I think both Sakuya and Gryphon recognized that Remilia was deliberately fishing for that reaction, and chose not to indulge her. :)

>I see trolling family members is now practically a household rule,

The impishness level is sometimes a useful mutual-comfort metric, if nothing else. :)

>though I think I'm nearly as confused as Flandre is about the ring
>business (right now it seems a sort of sibling jealousy and schoolgirl
>crush on the teacher sort of thing maybe?)

Not so much the former, possibly some of the latter, and the rest, even Flan's not entirely sure of at present, except that it feels like it's important.

>So, that scene was the endcap of the episode huh? Well if nothing
>else, you can tell the tale is well crafted when you want to hug the
>fictional characters to console them. It had some punch when shared
>elsewhere in these forums but gains potency from context.

Well, when I went to build that scene into the episode, I didn't specifically set out to end on it, but when I got there it seemed the logical thing to do. (The little stinger with Meiling is partly there as a nod to the classic "character forgotten in the setup scene" gag in anime, and partly to take the edge off that ending a little bit.)

>"I probably shouldn't follow that with a joke about 'laying pipe',
>but the unused (unintended I expect) innuendo is right there and the
>12 year old in my brain is not quiet about it."

It was certainly unintentional on Meiling's part. As for me, I just like that there's a character in this cast who can say something like that and just literally be talking about installing water conduits. :)

--G.
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Well, so long as everyone involved is supposed to be some level of confused then I don't have to feel like I missed a turn somewhere, and can just go back to admiring the scenery.

>Well, when I went to build that scene into the episode, I didn't
>specifically set out to end on it, but when I got there it seemed the
>logical thing to do. (The little stinger with Meiling is partly there
>as a nod to the classic "character forgotten in the setup scene" gag
>in anime, and partly to take the edge off that ending a little bit.)
>

It's a suitable ending, it just has impact, which is not bad, just noteworthy. I suspect it may have a little more impact from posting here in fact (between the Mini Story and various bit of background info fleshing out the elder Scarlets to being more than the typical D&D character backstory angst fuel dead parents are often relegated to.)

>It was certainly unintentional on Meiling's part. As for me, I just
>like that there's a character in this cast who can say something like
>that and just literally be talking about installing water conduits. :)
>

The more she's around, the more Meiling reminds me of a more on the ball Scorpia from SPOP (Netflix She-ra for any unfamiliar with the abbreviation.) Since I don't believe you've partaken of that series, this is a complimentary comparison, Scorpia is a big girl with a heart of gold, just dealt a few bad hands, but game to keep playing anyway.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "You could find a market for 'What Would Scorpia Do?' t-shirts, and it wouldn't be a bad moral compass really."

Oh, yeah, or rather no, it's not meant to be clear yet. Flandre's making rapid progress, but she doesn't really understand her emotions very well yet, so at this point she only knows for certain that she feels something very strongly—strongly enough that she has an instinctive need for some kind of token to represent it, even though she's not sure yet what it is. (I think on some level she's also looking for some form of anchor, to reassure herself that she's not just imagining it, whatever it is.) She'll get there! She's just got some catching up to do.

>It's a suitable ending, it just has impact, which is not bad, just
>noteworthy. I suspect it may have a little more impact from posting
>here in fact (between the Mini Story and various bit of background
>info fleshing out the elder Scarlets to being more than the typical
>D&D character backstory angst fuel dead parents are often relegated
>to.)

Mm. I've always been kind of ambivalent about characters who were created specifically to not be there. I mean, they serve an important narrative function, and often the alternative would be the kind of lengthy biographical digressions about side characters that are one of the stereotypical hallmarks of thriller writers like Tom Clancy (many of whose novels would be about half the length if he had, you know, not detailed the mall security guards' high school football careers and whatnot upon each one's first appearance in the story).

But because they're inevitably a sort of shortcut, it can feel very cheap and nasty to use them. You mention D&D, but my go-to lookup for that kind of character has long been Thomas and Martha Wayne. In 99 out of 100 retellings of the Batman story, do we know anything about them, other than that he was a doctor, they were rich, and they were killed in front of their son? Nah. It's not important! They're not important; only the fact that they're dead is.* I didn't want Remi and Flan's parents to be that kind of cardboard cutout; I wanted them to be as alive as I could make them, given that they're already long dead when the story starts.

Fortunately, they pretty much took care of that for me, developing into actual characters I have a real fondness for more or less spontaneously. I knew they were going to work out when I finished the flashback scene in TTW Act IV, and A Name to Call Her Own cemented it for me. (And there's more coming, which is nice—one of the things that I find goes a long way toward mitigating the "created to be dead" problem is if the characters in question have a continuing impact on the story's world beyond just the effect that their being gone has on the characters who are left, if that makes any sense.)

>The more she's around, the more Meiling reminds me of a more on the
>ball Scorpia from SPOP (Netflix She-ra for any unfamiliar with the
>abbreviation.) Since I don't believe you've partaken of that series,
>this is a complimentary comparison, Scorpia is a big girl with a heart
>of gold, just dealt a few bad hands, but game to keep playing anyway.

Heh, I do enjoy that type of character, the big, hearty, cheerful-in-adversity type. (Also, the type who's not as dumb as a lot of people think she is.) When G first met Meiling in TTW Act VI, his first thought was of Kanna from the Teikokukagekidan, but upon reflection, my take on her also has more than a little of Gudrun Truemace in her—gentler than Kanna, not as boisterous, but still perfectly prepared to pick up a Buick and fuck up a baddie's day with it if the need is there. :)

(I've also got some more backstory coming for her in the next one, I hope. Like the others, she has some mileage on her, and it's odd that we know more about Sakuya's background than hers at the moment, given how insular Sakuya is vs. how much of an open book is Meiling.)

--G.
* for bonus DC Comics content, contrast this with Ma and Pa Kent, who are hugely important to Superman's story even in the versions where one or both have died before the narrative begins
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The challenge of balancing detail (see: anything by George R. R. Martin and descriptions therein of meal time.) Though I always thought thrillers did it as a way to throw out an entire school of red herrings, if every character is superbly detailed you can't easily pick out the ones that will be surprisingly important later. But it might also be a bit of Dickensian motivation.

>But because they're inevitably a sort of shortcut, it can feel
>very cheap and nasty to use them. You mention D&D, but my go-to
>lookup for that kind of character has long been Thomas and Martha
>Wayne. In 99 out of 100 retellings of the Batman story, do we know
>anything about them, other than that he was a doctor, they were
>rich, and they were killed in front of their son? Nah. It's not
>important! They're not important; only the fact that they're
>dead is.* I didn't want Remi and Flan's parents to be that kind of
>cardboard cutout; I wanted them to be as alive as I could make
>them, given that they're already long dead when the story starts.
>

See also: Peter Parker's uncle Ben. Though he at least gets to deliver a line or three before being shuffled off stage. Anyway, you'll get no complaints from me about bringing them to life, so to speak. I've always been annoyed with obvious fridge-job characters.

>Fortunately, they pretty much took care of that for me, developing
>into actual characters I have a real fondness for more or less
>spontaneously. I knew they were going to work out when I finished the
>flashback scene in TTW Act IV, and A Name to Call Her Own
>cemented it for me. (And there's more coming, which is nice—one of
>the things that I find goes a long way toward mitigating the "created
>to be dead" problem is if the characters in question have a continuing
>impact on the story's world beyond just the effect that their being
>gone has on the characters who are left, if that makes any sense.)
>

Not the first members of the cast to do so, and probably not the last. There's comfort in that consistency, even if it does make things a bit crowded now and then.

Part of me wants to make a clever comment about defrosting 'fridged' characters, but even just talking about that thought is awkward and no suitable comment has been forthcoming.

>Heh, I do enjoy that type of character, the big, hearty,
>cheerful-in-adversity type. (Also, the type who's not as dumb as a
>lot of people think she is.) When G first met Meiling in TTW Act VI,
>his first thought was of Kanna from the Teikokukagekidan, but
>upon reflection, my take on her also has more than a little of Gudrun
>Truemace in her—gentler than Kanna, not as boisterous, but still
>perfectly prepared to pick up a Buick and fuck up a baddie's day with
>it if the need is there. :)
>
>(I've also got some more backstory coming for her in the next one, I
>hope. Like the others, she has some mileage on her, and it's odd that
>we know more about Sakuya's background than hers at the moment, given
>how insular Sakuya is vs. how much of an open book is Meiling.)
>

It's an interesting thing, I'm curious about her story, but Meiling doesn't inspire the same intensity there as a lot of the other cast, because she's so open. There's less 'why are you this way/what did this to you?' and you just figure it will flow out in general conversation easily because she has nothing to hide. Feels almost unfair to her, now that I type it out.

>* for bonus DC Comics content, contrast this with Ma
>and Pa Kent, who are hugely important to Superman's story even
>in the versions where one or both have died before the narrative
>begins

DC did give us the story that named the general trope, the practice of 'fridging' a character. The Kents are just outliers, probably because in many stories they aren't actually dead, so even in ones where they are we all sort of know their deal anyway.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "At this point I've sworn off just about anything DC that isn't their old animated universe though, so my opinions may no longer be applicable."

That could be, now that you say it, although having struggled (not always successfully) against the impulse to overdetail side characters in much the same way myself, I've always leaned toward assuming it was that. But hey, that could be projection!

(Another thing I have a hard time with is overdetailing scenery, which is a consequence of the fact that my imagination is much, much more visual than the only medium I have any real ability to work in. This is something of a "whom gods destroy"-level curse at times. I "see" animation, but can only produce text. :)

>Not the first members of the cast to do so, and probably not the last.
>There's comfort in that consistency, even if it does make things a bit
>crowded now and then.

Yeah, I find that kind of thing is sort of a signpost suggesting whether a particular project is going to work. Like, when I was playing around with the pick-up sticks that developed into Act I of TTW, I had a decent idea that Gryphon and Remilia would work (as a pair of interacting characters, not necessarily a couple—that came later) when they started getting some good banter going without me really having to do anything. The whole joke with Wolfgang taking Remi's chair, for instance, and "the soup is fantastic." :)

>It's an interesting thing, I'm curious about her story, but Meiling
>doesn't inspire the same intensity there as a lot of the other cast,
>because she's so open. There's less 'why are you this way/what did
>this to you?' and you just figure it will flow out in general
>conversation easily because she has nothing to hide. Feels almost
>unfair to her, now that I type it out.

Eh, I get what you mean. Some characters are just like that. Meiling is like the Dude, except not a stoner. Meiling abides. :)

(That said, she may have little to nothing to hide, but that doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't have anything she prefers not to talk about.)

>DC did give us the story that named the general trope, the practice of
>'fridging' a character.

Oh yeah, that's right. It had slipped my mind where the phrase came from. Man, I tell you what—I liked the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, and I always thought he got a raw deal from the backlash against him just because he came out of a lousy storyline, but that particular detail was egregious with a capital egious. It deserved to become a Term of Art.

--G.
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Given that the majority of source material drawn into the ever-growing katamari was visual to begin with I'd say that inclination serves you well. I'm sure it gives you some fits when editing time comes, but the results don't come out lacking anyway.

>Eh, I get what you mean. Some characters are just like that. Meiling
>is like the Dude, except not a stoner. Meiling abides. :)
>

I think that, along with her default color scheme and dress, might be why she keeps pinging as 'earth bender' in my head. Calm, solid, yet able to utterly ruin a mofo who deserves it.

>Oh yeah, that's right. It had slipped my mind where the phrase came
>from. Man, I tell you what—I liked the Kyle Rayner Green
>Lantern, and I always thought he got a raw deal from the backlash
>against him just because he came out of a lousy storyline, but that
>particular detail was egregious with a capital egious. It
>deserved to become a Term of Art.
>

At this point people who've never read a page of any Green Lantern story, let alone that one, still understand what it means for a character to be fridged. There is some part of me that almost hopes the writers wanted to create something so mythical in its terribleness, because to have unleashed something like that unintentionally is the sort of mistake that can crush a man's soul.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "And yet, writers keep stocking that fridge."

I think the Kents also have the 'advantage' in that when they are dead it tends to simply be because they are old. Something that's sad, but not a motivating tragedy.

Though technically speaking, Kal El's parents are dead. They just weren't the ones he grew up knowing. :P

Well, if we can't trust a witch's intuition, there's a big problem somewhere.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Does Flandre count as a witch? I thought it was said she would have become one, but I don't think she was prior to being turned, and now she's some sort of Vampire-EX-PlusUltra what with the magic and Neuroi residue.

Anyway, I didn't read any of that as being mystically/cosmically/etc. important so much as personally important to Flandre. Though given the setting and characters, and general tropes, I suppose two identical rings forged by G's own hand with specific, significant intent can't be completely discounted as being or becoming magically noteworthy later.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Stranger things have happened, even within this storyline."

She does. She wasn't very skilled yet when she was turned (for instance, she hadn't found a familiar), but she was magically active and her mother had started her fundamental training. Remilia the Elder always believed that was why her turning went so wrong (well, that and you're not supposed to turn relatives in the first place, though there's little real evidence that that part isn't just superstition).

The vampires of the Scarlet line have their own innate magical potential (hence, for instance, why Remilia the Younger can fly even though her wings are not, strictly speaking, aerodynamically useful), and their mother's theory was that this conflicted somehow with Flandre's own magic and broke the process. None of this was very well-understood in 1520, of course, and even less so now that vampires are nearly extinct, so we'll probably never know for sure.

>Anyway, I didn't read any of that as being mystically/cosmically/etc.
>important so much as personally important to Flandre.

For what it's worth, this was the intent...

>"Stranger things have happened, even within this
>storyline."

... although as Talar Kem, the Jedi Master who contributed to the founding of Katsujinkenryū, once put it, "The Force gets funny ideas sometimes." :)

--G.
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For some reason, I had parsed earlier mentions of Flandre's magical potential as, well, just potential. It seems like magic is something witches grow into (as the parent of 2 small children I can't imagine how civilization could survive toddlers with supernatural destructive powers, their normal destructive powers are more than a handful already) so I guess I misread whether she had 'come of age' in that respect.

>... although as Talar Kem, the Jedi Master who contributed to the
>founding of Katsujinkenryū, once put it, "The Force gets
>funny ideas sometimes." :)
>

Does anyone else feel like a very ominous sort of box has just been opened somewhere? Though I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, G has existed under a permanent Chinese curse since a fateful encounter with a nigh omnipotent computer program.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "I'm sure he does enjoy those rest periods where things become a bit less interesting in the historical sense though."

Keep in mind that in the World Witches setting, there are active combat witches who are very young indeed—not toddlers, but pre-adolescent. I mean, the Hartmann twins and Francesca Lucchini are outliers because they're natural-born flying geniuses, but they all started their careers at the age of 11. (I'm sure this largely had to do with the desperate state of the early going in the war, but still, it does show that their magic worked at that age.)

Flandre's training wasn't brought along at anything like that pace, of course—there was no global arcane crisis in the 1510s—but her mother was an active professional witch and would have taken a keen interest in her human daughter's magical development. She was not an active, practicing sorceress—she didn't have a familiar yet, and had probably never cast a spell of any consequence—but if everything had gone according to plan, she would've been, and the fact that she had the innate power to pursue that course qualifies her as a witch under the terms defined by the International Sorcery Council.

Short version: you're right, she never became a witch in the "pick up a broom and ride off to war" sense, but she was magically active and knew about it, which at least qualifies her to be called one in the general sense.

--G.
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One thing about intuition. Sometimes it's about saving the world. Sometimes it's about healing one heart.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Saving one person is the same as saving the world.

Heh. You know, the kicker is that all of those actions are perfectly plausible. I see the Karlsland Kaiserliche Nachrichtendienst* is as efficient as ever. :)

>Gryphon: (wryly) "I have all the time in The World."

Oh man. No no no. No one who has seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service would ever use the phrase "all the time in the world" to describe an impending marriage. That leads to bad, bad things.

... although, that said, the image of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Rosa Klebb trying to gun down Remilia Scarlet, of all people, on her way out of the church** is all kinds of hilarious, because it involves them getting chased the hell down on their motorbike by an incandescently angry flying bride who does not appreciate the holes in her wedding dress, and who owns the Divine Lance of the late Odin All-Father. :)

--G.
* literally "Imperial News Service", the name of the foreign intelligence bureau
** sure, vampires can go into churches, as long as they're the right churches; although in Gallia you actually have to get married at the mairie (town hall) first
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Given her innate magical properties, it might be possible that Remilia would be literally incandescent in her anger, which only adds to the mental image really.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "In any event, Blofeld would rapidly cease to be a problem, except possibly for whoever had to mop up the aftermath."

Rosa Klebb breathed a sigh of relief. "She's flying the wrong direction. I think we might survive this."

"Only if Gryphon doesn't find us."

The door slammed open. Klebb and Blofeld turned to see...the flower girl from the wedding.

Peter Eng
--
cut to warehouse exploding

Glad I put my drink down before clicking this, my monitor lives another day.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Though Flandre might object to being relegated to flower girl, I think she was a bit old for that role even before she was turned. Then again, it might appeal to her whimsy."

After thinking about it, I'd imagine that she might insist on it in spite of being too old, just because if she doesn't, who will? She's the closest to looking the part, after all.

Peter Eng
--
The maid of honor and bridesmaid would also be displeased with Klebb and Blofeld, but that's a much longer action sequence.

Flan being Flan, she might see the incongruity in it and invent a new wedding role for herself. Sergeant-at-arms, for example. Every wedding should have a sergeant-at-arms. :)

>The maid of honor and bridesmaid would also be displeased with Klebb
>and Blofeld, but that's a much longer action sequence.

I confess to being mildly tickled that in this instance, the maid of honor is an actual maid of actual honor. :)

Also, I've had a couple of realizations about this whole amusing image as the subthread has unfolded, to wit, in no particular order:

- In-setting, our closest equivalents to Blofeld and Klebb are Reichenberg and Skorzeny. Which, in my opinion, makes every potential outcome variation even more satisfying, because really, I mean, who doesn't want to see Otto Skorzeny get his just desserts in this or any other life from a tiny blonde whose Name is a killing word who can bend steel in her bare hands?

- One of the most satisfying peripheral images from the whole business is what becomes of the groom, since, unlike Bond, Gryphon doesn't have to spend the rest of the scene crumpled in a despairing heap over the body of his fallen lady love. All he has to do is stand well back and watch her work with the kind of smile that says, Yep. I am winning at life right now. :)

- The vampires have a speed advantage, but they're going to need it if they hope to get to the prize ahead of Gryphon's best witch. Colonel Sakamoto don't take no shit from no Nazis at her boy's wedding.

--G.
And if they somehow survive all of that, they have to get past the ringbeagle.
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She does have suitable firepower, and now I'm picturing her in a vaguely military sort of dress (something with epaulets and almost-but-not-quite medals dangling from the chest,) trying to look like she is about Serious Business™ but mostly failing and then laughing about it.

>Also, I've had a couple of realizations about this whole amusing image
>as the subthread has unfolded, to wit, in no particular order:
>
> - In-setting, our closest equivalents to Blofeld and Klebb are
>Reichenberg and Skorzeny. Which, in my opinion, makes every potential
>outcome variation even more satisfying, because really, I mean, who
>doesn't want to see Otto Skorzeny get his just desserts in this or any
>other life from a tiny blonde whose Name is a killing word who
>can bend steel in her bare hands?
>

Strikethrough inspired mental image: Meiling yelling Flandre's name into a weird megaphone-ish contraption and a vehicle in direct line with its business end exploding, followed by the typical 'I did not intend for that to happen' examination of the device with a look of bemused horror.

Also, if you have a supernaturally loud voice, any name can be a killing name. Just ask Black Canary.

> - One of the most satisfying peripheral images from the whole
>business is what becomes of the groom, since, unlike Bond, Gryphon
>doesn't have to spend the rest of the scene crumpled in a despairing
>heap over the body of his fallen lady love. All he has to do is stand
>well back and watch her work with the kind of smile that says, Yep.
> I am winning at life right now. :)
>

Someone would need to hand him binoculars to follow the action as it ranged away, but Sakuya probably has a set or two for just such an occasion.

> - The vampires have a speed advantage, but they're going to need it
>if they hope to get to the prize ahead of Gryphon's best witch.
>Colonel Sakamoto don't take no shit from no Nazis at her boy's
>wedding.
>

This raises the questions: would any of the witches bring their Strikers (maybe intended for some sort of aerial stunt show as the happy couple exits the church en route to the reception) and are the Scarlet sisters faster than Strikers if they push themselves?

	-={(Astynax)}=- "I expect they are definitely more maneuverable at least."

Heh. "Noisy Cricket" style.

("What the hell are you doing?!" Sakuya demanded. "We do NOT discharge our weapons in view of the public!")

>Someone would need to hand him binoculars to follow the action as it
>ranged away, but Sakuya probably has a set or two for just such an
>occasion.

Knowing Sakuya, they would probably look like 18th-century opera glasses, but actually be modern rangefinding electrobinoculars. :)

>This raises the questions: would any of the witches bring their
>Strikers (maybe intended for some sort of aerial stunt show as the
>happy couple exits the church en route to the reception)

This seems like it might be a fairly common practice in wartime witch weddings, although it's worth keeping in mind that this one will probably be taking place at night, which would tend to take the shine off the show a little.

Although, we haven't seen them do it so far in UF, but there's plenty of artwork showing one or both of the Scarlet sisters abroad in daylight without any harm. Usually they're at least shown doing the token-parasol thing, like Marceline, but not always. (My favorite joke take on this was a comic of Flan sunbathing on a beach, with RPG-style red and green numbers over her head indicating that she was taking 999 sun damage, but regenerating 1000 HP, per tick. :)

>and are the
>Scarlet sisters faster than Strikers if they push themselves?

Supposedly, and I don't have a citation to back this up, but allegedly in the game lore they're capable of supersonic flight, which makes them a fair bit faster than everybody except Shirley (and Trude, I suppose, if she doesn't mind only getting one flight out of the Striker she's using) at the moment. I'm not sure what protects them (and their clothes) from wind damage at those speeds—presumably a Shut Up Man It's Fantasy magic aura. Shut Up Man It's Fantasy is the go-to explanation for anything that doesn't make physical sense in a Touhou game, after all. :)

--G.
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While spending too much + 1 time sifting through Danbooru I ran across this image which seems just the thing for a fancy sergeant-at-arms in a wedding (modulo hem length perhaps, but this is Danbooru, one cannot expect miracles.)

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Danbooru is some sort of time sucking vortex..."

I feel like there's something indefinably Romagnan about that outfit. I can only assume that Lucchini came up with it, and that, unknown to Flandre, it's actually the uniform of the captain of the Duchess of Romagna's ceremonial guard witches or something. :)

--G.
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--G.
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Possibly the detail work on the edging. I can't claim to be a fashionista or anything, but I can definitely see the association. As for the sourcing, I could well imagine Flandre being told that and responding along the lines of "Really? That's awesome!" Though for Remilia's wedding she might think to work the Scarlet family sigil into it somehow. Sakuya could make such an alteration in seemingly no time at all.RIMSHOT

>Speaking of Danbooru and wedding-ish clothes, I don't think
>this is how Remilia would
>dress for her own wedding, but possibly someone else's... which
>someone is really going to regret interrupting, from the looks
>of things.
>

That is quite the look. There's something about Remilia aggro artwork in general, and the dress is lovely, though it seems somewhat modern so perhaps this would be after there's an established Scarlet presence in New Avalon (which would widen the candidate list for wedding crashers about to have a surprisingly bad day.)

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Part of the skirt does appear to be either non-Euclidean or merged with a Venom symbiote though."

TRUDE
All right, wait, never mind that. You have a fiancée who lives in the area, but you can only go and see her on the night of the full moon?

G
Mm-hmm. It's a pain.

ERICA
(giggling)
Is she a werewolf?

G
No, she's a vampire.

ERICA
TRUDE
HANNELORE
... what.

I may have to use this when the time comes. :)

(Also, I'm getting the read that Erica would be the one to put two and two together and wonder what Future Mrs. Gryph's stance on the 5 East signup sheet is. "I mean, does she know that there's almost always at least one of us in there? Boy, it sounds totally wrong when I say it out loud like that."

"Oh, sure. She's fine with that."

"Huh. OK. Uh, why?"

"Because she has a very kind and generous heart. And she sees it as her patriotic duty to support our fighting forces with every resource she has."

"It sounds like an even more totally wrong thing when you say it out loud like that.")

--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.

It's a moral imperative.

>(Also, I'm getting the read that Erica would be the one to put two and
>two together and wonder what Future Mrs. Gryph's stance on the 5 East
>signup sheet is. "I mean, does she know that there's almost
>always at least one of us in there? Boy, it sounds totally wrong when
>I say it out loud like that."
>
>"Oh, sure. She's fine with that."
>
>"Huh. OK. Uh, why?"
>
>"Because she has a very kind and generous heart. And she sees it as
>her patriotic duty to support our fighting forces with every resource
>she has."
>
>"It sounds like an even more totally wrong thing when you say it out
>loud like that.")
>

Which would be why Remilia would be likely to give the same answer with a bit of a smirk, before enjoying the reactions, then reassuring G that he is not, in fact, her possession. Except when he is.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Whereas the actual answer is a combination of the fact that she knows G to be an utter gentleman, and the fact that she knows that he knows that she can literally rip his head from his shoulders were he to cross a point of no return (vanishingly unlikely though that may be.)"

--G.
You may wish to consider whether and how you would care to be credited.
-><-
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.

Wow. That's three times in one month that the forums have had an immediate effect on your fiction. I haven't counted, but I think that puts this month ahead of the twenty years prior to that.

With no idea how much influence this thread will have on the final product, I suggest "with some inspiration from the EPU forums." I trust your judgement regarding whether or not that is sufficient credit.

Peter Eng
--
Three times. 2020 is really getting weird.

Oh, it's probably happened before, I just haven't said so out loud. (Hell, it must have, back in the early Symphony days, mustn't it?) Spoilers, you know. For some reason the vibe on this project is a little different and I don't mind showing my hand a bit. Or maybe it's a side effect of my brain having been curled up on the floor in the Pandemic Position for months? Who knows! I'm just rolling with it. It's fun.

--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.

Possibly a nice synergy effect. UF has always attracted a bit of energy and creativity (look at how many contributing authors have left their mark, and from what's been said in the past how many more had to be shooed away,) Touhou clearly sparks noteworthy creativity in seemingly anyone who comes in contact with it, and we're all a bit mad here to begin with. Mix all that together, bake it in the hellfire that is present times, and the results serves multitudes.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Mental comfort food, made better at least a bit in the sharing."

Heh, I don't know about the forums and the influence thereof on story (I don't think anyone has been keeping track really,) but this is the first time in 20 odd years I'm aware of my chatter having had a positive effect around here, so that puts me ahead (of myself at least) at any rate.

>With no idea how much influence this thread will have on the final
>product, I suggest "with some inspiration from the EPU forums." I
>trust your judgement regarding whether or not that is sufficient
>credit.
>

I suppose that is an important question, but answering it probably spoils too much. To my mind it also has to do with specificity (Traitor contributed a whole and distinct scene, her credit was well earned, and in earlier days folks have contributed lines, or in one instance, commemorated in signature, android head-wear,) if something can be pointed to as a discrete item that came from someone it may be worth specific credit, if it is more a general direction your suggestion makes the most sense.

>Three times. 2020 is really getting weird.

It's been weird, at least this has been a good, enjoyable weird.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "A little madness, now and then, is relished by the wisest men."

Yes, but I was on staff then.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Ah, I may have misremembered the timing, possibly because the example was otherwise so fitting for the comment and my brain decided to make it work, reality be damned, as brains are sometimes wont to do.

Or I'm just starting to show a bit of age (cue several people arriving to call me a whippersnapper and chase me from their metaphorical lawns.)

	-={(Astynax)}=- "This Space For Rent."

Whatever happens, I look forward to seeing it!