Succinct and 100% agreed with.

Well... I didn't realise the significance of the date, but the Muspel-brands were a big red flag (sorry) and the description of "the grey man" was beginning to sound familiar.

This is getting really interesting.

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

I grappled for a while with the problem of whether to use Beria as a character, in this or indeed at all. On the one hand, he's perfect for the job he's shown in, and demonstrates that Akio is far from the first "jumped-up damnedsman" to find a place in Surtur's court.

On the other, he was SUCH a revolting figure that I hesitated to give even a heavily fictionalized demonic version of him any screen time. Azula's not just whistling Dixie when she calls him out about his habits in life and describes him as one of human history's foulest villains. There's some evidence that even STALIN found this man's personal brand of evil repellent. I almost didn't release this story, because it needs him or someone very like him in it, but he disgusts me so.

But then again, this vignette depicts him being outwitted, outmaneuvered, humiliated, and killed (for some values of), in his own office, by a woman. (Well, all right, technically Boone killed him, but in this instance he's more of a weapon system.) There is a certain poetic justice in that, which I finally decided I could live with.

--G.
-><-
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Almost all stories need villains. Using a villain in a story doesn't imply approval or acceptance of his evil so long as it's made clear he IS the bad guy. Killing his worthless ass is just cathartic.

What interested me the most is Azula gives no noticeable signal in the story to Boone. I'm tempted to think Boone took the shot on his own initiative (possibly listening in through equipment Azula had), and given the sheer seething hatred he had for the Legion, I'd say his killing Beria without orders fits his MO rather precisely.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

True. I think the sticking point for me here is that Lavrentiy Beria was a real person who did enormous amounts of harm to innumerable other real people. Using him as a foil in this context could be taken as trivializing their real suffering, though I like to think that on some level, given how poorly he comes out of this, it's getting a little of their own back.

>What interested me the most is Azula gives no noticeable signal in the
>story to Boone. I'm tempted to think Boone took the shot on his own
>initiative (possibly listening in through equipment Azula had), and
>given the sheer seething hatred he had for the Legion, I'd say his
>killing Beria without orders fits his MO rather precisely.

They've worked together for a long time by this point - long enough for Azula to trust that Boone will recognize when the appropriate moment has arrived, even if she doesn't give him an explicit signal. Also, he knows her well enough by then to be aware that when she says something like, "But he probably won't see me," that means they're pretty much done there. :)

(I don't think he could actually hear her - later in the story she needed ED-E to address the team audibly - but she was facing the window, so it's not out of the question that he was reading her lips.)

--G.
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I understand if, emotionally, even including him feels skeevy, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Intellectually, you know he's a completely humiliated buffoon. Just imagine what Ozai is doing to him for his failure right now...

>They've worked together for a long time by this point - long enough
>for Azula to trust that Boone will recognize when the appropriate
>moment has arrived, even if she doesn't give him an explicit signal.
>Also, he knows her well enough by then to be aware that when she says
>something like, "But he probably won't see me," that means they're
>pretty much done there. :)

Or it could simply be the point where he's about ready to become violent, and Azula is just smirking, which should be about how -every- negotiation with her ends at some point.

>
>(I don't think he could actually hear her - later in the story she
>needed ED-E to address the team audibly - but she was facing the
>window, so it's not out of the question that he was reading her lips.)

Hum. You're right, I forgot that detail. Then again, perhaps he knows he doesn't -need- to exceed his orders, knowing there's an exceptionally good chance she's going to want him dead anyway.

Now, of course, the question is what's next? Their small part in Ragnarok? Or later? Hm.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

Perhaps Boone had a laser microphone.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

You made the right call. Frankly, (and this is going back some years) I always thought that Twilight was ill served by the lack of History's Greatest Monsters in the armies of the damned. I mean, yes, okay, obviously you're not going to put Demon Mao Zedong in there leading some cadres against Asgard, that would just be silly, but there's always space for scumbags like, say, William Quantrill.

The story is made more effective by putting in someone who was both a lesser functionary and a true monster in his own right in the "real world" into it. I would even go so far as to say much more effective. Same way having Gus Grissom around works, but in reverse, because Grissom wasn't, you know... slime.

>But then again, this vignette depicts him being outwitted,
>outmaneuvered, humiliated, and killed (for some values of), in his own
>office, by a woman. (Well, all right, technically Boone killed
>him, but in this instance he's more of a weapon system.) There is a
>certain poetic justice in that, which I finally decided I could live
>with.

And this is where I'll disagree with you. What happened to Beria should definitely have happened, but you shouldn't be afraid of having your villains succeed because it represents some sort of endorsement of their villainy, and nor should you have them fail just to prove a point about evil never prospering.

... the poetic justice was pretty awesome, tho.

-Merc
Keep Rat

Have I mentioned before that it's like you don't understand how UF works sometimes? Pretty sure I have. :)

--G.
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At some point, you and I are bound to have an interesting discussion about this, but I don't think today is that day. :)

In this case I worded things badly. I was trying to make the point that it's totally okay to perforate Beria because you want to see the sicko get his just desserts, but that you shouldn't really feel obligated to do so out of some sense of... I dunno... literary responsibility. Like, the story wouldn't have been sending the wrong message or had less heft to it had he simply nodded genially, conceded that Azula had him in check, unlocked the door, and wished her a good day. It would have been less fun, of course, but that's an entirely different thing.

Like, if you write a villain getting away with shit because its narratively appropriate and useful, you shouldn't feel bad because you couldn't "stop" them.

(I think I might still be wording this badly.)

-Merc
Keep Rat

Short for Veronica, presumably.

*facepalm* Yeah, not one of my more perceptive moments, there.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

Indeed, Azula deliberately set out to build her Mojave team (who went on to form the core of the Phoenix Queen's crew) on the model established by Shepard in her late WDF career. Sort of a "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" thing. :)

>And, come to
>think of it, that her new enemies in Muspelheim don't know she can
>lightningbend.

Well, Ozai presumably does.

>Incidentally, who's Ronni?

It's Azula's pet name for Veronica Santangelo, in much the same way that she is the only person allowed to call Boone "Craigy" or Cass "Whisky Rose" - because they couldn't stop her if they tried and somehow, coming from her, they don't really mind. :)

(No, that isn't implying that she's worked her way through her crew or anything of the kind. She just likes to give them nicknames which they are powerless to resist. Most don't object, though Arcade doesn't like "Fistee" very much.)

--G.
"One time! I did that one, time!" "There's nothing to be ashamed of, Arcade. It's what I made him for, after all. And unlike that fellow on Omega, Fisto won't sell you to the Elasi when he's finished with you." "I hate you so much, Captain." "No you don't."
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Having binged on Doctor Who the last couple weeks in order to catch up with the series in anticipation of TotD, I can't read those last two lines now in anything other than Matt Smith's and Alex Kingston's voices.

Actually, in an almost crazy way, Azula in UF has become River Song. The woman raised as a tykebomb virtually from the day she was born, who underwent a rather abrupt heel face turn when the mission she'd been set on changed her life, and now travels the verse trying to chase down that thing she lost. For River it was the Doctor, for Azula it's home. Or, to borrow from the Doctor, Azula's going home, the long way 'round.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Columbia pilgrim

I could make some precious remark here about how Azula's own personal exile isn't quite over yet, but it's really just a mistake.

--G.
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"They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on."
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

Hunh. I don't know why, but I always assumed that FI starts right after the Twilight arc, which, if I stop and think for a second doesn't make sense because Days of Miracle and Wonder is definitely FI, and (obviously) precedes Twilight.

I think it's thematic structure. FI seems to be all about the fight (at many levels) between Sutur and Our Heroes, whereas early FI seems to be still mostly still about either world building. It's this era of story telling that seems to be where the world sets into a cohesive whole as opposed to a bunch of pieces that are thrown together. This might be an artifact of you getting better at story telling as a whole (iirc, NXE happened in this era.<1> but stands.

But yeah, to me there's this sort of nebulous era between the end of Core 4 and Twilight that, while technically part of FI doesn't really seem to, I dunno, fit in the FI..flavor?

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

<1> Merc, I *really* wanna read what you have to think about NXE. Especially because I think you'll read it all for the first time in one go, not pause and read it as it comes out like others from earlier had to

Oh, merciless Grodd. Way to make me regret saying all that stuff about feeling free to remark on the back catalog earlier. :)

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think it's something like this: I like EPUs stuff, and have for the better part of 20 years now (I found you guys from a link from Pendor in the mid 90s). I read, re-read, and do, in fact, think about the structure and character arc and interactions. I used to even do line by line (or at least much more exhaustive) reads of all the new stuff. I don't have time for that anymore, but it's still fun to read a breakdown by someone who *does* have time (or, I guess, is more willing to make that time<1>). And NXE is still I think my favorite of the EPU works as a whole. And Merc is *really* good at the whole critical breakdown of a work. So, uhh..yeah. That may have been a dumb idea <2>, but I stand by it. It'd be fun to read.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

<1> Want an incredible example of this? Read the Jo Walton re-read of the Patrick Rothfuss books. So much detail that I missed

<2> Especially not knowing the back story

FI actually celebrated its twentieth anniversary recently, as indicated by my hilariously ill-advised and not-at-all-what-I-intended thread over in the UF General subforum. In fact, Twilight didn't finish up until after the Symphony began, which always weirds me out.

><1> Merc, I *really* wanna read what you have to think about NXE.
>Especially because I think you'll read it all for the first time in
>one go, not pause and read it as it comes out like others from earlier
>had to

AhahahahahaHAhahaHAha.

So yeah, there's a story here. First of all, I was in fact reading that bad boy as it came out back in the day. And eighteen-year-old Merc had opinions on it, yes he did, specifically opinions about the lead male in NXE. I in fact expressed these opinions as part of the Evangelion Fanfic Review Syndicate, whose entire editorial staff also had... opinions about NXE.

EFRS, thank god, has long since been consigned to the dustbin of the Wayback Machine. We did some decent review work but man, did we think well of ourselves. In fact, looking it up again, my stuff doesn't even seem to be saved there anymore; their last scrape of the page predates my membership. I could get people to vouch for me, although I'm not sure anyone really wants me to run down Chris Davies and haul him over here.

Sorry, digression, I'm pretty tired. Anyway. I actually haven't read NXE since... you know, since the Motion Picture came out. I could read it again the next time my internal fanfic chronometer strikes Evangelion O'Clock¹. And I'm a much, much different person than I was when I was younger. So I could do that. And then write about it! I bet Ben would love that, he seems super enthusiastic about it below.

-Merc
Keep Rat

¹Anyone thinking about telling me to read Nobody Dies, please be aware that, yes, I am aware of its existence.

Further exploration of these matters should probably move to... somewhere else. I suppose for maximum topicality, the NXE board. Here, I'll start you off.

--G.
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zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Always considered Nobody Dies to be what NXE would have been like if Gryphon had downed a couple tabs of blotter acid. It's definitely not for the faint of heart.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Columbia pilgrim

That's... definitely one way to look at it. But one quails at the thought of TEH REI loose and at play with NXE...

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

I'm not entirely sure this requires forgiveness. I mean, I don't agree with it as an unqualified superlative, but obviously I have some regard for the poor girl or I wouldn't keep dragging her out of her dressing room like this. :)

--G.
-><-
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Facetiousness aside, that's kinda like asking what kind of ship the Normandy is - interesting for completeness' sake, but not entirely germane to the plot and the story. Indeed, I imagine it being rather like the Normandy in one or two respects, primarily their shared role as a means of getting the Badasses Of The Week from point A to point B, which in Boone's case involves being beamed down onto a nice little lookout-post near point C.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

I remember when I would've thought it mattered more than anything else in the world. That me is not me and scares me.

Well.

I'm very sorry for being a huge starship-spotting sperglord.

You have my sincerest apologies.

I have vague memories of an episode of Lion Force Voltron in which Castle Arus turned out to have been a starship the whole time. The temptation was very great to do that with the Lucky 38, rather in the style of that one UK sci-fi show whose name I can't remember* where the ship is the British Telecom Tower, but fortunately, better taste prevailed.

Beyond that, I hadn't really thought about it until you asked, since the ship hasn't actually needed to appear on screen yet. However, given the mission criteria, I would expect that she's a small, fast warship, possibly one not constructed so as to be obvious about that last part, and given Azula's tastes, presumably quite well-appointed on the inside. Captain Inazuma and her crew do some courier work from time to time, but they are not a freight haulage company, so cargo space would not be very important. Their bread and butter is exploration and stellar cartography; before they took the WDF job for the Corporate War, they were under contract to the Royal Salusian Astrographic Society. To be any good for that sort of work, a ship has to be comfortable enough for her crew not to kill each other six months into a sweep of the Kresge sector, fast enough not to take six years to sweep the Kresge sector, and well-armed enough to handle the sorts of pirates and raiders one tends to find while sweeping the Kresge sector.

With all that in mind, I am presently leaning toward the X-70B Phantom, which is the standard ride of Imperial Agent player characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This is basically a corvette pretending it's a pleasure barge, which seem just about perfect for the mission as described. :)

--G.
* The Web indicates that it is called Hyperdrive.
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Both ship and captain have some serious style, after all. (And I can see Azula springing for a Fire Nation-appropriate after-market paint job...)

Doggone it, I was reading too fast, and for a moment thought this said "XB-70", not "X-70B."

You have to admit, the Valkyrie would be a pretty awesome candidate for the RetroTech treatment. Possibly too small for Azula's purposes, though. :)

What, like I knew that.

Anyway, be cool, it's not going anywhere. That's the beauty of this web-based system. It doesn't have to happen in real time. :)

>I still say that Azula is exactly arrogant enough to name her flagship
>the Sozin's Comet, although I suppose a patrol
>vessel/Q-ship/light raider/etc. multi-purpose small craft isn't
>exactly grand enough for that purpose.

As far as she knows at this point, that would mean something to exactly one person in the universe, herself. She's not a solipsist, for pity's sake. :)

>So I'll just assume she's holding that name in reserve until such time
>as she gets her hands on something with real city-slagging power on
>it. :)

Or go with that. That works too.

>I'm assuming that the stellar cartography part of that skillset is due
>to the fact that she still hasn't given up on finding out that her
>homeworld really does exist somewhere and she's not just a crazy lady
>who had a very vivid fever dream while Vandal was stuffing her into a
>tube?

Well, quite. Although of late it's become sort of a "and while you're at it, keep this tab open" thing. Even for Azula, it's difficult to maintain that level of intensity for more than 50 years of not finding anything. She'll never give up on it entirely, though.

>I would have gone with the good old red dot. :)

I thought about it, but in its way that's even more amateurish than letting them see your scope's reflection. I mean, you don't think a guy like Boone would have a laser sight that's invisible to the naked eye?

>>"Boone hates it when I make him do that," said Azula conversationally.
>
>I really liked this passage because, even cleaned up and a marginally
>productive member of society, it pleases me that UF-Azula is still
>Azula. She's not the true slimeball that daddy and grandpa
>were, but she still has her moments when she's really quite violent
>and more than a bit evil.

I don't think "evil" is the right word there, but she's certainly still capable of cruelty; it's just that she's gotten much better at intuiting where it should be directed. Regardless, I agree inasmuch as it's fun to give her opportunities, every now and then, to let that conqueror gene go to work a bit. She probably does it more for sport than because she feels it's some kind of cosmic destiny, nowadays.

>I'm going to assert as a reader that that threat is almost entirely
>empty. The universe does not always justly dispose with the dead (see
>Kiryuu, Nanami for exhibit A) but Azula, I think, does not qualify for
>a trip to the Pit upon getting slotted. Given Valhalla's very loose
>entrance requirements I would say she has a pretty good chance of
>ending up there, probably to Katara's immense disgust.

Well, broadly speaking, and were things left to take their ordinary course, that's probably so. However, from S4M5 Requiem for a Lensman:

	"Wait a second," said Kozue, holding up a hand with a
thoughtful expression.  Then she hesitated.  "... OK... I don't want
to seem insensitive here, but... uh... look, if Kei was dead, wouldn't
you guys know it?  I mean, you're the Valkyrie."
	"We would know if she came to Valhalla," said Vigdis.
	"Oh, come on," Kozue protested.  "Where else is a woman like
that going to go?"
	"That... would depend on what killed her," Corwin said slowly.
 He turned to look her in the eyes and said, quietly and seriously,
"It's all... not as simple as that."
	"But we -haven't- seen her, and Teleute and Forseti haven't
either," Vigdis confirmed, "so... there -is- hope.  But I don't want
to give you too much of it.  She had... has... very powerful enemies.
Everyone who was at the Ragnarok has."
	"Powerful enough to interfere with the natural order of
death?" Kozue asked.
	"Yes," Corwin and Vigdis replied as one.
	"... wow," said Kozue softly.

>Also, nice punchy reveal. I must admit, I had a reflexive skepticism
>to Ozai rising that high in Surtur's court. The man always
>struck me as an indifferent ruler and plotter at best, operating on a
>kiss up/kick down principle beloved by so many middle managers.

Indifferent as a ruler and plotter, yes, but then, he's not ruling or plotting in his present job; he's Surtur's Minister for War - and operating the Fire Nation's perpetual war footing, independent of the rest of its political and social machinery, is something he must have been particularly good at, because, well, look at the size of the goddamn army he just barely lost the war with.

That kind of thing gets Surtur's attention. Plus, you know, the whole "fire" thing. And the whole "refined his forefathers' system of worldwide misery until it was practically art, if you're into that sort of shit, and Surtur is" thing.

>>Then, narrowing her eyes again, she laughed lightly and said, "I once
>>told Father that I'd see him in Hell. Under the circumstances,
>>though, I think that's a promise I had best break."
>
>I'm guessing in the context of UF, this exchange occurred during the
>off-screen conversation that took place between Azula and Ozai in
>The Search?

Or some effective equivalent, yes.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

True, but I feel like I'm letting the side down. :) I feel like the deal is that you (and Phil, and Anne, and well you know how it works) provide me with delicious, delicious pulp, and I in turn attempt to provide productive feedback while the creative process is still fresh enough in your mind to be actually useful.

Although, tangential to that, there are a lot of important ten and twenty year story milestones coming up (pretty sure we passed Cybertron Dreams 20th anniversary sometime this month, and Larry's introduction to UF passed that milestone in October without my noticing) and I've vaguely been flirting with the notion of starting some kind of EPU Book Club as we pass dates of significance. I just don't know if that kind of nostalgic naval-gazing is particularly useful so many years after the fact, and that comes from a guy who you may have noticed loves naval-gazing. :)

>>I would have gone with the good old red dot. :)
>
>I thought about it, but in its way that's even more amateurish than
>letting them see your scope's reflection. I mean, you don't think a
>guy like Boone would have a laser sight that's invisible to the
>naked eye?

Until Azula made him install a visible-spectrum setting, because sometimes it's just about standards.

> Regardless, I agree
>inasmuch as it's fun to give her opportunities, every now and then, to
>let that conqueror gene go to work a bit.

I'll take what I can get. :) Azula the Conqueror makes me happy in my head-parts, and I once again take this opportunity to say that I dearly hope the girl takes another crack at conquering the Fire Nation.

Not succeeding at it, mind you, because that would just not end well for anyone, even her, and we already know canonically it ain't happening. But man, I am just enchanted with the notion of Azula, in her badass flagship with her badass army, sitting in high orbit above Caldera issuing elaborately worded demands for obeisance and tribute to her many times great grand-nieces and nephews, all of whom wonder just what sins they committed to deserve dealing with her, with the implication being that she can turn parts of the Fire Nation she doesn't like into boiling cauldrons of plasma if she wants to.

>Well, broadly speaking, and were things left to take their ordinary
>course, that's probably so. However, from S4M5 Requiem for a
>Lensman:

Ah. Right. That. Sneaky bastards, those demons.

Although I do like the idea that Beria has a few demonic hackers sitting around the Lubyanka (with the muscle, of course) ready to very quickly infect Azula's soul with the metaphysical equivalent of a virus so that the universe routes her packets incorrectly when it registers her state change.

Or something like that. It's neat, is what I'm saying.

>Indifferent as a ruler and plotter, yes, but then, he's not ruling or
>plotting in his present job; he's Surtur's Minister for War - and
>operating the Fire Nation's perpetual war footing, independent of the
>rest of its political and social machinery, is something he must have
>been particularly good at, because, well, look at the size of the
>goddamn army he just barely lost the war with.
>
>That kind of thing gets Surtur's attention. Plus, you know, the whole
>"fire" thing. And the whole "refined his forefathers' system of
>worldwide misery until it was practically art, if you're into that
>sort of shit, and Surtur is" thing.

Ah, I read you. That's something of a bad on my part, then. I sort of envisioned the demonic hierarchy as one of those places where a certain amount of plotting and scheming is required just to avoid ending up being... discorporated, I guess? however demons die a second time?... by an ambitious subordinate who wants accelerated promotion or a suspicious superior who thinks you may want his job.

Although I suppose it is also possible Surtur has a few people about whom he has made it known he values them for their competence and diligence and they aren't to be harmed in the name of efficiency regardless of whether or not they're shit at intrigue.

Also, a couple things I forgot on my first pass:

>"When you see my father again, give him my regards and tell him I'll see him >soon." Then, her mouth quirking into a sardonic little half-smile, she added, >"But he probably won't see me."

Assuming this doesn't simply happen on the fields of Ragnarok, may I express the sincere and fervent hope that, should Azula decide to pay a visit to Muspelheim, there be a Flame Princess team-up?

Because that's another thing I would like to happen. :)

>Their long-practiced efficiency was such that the hotel's staff and the Moscow
>police never knew anything out of the ordinary had happened beyond the slight
>damage to, and mysterious disappearance of the guest in, that one third-floor
>room.

Azula must have spent a lot of time giving these people remedial combat training, because I don't recall any of them being particularly capable of that degree of subtlety and stealth. Veronica in particular (well, at least in my game) had a tendency to... cause a lot of collateral damage. Also to get hung up on the landscape, which is a problem I also assume this one doesn't have. :)

-Merc
Keep Rat

I know, right? If only there were a way of telling which stories happened when. Some kind of system for marking them, maybe. I'll have to look into that.

--G.
Sorry. I tried to resist, but the call of sarcasm was just too strong. Don't take it personally. :)
-><-
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zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Oh, has that particular part been dated now? I could have missed something but I went through the various mini-stories a while back trying to assemble a chronological order and IIRC that one was one of the rare few that didn't have a date listed.

But I may be wrong.

The story in question was not dated in the original posting, but was dated in Mini-Story Omnibus #6 - June 9, 2403 to be precise.

(And no worries, G. I was fully expecting the sarcasm.)

I guess this would be a bad time to point out that you're actually farther behind than you estimated above, then, because there's been at least one other Mini while you've been away that you didn't mention in your list. ;) And there may yet be another before you're really able to come up for air, but see below.

>I feel like the
>deal is that you (and Phil, and Anne, and well you know how it works)
>provide me with delicious, delicious pulp, and I in turn attempt to
>provide productive feedback while the creative process is still fresh
>enough in your mind to be actually useful.

Well, yeah, that would be the ideal thing, but we live in a world that is habitually un-ideal, so, you know. Do the best you can, and it'll probably work out in the end.

This is an important thing to note for everyone, actually, not just Merc: if for some reason you are unable to take up a piece in depth while it's hot, as it were, and you find yourself later wishing you could've, please, do it anyway - we don't just push this stuff off the cliff and then move on to other things. Just maybe think about making a new thread if it's been a couple of months or whatever. DCF seems to be getting a little cranky about long-thread necros in its old age. Beyond that, though, heck yeah, have at it.

I sometimes wonder how much feedback we've missed over the years because things like Merc's weekend have happened to people, and they've thought, "Oh well, the hell with it, it's too late now." And, well, I just want to put it on record that it isn't. This is an archive for a reason, y'know. :)

>I just
>don't know if that kind of nostalgic naval-gazing is particularly
>useful so many years after the fact, and that comes from a guy who you
>may have noticed loves naval-gazing. :)

I don't know about useful, but it might be fun, and if you check the EPU motto, that's actually what we're ostensibly here for...

... although, that said, the concept kind of gives me the Fear, because so much of what was coming out 20 years ago embarrasses the living shit out of me. :)

>I'll take what I can get. :) Azula the Conqueror makes me happy in my
>head-parts, and I once again take this opportunity to say that I
>dearly hope the girl takes another crack at conquering the Fire
>Nation.

That's... not going to happen. Sorry. If Azula has learned anything in her decades in exile, it's that sometimes you have to change up your ambitions. She dearly wishes to see the Fire Nation again, or at least be assured that it still exists, that it ever did exist; but taking it over? After all this time, and when being in charge of it the first time was the on-ramp to her life coming completely the hell apart? No. Not so much. The galaxy turns; history has moved on.

>Ah, I read you. That's something of a bad on my part, then. I sort of
>envisioned the demonic hierarchy as one of those places where a
>certain amount of plotting and scheming is required just to avoid
>ending up being... discorporated, I guess? however demons die a second
>time?... by an ambitious subordinate who wants accelerated promotion
>or a suspicious superior who thinks you may want his job.

Depends on one's position in court. Beria has to do that kind of thing all the time, but then he did in life as well, and that life ultimately ended because he had an off day and failed one of his regular Plot Against the Others checks. (Nikita Sergeyeveich, if you're watching, I know you didn't do it because he was a vicious and revolting serial rapist, you did it so he wouldn't do it to you first, but regardless, I just want to thank you again on behalf of all humanity for putting one in the back of that motherfucker's head.) Surtur generally doesn't put up with it in the War Department, though. If the heads of his armies were allowed to do that kind of thing, it would destabilize the whole apparatus, and that simply isn't on.

>Although I suppose it is also possible Surtur has a few people about
>whom he has made it known he values them for their competence and
>diligence and they aren't to be harmed in the name of efficiency
>regardless of whether or not they're shit at intrigue.

Basically, yes.

>Assuming this doesn't simply happen on the fields of Ragnarok, may I
>express the sincere and fervent hope that, should Azula decide to pay
>a visit to Muspelheim, there be a Flame Princess team-up?
>
>Because that's another thing I would like to happen. :)

I won't speak to the specific context, but I will say that this is a lot more likely to come to pass than your "Azula the Merciless delivers an ultimatum" thing. Although, it occurs to me, she probably has a better name than that if she's Surtur's daughter (which she may not be).

>Azula must have spent a lot of time giving these people remedial
>combat training, because I don't recall any of them being particularly
>capable of that degree of subtlety and stealth.

Not everyone on the Phoenix Queen's crew is from Mojave, but yes, she's spent a lot of the last eight years or so whipping them into better shape for confronting the galaxy at large. And they've all just generally got a lot more experience than they did when the biggest task on their to-do list was wiping out the Fiends (which, frankly, Azula could've done by herself, but it gets lonely without anyone to turn to and say, "Are we having fun yet?").

Also, keep in mind that we're talking about the Moscow police not noticing anything. That's marginally more difficult to arrange than nobody in Freeside caring that you just annihilated everyone in the Silver Rush, but not by a really wide margin. :)

That said, I wouldn't have wanted to be a few of Beria's minions that day. Particularly the one Fisto was assigned to eliminated. The mind recoils in horror.

>Veronica in particular
>(well, at least in my game) had a tendency to... cause a lot of
>collateral damage.

You know what helps with that? Not giving her the Ballistic Fist variant that turns her victims' corpses into land mines. I'm just saying. :)

>Also to get hung up on the landscape, which is a
>problem I also assume this one doesn't have. :)

The first thing Azula did when they all got to a proper, civilized planet was take her to an optometrist.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ooooh, damn, Bride to Far. Yes. My thoughts on that sucker are complex. There are... layers to Azana and Karana's relationship that I don't want to disrespect by not giving them more consideration than I usually give.

>I don't know about useful, but it might be fun, and if you check the
>EPU motto, that's actually what we're ostensibly here for...
>
>... although, that said, the concept kind of gives me the Fear,
>because so much of what was coming out 20 years ago embarrasses the
>living shit out of me. :)

Yeah, that's the thing I was trying to be polite about. Some of it holds up well; other parts do... not.

It's actually probably better that I did not try and do a 20th anniversary thing for Soulsearch, as Larry is still active and writing (Friendship is Magic fiction, actually; so is Overstreet, oddly enough) and it is... not anywhere up to his current standards.

>That's... not going to happen. Sorry. If Azula has learned
>anything in her decades in exile, it's that sometimes you have
>to change up your ambitions. She dearly wishes to see the Fire
>Nation again, or at least be assured that it still exists, that
>it ever did exist; but taking it over? After all this time,
>and when being in charge of it the first time was the on-ramp to her
>life coming completely the hell apart? No. Not so much. The galaxy
>turns; history has moved on.

Fair enough. I'll always have my imagination. It's your garden, I just come in and walk barefoot through the flower beds occasionally. Heck, revealing editorial intentions is something I should be thanking you for, I know you guys prefer not to do that. :)

I just really like it when Azula conquers things is all. Well... I like it when she tries to conquer things. I suspect I'd have liked her ruling over the sea of ash Daddy was trying to create a lot less than her rise to power.

Having said all that, Azula returning to the Fire Nation as it has become in Diqiu is just pregnant with all kinds of possibility. Does she go openly, or as a tourist under her nom-de-space? If she goes openly, will she suddenly find herself seized on by reactionary factions within the Fire Lords court as a rallying point? Will shit get real? Will she roll her eyes theatrically before needing to choke someone out? Will she get very annoyed at the amount of Zuko statues?

I look forward to finding out one day. Perhaps one day soon. Perhaps not.

>Depends on one's position in court. Beria has to do that kind of
>thing all the time, but then he did in life as well, and that life
>ultimately ended because he had an off day and failed one of his
>regular Plot Against the Others checks. (Nikita Sergeyeveich, if
>you're watching, I know you didn't do it because he was a vicious and
>revolting serial rapist, you did it so he wouldn't do it to you first,
>but regardless, I just want to thank you again on behalf of all
>humanity for putting one in the back of that motherfucker's head.)

You liked your russian history courses, didn't you?

>>Assuming this doesn't simply happen on the fields of Ragnarok, may I
>>express the sincere and fervent hope that, should Azula decide to pay
>>a visit to Muspelheim, there be a Flame Princess team-up?
>>
>>Because that's another thing I would like to happen. :)
>
>I won't speak to the specific context, but I will say that this is a
>lot more likely to come to pass than your "Azula the Merciless
>delivers an ultimatum" thing. Although, it occurs to me, she probably
>has a better name than that if she's Surtur's daughter (which she may
>not be).

I dunno, "Flame Princess" is a pretty good name. I mean, "Princess Bubblegum" works fine as a name; nobody except Marceline actually calls her "Bonnibel" after all. So does "Ice King." Admittedly, UF is not Adventure Time, but still.

Although, thinking about it, in the actual context of Adventure Time, Flame Princess may in fact be "Flame King" now, because Ooo doesn't care about your damn gendered titles, and if a cookie wants to be a Princess, or a lady wants to rule the Fire Kingdom with an iron fist as Flame King, that is a thing that can happen.

More seriously, I like to imagine that, if she actually is Surtur's daughter (for a given value of daughter, really, Surtur seems like the kind of guy who would nod approvingly at Ozai's style of parenting, and for that matter I'd be amazed if he were cosmologically capable of a genuinely procreative act; if he wanted a child he might have to build one out of discarded cosmic detritus) I can see him saddling her with one of those names where anyone trying to actually say it dissolves into plasma as their soul turns inside-out, so they just go by "Flame Princess" instead.

Regardless, she and Azula would totally be besties. I bet their dungeon crawls are a lot more fun than Finns, too.

>Not everyone on the Phoenix Queen's crew is from Mojave, but
>yes, she's spent a lot of the last eight years or so whipping them
>into better shape for confronting the galaxy at large. And they've
>all just generally got a lot more experience than they did when the
>biggest task on their to-do list was wiping out the Fiends (which,
>frankly, Azula could've done by herself, but it gets lonely without
>anyone to turn to and say, "Are we having fun yet?").

On a more somber note, I also like to imagine Azula really misses Mai and Ty Lee sometimes. Yeah, she has a new team now, but it's never quite the same, you know?

Also, she never got to make out with Ty Lee the way she now understands that Ty Lee really wanted to but that she was way too oblivious to notice.

>Also, keep in mind that we're talking about the Moscow police
>not noticing anything. That's marginally more difficult to arrange
>than nobody in Freeside caring that you just annihilated everyone in
>the Silver Rush, but not by a really wide margin. :)

I take it Arkady Renko isn't knocking around in UF, then. :)

>You know what helps with that? Not giving her the Ballistic
>Fist variant that turns her victims' corpses into land mines. I'm
>just saying. :)

Honestly, what I usually ended up doing was using her as a tank. Pick up Veronica, go right to the RepCon HQ, loot the corpses of the Brotherhood of Steel guys inside, put her into their power armor. At that point I can just let her charge into groups of guys and then blow them away at leisure as they try futilely to destroy my perky companion.

Assuming she doesn't get stuck in a doorway, or set off explosives, or... well. You've been there, you don't need me to tell you.

-Merc
Keep Rat

Hmm. That's one of those phrases that never actually means anything good, like "we have to talk" or "it's about your daughter".

>Having said all that, Azula returning to the Fire Nation as it has
>become in Diqiu is just pregnant with all kinds of possibility. Does
>she go openly, or as a tourist under her nom-de-space?

If she openly claimed to be Fire Lord Ozai's long-lost daughter Azula in 291 ASC, would anyone believe her? Or would she get to spend some time reflecting on the irony of being packed off to a mental hospital for not being delusional?

I've only been here for three months and I'm already bored. There's no electroshock therapy. No unnecessary sedation. Not even any elevator music.

>You liked your russian history courses, didn't you?

Well, yes, but mu; I already knew the things that I was referencing there before I took it. (I only took the one. Despite it being called "Russian History II" in the catalog, there is no "Russian History I".)

>I dunno, "Flame Princess" is a pretty good name.

"Let me call out my jack."

"Hi, Jack!"

"JACK NOT NAME! JACK JOB!"

>and for that matter I'd be amazed if he were cosmologically capable of
>a genuinely procreative act;

In the process of answering this part, I had an idea which I prefer not to share at this time.

However, I will note that, based on her first canonical appearance (and her earliest costumes), FP has a particular cultural signature going on there which could be of use in devising a UF version of her. She doesn't grant wishes, but a fire spirit in harem pants who's originally found trapped in a lamp? Hmm.

>On a more somber note, I also like to imagine Azula really misses Mai
>and Ty Lee sometimes. Yeah, she has a new team now, but it's never
>quite the same, you know?

Ty Lee, sure, I can see that, but can anyone really miss Mai? That's like getting nostalgic for the kindergarten teacher who used to hit you across the knuckles for writing with your left hand.*

>Also, she never got to make out with Ty Lee the way she now
>understands that Ty Lee really wanted to but that she was way too
>oblivious to notice.

There's that. Ah, the road not taken.

--G.
* I won that battle of wills and have never since been trusted with scissors that come to a point!
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Usually I would agree with this line of reasoning, but in this case it does in fact mean something good, or at least, good enough for me personally that I want to do justice to it in a way that encourages you guys to do more of that kind of thing.

I think you've got something real special with Azana and Karana, is what I'm saying here.

>>Having said all that, Azula returning to the Fire Nation as it has
>>become in Diqiu is just pregnant with all kinds of possibility. Does
>>she go openly, or as a tourist under her nom-de-space?
>
>If she openly claimed to be Fire Lord Ozai's long-lost daughter Azula
>in 291 ASC, would anyone believe her?

I'm going to touch on this more in my commentary on the Etude, but my reasoning is that it would depend on how common the blue flame is.

If it's rare but not unheard of, she's just a particularly powerful firebender who has gone round the bend. If it's a crazy rare once in a generation, nobody since Azula has had the blue flame until Azana came along thing, that would probably get the Fire Nation Royal Family and/or Korra interested, and Korra in particular could probably verify Azula's identity.

More prosaically, Azula can prove well enough to stand up in court, I think, that she spent a very long time frozen in crystallite. If she really cared about being openly known as Azula again, she could always just do things the old-fashioned way and hammer on the Babylon Foundation's bureaucracy until her paperwork ends up on the desk of someone important enough to get in touch with Diqiu to process her citizenship claim.

Of course, doing that could lead immediately to a major diplomatic incident as the Earth Kingdom demands a long-overdue war crimes trial, but Azula is kind of a walking diplomatic incident anyway. Also she seems like the type to be insulted if, returning to Ba Sing Ce for the first time in two centuries under her own name, the Republic City Limited was not greeted by crowds of protestors. Do the ingrates have no sense of history? She conquered their city and oppressed them wickedly for months!

>>and for that matter I'd be amazed if he were cosmologically capable of
>>a genuinely procreative act;
>
>In the process of answering this part, I had an idea which I prefer
>not to share at this time.

Then I've done my job!

>However, I will note that, based on her first canonical appearance
>(and her earliest costumes), FP has a particular cultural signature
>going on there which could be of use in devising a UF version of her.
>She doesn't grant wishes, but a fire spirit in harem pants who's
>originally found trapped in a lamp? Hmm.

I am intrigued and titillated by this teaser and choose to back off a bit while the idea germinates in your brain-soil.

>Ty Lee, sure, I can see that, but can anyone really miss Mai? That's
>like getting nostalgic for the kindergarten teacher who used to hit
>you across the knuckles for writing with your left hand.*

Hey, Mai is a perfectly serviceable and interesting goth-type character. I mean, she's no Raven, but who is?

-Merc
Keep Rat

Oh. Well, that's encouraging. I'll set that bit back to "looking forward", then. :)

>>If she openly claimed to be Fire Lord Ozai's long-lost daughter Azula
>>in 291 ASC, would anyone believe her?
>
>I'm going to touch on this more in my commentary on the Etude, but my
>reasoning is that it would depend on how common the blue flame is.

I'll wait and talk about it over there, then; this thread's getting a bit full anyway.

>but Azula is kind of a walking diplomatic incident anyway.

I like that phrase enough that I suspect it's a badge/achievement in the notional UF-universe MMO.

>Hey, Mai is a perfectly serviceable and interesting goth-type
>character. I mean, she's no Raven, but who is?

"I think I liked the Dark One better when he just hated everything."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

*Not as hard as it could be, but for the love of everything holy USE THE MOUSE CONTROL SETTING. You'll thank me later.
**You can upgrade both your ship and the pilot; the former with Modules and the later with attribute points gained from leveling. You can rerun levels for more experience and money, but the best modules aren't unlocked til near the end of the second chapter/beginning of the third of the story (there are three). Oh, and there are a bunch of different weapons (which are also upgradeable, and which you DON'T LOSE if you die).

This is irrelevant to the discussion at hand (hey, my sig makes sense here!) but:
Boone would have argued back because laser sights (not rangefinders mind, but actual little red dots) are pretty much useless further along than about 50m, because while lasers move in a straight line, bullets move in an arc. They're fine for close work because they allow for more rapid target acquisition, they don't really aid precision that much. Plus, it draws a bright red line between the target and you if there is any sort of particulate in the air. Glint off a scope is something really only the target is gonna notice (especially if done right. I assume Boone does it right. Always.) Laser sight is something COPS are gonna notice, which could blow the op. Everyone involved is too much of a professional to allow that, double for something that adds zero value.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

Laser sight dots are only useful if you have several snipers... to show to the guy you're intimidating that everyone in his entourage has been sighted on. For an individual? Yeah, not so much. It's only used on television so that the audience can quite easily see that the person has a sniper on them. Or, at least, television that doesn't know what the hell it's doing. :P

Which is to say, television, period. <grin>

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

This is in fact what I posited when I wrote "Azula Goes To The Movies - Flash Gordon Edition" over in my response to Maiden in the Ice, as seen here. Although I thought black-and-gold with blue trim rather than a scarlet thermocoat.

It's never gonna happen, and this might be my ego talking, but I'm quite proud of that little sequence, in particular Lefty guarding the turbolift doors and Asami wielding 50's-aesthetic blaster carbine while riding behind Korra on a rocket cycle of her own design.

(Yes, like every critic ever I also fancy myself a writer. I'm sure you're all surprised.)

-Merc
Keep Rat

They've already *been* taking a direct interest. While everyone's been on spring break and visiting Diqiu and the like, remember who's setting up shop at DSM? (as seen in Honeymoon By the Sea) Souji Mikage and Touga Kiryuu, all prepared to mess with the students, with Prof Tiefeld's blessing.

Jeanne

	Jeanne Hedge http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"

Plus there's the mention that 'known space' is just a laughably small part of the universe, and Surtur holds controls over fairly significant acreage beyond that half a spiral arm.