the character of Alisa Lowell in Triangle Heart, but besides being a living being, is much friendlier and holds no such grudge against the world.

For the purposes of blending both continuities, I've combined the surnames, with her family actually having been a client of Shiro's.  I'll have it be that her family was at the event that was bombed, and nearly fatally wounding Shiro.  Once Alisa finds about about Nanoha's relation to the incident, and that she spent the entire time at her father's bedside, she became a staunch ally of the girl.

The combined surname can be easily explained by having a set of alpha-as-all-hell, but cosmopolitan parents; David Bannings and Jodie Lowell (Bannings in the source material).  (They even look the part!)



As for placement in school...  Point taken.  I'll have to write up a short where they have to deal with a clique of kids that are... well, not very bright.  (Hint: Nanoha won't be the only one.  Lotte Liese, who taught Chrono his Strike Arts, will be doing the same for all the youngins.  Including Alisa and Suzuka.)

[robkelk]

Alicia has tested well enough to place into third grade, but at Benjamin's advisement, she is placed with the 1st grade instead where it is likely that she will be much happier.  Nanoha and Fate are in 3rd grade despite testing well enough for 5th - again, on Ben's recommendation.  Although he does say that it's not a bad idea for the two to be in the same class together as that will greatly reduce the likelihood of bullying.

But Nanoha wouldn't bully anybody...

Thing is, this thing is all the worst possible things that Alicia could have been - greedy, vicious, jealous... it wants to eliminate it's two 'sisters' so that its 'mother' will come back and love it like she is supposed to.  A perfectly innocent desire twisted into something horrific and ugly.

That's not something I have the skills to write... but I don't mind seeing something like this in the Metacontinuity.

Up until then, the Masaki family and Urzu Squadron have been tying up the Wolkenritter with a combination of skill and numbers.  And now, Lindi, Chrono, Gil Graham, and Lotte and Aria have just shown up to the party.  Between that and Ben's Antimatter Surprise, the Wolkenritter retreat, leaving the others to perform damage control.

And for the Good Neighbor system to trigger. I don't care if it's in a pocket dimension, it's still a frakking matter/antimatter explosion!!!

(As a side note, Ben can tell that Fate is being squicked out by having to fight horrible perversions of her sister, but she's being a real trooper about it.  All the same, he makes a note to make sure Fate and Alicia have some cuddle time later.)

Somebody might think of the Misaka Sisters here... but what they went through wasn't anywhere near as bad as this. (The clones only had to experience their sisters dying - they never had to actually kill each other.)

Once it's all over, Ben calls another big pow-wow, this time calling in the Takamachis, the Lowell-Bunnings, and Tsukimuras.  It's decided that Alice will stay the night with Washu since they need to see if they can fix what's been done to Alice, or at the very least, make it so she's in no danger.

Alice, however, makes it clear that she does not want to go back to how things were.  She wants to remain as a Mahou Shoujo and stay with Nanoha and Fate.  Suzuka stands by her side out of solidarity - besides, as a vampire, albeit a young one, she's actually no slouch herself.  Shinobu sighs and says that it looks like she's gonna have to teach her sister how to use her abilities effectively in a scrap.

Ben jokingly says, "Oh great.  Yet another mouth to feed!" with a wink and a grin.

"Is Alisa condemned to being... not to put too fine a point on it, a soulless abomination?"

"Hey! She has a soul! It's just, well, not in her body."

"Like the star seeds weren't in the Sailor Senshi's bodies at the end of Sailor Stars?" asked Sasami.

Everyone went quiet for a brief moment. Then there was a mad scramble for cellphones - Ben had his out first.

Five minutes later, Usagi ... Sailor Moon's face was emotionless. "Who did this to her?"

"We'll fill you in later. Can you help her?"

"I think so."

It's also decided that Hayate will stay there as well.  Washu has already repaired her body and Hayate is taking great glee in being able to walk, run, jump, and dance.  And then she causes a bit of ruckus and teasing by kissing Ben on the cheek for the help he's been.

Hayate stood up and, for the first time in years, stood on her own two feet without Reinforce's assistance.

Her smile lit up the room.

Then she fell over.

Sasami grabbed her before she fell onto the floor. Hayate frowned and said, "I guess I'm a little out of practice."

"That's all right. I'll help you get used to having working legs again."

Washuu almost told Sasami that Hayate's strength would be returning quickly, but she changed her mind. Better for the two girls to have this reason to become friends, and to learn that it's all right to need to rely on somebody else or be there for somebody else to rely on her.


Thoughts?

[Labster]

> Alisa
> Alicia
> Amy
* Labster double-checks Arf's eye color

You're not planning on opening a competing gondola company, are you?

Thing is, this thing is all the worst possible things that Alicia could have been - greedy, vicious, jealous... it wants to eliminate it's two 'sisters' so that its 'mother' will come back and love it like she is supposed to.  A perfectly innocent desire twisted into something horrific and ugly.

That's not something I have the skills to write... but I don't mind seeing something like this in the Metacontinuity.

The great thing about this project is I get to write a whole bunch of things that I didn't have the skill to write until I wrote it.

Up until then, the Masaki family and Urzu Squadron have been tying up the Wolkenritter with a combination of skill and numbers.  And now, Lindi, Chrono, Gil Graham, and Lotte and Aria have just shown up to the party.  Between that and Ben's Antimatter Surprise, the Wolkenritter retreat, leaving the others to perform damage control.

And for the Good Neighbor system to trigger. I don't care if it's in a pocket dimension, it's still a frakking matter/antimatter explosion!!!

These happen a lot more than you think.  I don't want an alarm every time a nearby virtual particle pair self-annihilates.

"Is Alisa condemned to being... not to put too fine a point on it, a soulless abomination?"

"Hey! She has a soul! It's just, well, not in her body."

"Like the star seeds weren't in the Sailor Senshi's bodies at the end of Sailor Stars?" asked Sasami.

Everyone went quiet for a brief moment. Then there was a mad scramble for cellphones - Ben had his out first.

Five minutes later, Usagi ... Sailor Moon's face was emotionless. "Who did this to her?"

"We'll fill you in later. Can you help her?"

"I think so."

The analogy may be closer to the Pure Heart Crystal (although I think these are functionally the same thing, or closely related because something something Sephirot).  Minako could actually move with her heart in her hands, which is a bit closer to the puella magi, although much more hilarious.  Usagi and Hotaru can both wear their heart crystal outside their body.  And I'm planning to use this as a plot point a little later on with one of my magical girls.

Cellphones are great and all, but someone's going to have to teach us how to kythe.

[Black Aeronaut]

> Alisa
> Alicia
> Amy
* Labster double-checks Arf's eye color

You're not planning on opening a competing gondola company, are you?

Pfft.

Though to be honest, that sort of thing might actually be a big hit on the Riverwalk.

Alicia has tested well enough to place into third grade, but at Benjamin's advisement, she is placed with the 1st grade instead where it is likely that she will be much happier.  Nanoha and Fate are in 3rd grade despite testing well enough for 5th - again, on Ben's recommendation.  Although he does say that it's not a bad idea for the two to be in the same class together as that will greatly reduce the likelihood of bullying.

But Nanoha wouldn't bully anybody...

Nanoha: *Laughing her own wicked little laugh*

Thing is, this thing is all the worst possible things that Alicia could have been - greedy, vicious, jealous... it wants to eliminate it's two 'sisters' so that its 'mother' will come back and love it like she is supposed to.  A perfectly innocent desire twisted into something horrific and ugly.

That's not something I have the skills to write... but I don't mind seeing something like this in the Metacontinuity.

The great thing about this project is I get to write a whole bunch of things that I didn't have the skill to write until I wrote it.

A history of being abused tends to give you an inside perspective on these things.  Learning to write about it simply brings it all into focus.  It's just one of those things that comes with the territory - that you learn to recognize the common, every-day versions of these monsters for what they are, even if you haven't experienced the very worst of them, like David Pelzer has*.  This is probably why all the greatest horror writers had some kind of psychological trauma in their lives we are very well aware of what the monsters in human skin look like.

*A man that suffered horrific abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother, and wrote a book about it called A Child Called "It".  At the very least, he was put into a foster home when he was twelve.  While my abuse was not as severe, I was not so fortunate.

Up until then, the Masaki family and Urzu Squadron have been tying up the Wolkenritter with a combination of skill and numbers.  And now, Lindi, Chrono, Gil Graham, and Lotte and Aria have just shown up to the party.  Between that and Ben's Antimatter Surprise, the Wolkenritter retreat, leaving the others to perform damage control.

And for the Good Neighbor system to trigger. I don't care if it's in a pocket dimension, it's still a frakking matter/antimatter explosion!!!

These happen a lot more than you think.  I don't want an alarm every time a nearby virtual particle pair self-annihilates.

To be honest, it would probably be triggered the moment the opening salvo went off.  Shamal's abilities notwithstanding, the Wolkenritter don't really do 'subtle'.

(As a side note, Ben can tell that Fate is being squicked out by having to fight horrible perversions of her sister, but she's being a real trooper about it.  All the same, he makes a note to make sure Fate and Alicia have some cuddle time later.)

Somebody might think of the Misaka Sisters here... but what they went through wasn't anywhere near as bad as this. (The clones only had to experience their sisters dying - they never had to actually kill each other.)

I think that even so, their empathy would be appreciated.  Even if they have a hard time communicating it.

....  D'oh gawd.

THEY'RE A BUNCHA ASPIES!!!  HAH!  

"Is Alisa condemned to being... not to put too fine a point on it, a soulless abomination?"

"Hey! She has a soul! It's just, well, not in her body."

"Like the star seeds weren't in the Sailor Senshi's bodies at the end of Sailor Stars?" asked Sasami.

Everyone went quiet for a brief moment. Then there was a mad scramble for cellphones - Ben had his out first.

Five minutes later, Usagi ... Sailor Moon's face was emotionless. "Who did this to her?"

"We'll fill you in later. Can you help her?"

"I think so."

The analogy may be closer to the Pure Heart Crystal (although I think these are functionally the same thing, or closely related because something something Sephirot).  Minako could actually move with her heart in her hands, which is a bit closer to the puella magi, although much more hilarious.  Usagi and Hotaru can both wear their heart crystal outside their body.  And I'm planning to use this as a plot point a little later on with one of my magical girls.

I only know the very broad strokes of Stars, and I only know S a little better, so guys will have to fill me in here.

It's also decided that Hayate will stay there as well.  Washu has already repaired her body and Hayate is taking great glee in being able to walk, run, jump, and dance.  And then she causes a bit of ruckus and teasing by kissing Ben on the cheek for the help he's been.

Hayate stood up and, for the first time in years, stood on her own two feet without Reinforce's assistance.

Her smile lit up the room.

Then she fell over.

Sasami grabbed her before she fell onto the floor. Hayate frowned and said, "I guess I'm a little out of practice."

"That's all right. I'll help you get used to having working legs again."

Washuu almost told Sasami that Hayate's strength would be returning quickly, but she changed her mind. Better for the two girls to have this reason to become friends, and to learn that it's all right to need to rely on somebody else or be there for somebody else to rely on her.

Eh.  Sasami would probably be her friend and help her out regardless.  If Washu were to, for some reason, suggest that Sasami leave her alone, Sasami would have looked at her like she just grew another head, Zaphod Beeblebrox style.

Cellphones are great and all, but someone's going to have to teach us how to kythe.

Kythe?

* Black Aeronaut Googles that word...

Some kind of telepresence?

[Labster]

Sailor Stars is pretty weird.  Especially the anime, it's kind of incoherent at times.

Entire plot spoilers for Sailor Stars, both versions

TL;DW anime version is: Mamoru goes off to study in America, and ghosts Usagi.  Then as usual, random monsters start attacking every week.  Mysterious new sailor senshi appear -- some of them working for the enemy, and some of them are men (these are the good guys).  The good ones are from the planet Kinmokusei (an elaborate pun on orange osmanthus flower), and are trying to find their Usagi-equivalent.  Then Sailor Chibi-Chibi shows up, as if one Chibi wasn't annoying enough, but she doesn't have much plot relevance.  The evil senshi are being controlled by Sailor Galaxia, who is trying to take the star seeds from every single sailor in the Galaxy, so she can battle Chaos, the universe's Biggest Bad.  They start taking star seeds from Usagi's allies, one by one, until it's just her and the Sailor Starlights (incidentally, they do transform into women when they make up).  Usagi shows slight concern that Mamo-chan still isn't talking to her; it turns out his plane never made it to America.  It turns out Galaxia was corrupted by Chaos, there's a big battle, and then some Evangelion shit happens, and Usagi is naked and all of her friends are back.  Somehow.

TL;DR manga version: Mamoru disappears as above, and mysterious senshi start appearing as above.  Evil senshi, whose star seeds have been stolen by Galaxia, attack every chapter, and manage to capture a star seed every time, even though they get defeated.  But the war of attrition lingers on, and Usagi is losing all of her friends.  Reinforcements arrive from the always-female Sailor Starlights, who are searching for someone to help defeat Galaxia on behalf of their princess.  Sailor Tin Nyanko is from Planet Mao, and informs them their planet is dead before finishing the genocide herself.  Uranus and Neptune do a thing where they actually steal star seeds to they can double-agent against Galaxia, and this turns out poorly for them, and they disappear from their orbital castles.  Finally they find the other princess, and set off to confront Galaxia at Sgr A*, the Galaxy Cauldron.  There's a series of final battles; Usagi fights evil!Mamo-chan.  The Starlights fall, and it becomes clear that everyone whose star seed has been taken is legit dead -- as are the planets on which they lived.  Galaxia explains her plan that she always hated the world and the shitty planet she was born on, and decided that it would just be better if she remade the universe herself, and to please die now so she can accomplish this.  Chibiusa shows up with the Amazon Quartet as Big Damn Heroes at this point.  Sailor Moon and Sailor Galaxia battle at the edge of the Galaxy Cauldron, until Galaxia falls in.  Sailor Chibichibi upsizes, and reveals herself to be Sailor Cosmos, a reincarnation of Usagi from far in the future, returned back in time so she can contemplate her own fate.  Usagi decides that she belongs with her friends, walks into the Galaxy Cauldron, and they are all reborn at the start of the Crystal Millennium.

I do like the manga version better, even if it is a lot more genocidey.  It's certainly a Great Filter candidate.

Kything comes from The Time Quartet by Madeline L'Engle, the most famous book of which is A Wrinkle in Time.  It's essentially telepathy, with more of a spin that you're actually sharing minds with one another rather than simply speech.  I tend to like A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which is kind of like Quantum Leap but with a prayer for a central theme and time-traveling unicorns.

"Misaka does not have autism.  On the contrary, the Misaka network is 412% more effective at communication than average neurotypical communication, Misaka brags using numbers she just made up."

[Black Aeronaut]

.....  Yeah, Stars looks like it was a hot mess alright.  Yeesh.  Like Silver Moon Kingdom Apocalypse, Take #2, now with more idiot balls.

"Misaka does not have autism.  On the contrary, the Misaka network is 412% more effective at communication than average neurotypical communication, Misaka brags using numbers she just made up."

Benjamin gives Niiko his patented 'Pull the other one, it has bells on it' look.

"Niiko?  Sweetheart?  You're adorable, but you suck at this."

[robkelk]

.....  Yeah, Stars looks like it was a hot mess alright.  Yeesh.  Like Silver Moon Kingdom Apocalypse, Take #2, now with more idiot balls.

"Misaka does not have autism.  On the contrary, the Misaka network is 412% more effective at communication than average neurotypical communication, Misaka brags using numbers she just made up."

Benjamin gives Niiko his patented 'Pull the other one, it has bells on it' look.

"Niiko?  Sweetheart?  You're adorable, but you suck at this."

"Besides," Rob added, "that supposed 412% is shared amongst the five of you, so you're all running at, what, 81% of a normal person's ability?"

"82.4%, Rei Misaka corrects, undermining the Misaka position."

[Labster]

Nothing to report on my own work today.  In my dayjob, Microsoft launched today so it was (and still is) a run of last minute fixes and attempts to shoehorn systems together that were never designed to do these things.  Or, in other words, a very Microsoftish day.

I did come across this article via Hacker News:
Japan, the place with the strangest drug debate in the world, which isn't really all that "strange" if you understand how shame works in Japan.  It notified me that I really need to deal with the drug culture shock of freaking Venice Beach with at least one scene.  Mainly for the Azumanga crowd -- Neo Venezia is a tourist town, Sonomi is a world traveler, Fujitaka is an archaeologist.  And I dunno why but the idea of Yukito getting high seems like it would be funny.  But the article includes this line on the side:

It’s like Japan’s child abuse problem. For years, Japan said there’s no child abuse in the country. They didn’t take stats. Then there were so many sensational cases, they started taking stats. Guess what? There’s lots of child abuse in Japan.

Relevant to AiAo: Abe proposes banning corporal punishment by parents

And from the same site, but not apropos of anything: Japanese man watches US WWII Propaganda, says it totally nails Japanese culture

[Black Aeronaut]

Hrm. Come to think of that, Benjamin might have to sit his displacees down and have a few words with them in that regard, especially as CBD oil is taking off like a Saturn V rocket.

[Dartz]

Why not sent them to school?

Can't keep them sheltered from these things and it's better that they have a peer group that isn't from a TV show. I mean, they're still kids and they can fuck up and they needs kids their own age. They're not dolls and things.

If you wanna do the whole parent thing then don't put 'em in a box.

From a story point of view it's more fun to have them fuckup among other kids and have a culture clash.

Wouldn't that be fun.

It might be something Sylvie would comment on, if given the chance. They are free.

.....


Anyway, the Stars will be in the States on an actual visa so will be paying for their trip - probably playing local places if there're any about willing to give them work.


"Nam? Why did you throw the television out the window?"

"That's what rockbands do I read it online,"

"They're usually drunk when they do that,"

"But we can't get drunk,"

[Rajvik]

They could play Seville Quarter or The Vinyl in Pensacola

[Bob Schroeck]

And Sneaky Dee's in Toronto.

And The Court Tavern in New Brunswick (NJ, not Canada).

[Black Aeronaut]

Shout outs.  I like 'em.  

As for the girls, I had no intention of withholding them from school.  They'll skip a couple of grades, but I'm still kinda shakey on how much they should skip.

Despite how strong their math skills are, their weakest topics are going to be history/social studies, such as they are in elementary school here.  I think that with just some home schooling at an accelerated pace to catch them up, and they'll be good to go for the Spring term...  Although that's about where shit is REALLY gonna start flying.

Note: This goes for Sasami as well.  Math and sciences she'll be good on, but history and social studies...  yeah.  Fortunately, Washu can go ahead and run a class for the young displacees, and this will be all the more excuse for them to have extended stays at the apartments; they'll spend the weekdays at Westwoods, and then go back to their homes in Olmos Park on the weekends.  (And in turn, Sasami will probably go with them - she's so happy to have friends her age that she can actually relate to!)

[robkelk]

And Sneaky Dee's in Toronto.

And The Court Tavern in New Brunswick (NJ, not Canada).

And I've already mentioned the House of TARG in Ottawa.

[Labster]

Ummmm, The Rising Sun in New Orleans? I'm bad at this game.

In addition to the previous themes I mentioned I was using for Halloween: nobility, fairy tales, and gender roles, I'm going to add a fourth: mirrors. Which means I need to write a bit more content for Mira. Mainly I was just thinking about Hans Christian Andersen and Aztec political theology, and decided there's totally crossover potential there. So feel free to add moments like your characters getting dressed in front of mirrors in their costumes, etc.

[robkelk]

I already had Usagi holding her dress up and looking at it in the mirror, so that's one. Now Rei's specifically checked in the mirror that her hairdo is right.

[Labster]

I'm starting to worry if y'all are going to indulge me with 30kB of story about only one of my characters on Halloween, containing another 10kB side story that's on theme but not really plot relevant. I guess I just wanted to write a megacrossover fairy tale. But I'll have to let other editors be the judge of whether its worth including or not.

[robkelk]

And how much sidestory have I written already? No worries.

[Black Aeronaut]

Kinda distracted.  I'll see what I can do.  Keep in mind, the closest to 'fairy tale' stuff I can get to with my bunch is the Tenchi Muyo crew, and I've never seen Aria and only a little bit of CCS and AzDo.  I'll have to shotgun through all three series if I'm to contribute anything of any real value.

EDIT:  Okay, did some digging.  Fortunately, Aria and CCS (both the original series and Clear Card) are available on Crunchyroll.  AzDo is a bit harder to get at, but it's licensed by Sentai, so I was able to get it off my favorite torrenting site.

Aria the Animation - 13 Episodes
Okay...

Azumanga Daioh - 26 Episodes
....ooookaaayyyy....

Cardcaptor Sakura + Clear Card - 92 EPISODES!?

... uh yeah, Brent?  This is gonna be a while.  Can't watch anime and drive at the same time.