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

[robkelk]

Old thread is still useful.

EDIT: All of the old threads:

• Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  
• The Return of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  
• The Third Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  
• The Fourth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  
• The Fifth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  
• The Sixth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals
  

---

So, it's three weeks until Christmas. Anybody think we can get the Christmas Party story finished by then?

(dodges the incoming attacks from pretty much everybody)



EDIT: Here's a serious suggestion for that story. Each writer picks one of the characters from his or her household and writes a scene where that character gets or makes a gift for the person whose name he or she drew. (The list is here.) The challenge is that you aren't allowed to pick your SI - you have to write the story from a different character's viewpoint.

There are some easy name-draws (e.g. Sakura Kinomoto drew Tomoyo Daidouji's name) and some difficult ones (e.g. Ryo-Ooki drew Tomo Takino's name) - pick a scene to give yourself as much or as little a writing challenge as you prefer.

Oh, yes... Ben, in case you haven't read the list yet: Ayeka drew Ryoko's name. I expect hilarity to ensue.

This doesn't count as my entry for this, because I chose my SI for it. Besides, it's not much of a scene, and I see no way to expand it that doesn't count as padding.

Some gift exchange draws are easier than others, Rob Donaldson thought as he walked out of the Beer Store, Melissa Mao's gift under his arm.

[Black Aeronaut]

Nice tidbit Rob.

I have this idea about that kicking off some amusing tit-for-tat between Ben and Index, and then she tries to "impress" him...  So Ben decides to introduce them all to the true depths of the insanity that he grew up with.

*Chuckles*  "Index?  Sweet heart?  There's a reason why I have all the heaviest of heavy hitters at my complex.  Very little impresses me.  I'm a sailor, and I come from a long line of fiery-tempered women that can make Noike-san reconsider her options.  Don't get me wrong, Mom's a total sweet heart, but if you make her angry..."  He grinned wickedly.  "Let's just say that she has the title 'Hatchet Lady' for a reason."

Nanoha and Fate shared a set of very amused grins at this point, as they have heard the story of Hatchet Lady from the woman herself.

"Your mom is called Hatchet Lady!?  How did she get a name like that!?"

"Oh man, is that ever a story," said Ben with a huge grin on his face.  "Okay, so this was when I was living in Washing State, way back in the early 90's.  Washington's coast is pretty rugged, and the closest thing they had to a proper beach is a place called Pacific Beach.  No sand whatsoever, and ice-cold ocean water.  Dad loved going there, but I much preferred Malaquite Beach on Padre Island.

"Anyhow, we'd been there for a few nights and come to be on pretty good terms with the park rangers, so they made sure to warn us that a bunch of dumb kids from the Quinault Reservation next door were coming into the park and raiding campers' ice chests for booze.

"That very night, Mom happens to be out enjoying the night sky when she happens to notice three kids going from campsite to campsite.  Mom is nobody's fool, so she grabs the most threatening looking thing she could find - a hatchet - and goes after those boys like a woman on a mission."

("Because she was!!!") snarked Kaname Chidori, unable to stop herself from giggling.

Ben snickered and went on, "Those kids take one look a her and pretty much piss themselves.  Two just started running like Beelzebub himself had his hell hounds nipping at their heals.  One of them tries to play it cool and dashes to a phone booth.  She goes right up to the kid, hatchet held high, and tells him if she ever sees him there again that she'll take his head off!"

Ben gave everyone a moment to regather themselves before he went on.

"The thing is, though, the Park Rangers and a few other campers had seen what went down and jokingly started calling mom The Hatchet Lady.  The nickname stuck like glue, but Mom didn't care - she actually liked it, and swore that one day she was gonna get someone to teach her how to throw a tomahawk.

"But yeah, that's my Mom - a total sweet heart up until you royally cheese her off, then all bets are off.  And I won't have her any other way.  In fact, all the women in my family are scary like that."

Noike chortled as she said, "If that's the case, Benjamin, then it sounds like your family would be right at home on Jyurai.  Lady Seto would love you mother!"

Ben chuckled.  "I have it on good authority that I'm the sane one of the bunch.  Keep in mind, that was coming from a submarine sonar tech, and those guys have a reputation in the Navy for being weirdos."

You like? 

[robkelk]

I can't imaging anything that Index would say that would get a reaction like that from Ben... but I can see Touma saying something to get a reaction like that.

Keep it in the devfile.

[robkelk]

So, back to the 2016 Christmas Story.

I've been looking at the gift-exchange list again.

Naru Osaka - the daughter of a jewelry-store owner - drew Sakura Kinomoto's name. Sakura's getting a golden brooch with a five pointed star resting inside a stylized crescent moon.

Jayne has to get something for Railgun. I foresee a punishment zapping in the near future.

Oh, darn; Alicia Testarossa drew Benjamin Rhodes's name. Think she knows him well enough to get him an appropriate gift?

[Labster]

So, back to the 2016 Christmas Story.

I've been looking at the gift-exchange list again.

Naru Osaka - the daughter of a jewelry-store owner - drew Sakura Kinomoto's name. Sakura's getting a golden brooch with a five pointed star resting inside a stylized crescent moon.

U R Jeenyus!

*Chuckles*  "Index?  Sweet heart?  There's a reason why I have all the heaviest of heavy hitters at my complex.  Very little impresses me.

So you've got the moves, but have you got the touch?

If you want Ben to get into a bragging contest with Tomo do let me know.

"The thing is, though, the Park Rangers and a few other campers had seen what went down and jokingly started calling mom The Hatchet Lady.  The nickname stuck like glue, but Mom didn't care - she actually liked it, and swore that one day she was gonna get someone to teach her how to throw a tomahawk.

As long as they don't teach her to throw a Getter Tomahawk I think we're safe.  Amazing story!  (Was "Washing State" intentional or typo?)

[robkelk]

So, back to the 2016 Christmas Story.

I've been looking at the gift-exchange list again.

Naru Osaka - the daughter of a jewelry-store owner - drew Sakura Kinomoto's name. Sakura's getting a golden brooch with a five pointed star resting inside a stylized crescent moon.

U R Jeenyus!

I am? Where's my Valkyrie?

[Black Aeronaut]

*Chuckles*  "Index?  Sweet heart?  There's a reason why I have all the heaviest of heavy hitters at my complex.  Very little impresses me.

So you've got the moves, but have you got the touch?

If you want Ben to get into a bragging contest with Tomo do let me know.

"The thing is, though, the Park Rangers and a few other campers had seen what went down and jokingly started calling mom The Hatchet Lady.  The nickname stuck like glue, but Mom didn't care - she actually liked it, and swore that one day she was gonna get someone to teach her how to throw a tomahawk.

As long as they don't teach her to throw a Getter Tomahawk I think we're safe.  Amazing story!  (Was "Washing State" intentional or typo?)

Nah, Ben won't compete with Tomo.  Not unless they get into sharing "No shit, there I was" stories - and that's gonna be more just for the experience of swapping stories.

It was a typo, but it was probably something of a slip.  That place is DAMN DREARY.  Three weeks without ever seeing blue sky?  Rain that can go on for a week straight?  It's pretty up there in the Summer, but you can't pay me enough to live there again.  If anyone in-setting ever asks, Ben has the perfect little story to tell where a good friend didn't believe him about the weather up there. (EDIT: FYI, this is also an IRL-true story!)

Glad you liked Hatchet Lady.  This is the kind of shit you just can't make up.  As for Mom and mecha...  Mom might not be one to jump into a Getter machine, but that's because I think that a Zaku with a Heat Hawk would be more her speed. 

Mom will be something to behold in this setting.  Her Totem Spirits are Wonder Woman and Miss Piggy, complete with "HASE-KASE! HEEEE-YAH!!"  (And the fact that the new Wonder Woman movie has her with the Invisible Jet and the Lasso of Truth AND set in the 80's*?  Yeeeaaahhhhh.)  Piss Mom off?  You can kiss your initiative rolls goodbye.

And as a friend of mine who wrote a couple of great Gundam fics put it, it's all about the initiative when you're in mobile suits.

* Can I just say what a stroke of freakin' BRILLIANCE it was to set this movie in the 80's?  It might be aping what they did in Captain Marvel, but she ain't no replacement for 80's-style Wonder Woman.

[robkelk]

Aargh. I keep getting distracted by the shiny in the box that arrived at Christmastime.

Pros: At least I get the forum references to Squid Girl, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and Girls und Panzer now.

Cons: I only have 9k written in my current story.

What? "What 'current story'?" Have a teaser:

Ami thought for a moment. "I suppose we could go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

Mii grinned. "Some place where nobody knows us except as fictional characters. And I want to see more of this world."

[Labster]

Aargh. I keep getting distracted by the shiny in the box that arrived at Christmastime.

Pros: At least I get the forum references to Squid Girl, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and Girls und Panzer now.

Cons: I only have 9k written in my current story.

What? "What 'current story'?" Have a teaser:

Ami thought for a moment. "I suppose we could go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

Mii grinned. "Some place where nobody knows us except as fictional characters. And I want to see more of this world."

I had been tempted to have an inkvasion in Venice for quite some time.  As for me, it's been NieA_7 and Super Dimension Fortress Macross.  After three or four episodes of Macross, UF CORE makes way more sense now.

And I finally started writing again last night.  I was trying to write a scene about RWBY, but accidentally wrote a sequel about Black Twitter.  These things happen sometimes.

[robkelk]

Aargh. I keep getting distracted by the shiny in the box that arrived at Christmastime.

Pros: At least I get the forum references to Squid Girl, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and Girls und Panzer now.

Cons: I only have 9k written in my current story.

What? "What 'current story'?" Have a teaser:

Ami thought for a moment. "I suppose we could go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

Mii grinned. "Some place where nobody knows us except as fictional characters. And I want to see more of this world."

I had been tempted to have an inkvasion in Venice for quite some time.  As for me, it's been NieA_7 and Super Dimension Fortress Macross.  After three or four episodes of Macross, UF CORE makes way more sense now.

And I finally started writing again last night.  I was trying to write a scene about RWBY, but accidentally wrote a sequel about Black Twitter.  These things happen sometimes.

It's amazing how much crossover fanart there is between our favourite inkvader (and her beach restaurant companions) and the girls from Academy City - from the quantity on Safebooru (and its ecchi cousin), I think that crossover was a meme at some point. So... best if the former group squidaddles away from Ottawa so I don't get tempted to write fanon.

[Labster]

Oh, hey everyone, happy Epiphany!

-------

A clear tone, a melody, carried across the building to the revelers packed in the common room of Aria House.  Though not too loud, it cut through the rambling conversations, and everyone suddenly got quiet.

Most of the guests shuffled off through the apartments to the other side of the building to see what was happening, and crowded onto the first-floor balconies.  Below them, in the warm colored glow of the lights, were three goddesses and one motorcycle nut, singing a christmas carol cheerily and in unison.  As they made it to the chorus of "Angels We Have Heard on High", their voices split into six-part harmony for the gloria in excelsis deo.

The singers kept up the harmonics as they ran through the rest of the verses, leaving most everyone in awe.  Tomoyo was able to figure out that Belldandy was singing baritone, in perfect unison with Keiichi, at the same time as she was singing the mezzo soprano part.  She was in awe too, but hers was perhaps deeper.

As they wrapped up the third verse, the balconies erupted in applause -- as did a few residents of neighboring houses and apartment buildings. 

As Skuld gave a cheerful wave, Alicia called out, "Brava!"

Sakura raced down the central stairwell to go meet them with practiced speed, but Tomoyo beat her by bumming a ride from Kuroko.

"Very well done!" Tomoyo congratulated, "I especially liked how Keiichi-sama and Belldandy-sama sounded together."

"Ah! I'm glad you noticed!" Belldandy exclaimed.

Keiichi scratched the back of his head. "I didn't really do anything, it's all them."

Tomoyo said, "Of course you did.  You sang from your heart."

By this time, Brent had made it downstairs to greet them.  "Welcome to Aria House, Skuld.  And welcome back, Belldandy."  He seemed to be over his fear of her, and well, nothing said "be not afraid" like that performance.

"It's good to see you all again."

Skuld apologized, "Sorry I haven't been able to stop by until now, but, you know, stuff."

Brent replied, "That's okay.  Lots of stuff going around these days."

Urd stood tapping her foot.  "What am I, chopped liver?"

Brent eyed the woman who had only been there a few hours ago.  "Welcome back to Aria House, Urd.  Sashiburi!"

Urd grunted, "Tadaima," with rolled eyes.

"Now, now," Belldandy softly chastened.  "It's a special day, and we carolers have a duty."

"Oh, right."  Urd withdrew a stick of chalk from inside her dress and reached up to mark the lintel above the apartment building's front door with a tall X.  She passed it to Belldandy, who added another letter; she then lifted Skuld high enough to scribe the final letter.  Together, the runes read: ᚷᛗᛒ.

"A blessing on your home for the coming year," Belldandy remarked.

"Wait," Brent said, "Aren't you a couple weeks early?"

Bell shook her head.  "We've been doing it on this day since the first time."

"The first time?"

Urd glanced up.  "Yep, the stars look about the same as that night -- with one exception."

Brent was shocked, even though he shouldn't have been.  "No Way!"

"Way." Urd replied.

"Wow!" Brent was impressed, smiling at his girlfriend and looking at her with wide eyes.

Tomo wasn't impressed.  "Hey, maybe you should go inside to have your Christmas cake."

With Belldandy watching, Urd wasn't in the mood to tell that cupcake exactly how she felt.  Instead, she grabbed Brent by the arm, glanced directly at Tomo, and smiled playfully.  "Yes, let's!"

[robkelk]

Of course if you really think about it, Ami is the wealthiest one in Sailor Moon, because the Mercury Computer is at least as advanced as today's tech -- and the sensors may be even more advanced (assuming it's not 100% lunar-based remote sensing on instruments built ~10kya which is even crazier really).  I'd think that in the 90s, future tech like that should be worth at least a few billion.  The Grail and the Ginzuishou might be priceless, but they're not a business model.

Which suggests a project: somebody write a Windows 10 and/or SLES* 12 emulator for the Mercury Computer. (Not Washuu-chan or Skuld; they're busy with other things. Kazari, HAL, and Data would be better choices for that team, along with some "NPC" IT specialists.) Then Ami can pay her way through medical school by renting out computing time.

And as long as we're writing emulation software for advanced hardware, what does the Serenity's computer run? Or Akari's laptop?

Oh! Piffle's about to be noticed in the setting. Persocoms with Silver Millennium tech, anyone? This might be a necessary prerequisite to making Unison Devices.

EDIT: I'm sure I'm getting at least part of this idea from Labster...

---

*: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, one of the more popular versions of Linux for mainframes. You can also get it for PC-class desktops, and (as of Q2 2018) the Raspberry Pi.

[robkelk]

Oh, hey everyone, happy Epiphany!

Very nice!

Is Tomo jealous?

(I trust this is going to go into the Christmas Party file...)

[Labster]

I definitely was thinking about Akari's laptop and Piffle when I wrote in that other thread. It was just a little too off-topic to mention there.

Akari's laptop is probably an ARM descendant, which is less helpful than you'd think because you already have to have different complied versions available today. (I'm having fun with my Raspberry Pi.) You'd think the United Federation of Planets would have fairly advanced computer science about emulators and protocols by the Next Gen era; just think about all of those systems developed on other planets that would have to talk to each other to support galactic civilization.

Oh, hey everyone, happy Epiphany!

Very nice!

Is Tomo jealous?

(I trust this is going to go into the Christmas Party file...)

What, jealous?  Brent can date whoever he wants, even if she is a top-heavy boozy flirt, nothing to do with me.

[Dartz]

On an odd tangent, I think the 33-S are BSD compatible. Somewhere, in a fic, there is some command line work Mackie does on one.

[Black Aeronaut]

Federation computer systems are INTERESTING.

Part of why they are so fast is because they use a low-power version of their warp drive system within the computer cores themselves to make them function at FTL speeds.

I got the old TNG-Enterprise technical manual - the one considered to be canonical - sitting somewhere around here and I can dig it out if someone would like.

[Labster]

I bet they are interesting, the speed of light is already a major concern in computer engineering.  But I was mainly speaking about algorithms -- every self-organizing system has an instruction set and external signaling -- biological systems use DNA codons and hormones, for instance.

Really I'm just thinking about future tech because I'm reading Paean to SMAC, which is sort of an "In Which I Watch Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri".  Emphasis on the "watch", even though it's a game, because he looks at it as a plot with a canonical story -- the quotes that you get when you earn a new technology tell you a lot about their beliefs and how each faction did in the overall story, and who won the canonical victory.  You know, like that time in the late game that Sister Miriam killed herself, or the long war between the Gaians and Spartans.  Putting Chiron into the Alpha Centauri system for Act 2 would be interesting -- say mid-game, before the really crazy stuff starts happening with Planet.

Brian Reynolds occasionally chimes in in the comments section. Apparently he was unaware at the time that Deirdre's "network node" was a dirty joke when he wrote it.  Or so he claims.

[robkelk]

Aargh. I keep getting distracted by the shiny in the box that arrived at Christmastime.

Pros: At least I get the forum references to Squid Girl, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and Girls und Panzer now.

Cons: I only have 9k written in my current story.

What? "What 'current story'?" Have a teaser:

Ami thought for a moment. "I suppose we could go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

Mii grinned. "Some place where nobody knows us except as fictional characters. And I want to see more of this world."

A line that might or might not end up in this story:

Washuu studied the readouts for a full five minutes. "No, Ami-chan, open-heart surgery would be easier than what you're asking me to do."

[Dartz]

Sailor moon is not that well watched in Ireland. Outside of fandom circles - it was never shown on television. At least not on a channel I have. I knew very few people who had actually watched it. That might've changed in the last decade.

Sailor Moon cosplays are also quite rare. I think I've seen them a couple of years but not every year. It's a show that's older than most of fandom in Ireland.

[robkelk]

Sailor moon is not that well watched in Ireland. Outside of fandom circles - it was never shown on television. At least not on a channel I have. I knew very few people who had actually watched it. That might've changed in the last decade.

Sailor Moon cosplays are also quite rare. I think I've seen them a couple of years but not every year. It's a show that's older than most of fandom in Ireland.

I suppose we should start giving canon descriptions of the characters on the wiki, shouldn't we?

I've updated the template so that new Displacee pages will have section headers to remind people to give this information. The pages we already have... they'll need retrofitting.

EDIT: I'm going to assume you aren't familiar with Mahoromatic. Pulling her description out of that story I'm working on, is this enough to show what she's like at first glance?

Mahoro was wearing a white apron over a blue short-sleeved maid's dress - not as all-covering as an English or German maid's uniform, but far more modest than a French one - with a red ribbon with a brooch holding it in place as a tie. A maid's cap and a pair of sensible shoes over low socks completed the image of the quintessential professional maid... save for the yellow ribbon in her hair. Mahoro herself was taller than Ami but shorter than Mii, with black hair cut short except for twin bangs falling past her neck and short twin tails at the sides of her head. As Mahoro looked at her visitors, she noticed Mii's chest, causing her to frown in jealousy for a brief moment before she smiled again. But it was a very brief moment; she thought Mii didn't notice her lapse in professionalism.

[robkelk]

I had been tempted to have an inkvasion in Venice for quite some time.

Of course, if this happens, you know you'll need to change some character images on the wiki to this, this, and this.

Maybe we should change the images, anyway - follow the lead of the person who posted that image of Urd by Kiyohiko Azuma. Who was that, again?

[robkelk]

Sailor moon is not that well watched in Ireland. Outside of fandom circles - it was never shown on television. At least not on a channel I have. I knew very few people who had actually watched it. That might've changed in the last decade.

Sailor Moon cosplays are also quite rare. I think I've seen them a couple of years but not every year. It's a show that's older than most of fandom in Ireland.

I suppose we should start giving canon descriptions of the characters on the wiki, shouldn't we?

I've updated the template so that new Displacee pages will have section headers to remind people to give this information. The pages we already have... they'll need retrofitting.

The character pages that begin with A through R have been retrofitted with the new template. S through Z will have to wait for tomorrow.

[Labster]

I'm at 27 kB on my own story, which is not very far.  Maybe like a quarter written to the draft, or even less.  I'm trying to do the thing where I write a little bit every day; this brings me about 3 kB each session.  Not amazing, but at least I know I can get something out when I need to.

As for which story, it's this one, set soon after Halloween:

Cinder pulled out her scroll and unwound its transparent display screen to about the size of a cell phone.  On it, she consulted the map of the facility.  With her good arm, the one not covered by her black cape, she gestured to the left.  "This way.  It went into their biggest cage."

Strolling past cats cowering in the back of their three-tiered shelter cages, Mercury asked, "Sheesh.  What was it this time?  A Goliath?"

"How would they even capture a Goliath?" Emerald wondered.  And worried.

As they rounded the corner into the main yard, Cinder replied, "Not very well, it seems."

[robkelk]

Sailor moon is not that well watched in Ireland. Outside of fandom circles - it was never shown on television. At least not on a channel I have. I knew very few people who had actually watched it. That might've changed in the last decade.

Sailor Moon cosplays are also quite rare. I think I've seen them a couple of years but not every year. It's a show that's older than most of fandom in Ireland.

I suppose we should start giving canon descriptions of the characters on the wiki, shouldn't we?

I've updated the template so that new Displacee pages will have section headers to remind people to give this information. The pages we already have... they'll need retrofitting.

The character pages that begin with A through R have been retrofitted with the new template. S through Z will have to wait for tomorrow.

The remaining character pages now have the template, save for a very few that have so much information on them that adding the new template would be counterproductive. I also added a bit of actual information to a few of the character sheets while I was at it.

[robkelk]

So... The skating story. (Yes, skaters gonna skate - really!)

There's far too many people in attendance to fit in the minivan, even if the obvious non-skaters do something else instead. Luckily, the apartment managers know one Hell of a tour operator - but who to put at the front of the bus to keep everybody from getting bored? Rob thinks there's only one choice.

"But I don't know anything about being a tour guide!"

Rob sighed. "Weren't you undercover as a tour guide when you met Rei?"

"Oh, yeah. Hey, Luna, where's the Disguise Pen?"