Scaramouche, Scaramouche

At some point here I'm going to start cataloguing all the nerdbuckets who loiter around The Mall (the noble-house nerds who all have four-letter-word names (Duke, Chai, Ioan, Ryth, and Teal), the clan of very kindly polite femme-y spider ladies (Tela and Co.), the Trigun-Plant-type nerd siblings (Drei and Vier and Yucalli), the weird security guards, the weirder politics, my strange-ass POV character, Jingyi and Lianlian and the other dryads, and so on), and try to make some sense of the area surrounding it.

Because there is AN ENTIRE CITY. and there's weird territorial rules. and there's some weird train that runs on the shadows of its tracks sometimes. and a burrito place that sees regular brawls. and an outdoor bazaar that likes to move around by itself.

And there's CONSISTENT ARCHITECTURE AND LOCATION DATA. certain buildings and landmarks move, but others are always in the same place. it's really odd, and really fascinating.

And there's ridiculous juxtapositions like the generic 1960s-esque motor lodge inn that's smackboom beside what looks like a giant ornate stonehenge-y thing which is near what used to be a harbour until the river decided it wanted to MOVE one day etc. etc.

If I could 3D render all this business in my head, I would, because it's all so damn vivid to me. I could honest-to-goodness make a map of this place if i had the patience and if I knew where my technical pens were.

It's almost like - this place exists in modular chunks, and they can move when they want, and they have chesspiece-like rules for WHERE they can move. (like certain chunks of mall will always connect to other chunks, and the elevator in a certain part of one hotel will always somehow go up and out into a wildlife preserve with giant-ass trees, and the crystal-palace-looking fancy-pants mall connects by subway to the big main mall and is always kind of near the weird brutalism-looking museum type building that may or may not also connect to the big main mall et cetera.)

and then there's the weird territory down by the lake that stays more or less the same and looks like it's made of Lego and ciruitboard heatsinks writ large, and that hydroelectrically powers a bunch of things, and there's a boardwalk running alongside it that divides its territory from that of some weaksauce cottage-resort thing that has a really gross-looking lake because a local guardian deity cursed the sand. (Chai is generally a very sweet woman but holy fuck don't cross her or hurt her betrothed.)

I dunno! This place has been a part of my dreams for ages and it still IS, and there's bits that are annoyingly fuzzy around the edges but most of it's crystal-clear.

So I wanna write about it!

Dear fanfic authors,

If you've acknowledged that XYZ Fantasy Race is coded in a way that is just Orientalist as balls, but you STILL opt to characterize them in fanfic as just this side of Ming the Merciless/Dragon Lady/Discount Jafar, you have only done half the blasted homework and need to go back to the editing desk right now before I bite you a lot.

Smooch smooch,

Someone who's really tired of people depicting WoW elves in ways that are at the root just racist (yes, it still counts if 'Elves' = 'Generic Pop-culture Stereotype Asian/Middle Eastern lololololol'), gross and issue-laden as fuck.

I mean--writing a compelling love-to-hate antagonist who's well thought out and whose portrayal is NOT steeped in grody old bigotry? Awesome. Feel free to have Fandral be as big a douche as you like, it gives your heroes a reason to fight. But there is 'douche' and then there's 'oh for fuck's sakes why did you do that'. If your villain up and starts sprouting all these Fu Manchu/Dragon Lady/Evil Vizier-esque traits that are indicated fuck-nowhere in canon, there's something going on that needs addressing. That is not interpretation anymore, that is Issues.

Srsly don't do that shit it's hacky and makes my ass twitch. :D

I am always intensely envious of people who make those dramatic kinds of **~*~**~~I'mma putting away childish things*~*~**~~~ speeches.

It means they actually got a chance to BE relatively regular kids.

Some of us? Didn't.

So beggin' these folks' pardon if I seem kid-esque, I have been required to strictly monitor my health every blessed day since I was quite small (among other shit) and compared to others I know I had it easy.

If a little Secret of Mana squee gets the speechers all upsetticakes with me--well, they can just go make sweet sweet love to the Lime Slime. XP

Excuse me. I have a jabberwocky to punch.

this post brought to you by the letters F and U, and the number 1, as in NO1CURR. jesus biscuit-munching christ, douche-I-am-bitching-about, my discussion of enjoying an SNES game is not your cue to lecture me about how much more mature you are than me and how I use gaming as a crutch.

VAST IST DAS? I think it's TENEBROUS-VERSE CRACK!

Oh lordie!

( there's never going to be a chartreuse do-the-running-man, yukie, give it up )