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And the bunnies keep on hopping...
03-13-2009, 07:51 PM
While I was cross-referencing character names in a fanfic, I happened to stumble across All Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku. Suddenly I could not help but
be enticed by the thought of a character based on her. What follows is the non-concrete musings that have flashed through my head.
Natally 'Nuku-chan' Jennings was an ordinary tom-boy growing up in the American mid-west. A highly practical girl, she is sweet natured yet shuns the
activities of other girls. Instead of going out shopping with 'girlfriends' she spent time helping her dad fix the tractor or whatever other peice of
machinery that chose to break down that week. Thus, she is a highly adept mechanic.
Her wave-job was, as is typical amongst most fen, an accident. A friend of hers managed to get ahold of a batch of gray goo, and let her have a small sample
when she voiced curiousity - she was wondering if it might help prevent breakdowns. (She actually succeeded - the tractor works like a champ and the only
quirk is that you have to command it like a mule.)
Her biomod grants her the usual cat-girl abilities, but with a highly unusual sub-set of abilities that sets her apart as an atypical catgirl. For one thing,
her cat-ears are mechanical and enable her to tap into any available Etherwave networks. They can also be hidden, which saves her a bit of the social stigma
of being a catgirl, deploying them only when she needs to use her etherwave connection. She has a tail as well, but she uses the old Sayajin Trick of wrapping
it around her waist to disguise it as a belt. Her body has also taken on a cybernetic nature - not that she has a fuly mechanized body, but her physical
abilities are augmented well beyond that of typical catgirls.
Once she became biomodded, her father, concerned for his daughter's well being, put the word out descreetly that he needed his girl to get off-planet
before anyone official found out about it. Upon leaving Earth, she decided to join the Sammies where she felt that her abilities and mindset would do the most
good and wound up in their corps of engineers. She's one of the few sammies that chooses to wear her coveralls instead of the fukus.
Later on, she found herself as a part of the contingent assigned to 36 Atalante by HRH, Queen Serenity (I,II,III?). There, she's happy as a clam working
with some of the most high-performance vehicles in the system. As a member of the Sammy contingent, she's Chief Flight Engineer of the Peacemaker class
ship, the Tough Love and with her abilities she holds her own quite admirably in punch-ups and shoot-outs.
Thoughts, anyone?
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Why am I getting the feeling A.C. is going to end up the Roughriders regular doctor? Among others?
I did consider doing an actual Nuku Nuku, but I didn't believe A.C.'d be that cruel to a cat. Admitedly the challenge would engage her interest, what
with the need to Uplift the poor thing and get it acclimatised to such things as speech, bipedal motion, opposable thumbs...
*grin* Sounds like an interesting character, Ben.
And you've hit on the reason that the Jason tends to do only plant biomodification, with some few exceptions, Cobalt. He doesn't want to wind up
hurting an animal in an experiment. With the human biomods that he's offered help on, he can at least explain the risks to the people involved and they can
make their own choices...and even there, he worries.
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Cobalt: In case you've forgotten, AC is responsible for Gina's body.  We just haven't written up that particular story yet.
Don't worry, once Kaitlyn Jones gets settled at 36 Atalante, she pretty much handles most of the medical needs over there. Ben would only call on AC for something that's unusual even for Handwavium - after all, his Mom can effectively manipulate most things that have enough handwavium in them.
Glad you guys like the character. And BTW, I think I found the majority of the crew. Or at least all the officers.
![[Image: disneysenshi.jpg]](http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1490/disneysenshi.jpg)
All in all, I think they're pretty well cast. Though I bet you can fit in the Atlantean Princess, Kida, as Saturn. Even if the age doesn't really fit, the princess of what is (was?) arguably the most (potentially?) powerful Empire fits with holding the most powerful healing and destructive force.
In a ways it would definitely make sense. It's only natural that a group of senshi whose biomods turned them into Disney Princesses would band together. This group in particular would be a special crack-squad - the Senshi equivilant of a SEAL team, and the decision to place them at 36 Atalante was not simply to aid Benjamin but to keep the group strategically positioned at what is as close to equidistant as you can get in the Sol system, but also so they can get there in what are some of the fastest ships available.
Ariel!Sailor Moon, of course, is not SM, but rather Sailor Atalante. The rest are not Named, but they're Pretty Damn Close(tm).
One other thing: can somebody please help me place who the hell has taken up Uranus's spot? I'm tempted to say that she's a short-haired version of Cinderella, but DANG.
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Quote:Ariel!Sailor Moon, of course, is not SM, but rather Sailor Atalante.
One wonders whether she was offered a posting out http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960303.html]near Uranus before accepting the post on Atalante...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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Found the Original Artist of Disney Sailor Moon here.
Our mystery Uranus is from the Direct-to-video Hunchback of Notre Dame II.
Also, the original image this is a Riff on is a promotional pic for Sailor Moon S.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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Somone did bring up the interesting point of Snow White not being present, though I think there's enough brunettes anyhow, and I don't think her
persona lends herself too well to being Saturn. Kida is a much better fit - she can kick-ass at will.
Strange thought: Capoeira - the official martial artform of the Sammies. Because you just gotta look good while kicking ass. Don't believe me? Check
this out. Though, the Senshi definitely don't pull any
punches - they know that the baddies play for keeps, of course.
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I wonder if that would imply a fair-sized Brazilian contingent among the Silver Millennium. Could that be justified? Is there any kind of magical/action girl
fandom in Brazil that could join the diaspora?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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You tell me. Given that this list is
most likely only the tip of the iceberg, I'd say it's pretty likely. Even if Sailor Moon isn't on it, chances are pretty good that it's been
torrented like a mo-fo down thereabouts. Hell, it still gets torrent action here in the US, though it helps that it's completely out of print.
Besides, capoeira isn't exactly exclusive to Brazil (even if it did originate from there). It's widespread enough that we could easily have had a few
Sammies from the US, Autrailia, Brazil, and Europe that all got together and formalized the whole thing.
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True enough, that YouTube link goes to an Australian video, after all.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Great then. Now all I gotta do is characterize them all. Trouble is, whenever I look at them, the Disney personas are all that jump out at me. *Sighs*
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BTW: Who else thinks that this is perfect - tailor made, even - for Fenspace? http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/ ... collection
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Quote:BTW: Who else thinks that this is perfect - tailor made, even - for Fenspace? http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/ ... collection]%[link=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/rocket-girls/sub.dvd-complete-collection]http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/ ... collection]
There's been http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/rep ... eply-12490]some discussion along those lines...
--
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them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Well, not a cross-over per say, but I can easily imagine some sort of anime/NASA fen establishing themselves on the Solomon islands who use just this schtick, because 1) it's fun, 2) it's profitable, and 3) the Handwavium LOVES it.
ETA: Just started watching the series (thank god for torrents and fast internet connections). Yeah, these girls, in one form or another, are making it in even if it's because the NASA-Fen at 36 Atalante setup a base in the Solomons.
"You're telling me that none of your testbeds for manned flight has succeeded past fuel testing yet and you're training teenage girls to do this!?"
"But Miss Heath, you where hardly any older yourself!"
"I WASN'T SITTING ON A MULTI-TON FIRECRACKER!" With an expert snap of her head, Erica Heath caused her luxuriant fall of blond locks that was the envy of many senshi to flare about her head and settle once more. The social scientist then sighed as she got out her phone and dialed a number. "I just know I'm gonna regret this. Hi, Li? Erica here. ... Yeah, I'm still down here. Look, you think you can drop by? We got a bit of a problem with something exploding too much."
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Quote:but I can easily imagine some sort of anime/NASA fen establishing themselves on the Solomon islands who use just this schtick
"Solomon Space Administration - a division of Artemis Corp."? Yeah, we could run with that...
Quote:"I just know I'm gonna regret this. Hi, Li? Erica here. ... Yeah, I'm still down here. Look, you think you can drop by? We got a bit of a problem with something exploding too much."
"I didn't think that was possible ... Oh. Yeah, putting somebody's life at risk is a bad thing. I'll tell Noah I need a week off - is that long enough, do you think?"
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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Quote:Well, not a cross-over per say, but I can easily imagine some sort of anime/NASA fen establishing themselves on the Solomon islands who use just this schtick, because 1) it's fun, 2) it's profitable, and 3) the Handwavium LOVES it.
I tell you true, if you guys decide to bring Rocket Girls into the equation - and I'm cool with that, JSYK - I'd rather see it as a straight crossover/incorporation than trying to build Yet Another Fan Group that we kinda sketch out details of and then never see again. Y'dig? There *was* leeway for crossover work in the original idea, and RG is niche enough that it won't suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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The way we incorporated Down Periscope? Sounds good to me...
Dibs on hiring Matsuri away from the SSA to work at Stellvia ATC! Or at least having her work at the SSA's Stellvia office.
(Yes, I know I mentioned this http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/rep ... eply-12490]back in late-September 2007. I wanted to reinforce the claim.)
Come to think of it, I suspect most of the 'Dane space agencies would want offices in cislunar space. The ESA owns Rockhounds asteroid SR-06 / Nouveau Paris in LEO, TSAB's got Benjamin Franklin Station at L4, Rockhounds asteroid SR-01 / Space Station Beta at L5 is host to Artemis/NASA, and I just allowed for the SSA to be on "my" station...
New Yavin and Babylon .5 don't have any appropriate tenants established yet.
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, CNSA, NSPO, ISRO, ISA, JAXA, and FKA all need offices. Considering the poor relations we've established existing between China and Fenspace, CNSA isn't going to have offices on any Fen facility. The others, though... I see some doubing-up of tenants. (SSA, JAXA, and NASA are all natural fits on Stellvia...)
--
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What's FKA stand for?
the ISRO and/or ISA can set up on Bab.5.
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FKA = "Federal'noe kosmicheskoe agentstvo Rossii" or Russian Federal Space Agency. Most people call it RSA or Roskosmos.
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Quote: Quote: "I just know I'm gonna regret this. Hi, Li? Erica here. ... Yeah, I'm still down here. Look, you think you can drop by? We got a bit of a
problem with something exploding too much."
"I didn't think that was possible ... Oh. Yeah, putting somebody's life at risk is a bad thing. I'll tell
Noah I need a week off - is that long enough, do you think?"
"Plenty. And no need to bring the porta-lab, either. They're pretty well equipped for an upstart space agency, and their chemist is
onto something. I'm no chemist myself, but I can tell that its revolutionary, even by our standards."
Quote: M_Fnord said:
I tell you true, if you guys decide to bring Rocket Girls into the equation - and I'm cool with that, JSYK - I'd rather see it as a straight
crossover/incorporation than trying to build Yet Another Fan Group that we kinda sketch out details of and then never see again. Y'dig? There *was*
leeway for crossover work in the original idea, and RG is niche enough that it won't suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Really? SUH-WEET!
Quote: robkelk said:
Dibs on hiring Matsuri away from the SSA to work at Stellvia ATC! Or at least having her work at the SSA's Stellvia office.
Hrm... Rather not see you snatch away the girl like that. Besides, you'd have her taking off every other day to go stomping through the
woods. That, and when she puts her mind to it, she's pretty damn willful. Did you see the way she pulled the Jedi mind trick on the guard!? Other
points: she's pretty damn good behind the stick herself, not due to the kind of instinct that Yukari has, but in that she has an inate ability to keep a
cool head and an optimistic outlook in the bleakest of situations. Therefore, I'd rather see her flying Coconut instead of pushing tin.
Changes that I'd make: Tanpopo is salvaged after its disasterous maiden flight, and Mangosteen has a sister ship that has generous cargo space in place of
the mission specialist's seat. Of course, this means a fourth astronaut. How about that Chinese girl?
Benefits of having the Wave around: The orbiters are no longer simply orbiters. They now have inner-system transit capabilities due to the use of hard-tech
fusion-torch engines. That or they could simply be flat-out waved. There's pros and cons to this. Going wave-assisted hardtech, they're taken a
little more seriously by proffessional Daneside outfits. Going wave-jobbed, the girls could, over time gain a mild cross-contamination biomod. I'm
thinking it would be fairly uniform in nature: 1) they're stuck at their size so they don't outgrow their vehicle's ability to carry them, 2)
completely and utterly at home in space - freefall or extreme g-forces don't bother them and they even have a slight ability to sense magnetic fields.
How fast should their ships go? They're pretty small and lightweight as far as purpose-built spacecraft go, so I'm sorely tempted to say 0.12c (we can
say that, as a quirk, they gotta accelerate their way to that speed first - maximum accl. rate 10 G's). Should they be able to achieve FTL once they pass
the Limit?
ETA: Thoughts on the Solomon Space Agency of Fenspace...
For one thing, I find that it would only be too easy to steal the thunder from the Solomon Space Agency, so they need to be posed as a truly viable entity.
I plan on accomplishing this by presenting them as a space agency that acts as the happy-middle: they are fen-danes that rely mostly on hard-tech made by
wave-enhanced machinery who are not afraid of associating with the rest of the Fen when the need arises. They'll probably get a lot of business from
NASA and JAXA subcontracting out (JAXA especially since the operation is
primarily run by Japanese citizens).
Thinking further on the requirements that keeping Tanpopo and Coconut in
action while adding a cargo lifter to the fleet means that we'll need not one, but TWO new pilots. Personally, I think the Chinese restaurant owner's
daughter would be an obvious shoe-in and would probably take over as Tanpopo's regular pilot. Question is who
else did we see in the anime that would make a good pilot candidate? Will we need to come up with someone new entirely or do we draw one from another source
within Fenspace?
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You can thank the fine people at Top Gear for this one.
Roughriders' Tactical Assault Vehicles
Base Frame: Wave-washed Toyota Hilux pickups
Purpose: Swarm tactics and damage soak combined.
May be equipped with any number of implements of destruction from repeating coil-guns, to small-calibur howitzers, or even small- to medium-missiles. Truck bed
provides an ideal receiver for modular units.
These trucks are, for all intents and purposes, indestructible. The only thing you can do to them is make them even more ugly. Modular units make them
incredibly flexible as well. An addition of any of these units to any fighting force is surely to tip the scales in their favor.
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Quote: blackaeronaut wrote:
You can thank the fine people at Top Gear for this one. These trucks are, for all intents and purposes, indestructible. The only thing you can do to them is
make them even more ugly.
Squad transports, and deployable (tip over) hard cover for same. Use 3 for Transport, and Cover, add one with a weapon of choice, you have a mounted/mobile
platoon with integrated fire support base.
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Quote:Thinking further on the requirements that keeping Tanpopo and Coconut in action while adding a cargo lifter to the fleet means that we'll need not one, but TWO new pilots. Personally, I think the Chinese restaurant owner's daughter would be an obvious shoe-in and would probably take over as Tanpopo's regular pilot.
Assuming she wants the job, that is. I got the vibe that she's quite happy on the ground. Quote:Question is who else did we see in the anime that would make a good pilot candidate? Will we need to come up with someone new entirely or do we draw one from another source within Fenspace?
Either would work. I do recall Yukari having at least two friends at school...
--
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them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
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Quote: robkelk wrote:
Quote: Thinking further on the requirements that keeping Tanpopo and Coconut in action while adding a cargo lifter to the fleet means that we'll need not one,
but TWO new pilots. Personally, I think the Chinese restaurant owner's daughter would be an obvious shoe-in and would probably take over as
Tanpopo's regular pilot.
Assuming she wants the job, that is. I got the vibe that she's quite happy on the ground.
Quote: Question is who else did we see in the anime that would make a good pilot candidate? Will we need to come up with someone new entirely or do we draw one
from another source within Fenspace?
Either would work. I do recall Yukari having at least two friends at school...
I'm going to be watching the series again, this time taking careful notes on the characters and how they behave. You may be right about that
girl wanting to stay on the ground, but then you have girls like Matsuri - you'd think a nature-girl like her would never set foot on a launchpad, yet
there she went...
We don't see much of her friends after the first episode. They're going to take a -lot- of fleshing out. Besides, I got the vibe that while they
think it's awesome having an astronaut for a friend, that she's kinda nuts all the same. Ah well, ain't all of the Fen just a little crazy?
Yukari: "HEY! I'm not crazy like any of you people!"
...Yeah. Yukari's already in my head, as you can see. Matsuri and Akane will soon be there to keep her company.
Yukari: "As if you don't have enough people in here already!"
Gina: "...I like her already. She's gonna fun to tease."
Jess: "Don't worry, Yukari-chan. We don't bite. Hard."
Yukari: O_o;
*Gina and Jess just about die laughing*
Uhm... Anyhow... What time-frame should we shoot for? Post-Boskonian war? Make sense to me, given that the neighborhood seems a bit safer now that the main
'infection' has been dealt with. Of course, Yukari's weapon's training will take on a whole different tone. Benjamin himself might train the
girls in small arms - he's pretty calm and patient. I'm already mentally going over what he'll be teaching them. I imagine that Gina will have a
few things to teach them as well in the realms of hand-to-hand combat.
Quote: Manytales00 said:
Squad transports, and deployable (tip over) hard cover for same. Use 3 for Transport, and Cover, add one with a weapon of choice, you have a mounted/mobile
platoon with integrated fire support base.
There's that. And the options packages are virtually limitless within the constraints of cargo cpacity (which is nothing to sneer at). For
example, I had a wonderful thought: VLS Missile Module carrying stinger missiles. Using a system similar to AEGIS, you can link as many as eight trucks with
these modules with one carrying a targeting system. Infantry transport and support is just the tip of the iceburg. As quickly as something like this can move
in open (if rugged) terrain plus how tough they are, they'll probably dominate most battlefield scenarios with sufficent numbers. It might be all too easy
to get carried away with something like this. Ah well, as long as the mods say its okay. This isn't supposed to be dystopian - the good guys are SUPPOSED
to win. 
You reminded me of something, Ben. Speaking of training girls...would you and rob like to see the snippet I have in my head...for the training he wants to
give your two kids on the holoemitters he gives them for gifts? 
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![[Image: disneysenshi.jpg]](http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=disneysenshi.jpg%5B/img)
