Fiction Friday: Xenosaga Fic: Chapter Three Begins

Sorry for the lateness on this. Been having computer issues. 

Dr. Nadeshiko Kodesh was not having a good morning. "Three people," she muttered into her coffee. "Three more dead, doctor. So much for talent."

She drained the cup, staring blankly at the wall of her small, bare quarters. She had an apartment in the city, paid for by the Bethel Fund, but she hadn't slept there in a week. Hadn't left the camp in six days. With Berrol sick, she had no choice; it was just her and Dr. Viri caring for nearly three hundred refugees.

Most of the refugees were sick most of the time. The doctors took great pains to isolate themselves from infection, but with hundreds of people crammed together, most of them with damaged immune systems, there was simply no way to be completely safe. In her two years here, even Nadeshiko had been too sick to work twice. Hardly a month went by that Viri or Berrol didn't miss a day or two, and Berrol had now been throwing up virtually everything for six days. They had him in a hospital in the city now. Apparently, the city hospitals did have beds they weren't using, as long as you weren't from Midbar.

Nadeshiko slammed her cup down. Her eyes hurt, and frustrated, angry tears threatened to fall. Instinctively, she switched off her tear ducts until the feeling passed. She couldn't really blame the city. They could easily have filled every hospital bed with refugees, at the cost of leaving nothing for their own citizens; they chose, instead, to admit all the refugees under the age of twenty, and supplied food to the remainder. It was more than a lot of other places did.
No, she had only herself to blame for losing three more patients. Death had beaten her again. Next time, she'd fight harder.

Time to work. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, dissolving the fatigue toxins in her system, slowing the absorption rate of the caffeine and enhancing its effects, so that one cup of coffee would keep her up for several hours without making her hyper. The slight shaking in her hands subsided as she forced her biochemistry to accede to her will.

Feeling fully refreshed, albeit frustrated and a little slow, she stepped out into the bright desert sun and got to work.

***

Seth made the last finishing touches to his ad and sat back. "What do you think?" he asked.

"It's fine," said Izzy. "Just like the last three versions."

"I want it to be better than fine! I've got a good feeling about this find. Somebody out there's going to pay through the nose for this thing." Seth looked down at his ad. 

"Salvage for sale," it read. "Sealed, armored container recovered from wreck of tramp freighter Ahura off Bethel. 1.4 tonnes, 18m x 8m x 2m. No identifying markings, content listing, or danger warnings. Sold as is, unopened. C25,000 OBO."

His asking price was five times the worth of the container empty. Unfortunately, not even he and Izzy together had been able to crack its lock codes, and its armor was too heavy to be pierced by anything less than the Isolde's bow cannon, which ran too much risk of damaging the contents. All they knew about its contents was that they weighed about half a tonne, based on their best estimate of the weight of the container, so Seth pretty much had to guess how much they'd have to be worth to warrant that level of protection.

"Okay," he said finally. "As soon as we land, get us some time on the spaceport's EPR and upload that to, uh," he ticked off markets on his fingers, "let's say the local market, Ur, the Federation, and Artaxerxes. Oh, and Scientia and the Church, of course."

"Gotcha, boss," said Izzy. Something about the way she said it made Seth feel she wanted to say more. "You ever think about how great it must have been in the old days, boss? Back when you could just upload this sort of thing to the UMN when you felt like it, with color and video, and talk to buyers in realtime?"

"Yes, in the wonderful golden age of our wise and benevolent ancestors," Seth answered sarcastically. "I don't know where you pick up these things. You know I don't believe in that stuff."

"You're a salvager, boss. You of all people know how much technology we lost in the Dark Ages. You really think we've gotten it all back?"

"I think legend has exaggerated what the ancients could do. If there really had once been a giant super-fast network spanning the whole cluster, don't you think Scientia would be at least working on recreating it now? Next you're going to tell me you believe there really was a Saoshi who magically visited a thousand planets a hundred and fifty years before IS Gates."

"Ah, boss, you don't have to make fun of me." There was a clear pout in Izzy's voice. "Anyway, we've got clearance to land. We hit atmosphere in five minutes."
"Gotcha," said Seth. "Let the guys know. I'll meet them at the bridge."

***

"Well, hell," said Wally. "Now what do we do?"

"First priority is to get out of here," said Sardula. "Judging by those cages, there's at least four more Divs in the building, and more to the point there'll be soldiers coming to pacify them as soon as they're confident everyone in the building is dead. After that, we watch their communications and try to figure out if the Original is still here, or if they've moved it offplanet."

"How exactly do you plan on getting out?" asked Wally.

Sardula pointed to the far end of the room, where an open shaft led up. "That must be how they got the objective out without anyone noticing; it's probably for bringing equipment and personnel in and out of the lab without having to pass through lower-security areas. The other end is no doubt concealed somewhere in the hills behind the facility."

"Sure," said Wally, "and it's probably covered by a squad of AMWS and a couple of missile batteries, too. They obviously aren't kidding around about securing the Original."

"At least one squad," Sardula agreed.

"So, what, you want to just crawl up the shaft and ask them politely to let us go through?"

"As much fun as that might be, I have a better plan." Sardula looked up the shaft. "Yes, the other end must be about six hundred meters south-by-southwest of the facility."

"That's really great to know," said Wally. "I don't suppose you've been transmitting all this to a small army of friends who are now going to fight their way down the shaft and pick us up, have you?"

"Not exactly," Sardula answered. For the first time, she gave a small, secretive smile. If Wally hadn't just seen her go toe-to-toe with two Divs and win, he'd have said it made her look pixie-ish. "Ah, it should just about be here."

"What?" asked Wally. "I don't see anything."

"Exactly," said Sardula, as a small black AMWS materialized at the bottom of the shaft, hovering in near-total silence.

"Oh, wow," said Wally. "Is that a Fuyutsuki & Ogilvy Stealth AMWS? I've heard of them, but this has a different profile. Is it a new model? I thought F&O cancelled the ZX series!"

"As far as anyone else is concerned, they did." The cockpit opened, and Sardula climbed nimbly up into the pilot's chair. "Coming?"

"Right, right!" said Wally, scrambling up into the copilot's seat, underneath the pilot's and slightly farther forward. The cockpit closed around them, and Wally felt the brief, quivering disorientation of an artificial gravity system kicking in. Then they were off, rocketing up the shaft at dizzying speed.

"Wait!" shouted Wally. "Shouldn't you turn the stealth back on? We'll be seen!"

"That's the plan," replied Sardula. "Hang on!"

Wally craned his neck, trying to look up the shaft to see what guards were waiting for them. As a result, he didn't notice something small and red and shining drop from the AMWS. Then the first missiles came spiraling down the shaft, and he couldn't bear to look any longer.

***

"So, how long are we stopping, Captain?" asked Vix. She shaded her eyes as she studied the town on the other side of the spaceport. She had to admit, from here it looked pretty -- long, low buildings of white stone, mostly, their domes shining in the desert sun.

"Couple of days at least," Seth answered. He'd discarded his jacket, and looked even younger than he was in his red t-shirt and black jeans. "Gotta give buyers time to notice us. I want our next stop to be delivering that box to its owner."

"Ahh," sighed Wehj, stretching as he stepped out onto the ramp. "Feel that sunlight!"

"All right," said Seth, "I'm going to make our delivery. You two try not to get into too much trouble, all right? I'm not covering bail this time, Vix."

"Hey, that guy had it coming! Just out of the blue, stops me on the street and starts yelling about something, tells me there's gonna be a reckoning? He's lucky I just decked 'im!"

"He was a street preacher!" Wehj protested.

"Whatever," said Vix. "I'm going to go find out what the locals drink. You coming?"

"Yeah, okay," said Wehj. "But you're paying for your own drinks this time!"

Seth shook his head as the two walked off across the landing pad, actually nothing more than a ring of lights on a flat stretch of packed-down red sand. "Any luck finding us a hopper, Izzy?" he asked.

"Sorry, boss," she answered through his earpiece. "Looks like it's going to have to be a truck. Hoppers are pricy around here."

"Ah, hell, I hate riding things with wheels. How expensive are we talking?"

"You want to eat this week?"

"Ow." Seth grimaced. "Fine, make it a truck. Where do I pick it up?"

Seth accepted the directions from Izzy, then went to get the truck, a battered old thing that didn't even have autopilot. "At least it's not internal combustion," he muttered to himself as he drove it back to the Isolde. "I guess I should be grateful for that."

Fifteen minutes later, he was bouncing and jolting his way across a badly-maintained desert road, practically crawling at 175 kph. The climate control was broken and the windows didn't open, so he was pouring sweat, envying the medicines in their nice, heavy refrigeration units, and hating the universe. "Next time, I'm sending Vix." A particularly skull-rattling bump spawned a stream of curses, giving Seth time to reconsider. "No, she'd murder me when she got back. I'll send Wehj."

A distance marker shot past. Forty kilometers still to go. "I hate planets," said Seth. "I don't know why anybody stays on them."

Fundamentals: Everything Ends

My Little Po-Mo vol. 2 is on sale! Check out the Books page for more info!

I've started a Patreon to fund The Near-Apocalypse of '09! Patrons get early access to articles and videos and more!

The one absolute certainty, the one thing we know, is death.

So of course we spend most of our lives trying to run or hide from it, because certainty is terrifying. We pretend that some aspect of the self survives death (which of course we all know instinctively isn't true, hence why we mourn death more intensely than any other departure or separation), we pretend that we ourselves are immortal, or that something eternal exists--a perfect eternal state of bliss somewhere in the past or future or sideways from the everyday world of change and time and death.

And we do this knowing it's false, because of the essential tragedy of the human condition, the need for unconditional love. We need to believe that love--some kind of love, be it familial or fraternal or romantic--is forever, but of course it never is; if nothing else it ends with the death of the lover. So we convince ourselves that there's a way out, either a way to shed the need to be loved or a way to find something eternal. We lie to ourselves that there might be things without beginning or end, that there might be such a thing as "perfect." All the while watching people die, endeavors fail, institutions fall, civilizations collapse.

But this doesn't have to be a bad thing. Yes, everything we build must someday crumble. Yes, the day will come when the last person who knew you personally dies, and with them all direct memory of you vanishes from this Earth. Yes, even if you become a Shakespeare or an Alexander or a Siddhartha, sooner or later you will end up an Ozymandias.

But it also means that every corrupt and restraining authority will someday fall, that every unfair rule will someday cease to be enforced, that every bully's strength will someday fail. It doesn't matter what revolution you desire; wait long enough and the object of your rebellion will fall, if not in your lifetime than at some future point.

Nothing lasts forever, which means everything is always changing. Surely some of that change has to be for the better, at least some of the time, right?

Sailor Moon Crystal Liveblog: Episode 9

In case you missed my announcement, in a few weeks I'm going to start posting weekly video responses on Wednesdays instead of text liveblogs. None of the liveblogs are going away, they're just all going to be on Saturday instead of split between two days.

Curious about the videos? Subscribers to my Patreon can see them right away--the first is going up today!

[14:45] <Sylocat> Ah yes, when we last left off, he was making himself useful for once
[14:45] <Arrlaari> Quick reminder: Tuxedo Mask was unable to follow very simple instructions
[14:46] <FoME> "Stay here while the people with actual magic fight."
[14:46] <FoME> Evidently, this was some kind of flashback laser.
[14:47] <Sylocat> Wait, did anyone involved with this production, or even the manga authors, think it would be a surprise that Usagi was Serenity?
[14:47] <Sylocat> This is being shot and scored like a plot twist
[14:47] <FoME> It kind of was twenty years ago.
01[14:48] <Froborr> Most current anime viewers weren't born when the first series aired.
[14:48] <Sylocat> I suppose
[14:48] <Arrlaari> When I was watching the 4kids dub I thought it was pretty obvious
[14:48] <FoME> Ad.
[14:48] <Sylocat> Even so, it was so obvious...
[14:48] <Arrlaari> likewise
[14:48] <Sylocat> Alrighty then...
[14:48] <Sylocat> Paused at the title card
[14:49] <FoME> Oh hey, not an ad for Crunchyroll.
[14:49] <Sylocat> What's it advertising instead?
[14:49] <Arrlaari> Also, I should note that in the old cartoon, "is Sailor V the princess?" was resolved with her immediately saying "Naw, I'm just Sailor Venus"
01[14:49] <Froborr> Heheh, watching with adblock is funny, it just flickers instead of showing the ad.
01[14:49] <Froborr> Three flickers, hmm.
[14:49] <Arrlaari> So I was surprised when in this show, Sailor V actually straight up lied about it
[14:49] <Sylocat> Ooh, I never counted the flickers
[14:49] <FoME> A show on Fox. And now the cloud. And now a different show.
[14:50] <FoME> Back.
[14:50] <Arrlaari> back
[14:50] <Sylocat> Or does Sailor V actually think she's the princess?
[14:50] <Arrlaari> The conversation with Artemis last episode clearly indicated that she knows what's up
[14:50] <FoME> And everyone's showing complete disregard for gravity.
[14:50] <Sylocat> Ah yeah, I forgot
[14:50] <Sylocat> Oh great, THIS triggers a BSoD
[14:50] <Sylocat> Or... not. Okay.
01[14:51] <Froborr> Sailor Moon is evolving!
[14:51] <Arrlaari> I really wish they hadn't cut Tuxedo Mask's "crying doesn't solve anything" line from the first episode in a version of the show where crying solves things even more often than in the old show
[14:51] <Sylocat> Or Digivolving
01[14:51] <Froborr> She became PRINCESS.
[14:52] <Sylocat> Sailormon Digivolve to... Princessofthemon!
01[14:52] <Froborr> And then she reverses time, like you do.
[14:52] <FoME> Nope. Just memories.
01[14:52] <Froborr> Okay, yeah, Sylocat's gag is better.
[14:52] <Sylocat> Now there's a show I haven't seen in way too long
01[14:52] <Froborr> Never watched it.
[14:52] <Sylocat> You should at least see the third season, Digimon Tamers
01[14:53] <Froborr> FIRST PRINCE OF THE EARTH?
[14:53] <Sylocat> It's one of the best things ever, even the dubbed version was great
[14:53] <FoME> That was a very good one, yes.
01[14:53] <Froborr> Just how far in the past are we?
[14:53] <Sylocat> Oh yikes, Romeo and Juliet...
[14:53] <FoME> "God's law"? What, are nephilim a thing?
01[14:53] <Froborr> Or just angry mobs, I guess?
[14:53] <Sylocat> Oh, and SHE was there
[14:54] <Sylocat> Okay, we get it
01[14:54] <Froborr> Wait, no, she is a Pokemon, her tears have healing powers.
[14:55] <Sylocat> Ah, good point, there
01[14:55] <Froborr> "It's the legendary silver crystal! It was hiding in her face!"
[14:55] <FoME> Now we just need to clone her...
[14:55] <Sylocat> So yes, the power of girls crying is the power that will save the world
[14:55] <Arrlaari> Those two are awfully quick to celebrate the MacGuffin appearing in the hands of their enemy
[14:56] <Sylocat> Good thing girls cry alot AMIRITE
[14:56] <Sylocat> Whoa, Force Lightning
[14:56] <FoME> Well, Usagi does, though that's been underplayed in this version of the show.
[14:57] <Sylocat> Oh, is this the part where he gets brainwashed and turns evil?
[14:57] <FoME> Um, no. That's not a crystal. That is a man.
[14:57] <Sylocat> So he becomes EVEN MORE of a "Bad Boy™?"
01[14:57] <Froborr> Ah, of course, the old hostage-for-MacGuffin gambit.
01[14:57] <Froborr> With optional hostage brainwashing.
[14:57] <FoME> Ad.
[14:57] <Arrlaari> ad
01[14:57] <Froborr> Eh, I'm guessing it won't handle it as well as Fushigi Yuugi.
01[14:57] <Froborr> Which is not to say that Fushigi Yuugi handled it *well*, mind you.
01[14:58] <Froborr> Just better than I expect this to.
01[14:58] <Froborr> I'm not sure that it CAN be done well.
[14:58] <Sylocat> I still haven't seen Fushigi Yuugi
01[14:59] <Froborr> It's rather like Cardcaptor Sakura, in that it is a quite good 26 episode series stretched to 50- or 70-something episodes .
[14:59] <Arrlaari> Ad over.
[14:59] <Sylocat> Ouch
[14:59] <FoME> Same.
01[14:59] <Froborr> Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden, the prequel manga, is a lot better though.
01[15:00] <Froborr> Mostly because of a WAY better teen-girl-from-our-world. Miaka kinda sucked.
[15:00] <Sylocat> I notice they Katakana-ize "Princess"
[15:00] <Sylocat> Instead of saying "-Hime"
[15:00] <FoME> "Du you remember the violent deaths of everyone you ever knew and loved yet? How about now?"
[15:00] <Arrlaari> Huh, they didn't mention that Venus was the lead bodyguard in the old show
[15:01] <Arrlaari> Jupiter is punching a sword
[15:01] <FoME> And winning.
01[15:01] <Froborr> I still choose to believe that this is metaphoric deformation at work, and they were horrifying blob monsters when they lived on the moon.
[15:01] <Sylocat> Maybe he was "First Prince of the Earth," in the same sense as "First Officer," rather than "First Chronologically"
[15:01] <FoME> Or "heir to the throne."
01[15:01] <Froborr> Oh, that's the sense I was assuming.
01[15:02] <Froborr> First Prince is the heir to the throne, just like First Prince Philionel de Seyruun.
[15:02] <Sylocat> And it took m that long to figure it out
[15:02] <Sylocat> Oh, now Usagi is hitting the Identity Crisis
[15:02] <FoME> Now I want to see Tuxedo Kamen perform a Pacifist Crush...
01[15:02] <Froborr> Man, Phil would squeeze Tuxedo Fedora's brains out through the top of his head.
01[15:03] <Froborr> This show would be SO MUCH BETTER if we just substituted Prince Phil for Mamoru.
[15:03] <Sylocat> So, are they going to brainwash him, or was that another thing that only happened in the first anime?
[15:03] <FoME> Every show would be better with Prince Phil.
01[15:04] <Froborr> Possibly not The West Wing.
[15:04] <FoME> Possibly.
01[15:04] <Froborr> Although maybe West Wing Season 8, starring Idris Elba as Chief of Staff Stacker Bellicose.
01[15:04] <Froborr> (Look it up.)
[15:04] <Sylocat> ...How much of that was a dream?
[15:05] <Sylocat> I thought you didn't like Pacific Rim
[15:05] <FoME> The death definitely was. I think the rest actually happened.
01[15:05] <Froborr> I don't.
01[15:05] <Froborr> But Pacific Rim-West Wing mashup is awesome.
[15:05] <Sylocat> True 'nuff
[15:05] <Sylocat> Usagi's harem isn't happy without her
01[15:06] <Froborr> Clearly not.
[15:06] <FoME> They're coming off as almost unhealthily dependent
01[15:06] <Froborr> She's taken her true blob-monster form!
01[15:06] <Froborr> Or just her hair, anyway.
[15:07] <Sylocat> Can't she just make out with them and forget about Tuxedo Fedora?
[15:07] <Sylocat> Wait, this sounds like TENMON music
01[15:07] <Froborr> None of her previous makeouts with them have gotten her to forget him, alas.
[15:07] <Sylocat> No, it's too upbeat to be TENMON music
01[15:08] <Froborr> Oh my god, just kiss already.
[15:08] <Sylocat> Lesbian orgy time
[15:08] <FoME> "You don't need to walk the same path as your past life, but we're all here to help you do that."
[15:08] <Sylocat> I would like that for a variety of both wholesome and unwholesome reasons
01[15:09] <Froborr> "Let's go to the Moon," suggested the cat.
01[15:09] <Froborr> This is a a thing that happens.
[15:09] <FoME> An essential component of the monomyth.
[15:09] <Sylocat> Well, she is named "Luna"
01[15:10] <Froborr> "They were all my precious treasures."
01[15:10] <Froborr> Poly princess confirmed.
[15:10] <FoME> Minako doesn't get a full face shot.
[15:10] <Arrlaari> Luna has a Serious Cat face
[15:10] <Arrlaari> ad, but credits after
[15:10] <Sylocat> I still don't know why the boy cat is called "Artemis"
01[15:10] <Froborr> Only Minako's right eye is determined.
[15:11] <Arrlaari> Are there any male moon dieties to name him after?
[15:11] <Arrlaari> I'm reasonably certain that there aren't
[15:11] <Sylocat> Well, there's Shalim
[15:11] <Sylocat> But that's a little obscure
[15:11] <Sylocat> And I suppose Artemis can be a boy's name, just look at Artemis Fowl
01[15:12] <Froborr> There's quite a few in Native American mythology.
[15:12] <Sylocat> (though even in those books, villains sometimes tease Artemis about having a girl's name)
01[15:12] <Froborr> And, I mean, Tsukuyomi?
[15:13] <FoME> Given his voice, if Artemis had a male name, he'd collapse into a singularity of masculinity.
01[15:13] <Froborr> What would that even be?
[15:13] <Arrlaari> Jonny Bravo, but a cat?
01[15:13] <Froborr> I'm imagining, like, a fist, with a beard, wearing a fedora.
01[15:14] <Froborr> Or a gun made out of whiskey. Only a cat.
[15:14] <Sylocat> Evil the Cat, from Earthworm Jim?
01[15:14] <Froborr> Er, no.
[15:14] <Sylocat> Probably not
01[15:14] <Froborr> The accent.
[15:14] <Sylocat> Ooh, maybe Bob the Goldfish's bodyguards
[15:14] <FoME> A space from which no whiskey escapes.
01[15:15] <Froborr> Anyway, yeah, that episode was kinda meh?
01[15:16] <Froborr> But hopefully next episode is kicking ass and taking names ON THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
01[15:16] <Froborr> (Sorry. Had to.)
[15:16] <Sylocat> Yeah... I mean, I know it's one of the seminal classics of girl-power fiction, but still...
[15:16] <Sylocat> And yes, apparently the mascots are finally making themselves useful
[15:16] <FoME> The general consensus of the fandom is that compared to the original anime, this one SUCKS.
[15:16] <Arrlaari> I like that shot of the two cats in sci-fi bottles
01[15:16] <Froborr> I mean, the episode that introduced Sailor Jupitor was seriously great!
01[15:17] <Froborr> And compared to the little bit I've seen of the first series, this is at least actually having things happen?
[15:17] <Arrlaari> I'm really feeling like this take is suffering for want of room for anything but the core plot
[15:17] <Sylocat> Eh, I like this one fine...
01[15:17] <Froborr> Like, there's a story to it?
[15:17] <Sylocat> Yeah, there should be a happy medium between the pacing of the first anime and the pacing of this one
[15:17] <Arrlaari> The first series had a lot of monster of the week episodes
01[15:18] <Froborr> I mean, when it comes down to it, this is a sentai show. Characterization is not going to be its strong suit. So focusing on the core plot and just trying to keep moving is probably a good move.
[15:18] <Arrlaari> Although after the Jaedite arc, the emphasis shifted to the victim of the week - the negaverse general would prey on some Admirable Person and the scouts would save their Noble Dream from his machinations
[15:19] <Arrlaari> Well, there was that one episode where the victim of the week was kind of a jerk
[15:19] <Sylocat> I do remember liking the focus on the victim of the week rather than on the monster of the week
01[15:19] <Froborr> Yeah, that does sound like an interesting approach.
[15:20] <Sylocat> I think it was one of the main inspirations for Buffy
[15:20] <Arrlaari> It was, and they kept it for every subsequent season
01[15:20] <Froborr> Though I think I still prefer just not having -of-the-week.
01[15:20] <Froborr> And yeah, Sailor Moon is DEFINITELY a huge inspiration for Buffy. Buffy is basically just a magical girl anime with less stock footage.
[15:20] <Arrlaari> The thing is, this episode was mostly exposition. So was the last episode. The PV suggests the next episode will also mostly be expository
01[15:21] <Froborr> Yeah, and that *is* a problem, the last really good episode was Sailor Jupiter.
[15:21] <Sylocat> Eh, I'm fine with exposition and flashbacks, so long as the characters aren't sitting around being whiny brats about it
[15:21] <Arrlaari> I'd be fine with the exposition and flashbacks if they weren't three consecutive episodes
[15:22] <FoME> I'd say the whining was justified this episode.
01[15:22] <Froborr> Not really?
[15:22] <Sylocat> I mean, I'd rather have "girls crying saves the world" than "girls crying causes problems," but still.
01[15:23] <Froborr> She has something to be upset about--having an entire life of traumatic memories shoved in her brain--but she seems more upset about Jackass McPedoNecroRapeophile being kidnapped.
[15:23] <Arrlaari> Even if you don't like him, Mamoru is the dude Usagi has a crush on and he just got kidnapped by demonstrably merciless actors
[15:23] <Sylocat> True enough... No Accounting For Taste, after all
[15:23] <FoME> I think the memories were the five-ton lead weight that broke the camel's back.
[15:23] <FoME> It's just that Mamoru's at the forefront of her mind.
01[15:23] <Froborr> Well, and if these were people you'd have a point. But they're characters, and writers are not historians.
[15:24] <Sylocat> I didn't mind the Identity Crisis sequence, I just wish she'd done less angsting over Prince Endoucheymion
[15:25] <Arrlaari> Endymion seems to have been a stand-up dude. In the Mythic Past he probably didn't kiss her while she was asleep at all.
[15:26] <Sylocat> Ah, so it's the same problem that turned him into an Angsty Brooder that also turned him into a psychically-senses-when-she-secretly-wants-her-boundaries-violated Bad Boy
[15:27] <Sylocat> (not that she's vocalized any boundaries for him)
[15:27] <FoME> Must be something in the water.
[15:27] <Sylocat> Amnesia, the infallible fountain of angst
01[15:27] <Froborr> "Don't kiss people who are currently incapable of consent" really isn't a boundary you should have to vocalize.
[15:27] <Sylocat> Oh, I know, believe me
01[15:28] <Froborr> Also, y'know, she's in MIDDLE SCHOOL and he's like 30.
[15:28] <Arrlaari> He's in high school
[15:28] <Sylocat> I think he's in high school, it's said
01[15:28] <Froborr> Close enough.
[15:28] <Sylocat> He LOOKS 30, but then again Usagi looks 22
01[15:29] <Froborr> Well yeah, but that's art style.
[15:29] <Sylocat> I was attempting to make a funny
01[15:30] <Froborr> We have to assume she looks like a middle schooler to the others, just as we have to assume they all actually have dark hair and eyes because they're Japanese.
01[15:30] <Froborr> Anyway, I'm gonna head out.
01[15:30] <Froborr> Any final comments?
[15:30] <Sylocat> Where did the tradition of Aryan-looking anime characters come from?
01[15:30] <Froborr> They're not Aryan-looking.
[15:31] <Sylocat> Well, you know what I mean
01[15:31] <Froborr> Pale, broad face, and large eyes is a Japanese standard of beauty that long predates contact with the West.
[15:31] <Arrlaari> They are protrayed "blank" and white people interpret blank art as white
[15:31] <FoME> Lots of mental stuff today. Memories recovered on both shows.
[15:31] <Arrlaari> In Japan, it is Japanese, and not white, which is the unmarked category
01[15:31] <Froborr> The rest is just giving them a wide variety of hair and eye colors to make them easier to tell apart, whcih IIRC correctly goes back to Tezuka and Mushi Pro.
[15:32] <Sylocat> Ah... so it arose out of animation convenience
[15:32] <Sylocat> I'm not sure why I didn't automatically assume that
[15:32] <FoME> See you all next week.
[15:33] <Arrlaari> Unmarked categories have powerful sway over the unconcious assumptions people make
[15:33] <Sylocat> See you
01[15:33] <Froborr> Yep, laters!
01[15:33] <Froborr> And yeah, agreed on the unmarked signifiers.
[15:33] <Sylocat> Well, if she's blonde, blue-eyed, and has milky pink skin, I think even ever-oblivious white people can be forgiven for thinking she's meant to look white
01[15:33] <Froborr> Dangerously powerful and subtle little buggers.
01[15:34] <Froborr> I really need to dig up that picture of Gwen Stefani surroudned by Japanese schoolgirls, where the "white" woman is the darkest-skinned person in the shot...
[15:35] <Sylocat> I mean, I know white people take whiteness as the default blank slate, but it's a little baffling to see that in other cultures too
[15:35] <Arrlaari> It is plausible that Japan tends to identify itself with Europe more than with Asia. Japan was able to make itself an imperial power and conquer Korea, and therefore their modern culture shares a lot of the consequences of having your state conquer and rule over foreigners in modern history
[15:35] <Arrlaari> On the other hand, they have very long cultural ties to China and Korea that predate the modern imperialist time
01[15:36] <Froborr> True, but on the other hand having milky-white skin is a very old standard of beauty in Japan.
[15:36] <Sylocat> As started with Geishas
01[15:36] <Froborr> So again, I'm not persuaded that "pale skin = white" to a Japanese viewer.
[15:36] <Arrlaari> Probably for the same reasons as in Europe - their skin tans when they work outside, so not being tanned was evidence that you didn't labor outdoors
[15:37] <Arrlaari> That's why tanning became fashionable during the industrial revolution - suddenly it was evidence you had time to not be laboring in a factory all day
01[15:37] <Froborr> In fact, if you look at anime characters who ARE specifically American... they tend to be tan, blonde, blue-eyed, and loud.
[15:37] <Sylocat> Well, except for the tan, that summarizes a whole lot of anime characters too... but I get that you mean "loud" in a more specific way
01[15:38] <Froborr> Yeah, it's the same reason that in Europe, as long as calories were expensive, fat was beautiful. Soon as calories became cheap and nutrients expensive, thin became beautiful.
[15:38] <Arrlaari> They tend to be given a particular regional accent that connotes loudness
[15:38] <Arrlaari> In addition to being genuinely as loud as most anime characters are
01[15:38] <Froborr> I actually went to a great panel at AUSA about racial stereotypes in anime, it was fascinating.
[15:39] <Arrlaari> What are the Russian signifiers?
01[15:39] <Froborr> They covered that! I'm trying to remember...
[15:39] <Sylocat> Whereas, in America, thin has always been beautiful because half our moral system revolves around self-denial (as opposed to actual selflessness or generosity)
[15:39] <Arrlaari> We
[15:40] <Arrlaari> We also have enjoyed agricultural plenty due to having a lot of stolen farmland on hand
[15:40] <Sylocat> I remember how Azumanga Daioh portrayed English-speakers... that was epic
01[15:40] <Froborr> Fur/heavy clothing, I remember that. Temper that gets them into trouble.
01[15:41] <Froborr> The English are super-cultured and exotic, while Americans are loud, narcissistic, and plaster flags all over themselves.
[15:41] <Sylocat> The latter comes far closer to actually applying
[15:41] <Arrlaari> tbh, the flag thing really happens sometimes
01[15:42] <Froborr> Chinese men are depicted as either sneaky and duplicitous, or foolish, with no in between, while Chinese women are basically the same as the Western "dragon lady."
[15:42] <Arrlaari> The English thing makes sense, since the Japanese empire was modeled on the British Empire
01[15:42] <Froborr> And I mean, these are stereotypes, the panel went out of its way to point out exceptions as well.
[15:42] <Arrlaari> Which makes sense - the UK and Japan are both densely populated islands
[15:43] <Arrlaari> So when the Japanese government was deciding how to make their country great, the nation that had similar circumstances and the biggest empire running was an obvious model
[15:43] <Sylocat> With some of these, it depends whether they're actually set in Japan, or in a generic fantasy world whose various cultures just happen to closely resemble Earth cultures of various time periods
01[15:43] <Froborr> Oh, and Filipinos are depicted with *exactly* the same stereotypes as American media uses for Mexicans, and for much the same reason.
[15:43] <Sylocat> ...What anime have Filipinos in them?
[15:43] <Arrlaari> There's also the half-French boyfriend material trope
[15:44] <Sylocat> That one is surprisingly universal
01[15:44] <Froborr> Hence Pedro in Excel Saga, which American viewers watch and immediately go, "Ah, he's the Mexican stereotype," while Japanese viewers instantly recognize him as a Filipino stereotype (which he is explicitly stated to be in the manga IIRC).
[15:44] <Arrlaari> Isn't that type a Parisian stereotype within France itself?
[15:44] <Sylocat> Ah yes, Excel Saga... I should give that show a second chance

Election Day Reminder

Most of my readers are in the U.S. Most of my USian readers, in turn, live in places where you can, in fact, vote for real Congressional representation, not a single half-assed shadow representative.

Enjoy that right. Exercise it. Go vote today.

Near-Apocalypse Plans and Patreon

Assorted bits of news:

• Barring delays due to my upcoming surgery, My Little Po-Mo blog entries will end with "Twilight's Kingdom" on January 4, 2015. I will then take a three-week hiatus (anyone who would like to submit a guest post for that period, please do so).
• If there ARE delays due to surgery, etc., I will shorten the hiatus.
• The Near-Apocalypse of '09 will begin on Sunday, February 1, 2015 with "Cold Open (Introduction)," which introduces the project and analyzes the famous opening sequence of Batman the Animated Series.
• Once the Kill la Kill watch ends, Sailor Moon Crystal chatlogs will move to Saturdays, and we will pick another series to watch on weeks SMC doesn't air. When MLP returns, we will watch that as well as SMC and whatever else we end up watching (I'll throw it open to a vote here on the site).
• This is to free up Wednesdays, which are going to be devoted to weekly videos as soon as SMC moves and the B5 posts end. These videos will include vlog-style reviews of animated shows and movies, recordings of panels I've presented at various cons, and more.
• The big one: I have just launched a Patreon to support Near-Apocalypse. Backer rewards include early access to articles and videos ("Cold Open (Introduction)" and a vlog review of The Legend of Korra season 4, episode 1 are available immediately, with more added every week), e-books, PDFs containing everything needed to run one of my notorious AUSA BESM campaigns, and more!

ETA: Added link to the Patreon, which I forgot to put in initially. Oops.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm trying to be more assertive. (It Ain't Easy Being Breezies)

In this picture, Clara is cleverly disguised as the Hub logo.

It's March 1, 2014. The top song is still Katy Perry with "Dark Horse," and the top movie is something called Non-Stop, which appears to involve Liam Neeson and hostages on an airplane or something. Most of this month will be pretty bad for movies, I fear.

In the news, the U.S. military announces plans to reduce the army to pre-World War II levels, Ukraine crisis reaches a peak as Russian military and pro-Russian local militia forces seize control of strategic locations in Crimea, and Australia officially ends its involvement in the Afghanistan War.

On TV, Natasha Levinger returns to pen her second episode, "It's Not Easy Being Breezies," a worthy follow-up to her fan-favorite freshman effort "Pinkie Apple Pie." This time, her talents are turned to a "key" episode, and so we are once again in the realm of the Sephiroth.

Fluttershy, back in the premiere, was associated with Chesed, "loving-kindness," which is perhaps the most perfect match out of all the characters. In Judaism, chesed is a tremendously important concept, being the emotional and mental state which underlies charity, one of the most important elements of Jewish ethics. The essence of chesed is helping those who cannot help themselves, not out of ego or a desire for reward, but because it is necessary. It is healing and comforting the sick, feeding the hungry, aiding and supporting those in need, while maintaining throughout an attitude of patience, gentleness, and love. It is, in other words, Fluttershy through and through.

The importance of this principle is emphasized by Chesed's position on the Tree. As the fourth sephirah, it represents the point where the rarefied, purely spiritual and mystical upper sephirah first enter the realm of the active and material. It is, in other words, the point at which spirituality begins to translate into action, which is to say that at the root of all true spiritual activity is a sense of love for others and a desire to do good in the world.

Because Fluttershy so perfectly encapsulates the essence of her Element and her sephirah, then, Levinger deviates in an interesting way from the usual formula of the "key" episodes. Up until now, every episode in the arc has involved one of the Mane Six failing at their Element and rediscovering it through teaching another. This episode, however, contains a subtle difference: rather than failing to be kind, Fluttershy is being inappropriately kind. The unnamed Breezies take advantage of her kindness, exploiting her willingness to continue caring for them in order to avoid the difficult journey home.

This is an idea that could easily go very badly wrong. The Breezies are small, weak, and foreign to Equestria, fragile creatures that Fluttershy is determined to protect and care for. This could easily become some horrifying Randian parable, in which the "mommy state" represented by Fluttershy, in its determination to care for the Breezies, makes them dependent and perpetuates their helplessness, encouraging them to stay where they are safe and cared for instead of continuing their journey. Or it could have an equally horrifying anti-immigrant read, in which the Breezies are foreigners taking advantage of local charities and services to live "where they don't belong," and must be denied those services and forced to go "home."

Thankfully, it navigates deftly through these traps, first through the strength of the surprisingly nuanced character Seabreeze. Seabreeze belies the weakness of the Breezies by being equally small and fragile, but with a ferocity, bravery, and determination beyond most of the ponies we've seen. He serves as the tough drill sergeant of the Breezy group, yelling and insulting them as a form of encouragement, trying to drive them to continue their journey home. But interestingly, his positive qualities are shown to not derive from him being a Randian ubermensch, but rather from homesickness and fear, which also leads to his cruelty towards the other Breezies.

This demolishes the Randian read, but what of the anti-immigrant read? That read has its own obstacle: it must contend with the fact that the Mane Six become Breezies themselves to accompany them on their journey home. If the Breezies are immigrants, then the episode seems to be saying that the solution to any problems involving their presence in the community necessarily requires first seeing things from their point of view, in turn rendering any anti-immigrant reading incoherent.

No, the Breezies are not some sudden, disturbing invasion of conservative politics into the utopian realm of Equestria. There has been a running theme this season of invasions from outside the show, but nothing that dark or alien. Instead, they are something we have seen several times already in the "key" episodes: qlippothic shadows from the Hermetic understanding of the Sephiroth. In this case, the qlippah of Chesed is Gamchicoth, the Devourers, who seek to consume and waste the bounty before them instead of participating in charity. This helps explain the presence of Seabreeze among them; rather than an exception, he is an intensification, wasting Fluttershy's offering by rejecting it and self-destructively trying to set out alone. With the help of Fluttershy, however, Seabreeze is able to penetrate this corrupt state and reache the sephirah within its qlippothic peel, learning the value of sometimes being kind, gentle, and supportive to his companions on the journey home.

Fluttershy, on the other hand, has to learn to limit her loving-kindness, to recognize that sometimes kindness becomes enabling. It is a difficult and narrow path to tread. On the one hand, if you do not allow the helped to determine the form of help you provide, then you are saving rather than helping, imposing your will and ego rather than proceeding from a place of loving-kindness. On the other, sometimes providing the help someone wants, rather than what they need, can become destructive, even abusive (in either direction). Fluttershy learns from Seabreeze the necessity of placing limits on her kindness, which is to say that the sephirah must have a shell. The notion of a protective shell around a sephirah is, of course, the Jewish conception of the qlippah--which is to say that Fluttershy has discovered the function and necessity of the qlippoth.

This is a powerful lesson, and powerful foreshadowing as well: to defeat the shadow one must embrace the shadow. The Sephiroth require the qlippoth. To truly ascend the Tree of Life, one must accept the Tree of Death. A rigid and exclusionary utopia is no utopia; harmony, in the end, cannot be harmony unless it can accept discord.

Next week: How to make Applejack interesting.

Kill la Kill and Sailor Moon Liveblog Chat Thingies

How to participate in the liveblog chat:

Option 1: Whenever you watch the episodes, comment on this post as you watch with whatever responses you feel like posting!

Option 2: Go to http://webchat.freenode.net/. Enter a nickname, then for the Channels field enter ##rabbitcube, and finally fill in the Captcha and hit Connect! We'll be watching Kill la Killand commenting there starting at 2:00 p.m. EST today. Then we'll take a short break, and at 2:30 pm EST we'll watch Sailor Moon Crystal (half an hour earlier than usual, so a VERY short break!).

Kill la Kill chatlog below the cut!